As part of its commitment to the circular economy, Timberland has launched a product return scheme. Timberloop promises to refurbish “worn products for resale or, if beyond repair, we take them apart and re-use or recycle the pieces in to new materials”. Customers can either drop their used items off at a Timberland shop or return them in the post using a downloadable pre-paid return label. Details here GreenBiz reports that Timberland has partnered with Colorado-based ReCircled on the scheme. “When ReCircled receives the returned products, each item will be inspected and repaired for resale on a soon-to-be launched ‘recommerce’ section of Timberland’s website. It will handle some recycling internally and other recycling will be done in partnership with outside facilities. "Those partners include Timberland suppliers, allowing us to incorporate the materials back into Timberland products and work toward zero waste,” Timberland told GreenBiz. Story here

Environmental organisation Client Earth is suing the UK Government over its Net Zero strategy. Client Earth is claiming that “the Government has failed to set out sufficient policies to tackle climate change and reach net zero emissions by 2050”. “We believe these failings mean the UK Government has breached its legal duties under the 2008 Climate Change Act. What’s more, its approach risks the UK having to introduce more drastic measures in future and pushes the burden onto future generations,” they say. More here

Thomas Heatherwick’s 1,000 Trees building in Shanghai, featuring a shopping centre covered in 1,000 trees and 250,000 plants, is the subject of contrasting articles in Dezeen. The site features an interview with Heatherwick in which he makes claims for the environmental benefits of the building. But Dezeen is also carrying a critical piece from UNSW Sydney’s Philip Oldfield in which he claims that the carbon costs of the project outweigh its environmental benefit. Read the interview here And read Oldfield’s piece here

US start-up Up Paint aims to give some of the estimated 85 million gallons of paint that is wasted in the US each year a second life. Customers can drop unwanted paint off at a network of stores. The cans are then processed via Up Paint’s partners and turned into new paint for sale. More here

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