“Reinvigorating Inclusive Multilateralism: Business Town Hall”

The 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76): “Reinvigorating Inclusive Multilateralism: Business Town Hall” took place on September 20th from 1 - 2:30 pm EST. This event brought together industry leaders to discuss routes to achieve the global sustainability agenda, including international cooperation and encouraging the private sector to align with global business and provide solutions using inclusive multilateralism. Speakers also raised questions about the resilience of the United Nations and values of democracy, rule of law, inclusive societies, and the treatment of workers. 

This event, which was organized by the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), Business at OECD (BIAC) and the International Organization of Employers (IOE), was extremely successful in stimulating innovative and productive conversations about the future of government and policy changes surrounding climate change, Covid-19, and multilateralism. USCIB’s Norine Kennedy moderated a thoughtful conversation with Robin Oglivy, the Special Representative and Permanent Observer of OECD to the UN, and Ester Baiget, the CEO of Novozymes and USCIB Trustee Sustainability Champion, who pointed out an unsettling and rather large gap between words and actions regarding policy targeted toward environmental justice. 

The event also highlighted the responsibility companies, citizens, and the government hold, not only to shareholders, but to our communities, future generations, and the planet we live on. Government, businesses, and citizens all have key parts to play in reaching global net-zero goals, reducing mental health related to climate change, achieving and incentivising sustainability, and working toward a cleaner future.

This session included a series of “Fireside Chats,” which featured three priority topics, determined by the General Assembly. USCIB’s Brian Lowry moderated a discussion of climate change which featured Michele Parmelee, the president of the IOE and Deputy CEO and Chief People & Purpose Officer of Deloitte. 

This interdisciplinary discussion also included the topics of human rights and pandemic response and recovery, featuring guest speakers such as USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson, Microsoft Vice President of UN Affairs John Frank, and Dr. Scott Ratzan, the Executive Director of Business Partners for Sustainable Development. These moderated discussions, including esteemed industry leaders and scholars, facilitated conversations about business engagement and innovation in conjunction with this overarching theme of multilateralism and how to promote it.

The 2020 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals: Stories and insights through innovative visuals

The World Bank published the 2020 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on November 16, 2020. This Atlas outlines the United Nations SDGs through interactive storytelling and innovative data visualizations.

Expanding Understanding of Key Trends

The goal of the SDGs is to address the world’s greatest challenges such as eliminating poverty, eradicating hunger, expanding access to education, achieving gender equality, and addressing the climate crisis.

The Atlas aims to expand understanding of key SDG indicators and trends, which is important for measuring progress and directing action. The 2020 edition seeks new and creative ways to expand understanding of each of the 17 goals.

Collective Insights

The 2020 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals builds insights from data scientists, statisticians, and subject specialists from the World Bank, including a talented team of data visualization designers. In addition, the Atlas collaborates with partner countries and UN agencies in monitoring the SDGs and improving measurement.

Storytelling through Creative Visuals

The 2020 Atlas explores each SDG target and highlights trends that show achievement towards the SDGs. Additionally, the atlas shows readers how a few of the SDGS are measured. The chapters also highlight the recent emerging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the indicators and trends presented in the atlas.

Visuals and data in the Atlas are drawn from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators and showcases new data from scientists and researchers around the globe.

Each chapter in the Atlas provides readers with an interactive experience. For instance, in the chapter on SDG 3 (Good health and well-being) readers are introduced to a visual that allows them to easily see the trend in measles immunization within an income group and in each individual country over 40 years.

The chapter on SDG 14, which covers life below water, the world map highlights oceans making it easy to see the distribution of endangered marine life, such as corals.

Originally published on the World Bank on November 16, 2020. You can read more here.

Gillette Sets New Sustainability Target to Reduce Emissions and Virgin Plastic Usage by 50% by 2030

Personal care brand, Gillette, has committed to halving the amount of virgin, fossil-based plastics used and to halving absolute emissions by 2030. These sustainability targets are an addition to their current sustainable strategy.                 

Reduction of Virgin Plastic Usage

Gillette pledged to use 50% less virgin, fossil-based plastics in packaging and products than it did in 2018. The company was able to poll 5,500 men across its 11 main markets by collaborating with research firm Lucid and found that 58% view plastic waste as a very important issue.

Gillette will work to make its designs more resource-efficient and increase its sourcing of plastic-free materials, bio-based plastics and recycled plastics to meet the new target. The company has launched UK’s first nationwide recycling scheme for razors and blades, as part of a partnership with recycling firm TerraCycle. This initiative is currently implemented in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Gillette will promote this scheme further to source more recycled content. Currently, they have set up more than 21,000 recycling locations.

The strategy also includes new ambitions to achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status at all of Gillette’s sites and to reduce the company’s water consumption related to production by 35% by 2030.

Climate Action

In addition to Gillette’s pledge to use 50% less virgin, fossil-based plastics, it has also set a new climate target to halve absolute emissions by 2030 from a 2018 baseline. Since 2010, Gillette has cut down its Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (power-related) emissions by more than 26%.

Gillette plans to switch to 100% renewable energy globally, mainly through tariffs, renewable energy certificates (RECs) and power purchase agreements (PPAs). The company will also update the remit of its energy task force teams. Currently, there is one team at each major site, and they are tasked with spotting areas for improving energy efficiency and increasing decarbonization.

The article was published originally by the Edie Network (November, 2020). You can read more here.