Kathy Cacciola

Kudos to Abigail Bassett and Climatebase for the excellent explainer on carbon offsets and the new Biden administration framework. 3 Key takeaways: 1. We cannot abandon private sector financing of SDG projects. Bravo to the administration's attempts to re-establish U.S. leadership in global climate efforts. We need to embrace a range of climate change strategies beyond domestic regulation and public funding. 2. Not "throwing the baby out with the bath water" - While the Biden administration's carbon offset guidelines are not perfect and face valid criticisms, they demonstrate a willingness to explore innovative policy tools and leverage private sector resources to tackle climate change. 3. Establishing standards for high-integrity offsets can help combat greenwashing - Offset projects that drive real, additional emissions reductions can lead to substantive sustainable impact. This nuanced position acknowledges the complexity of the challenge and the need for pragmatic solutions that engage multiple stakeholders. Are the days of unilateral approaches that promote domestic fossil fuel industries without consideration for international collaboration or market-based solutions behind us? I hope so. https://lnkd.in/eMdeyXd3 #sustainability #carbonoffsets #solutions #SDGs

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Weekly Friday Personal Post: Jay Siegel and I today published a Sustainability Defined podcast episode on avocado sustainability featuring an interview with my good friend, author, and avocado aficionado Honor Eldridge. I started off my preparation for this episode by reading Honor's book The Avocado Debate. It's fantastic! It is a great primer on the history of the avocado, various aspects of avocado sustainability, and the future of the fruit. It provides many insights into not just avocado production but really our food system in general. Very thought provoking and enlightening. Each chapter was like a mini story in of itself. We start off the episode with a shorter version of our typical introduction as we cover some avocado basics. Then we give one or two interesting tidbits from each chapter in Honor's book, and we finish with an interview with Honor. Here are some parts of the episode intro that stood out to me: --It is estimated that 9.5 billion liters of water are used each day to produce avocados. This is the equivalent of 3,800 olympic sized swimming pools needed each day just for avocado production! Avocado production involves a lot of water, but it's still a lot less than other kinds of food. For example, beef uses 10X the water of avocados for an equivalent weight. --The stone at the center of the avocado gives a clue to its past. As with many plants, avocado trees need their seeds to be dispersed naturally to spread its genetic material and move into new areas. A bird or small mammal eating the stone would die. However, the avocado evolved to attract the megafauna weighing over 100 lbs. that roamed the earth during the Pleistocene from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago. These mammals would consume the green fruit, wander miles, and then defecate the seed out. --There’s a myth that avocado toast started in Brisbane, Australia in the 1990s. In fact, avocado toast has been commonly served in San Francisco since at least 1885 when a recipe was published in a local newspaper. --There are more than 460 sustainability logos on food and beverage packages and a third of them have been created in the last 15 years.  --Avocados come from trees, but the avocado tree has much less capacity to absorb carbon emissions compared to native tree species.  Honor closes The Avocado Debate without saying whether you should eat avocados. We do the same. The main goal of her book and this podcast episode is to help you understand the multifaceted journey that your next avocado took to reach you so you can make an informed decision on whether to buy it. I hope you'll check out the podcast episode and the book! Links to both are in the comments. #avocados #sustainability #foodsystems #podcast

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#Water is critical for economic development and at the The World Bank Group we are convinced that Water #SDGs will not be achieved without full participation of private sector in bringing the much needed expertise, innovation and capital. Our common future will be shaped by water security, and new generation of private-public partnership such as 2030 Water Resources Group is a prerequisite for a water secured common future. In New York, I am looking forward to joining business leaders at #SDIM2024 #ClimateWeekNYC and moderate a session on “Partnering for Freshwater Futures”. 2030 Water Resources Group Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership World Economic Forum Michael John Webster Makhtar Diop IFC - International Finance Corporation Bertrand de la Borde MIGA #GlobalChallengeProgram

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