Funding for decarbonization is more accessible than companies think

The opinions expressed here by Trellis expert contributors are their own, not those of Trellis.​

Thanks to an increased push for transparency in corporate climate actions, customers and regulators alike have caught on to a chronic pattern of promises being made and forgotten. Key climate standard-setters stepped up in 2025 by pushing a shift from ambition to accountability. Notably, SBTI’s significant proposed revisions to the Corporate Net Zero Standard would improve progress reporting and even add a cost-per-tonne mechanism to create responsibility for ongoing emissions.

As we enter this new chapter, more companies will want to offer proof of follow-through in the form of empirical data showing that they’re adopting climate solutions. The subset of companies with an internal carbon price embrace the understanding that to put forth a credible climate strategy, details are key. In addition to showing whether companies are backing their targets with actions, details tell what companies are doing, and make it possible for learning to take place across companies.

This sort of data can be hard to capture and assess because approaches vary widely. But it’s possible. We recently analyzed the climate funding data of nearly 130 of the consumer brands that earned The Climate Label certification in 2025. The results show how they’re choosing to fund decarbonization, and preview the power that this type of data could have if collected at a larger scale.

Clearing the bar without breaking the bank

To earn The Climate Label, brands must make concrete investments in climate solutions, at a level proportionate to their carbon footprint. The level is based on a minimum internal carbon price of $15, which is applied to every tonne of their GHG emissions. The resulting dollar amount is known as a climate transition budget (CTB). Companies can only count verified decarbonization projects towards the CTB.

Last year, 96 percent of the 128 companies that earned the certification exceeded the minimum CTB of $15. Even counting companies that far exceeded the $15 per tonne level, median climate transition funding equaled just 0.3 percent of revenues, and 8 out of 10 brands met the CTB minimum for less than 1 percent of revenues.

While companies’ absolute emissions and total climate spend varied widely, CTB levels as a share of revenue showed little relationship to industry, company size or emissions profile. A meaningful level of funding for decarbonization may be more financially accessible than many companies assume.

Paying for value chain projects

A common criticism in corporate sustainability is that companies will usually opt for the easiest option—carbon credits—while continuing to make ambitious climate claims. The data, however, suggests the opposite.

Free to meet their CTBs with a mix of value chain projects and market-based mechanisms, certified companies directed an average of 70 percent of their funding into projects that involved corporate facilities and supply chains. This pattern held steady, regardless of sector or annual revenues, which ranged from a few million to hundreds of millions of dollars. Many companies noted they could better support their overall business strategy and long-term emissions reduction goals by making value chain investments.

Nonetheless, not all organizations have “shovel-ready” value chain projects at all times, particularly in the early stages of climate planning. As such, the flexibility to account for ongoing emissions by using market-based instruments, both within and beyond their value chains, remains important, and ensures that money continues to flow into climate solutions of some type.

An additional amount of funding in the 5 to 10 percent range on average went into efforts to build capacity for future value chain climate projects. Taken together, the allocations to direct mitigation efforts and capacity-building initiatives counter the notion that companies tend to rely too much on carbon credits, and instead point to a shift toward deeper, longer-term emissions reductions embedded within business operations.

Low carbon materials dominate value chain investment

As companies tackle their hard-to-abate Scope 3 emissions, they often seek to source low-carbon materials as a replacement for higher-carbon alternatives. This decarbonization lever received the greatest share of value chain funding. Adopting lower carbon materials is possible on a shorter timeline, compared to more complex operational or capital projects.

Despite a clear preference for low-carbon materials, it’s not clear that companies prioritize them based on their cost effectiveness. To document these initiatives, companies reported the estimated GHG savings of each initiative they invested in, along with price premiums. Costs per tonne ranged widely — from a few dollars per tonne to tens of thousands of dollars. Lower carbon metals and direct energy switching offered the most cost effective reductions, whereas lower carbon plastics and rubber offered the least cost effective reductions.

This exercise offered a side-by-side look at the costs of GHG abatement and helped companies understand how low carbon materials compare to other initiatives within their portfolio of decarbonization efforts. The insights can shape how these and other companies choose to allocate limited decarbonization budgets.

More project-level data is needed

Across the wider community of businesses actively involved in the climate transition, a majority aren’t well positioned to compare and identify projects with the lowest cost GHG abatement potential, because such comparative data doesn’t exist. Yet.

There is a significant opportunity to bring more climate transition funding data into the public domain by documenting it at the project level, across more companies and more projects. 

Doing so would demystify many questions about cost effectiveness, and help sustainability professionals with their climate transition planning — leading to better outcomes from their climate initiatives.

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Story as strategy: What climate fiction teaches us about communicating sustainability

As a professional storyteller, I found this episode of our Two Steps Forward podcast particularly engaging. I once thought I understood the basics: Make it accurate, make it relevant, make it human.

Then my co-host Solitaire Townsend and I discussed her new novel — a work of “cli-fi” (climate fiction). And she sharpened the lesson for me in ways that everyone working in sustainability communications would be wise to heed.

In this episode, we talked about her remarkable new novel, Godstorm — but the most useful part of the conversation wasn’t about the book’s alternative Roman Empire or its sword-wielding heroine. It was about what writing fiction taught her about what makes any story actually work. (Godstorm is currently sold in hard copy only in the U.K. and Australia; it is available in the U.S. as a Kindle e-book.)

Solitaire’s biggest takeaway is deceptively simple: Stories are not about issues. They are about people — not systems, trends, frameworks or even impacts.

People.

That sounds obvious, until you look closely at most sustainability communications. We routinely aspire to tell stories when we’re actually merely presenting information: emissions trajectories, regulatory developments, technology roadmaps, ESG metrics.

All are important. Most are necessary. And little of it, on its own, is storytelling.

An emotional journey

As Soli put it in our conversation, a real story is an emotional journey — someone starts in one place and ends in another, changed by what happens along the way. If no one changes, if no one struggles, if no one feels conflicted or afraid or hopeful or determined, we’re not telling a story. We’re delivering content.

It’s a truth long understood by the best climate fiction writers — from Neal Stephenson’s sprawling, systems-level futures to Kim Stanley Robinson’s deeply human portraits of people living inside planetary change. What makes their work resonate isn’t the science (although it’s rigorous), but the fact that we experience it through characters we come to know and care about.

She shared an example that should be required listening for anyone working in climate, health or policy communications. She recently trained medical professionals in the Global South who were deeply knowledgeable about climate-related health impacts, i.e., heat stress, asthma, air pollution and other mortality risks.

They had the data. They had the charts. They had the statistics. And none of it landed.

Then she asked them to tell the story of one patient. A child with worsening asthma who lived beside a busy road. A worker admitted multiple times for heat exhaustion. Voices broke. Emotion surfaced. Attention sharpened. The same facts, suddenly unforgettable.

Earning attention

That’s the gap we still haven’t closed in sustainability. We talk endlessly from our heads — science, economics, technology, risk. But the connection to hearts — bodies, families, dignity, fear, love, identity — is often treated as optional or manipulative or “too soft” for serious discourse. It isn’t. It’s the connective tissue that makes any of the rest of it matter.

There’s another lesson here that’s equally important: Attention is earned. People don’t owe us their focus simply because climate change is an urgent and existential threat. If we want attention, we must offer something in return — narrative, tension, character, emotion, meaning. That’s as true for a podcast, a Trellis article, a corporate sustainability report or a government climate strategy.

And perhaps the most encouraging insight of all: Storytelling is not a gift bestowed at birth. It’s a skill, and it can be honed. Soli talked openly about spending years studying craft — reading, taking courses, rewriting, learning the rules before learning how to bend them. (Helpfully, she holds two master’s degrees: in sustainability and Shakespeare.)

That’s good news. It means every sustainability professional, every journalist, every communicator — everyone — can improve at this.

If sustainability is going to prevail in a time of backlash, fatigue and fragmentation, we won’t get there with more data or factual narratives. We’ll get there through a storm — not of outrage, but of stories: human stories, told well.

The Two Steps Forward podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and other platforms — and, of course, via Trellis. Episodes publish every other Tuesday.

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Polyester recycler Reju picks Eastman Kodak site for first American plant

The former locus for Kodak film production is Reju’s choice for its first U.S. textile recycling plant. The startup has selected Rochester, New York, as the first site for a $390 million facility that would advance a North American circular economy for polyester.

Reju has set a 2029 deadline to open a 450,000-square-foot facility that would handle 300 million pieces of clothing a year. It would occupy 18.9 brownfield acres on the 1,200-acre Eastman Business Park, originally opened by photography pioneer George Eastman in 1890. The park is home to more than 100 companies, including Reju partner Eastman Kodak as well as materials science, advanced manufacturing and chemicals businesses.

Reju, with offices in Paris, belongs to Dutch oil and gas company Technip Energies, whose technology for polymerization sits in about 1,000 polyester factories around the world. IBM originally developed Reju’s processes, which break down polyester fibers and build them back up into new polyester. The tech can manage polyester-cotton blends, too.

Polymer ‘masters’

“We’re, let’s say, the masters of the universe when it comes to how to polymerize,” said CEO Patrik Frisk, a former CEO of Under Armour.

Rochester follows Reju’s two existing plants, including at Chemelot Industrial Park in the Netherlands. The other, in Frankfurt, began shipping material to customers last year, according to Frisk.

“It’s ticking all of the boxes that we’re looking for,” Frisk said of the upstate New York site. These included proximity to a chemical park — for infrastructure access — and potential suppliers of waste, as well as supportive state and regional government, he added.

“Reju’s ambitious project will create approximately 70 new jobs at Eastman Business Park, and will show how smart investments can turn waste into opportunity, further supporting our state’s overall green economy efforts and creating a brighter future for everyone,” stated New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

Reju is continuing partnerships with Goodwill, Waste Management and other organizations that began in 2024. Waste Management has sent the company material from its curbside collection pilot programs. One such effort, in Troutdale, Oregon, ends this spring after a year of collecting clothes, linens and towels from households.

Regional circular economies

Reju has numerous rivals in its vision for a domestic circular economy for textiles. H&M-backed Syre of Sweden is developing one of several would-be “gigascale” plants by 2032. The opening date for one, in North Carolina, has been moved to 2026 from 2025.

As polyester recycled from bottles is falling out of favor among circular-economy advocates, more brands are looking to Reju and others, including Circ and Ambercycle, to provide lower-carbon polyester that derives from fashion waste instead of virgin oil. Reju says it has extensive downstream engagements with brands.

A backlash against polyester is building among consumer advocacy groups wary of the long-term effects of microfiber pollution. “We should try to use less polyester,” Frisk said. “But knowing this industry the way I know it, that is most likely not going to happen.” However, not all polyester is created equal, according to Frisk, and engineering “great polyester” can result in fibers that shed less.

In October, Reju brought together 12 fiber production, weaving and recycling companies to engage around emerging regulations, including the EU’s new extended producer responsibility rules for textiles. Their group, Circular Textile Coalition, was Reju’s response to a European Commission request to hear from more companies in textile circularity.

“This whole interest around circularity nearshoring and reshoring is real,” Frisk said. “It’s now becoming something that you should consider, for any size of brand.”

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Former Novo Nordisk exec to chair GRI standards board

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has confirmed Susanne Stormer, a former Novo Nordisk sustainability leader and PwC partner, as chair of the 15-person Global Sustainability Standards Board. 

Stormer’s appointment is effective April 1. She succeeds Carol Adams, Emeritus Professor of Accounting at Durham University Business School in the U.K., who held the role for the past three years.

GRI’s methodologies are used by more than 14,000 companies as part of disclosures on environmental, social and governance topics. That makes it one of the most widely used resources for voluntary reporting alongside ones from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the International Sustainability Standards Board.

Stormer was the vice president of corporate sustainability at pharmaceuticals maker Novo Nordisk for 13 years before heading to PwC in Denmark, where she represented the consulting firm’s sustainability services. 

While at Novo Nordisk, she led the process to integrate ESG disclosures into the company’s annual report.

Stormer has a long history of working on governance issues through organizations including the International Governance Network and the governance committee for the OECD.

She was closely involved with the development of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards and was a founding member of an international council created to align disclosure frameworks on behalf of sustainability practitioners weary of using disparate methodologies.

Stormer is currently Leader in Residence at the Copenhagen Business School, responsible for strengthening the institution’s ties to the business community. 

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Canopy calls for $2 billion to advance low-carbon packaging and textiles

Making materials for fashion and packaging from crop and textile waste instead of trees from at-risk forests will require $78 billion globally by 2033, according to Canopy. To step in that direction, the Vancouver nonprofit announced a $2 billion blended-finance model to advance next-gen materials in India.

That nation needs up to $15 billion to shift industries toward adopting waste-based cellulosic materials, according to the initiative. So far the plan has secured $500 million, blending grants and capital. A mix of public and private investors is expected to contribute the rest. Large global brands are involved in the project, which would eventually be replicated internationally.

The Jan. 21 announcement, at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, included the Laudes Foundation of Amsterdam as well as the Singapore-based No.17 Foundation and investment firm Tsao Pao Chee.

Forests can’t supply enough trees to meet the demand across the fashion, packaging and construction industries, a Jan. 15 report by Canopy and Finance Earth warned. A United Nations projection of 14 percent growth in extreme forest fires by 2030 adds to the pressure.

“If companies and investors stay locked into business-as-usual wood sourcing, they are signing up for higher costs, greater supply vulnerability and growing regulatory and reputational risk,” stated Nicole Rycroft, Canopy founder and executive director. “This exposes businesses unnecessarily, given there is a clear exit ramp with next-gen and alternative sources.”

Next-gen materials use 4 metric tons fewer climate emissions than those derived from virgin tree pulp, according to Canopy.

Why India

In India, the initial $2 billion would enable 1.5 megatons of next-gen materials production, reaching $15 billion, to enable 10 million megatons by 2033.

India produces 8 megatons of textile waste each year. “Many agricultural residues are still being burned on the fields, when we know they can be used more sustainably, cutting air pollution and scaling a sustainable supply chain for paper, packaging and textiles,” stated Canopy’s Strategic Lead, Global Investments Zoë Caron. In addition, burning crops, such as the stubble from spring wheat harvests and from rice paddies in the fall, kills an average 150 people every day in India.

The $2 billion would be best used to scale up “somewhat mature technologies with the greatest odds of success and a reasonable decarbonization impact,” according to Lux Research Analyst Marcian Lee.

Focus on Canopy

Canopy strives to “unlock” the investments and infrastructure to make forest-friendly, next-generation materials the norm. The nonprofit works with more than 950 brands to shift wood-material supply chains toward sourcing practices that protect biodiversity.

In November, eight brands including Victoria’s Secret and Marc O’Polo joined Canopy programs to commit to stop using material sourced from threatened forests in their paper packaging and textiles.

In fashion, textiles derived from wood are increasingly being made without hurting such forests. One decade ago, no producers of manmade cellulosic fibers (MMCF) were using such practices. By 2025, however, 70 percent were, according to Canopy’s Hot Button report in October.

“It’s hard to overstate the scale and pace of the transformation we’ve seen in the MMCF supply chain in the past nine years,” Canopy’s Rycroft said. Transparency and circularity are mainstreaming for such materials in fashion, and next-generation textiles are starting to be integrated as well, she added.

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Amazon, eBay and Etsy help put Tesla trucks on the road

Roughly 40 new all-electric trucks will soon be working the route between Houston and Dallas thanks to a pilot program that aggregates demand from companies seeking to decarbonize their shipping emissions.

Amazon, eBay and Etsy are among the companies involved in the initiative, which will enable the San Francisco-based startup Nevoya to begin deploying new Tesla Semi trucks later this year or early next. The fleet of Class 8 vehicles — the largest truck classification — is expected to travel up to 7 million miles annually and avoid an estimated 60,000 metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent emissions across the multi-year contracts with participating buyers. All charging will be covered by renewable energy certificates.

Participating companies do not need to actually send shipments on the trucks to benefit from the emissions savings. Under the scheme, which is organized by the nonprofit Center for Green Market Activation (GMA), Nevoya will sell “environmental attribute certificates” (EACs) representing the emissions savings independently of contracts for freight. Buyers then deduct the emission savings represented by the certificates from their Scope 3 emissions, and retire the certificates to prevent further use.

Aviation playbook

Similar “book and claim” schemes are already being used to fund decarbonization of maritime shipping, cement, iron and other sectors. One well-established scheme — the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance, a project co-managed by GMA, Environmental Defense Fund and RMI — has aggregated $550 million in demand for sustainable aviation fuel certificates since 2021. Amazon and Visa are among its members

Like these other areas, road freight is challenging to decarbonize in part because zero-emission options come with a premium. Battery electric trucks usually cost about twice as much as equivalent internal combustion vehicles, according to the GMA. The need to create charging infrastructure and purchase renewable electricity can further increase the price.

There are companies willing to pay these premiums for at least some shipments, but they often struggle to find zero-emissions options because less than 1 percent of new heavy-duty vehicles in the U.S. are electric. The book-and-claim approach solves this problem by aggregating demand across interested companies, regardless of their ability to access electric trucks.

Scaling the project

GMA described the purchase of trucking EACs as a pilot and said it planned on further developing the project. One move that would accelerate progress would involve leading standard setters integrating EACs into their guidelines — something the Science Based Targets initiative is considering. “That will provide stakeholders with confidence in the accountability of these solutions,” said Andre de Fontaine, GMA managing director.

The center also plans on combining book-and-claim agreements with more traditional contracts that involve companies paying directly for zero-emissions shipping.

“Layering book and claim into these efforts can increase asset utilization — trucks and chargers — lowering overall costs for all buyers,” said de Fontaine. “As costs decrease, we expect more shippers to get involved, increasing demand and, in turn, driving greater production and deployment of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks.”

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L’Oreal invests in 13 startups to speed materials innovation

L’Oreal spends more than $1.5 billion on research and development annually, with the goal of using plants, minerals and recycled materials for 75 percent of its ingredients by 2030. 

It is also investing close to $120 million on outside help through L’Accelerator, a five-year program to recruit entrepreneurs seeking to commercialize technologies that address the cosmetics company’s climate, nature and circular materials goals.  

L’Oreal has selected 13 companies for the first phase of the program, which kicked off in mid-January. It hasn’t disclosed how much funding is dedicated to participants but plans to work with five annual cohorts during the lifetime of the program.

Each entrepreneur participates in a 12-week program at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, where they’ll learn skills such as how to pitch potential investors, sales plan development, financial and budgeting strategies, negotiating methods and so forth. From there, they’ll team with L’Oreal brands for field tests that last between six and nine months.  

L’Accelerator caters to companies with market-ready solutions that need more resources to reach commercial scale in the form of management coaching, funding and corporate pilots for their solutions, said L’Oreal Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer Ezgi Barcenas.

“We’re really looking for what I would call later-stage companies that are really at an inflection point,” she said. “They’ve created a product and they’re really looking for a customer to come in to design that product or put it into a use case — an application for that customer.”

Approximately 66 percent of L’Oreal’s products meet its 2030 ingredients commitment, and the company is looking outside its own R&D team for a spectrum of other business process and materials innovations that can help close the gap.

‘Test small, learn fast and iterate’

Each L’Accelerator relationship will be managed by an internal sponsor chosen from teams across the company including the supply chain organization, brand managers, R&D and finance, Barcenas said. 

More than 80 L’Oreal employees were involved with selection and will continue to be involved in the relationships. That model mimics one in the 100+ Sustainability Accelerator initiative that Barcenas oversaw at her previous employer, beverage company AB InBev.   

Ten of the 13 companies chosen for the first L’Accelerator cohort are developing sustainable packaging and materials alternatives, including Pulpex, which is working on recyclable paper bottles.  

Pulpex is a venture spun out of adult beverage company Diageo, which has been testing fiber-based alternatives to glass and plastic bottles. The U.K. company has amassed an appreciable sum of financial backing, including more than $83 million from the U.K. and Scottish governments to build a factory in Glasgow, Scotland, scheduled to open in the second quarter. 

The venture is considering a business model in which it will license its technology to packaging companies and manufacturers looking for fiber-based alternatives, said Scott Winston, managing director and chief science and sustainability officer at Pulpex. One thing the company is studying with L’Oreal is whether its packaging is more appropriate for business-to-business or business-to-consumer applications.

“It’s not about the technical functionality, it’s about the execution,” he said.

What makes L’Oreal’s initiative radical is a willingness to sprint at the speed of a startup, Winston said: “There has usually been a mismatch between how fast entrepreneurs work and the usual processes of a large company. This program will test small, learn fast and iterate.”  

Success metrics

Some L’Accelerator participants could eventually see the relationship evolve into a commercial contract after their pilot is complete. L’Oreal may also consider taking an equity stake, but its larger interest is in accelerating commercialization of the technologies to help reduce costs across the cosmetics industry. 

“I would say that we are really being intentional about the partners we’re selecting but also telling the world that this is not only for L’Oreal,” Barcenas said.

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The danger of putting a price on the planet

The opinions expressed here by Trellis expert contributors are their own, not those of Trellis.​

I have a simple rule of thumb that if a problem lingers for a while even after many smart folks have tried to solve it, then there’s probably something wrong with the framing of the problem.  

We seem to be at that stuck point with the multi-decadal effort to bring economy into balance with ecology – a goal that’s obvious to folks that come from the frame of recognizing that human life will struggle unnecessarily on a planet burdened with degraded air, water and soil resources, and not really on the radar for folks who see economic growth as an unalloyed good that eventually solves all problems.

But the frame is broken at a deeper level. Capitalism is the organizing paradigm of the global economy, which means it organizes much of our thinking by default. Even though we’ve tried to protect nature via carbon markets and other mechanisms, those efforts, while valiant, have inherent flaws. Why? Because it puts a price on that landscape because if a more profitable form of exploitation came around, the same calculations could be used to justify further exploitation.

Such unexamined assumptions are at the core of why our systems are breaking down right now. We’ve turned everything into capital to feed into the capitalistic algorithm. 

Defining capital

To set the stage, let’s remember that a simple working definition of capital is “an asset that has been given intentionality.” This is clear when we see how we characterize terms such as “investment capital” versus “operating capital.” The words “investment” and “operating” tell us what the intentionality of the capital is. But we’ve now done this conceptual conversion into capital for nearly everything. So people are now “human capital,” and the natural environment becomes “natural capital.” 

It’s worth noting that we’ve already made a deeply consequential decision in adopting this framing. When something becomes capital, it becomes easier to interface with the capitalistic optimization algorithm. Anything that has been characterized as capital can be traded off against other forms of capital. 

The capitalistic efficiency algorithm doesn’t have any intrinsic values or aesthetics; it moves relentlessly to places where the numbers look better. That’s why it feels obvious in this economic framing that if AI can be more efficient than human capital, then our aesthetics and values around avoiding mass layoffs and economic chaos will have little sway. The capitalistic algorithm will dominate without active effort to the contrary. 

Similarly, even if we value a natural landscape for the value of its natural capital and environmental services, the capitalistic algorithm will absolutely drive the demolishing of that natural system if something of greater economic value can be wrung from the same landscape. In short, one of the important decisions we’ve applied very little direct agency to is the basic decision around which aspects of life we allow to be cast as capital.

Saying no to the algorithm

We can say “no” to this process. We’ve done it before: For example, the sale of human organs is banned worldwide. We decided that the value of the organs that grow inside our bodies is something that should be completely outside any system of capitalist exchange. It’s easy to imagine the horrific chaos that would arise if people’s organs were allowed to be part of capitalist exchange. There are humans valued so little by the economy that their value as exchangeable organs would exceed the value of their economic contribution. 

If you think capitalism is incapable of this cruelty, remember that we’ve literally done it in recent world history in the form of chattel slavery. When people and their bodies become property, or body parts become a form of harvestable and exchangeable capital, then don’t be surprised when slaves’ teeth are pulled to replace one’s own lost teeth (a la George Washington). All of this is facilitated when people and their bodies can be owned by others as just another part of their total “capital.” We’ve similarly been enabling the dismembering of the ecosystem function as we de-dimensionalize the natural environment into capital in the flattest sense.

The viewpoint that nature is just another form of capital is at the heart of the climate crisis. The capitalistic efficiency algorithm doesn’t care about the function of natural systems, only what can be done to improve margins and scale production. In prioritizing, our economic endeavors often sever essential connections that then destabilize the metabolisms of natural systems (biology and hydrology). 

We’re now living in the collective breakdown of these systems from having lived this “nature as capital” viewpoint for several decades. Many of us have lived in the current system our entire lives so we’re not fully aware of other possible system designs. But there are many other possible viewpoints worth exploring.  

Seeing nature differently

Many indigenous cultures around the world are in deep alignment with nature, understanding humans as part of a broader natural system where they hold responsibility to learn from and give to their lands. It’s so widely observed that it’s almost a universal attribute of the longest lasting indigenous cultures — because living on land successfully for hundreds to thousands of years without despoiling it almost always necessitates the deep listening and observation, wisdom-building and care work that we see in so many cultures.

By comparison, in many Western traditions, humans put themselves at the top of a hierarchy of control that helps to justify narratives around the extraction and exploitation of nature. Concepts of “right” hierarchy and “civilized” domination are the go-to narrative justification for exploitation, whether toward natural resources or toward people via hierarchical concepts such as racism, religious superiority and social class superiority. 

In the recent Western system, there are always some humans who are allowed to be exploited more than other humans. This creates tension with ideas such as fundamental human rights. At least when systemic exploitation is happening to other humans, they can work to speak up and politically organize. When this domination worldview is applied to animals, plants, lakes, mountains, the atmosphere and minable ores, they can’t push back or speak up the way humans can. 

The further assumption that everything “below us” in our conceptual hierarchies can be characterized as capital and exploited opens pathways to creating real damage — whether what we see as “below us” is a factory worker or a pine tree. Sometimes the first time we hear the voice of ecological collapse is when the degradation forces us to leave the area or stops us from being able to safely drink the water.

So what can we do instead? First, don’t fall into the unconscious assumption that everything needs to be capital. Second, we’re at a point in history where we scientifically understand how many natural systems support healthy air, water, soil, biodiversity and people. We can use that knowledge to decide that some subsets of this function are so essential that they’re categorized as our core life support system and shouldn’t be haphazardly exposed to capitalistic exploitation.  

While that may sound overly protectionist, the need is obvious if we bring the example closer to home. What if literally every breath your lungs take could be monetized and access to the service could be shut off upon delinquent payment? This business would, of course, have incredible annual return rates and is obviously morally bankrupt. The life support system that the planet provides us is just as essential as breathing, and if we can get to this level of scientific and moral clarity, then we can start putting nature into a framework that will allow us to be here for the long haul.

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Why the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade is investing in community solar in Illinois

What is a New York City handbag giant doing in central Illinois, where it lacks boutiques, offices and factories? Tapestry, which runs the Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman brands, together with Pivot Energy, completed three community solar projects on Jan. 8. They total 13.5 megawatts, enough to power about 2,500 homes.

Two more installations will follow those just established in Peoria, Ottawa and tiny Dover, Illinois, in a 15-year partnership, announced in 2023.

The five community solar projects will add up to a modest 33 megawatts. However, those clean electrons are instrumental to Tapestry’s goal for 2025, which it reached, to count 100 percent renewables across its own operations, according to Logan Duran, global head of ESG and sustainability at Tapestry.

“Getting our own house in order from a renewables perspective was the first step,” Duran said, “simultaneously continuing to engage with our long-term and strategic partners in the supply chain, on the facility and factory level.”

In pursuit of its science-based net zero deadline of 2050, Tapestry is stretching toward a new target, announced Dec. 22. By 2030, it seeks to power 40 percent of its supply chain with renewables. Today that’s at 12 percent.

Ninety-nine percent of the corporation’s climate emissions are in Scope 3. By 2030, Tapestry aims for 42 percent cuts over 2022 levels.

In 2025, the business noted a 14 percent rise in Scope 3 emissions since 2021, which it is seeking to reset to 2022 to account for the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emissions intensity dropped by 10 percent in the same period.

Land of Lincoln

The corporation took a portfolio approach toward its achieved goal of 100 percent renewables for its own offices, stores and fulfillment centers.

“What we found was, we have a lot of stores but they all have small roofs,” Duran said. The company, which has more than a dozen stores in the Chicago area, liked Denver-based Pivot Energy’s proposition for a long-term Renewable Energy Credit (REC) offtake agreement in Illinois.

The project-based REC allows Tapestry to take credit for the clean electricity and its associated emissions reductions. 

“We can’t necessarily track direct electrons to our individual stores but if we’re able to stay within the same grid or within the same region, we felt like it was meaningful from a commitment perspective,” Duran said.

The bulk of Tapestry’s 2025 emissions

Tapestry’s Scope 3 emissions make up most of its climate footprint. Credit: Tapestry 2025 sustainability report

“Illinois has become a favorable market for renewable energy development, with the enactment of the Clean and Equitable Jobs Act,” noted Pivot Energy Senior Director of Project Development Buzz Becker. The law, enacted in 2021, offers incentives for RECs and requires social equity support for new energy installations.

Supporting the local community also appealed to Duran. Illinois consumers who opt for the solar power can enjoy discounted utility bills. Meanwhile, Illinois Central College and HIRE360 receive $65,000 contributions from Pivot Energy, a certified B Corporation based in Denver.

“This project announcement makes state policy tangible,” said Matthew Popkin, U.S. program manager at RMI. “Illinois encouraged the market to use community solar to not only meet today’s energy needs but also increase consumer access to fixed-cost energy and support longer-term workforce development goals.”

The energy portfolio

In other markets, Tapestry uses a mix of unbundled and bundled RECs as well as Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs).

In Europe, Tapestry is among 12 brands joining the Fashion Pact in a Collective Virtual Power Purchase agreement, announced in 2023. The solar project they’re supporting in Spain would generate an estimated 100 MW under peak sunlight.

Tapestry is also directly helping suppliers to adopt renewable energy and ditch coal by 2026, part of risk mitigation within its sustainability work. 

“If there are random brownouts or blackouts or disruptions, it obviously impacts our ability to manufacture and move product,” Duran said.

The company’s decarbonization program last year engaged with 40 suppliers across Tiers 1 and 2, addressing about 70 percent of its suppliers’ emissions. For instance, Tapestry paid for onsite assessments and feasibility studies for Tier 1 contract supplier Pungkook Ben Tre to install solar panels in Vietnam.

In addition, Tapestry engages with the Apparel Impact Institute to help tanneries slash emissions.

Materials and nature

Circularity and biodiversity protection are other core focuses for the accessory brands’ sustainability work.

Almost all of Tapestry’s leather tanneries are rated Gold or Silver by the Leather Working Group. Environmentally preferred materials include “wet blue” leather scrap from startup Gen Phoenix. That only appears in the experimental Coachtopia brand, but products are being developed for the main line, too, Duran said.

“When we look at the longevity, the durability and the intrinsic quality of the material, it ultimately really lends itself well to things like the circular economy,” he said of leather, its main material.

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What Meta’s big nuclear deals say about corporate clean energy strategy

Meta’s three new deals for up to 6.6 gigawatts in nuclear energy aren’t just record-breaking; they underscore growing corporate interest in clean power that’s available at night.

Contracts orchestrated by companies with emissions reduction commitments added (or will add when the projects are complete) close to 128 gigawatts of renewable or clean energy to the U.S. electric grid from 2014 through November 2025, according to data collected by the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance (CEBA).

Wind farms and solar installations represent the vast majority of that new power, but deals from generation resources that can run around the clock, such as fusion, geothermal, hydro and nuclear, are growing. They accounted for 17 percent, or 3.4 gigawatts, of new capacity in the first three quarters of 2025. 

There are 21 related contracts since 2021 in 10 states: Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. 

“No matter how you slice the data, it is a fast-emerging trend. This is taking off fast,” said CEBA CEO Rich Powell. “I have every reason to expect you will see significant deals through 2026.”

Nuclear energy has been undervalued for some time, but corporations interested in sourcing low-carbon electricity are reevaluating this resource because it can provide power when solar panels cannot, said Gavin McCormick, co-founder and executive director of nonprofit WattTime, which tracks grid emission data. 

“Why it’s valuable is because it works at night,” he said.

Several announced deals — and the corporate funding behind them — have had the effect of adding nuclear power plants back to the grid or keeping them operating. “Preventing a nuclear plant from closing is excellent additionality, even if it’s not new,” McCormick said.

Big Tech loves nuclear power

Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft are behind the biggest corporate nuclear deals, but big industrial manufacturers, including steel maker Nucor and chemical company Dow are also signing contracts. 

The publicly announced nuclear deals for Big Tech alone will support close to 13 gigawatts. Nuclear plants account for close to 20 percent of the power on the U.S. electric grid, and almost half of the resources that are considered “zero emissions” (which includes solar, wind, hydro and geothermal).

With its latest deals, Meta has now committed to buying more nuclear power to address its emissions goals than any other U.S. company, with approximately 7.7 gigawatts of contracted electricity.

The company signed a power purchase agreement in June 2025 with Constellation that covers 1.1 gigawatts from an Illinois power plant over the next 20 years. 

Meta’s three new contracts support a mix of legacy and advanced nuclear. They include 20-year deals with Vistra to extend the life of two plants in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania, as well as to expand their capacity. Meta is also funding advanced reactors to come online early next decade from startup TerraPower, well funded by investors including Microsoft founder Bill Gates; and Oklo, heavily backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

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