Month: June 2022

Paying living wages can positively affect all aspects of business activity including bottom line

Stuart Mitchell

A new report indicates living wages not only offer a way out of in-work poverty and help tackle inequality, they also support business resilience, stability and growth. As a route out of working poverty and a prerequisite to tackling growing income inequalities, living wages have growing support among business, civil society, and governments. A new collaboration of academics and experts has explored the business benefits of living wages alongside the high cost of inaction and found that paying a living wage can deliver: More motivated and productive workforce, with lower…

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World’s top banks risk billions by investing in plastics – new report

Stuart Mitchell

Several of the world’s biggest international banks have collectively invested almost €22 billion in just two petrochemical companies over the past five years, exposing themselves to significant financial risk, according to a new study. The report, from Belgian sustainable finance experts FairFin and commissioned by ClientEarth, reveals that between 2016 and 2021, banks including JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, HSBC, Citigroup, BNP Paribas, and ING Group invested nearly €22bn in petrochemical companies INEOS and Borealis. Petrochemicals companies produce plastics, which are derived from fossil fuels. There are major economic risks for…

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TotalEnergies and New Hope Energy partner on U.S. Advanced Recycling Project

Stuart Mitchell

TotalEnergies and New Hope Energy have announced a commercial agreement under which New Hope Energy will build an advanced recycling plant in Texas to transform end-of-life plastic waste into a recycled feedstock that TotalEnergies will partly purchase and convert into virgin-quality polymers, which can be used for food-grade packaging. The New Hope Energy plant is expected to start production in 2025 and will use a patented pyrolysis technology that was developed in partnership with Lummus Technology to process and convert more than 310,000 tons per year of mixed plastic waste that…

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Rio Tinto and bp sign one-year trial of marine biofuels

Stuart Mitchell

Rio Tinto and bp have agreed to work together on a one-year biofuel trial to help reduce carbon emissions from Rio Tinto’s marine fleet.  Under the trial, bp is supplying Rio Tinto with marine biofuel for approximately 12 months. The fuel will be trialled on Rio Tinto’s RTM Tasman vessel on a mix of Transatlantic and Atlantic-Pacific routes, in one of the longest-duration marine biofuel trials to date.  The results of the trial will help Rio Tinto study ways to reduce its carbon emissions from its marine fleet and inform…

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CIPR relaunch free and universal lobbying register

Stuart Mitchell

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has relaunched its UK Lobbying Register (UKLR), the only free and universal lobbying register operating in the UK. The UKLR originally launched in 2015 to complement the statutory regime with the aim of providing as full a picture of UK lobbying as possible. It is open to all lobbyists – agency, in-house and freelance – unlike the statutory register that is only open to consultant lobbyists. By registering, individuals and organisations demonstrate; accountability to a recognised industry code of conduct     a commitment to conduct lobbying…

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