A curated roundup of news impacting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Plant-Based Innovation Vegconomist South Australia Receives $113M to Become “Plant-based Protein Manufacturing and Export Powerhouse” (1 March 2022)

• South Australia to become home to the largest pulse protein ingredient manufacturing capability in the continent, project expects to generate up to $4 billion in plant-based exports by 2032.

Packaging-Gateway.com Tesco pilots plant-based technology to extend fruit shelf life – Packaging Gateway (25 February 2022)

• British supermarket chain Tesco is testing new plant-based protection technology designed to extend the shelf life of fruits and minimise food and packaging waste.

Food Waste TechCrunch Flashfood raises $12.3M to scale its grocery app that helps tackle retail food waste (28 February 2022)

• Toronto-based Flashfood, a mobile marketplace that provides customers with access to discounted food nearing its best-by date, has raised $12.3 million in Series A funding led by S2G Ventures.

AgFunderNews Data Snapshot: 2021’s top deals for food waste startups driven by environment & economics (2 March 2022)

• Startups offering solutions to mitigate or prevent food waste raised just over $563 million in funding during 2021, according to preliminary AgFunder data.

New Food Magazine Big names added to the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions (2 March 2022)

• The USDA and the EPA have announced seven new US Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions. These are food industry leaders that have committed to reducing food loss and waste in their US operations by 50 percent by 2030.

Plastic Waste/Circular Economy Green Biz 21 options to make our financial system extra round | Greenbiz (25 February 2022)

• Five hundred billion tons. That’s the amount of resources consumed globally over the past six years, between COP21 in Paris in 2015 and COP26 in Glasgow. The sum was calculated by the think tank Circle Economy that, like it does every January since 2018, presented the new Circularity Gap Report.

World Economic Forum These countries are measuring plastic pollution – as the first step to tackle it  (2 March 2022)

• Amidst growing recognition of the plastic pollution crisis and the need for a coordinated response to this challenge, countries and companies are increasingly pushing for the establishment of a global treaty for plastic pollution.

World Wildlife Fund UN takes huge step toward ending plastic pollution (2 March 2022)

• Today countries from around the world took a major step toward ending plastic waste. The United Nations Environment Assembly unanimously agreed to develop a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, taking one of the world’s most ambitious environmental actions since the 1989 Montreal Protocol, which effectively phased out ozone-depleting substances.

Oceans Forbes 4ocean Hits 20 Million Mark In Collecting Ocean Plastics, Starts Tackling Tires (25 February 2022)

• If someone told you they planned to sell bracelets and other wares to fund ocean cleanups, would you believe it? Would you believe it would result in more than 20 million pounds of plastic and trash collected from oceans since 2017?

The Times Bottom trawling in marine protected area rises fivefold (28 February 2022)

• Destructive fishing has increased fivefold inside a marine protected area while the government has dithered over plans to ban bottom trawling, an investigation has found.

Sustainable Brands Bumble Bee, Ocean Conservancy Join Forces to Rid the World’s Oceans of Ghost Gear (25 February 2022)

• Bumble Bee Seafood Company is pushing forward on its efforts around restoring the health of our oceans. This week, they announced the launch of a five-year partnership with the non-profit Ocean Conservancy, focused on one of the biggest challenges facing the world’s oceans today: plastic pollution.

Climate The New York Times Time Is Running Out to Avert a Harrowing Future, Climate Panel Warns (28 February 2022)

• The impacts of global warming are appearing faster than expected, according to a major new scientific report. It could soon become much harder to cope.

Green Biz We’re stuck in Climate Age gridlock. There’s a better, greener route (1 March 2022)

• The drive for emissions-free cars and trucks is in full throttle, with car companies stepping up both electrification and autonomous driving.

United Nations Multimedia Push for ‘more caring, thoughtful’ relationship with nature: UN chief (2 March 2022)

• Everyone must commit to preserving the Earth’s “invaluable and irreplaceable wildlife,” the UN chief said on Wednesday in his message for World Wildlife Day.