Shopper inspects a product date label. Photo by Tyler Olson/Shutterstock
WRI worked with two of the world’s largest consortia of food companies to reduce food loss and waste. The Global Agribusiness Alliance pledged to halve its food loss by 2030 and the Consumer Goods Forum committed to standardize food date labels by 2020. These bold commitments will help make food production and consumption more sustainable.
The Challenge
Nearly a quarter of all food calories produced for humans are never consumed, resulting in about $1 trillion in annual economic losses, significant greenhouse gas emissions and inefficient use of water, land and other resources. Food losses near the farm – during production, handling and storage – account for half of this food loss and waste around the world and contribute to hunger. Food waste that occurs between market and table accounts for another third, and is costly for consumers. Confusion about the meaning of expiration date labels – from “use by” and “sell by” to “best before” or “display until” – causes consumers to discard food that is still safe to eat. This confusion causes an estimated 20 percent of household food waste in OECD countries and costs U.S. consumers an estimated $29 billion annually.
WRI's Role
WRI collaborated with the Global Agribusiness Alliance (GAA), a coalition of many of the world’s major food producers, and the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a partnership of the world’s largest manufacturers and retailers, to jointly develop commitments to reduce food loss and food waste. These commitments were made with the support of CEOs who are also members of Champions 12.3, a partnership (led by WRI and the Dutch government) of more than three dozen leaders dedicated to achieving progress on Target 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which calls for halving food loss and waste by 2030.
The Outcome
In September 2017, members of the GAA committed to halve their food losses by 2030. Their Food Loss Resolution complements the Food Waste Resolution that the CGF made two years earlier. Now the world’s leading food-related companies have targets consistent with SDG Target 12.3. Also in September, the CGF launched the Date Label Call to Action, a pledge to standardize and streamline food date labels by 2020 and encourage other companies to do the same. Together, these commitments will contribute to improving food security, raising farmer incomes, reducing costs for companies, helping household budgets and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Going forward, WRI will support GAA and CGF members on implementation.
Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit in Zhuzhou, China. Photo by Daizong Liu/WRI
Working with the Ministry of Transport and local agencies, WRI China helped promote bus and metro use, walking and biking in Chinese cities and contributed to the 13th Five-Year National Transit Metropolis Work Plan. Based on progress in 37 pilot cities, the Ministry expanded its National Transit Metropolis Program to 87 cities, which could benefit 490 million people.
The Challenge
As Chinese cities race to manage rapid urbanization, they must contend with sprawl, traffic congestion, air pollution and growing greenhouse gas emissions not only from coal-fired power generation but also from a growing number of passenger cars, among other sources. This costs time – commuters in 15 large Chinese cities spend about 50 percent more time getting to work than their European counterparts – and money: health problems and lost productivity due to air pollution may be valued as high as 6.5 percent of GDP. More sustainable urban growth will require a focus on people and sustainable transit rather than cars.
WRI's Role
Working with the Ministry of Transport’s National Transit Metropolis Program, which promotes transit-oriented city development, WRI China contributed to the 13th Five-Year National Transit Metropolis Work Plan. WRI also worked with the China Academy of Transport Science to encourage bus and metro use, walking and biking. Collaborating with local partners, WRI China worked to improve transit services and the walking environment in key pilot cities. In Suzhou, WRI used transit smartcards and bus GPS data to analyze travel patterns and inform the reorganization and integration of bus routes with the subway network. In Kunming, WRI contributed to the Kunming Street Design Manual, which sets the technical standard for renovating city streets. In Zhuzhou, WRI helped introduce the city’s first bus rapid transit system, pioneering a public-private partnership – among the first of its kind in China – and helped optimize the design of the world’s first Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit system, a computer-guided rail-less vehicle that operates in segregated bus lanes.
The Outcome
Based on the strength of progress in 37 pilot cities, China’s Ministry of Transport expanded the National Transit Metropolis Program in 2017 to 87 cities, potentially benefitting some 490 million citizens through improved transit, increased traffic safety and reduced congestion, commuting time and air pollution. The program aims to eventually reach all 600 of China’s cities.
Rosewood timber yard in Nigeria. Photo by Mathias Rittgerott/Rettet den Regenwald, Flickr
Working with policymakers, scientists and environmental groups, WRI’s Forest Legality Initiative made the case for protecting rosewood, one of the world’s most valuable timbers. More than 250 species of rosewood earned legal protections under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in late 2016, a move that can safeguard forests and curb the illegal timber trade.
The Challenge
Rosewood is among the world’s most valuable timbers, used primarily for high-end furniture and musical instruments. It is also one of the most illegally harvested woods. Between 2005 and 2014, rosewood accounted for 35 percent of the value of all wildlife seizures, earning it the nickname “ivory of the forest.” This rampant trade fuels violence and corruption, degrades pristine forests and deprives local communities of a vital resource. While a few species of rosewood have been protected under CITES over the past 25 years, powerful economic interests had stymied more systematic international rosewood protection.
WRI's Role
Starting in 2015, WRI’s Forest Legality Initiative helped convene and collaborated with a coalition of research groups, environmental organizations, leading scientific institutions and signatories to CITES, an international agreement that protects threatened flora and fauna.
In 2016, WRI commissioned a major review of rosewood species in global trade, providing a stronger scientific rationale for CITES protection. WRI also worked with Malagasy experts and the World Bank to produce the first comprehensive country-level assessment of existing knowledge and scientific capacities concerning rosewood species in Madagascar, one of the countries hardest hit by rosewood trafficking. Both studies were referenced during CITES' 17th Conference of the Parties in 2016, informing delegations about the scope of the problem globally and providing a national-level analysis of rosewood conservation capacity. WRI also hosted an international conference on the case for listing rosewood under CITES, convening NGOs, rosewood experts and many source countries shortly before the CITES conference.
The Outcome
In October 2016, parties to CITES voted to protect the entire Dalbergia genus of rosewood – encompassing more than 250 species – and four other highly threatened rosewood species. Protections became legally binding worldwide in January 2017. Countries must now conduct scientific sustainability assessments before harvesting any rosewood for export, and rosewood imports must have a valid CITES export permit from the country of origin. These legal protections aim to help curb the rosewood trade and protect forests.
WRI will continue to support implementation of the CITES rosewood listings and other efforts to combat rosewood trafficking, including through diplomatic engagement, research on technologies to identify rosewood species and capacity-building efforts.
A child shows the key to her family’s new Minha Casa, Minha Vida house in São Paulo, Brazil. Photo by Assis Cavalcante/Prefeitura de Sorocaba
WRI worked with the Brazilian government and others to shape new standards for social housing which discourage developments that are isolated from urban centers. A new law now drives implementation of compact, connected and coordinated (3C) development, potentially benefitting 1.8 million people through improved access to public transport and higher rates of walking and cycling.
The Challenge
The Brazilian social housing program Minha Casa, Minha Vida (MCMV or My House, My Life) aimed to tackle Brazil’s urban housing deficit by building more than 3 million houses for low-income families in the last six years. But MCMV’s building boom exacerbated urban sprawl. Many projects were located far from urban centers, where land prices were lower, hindering access to jobs, education, healthcare, public transportation and safe areas for walking and cycling.
WRI's Role
In 2013, Caixa, Brazil’s federal funding agency, invited WRI Brasil to help improve the design of a MCMV project of 1,300 homes in the southern city of Rio Grande, making the development more compact, connected and coordinated by integrating it with public transportation, improving public spaces, making pedestrians and cyclists a priority and promoting mixed-use areas that include businesses and housing. Using this pilot, WRI worked with the ministries of Cities, Health, Education, Social Development and Culture, as well as the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and the Federal University of ABC in the state of São Paulo to create new federal social housing standards for the next phase of MCMV. This was the first time that these ministries worked together to improve the MCMV program. WRI conducted a countrywide study that found that providing essential services is costlier when creating distant communities that contribute to sprawl than when creating developments that are compact, connected and coordinated (3C).
The Outcome
In March 2017, the Brazilian government enacted a new law with standards which will drive implementation of the 3C model in MCMV’s next stage. The law discourages gated communities, requires connection to public transport and promotes walking and cycling. In the next two years, the new law and standards aim to guide the construction of 600,000 houses, potentially benefiting more than 1.8 million low-income people. Brazilian cities will benefit from reduced greenhouse gas emissions from transport and lower costs for urban services and infrastructure. WRI Brasil will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Cities and municipal governments to make social housing more sustainable and intends to evaluate the results of the law. Lessons from this experience could help other countries apply similar standards.
Girl uses new public bicycle sharing system on dedicated lane in Bhopal, India. Photo by Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation
India’s cities are clogged with cars that pollute the air. In Bhopal, WRI and partners designed a new bike sharing system that is the first in India to provide segregated lanes and that also helps link to public transportation. The system attracted 25,000 members in its first five months and is inspiring other cities to launch similar projects.
The Challenge
Half of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in India, where vehicle emissions account for almost a third of air pollution and severely impact health and quality of life. Bicycles, which could help relieve this pollution, are often regarded as inferior because they are widely used by poorer people. Bicycle infrastructure is a low priority, which means that biking is often unsafe. Public transportation, which could also help reduce pollution, has a persistent last-mile problem which deters people from using the system because of the distance between stops or stations and final destinations like homes or offices. As a result, many middle-income people opt to drive, resulting in increased congestion, air pollution and traffic fatalities.
WRI's Role
WRI India researched public bicycle sharing (PBS) systems to identify key factors in successful systems. Over four years, WRI conducted capacity-building and facilitated data- and knowledge-sharing among existing and upcoming bicycle sharing systems, including the recently launched PBS in Mysore. WRI supported Bhopal Municipal Corporation in planning and designing a system around residential and commercial transportation nodes, aiming to make it easier to connect to the Bhopal Bus Rapid Transit System while improving safety for cyclists.
Learning from challenges other PBS systems faced, WRI and Bhopal convened technology suppliers, financing institutions and public agencies to develop an innovative public-private partnership to help ensure the quality, usability and viability of the system.
The Outcome
In June 2017, Bhopal launched India’s only fully-automated PBS system with segregated bike lanes. The system has 500 bicycles and 60 docking stations throughout the city and opened with 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) of dedicated bike lanes, which help increase rider safety and save lives. In five months, more than 25,000 users have registered, more than half of them women.
Plans to expand the Bhopal bike lane network to over 50 kilometers (31 miles) in the next few years would create the most extensive dedicated bike path network in India. Other PBS systems, including Mysore’s, are now exploring this feature.
Installing solar panels in England. Photo by Kristian Buus/Flickr
Many of the world’s leading companies recognize the need to set targets to reduce climate-warming emissions. Through an initiative developed by WRI and its partners, more than 300 companies have made a public commitment to set a science-based greenhouse gas reduction target and more than 80 of these companies have had their targets validated.
The Challenge
Companies are responsible for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions and have an important role to play in keeping global warming to the internationally-recognized target of well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change. While corporate target-setting on greenhouse gas emissions has become standard practice in the past decade, most companies – lacking stakeholder pressure and methodological guidance – have set emissions reduction targets that only commit them to incremental change, falling short of what science requires to avoid dangerous levels of warming.
WRI's Role
Through the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, WRI has worked on carbon accounting and target-setting for nearly 20 years. In 2015, WRI partnered with CDP, WWF and the UN Global Compact to launch the Science Based Targets initiative to mobilize companies to set more ambitious corporate emissions reduction targets that are aligned with the latest climate science. The initiative aims to make science-based target-setting standard practice by 2020 by providing tools and guidance, rooting target-setting in existing performance measurement initiatives and building momentum through a commitment campaign. WRI is helping to manage the initiative, develop target-setting methods and implementation guidance, and review science-based targets (SBTs) against criteria that represent best practice.
Since starting this initiative, WRI has also worked with companies to take SBTs beyond greenhouse gas emissions. WRI worked with Mars, for example, on a WRI working paper, “From Doing Better to Doing Enough: Anchoring Corporate Sustainability Targets in Science,” investigating science-based target-setting related to climate, land and water use. This work informed Mars’ Sustainable in a Generation plan.
The Outcome
As of October 2017, more than 320 companies have committed publicly to set SBTs for their operations, and more than 80 of their targets have already been submitted and approved by the initiative. These 320 companies together emit the equivalent of more than 750 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, approximately the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Canada. These companies are committing to SBTs to save money, manage risk, drive innovation, strengthen investor confidence and bolster competitive advantage. As more corporate peers, investors and advocacy groups press for SBTs, this momentum can help make science-based target-setting an expected business practice.
Sewage treatment plant in Jaipur, India. Photo by Asian Development Bank/Flickr
WRI has worked to reframe sludge and wastewater as inputs rather than outputs, reducing water stress and greenhouse gas emissions while creating cleaner water and renewable energy. Analyses of this potential informed a wastewater reuse policy in Gujarat, India, and a push in China’s 13th Five-Year Plan to recover energy and resources from sludge and wastewater.
The Challenge
Rapid urbanization in China and India stresses energy grids and water resources in regions that are already water-stressed. China’s water resources per capita, for example, are only 35 percent of the global average, and India’s are just 19 percent. At the same time, rapidly growing economies in China and India are accelerating demand for energy.
Waste and wastewater are usually regarded only as wastes and pollutants. Conventional organic waste and sewage treatment methods for removing pollutants are energy-intensive and release potent greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide.
WRI's Role
Since 2013, WRI China has worked in six cities to introduce circular economy approaches to capture previously wasted resources. WRI’s work with large Chinese cities shows that such approaches can help cities achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals, including cleaner water, less waste, renewable energy production and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. WRI developed an analysis to determine the national, city and project-level potential to avoid greenhouse gas emissions and capture energy. WRI worked with local and national stakeholders to advance circular economy approaches for waste and wastewater once their potential was realized.
WRI India supported the government of the water-poor state of Gujarat in developing its Waste Water Recycle and Reuse Policy, providing research support and technology evaluation for wastewater and sharing WRI’s international experience.
The Outcome
For the first time, China’s 13th Five-Year Plan requires the recovery of energy and resources from sludge and wastewater in cities across China to the extent possible. Three new sludge-to-energy projects in Beijing were initiated in the last year, serving 4.5 million people and producing 136 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy per year, equivalent to avoiding the use of 41,000 metric tonnes (more than 45,000 U.S. tons) of standard coal. By 2020, these approaches could cut China’s methane emissions – currently the world’s largest – by up to 4 percent. Besides meeting the energy demand of the projects’ operation, the captured methane could be used to replace 1.9 billion liters (500 million gallons) of gasoline, equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 1.3 million cars.
Gujarat became the first Indian state to adopt a wastewater reuse policy, mandating that urban local bodies recover 20 percent of wastewater. The states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have since adopted similar policies.
Shade-grown coffee in Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/CIFOR, Flickr
By identifying opportunities for landscape restoration, the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology that WRI helped to create informed decision-making in Brazil and Indonesia that led to new policies to advance large-scale restoration, offering the potential to foster prosperity and social inclusion while benefiting biodiversity and keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
The Challenge
Brazil and Indonesia, two of the world’s largest tropical forest countries, have seen historically high deforestation rates since 2000 due to increasing pressure from development, agricultural expansion and illegal logging. Restoring degraded and deforested land in both countries could create economic opportunities and benefits for local communities and support the governments’ climate and development goals. Until recently, however, concerns about the cost of restoration hampered progress.
WRI's Role
The Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology (ROAM), developed by WRI and IUCN in 2014, identifies opportunities for landscape restoration. In Brazil, WRI used ROAM diagnostic tools to support the development of the national restoration plan and helped to identify potential areas for natural regeneration. In Indonesia, WRI worked with the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), the South Sumatran government, the Provincial Watershed Forum and local restoration coalitions to apply ROAM in South Sumatra. ROAM showed a significant opportunity for natural forest regeneration and agroforestry and contributed to the development of a South Sumatra Green Growth Plan. In both countries, WRI worked with partners to identify cost-effective and scalable interventions to realize the restoration potential.
The Outcome
Brazil announced its National Policy on Recovery of Native Vegetation (PROVEG) in January 2017. This policy – the most ambitious of its kind in the world – creates and integrates policies, programs, financing, monitoring and other actions to spur native vegetation recovery to contribute to Brazil’s objective of restoring 12 million hectares (nearly 30 million acres) of degraded land by 2030, an area about the size of Iceland. These efforts will also support Brazil's commitments to the WRI-led Initiative 20x20, a regional initiative in Latin America to support the Bonn Challenge for global land restoration. In Indonesia, in May 2017, the Government of South Sumatra formalized the South Sumatra Green Growth Plan for economic growth driven by renewable resources, which aims to restore 400,000 hectares (988,000 acres) of degraded land by 2030.
If these ambitions are met, landscape restoration in Brazil and South Sumatra could keep hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and contribute to achieving emissions reduction targets of both countries as set in the Paris Agreement. Achieving these goals would also benefit biodiversity, reduce poverty, increase social inclusion and improve local economies.
Community meeting in Tanzania. Photo by uusc4all/Flickr
As co-chair of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which brings together 74 governments and thousands of civil society organizations, WRI worked with members to advance climate action and sustainable development. National, regional and local governments have made public commitments to accelerate climate action and sustainable development through citizen engagement, open data and fiscal transparency.
The Challenge
Failure to provide access to information on public spending and opportunities to engage in decision-making make it nearly impossible for the public to hold governments to account for progress on national climate goals or for effective use of government revenue from resources such as timber, mining and oil. Many governments are either unwilling to reform or lack the know-how to do so, undermining progress on the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
WRI's Role
Co-chairing the Open Government Partnership with France in 2016-17, WRI helped to design an OGP declaration with collective actions on climate and natural resources that helped frame national commitments, and provided technical assistance and circulated guidance to countries to develop them. WRI’s climate, forests and governance experts brought together civil society organizations to work closely with national governments, particularly in Latin America, to shape commitments that enhance transparency, participation and accountability on climate action and natural resources. WRI and its partners worked closely with Argentina and Costa Rica in developing their climate commitments and with Colombia, Liberia and Panama on their natural resource commitments.
WRI also helped pilot a subnational program in OGP to mobilize regional and local governments to develop and implement open government commitments. WRI teams in Brazil and Mexico partnered with NGOs and officials to create these commitments.
The Outcome
In 2016 and 2017, 13 governments committed to improve access to climate data, engage citizens in climate policymaking and transparently track climate finance; 12 governments made open government commitments on natural resources, including on land, forests and water.
Argentina, for example, committed to provide greenhouse gas inventories and maps of climate impacts on a public website, enabling citizens to participate in developing more effective, equitable climate policies and to hold officials accountable for meeting their climate commitments. On natural resources, Liberia pledged to place land records, contracts, community and customary land tenure data, and relevant laws and policies in the public domain, helping to prevent the abuse of power for private gain.
At the subnational level, the Brazilian cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and eight governments in Mexico announced reforms to deepen access to information and increase public consultation. After a successful pilot of its subnational program, OGP now plans to double its membership from 15 to 30.
Quito, Ecuador, hosted the UN Habitat III Conference that endorsed the New Urban Agenda. Photo by Santiago Ron/Flickr
WRI made the case that improving urban services for the under-served – including affordable housing and safe and sustainable mobility – can generate economic, environmental and social benefits for all city residents. WRI’s research and meetings helped inform the New Urban Agenda, a UN declaration signed by 167 nations that lays out a 20-year roadmap for sustainable urban development.
The Challenge
As many as 70 percent of urban dwellers in the Global South lack access to one or more core city services, including housing, water and sanitation, energy and transportation. This problem is poised to worsen as 2.5 billion more people take up residence in cities by 2050. The decisions taken by policymakers today will determine whether cities can grow while improving citizens’ quality of life, or perpetuate a cycle of low productivity, poverty and environmental degradation for the rest of the century and beyond.
WRI's Role
In 2015, WRI launched the first installment of its latest World Resources Report, Towards a More Equal City, finding that meeting the needs of the urban under-served can help make cities more economically prosperous, environmentally sustainable and socially equitable. In the two years leading up to the landmark UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development (Habitat III) in Quito, WRI brought together leaders and experts to explore the opportunities and challenges of prioritizing core services and policies related to affordable housing, water and sanitation, safe and sustainable transportation, sustainable land use, low-carbon energy, accessible green spaces and parks, transparent data and governance practices, and climate resilient infrastructure. WRI worked with partners including the UN-Habitat Secretariat, NGOs, and ministries from Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK to include these priorities in the New Urban Agenda, a UN declaration setting a vision for urban development for the next two decades.
The Outcome
In October 2016, the New Urban Agenda, adopted by 167 countries, explicitly included safe and sustainable mobility and affordable housing as elements in making cities more sustainable and equitable. This Agenda sets a new global standard for sustainable urban development, providing a roadmap for building cities that can serve as engines of prosperity and cultural and social well-being while protecting the environment. WRI will now engage with national and subnational governments as they implement the New Urban Agenda and, through the World Resources Report, will continue to research sustainable and equitable urban development strategies.
