Businesses Across Diverse Industries Remain Focused on Sustainability

While some government regulators are reducing or eliminating sustainability reporting requirements, a wide range of industry trade groups and organizations continue to develop reporting standards and best practices to help businesses achieve sustainability targets. In our Top Stories this issue, we look at efforts in four very diverse industries: electronics, agriculture, real estate, and snow sports.

Electronics - The Global Electronics Council (GEC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable electronic technology. GEC manages the EPEAT ecolabel, a free resource for procurement professionals to identify and select more sustainable products. Since its launch in 2006, purchases of over 2.7 billion EPEAT products have generated cost savings exceeding USD$34 billion and a reduction of over 341 million MT of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The EPEAT ecolabel also provides a resource for manufacturers to demonstrate that their products confirm to the highest sustainability standards. In a press release included in our Top Stories below, GEC announced that it has added enterprise data storage products as a new category under the EPEAT ecolabel, which will help enable more sustainable data centers.

Agriculture - In the agriculture sector, corn producers have been focused on improving the sustainability of on-farm production in the U.S., including water use, energy use, land use, soil erosion, and GHG emissions. According to Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, a multi-stakeholder organization, corn production in the 40 years since 1980 has required 44% less land, 56% less water and 55% less energy per bushel grown, while producing 48% less GHG emissions and 40% less soil erosion, measured in tons of soil per acre.

To provide traceability of U.S. corn sustainability across international supply chains, the U.S. Grains Council (USCG) introduced the Corn Sustainability Assurance Protocol (CSAP) in 2023. The USGC also created the Sustainable Corn Exports electronic database though which exporters can request a Record of Sustainability validating that a shipment meets CSAP standards. According to an article below from CME Group, to date more than 18.2 MT of U.S. corn product has been exported carrying a Record of Sustainability.

Real Estate - developers are working to meet the demands of companies for new sustainable buildings, including LEED-certified buildings, and upgrades to existing buildings. Developers and investors are tapping into green financing tools to raise capital to help meet this demand and boost returns. According to an article in Urban Land Magazine, an estimated $1.5 trillion in green, social, and sustainability-linked bonds and other mechanisms are being raised annually around the world. In addition to traditional green bonds and loans from banks, funding structures for energy upgrade projects are being utilized including Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Energy/efficiency as a Service (EaaS).

Snow Sports - The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has developed a Sustainability Communication Guide to help ski industry professionals enhance their sustainability communication and avoid falling into the use of so-called greenwashing practices. A press release from FIS, included below, describes 10 actionable steps in the guide which aims to provide a practical framework for building trust and driving meaningful engagement. The steps include assessing sustainability performance using a five-point scale, setting communication goals, prioritizing transparency, and breaking down complex terms to ensure sustainability messages are easy to understand.

The G&A team is available to assist companies in a wide range of industries with incorporating best practices for setting sustainability goals and for sustainability reporting and disclosure. For more information contact us at: info@ga-institute.com.

This is just the introduction of G&A's Sustainability Highlights newsletter this week. Click here to view the full issue.