Sustainability In Your Ear

Urban-rural and youth-elder divisions in society represent some of the most difficult challenges to having a robust conversation about how to reduce emissions and waste, what we value as a society, and the path to a sustainable, carbon-neutral society. A just future will be codesigned by all of us to some extent, but we need to reconnect to move from division to collaboration. Richard McCarthy, coauthor of Kuni, A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection with Tsuyoshi Sekihara discusses how to restore social connections. Richard is the cofounder of Crescent City Farmers Market in New Orleans and was part of the leadership of Slow Food USA for many years.Kuni is an ancient word in Japanese that means “a nation” or “a small, independent ancient community. Tsuyoshi Sekihara developed the modern practice of kuni when he moved to a village after more than a decade in Tokyo, the world’s largest city. He found older people living in a dying village with little support or hope and decided to develop a democratic governance model for building urban-rural networks of people committed to having egalitarian, sustainable relationships with one another and the earth. You can learn more about Richard and Kuni at https://thinklikepirates.com/ Kuni, A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection is available from Amazon, Powell's Books, and olocal bookstores.

Patricio Grassini discusses the potential to feed the world without more deforestation and conversion of wetlands to agriculture. He is Sunkist Distinguished Professor of Agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Co-leader of The Global Yield Gap Atlas Project, the world’s leading database describing 13 major food crops. If the human population continues on its current growth path, the World Resources Institute estimates we will need 56% more food without expanding farmlands, which are typically carved out of forested areas critical to reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. We also discuss the potential impact of climate change on crop yields in the second half of the century.Patricio has published many studies in Nature and other journals over the past decade about the potential to close crop yield gaps — the difference between what is currently grown and the potential maximum output for each crop and the land used to grow it. He argues the yeild gaps in rice, maize, palm oil, and soy and other legumes can be closed using today’s existing farmland with more intensive use of land, known as cropping intensity, by improving pest control, and using fertilizer. You can learn about The Global Yield Gap Atlas Prohect at https://www.yieldgap.org/

Staying within the Paris Climate Accord’s 1.5 degrees Celsius limit, at which potentially devastating climate changes will occur, requires ending deforestation before 2030. But as of 2020, the world was still losing about 38,600 square miles of forest annually. Meet Allan Traicoff, Chief Commercial Officer at Emergent, a nonprofit that creates incentives for and connects businesses to natural climate solutions in countries that protect tropical rainforests. Emergent focuses on identifying “high-quality carbon credits,” which discuss during this interview. Emergent launched the LEAF Coalition, a group of 20 global companies, the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States, that has has facilitated more than $1.5 billion in emissions reduction demand funding to date. Allan explains the role of JREDD+ carbon credits, a brand new class of credits aimed at nations that have set aside forests for protection. Preserving standing rainforest is the most efficient way to capture carbon and bring indigenous communities into the forest management process. Emergent also works with reforestation programs to restore land to its natural state. These vast but rapidly shrinking forest ecosystems are the lungs of the planet, essential to climate stability. They generate oxygen and transfer water to the atmosphere. Tropical forests are also home to 80% of the world’s known species and could be a treasure trove of biological and medical discoveries, but only if we keep them intact. Incentives for keeping forests intact and to begin the restoration of forests decimated by logging and lost to farmland are essential to changing the trajectory of climate change. You can learn more about Emergent at https://emergentclimate.com/ and about the LEAF Coalition at https://leafcoalition.org/

Buildings are a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The $5.8 trillion-a-year building and construction sector, including ongoing operations of buildings, is responsible for 38% of the world’s energy-related CO2 emissions according to the United Nations’ Environment Program. Meet Håvard Haukeland, cofounder of Autodesk Spacemaker and a senior director at Autodesk, the pioneer and leading provider of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and other design tools used by architects and builders — Autodesk’s tools also power many of the breakthroughs in animation and special effects. Spacemaker's operational energy tool is an artificial intelligence platform that can analyze architectural designs to identify potential improvements that reduce a building's power requirements during its operational life. It works with other Autodesk tools to speed the green design process and enable efficiencies during construction.The International Energy Agency estimates that emissions associated with construction and buildings needs to fall by 6% a year until 2030 if humanity is to avoid crossing the Paris Accord’s target 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold that represents increased likelihood of disastrous climate impacts and extreme weather. And we are not making the necessary progress despite the fact green buildings are projected to account for $24.7 trillion in new construction by 2030. Architects and contractors need better tools to design and test buildings, plan efficient building projects, and optimize the use of materials while minimizing waste. Spacemaker's operational energy analysis reviews a building design, predicts operational energy use as the architect works, and suggests energy efficiency improvements provided by different types of insulation or different kinds of windows based on the dimensions of the entire building. You can learn more about Autodesk and Spacemaker at https://www.autodesk.com/spacemaker/

Wanting to be sustainable is easy. Acting sustainably requires substantial effort, it takes time and no shortage of expertise to identify products and services with a low- or no-carbon footprint, and shopping for the best price on green energy, efficient appliances, and solar or other sustainability investments is difficult. Tony Wessling, the marketing and communications leader at YellowTin, joins the conversation to discuss the company's new artificial intelligence-poweredgreen lifestyle shopping service. The platform which will be available as a service on web sites and through employee benefits programs, provides education and product recommendations across a wide range of categories, including appliances, electric vehicles and bikes, solar panels, home batteries, and sustainable energy. Think of YellowTin as an advisor that scours the fast-changing sustainability landscape for new energy-saving and carbon-reducing options when shopping.YellowTin was founded in 2019 and incubated by the Los Angeles chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Net Zero Accelerator. The service is available through partner sites as an embedded feature that gives consumers and employees at companies, such as Intuit, access to carbon tracking tools, discounts and other incentives that help them transition to renewable energy and decarbonize their lifestyles. You can learn more about YellowTin at https://www.yellowtin.com/

You may not see the evidence every day, but the electrification of our economy is well underway. In this episode, meet Damir Perge, CEO of Miami-based Amptricity, a maker of solid-state battery technology, an electronic storage system that provides enough power for 8 hours of home backup electricity. Ampricity’s batteries can be recharged 11,000 times — at one charge cycle a day, which is more frequent than most homes will require, these batteries should work for at least 30 years. Amptricity batteries are guaranteed for 25 years with a 96% charge capacity— that’s about a decade longer than the current generation of the Tesla Battery Wall. Amptricity is taking orders now and promises to deliver enough capacity for 400,000 homes in the next two and a half years.According to Bloomberg NEF, society has reached peak “global demand for every form of fossil fuel” in 87 countries. With the cost of solar-generated electricity now firmly below the cost of natural gas, homeowners and business can confidently begin their transition. The challenge is how to store that electricity, and battery technology is the focus of massive investment. Battery technology will perhaps be more ubiquitous than solar panels as we reorganize the electric grid to make it more resilient. For example, a home connected to the traditional grid could have a backup battery charged and ready for a blackout, even if they don’t have home solar. You can learn more about Amptricity at https://www.amptricity.com/

The clothing we wear is a source of carbon emissions and landfill waste. Sarah Pinner, cofounder and CEO of Beni, introduces a new plugin for Google’s Chrome and Apple's Safari browsers that helps shoppers find reused alternatives to new clothing. Beni makes thrift shopping easy with digital helping hand, and the team is working to add environmental impact information to make choosing the lowest-impact option simple. Reusing clothing is an important step to reducing our carbon and waste footprint. And, according to GlobalData, a research firm, reuse shopping has grown from almost no revenue in 2012 to $14 billion in 2021, it’s projected that it will reach $51 billion by 2026. Shoppers need a guide to the exploding world of clothing reuse options. Sarah also shares her ideas about how to transform thrift clothing into a meaningful, hot topic to make more popular with all generations.The World Economic Forum reports that the fashion industry emits up to 10% of annual human emissions, though other estimates run as low as two percent. McKinsey & Co. says that less than one percent of the cotton produced annually is recycled and suggests that keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius requires we make clothes last longer and embrace reuse and rental programs. Reusing clothing is an important step to reducing our carbon and waste footprint. We’ve been testing the Beni plugin, which can understand what product you are looking at on an Ecommerce site and suggest reuse alternatives from other sites. Beni takes the shopper to the reuse site with a single click, keeping the original window open so it is easy to compare. You can learn more about Beni at https://www.joinbeni.com/

Google's circular economy leader, Mike Werner, explains the many renewable energy, waste reduction, and internal strategic changes that have established parent company Alphabet at the forefront of corporate sustainability. Google achieved carbon neutrality for its search engine operations in 2007 and a decade later had matched 100% of its energy use with renewable energy credits. It pioneered reusing server and data center equipment and components, and currently diverts 78% of its data center and 64% of its office waste from landfills. Mike explains how Google collaborates with other companies, including competitors, in the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance, which seeks to achieve 90% national renewable energy generation capacity by 2030.We discuss how the Google Cloud Platform and consumer services are integrating environmental information to support informed changes in business and individual sustainability. Mike, who is on the board of directors at recent guest Rheaply, breaks down how reuse and improved carbon tracking and circular economy strategies can accelerate the decarbonization of society. Google, whose mission is to organize the world's data, is rethinking its business and services to acheive carbon neutrality and, ultimately, draw down CO2 levels as part of the normal course of its business. You can learn more about Google's sustainability and circular economy programs at https://sustainability.google/

Meet Sean Wittenberg, founder of the seafood company SafeCatch. He started the business with a mission to source safe and sustainable tuna and other fish after his mother was diagnosed with mercury poisoning when she adopted a diet that included frequent servings of canned tuna. Sausalito, Calif.-based Safe Catch offers a wide variety of fish products in cans and pouch packaging, and the fish is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, the provider of the familiar and often controversial MSC “blue check” label. The company tests every tuna it sells for mercury, enforcing standards its claims are 10 times stricter than the Food & Drug Administration’s standard. It also offers sourcing and sustainability information about its practices for each species of fish it sells. We’ll discuss how Safe Catch assesses its suppliers in an era when 10% of the world’s fish stock is described by the Minderoo Foundation as being on the brink of collapse and almost half of fish stocks are over-fished. The company relies primarily on purse seine net fishing, a form of fishing that involves large nets. Sean explores the relationship between the continued burning of coal to generate electricity to the 300% increase in mercury levels in the oceans. We discuss plastic pollution and the recyclability of Safe Catch's can and pouch packaging, which it collects through a mail-in program supported by Terracycle.You can learn more about Safe Catch at https://safecatch.com/

Michael Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS), introduces the Climate Solution Accelerator program, a 90-minute video-and-quiz program that explains the essential ideas in climate science, sustainable business, and the policies and paths out of the crisis. Earth911, Jump Digital, and the RSGS have partnered to make the program available in North America. More than 90,000 people globally have used the Climate Solution Accelerator to learn about climate strategies and train employees to start making informed environmental decisions. The program features globally renowned climate leaders, including the former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and the late Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Michael, who is based near Glasgow, Scotland, shares what business has struggled to learn and his impressions of the debates at the recent United Nations Climate Framework COP27 meeting in Egypt. You can learn more about the 148-year-old educational non-profit Royal Scottish Geographical Society at https://www.rsgs.org/The Climate Solutions Accelerator delivers an informative introduction to the most complicated and urgent challenge our species has ever faced. While there is plenty of evidence of the Climate Crisis in the news and in our neighborhoods, and billions of people are waking to the threat, most organizations and businesses are still trying to get their heads around the problem. The proghow they can respond, changing operations and investments to end CO2 emissions and prepare tp adapt to the disruptions that will continue to become more dire until society succeeds in reaching carbon neutrality and begins to drawdown the more than 1 trillion tons of anthropogenic CO2 emitted during the Industrial Era. You can learn more about the Climate Solutions Accelerator at https://earth911.com/featured-courses/climate-solutions/