About one acquisition and one partnership
Welcome to "nouveau monde", a four-handed newsletter to better understand how to make the world better through the lens of retail. This is #61. Orne.
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Le menu du jour at nouveau monde is about fintech and crackers.
Today's newsletter is 868 words, a 4-minutes read (OMG).
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Electronic sustainability
by Phil
Klarna is a Swedish fintech company that provides various payment services for online and in-store transactions. The company was founded in 2005 and has since grown to become one of the leading payment providers in Europe and the United States.
Klarna's core service is "Buy Now Pay Later" (BNPL), which allows customers to split their purchase into installments, rather than paying for the entire amount upfront. Klarna also offers a range of other payment options, including direct bank transfers, card payments, and financing options.
In addition to payment services, Klarna also offers a shopping app that allows customers to discover new stores, create wishlists, and track their orders. The company has partnerships with thousands of merchants, including H&M, ASOS, Nike, and IKEA.
Clarity AI is a fintech company that provides a platform for sustainable investing. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Madrid, Spain. Clarity AI's platform uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to evaluate the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of companies.
The platform analyzes large amounts of data from various sources, including corporate disclosures, news articles, and social media, to provide investors with a comprehensive view of a company's ESG performance. Clarity AI also assigns each company a sustainability score, which can be used to compare different companies and make informed investment decisions.
Clarity AI's platform is used by a range of clients, including asset managers.
Klarna and Clarity AI have teamed up to provide environmental impact information to consumers who have purchased electronics, launching what they called conscious badges. The introduction of these badges follows last year’s addition of Conscious Collections to the Klarna app. This feature provides shoppers with information about the sustainability performance of fashion and footwear brands.
With the launch of conscious badges, Klarna is now celebrating businesses prioritizing more sustainable practices in the electronics space, further equipping shoppers with the insights needed to inform future purchasing decisions. Electronics brands can earn up to 5 badges:
Lower direct greenhouse gas emissions: If the company is among the 10% of Clarity AI tested comparable companies with the lowest direct and energy-related greenhouse gas emissions
Lower indirect greenhouse gas emissions: If the company is among the 10% of Clarity AI tested comparable companies with the lowest indirect greenhouse gas emissions
Committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: If the company has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC
Disclosing greenhouse gas emissions: If the company discloses direct, energy-related and indirect greenhouse gas emissions
Using renewable energy: Over 90% of the energy used by this company comes from renewable sources
Sustainability initiatives have been reshaping the retail industry, even though it’s just a small step.
Cracker Island
by Anthony
Two years ago, on March 2, 2021, I talked to you about Julia Collins and her two companies PlanetFWD and Moonshot. That was in Nouveau Monde #3 and we talked about regenerative agriculture.
Julia Collins and Moonshot came back to light very recently as the company was bough by Patagonia, yes, the outdoor apparel brand. We’ve talked about Patagonia back in September 2022, when Its founder Yvon Chouinard decided to let all the shares of the company to planet Earth, directly. Which, in fact is not that easy.
I didn’t know (did you?) that Patagonia had a division called Patagonia Provisions, founded in 2012, to sell responsible food and beverage, sold directly or in Whole Foods Market. And the company just bought Moonshot.
Moonshot is a small company making crackers but it’s also a demonstrator for PlanetFWD which goal is to develop regenerative agriculture, the agriculture that preserves the soil by developing practices dedicated to use no fertilizer and capture CO2 into the ground. Moonshot also demonstrated the capability of a company to make food locally : the wheat grown in Washington state is milled 2 miles away from the field and crackers re manufactured 80 miles from the mill.
It’s interesting to see that Patagonia made its first investment in 20 years on a small food company. And that the CEO of Patagonia Provision says that eventually the food division will tackle the apparel in Patagonia, which shows the ambitions of the company regarding regenerative agriculture. Why so ? Maybe because Patagonia has this new shareholder, planet Earth, and that the brand sees that there are not so much parts of what we consume that can be done in a regenerative way.
Will agriculture save our planet from the CO2 burst ? We’ll see, a good tomato basil cracker in hand.
(Want to learn more about Julia Collins and regenerative agriculture ? Listen to this recent podcast on Now Food Order)
Bonus track by Anthony
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