Month: July 2023

This article was originally published by the Soft Commodities Forum, hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

At the Soft Commodities Forum (SCF), we believe that achieving meaningful landscape-level transformation and acquiring the financing to get there require collaboration across food and agriculture value chains for standardized metrics. Collaboration as an entire industry enables increased impact by including more farmers, larger areas of land, and a higher volume of commodities. It also allows us to collectively understand a landscape’s profile and needs (including deforestation dynamics, availability of degraded pasturelands and remaining forest assets, and institutional maturity), a basis to deploy adequate solutions while learning together.

Both The Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition (FPC) and the SCF share a responsibility to support supply chain transformation in commodity-producing landscapes. The SCF and FPC have therefore worked together over the past year to align on a common monitoring and evaluation framework to measure and report the impact of their landscape interventions.

The framework establishes a transparent progress reporting tool for value chain investors to assess and support the scaling of landscape solutions that generate nature- and climate-positive outcomes. Both the SCF and the FPC are supporting farmers in high-priority production areas, and by working together, can address common investment barriers collectively.

Collaboration on a common set of indicators is an important first step in the SCF and FPC shared responsibility to support the emergence of forest-positive landscapes. Both groups have identified a set of common indicators, pictured below, and will develop complementary metrics throughout 2023.

To develop this Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, the SCF and FPC are drawing upon best practices such as the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL) and Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) recommendations. Mobilizing and leveraging finance from both public and private sources is a key activity for these organizations, at both the global and national levels. FOLU Core Partners are well positioned to support the mobilization of larger-scale finance through several channels, including the Farmer First Clusters (FFC) initiative, launched during COP27 to support the transition to forest-positive land use management and commodity production.

Central to the FPC’s Strategy for Collective Action in Production Landscapes is the recognition that action beyond supply chains is needed to transform to forest-positive commodity production across the sector. Through its Landscape Reporting Framework, the CGF’s FPC monitors the progress of landscape initiatives to forest-positive, and by aligning priority indicators with the SCF, groundwork is laid for effective collaboration to realize positive landscape-level outcomes for climate, nature, and people.

The FPC and SCF are beginning the implementation of transformational landscape approaches in priority landscapes, and future collaborative efforts will aim to further mobilize supply chain actors, governments, and the finance sector in order to share lessons learned and scale up incentives at the landscape level.

Originally published in Owens Corning’s 2022 Sustainability Report

Although he has only been with Owens Corning for about one year, Derek Bian has already taken a very active role in our fight against climate change. Derek has been involved in the installation of solar panels at two facilities in China, Yuhang and Changzhou, as well as spearheading waste glass recycling projects in Yuhang and Kimchon, South Korea. In addition, Derek helps ensure that all our Asia Pacific track their energy consumption and follow local environmental regulations.

”It is very important for Owens Corning to set up sustainability goals and continue driving our approach in the long term.“

On Owens Corning’s unique approach to climate change

Owens Corning has a long history in our industry, and we are leading the way not only in business, but also in the development of new technologies, innovations, and more. We are now applying our efforts to sustainability and climate change — and we are now leaders in this area as well. As we improve our processes to optimize the effectiveness of our energy consumption and use more renewable energy, we can also lead the way in sustainability and combating climate change. Owens Corning can identify and drive sustainability projects based on our processes. Once a project is completed and verified as effective, it can be deployed on all similar processes across our enterprise. It can become a fixed part of the process, which makes our approach even more sustainable and comprehensive.

On what makes the fight against climate change a personal passion 

In addition to the attention that climate change has received in the media, I have noticed it more and more in my personal life. For example, when I was a child, it seemed that summers were not as they are now, and I could get cool simply by using an electric fan. Now, though, I feel like I need to keep the air conditioner on most of the time throughout the summer. When I became a father, I became even more concerned that in the future, my child will have to use the air conditioner even more throughout the year, which will only use more energy and bring about further climate change. This is how I became interested in climate change, and I believe it should matter to everyone.

On what individuals and companies can do to combat climate change

There are many things that people can do in their everyday life to reduce their environmental footprint and help fight climate change. My family and I sort our garbage for recycling, which helps manufacturers reduce their reliance on virgin raw materials. In addition, we try to be aware of our water usage and turn off our domestic appliances when they are not in use. At the same time, Owens Corning is setting a good example for how companies can do their part. Our processes require a high consumption of water and energy. Every improvement Owens Corning makes, even if they are small steps, can have a significant impact on our footprint.

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