Sustainability In Your Ear

Society is moving from sustainability naive to sustainably native, a new era in which the language, practices, and values of sustainable thinking will be taken for granted. When we have a shared language, changes start to happen- a trend we can see emerging now. Solitaire Townsend, author of The Solutionists: How Businesses Can Fix The Future, has written a guide to using the many threads of transformation that are already weaving the circular economy, albeit often behind closed doors and never as fast as all of us would like. The Solutionists documents how debates about the value of ESG reporting and what factors it should account for, whether only the financial risk faced by companies or the full spectrum of environmental impacts a company or country creates, is representative of a transition in which people with vision, grit, good humor, and the soul to roll with rapid changes can change the world for the better.Solitaire recounts hundreds of interviews and projects that show the progress and hope that can lead to a profound change. That change is not guaranteed, but as she writes near the end of the book, "Being a successful Solutionist means stepping up to conversations that challenge you, with an openness to learn." It's an uncomfortable time, and the curious, driven leader can make vast changes real for their organization and community. You can find The Solutionists at Amazon, Powell's Books, and local bookstores.

The average American home produces 533 million microfibers annually, according to a 2019 study by Ocean Wise. CiCLO, a new polyester and nylon additive, promises to make those microfibers biodegrade in landfills or water, potentially eliminating these microplastic pollutants. Meet Andrea Ferris, CEO and cofounder at Intrinsic Advanced Materials, maker of CiCLO, a nutrient that attracts microorganisms to the weakest points in a synthetic fiber, where they feed and break down the material. According to the company, the result is a textile that decomposes as quickly as natural fibers like wool. CiCLO has been certified by OEKO-TEX ECO PASSPORT as not harmful to human health. While we must reduce the use of synthetics, it is also beneficial to make those materials we use less damaging when they escape into nature. Synthetic textiles are a plague, starting with shoppers who buy, wear, and discard clothing at an unprecedented rate. Too often, clothing becomes waste in the environment. Consumers wear fast fashions an average of only seven times before discarding them. CiCLO is an intriguing solution for the clothes that end their useful life in the landfill or as litter — it could help reduce the long-term impact of materials that escape into nature. You can learn more about CiCLO and Intrinsic Advanced Materials at https://ciclotextiles.com/

Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux, sits down to talk about perovskites-based nanotechnology that can improve the performance of silicon solar panels to produce 30% more power from the sun at a 10% lower cost than traditional panels. Caelux recently closed an additional $12 million in funding to build a manufacturing facility that will produce up to 100 MW of generation capacity. The $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act has reportedly been followed by between $213 and $511 billion in private investment, with hundreds of new solar, battery, and other cleantech facilities launched last year. It’s a remarkable time to be in green technology because, as Scott explains, the U.S. has embraced an industrial vision and invested in making it happen for the first time since the Eisenhower Administration. Silicon-based solar panels have made tremendous progress since they came to public attention when the Carter Administration first installed them on the roof of the White House. The cost of electricity they generate has fallen by 99% as silicon solar panels achieved 20% efficiency. Perovskite, a calcium titanium oxide-based nanomaterial, can convert up to 30% of the sun’s light into electricity, and recent research suggests they could become two-and-a-half times more efficient in the next few years.You can learn more about Caelux at https://caelux.com/

What is the most used material in the world? Cement, the basis for building most of the modern world, was invented during the Roman Empire and remains the most used material worldwide. In 2021, cement accounted for 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions globally, about 4.3 % of all greenhouse gas generated that year. Meet Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technology, a New York-based maker of low-carbon cement and materials for making concrete. Eco Material reengineered the Roman method of making pozzolanic cement using processed fly ash generated by industrial processes. The company uses a low-temperature process to remove carbon when making PozzoSlag®. This material can replace a significant portion of the portland cement required to make durable concrete used in buildings and bridges. The resulting concrete carries an embodied carbon footprint 95% lower than traditional portland cement. During the conversation, Grant explains that billions of tons of fly ash from the Industrial Era can be recovered to make low-carbon concrete. While the prospect of lowering annual CO2 emissions associated with building homes, skyscrapers, and roads by 95% is sufficiently important to justify enthusiasm about this technology, the opportunity to mine the residual fly ash pollution created and dumped during the Industrial Era should get everyone’s attention. Society can do more than paper over environmental damage while continuing to build and expand a sustainable infrastructure — we can restore nature, making cities and their suburbs greener.You can learn more about Eco Materials Technologies at https://ecomaterial.com/

Farmed salmon has been touted as a solution to food scarcity as the world turns to eating more seafood. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that seafood production must increase 29.3% by 2030 to meet demand. Our guest today is Simen Sætre, who coauthored The New Fish: The Truth about Farmed Salmon and the Consequences We Can No Longer Ignore with journalist Kjetil Ostli. The book examines the salmon farming industry in Norway in the 1960s. It is a history of the business and a chronicle of the many unanticipated consequences of fish farming, including the use of chemicals in fish feed that harm aquatic and human health, a pandemic of sea lice infections in farmed and wild fish, and the competition between salmon farms and human food supplies, particularly in Africa. The intense pollution and inhumanity associated with large-scale cattle, pork, and poultry operations, known as CAFOs, are being translated to increase the production in salmon farming. Simen discusses how humans have started down the path to creating CAFOs in the sea. Still, he remains hopeful that wild salmon can be restored. You can find The New Fish: The Truth about Farmed Salmon and the Consequences We Can No Longer Ignore at Amazon, Powell’s Books, and local booksellers.

The pace of renewable energy investments has gained momentum over the past decade. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Investment 2023 report, $2.8 trillion will be invested this year in energy, including fossil fuels, with almost 61% dedicated to clean energy. Meet investor Ben Wolkon, a founding partner at MUUS Climate Partners. The firm invests to accelerate renewable energy adoption and to create clean technologies. Now that renewables have crossed the chasm and entered the scale-up phase, we wanted to get a read on how to make more progress faster because the nation is still not on track to cut emissions by 50% before 2030.The IEA reports that for each $1 spent on fossil fuel development, $1.7 is invested in clean energy. Only Five years ago, the ratio was 1:1. That's real progress, and most of that investment flows into new companies. At the same time, oil companies are not turning their recent record profits into investments in renewables. Instead, they are developing more wells and paying dividends rather than investing in low-carbon and renewable energy. That leaves room for many upstarts, including MUUS Climate's portfolio companies, our previous guest, Nth Cycle, as well as Harvest Thermal, BrightNight, and Cache Energy, among others. You can learn more about MUUS Climate Partners at https://www.muusclimate.com/

The landscape of environmental disclosure is changing fast. Go behind the scenes at Climate Week in New York to hear the introduction of a potentially transformative environmental reporting tool, the Ecological Benefits Framework (EBF). Created by the environmental storytelling studio The Lexicon, led by Douglas Gayeton, the EBF aims to go beyond Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting, extending today's financial risk assessments with a comprehensive quantification of environmental impacts. Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe also spoke with frequent guest Newday Impact CEO Doug Heske about the firm's commitment to be the first to use EBF information to build investment products. EBF is not just about dollars and cents but about the positive ecological changes organizations and companies can deliver. The information will help investors and governments make environmental investments go further. Beyond the boardroom and investor circles, the implications of EBF resonate deeply. Picture a world where easily decipherable visual icons inform your online shopping or in-store purchase decisions. Icons that communicate a product's ecological benefits or drawbacks can foster decisions that improve environmental and human wellbeing.Model and activist Georgie Badiel also appeared at the event to discuss her foundation's effort to combat water scarcity in Burkina Faso. With the aid of the EBF, she believes the impact of the Georgie Badiel Foundation's women-built and managed community wells initiative will be vividly and transparently communicated to supporters.Whether you're an environmental enthusiast, an investor looking for sustainable opportunities, or someone eager to make informed decisions, this episode of Sustainability In Your Ear introduces an exciting vision for ecological impact transparency. Visit CanYouChangetheFuture.org to sign up for newsletter updates and track where the EBF will change your ability to make informed investing decisions.

Dams are more common than you think. Author Steven Hawley reports that 58,500 large dams worldwide have trapped 3,155 gigatons of sediment, meaning they are rapidly filling up and will eventually become useless for storing water or generating electricity. Steven's new book, Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World, was published by Patagonia. A wide-ranging study of the many impacts of damming rivers, Cracked explores the social displacement and economic harm dams do to people and the environment, including climate warming methane emissions and direct harm to wildlife, especially fish and migratory birds.In 2022, the Bonneville Power Administration, the largest dam management agency's electricity prices ranged between $0.0349 and $0.0788 per kilowatt hour. By comparison, the global average cost of the same kilowatt hour of solar power was $0.48, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. When you add in the dire environmental consequence of dams, like the 99% decline in salmon runs over the past 100 years, the era of dams needs to end. Yet, dam projects are still being built in other countries, like China and Vietnam. Perhaps the United States can help other nations avoid the long-term consequences of dams by leading the dambusting movement.Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World is available at Amazon, Powell's Books, and local bookstores.

Since it started measuring waste diversion from landfills in 2006, when it recycled only 4.6% of materials collected, Seattle's Lumen Field has increased its recycling, composting, and donations efforts to avoid sending 90% of the waste generated by fans to the dump. Meet Christy Briggs, Logistics and Sustainability Manager at First & Goal Incorporated, who leads Lumen Field's recycling and other sustainability programs. The stadium has a high bar to meet, as just across town, Climate Pledge Arena was the country's first LEED Platinum sports venue and has achieved similar waste diversion rates. Of course, sports thrive on competition, and Lumen Field has introduced innovative approaches to collection, sorting, and putting items into the right reuse stream. For example, after each major event, Lumen Field rolls out a portable materials recovery facility — a sorting system like the ones used at recycling transfer stations that separates packaging, food waste, and other items.Sports and concerts connect communities, bringing crowds together from around a city, state, or nation, and those fans toss massive volumes of cups, food service items, programs, and memorabilia. A football game or Taylor Swift concert could be among the most waste-creating events in our society. Many stadiums and sports venues are stepping up to the challenge. Lumen Field's sustainability efforts go back to its construction, when 35% of the concrete from the demolished Kingdome, the stadium that stood where it is today, was used in the new building. First & Goal Incorporated, which also manages the Seattle Seahawks, has developed programs to reduce environmental impacts that include recycling sod through donations to local parks, sourcing Green Seal-certified janitorial supplies, recycling thousands of gallons of cooking oil, and during a major renovation of the field the company donated 96.3% of the used furniture, carpet, and other materials collected. You can learn more about Lumen Field and its sustainability efforts at https://www.lumenfield.com/venue-info/sustainability

Owen Barrett, cofounder and president of Rayven, is working to make it easy for individuals to invest in apartment buildings to accelerate the pace of energy upgrades and renewable energy adoption. Electrification of the nation's apartment buildings, moving them away from heating and energy generated from fossil fuels, is critical to achieving national carbon emissions reduction goals for 2030. Raven lets people invest with as little as $250, identifying profitable buildings to acquire, then makes energy efficiency improvements and installs solar panels to increase the profitability of the building.About 40 million Americans lived in apartments as of 2019, and they must rely on their landlord to make investments to electrify the buildings they live in. Rents have been rising precipitously — the cost of a square foot of apartment space was up more than 100% between 2010 and 2020, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, due to a shortage of apartments. If you've considered investing in apartment buildings, Rayven offers the opportunity to lower the nation's greenhouse gas emissions while earning a return on your money. You can learn about Rayven at https://joinrayven.com/