Greenwashing Wars Will Accelerate

2024 has been the year of green washing cases and new ESG policies, and 2025 will likely continue this trend. Sadly this may also result in more cases of greenhushing, where companies are less likely to discuss or advertise ESG goals, making it difficult to determine who is eco friendly. Companies who move forward with ethical ESG will continue to see higher ROIs.

ESG risk incidents linked to misleading communication on climate change, GHG emissions, and global pollution were highest among the oil and gas (19%), banking (15%), and airline industries (10%). These companies have received large fines and were required to change their messaging.

But it’s not going to happen without a fight. In what the Republicans have called “Woke” policies, states have taken broad efforts to block ESG. Anti-ESG lawmaking efforts, which first emerged as a trend in 2021, reached new heights this year with over 150 anti-ESG bills and resolutions introduced in 37 states.

In 2024, green washing incidents continue to be highest in Europe and North America, followed by Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Data Centers Will Lead On Energy Solutions

Data Centers and their users like Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are under continued pressure to get their act together on sustainability.

Data centers operate 24/7, consuming vast amounts of electricity to power servers and maintain optimal temperatures through cooling systems.

A recent Goldman Sachs report predicts data center power demands will grow by 160 percent by the end of the decade.

Fortunately these companies are trying out strategies to reduce their environmental impact by reusing water, using AI to be more efficient, and focusing on the use of renewable energy.

Nature Based Solutions Will Be In Focus

Nature is facing unprecedented threats, including natural ecosystem conversion, pollution, climate change and overexploitation.

For years, us ecologists have stated the need for measuring and tracking the loss and restoration of nature. Sadly nature is one of the most undervalued investments out there, but now companies and governments are starting to track it, and things are looking up.

The Science-Based Targets Network, a collaborative effort comprising more than 80 environmental non-profits and mission-driven organizations, has recently introduced the first-ever science-based targets for nature. These groundbreaking targets complement the existing climate targets that have already been set by over 2,600 companies through the Science-Based Targets initiative.

Science Based Targets for nature now extend company’s target boundaries to the whole Earth system (i.e., water, land, biodiversity, and ocean) to align with the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework (GBF) goals adopted in 2022. This framework calls for global action to “halt and reverse biodiversity loss”.

Holcim has been named by the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) as one of the first three companies globally to adopt science-based targets for nature, at the COP16 Convention on Biological Diversity, alongside Kering and GSK.

As the first in the fashion industry to adopt both land and freshwater targets for nature, Kering has set ambitious goals. By 2030, Kering aims to reduce freshwater withdrawal by 21% in Tuscany's Arno basin and ensure that 100% of its leather sourcing comes from no-deforestation and conversion-free areas by 2027. They also opened up a new fund, the Regenerative Fund for Nature to help others reduce impacts of agriculture on biodiversity.

GSK has pledged to fully eliminate freshwater withdrawals from its direct operations in India’s Upper Godavari basin by 2030.

Plastic Waste Solutions Are Needed Yesterday

Plastic has been a huge issue for waste and its affecting everyone. I think we are in a Hail Mary moment for plastics waste and 2025 needs to be the year we address it.

In response to the plastic waste crisis countries all round the world have set targets to make plastic packaging 100% recyclable, reusable, or compostable, and to eliminate all unnecessary single-use packaging by 2025.

Sadly, the international committee tasked with creating a treaty to address global plastic pollution met for what was supposed to be a final time in December but the negotiators failed to come to an agreement when the summit concluded.

Plastic is Everywhere

But this is going to be a big push. The plastic and oil industry have long used unethical marketing schemes to convince people t buy plastics due to their convenience, all the while making tons of profit.

Plastic is destroying our oceans and littering the shorelines of countries worldwide. Many plastic products are single-use, hard to recycle, and can stay in the environment for decades or centuries, often being fragmented into smaller items.

Even worse most plastics we try to recycle ends up in the landfill or can’t be recycled. Sometimes it is burned, creating health hazards for surrounding communities. Sixty percent of plastics that are certified for home composting don’t fully disintegrate.

We now know that even when it breaks down, it makes its way into all parts of our body, and we are even breathing plastic chemicals in every day and drinking it in our water bottles. NASA is even concerned about where trash goes when it’s in space, but we don’t yet know what happens to plastic in space.

What’s Being Done to Solve the Plastic Problem?

Now is the moment to change. The U.S. Plastics Pact representing 80 companies — including Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Danone — has pushed back deadlines to drastically reduce their use of plastic, from 2025 to 2030. Unfortunately, companies like Coca Cola are pulling back on their commitment to reducing plastics in packaging. Target has a commitment to reduce the volume of virgin plastic it uses in its own-brand packaging 20% by 2025, against a 2020 adjusted baseline but as of 2024 still uses more than the baseline.

Fortunately, governments are taking the lead on getting rid of plastics. Many governments are banning plastic bags. In 2021, the European Union imposed a levy on member states based on the volume of plastic packaging waste they generate that is not recycled.Countries including Portugal and the Netherlands, as well as the United Kingdom, have implemented their own taxes on some forms of plastic.

Five U.S. states — California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and Oregon have laws on the books for packaging requiring the manufacturers to take responsibility for reductions. In Maine, the first U.S. state to pass a plastic manufacturer responsibility law, plastic manufacturers and brands will start to report data about the plastics they use to the state next year, and the first payments will come through in 2026.

And science is coming to help. Recently researchers found that beetle larvae can be used to turn plastic into compost. Others found a bacteria common in wastewater, Comamonas, can break plastic down. Others have found heating plastics in an oven with sodium and tungsten. makes them more recycleable.