NovoNutrients fast tracked in the FEED-X global search for sustainable innovations to solve major protein supply-chain challenges

Summary List PlacementStartups that pioneer a “circular economy” — decoupling commercial growth from the consumption of finite resources — want to win over a new generation of climate-conscious consumers. The clothing-repair app Sojo is among the startups leading the charge. The London-based company offers clothing repairs and alterations through a food-delivery rider-style model. Users book through an app, and a rider collects the item, which is taken to a seamster and returned within five days. The average consumer in 2016 bought 60% more clothing compared to 2000 but kept each item half as long, according to a McKinsey report that year. At the same time, protecting the environment is a top stated concern for millennials and Gen Zs, more than a quarter of whom say their buying habits have been influenced by a business’s impact on the environment, according to Deloitte.

The European Union has drafted plans to build up forests, grasslands and other natural “carbon sinks” that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help curb climate change, according to a draft document seen by Reuters on Tuesday.  Carbon sinks have gained in importance as countries strive to reach “net zero” emissions by 2050, the goal scientists say the world must meet to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Net zero emissions means emitting no more greenhouse gases than can be balanced by removing gases from the atmosphere. EU forests, grasslands, croplands and wetlands altogether removed a net 263 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) from the atmosphere in 2018, according to the European Commission. That tally also accounts for the amount of CO2 released when trees were cut down or wildlands burned.

Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries’ David Newman says he is a ‘circular economy sceptic’. Here, he looks at the 2021 Circularity Gap report, which he says suggests the world’s economy has become ‘more linear, not less’. I have long been a sceptic on the circular economy. The core of my argument has been that the continuously declining real value of raw materials, and in general of manufactured goods, has meant that repurposing them, reusing them, recycling them or even (in the case of food waste) composting them, has cost more than producing new products from virgin raw materials sources. It has been cheaper to throw them away. This is the Jevons Paradox of course; increased production efficiency and consumption of a product will cause its price to fall. Scarcity has rarely been at play in recent economic history.

Integral to the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s core beliefs is our commitment to making a positive difference in the world—exemplified by our pledge to support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and…