The REP Wrap: Transition plan guidance, greenwashing cases

Your weekly summary of corporate sustainability news.

Nearly 100 experts have teamed up to launch a guide to assessing climate transition plans, in a bid to establish early consensus on best practice. The document is the first to be aimed at those evaluating transition plans, rather than their preparers and end users. Instead of outlining what should be disclosed as part of a credible transition plan, it emphasises the need for plans to make sense in their broader economic, technological and geographical context, and anticipates a boom in service providers, such as credit ratings agencies, offering to assess them as they become mandatory in key jurisdictions. Governments seeking to subsidise transition plans aligned with national climate goals may also use the guidance, as well as assurers and companies themselves. Contributors to the guidelines include experts who work for the European Commission, Banque de France, ClientEarth, the Climate Bonds Initiative, the Transition Plan Taskforce and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, among others. 

The Dutch advertising board ruled against MSC Cruise in a fight over greenwashing this week. The Swiss-Italian cruise operator, which is under fire for adopting slogans such as “sailing to the future in a responsible way” and claiming to target net-zero by 2050, was found to have breached Dutch standards. The complaint was made by Fossil Free Netherlands, which argued customers should not be led to believe that the firm’s cruises were sustainable when they current rely on fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace Aotearoa is suing Fonterra Cooperative Group for allegedly greenwashing in its marketing for Anchor butter. The NGO argues the butter, which claims to be from “100% New Zealand grass-fed” cows, is actually from cows that partly eat palm kernel sourced from Southeast-Asian rainforests linked to deforestation.

Representatives from big chemicals companies including BASF, Chemours, Clariant, Evonik, Sika and Syensqo have collaborated on a roadmap to help the sector become net zero and environmentally friendly. Coordinated by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and consultancy ERM, the report was also advised by companies with chemicals in their value chains, such as Unilever, Apple, Philips and Henkel.

AES, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Enel, Iberdrola, Lightsource bp, Ørsted, RWE and Vestas have become the founding members of a Responsible Renewables Infrastructure Coalition. In collaboration with the World Economic Forum, Birdlife International, The Nature Conservancy and Accenture, the group will work  on “accelerating renewable energy infrastructure in a way that benefits communities and nature”.