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Even if they don't go fully vegan or vegetarian, research indicates a growing number of people are adding more plant-based foods to their diet. That's great news for the planet, as studies also show that even eating less meat and dairy can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation tied to large-scale farming. 

From both an environmental and human health perspective, there's no substitute for meals made from whole foods like fruits, veggies, grains and legumes — which are more nutritious and tend to come with less packaging waste. But if you're looking for more variety or simply something that's easy to grab on the go, an ever-growing list of brands have you covered. Here's a roundup of what's coming soon to restaurants and retailers near you.

WayFare meets the market with plant-based yogurt line

The global vegan yogurt market is set to reach nearly $11 billion by 2030 as more brands get into the game. Among the new kids on the block is a freshly-launched yogurt line from WayFare made with pumpkin seeds, butter beans and oats. Plain, strawberry and raspberry flavors are already available online and in Midwest retailers like Jewel, with a vanilla flavor set to launch later this year — adding to the brand's existing lineup of plant-based butter, cheese and dessert.

Upstart vegan cheese brand Armored Fresh eyes U.S. national rollout 

With the global vegan cheese market set to reach $4.7 billion by 2026, the time is now for brands to stake their claim. South Korean food technology company Armored Fresh is one of the newest additions to the U.S. market, making its debut in October at more than 100 corner grocers in New York City. This year, the brand is going national — with a plan to start selling almond milk cheese cubes and cheese slices on its website later this month. Shredded cheeses and cheese spreads, made from its proprietary fermentation process that mimics dairy cheesemaking, are soon to follow, the company said.

Startup Crafty Counter launches vegan hard-boiled egg alternative made from nuts 

As egg prices skyrocket amidst the worst U.S. bird flu outbreak on record, largely linked to factory farming operations and lax animal welfare standards, more shoppers are warming to the prospect of plant-based alternatives.

Curious consumers now have plenty of options to choose from — including this new vegan hard-boiled egg alternative from Texas startup Crafty Counter. Marketed as the first plant-based hard-boiled eggs to hit the U.S. market, the nut-based WunderEggs hit Whole Foods stores across the U.S. earlier this month and are also available on the company's website. They've already received a stamp of approval from Hong Kong environmental news platform Green Queen, who said they "look, feel and taste like chicken eggs." A vegan alternative to egg white patties is expected from the brand later this year. 

Aqua Cultured Foods plans new manufacturing plant for vegan seafood in Chicago’s West Loop

Analog seafood is another plant-based foods segment that's booming, with sales expected to reach $1.3 billion globally by 2031. Food tech startup Aqua Cultured Foods is well positioned to get an early foot in the door, having just started construction on a new facility to scale up production of its whole-cut, plant-based seafood. The company says it's developing "ultra-realistic" calamari, shrimp, scallops, and sushi-grade filets of tuna, sea bass and whitefish with proprietary mycoprotein fermentation processes, and it expects to begin introducing its products to market this spring.  

Tabitha Brown brings 30+ new plant-based foods to Target

Target just dropped the third of four planned capsule collections with actress and social media superstar Tabitha Brown. Known for her vegan cooking, the 2023 launch is right on track for Brown — including 34 new plant-based foods, as well as cookware, tableware and entertaining items. Brown’s collection includes vegan sausages, burger patties and ravioli, as well as ready-made meals like chickpea chili and pasta salad. 

Hippeas has an answer to vegan Dorito's

Sadly, nacho-flavored Dorito's are not vegan, but if the craving strikes, these new chips from Hippeas may be the next best thing. Launched earlier this month, the new Nacho Vibes flavor of Hippeas' chickpea tortilla chips "more than stands up well next to its mainstream competitor from a taste and texture standpoint," the company's CMO, Julia Hecht, claims — and with chickpeas as the main ingredient, they're also packed with protein. Find them now in Sprouts Farmers Markets and select retailers across the U.S. as well as on Amazon and Hippeas.com. 

Ben & Jerry's latest vegan ice cream flavor serves up nostalgia with an upstart brand 

Ben & Jerry's fans still mourning the loss of Oatmeal Cookie Chunk will cheer the launch of a new non-dairy alternative — which the folks over at VegNews say will bring back childhood memories of Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies. The new Oatmeal Crème Pie flavor includes marshmallow swirls and gluten-free, vegan cookies from Black-owned upstart brand Partake, which focuses on allergy-friendly ingredients. The new flavor is a permanent addition to Ben & Jerry's non-dairy lineup. 

Violife adds dairy-free sour cream to the lineup

Greek brand Violife has been in the dairy-free game since the 1990s and is now the top-selling vegan cheese brand in the U.S. Its expansive product portfolio includes all types of plant-based cheese, as well as vegan butters, dips and spreads. A vegan sour cream alternative is the latest on the list. Made from simple ingredients like coconut oil and potato and tapioca starches, Violife's Just Like Sour Cream is meant to substitute seamlessly in all your favorite recipes — from TexMex night, to baked potato topping, to tangy baked goods. Find it now in U.S. Walmart locations. 

Nutr wants to boost the nutritional profile of your homemade plant-based milk

Nutr burst onto the scene in 2021 with a single-serving machine that makes a variety of plant-based milks with less hassle and mess. Anyone who's made plant-based milk at home knows it's often tricky, with the outcome turning out chunky, grainy and less than pleasant. Reviews from all over the web indicate the Nutr machine solves those challenges once and for all, producing fresh and creamy milk alternatives from nuts, seeds, oats, rice, soy or coconut. 

In February, the folks behind the Nutr are looking to do it again with Nutr Blends, a line of organic flavored powders like matcha, vanilla-cinnamon and chocolate that are made to be added to homemade nut milks. The powders offer a nutritional boost that matches the vitamins and minerals found in cow’s milk, alongside superfoods and adaptogens in a blend developed by certified nutritionists. 

Veggie Grill launches limited-time 'Bitchin' Menu' collaboration

This month plant-based foods chain Veggie Grill is teaming up with Bitchin' Sauce, a cult-favorite brand of creamy vegan dips sold in more than 12,000 retailers nationwide. The menu collab includes a plant-based burger, salad, sandwich and nachos topped with almond-based Bitchin' Sauce, available for a limited time at Veggie Grill locations in California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York City.

Domino's U.K. is making U.S. fans jealous with new vegan American Hot pizza

Domino's piloted vegan pizza at 46 locations in the U.K. last year before rolling it out across the country in September. This month, the chain's U.K. division is poking some fun at U.S. fans with a vegan version of its American Hot pizza. The new pie is topped with red onions, jalapeños, dairy-free mozzarella and plant-based pepperoni from the Vegetarian Butcher on Domino's signature vegan dough, and it's available at all U.K. locations and on the Domino's U.K. app. 

Silk and So Delicious Dairy Free are coming for your morning cup

Danone North America brands Silk and So Delicious Dairy Free both dropped new plant-based coffee creamers this month. So Delicious re-introduced its coconut milk creamers with what it promises will be an even better taste and texture, while Silk says its new Mocha Almond Creamer is the first chocolate plant-based creamer sold outside the holiday season. The Silk creamer is available at mainstream retailers across the U.S., and two flavors of the So Delicious coconut milk creamer can be found at Whole Foods, Sprouts, Ahold and Kroger grocery stores.

Iron Chef-founded MingsBings hits the shelves at Publix and Sprouts

Plant-based brand MingsBings is coming to the frozen food aisle at a combined 1,200 Publix and Sprouts locations across the U.S. Founded by Iron Chef alum Ming Tsai, the brand is all about blending Eastern and Western cultures, with a lineup of Chinese flatbread pockets called "bings" inspired by traditionally Western favorites like tacos, cheeseburgers and egg sandwiches. Launched as a direct-to-consumer brand, MingBings is growing fast in the plant-based foods segment and is now on shelves at over 4,000 U.S. grocery stores, including Wegmans, Whole Foods and select Targets, as well as Publix and Sprouts. 

Califia Farms goes organic

Califia Farms is already a leader in plant-based beverages, with a wide range of products including plant milks, coffee creamers, juices and more. Now, it's introducing USDA-certified organic versions of its top-selling oat milk and almond milk. Both blends contain only three ingredients — purified water, sea salt, and oats or almonds — and are available at mainstream U.S. grocers including Kroger and Whole Foods. 

Burger King Germany tests out new breading to differentiate plant-based foods, while vegan bacon hits the menu in the U.K.

Burger King customers in Germany saw a plant-based version of the Long Chicken Cheddar Style, featuring vegan cheese from Violife, hit the menu this month. The chain's German division also worked with the Vegetarian Butcher to develop a new parsley breading for its plant-based fried products so workers can easily differentiate them and cook them in a designated frier to be used only for vegan foods. 

Meanwhile, Burger King locations across the U.K. will start serving a vegan bacon alternative made by Natalie Portman-backed brand La Vie, after a successful trial at select stores in France last year. 

Chipotle adds new plant-based bowls 

Chipotle kicked off the new year with a lineup of "lifestyle bowls" tailored to suit diets like vegan, keto and Whole30. On the vegan side of things, Chipotle fans can choose a bowl with or without Sofritas, the chain's first plant-based protein launched back in 2014. All the new bowls are available via online order only across the U.S. and Canada. 

Subway U.K. gives plant-based foods a go

Subway U.K. is making its first foray into plant-based foods with a new teriyaki sub featuring alt steak created in partnership with the Vegetarian Butcher, a Unilever brand that also works with other major chains like Domino's and Burger King in Europe. The teriyaki steak sub will be available until Feb. 28 at Subway locations in the U.K. and Ireland, but the Vegetarian Butcher plans to launch additional plant-based options with Subway U.K. later in the year, VegNews reports. 

Sprouts debuts cupcake collab between farmers and a social enterprise bakery

Shoppers at over 380 Sprouts stores across the U.S. will now find Rubicon Bakers' Vegan Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes in the bakery section. It's marketed as a creative collaboration between Washington red raspberry farmers and the B Corp bakery Rubicon Bakers, which hires people who have experienced significant barriers to employment, including housing insecurity and incarceration. These sweet vegan treats will be available until March 5. 

Food tech startup Vgarden offers a new take on canned tuna

Israeli food tech startup Vgarden has already developed an impressive lineup of plant-based foods — from meat and fish alternatives to vegan pastries, cheeses and spreads. Next up, the company is tackling the world's most popular fish in perhaps its most humble form. Perfect for salads and sandwiches, Vgarden says its latest launch offers the same appearance, texture and flavor of tinned tuna without the environmental impact of overfishing. The private-label product is already being rolled out in the retail and food service sectors, the company said. 

7-Eleven gets into vegan grab-and-go in Canada and Sweden

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is jumping into the plant-based foods space with both feet — literally. Over the past month, the chain has started serving up Oatly oat milk up at coffee stations and linked up with Just Egg, Impossible Foods and Violife for its first vegan breakfast sandwich. The breakfast sammie is now available at 550 stores across Canada, while 90 locations in Sweden will test out oat milk as a push-button option at 7-Eleven coffee machines. As the chain likes to say, "Oh thank heaven."

Vegan Spam alternative is coming to Walmart shelves

Spam is possibly one of the most controversial meats out there — a head-scratcher for many, a nostalgic choice for some and a beloved delicacy for others (including diners in Hawaii, who have embraced the canned meat as a cultural staple). Those looking for a vegan version got their wish last year as plant-based foods brand unMEAT added tinned Luncheon Style Meat to its lineup that already includes analog burgers, tuna and chicken alternatives, and more. This year, the product will be available to a much larger audience, having rolled out on Walmart stores last week on top of smaller grocers like HEB and Harris Teeter. 

Kelly Clarkson and the Jonas Brothers collab on vegan popcorn

Rob Garbowsky's son is a close friend of the pop trio the Jonas Brothers, and he often made popcorn for the boys backstage. Fast forward to 2021, and Rob and the band turned the tasty recipe into a full-blown business, fittingly named Rob’s Backstage Popcorn. The latest to join the lineup is a barbecue flavor developed with fellow musician and American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, whose Southern roots inspired the sweet and smoky mix that just so happens to be vegan. Find it online now and in mainstream grocers like Kroger and Sam's Club later this month. 

Native Foods does Chicago proud with plant-based Italian Beef sandwich

The Italian Beef sandwich originated in Chicago in the 1930s and has remained a mainstay for diners in the city. So it makes sense that Chicago-based chain eatery Native Foods would offer a vegan take on this city favorite. The sandwich has all the classic elements of the original — plant-based sliced roast beef, mild giardiniera cheese, a toasted baguette and au jus for dipping — and is entirely vegan. Find it now at Native Foods locations in Chicago, California and Colorado. 

(Featured images courtesy of Armored Fresh and Target) 

A key decarbonization asset in the U.S. gathered rust during the Donald Trump administration, and after two years of hard work, it is finally fit for duty again. That is the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, the small but highly influential government financial resource that counts an early loan to Tesla Motors among its success stories.

The facts behind the Loan Programs Office

The Loan Programs Office was established by the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 during the administration of former President George W. Bush. It was tasked with providing loans and loan guarantees to innovative companies in the areas of fuel efficiency and clean energy.

The goal was to help bridge the gap between new, commercial-ready technology and the mass market. Its best-known success story is Tesla Motors, a company that seemed destined to languish in the luxury niche market when it first launched in 2006. Tesla only produced a total of 2,500 units of its first vehicle, the two-seat Roadster sports car, which it introduced in 2008 with a price tag that easily topped $100,000.

The picture was quite a bit different after 2010, when Tesla received a $456 million loan from the Loan Programs Office. By 2012, the company stopped production of the Roadster and was ready to produce the now-familiar Model S.

“Tesla's first vehicle, the Lotus-inspired Roadster, was first produced in 2008. This limited production model only sold 2,500 units. At that time, Tesla was a sleepy EV company – and it wasn't until 2012 with the Model S that the company was a household name. In the first year of production, Tesla sold 3,000 Model S units,” U.S. News and World Report noted last November in a recap of the company’s sales to date.

That particular article failed to mention the $456 million loan that launched the Model S, but it did note that Tesla jumped production up to 22,477 in 2014, and went on to produce millions. 

Despite the reputational chaos surrounding Tesla CEO Elon Musk in recent years, the company’s success is widely credited with setting the stage for other startups and legacy automakers to produce electric vehicles for the mass market, along with a growing ecosystem of battery innovators, charging station manufacturers and related stakeholders.

Although the Loan Programs Office focuses on startups, it also provides loans to legacy firms that are innovating in new areas. One notable success story in that area is Ford Motor Co. Ford refused federal Recovery Act funding after the economy crashed in 2008, but it did take a $5.6 billion loan from the Loan Programs Office for factory upgrades in 2009.

Ford went on to ramp up its electrification plans in 2015 and 2018, and it was the first mass market automaker to carve a path from electric sedans to light-duty trucks when it introduced the all-electric Lightening F-150 in 2021 to widespread acclaim. 

What happened to the Loan Programs Office?

The Loan Programs Office was launched under a Republican president, which should have sheltered it from partisan attacks. The financial success of the program creates more foundation for bipartisan support: Overall, interest on loans has more than offset losses from other recipients that went bankrupt.

In 2019, the Bipartisan Policy Center noted that “LPO projects have transformed American energy infrastructure and accelerated growth in clean energy and electric vehicle markets,” creating or saving thousands of jobs, with projects generating a total investment of more than $50 billion. 

“Further, LPO projects have prevented 34.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and saved 1.7 billion gallons of gasoline and counting,” they added. 

That gasoline-cutting achievement explains why the office became a target for fossil energy stakeholders and their allies in Congress after President Barack Obama took office in 2009. 

The Republican party took control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections, and promptly tried to withdraw funding from the program. They also ginned up public opinion against the program by flogging the bankruptcy of the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra in public hearings.

To the surprise of no one, the Loan Programs Office was practically mothballed after Obama left office in 2016. Upon entering the White House, former President Trump repeatedly announced his intention to defund the program. The sole exception was a multibillion-dollar bailout for the Vogtle nuclear power plant, which continues to suffer from delays and cost overruns.

$350 billion more for clean energy projects

Someone in the Loan Programs Office was looking forward to a new administration, though. In December of 2020, just a few weeks after Trump lost his re-election bid, the Loan Programs Office publicized new guidance on loan applications, with a focus on critical materials needed for electric vehicles, solar cells, wind turbines and other clean tech.

In March of 2021, shortly after President Joe Biden took office, the office issued a solicitation for companies to proposed projects for achieving Biden’s goal of 30 gigawatts in new offshore wind capacity.

Restoring trust in the office has been slow going, though. Last week, Bloomberg noted that the office has received more than 100 applications over the past two years but has made only four conditional loans or loan guarantees.

The head of the office, Jigar Shah, is seeking to raise awareness about the power of the program to vault innovators into the mass market. He has gotten a big assist from the Democratic members of Congress who voted for the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which passed into law with the support of exactly zero members of the Republican party.

As described by Bloomberg, the Inflation Reduction Act added another $350 billion to the office’s previous loan authority of $44 billion, for a total of $394 billon. In terms of success stories, that’s the equivalent of scores more Teslas, Fords and other innovators funneling new decarbonization technology into the U.S. economy.

Of particular note is a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that removes a cap on the total amount of loans for auto manufacturing, under an existing division of the office called the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.

Aside from benefitting car makers, removal of the cap sets the wheels in motion for a previously unfunded provision in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to take effect. That provision expanded the Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program to include medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, locomotives, maritime vessels including offshore wind vessels, aviation and hyperloop.

The Inflation Reduction Act also added funding for an entirely new program in the Loan Programs Office. The newly formed Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program aims to help “retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations or to improve the efficiency of infrastructure that is currently operating.”

Some examples of qualifying projects could include converting fossil energy sites to clean technology, retrofitting older wind farms with more efficient turbines, and replacing conventional solar arrays with agrivoltaic systems.

The Loan Programs Office is poised for a rush of new business under the Biden administration. As for what happens after Election Day 2024, that’s partly up to those in the business community who lend financial support to candidates for office.

The run-up to the 2024 presidential election cycle is already looming into view. The choice of which candidates to support should be clear to every business that seeks to court the up-and-coming generation of consumers, clients and voters.

Image credit: Tesla (press use only)

The climate crisis is changing how some Americans think about their own futures, according to a new survey — with 1 out of 4 worried they may have to give up long-term goals like starting a family. It’s no wonder then that half of U.S. respondents said they're willing to abide by the vast majority of changes needed to restore our planet. Yet billionaires like Bill Gates have been shamelessly using their platforms to blame the state of the climate on the masses.

Gates reasserted his belief that it will be up to technology to save us from ourselves on his annual Ask Me Anything Reddit thread this month, hinting at his earlier statements that regular people just aren’t willing to abandon their extravagant lifestyles in order to limit rising global temperatures.

While the third richest man in America is clearly out of touch with the rest of us, he continues to tell on himself by emphasizing products that consumers can buy instead of encouraging everyone to scale down. Gates’ response to one Redditor’s question — “What’s the biggest way an individual can contribute to the climate solution?” — failed to address any tangible lifestyle choices that people can make to significantly lower their carbon footprints. Even worse, the solution he offered would actually lead to increased emissions and environmental destruction if everyone took his advice. 

“You are a voter, a consumer, a giver and a worker. In every one of those roles you can help,” Gates wrote on Reddit, without offering any significant options for doing so beyond “buying an electric car helps” and “there will be options to pay a bit extra to offset your travel emissions coming soon."

But buying an electric vehicle (EV) prematurely — when the ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle in the driveway is still running just fine — does not lead to a net reduction in carbon emissions. Truly, if it were even possible for every American to ditch their ICE vehicle for an EV right now, meeting that demand would create a dramatic rise in global emissions and cause substantial environmental damage from mineral extraction.

Such flip suggestions miss the entire point of transitioning to cleaner energy and transportation, seemingly demonstrating Gates’ interest in keeping mass consumption rolling. He continued by mentioning that he already pays to offset his family’s travel — once again giving away the same “let them eat cake” mentality he has previously exhibited in regards to overshooting the targeted cap on global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In fact, as we learned last year, Gates spends $9 million annually on carbon offsets to make up for his own lifestyle — an astronomical amount that begs two questions. Just how lavishly does he live? And does he do anything at all to limit his own carbon footprint? (It’s hard to imagine to what extent he does, considering the sheer number of private jets he owns.) The billionaire was clearly speaking about himself when he told Bloomberg’s “Zero” podcast that the people of Earth would be unwilling to give up their lifestyles to lessen the effects of the climate crisis.

Of course, as the recent survey — conducted by researchers from Elabe on behalf of the private resource management firm Veolia — demonstrated, he’s wrong. Half of U.S. respondents across age groups, genders and geographies said they're willing to make sacrifices to fight climate change — and 55 percent recognize that technological advances will not be enough. We have to change how we live, a concept that Gates and his peers choose not to comprehend.

Likewise, concerns from the financial elite about slowing population growth feel rather ironic when faced with the quarter of Americans surveyed who fear they may have to forego major life events like having children because the planet is on its way to becoming unlivable. What’s more, 52 percent of U.S. respondents want to see more conversations about climate change and its solutions, agreeing that it’s difficult to imagine “ecological transformation” without them. But that’s not surprising with billionaires like Bill dominating the dialogue. 

Image credit: Mika Baumeister/Unsplash

Under the guise of protecting state pension funds from something called “woke capitalism,” a number of states have recently imposed sanctions on financial institutions that invest in clean energy. However, their actions already appear to be ineffectual. West Virginia is a case in point. If all goes according to plan, the state’s new venture with the iron-air battery startup Form Energy will help accelerate the pace of clean energy investment across the U.S., woke or no woke.

West Virginia vs. woke capitalism

The “anti-woke” argument has slipped into the national conversation with the help of high-profile governors like Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida, who seek to disparage renewable energy as part of their crusade against ESG (environment, social, governance) investing.

West Virginia has cut a lower profile on the national scene, but it’s not for lack of trying. West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore made sure that his home state was in the mix when financial officials in 16 states released an open letter in 2021, warning banks against boycotting fossil energy industries.

The goal of the 16-state coalition, as described by Moore, is to “protect our states’ economies, jobs, and energy independence from these unwarranted attacks on our critical industries.”

West Virginia didn't get its own memo

Despite the forcefulness of the letter, Moore apparently forgot to include Gov. Jim Justice and the West Virginia Development Authority in the plan to thwart renewable energy investment.

In December, Gov. Justice announced that the West Virginia Economic Development Authority has invested $75 million to acquire 55 acres of property in the industrial city of Weirton, under a partnership with Form Energy.

Form was attracted in part by the opportunity to set up shop along the Ohio River. Another attraction was the financial package offered by West Virginia.

“We structured a unique financial incentive package worth up to $290 million in asset-based, performance financing to support their decision to locate in Weirton,” Justice said. The governor also cited at least 750 new jobs and a total investment of up to $760 million in the state’s economy.

“The funds put toward this project are guaranteed, secured, and collateralized through ownership of all land and buildings by the state,” Justice emphasized, adding that his office plans to work with state and federal agencies to nail down the other $215 million in assistance needed to complete the package.

In addition to the Economic Development Authority, other backers of the plan cited by Form Energy are West Virginia Secretary Mitch Carmichael, Speaker of the House of Delegates Roger Hanshaw, Senate President Craig Blair and officials in Weirton’s home county of Hancock.

U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito also put their seals of approval on the venture.

The significance of long-duration energy storage

Form has focused its new iron-air battery on long-duration energy storage capability. The company says its technology can store electricity for 100 hours.

That is a significant break with conventional lithium-ion batteries. Though lithium-ion battery systems are commonly used for storing excess wind and solar energy, they only last for a few hours.

Overcoming the long-duration barrier means that energy storage facilities can provide electricity to the grid for days on end, just like a conventional fossil energy power plant. Long-duration energy storage is the key that will ramp up the pace and reach of wind and solar development, squeezing fossil energy out of the power generation sector.

At the present time, hydropower is practically the only form of long-duration energy storage available on a large scale in the U.S. The introduction of new technologies will enable long-duration storage to expand into new territory, independent of hydrological and geological features that are needed for hydropower.

West Virginia to lead the long-duration energy storage revolution with iron-air battery

Form Energy plans to begin construction on its new iron-air battery factory in Weirton this year, with product delivery expected in 2024. The short timeline is made possible in part by supply chain efficiencies that derive from the iron-air platform.

“The active components of our iron-air battery system are some of the safest, cheapest, and most abundant materials on the planet — low-cost iron, water and air,” Form explains.

“Iron-air batteries are the best solution to balance the multi-day variability of renewable energy due to their extremely low cost, safety, durability and global scalability,” they add.

Form also emphasizes that costs for its 100-hour iron-air battery system are competitive with legacy power plants.
As described by Form, the first iron-air batteries to roll off the Weirton assembly line will be followed by other iterations.

“This product is our first step to tackling the biggest barrier to deep decarbonization: making renewable energy available when and where it’s needed, even during multiple days of extreme weather, grid outages or periods of low renewable generation,” the company said. 

That certainly sounds like West Virginia will soon export fossil energy-killing technology all around the country, regardless of Moore and the anti-ESG movement. 

As for Moore, in December he criticized a new Joe Biden administration rule that widens the discretion of pension managers to consider ESG principles, in addition to speculation that he is preparing to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Image credit: Jim Kelly and cmh2315fl via Flickr

Around the world, there is a growing realization that companies, not consumers, are key to the rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions needed to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. 

Here’s the challenge: Most corporate emissions fall into the category of Scope 3 emissions, the business term for emissions that occur within a company’s value chain but outside of its direct control. Examples of Scope 3 emissions include those tied to the manufacture of raw materials or those produced when a consumer uses a product. In most business sectors, they represent over 80 percent of emissions. 

Reducing these upstream and downstream impacts is where companies can make the biggest difference. But addressing Scope 3 emissions requires better technologies — including methodology and GHG Protocol guidance on end-to-end value chain transparency and openly sharing of actual and verified emissions data, which not based on estimates or averages, that are ideally accounted for down to the individual product and supplier level. This puts technology innovators like the software company SAP in a prime position to drive change.

“We are working on technologies, which can enable our Intelligent Enterprise customers to have a true carbon picture across their value chain,” Anita Varshney, global vice president for strategy at SAP Sustainability Engineering, told TriplePundit. 


Enabling action to reduce Scope 3 emissions 

The increasing focus on Scope 3 emissions means it’s no longer enough for companies to be carbon neutral in their direct operations. Sourcing 100 percent clean energy, a common press release headline, sounds significant, but it’s often a drop in the bucket when looking at the entire footprint of a company’s broader impact. 

Even forward-looking companies, however, face numerous barriers to even get accurate accounting for their Scope 3 emissions, let alone devise plans to act on it. One reason is that, until recently, the methods for accounting and measuring value chain emissions were slow and cumbersome.

“Traditionally, Scope 3 data has never been collected in a systematic way because sustainability wasn’t a core business priority in the past,” Varshney said. “[Companies] were getting it from different sources, from Excel sheets, from averages, and it was never easy, as the data was not within their company. Companies have to reach out to their suppliers, to the different facilities and the people who are operating them.”

Varshney’s team found themselves working with companies that had many years of data trapped in spreadsheets. This data was not well managed and difficult to analyze and act upon, much less share with others who likely use different calculations, methods and technologies. 

The GHG Protocol, a standardize framework for GHG measurement launched by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in 2001, also hasn’t been revised in many years. With upcoming mandatory disclosure requirements from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), sustainability leaders “need a much better definition of each of the Scope 1, 2 and 3 categories,” Varshney said. WRI and WBCSD are accepting stakeholder feedback on proposed changes to the GHG Protocol until Feb. 28.

It’s clear that a combination of both better technology and accounting standards could empower better action by companies on Scope 3 emissions. SAP knows this well, having embarked on its own journey to measure and address its own Scope 3 emissions through green cloud data centers, carbon offset mechanisms and more.

While this is meaningful, Varshney said the potential for real impact is in partnership with the customers SAP serves. “SAP is a technology company. Our footprint is minuscule compared to the heavy emitters of the world, most of which are our customers.” 

Industry-wide carbon data networks are growing

As a technology solutions provider, SAP is working with companies to use data to measure both the scale of emissions and how to address them. And on that front, the company and its customers aren’t alone. Growing cross-sectoral and multi-company efforts are looking to scale up the measurement, assessment and reduction of Scope 3 emissions through innovative carbon data networks.

One such initiative is the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT), led by the well-respected World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) that convenes organizations across industries to tackle the Scope 3 emissions data challenge.

“We want to have a consistent methodology that everybody follows and agrees on the way of calculating, reporting and exchanging data in an auditable way,” Varshney explained.  

To achieve this, PACT created the Pathfinder Network, an open network that allows companies to connect different technology solutions and support peer-to-peer data sharing across value chains and industries. SAP is one of the network’s technology partners, along with CircularTree, IBM and Siemens. 

Creating interoperability might sound like a small change, but it is actually huge, says Gunther Walden, CEO and founder of CircularTree. 

“Decarboniz[ing] supply chains...needs an ecosystem of interoperable solutions to easily exchange product carbon footprint information,” Walden said in a statement. “We are excited to be part of this ecosystem and to support companies in achieving their sustainability targets.”

Since its launch, PACT has set standards for emissions data exchange, conducted a successful pilot with member companies, and is looking to bring more technology solutions on board, including from Amazon, Microsoft, iPoint and Sage Group. The Framework is already in version 2.0, which will be launched later this week.

The challenge now is one familiar to anyone working in the corporate decarbonization space: We need to speed up, and scale up, quickly. And that won’t be easy.

“There is progress, but it’s early days in the context and the scale of the problem that we are looking at. But we must continue on our momentum on achieving this radical transparency.” Varshney said.

Expanding the scope of carbon data networks to tackle Scope 3 

So, what’s the path forward for carbon data networks like PACT to increase their impact? Quite simply, more companies need to come on board. 

Several corporate partners are already working with PACT, including major global companies like Solvay, Aptar, Unilever and P&G, and they are optimistic that these new data-sharing tools will make a difference.

“The PACT initiative is actively removing barriers and making it easier for suppliers to share their product-level footprint,” said Reginaldo Ecclissato, chief supply chain officer at Unilever, in a statement. “It’s a move that will be replicated by companies across sectors and geographies, unlocking faster climate action as we all work toward a net-zero future.”

While this work is meaningful, Varshney is quick to point out that the only way to get the emissions reductions we need is if everyone works together. If these larger companies, through carbon data networks, could also support and empower their mid-small sized suppliers to also act, it would unlock even greater potential for decarbonization. 

“Value chain collaboration will heavily depend upon how these big companies are coming forward to push the data transparency together with their suppliers,” Varshney explained. “They have to work together with the smaller companies that need more budget and resources.”

SAP hopes to play a central role in this. Beyond its contribution to PACT, the company is collaborating with its strategic customers to build industry innovations like Catena-X for SAP Industry Network for Automotive.

“With partners like Accenture, we are already leading several global conversations about driving sustainability transformation with carbon intelligence at the core,” Varshney said. “Regionally, there is growing focus as well. In Australia, we teamed up with the Australian Climate Leaders Coalition to launch the Scope 3 Roadmap: Practical Steps to Address Scope 3 Emissions." This roadmap is underpinned by five proofs of concept and provides a practical, step-by-step plan that gives business leaders the tools to tackle Scope 3, create 1.5C value chains, and understand and capitalize on the opportunities the transition presents through new business models, partnerships and growth markets.



“Companies must accelerate their decarbonization actions, deriving actionable insights from true data and scale it across their value chains with their partners, quickly,” Varshney told us. "When it comes to climate change, we need to execute on our ambitions, faster than ever before.”

This article series is sponsored by SAP and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Image credit: william william/Unsplash

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and S&P Global announced the Nature Risk Profile, a methodology to analyze companies’ impacts and dependencies on nature, at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. It comes on the heels of the agreement made in December at the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP15) held in Montreal. 

The idea behind the movement to include nature or biodiversity risk in financial disclosures is largely due to the fact that roughly half of the world’s GDP is either highly or moderately dependent on nature. Should we see significant biodiversity loss in the near future, as has been projected, that puts a lot of businesses and investments at risk. Having companies disclose their nature-related risk is not just a measure to promote environmental responsibility, but also to ensure investors and asset managers that all financial risks are accounted for.

What is nature-related risk?

Business is highly dependent on nature. A lumber company relies heavily on the trees it cuts down to generate revenue. Generally, these companies aren’t sourcing trees from natural forests, but managed plots where they grow and harvest their trees. Still, a drought, flood, fire or significant soil degradation would be harmful to their activities. That is a nature-related risk.

Likewise, a mining company is heavily reliant on access to a water source for mineral processing and cooling the temperature of cutting instruments. If all of a sudden a company's water source dried up or was blocked somewhere upstream, it would be detrimental — another nature-related risk.

These risks also apply to companies that source their materials or products from suppliers with significant nature-related risks. An electronics company, for example, is reliant on the raw materials that mining companies produce. That water-related mining risk would also affect companies like Samsung, Apple and Tesla.

When will nature-related risk reporting come into effect?

It’s unlikely that we'll see any obligations for companies to report on their nature-related risk coming out this year. Even if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to fast track this component of financial disclosure, we are still likely a couple years down the road from mandatory disclosures. 

The concept of nature-based reporting is not entirely new. Launched in 2021, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) provides reporting frameworks for businesses to evaluate their nature-related risk. In fact, this framework is expected to have a strong influence on the Nature Risk Profile in development. Businesses that want to get a head start on the matter should explore the TNFD to familiarize themselves with potential reporting requirements.

Will this affect small businesses as well?

Small businesses that don’t have significant public investment will unlikely be legally required to disclose their nature-related risk, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be affected by it. Large companies that have to report will require specific information from their suppliers related to nature risk, and if small businesses are suppliers to any of these larger companies, they will need to have that information on hand. 

If we think about it similarly to the way that Scope 3 emissions are calculated, where a company has to calculate the emissions created by its entire supply chain, suppliers with fewer nature-related risk factors will be much more attractive to large companies that want to minimize their risk. Avoiding potential supply chain disruptions, as well as being a more appealing option for environmentally-conscious investors, will steer large companies to suppliers with low nature-related risk.

What are some of the challenges to nature-related risk reporting?

In terms of developing regulations to require nature-related risk disclosure, it’s important that the terminology is clear. Various reporting standards, all requiring slightly altered versions of the same thing, would only create confusion — much like the criticism that the ESG movement has seen.

As well, a cohesive accountability mechanism needs to be developed to avoid greenwashing. That could come in the form of external auditors to confirm corporate claims or strong financial penalties that eliminate the incentive to greenwash. 

It’s encouraging to see the way that the business world is moving as we acknowledge the severity of the climate crisis and the urgency to change the way we do business. Slowly but surely, the sustainability movement is entering the mainstream financial sector.

Image credit: Pexels/mali maeder and Unsplash/Boudhayan Bardhan