Sustainability In Your Ear

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/.

Earth911 talks with Lisa Ryden, Sustainable Development Director at Tetra Pak, the world's largest carton manufacturer about its 2021 corporate sustainability report and the steps the company is taking to reduce its environmental impact. Tetra Pak has established itself globally, selling 183 billion cartons in 2020. The brand name has become synonymous with cartons in many regions, where they are referred to as a “Tetra.” Lisa shares the company's 2030 goals and explains some of the challenges of reducing its carbon emissions by 46% compared to 2019 and achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by the end of the decade. In the past year, Tetra Pak has launched a plant-based carton made with renewable materials, shipped 12 billion caps made from plant-based materials, and they replaced the aluminum liner used in early generations of cartons with a polymer that has a 25% lower carbon footprint. Tetra Pak's CO2 emissions peaked in 2010 and it has reduced the volume of food waste in its manufacturing processes by 50% over the past decade.Cartons represent an emerging alternative to plastic packaging for beverages and food. The only beverage category that fiber cartons cannot serve are carbonated drinks, and more food manufacturers are considering cartons for, among other things, cheese -- Tetra Pak recently introduced a cheese packaging solution. Tetra Pak has more than 170 recycling processor partners globally. The company reports that 27% of the cartons it made in 2020 were recycled and has set a goal of reaching 70% recycling rates in Europe by 2030. Cartons remain a recycling challenge in the U.S., where there are only three carton recycling processing facilities -- this makes recycling cartons less sustainable because they must be shipped a thousand miles in many cases to be processed. You can learn more at https://tetrapak.com.

Scott Lively is the co-founder of the largest organic and grass-fed beef producer in the United States, Raise American, and is the author of a new book, For the Love of Beef: The Good, the Bad and the Future of America’s Favorite Meat. America has a massive appetite for beef. It’s a $111 billion-a-year industry that accounts for almost 5.4 million jobs, and Americans consume about 57 lbs. a year per capita. In his book, he makes the case that a more sustainable meat industry can solve many of the environmental issues associated with concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) which produce about 85% of the steak and hamburger in the U.S. The key, according to Scott is a move to a grass-fed cattle raised in a far more distributed production system.Scott’s book also details many misleading marketing claims made around beef, from the vague use of terms like “organic” and “Angus,” that are often used to justify higher costs. His book is a useful guide to seeing through marketing claims about beef and explains some potential paths to a less harmful meat industry. You can find For the Love of Beef: The Good, the Bad and the Future of America’s Favorite Meat at Amazon and local bookstores.Editor's note: This episode covers a controversial topic that reflects each our opportunities to make a difference, environmentally and ethically; we urge to listen with an understanding that many people who still eat meat are seeking less environmentally impactful options.

Shannon Lohr, founder of Factory45 sits down with Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe to talk transparency in fashion labeling. Fashion is one of the most environmentally harmful industries on the planet because it has focused on delivering “fast,” short-lived products made to be worn a few times and discarded. Factory45 has worked with more that 500 sustainable fashion entrepreneurs to develop a responsible industry in textiles and clothing. Her blog, podcast and free or fee-based tools for fashion startups are a great resource to understand the environmental impact of traditional fashion and the potential for a low- or no-carbon future for fashion. Shannon discusses a broad range of topics from the the microplastics shed by recycled rayon and other plastic-based textiles to the challenges of growing an environmentally responsible fashion business and useful labels to look for when shopping. She also shares several novel materials that have caught her attention, including Qmilch, a textile made from spoiled milk, and S.Cafe. Learn more about Shannon and Factory45 at https://factory45.co/.

We sit down for another responsible investing conversation with Newday Impact Investing CEO Doug Heske. The topic is investing to ensure enough clean water is available for humans, animals and vegetation around the world. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that $472.6 billion of investment is needed by 2035 to continue providing clean safe drinking water, and the opportunities for conservation are everywhere. For example, McKinsey recently reported that between 14% and 18% of domestic potable water is lost each year just to leaks. Doug shares his insights into the rising interest in water investment, discussing Evoqua Water Technologies (NASDAQ: AQUA), Watts Water Technologies Inc. (NYSE: WTS), Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ: MSEX), Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) and Heritage-Crystal Clean (NASDAQ: HCCI).Despite water funding falling $40 billion dollars short of the amount needed to keep pace in 2020, Doug sees growing interest in water and water conservation investing. Newday Impact manages a suite of socially and environmentally responsible portfolios, including a Fresh Water & Sanitation fund. The fund may invest in the companies discussed. We urge you to do your own due diligence before investing in any companies discussed on Sustainability In Your Ear. You can learn more about Newday Impact Investing at https://newdayimpact.com/.

The electrification of the economy depends on reliable access to a collection of valuable but environmentally damaging metals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese. We talk with Megan O’Conor, cofounder and CEO of Nth Cycle, a Beverly, Mass-based startup poised to disrupt the metal recycling industry with an electro-extraction system that can operate in very small facilities spread all over the world. The Nth Cycle process can handle up to five tons of material each day in a very compact facility — only 1,000 square feet, about the half the size of the typical retail storefront. That means in theory that materials could be recycled near the source and reused locally, and with 3D-printing maturing the idea of a locally printed car or EV batter is a very real possibility. The Nth Cycle technology may also help to extract more metal from ore and post-processing waste materials that have been discarded by mining and smelting companies. Nth Cycle recently took second place in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield competition, a significant accomplishment, and has raised $4.5 million. You can learn more at https://nthcycle.com/.

The cost of energy-efficient upgrades prevents many businesses from reducing their environmental impacts. We talk with Al Subbloie, CEO of Budderfly, a fast-growing energy-efficiency-as-a-service company, with an audacious solution for businesses that want to be more sustainable -- it pays for lighting, heating/cooling, renewable electricity sourcing and other upgrades, then collects a share of the resulting savings. Budderfly guarantees savings to customers, earning a profit only if they succeed. We’ve talked with other forms of “sustainability-as-a-service” companies, but Budderfly is putting its capital on the line to pay for immediate energy savings. The company is ranked #10 overall on the 2021 Inc. 5000 America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies list, and it came in #2 in the Inc. 5000 energy category. The company serve commercial and retail locations, restaurants, schools and colleges nationwide. You can learn more at https://www.budderfly.com/.

Reforestation is hot topic. More companies and people taking steps to plant trees contribute to restoring the environment. Matt Hill is the Chief Environmental Evangelist at One Tree Planted, one of the oldest and largest tree-planting non-profits. Matt discusses the best practices for reforestation programs and how long trees must be monitored to provide supporters confidence that the trees they plant will thrive. One Tree Planted sees the recent announcement of a global accord to end deforestation and begin to restore land by 2030 at the Glasgow meeting of the United Nations' Climate Change Conference as an important step forward. The organization has planted more than 40 million trees in 43 countries around the world and offer easy options to plant in your preferred region for just $1 per tree. Regardless of the region, One Tree Planted offers a wide range of reforestation projects. You can learn more at https://onetreeplanted.org/.