Sat.Jan 04, 2020 - Fri.Jan 10, 2020

article thumbnail

Proof the Energy Future Is Here

GreenTechMedia

We’re now in the 2020s. Many of the tropes from films and literature about this era may not have come true, but there’s a lot happening around us that does feel futuristic. In this week's episode of The Interchange , we are offering up proof that we are living in the energy future — right now. Shayle and Stephen are each going to pick a use of technology that once seemed futuristic, but is now a reality.

Energy 185
article thumbnail

As the planet warms, unusual crops could become climate saviors — if we're willing to eat them

GreenBiz

What role can lesser-known crops that thrive under adversity play in efforts to make our global food supply more resilient to climate change?

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

US Electricity: Solar Up 15%, Wind Up 9%

CleanTechnica

"Small-scale solar photovoltaics (e.g., rooftop solar systems) alone grew by 19.22% YTD. Compared to all other energy sources, solar-generated electricity has enjoyed the fastest growth rate thus far in 2019." Natural gas generation grew by 6.71%, nuclear energy generation grew by 0.8%, and coal-generated electricity generation declined by 14.46%.

article thumbnail

How to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Asbestos

U.S. Green Technology

The environment probably isn’t the first thing you think of when you hear “asbestos,” as people have long associated it with health issues. But it makes sense that such hazardous material has ecological consequences. Construction companies once lauded it for its helpful building capabilities, but it fell out of favor when workers became ill.

article thumbnail

Electrofuels Are the Future: The Driving Force to Decarbonizing Heavy Transport

Speaker: Ayesha Choudhury - Senior Vice President, Head of Capital Markets at Infinium

With the first wave of the energy transition, renewable energy sources (such as solar and wind) have begun replacing coal power generation. However, some sectors are lagging behind and struggling to decarbonize more than others, including large-scale transportation like commercial aviation, shipping, and rail transit. Electrofuels (aka eFuels) are the next generation of solutions to help the hardest-to-abate sectors pivot from their reliance on fossil fuels.

article thumbnail

Why aviation needs to address its emissions problem now

GreenBiz

Despite myriad efforts, the aviation industry unlikely to succeed in reducing its emissions given the current hurdles. In fact, the case is quite the opposite.

Aviation 223
article thumbnail

Fires in Australia create dangerous weather conditions

Inhabitat - Innovation

Authorities warn that the unprecedented ferocity of Australia’s wildfires can produce extreme weather systems — dangerous and unpredictable conditions known as cumulonimbus flammagenitus, or pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds.

249
249

More Trending

article thumbnail

The Plastics Giant and the Making of an Environmental Justice Warrior

DeSmogBlog

Read time: 23 mins This report was produced as part of ivoh’s Restorative Narrative Fellowship. On the evening of January 6, Louisiana state regulators issued 15 key permits to the Taiwanese petrochemical corporation Formosa for its $9.4 billion plastics manufacturing complex proposed for the historically black area of St. James Parish. Word spread today about the approvals, which pave the way for the project’s construction, opposed by local and national environmental advocates.

Plastics 124
article thumbnail

Federal leadership necessary for solar to reach its potential 2020 Trends in Solar

Solar Power World

State and city governments have been working the past three years to build solar markets despite lack of federal support, but a number of reports have made it clear that Washington, D.C.’s assistance is necessary for solar power to meet its full potential in combating climate change. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) “World Energy Outlook… The post Federal leadership necessary for solar to reach its potential <br><span style='color:#404040;font-weight:600;font-

article thumbnail

The Garden House features greenery and bee-friendly landscapes

Inhabitat - Innovation

The Garden House by Christos Pavlou Architecture is a physical representation of the potential for urban gardens to create micro-climates that improve the living conditions of cities rather than make additional contributions to climate change.

article thumbnail

This is what energy resilience could look like

GreenBiz

A microgrid pilot program run by Colorado cooperative Holy Cross Energy includes four all-electric homes in an affordable housing community.

article thumbnail

AR/VR Simulations for Sustainable, Regenerative, Circular Cities

Speaker: Nik Gowing, Brenda Laurel, Sheridan Tatsuno, Archie Kasnet, and Bruce Armstrong Taylor

With 191 country signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement now hard at work in the race to zero carbon by 2050, much of the heavy lifting in ecosystem sustainability falls on the shoulders of the world's densely populated urban centers. This conversation considers how today's AI-enabled simulation media, such as AR/VR, can be effectively applied to accelerate learning, understanding, training, and solutions-modeling to sustainability planning and design.

article thumbnail

NBD Nano Uses Biomimicry to Manipulate Water and Oil

Greentown Labs

The NBD Nano team, including co-founders Deckard Sorensen (front row, center) and Miguel Galvez (front row, left). A Q&A with Co-founder Deckard Sorensen. NBD Nano changes the way surfaces interact with water and oil. Co-founders Deckard Sorensen and Miguel Galvez turned down the job offers they had upon graduating college to make NBD Nano a reality, and their gamble worked out. .

article thumbnail

A Carbon Hierarchy for (Net) Zero Carbon Construction

Fairsnape

This is Part 2 of Zero Carbon Series. See Part One Carbon That Was then This is Now. Writing in FutuREstorative back in 2016, I looked at what a construction project would look like in response to the Living Building Challenge ‘s “what if every act of construction made the world a better place” … Projects would be net positive in all aspects, on place, nature, water, health, even knowledge and of course carbon.

article thumbnail

California winery innovates with sustainable recycling creation

Inhabitat - Innovation

In the California city of Paso Robles, architecture firm Clayton & Little has given old oil field drill stem pipes unexpected new life — as an equipment barn that offsets over 100% of the energy needs for a sustainably-minded winery.

article thumbnail

After a rough 2019, farmers and congress discuss agriculture's role as a climate solution

GreenBiz

The Midwest floods revealed another benefit of sustainable agriculture: fields that had been farmed with conservation practices recovered faster.

article thumbnail

How Digital Transformation will Bend the Curve of the Linear Economy Toward the Circular

Speaker: Bruce Armstrong Taylor, Co-Founder & Managing Director of SmartNations Foundation, Jimmy Jia, Venture Partner at Pi Labs, Fabienne Durand, Senior Advisor to the SmartNations Foundation, & Roger Strukhoff, Executive Director of the Tau Institute

The Climate 4.0 Economy. Climate change is here. We see it in many ways already. Weather catastrophes: Texas freezing over, the wildfires of California, the increasingly unpredictable violence and frequency of hurricanes, the rapid melting and disappearance of polar ice caps. Much more evidence all around us. What can we do in our corporate organizations, in our homes and communities, to change the current course?

article thumbnail

Debunked Australian Bushfire Conspiracy Theories Were Pushed by Alex Jones, Murdoch Media

DeSmogBlog

Read time: 3 mins As unusually intense and widespread bushfires have ravaged a drought-ridden Australia, bots and trolls have begun pushing climate science denial across the internet in the form of conspiracy theories about the fires. Thanks to climate change , exceptionally hot, dry drought conditions have worsened and lengthened Australia's typical fire season.

article thumbnail

Climate change fueled the Australia fires. Now those fires are fueling climate change.

Grist

Australia is in the midst of a devastating wildfire season that is being exacerbated by climate change. But the fires, which have been burning for months and could rage on for months to come, are also impacting the earth’s climate in several ways. Some of those impacts are well understood, while others lie at the frontiers of scientific research. The most obvious climatic impact of the fires is that they’re spewing millions of tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributin

article thumbnail

5 growing environmental nonprofits to support in 2020

Inhabitat - Innovation

Here are five fledgling nonprofits you may not have heard of yet, but that are already inspiring movements, pushing for legislation and combating climate change.

article thumbnail

20 C-suite sustainability champions for 2020

GreenBiz

These corporate execs are casting a new mold for embracing environmental, social and governance factors at the highest levels.

article thumbnail

These Climate Science Deniers are Spreading Misinformation about the Australian Bushfires

DeSmogBlog

Read time: 6 mins Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has doubled down on his refusal to strengthen his administration’s approach to climate policy as his country burns. While Morrison acknowledges that climate change is one factor driving the fires, he is unwilling to consider reversing his government’s poor record on climate action to help prevent similar disasters happening again.

article thumbnail

Sony’s concept EV embarrasses legacy automakers

Charged

The surprise star of the CES tech show seems to be a concept EV from Sony. Yes, that Sony. Is everyone going to get into the EV game now? Who’s next, a vacuum cleaner company ? The electric, autonomous, connected automobile is a new frontier for electronics companies, and Sony’s VISION-S is a showcase for a variety of state-of-the-art gadgetry, including sensors, display screens, driver assistance features and infotainment tech.

article thumbnail

3XN unveils new, sustainable building for UNSW Sydney

Inhabitat - Innovation

Following a rigorous international competition, Danish architectural firm 3XN has won the bid to design the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) new Multipurpose Building — a project that the architects say will have a “focus on resilience and environmental sustainability.

article thumbnail

This startup is helping universities and companies embrace circular asset management

GreenBiz

It aims to scale the sharing of equipment and supplies across industries — and make the "multi-usiverse" happen.

Startups 383
article thumbnail

Joaquin Phoenix, Martin Sheen Arrested at Jane Fonda's Final Weekly Climate Protest in DC

DeSmogBlog

Read time: 3 mins Every Friday for the last seven weeks, actress and activist Jane Fonda has held a rally and act of civil disobedience in front of the U.S. Capitol, calling for action on climate change. Each week she's been joined by different celebrities, journalists, and activists. Previous weeks have seen actors such as Law & Order 's Sam Waterston, Fonda's co-star in Grace and Frankie , Lily Tomin, and Lincoln' s Sally Field, to name a few. .

Law 98
article thumbnail

Connected Kerb to pilot wireless charging pads in England and Scotland

Charged

Charging station manufacturer Connected Kerb , in partnership with Munich-based Magment , will begin trials of a new wireless charging system in Greater London, the English Midlands and Scotland this year. The company will install its induction pads on residential streets, at car parks and at taxi ranks. On-street charging is a hot topic in London, where an estimated 78% of residents have no private parking.

article thumbnail

Fisker debuts an electric luxury SUV for $37,500 at CES

Inhabitat - Innovation

The new Fisker Ocean, debuted at CES, will come with many sustainable features — inside and out.

article thumbnail

2020 will be a key year (and decade) for electric vehicles

GreenBiz

Analysts keep nudging that date forward, but now suggest it could happen as early as 2022 for certain models and markets.

article thumbnail

The Netherlands Shows The Way In Tackling The Climate Emergency

Forbes Green Tech

The Dutch Supreme Court on Friday ordered the country’s government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels, in what is already the toughest and most stringent ruling handed down to a government to take immediate action on the climate emergency.

article thumbnail

Louisiana Landowners Appeal Bayou Bridge Pipeline's Right to Seize Their Land After Trespassing

DeSmogBlog

Read time: 3 mins A Louisiana appeals court heard oral arguments Wednesday, January 8 in a case brought by Louisiana landowners against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline Company that illegally trespassed and began pipeline construction without landowners’ consent. Attorneys for the landowners are asking the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court decision granting the pipeline company’s eminent domain right to seize the land.

article thumbnail

Denmarks first timber parking garage will be enveloped in greenery

Inhabitat - Innovation

Danish architecture studios Open Platform and JAJA Architects have won an open competition to design Denmark’s first all-timber parking garage in the coastal city of Aarhus. Designed with a reduced environmental footprint, the new multi-level parking garage will be built from cross-laminated timber and partly enveloped in greenery to help contribute to the country’s goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050.

235
235
article thumbnail

Corporations in the crosshairs: From reform to redesign

GreenBiz

There’s no shortage of efforts to reform capitalism and corporate governance. Can disparate actors, particularly civil society movements, converge under the banner of corporate redesign?

article thumbnail

Australia And The Climate Apocalypse

Forbes Green Tech

Fires in Australia are a chronicle of a suicide foretold. Conservative governments funded by the coal industry and with no environmental policies have put the country at the bottom of the list of nations working to combat the climate emergency. When you ignore emergencies, you suffer their effects.

Policy 98
article thumbnail

Volvo unveils heavy-duty concept EVs for construction and regional transport

Charged

Volvo Trucks has developed electric concept trucks for construction operations and regional distribution to gauge commercial interest. The company plans to have select European customers pilot a small number of these concept vehicles, which it plans to commercialize in the future. Volvo points out that heavy-duty e-trucks can improve the work environment for drivers and construction workers, thanks to their low noise levels and zero exhaust emissions.

article thumbnail

Energy-efficient affordable housing project opens in South LA

Inhabitat - Innovation

Local design practice Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) has transformed a vacant lot in South Los Angeles into energy-efficient, 100% affordable housing.

Energy 213
article thumbnail

Black farmers embrace and implement solutions for climate resiliency

GreenBiz

"Our duty as earthkeepers is to call the exiled carbon back into the land and to bring the soil life home," said Larisa Jacobson, co-director of Soul Fire Farm.