First off - hello! It’s been awhile, and my excuse is that summer is busy. I’ve been working with some new clients, been writing about movies and TV for MovieWeb, launched a new personal/ professional website, have taken a vacation, camped, coached soccer (team was 10-4 on the season!), and been swimming at the local pool A LOT. So, hopefully that’s explanation enough for my absence.
Now, onto sustainability and climate stuff. It’s easy to feel bummed out and overwhelmed with news, including news about climate change, so I took the time to find stories about sustainability that are positive. Good things do happen!
LEGO and Sustainability
LEGO Group built a new headquarters in Denmark and announced some details of their building.
The building received a gold level LEED certification was sustainability was a driver of the overall design. Here are a few highlights:
Special gypsum fibreboard – which saved 650,000 kg of CO2 emissions during construction, additionally 1000 tons of construction waste was recycled during the construction process
Sedum plants on roof surfaces collecting rainwater which irrigates the surrounding green spaces
Workplace waste is sorted into 10 different categories
Flexible and open workspaces with “green” partitions of plants and planters
All outdoor furniture was made from waste LEGO Bricks. 5000 kg of LEGO waste has been recycled.
This is a nice step forward after LEGO previously announced they making efforts to use paper bags for their new sets in the next few years.
Solar Windows - Wait… what?
Inside Climate News shared an article last week about research being done on the new idea of creating solar power windows.
“University of Michigan researchers have published the results of their work on a process to manufacture windows that can be large—up to two meters by two meters—and efficient in terms of electricity production.”
While efficiency and electric production of the early designs tested are low, around 7% production, it’s a really interesting development and could provide another tool for consumers to leverage solar power in their homes.
MLS All-Star Game Sustainability Efforts
From August 8th - 10th, the Twin Cities will play host to the Major League Soccer All-Star game and related festivities. While the event is not on par with other all-star events like MLB or NFL, the MLS game will be big and host a significant footprint of activity here.
And because of that, MLS is recognizing its impact and doing something about it.
“MLS will offset a portion of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with All-Star week festivities (hotel accommodations, on-site transportation, staff, player, executive and MLS guest travel and stadium operations at Allianz Field) by investing in carbon credits used for Forest Conservation projects in partnership with South Pole. $1 of the proceeds from each MLS All-Star ticket will be used to help support these offsets.”
While this offset is minimal (tickets are well over $100 per seat), its worth at least acknowledging that MLS is making any efforts to recognize the importance. Additionally, MLS is making financial commitments within the state.
“MLS is specifically investing in the Fond du Lac Forestry Project located in Northeastern Minnesota, which collaborates with communities to sustainably manage and conserve Minnesotan Forest.”
ESG Reports Aren’t a Replacement for Real Sustainability
ESG reports are all the rave right now in the corporate world. And this piece in Harvard Business Review is an interesting (and long) read about their role within corporate sustainability goals and action.
“While more scrutiny of ESG claims is needed, corporate leaders and investors who focus solely on ESG disclosure are missing the point. ESG disclosure uses process-oriented output measures, such as whether a company has a policy on chemical management. These metrics, while necessarily broad, do not track performance. There’s a big difference between a company that has a chemicals management policy, and one that has a bio-based dye that reduces waste and water use (and cost) and creates new sales opportunities.”
I’ve talked about ESG reports before and there is no doubt that they’re important to continued commercial responsibility at the corporate level. Consumers care - even if they don’t know what ESG means - about sustainability and they’re willing to pay more to support companies that do good things.
“Working with IRI, a market research firm that collects all bar-code data for consumer packaged goods (CPG) sales in the U.S., we found that sustainability marketed products delivered 32% of the growth in CPG in 2021 while enjoying 30% premiums on average.”
HBR really pushes for the thought that if corporations embed ESG reporting and sustainability efforts into the backbone of their business, they can not only do good things, but be profitable as well.
That’s it for this issue. Hope that these reads and some good news brightens your day and week a bit.
Thank you for reading!
-Michael