L’Oréal invested in a venture led by Geno, the California-headquartered biotechnology company, to create sustainable alternatives to key ingredients in beauty products. The French multinational company will be a founding member of the venture alongside Unilever and Kao.
Avantium N.V., a leading technology provider in renewable chemistry, signed an offtake agreement with Kvadrat A/S, a leader in design innovation, producing quality contemporary textiles and textile related products for architects, designers, and private consumers across the world.
OrthoLite, the global leader of sustainable, performance and comfort insoles and footwear materials solutions, and Novamont, the international leader in the development, production and eco-design of biodegradable and compostable bioplastics and biochemicals, joined forces for the creation of OrthoLite Cirql™, the world’s first circular foam material solution for footwear.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), around the world finding a job is much tougher for women than it is for men. When women are employed, they tend to work in low-quality jobs in vulnerable conditions and there is little improvement forecast in the near future. The current global labour force participation rate for women is close to 46% (for men it is 71%, according to the International Labour Organization). The freedom to work – by choice, in conditions of dignity, safety and fairness – is integral to human welfare.
Held jointly by France and Gabon, the 6th One Planet Summit took place on 1 and 2 March 2023 in Libreville, Gabon. This Summit focused on common challenges for the three tropical forest basins of the Congo Basin, the Amazon forest and the forests of South-East Asia. The choice of Gabon to host the Summit highlights the rich heritage of African forests.
The World BioEconomy Forum and partners launched a survey on the formation of a global hub to serve the bioeconomy sector. The aim of the hub is to encourage dialogue relating to all important matters concerning the global bioeconomy as well as its challenges and opportunities. The survey will allow stakeholders across the globe to advise and inform as to what the topics and subjects the hub should be comprised of. The bioeconomy is set to become a major economic stream in the future, and therefore will require growing international collaboration between the various parties.
The application period for Metsä Group’s funding programme for nature restoration projects started yesterday. Funding for planned and targeted measures aiming at safeguarding biodiversity can be applied for until 30 April. Metsä Group’s nature programme is a ten-year funding scheme, launched in 2021, which finances development projects promoting biodiversity implemented outside commercial Finnish forests. To date, 16 different projects across Finland have been granted funding, amounting to €600,000. The company does not seek business profit through the projects.
Henkel and Shell Chemical LP have agreed to a five-year collaboration to replace up to 200,000 tonnes of fossil feedstocks used in the manufacture of surfactants with feedstocks that are based on renewable raw materials. The renewable-based surfactants will be used in Henkel’s laundry product brands, including many varieties of Persil®, Purex® and all® brands. Surfactants are an ingredient in cleaning products that help lather and lift dirt.
CJ Biomaterials, Inc., a division of South Korea-based CJ CheilJedang and leading producer of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), and NatureWorks, an advanced materials company that is the world’s leading producer of polylactic acid (PLA), are collaborating on the development of sustainable materials solutions based on CJ Biomaterials’ PHACT™ Biodegradable Polymers and NatureWorks’ Ingeo™ biopolymers. The two companies will develop high-performance biopolymer solutions that will replace fossil-fuel based plastics in applications ranging from compostable food packaging and food serviceware to personal care, films, and other end products.
Finnish companies Metsä Group and VR are intensifying their cooperation on sustainability in logistics and have agreed a new joint target to halve emissions from transport covered by their cooperation by 2030. In addition, Metsä Group aims to transfer some of its current road transports to railways. For Metsä Group, the measures would represent a total emission reduction of around 14,000 tCO2e per year, which is equivalent to more than 25,000 average lorry journeys.
