- Date: 15 December 2023
- Author: Jason Grant, Corporate Engagement Manager, Forests
WWF’s Wood Risk Tool helps companies tackle unsustainable logging and unacceptable trade while supporting responsible forestry
Conserving forests requires a tremendous worldwide effort from all sectors of society — governments, companies, communities, conservation organizations and individuals. And while we can celebrate successes around protecting priority threatened forests, driving large-scale forest restoration, and improving management practices in working forests, these vital efforts continue to be undermined by illegal and unsustainable logging that harms nature, people and climate. WWF’s new Wood Risk Tool is one step toward addressing this pervasive problem by helping companies stem the flow of illegal and unsustainable timber into the market.
Illegal logging is a scourge of truly global proportions. It accounts for most of the timber harvest in many producer countries, particularly (but not exclusively) in the tropics. Indeed, 10%–30%* of the global timber harvest is estimated to come from illegal origins.
- Date: 14 December 2023
- Author: Erin Simon, Vice President and Head, Plastic Waste and Business
Plastic waste has been found everywhere, from city streets to the depths of the Mariana Trench, where it harms economies, ecosystems, and human health. While the crisis feels ubiquitous, there has been strong momentum recently to find solutions, from city initiatives to negotiations for a Global Treaty to End Plastic Pollution. The Global Plastics Treaty, in particular, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for businesses, governments, and communities to create a world free of plastic pollution.
As the world continues to grapple with the best approach to end plastic pollution, one thing has become abundantly clear over the last year: action is required at all economic levels (including individuals, companies, and governments) if we wish to see real change this century. The first step in addressing plastic pollution is understanding the scope of the problem and emphasizing that plastic reporting is not only possible, but critical to change. The corporate Members of WWF’s ReSource: Plastic initiative are demonstrating this possibility through continued efforts to transparently report their plastic footprints and progress against plastic waste goals. This work is showcased in the just released annual report, Transparent 2023, which details and tracks the latest year-over-year progress of ReSource Member companies’ efforts to reduce plastic waste.
- Date: 12 December 2023
- Author: Jason Clay, WWF Senior Vice President and Executive Director, Markets Institute
Over the past decade there have been increasing references in the media about climate change’s disruptive impact on food production. But there is already a more systemic impact on the global food system that we are missing — what I call climate loss.
Climate loss is pre-harvest food loss: the uncalculated losses farmers suffer from not planting a crop, changing crops due to weather, or extreme weather reducing or wiping out a crop before harvest. It can also be caused by increased predation, pests, and diseases that are triggered by climate change.
This is not a new issue. Farmers have long had years when they could not plant crops, or at least the desired crop, because of weather. But the situation is now more extreme than ever.
- Date: 06 December 2023
- Author: Jason Clay, WWF Senior Vice President and Executive Director, Markets Institute
Transforming any food system will require new policies and difficult choices. This is particularly true if we acknowledge from the outset that by simply improving the way we produce food, we can achieve 80% absolute reductions of food-related GHG emissions and 50% for the rest of food’s footprint. Current improvement rates will not cut it. We need nothing short of transformation.
The first questions are where the biggest impacts that need to be addressed exist, who is producing them, why, and what incentives could induce them to change. These are the targets. We need to move the bottom, the poorest performers. And since our goals are metrics, our assessments should be as well. The biggest impacts and the most wasteful production come from the least efficient producers.
The bottom 10-20% of producers of any commodity produce 60-80% of the impacts but only 5-10% of the product. By improving their efficiencies, we can achieve absolute reductions of environmental impact at a scale that is both significant and sufficient. More importantly, a focus on these producers is the only way to reduce impacts by 50% absolutely. Working with the better producers will not fix the problem.
- Date: 01 December 2023
- Author: Emily Moberg, WWF
Setting deforestation- and conversion-free commitments can come with a steep learning curve. One of the first hurdles to overcome is deciphering some commonly used—and commonly misunderstood—environmental science terms and concepts. One of the questions I get the most often: what is the difference between cutoff dates and target dates? In the following post I’ll delve into specific definitions and context, along with why this is so crucial to get right.
- Date: 01 December 2023
- Author: Francesca Edralin, WWF
Walking through the halls of GreenBiz’s Bloom conference, attendees are met with the luscious sounds, scents, and plants of the rainforest. Bloom’s decor is emblematic of the conference's theme and focus: biodiversity. The first conference of its kind, Bloom gathered stakeholders across the private sector, nonprofits, and local groups alike to discuss the future of biodiversity, especially as an increasingly important topic in the corporate sustainability space.
I had the privilege of attending this inaugural conference, and while I left with many meaningful takeaways, what resonated with me most was the diversity of stakeholder groups and perspectives spotlighted throughout the conference and the learnings that came about from these conversations. Indigenous leaders and youth activists alike spoke alongside corporate sustainability leaders to discuss the need for greater collaboration and strategic ideation across groups, leaving attendees with some fruitful takeaways:
- Date: 29 November 2023
- Author: Jason Clay, WWF Senior Vice President and Executive Director, Markets Institute
Most of my career I’ve tried to anticipate issues, or at least identify them as they unfold, build awareness, and encourage others to work on them and share their results with others. Being early gives one the ability not just to watch things evolve but to shape them directionally. Recruiting key actors with skin in the game allows them to “own” issues and solutions. It is much quicker, not to mention cheaper, to create change before investments are made in a wide range of different, often competing strategies.
In December 2011, Ban Ki-moon convened a side event at COP17 in Durban, South Africa that focused on halting deforestation. The event identified the global food system as a key driver of deforestation and habitat conversion. Christina Figueres, Jane Goodall, Richard Branson, Achim Steiner, and two or three others including myself participated in the discussion. There was resistance, including in WWF, to opening the climate tent to include food.
A dozen years later, concerns remain about adding complex issues like food production to the climate debate, as some feel it might slow or even derail efforts to move from fossil fuels to low-carbon alternatives for energy and transport. There has been much progress for energy and transport, but we still need strategies that make the transition cheaper, faster, and scalable by sharing knowledge, methodologies, experiences about what works and doesn’t, and technologies. As this critical five-year “stocktake” begins at COP28, are we reaching our goals?
- Date: 20 November 2023
- Author: Katherine Devine, WWF
It started when my three-year-old was around 18 months. I would make my way downstairs to begin one of the most important morning rituals: preparing my coffee. I say my coffee because, while it is for me and my spouse, I’m the one that downs more than half our pot most days.
I open the cabinet, take out a bag of locally roasted beans, and pour it in the burr grinder. My kid then begins what we’ve now dubbed “The Coffee Dance,” where they like to dance to the rhythm of the coffee grinder. I don’t think I will ever stop doing The Coffee Dance, even when my kid loses interest, which I’m sure will be sooner than I’d like.
While the coffee is grinding, I fill up my electric tea kettle to warm the water. I get out one of my (three) French presses or, if I’m feeling fancy, my Chemex. I pour in the ground up beans, followed by a little water to let them bloom briefly, then the rest of the water.
- Date: 20 November 2023
- Author: Erin Simon, Vice President and Head of Plastic Waste & Business
I traveled to Nairobi this past week, where representatives from nearly every country in the world gathered to continue the negotiations on the UN Global Treaty to End Plastic Pollution, a landmark blueprint for ensuring that plastic never contaminates the places we love most. Walking into the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme, I felt nothing but hope and optimism. Through the ups and downs of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I knew we might have a long week ahead of us but my faith in the UN process to work was still very much intact.
The third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3) was supposed to be a critical moment for countries to agree on how to end plastic pollution through concrete commitments and decisive action. If done right, the framework being negotiated represents the best shot to work with businesses and governments to dramatically reduce the level of unmanaged plastic waste, particularly in nature, and to create a more sustainable and efficient economy.
At the beginning of the week, WWF set a clear vision for what a successful treaty looks like. This includes global, binding, and collaborative rules, not individual commitments from each of the 175 UN Member Nations. Specifically, WWF is advocating for:
- A clear path to ban, phase out or reduce production of single-use plastic and the most damaging plastic chemicals currently used in manufacturing and packaging.
- A defined set of requirements for product and systems designs that reflects the innovation we need to manage plastic waste and support a global economy based on sustainability, not disposability.
- Proven financial measures and policies that provide the incentives for businesses to transition from single-use plastic products to more innovative, sustainable options.
However, early in the week, a handful of like-minded states—including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Cuba, Bahrain, and India—rejected the Zero Draft prepared by the chair and demanded a new one that they felt better suited their own interests, but clearly did not reflect all the views of the majority of Member States.
As the week went on, as an observer, it felt harder and harder to watch these few countries become successful in their deployment of tactics to slow the process down. I understand the vision of the UN -- the need for the equality of voices and perspectives. I wholeheartedly agree that complex world problems need a collective and collaborative approach to solve them. But it feels like while trying to preserve that ideal we lost touch of the purpose. It becomes hard to defend the process and its value when a few agendas continued to dominate and delay while they advocated for their sovereignty of resources over human health and ecosystems.
When countries unanimously agreed to negotiate a treaty to END plastic pollution, I believed them. And this treaty is our best bet, but only if we find the most common ground possible to create a world where humans and species are not suffering. In the end, the majority of Member states fought for a high level of ambition, with more than 100 countries supporting global bans and phase-outs of the most harmful and avoidable plastics, and 140 countries calling to establish global binding rules as opposed to voluntary actions, but to get the job done, it will require a strong political will we did not see in Nairobi. The will to stand up and speak up not for country or economic agendas but for the people and planet who depend on these world leaders to do their part.
When we said everyone has a role to play, we meant it. WWF will continue to fight for this future - will companies and policymakers do the same? We can’t afford to let this moment slip by us.
Read Erin Simon's reflections from INC-2 in Paris, here.
- Date: 09 November 2023
- Author: Cihang Yuan
Low-carbon fuels such as green hydrogen and renewable natural gas (RNG) are critical for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors such as industry and transportation. Green hydrogen is produced with renewable electricity through electrolysis that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. RNG is methane produced from anaerobic digestion of organic matter like animal manure or food waste, which is processed and can then be used to replace conventional natural gas.
According to the Renewable Thermal Vision Report published by the Renewable Thermal Collaborative (RTC), clean hydrogen can supply approximately 13% of the heat used in industrial processes in the US by 2050. While RNG is likely to have a smaller role in the overall energy mix due to supply constraints, it can help mitigate methane emissions that would otherwise be emitted from manures or food waste.
An increasing number of companies are looking to clean fuel solutions like green hydrogen and RNG to address their thermal energy footprints by decarbonizing industrial process heat. As always, early success stories are essential to accelerating the growth of new technologies and nascent markets—and we heard many of them at the RTC’s recent Annual Summit in Washington, D.C.
Large industrial energy buyers and fuel producers shared early success stories about their on-the-ground experiences deploying these decarbonized fuels on the panel “Deploying Decarbonized Fuels: Case Studies and Infrastructure Opportunities.”