Welcome to The Ethical Corporation, a bi-monthly digital magazine that seeks to shed light on some of the most burning issues in sustainable business, with in-depth features, analysis and commentary.
An award-winning team of specialist journalists report from around the globe, tackling the issues that companies and investors are grappling with in an increasingly uncertain world, including climate change and biodiversity loss, human rights and climate justice, ESG reporting rules, diversity and inclusion, and the potential and perils of AI.
The Ethical Corporation is committed to high journalistic standards of unbiased reporting, accuracy and balance.
It is published by Reuters Events but is editorially independent of the events business and Reuters News. All analysis is published in the Industry Insight Section of Reuters.com/sustainability, where the magazine can also be downloaded.
For any editorial queries, email the magazine’s editor-in-chief Terry Slavin. Terry.slavin@thomsonreuters.com. For advertising and sponsorship enquiries email Manni Pattar manni.pattar@thomsonreuters.com
Seeds of change
The fight to fill the finance gap for nature
The use of income from monoculture eucalyptus plantations to pay to conserve and Brazil’s degraded agricultural lands is an example of some of the difficult trade-offs that companies and countries are making as they seek to fill the yawning finance gap for nature.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, nature-negative finance in the private sector amounts to $5 trillion annually, 140 times larger than $35 billion invested in nature-positive solutions.
Why this matters is underlined by PwC, whose research finds that 55% of global GDP, or about $58 trillion, is dependent or highly dependent on the ecosystem services that nature provides, and are now being increasingly threatened by climate change.
The December-January issue of The Ethical Corporation magazine looks at the state of global efforts to plug this gap. Our 60-page issue covers the potential for biodiversity credits to help Africa valorise its vast store of natural assets, how insurers could be key to unlocking finance from carbon markets, the growth of the bioeconomy, challenges for companies investing in nature in their own supply chains, and much more.
The right woman for the job
How inclusive hiring can help heal the green skills gap
In the effort to tackle the complex barriers around finance, policy and technology that stand in the way of addressing the climate and biodiversity crises, there’s a blind spot when it comes to the most important one: people.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the growing gap between the jobs that are being created to deliver on the global sustainability agenda and the availability of workers to fill new roles.
In the October-November issue of The Ethical Corporation we look at how the green skills gap is playing out across different sectors and geographies, and efforts to rise to the challenge. In almost all cases, the need to recruit more women is a key focus.
Growing against the grain
The farmers trying to create a healthier food system
Food systems currently accounting for about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 70% of freshwater and 80% of deforestation and habitat loss in tropical areas. So it is no exaggeration to say that how farmers produce our food could make or break life as we know it on the planet.
At the same time, farmers are suffering from extreme weather events like drought and flooding, and scientists warn that these climate impacts will only get worse unless we take steps to boost their resilience.
Most companies are startlingly complacent about risks, even as regulators like the EU crack down with anti-deforestation legislation. But those on the front foot are responding with ambitious targets for farmers in their supply chains to adopt regenerative agriculture practices.
In the latest issue of The Ethical Corporation magazine we look at what regenerative agriculture is in critical commodities such as coffee, cocoa, palm oil and soy. And we ask what will it take to bring about this needed revolution in our food system.
Charting a course for net zero
But can industry turn the ship around in time?
The recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks in Germany were held as the European Earth observation agency Copernicus reported that global greenhouse gas rose another 1% last year, in defiance of the 40% cut scientists say is needed by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In the latest issue of The Ethical Corporation magazine we look at how companies in some of the highest emitting sectors are grappling with the challenge of making deep emissions cuts this decade, and ask what it will take to get them on track to get to net zero on a time scale that matters.
The cities seeding a green revolution
The climate justice agenda can sound unscientific and fluffy in comparison to the hard data and metrics behind mitigating CO2 emissions, but after decades of myopically focusing on cutting carbon, companies and policymakers are now waking up to what human rights and community activists have been warning for years: it’s the people, stupid.
The health-climate nexus
From extreme heat to pollution from fossil fuels, and the rise of mosquito-borne diseases, the link between climate change and human health is a strong one.
The health sector itself is a big contributor to global warming, accounting for 5% of global emissions.
At the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, health featured as a theme for the first time, helping to bring the climate-health nexus to the forefront.
In the February-March issue of The Ethical Corporation magazine, we take a deep-dive into issues ranging from Big Pharma’s drive to cut its carbon footprint, how solar power is enabling the rollout of malaria vaccines in Africa, the impacts of climate change on women in agricultural supply chains, and how investors are waking up to antibiotic resistance and ‘forever’ chemicals.
AI and Sustainability Briefing
Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm in the last few years, with the companies that are at its forefront the loudest to warn of the risks of letting the technology race ahead of human capacity to control it.
Used appropriately and wisely, however, AI-enabled technologies have the potential to help humans unlock solutions to the hugely complex challenges we face as we strive to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss.
In the latest issue of The Ethical Corporation magazine, we look at how AI and machine learning is already being applied in a wide range of sectors, from decarbonising heavy industry to fighting wildfires and protecting the oceans. Our journalists explore the opportunities afforded by the new technologies, as well as the limitations and challenges, including their voracious demand for power and water.
Carbon removals briefing
Carbon removals is the new buzzword in the corporate climate lexicon, attracting seven-figure investments from the likes of Microsoft, Klarna, Stripe and Boston Consulting Group, and investors including SwissRe and JPMorgan Chase.
And with policymakers in the U.S. and Europe betting on carbon removals as critical to delivering their own net-zero strategies, they are racing to developing frameworks to govern the nascent sector, at the same time as they are putting billions of dollars in subsidies on the table.
Sustainable fashion briefing
As regulators in Europe and the U.S. try to put the brakes on cheap, throw-away fast fashion, the latest issue of The Ethical Corporation magazine looks at the daunting sustainability challenges facing the $1.5 trillion industry, which is responsible for 2%-8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and has huge impacts on human rights, nature and biodiversity.
Plastic Waste Briefing
We examines the increasingly urgent global drive to tackle the plastic waste epidemic, which is a profound threat to biodiversity and human health, as well as climate goals.
With just 9% of plastics produced being recycled, we look at the complex challenges that need to be overcome by governments and industry, and the promising technologies and startups that could help deliver recycling solutions at scale.
All together now
The climate justice agenda can sound unscientific and fluffy in comparison to the hard data and metrics behind mitigating CO2 emissions, but after decades of myopically focusing on cutting carbon, companies and policymakers are now waking up to what human rights and community activists have been warning for years: it’s the people, stupid.
Some 90% of companies’ emissions are outside of their control, affected by the individual actions of many millions of people who buy and consume products, and work as labourers and own businesses in their vast extended supply chains.
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