The monumental Tesla Battery Day last week clearly wasn’t as monumental for some as they had expected. The day after the much-anticipated event, Tesla shares dropped by nearly 10%. This seems to be partly because the “million mile battery” wasn’t part of the presentation. The fickle investment community was hoping for an easily understood revolutionary announcement like an EV battery that will do a million miles without needing replacement. What they got instead was a series of incremental improvements based on technologies that were hard to understand and not very well explained. But the tail end of the Battery Day presentation was incredibly significant and foretells the final nail in the coffin of the traditional car industry based around fossil fuel propulsion.
Elon Musk teased a potential future car costing as little as $25,000. TESLA
Without much more than a single slide and a couple of sentences, Elon Musk delivered the punchline revealing where all the minor improvements up until that point in the presentation were leading. Numerically, it was a 56% reduction in battery costs. But then he explained that this would enable a $25,000 Tesla TSLA-2.1% “with fully autonomous capability”. In atypical style for Musk, he didn’t make any bolder claims about what this car would be able to deliver, but we can read between the lines.
Musk infamously cancelled the Standard Range version of the Model Y, stating that under 250 miles EPA range was too low, and subsequently that 300 miles of EPA range was the “new normal”. From this we assume that the $25,000 car will have at least 300 miles of EPA range, which would mean well over 300 miles with the more frugal WLTP test. You can also be certain this car will be fast because there’s no such thing as a slow Tesla, so it will definitely do 0-60mph in under 6 seconds. There have already been rumors of Tesla planning a small hatchback / subcompact vehicle, with a design teased back in January, and this will likely be the format of the new car given the price.
The Tesla Inc. Model 3 is displayed during AutoMobility LA ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. With two of the world’s biggest carmakers under harsh scrutiny, the Los Angeles Auto Show will be a welcome chance for the industry to generate some positive publicity. Photographer: Dania Maxwell/Bloomberg
The $25,000 tag doesn’t initially sound that impressive, when you can buy an internal combustion engine Toyota Corolla in the USA starting at under $20,000. But this isn’t the market the car will be aimed at. The Tesla Model 3 starts at just under $40,000 in the US, and was clearly aimed at the luxury mid-sized market epitomized by the BMW 3-series, which its sales have annihilated in the USA. The new $25,000 car – shall we call it the Model 2? Everyone else is – will be aimed at another European icon, the hugely popular VW Golf, which represents quality at an affordable price. You can pick one of those up for just over $23,000.
Obviously, the “Model 2” is still a theory, but Musk was talking about the new battery enhancements being able to deliver the price enabling a Tesla EV at this level in 1.5-3 years’ time. So in around 3 years you could well have the choice of a well-built German fossil fuel car, or a semi-premium EV with over 300 miles of range and much faster performance – that will then go on to be much, much cheaper to run because even in the USA, electric miles are considerably less expensive than fossil fuel ones. In the UK, where petrol and diesel prices are astronomical, the running cost differential will be huge.
Tesla teased a sketch of small car aimed at China in its official WeChat channel back in January 2020. TESLA
Teslas tend to come across to the UK at around the same price numerically in pounds as they are in dollars – the Model 3, which is $40,000 in the US, is around £40,000 in the UK. But the VW Golf is also numerically about the same. So a $25,000 Tesla Model 2 would probably be around £25,000, in the same ballpark as the VW Golf 8, which starts at just over £23,000 in the UK. VW’s all electric ID.3, just released in Europe (but not being launched in the US so far), will be right out of the picture, because it’s closer to the Tesla Model 3 in price.
Which would you choose for $25,000 – a Tesla Model 2 EV or a VW Golf with a conventional fossil fuel engine? No longer will the argument hold that “I can’t buy the EV because it’s too expensive”, because they will be the same price. You could still say “300 miles is not enough to get me all the way from New York to Los Angeles or London to Edinburgh in one go”, but who really does that? In three years from now, recharging will be much more ubiquitous, too – and it’s hardly a trial for Tesla owners already. When you can buy an EV with over 300 miles of range that is faster and equipped with better technology than an internal combustion engine VW Golf, as well as being much cheaper to run, only groundless anti-electric prejudice will stop you. There won’t be any real reason to buy a car that runs on fuel derived from oil and gas anymore.
Then, just a few days later, the state reached 100 per cent wind power (of state demand), on Thursday, October 15.
This was not the first time for wind, as it occurs reasonably often and for sometimes lengthy periods, but the fact that the two events occurred within days of the other are nevertheless important milestones. And although the transition to clean energy is far from complete, it does give some insight into what the state Liberal government’s target of “net 100 per cent renewables” by 2030 might look like.
It also came in a week when the state premier and energy minister formally opened construction of two significant projects in and around Port Augusta – including the country’s biggest wind-solar hybrid plant (317MW), and the 86MW second stage of the Lincoln Gap wind project, which is expected to grow to a total of 452MW.
We are indebted to Glenne Drover, from the Australian Institute of Energy, for noting the twin milestones and posting it on LinkedIn a few days ago.
It comes in a spring full of renewable energy and other records, at state and national level. The share of both wind and solar is reaching record levels, the share of renewables is above 30 per cent for the first time, and new minimum demand levels are being set in South Australia and Victoria, reflecting the growing influence of rooftop solar.
The commentary on Drover’s his post made for fascinating reading, and an insight into the state of the energy debate in Australia, and elsewhere for that matter.
It ranged from the those who moaned that solar couldn’t provide 100 per cent of the energy supply for 24 hours (apparently the sun goes down every evening, who knew?), to the energy trader from Shell who celebrated that gas also delivered 100 per cent of the state’s demand at one point (well, it didn’t quite, but nearly).
AEMO chief executive Audry Zibelman put it in some perspective, noting that the combination of rooftop solar (992MW) and large scale solar (313MW) fuelled the state’s electricity needs for a 30-minute period, a first in Australia and for any major jurisdiction globally.
She said the milestone affirms the world-leading scale and pace of transition underway in Australia’s power system.
“The domination and successful integration of rooftop solar in South Australia foreshadows the rebuilding of jurisdictional power systems in Australia,” Zibelman said in an emailed statement.
What the state will need is a lot more storage – either in the form of big batteries, virtual power plants or the numerous pumped hydro plants that have been mooted, but appear stuck in regulatory and policy limbo.
The case for storage was undermined by AEMO’s Mike Davidson, who in a comment on the LinkedIn post noted that “storage is next”, and also pointed to the key role that wind and solar played in keeping Victoria’s Portland smelter running when the main link between Victoria and South Australia was blown down in a storm earlier this year, and Victoria’s biggest load was hanging on to the end of the S.A. grid.
By Giles Parkinson, founder and editor of Renew Economy, and is also the founder of One Step Off The Grid and founder/editor of The Driven. Giles has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
LEIDEN – Swedish homeware giant IKEA is to launch a buy back scheme for customers’ used furniture at all stores across the UK and Ireland next month as part of its bid to be fully circular by 2030.
The world’s biggest furniture retailer is to introduce the programme on Black Friday, 27th November, because it says it also wants to discourage customers from “excessive consumption”.
IKEA has previously piloted new models of furniture rental and refurbishment and take-back schemes for textiles and furniture. However, this will be the first time it has expanded such an initiative nationwide.
It said it wants people to focus on resale, repair and customisation on Black Friday instead of the frenzied over-buying which the occasion has come to be known by in recent years.
Under the scheme, customers will receive an IKEA refund card equivalent to 30-50 per cent of the original retail price with the exact value dependant on the item’s condition.
Items bought back will then be resold as second-hand or recycled if they are not in a good enough condition for resale. Dressers, display cabinets, bookcases, dining tables and chairs, chests of drawers, children’s bed frames, small tables and chairs will all be eligible.
Hege Sæbjørnsen, IKEA’s sustainability manager for the UK and Ireland, said it would drive progress towards the retailer’s 2030 goals of becoming fully circular and climate positive.
“Being circular is a good business opportunity as well as a responsibility, and the climate crisis requires us all to radically rethink our consumption habits,” she said.
“Currently, 45 per cent of total global carbon emissions come from the way the world produces and uses everyday products, so buy back represents an opportunity to address unsustainable consumption and its impact on climate change.”
IKEA was among a number of leading brands and retailers who signed up to a new agreement with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to put circularity at the heart of plans to revive the global economy post pandemic.
Long ago, in lands that were always warm, people got ice from the heavens.
At sunset, they poured water into shallow earthen pits or ceramic trays insulated with reeds. All through the night the water would radiate its heat into the chilly void of space. By morning, it turned to ice — even though the air temperature never dropped below freezing.
For centuries, desert dwellers in North Africa, India and Iran tapped into a law of physics called radiative cooling. All objects — people, plants, buildings, planets — give off heat in waves of invisible light. On a clear, starry night, that radiation can rise through the atmosphere until it escapes Earth entirely. Coldness, which is really the absence of heat, is created through this invisible connection to the cosmos.
To break that cycle, University of California at Los Angeles materials scientist Aaswath Raman wants to turn ancient technology into a 21st-century tool.
Justin Andres, left, and Danny Laporte apply a protective layer of film containing copper and silver on SkyCool panels at Grocery Outlet in Stockton, Calif., on Oct. 5. (Sarahbeth Maney for The Washington Post)
Working with colleagues, he has developed a thin, mirror-like film engineered to maximize radiative cooling on a molecular level. The film sends heat into space while absorbing almost no radiation, lowering the temperature of objects by more than 10 degrees, even in the midday sun. It can help cool pipes and panels — like a booster rocket for refrigerators and cooling systems. Incorporated into buildings, it may even replace air conditioning. And it requires no electricity, no special fuel — just a clear day and a view of the sky.
“It sounds improbable,” Raman acknowledged. “But the science is real.”
Generations after people learned to make ice in the desert, he hopes that same science can help us survive in a rapidly warming world.
SkyCool panels send heat to the sky and pull down cooling from space. They’re used to help keep refrigerators cool, reducing the amount of electricity they need, at Grocery Outlet in Stockton, Calif. (Sarahbeth Maney for The Washington Post)
Growing up in Alberta, Canada, where his father worked in the oil industry, Raman had an up-close view of the problem confronting the planet. Though the burning of fossil fuels is driving dangerous changes in the global climate, it also powers most of modern society.
Aaswath Raman (Oszie Tarula/UCLA)
“I had no illusions about being able to solve it immediately,” Raman said. “I understood how huge the energy industry is, and if you want to really displace it, anything that came after it would have to be just as big.”
He went to college to study astronomy, but an interest in solar panels led him to photonics, the study of light. Much like astronomy, photonics allowed him to explore the fundamental workings of the universe. At the same time, he hoped it might lead to discoveries that improved conditions on Earth.
In 2012, as he neared the end of his doctoral studies at Stanford University, he stumbled upon a reference to radiative cooling in an academic journal. Intrigued, he dug up whatever research on the phenomenon he could find.
Examples of radiative cooling after dark, also called night sky cooling, were everywhere. Raman uncovered century-old descriptions of the ancient ice-making practice and case studies from the 1970s describing efforts to cool buildings with rooftop pools (most efforts were abandoned when the pools became too difficult to maintain). He witnessed the phenomenon in his own life; it’s the reason frost can form on clear nights when the temperature stays above 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
And in climate change, he saw evidence of what happens when radiative cooling is disrupted. Earth also sends heat into space — that’s how it balances incoming energy from the sun. But the greenhouse gases created by human activities block infrared radiation, trapping it in the atmosphere. The planet is more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than in the preindustrial era, a shift that has worsened wildfires, intensified hurricanes and altered ecosystems across the world. United Nations scientists say humanity must reduce emissions by 7 percent a year to avoid still more catastrophic effects.
Yet radiative cooling has rarely been discussed as a potential tool for climate action, Raman said. Most researchers saw the phenomenon as an interesting physical fact with few practical applications. The reason: It is only measurable at night, when objects are emitting heat but not receiving any in return. Come morning, energy from the sun cancels out any cooling effect.
“Every paper made some kind of statement to the effect of, ‘Well, it’s usefulness is kind of limited because … you most need cooling during the day,’ ” Raman said. “Then I thought, well, why can’t we make this work during the day?”
The trick was to develop a material so perfectly reflective it absorbed almost no energy, even when exposed to full sunlight. On top of that, Raman wanted to maximize the amount of radiation the film sent into space.
So he found a loophole in the greenhouse effect.
Eli Goldstein, SkyCool’s CEO and co-founder, works on the Grocery Outlet project. (Sarahbeth Maney for The Washington Post)
A brief physics lesson: Though we often think of them as separate phenomena, the light that we see and the radiant heat we feel are just different kinds of electromagnetic wave. Visible light comes in an array of wavelengths, from short violet to long red. Thermal radiation typically spans a range of longer wavelengths in the infrared part of the spectrum.
Earth’s atmosphere blocks some outgoing infrared radiation — and it’s blocking even more now that it’s chock full of carbon. But there are “windows” that electromagnetic waves of just the right length can slip through. Somehow, Raman would have to find a way to get objects to emit only radiation that fit through those windows.
With colleagues in Stanford’s engineering department, led by professor Shanhui Fan, he began crafting a film from many microscopic layers. The thickness and composition of these layers were designed to interfere with the way different wavelengths of light travel. Incoming solar radiation would rebound right back into space. Outgoing thermal radiation would bounce around between the layers, like a pinball in a machine; only the desired infrared wavelengths would be able to escape.
Chris Atkinson was program director for Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy, a division within the U.S. Energy Department, which funded Raman’s early work. When he first heard about the experiment, “my initial response was, if this was so good, why hadn’t it been done before?” he recalled.
But Raman and his colleagues had something their predecessors lacked: modern nanotechnology. They could manipulate their materials, molecule by molecule, until it behaved exactly how they wanted.
“I was struck by the elegance and simplicity of it,” said Atkinson, now a professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State University. “The fact that you can get something for nothing is remarkable, especially in the energy realm.”
In a few years the Stanford group had its first prototype. Placed outside in the hot California sun, it felt cold to the touch. It was a giddy, counterintuitive sensation, even to Raman.
Yet even after he convinced himself that daytime radiative cooling was possible, it wasn’t until a trip to visit his grandmother in Mumbai that Raman started to see how it could also be useful.
A growing number of homes in Mumbai had air conditioners in their windows, something he rarely saw during childhood visits. That’s an unqualified victory for people’s health, Raman said; exposure to extreme heat can lead to a range of illnesses, from respiratory illness to psychological distress.
But as demand for air conditioning grows, so too will its environmental impact. The hydrofluorocarbons used as coolants and the fossil fuels burned to power the appliances are major contributors to global climate change, associated with about 7 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, when the demand for air conditioning is expected to triple, cooling could become one of world’s top sources of planet-warming gases.
“We kind of realized there was a huge problem and a huge opportunity,” Raman said, “and that this technology, if we developed it correctly, could be a really meaningful solution.”
That realization gave him more parameters for his cooling material. It had to be cheap, so it would be accessible to people of all income levels. It had to be able to integrate into existing air-conditioning systems. As they continued to tinker with the technology, Raman and his collaborators set up a company, SkyCool Systems, to help bring it into the world.
The company produces SkyCool panels that can be incorporated into existing cooling systems. Water running through the panels is chilled by the film, then transported into the air-conditioning system, where it lowers the temperature of the refrigerant. This reduces the amount of electricity needed to turn hot air into cold.
The SkyCool panels lowered Grocery Outlet’s electric bill by about $3,000 over the course of the summer, store manager Jesus Valenzuela said. (Sarahbeth Maney for The Washington Post)
It wasn’t difficult to convince Jesus Valenzuela, store manager at the Stockton, Calif., Grocery Outlet, to test the technology. Between the deli case, the dairy aisle, the freezer section and all the backroom storage, cooling alone cost him more than $100,000 a year. On top of that, the California native was worried by the disasters climate change had already wrought on his state.
An offer from Lime Energy to pay the installation fee sealed the deal. If the film worked, Valenzuela would only owe SkyCool Systems the savings from his electricity bill for the first two years.
The panels were installed this spring. Though Eli Goldstein, SkyCool’s co-founder and CEO, explained the technology to him, he didn’t quite get how the coldness of space could help chill chicken cutlets and freezer pizza.
“There’s a lot of technical things I don’t know about,” he said. But that didn’t matter: The SkyCool panels had lowered his electric bill by about $3,000 over the course of the summer, he said.
“All I know,” Valenzuela said, “is that it’s saving me money.”
LEFT: The SkyCool technology could provide a “meaningful solution” to the growing demand for air conditioning and its environmental impacts. (Sarahbeth Maney for The Washington Post) RIGHT: Danny Laporte replaces a protective layer of film. (Sarahbeth Maney for The Washington Post)
The SkyCool technology still needs to be refined, Atkinson said, and it must become significantly cheaper before it can be deployed widely. But the big scientific hurdle has been surmounted, he said. The rest is mostly business.
Meanwhile, Goldstein, Raman and their colleagues are working on further applications of the film. With a grant from the California Energy Commission, they have contracted with the California State University System to replace all the air conditioners in a school building — hoping to cool the entire structure with just the sky. In May, Raman published a journal article on the possibility of modifying off-the-shelf paints to enhance radiative cooling; if it works, building owners could simply paint their roofs to make the structures significantly cooler.
Raman has even researched the possibility of using radiative cooling to create light. In a study last year in the journal Joule, he demonstrated how cooling one side of a thermoelectric generator while keeping the other at air temperature could create a temperature gradient that, when converted into electricity, could power a lightbulb.
Each demonstration of radiative cooling’s power fosters in Raman a sense of kinship with the ice makers of long ago. He imagines them experimenting night after night, using trial and error to perfect their technique — the same scientific process Raman uses today.
In a rapidly changing world, it’s a reminder of what remains the same, he said: The laws of physics. The needs of people. The power of science to explain the workings of the planet and improve the lives of everyone who lives on it.
By 2030, almost a third of all the energy consumed in the European Union must come from renewable sources, according to binding targets agreed in 2018. Sweden is helping lead the way.
These are all reasons why Sweden tops the Forum’s Energy Transition Index – providing environmental leadership at a time when a Great Reset has never been more needed. Here’s how Sweden is building up local solutions in its energy revolution.
Sweden is a world leader in renewable energy consumption. Swedish Institute/World Bank
Naturally Warm
54% of Sweden’s power comes from renewables, and is helped by its geography. With plenty of moving water and 63% forest cover, it’s no surprise the two largest renewable power sources are hydropower and biomass. And that biomass is helping support a local energy boom.
Heating is a key use of energy in a cold country like Sweden. In recent decades, as fuel oil taxes have increased, the country’s power companies have turned to renewables, like biomass, to fuel local ‘district heating’ plants.
In Sweden these trace their origins back to 1948, when a power station’s excess heat was first used to heat nearby buildings: steam is forced along a network of pipes to wherever it’s needed. Today, there are around 500 district heating systems across the country, from major cities to small villages, providing heat to homes and businesses.
District heating used to be fueled mainly from the by-products of power plants, waste-to-energy plants and industrial processes. These days, however, Sweden is bringing more renewable sources into the mix. And as a result of competition, this localized form of power is now the country’s home-heating market leader.
Sweden is using smart grids to turn buildings into energy producers. Huang et al/Elsevier
Energy ‘Prosumers’
But Sweden doesn’t stop at village-level heating solutions. Its new breed of energy-generation takes hyper-local to the next level.
48 family apartments spread across 3 buildings have been given photovoltaic solar panels, thermal energy storage and heat pump systems. A micro energy grid connects it all, and helps charge electric cars overnight.
The result is a cluster of ‘prosumer’ buildings, producing rather than consuming enough power for 77% of residents’ needs. With high levels of smart meter usage, it’s a model that looks set to spread across Sweden.
This is Västra Hamnen in Malmö! Formerly a shipyard, this flourishing residenial area has a heating and cooling system which runs entirely on renewable energy. The district is often cited as Europe’s first carbon-neutral neighbourhood. @swedensepic.twitter.com/9SfkWLwsVo
A recent development by E.ON in Hyllie, a district on the outskirts of Malmö, southern Sweden, has scaled up the smart grid principle. Energy generation comes from local wind, solar, biomass and waste sources.
Smart grids then balance the power, react to the weather, deploying extra power when it’s colder or putting excess into battery storage when it’s warm. The system is not only more efficient, but bills have fallen.
Smart energy developments like those in Hyllie, Ludivika, and renewable-driven district heating, offer a radical alternative to the centralized energy systems many countries rely on today.
The EU’s leaders have a challenge: how to generate 32% of energy from renewables by 2030. Sweden offers a vision of how technology and local solutions can turn a goal into a reality.
Scientists have found the first material that displays a much sought-after property at room temperature.
It is superconducting, which means electrical current flows through it with perfect efficiency – with no energy wasted as heat.
At the moment, a lot of the energy we produce is lost as heat because of electrical resistance.
So room temperature “superconducting” materials could revolutionise the electrical grid.
Until this point, achieving superconductivity has required cooling materials to very low temperatures. When the property was discovered in 1911, it was found only at close to the temperature known as absolute zero (-273.15C).
Since then, physicists have found materials that superconduct at higher – but still very cold – temperatures.
The team behind this latest discovery says it’s a major advance in a search that has already gone on for a century.
“Because of the limits of low temperature, materials with such extraordinary properties have not quite transformed the world in the way that many might have imagined,” said Dr Ranga Dias, from the University of Rochester, in New York State.
“However, our discovery will break down these barriers and open the door to many potential applications.”
Dr Dias added that room temperature superconductors “can definitely change the world as we know it”.
The scientists observed the superconducting behaviour in a carbonaceous sulphur hydride compound at a temperature of 15C.
However, the property only appeared at extremely high pressures of 267 billion pascals – about a million times higher than typical tyre pressure. This obviously limits its practical usefulness.
So Dr Dias says the next goal will be to find ways to create room temperature superconductors at lower pressures, so they will be economical to produce in greater volume.
These materials could have many other applications. These include a new way to propel levitated trains – like the Maglev trains that “float” above the track in Japan and Shanghai, China. Magnetic levitation is a feature of some superconducting materials.
Another application would be faster, more efficient electronics.
“With this kind of technology, you can take society into a superconducting society where you’ll never need things like batteries again,” said co-author Ashkan Salamat of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“Inspired by nature and powered by curiosity, we want to discover the limits of natural materials and create sneakers that are wonder, made wearable.”
YY Nation’s sustainable sneaker collection has launched on Kickstarter and is contributing to the global clean-up of our land, oceans and waterways, with every step they take. Aiming to be the most sustainable shoe in the world YY Nation has used innovation and co-laborative partnerships to redefine sustainable footwear.
Designed in New Zealand and influenced by the wonder of nature, the high-fashion, incredibly comfortable sustainable footwear range uses natural fibers, waste and plant material in every component. Each pair is produced using innovative materials such as fishing net retrieved from the ocean, bamboo, sugar cane, recycled rubber and super-soft New Zealand merino wool.
The Wellington-based start-up company, which places the principle of environmental stewardship at its core, launched the Legacy collection on a Kickstarter campaign featuring four edgy styles in 10 colours.
Founder Jeremy Bank says the company set out to redefine sustainable footwear. “Using natural materials in a purposeful design, we believe we have developed the ultimate sneakers for everyday adventures,” he says. “Using materials gathered and grown, we have created high-performance sneakers with a positive impact. The Legacy Collection marks the beginning of our quest to design out waste.”
YY Nation shoes are stylish, odour-resistant, temperature-regulating, long-lasting, durable and, most importantly, comfortable enough to be worn in the workplace, or on outdoor adventures.
YY Nation delivers worldwide and all companies it partners with are ethical and either Fairtrade or B Corp-certified. It sources materials from New Zealand and across the world, including ocean plastics for shoelaces; sustainably-sourced bamboo and nylon thread from recycled plastic for the shoe’s second upper; and algae bloom from waterways for the insole.
“We use merino wool from Kiwi farms that are focused on producing the highest-quality merino that is ethical and traceable, with the greatest regard for animal welfare,” Jeremy says. “And, we are currently going through the process of carbon footprint assessment. We are using renewable, natural resources, like bamboo, sugarcane and algae, that capture greenhouse gases and release O2.” YY Nation also uses an eco-friendly water-based adhesive, and the shoeboxes are made with FSC-certified recycled material.
Did you know that our laces are crafted from recycled ocean plastic? With this recycled material, we’ve crafted laces that are strong, long-lasting and durable. Check it out: fb.go2.fund/yynation
The journey to launch an eco-friendly footwear company started when Jeremy was on a family beach holiday in Maui, and his daughter noticed mesmerising blue colours in the sand. On closer inspection, he and his daughter discovered they were pieces of coloured plastic. “It wasn’t there 20 years ago when I was last there, so where did it come from? ” he says. He then saw an old shoe washed up on the beach and thought there must be a better way. “This moment sparked my curiosity and eventually inspired me to form YY Nation, a collective of individuals who understand the urgency of creating sustainable alternatives. We don’t have all the answers, but at our core is the principle of stewardship and the belief that the enduring pursuit of innovation begins with asking questions.”
“Not a day passes for me without seeing the many ways in which digital technology can advance peace, human rights and sustainable development for all.”
António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations
The era of green tech is on the rise now, going neck and neck with an uptick of innovative digital transformation. The integration of both, however, has rarely been an option ever before. And only in recent years there has been explosive growth in attempting to combine digital technology and sustainability. That said, the main challenge of today’s business underlies in finding the balance between these two approaches.
On a large scale, every business involves digital processes in one form or another in order to meet the specific individual needs of an enterprise. Consequently, an overall digitalization provides a great opportunity for achieving sustainability goals.
What is digital sustainability?
Generally speaking, the concept is defined as a set of ecologically safe and stable factors and principles that refer to the long-term perspective for social and economic development. These initiatives are realized through a wide range of digital technology implementation.
Technically speaking, every digital business wants to make a difference so it is nowadays opting for becoming environmentally sustainable. On the other hand, a tremendous necessity to think about the future of the planet and humanity arises as far as the eye can reach. An already-changing climate, the overconsumption of nonrenewable natural resources, biodiversity losses, extensive deforestation, extreme natural disasters, massive carbon dioxide emission, poor air, and water quality are the real challenges that are impossible to face alone. Here is how sustainability can benefit a business.
How digital trends impact sustainable technology growth
For sure, all the popular tech trends like AI, ML, Internet of Things, Big Data, edge computing, robotic process automation, and others come to ease our lives. That is why average users as well as large-scale enterprises pursue these innovations and changes. For instance, artificial intelligence has been the key to complex data analysis and management aimed at sustainable decision making in such areas as climate change, air, and water security, biodiversity conservation, disaster resilience, etc.
The potential digital technology investments are estimated in billions of dollars annually, for example, experts from IDC predict that worldwide expenditure on AI systems alone is predicted to reach up to $79,2 billion by 2022.
Obviously, becoming sustainable today stands shoulder to shoulder with typical business aspects, like increasing revenues, reducing costs and providing positive customer experience.
Source: https://www.byteant.com/
Sustainable Technology: 10 steps going ahead of time
All countries are concerned about sustainable global actions and generate consistent strategies to fulfill the commitments of the Paris Agreement. The required steps should incorporate:
efficient natural resource consumption
mobilizing financial sources
the shift from fossil fuel toward perpetual energy
climate change risk mitigation
supply chain improvement
across-industry transformation, including IT
keeping the balance between the urban and rural economy
taking nature-oriented solutions
vulnerable groups and areas protection
minimizing emission and pollution levels
Presumably, the stakeholders of top worldwide companies feel their responsibility to provide and thus leverage from sustainable digital technology so ahead-of-time enterprises have already taken steps towards becoming clean and green.
5 great examples of sustainable technology implementation
Let’s have a closer look at some sustainable transformation examples and companies that successfully reap from clean technology.
Walmart, one of the biggest retail corporations represents multiple deployments of digital transformations that work to eliminate wastage and energy usage and to provide supply chain control. First of all, numerous built-in IoT sensors and shelf-scanning robots prove to be sustainable in terms of energy savings and customer experience. Also, Walmart is a successful e-retailer that provides efficient online services, like Mobile Express Returns and QR code scanning. It enables their customers to shop staying at home thus diminishes transport usage and CO2 emissions.Walmart is constantly developing innovative ideas that can be implemented not only within the retail branch. In 2018 the corporation patented the idea of a robobee – a self-manned drone for pollinating crops equipped with cameras and sensors. This tool also makes it possible to detect agricultural problems and get more sufficient control over the Walmart food supply chain that, consequently, minimizes food waste.
Patagonia is a sustainable clothing company with $800 million revenue that can boast with using organic materials, selling worn and recrafted outfits and organic provision. Also, the company provides worldwide fundraising through online banking and keeps an online blog The Cleanest Line where articles are dedicated to environmental crises and solutions. Being sustainably conscious, Patagonia has implemented a number of innovations in company management, such asrecycled construction materials with laminated coated windows that prevent overheating
solar panels with photosensors and motion detectors
LED lighting, new systems of heating, ventilation and air conditioning controlled by a smart grid
Moreover, the company has got an AI central workstation that automatically controls all operational systems from an indoor environment to outdoor irrigation. Bathrooms and toilets are equipped with water control sensors. Even the landscape and plants around the buildings are chosen and designed to diminish water usage. Workers are encouraged to use electric cars and get financial compensation for coming to work by bike or public transport.
Mega City of NEOM definitely deserves the name of a sustainability dream where all possible and impossible technologies merge to serve humanity. NEOM represents how far one can go with incredible imagination and substantial finance. The mindset of building a sustainable megacity was born in Saudi Arabia which is ready to invest $500 billion into digital innovations run with the help of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.NEOM is positioned as a future home city and workplace for more than a million inhabitants from all over the world. The implementation of ambiguous digital transformations, like IoT and AL software, is to control environmental conditions within the megacity. For example, saving water, especially in limited desert surroundings, becomes accessible due to smart sensors for water management and rainwater collection. Moreover, in NEOM the average temperature is expected to be lower and the wind speed adapted if necessary. The project’s first results are expected in several years looming at the 2030 horizon.
Microsoft as one of the leading software providers moves towards reducing its environmental impact and at the same time helps other companies turn “green”. Noteworthy, Microsoft’s cloud computing has already empowered energy efficiency and material waste reduction. The increased accessibility of serverless and open-source software minimizes cooling processes, ventilation, and air conditioning in fewer data centers. Adding power management function to Microsoft products enabled smart energy consumption on end devices, like monitors and hard drives.Explore how Microsoft uses artificial intelligence to create a complete directory of US forests. As a result, we can better manage them for a sustainable future.
To achieve global sustainability goals, sustainability technology companies of all sizes should work cooperatively, like Microsoft and Ørsted. The latter is a well-known wind technology and bioenergy provider from Denmark. Their decision to unite enables both sides to successfully meet environmental challenges. Ørsted’s greatest striving is to build “an entirely green world” with a 100 % carbon-free energy supplement by 2025. The company is diminishing oil- and coal-based activity in favor of clean energy systems. Ørsted owns more than a thousand offshore wind turbines equipped with sensors that seamlessly generate valuable data. Microsoft advanced predictive analytics and AI technology is part of Ørsted’s digital strategy of sustainable data transformation for saving time and resources. In 2020, Ørsted was ranked as the most sustainable company in the world.
What’s next
There is hardly an organization that doesn’t realize the necessity of a sustainability approach. The worldwide decision-making entities, such as the World Health Organization or the UN, are deeply concerned about ecological problems and social inequality more than ever before. Immediate measures have to be made for global financial inclusion and political involvement. The price is high but is worth paying when human well-being is at stake.
In 2018, an investigation by news outlet The Guardian found that Britain’s leading supermarkets generated about 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste each year.
How much plastic and other packaging waste do supermarkets in Singapore—with a population of about 5.7 million, compared to Britain’s 66.5 million—generate?
The picture could become clearer when mandatory packaging reporting begins next year. Companies such as brand owners, importers and large retailers including supermarkets will have to collect data on the types and amounts of packaging that they place on the market.
This is the first step towards an extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework for packaging waste that the Singapore aims to roll out by 2025. It will require companies to take responsibility for the life cycle of packaging they produce.
The country’s largest supermarket chain has started preparing for mandatory packaging reporting. FairPrice Group has set up a team that is able to work with suppliers to gather the necessary information, and recently receivedthe template for reporting from Singapore’s National Environment Agency, said its group chief executive Seah Kian Peng.
Tackling packaging waste earlier in the production process is a beneficial approach since it also helps the company to potentially save costs.
Seah Kian Peng, group chief executive, FairPrice Group
FairPrice believes the EPR framework will encourage businesses to rethink the design of their packaging, he said.
“Tackling packaging waste earlier in the production process is a beneficial approach since it also helps the company to potentially save costs,” said Seah. “Nonetheless, given the current economic circumstances due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we recognise also there might be inertia and apprehension to move out of the existing systems and infrastructure setups. Industry players, government agencies and the public will have to come together to collectively address these pertinent issues.”
FairPrice already collects some data. According to its 2019 sustainability report, it engaged waste contractors to recycle key material waste that included about 12,500 tonnes of cartons, 52 tonnes of Styrofoam boxes and 46 tonnes of stretch film.
Food safety and quality
While the figures may dismay zero-packaging advocates, others will note that packaging enables greater access to food by enabling it to be transported, intact, to different customers. Packaging also extends the shelf life of food, which reduces food waste and the significant amounts of water, land and other resources needed to produce the wheat, rice, vegetables and meat that people eat.
Food safety and quality is of “paramount importance” to FairPrice, said Seah.
“A variety of packaging including cling wrap, foam nets, trays, and bags is used to ensure consistency, minimise damage and preserve the quality of the product, particularly for fresh produce such as leafy vegetables and corn,” he said. “This means that we are able to prevent food wastage by lengthening the shelf life of these fresh produce.”
Vegetables are wrapped in bags to minimise mishandling and delicate fruits like mangoes and strawberries are packed in boxes to prevent bruising, he said.
Fresh produce sold by FairPrice are mainly pre-packed by suppliers before they arrive at stores, Seah added. Stores may, however, also use their own packaging to wrap pre-cut fruits and vegetables. At times, they have to re-pack some produce to replace damaged packaging or cut the risk of cross-contamination.
We are constantly on the lookout to explore ways to reduce packaging waste while ensuring product safety and quality.
Seah Kian Peng, group chief executive, FairPrice Group
Solutions to waste and pollution needed
The growing heaps of packaging waste and plastic pollution worldwide, however, mean that better solutions are urgently needed. Environmentally-conscious entrepreneurs around the world have introduced zero-waste or packaging-free grocery stores and many are on an expansion path, although they are still much smaller in scale than supermarkets in general. Some activists are also championing plastic-free supermarket aisles.
Meanwhile, major consumer goods manufacturers, which have been named as some of the world’s biggest ocean polluters, are introducing recyclable packaging or using alternatives to plastic. Critics, however, say they are not addressing the root causes of the plastic pandemic.
Singapore generated 930,000 tonnes of plastic waste in 2019, of which only 4 per cent was recycled. Of that amount, only 7 per cent was processed locally, while the rest was sent overseas.
The government, which encourages businesses to rethink production processes and eliminate unnecessary packaging, has plans to boost its plastic recycling capabilities and close the plastics loop.
‘No plastic bag’ pilot has been ‘encouraging’
What about plastic bags, a subject of heated public debate for more than a decade now?
Singapore has not followed in the footsteps of Thailand and more than 120 countries that have regulated the use of plastic bags in some way. However, analysts have also noted that despite curbs, plastic pollution remains a problem. This is because of uneven policies, loopholes, and other reasons. The World Resources Institute noted in a blog post last year that most countries fail to regulate plastic through its life cycle, and virtually none restricts the manufacture of plastic bags, of which an estimated five trillion are produced a year.
On its part, FairPrice launched a “no plastic bag” initiative last September, expanding it two months later to 25 of its 230 supermarkets and convenience stores for a year. Customers at those outlets are charged S$0.10 or S$0.20 for plastic bags. Asked about the outcome of the trial, Seah said results have been “encouraging” and FairPrice will announce an update later this year when it finishes assessing the pilot initiative.
He added that FairPrice works with the government, customers and civil society groups to reduce single-use plastics, and advocates the use of reusable shopping bags.
“We are constantly on the lookout to explore ways to reduce packaging waste while ensuring product safety and quality,” he said.
Global hunger has been on an indefensible rise for many years, and Asia—home to nearly half a billion of the world’s hungry and more than half of the world’s malnourished children—has not been spared. While global food systems have long been under stress, the Covid-19 pandemic pushed them to their breaking point, and the imperative to act has never been more important.
In a matter of weeks, Covid-19 laid bare the vulnerabilities in global food security, compounding previous levels of hunger with job losses, supply chain disruptions and declines in income. This has had a disproportionate impact on poor and vulnerable communities.
On the supply side, the price of staple food across the region, such as rice and wheat, was driven up by disruptions to production and distribution combined with panic buying. For example, retail prices of rice in Thailand rose about 20 per cent on average in January to April 2020 compared with the same months of 2019.
On the demand side, the pandemic has affected food consumption by eroding household incomes. Those working in the informal sector in the region (almost seven in 10 workers) are at particular risk. Their income is estimated to have fallen 22 per cent in the first month of the Covid-19 crisis, causing relative poverty rates to rise to 36 per cent from 22 per cent before the crisis.
Over the past few months, we have been reminded of the critical importance of a strong and functioning food system—one that empowers everyone to access the good food they need to maintain good health, and that sustains the planet’s resources.
Covid-19 has also exposed the risk of poor diets. There is growing evidence that what we eat fundamentally impacts how we experience Covid-19. In one investigation, the odds of hospitalisation were 16 times greater for people with obesity, diabetes or hypertension; 76 per cent of deaths from Covid-19 are among individuals with an underlying condition, many of which are diet-related. Troublingly, the Asia-Pacific region is home to the fastest growing rates of childhood obesity in the world, with children increasingly exposed to cheap and convenient unhealthy processed foods rich in salt, sugar and fat but poor in essential nutrients. This is tragic, and it is preventable.
If we are to change this trajectory, the food systems of the future must be healthy, reliable and equitable. They must balance the need for economic development and increasing demand for food with sustainability and conservation of natural resources. We can’t do this with patchwork improvements. A whole-systems approach is necessary if we are to succeed in transforming the global food system to nourish people and planet.
Fundamental shifts will be required to get there, because what we consume is about much more than daily individual choices of what to eat. Increasing the plate share of healthy foods, and decreasing the share of ultra-processed and nutrient-poor foods, requires action across government, the private sector, food producers and many other food sector actors. Together, we need to tackle challenges as diverse as advancing nutrition research to better understand the costs and benefits of our diets, ensuring our food systems are sustainably powered, growing the capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises to increase availability of healthy foods, changing policies to help communities affordably and equitably access good food, and investing in programmes to help children eat healthier meals. These are a few areas of work we are focused on at The Rockefeller Foundation.
Getting it right will necessitate bold thinking and action, and we are seeing local communities lead the way. That is why we launched the Food System Vision Prize, a global challenge to gather actionable visions from teams around the world on what our food systems can be. They represent the creativity and big ideas we need to nourish all people and sustain the planet into the next century.
Winners hail from around the world, including India and China. Eat Right India, for example, is working to create a national movement towards healthier diets through a systems-based approach of reducing food waste, improving hygiene and sanitation across the value chain, and increasing access to and affordability of healthy foods.
In China, “From Mama’s Kitchen to Metropolitan Beijing” is promoting a shift to plant-based diets through Good Food Hubs, a pilot community centre coupled with a smartphone app. The hub will serve as a kitchen lab, pop-up restaurant, learning centre, resource library and social media studio, which connects eco-farms and communities and nurtures healthy eating habits and nature through the creative use of technology.
Over the past few months, we have been reminded of the critical importance of a strong and functioning food system—one that empowers everyone to access the good food they need to maintain good health, and that sustains the planet’s resources.
To jump-start solutions like those proposed by the Food System Vision Prize finalists, we need dramatic, collective action. This World Food Day on 16 October is an opportunity to reaffirm our global commitment to healthy and affordable diets for all through bold vision and swift action. With a quarter of a billion people facing acute hunger by the end of the year, there’s no time to wait.
This article is co-authored by Sara Farley, managing director of The Rockefeller Foundation Food Initiative, and Deepali Khanna, managing director of The Rockefeller Foundation Asia Regional Office.
