ESG in 5 Sustainability News - 24-02-2026
- Feb 24
- 3 min read
From luxury logistics and heavy industry to grid modernisation and hyperscale energy buying, this week’s ESG stories highlight a common theme: execution. Companies and governments are moving beyond pledges into capital deployment, infrastructure upgrades and supply-chain shifts that materially change emissions trajectories. Whether it’s scaling sustainable aviation fuel, retrofitting petrochemical assets, digitising power networks or locking in gigawatts of renewables, the transition is increasingly being defined by who can deliver at speed and scale.
Bentley goes 100% SAF for global car airfreight.
Bentley Motors will now use 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for all customer car airfreight shipments worldwide, effective immediately. It’s a targeted move at one of the highest-emissions parts of premium logistics: when air transport is unavoidable, Bentley is choosing certified lower-carbon fuel rather than simply offsetting. The step sits under Bentley’s Beyond100+ plan (including its end-to-end carbon neutral ambition by 2030) and builds on operational fuel switching already underway across its site logistics.
France backs INEOS with €300m for plant decarbonisation.
France has awarded INEOS a €300 million grant to install energy-efficiency technologies and decarbonise its Lavera petrochemical site on the Mediterranean coast. INEOS says the next phase of its “Lavera regeneration” plan will cut CO₂ by ~331,000 tonnes per year, improve competitiveness, and support thousands of skilled jobs. Strategically, it’s also about future-proofing heavy industry: upgrades are intended to enable the cracker to process more sustainable feedstocks, including recycled-plastics and bio-sourced inputs, reducing reliance on fossil-based materials over time.
Metafuels raises $24m to scale synthetic SAF.
Aviation tech startup Metafuels has raised $24 million (Series A) to accelerate commercialisation of its synthetic SAF (e-SAF) pathway that converts green methanol into jet fuel. The funding is aimed at moving from development into real-world scaling—critical in a market where SAF demand is rising faster than supply and where cost parity remains a major barrier. If Metafuels can industrialise the process economically, it could broaden the viable feedstock base beyond constrained bio-based routes and help airlines secure scalable long-term volumes.
GEAPP targets $100m to digitise India’s grids.
The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) is seeking to raise about $100 million by 2028 to finance digitisation of India’s electricity grids—an enabling layer for integrating more renewables while improving reliability. The plan builds on an initial $25 million deployment in Rajasthan and Delhi and is designed to attract development finance institutions (including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank) by turning “good ideas” into bankable infrastructure programmes. Grid digitisation is increasingly framed as the connective tissue of the transition: without smarter networks, renewable buildout risks congestion, curtailment, and rising system costs.
Microsoft hits 100% renewable electricity milestone.
Microsoft says it has achieved its goal to match 100% of its annual global electricity consumption with renewable energy, leaning heavily on long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) that unlock new clean generation. The company reports 40 GW of contracted renewable capacity across 26 countries (with 19 GW already online), illustrating how hyperscalers are now acting as anchor customers for grid-scale projects. The bigger signal for markets: corporate procurement is evolving from “RECs and claims” to multi-year contracting that shapes real infrastructure pipelines—especially in regions where electricity demand is surging with data centre growth.
