The REP Wrap: Levi misses water targets

Your weekly summary of corporate sustainability news.

Levi Strauss has fallen short of its 2019 target to half freshwater use in highly stressed water areas by 2025. The jeans maker published its new water strategy this month, revealing that it had reduced water usage by 27% by the end of 2024. It will set a new goal of a 15% absolute reduction in freshwater use by 2030 for its tier 1 and 2 suppliers, it revealed. 

Drinks giant Pepsico has released an updated version of the open-source climate resilience platform it developed with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. The latest version covers two additional crops and six more countries. It also includes new functions, such as the ability to quantify climate risk exposure and opportunities “in business terms”. 

More than 80% of companies have had their operations disrupted by extreme weather events in the past five years, according to a survey of 550 firms by MSCI. Two-thirds (62%) of firms reported impacts from severe storms, while close to half disclosed disruptions related to heat (49%) and flooding (47%).   

Baker McKenzie has published a guide for luxury brands on how to avoid greenwashing. The global law firm said it expects EU regulators to clamp down on claims that do not meet requirements under the bloc’s Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT), adopted in 2024. 

UK companies’ confidence in reaching 2030 climate goals has plummeted, according to a poll by Siemens. The tech firm’s latest Infrastructure Transition Monitor found that, since 2023, the number of UK businesses that expect to meet their near-term targets has dropped 23 percentage points to 32%.  

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market approved the first two sustainable agriculture methodologies under its Core Carbon Principles label this week. They come from Verra and CAR.