Sustainability In Your Ear

Meet Zero Hour movement Youth Ambassadors Lindy Feaster and Lyne Odhiambo. They talk with host Mitch Ratcliffe about the No Youth, No Truth project, a multi-generational project to share stories of underrepresented youth and low-income communities suffering the brunt of climate and environmental disasters. This August, the No Youth, No Truth project will train youth spokespeople to connect with media, pitch stories and address climate policy issues as well as counter misinformation. The climate crisis affects all of us but it is youth, their children and future generations who face the worst climate change impacts during their lifetimes. If we do not address climate change now, the planet’s carrying capacity for human life, along with many other species, will collapse, leaving our descendants in a battle amongst ourselves for survival.You can get involved, too, at noyouthnotruth.org or send email t0 contact@noyouthnotruth.org. Consider joining or donating to support No Youth, No Truth to create a much wider dialog about climate change and climate policy.

Cooper Wechkin, founder and CEO of Seattle-based RyeStrategy, explains how small businesses can start to reduce their carbon footprint. With about 30 million small businesses in the United States, each of them carrying a significant carbon footprint, the sector could make a big difference in the overall U.S. carbon footprint. But as large companies have made many statements about reducing their carbon emissions and environmental impact, and a few have taken genuine action, most small businesses continue to sit on the sidelines in the climate crisis. RyeStrategy provides carbon auditing and neutrality planning for small businesses, starting at $2,000 for companies with one to nine employees and ranging up to more than $10,000 for firms with more than 150 employees.RyeStrategy got our attention with a call for small businesses to sign a carbon neutrality pledge, and bring other companies to join the mission in order to create a bigger impact. We wanted to have a conversation with Cooper about the reasons for small business to pursue carbon neutrality, how to do it most effectively, and what the benefits are when interacting with customers and employees. He also shares five ideas to start lowering your business' footprint and explains the benefits for branding and employee hiring and retention. To learn more, visit https://www.ryestrategy.com/.

Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe talks with Ideanomics CEO Alf Poor about the evolution of transportation. We need new systems for vehicle charging in public transportation and distribution,  more alternatives to cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles and scooters, as well as new approaches to paying for mobility. We may soon be paying just for the distance we travel while the vehicles we use become shared assets managed and maintained by companies that specialize in specific types of transportation. Ideanomics takes a holistic approach to solving these problems, creating companies to tackle a variety of the challenges we face as we reinvent our economy and transportation systems. It is a publicly traded company dedicated to reinventing transportation for sustainability — it trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol IDEX. Ideanomics has launched several companies, including Energica, a maker of performance electric motorcycles, commercial electric fleet operator Medici Motor Works, which is building trucks solutions for public transit and private distribution companies, Solectrac,  the first American manufacturer of electric tractors, Treelectrik, a Malaysian electric scooter maker,  and Wave, a contactless charging solution for electric vehicles and other sustainability-oriented companies around the globe.

Earth911 explores how creative reuse centers turn waste to productive uses through a new business model that turns discarded craft and DIY materials to new uses. We talk with Nicole McGee, founder of the Upcycle Parts Shop, a pioneering creative reuse non-profit  in Cleveland. And we're joined by Maureen Wise, a longtime Earth911 contributor, who wrote a story introducing creative reuse centers that we also published today. Let's find out how creative reuse centers collect usable materials, leftovers or surplus creative supplies and redistribute them to the community for reuse. The Upcycle Parts Shop has diverted more than 37 tons of waste from landfills since 2014. The 2,000-square-foot shop hosts parties and training events, as well as sells a little of everything you might want to use in an upcoming art project. Nicole and Maureen also discuss the origin of the movement and potential for using this model to address other categories of waste, as well as how Upcycle Parts Shop and other creative reuse centers are playing a role in rebuilding community feeling in cities and towns around the world.You can learn more about the Upcycle Parts Shop at https://www.upcyclepartsshop.org/ and read Maureen's article at https://earth911.com/inspire/creative-reuse-centers-benefits/

It’s Plastic-free July and we’re talking today with journalist, podcaster and author Amy Westervelt about the surprising resurgence of sustainable plastic claims in the media despite growing public concern. Amy’s first Drilled podcast series this season is about plastic and the machinations of one media manipulator, Rick Berman, who launched the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition among many dodgy campaigns backed by tobacco, plastic and oil companies. We also discuss what's coming this season on Drilled and the potential for consumers to reshape the economy by refusing to buy products delivered in plastic packaging, the opportunities to simplify plastic recycling and new molecular recycling options, as well as the role of Plastic-free July in public discourse about the ubiquitous, polluting material.If you are not already listening to her podcast, Drilled, a true-crime style podcast about climate change, you should subscribe. The new season of Drilled started last week. Amy is also the creator of the Critical Frequency podcast network — it focuses on climate issues — and she has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian and NPR. Amy was a 2016 winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for her exposes on the hidden environmental and human costs of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada. You can follow everything Amy does at amywestervelt.com and find the Drilled podcast on the Critical Frequency network.

Earth911 talks with Jake Felser, Chief Technology Officer at Freight Farms about the company's "complete farming system inside a box.” It’s a very big box that includes climate controls and monitoring systems to make faming easy for anyone to do.  Freight Farms builds and delivers shipping containers converted into highly efficient hydroponic farms that use LED lighting to grow and deliver fresh produce year-round. Jake discusses the cost of getting started, how many people are needed to run the farm, and how it the built-in automation helps farmers plan a profitable business. Grocers, restaurants, communities and small farms are using Freight Farms installations at 350 farms in 49 states and 32 countries. The company says most of its customers are new to agriculture and operate right in the urban and rural communities they serve.Growing and distributing vegetables locally is one of the most effective ways to lower our society’s carbon footprint. While agriculture contributes about 10% of the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions each year, the majority of that is from raising animals. By increasing our consumption of locally grown vegetables, we can improve local health and reduce overall emissions from transportation. It’s not easy to grow food in most cities using traditional methods. The introduction of container farms and vertical farming inside buildings can reshape food deserts and create economic opportunity. To learn more, visit FreightFarms.com.

Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe speaks with Yaron Ben-Nun, Chief Technology Officer at Nostromo, which has introduced a fascinating innovation in commercial building cooling, the IceBrick Thermal-Energy Storage technology. Nostromo is an Israeli startup that recently went public and trades on the Tel Aviv stock exchange under the symbol SMTO. IceBrick can shift the energy demand to prevent spikes in power consumption during the hottest part of the day when air conditioning demand peaks. IceBrick stores cooling energy in the form of ice during off-peak hours and overnight when there is plenty of  generation capacity available. Think of it as storing the converted electricity in ice that can be used for cooling when needed. Unlike battery systems, which are useful for approximately 3,000 cycles of use, or about 10 years and require rare earths and lithium that are currently difficult to recycle, the IceBrick uses water and a glycol formulae to operate without producing any emissions. The system is easily recycled after approximately 20 years of use.Yaron shares the experience of several early customers in Los Angeles, explaining how commercial building owners can lower their energy bills and reduce their building's carbon footprint. He also describes how Nostromo's technology can be applied to reducing the demand on electricity grids to free up energy for EV charging and other critical electrification projects. To learn more about Nostromo and IceBrick, visit nostromo.energy.

Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe chats with Good Girl Gone Green creator and green living mentor Stephanie Moram, looking at the choices for entertaining sustainably this summer. Stephanie's been exploring the many ways we can reduce our environmental impact with an emphasis on making our lives unique and enjoyable. “There is no right or wrong way to become more green,” she says, and we agree. She offers online learning program, Find Your Green, for women who want to understand the sustainability questions they should consider when making choices at the store and home.We also cover questions about making your life and community green. What kinds of activities do you suggest and how do you get folks excited about doing environmental activities together? We look at how Stephanie makes changes her life to reduce her impact on the environment and making shopping greener.

How can we track our water usage to recognize how to save water? Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe talks with Nelson Pedreiro of Nudge Systems, which makes the Pleco, a smart device that attaches to your water meter to track water usage by category, from toilet flushes and showers to washing the clothes and watering the lawn. It can also identify leaks long before the are visible to the eye. One tech magazine called it a “Fitbit for your water meter.” Nelson explains how to install and connect Pleco to an in-home display or smartphone app that reports your water use in detail.The American West faces an historic drought this summer and water conversation is more important than ever for 57 million Americans in the regions, many of whom may have taken water for granted until now. The good news is that there are immediate savings readily available to everyone because the average family wastes about 180 gallons of water a week, equal to about 10 five-minute showers. Nelson shares how Pleco's creators wanted to reduce their water footprint and are now using machine learning to identify different types of water usage more accurately.The $249 Pleco device straps onto a water meter and uses a magnetic monitor to track usage, sending the data to the home using a wireless network. Unlike most other water monitoring options, it does not need to be added into the home's plumbing.

Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe talks with Jeff Gold, founder and CEO of Altanta-based Nexus Fuels, which processes 50 tons of plastic daily using molecular recycling that breaks the material down into the basic elements of hydrocarbon found in oil so it can be reused in new plastic. It’s the leading edge of chemical technologies for creating a circular economy. Nexus combines waste management and energy production using Plastics #2, #4, #5 and #6 to make feedstock, the raw materials, for new plastic or fuel. Gold explains that Nexus stopped sending its recycled hydrocarbons to oil companies to prevent the recycled plastic from becoming air pollution when burned as fuel. Instead, the material can be used in new food-grade plastic, which can recycled again and again. Nexus works with Cobb County, Georgia, and Dow to process plastic from the Hefty Energy Bag program. We discuss the future of plastic and whether it would be possible to begin mining plastic in landfills to produce the raw material for new plastic without drilling new oil. Nexus' business model allows for the company to pay for plastic waste and operate profitably. Gold speculates that consumer incentive programs could be created that pay people for returning plastic, which would enable a circular economy in the material and keep waste out of waterways and the oceans.Nexus this week announced a partnership with Wood, an engineering firm, to expand globally. According to Gold, “Our accelerated plan and strategic relationships with firms like Wood will allow Nexus to advance current production rates to 5,000 tons of recycled feedstock per day, supporting the reuse of over 5 million tons of plastic waste annually with an estimated annual savings of 30 million tons of CO2 emissions when compared with incineration.”To learn more about Nexus Fuels, visit https://www.nexusfuels.com/.