World Wildlife Fund Sustainability Works

There has been a perfect storm of issues circulating - covid, climate change, and the war in Ukraine, each of which has a significant impact on our food system. The impact of the conflict in Ukraine is expected to continue to push food prices upward. Globally, as major exports are stuck in fields and ports in Ukraine and Russia coupled with rising fertilizer and fuel prices, food prices remain high. Some estimates suggest that each month of conflict will lead to a year of turmoil. We are at six months and counting.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) published No Grain Left Behind, a report that revealed that the average post-harvest loss for corn and soybeans in the US is higher than both grower estimates, and extension accepted levels. This scale of potential loss shows how vital it is to work towards more consistent, accurate, and global measurements of post-harvest loss. The average in-field corn loss on US farms (not including on-farm storage) is about 4.7%, whereas anticipated industry levels were 1%. When scaled to the national level, this is about 503 million bushels of corn worth $2.07 billion, based on 2019 production figures. For soybeans, about 4.5% is loss in-field, whereas 3% is the anticipated industry loss. With the scale of US commodity production, the level of corn loss alone found in this study when scaled to national levels was nearly equivalent to the total 2021 corn exports to Mexico, the second largest buyer of US corn for that year.

I have a confession: I want to leave my current job by 2030. That is the date the world has set to realize a 50% reduction in food waste.

Working for the world’s largest conservation organization on some of the biggest issues that will define our future, including the future of my own children, seems like something most people would be excited about. But the truth is, I wonder each day why it’s so difficult to get the world committed to ending food waste.

Of all the nature and climate solutions we debate, I’d contend that reducing food loss and waste is the least contentious. There are so many benefits: it can measurably reduce carbon and methane emissions; it could ease pressure on land and water ecosystems used for food production; it helps alleviate global food insecurity and hunger. Yet there is not wide scale global adoption of food waste reduction as part of climate commitments. To date, only 38 governments have food loss and waste reduction as part of their national climate goals. Why so few?

Every two years WWF releases the Living Planet Report, our flagship publication chronicling biodiversity trends. And the numbers are shocking. WWF’s 2022 Living Planet Index shows an average 69% plunge in global vertebrate species populations - mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish - between 1970 and 2018. Most alarming is that monitored freshwater populations have dropped by an average of 83%.

While these statistics point to a dire situation, we need to take this as an alarm bell, not a death knell. We are capable of reversing biodiversity loss to secure a nature-positive world. And there are plenty of actors from all sectors helping to lead the way.

In that spirit of hope, we asked some of our corporate partners to share their thoughts about why this issue is important to them and how they are working to reverse these trends.

Like an archer aligning their eye and arrow on the bullseye, identifying the appropriate target is critical for establishing the path towards action. For companies looking to reduce their dependencies and impacts on the environment, including freshwater, land, biodiversity, and ocean, science-based targets (SBTs) for nature are a critical initiative for companies to take robust and credible action towards an environmentally safe and socially just future. When defined and implemented, these corporate targets will take direct aim at the drivers and pressures fueling nature loss, offering a pathway for critical and measurable corporate action in the right places at the right time.

As a member of the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) and a Freshwater Hub partner, WWF is collaborating with CDP, The Nature Conservancy, Pacific Institute, and World Resources Institute in providing technical expertise for the development of science-based targets for nature. While SBTN's Initial Guidance, published in 2020, provides companies with a 5-step framework for action, the Network has now released more detailed technical guidance for public comment. This draft guidance will provide companies with detailed methodologies to assess and prioritize their impacts on nature, and enable them to progress to setting targets, beginning with freshwater.

WWF’s multi-stakeholder forum, Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance (BFA), works to help advance the responsible development of plant-based, or “biobased” plastics. In this interview series, we hear how members of the BFA are practically applying responsibly sourced biobased plastic as a strategy for circularity.

This week, we spoke with Yaprak Gokbulut, Pharm.D., P&G Baby Care Sustainability Citizenship Communications Director and Rooney Kim Lazcano, Ph.D., P&G Environmental Scientist, Global Product Stewardship, Baby, Feminine & Family Care, to learn how and why P&G is incorporating biobased plastic into their materials strategy.

In 2007, The Coca-Cola Company and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) teamed up to tackle the goal of helping ensure access to quality water for communities, nature and businesses around the world. Our work focused initially on securing 11 priority freshwater basins—from the Mesoamerican Reef in Central America and Yangtze River in China to the Danube River in Europe, Rio Conchos in Mexico and Umzimvubu River in South Africa—partnering in more than 50 countries with local cooperation across all Coca-Cola operating units worldwide. Together, we have helped improve water security in some of the world’s most water-stressed areas.

Recognizing the opportunity to do more for both our planet and communities, we expanded the scope of our collaboration to improve environmental performance across the global Coca-Cola supply chain. We launched projects to address critical global challenges: reimagining how Coca-Cola could source agricultural ingredients, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transform its packaging to reduce plastic waste. What seemed like a novel experiment at the time evolved into the gold standard for corporate/NGO partnerships by catalyzing collective action with governments, local communities and other businesses.

We have always said that plastic pollution is a global issue, one that requires a global solution. Our atmospheres and oceans do not adhere to state lines, so neither can we as we work to address this growing environmental crisis. That’s why there is no better time than now – this week, during the 77th UN General Assembly, while heads of State from across the globe gather to debate the world’s most pressing issues – to launch our newest coalition.

On behalf of WWF and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation I am so excited to share our joint initiative: The Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty. With 85 corporate endorsements of our vision statement, this coalition is raising ambition for corporate action and support for the upcoming Global Plastics Treaty.

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is a bold step towards rapidly reducing U.S. emissions and limiting global warming, at a time when we really need to make swift strides towards our climate goals. Although the legislation doesn’t go quite far enough, it remains the biggest investment that the United States has ever made in clean energy and decarbonizing our economy.

To rapidly decarbonize and halve U.S. emissions by 2030, which is the goal that allows us to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we need leadership at every level of the economy. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), which represent a significant amount of job creation and economic activity in the U.S. are already taking steps to address climate change and build resilient business futures by reducing their emissions.

Alone, the impact of one small business appears minimal compared to the global climate challenge, especially next to the activity of the largest corporations and heaviest polluters. But together, SMEs make up 90% of businesses worldwide, affect the livelihoods of over two billion people, and drive innovation that reaches the biggest business leaders. That’s a force to be reckoned with.

WWF’s multi-stakeholder forum, Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance (BFA), works to help advance the responsible development of plant-based, or “biobased” plastics. In this interview series, we hear how members of the BFA are practically applying responsibly sourced biobased plastic as a strategy for circularity.

The LEGO Group’s Maria Rosenberger Petersen, Senior Environmental Sustainability Specialist, shares how and why her company is incorporating biobased plastic into their materials strategy.

On a hot July day, I met up with Alexis Bonogofsky and Aaron Clausen of WWF’s Sustainable Ranching Initiative at Jeff and Marisa Sather’s ranch in northeastern Montana. Jeff and Marissa, a young ranching family who exemplify land stewardship, had recently signed up to participate in the One Square Foot initiative, a partnership between Air Wick and WWF, that will reseed 1 billion square feet (~23,000 acres) of previously disturbed grasslands and wildflower habitats in the Northern Great Plains.