Climate Week 2020: Building back resilient, sustainable food systems after COVID-19

23 Sep 2020 --- The Climate Week 2020 summit kicked off this week with F&B players joining forces with leaders of various industries to steer the charge in responsible sourcing, food security and climate resilience.

In line with the event, Nestlé and Walmart launched a new “forest positive” coalition, while Firmenich forged new business partnerships to scale-up measurable climate action and biodiversity. Meanwhile, ADM spoke out on the heightened sophistication of sustainability reporting.

In a post-COVID-19 world challenged with increasing climate impacts and related food insecurities, ADM flags that the bar for Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) is higher than ever before, and investor expectations of F&B companies are rapidly evolving. 

“What’s interesting is the amount of interest and the accelerating interest on behalf of the investor base regarding ESG. This is not just the European investors, which always have been very active in following development, but now the US investor base as well,” Ray Young, chief financial officer at ADM, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

ADM highlights that investors’ questions on ESG have become increasingly more sophisticated. ADM highlights that investors’ questions on ESG have become increasingly more sophisticated. Not only do they seek to understand what F&B companies are doing on the ESG front, but they also seek evidence of strategic thinking surrounding these ambitions. 

Key aspects include how a company holds itself accountable to these issues, and how it can provide clear evidence of continuous improvement in these areas through effective monitoring and reporting.

ADM teamed up with non-profit environmental body CDP to present these highlights in an online panel discussion, Nourishing Resilience: ESG as a Tool for Sustainable Food and Ag Growth.

“A lot of people view sustainability as a cost of doing business, we don’t view it that way,” Young says. 

“Sustainability is actually a critical part of how we are going to grow the company. That is consistent with our theme, our purpose, which is unlocking nature to enrich the quality of life of everyone in the world. We are taking these steps to go in that direction.” 

The impacts of climate change on food security initially came into sharpened focus in 2018, sparking discussions about the important role of big food businesses delivering “climate-smart” food systems.

Keeping climate in focus amid the pandemic
Firmenich CEO Gilbert Ghostine signed a letter with more than 170 other businesses and investors, including Unilever, Danone and Ikea, calling on EU states to scale up climate action with an emissions reduction target of at least 55 percent by 2030 and an ambitious green recovery.

“We have been attending Climate Week for many years,” Berangere Magarinos-Ruchat, chief sustainability officer at Firmenich, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“Last year the focus was the young people movement led by Greta [Thunberg] but this year the global pandemic is at the heart of the conversations on climate,” she highlights.

“COVID-19 will have a critical impact on our ability to reach the SDGs and to meet our climate ambitions. As a result, this year our focus is to call for collective action to rebuild better.”

COVID-19 will have a significant impact on companies’ ability to reach the SDGs and to meet our climate ambitions, says Firmenich.As an RE100 member, Firmenich reached 100 percent renewable electricity consumption “ahead of schedule” in all markets where it is currently possible to locally source renewable electricity in accordance with RE100’s technical criteria. 

The group purchased renewable grid electricity and collaborated with suppliers and governments to develop local availability of green power, including onsite solutions such as wind power and solar energy.

As one of the early signatories of the “Business Ambition for 1.5oC” coalition committed to Science-Based Targets to combat climate change, Firmenich joined Nestlé to actively engage with Race to Zero, the largest ever campaign driving for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

“The World Economic Forum talks about the big reset. That new vision of the world fully integrates climate and biodiversity at the heart of a new model of capitalism more human and more inclusive,” remarks Magarinos-Ruchat.

Nestlé highlights nature-based solutions
Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider spoke about the company’s ambition to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the Walmart Sustainability Milestone Summit, as part of Climate Week.

As part of its broader global reforestation initiative, the company recently announced a CHF 4 million (US$4.3 million) investment into Project RELeaf to plant three million trees in Malaysia over the next three years.

Nestlé will plant three million trees in Malaysia over the next three years.Earlier this year, Nestlé disclosed its aim to plant three million trees in key sourcing locations in the Americas and partnered with the government of Côte d'Ivoire to protect and restore the Cavally forest reserve.

Also in line with Climate Week, The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) launched the Forest Positive Coalition of Action. Within this consortium, Nestlé and Walmart are among 17 companies targeting actions to integrate forest-preservation strategies into their businesses.

Signatories will work together to accelerate systemic efforts to remove deforestation, forest degradation and conversion from the key commodity supply chains of palm oil, soy and paper, pulp and fiber-based packaging.

As a Walmart supplier, Nestlé will report its reforestation progress through Project Gigaton, contributing to the retailer’s effort to remove one billion metric tons (a gigaton) of greenhouse gas emissions from its global value chain by 2030. In 2019, through Project Gigaton’s forests pillar, Walmart suppliers reported avoiding more than 20 million metric tons of CO2.

By Benjamin Ferrer