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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

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An unseasonable heatwave was an apt backdrop for the first comments on hotter summers from the United Nations’ first global chief heat officer in an interview at this week’s Reuters Impact conference in London.

Eleni Myrivili, tasked with trying to ease the impact of hotter summers that threaten the health and livelihoods of billions of urban residents around the world, said finding the finance for nature-based solutions and adaptation plans for cities was a major roadblock.

“This was a really bad summer for heat, for people and for ecosystems and for agriculture and for economies,” she said. “It really felt like something was different, it felt like a turning point,” Myrivili, the former chief heat officer for Athens, said.

She also called for political leaders to make firm commitments at November’s COP28 climate meeting to stem rapidly rising temperatures in cities, particularly in poorer countries.

The boss of Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco also called on the country’s political parties, ahead of an expected general election in 2024, to stand by their net zero commitments and give businesses more confidence to invest.

Tesco CEO Ken Murphy speaks at the Reuters Impact conference in London, Britain, September 6, 2023. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Aside from the impact of hotter temperatures and climate commitments, another key theme that emerged from the Reuters Impact event was a sense of regulatory fatigue.

Meeting new European Union requirements for corporate reporting on sustainability is a challenge, sportswear brand Puma’s head of sustainability Stefan Seidel said during a panel I moderated on Wednesday, ahead of what he called an “avalanche” of regulation in the bloc which drew laughter from the audience.

“We are nowhere near being able to fulfill the requirements of CSRD,” he said, referring to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Seidel said this was despite Puma reporting on sustainability for 20 years. “So, I think it’s maybe a bit over the top,” he said.

While regulation plays a role in helping companies meet their goals, some feel it also acts as a constraint.

“I think we need regulation on reporting, disclosure, data and all that good stuff. But at the same time, one of the side effects of very heavy regulation is the fear of experimentation,” said Preeti Srivastav, group sustainability director at Asahi Europe & International. “There needs to be some room for freedom to experiment and fail.”

Managing suppliers plays a major role in companies meeting sustainability goals.

As firms endeavor to meet lofty sustainability goals, companies from Japan’s Asahi to retailer John Lewis face challenges including confusion among suppliers, tough legislation, and friction with top management over costs, executives said.

Under pressure from regulators and investors, more companies have in recent years set targets for their business, from cutting water use to reducing “Scope 3” emissions, referring to all indirect emissions, for example from suppliers and customers.

But the upfront cost of investments needed to curb emissions can cause friction within companies. “You will not see returns on (sustainability) investments for 10, 15, 20 years… of course it’s going to look expensive,” said Srivastav.

“There were a lot of chairs and tables flying around in every boardroom,” she joked, adding: “But I think now everyone is trying to make peace.”

Residents and workers clean up a flooded area after an extratropical cyclone hit southern towns, in Mucum, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, September 6, 2023. REUTERS/Diego Vara

Aron Cramer, president and CEO at global management consultancy firm BSR, shares his thoughts on the new wave of sustainability regulation:

“The world of sustainable business is facing an unprecedented rise in regulation, bringing a sea change in how companies conceptualize, deliver, and report on their efforts to deliver on ambitious commitments for all stakeholders. 

“The new wave of regulation is likely to ‘raise the floor’ on corporate performance, which is a very positive development. If implemented with too narrow a compliance mindset, however, there is also a risk that it will ‘lower the ceiling’ on ambition.

“Regulation has many benefits. More companies now will be required to meet baseline commitments on crucial topics, ranging from climate action to human rights to reporting and disclosure. 

“Sustainability will also now be embedded in the responsibilities of ‘core’ business functions like strategy, finance, procurement, and product development, and elevated to the attention of those in the boardroom and C-suite.

“There are initial signs, however, that companies may look at these changes not as an impetus to go further, instead focusing on compliance and little more. 

“Enforcement of anti-greenwashing laws can reduce important debate over questions fundamental to our shared future, not least climate change. Resources dedicated to compliance could reduce attention on improving performance. 

“Too much focus on last year’s data could reduce attention to long-term change. It is essential that companies continue to reach for the long-term shifts needed to deliver an economy that works for all, within planetary boundaries. 

“After all, no company succeeds by complying with rules at the expense of innovation and a forward-looking strategy: the same is true with respect to sustainability.”

High costs and environmental opposition have prevented the construction of blast furnaces at steel mills in the United States since 1980. Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves is on a mission to snap up all that are left.

Since joining the U.S. steelmaker in 2014 as part of an activist hedge fund’s board takeover, Goncalves has made blast furnaces a hallmark of his strategy, positioning Cliffs as an outlier in an industry shifting towards cheaper and more environmentally friendly electric arc furnaces.

Burn company enumerator Teresia Wanjiru checks moisture on firewood at a client’s house in Kachoroba village of Kiambu county, Kenya, August 16, 2023. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi

From fuel efficient cookstoves in Kenya to urban cooling in France, today’s spotlight showcases emissions busting solutions around the world.

Kenya-based company, BURN, which manufactures a range of fuel-efficient cookstoves, is using carbon credits to help increase the distribution in the region.

To make the cookstoves more affordable to lower income families, the company is using carbon credits to help lower the cost. In Kenya’s Kiambu County, a number of tea plantation workers have replaced their traditional three stone stoves with ones made by BURN.

Loice Wanjiku has been using her stove for the past five years. She says it’s cheaper because it consumes less wood. And the change has been beneficial for her family’s health.

“Smoke no longer affects my eyes or gives me a cold, because even if I cook with the stove in the sitting room, it does not smoke,” she said.

Employees work on the stairs to an underground urban cooling network power station by Fraicheur de Paris, in Paris, France, August 24, 2023. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

The city of Paris plans to expand an urban cooling system that draws on water from the Seine river as it seeks to meet rising demand for air conditioning while curbing carbon emissions, the secretary general of Paris Fraicheur Raphaelle Nayral said.

It draws water from the Seine River for cooling power stations that pump cooled water through underground pipes to buildings that use it instead of individual air conditioning units, said Nayral, of the network operated by Paris Fraicheur, owned 85% by French energy company Engie and 15% by Paris transport operator RATP.

“The buildings pick up the coolness of water that we deliver and will use it for air-conditioning,” she said, in what she stressed could help control the level of air-conditioning carbon emissions in Paris.

The plans would develop the system in southern parts of the city and extend it to hospitals, day care centers and retirement homes. Paris hopes to triple the network to about 155 miles by 2042.

“Well known categories of scope 3 emissions in the GHG protocol include business travel and downstream transportation, but within goods and services, a significant emitter is digital advertising. It’s largely missing from carbon reporting because people think digital is ‘clean’.”

Anne Coghlan, chief operating officer of software firm, Scope3

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