How Important are Partnerships to Moving Sustainability Forward?

Japan has put a spotlight on sustainability at the 2020 Olympic Games, with athletes standing on podiums made of recycled plastics to receive medals crafted from recycled small electronics before sleeping on beds made of cardboard. Electric cars ferry competitors and media between venues, many of which are temporary constructions made of recycled wood that will be dismantled after the Games, preventing the white elephant stadiums left behind in other host cities. The Tokyo organising committee has hung its hat on providing a “beyond carbon neutrality” event, a goal it will meet with the help of donated carbon offset credits from businesses in Tokyo and Saitama prefectures, the two Games locations, along with the lack of spectators. “What we have seen is now everybody is much more aware that everybody has a role to play in climate action,” said IOC sustainability development chief Marie Sallois.

Herriot-Watt University has announced the launch of a research project aiming to create new materials from residual waste leftover from recycling. The project involves a £250,000 Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded by Innovate UK and the Scottish Funding Council. Herriot-Watt will partner with Brewster Bros, a Livingston-based recycling business, with an aim of further developing Scotland’s approach to a circular economy. Part of the project will look at recycled clay which can account for up to 25 per cent of the output produced when excavation waste is recycled via a washing process. This by-product commonly ends up in landfill. Herriot-Watt confirmed that the project will also include the creation of a hazardous soil treatment centre, the first of its kind in Scotland.

Plans to ban some of the most ‘environmentally damaging’ single-use plastic items in Scotland, including plastic cutlery and plastic straws, have been today (12 October) published for consultation.

Last week, Tesla received a profusion of praise for “recycling 100 percent of its lithium-ion batteries.” And since the EV incumbent’s 2020 Impact Report was released last week, this headline has been aggressively stalking me. It has appeared in numerous newsletters, come up on calls and reappeared in my inbox in the form of emails from multiple colleagues, friends and family members. I rarely cover a company’s impact or sustainability report. (The GreenBiz editorial ethos is typically to provide context and look more closely at the “how” and “why” of an initiative, rather than report on the announcement itself). If we’re being honest, I rarely ever read corporate sustainability reports in full. They often have an impossibly optimistic and congratulatory tone that’s a bit too saccharine for even my sweet tooth.