In this latest instalment of a monthly top-10 round-up, edie has collated some of the news and features that readers were keen to read and share during June 2018.

Public and media attention in June has been firmly fixed on first matches of the 2018 World Cup in Russia – but news of businesses striving ahead to unveil new commitments, reports and collaborations to help deliver on sustainability pledges poured in throughout the month.

As this round-up proves, businesses are charging ahead with new sustainability ideas, frameworks and innovations. So, take a look through all of the month’s most-read news stories, and click the links in the descriptions below to read them for yourself.

How sustainable is the FIFA 2018 World Cup?

With England on the cusp of a quater-final appearance, it comes as no surprise that June’s most-read story saw edie investigate how sustainable this year’s iteration of the FIFA world cup really is.

Breaking the plastics habit: The changing role of business in achieving a circular economy

With public, corporate and political attention firmly fixed on tackling ocean plastic problems and increasing recycling rates, one of edie’s most widely-read article for June covered the launch of Canary Wharf Group’s year-long scheme to pilot new technologies, innovations and behavioural change approaches that could help to remove the need for single-use plastics. 

M&S, Sainsbury’s and Tesco team up on closed-loop solution for black plastics

In the most-read story of the month, supermarket giants Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer (M&S) collaborated to introduce a solution for hard-to-recycle black plastic that places recycled content into food-grade packaging

The North Face Renewed: VF Corporation takes next step into ‘new world’ of servitisation

As retailers gradually shift away from cradle-to-grave models, this exclusive interview explores VF Corporation’s newly-launched refurbished garments service as it strives to introduce more closed-loop, service-based models.

Powering performance roundtable: What the future holds for energy efficiency

At the start of the month, energy management experts from some of the world’s biggest manufacturers came together for an exclusive roundtable hosted by edie and Centrica Business Solutions to explore some of the biggest challenges and opportunities when it comes to building energy efficiency. Here, we round up some of the key discussion points.

In practice: AB InBev’s onsite energy drive at its largest UK brewery

Also in the corporate energy sphere, we took a look inside Anheuser-Busch InBev’s low-carbon, low-water Magor brewery in Wales at some of the innovative technologies helping AB InBev meet its environmental aims.

Business appetite for tackling food waste could lead to international rollout for Neighbourly

Interviews with sustainability leaders always prove popular, and this exclusive discussion with Neighbourly’s new chief executive, Steve Butterworth, was no different. Butterworth said that the platform is on the brink of an international rollout driven not by the enterprise itself, but by its clients.

Ed Miliband pushes for net-zero emissions goal ahead of UN summit

Speaking exclusively to edie, former Labour leader Ed Miliband called on the UK Government to build momentum towards the next UN climate summit by enshrining a new net-zero emissions target for 2050.

Tax breaks on recycled content set for inclusion in UK’s Resources and Waste Strategy

While the sustainability sphere waits with baited breath for the unveiling of the much-anticipated UK Resource and Waste Strategy, a Defra official revealed this month that the strategy is set to include increased rates of tax on virgin materials, coupled with tax breaks for manufacturers using recycled content in their products.

How close is London to achieving a circular economy?

A year after the launch of a route map outlining how the collective actions of the private sector could catalyse a transition to the circular economy in the capital, edie investigates how much progress has been made to close the loop.

 Sarah George