Earth911.com's Sustainability In Your Ear

Mike Marsch, the head of solar development at BlueWave, explains how floating solar panels can plan a key role in deliver widely available community and privately owned renewable energy generation capacity. The Boston-based certified B Corp's mission is to “revolutionize energy with simple, powerful solutions.” But solar faces challenges from communities that are concerned about local views, and floating solar has been opposed by vacation destinations along coasts. We must overcome some of those objections to find a way to talk frankly about the benefits and urgency that make floating solar an important feature of our energy landscape. We explore where and how floatovoltaics can be deployed, and the environmental benefits of using human-made reservoirs to catch more of the sun's energy.Solar power is a keystone of the post-carbon economy, the goal we need to achieve as soon as possible to halt CO2 emissions that are raising the planet’s temperature. Fossil fuel-generated electricity is responsible for much of the increased occurrence of drought and extreme weather, it is also leads to rising sea levels. But the tide could turn. The International Energy Agency reported that as of 2020 solar the cheapest source of electricity. Floating solar panels enjoy advantages over land-based solar farms because the water cools the system, which makes it more efficient. You can learn more about BlueWave at https://bluewave.energy/.

Our guests, Shannon Bouton, CEO of Delterra, and Ella Flaye, the organization's regional director for Asia, lead the environmental non-profit's “rethinking recycling” initiative in emerging economies. Around the world, more than 2 billion people live without waste removal and recycling services. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Delterra’s recycling and waste management services have scaled over these last few years and currently serve nearly 50,000 people, with plans underway to reach a quarter of a million people by the end of 2022. The non-profit was incubated for three years and funded by the business consulting giant, McKinsey & Co. The non-profit has already diverted more than 1,000 tons of waste from landfills and the oceans while achieving up to 60% recycling participation rates in several Indonesian and Argentine slums, well above the U.S. recycling engagement levels.Delterra's first programs have also created lives livelihoods for more than 450 affiliated waste workers -- a marginalized and often overlooked faction of essential workers -- by providing them safe, fair and dignified working conditions. We explore what they've learned during the organizations early projects in Buenos Aires’ vast Barrio Mugica and in Indonesian communities, where low-income people, especially women are working to organize recycling programs. You can learn more about the program at https://delterra.org/.

Jason Gates, CEO of Compology, is taking the recycling battle to the dumpster. Compology makes AI-powered smart cameras that monitor how full dumpsters are and help understand and manage what they contain — the process reduces unnecessary pickups, which lowers fuel waste, and improves the processing of the contents of each bin. There’s no question the current economy is wasteful, but the challenge remains to figure out where that waste is located and how to reduce it, recycle it and return it to use without cutting down more trees, mining more raw ore or other extractive activities. Compology tracks the bin over time to provide the first end-to-end waste monitoring for business, including advice delivered through its app. These tools let companies and government organizations plan their production, manage waste to reduce contamination and help them meet their sustainability goals. Compology may also have the solution for large landlords who want to implement recycling systems for apartment complexes and other facilities that rely on private haulers to remove and recycle waste.Jason explains how Compology cameras work, the six types of contamination they can spot and how the bin user gets alerts. For example, uncompacted cardboard boxes take up space, leading to more pickups than necessary. In the future, the system could also track food waste and help divert it to composting programs. We also discuss the security and privacy benefits of monitoring waste to prevent confidential data from being exposed. When tracked in detail, the economy can be optimized and we would not simply reduce waste, but route it back for recycling or reuse. Learn more about Compology at https://compology.com/.

The availability of safe, fresh drinking water will become a more pressing issue as the climate crisis progresses. Our guest today, Rich Razgaitis, started FloWater, a maker of water refill stations that can purify local water, allowing people to refill bottles safely and quickly. The company also sells reverse-osmosis purified water in recyclable, reusable aluminum bottles and a faucet filter attachment the remove many of the impurities that can still be found in U.S. drinking water. We discuss the role of publicly accessible water refill stations in providing access to water, and the reduction of soda and other canned and bottled beverages and water when water is easily available in offices and schools. We also look forward to consider how efficient, hyper-local water filtration services can potentially allow reuse of greywater -- post-use water generated by an office building or university -- to reuse water on-site. Los Angeles is currently providing some water that has been processed from local sewage -- these technologies can be miniaturized and distributed to help water impoverished communities build a sustainable local water supply.Drought will reduce supplies and extreme heat will increase demand for water. Across the planet today, 785 million people do not have reliable access to drinking water and as many as 884 million are without safe drinking water, according to the World Health Organization and UNICEF. We’ve made progress, bringing water and sanitation services to an additional 1.4 billion people since the turn of the century. But there is a long, long way to go to providing safe drinking water for all of the people on planet while leaving enough freshwater for the rest of nature.Learn more about FloWater at https://www.drinkflowater.com/.

Our guest is Alexander Olesen, CEO and founder of Babylon Micro-Farms. The Richmond, Va-based company has developed a hydroponics-based approach to growing produce in enclosed compact systems that are about the size of a large vending machine that can be managed remotely.  It produces as much produce in 15 square feet of space as 2,000 square feet of traditional farmland. The company describes its product as a “cloud-based vertical farm” that provides expert cultivation advice and cues about when to harvest. The Babylon Micro-Farms system can help grocers, restaurants, and communities to plant, grow and harvest produce within yards of where it will be purchased or consumed.Growing and shipping food is the basis of human life in our era, in any era — but today moving produce from field to table is a carbon-intensive process that also results in extensive food waste, as much as 40% of the original harvest spoils in transit or on store shelves. What if we could grow food near the the people who need it, particularly in cities? You can learn more about Babylon Micro-Farms at https://babylonmicrofarms.com/.

Discussions about the plight of the homeless usually ignore the issue of sustainability, and there are certainly more pressing concerns to be addressed when someone is in crisis. Our guest, Zac Clark of the HomeMore Project, has developed a comprehensive approach to helping the more than 10,000 homeless people in San Francisco escape from living on the street. The project includes a novel, solar-powered backpack made of recycled plastic, the Makeshift Traveler, which he describes as a “temporary form of aid” that can help keep the individual connected to society, family and services. The Makeshift Traveler provides solar power, a battery and charging ports for devices that can potentially connect them to job opportunities. Using recycled materials make this interesting, but as we’ve talked about on the show many times, there are millions of dollars worth of recyclables scattered across many cities and the digital features of the Makeshift Traveler could connect homeless people looking for a living to assist the in making their first steps to organizing an income.We’ve talked on our podcast about the role of “trash picking” in countries with high recycling recovery rates. Zac addresses whether there are ethical ways opportunities in San Francisco, which has one of the most advanced recycling systems in the U.S., to enable the homeless to begin to earn a living and contribute to reducing waste headed for landfills. You can learn more about the HomeMore Project at https://thehomemoreproject.org/

Newday Impact Investing CEO Doug Heske is back for another in our regular series of conversations about Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing. We discuss companies that are working to improve animal welfare, both on the farm and for pets in our homes. The first question today relates to the European Union's recent proposed rule to reclassify natural gas and nuclear power as "sustainable" bridge technologies to the post-carbon economy and how that might impact ESG investor's decisions.We take a deep look at the stocks of British retailer Sainsbury's (OTC: JSAIY), which has established comprehensive rules for the treatment of animals in its supply chain, pet care and large animal  and pharmaceutical maker Zoetis (NYSE: ZTS), Tractor Supply Company (Nasdaq: TSCO), which operates farm supply stores and Petsense, and, finally, pet product and insecticide manufacturer Central Garden & Pet Company (Nasdaq: CENTA).

Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, joins Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe to talk about his new book, Urgent: Save Our Ocean to Survive Climate Change. He calls on readers to take action in their own lives to reduce their environmental impact and through protest. A controversial figure in the environmental movement because of his willingness to engage in direct action, Paul argues it is time for humans to change their relationship with nature and rejoin the bigger world they think that they control. Like his career, during which he has participated in direct actions against whalers and other extractive activities, Urgent is a challenge to the reader to look reality in the face. It's past time to that acknowledge climate change is happening, he says. He shares many ideas about how to take action to end the anthropocentrism that defines humans as the sole measure of value on Earth. Paul shares his experiences on the seas, including the moment he realized that humanity relationship with nature is "grossly and perversely insane." We discuss environmental stewardship, the obligation to recognize other animals as individuals with value, and the challenge of living in the modern, oil-fueled world without hypocrisy. He suggests that a mindful relationship with nature and one another is the basis for restoring the planet's ecosystem. You can find his book, Urgent: Save Our Ocean to Survive Climate Change at Amazon and Powell Books.

Wouter van Tol, head of sustainability at packaging maker DS Smith, is working with new seaweed-based materials to deliver more alternatives to today’s frequently unrecyclable food packaging. The London-based company’s North American unit recently announced an aggressive initiative to adopt seaweed-based fiber in its products. We discuss why it's still hard to recycle even common forms of fiber packaging, like the cardboard boxes used for e-commerce order deliveries (not enough infrastructure funding) and how seaweed-based alternatives could replace food packaging from a cereal box to the trays used for raw meat. Wouter also discusses DS Smith's progress in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, use of recycled materials and the challenge of getting its employees to adopt sustainable thinking in their daily decision-making. The many conflicting approaches to local recycling around the world have prevented society from achieving the high recycling rates necessary for the circular economy to blossom, so DS Smith is working to get five million young people to start practicing green, circular behaviors. You can follow their progress at https://www.dssmith.com/.

Meet Brendan Mehaffy, Executive Director of the City of Buffalo’s Office of Strategic Planning, who explains how the upstate New York city is preparing for and planning for growth as people seek safer places to live as the climate changes. The advent of climate change spells disaster for many regions, especially in coastal regions and the West, where a long-term drought appears to be developing. But in some regions reaching across the northern U.S., cities are poised for what could be a migration from struggling regions. Buffalo's temperate climate -- 25.18 inches in annual precipitation, part of which falls as 93.4 inches of snowfall, and the annual average high temperature is 71 F and low 26 F -- and 570 foot elevation that insulates it from rising seas makes it an attractive destination during the climate crisis. How will the city manage its growth to preserve the lifestyle and social equity it enjoys today? Brendan shares some details about Buffalo and Erie County are preparing to grow the walkable city, develop local food sources and support green business.A key advantage Buffalo enjoys is that hydro power from Niagara Falls provides an energy surplus today, which has attracted, among other startups, a $298M hydrogen production facility, Plug Power, that will rely on hydro power to refine its hydrogen fuel. It has also reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 36.% compared to 2005 levels and is working to meet the 50% target set by the Paris Accord by 2030. The advent of climate change spells disaster for many regions, especially in coastal regions and the West, where a long-term drought appears to be developing -- which may send migrants towards the Canadian border, where the Great Lakes are seen as a climate haven. As the second-largest city in New York with a population of 278,349 in 2020 and 1.1 million people living in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metro area, part of Buffalo’s challenge is to manage its growth. Learn more about Buffalo and its climate plan at http://www.buffalony.gov/.