Happy Tuesday. Happy International Star Wars day… May the 4th be with you
In today’s edition:
👖 Asda enter the circular fashion market
🏢 A floating city in the Maldives
🦐 Mitsibishi help lab-grown seafood go global
Big Business (2-minute read)
Asda’s supporting circular fashion
The Problem: The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates globally a bin lorry of textiles is landfilled or burned every second – with the UK being one of the biggest wasters of fashion in the EU.
The Solution: Asda is rolling-out a second-hand fashion aisle to 50 of its UK stores. A key challenge is ensuring they maintain pre-loved stock… so customers will be rewarded for returning garments with a 10% discount voucher. A partnership with second-hand fashion wholesaler Vintage Kilo means a supply of vintage clothing too.
The Commercial incentive: By making it easier for customers to participate in a circular economy, Asda are improving their sustainability while also tapping into a market of conscious consumers.
Mitsibishi and Blue Nalue announce partnership for cell based fish
California start-up, BlueNalu, makes ‘lab-grown’ seafood cultured from cells, a sustainable alternative to fill the growing demand for seafood globally. Last week they signed a deal with Asian seafood giants, Thai Union and Mitsubishi Corporation, to accelerate the launch of cell-culture seafood across Asia using their new partners’ expertise, facilities and connections. We may have predicted this in our 2021 trends…
European Industry step-up efforts for a ‘carbon-tax’
A price on pollution: Emissions trading schemes make companies buy a permit for every tonne of CO2 they emit. A cap is set on the total amount of emissions allowed for all participants (which will decrease over time). Participants who exceed their allowance can trade with those who have a surplus.
Prices soaring: In the European scheme, carbon prices are set to hit €50/tonne — more than double the pre-pandemic level. This is partly driven by anticipation that supplies of ‘carbon allowances’ will be reduced by the EU to help achieve tougher climate targets.
The plea: European Industrial groups argue record prices for carbon allowances have raised the cost of polluting in Europe above any other region – disadvantaging European industry. Last week, these groups stepped-up calls to level the playing field with a ‘carbon border tax’ for polluting goods imported into Europe.
A delicate balance: Some argue that carbon prices have to rise further to make investing in alternative energy sources more attractive, but that risks piling pressure on Europe’s industries. The World Trade Organisation have also already raised concerns…
🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read)
Turning African food waste into livelihoods
90% of sub-saharan Africa farms are smallholdings (10 hectares or less). Due to extreme competition from cheap imports, smallholders struggle to sell their products, leading to 90% of their produce going to waste. US startup, Agricycle, tackles these challenges by helping smallholder’s upcycle their food waste. Agricycle sells the smallholders Solar Dehydrators, which are used to preserve wasted produce (like mango, pineapple and jackfruit) which Agricycle then purchases, packages and sells. This process boosts the income of smallholders x7, while shortening the supply chain (by buying produce directly from farms) has made Agricycle a hit with consumers.
Maldives to build the world’s first floating city
The Government of the Maldives, an island republic that has the lowest terrain of any country in the world, revealed plans for the Maldives Floating City (MFC) – to enhance the nation’s resilience against rising sea levels. Some studies predict such low-lying islands could become uninhabitable by 2050. The floating city will be self-sufficient with freshwater tanks, floating solar blankets and agriculture fields.
Sink or Swim: It’s worrying this is a necessary solution, and there are concerns over housing accessibility for the current Maldives population (avg wage $11,000), with waterfront residence starting at $250,000. Learn more about the project here.
💡Start-up Spotlight (1-minute read)
The future of feeding farms animals – CubicFarm
The Problem: Land used to feed livestock accounts for 77% of globally farmed land, which leads to 78% of global freshwater pollution and threatens local biodiversity.
The Solution: Vancouver startup, CubicFarm Systems, is freeing up land currently used to feed livestock by growing feed on-site through an indoor farming system. The system reduces water consumption by 92% and ensures a year-round supply of crops in a controlled (fully automated) environment, freeing farmers up to look after their animals. (Find out how here).
A future partnership: Beef and dairy producer, Burnett Land & Livestock, have just invested $1.5 million. In return, they’ll receive 12 CubicFarms which will produce 32,000 KG of feed each day – enough to feed 2,000 cows.
💭 Little Bytes
Quote: “Embedding sustainability into the entire enterprise drives value because there is a strong demand for it from stakeholders—consumers are requesting sustainable products and packaging, shareholders want to ensure that our organization acts as a good citizen” Al Iannuzzi, Vice President, Sustainability, The Estée Lauder Companies
Stat: The expansion of the wind energy industry could create 3.3 million jobs in the next five years – Global Wind Energy Council
Watch: An airline powered by sustainable fuel made from waste
🗞 In other news…
- Plant based burger company ‘Beyond’ launch their 3.0 burger which is tastier, healthier, and importantly for mass adoption – cheaper !
- How Artificial Intelligence can support more sustainable food production and distribution
- Patagonia, Gucci and Timberland making a big bet on regenerative farming
- Tesla want to make every home a distributed power plant
- World’s first certification for upcycled foods released
🎣 Gone Phishing
Three of these stories are true, one we made up, can you guess which?
