19 January 2026 Weekly Update - 51-0

Hey, thanks so much for listening. I would love to be able to help you more on what it is that you are listening to and why you're listening to me. If you could click on the link in the show notes, that would be awesome because it will help me define what it is that we should be talking about on this podcast. So, Coming in at number 10 this week for our weekly insights into what is going on with regards to sustainability and environmental management is all about biodiversity, oceans, and nature regulation. It's really ramping up. Now, this is relevant for larger organizations as nature disclosure and biodiversity net gain and nature-positive claims become more mainstream and compliance and brand issues come about. From dugong and seagrass collapse in Thailand to the UN High Seas Treaty entering into force and the upcoming biodiversity COP17 stocktake, nature loss is moving from distant headline to concrete regulatory and reputational pressure. Coming in at number 9, water bankruptcy and escalating physical risk. Now, this is critical for food and beverage companies with water-intensive processes and vulnerable agricultural sourcing regions. A UN-backed assessment describes a new era of global water bankruptcy, with 3 quarters of the world's population living in countries with insecure freshwater systems and a growing city-scale day-zero risks. Number 8, as business model shifts, repair, circularity, and low-carbon products become more relevant for consumer brands and agencies, repositioning growth narratives around value, longevity, and lower impact. Case studies such as Levi's repair programs, energy-efficient housing developers, and soil carbon credit innovations shows profitable models emerging around durability, circular services, and nature-based solutions rather than pure volume growth. Brilliant, eh? Number 7, built environments. Warm homes and zero-carbon places relevant for major occupiers whose property and retrofit decisions will drive both cost and carbon trajectories. The UK's Warm Homes Plan and wider zero-carbon homes agenda are nudging housing and property from target setting into delivery, with questions around heat pumps, retrofit economics, and whether current policy goes far or fast enough. Number 6. We had this last week as well, and the week before. We're starting to see some real common themes here. That are coming out. So we really need to be keeping an eye on what, what is happening in these weekly insights. So methane, agriculture, and food system pressure, directly relevant for food and beverage players facing growing scrutiny over livestock, fertilizer use, and upstream farming practices. Post-COP30 analysis highlights that agricultural lobbies are successfully keeping methane reductions and food systems Transformation off the table, even though livestock and fertilizer emissions are critical to meeting climate goals. Coming in at number five, corporate climate action. Ten thousand science-based targets, SBTI companies relevant. This is relevant for all £50 million turnover firms or above whose climate targets and transition plans are now compared against a rapidly hardening benchmark. As I said, the Science Based Targets initiative has now verified targets for 10,000 companies representing around 40% of global market capitalization, signaling that science-based decarbonization is becoming a baseline expectation in capital markets. As an organization that was one of the first to sign up to Science Based Targets initiative— thank you, Emma Littlewood, for that— I am really pleased that this is happening. I think it's an amazing insight into the fact that we in organizations around the world want to understand our impact, curtail it, and reduce— and well, curtailing is reducing it, isn't it? But setting a target that is in line with science. It just shows, doesn't it, with what's going on politically and what's actually wanted. Just saying. Coming in at number 4, called Renewable Curtailments and Wasted Clean Power in GB. What does that mean? So it's relevant for high usage sites considering onsite generation, storage, and flexible demand strategies. In the UK, the amount of renewable electricity curtailed in 2025 was enough to power all UK data centers and every home in Greater London for a year, exposing grid constraints and poor system planning. And number three, wind and solar overtake fossil power in the EU. Hey, relevant for food, beverage, and media facilities in Europe seeking competitive low-carbon power deals. Wind and solar reached 30% of EU electricity in 2025, edging out fossil generation at 29%, marking a structural shift that is already changing price dynamics. Power contract structures, and expectations on corporate PPAs. Coming in at number 2, clean energy economics versus political headwinds. This is relevant for large organisations weighing long-term energy and infrastructure investments under volatile policy signals. Despite Trump's pro-fossil rhetoric and rollbacks, institutional investors and infrastructure funds report the best ever commercial outlook for renewables driven by data center demands, energy security, and higher power prices, and not ideology. And coming in at number 1, the net zero race, Europe, US, and China. Side note, should we be saying net zero? Is that relevant? Please come and talk to me whether you think it's relevant and what else we should be talking about. Communications is so important to us in this space, and we need to be able to communicate to each other what exactly is going on and how to manage it. So back to where I was. This is relevant for media and brand owners who need to frame this shifting industrial landscape for clients and audiences. Europe risks becoming a spectator in the net-zero economy unless it rapidly unlocks pension capital, cuts green tech red tape, and scales deep tech like fusion, industrial AI, and batteries to stay competitive with a fossil-first US and a green supply chain dominant China. Thanks so much for listening. I hope that was useful for you. And I look forward to our next week's weekly roundup.

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