Will Sustainability Take A Backseat To COVID-19 Challenges?

As the pandemic brought economies to a near-halt, global carbon emissions fell 8% in the first four months of 2020. But at the Reuters Transform Europe virtual conference Tuesday, sustainability experts questioned if emissions reductions and steps toward more circular economies would continue during the coronavirus pandemic. Practitioners said true commitment is resilient, and the work continues for companies with firm commitments in place pre-pandemic. “I think companies have really thought this through and understand how interlinked everything is,” said Katharina Stenholm, chief cycles and procurement officer at Danone, which, as a food company, depends on agricultural products threatened by climate change. “When you really start to think about this as a prerequisite — as your strategy — then it is not optional and something you can stop doing just because you hit a crisis,” she said. Read more at Retail Dive.