Based on a technology project conducted over several years, in which Phoenix Contact defined lead-free* alternative materials and put them to the test, the Group is now working quickly to convert its connector portfolio.
“From an early stage, we were committed to reducing lead to protect health and the environment,” said Torsten Janwlecke, COO and President Business Area Device Connectors. “That is why we are now in the position where we have met all the requirements to launch lead-free connectors.”
Developing lead-free alternatives is one of the biggest challenges that the metal processing industry has faced in the last 50 years. Participants in the project at Phoenix Contact have been working across locations for several years to identify suitable materials and adapt production processes. For the test series in collaboration with the technology laboratory, the company invested in new production plants and applied for patents for new processes.
Phoenix Contact currently offers a significant selection of lead-free circular connectors. Through the consistent extension of the metric M5 to M58 series, a lead-free portfolio will be almost fully available by the end of 2022.
With material adaptations in this series and other connector ranges, Phoenix Contact customers are now already able to obtain electrical connectors that satisfy forthcoming environmental standards and compliance requirements.
*The designation lead-free refers to the future limit value of 0.1 percent in the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive of the European Parliament.
The airline industry has a climate problem. Aviation relies on highly polluting fossil fuels, and expert studies warn that the airline industry cannot reach net zero by 2050 and align with climate goals without lowering air traffic.
However, KLM’s marketing campaign attempts to convince consumers otherwise, giving a false impression of the sustainability of its flights and plans to address its climate harm.
ClientEarth, along with campaigners Fossielvrij Netherlands, and Reclame Fossielvrij, has therefore written to KLM demanding that KLM stops greenwashing. In the absence of a positive response, ClientEarth will commence legal action. The lawsuit will argue that KLM’s campaigns and carbon ‘compensation’ schemes are misleading, and violate European consumer law.
ClientEarth is going to court to demand KLM tells the truth about its fossil-fuel dependent product. Unchecked flying is one of the fastest ways to heat up the planet. Customers need to be informed and protected from claims that suggest it is not.
How does KLM claim that sustainable flying is possible?
The legal action focuses on KLM’s Fly Responsibly ad campaign and its offers for customers to buy carbon offset products to reduce the impact of their flight by funding reforestation projects or KLM’s purchase of biofuels.
ClientEarth argues that such products will do little to limit the damage the airline industry causes to the climate, and that by promoting them to customers, KLM’s marketing undermines the urgent action needed to minimise climate catastrophe.
The Fly Responsibly ads also present the airline as “creating a more sustainable future” and on track to reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050.
But this promise doesn’t square with its plans to grow its business and increase flight sales.
We urgently need to reduce air traffic to keep a just and liveable world within reach. Airlines cannot be allowed to compete for business on claims that they are tackling the climate crisis, when the reality is they are fuelling it.
What are the wider impacts of greenwashing in the airline industry?
KLM and the airline industry continue to pursue growth year after year, relying on a package of speculative future technologies, limited alternative fuels and other flawed ‘solutions’ to make flying sustainable. Whilst doing so, they are also lobbying intensively against aviation climate regulation.
Flying is one of the fastest ways to heat up the planet. The coming years in the climate fight are crucial, huge reductions in emissions and regulation to limit air traffic are needed to keep a liveable planet for all. Greenwashing wastes money and delays this critical action and allows airlines to continue to burn increasing volumes of damaging fossil fuels.
Additionally, it is unjust and unequal that the airline industry primarily serves a small group of privileged frequent flyers, when it is people with less money, people in the Global South and future generations that are set to suffer the most as the world gets dangerously hotter. Just one percent of the world’s global population cause 50% of commercial aviation emissions, whilst the overwhelming majority of people have never taken a flight.
What is ClientEarth hoping will happen as a result of this case?
Ultimately, we are calling for a ban on all fossil fuel advertising in the EU to stop companies like KLM from continuing to mislead the public over what is needed to reduce the airline industry’s impact on the planet and people. We need to clean up advertising in order to clean up the climate.
What happens next?
Following the legal letter sent to KLM on 24th May 2022, the claim will be filed at court if KLM does not comply with Fossielvrij and ClientEarth’s demands. The Court will first consider whether the claim has standing to proceed, and then KLM will give its defence. Once the written filings are completed, a hearing will be held, and after that the court will issue its judgment.
AFS Intercultural Programs launches the AFS Global STEM Accelerator: a full-scholarship, virtual exchange program designed to empower 150 young women worldwide with access to education in sustainability, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), and social impact.
Through immersive learning experiences, AFS Global STEM Accelerator scholars will develop critical technical competencies, like digital skills, design thinking, and data literacy, paired with global competencies, such as emotional intelligence, intercultural awareness, and teamwork – valuable skills that are increasingly necessary for the global economy and vital to contribute to a sustainable future.
Over the course of twelve weeks, scholars will develop social impact prototypes and capstone presentations that offer potential solutions to real-world challenges, with an emphasis on sustainability. Upon completion, scholars earn the Advanced Certificate on Global Competence for Social Impact, awarded by AFS and the University of Pennsylvania, along with official feedback and validation from Penn’s Center for Social Impact Strategy. In addition, scholars will be invited to join AFS’ global alumni community, which offers diverse mentoring opportunities and networking resources.
Applications are open to young women (ages 15-17.5) worldwide, with a keen interest in becoming change makers in their communities. In addition, AFS will allocate scholarships specifically to refugees and girls from displaced populations worldwide.
The Accelerator program is part of the broader AFS Global STEM Changemakers Initiative, a five-year grant which aims to provide 5,000 young people worldwide with immersive learning experiences through STEM, global competence, and sustainability-focused intercultural exchange programs. The initiative is administered by AFS and funded by BP, a globally integrated energy company. BP supports initiatives such as this to help build the STEM talent that the world needs to create sustainable solutions and improve the diversity of talent in the STEM fields.
Learn more and apply at afs.org/global-stem/accelerators
About AFS
AFS Intercultural Programs is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.
Source: Microsoft Care Ghana
Qatar Airways has launched a voluntary carbon offset programme for its corporate and trade clients.
The programme enables customers to offset their own carbon emissions via a dedicated web portal before or after a flight and uses the IATA industry best practice for calculating CO2 emissions, and has been designed to simplify the process for corporates.
Since 2020, the Qatar Airways’ voluntary carbon offsetting programme for passengers has been contributing with the Fatanpur Wind Farm project located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, consisting of 54 wind turbines, which generate a combined output of 108 MW, and avoids 210,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. For more details of the project, see
Qatar Airways launches voluntary carbon offset programme for passengers
The support for the Fatanpur project not only reduces global carbon emissions, it also provides employment opportunities; delivers improved education through providing materials and expertise to nearby schools; and supports a mobile medical unit – enabling improved healthcare to the local community.
In November 2021, Qatar Airways Cargo, the freight division of Qatar Airways Group, also launched a new voluntary carbon offsetting programme for air cargo shipments, becoming the first cargo carrier to join the IATA CO2NNECT platform and the first airline in the world to make a carbon transaction through the IATA Aviation Carbon Exchange (ACE) via IATA Clearing House (ICH).
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “Building a long-term sustainable aviation industry requires coordinated efforts, and businesses play an important role in building more environmentally friendly and more sustainable air travel. We are happy to provide an opportunity for our corporate clients to voluntarily offset the carbon footprint of corporate trips through recognised projects that help both communities and the environment, and encourage them to make carbon offsetting part of their carbon management plan. This further supports the Qatar Airways Group’s goal to strengthen our environmental sustainability efforts and enhances our leadership position in the aviation industry.”
Source: www.businesstraveller.com
The standards are part of a global initiative to consolidate sustainability disclosures to help investors assess the value of companies.
On 31 March 2022, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) released exposure drafts of the first two IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB Standards) for public consultation. The ISSB indicated that its aim is for the complete set of ISSB Standards, once finalized, to provide a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability disclosures for investors in global capital markets to use when assessing the value of companies.
The ISSB was established by the IFRS Foundation (responsible for the issuing of globally recognised accounting standards) at COP26 in November 2021, and has already received support from institutions including the G7 Finance Ministers, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and the UK government, which has stated an intent to incorporate the ISSB’s standards into its proposed Sustainability Disclosure Regulation.
The ISSB envisions a considerable number of ISSB Standards across a variety of sustainability-related topics in due course. The two exposure drafts that the ISSB published at this time are:
- IFRS S1 – General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information (the General Requirements Standard); and
- IFRS S2 – Climate-related Disclosures (the Climate Standard).
The exposure drafts follow on from prototype standards issued in November 2021, and are released at a time when global action in relation to sustainability-related corporate disclosures is gaining momentum. By way of example, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) promulgated a proposed rule on climate-related disclosures on 21 March 2022, and the EU continues to progress its proposed Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) through its legislative process, both of which are initiatives that share similar goals to the ISSB Standards (although, notably, even at this early stage each of these proposals has a number of distinguishing features).
The General Requirements Standard and the Climate Standard both also draw upon existing sustainability-related disclosure frameworks, including the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the industry-specific SASB Standards. The Value Reporting Foundation, which will be consolidated into the ISSB in June 2022, currently oversees the SASB Standards. The ISSB hopes that its conscious efforts to lean on the work of frameworks that are followed by a number of reporting companies, will lead to a more streamlined uptake process by companies when the ISSB Standards are finalised.
The General Requirements Standard
The proposed General Requirements Standard would require companies to disclose information about their material sustainability-related risks and opportunities, and sets out the baseline content of what such disclosures would require. Some of the key aspects of the General Requirements Standard are discussed below.
Materiality
Given the broad scope of the information that may be considered “sustainability-related”, the definition of “materiality” used in this context becomes of significant importance. The assessment of materiality is made based on the sustainability-related financial information necessary for users of general purpose financial reporting (e.g., investors) to assess enterprise value. Enterprise value is itself defined as the total value of a reporting entity’s equity and net debt and reflects the amount, timing, and uncertainty of future cash flows over the short, medium, and long term. In short, these are issues that may impact the bottom line.
This focus on enterprise value and the financial impacts of the sustainability-related information represents the investor-centric purpose of the ISSB Standards, and is a clear example of what has become referred to in sustainability disclosure circles as “single materiality” or “financial materiality”. This contrasts with “double materiality”, whereby both the impact of sustainability-related factors on the company and also the impact of the company on factors such as the environment and broader society (even to the extent they may not impact the company’s bottom line) may be considered material. Nonetheless, in a seeming attempt to demonstrate a bridge between single and double materiality, the ISSB’s summary of the General Requirements Standard notes that “information about a company’s impacts and dependencies on people, the planet and the economy [would be considered material] when relevant to the assessment of the company’s enterprise value”.
Core Content and Structure
The General Requirements Standard proposes requiring the disclosure of sustainability-related risks and opportunities centred around four pillars: (i) governance; (ii) strategy; (iii) risk management; and (iv) metrics and targets. These are the same four pillars that the TCFD uses in the climate context and that forms the architecture of the SEC’s March 2022 proposed climate-related disclosure rule, but by including them in the General Requirements Standard, the ISSB is extending them to sustainability-related disclosures more broadly and not just the climate.
To identify which sustainability-related risks and opportunities are relevant and potentially significant to their businesses, companies would be required to consider specific ISSB Standards (such as the Climate Standard in relation to climate issues). They would also be required to consider additional disclosure topics referred to in industry specific SASB Standards, and any other recent announcements of reputable standards setters. Specific metrics, both industry-specific and of broader applicability that companies may wish to use, are also provided in the General Requirements Standard.
A company’s impact on its value chain is an issue that has become an increasingly important environmental, social, and governance (ESG) consideration in recent years, with specific legislation being enacted or proposed alongside existing voluntary standards (such as the OECD Guidelines). The General Requirements Standard also requires disclosure of information about material sustainability-related risks across a company’s value chain, which is given the broad definition of the “full range of activities, resources and relationships related to a company’s business model and the external environmental in which it operates”. This definition is wider in scope than, for example, in the EU’s proposed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which is restricted to the company’s “established business relationships”. However, given the current focus on single materiality in the General Requirements Standard, companies will only have to disclose information on their supply chain to the extent it could impact their enterprise value (which is a narrower scope than the CSDDD’s double materiality threshold).
The General Requirements Standard also sets out requirements in relation to issues such as comparative information, frequency of reporting, location of information, and other topics, which are adapted from the IFRS Accounting Standards. In general, the ISSB proposes that sustainability-related information would be reported at the same time (but not necessarily in the same location) as a company’s financial statements are reported.
The Climate Standard
The Climate Standard, specifically prioritised among topic-focused standards by the ISSB, follows the same broad approach as the General Requirements Standard, and therefore leans heavily on the TCFD Recommendations (with specific additions). As a result, the ISSB notes that companies that fully comply with the Climate Standard will automatically have complied with their requirements, if any, to provide TCFD reporting.
Companies would be required to disclose information about the management and governance processes they use to monitor and manage climate-related issues and opportunities across their operations, including which body (e.g., the board or a committee) has ultimate oversight of these issues. Companies would also be required to disclose information on how their business model, strategy, and cash flows could be impacted by physical and transition climate risks, such as flood damage or reputational damage based on carbon intensive product lines that may limit their ability to access financing.
In addition, companies would be required to disclose any plans or targets related to climate issues, alongside detailed information in relation to how these plans will be resourced, and how progress against these targets will be reviewed over time. The Climate Standard would also require a company, save where it is “unable to”, to use climate-related scenario analysis to assess its risks and opportunities, with a recommendation to use a scenario that aligns with the Paris Agreement (or subsequently revised international climate change agreements). Scenario analysis is a process for identifying and assessing a potential range of outcomes of future events under conditions of uncertainty — in this case leading an entity to explore the physical and transition risks of climate change that may affect its business and financial performance over time.
Companies would be required to disclose their absolute Scopes 1 (direct emissions from operations), 2 (from energy use), and 3 (from their broader value chain) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as the intensity of those emissions per unit of economic or physical output, and calculation of emissions would be required to be conducted in accordance with the relevant standards of the GHG Protocol. Whilst the General Requirements Standard highlights the importance of information disclosed being “verifiable”, there is no separate requirement for these GHG disclosures to be verified by a third party contained within the Climate Standard, which is a key differentiator between the Climate Standard and the SEC’s proposed climate disclosure rule, the latter of which would require independent verification of Scopes 1 and 2 emissions. Other metrics required to be disclosed include the amount and percentage of a company’s assets or business vulnerable to physical or transition risks or climate-related opportunities, and the percentage of executive management remuneration linked to climate-related considerations. It is also worth noting the requirement on companies that report as a consolidated group to report the group’s GHG emissions separately from the emissions of their associates and joint ventures, an approach that differs from the TCFD.
Finally, the Climate Standard contains additional, industry-based climate-related disclosure requirements. Seventy-seven industry classifications from 11 sectors, derived from the industry specific SASB Standards, are included in an Appendix to the proposed Climate Standard, of which 68 industries are subject to specific disclosure standards that are contained in separate volumes. The proposed industry-based disclosure requirements are largely unchanged from the SASB Standards, other than changes to reference certain international standards and definitions (including building on the GHG Protocol’s Scope 3 standard), and changes regarding the measurement and disclosure of financed or facilitated emissions in the financial sector. With respect to the latter, the Climate Standard proposes adding disclosure topics and associated metrics in four industries: commercial banks, investment banks, insurance and asset management. This industry-specific approach marks a departure from the climate-related disclosures required under TCFD or the proposed SEC climate disclosure rule, and is an example of the Climate Standard drawing on a wide range of existing standards and taking a considerably more “industry-focused” view.
Alignment with Other Frameworks
As noted above, the ISSB Standards consciously lean on and incorporate existing frameworks, in particular that of the TCFD and the SASB Standards, in relation to the Climate Standard. Alongside the Climate Standard, the ISSB published a document comparing the Climate Standard with the TCFD recommendations, which notes that the requirements of the Climate Standard are consistent with the four core elements, and 11 recommended disclosures, of the TCFD, but differ in some respects from the additional guidance that the TCFD provides. The discrepancies are briefly summarised in the table below.
| Topic | TCFD | Climate Standard |
| Transition plans | Transition plans are an aspect of a company’s strategy, and so are subject to strategy disclosure requirements | Similar to TCFD, but introduces explicit requirements around disclosure of emission reduction targets and use of carbon offsets |
| Climate-related metrics | Requires disclosure of metrics used by a company to assess climate-related risks and opportunities in line with its strategy | Similar to TCFD, but requires disclosure of industry-based metrics relevant to a company’s business |
| Disclosure of GHG emissions | Requires disclosure of Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions and, if appropriate, Scope 3 GHG emissions | Separate disclosure of emissions for (1) the consolidated accounting group, and (2) associates, joint ventures, or affiliates not included in the groupScope 3 emissions disclosure required |
| Targets | Requires disclosure of targets used to manage climate-related risks and opportunities and performance against those targets | Requires disclosure on how any target has been calculated, whether it has been externally verified by a third party, and whether it aligns with the latest international agreement on climate change (e.g., Paris Agreement)Disclosure on whether a target was devised using a sectoral decarbonisation approach is required |
In addition, the ISSB has publicly demonstrated a willingness to continue to work with other standards setting organisations, including recent announcements that it will continue to build on the SASB Standards after the June 2022 consolidation of the Value Reporting Foundation into the ISSB, and leverage the industry-based approach of the SASB Standards to developing standards moving forward (much in the same way it has demonstrated in the Climate Standard).
Further, on 24 March 2022, a week before the release of the General Requirements Standard and Climate Standard exposure drafts, ISSB signed a memorandum of understanding with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), under which the two institutions will seek to align and coordinate their activities moving forward. The exact nature of this alignment remains to be seen, but the collaboration has been advertised as a combination between a set of standards for the investor-focused capital markets (ISSB) and a set of standards based on impact for wider stakeholder needs (GRI).
Next Steps
The exposure drafts of the General Requirement Standard and Climate Standard will be available for public consultation until 29 July 2022, and the ISSB hopes that it will be able to have finalised these two standards by the end of 2022. The effective date of the standards (i.e., when companies will begin reporting to them) is one of the queries that the ISSB has raised for public input during the consultation process.
The ISSB has also indicated its intention to consult on its standard-setting priorities, including which other sustainability topics it should produce standards on first, later in 2022. It has indicated that these standards will likely build on the current provisions of the SASB Standards, and therefore investors or companies seeking further insight into what these standards may entail may be advised to turn their attention there. Further, the ISSB has indicated that proposals for an IFRS Sustainable Disclosure Taxonomy, enabling the structured electronic tagging of a company’s sustainability disclosures, will be published shortly.
Neither the IFRS Foundation nor the ISSB have the authority to make the ISSB Standards mandatory, and therefore companies’ compliance will be based on a willingness to engage with the standards. However, companies should consider not only the investor pressure that may be placed on companies who wish to disclose sustainability-related information to comply with the ISSB Standards, but also the possibility that national governments may introduce legislation that incorporates the ISSB Standards, an approach that the UK government has indicated it is considering with respect to its upcoming Sustainability Disclosure Regulation. Finally, given the requirement under the Climate Standard (and other standards developing worldwide) to report Scope 3 emissions, companies may also face increasing business and/or contractual expectations to report sustainability-related information from counterparties that wish to report their Scope 3 emissions (or otherwise report on sustainability issues across their supply chain), as this data will become commercially important.
Latham & Watkins continues to monitor the ongoing development of the ISSB Standards and ESG corporate disclosure requirements more generally.
Written by Latham & Watkins LLP
Source: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/issb-publishes-long-awaited-exposure-4200662/
Dubai Harbour, an extraordinary seafront district, welcomed the Swiss experimental vessel powered solely by renewables, PORRIMA, to its marinas on 17 March 2022, as part of its worldwide journey across five continents called the Blue Odyssey.
Choosing Dubai Harbour for its second world destination, the first-of-its-kind solar, wind and hydrogen-powered ship has travelled more than 11,000 kilometres without stopping since departing Osaka, Japan, on December 18, 2021.
Upon arrival at Dubai Harbour, the PORRIMA berthed at Harbour Marina in front of the Yacht Club building before unveiling a suite of renewable technologies that have been proven on board. It will invite the youth to join the ‘Blue Campus’ to learn the skills and build the talent around the showcased next-generation solutions to sustainable ocean industries and resource preservation.
Abdulla Binhabtoor, Chief Portfolio Management Officer, Shamal Holding, the company which owns Dubai Harbour, commented, “We are excited to welcome the PORRIMA to Dubai Harbour for its third odyssey around the globe. It is exciting to see how the intersection of technology and sustainability come together to help tackle the environmental challenges that we face today. Having just concluded our role as host of the Dubai International Boat Show, we witnessed a wide range of innovative, sustainable marine technology showcased at the show, which is a testament to the UAE’s dedication to promoting and embracing eco-friendly alternatives to protect our oceans. The PORRIMA brings sustainable mobility to the forefront, and we are committed to accelerating action to preserve a healthy planet for generations to come.”
The journey, which aims to arrive at its destination after a refit with 12 novel technologies in time for the opening of the Expo 2025 Osaka, will see the vessel dock at ports around the world to demonstrate how to tackle problems such as pollution and climate change through the use of commercially viable renewable technologies. The project comes in response to a call to action from the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, which invites initiatives geared towards realising ‘an ideal future society.’ PORRIMA – named after the Roman goddess of the future – was the first in the world to circumnavigate the globe using only solar energy under its previous name, ‘Planet Solar’. Now, using solar, wind and hydrogen, the 36-metre 100-tonne vessel also utilises artificial intelligence and technologies inspired by nature. Just as lungs remove the CO2 from our blood, the same technique is used to clean seawater, isolate and destroy microplastics, making PORRIMA the only vessel in the word certified to produce and consume hydrogen on board.
The creator of the enterprise is the serial entrepreneur, economist, and author Gunter Pauli, who sets out to inspire the next generation with competitive and commercially viable renewable technologies and techniques. He said, “We need to wake up the entrepreneurs of the future, and I believe Dubai is the right place for this. The innovation and adoption of the kind of technologies that we are showcasing on the PORRIMA will have a fundamental role to play in the realisation of many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – and provide a blueprint for creating an ideal future society.”
Having been involved in the invention of technologies in support of sustainable resource use, in 1994, Pauli founded the Tokyo-based Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives think tank at the United Nations University. This network of 3,000 scientists got the PORRIMA Blue Odyssey project up and running. Pauli is also the author of “The Blue Economy – A Report to the Club of Rome – 100 innovations – 10 years – 100 million jobs”, translated to over 50 languages. The vessel will leave Dubai Harbour on the 31st of March to commemorate the closing of Expo 2022 and will continue its global voyage.
Source: WAM/Tariq alfaham
The Unilever Foundry, Unilever’s collaborative innovation network, is today launching a new entrepreneurial challenge focused on sustainable beauty solutions, through the Positive Beauty Growth Platform.
Unilever is searching for the very best start-ups, scale-ups and academic spinouts to partner with our teams to bring brilliant functional ingredients that work with nature to our Beauty & Personal Care products and packaging.
The Positive Beauty Growth Platform was launched last year to support Unilever’s Positive Beauty vision – an industry-leading series of progressive commitments and actions for our Beauty & Personal Care brands, championing a new era of beauty which is equitable and inclusive, as well as sustainable for the planet. The Positive Beauty Growth Platform sets out to accelerate our science and technology programmes and innovation partnerships, delivering real and meaningful consumer benefits backed by cutting edge science.
Launching today, the Growth Platform’s second challenge aims to find the next generation of biodegradable and sustainable ingredients and packaging, looking for materials that deliver incredible benefits to our consumers, while supporting our vision to do more good for the planet, and help achieve our ambitious goals to protect and regenerate nature.
Innovative scale-ups, start-ups and spinout companies will have the opportunity to present their unique biodegradable and sustainable cosmetic ingredients or packaging solutions to the Unilever Beauty & Personal Care leadership and expert practitioners. The leading ideas will be given the chance to explore partnership opportunities within Unilever’s Beauty & Personal Care business, worth over €20 billion, and operating some of the world’s most loved brands including Dove, Axe, Rexona, TRESemmé, Vaseline and Love Beauty & Planet.
Last year almost 300 start-ups and scale-ups from the fast-growing and ever-evolving world of social commerce applied to get involved in the Platform’s first challenge. A panel of Unilever’s leaders and experts shortlisted 33 candidates: seed-stage to billion-dollar businesses from Silicon Valley to Singapore. Many are now kicking off pilot projects with Unilever’s leading Beauty & Personal Care brands, helping to deliver business solutions and pioneer consumer experiences in new spaces.
Unilever’s Chief Research and Development Officer, Richard Slater said: “We’re creating the next generation of technologies and ingredients for our beauty and personal care products that are not only highly effective, but also natural and sustainable.
“Collaborating with disruptive new players in this space is going to lead to even more breakthroughs as we grow our business and portfolio for a future where people and planet can thrive together.”
Global Head of the Unilever Foundry, Baz Saidieh said: “Start-up led partnerships are an important pillar to drive growth and innovation. The Positive Beauty Growth Platform is proving a catalyst of finding the greatest startup innovations and powering experimentation at scale.
“For our latest challenge, we’re keen to engage and explore partnerships with innovators developing biodegradable and sustainable ingredients and packaging for the future – something we know is increasingly important to people around the world.
“If this call-out is half as successful as our last challenge, we should be in for some stunning collaborations.”
