The Triple Bottom - 🌱 Under The Sea, Green Energy

Toyota warns: supply snags could threaten electric vehicle (EV) revolution
Toyota’s chief scientist has warned that surging battery prices and shortages of metals (i.e., lithium & nickel) could last for some time and influence global adoption of EVs. Adoption has been largely driven by falling battery prices & improved performance, meaning EVs could travel for longer at costs approaching fossil-fuel vehicles. However, the average cost of an EV in the US climbed to $65k - up 16% from last year.
What’s next for the EV revolution? Sales of EVs haven’t yet slowed. But, car manufacturers need to invest and shore-up supply chains (e.g., multiple suppliers across various regions or vertically integrating with suppliers) to ensure they can meet EV roll-out plans.

New EU legislation on circularity disclosure is approaching 
Currently, the world is only 8.6% circular - over 91% of all the materials we use are wasted or lost. Ensuring everything is used at its highest value for as long as possible can cut the need for finite virgin resources, but supporting policy is crucial.
CSRD: The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a new set of sustainability reporting standards that will come into play from 2023. They demand all ‘large and listed’ European companies disclose their transition to more sustainable business practices (including circular implementation strategies).
What it means? CSRD brings much-needed clarity and harmonisation to the existing landscape of non financial reporting = sustainability-related information will increasingly be embedded in investment decisions.

US companies progress on promoting racial equality
A new report from JUST Capital contains some signs of progress in US companies promoting racial equity, but also points to how much more work there is still to be done:

• Disclosure rates on some key metrics rose significantly, with more than 90 of the biggest 100 employers now reporting on workforce and board diversity. 

• But fewer than a quarter of them disclosed race-linked pay ratios, and only seven companies gave a racial breakdown of their internal hiring.

Japan's trial of a deep ocean turbine for reliable renewables 
Japan has successfully tested a new energy system relying on deep ocean currents.  Made by Japanese machinery maker IHI Corp, The subsea turbine is anchored at 50m below sea level.
This is my baseline: The advantage of ocean currents is their stability. They flow with little fluctuation in speed and direction, giving them a capacity factor — a measure of how often the system is generating energy — of 50-70%, compared with around 29% for onshore wind and 15% for solar. This means baseload power with a generation profile similar to retiring energy sources (coal) and reduced storage requirements. 
Potential: If successful at scale, estimates are that these systems can generate as much as 200 gigawatts in Japanese waters— about 60% of Japan’s present generating capacity.

• Ford’s new electric pickup can be transformed into a backup generator and keep the lights on in homes that suffer from blackouts.

• Reports that FIFA World Cup’s green claims are misleading due to apparently underestimated greenhouse gas emissions for the event. 

• French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Special Climate Envoy, Michael Bloomberg, announce an initiative to enhance business climate action monitoring transparency.

• ​​Volvo unveils dump truck made from fossil-free steel in 'world first.'

• Forty-three asset managers representing $16trn in AUM have disclosed their initial targets for the proportion of assets managed in line with achieving net-zero by 2050 or sooner.