🌱 Inside yamo's plastic neutral partnership with CleanHub.

Featuring yamo, Sharpham Dairy, Birdsong, When in Rome and more...

Apr 25, 2022

Happy Monday!

This week we cover:

COP15: Putting Biodiversity back on the agenda, despite a delay.
yamo and plastic neutrality: how to turn planet guardianship into business success.
In case you missed it: Plastic Accounting 101: How Your Brand Can Take Action, by Noah Godfrey

> Good News Last Week

🎯 Sharpham Dairy certified as B Corp, the first UK dairy cheesemaker to do so.

🎯 Birdsong certified as B Corp, scoring an impressive 117.2⁠ points.

🎯 When in Rome launched a paper wine bottle in Ocado, matching capacity and price point of other brands.

⭐️ Aldi announced it’s trialling an ‘all electric refrigerated trailer’ that runs off the lorry’s own kinetic energy, which keep the trailer’s batteries charged.

⭐️ Budweiser announced plans to help bars and venues around the world switch to renewable energy, as part of a new Energy Collective scheme, aiming to help AB Inbev deliver on their goal to build a net zero value chain by 2040.

⭐️ Arla Foods announced they’re giving methane-reducing feed to 10,000 cows across Europe, estimating it could cut methane emissions from cattle by almost a third. This involves 50 of the cooperative’s farms in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.

⭐️ Anchor Dairy US have launched a carbon zero certified organic butter, working with Toitū Envirocare to calculate emissions across the product’s lifecycle.

⚡️ A ‘Manifesto for Regenerative Fashion’ from the Prince of Wales's Sustainable Markets Initiative Fashion Task Force aims to help accelerate the development of circular and bio-based innovations, and has been signed by brands like Stella McCartney and Selfridges, and is in partnership with Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA).

> Click on each link to read more.

> Quick Take

COP15: Putting Biodiversity back on the agenda, despite a delay.

COP15 could be seen as the lesson known cousin of the COPs happening in the past year, however, it’s incredibly important. Not caught up? We’ll run through what it is, how they’re linked, what’s on the agenda, and what this means for you.

1. What is COP15?

Now unless you’ve been living under an environmental rock for the last year or so, you’ll have heard of COP, or the Conference of the Parties. The best-known COP is the one on climate. Last year COP26 took place in Glasgow, Scotland (you can read all about our take here and here). However, there are actually two other COPs - one for biodiversity and one for desertification.

COP15 was originally due to be in 2020, but due to COVID-19 it was split between a week of online sessions in October 2021, and the in-person event which was meant to start this month, but has recently been postponed to October 2022. This COP deals with the Convention on Biological Diversity and takes place every two years*. As COP26 does with climate change, COP15 is the occasion to debate the global framework for biodiversity.

The aim? To elevate the protection of biodiversity to the same level as the climate.

2. What is the link between the COPs?

Until now, the conferences on climate and on biodiversity have acted independently of each other. However, more and more actors have underlined the necessity of looking for climate solutions that tackle the two issues: Healthy ecosystems, notably forests and oceans, are essential for storing carbon. Whilst, on the other hand, reducing global warming reduces the risk of the extinction of species. There isn’t any plans to combine the two as far we know, but this is definitely something that must be interlinked for success.

“These are two intertwined crises that should be addressed together,” says Elizabeth Maruma, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

3. What’s on the agenda for COP15?

In 2018, COP14 was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. There were 39 key outcomes from the convention, including an international agreement on reversing the global destruction of nature and biodiversity loss; an agreement from governments to accelerate action to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets by 2020 and a process for developing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The convention also called for the UN General Assembly to designate 2021 to 2030 as the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.

COP15 is focused on the final outcome above: to agree to a new set of goals for nature over the next decade. The framework will set out an ambitious plan to implement broad-based action to bring about a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled.

The Conference will also look at the implementation of the protocols of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that deal with the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of nature, and the safe transport, handling and labelling of Living Modified Organisms.

4. What could this mean for businesses?

Whilst there are still ongoing discussions, and official outcomes won’t be decided until later in the year, we can suspect that this COP will bring about some big changes for businesses and investors. We’ll be keeping you updated on what this will look like in COP15: Part 2 in the next few months.

Interested? Read on:

We know that this is a pretty hefty topic to get your head around (us too). Ahead of COP15 resuming in October, here are some further readings that we’ve found helpful:

*Kunming Botanical Garden in Kunming, China. Source: newscientist.com*

Like this newsletter? Share Following the Footprints with a friend:

yamo and plastic neutrality: how to turn planet guardianship into business success.

Children are the future, and we don’t want that future suffocating in plastic. yamo, a forward-thinking ‘Swiss children’s foodtech startup,’ has made this idea central to its business operations. In fact, its entire brand purpose focuses on the future: nourishing our kids, protecting the planet they’re growing up in. yamo has turned the principle of planet guardianship into a brilliant business strategy, and recently announced that they’ve gone ‘plastic neutral’. Given that yamo recently raised €10 million to become Europe’s leading organic children’s food brand, it seems that this approach has made their own future a bright one. Let’s take a look at how they’ve done it, and how other brands can follow suit.

yamo uses cold processing to transform plant-based, organic ingredients into nutritionally complete snacks. According to yamo, this creates 64% less C02 emissions and uses 39% less water than the heat sterilisation normally used for similar foods. It’s no good choosing and using the finest ingredients if a large proportion is going to waste. We’ve covered the business case for reducing food waste before, and yamo is well aware of how food waste is damaging to both planet and profits. As well as minimising waste across the supply chain by simply trying ‘never to produce more than necessary‘, the brand partners with Euro food redistribution charities Die Tafeln and Tischlein Deck Dich to donate any surplus. Looking for a UK-based alternative? Check out City Harvest!

Typical of new and emerging technologies, cold processing currently has limitations. Crucially, yamo are transparent about this fact, owning that cold processing is incompatible with plastic-free packaging. We’ve written before about how brand honesty is crucial, especially when it comes to admissions of imperfection (check out how Burt’s Bees used ‘failure’ wisely here). It’s vital for building customers’ trust. By making it plain that they’re actively working on a solution to a difficult problem, yamo haven’t weakened their brand identity.

So, how can yamo honestly claim to be ‘plastic neutral’ while admitting their failure to go plastic-free? It’s all down to their partnership with CleanHub. Using a ‘simple 1-1 principle’, for every product sold, yamo finance the collection of plastic waste the equivalent of a plastic bottle from the environment before it reaches the ocean. They’ve got live metrics to show the monumental impact this has. In the last year, yamo alone financed the removal of over 7000kg of plastic waste. While not being truly plastic-free, there’s no doubting that this is a worthwhile endeavour.

*Yamo make their contribution clear via their website. Source: yamo.bio*

Like carbon or water offsetting, the ability to go ‘plastic-neutral’ in this way shouldn't mean that brands don’t need to minimise its use in the supply chain. If, however, they follow in yamo’s footsteps (and indeed Burt’s Bees’) by stating clearly that this is the next-best-thing while they continuously strive to tackle waste across their operations, their honesty will shine through. yamo’s rapid success is undoubtedly owed, in large part, to their evident commitment to the future. They’re continuously looking ahead, hoping for better, aiming for better, and doing all they can in the meantime. Given that their customer base is made up of parents undoubtedly doing the same for their children, that’s a powerful selling point.

Support yamo via their shop:

Shop yamo

*Yamo’s compostable packaging. Source: verycompostable.com*

> In case you missed it

Plastic Accounting 101: How Your Brand Can Take Action