The Week in Low Carbon Commerce - January 29, 2024

January 29, 2024

Author

Keith Anderson
January 29, 2024

The Week in Low Carbon Commerce
January 29, 2024

Happy Monday! Here’s a fresh round-up of what’s new in retail, ecommerce, and CPG sustainability:

Keith

News

 🥕 Bloomberg covered the launch of Too Good to Go’s launch of a new software platform to help grocers automate the daily expiry date checking process, a significant source of food waste and missed sales at retail.

💄 A consortium of 15 cosmetics industry players have formed the TRaceability Alliance for Sustainable CosmEtics (TRASCE), aiming to collaborate to improve traceability in ingredient and packaging supply chains. The group, initiated by Chanel, also includes participation from L’Oreal Groupe, Estée Lauder, Merck, L’Occitane en Provence, and others.

🥫 Food and farm industry groups including the International Fresh Produce Association, Reusable Packaging Association, and National Wooden Pallet & Container Association have come together to form the Alliance for Sustainable Packaging for Foods to advocate for packaging’s role in food safety and minimizing waste, reportedly in response to proliferating regulation in Europe and Canada.

You don’t already subscribe to the newsletter?!

Brands

🚚 Mars will partner with Einride to deploy a fleet of 300 electric trucks in Europe by 2030, which Mars estimates will reduce Mars Europe’s road transport GHG emissions 10% annually when fully deployed.

🥤 PepsiCo opened the APAC Sustainability Edition of its Greenhouse Collaborative Accelerator program. PepsiCo will select up to 10 applicants to receive $20K in grants. The final winner of a $100K prize will be announced in Thailand in September 2024. Applications for 2024 are open, and APAC startups with solutions in the sustainable packaging, climate action, and sustainable agriculture spaces are eligible to apply.

Deals and funding

📦 Packmatic, based in Berlin, Germany, raised a €15M Series A for its digital marketplace of sustainable packaging solutions.

🍦 C16 Biosciences, based in New York, NY, received a $3.5M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a $1M investment from Elemental Excelerator for its food-grade oils and fats derived from cells.

📦 Paptic, based in Espoo, Finland, raised €4.5M (bringing its total 2023 funds raised to €27.5M), for its fiber-based and recyclable material to replace plastics in packaging.

From the podcast

Closing out Food Waste with Kari Morris of Martie

Kari Morris is co-founder of Martie, a venture-backed online surplus discount store specializing (for now) in shelf-stable groceries. Kari shares the company's inception, including its mission to address surplus in the food industry. The discussion covers Martie's rapid growth, its retention strategy, and the balance between discount and higher AUR items. Kari also discusses customer engagement through live shopping events, the role of influencers, and Martie's unique approach to capturing a new customer base. 

decarbonize.co/podcast/ep-12-closing-out-food-waste-with-kari-morris-of-martie

Already a subscriber? Please leave a rating on Apple Podcasts to help us continue to grow the audience.

Upcoming Events

Virtual events are a great way to get to know Decarbonize.co, and we have three webinars featuring our analyst research coming up in February.

Members can attend at no cost, or you can license enterprise-wide access to a single event or the whole series.

Contact [email protected] with questions.

Check out all of the jobs (or post your open roles) on the Decarbonizing Commerce Career Board.