With so much happening in the world of corporate sustainability, SustainabilityOnline is introducing The Sustainability Brief – a regular round-up of some of the top stories making headlines around the world.
In other words, we scour the world for the most important sustainability news, so you don’t have to. If you have a news story you’d like to send us, you can contact us here.
Sustainability-labelled foods generally have lower emissions, but meat is an exception
Research published in Cleaner and Responsible Consumption has compared the greenhouse-gas emissions of 22,145 packaged food products sold through five Sydney supermarkets. Products carrying greenhouse-gas-related sustainability claims had median emissions of 2.0kg CO₂e/kg, compared with 2.8kg for unlabelled products. However, labelled meat products had higher median emissions than unlabelled meat, at 15.0kg compared to 14.2kg CO₂e/kg.
JB Hi-Fi cuts Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 58%
Australian retailer JB Hi-Fi has published its FY2026 Responsible Business Report, covering the year ended 30 June. Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 58% below the FY2020 baseline, while the group collected 12,077 tonnes of customer e-waste during the year. The company added that its own packaging is now 84% recyclable or reusable, while 77 factory audits were conducted against ethical sourcing standards.
Austria reaches 300,000 battery-electric passenger cars
Austria had 304,328 battery-electric passenger cars on its roads at the end of July, according to the country’s Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure. Fully electric vehicles accounted for 27.39% of new passenger-car registrations in July, with 7,073 BEVs registered during the month. The 300,000-vehicle threshold was reached around 19 months after the fleet passed 200,000, compared with 27 months to move from 100,000 to 200,000.
Senken agrees 50,000-tonne carbon removal offtake with Carbonsate
Carbon-removal marketplace Senken and Carbonsate have signed a multi-year offtake agreement covering 50,000 tonnes of permanent carbon removal through 2028. The removals will come from Carbonsate’s Puro.earth-verified biomass geological storage project in Namibia. The companies describe the agreement as the largest biomass-storage deal in the EU to date. The transaction provides contracted demand for permanent removals from a project combining biomass with geological storage.
Advansor reports on emissions output in 2025 ESG report
Danish refrigeration technology company Advansor has published its 2025 ESG Report, reporting market-based greenhouse-gas emissions of 548.35 tonnes of CO₂e. The company says it is close to carbon neutrality across Scope 1 and 2 emissions, according to reports. It also highlighted progress in workforce diversity and sustainability assessments, as Advansor marks 20 years of using CO₂ refrigeration technology.
