The REP Wrap: Hasbro to diversify suppliers in bid to manage climate risk
Your weekly summary of corporate sustainability news.
Hasbro plans to diversify its Tier 1 suppliers in order to mitigate future climate and nature-related risk. In its inaugural transition plan, published this week, the US toymaker also said its sustainability budget will be tied to the objectives of the new strategy.
US retailer Walmart will remove synthetic dyes from its private-brand products, along with 30 ingredients, including “certain preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes”. The firm said this week it was working with suppliers on the initiative, and reformulated products will be rolled out between now and January 2027.
The Network on Greening the Financial System has released a new publication exploring the current state of physical climate risk data. The central banking body concluded that financial institutions don’t have access to sufficient information about companies’ asset-level exposures or insurance coverage.
BrewDog has sold 10,000 acres of woodland in Scotland after failing to achieve its ‘carbon negative’ mission. The brewer handed the Kinrara Estate over to start-up Oxygen Conservation for an undisclosed sum, having bought it for £8.8m in 2020. It planned to plant a forest on the site, with significant tax-payer support, to help it fulfil its pledge to become ‘carbon negative’, which it abandoned last year. Its new strategy is focused on reducing its own emissions.
Nike’s former head of sustainability, Jaycee Pribulsky, has become chief sustainability officer for private equity giant Apollo Global Management. Pribulsky stepped down from the sportswear firm last month, after more than eight years.
Meanwhile, chief sustainability officer Robert Metzke is switching from Philips to Deutsche Telekom, where he’ll replace outgoing head of corporate responsibility, Melanie Kubin-Hardewig. His role at the Dutch medical equipment firm will be filled by its current head of non-financial reporting, Simon Braaksma.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures has partnered with the Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative to provide exchanges with practical guidance on supporting companies on their nature-based disclosures.
The EU’s emission trading scheme was key to building the business case for Stegra’s €6.5bn green steel plant in northern Sweden, according to the firm’s chief business development officer. Speaking at a European Commission event on Tuesday, Luisa Orre said “putting a price on emitting carbon has been fundamental in order to unlock that business case, that cost on carbon dioxide is what has led many of our customers [to approach us]”. Last month, Stegra agreed to supply Microsoft with low carbon steel for its data centres.