The Triple Bottom - 🌱 Mushrooms go mainstream

Voluntary carbon offsets market under the microscope
Definition: Offset markets allow companies that must reduce emissions under a regulation to pay other firms to do the mitigation instead.
Hotting up: The UK and the EU noted their intentions to improve carbon markets this week. In the UK, The Climate Change Committee announced aims to improve offsetting, while The EU’s climate chief highlighted concerns around offsetting standards.
The challenges: The methods used to account and verify offsets vary, meaning the market can be viewed as an escape for polluters who use low-quality offset certificates to make false net-zero claims.
Standardisation of frameworks… is key for effective offsetting mechanisms on a global scale and is a goal of The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets

Rewarding customers for using less electricity
The Situ: When demand for electricity spikes the UK’s national grid has to rely on fossil fuel power stations to supply electricity.
The Trial: To reduce pressure on the UK’s power supply, and lower reliance on fossil fuel power stations, Octopus Energy and the National Grid will offer customers cash for rationing their electricity usage. 
How it works: Octopus Energy customers will be given a 2-hour slot to lower electricity usage by 40-60% and could earn 35p for every kilowatt-hour of electricity saved.
So what? The trial will support the UK in becoming more energy efficient. While encouraging the use of smart devices can provide customers with ways to lower costs.
A future trend… gamification can incentivise lower energy usage with consumers earning points and competing against each other by turning-off appliances.
 

A timely intervention on plastic-waste by Coca Cola 
As the plastic waste crisis continues to wreak environmental-havoc with millions of animals killed by plastics every year. Coca Cola has pledged to make 25% of its packaging reusable by 2030. This move’s been hailed by environmental groups who have been calling-out the company as being the world’s worst plastic polluter. As world officials converge at the UN’s Environmental Assembly this month, to hash-out tougher plastic-reducing measures, this seems to be a timely intervention.

EU funds new blockchain supply chain tracking scheme for Electric Vehicle (EV) battery components 
Challenge: We’ve spoken before about ethical and environmental challenges in EV supply chains (Lithium, nickel and cobalt) with demand set to x3 by 2030 governments are keen to ensure this does not result in unintended consequences overseas. 
Blockchain solution… Circularise just announced a 3 year project to create the ‘Circular System for Assessing Rare Earth Sustainability’ (CSyARES). A blockchain based solution that will enable raw materials for EV’s to be traced through the supply chain from source to the production line  
So what…This transparency will enable EV manufacturers to verify ethical and environmentally friendly sourcing.
Ecosystem for change: Funding is being jointly provided by the EU and by EIT RawMaterials, the largest consortium in the global raw materials sector, and is a great example of how cross-sector collaboration can accelerate innovation.

• S&P Global Ratings expects global sustainable bond issuance to surpass $1.5trn in 2022 alone, despite a stagnation in the international bonds market overall.

• The US Army published an unprecedented climate strategy - adopting a “Buy Clean” policy buying construction materials with lower embodied carbon emissions

• Virgin Atlantic has signed a deal with Neste and ExxonMobil to source 2.5 million litres of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) from renewable waste and residue raw materials, in a bid to use power 10% of its flights from SAFs by 2030.

• The One Ocean Summit came to a close last week with European public banks pledging €4bn of ocean finance by 2025 and a new private-sector coalition formed to increase investment in marine conservation.

• US water-electrolysis technology developer Verdagy Inc closed a $25 million Sereis A for a new membrane-based approach to large-scale water electrolysis

• kWh Analytics Raises $20M in Series B funding to Deliver Insurance for Our Climate; Launches 2nd Product to Insure Renewable Energy

• French Agritech start-up Elicit Plant Raises $18M for Its Natural Solution Dedicated to the Reduction of Water Consumption by Plants in Agriculture 

• Estonian agtech startup eAgronom raises $7.25M to tackle emissions with farming-based carbon credits

• New-age Waste Management Platform Cercle X raises $250,000 in a Seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures

1 of these 4 stories is untrue, can you guess which?

• UK zoo lets public name cockroaches after exes for Valentines day

• Mexican shop turns trash into treasure

• Robot chef is serving-up food at the Winter Olympics

• Amazon plans to open recycling centre in space