Earth911.com's Sustainability In Your Ear

Pradeep Elankumaran, cofounder and CEO of Farmstead, explains how the company set out to build a sustainable grocery delivery company focused on eliminating food waste. Where retail grocery stores report wastage of between 30 percent and 40 percent of the food they stock, Farmstead uses local batching of deliveries to cut its waste to less than 5 percent. The service is currently available in the San Francisco Bay Area and offers pickup and recycling of cold packs and delivery packaging. Learn more about Farmstead at https://www.farmsteadapp.com/

Charles Jolley, CEO of URB-E, want to disrupt the local delivery infrastructure. URB-E is building a local container delivery network using ebikes and collapsible containers that are pedaled around cities and neighborhoods. The company says a single delivery person can pull up to 800 pounds of stuff, which is sufficient to replace an internal combustion delivery van. URB-E has launched in New York and Los Angeles, where riders can earn between $18 and $24 an hour, with paid time off. The company’s mission is “to be the global leader in foldable, emission-free transportation solutions.”The last mile in the supply chain, between a distribution center and a retail location or your home, has been the focus of innovation over the past century, starting when United Parcel Service was founded in Seattle using bikes. The evolution of on-demand delivery, however, became enmeshed with fossil fuel-powered cars and vans, and we’re still paying the price. What could last mile deliveries look like in a post-carbon society? It may resemble the founding of UPS, but with logistics and electric bike technology taking the place of pedal power. You can learn more about URB-E at https://www.urb-e.com/

Kimberly Shank, cofounder and CEO of Novi, introduces the Novi Connect sustainable personal care and beauty products ingredients and packaging marketplace. The service lets product and packaging designers research and validate the sustainability and environmental impact of the ingredients and packaging materials they use. For example, Novi provides the ability to enter a set of ingredients for a new make-up product and check that their formula meets environmental standards and qualify for retailer and general sustainability certifications. Novi reporting includes sourcing information, so that product designers can understand where products came from and how they were made. This kind of tool is essential to helping product manufacturers change their designs to reduce environmental and social impacts, and it could reshape the products you buy.You can learn more about Novi at https://www.noviconnect.com/

Christian Schiller, cofounder of cirplus, talks about the company's digital marketplace for circular plastics. Think of it as Match.com or Tinder for European plastics recyclers, including companies that collect post-consumer materials and those that sell processed recycled plastic for use in new products. Cirplus connects sellers with buyers and collects fees for speeding the transaction along. Sellers save on marketing costs and can establish ongoing relationships that support their business growth with just a few clicks. cirplus is working now to launch its U.S. marketplace. Christian also discusses the prospects for bioplastics and emerging plastic recycling technologies, including molecular recycling, which will purportedly make plastic recyclable many more times than today.The plastics industry desperately needs to step up its recycling — less than 6% of the approximately 370 million tons of plastic produced each year is recycled today. Recycling is all about economics, and making it profitable depends on gaining reliable access to supplies of recyclable materials as well as customers who are ready to buy the processed material. Christian previously helped to build BlaBlaCar, where we was the first employee at the online transportation market that connects drivers and bus operators to riders. Digital technology, as we often hear from our guests, creates efficiencies that make previously difficult markets come to life. You can learn more about cirplus at https://www.cirplus.com/

Author Eve Darian-Smith discusses her new book, Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis, which describes and analyzes the environmental policies of authoritarian governments, including the Trump and Bolsanaro administrations in the U.S. and Brazil, as well as Australia’s recently deposed Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. She is chair of the Department of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Eve has documented the growing crisis for democratic nations as authoritarian leaders blend anti-environmentalist populism with increasingly aggressive approaches to governing. Climate change is a global problem that nationalists and populists resist actively. With the United States headed into a contentious mid-term election season, we wanted to discuss what voters should be on the watch for when choosing candidates they expect to represent them in global negotiations in response to climate change. You can find Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis at Amazon (https://amzn.to/39QBgZ0), Audible (https://amzn.to/39OR26R), and Powell's Books (https://www.powells.com/book/global-burning-rising-antidemocracy-the-climate-crisis-9781503631083).

Frank Zambrelli, Executive Director of Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business Responsible Business Coalition, discusses the school's recommendations for sustainability and transparency in the fashion industry. He explains findings in Accenture's recently released a report, Scaling ESG Solutions in Fashion, which identified seven areas of focus required for sustainable changes to the fashion industry. They include industry-wide adoption of transparent emissions reductions goals of 50% by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2040, use of renewable energy in manufacturing, elimination of the use of restricted chemicals, and fair labor practices across every step of the fashion supply chain in order to turn the industry into a sustainable one.Fashion may make us look and feel good but it does no favors for the planet, accounting for up to 8% of global greenhouse gas emission annually and providing many examples of egregious treatment of labor in low-income countries. Frank also explains the intentions behind New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand's Fashion Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change Act, or FABRIC Act, which the U.S. Senate is currently considering. It would require moving fashion production back to the U.S. under better environmental and labor standards than other countries enforce. You can learn more about Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business at https://www.fordham.edu/gabelli-school-of-business/

Nick Zamanov, business director at San Jose-based Cyber Switching, a maker of electric vehicle charging technology, joins Mitch Ratcliffe to discuss choosing the right EV and how to grow electric vehicle charging capacity. The company launched in 1994 and has developed charging solutions for offices, local governments, apartment buildings, universities and other charger installations. Nick also recently contributed an article at Earth911, Considerations To Help You Confidently Switch to an EV, a guide to the concerns shoppers have about buying and using EVs.The price of EV charging already compares favorably to fueling up with gas. According to American Automobile Association estimates, which made its analysis when gas cost $4.25 a gallon, electric driving costs a third of the price as gasoline driving over the same distance. Nick provides an optimistic but pragmatic view into the potential to replace internal combustion personal and commercial vehicles with a robust EV charging infrastucture. You can find out more about Cyber Switching at https://cyberswitching.com/

Douglas Heske, founder and CEO of Newday Impact Investing explains how to invest for positive environmental outcomes during a bear market. He recommends treating deflated stock prices as an opportunity to add sustainable companies to a portfolio, and shares details about his firm's new Ocean Health ETF (NYSE: AHOY), which focuses on companies that prevent ocean plastic pollution, encourage sustainable fishing practices, and that help restore marine environments. Newday Impact Investing will also donate 5% of its Ocean Health ETF revenue to EarthEcho International, a youth-focused non-profit founded by Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau.

Meet Alicia Marseille and Katelyn Armbruster, who lead the Sustainable Earth small business sustainability education program for Arizona State University's Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Service. They are working to turn the economy toward sustainable practices with free courses for the nation’s 32.5 million small businesses. These firms, which account for 99.9 percent of the companies in the United States according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, need access to information, sustainable strategies, learning materials, and mentoring to accelerate the adoption of environmentally responsible business practices. If they can make the turn, small business can help their customers take steps to embrace low-carbon lifestyles.The Sustainable Earth program is supported by Wells Fargo Bank, and it will introduce the first small business sustainability awards program in the nation later this summer. Companies that would like to be considered for the awards should submit entries by July 1, 2022. Arizona State has been a pioneer in online learning, bringing advanced educational experiences to students globally. For instance, every Starbucks employee can earn a degree for free through ASU. You can learn more about Sustainable Earth, and sign up for courses, at https://sustainable-earth.org/

James Crooks, Ph.D., an environmental epidemiologist with National Jewish Health’s Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics in Denver explains his research on  the impact of wildfire smoke on the ozone concentrations at ground level in Colorado. Elevated ozone levels contribute to rising incidence of asthma and diabetes, among other conditions. Dr. Crooks found that while ozone increased only one percent, the impacts are widely felt, especially in Hispanic and historically underserved communities. The advent of annual smoke seasons and rising levels of air pollution globally make this an important conversation. He shares his advice on how to protect family members from air pollution and the prospects for life in a warmer world, when smoke season will be common in many regions.Smoke season isn’t just unpleasant, it’s killing too many of us. According to a recent study published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, air pollution was directly responsible for the death of 4.5 million people around the world in 2019. A McGill University study released in early May reported that people who lived within 31 miles (50 km) of a wildfire over a 10-year period were found to have a 10% higher incidence of brain tumors and 4.9% more lung cancers. You can learn more about Dr. Crooks and National Jewish Health at https://www.nationaljewish.org/