Today: Despite a sceptical White House, businesses are still highlighting their sustainable strategies ahead of annual investor days; Rivian to run a factory off recycled EV batteries; utility companies plan to spend $1.4 trillion to power the AI boom; Lululemon probed over forever chemicals.

Welcome back: Companies preparing to deliver annual updates to investors are highlighting, and at times defending, their latest sustainability strategies, according to exclusive analysis of corporate statements by WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson.

Proxy statements in recent weeks show oil companies are still talking about the importance of lowering greenhouse gas emissions, food conglomerates are pointing to packaging reduction plans, and technology businesses are defending how their data center expansions line up with their climate goals.

• Chevron said that the company’s strategy is “to leverage our strengths to safely deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world.” The filing said the company believes “affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner energy is essential to enabling human progress.”
• Fast-food chain Papa John’s pointed to measures it says will reduce energy across its restaurants, including power-saving technology in its pizza ovens and electric power to refrigerate trucks during loading.
• Amazon said it is building data centers with lower-carbon concrete and steel and that it has water recycling plans at more than 120 data centers in the U.S., which it expects will preserve over 530 million gallons of drinking water annually.

Although companies have been wrestling with how to talk about their environmental efforts amid the Trump administration’s skepticism of climate change and sustainability efforts, this year’s filings issued ahead of annual investor meetings in the spring and summer, demonstrate they are still making promises to invest in a lower carbon future.

Electric-vehicle startup Rivian has found an unusual power source for its Illinois car factory: old batteries from its own cars.

• Rivian is joining with Redwood Materials to reuse EV batteries for energy storage—the largest repurposed-battery energy storage system for a car maker in the U.S., executives said. Redwood Materials is a battery-recycling firm started by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel.

Once completed later this year, Rivian’s plant in Normal, Ill., will draw electricity from more than 100 Rivian EV batteries in an area the size of a small parking lot. It will reduce Rivian’s dependence on the power grid during peak demand hours. The setup is expected to initially provide 10 megawatt-hours of energy, equivalent to about 1,000 home-energy battery storage units linked together, Redwood’s Straubel said.

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U.S. utilities are planning a historic investment spree to patch up an aging power grid and meet rising electricity demand for the artificial-intelligence boom, The Wall Street Journal's Jennifer Hiller reports.

• Spending plans for 51 utilities have reached an estimated $1.4 trillion for the next five years, according to a new report from PowerLines, a consumer education group, up more than 20% from a year ago.

Although many of the plans still require approval from state utility regulators, the news could be ominous for consumers. The plans could trigger additional requests for rate increases at a time when rising power costs and affordability concerns have become a bipartisan political concern.

The Texas attorney general is investigating Lululemon for allegedly using so-called forever chemicals in its workout gear. But the athletic-apparel company said it stopped using the chemicals more than two years ago.

• Forever chemicals, known as PFAS, don’t break down in the environment and accumulate in the body, potentially causing health problems such as cancer and infertility. They have been used in products since the 1940s, from clothing and cosmetics to food packaging and nonstick cookware, often as a slippery coating to repel water or stains.

A Lululemon spokeswoman said the company doesn’t use PFAS in its products. It previously had used the chemicals in durable water-repellent garments, which accounted for a small portion of the products it sold. But it phased out the use of the chemicals as of January 2024, she said.

• Maine lawmakers passed a ban on large data-center construction, making it the first state to enact such a measure. (WSJ)
   
• Delta Airlines removed a pair of key environmental targets from its sustainability web page. (Bloomberg)
   
• EV maker Lucid secures $750 million in funding from Uber Technologies and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund. (WSJ)
   
• More than half of the U.S. is in drought as extreme heat and a lack of rain and snow raise the spectre of water shortages and fire risk. (FT)
   
• Soaring energy prices triggered by the Iran war threaten to further weaken the EU’s transition towards clean energy. (Oxford Analytica)
   
• China accuses the U.K. of protectionism after Ming Yang Smart Energy wind turbines are barred over security. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send your comments to editor Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.