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edie is now a Certified B Corporation, joining a global community of businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental impact.
edie received confirmation of its B Corp certification after more than two years of tireless work involving dozens of staff from across the business, plus assistance and guidance from impact consultants Seismic.
There are now more than 2,000 certified B Corps in UK, all of which are legally committed to bring benefit to all business stakeholders including staff, customers, communities and the environment.
Unilever launches pilot programme to develop sustainable fragrances from waste plants
The pilot programme has been launched in partnership with the University of Nottingham to develop cost-effective ingredients for product formulations by repurposing plants that would otherwise go to waste.
The initiative focuses on extracting naturally occurring ingredients from surplus plants, such as petunias, roses and marigolds, to create new fragrances.
The plants for this initiative will be supplied by Bridge Farm Group, which provides 90 million plants annually to UK retailers. The Group has been storing unsellable plants in a 60-acre greenhouse to extend their lifespan, enabling their transformation into high-value raw ingredients in a laboratory setting.
Drax to pay £25m following Ofgem probe into environmental data
Ofgem’s 16-month investigation concluded that there was a lack of adequate data on the sustainability of the wood Drax imported to burn in its biomass units in 2021-22.
Drax has accepted Ofgem’s findings and has set aside £3m to invest in automated data collection and reporting methods relating to sustainability.
The company’s chief executive Will Gardiner said gaps in its data collection were partly due to it being a “challenging time for Drax’s sustainability and compliance teams”.
From floods to droughts: New £40m research project launched to strengthen UK’s climate resilience
The Flood and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) has been established to develop an evidence base and explore solutions for extreme flooding and droughts, focusing on improved forecasting and new technologies.
The FDRI will enhance monitoring capabilities using near real-time data from a network of ‘outdoor labs’ on UK rivers.
The Severn (bordering Wales and England), the Chess ( near Watford within the Thames catchment), and the Tweed in Scotland are the initial sites for testing various digital instrumentation and monitoring techniques.
Sizewell C: UK Government to unlock further £5.5bn for nuclear project
The funding will be made available through a new subsidy scheme – the Sizewell C Devex Scheme – to enable development of the proposed 3.2GW nuclear power plant to the point of a Final Investment Decision (FID).
Funding for the Devex Scheme will be provided subject to relevant approvals, including the upcoming Spending Review in October.
The Devex Scheme is in addition to, and separate from, the existing SZC Investment Funding Scheme which was created at the point of the government’s first investment in Sizewell C in November 2022.
Britain’s net-zero transition for steel ‘crippled’ by high energy costs
Steel UK has urged the Government to act on this significant price discrepancy as Ministers return from Parliament’s summer recess this week.
Ministers will doubtless be thinking about energy prices for homes after the Chancellor added new means testing filters to the winter fuel payment for pensioners, and the private sector is also striving for updated interventions.
Steel UK has warned that power costs for a fully electrified industry would represent up to 180% of the GVA that the sector brings to the economy.
UK Government urged to launch National Food Security Strategy amid rising climate risks
The UK Government has been urged to develop a National Food Security Strategy to ensure the resilience of the nation’s food systems against multiple risks such as extreme weather events and armed conflict.
A new report from the British right-wing think tank Policy Exchange has criticised previous food security initiatives for focusing too narrowly on agriculture, arguing that while farming remains crucial, it is not sufficient to ensure food security on its own.
Instead, the report has emphasised the need for a comprehensive strategy that includes the whole value chain – food manufacturing, logistics, retail and other key sectors, while focusing on maintaining affordability and accessibility for consumers.
Study: Converted commercial UK properties may be unsuitable homes due to overheating
This is according to a recent analysis from insurance provider Zurich UK, warning that if office-to-home conversions are not carried out properly, they could result in a swath of homes unfit for future climate conditions.
The research highlights that more than 89,500 homes have been developed from former commercial buildings since 2015 under planning rules that were streamlined during Covid-19. Earlier this year, the Conservative-led UK Government further relaxed legislation to encourage more commercial-to-residential conversions.
easyJet partners with JetZero to develop fuel-efficient blended-wing aircraft
Blended-wing aircraft differ from conventional designs. Instead of a cylindrical fuselage with separate wings, known as tube-and-wing aircraft, the BWB features a broad, flat body shaped like an aerofoil, integrating the wings into the main structure.
This boosts aerodynamic efficiency, allowing the aircraft to fly further with less fuel while offering flexibility for future propulsion systems, including hydrogen power.
JetZero’s BWB aircraft promises to cut fuel burn and emissions while reducing the cost of transitioning to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The airframe is also well-suited to accommodate hydrogen fuel storage, a feature that easyJet plans to explore through the partnership. EasyJet and JetZero, in collaboration with the US Air Force, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), aim to bring a mid-market BWB aircraft to market by 2030.
Pack4Good: Patagonia to scale responsible packaging material options
Patagonia has joined non-profit Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative. Through the programme, Patagonia will switch to “Next Generation” packaging solutions that source sustainable materials from areas such as agricultural waste rather than trees.
Research found that paper packaging such as delivery boxes and hang tags, accounts for 3.1 billion logged trees annually, with many coming from endangered or ancient forests.
Patagonia will source packaging from alternative sources including agricultural waste and non-forest alternative fibres and will collaborate with Canopy to develop and scale up Next Gen packaging solutions.