ESG This Week...

In my endeavor to bring in the best crisp view of what’s happening in the ESG World, I am continuously evolving this News Letter.

?In this edition, along with regular updates. I am adding a new section of a feature on ESG professionals focusing on one established personality and one evolving. Idea is to bring in focus on people who are selflessly doing great work in the ESG area in their own ways, at their own pace and scale. ?

The first personality, I have chosen is #AfrozShah. He has great credentials, phenomenal work, and a world-renowned personality. While he does not need any introduction, just states what his Linkedin profile says ?#UNChampion of Earth ?#IndianOf the Year CNN News18 ?#GQ - Men of the year 2019 ?#CNN hero – 2019. He is an Indian environmental activist and lawyer from Mumbai. He is best known for organizing the world's largest beach clean-up project, which has grown into a movement that has inspired people around the world to clean up their surrounding environment. I recently met him at the #ETEDGE SDG Summit and his views, and ideas are phenomenal. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????

For my second profile of the week, I have chosen ?Ms. #RitaSahu, She is a Retired Principle Chief Electrical Engineer at Central Railway. Postgraduate in engineering, a nature lover, doing and promoting home #composting, #Bioenzymes, #gardening, #naturalfarming. Aspiring to do Bio enzyme in a big way to help individuals, farmers, and households. I have chosen these two diversified profiles, while Afroz had started as one man of initiative and with his persistent efforts, ?taken up to the next level, now globally known and well recognized. Rita Ji’s efforts, I am watching on day to day basis, like the most recently post-Ganpati festival. We live in the same society, where we have 322 flats and around 40-50 of our residents keep Ganpati in their homes and most of us have flower pandals, malas, etc. at our respective homes. Rita Ji visited and called to almost all these flats and along with blessings & greetings asked all residents to share their green offerings i.e. flowers/ petals and leaves with her. She took the pain of collecting and cleaning them for recycling and now creating #bioenzymesandleftoversusedforcomposting. What a wonderful idea and gesture to truly value these holy flowers and the outcome is recycling and a move toward a circular economy. ?Thanks to both of them for their #selflessservice and #inspiring us.

?Now bringing back focus to our agenda point – ESG World this week, globally we are seeing a lot of happening:-

ESG Appointments

• Global professional services firm PwC announced the appointment of #WillJacksonMoore as its new Global ESG Leader, forming part of the company’s efforts to ramp up its ESG practice and capabilities. PwC aspires for ESG revenues to grow tenfold over the next four years.

Company’s ESG News

• Global management consulting firm #McKinsey & Company announced the launch of the #GlobalDecarbonizationHub and the #SustainableMaterialsHub, aimed at helping clients transform and unlock opportunities related to decarbonizing the energy and materials sectors. The energy-focused Global Decarbonization Hub will be based in McKinsey’s office in Houston, Texas, home to 40% of all publicly traded oil and gas companies. In a statement announcing the launch, McKinsey said that it sees #Huston as “primed to lead the energy transition across green technologies including hydrogen; carbon capture, utilization, and storage (#ccus ); circular plastics; and power management.”
• CRM solutions provider #Salesforce announced today the launch of #NetZeroMarketplace, a new carbon market aimed at connecting buyers with environmentally-focused entrepreneurs, and making carbon credit purchases simple and transparent.
• It is being seen demand for carbon offset projects that counteract the release of greenhouse gases, and related credits are expected to increase significantly over the next several years, as companies and businesses increasingly launch net zero ambitions, and turn to offsets as a bridge to their own absolute emissions reduction efforts, or to balance difficult to avoid emissions.
• Norges Bank Investment Management (#NBIM), the investment manager for Norway’s €1.2 trillion oil fund, announced the launch of a new climate action plan, and a target to reach net zero emissions for all companies in the fund by 2050. NBIM was established to manage revenues from Norway’s oil and gas resources.
• The fund has grown to one of the world’s largest, owning nearly 1.5% of all shares in the world’s listed companies, with holdings in over 9,000 companies in 70 countries.
• #marsh , the world’s leading insurance broker, and risk advisor announced that US clients now have the option to pay their Marsh service fees in voluntary #carbonoffset credits and #renewableenergycertificates (#RECs). The move — believed to be a first-of-its-kind in the financial services industry — is part of Marsh’s commitment to helping accelerate the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables and to recognize clients pursuing and exceeding net zero carbon emission goals.

Carbon Neutral Targets and Initiatives

• U.S. passenger rail operator #Amtrak announced a commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its network by 2045, funds from the recently passed #Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help the railway towards reaching its target, by helping the company procure a more sustainable fleet and make improvements to its older assets.
• The new commitment follows Amtrak’s recent pledge to reduce 40% of Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and to fully transition all electricity to carbon-free sources by 2030. Scope 1 emissions constitute the majority of this footprint, and are largely the result of diesel fuel usage.
• Leading home appliance manufacturer #Whirlpool announced today that it will source sufficient renewable energy for 100% of electricity for its U.S. plant operations, following its entry into its second wind Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (#VPPA).?Whirlpool announced its first VPPA earlier this year with Clearway Energy, sourcing power from the energy provider’s 340 megawatts “Mesquite Sky” wind farm in Callahan County, Texas.
• The new VPPA, with energy provider Engie, will represent 53 MW of renewable energy, equivalent to removing 30,000 passenger vehicles from roads each year, and sufficient to provide electricity to over 27,000 homes. The VPPA with Engie becomes fully operational in 2023.
• #GSK set sustainability requirements for suppliers;
• # Walmart invests over $1 billion in renewables, sustainable buildings & circular economy
• #Amazon further solidifies, its position as the largest corporate renewable energy with over 70 new-solar wind projects.
• #HSBC announced to exit thermal coal investments;
• #ECB to use climate scores to decarbonize €387 billion bond portfolio;

Airlines #JetBlue orders sustainable aviation fuel made from captured CO2; ASICS launches low-carbon emissions sneakers, and more ?#JetBlue announced an agreement with climate tech startup #AIRCOMPANY to purchase sustainable aviation fuel made from captured CO2

• #AirCompany, launched in 2019 creates consumer and industrial products from carbon dioxide, utilizing proprietary technology that uses air, water, and renewable energy to produce carbon-negative alcohols and fuels.

ESG Analytics and Regulatory updates

• #Japan Exchange Group, Inc. has announced that it has started trial trading of carbon credits on the #Tokyo Stock Exchange as part of the “Technical Demonstration Project for Carbon Credit Market” commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI). One of the key focus areas of JPX’s Medium-Term Management Plan 2024 is to “promote sustainability that connects society and economy.” #JPX recognizes that this demonstration is one of the unique ways in which it can contribute to the realization of a low-carbon society.
• It will start with the trading of J-Credits, which are already circulating in Japan and have already received applications from 145 companies, local governments, and other organizations to participate.
• Focused analytics business #Sustainable, Fitch announced today the launch of ESG Ratings, Data & Analysis, a new ESG rating product for investors providing sustainability scores and analysis at the entity, framework, and instrument level. According to Sustainable Fitch Managing Director Andrew Steel, the new ratings are being launched amid client demand for “ESG ratings that go beyond financial materiality to include analysis of ESG performance, impact, and outcomes.”

India ESG Updates:

• Indian oil-to-chemicals conglomerate #relianceindustrieslimited unit #RelianceNewEnergyLimited would buy a 20% stake for $ 12 million in solar technology developer #Caelux Corp to produce powerful and lower-cost solar modules.
• #STL one of the industry’s leading integrators of digital networks, has announced #ZeroWastetoLandfill (ZWL) for all its optical fiber and cable facilities across India and Italy. Earlier In 2020, STL became the world’s first optical fiber and cable manufacturer to attain the #ZWL certificate for its Indian plants in Maharashtra, India.
• #Adani, India’s fastest-growing diversified business portfolio, and energy supermajor Total Energies of France have entered into a new partnership to jointly create the world’s largest green hydrogen ecosystem.
• In this strategic alliance, Total Energies will acquire a 25% minority interest in Adani New Industries Ltd (ANIL) from Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL). The new partnership, which focuses on green hydrogen, is expected to transform the escape both in India and globally. Both Adani and Total Energies are pioneers in energy transition and clean energy adoption, and this joint energy platform further strengthens the public ESG commitments made by both companies.
• India’s new environmental rules will help eliminate #greenwashing by requiring companies to submit detailed emissions data starting next fiscal year. Under the rules, corporates will have to provide data on more than 120 metrics, including from the past two years.
• The new norms are expected to improve transparency with investors and the government, said #ShivanandaShetty, partner and lead at #KPMG India’s ESG and Climate Change practice. ?Collecting more data “would definitely help address greenwashing,” Shetty told #BloombergTelevision in an interview.
• ?India’s stock markets regulator mandated the roll-out of new reporting standards for companies in May 2022. The government plans to compile information from the country’s top 1,000 companies starting April 1, 2023. The rules are intended to help India, the world’s third-largest polluter, cut emissions and meet a target of net zero emissions by 2070. The new norms track with a global widening of disclosures sought by investors who want insight into how companies manage risks and improve governance and diversity in their workforces and value chains. India, which is expected to be among the hardest hit by climate change, ranked the lowest among 180 countries in the #WorldEconomicForum’s latest #EnvironmentalPerformanceIndex.