The REP Wrap: Meta rejects internal carbon price after pilot

Your weekly summary of corporate sustainability news.

After an internal pilot, Meta has revealed in its latest sustainability report that it won’t use a shadow carbon price. The tech firm claims its experiment last year helped it “better understand” the potential cost of emissions, but that there were too many “limitations” and it didn’t “create a direct incentive to drive new decision‑making”. Other companies have made similar decisions this year, as covered by Real Economy Progress here. Meta did not respond to a request for more information about the price it assigned to its emissions during the pilot.   

Less than a third of CEOs expect to reach net zero by 2050, down from around 40% in 2024, according to research from Bain & Company. The consultant used AI to assess more than 35,000 public statements from companies made since 2018. In the same research last year, around 30% of companies were found to believe net zero wouldn’t be reached until at least 2070. This year, that figure rose to 44%. 

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has left the firm after nearly 50 years, claiming it’s been “silenced”. In an open letter, Greenfield said he could no longer “in good conscience” remain employed by the icecream-maker, because the independence to continue campaigning on progressive issues – promised  as part of its 2000 acquisition by Unilever – was now “gone”. Ben & Jerry’s has sued its parent company twice over alleged attempts to stop it speaking out against Israel’s current attacks on Palestine. Unilever has responded to Greenfield’s departure by telling the media it disagrees with his perspective and has sought to engage both Ben and Jerry in a “constructive conversation on how to strengthen [the company’s] powerful values-based position in the world”.

Microsoft has signed a five-year deal worth more than $6bn for access to renewable-energy-powered AI infrastructure in Norway. The agreement is with AI firm Nscale and industrial investment company Aker.  

Meanwhile Google has partnered with a company called Vaulted Deep on a purchase agreement that seeks to remove 50,000 tonnes of CO2 by the end of the decade. Vaulted Deep injects organic waste underground, to avoid it emitting carbon and methane into the atmosphere. As part of the collaboration, the pair will also look at ways to quantify avoided methane emissions. 

Academics are calling on the UK government to overhaul its decarbonisation strategy for small and medium-sized businesses, arguing that current green initiatives have failed to deliver lasting emissions cuts. Support – which is estimated to have cost the taxpayer £1.57bn so far – has focused on ‘quick fixes’ like switching to LED lightbulbs, according to a study published in the journal for Energy Research and Social Science. “What we find frustrating in the carbon transition policy for SMEs is that everything seems so short term: there’s no follow up, no proper evaluation and no long-term strategy,” said professor Steffen Boehm from the University of Exeter Business School. The academics have made a series of recommendations for UK policymakers, including changes to procurement rules and investment into training accountants and trade groups.