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Month: May 2020

These farmers are prospering in the pandemic by delivering straight to homes

Posted on by dishanth
These farmers are prospering in the pandemic by delivering straight to homes
  • Farmers are adapting to the pandemic by offering at-home delivery.
  • This is leading to an increase in profits.

With restaurants shut and grocery stores posing a coronavirus risk, some Americans are ordering food directly from the farm – a trend small-scale producers hope will outlast the pandemic.

It could be one of the few economic upsides to a crisis that has emptied high streets and felled business as Americans lock down against the fast-spreading novel coronavirus.

In northern Wisconsin, a farmers’ collective said they are making thousands of dollars a week in a season when sales are normally zero.

By selling to people instead of restaurants, Illinois farmers said revenues are close to an all-time high.

Many farmers are adopting online ordering and home delivery, transforming old-fashioned farms into consumer-friendly outlets.

“In two or three weeks we accelerated like five to ten years of growth and change in the industry,” said Simon Huntley, founder of Harvie, a company based in Pittsburgh that helps farmers market and sell their products online.

“I think we are getting a lot of new people into local food that have never tried buying from their local farmer before.”

Eating local is lauded as a way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of transporting food long distances, although some studies have shown it is not always more climate-friendly.

Shorter supply chains boost resilience in a crisis and help small-scale sustainable farms, said Jayce Hafner, co-founder of FarmRaise, which helps farmers get grants and loans.

Growers across the country are vulnerable to economic shocks right now because of labour shortages, supply chain disruptions and fluctuating prices linked to the pandemic, she said.

“The beauty of the direct-to-consumer app is it allows a farmer to capture the value of their product at a near-to-retail price, and so it’s a really attractive option economically for a farmer,” Hafner said.

 

New expectations

Chris Duke, who owns a farm in Wisconsin, has managed a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program for years.

The CSA model gained popularity in the United States more than a decade ago. Typically customers pay a subscription fee to a farm then receive regular boxes of whatever is grown.

But with the spread of online shopping, shoppers are now used to getting what they want, when they want it, said Duke.

 

Jack Kaster prepares a food delivery from Great Oak Farm, Mason, Wisconsin, September 25, 2019.
Image: Handout: Chris Duke

 

Using Harvie’s platform, his farm and 17 others in the area can offer customers 95 products, from vegetables to honey to meat, and their clients choose just what they want each week.

They had been thinking of doing this for a while, he said, but were only spurred to make the change when coronavirus hit.

“I love the CSA model, but the CSA model by itself is 30 years old, and a lot has changed in the food marketplace, in technology, in customer expectations,” Duke said. “It’s a totally different world now.”

Last week the farms made about $7,000 between them, which is huge for a season when not much is growing, he said.

He plans to keep the new model after the pandemic wanes.

 

Challenges

Not all of the direct-to-consumer businesses are digital.

Marty Travis, a farmer in central Illinois, has been the middleman connecting local farms to restaurants for 16 years. He markets the products to chefs in the Chicago area, collects orders and distributes fresh produce each week.

When the novel coronavirus hit, he shifted gear and started selling to individuals – and was overwhelmed by demand.

“We could have 1,000 people tomorrow,” he said, but can only cater to 200 customers so had to cap orders accordingly.

He delivers to three dropoff spots in Chicago where people line up to collect – it is not home delivery but challenging nonetheless as farmers are used to bulk orders and packaging.

Proceeds are huge.

“We have to find these opportunities to celebrate some positive stuff,” said Travis, who is writing a book about how farmers can band together to feed communities.

Lisa Duff, the owner of a small family farm in Maryland, started offering customized, at-home deliveries last year and said it saved her when the restaurants and farmers’ markets she served closed in March.

Without a delivery person, she does most of the driving herself – which has been tough.

But she has also seen her customers nearly double.

“I’m hopeful that this will really truly help us find that local food is here to stay.”

 

 

Written by

Nellie Peyton, Journalist, Reuters Foundation

This article is published in collaboration with Thomson Reuters Foundation trust.org.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Abu Dhabi confirms plans for record-low cost solar farm

Posted on by dishanth
Abu Dhabi confirms plans for record-low cost solar farm

Abu Dhabi Power Corporation (ADPower) has confirmed plans for a record-breaking new solar farm, confirming that its latest project is set to be both the world’s largest solar development and will deliver power at a record low cost.

ADPower’s subsidiary, Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), yesterday provided an update on the bids from five consortia looking to develop the 2GW Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Independent Power Producer (IPP) Al Dhafra Solar PV project.

The company said the first-ranked bidder pledged to deliver the world’s most cost-competitive tariff for solar PV energy, set at AED 4.97fils/kWh (1.35USDcents/kWh) on a Levelized Electricity Cost (LEC) basis. The bid is approximately 44 per cent lower than the tariff set three years ago on the Noor Abu Dhabi project – Abu Dhabi’s first large-scale solar PV project, which set its own low cost record at the time.

The new Al Dhafra Solar PV project is expected to boast enough capacity to power approximately 160,000 households across the UAE. It will be almost double the size of the approximately 1.2GW Noor Abu Dhabi solar plant, which has been amongst the largest operational solar PV plants in the world since it started commercial operations in April 2019.

“Abu Dhabi has illustrated a remarkable step-change in the way the Emirate generates power through an enhanced focus on sustainability and renewable technologies,” said Jasim Husain Thabet, chief executive and managing director at ADPower. “The water and electricity sector intends to play a critical role in meeting the target of having 50 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s energy needs served from renewable and clean energy sources by 2030, as well as the reduction of the generation system’s average carbon intensity by more than 70 per cent, compared to 2015.”

Othman Al Ali, chief executive at EWEC, said the new project further underlined the cost competitiveness of renewable energy technologies.

“The cost-competitiveness of the bids received is truly remarkable – positioning Abu Dhabi as one of the world’s most attractive markets for solar energy development and reinforcing the economic benefits now achievable through renewable technologies,” he said. “Securing such competitive tariffs on our energy projects is fundamental to support economic growth across all sectors in the UAE. We look forward to signing the Power Purchase Agreement and to delivering the project in Q2 2022.”

The news came on the same day as influential analyst firm BloombergNEF published its latest report on global renewable energy costs, confirming solar and onshore wind costs continued to fall last year, meaning renewables are now the lowest cost means of providing new generation capacity in regions that are home to over two thirds of the world’s population.

 

 

James S Murray
Editor-in-chief of BusinessGreen

Climate change: ‘Bath sponge’ breakthrough could boost cleaner cars

Posted on by dishanth
Climate change: ‘Bath sponge’ breakthrough could boost cleaner cars

A new material developed by scientists could give a significant boost to a new generation of hydrogen-powered cars.

Like a bath sponge, the product is able to hold and release large quantities of the gas at lower pressure and cost.

Containing billions of tiny pores, a single gram of the new aluminium-based material has a surface area the size of a football pitch.

The authors say it can store the large volume of gas needed for practical travel without needing expensive tanks.

Car sales, especially larger SUVs, have boomed in the US over the past number of years.

 

Several car manufacturers have unveiled hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars in recent years3

 

In 2017, CO2 emissions from cars, trucks, airplanes and trains, overtook power plants as the largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions.

As well as developing electric vehicles, much focus has been on hydrogen as a zero emissions source of power for cars.

The gas is used to power a fuel cell in cars and trucks, and if it is produced using renewable energy it is a much greener fuel.

However, hydrogen vehicles suffer from some drawbacks.

The gas is extremely light: in normal atmospheric pressure, to carry 1kg of hydrogen which might power your car for over 100km, you’d need a tank capable of holding around 11,000 litres.

 

 

To get around this problem, the gas is stored at high pressure, around 700 bar, so cars can carry 4-5kg of the gas and travel up to 500km before refilling.

That level of pressure is around 300 times greater than in a car’s tyres, and necessitates specially made tanks, all of which add to the cost of the vehicles.

Now, researchers believe they have developed an alternative method that would allow the storage of high volumes of hydrogen under much lower pressure.

The team has designed a highly porous new material, described as a metal-organic framework.

 

Hydrogen is stored under huge pressure

 

The product, with the glamorous name of NU-1501, has been built from organic molecules and metal ions which self-assemble to form highly crystalline, porous frameworks.

“It’s like a bath sponge but with very ordered cavities,” said Prof Omar Farha, from Northwestern University in Evanston, US, who led the research.

“With a sponge, if you spill water and you wipe it, in order to reuse the sponge, you squeeze it.

“With this material we use the same thing – we use pressure to store and release these gas molecules.”

 

A fuel cell uses the gas to make electricity

 

“So, it works exactly like a bath sponge, except in a very smart programmed way.”

The key ability of the new framework is that it can potentially store hydrogen and other gases at much lower pressures while not needing an enormous tank.

“We can store tremendous amounts of hydrogen and methane within the pores of the metal-organic framework and deliver them to the engine of the vehicle at lower pressures than needed for current fuel cell vehicle,” Prof Farha said.

His team have gained experience in developing these adsorbent materials for the US Department of Defense, to protect soldiers against nerve gas attacks,

The researchers say there is now funding available to develop this type of material for transport applications.

The new material has already beaten tough targets set by the US Department of Energy for onboard storage and delivery systems for alternative fuels.

But to go further, the scientists will need significant buy-in from car manufacturers.

By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent

The research has been published in the journal Science.

Follow Matt on Twitter.

Single-use plastic in the pandemic: how to stay safe and sustainable

Posted on by dishanth
Single-use plastic in the pandemic: how to stay safe and sustainable
  • In Europe and the US, the plastic industry has used the threat of coronavirus contamination to push back against bans on single-use plastics.
  • Research shows one of the biggest challenges in promoting sustainable behaviours is to break old habits and adopt new ones.

In eight years, US environmentalist and social media star Lauren Singer had never sent an item of rubbish to landfill. But last month, in an impassioned post to her 383,000 Instagram followers, she admitted the reality of COVID-19 has changed that.

I sacrificed my values and bought items in plastic. Lots of it, and plastic that I know isn’t recyclable in NYC (New York City) recycling or maybe even anywhere … why would I go against something that I have actively prioritised and promoted?

Singer wrote that as the seriousness of COVID-19 dawned, she stocked up on items she’d need if confined to her home for a long period – much of it packaged in plastic.

Her confession encapsulates how the pandemic has challenged those of us who are trying to reduce our waste. Many sustainability-conscious people may now find themselves with cupboards stocked with plastic bottles of hand sanitiser, disposable wipes and takeaway food containers.

So let’s look at why this is happening, and what to do about it.

 

The coronavirus crisis has pushed the global problem of plastic waste into the background.
Image: Ammar Awad/Reuters

 

Sustainability out the window

We research how consumers respond to change, such as why consumers largely resisted single-use plastic bag bans. Recently we’ve explored how the coronavirus has changed the use of plastic bags, containers and other disposable products.

Amid understandable concern over health and hygiene during the pandemic, the problem of disposable plastics has taken a back seat.

For example, Coles’ home delivery service is delivering items in plastic bags (albeit reusable ones) and many coffee shops have banned reusable mugs, including global Starbucks branches.

Restaurants and other food businesses can now only offer home delivery or takeaway options. Many won’t allow customers to bring their own containers, defaulting to disposables which generate plastic waste. This means many consumers can’t reduce their plastic waste, even if they wanted to.

Demand for products such as disposable wipes, cleaning agents, hand sanitiser, disposable gloves and masks is at a record high. Unfortunately, they’re also being thrown out in unprecedented volumes.

And the imperative to prevent the spread of coronavirus means tonnes of medical waste is being generated. For example, hospitals and aged care facilities have been advised to double-bag clinical waste from COVID-19 patients. While this is a necessary measure, it adds to the plastic waste problem.

 

Many cafes will not accept reusable cups during the health crisis.
Image: The Conversation

 

Cause for hope

Sustainability and recycling efforts are continuing. Soft plastics recycler Red Cycle is still operating. However many drop-off points for soft plastics, such as schools and council buildings, are closed, and some supermarkets have removed their drop-off bins.

Boomerang Alliance’s Plastic Free Places program has launched a guide for cafes and restaurants during COVID-19. It shows how to avoid single-use plastics, and what compostable packaging alternatives are available.

As the guide notes, “next year the coronavirus will hopefully be a thing of the past but plastic pollution won’t be. It’s important that we don’t increase plastic waste and litter in the meantime.”

 

Old habits die hard

In the US, lobbyists for the plastic industry have taken advantage of health fears by arguing single-use plastic bags are a more hygienic option than reusable ones. Plastic bag bans have since been rolled back in the US and elsewhere.

 

Plastic bag use is surging during the pandemic.
Image: TASS/ Sipa USA

 

However, there is little evidence to show plastic bags are a safer option, and at least reusable cloth bags can be washed.

A relaxation on plastic bag bans – even if temporary – is likely to have long-term consequences for consumer behaviour. Research shows one of the biggest challenges in promoting sustainable behaviours is to break old habits and adopt new ones. Once people return to using plastic bags, the practice becomes normalised again.

In Europe, the plastic industry is using the threat of coronavirus contamination to push back against a ban on single-use plastics such as food containers and cutlery.

Such reframing of plastic as a “protective” health material can divert attention from its dangers to the environment. Prior research, as well as our preliminary findings, suggest these meanings matter when it comes to encouraging environmentally friendly behaviours.

Many people are using their time at home to clear out items they no longer need. However, most second-hand and charity shops are closed, so items that might have had a second life end up in landfill.

Similarly, many tool, book and toy libraries are closed, meaning some people will be buying items they might otherwise have borrowed.

 

Once consumers go back to using plastic bags, it will take time to break the habit again.
Image: Darren England/AAP

 

What to do

We can expect the environmental cause will return to the foreground when the COVID-19 crisis has passed. In the meantime, reuse what you have, and try to store rather than throw out items for donation or recycling.

Talk to takeaway food outlets about options for using your own containers, and refuse disposable cutlery or napkins with deliveries. Use the time to upskill your coffee-making at home rather than buying it in a takeaway cup. And look for grocery suppliers offering more sustainable delivery packaging, such as cardboard boxes or biodegradable bags.

Above all, be vigilant about ways environmental protections such as plastic bag bans might be undermined during the pandemic, and voice your concerns to politicians.

 

 

Written by

Daiane Scaraboto, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Melbourne

Alison M Joubert, Lecturer in Marketing, The University of Queensland

Claudia Gonzalez-Arcos, Lecturer in Marketing, The University of Queensland

This article is published in collaboration with The Conversation.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Pakistan’s ‘green stimulus’ scheme is a win-win for the environment and the unemployed

Posted on by dishanth
Pakistan’s ‘green stimulus’ scheme is a win-win for the environment and the unemployed
  • Pakistan’s government are offering labourers, who are out of work due to the coronavirus lockdown, a chance to earn money by planting trees.
  • The project is part of Pakistan’s existing initiative to plant billions of trees to counter the effects of climate change.
  • Pakistan is badly affected by climate change, experiencing more than 150 extreme weather events between 1999 and 2018.

When construction worker Abdul Rahman lost his job to Pakistan’s coronavirus lockdown, his choices looked stark: resort to begging on the streets or let his family go hungry.

But the government has now given him a better option: Join tens of thousands of other out-of-work labourers in planting billions of trees across the country to deal with climate change threats.

Since Pakistan locked down starting March 23 to try to stem the spread of COVID-19, unemployed day labourers have been given new jobs as “jungle workers”, planting saplings as part of the country’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami programme.

Such “green stimulus” efforts are an example of how funds that aim to help families and keep the economy running during pandemic shutdowns could also help nations prepare for the next big threat: climate change.

“Due to coronavirus, all the cities have shut down and there is no work. Most of us daily wagers couldn’t earn a living,” Rahman, a resident of Rawalpindi district in Punjab province, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

He now makes 500 rupees ($3) per day planting trees – about half of what he might have made on a good day, but enough to get by.

“All of us now have a way of earning daily wages again to feed our families,” he said.

The ambitious five-year tree-planting programme, which Prime Minister Imran Khan launched in 2018, aims to counter the rising temperatures, flooding, droughts and other extreme weather in the country that scientists link to climate change.

 

Workers can earn between 500 rupees and 800 rupees per day planting trees. Image: Shahid Rashid Awan, Project Director (Punjab)

 

Big Risks

The Global Climate Risk Index 2020, issued by think tank Germanwatch, ranked Pakistan fifth on a list of countries most affected by planetary heating over the last two decades – even though the South Asian nation contributes only a fraction of global greenhouse gases.

As the coronavirus pandemic struck Pakistan, the 10 Billion Trees campaign initially was halted as part of social distancing orders put in place to slow the spread of the virus, which has infected over 13,900 people in Pakistan, according to a Reuters tally.

But earlier this month, the prime minister granted an exemption to allow the forestry agency to restart the programme and create more than 63,600 jobs, according to government officials.

While much of the country is still observing stay-at-home orders, local police and district authorities have been told trucks carrying trees should be allowed to travel and villagers permitted to leave their homes to work with the project.

A recent assessment by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics found that, due to the lockdown, up to 19 million people could be laid off, almost 70% of them in the Punjab province.

Abdul Muqeet Khan, chief conservator of forests for Rawalpindi district, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the planting project is in “full swing”.

Much of the work is happening on 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) of land near the capital Islamabad, he said, as well as on other tracts of state-owned forest land around the country.

This year the programme is employing triple the number of workers it did in its first year, said Malik Amin Aslam, climate change advisor to the prime minister.

Many of the new jobs are being created in rural areas, he said, with a focus on hiring women and unemployed daily workers – mainly young people – who were migrating home from locked-down cities.

The work, which pays between 500 rupees and 800 rupees per day, includes setting up nurseries, planting saplings, and serving as forest protection guards or forest firefighters, he said.

All the workers have been told to wear masks and maintain the mandated two metres (six feet) of social distance between them, he added.

“This tragic crisis provided an opportunity and we grabbed it,” Aslam told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview.

“Nurturing nature has come to the economic rescue of thousands of people.”

 

A recent assessment found that up to 19 million people could be laid off because of the coronavirus lockdown. Image: Shahid Rashid Awan, Project Director (Punjab)

 

Extended Help

According to Germanwatch, Pakistan reported more than 150 extreme weather events between 1999 and 2018 – from floods to heat waves – with total losses of $3.8 billion.

Environmentalists have long pushed reforestation as a way to help, saying forests help prevent flooding, stabilise rainfall, provide cool spaces, absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions and protect biodiversity.

According to green group WWF, Pakistan is a “forest poor” country where trees cover less than 6% of the total area.

Every year thousands of hectares of forest are destroyed, mainly as a result of unsustainable logging and clearing land for small-scale farming, the group said on its website.

With 7.5 billion rupees ($46 million) in funding, the 10 Billion Trees project aims to scale up the success of an earlier Billion Tree Tsunami in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the government has been planting trees since 2014.

About 30 million indigenous saplings have been planted in Punjab since the start of the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami – including mulberry, acacia and moringa – said Shahid Rashid Awan, project director for Punjab province.

This year, the project hopes to hit 50 million trees, he said.

Planting season usually ends in May, Awan noted, but programme organisers plan to extend the initiative to the end of June, to keep workers employed for longer.

“We can absorb all the unemployed labourers and workers who have fled the cities and returned to their villages in the past few weeks. This is unskilled work,” he said.

 

Recovering with Dignity

Rab Nawaz, of WWF-Pakistan, said the government’s move is “a very good idea to create green jobs and get people employed.”

But he cautioned that planting trees is just one tool in the fight against climate change, saying there also needed to be investment in improving the ability of farmers and city dwellers to adapt to the effects of a hotter planet.

“The government should be very selective on how it spends money, and focus on resilience,” he urged.

For Aslam, the green jobs initiative is a way to help Pakistan’s workers recover from the coronavirus crisis “with dignity and avoiding handouts”.

“This has taught us the valuable lesson that when you invest in nature it not only pays you back, but also rescues you in a stressed economic situation,” he said.

 

 

Written by

Rina Saeed Khan, Writer, Thomson Reuters Foundation

This article is published in collaboration with Thomson Reuters Foundation trust.org.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Electric vehicle drivers paid to charge up over Bank Holiday weekend

Posted on by dishanth
Electric vehicle drivers paid to charge up over Bank Holiday weekend

Octopus Energy and charging technology specialist Ohme confirm some EV drivers were paid £5 last weekend, as they charged 600 miles worth of electricity – enough to drive from London to County Durham and back

Electric vehicle (EV) drivers were paid to charge their cars last weekend, as electricity prices turned negative over much of the long Bank Holiday weekend, operators have revealed.

Last weekend wholesale electricity prices fell to a record low as power demand dropped from the already low levels that have been experienced throughout the UK’s lockdown and wind and solar energy generation continued to perform strongly.

With the grid facing a surplus of power National Grid paid generators over £50m to take renewable energy sources offline. Meanwhile, customers on flexible electricity tariffs were incentivised to help offset low power demand and soak up excesspower demand by increasing power use if possible.

As such, EV drivers on Octopus Energy’s ‘Agile’ flexible electricity tariff using an Ohme smart charging cable or home charger – which lets electric vehicle drivers charge when prices are lowest – were paid to charge their car.

On Saturday, when electricity prices were negative for more than 12 hours, drivers were paid 11p per kilowatt hour for power used, according to Ohme and Octopus Energy.

Some Ohme drivers were paid £5 as they charged 600 miles worth of electricity, or enough to drive from London to County Durham and back, the companies noted.

“Electric cars can save drivers up to 90 per cent fuel saving normally, but this weekend we even saw drivers getting paid to fill up as Octopus Energy’s Agile tariff prices dropped below zero for a few hours – saving some drivers up to £85,” said Fiona Howarth, chief executive of Octopus Electric Vehicles. ​”Even better, drivers with smart tech like the Ohme cable were able to seamlessly take advantage of the negative prices without having to think about when to start and stop their charging – it just happened automatically – a great snapshot of a smart, green future.”

One driver enthused on Twitter: “Ok…allow me to dream and do some beer mat sums…I use my @OhmeEV app to tell my @Tesla Model S LR to charge on @octopus_energy Agile. I drive from Bath to Edinburgh, catching up on @EVNewsDaily podcasts, and Octopus PAY ME enough to buy 2 pints of cask ale and a bag of crisps.”

 

 

Ohme chief executive David Watson touted the crucial role EVs can play as the country transitions to more flexible and cleaner energy system. “Smart charging is obviously great news for EV drivers, reducing the total cost of owning an EV significantly by passing on energy cost savings,” he said. “As well as being a more efficient cleaner mode of transport, EVs will have a profound positive impact on the grid, unlocking value by cheaply shifting demand to times where there is an excess of renewable energy on the system.”

 

 

Source: https://www.businessgreen.com/

By Cecilia Keating