Sustainability In Your Ear

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

A new paper from the World Economic Forum, called Scaling Investments in Nature, warns that if humanity does not change the way we extract and use the resources of planet Earth, the economic impact of climate change could cost society $44 trillion in lost value by 2050 (that represents 46% of 2021 global GDP). But simply by making reasonable investments to reduce global warming and create regenerative businesses, as much as $10 trillion in new economic value can be created by 2030. Our guest, Dr. Helen Crowley, is an advisor to the World Economic Forum and contributed to the report. She has also served as Head of Sustainable Sourcing at the French luxury goods company Kering and is a partner at the Pollination Group, a climate change advisory and investment firm based in London.Join in on a practical conversation about the ways business can invest to lower carbon emissions, create jobs and enhance profitability -- green investment is the key to reducing business risk and ensuring long-term survival. The World Economic Forum report also suggests that investments in sustainable sourcing and manufacturing of goods could create 395 million new jobs globally during this decade. However, there is a sizable investment gap between the capital needed and current commitments — we’re on track to fall $4.1 trillion short of the investments needed to complete the post-carbon transition by 2050. Humans being what we are, need a lot of new nature-positive ideas that can tried, revised and the lessons widely shared before it becomes plainly clear that now, not later, is the time to make the nature-positive leap. You can learn more about Dr. Crowley and the Pollination Group at https://pollinationgroup.com/

Besides food, humans have probably been talking about the weather longer than anything else. In our increasingly chaotic climate, weather information will be more relevant to every decision we make. Nick Cavanaugh, founder of SensibleWeather.com, a Santa Monica, Calif., provider of climate risk information, joins the conversation to explain how weather data can help anticipate how weather will impact our everyday lives. Sensible Weather’s first service is focused on lowering the risk from weather impacts for travelers and travel companies, from airlines to resorts. This allows travelers to book trips with guarantees that if weather interferes with their plans they can get a refund. 2021 was the second most expensive year in history for weather-related damage at $145 billion in damage from storms, floods, drought, wildfire, tornadoes, hurricanes and more, and that does not include all the tertiary expenses that arise from extreme weather events. Nick explains how weather risk assessments will change buying a new home, selecting a roof, picking the best outdoor wedding date for a given location. You can learn more about Sensible Weather at https://sensibleweather.com/

Learn about the role of green hydrogen, which is refined using renewable energy, in decarbonizing heavy industries like steel and cement manufacturing, as well as how it will fit into the transportation sector. Our guests are Aidan Tuohy, the lead author of a new report about green hydrogen, and his colleague Jeffery Preece, director of Low Carbon Resources Research and Development at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), an independent, non-profit center for public interest energy and environmental research. The report,  Increasing Electric Power System Flexibility: The Role of Industrial Electrification and Green Hydrogen Production, analyzes the potential applications of hydrogen, and the different hues of hydrogen -- hydrogen made with nuclear power is "pink," for example -- that we should understand to follow the debate.Hydrogen energy has a bad name because it is frequently associated with nuclear weapons and meltdowns, but it is a clean-burning fuel in its gaseous and liquid forms that can replace fossil fuels in a variety of applications. However, even though burning hydrogen produces no pollution — only water is left afterwards — it is a carbon-intensive fuel to produce in most forms, except for pink and green hydrogen. To make rapid progress toward electrification, we must also consider how the electric grid and energy infrastructure will need to change to support the use of hydrogen. Learn more about the path to green hydrogen at https://www.epri.com/ and https://www.esig.energy/increasing-electric-power-system-flexibility/

Leslie Adkins, Vice President of Marketing and ESG Development at Trex, joins the conversation to discuss how the company pioneered a recycled alternative to lumber for decks, fences and other applications. Trex was founded in 1996 on the premise that there must be a better use of the “mountain of single-use plastic film packaging generated every day that is not being recycled.” The company developed a process for making a wood decking alternative that consists of 95% recycled polyethylene film blended with sawdust made mostly of reclaimed wood. The result is decking that looks like wood but lasts at least two and a half times longer.Trex is one of the largest buyers of #2 and #4 polyethylene film in the U.S. through a novel commercial recycling program that pays retailers to collect and send the often hard-to-recycle films used to wrap palletized packages for shipping, along with plastic shopping bags, bubble wrap and those troublesome air pillows used as padding in e-commerce boxes. Upcycling our plastic waste to contribute to a more sustainable built environment is an intriguing solution to our current waste problems. You can learn more at https://www.trex.com/

The transition to more sustainable shopping is underway, and we’re pleased to welcome eBay’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Renee Morin, to discuss what the Ecommerce giant is doing to make the its marketplace more sustainable. Buying used is one of the most effective ways to reduce your environmental footprint because nothing new needs to be manufactured. Of course, getting reliable used products shipped to you can be challenging — and long shipping routes can add to the product’s carbon footprint. That’s where online marketplaces like eBay come in. In additioon to using renewable energy for their datacenters, they can help connect local buyers and sellers efficiently or provide tools, such as adding carbon offsets to transactions to reduce the impact of shipping. We talk with Renee about eBay's sustainability efforts, including its emissions goals and the challenge of measuring the Scope 1, 2 and 3 CO2 footprint of a global ecommerce company.We learned on a recent show that 39% of respondents to the EPAM Consumers Unpacked survey in the U.S., U.K. and Germany said they are planning to buy used items to reduce their environmental impact. That signals a shift is underway as people look to lower their impact on the planet. eBay also recently concluded a “recommerce” survey that found a rising tide of sustainability priorities among shoppers. 80% of Gen Zers reported buying used in the last year and sustainability is becoming a driver of eBay purchases and selling. 26% of women, 15% of men and 23% of Millennials say that environmental responsibility is their primary reason for selling on eBay. And 94% of those sustainability-minded respondents say they buy and sell used specifically to reduce the amount of waste they produce. You can learn more about eBay's sustainability efforts at https://www.ebayinc.com/

Meet Victor Dewulf, cofounder and CEO of Recycleye, a London-based company that makes machine vision systems and robots capable of separating waste on the high-speed conveyor belts at materials recovery facilities (MRFs). Recycleye also hosts Wastenet, the largest databank of images of products and materials that can be used to train computers to sort waste, which is some of the most dangerous work in a recycling facility. The results are cleaner, better sorted recyclables, as well as greater transparency about the sources of wasteful products and packaging, which can improve how we hold organizations accountable for the waste they create. A modern society is composed of myriad, complex systems, materials and responsibilities. As the recycling system matures, the introduction of advanced technology, such as machine vision and robotics that can sort plastic from paper, can simplify the recycling process. But it is still on all of us to send clean recyclables to the right programs to handle them. Even as advanced technology can help to turn more waste into renewed materials and the next generation of products we use, people need to start the recycling process. You can learn more at https://recycleye.com/

The rise of electric vehicles comes with hard choices. The availability of cobalt and lithium needed to make batteries, for example, may be so limited that we must begin new mining projects to make enough batteries for the EV fleet of the future. We talk with Trent Mell, CEO of Electra Battery Materials, whose goal is to make North American battery manufacturing self-sufficient and circular. The company is developing two projects, including a Battery Materials Park that will process and recycle batteries that will be located in Ontario, Canada. It also leased a large cobalt and copper deposit at Iron Creek in Idaho, which the company plans to mine. The Battery Materials Park project , which opens this year, will process raw ore from the mine and recycle used EV batteries. Electra Battery also estimates that approximately 250,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries already in use will be recycled by 2025, substantially reducing the need for new mining.The Department of Energy has warned that 70% of the world’s cobalt supply is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and they sell 80% of that cobalt to China. However, new cobalt and lithium deposits have been identified in Idaho and Nevada, respectively. That raises the prospect of more mining. Environmentalists are justifiably concerned that nature will pay the price, again, for human progress. Trent discusses the approach to mining and restoration plans for the Iron Creek site. You can learn more at https://electrabmc.com/