Eunomia Research & Consulting

🥁 DRUM ROLL PLEASE... 📣 EUNOMIA RESEARCH AND CONSULTING AWARDED GLOBAL B CORP™ STATUS We are delighted to announce our certification as a B Corporation®(or B Corp™), joining a growing group of companies reinventing business by pursuing purpose as well as profit. We are one of the first sustainability consultancies to have achieved B Corp™ status globally. This certification is a demonstration of one of the many ways in which we will continue to seek out methods to drive more rapid and impactful change to help drive a more positive human impact on the Earth. It shows we apply the same care for society and the planet to all aspects of our own business, as we do on our client work. 🌍   We are now part of a community of 8,000 companies globally who have certified as B Corps™. The B Corp™ community in the UK, representing a broad cross section of industries and sizes, comprises over 1,500 companies and include well-known brands such as The Guardian, innocent, The Body Shop and organic food pioneers Abel & Cole.   Jonquil Hackenberg, CEO says:    “Being part of the B Corp community is exciting for us: to be part of a movement which recognises societal and planetary value as central to sustainable business strategy. To be one of the first sustainability consultancies with B Corp status across all our operations globally underlines the origins of how we have always done business since inception, nearly a quarter of a century ago. B Corp status provides external recognition of our natural DNA and is the next logical step in our journey to create even greater impact, providing a route to partnership for any organisation wishing to ensure benefit to all stakeholders across their supply chains by engaging like-minded service providers.”   She goes on to add:   “It also demonstrates how unfailingly passionate our team are about the future of our planet and society. We not only strive to do work that leaves our planet in a better place for the next generation for our clients, but we apply it to the way we work too – whilst having a lot of fun in the process.’ #circulareconomy #unwasted #bcorp #bcorpcertified #bcorporation #climatecrisis #sustainability #recycle #reuse #reduce

At Eunomia we're passionate about understanding reusable packaging systems and helping to get them right. Below one of our LCA experts Michael Kirk-Smith has turned his attention away from models and towards recent reuse news from the Paris Olympics, which starts officially tonight. 🎖 France have vowed to make this Olympics the greenest ever, including offering an extensive supply of reusable beverage containers. However, earlier this week, French news outlet Le Monde have reported the farcical news that three quarters of the 9 million drinks served to fans in reusable cups will be first poured out of single-use plastic bottles. This is clearly not right and will be seen by many as a classic case of greenwashing. 🍻 Doing reuse right in a single-use world isn't easy and requires multi-stakeholder collaboration and carefully written legislation. Large events such as the Olympics are arguably the low-hanging fruits of the reuse revolution. Indeed, just over the border Flanders have even mandated the serving of drinks in reusable at some events. Interestingly, the Olympic venues may be complying with this legislation if it were introduced in France (as they are served in reusable containers), demonstrating the need for carefully written legislation. 💚 Compared to France's overall single-use plastic consumption, 9 million drinks is literally ‘a drop in the 500ml bottle’, as they say (about 0.01% by mass). But this is a clear missed opportunity to set an example, on the global stage, of how to do reuse right. We can only hope that this news sparks positive conversations about what to do better next time, rather than being used as example to stick with our throwaway culture. Sources in the comments below 👇 #reuse #olympics #Paris24

Volunteering is important to us at Eunomia. Why? Put simply, because it's the right thing to do. We are currently upgrading our volunteering policy and have signed up to be a partner of a local Bristol Charity - more on this later! Eunomian Isabelle Williamson volunteers for Climate Ed, a charity which links up volunteers to schools to offer free education to children about climate science, carbon literacy and carbon action. Izzy delivered a programme of 5 x 1hr workshops to Year 5s in her local primary school in Wimbledon. They covered: the causes and impacts of climate change; in depth sessions on transport, food and consumption; and actions to help mitigate climate change. Having completed her final session last week, Izzy was touched by the children’s card and feedback forms with some highlights including: “They taught me a lot and now I can do something small but it would make a difference”, “The workshops inspired me to do something about climate change, thank you!!”, “My favourite bit was the role playing, I loved it all though”.

♻ We have released a new report in conjunction with Canadian Beverage Association demonstrating that extending Ontario's deposit-return system to include non-alcoholic beverage containers is the most effective way to increase rates and reach the collection goal of 90%. ✔ The report’s findings show that leveraging The Beer Store’s collection system and having grocery stores and other retail locations take back empty beverage containers will create a system that can achieve a recovery rate of over 89% and deliver a collection location for roughly every 1,600 Ontarians. This system would also include limited depot collection in high-volume locations. The net-cost of this system is estimated to be $190 million and would be funded by the beverage industry. Read the full report link below 👇 #DRS #recycling

We believe our role is to challenge the status quo. Our incomparable expertise means we ask the right questions and dare to go where others won’t. We get to the heart of the real issues impacting our clients’ businesses and society. Then we provide the evidence and practical solutions to solve the world’s most pressing societal and environmental problems. To find out how we did this last year, take a look at our latest impact report. This report is a snapshot of all that Eunomia has driven this past year, both externally and internally, resulting in global B-Corp certification across our company from our headquarters in Bristol in the UK, to London, Brooklyn, Brussels, and Auckland. Take a look to gain a sense of the work that we undertake and of the people we employ. We will be sharing a number of the case studies from the report on this platform over the coming weeks. Link in the comments below. #circulareconomy #carboneconomy #circulareconomy #netzero

This isn't just, or even primarily, an #Olympics story - it's a #RiverRecovery story. The Seine is a healthier river than it has been for many decades. There's doubtless far more to be done, but it's a reminder that if we make good decisions, nature can and will recover. There is - rightly - a huge focus in the UK on sewage pollution in our rivers, but sustainable catchment management needs to be about much more, from efficient water use to reduce extraction, to limiting agricultural run-off through improved practices, to using #NaturalCapital approaches to mitigate #flooding and support #biodiversity - all topics we are excited about at Eunomia Research & Consulting. #NatureRecovery will make a better more liveable world, whether you are a wild swimmer or not. https://lnkd.in/e5tfZwVh

We are really looking forward to this... 💚

♻ CAN ADVANCED SORTING CONTRIBUTE TO PLASTIC CIRCULARITY IN EUROPE? 📣 Our new report, commissioned by Amcor, Inc. and TOMRA Recycling, explores how marker and object recognition sorting technology can contribute to circularity and traceability in plastic packaging recycling in Europe. It is avaliable for download from our website, link below 👇 ✔ The report, entitled Advanced Sorting for Circularity, published today, finds that for many plastic packaging formats, further optimisation of existing sorting technologies is likely to be sufficient for improved circularity. For the remaining sorting challenges, object recognition could be the most cost-effective advanced sorting technology to facilitate increased circularity, including when compared to marker technology. ✔ The plastic packaging industry is currently facing a growing demand for increased sustainability, particularly in increasing recycled content and fostering a circular economy. This pressure varies across Europe but is predominantly driven by public and governmental demands, leading to brand owners adopting more sustainable practices. EU legislation also enacts requirements around packaging, particularly the anticipated Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), expected to go into effect later in 2024. ✔ This new report explores how marker and object recognition sorting technologies can contribute to circularity and traceability in plastic packaging recycling, specifically within the EU, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK. ✔ The report concludes that it seems likely that there will be continued adoption of object recognition technologies, and these may offer a more cost-effective solution for circularity. Both the plastics industry and policy developers should consider whether using marker technologies as a mass market solution offers sufficient additional benefits to warrant both the additional cost and the complex implementation process.  Andy Grant, Technical Director and the project’s director at Eunomia said: “With increased interest in marker-based solutions for sorting plastic packaging, the findings of this report should be timely for decision-making across Europe and Member States. This report concludes that the application of advanced sorting technologies is not likely to be necessary to facilitate circular recycling across many packaging formats because existing technology is sufficient. Where advanced sorting is necessary, we already see some examples; in some rigid plastics formats, object recognition is already delivering tangible results. In flexible formats, further work is needed to determine which of the advanced formats may be necessary.” #plastic #recycling #circulareconomy #advancedsorting

At Eunomia we have a deep rooted love of nature, none more so than Tom Raven, Ph.D. our resident biodiversity expert. Here is a little update, from him on some great news for bees... The environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, has launched an investigation into Defra’s emergency authorisation of a neonicotinoid pesticide during the previous government, following a complaint submitted to the OEP by ClientEarth. The pesticide, which is banned by the EU, is used on sugar beet and is highly toxic to bee populations, which play an essential role in ecosystems as pollinators. Defra has now authorised the emergency use of it for four years in a row, whilst the newly elected Labour government has promised to end these emergency exemptions for the bee-killing pesticides. We welcome this development by the OEP, and hope that the new government will follow through with its promise to finally end the use of ecologically dangerous pesticides.   #bees #bioviserity #pesticides

Great to represent Eunomia Research & Consulting at letsrecycle.com's London Conference today. Lots of interesting discussion on waste management in the capital.