Sustainability In Your Ear

Nutritional supplements, which the Centers for Disease Control report that 57.6% of adults consume, have significant environmental impacts. One family of supplements, Omega-3 oils, the healthy fats about 20 million Americans take each month to support brain and circulatory health, is responsible for the decline of krill in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica and overfishing of pelagic fish, such as anchovies and sardines, along the coast of Africa. Meet Corinna Bellizzi, Head of Sales and Marketing at Orlo Nutrition, an Icelandic nutritional supplement company growing algae to produce Omega-3 and related supplements. They remove the need to harvest krill or pelagic fish, which eat algae to produce Omega-3 oil coveted by fishermen. We recently spoke with Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau about how Omega-3 oil production relies on harvesting krill. These tiny crustaceans capture and sequester massive amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. Their lifecycle is responsible for as much or more carbon sequestration as the Amazon rainforest. Orlo’s production facilities are colocated with a geothermal plant in Iceland, allowing the company to use renewable energy and CO2 captured from the sky to feed its algae. The result is a methylated form of vitamin B12 that contains the same amino acids as beef that removes about 1.1 Algae growth in labs and ponds could be the basis for a food and nutrition revolution, as well as replacing fossil fuel-based plastics with biodegradable alternatives, as we learned from Algenesis earlier this year. You can learn more about Orlo Nutrition at https://orlonutrition.com/

Fashion makes us feel elegant and affluent, creating unique looks that allow people living in crowded societies to set themselves apart with unique styles. But fashion also comes at a substantial environmental cost. According to many estimates, 10% of the world's carbon emissions and 20% of wastewater are generated by making, shipping, and selling clothing, much of which ends up in landfills long before the clothing's usefulness is exhausted. Meet Kurt Kipka, Chief Impact Officer at the Apparel Impact Institute. This nonprofit is working to reduce the apparel industry's negative environmental and social consequences. The Apparel Impact Institute created a methodology called Clean by Design that helps textiles and clothing manufacturers identify issues, get funding to trial new strategies, and propagate solutions across the industry. The organization emphasizes the importance of objectively measurable progress toward using less energy, water, and chemicals and reducing waste in the manufacturing process. The American Chemical Society, funded by the plastic industry responsible for the rise of the materials that enable fast fashion, claims the volume of fashion production will grow by 300% before 2050, which is unsustainable. Our society might be buried in its clothing waste. Kurt outlines the path to a more sustainable fashion industry, including using natural and recycled fiber, decarbonizing production, and shorter supply chains built around local clothing hubs that sell, resell, repair, and recycle clothing. Today's fast fashion item that costs $10 and is worn three times before being discarded could become a durable piece of clothing that is sold, resold, loaned, and traded in many times, with the fashion label earning revenue at each turn as the facilitator of the experience of shopping for quality, long-lasting clothing. You can learn more about the Apparel Impact Institute at https://apparelimpact.org/

Drinking water is at risk of becoming scarce in the face of climate change. More than 50% of the nation has experienced drought since 2000. Rich “Raz” Razgaitis, CEO of Bluewater North America, a water purification company, joins the conversation to discuss the rising incidence in the water of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS, the forever chemicals used in everything from the lining of fast food containers and firefighting foams to cosmetics and waterproof clothing. A recent United States Geological Survey study found that as much as 45% of U.S. tap water is contaminated with PFAS. Rich last joined us in early 2022, before the company he co-founded, FloWater, was acquired by Bluewater.Water filtering, use, and reuse will become a more prominent feature of daily life in the coming years. The USGS study, however, is a wake-up call about chemical contamination. It found at least one type of PFAS in almost half of 716 samples taken from taps around the nation from public and private water sources. The Eastern seaboard and Midwest have the most contaminated water systems. And several cities in the West with heavy industry and military bases also have PFAS-contaminated water. You can learn more about Bluewater North America at https://www.bluewatergroup.com/us

The volume of electronic waste doubles about every six years as technology plays a more significant role in daily life. In 2019, the United Nations estimated that only 17.4% of electronics were recycled. The United States recycled only 9.4% of its e-waste that year. But in Europe, the recycling rate was 42.5% in 2019. There are many ways to improve, and one is the growing market for refurbished technology. Meet James Murdock, founder and chief marketing officer of Alchemy Global Solutions, a trade-in, refurbishing, and remarketing services provider for technology and telecommunications companies. Alchemy also sells refurbished phones, tablets, and laptops at Loop-mobile.com.The constant upgrade cycle for phones, tablets, and laptops keeps people on a wasteful and expensive spending treadmill. According to Statista, the average phone user keeps their phone for about two-and-a-half years, even though manufacturers claim that they make their products to last between six and eight years. Trade-in programs have become a familiar part of our digital life. Like the auto market, where used cars account for 74% of sales annually, a used phone is now considered a smart, sustainable choice. Alchemy, based in Britain, offers services in the U.K., Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, South Asia, and the United States. The company has refurbished and sold 4.6 million devices since its founding to create a circular market for technology. You can learn more about Alchemy at https://www.alchemyglobalsolutions.com/

Electric vehicles are taking market share away from internal combustion competitors, with new plugin vehicle registrations in 2023 growing 45% yearly and accounting for 18% of all vehicle sales worldwide this year. U.S. EV sales hit 7.9% of all new car sales over the past three months. In Silicon Valley-speak, EVs are nearly across the chasm, the point at which a new product category is poised to displace older products rapidly. You're probably asking, "Can I afford one?" Our guest, Peter Glenn, CEO of EV Life, is working to make the answer to your question an affordable "Yes." EV Life works with EV shoppers to pre-qualify them for a loan, then applies available rebates and the federal tax credit that buyers typically have to wait to claim on their federal and state taxes to lower their monthly EV payments.The financialization of life over the past 50 years has delivered mixed results for consumers. As Peter explains, those tools could be turned to positive use by connecting car owners to savings, reduced charging costs, and other benefits based on the ability to track vehicle use, the EV's ability to send power to the grid when parked, or potentially by passing the value of carbon emissions avoided to the vehicle owner. That requires a more connected lifestyle, which represents a new co-ownership scenario — we may own the car but have committed to sending the used battery to a processor who will pay us today or over time for the lithium they will recover when the vehicle reaches the end of its useful life. EV Life was born with a mission to help people find the information they need to buy the right electric car for their needs. You can learn more at EVLife.co

Business may be the most potent force in the world, perhaps more poweful than government. The largest corporations—only 20 companies— are responsible for one-third of carbon emissions, and some firms carry more economic heft than many nations. For example, Apple earned $99 billion in net income in 2022, and if Apple were a nation, it would rank 67th in the world if compared to the GDP of other countries. The Climate Crisis and its related food, water, and immigration impacts present the most significant challenge business has ever faced. Can business deliver a better world and equitable society while avoiding a global economic collapse? The Activist Leader: A New Mindset for Doing Business, a new book by our guests Jon Miller and Lucy Parker, reports that business has the tools. Now, the will to lead is required.Lucy and Jon outline a simple challenge for leaders and people who want to become business leaders: they must adopt a new mindset and the ability to think like an activist about the role a business plays in the world. That’s a tall order in a fractured political environment in which critics from the extremes of the political spectrum monitor every word for controversy. It takes courage to be an activist leader, and that’s a topic worth exploring in a world that needs businesses to step up to their responsibility for the system that produced climate change. You can find The Activist Leader: A New Mindset for Doing Business at Amazon, Powell’s Books, and local bookstores.

Savannah Seydel, vice president of sustainability and impact at Better Earth, a maker of compostable tableware and food service packaging, is on a mission to remove petroleum-based plastics and PFAS-treated fiber from our food packaging choices. Food packaging and service ware are two of the largest sources of plastic pollution. The rise of compostable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics could change the character of food service materials, making restaurants, cafeterias, and food delivery packaging part of the circular economy, where materials flow from nature to human use and back to nature again. Better Earth makes a wide range of hot and cold food packaging using renewable, sustainably grown fiber and PLA, an industrially compostable bio-plastic — this packaging now represents about 8% of the food service industry.Better Earth sells packaging to businesses, not consumers. The company has established an in-house design studio that creates packaging and circular services. For example, they’ve partnered with farmers in their Atlanta office to source fiber from switchgrass and other cover crops, which provides new revenue streams to support family farms. Better Earth also works to develop collection programs that get recovered packaging and food waste into the composting system and, ultimately, back to the farms where it can nourish the soil. Savannah describes their Field to Food to Field strategy as “borrowing biological resources and putting them back again.” You can learn more about Better Earth at https://becompostable.com/

Trek Bicycle has introduced a certified pre-owned bike program, Red Barn Refresh, and recently published its 2023 Sustainability Report. Eric Bjorling, Trek's Director of Brand Marketing and Public Relations, returns to Sustainability In Your Ear to discuss the company's progress and what it has learned on the path to greater sustainability. Two years ago, Eric said Trek was starting to move fast and take real action to reduce its environmental impact. Since then, the company has committed to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 68% compared to 2021 levels by 2032 and Scope 3 emissions by 30%. Like many companies, Trek's Scope 3 emissions related to its supply chain and distribution system account for more than 95% of its annual cumulative emissions. Consequently, Trek declared frankly in its latest sustainability report that it continues to explore its impact and strategies for achieving net-zero emissions, so it has yet to set a goal. There's no doubt that a bike is a much better transportation choice than a car, and Trek is taking steps to reduce the impact of its bikes, packaging, and retail locations. We might all learn something, so let's get on our bikes and ride.

The rise of fast fashion resulted in a tidal wave of clothing in the world’s landfills. Even traditional fashion choices can increase your environmental footprint if not selected using sustainable criteria, cared for and washed correctly, and worn until you donate or recycle it. Meet Erin Houston, cofounder of Wearwell, a woman-owned company that helps customers choose sustainable clothing, accessories, and shoes, as well as resell used items they no longer want to wear. Erin and her team carefully design the Wearwell catalog to feature responsibly manufactured fashion, clothing from certified B Corporations that mix profit with social impact, as well as from women- and block-owned fashion lines for women of all sizes. The company also offers a recommerce option, Wearwellagain, that provides customers free shipping of pre-loved clothing, shoes, and accessories and awards between 5% and 15% off their next purchase. The question is whether humanity can find satisfaction in making the clothing we buy last longer. Much of the problem is due to the focus on shopping rather than wearing and caring for clothing. The change we need to make is to place the emphasis not on how many clothing pieces we acquire but instead on making them last. Recommerce, selling used items that others can wear, is a potential source of satisfaction for the shopper craving change. Wearwellagain and similar services could enable the constant exchange of clothing to satisfy the need for novelty — but limiting shipping and other recommerce-related environmental impacts will be a challenge until we achieve a carbon-neutral transportation infrastructure. There are many changes to make and myriad opportunities for new businesses. You can learn more about Wearwell at https://www.shopwearwell.com/

Measuring greenhouse gas emissions, sometimes known as "carbon accounting," is the hottest topic in business. Regulators now require companies to report their emissions along with other environmental impacts. Consumers have also made clear that they want low-impact products and services. Meet Lucas Fraser, founder of Breeze, a carbon tracking tool for small and medium-sized businesses that measures Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Breeze is an easy-to-use platform that provides locally relevant results based on various energy sources in a region and by types of products purchased and used in a business.We used Breeze to profile Earth911's carbon impact, and the free version provided a useful estimate we can use to make changes -- that's information every business needs. Despite the International Energy Agency's projections that carbon emissions will peak by the middle of this decade, the agency reports that CO2 emissions reached a record 37 billion tons in 2022. It is time to stop talking about reductions and start achieving them. While reducing carbon emissions is critical to preventing more global warming, we also need better insights into other environmental impacts, such as water use, raw materials extraction, and waste created in manufacturing and distribution, to fully understand the opportunities to reduce society's impact on nature. You can learn more about Breeze at https://mybreeze.io