The Week in Low Carbon Commerce - Oct 30, 2023

The Week in Low Carbon Commerce
October 30, 2023

Hi friends,

Each week we’ll share news about retailers, brands, funding and M&A, and featured jobs. Some weeks, we’ll have feature article up front.

As we launch Decarbonize.co, we’d love your input on what you’d like to see more or less of.

Thanks for reading!

Keith

What’s Hot

📦 The Refill Coalition, convened in 2020 by packaging consultancy GoUnPackaged and comprising Aldi UK, Ocado, and the supply chain solutions company CHEP, has launched the first of three planned refill solutions: an in-store trial of a refill system for dry goods like cereals and pasta as well as personal care and cleaning products. The pilot is at Aldi’s Solihull store.

The system allows retailers to sell refill products at a lower price than their packaged equivalents. If the trial is successful, coalition members plan to expand the system in-store and online.

Planned to launch next year are a tareless weighing system and liquids dispenser and a bulk home delivery refill solution from Ocado. [Link]

🛍️ Closed Loop Partners released its 2023 Beyond the Bag Impact Report, summarizing three years of research and pilots with retailers with the aim of eliminating single-use plastic bags. [Link]

🍇 The FT covered the rise of technology for preventing food waste. [$ Link]

📄 Unilever, Bayer, Danone, Diageo, Heineken, Nestlé, Natura & Co., Ikea, and Royal Philips are among more than 130 companies signing a letter coordinated by the We Mean Business Coalition ahead of the upcoming COP28 climate conference, urging governments to commit to reach 100% decarbonized power systems by 2035 in advanced economies and by 2040 for other countries. [Link]

🤝 Stibo Systems (product information management) and HowGood (sustainability intelligence for food companies) partnered to provide retailers and CPG companies with UPC-level impact data on more than 2 million products. [Link]

Retail

📦 Amazon announced the opening of its first automated U.S. fulfillment center to eliminate plastic packaging, located in Euclid, OH. The facility uses automation to create rightsized secondary packaging and replaces plastic fillers with paper. Amazon provided no timeline for national or international rollout. [Link]

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Brands

🧼 CleanCult launched dish soaps, hand soaps, and all-purpose cleaners in refillable aluminum packaging at more than 2,000 Albertsons and “select” Walmart stores nationally. [Link] 

Deals and funding

No deal news to announce this week.

Did we miss something? Let us know at info @ decarbonize.co

Featured jobs