Energy

This week’s run time is 31:14. Week in Review (4:00) FEATURES How well do ESG funds align with the Paris Agreement (20:00) More than half of the investments funds marketed with some sort of climate twist contained securities that aren’t in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to a recent analysis by InfluenceMap.

In this article F Ford Chairman Bill Ford speaks May 19, 2021 during the unveiling of the electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck outside the automaker’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. Ford DETROIT – A decade ago, Ford Motor was positioning itself to be a leader in electrified vehicles with new global models such as the

Date/Time: October 14, 2021 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT) Climate action is a planetary necessity and also a strategic organizational imperative. If progress doesn’t measure up, organizations can face consequences, including investor, employee and community activism — as well as increased operational and financial risk. Sustainability professionals are developing and operationalizing resilience and adaptation strategies

Adapted from GreenFin Weekly, a free newsletter. Subscribe here. BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN: The first time I spent Christmas with my future husband’s family, his mother Mila gave me a beautiful wool shawl she had knitted by hand. This was roughly 20 years ago, long before talk of a circular economy, but that shawl was as

An E10 petrol pump in Kettering, England, photographed on September 1, 2021. Joe Giddens | PA Images | Getty Images The U.K. government has started the rollout of E10 gasoline to pumps, claiming the fuel, which contains ethanol, could cut carbon dioxide emissions from transport by 750,000 tonnes each year. This equates to removing 350,000

Mainspring Energy was founded in 2010 by a trio of Stanford Ph.D.s, born not out of the university’s legendary coding schools but rather from its thermodynamics lab. Back at a time when the startup world was growing wary of cleantech, the team targeted a tough task: to drive down emissions by reinventing one of the

President Joe Biden has made addressing climate change a priority for his administration and early on appointed two climate czars, who have focused on reducing carbon emissions. But there is less clarity about who is on point to blunt the impacts of climate change already occurring, known as “climate adaptation.” One agency has been quietly leading

In a major step forward for the decarbonization of shipping, Maersk has announced plans to purchase eight container vessels that can run on “green” methanol and deliver goods for the growing number of firms around the world that have set net zero-emission targets. In a statement published on its website, the world’s largest shipping company

This article was adapted from an essay on the Planet Tracker web site. The growth in the alternative protein space has been rapid over the last few years. According to the Good Food Institute, the alternative protein industry raised $3.1 billion in investments in 2020, three times more than the $824 million invested in the

I was gobsmacked by the response to my recent attempt to define what “system change” actually means. Not necessarily by the number of responses, although there were plenty, but by the depth and breadth of many of them: paragraph after annotated paragraph, with multiple links and attachments. Some of it was over my head, a mélange

The interviews for this story took place from fall 2019 to spring 2020 as part of the author’s Ted Scripps Fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism. The story was supported by The Water Desk, an independent journalism initiative based at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism. This

Humans have been farming outside for around 12,000 years. Over those thousands of years, farmers have stumbled upon or bred specific varieties of plants and seeds that do well in outdoor field farming environments. And as farming has turned from a local business to a massive profit-making behemoth, the process of developing the best seeds

In March, 24 local governments in Maryland joined together on a plan to purchase enough renewable energy to power more than 246,000 homes a year. They did this by issuing a joint request for proposal (RFP) through the Baltimore Regional Cooperative Purchasing Committee (BRCPC) to seek a supply of up to 240,000 MWh of renewable energy starting

As Congress debates billions of dollars in new infrastructure investments, advocates are touting the social and economic benefits of building new high-voltage transmission lines, clean energy plants and electric vehicle charging stations, along with fixing aging roads and bridges. But when it’s time to break ground, will people accept these new projects in their communities?

Certainly the biggest EV story this month is the Chevrolet Bolt battery recall saga. Given the battery heating issues I’ve personally encountered with my Nissan Leaf, I was curious to dive deeper into the story. Is the reason for this recall unique to the car and its battery? Is this a Bolt-only issue, a one-off

The science is unequivocal; in order to curb the worst impacts of climate change, we must transition off dirty energy immediately. But with extreme weather becoming the norm across the United States, communities and companies are in need of backup power solutions that can be deployed today.  Here’s the rub: The cheapest and most available

Oil firms on Saturday cut nearly 91% of U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude oil production, roughly 1.65 million barrels, as Hurricane Ida makes its way toward major U.S. offshore oilfields, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. The regulator also estimated that roughly 84.87% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has

This article originally appeared on Circulate News. Steel is not infinitely recycled. For instance, much of the high-grade steels recovered from vehicles are downcycled into a lower-price material and mostly reused in lower-grade applications, such as buildings and infrastructures. Indeed, not aware of the quality of the steel they collect, recyclers mix steel grades, producing a

Week in Review (4:00) FEATURES The intersection of ESG and environmental justice (21:10) Olivia Knight, racial justice initiative management for shareholder advocacy nonprofit As You Sow, chats about its new assessment of S&P 500 companies centered on racial and environmental justice. *Music in this episode: “Curiosity,” “As I Was Saying,” “Sad Marimba Planet” and “Southside” Stay

You might be getting a little tired of regenerative agriculture announcements and commitments. I understand — it’s been an overwhelming trend (in a good way?). But keep reading. Google’s story is different, not least because it’s not an ag company. Its work is a refreshingly down-to-earth approach rather than a fix-it-all solution.  So what are

Small talk needs a new conversation starter. As weather events batter people, property and productivity from sea to rising sea, the physical reality of the connection between weather and climate change has become inescapable. From the freeze in Texas to the floods in Europe to the California wildfire smoke seeping into my apartment as I

High voltage power lines in Pinole, California, on Thursday, June 17, 2021. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Carbon dioxide emissions from the global electric power sector surged past pre-pandemic levels to record highs in the first half of 2021, according to new research by London-based environmental think tank Ember. Electricity demand and emissions are

Seaweed could soon be harvested to make packaging, with the fiber having been earmarked as a potential sustainable alternative to conventional wood and paper material by global packaging company DS Smith. As demand for sustainable goods increases, the firm revealed last week that it is exploring the use of seaweed fiber as a key raw

Bluberries | iStock | Getty Images Researchers in Australia are to work with utilities and investigate using wastewater in hydrogen production in a bid to boost its sustainability and maximize resources. The project will see a team from Monash University in Melbourne work with four companies through Water Research Australia: Yarra Valley Water, Melbourne Water,

Date/Time: September 28, 2021 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT) Protecting biodiversity is a defining issue of our time as we face the prospect of mass extinction and ecosystem collapse. In this webinar, Quantis and partners will discuss what biodiversity means from a business perspective, how biodiversity concerns can be integrated into existing sustainability strategies, and

In this article MAERSK.B-DK Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images Danish firm Maersk said Tuesday it is ordering eight large, ocean-going vessels able to run on what it called “carbon neutral methanol.” The world’s largest container shipping firm said the vessels would be built by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries and have the capacity

What does it take for a company concerned about climate change to educate, engage and empower hundreds of thousands of employees around the world? The global consultancy Deloitte is about to find out. This month, it launched an initiative to educate all of its 330,000 employees on the topic. Three hundred thirty thousand employees. Full

At the end of 2020, an estimated $38 trillion in assets under management carried the ESG label, an increase of more than 24 percent from 2018. Looking into the future, ESG assets are on track to grow globally to more than $53 trillion by 2025. This substantial increase is the result of two forces: One is the

In this article SGRE-ES VWS-DK As technology develops, the size of wind turbines is getting bigger. Owaki/Kulla | The Image Bank | Getty Images MingYang Smart Energy has released details of a huge new offshore wind turbine, with the Chinese company aiming to install a prototype in 2023 before starting commercial production the year after.

Earlier this year, my colleague Jim Giles wrote about the importance of viewing soil as infrastructure. So when the Senate passed its $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last week, I was curious to see if this monumental bill shared Jim’s view.  Unfortunately not is the short answer. The bill is using an old-school

If you can withstand the market’s wild swings, Wilmington Trust’s Meghan Shue believes it’s an ideal time to put cash to work. It may seem counterintuitive, but she’s more comfortable investing in stocks now than earlier this summer when Wall Street was calmer. “It’s actually more unsettling when it appears that everything is good and

Soon after a tech company announced its ambition to become carbon neutral, a senior executive from its sustainability department called one of us for advice on developing and implementing a well-rounded nature-based solutions strategy. In their own words, “… we see a lot of corporations handwaving at nature-based solutions, but we want to develop a

Roughly four in 10 people globally owned a smartphone in 2018 and that number continues to grow rapidly. This growth is driven by steady sales of the devices — more than 1 billion each year — putting hand-sized computers in people’s pockets. It is difficult to overstate the impact smartphones have had on human behavior: They are part of a

Companies face several challenges in telling their sustainability stories: ensuring they are authentic and true to the business; addressing multiple stakeholders’ interests while maintaining consistency; providing information that’s not just accurate but genuinely trusted; and managing the ever-evolving landscape of sustainability regulations, reporting frameworks and ESG rating firms. To tackle these challenges, The Conference Board

In this article USCR Concrete is the foundation of just about everything. It’s used to construct buildings, highways, bridges, roads and more. During the Covid-19 pandemic, concrete fell victim to the same phenomena impacting other essential materials and goods: snarled supply chains and labor shortages. And demand for concrete — and its essential ingredient, cement

Week in Review (4:00) FEATURES Meet the climate tech startup helping Audi, H&M rethink materials (20:15) Made of Air, which turns wood waste into a form of thermoplastics, was the winner of the Accelerate fast-pitch startup program at Circularity 21. Co-founder Allison Dring chats about the company’s mission and early client experiences.  *Music in this episode:

In this article TSLA GM .FKRX300 The Vermont State Police released this photo of the 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV that caught fire on July 1, 2021 in the driveway of state Rep. Timothy Briglin, a Democrat. Vermont State Police Automakers are spending billions of dollars to transition to cleaner and greener battery-powered vehicles, but the

Reprinted from GreenFin Weekly, a free weekly newsletter. Subscribe here By now nearly everyone has read, re-read and shared at least one key finding of the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released last week. The report’s conclusions, while not unexpected, are stated starkly and for the first time, leave absolutely no doubt that