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Vertical farming business Spread has signed a sustainability-linked loan of $4.6 million (JPY 600 million). The loan defines sustainability performance targets (SPTs) in accordance with the Japanese company's business strategy and has tied lending conditions, such as interest rate, to the achievement of these. In this way, it serves as an incentive for the company to strengthen its commitment towards environmental, social and governance management. The SPTs include an improvement in the labour productivity at Spread’s vertical farms of 30% in comparison with FY 2018, and the maintenance of energy consumption per production volume at the level of FY 2021. Spread’s general manager of corporate planning department, Masaki Kushiro, said: “In anticipation of further growth, following the equity financing last summer, we expect this sustainability-linked loan to be a big step in the promotion of expansion and effective use of indirect financing”. “As a vertical farming company, we are expected to keep contributing to environmental and social issues. By announcing some of the tasks that we are working on and linking them to economic conditions, the loan allows us to express our intention to achieve corporate growth and social contribution in parallel.”