Globally, companies are developing and implementing their strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, in line with the Paris Agreement. However, there is also growing recognition and awareness of the potential negative impacts of these activities on human rights. Recent pressure from international normative standards and ESG expectations, emerging legislative developments, and legal precedents are driving companies to consider human rights impacts across their climate action. This piece explores some of the human rights risks associated with the transition to renewable energy; the transformation to regenerative agriculture; the scaling up of the circular economy; and the implementation of nature-based solutions. It then explores the challenges of conducting effective human rights due diligence given the scale and scope of the transitions needed and provides examples of how companies are seeking to respect human rights in their climate action.

Perennial Lewis flax (Linum lewisii Pursh) has the potential to be grown as a new oilseed crop that could simultaneously meet commodity production, ecosystem service provisioning, and farm resiliency goals. Despite many potential benefits, Lewis flax remains minimally explored as an agronomic crop. Determining agronomic best practices for producing economically relevant stands of Lewis flax is critical to its adoption as an oilseed crop. Several aspects of Lewis flax agronomic production were explored through the lens of adaptive management between 2020 and 2022. Initial field trials aimed at assessing spring-seeded Lewis flax row spacing, plant population density, and intercropping strategies with legumes and grasses failed due to poor establishment. Heavy rains and excessive weed pressure further complicated attempts to reestablish these initial trials. We established additional Lewis flax plots via fall and dormant seeding in response to the failure of our first experiment. This second experiment focused on exploring row spacing, population density, and seeding timing impacts on flax production. Flax yield did not differ among our treatments, averaging 59 kg ha−1. The low yields realized by our field trials may be due to several factors including need for harvest technology optimization, high weed pressure, and need for Lewis flax genetic improvement. Our study is a first step toward developing recommendations for optimal production strategies for Lewis flax in an agronomic context. Continued exploration of methods to improve management and yield of Lewis flax will be critical to its successful development as an agronomic crop.

There is mounting evidence for the potential for the natural dietary antioxidant and anti-inflammatory amino acid l-Ergothioneine (ERGO) to prevent or mitigate chronic diseases of aging. This has led to the suggestion that it could be considered a ‘longevity vitamin.’ ERGO is produced in nature only by certain fungi and a few other microbes. Mushrooms are, by far, the leading dietary source of ERGO, but it is found in small amounts throughout the food chain, most likely due to soil-borne fungi passing it on to plants. Because some common agricultural practices can disrupt beneficial fungus–plant root relationships, ERGO levels in foods grown under those conditions could be compromised. Thus, research is needed to further analyse the role agricultural practices play in the availability of ERGO in the human diet and its potential to improve our long-term health.

Regenerative farming offers the promise of rapid carbon sequestration at global scale. Also called regenerative agriculture, it is largely absent in social science environmental discussions. Learning and teaching about regenerative farming has been left outside educational channels at many levels until now. Pastoral farmers themselves have been at the forefront of a renewal movement educating other land users how to farm beyond conventional Western modern systems. Regenerative farming challenges ‘industrial’ or ‘capitalist farming’ models that continue to degrade natural systems across the world’s pasturelands. This article describes ground-up learning processes and value propositions of farmers involved in regenerative farming. They see it as a solution to the normative shift in recent decades positioning farmers as ‘bad guys’: reducing biodiversity, degrading land systems by erosion and excess fertilisers, over-using water catchments and lowering water quality for urban communities. Understanding the claims and potential of regenerative farming enables environmental educators to be more specific in identifying potential strengths, without neglecting academic evaluation and critique to bear on this strategic climate innovation.