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- The Week in Low Carbon Commerce - Nov 13, 2023
The Week in Low Carbon Commerce
November 13, 2023
This week, we’re watching the increasingly daring ways European retailers and brands are using price promotions and merchandising to grow lower-carbon categories.
Read more about Danone’s bold Belgian promotion below, and download the new eponymous presentation on Decarbonizing Commerce to see how Lidl is pricing and promoting products to nudge shopper behavior.
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Submit them to info @ decarbonize.co
Keith
What’s Hot
💻 Greenpeace published a report on the environmental performance of the major ecommerce platforms in China.
Four of the six companies evaluated have set carbon reduction targets at the group or company level, up from two in 2022: Alibaba, Vipshop, JD (JD Logistics), and Bytedance.
Alibaba ranked first, largely due to its focus on reducing value chain emissions, while Pinduoduo (whose parent company PDD Holdings also owns Temu) ranked last, with “almost no action and no disclosed information.”
In addition to climate targets and action, the report also reviewed the platforms’ performance on chemicals, waste management, and biodiversity.
[Link]
🪸 The Natural Polymers Group, launched by founding members traceless materials, LOLIWARE Inc., MarinaTex, Notpla, PlantSea, Xampla and Zerocircle, was formed to establish nature-based materials, such as plants and seaweeds, as a viable and mainstream means of replacing plastic.
[Link]
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Retailers
💼 Ahold Delhaize will establish the Chief Sustainability Officer role as a dedicated position on the Executive Committee following the planned May 2024 retirement of Jan Ernst de Groot, Chief Legal Officer and current Chief Sustainability Officer.
[Link]
⚡ Dutch retailer Albert Hejin will electrify home deliveries and replenishment in Amsterdam and Utrecht, adding to already-electrified operations in The Hague and Rotterdam. The company says more cities will follow in 2024, keeping it on pace to comply with zero-emission zones that will become mandatory in 2025.
[Link]
Brands
🥛 Danone reached a commercial agreement with major Belgian grocers to run a six week promotion featuring a €2 maximum price on its Alpro plant-based milks, with the objective to permanently increase the category’s penetration.
According to RetailDetail, the promotion is about 3x the duration of a conventional promotional campaign in Belgium and will reduce the price of Alpro’s oat and almond milks by 20-40% depending on the product and chain.
[Link]
Don’t miss…
November 28 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST
Amazon programs like the Climate Pledge Friendly badge and Compact by Design are emerging as effective ways to grow traffic and conversion, even while reducing costs. And in 2024, Amazon will begin asking suppliers for even more climate-related data.
Join us November 28 @ 11am-12pm EST for an overview of Amazon’s vendor- and seller-oriented climate initiatives and playbooks for maximizing the commercial benefits of participation.
Deals and funding
📦 RAIKU Packaging, based in Tallinn, Estonia, raised $6M in seed funding from private investors and grant funding from the European Innovation Council to produce a 100% compostable alternative to bubble wrap packaging.
[Link]
From the podcast
HiBAR's mission is its north star, but everything about its products and packaging is designed with effectiveness and customer experience in mind.
In the very first episode of the Decarbonizing Commerce podcast, you'll hear:
why HiBAR manufactures in-house
why the product looks the way it does
why concentrated products often work better for many people than the alternatives
how its unique packaging stands out at the shelf
how the team is informing shoppers and retailers about an emerging product form
Featured jobs
Director of Sales, New Verticals
Bellwether CoffeeData and Insights Manager - EV Charging
Sainsbury’s
Check out all of the jobs (or post yours) on the Decarbonizing Commerce Career Board.
