

Discover more from Following the Footprints
đ± COP26: Get involved! Your free guide to what's happening, and when.
Featuring Toast Ale, Companion Series, Little Freddie, Allplants and more...
Happy Friday!
This week, youâve guessed it, weâre covering COP26:
COP26: Introducing your new, free events guide.
Companions for COP26: How 25 breweries are coming together to raise the alarm. Â
In case you missed it:Â The Better Business Act: Transforming The Way We Do Business, featuring the BBA team.
> Good News This Week
đŻ Little Freddie published their climate footprint, in partnership with CarbonCloud. 0.23 kg Co2e is produced per pouch.Â
đŻ Allplants announced their record-breaking ÂŁ38 million Series B funding round.Â
đŻ The Jamie Oliver Group announced their Sustainability Pledge. This includes at least 65% of all our new recipes being meat free or meat reduced from 2022, and the whole business being net zero before 2040.Â
âïž Stonegate have launched a carbon neutral egg brand, Respectful, to be sold exclusively through Sainsburyâs. Working with ClimatePartner, locally sourced feed and protein alternatives to soya have reduced CO2 emissions by 50% alone compared to a standard brown laying bird on a soya diet.Â
âïž Brooks Running, Frog Bikes, Inditex, Amazon, Ikea, Unilever, Michelin, Patagonia and Tchibo have pledged to achieve zero-carbon shipping by 2040. Maritime shipping accounts for 3% of all global emissions.
âĄïž Large UK businesses will have to start disclosing their environmental impact, under new rules set to be brought in by the UK Treasury. A key aim is to combat greenwashing by corporations.Â
> Click on each link to read more.
> Quick Take
COP26: Introducing your new, free events guide.
By now, weâre sure youâve heard of COP26. But are you sure of how to get involved?
First up - letâs recap. âCOPâ refers to Conference of Parties. Established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit, COP is an annual summit that brings together more than 200 countries, or âpartiesâ. This year, the 26th meeting will be in Glasgow. Itâs particularly important, as itâs the first time the Paris Agreement will be revisited since its creation (as part of a scheduled 5 year cycle).Â
Broadly speaking, there are two parts to what is on offer at COP26. The âBlue Zoneâ is run by the United Nations and hosted in the Scottish Event Campus. This is where official COP members will meet, and negotiations and assessments will take place. The âGreen Zoneâ is open to the public, hosted in the Glasgow Science Centre, and will offer workshops, events and exhibitions. Donât have a ticket to Glasgow? Thereâs still plenty of opportunity for you to get involved from afar (hint hint, read onâŠ).Â
With all the buzz around COP26 this year, itâs easy for businesses and enthusiasts to feel unsure of how to participate in, and watch and learn from, the events taking place. Itâs like a party that youâre unsure if youâre invited to - but everyone is talking about. So, weâve put together a live COP26 Events Schedule to make it easier than ever for you to make the most of this unique conference, from afar. Weâve picked out 55+ of the most exciting events that could be relevant to your business, and available online. Weâve marked which are free, what areas they relate to, who organises them, and where you can find them. Weâve also separated them into âCOP26 Eventsâ, being run in and streamed from the Green Zone, and âExternal Eventsâ/âExternal Events Seriesâ which are organised by external third parties.Â
How it works:Â
This calendar is live - all events that have passed will disappear, and new events that we find will be added over the coming weeks.
For 'COP26 Events', the links to register for these events are not currently available, so in the meantime weâve linked the COP26 YouTube channel where they will be live streamed.
There are three different ways to view the events on offer (click to see each):
Looking for something in particular? âFilterâ, âGroupâ and âSortâ the events using the tools in the top left corner.Â
Want to add an event? Submit one here, and weâll share it publicly with our audience.Â
Over the next few weeks, weâll be reminding you in this newsletter of the key upcoming events that we donât think youâll want to miss. So, save this COP26 Events Schedule, watch out for updates, and enjoy the next few weeks of inspiration, education, and hopefully action. Like what you see? Share it with a friend!
Havenât subscribed to Following the Footprints yet?
> Brand Spotlight
Companions for COP26: How 25 breweries are coming together to raise the alarm.
Led by Toast Ale, the Companion Series is a limited-edition collection of 26 beers. Launched last week with an open letter to world leaders meeting at COP26, the series aims to raise ÂŁ65,000 -Â ÂŁ26 from every case sold. This money will be donated to Rainforest Trust UK and Soil Heroes, and in turn will protect 3.25 million trees in threatened tropical rainforests, and sequester 360 tonnes of CO2 in agricultural soils in the UK.Â
Why?
âOne of the fastest and most equitable measures to tackle the crisis is to reduce food waste. Food systems are responsible for one-third of GHG emissions and 80% of deforestation. However one-third of the worldâs food is never eaten, which means the land and resources used and greenhouse gases emitted in producing it were unnecessary. We need you, our global governments, along with businesses and groups with the power to influence the food system, to come together and change the status quo.â
Brewed using surplus bread, something Toast Ale have championed since their inception, the partnering 25 breweries are: Toast Ale, Adnams, Beavertown, Bedlam Brewery, Better World Brewery, Brixton Brewery, Five Points Brewery, Fyne Ales, Guinness, Harbour Brewery, Hepworth Brewery, Ignition Brewery, Meantime, Northern Monk, Orbit, Sambrooks, Signature Brew, Stroud Brewery, Tap Social Movement, Tooth & Claw Brewing, Unity BrewIng Co, Utopian Brewery, Wild Card Brewery, Windsor & Eton Brewery, Wold Top Brewery.
In particular, we love their reasoning for coming together to raise the alarm:
âWeâre competing businesses but we are uniting because the climate and nature crisis is bigger than us all. The word âcompanionâ, from the Latin âcomâ (together with) and âpanisâ (bread), represents the need for collaboration. To solve this systemic problem, we need systemic change, and that needs everyone who can to co-operate and work together.â
Support the Companion Series via their shop:
> In case you missed it
The Better Business Act: Transforming The Way We Do Business
Featuring the Better Business Act team.
> Follow up withâŠ
Article:Â Overwhelmed by sustainability initiatives? We share the whoâs who of net zero - Spherics
Article:Â How To Make Your Company More Sustainable - Stink Studios
Event:Â Exchange: The Human Side of Net-Zero - Fluxx Studios
Free Workshop:Â âWe Need to Talk About Carbonâ - Carbon Literacy for Small Businesses - Monday 1st November