Rethinking Shelter: Bangladesh’s New Approach to Protecting Lives and Livelihoods
BRAC and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) are working together to model and scale up efforts to build climate migrant-friendly cities in a country described as an “internal migration pressure cooker,” where catastrophic weather events have pushed migrants into overcrowded urban centers. GCA’s Global Hub on Locally Led Adaptation is located in the GCA South […]
Three Actions for Business in the Face of the Global Polycrisis
If you’re struggling to wrap your head around the multiple crises facing the world right now, the phrase “global polycrisis” may help you get a sense of just how truly awful things are. The term reared its head at the just-completed World Bank Annual Meetings, and is forebodingly described by the Cascade Institute as happening […]
Why is Sustainability a Concept Closer to JUSTICE than to the ENVIRONMENT?
Environmental protection such as packing, renewable energy, climate action, water, and waste management have dominated the sustainability mindset. Today, many people, including experts, thought leaders, and even some sustainability gurus, use the terms “sustainability” and “environmental protection” as synonyms. And they aren’t. Sustainability is a broader concept, and the level of success in achieving it […]
Access to Menstrual Health & Hygiene Products in Rural Ethiopia
Menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) is a term used to encapsulate the broader systemic factors that link menstruation with health, well-being, equity, empowerment, and individual rights. Around the world, MHH is challenged by the stigma and shame associated with menstruation, which affects the ability of menstruators to access a myriad of resources such as accurate and […]
How the Climate Justice Framework Helps put People at the Heart of Net Zero Ambitions
Climate change and inequality are two of the biggest challenges of our time. Tackling one without the other is increasingly seen as not an option, including for business. The Business and Climate Justice Framework helps businesses identify both the opportunities of putting people at the centre of their climate ambitions and the risks of inaction. […]
Companies Need to Wake up to the Urgency of Ending Deforestation in Supply Chains. Here’s How
The announcement in June this year that parties to the COP15 biodiversity convention, billed the ‘Paris agreement’ for biodiversity, will meet in Montreal in December, ends uncertainty about the meeting taking place at all this year, after two years of delays. The urgent need to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis was highlighted at Davos earlier […]
What Is Regenerative Agriculture?
If you feel like you’re suddenly hearing the word “regenerative agriculture” all the time, you’re not wrong. The concept has gained considerable traction in the last year, although it’s not new to the Rainforest Alliance. For more than 30 years, we’ve worked to make agriculture more sustainable by partnering with farmers all over the world […]
Network of Small-Scale farmers in India Tackle Climate Change
“It was a turning point for me,” said Ruchi Jain, Founder and CEO of Taru Naturals, about her trip to the villages of small-scale farmers in India struggling with the effects of climate change. “I realized that if you want to make a big impact on the world, you have to be grassroots-based—it has to be […]
New Report: Women Champion Forest Conservation in Bale, Ethiopia
A new report outlines how Farm Africa and SOS Sahel Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains Eco-region REDD+ forest conservation programme in Oromia, Ethiopia has achieved impressive results in reducing deforestation, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing household incomes and gender equality. Since 2012, Farm Africa has been working in partnership with the NGO SOS Sahel Ethiopia, with […]
The Business Case for Collective Landscape Action
Throughout the tropics, rates of forest and biodiversity loss are accelerating while the global impacts of the climate crisis are escalating. If tropical deforestation were a country, it would rank third in global emissions, behind only China and the United States. Much of this deforestation is driven by commodities such as coffee, timber, palm oil, […]
Greater Investment Imperative as Climate Disasters Become More Frequent
Pakistan’s catastrophic floods have so far caused at least 1,134 deaths, submerged a third of the country and upended the lives of 1.2million people (according to news reports). This is the human cost of the climate crisis and our thoughts are with those affected by the disaster. (Fairtrade statement on Pakistan floods – Fairtrade Foundation) […]
Real-time information for famers enables climate change adaption
How does Lentera use data to enable farmers to adapt to climate change? We use satellite and weather data to provide farmers with crop specific advice with regards to fertilizers, pests and diseases, and water management of their farms. This helps farmers adapt their agronomy practices in line with changing climate patterns. We also use […]
Turbo-charging D2C sales for an impact sanitation product
Our client: SATO by LIXIL, creating sustainable, affordable hygiene solutions LIXIL designed its SATO product range to improve sanitation and hygiene access for communities without access to sewer systems, via affordable and easy-to-install systems. SATO has impacted over 25 million lives to date, shipping over 5.1 million units across 38 countries. The blue SATO pan, […]
Levelling the playing field – Developing market systems that support regenerative agriculture
Market systems have driven the development of an industrial agricultural system that has excessively low unit costs, at the expense of environment and people. For transformation to happen, we need market systems to drive agriculture that is regenerative. How does regenerative agriculture differ to ‘conventional’ agriculture’? Regenerative agriculture aims to optimise production whilst looking after […]
How important is protecting the environment to you?
Most of you would probably answer that environmental protection is very important. Now, consider the following question: What actions do you take for protecting the environment? Discussions on how to address climate change often present disparate views. On the one hand, some argue that actions at the individual level – such as reducing the use […]
New research finds solutions to farmer resilience amid global crises
This year’s Business Fights Poverty Global Summit is warning of the tsunami of poverty created by COVID-19, climate change and conflict that our community is striving to resist. For the people working in global supply chains, in agriculture, fashion, extractive industries in low-income countries, and who often experience entrenched social inequality, crisis is all too […]
Making community and collaboration the route to climate justice
Eight of the ten most severe global risks identified over the next ten years are related to environmental and societal risks, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022. Of these, the five environmental related risks are climate action failure, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, environmental damage and natural resource crises (which include […]
Boosting young Kenyan farmers’ incomes through climate-smart agriculture
A six-year partnership between Farm Africa and the supermarket Aldi UK has enabled hundreds of young farmers in western Kenya to develop thriving horticulture businesses and build their resilience to climate change. The Growing Futures project was first launched in 2016, when Aldi UK teamed up with Farm Africa to launch a three-year initiative enabling young farmers in the northern Rift […]
Honduran coffee farmers hope for a brighter future
Anyone working in coffee will know that Honduras is an important origin. Honduran coffee has been a good news story, it is an important export, and it is well regarded worldwide for its flavoursome speciality beans, but it is under threat from climate change. According to the World Bank, Honduras remains one of the poorest […]
Tackling inequality – an integral component to long-term business success
Sustainability has become mainstream. Today more than ever, business is expected to take action to tackle the climate emergency, bring greater sustainability into value chains and be held accountable for these efforts. Capital markets, consumers, and governments are all in agreement that sustainability is the only long-term success for business – as well as for […]