Earth911.com's Sustainability In Your Ear

Markets are characterized by competition over exclusive control of resources, but as our guest today, Frank Dalene, writes in his new book, Decarbonize the World: Solving the Climate Crisis While Improving Profits In Your Business, “here’s the problem: we are all part of the same planet. We all live in the same closed environment. We all have the same atmosphere. We all breathe the same air.” Frank joins us to today to discuss how business and regulators need to rethink their approach to markets in order to recognized our shared resources and reverse global warming. Frank is also president and CEO of Telemark Inc., a construction business that pioneered green building practices and helped introduce New York state’s green building standard.Frank developed the International Carbon Equivalent Mechanism Attributed to Neutrality (ICEMAN) methodology to describe the carbon impact of products, buildings and food  — eventually the ICEMAN system will provide a Carbon Factor Index score that can be placed on products and service offerings to make it easier for everyone to make informed, sustainable choices.We discuss how the carbon scoring system might be introduced and what it can account for in easy-to-use consumer labeling. You can learn more about Frank and Decarbonize the World at https://frankdalene.com/

Alexander Gillett, chief executive officer at HowGood, discusses the 15-year effort that produced the largest database of product sustainability data. HowGood announced a new round of funding today, and Alex shares how they will use the funds to expand their coverage and enable companies to get insights into the Scope 3 CO2 emissions associated with their supply chains. The Stone Ridge, N.Y.-based company's HowGood Latis plaform covers more than 33,000 ingredients, chemicals and materials along with sourcing information — where and how the product is grown or made — and the environmental impacts associated with food and other products. With that kind of information at our fingertips, shoppers are able to make fully informed decisions about what we buy based on how it contributes to climate progress and the rise of a regenerative food supply.Awareness about the growing impact of climate change has reached a critical mass, and most people now understand it’s important to act. The question is how? Choosing low-carbon and low-environmental impact products, especially food, which accounts for a third of human greenhouse gas emissions according to the United Nations, can help consumers take important steps that protect the environment. HowGood informatoon is currently available to consumers through the HowGood app for iPhone and to product manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and other businesses that use it find more sustainable options for making new products. You can learn more about HowGood at https://howgood.com/

Roian Atwood, Senior Director of Sustainability at Tractor Supply Company, joins the converstaion to discuss the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the country’s approach to stewardship of the lifestyle it refers to as “life out here,” which could help forge important changes of habit in those communities. Tractor Supply Company has aligned its very aggressive sustainability targets with the Paris goals of cutting overall emissions by 50% by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2040, a decade before most companies that have set goals. Roian also dives into the complexities of recycling packaging and the materials, such as steel palettes used to deliver tractors, that the company uses.Retailers, as we’ve heard frequently on this show, are keystone influencers in the shape of a new sustainable economy. The choices retailers make when stocking their shelves determine the choices consumers have. Tractor Supply Co. is working to electrify all its operations in a move away from fossil fuels and is already ahead of its original CO2 emissions and renewable energy goals. Founded as a mail order company during the Depression, Tractor Supply is also thinking through how the transition to ecommerce may change its physical interaction with customers, as well as drive the addition of recycling services at stores to bring customers in on a regular basis. You can learn more about Tractor Supply Co.'s sustainability goals at https://corporate.tractorsupply.com/ESG/stewardship/default.aspx

Mitch welcomes back Rick Wayman, CEO of the Foundation for Climate Restoration (F4CR), for a conversation about the twin threats of climate change and nuclear war. Vladimir Putin’s reckless war on Ukraine, which has come with repeated threats to use nuclear weapons, came at a critical juncture in the response to climate change. The 2020s is a make-or-break decade for halting emissions growth and starting on the path toward zero emissions — and this year is considered critical to a collective global response to the climate crisis. But the Ukraine war has many nations scrambling for access to fossil fuels to replace Russian supplies. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. We'll also check in on progress in the carbon dioxide removal technology, which is the F4CR's primary focus. Recent UN IPCC reports have emphasized the need to combine carbon reductions with removing the trillion-plus tons of anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere.Before he joined the Foundation for Climate Restoration, Rick led the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, a non-profit that has “waged peace” against nuclear threats since 1982. The anti-nuclear movement has been less prominent in public debate between the end of the Cold War when the Soviet Union and its Eastern Block dissolved in 1989 and Putin’s dangerous threats to use nukes in Ukraine or as a response to U.S. and E.U. support for the embattled country. So, what can we do now? The lessons of the past combined with insights developed by climate activists may hold the key to unlocking a more peaceful and sustainable world. You can learn more about the Foundation for Climate Restoration at https://foundationforclimaterestoration.org/

Heather Florio, CEO of Desert Harvest, a maker of aloe vera-based nutritional supplements, will introduce a refillable smart bottle this summer. Desert Harvest is moving away from single-user plastic pill packaging in favor of compostable plant-based refill bags and smart bottles that feature Bluetooth connectivity and an app that helps customers manage refills and keep the packaging out of landfills. The container will be available for use with other medications, and can help caregivers track whether elderly patients have taken their daily doses on time. Heather also explains how the company's refined aloe products relieve the symptoms of interstitial cystitis, a debilitating disease that primarly affects women.One of the questions Earth911 gets most often is how to recycle or donate prescription medicine bottles made from a type of #5 plastic that is seldom recycled. In 2022, Americans are expected to fill almost 4.8 billion prescriptions and purchase another $42 billion worth of dietary supplements using packaging that goes mostly unrecycled. The Desert Harvest refill program, which include a refill package that is home-compostable, is a unique solution; and the company will accept end-of-life bottles for recycling through a mail-in program. You can learn more about Desert Harvest at https://www.desertharvest.com/

Designing the future of civilization is no small task. Our guest Michael Jansen, founder and CEO of Cityzenith, is a pioneer of digital twin technology. These emerging computer models are poised to transform how we test our assumptions about the impact of new designs and policies before making the changes in the real world. If you've heard of the Metaverse, Cityzenith's Urban Digital Twin 3D virtual models will sound familiar. Instead of providing an escapist fantasy world where avatars can dance and play games, digital twins offer a metaverse where data scientist and architects can test how the real world will respond to low-carbon strategies. Among other projects, Michael and his team have created digital twins of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and a new capital city in an Indian province.According to ABI Research, the use of digital twins in urban planning is expected to deliver $280 billion in savings globally by 2030. Ernst & Young also projects that over the same time, modeling technology can reduce urban carbon emissions by more than 50%, and lower the cost of operating buildings by 35% while improving productivity by 20%. We will be hearing more about digital twins in the news, and it will be important to understand their limits and how computer models can be improved to yield even more insight into the future of the built environment. You can learn more about Cityzenith at https://cityzenith.com/

Jacqueline Claudia, CEO of Smarter Sorting, joins the conversation to discuss the use of product information to expedite recycling and reduce food waste at retail stores. The company offers a tool, the Product Intelligence Platform, that retailers can use to catalog and accurately sort materials in the back of their stores. The platform also produces greater efficiency and accountability in the recycling system. Retailers working with Smarter Sorting can also inventory what they recycle and report it as part of their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosures. Jacqueline also explains a collaboration with Feeding America directing soon-to-expire food and waste to those in need.Successful recycling programs start with accurate sorting of materials, which results in cleaner and more efficient processing to make new feedstocks, raw materials for the next generation of products and packaging. The future of recyclables sorting requires a foundation of accurate product and packaging information to ensure things that look alike but are chemically different get sent to the correct processors. Two common examples of products that look similar but are chemically different are batteries that use different elements to store energy, and #1 plastic thermoform clamshell packages, which melt at a different temperature than #1 plastic beverage bottles, so cannot be mixed in the recycling process. Improved sorting can ensure that these similar but incompatible materials are routed to recyclers and processed instead of to landfills.

Water is life. It is also one of the primary elements needed for manufacturing and, of course, freshwater is necessary to support every aspect of daily life, including carrying away our sewage. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that Americans consumed 322 billion gallons of water a day in 2015, the last year for which data has been reported. Our guest, Prakash Govindan, is cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of Boston-based Gradiant, a global clean tech water technology provider that offers post-industrial water and wastewater treatment technology to large companies around the world. Gradiant recently raised an additional $100 million in venture capital to accelerate expansion, particularly in Asia, where post-industrial wastewater remains a challenge to the environment.Prakash explains how water is used in several industries, including semiconductors and textiles manufacturing. Just one traditional industrial company might draw millions of gallons of water a day from acquifers and rivers, and might dump it back into nature polluted and heated to dangerous levels for wildlife. Gradiant's industrial customers are recycling and reusing 99% of the water they use. Because industrial water use accounts for about 85% of water consumed, industrial water recycling is essential to making the economy sustainable As a nation, we used 9 percent less water in 2015 than in 2010, so there has been some progress in water use efficiency. Stewardship of our water will be key to our becoming a sustainable society because the United Nations has warned that the world faces up to a 40% shortage of water supplies by 2030. You can learn more about Gradiant at https://www.gradiant.com/

Brian Ringer is the founder and CEO of Seattle-based Emerald Technology Group, which recently launched the GetGreen app, a coaching tool for sustainable living. The recent flood of interest and press coverage of sustainability has created an opportunity to get more people thinking and acting sustainably. But we’re still in the early days of a transition from being sustainably naive to becoming sustainable natives accustomed to considering and reducing our environmental impact every day. GetGreen offers a catalog of sustainable actions one can take to reduce their impact. The GetGreen app records members' commitments, and they can come back for additional information and links to related articles that help them learn and refine sustainable habits.GetGreen also awards points, called leaves, for each commitment and lets you support climate projects by sharing leaves. The interesting feature of this experience is that GetGreen quantifies the impact your leaves will have. For example, donating 280 leaves to SeaTrees Kelp Restoration results in enough carbon captured to offset watching 8,400 hours of television. You can learn more about and download the GetGreen app for iOS and Android devices at https://www.getgreen.eco/. Disclosure: The GetGreen features links to Earth911 articles.

Carbon Neutral Consulting's Stephen Crolius returns to Sustainability In Your Ear to discuss the impact of Vladamir Putin's Ukraine invasion on the oil and natural gas markets, as well as humanity's path to a post-carbon econ0my. He previously joined us to explain the role of ammonia in how-carbon seaborne shipping. Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine is a terrible human tragedy that will have long-term environmental impacts. In the wake of the invasion, people and governments are focused on getting enough natural gas and oil to heat homes and provide electricity, and not just in Europe, which is heavily dependent on Russian fossil fuels. The result is an apparent resurgence of oil and gas exploration investment, which will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions. On other hand, Europe and other nations dependent on Russian oil have begun discussing renewable energy projects that would accelerate their green transition. Stephen tracks the Russian oil and gas issue, and argues that while fossil fuel energy may cost consumers more, we should not double down on oil, gas and coal. He says turning to renewables now will be “better for the climate and the worse for autocratic regimes that are propped up by the export of fossil energy commodities.” We can certainly use a little less tyranny in this world. Join in to hear his assessment of the resilience of the green transition and whether Putin has shot the Russian economy in the foot. You can find out more about Carbon Neutral Consulting at https://www.carbonneutralconsulting.com