Sustainability In Your Ear

Are the laws of the United States fitted for sustainability? Our guest today, attorney Maya van Rossum, argues that it is time for a new approach, environmental constitutionalism. She is adjunct professor and director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Temple’s Beasley School of Law and founder of Green Amendments for the Generations, a campaign to add environmental amendments to state and the U.S. constitution. Our evolving insights into the uneven health, economic, racial and social impacts of climate change demand that we rethink our approach to legislation and the Constitution. We need to enable the creation of laws and policies that will make a tangible difference for the marginalized victims of climate change and future generations, not just the voters who are alive today.The second edition of Maya's book, The Green Amendment: the People's Fight to Secure a Clean, Safe & Healthy Environment, will be published by Disruption Books in November. We’ve made it legal to pollute, sometimes after jumping through a few hoops, but legal to pollute almost anywhere in the United States. A green amendment isn’t the silver bullet, but it can be the yeast to activate a vibrant legal and political discussion that, over time, can lead to significant changes. You can learn more about Maya and Green Amendments for the Generations at https://forthegenerations.org/

There is momentum around sustainability in society but millions of companies and billions of people are not engaged with the ideas and taking action. Many simply don’t know where to start. We talk about inspiring change in organizations with Susan Hunt Stevens, cofounder and CEO of WeSpire, which develops tools, services and informational campaigns that help companies improve their sustainability performance, their inclusivity, social impact and employee wellbeing. WeSpire’s technology uses behavioral science to present goals, motivating information and actions that employees can take to contribute to the organization’s sustainability goals. But choosing the practices to emphasize, deciding where to start, and understanding the best way to engage employees, partners, and customers in your mission is the hard work that is just beginning for so many companies.Across the board, these programs are more important than ever as employees, especially younger ones, are looking for purpose and meaning in their work as the pandemic continues to disrupt life. WeSpire’s programs have been used by companies with more than 2 million employees. It’s an opportunity to reset not just environmental goals but also the way your business shares information internally and externally, its role in the community and much more. You can learn more about WeSpire at https://www.wespire.com/

Animals are key to our restoration of the planet, Kate Wall and Mark Hofberg of the International Fund for Animal Welfare explain in a report titled Thriving Together: The Critical Role of Animals in Achieving the SDGs. The world’s progress toward a sustainable society has been charted by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 goals that include environmental, social and economic projects deemed necessary to creating a just, equitable world that can live on its current resources instead of borrowing from the future. The SDGs address people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnerships that we need to put in place by 2030, but they do not include animals — they are mentioned once in the 8,600 or so words that document the SDGs.When we take care of animals, we take better care of people. Biodiversity is the basis of the web of life and need to recognize that when you remove even a few nodes from a network it can make the entire system fragile. Unfortunately, we’ve removed hundreds of species from the natural world in which we evolved and the cost is falling on women, animals and all of us through greater exposure to zoonotic diseases that a resilient nature can help prevent. To make your impact, Mark and Kate suggest that listeners follow and support the Leaders Pledge for Nature, an international agreement that the U.S. has not signed, and Congressional action around a national biodiversity strategy and national wildlife corridors. You can learn more about the International Fund for Animal Welfare at https://www.ifaw.org

Computing opens the door to a more efficient economy but the energy required will generate more greenhouse gas emissions. We talk with Kirat Singh, CEO and cofounder of Beacon Platform Inc., a developer of cloud computing infrastructure for Wall Street and financial institutions. Beacon’s system is built in part to reduce the environmental impact of processing large amounts of financial data. As more companies shift their computing from private data centers to the cloud, there is an opportunity to introduce significant efficiencies based not only on how the cloud is powered but also the way computing jobs are managed, the networks used to move data between the cloud and customers, and other factors. Prior to founding Beacon, Kirat launched large data platforms at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs.Computing is expected to consume up to 20% of all electricity generated by 2030. In the era of high-speed trading, banks use massive amounts of power to crunch data and identify opportunities to profit in the stock market — as much as half of a bank’s carbon footprint is generated by computing. We need to establish information technology design and operational practices that emphasize better environmental outcomes. You can learn more about Beacon Platform Inc. at https://www.beacon.io/

Encouraging regenerative farming practices can start with conscious shopping choices, but there are many challenges ahead. Mattheiu Kohlmeyer, founder of La Tourangelle, a Berkeley, Calif.-based maker of artisanal cooking oils, some of which are produced using regenerative farming techniques, discusses the ins and outs of growing healthy, affordable regenerative foods. La Tourangelle makes a variety of oils, including almond and avocado oil, sunflower, grapeseed and olive oils — it sources nuts and seeds from regenerative farmers in Eastern Europe and California, upcycling nuts when possible to reduce its environmental impact. The company also uses post-consumer recycled materials in packaging and its spray oils use no chemical propellants or aerosols.Regenerative farming can restore soils — the U.S. looses about 5.6 tons of topsoil per acre per year, and by leaving soil untilled, allowing natural biology to play out in the absence of chemicals, it is estimated that healthy soil could sequester a quarter of a billion tons of CO2 annually. Mattheiu recently contributed an article at Earth911, Regenerative Farming Practices: Food for a Healthier Planet. Regenerative farming is a comprehensive practice and one made harder in the midst of an historic drought in the West. You can learn more about La Tourangelle at https://latourangelle.com

Arthur Baker, associate director of the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, explains why equity is essential to sustainability. He is the co-author, with Vijaya Ramachandaran, of Let Them Eat Carbon, a Center for Global Development policy paper that suggests it is not just unjust but inefficient to make the poorest countries carry the climate burden. The response to climate change involves a global responsibility to raise people’s standard of living, which reduces population growth, as well as increase the utilization of renewable energy and innovation in food production, waste and water management. Take a few minutes to check out the sites Arthur shares during the show, Give Well and Evidence Action — they research the chartible donations that make the biggest impact.Sixty-four low-income countries, which have produced the least greenhouse gas emissions, face significant economic and environmental challenges that may prevent them from decarbonizing their economies. And, yet, even if they don’t decarbonize, these nations will produce only 1% of global emissions by 2035. Without assistance, they will simply fall further behind the nations that have benefited the most from the Industrial Era. You can learn more about the University of Chicago’s Development Innovation Lab at https://bfi.uchicago.edu/development-innovation-lab/ and about the Center for Global Development at https://www.cgdev.org/

Kobe Nagar, CEO of Durham, North Carolina-based 374Water, explains the company's compact waste water processing technology, the Supercritical Water Oxidation (AirSCWO) system. Operating the system generates energy, industrial CO2, trinitrogen gases that can be used in manufacturing, distilled water, and minerals extracted from wastewater, making it extremely affordable as a solution for many water treatment uses. The smallest version fits in a shipping container and can clean the wastewater generated by communities of as few as 6,000 people — or the equivalent amount of industrial waste. The AirSCWO system can be scaled up to support 30,000 or 200,000 people and a wide variety of industrial applications, including removing and destroying PFAS, the "forever chemicals" found throughout the environment, water supplies and human bodies. And water is just the first step for the company, Kobe shares. The oxidation process can also convert plastics and other solid wastes into reusable raw materials.Water, along with air and land, is one of our most important resources. We need it to hydrate our bodies, to make much of what we eat and use every day, and we use it to to carry away our waste. Treating waste water instead of dumping it back into the environment, is an inefficient process. You can learn more about 374Water, which is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol SCWO, at https://374water.com/

Alex Garden, chairman and CEO of Camarillo, Calif.-based Zume, explains how companies can use waste pulp materials to replace plastic packaging for to-go foods and packaged goods. Molded fiber can be used instead of expanded polystyrene meat trays, to replace the plastic scoops included with baby formula, as coffee cup lids, and in six-pack holders, among many other forms of packaging. The company's water and grease resistant food packaging does not use PFAS, or "forever chemicals" that are harmful to human health and the environment. The plastic versions of this packaging is a $390-billion industry that contributes to plastics’ 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions — 2.2 billion tons of CO2eq annually — according to a December 2021 study published in Nature Sustainability. The challenge is growing production capacity, and Zume is making rapid progress after being founded in 2015. Zume recently announced a partnership with Transcend Packaging, a UK-based sustainable packaging maker to expand in Europe with new production capacity coming online in 2023. It already has manufacturing locations in the United States and India. You can learn more about Zume at https://www.zume.com/

Erica Moreti, Head of Strategy & Innovation and Physical/Connected Experience at EPAM Continuum discusses the third Consumer Unmasked report. EPAM surveyed 3,000 Americans, Britons and Germans in late March and early April this year to understand how people are reacting to events as lockdowns end and global conflict appears to be on the rise. How are shoppers reacting, and will they give up the sustainable living priorities that were taking hold as the pandemic began? We talk through the role can subscription services play in reducing wasteful purchases and shipping-related greenhouse gas emissions.Erica explains that the evolution of how people think and act when shopping is accelerating as new challenges reshape our values -- change itself is becoming a familiar part of everyday life. Could that set the stage for a transition to a low-carbon, environmentally responsible economy? From the pandemic and political extremism to the Ukraine war and spikes in the price of gas, housing and food, people have endured enough change for one of their great-grandparent’s lifetimes in less than half a decade. But events just keep coming. Can we use these disruptions to invent a better future? The fourth Consumers Unmasked survey will be released soon. You can find out more at https://www.epam.com/

Urvashi Bhatnagar, co-author with Paul Anastas of The Sustainability Scorecard: How to Implement and Profit from Unexpected Solutions, explains the four principles for managing and scaling sustainability. These ideas can be applied to build a sustainable business at a startup or large company dto accelerate progress toward low- and no-waste products and services. Urvashi discusses reframing business decisions to emphasize waste reduction. She suggests what we waste today can be the basis for profitable growth without the severe environmental damage that resulted from the Industrial Era. She shares ideas about how to engage executives and employees in sustainability programs and how to be transparent about their environmental commitments.The new book extends the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry that Anastas, who is known as the father of green chemistry, and John Warner first introduced in 1998. Those ideas transformed the way chemistry is done. Following their introduction, a new generation of chemists has focused on using low-temperature, biologically responsible processes that mimic natural processes. They create chemicals and products that are recyclable or biodegrade instead of leaving toxins in nature. The Sustainability Scorecard: How to Implement and Profit from Unexpected Solutions is available on Amazon and at Powell's Books.