A leading standard for emissions from food and agriculture is being revised to bring it into line with delays in achieving zero-deforestation supply chains.

Companies have until November 6 to weigh in on changes to the Science Based Target initiative’s Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) Guidance. Proposed revisions include pushing back the final deadline for companies to eliminate deforestation to supply chains to 2030. Current guidelines have a December 2025 date, which stakeholders acknowledge companies will not be able to meet.

“To keep the standard relevant and used, we need to revisit the target year and figure out what to do to keep the momentum going,” said Martha Stevenson, a senior director on the forest team at the nonprofit WWF-US and a member of the expert group advising the initiative on the guidelines.

“These deforestation commitments started in 2010; we would have loved to have had action much, much earlier than this,” she added. “No one’s happy about rolling these dates back.”

Stevenson, who led the creation of the first set of FLAG guidelines, said the 2025 deadline has proved unworkable because of international demand for the small group of commodities that drive deforestation — including beef, soy and palm oil — as well as domestic trade in forest countries for those products. Land speculation and ownership rights have also proved difficult to address.

Key commodities

Pushing back the deforestation date will not impact the rest of the FLAG guidelines, which focus on emissions reductions. More than 340 companies have validated FLAG targets, according to the SBTi.

The revisions are also intended to align the guidance with other frameworks and regulations in this area, including the Accountability Framework initiative, a roadmap for achieving ethical supply chains overseen by a coalition of nonprofits, and the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR), which comes into force in December.

Companies interested in responding to the SBTi’s request for comment should consider how the FLAG guidance dovetails with EUDR, suggested Stevenson. The SBTi is proposing aligning the commodities covered by the deforestation part of the guidance with seven key focuses for EUDR: wood, cattle, soy, coffee, cocoa, palm oil and rubber. But these are not the only material commodities, noted Stevenson. For example, barley and cotton are important to beer makers and clothes manufacturers, respectively, but neither is on the EUDR list. “Both of those commodities can drive land use change in specific regions,” said Stevenson.

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Calling all bras, panties, boxers and briefs: Calvin Klein is accepting unwanted underthings from any brand for recycling. PVH Corporation’s Re-Calvin takeback program, announced Oct. 23, is a first for a major brand and a test of how circular fashion handles intimates, which companies usually can’t re-sell.

Less than 1 percent of textiles are recycled into new fabrics, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a rate likely even lower in the roughly $90 billion global market for intimate-wear. It’s not just the ick factor that interferes with reuse, but also the difficulty of recycling blended and often stretchy materials.

Calvin Klein’s program comes as parent PVH faces a 2025 deadline for designing all products for circularity, and as regulations increasingly make brands account for waste after product use.

“It was important that we partner with experts with a proven ability to build and scale programs that handle a wide range of products and categories, making it easier than ever for customers to responsibly extend the life of their items,” said Calvin Klein Global Brand President David Savman.

Re-Calvin partners Trove and Debrand are logistics leaders in the growing efforts to bake circularity into the apparel industry.

“With this launch, Calvin Klein is showing how technology can make responsible choices simple for every customer, accepting items from any brand and across all categories, including intimates, to help keep more textiles in circulation,” said Trove CEO Terry Boyle, in a press statement.

The initiative accepts all sorts of clothing and shoes, even swimwear, but its embrace of intimate apparel fits the 57-year-old brand’s legacy of provocative underwear ads, cultural flashpoints for decades, featuring Brooke Shields, Mark Wahlberg and Bad Bunny.

“I love that Re-Calvin is taking back all brands and is also taking intimates,” said Cynthia Power, an apparel industry veteran whose consulting work includes creating brand takeback strategies. “It makes sense that a brand synonymous with underwear is helping recycle underwear.”

Circularity push

Re-Calvin may ultimately provide useful data for the goal of PVH, the former Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation, to design all products for circularity by 2025.

In 2024, the New York corporation, striving for net zero, has reached 3.8 percent Scope 3 emissions reductions toward its 42 percent target for 2030.

The motivation for circularity programs includes the rise of regulations holding fashion brands to account for the paths their products take after consumers are done with them. In California, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act will impose fines starting in 2030 for businesses that fail to share, through a third party, the fates of their brands’ materials. Similar extended producer responsibility rules are progressing in the European Union.

How Re-Calvin works

Re-Calvin invites customers to mail in previously worn garments using a prepaid shipping label on the program’s website. They can do so via the Calvin Klein website through a plug-in by Trove.

Trove is the digital logistics backbone. Debrand of British Columbia helps to make decisions to donate, recycle or dispose of the materials. The textile waste management leader’s clients include Lululemon, Everlane and Victoria’s Secret.

Items in the best condition will be donated or given to partners for secondhand use. Some materials will be recycled into new textiles. Others will be downcycled into building insulation or padding. At the bottom of the circularity hierarchy, unusable materials are incinerated for “waste-to-energy” purposes.

Consumers get an email explaining how Re-Calvin managed their unmentionables.

It’s a well thought-out program, according to Liz Alessi, a longtime fashion sustainability consultant in New York. “It’s still early days, and the economics are tough when logistics might outweigh resale value, but it’s an important initiative,” she said. “If they can learn what’s coming back and how to process it more efficiently, this could set useful groundwork for scalable circularity.”

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

Resilience has proved to be quite the buzz word this year, whether discussing economic shocks, geopolitical tensions or sustainability, where resilience has become a more neutral and less politicized term.

However, there isn’t much talk of personal resilience. Even though we all know colleagues who’ve quit the profession because the pressures and stress are too much or are on the verge of burnout. 

Yet we barely discuss this, choosing to stay focused on organizational resilience. But without personal resilience, the organizational perseverance won’t happen. With that in mind, let me offer some tactics and strategies for maintaining personal resilience as we wind down the year.

Understand what’s in your control

It’s comforting to think we’re sailing through life on a super-yacht, adeptly changing speed when required, smoothly shifting direction, in full control of the consequences of our actions.

But here’s the rub: the super-yacht analogy only works if the waters it’s sailing in are predictable. This sadly, isn’t the world we live in. Instead, the world around is composed of messy interconnected systems that all have their own energy and their own patterns of working. These systems, from the global energy system to the global food system to national health systems are in rapid transition. Which means trying to control what’s happening around us has its limits.

Sure, we can influence what’s happening, but we can’t guarantee outcomes. So the first step to building personal resilience is being more comfortable with having less control than you might think. Think of the super-yacht more like a kayak. Understand what your kayak can and can’t do, and embrace uncertainty and some inevitable turbulence.

Pay attention to your energy reservoir 

Once you’ve recognized what’s in your control, it’s time to pay attention to your own battery. Can you spot when it’s getting very low? Do you have strategies to recharge it? A really useful metaphor is a bucket of water where there are three levels: relaxed (a third full), normal (half full) and stressed (completely full with water slopping out over the sides).  

At any one point in time, understanding what makes up the clouds dropping rain into your bucket is really helpful. The clouds could be a combination of work pressures, family worries or money worries, but naming them is important. Equally important is understanding what taps are at the bottom of the bucket to let the water out to allow it to drop to a lower level. These taps include taking a break for a walk outside, confiding in a close friend or eating something delicious. 

Filling out the blanks for your own stress bucket is a brilliant way to begin to understand your own energy reservoir. And once you’re clear on what it feels like to not be at your optimal state of well-being, you can find ways to feel better. 

Develop a list of personal hacks

The final part of building and maintaining personal resilience is having a few resilience hacks. Here are three of my favorites:

Live outside the news. I know this is really obvious, but it can be hard to stop doom scrolling and close the news tab. However, we must because living in the news can be overwhelming, depressing and incredibly stressful. That’s because, back to our kayak, there’s very little we can personally do to directly control it. Living outside of the news, and only dipping in when we have to and feel strong enough, can help us stabilize the kayak and critically focus on what’s in front of us and control the next move of the paddle.

Do things daily-ish. We do love a list. Today I must go to the gym, clear my inbox and read the latest self-improvement book purchased out of some desire to be that better person. But do you have to, really have to, do any of that? Right this moment?  

Probably not. Doing things when you feel like doing them, instead of according to a firm schedule, is inexplicably and wonderfully liberating. Sure, you need to ensure there won’t be a small catastrophe as a result of your self-imposed task refusal. Once that’s clear, embrace the moment. It might be incredibly nourishing.

Name it to tame it. Most of us carry anxieties around a majority of the time. Sometimes they don’t get in the way and sometimes they can feel quite paralyzing. In these moments, it can be really helpful to name the anxiety or anxieties. Giving something a name is often a first step to addressing it.  

Even better, try visualizing your anxieties and then create a visual of something you find calming. Some days my anxieties can feel like a nest of sharp-toothed rats, gnawing away at my well-being. On these days I visually turn these horrible looking creatures into fluffy rabbits. The anxieties now feel much more manageable, able to be tamed, and if I can’t deal with them all, it’s easier to ask a bunny to hop along with you rather than be chased by a rat.

Maintain a soft eye

This is a martial arts move, where you maintain broad contextual awareness, but are focused on the immediate action. Too much focus on one or the other can be very stressful. Focusing solely on context and trying to solve root causes of the turbulence around you can lead to burnout. Focusing just on the next action and wave of turbulence means there’s less of a chance of steering the broader system. 

Back to that kayak. What do you need in yours to sail through these choppy waters?  It might be a new map, it might be a new paddle, it could be a tasty snack. But knowing what you need, right now, will help you steer to where you want to go. 

And if all else fails, remember the nested nature of the systems we live in. Maintaining your own personal resilience will help maintain the resilience of the other systems you’re part of — your family, your community, your organization. After all, we must put our own oxygen masks on first.

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Send news about sustainability leadership roles, promotions and departures to [email protected].

Pure-play sustainability consulting firm Anthesis tapped Matthew Bell, a long-time EY services executive and former U.K. government climate policy lead, to succeed co-founder Stuart McLachlan as CEO.

The appointment is effective Dec. 1.

Bell, an 18-year EY veteran, most recently led the accounting firm’s climate change and sustainability practice, which includes more than 4,300 specialists. He’s currently chair of the World Green Building Council, a network of 75 regional organizations focused on decarbonizing real estate and construction. He joined Anthesis because of its exclusive focus on accelerating climate action. 

“Anthesis has the DNA of a consultancy, an impact business and a technology company rolled into one,” Bell told Trellis. “Add to that its incredible design creative capability and you’ve got all the ingredients to generate impact at scale.”

The firm, founded in 2013, has more than 4,000 clients in 80 countries, including Cisco, Nestle, Reckitt, Target and Tesco. Under McLachlan, who will remain on the board of directors, it has grown to 1,400 employees worldwide — partly due to the acquisition of 24 businesses over the past 12 years.

“Matthew is the right leader to build on our strong momentum and guide Anthesis through its next stage of growth, bringing his deep industry expertise and a proven ability to build high-performing global teams,” said McLachlan.

Bell’s first priority is to identify places where Anthesis can build on existing best practices. “We’re already working at incredible depth across sectors, so the question now is: How do we connect that expertise globally, amplify our data and digital capabilities and make sustainability transformation easier for every client to execute?” he said.

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A new analysis from the $80 trillion-backed investor network FAIRR warns that most of the world’s largest protein producers are dangerously unprepared for the escalating threat of water scarcity, placing global food security and investor returns at risk.

The research briefing, “Water Insecurity in the Agri-Food Value Chain,” reveals that nearly two-thirds of the companies assessed in FAIRR’s Coller Protein Producer Index are failing to manage water-related risks effectively. The Index evaluates 60 of the world’s biggest publicly listed meat, dairy and aquaculture companies against sustainability themes linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The analysis also offers steps that business leaders can take to preserve water supplies — from mapping their full water footprint to setting basin-specific targets and standardizing how progress is measured. These actions, FAIRR says, are critical to safeguarding long-term water supplies as demand and stresses surge in the coming years.

“We are moving towards a future of water insecurity, particularly with the increase in intensity of droughts in different parts of the world,” Simi Thambi, climate and nature economist at FAIRR and co-author of the report, told Trellis in an interview. “It’s becoming a threat to business models, and yet it’s not explored that much.”

Source: FAIRR

Trace your water footprint beyond the factory gate

For many companies, the biggest water risks lie not in direct operations but in feed and supply chains. Yet FAIRR found that 84 percent of livestock firms fail to disclose where their feed crops come from — even when sourced from drought-prone regions such as northern China, India and the U.S. Midwest.

Only one, Texas-based egg and dairy producer Vital Farms, disclosed all feed sources from water-stressed areas. 

Others are likely under-reporting their exposure. Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Foods, for instance, estimates its corn supply chain uses nearly 29,000 cubic meters of water per $1 million in sales — roughly 10 times higher than peers that count only direct operations. That difference highlights how much risk can remain hidden upstream.

“Supply chain disclosures of water usage and risk are very important because that’s where a lot of these water-intensive activities are concentrated,” Thambi said. “It’s not sufficient to disclose only direct operations because it doesn’t capture the full picture.”

Set basin-specific targets 

Only 10 companies in FAIRR’s 2024 Protein Producer Index have set targets to cut water withdrawals, and most focus narrowly on efficiency rather than absolute reductions.

By contrast, New Zealand dairy company Fonterra has committed to reducing withdrawals by 30 percent by 2030 at high-stress sites, while Charoen Pokphand has already achieved a 30-percent per-unit reduction domestically and is now expanding targets to overseas operations and suppliers.

The report also recommends tying these absolute reduction targets to executive pay. Such a move could be profitable for investors: BlackRock research cited in the report found that high-efficiency water users achieved better returns than peers.

Standardize metrics

Even when companies disclose water data, comparability remains poor. FAIRR urges firms to report water intensity per unit sales and link it to the source (groundwater, surface or rainfall) and stress level of each basin.

This would allow investors to benchmark risk and direct capital towards companies reducing withdrawals where it matters most. 

The takeaway

Global freshwater demand is projected to outstrip supply by 40 percent within five years. For the trillion-dollar livestock sector, the choice is clear: build water-resilient business models now, or face stranded assets and shrinking supply chains later.

“Just as big tech — and especially artificial intelligence — faces scrutiny over water use, a handful of highly dependent agri-food companies hold outsized influence in building water resilience,” FAIRR research manager and report co-author Henry Throp said in a statement. “It is critical that we understand the financial implications of water insecurity — and the value that can be generated in building resilience.”

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