Insurance, Food, World Bank, AI & adidas

1. The rising tide of insurance?

A recent article in 纽约时报 highlights the increasingly complex and challenging issues facing the insurance industry around providing coverage for areas exposed to climate-related risks, and the related emergence of unsustainably high insurance costs or uninsurable properties or areas.?

Case in point: State Farm , the largest provider of auto and home insurance in the US, said it would stop accepting applications for most types of new insurance policies in California because of inflation, a challenging reinsurance market and – crucially –?“rapidly growing catastrophe exposure.”?

Unfortunately, this isn’t a problem unique to California –?other US states affected by flood and storm risks are facing the same issues. As with other aspects of climate change, the effects of rising insurance costs or uninsurable areas stand to impact the most vulnerable and underserved members of society the most. An integral feature of a ‘just transition’ to net zero needs to be ensuring that this doesn’t happen. So how do we do that? Should the responsibility be placed on the shoulders of insurers? After all, the whole point of insurance is to offer financial protection in moments it is needed most.?

However, bankrupted insurance firms won’t remedy the situation either. Collective action and government support in mitigating the unequal impact of climate change on society is required.?

FloodRe , a joint initiative between the UK Government and UK insurers, is a good example of how this functions in reality. By pooling flood risk across the country, it spreads the financial burden and ensures that the flood cover part of household insurance remains accessible to all.?

Initiatives such as this demonstrate that by implementing innovative and inclusive insurance schemes, governments can safeguard the most vulnerable members of our communities while promoting resilience and sustainable practice. We need more of these.?

2. A recipe for?change

We can and must change the way we make our food. Our current food system accounts for a third of global greenhouse gases and is a primary driver of biodiversity loss.??

To help accelerate this change, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in partnership with the Sustainable Food Trust has launched The Big Food Redesign Challenge . This will bring together producers, retailers, start-ups and suppliers to embrace circular food design.?

The Challenge tasks participants with designing new food products, or redesigning existing ones, using circular design principles, producing them in a way that regenerates nature and eliminates waste, therefore addressing climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.?

Participants will explore how the redesigned products use materials and ingredients that promote healthy soils, improve local biodiversity, air and water quality, have lower impact or are upcycled, and are free from problematic packaging.???

The past few years have seen more innovations aimed at redesigning our food system for long-term resilience — with 3D-printing, fermenting, upcycling and cultivating a host of planet-friendlier alternatives to some of our most popular (and environmentally harmful) foods. The Big Food Redesign Challenge aims to inspire businesses to bring this innovation to the mainstream.??

What is particularly valuable about this challenge is the support that participants will be provided on the product (re)design journey. Food businesses of all sizes can join a series of learning events, get advice from experts, and have free access to the world’s largest product and ingredient impact measurement tool.??

The successful teams will get to take their design into production, and pitch to major retailers to bring their product to market in 2024.??

This is a fantastic opportunity for businesses to demonstrate how they can be leaders in designing the future of food.??

Could you cook up a winning idea? Or know someone who could? If so, sign up, or send this on!?

3. Ajay's?first day

Last Friday was an important occasion for the one of the world’s largest multilateral development banks, as Ajay Banga took up his new post as President of 世界银行 Bank. To mark this new chapter, campaign group Project Everyone launched the Ajay’s First Day campaign to congratulate Ajay on his new position, and put a stake in the ground for what may be expected of him.?

This warm welcome is in support of global efforts to raise awareness of ONE Campaign’s 10-point plan for the new President’s first 100 days. The plan sets out ten key actions that would reform how the World Bank operates, ensuring low- and middle-income countries can access essential development funds that will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As one of the biggest global players in addressing global development issues and facing criticism regarding its approach, this seeks to pressure the World Bank to transform its approach and accelerate action to deliver the change the world so desperately needs.?

We're intrigued by the approach of this campaign, embracing positivity to get Ajay Banga on board and throwing support behind him to drive action from the new President. While this could be seen as patronizing rather than positive—a call to “get on with it” under the guise of a warm welcome and a promise of support—we like the idea of this campaign and the fresh approach it's taking. We hope this strategy has the desired effect, empowering Ajay and the World Bank to usher in much-needed transformation.?

So, as Ajay Banga steps into his role as President of the World Bank, Project Everyone's Ajay's First Day campaign sets the stage for a transformative journey. We look forward to seeing where it leads.?

4. AI: the new?carbon?

As AI continues on its onward march, creating fear and hope as it goes, it will inevitably enter more and more parts of business life. We think this has far reaching implications for how the corporate sector as a whole monitors and manages it.??

One area of business life in which AI is advancing fast is recruitment, and it’s a great example of how the technology can be used in the service of desirable and progressive ends, whilst also having unintended negative consequences. The use of automated technology and AI in recruitment isn’t new, but it has been gathering pace. One of the primary objectives driving this is the desire on the part of many businesses to increase the diversity of hires by taking the bias out of the system. And while there have been some success stories, there are also many examples of the systems achieving the opposite of what was intended. As a recent report showed, these range from?the appalling – favouring candidates with whiter sounding names, to the bizarre –?favouring candidates specifically named Jared or practising specific sports. In many cases, the engineers themselves didn’t understand how/why AIs were operating in this way.?

This highlights the way in which even companies which are not directly involved in the development and deployment of AI will nevertheless find themselves on the front line in terms of managing the new responsibilities it carries with it. They might not be at the table with the many governments and NGOs and other institutions trying to create a regulatory environment that works, but they nevertheless will need to be thinking through the commercial and ethical implications of any and all applications of it, from the perspective of the multiple stakeholders it could impact on. Just as carbon has to be an issue that is on everyone’s agenda (not just that of energy companies) because it both affects all businesses and all businesses have an impact, so too does AI: it’s set to be a universal sustainability issue for the coming age.??

5.?Run with?purpose

Last week, 阿迪达斯 launched its "Move for the Planet ” campaign, and although it is well underway, there’s still time for us to lace up our shoes and get moving.??

From June 1st to June 12th, adidas will donate one euro to Common Goal for every 10 minutes of activity, across 34 sports, logged in the adidas Running app. With a total donation cap of 1.5 million euros, it presents an opportunity for people around the world to take part in their usual (or unusual) physical activity while supporting sustainability-related causes.?

Adidas and Common Goal have selected projects around the globe that share a common mission: to educate and empower communities towards sustainable practices. These projects range from renewing sports pitches with recycled materials in Greece to providing clean drinking water to families and schools through a rainwater collection and purification system in South Africa, as well as illuminating football pitches with solar power in Cambodia.??

Through these actions, they aim to create a movement that educates and engages communities on sustainability. Sport has the power to drive this, and Adidas is harnessing that power by uniting the global sporting community for a common cause. We admire how adidas and Common Goal have transformed the concept of cause-related marketing from something focused on purchase and personal reward into a positive, empowering, purpose-driven approach that ties personal benefit from higher activity levels and social benefit in the form of donations.??

Whether you're running, cycling, playing basketball or squash this weekend, your minutes of activity will count towards the donation. So, if you can, join the 'Move for the Planet' campaign, track your movements and let every step you take become a step towards positive action!?