Big Announcement & Exciting Opportunity
This week, I have exciting news to share on the next steps in the Climate Collaborative’s work, though it is bittersweet for me personally. In late April, I will be stepping back from the Climate Collaborative to take on a new challenge and adventure—I’ll be able to share more on that soon.
Alongside that, we are excited to announce that we are seeking a new Executive Director for the Climate Collaborative. This person will be taking on leadership of a thriving nonprofit amid its busiest year yet; to meet that challenge, we are seeking an experienced, energetic, positive leader with a strong background in corporate climate issues.
SME Climate Hub Offers Small Companies a Global Platform to Act
This April, the U.S. is expected to formally announce a new climate commitment, adding an official target (called a nationally determined contribution or NDC) to back up our January reentry into the Paris Climate Accords.
Alongside that, for the first time ever, small-and medium-sized companies now have a platform for being part of the global climate agenda. The SME Hub, announced last fall, will be serving as a registry and resource hub for companies making proactive net zero commitments.
ReFED’s Insights Engine is Driving Toward a Food Waste-Free Future
I hope you were able to join last week’s food waste webinar, featuring an exclusive training on the new ReFED Insights Engine. In case you missed it, here is a run-down of a fantastic set of new food waste resources to support your food waste prevention journey:
- Watch last week's training
- Explore ReFED's Insights Engine
- Check out their new Roadmap to 2030: Reducing U.S. Food Waste by 50%
- Revisit our KeHE sponsored food waste resources: 10-step Food Waste Reduction Toolkit and self-assessment tool
Keeping Climate a Top Priority Amid COVID: An Interview with Outpost Natural Foods
We are taking stock of climate action in 2020 and what's ahead for the industry through a series of interviews with the 2020 National Co+op Grocers Climate Collaborative Awards winners. This week we sat down with Kurt Baehmann, Sustainability Manager at Outpost Natural Foods, winner of the 2020 Outstanding Company Award. (View our previous interview with Numi Organic Tea).
Foundations of Climate Justice - Check out the new Playbook & Webinar
Last week B Lab launched a new Climate Justice Playbook for Business (downloadable here) to provide companies with a resource for beginning to actively incorporate racial justice and equity considerations into climate projects and corporate priorities. We held a webinar to mark the launch and to begin exploring what climate justice projects can look like for our industry. It featured an all-star speaker line-up:
- Michelle Romero, the National Director of Green For All, provided keynote remarks that framed up why every business in our industry should be thinking more about how they are advancing climate justice
- Raj Aggarwal, President of Provoc, a JEDI consultancy and one of the lead contributors to the Playbook, gave an overview of the Playbook
- He then led a discussion with Pukka Herbs' Natalie Sluggett and Kevin Lee from Dr. Bronner's on how they are incorporating climate justice into supply chain projects and staff engagement priorities
- CC co-Founder Lara Dickinson joined to share resources that the new JEDI Collaborative has developed to support companies
Numi Tea Founders on What's Ahead in Climate Action
The CC's Erin Callahan sat down with Numi Tea co-founders Ahmed Rahim and Reem Hassani, winners of the 2020 National Co+op Grocers Climate Collaborative Influencer Award, to talk through the last year in climate action and what's ahead for the industry--including how we bring last year's racial justice movement into our climate work. They also shared some secrets of their decades' long experience driving collaborative action across the natural products industry.