?? Summer strikes spark supply shortage

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Welcome to Reuters Sustainable Switch for LinkedIn! ?? This newsletter will help you make sense of how companies and governments around the world are grappling with climate change, diversity, and human rights. ??

This weekly LinkedIn edition will feature commentary, expert analysis and news surrounding companies' environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance from Reuters journalists around the world every Tuesday.

Now that’s out the way, let’s get straight to it! This week kicks off with industrial action in Europe as Norwegian offshore oil and gas workers went on strike over pay today which exacerbated worries about an energy shock in Europe and added to concerns over red-hot inflation. ??

Industrial action by Norway’s offshore oil and gas workers began at midnight local time (2200 GMT)?at three fields - Gudrun, Oseberg South and Oseberg East - and will expand to three more - Kristin, Heidrun and Aasta Hansteen - from midnight on Wednesday.

?? "The strike has begun," Audun Ingvartsen, the leader of the Lederne trade union, said in an interview, adding that the union would escalate the?strike to pressure employers to address demands for wage increases to compensate for rising inflation.

The first day of planned industrial action could cut the country's gas output by almost a quarter and exacerbate supply shortages in the wake of the Ukraine war.

Aviation Disruption

???Elsewhere, wage talks between Scandinavian airline SAS and its pilots collapsed yesterday, triggering a strike that adds to travel chaos across Europe as the peak summer vacation period begins.?

SAS has also filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States to help accelerate restructuring plans, it said, warning strike action by pilots had impacted its financial position and liquidity. ??

The work stoppage could cost SAS nearly 100 million Swedish crowns ($10 million) per day,?a Sydbank analyst calculated, potentially erasing up to half of the airline's cash flow in the initial four to five weeks alone in a worst-case scenario. ??

???The aviation industry continues to face disruption as British Airways is set to cancel more flights scheduled for the summer holiday season?amid staff shortages and a surge in travel demand. In addition, Spanish-based cabin crew at Ryanair and easyJet plan to strike this month to demand better working conditions, and workers at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport stopped work over the weekend to demand a pay rise.

In Conversation

Marco Lavazza, vice chairman of Italian coffee manufacturer Lavazza Group

?“‘I don't want to live in a world where nature is destroyed’?is what our founder, Luigi Lavazza, said in 1934. He started with those values and that is what we represent today, in the fourth generation of the company.

“We had sustainability already in our DNA and the idea that we had to do something for the community and not in an imperialistic way, like going somewhere to teach people how they have to live, is something we don't want to do.

“Farmers live on the farm. They live where they work. They have to be proud of their job. In order to protect the farmers, we help them with the latest ideas and latest technology to work the land, to have, for example, fewer chemical fertilizers.?

“Every year, Lavazza sends 3,000 tons of coffee waste to a company (Fomet Spa) that produces organic fertilizer. And what is the result of that? They get better crops. They sell it at a better price, and we have a better product ourselves. So, it is a win-win situation.”

ESG Movers and Shakers

Global provider of biogas upgrading systems?Greenlane Renewables?has hired?Monty Balderston?as its new CFO. Balderston joins Greenlane with over 25 years of experience in progressively senior financial leadership positions.

Canadian oil sands producer?MEG Energy?has hired?Gary Bosgoed?to its board of directors. Bosgoed is the president and CEO of Bosgoed Project Consultants, a project management consulting engineering company headquartered in Canada.?

His credentials include working as senior vice president and general manager of WorleyParsons Canada in Edmonton leading a team of over 2,600. He has served as chair of the Alberta Capital Region United Way Campaign and as director of the Alberta Electric System Operator and the National Aboriginal Economic Development Board.?

Encavis,?a Germany-based wind and solar park operator, has appointed?Mario Schirru?to its management board. Schirru is the current head of operations and IT and is an expert of the renewable energy industry with more than eight years at the Encavis Group already. Additionally, the CEO of Encavis,?Dr. Dierk Paskert, will resign from office and leave the company at the end of the year.

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