F&D Heroes Issue 1

believe that consumer empowerment should be a law,
if not a human right’ kind of way. Because if you think
about it, a requirement to show a food product’s climate
footprint isn’t so different from the rules governing the
labelling of fat, sugar and other nutrients.”
The campaign for more companies to be transparent
about their CO2 imprint was banned by Swedish
authorities. So Oatly brought its campaign to the
UK. It also launched an appeal in Germany to
make climate labels a law. The petition gained
57,000 signatures and statistics showed that 85%
of Germans wanted to eat more climate-friendly.
Therefore, Oatly is currently building a coalition of
NOGs, and scientists to help present its case.
Oatly’s plans to help reduce their environmental
impact don’t stop there. It is electrifying its fleet,
launching farming projects to decrease dependency
on animals, and working on its factory so that it
operates on 100% renewable energy and will be able
to grow sustainably.
big businesses.” The company feels that moving
the money to more sustainable initiatives would
be massive for the plant-based movement as it
would give the financial world confidence that the
plant-based movement is there to back. The money
that would have gone to unsustainable investments
has gone to a sustainable one. So, by accepting
investment from Blackstone, they are actually turning
more venture capital green.
“We expected to get backlash in July, we were
prepared for the questions but didn’t go big on
announcements. But the story got picked up by an
influencer, the scale and speed of how that built up
put us on the back foot. But the information we’ve put
out there has hopefully changed people’s minds.”
In response to the backlash, Oatly issued a statement,
which read:
Last phase of change
Oatly gained a lot of public backlash recently for its
decision to receive investment from the world’s biggest
equity company, Blackstone, whch has been accused
of investing in a company linked to deforestation
of the amazon. It has also donated money to the
Trump administration. With so much focus on its
environmental impact and desire to disrupt the farming
industries, why did Oatly choose this investment route,
rather than opting for a green fund?
Ishen says, “Oatly was built on an idea for change.
The easiest way to evoke change is to upgrade
“Getting a company like Blackstone to invest in us
is something we have been working on to create
maximum change to benefit the planet. From a
sustainability perspective, we are convinced that
helping shift the focus of massive capital towards
sustainable approaches is potentially the single most
important thing we can do for the planet in the longterm.
We realise that all of you may not share this
view and disagree on the right path forward to create
a more sustainable world. That’s okay. Hopefully
we’ll continue to share the same end goal of a better,
more sustainable world, and that we are able to work
towards that goal together in whatever way we can.”
Find out more information about Oatly and the
Blackstone investment here.
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