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Rolls-Royce launches pathway to power net zero economy

Posted on June 17, 2021 by dishanth

Focused on producing the technology breakthroughs society needs to decarbonise three critical areas of the global economy and capture the economic opportunity of the transition to net zero
New products compatible with net zero by 2030, whole business compatible by 2050
By 2023, all in-production civil aero engines to be proven compatible with 100% sustainable aviation fuels, contributing to UN Race to Zero breakthrough goal for sustainable aviation
Science-based target to reduce lifetime emissions of new sold products from Power Systems by 35% by 2030; new generation Series 2000, 4000 engines to be certified for sustainable fuel by 2023
Increasing proportion of gross R&D spent on lower carbon and net zero technologies to 75% by 2025 to decarbonise transport, energy and the built environment

Accelerating the race to a zero carbon economy

We are today setting out our near-term actions to achieve net zero by 2050 at the latest. Our pathway shows how we will focus our technological capabilities to play a leading role in enabling significant elements of the global economy to get to net zero carbon by 2050, including aviation, shipping, and power generation. This includes the development of new technologies, enabling an accelerated take-up of sustainable fuels and driving step-change improvements in efficiency. One year on from joining the UN Race to Zero campaign, we are announcing plans to make all our new products compatible with net zero by 2030, and all our products in operation compatible by 2050.

These products power some of the most carbon intensive parts of the economy. We are also introducing short-term targets – linked to executive remuneration – to accelerate the take-up of sustainable fuels, which have a key role to play in the decarbonisation of some of our markets, especially long-haul aviation. We are already well advanced with net zero and zero carbon technologies across our Power Systems portfolio and as a result have sufficiently reliable data to be able to define a science-based interim target to reduce by 35% the lifetime emissions of new products sold by the business by 2030.

Driving system change to meet Paris Agreement climate goals

There is no single solution to net zero and so we are innovating across multiple areas simultaneously. However, the pace and prioritisation of technological solutions, as well as global consistency and collaboration in policy, will also be key to success. Consequently, we are expanding our collaboration with partners, industry leaders and governments across the three critical systems in which we operate – transport, energy and the built environment – to accelerate progress. These hard to abate sectors are all identified by the UN Race to Zero as requiring technological breakthroughs in order to meet the Paris Agreement climate goals and limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

Warren East, CEO, Rolls-Royce, said: “At Rolls-Royce, we believe in the positive, transforming potential of technology. We pioneer power that is central to the successful functioning of the modern world. To combat the climate crisis, that power must be made compatible with net zero carbon emissions. This is a societal imperative as well as one of the greatest commercial and technological opportunities of our time. Our products and services are used in aviation, shipping and energy generation, where demand for power is increasing as the world’s population grows, becomes increasingly urbanised, more affluent and requires more electricity. These sectors are also among those where achieving net zero carbon is hardest. As a result, our innovative technology has a fundamental role to play in enabling and even accelerating, the overall global transition to a net zero carbon future. We believe that as the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and looks to build back better, global economic growth can be compatible with a net zero carbon future and that Rolls-Royce can help make that happen.”

Nigel Topping, UN High Level Champion for COP26, added: “Winning the race to a zero emission economy by 2050 at the latest requires radical collaboration and technology breakthroughs across energy, transport and the built environment – critical parts of the economy that are also among the hardest to decarbonise. By organising its industrial technology capabilities to deliver the system change society needs, Rolls-Royce is putting itself at the forefront of the defining economic opportunity of our time; one that customers want to buy, investors want to back, and the brightest talent want to apply their skills to.”

Pioneering the innovations that can enable the transition

We have many years of experience in pioneering solutions to some of society’s toughest technological challenges and, increasingly, we have focused that effort on the creation of sustainable power. We already make the world’s most efficient large civil aero-engine in service today, the Trent XWB, and its successor, UltraFan®, will be 25% more efficient than first generation Trent engines, significantly improving the economics of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). In addition, we have built a microgrid business and designed a small modular reactor (SMR) power plant with the potential to transform how we power cities or industrial processes. We are investing in battery storage technology, demonstrating fuel cells and building a leading position in all-electric and hybrid-electric flight. Next month our Spirit of Innovation all-electric plane will take to the sky as it prepares to break the world all-electric flight speed record. Collectively and individually, these technologies represent the extensive expertise Rolls-Royce has to enable a net zero world.

Pivoting our R&D investment to lower and net zero carbon solutions

In line with the commitments we have made under the UN Race to Zero campaign, we are aligning our business model to the Paris Climate Agreement goals and setting out the pathway that will take us to net zero. We are already boosting our research and development (R&D) expenditure to pivot towards lower and net zero carbon technologies, moving from approximately 50% of our gross R&D spend today to at least 75% by 2025.

Our decarbonisation strategy

Our strategy has three interconnected pillars:

1. Decarbonising our operations: We will eliminate emissions from our own operations (scope 1 & 2) by 2030^*. Some facilities will achieve this target sooner, such as our production site at Bristol, UK, which is set to be the first Rolls-Royce facility to achieve net zero carbon status, in 2022.

2. Decarbonising complex, critical systems by enabling our products to be used in a way that is compatible with net zero and pioneering new breakthrough technologies that can accelerate the global transition to net zero. A wholesale transformation of the systems that make up the backbone of our global economy is required to achieve net zero and we can help accelerate that transition firstly by further advancing the efficiency of our engine portfolio through next generation technologies, to improve the economics of sustainable fuels; and secondly by introducing new low or zero emission products, including fuel cells, microgrids, hybrid-electric and all-electric technologies. To help accelerate the take-up of SAFs, we will make all our civil aero-engines in production compatible with 100% SAF, through testing, by 2023. This means two thirds^** of our current fleet of Trent large jet engines and three fifths of our business jet engines will be SAF-ready within three years and aligns with the UN Race to Zero breakthrough goal of 10% of all the fuel used in aviation being SAF by 2030. The current generation of SAFs reduce lifecycle carbon emissions by up 70% but this is assumed to increase to 100% as production pathways for synthetically derived fuels mature. We will work with our customers in the armed forces to achieve the same goal for the Rolls-Royce engines they use and, as the use of SAFs increases, we will ensure that our future combat systems are compatible with net zero carbon. By 2023, we also intend to certify for use with sustainable fuels, the new generation of our mtu Series 2000 and Series 4000 engines. These represent the majority of the reciprocating engines we manufacture and are used across a range of applications from power generation to rail and shipping. Achieving all our 2023 targets now forms part of our executive remuneration policy.

3. Actively advocating for the necessary enabling environment and policy support to achieve this ambition.

Among our technological innovations:

In all-electric aviation, we are moving from demonstrators to commercial deals, such as with the UK’s Vertical Aerospace in the urban air mobility market, and with Italian airframer Tecnam and Norwegian airline Wideroe in the all-electric commuter aircraft. We are also currently testing the most powerful hybrid-electric propulsion system in aerospace and continuing to progress with our UltraFan aero engine, which will be 25% more efficient than the first generation Trent engines and improve the economics of SAFs. We are already exploring the use of SAFs in defence applications, including as part of our involvement in the Tempest programme in the UK.
We are advancing and selling microgrids, complete with our own battery storage solutions, to help expand the use of renewable energy across remote communities and our energy-intensive digital economy. We are also exploring additional functionality through the introduction of fuel cells to provide clean power for industrial vehicles and processes.
We are testing hydrogen fuel cell modules at our Power Systems facility in Germany and plan to have integrated 2MW of hydrogen fuel cells into operational microgrid demonstrators by 2023.
Our SMR consortium is set to make a significant contribution to net zero through its innovative approach to power generation, providing a generational change in the cost of nuclear energy. At 470MW, each SMR could help decarbonise a city of a million homes. With UK Government assistance and third party investment, the programme is now entering a new phase leading to design approval and power on the grid at the end of the decade.

Pioneering sustainable, net zero power sits at the heart of our strategy, future innovation and growth agenda. Our decarbonisation strategy will ensure that Rolls-Royce is not only compatible with, but actively enabling, a net zero future.

For an executive summary of our net zero report visit https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/others/rr-net-zero-exec-summary.pdf, and for the full pathway including the steps we are taking to lead the transition to net zero carbon visit https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/others/rr-net-zero-full-report.pdf. We are committed to playing our part in the global journey to net zero. Undoubtedly, the very nature of this transition will mean that there may be general and sector specific circumstances which will influence the output from our roadmap. These are set out on page 32 of the full report. We also recognise that we must be prepared and able to adjust our decarbonisation ambitions in the context of the changing landscape.

^*Our current scope 1 & 2 target excludes product testing and development. Currently, only a 50% blend with traditional fuels is approved for use in commercial aviation. We are playing an active role in advocating for this to rise to 100%. As an interim measure we are committing to 10% of the fuel we use in testing and development activities being SAF by 2023.

^**Based on in-service fleet as of end December 2019; Based on the in-service fleet as of end December 2020, over 80% of our Trent engine fleet would be SAF-ready by 2023, but usage in 2020 was obviously impacted by the pandemic.

https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/net-zero.aspx

Source Rolls Royce

Climatech Corp and Inovues win the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge

Posted on June 14, 2021June 14, 2021 by dishanth

Climatech Corp and Inovues are the winners of the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge (CSXC) 2021, a global hunt for sustainability innovations in the built environment.

Both winners will receive S$50,000 (US$38,000) each to fund, test and implement their innovations at selected CapitaLand properties worldwide, as well as mentorship by a CapitaLand business leader.

Climatech won the Most Innovative Award for their water treatment process to treat cooling water without the use of chemicals or power, while Inovues won the High Impact Award for their insulating glass retrofit technology.

Climatech’s solution, known as the ClimaControl Quantum Resonance Water, is a novel solution that allows cooling water to be recycled for other uses in buildings, such as plant irrigation or toilet flushing. Based in Singapore, the company’s solution uses photon vibration frequency technology to treat cooling tower, achieving 60 to over 90 per cent of water savings, and one to over five per cent of energy savings.

From the United States, Inovues’ insulating glass technology reduces energy consumption to heat or cool buildings by up to 40 per cent without compromising on the luminosity indoors. The smart glass technology can be retrofitted on to existing windows, and reduces noise and heat gain inside a building by up to 10 times. Windows are the Achilles’ heel of the built environment, said one of the judges, Rushad Nanavatty, managing director or urban transformation at RMI.

The two winners will also have the chance to showcase their innovations to senior global business leaders, investors and policymakers at the annual Ecosperity Week sustainability event organised by Temasek.

“Research and innovation leading to commercialisation is a space where public and private sectors must collaborate. Research can be long-dated and involves high risk. Governments must support and fund it. Innovation and commercialisation of products of research require entrepreneurial acumen and nimble responses. This is where many enterprises have strengths,” said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore, Grace Fu, who was the guest-of-honour at the grand finale.

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group chief executive officer announces the CapitaLand Innovation Fund at the CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge grand finale. Image: CapitaLand

The themes for the inaugural challenge were low carbon transition, water conservation and resilience, waste management and circular economy, and healthy and safe buildings.

The winning solutions emerged from a shortlist that included a portable, self-powered energy generator cum chiller, a thermal insulation curtain wall, a smart waste bin which uses artificial intelligence to sort waste, and an indoor air disinfection solution. All six finalists and selected participants will have a chance to pilot their innovations at selected CapitaLand properties worldwide.

At the grand finale, CapitaLand also announced a S$50 million innovation fund to support the test-bedding of sustainability and other high-tech innovations in the built environment.

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group chief executive officer said: “The inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge has allowed us to uncover promising innovations that we can potentially implement at our properties across the globe, and help us achieve our ambitious targets set out in our 2030 Sustainability Master Plan.”

By Sonia Sambhi

Source Eco Business

Why it’s the end of the road for petrol stations

Posted on June 14, 2021 by dishanth

The big worry for most people thinking about buying an electric car is how to charge the thing.

But the real question you should be asking is how you’re going to refuel your petrol or diesel vehicle if you don’t go electric.

That’s because electric cars are going to send the petrol station business into a death spiral over the next two decades, making electric vehicles the default option for all car owners.

Why? Because charging electric vehicles is going to become much more straightforward than refuelling petrol and diesel cars.

This isn’t just because the government has banned the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

Imagine we were going the other way, replacing electric cars with fossil fuel power.

You are writing the risk assessment for a new petrol station. You want to dig a big hole in the ground in the middle of town, put in some tanks and fill them up with an enormous amount of highly flammable fuel.

Then you’re proposing to attach a really powerful pump and invite in random members of the public.

They’ll arrive in vehicles with hot engines. You’ll hand them the really powerful pump that sprays the highly flammable liquid.

As petrol is hazardous, refilling has to be done at petrol stations GETTY IMAGES

Without any supervision they’ll use it to transfer large quantities of the highly flammable liquid into their hot vehicle, they’ll pay you and drive off.

Are you OK to sign off on that? Do you think Health and Safety will give it the green light?

My point is that fuelling cars with petrol and diesel is dangerous, which is why we do it at specially-designed centralised refuelling points.

Ubiquitous power

Electricity, by contrast, is pretty much everywhere already. Where’s your car now? Do you think it might be near an electricity cable? Exactly.

The only challenge is how to bring that electricity a few feet to the surface so you can start getting it into your battery.

And you don’t need to be Thomas Edison to work that out.

The goal for the electric car industry is to have recharging anywhere you can park GETTY IMAGES

If you live in a flat or a house without a drive, don’t worry. The aim is to have an electric vehicle (EV) charging point at virtually every parking place.

Erik Fairbairn’s electric vehicle recharging company, Pod Point, wants to be part of this effort to rewire the UK.

“You’ll get to a point where you barely ever think about energy flowing into your car again,” he predicts.

Of course, we’re a long way from that utopia, and that should be no surprise.

We’re just at the beginning of the electric revolution: just 7% of new cars are electric and they make up a tiny fraction of vehicles on the road, so there isn’t a huge market.

But, as I argued in my previous piece, change is coming fast and investment in charging infrastructure is coming with it.

There will be good profits to be made when millions of us want to recharge, just as there was a boom in petrol station construction at the dawn of the age of the car a century ago.

The first people to get charging technology at home are those with driveways who can run a cable to their electric cars.

They can already install special charging points that recharge car batteries overnight from the power supply to the house, often using the cheapest possible rates.

Typically this is a slow process. For every hour of charging you’ll get 30 miles or so of driving, but who cares when most people leave their cars parked overnight anyway and you are only paying a couple of pence a mile?

Some local authorities have begun to install similar chargers in lampposts, designers are working on charging points that can be built into the kerb and some workplaces are already putting in chargers for their employees.

We’ll be seeing lots more of all of these innovations in the years to come.

We are also starting to see some businesses putting charging points in for their customers.

You can expect to see charging points everywhere in years to come GETTY IMAGES

In fact, free charging is likely to become like free Wi-Fi, a little bribe to lure you into the shop.

Electric vehicle optimists paint a world where you can plug in anywhere you park – at home while you sleep, as you work, when you are shopping or at the cinema.

Pretty much whatever you are doing, energy will be flowing into your car.

At this point, says Erik Fairbairn, 97% of electric car charging will happen away from petrol pump equivalents.

“Imagine someone came around and filled up your car with petrol every night so you had 300 miles of range every morning,” he says. “How often would you need anything else?”

In this brave new world, you’ll only ever pull over into a service station on really epic, long journeys when you’ll top up your battery for 20-30 minutes while you have a coffee and use the facilities.

Death sentence

If this prediction is correct it is a death sentence for many of the 8,380 petrol stations in the UK.

And the decline of the industry could come surprisingly quickly. Think about it. As electric vehicles begin to edge out petrol and diesel there will be less refuelling business to go around. Those service stations on the edge of viability will begin to go to the wall.

That’ll make it that little bit harder for petrol and diesel drivers to find a service station to fill up in and the remaining operators may also feel the need to up their prices to maintain profits.

So, fewer and quite possibly more expensive petrol stations. Meanwhile, it will be getting easier and easier to charge your electric car. What’s more, as the market scales up, electric vehicles will become cheaper to buy.

You see where this is going: the more petrol stations close, the more likely we all are to go electric. In turn, more petrol stations will be forced to close. And so on.

That’s why I called it a death spiral.

As petrol stations become scarce, electric cars will become more attractive GETTY IMAGES

And don’t worry about where the electricity to power all these new cars will come from.

The National Grid says it won’t have a problem charging all the electric vehicles that are going to come onto our roads.

In fact, it isn’t expecting much of an increase in demand, just 10% when everyone is driving electric.

That’s because we drive much less than we tend to imagine. The average car journey is just 8.4 miles, according to the Department for Transport.

And, explains Isabelle Haigh, the head of national control for the National Grid, there is already quite a lot of spare capacity built into the system.

“Most charging will not be at time of peak, and peak demand has been reducing over the years so we are very confident there is enough energy to meet demand,” she says.

That’s because the grid is designed to meet the moments of greatest demand – half time in the Cup Final when we all put the kettle on, for example.

The rest of the time some generators sit idle. Electric vehicles will be able to make use of them and, because people typically charge overnight when demand is low, they are unlikely to raise the peak demand at all.

Smart charging systems will also help. They allow your charger to talk to the grid to work out the best time for your car to charge.

The idea is to make sure you get the cheapest power and also help the grid smooth out the peaks and troughs in demand.

Smart charging also helps make maximum use of renewable resources, allowing drivers to cash in on the plentiful and therefore cheap electricity available on a windy day, for instance.

Seances and convenience stores

However, the end of the service station should not be a cause for celebration. They are the only retail outlet left in some small towns and villages, and a lifeline for many people.

So, can they find an alternative role? Jack Simpson believes some will be able to.

The site of the Hyde Park Book Club was a petrol station for more than 80 years GETTY IMAGES

He’s converted an old petrol station in Leeds into a plant shop/bar/music venue/restaurant/art gallery called the Hyde Park Book Club. It has even hosted seances.

“People were popping in for dinner and I was like, Oh I’m really sorry, there’s a séance going on,” explains Jack.

He says the site’s central location, large forecourt and roomy buildings make it a very flexible venue.

“I think it also fits in with this post hipster obsession with 20th Century Western culture,” he says.

Brian Madderson, the chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), is more down to earth. The PRA represents 5,500 independent fuel retailers who account for 70% of all forecourts and Mr Madderson says his members have started adapting to the post internal combustion engine world.

Many are already investing in full convenience stores, high-quality take away food and automated car washes to boost their income and, he says, they will continue to enable motorists to fill up their petrol and diesel vehicles for as long as is feasible.

He thinks the transition away from petrol and diesel will take decades. “These vehicles will simply not disappear off the roads overnight. Petrol and diesel stations will be essential in keeping the country mobile beyond 2030,” he says.

Maybe. Yet technological change can be very rapid and very disruptive.

Look what happened to the horse and cart at the turn of the 20th Century.

Some service stations will certainly live on – those on motorways, for example – but many are likely to go the same way as the people Jack Simpson’s guests were trying to reach at their séance – unless they can find new ways to bring in cash.

By Justin Rowlatt
Chief environment correspondent

Source BBC

‘Cool’ roofs, cooler designs as the building industry embraces energy sustainability

Posted on June 11, 2021 by dishanth

The southwestern New Mexico town of Columbus, site of a 1916 raid by Pancho Villa, is now home to a border entry center that is powered by the sun and landscaped with recycled concrete “sponges” that harvest rainwater.

An apartment complex in Los Angeles created expressly for formerly homeless men and women has features that maximize natural light and airflow, a roof designed to minimize heat inside the units during summer, and a rooftop garden that attracts migratory birds.

And across the country in Brooklyn, e-commerce giant Etsy established its headquarters in a 200,000-square-foot building that previously housed a printing press for Jehovah’s Witnesses, then renovated and retrofitted so it is powered by renewable energy.

All three sites, spotlighted last year by the American Institute of Architects in its top-10 list of sustainable projects, reflect the expansive reach of “low-energy” design strategies and the building industry’s embrace of sustainability as a de facto imperative. They’re part of a remarkable evolution, one that could prove crucial since the building sector globally accounts for at least 40 percent of the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide — far more than transportation sources.

Formerly homeless people live at the Six, an apartment complex in the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles designed for optimal energy efficiency. (Brooks + Scarpa)

Some advocates think the U.S. sector can achieve net-zero emissions within 20 years, a decade ahead of President Biden’s net-zero goal for the country. The administration’s initiative includes new codes and efficiency standards for homes, appliances and commercial buildings — and a clean electric grid. Dozens of cities and states are moving forward with their own measures.

“Decarbonization of the sector is inevitable,” according to Edward Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, N.M., that aims to reconfigure the built environment as part of the solution to global warming.

The past several years served as an “urgent call to action,” he thinks, with devastating storms and wildfires on several continents, profoundly diminished Arctic sea ice, and the highest global temperatures in recorded history. “It’s not a matter of if we transition to renewables, but whether it will be fast and well-orchestrated enough to avert irreversible climate chaos.”

In Santa Fe, N.M., architect Edward Mazria leads a nonprofit organization focused on making the built environment part of the solution to global warming. (Ramsay de Give for The Washington Post)

Since the nation’s building stock started its rapid expansion more than two centuries ago, the energy all that construction consumed and the greenhouse gases it then emitted have only increased — dramatically so.

But the numbers began changing in 2005 as building efficiency gained traction. Despite the building sector producing an additional 50 billion square feet in the past 15 years — housing, office parks, skyscrapers, hospitals, factories, schools, shopping centers and other commercial projects — its energy consumption actually dropped 5 percent and emissions fell 30 percent, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show.

In Mazria’s view, building “green” is not a hard sell, especially given cost-effective design approaches that can produce high-performance buildings with little to no energy consumption or emissions. Strategies include considering a structure’s shape and orientation on a site, adding “cool” roofs that reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat, and more.

“In 50 years, I’ve never heard a client say they want an inefficient building that costs more to operate and damages the environment,” Mazria said.

Sierra Atilano echoes his sentiment in Los Angeles. She is chief real estate and investment officer for Skid Row Housing Trust, which commissioned the apartment complex in the city’s MacArthur Park neighborhood where formerly homeless people, some of them veterans, now live. Passive design approaches such as the building’s exposure to prevailing winds make it 50 percent more energy efficient than conventionally designed counterparts, according to the architectural firm Brooks + Scarpa.

“Adding sustainability is a no-brainer in developing equitable housing,” Atilano said. “Affordable housing should be designed on par with market rate housing; it’s important not just for the residents but for the community at large — and the environment.”

While new construction is the obvious target for low-energy design, the American Institute of Architects also emphasizes the need to adapt and retrofit existing buildings — an especially salient point given how the pandemic has depressed demand for commercial and office space. The curriculums at the country’s leading architecture schools reflect this reality and the opportunities it offers.

“The median age of commercial buildings in the U.S. is 36, with almost a third of commercial buildings over 50 years old,” noted Erica Cochran Hameen, co-director for the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture. “Knowing most of our students after graduation will work on projects that involve an existing building, it is critical to educate them on advanced retrofit and building upgrade design strategies and technologies.”

The results increasingly are quantified. There are benchmarking policies and performance metrics. The 2021 International Energy Conservation Code set new minimum efficiency standards for myriad construction elements, part of “lifecycle accountability” for a building. Jurisdictions that adopt the code’s zero-carbon approach “have an avenue to ask for annual performance data and measure on-site energy generation and off-site energy procurement,” explained Anica Landreneau, sustainable design director for the global firm HOK.

In fact, cities from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Maine, now require such data, and Landreneau sees that as a positive. “Both benchmarking and performance standards trigger retrofits, which create domestic jobs while reducing carbon emissions, increasing energy security and improving quality of life for building occupants,” she said.

The Los Angeles-based architectural firm Brooks + Scarpa designed the Six complex to minimize summer heat inside its 52 apartments. (Brooks + Scarpa)

Yet home builders have a different take on regulatory mandates, instead supporting “voluntary, above-code programs,” Jaclyn Toole of the National Home Builders Association said. “Maintaining housing affordability must be the cornerstone to any efforts to create greener and more efficient homes.”

And fossil-fuel interests continue to oppose proposals to eliminate natural gas equipment in buildings, successfully pushing legislation in at least 12 states to bar any exclusion. “Policies that would force people to replace natural gas appliances with electric ones could be burdensome to consumers and the economy, have profound impacts and costs on the electric sector and be a very costly approach for a relatively small reduction in emissions,” said Jake Rubin, a spokesman for the American Gas Association.

Environmentalists counter Rubin’s argument by emphasizing the magnitude of what energy improvements achieve in cost savings and decreased emissions — billions of metric tons in this country alone.

“Efforts by gas utilities to fight [building] electrification represent one of the biggest threats facing the planet now,” said Rachel Golden of the Sierra Club, citing a major U.N. report on methane. “Every time a new home or building is connected to the gas system … we’re expanding the use of gas.”

A clear shift seems underway, however. In California, advocates are working to get gas out of new construction through the state energy code. More than 40 cities and counties have already passed measures requiring or encouraging that fossil fuel energy be phased out in favor of building electrification, and the Sierra Club counts more than 50 other jurisdictions in the state that are weighing such policies.

Elsewhere are similar signs of transformation. Burlington, Vt., which became the nation’s first city to go all-renewable after opening a hydroelectric facility in 2014, intends to levy a carbon fee on new buildings that connect “to fossil fuel infrastructure.” In New York City, where a recent, top-to-bottom retrofit of the iconic Empire State Building nearly cut its operational carbon emissions in half, officials are considering a gas phaseout for all new construction.

Legislation is pending in Colorado to support building electrification, establish standards for energy performance and limit emissions from gas utilities. Laws to require or encourage gas-free construction are already on the books in Massachusetts and Washington, the state that is considered the vanguard of the movement.

Kjell Anderson, the director of sustainable design at LMN Architects in Seattle, helped craft that city’s new building code. The regulations, which will phase out gas in new commercial buildings, were a direct response to Seattle’s increased greenhouse emissions between 2016 and 2018.

He predicts emissions will drop each year as buildings go all-electric and the local grid adds more renewable energy. The biggest unknown is the balance required between on-site renewables, the grid and energy storage, which he says calls for region-specific approaches.

“Nearly all ‘net-zero’ buildings generate excess energy on many days, while they draw grid power at other times,” Anderson said. “With the rapid expansion of clean-energy development and the significantly reduced cost of renewables, energy flows both ways, so utilities are becoming energy managers instead of just energy generators.”

Like so many of his colleagues and contemporaries, he thinks the transition to a carbon-neutral economy must be expeditious: “The task at hand is scaling the solution — efficiency, electrification and renewable energy — to the scope and urgency of the climate crisis.”

By Ben Ikenson

Source The Washington Post

Sustainability Exchange throws up fresh ideas for sustainability

Posted on June 8, 2021 by dishanth

EB Impact concluded its inaugural mentorship programme on 25 May with an event showcasing a selection of five ideas, with youths and mentors that took part in the initiative sharing their experiences.

The programme — run in partnership with Facebook and supported by the Climate Action SG Alliance — is the first of its kind in Singapore and aims to harness ideas from young people to help drive sustainability innovation in the city-state.

The youth of today are unprecedentedly empowered. From being the world’s most powerful consumers to harnessing social media to amplify peer influence, they will play an increasingly critical role in reshaping an uncertain world beset with urgent environmental and social issues. By 2030, the United Nations estimates that the number of youths defined as persons aged 15 to 24 years will have grown by 7 per cent to nearly 1.3 billion.

But more needs to be done to incorporate the voice of youths into the climate conversation. “We see a lot of passion and interest for sustainability in the youth, which is necessary. But in order to move the needle, we need much more than just passion,” said Cheryl Chen, director of corporate responsibility and sustainability at Asia Pacific S&P Global, at the closing event.

In partnership with Facebook and supported by the Climate Action SG Alliance, the showcase featured 5 of the 21 ideas that emerged from the three-month-long programme, as well as personal stories from youths, mentors, and other distinguished panellists. Image: EB Impact.

Sustainability Exchange

EB Impact, the non-profit sister organisation of Asia’s leading media organisation on sustainable development, Eco-Business, aims to deliver training programmes to Asia Pacific’s underserved communities to generate positive social impact, with three strategic areas of focus in mind: education, youth, and nature-based solutions.

As part of EB Impact’s youth strategy, 80 young people and 21 mentors were selected from over 200 hundred applicants to work on solving problem statements under the guidance of seasoned sustainability professionals, who helped them navigate through the radically dynamic business and policy landscape.

Evaluating the showcase was a distinguished panel represented by key stakeholders, including Winston Chow, associate professor of science and technology at the Singapore Management University (SMU), Kenneth Sim, director of environmental policy at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), Facebook strategy manager Sylvia Lee, and founder and managing director of Eco-Business, Jessica Cheam. Image: Eco-Business.

“I was really impressed by the breadth of the topics and the thoughtfulness of the solutions developed,” said Sylvia Lee, sustainability strategy manager at Facebook. “I also appreciate [the participants’] focus on trying to scale the positive social impact that they are creating in the world.”

Ideas ranged from an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investment platform to a card game addressing food waste. One team, mentored by Ralph Dixon, director of environmental investments at YTL Corporation Berhad, a Malaysian infrastructure conglomerate, created a blueprint for sustainable outpatient dialysis centres.

With the healthcare sector being the fifth largest and an often overlooked emitter in the world, Dixon’s team hopes to spark dialogues on integrating it as one of the targeted areas under the SG Green Plan.

Another team, Greenbridge, aims to help small-cap companies disclose more sustainability data using targeted assistance so that investors can make informed decisions to help allocate their funds responsibly.

“We found that small-cap companies have the lowest sustainability reporting average scores, but account for 70 per cent of all listed companies on Singapore’s stock exchange,” said Egwin Fan, leader of Team Greenbridge. “Given that, any improvement in sustainability reporting by this group would have a substantive impact on the overall quality of reporting for the entire market.”

Team Youth Sustainability Professionals wants to help local Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) adopt sustainable business models.

“We plan to partner companies with youths who are interested in sustainability-related careers and provide both parties with certified sustainability training programmes,” said Foo Tun Shien, leader of the team. “Through this initiative, we hope to facilitate the transfer of sustainability knowledge from the more to the less experienced.”

Youth participants found that putting their projects through the stakeholder validation process helped them understand real-world challenges.

“For someone who has not had that exposure before, I found it really helpful to be able to work and network with hundreds of professionals, with the backing of Eco-Business as such a reputable organisation and trusted brand,” said Chevon Low.

Mentors Chen and Dixon commended the youth participants for their dedication to the projects and were impressed by the speed at which the younger generation operates. “I found it challenging to keep up with them and had to put on different shoes to do that, but this meant that our productivity was very high,” Dixon said.

We see a lot of passion and interest for sustainability in the youth, which is necessary. But in order to move the needle, we need much more than just passion.

Cheryl Chen, director of corporate responsibility and sustainability, Asia Pacific S&P Global

Realising ideas

Moving forward, teams were strongly encouraged to pursue funding opportunities like the SG Eco Fund. Kenneth Sim of the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) who is also on the grant’s advisory committee, highlighted the need for community engagement in the solutions proposed.

Jessica Cheam, founder and managing director of Eco-Business advised teams “to think about where their unique proposition is, and perhaps prevent the duplication of efforts that already exist. That will usually help pique the interest of potential investors and partners.”

“The big question in my mind is: how do we build something of a revolving door, where we can bring in corporate venture capitals and governments to support the projects that come up from this programme?” asked Facebook’s Gavin Chua, who is looking forward to refining future editions of Sustainability Exchange.

“Hopefully, this can grow into a movement that inspires more youths to take on sustainability careers that will push for great change and impact, whether it’s policy legislation or corporate action,” Cheam said.

By Rachel Teng

Source Eco Business

MIT engineers have discovered a completely new way of generating electricity

Posted on June 8, 2021 by dishanth

Tiny Particles Power Chemical Reactions

A new material made from carbon nanotubes can generate electricity by scavenging energy from its environment.

MIT engineers have discovered a new way of generating electricity using tiny carbon particles that can create a current simply by interacting with liquid surrounding them.

The liquid, an organic solvent, draws electrons out of the particles, generating a current that could be used to drive chemical reactions or to power micro- or nanoscale robots, the researchers say.

“This mechanism is new, and this way of generating energy is completely new,” says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. “This technology is intriguing because all you have to do is flow a solvent through a bed of these particles. This allows you to do electrochemistry, but with no wires.”

MIT engineers have discovered a way to generate electricity using tiny carbon particles that can create an electric current simply by interacting with an organic solvent in which they’re floating. The particles are made from crushed carbon nanotubes (blue) coated with a Teflon-like polymer (green). Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT. Based on a figure courtesy of the researchers.

In a new study describing this phenomenon, the researchers showed that they could use this electric current to drive a reaction known as alcohol oxidation — an organic chemical reaction that is important in the chemical industry.

Strano is the senior author of the paper, which appears today (June 7, 2021) in Nature Communications. The lead authors of the study are MIT graduate student Albert Tianxiang Liu and former MIT researcher Yuichiro Kunai. Other authors include former graduate student Anton Cottrill, postdocs Amir Kaplan and Hyunah Kim, graduate student Ge Zhang, and recent MIT graduates Rafid Mollah and Yannick Eatmon.

Unique properties

The new discovery grew out of Strano’s research on carbon nanotubes — hollow tubes made of a lattice of carbon atoms, which have unique electrical properties. In 2010, Strano demonstrated, for the first time, that carbon nanotubes can generate “thermopower waves.” When a carbon nanotube is coated with layer of fuel, moving pulses of heat, or thermopower waves, travel along the tube, creating an electrical current.

That work led Strano and his students to uncover a related feature of carbon nanotubes. They found that when part of a nanotube is coated with a Teflon-like polymer, it creates an asymmetry that makes it possible for electrons to flow from the coated to the uncoated part of the tube, generating an electrical current. Those electrons can be drawn out by submerging the particles in a solvent that is hungry for electrons.

To harness this special capability, the researchers created electricity-generating particles by grinding up carbon nanotubes and forming them into a sheet of paper-like material. One side of each sheet was coated with a Teflon-like polymer, and the researchers then cut out small particles, which can be any shape or size. For this study, they made particles that were 250 microns by 250 microns.

When these particles are submerged in an organic solvent such as acetonitrile, the solvent adheres to the uncoated surface of the particles and begins pulling electrons out of them.

“The solvent takes electrons away, and the system tries to equilibrate by moving electrons,” Strano says. “There’s no sophisticated battery chemistry inside. It’s just a particle and you put it into solvent and it starts generating an electric field.”

“This research cleverly shows how to extract the ubiquitous (and often unnoticed) electric energy stored in an electronic material for on-site electrochemical synthesis,” says Jun Yao, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who was not involved in the study. “The beauty is that it points to a generic methodology that can be readily expanded to the use of different materials and applications in different synthetic systems.”

Particle power

The current version of the particles can generate about 0.7 volts of electricity per particle. In this study, the researchers also showed that they can form arrays of hundreds of particles in a small test tube. This “packed bed” reactor generates enough energy to power a chemical reaction called an alcohol oxidation, in which an alcohol is converted to an aldehyde or a ketone. Usually, this reaction is not performed using electrochemistry because it would require too much external current.

“Because the packed bed reactor is compact, it has more flexibility in terms of applications than a large electrochemical reactor,” Zhang says. “The particles can be made very small, and they don’t require any external wires in order to drive the electrochemical reaction.”

In future work, Strano hopes to use this kind of energy generation to build polymers using only carbon dioxide as a starting material. In a related project, he has already created polymers that can regenerate themselves using carbon dioxide as a building material, in a process powered by solar energy. This work is inspired by carbon fixation, the set of chemical reactions that plants use to build sugars from carbon dioxide, using energy from the sun.

In the longer term, this approach could also be used to power micro- or nanoscale robots. Strano’s lab has already begun building robots at that scale, which could one day be used as diagnostic or environmental sensors. The idea of being able to scavenge energy from the environment to power these kinds of robots is appealing, he says.

“It means you don’t have to put the energy storage on board,” he says. “What we like about this mechanism is that you can take the energy, at least in part, from the environment.”

Reference: “Solvent-induced electrochemistry at an electrically asymmetric carbon Janus particle” by Albert Tianxiang Liu, Yuichiro Kunai, Anton L. Cottrill, Amir Kaplan, Ge Zhang, Hyunah Kim, Rafid S. Mollah, Yannick L. Eatmon and Michael S. Strano, 7 June 2021, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23038-7

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and a seed grant from the MIT Energy Initiative.

By Anne Trafton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Source SciTech Daily

Bus depot bid to be UK’s largest electric vehicle charging hub

Posted on June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 by dishanth

Scotland’s biggest bus operator has announced it is building the UK’s largest electric vehicle charging hub.

First Bus will install 160 charging points and replace half its fleet with electric buses at its Caledonia depot in Glasgow.

The programme is expected to be completed in 2023 with the first 22 buses arriving by autumn.

Charging the full fleet will use the same electricity as it takes to power a town of 10,000 people.

The scale of the project means changes are needed to the power grid to accommodate the extra demand.

First Glasgow managing director Andrew Jarvis told BBC Scotland: “We’ve got to play our part in society in changing how we all live and work. A big part of that is emissions from vehicles.

“Transport is stubbornly high in terms of emissions and bus companies need to play their part, and are playing their part, in that zero emission journey.”

First Bus currently operates 337 buses out of its largest depot with another four sites across Glasgow.

The new buses will be built by Alexander Dennis at its manufacturing sites in Falkirk and Scarborough.

The transition requires a £35.6m investment by First with electric buses costing almost double the £225,000 bill for a single decker running on diesel.

But the company says maintenance and running costs are then much lower.

The buses can run on urban routes for 16 hours and be rapidly recharged in just four hours.

This is a big investment which the company wouldn’t be able to achieve on its own.

Government grants only cover 75% of the difference between the price of a diesel and an electric bus so it’s still a good bit more expensive for them.

But they know they have to do it as a social responsibility and because the requirements for using Low Emissions Zones are likely to become stricter.

The SNP manifesto committed to electrifying half of Scotland’s 4,000 or so buses within two years.

Some are questioning whether that’s even achievable in the timescale, given the electricity grid changes that would be necessary for charging.

But it’s a commitment that environmental groups will certainly hold them to.

Transport Scotland is providing £28.1m of funding to First Bus as part of the Scottish government’s commitment to electrify half of Scotland’s buses in the first two years of the parliamentary term.

Net Zero Secretary Michael Matheson said: “It’s absolute critical that we decarbonise our transport system and what we have set out are very ambitious plans of how we go about doing that.

“We’ve set out a target to make sure that we decarbonise as many of the bus fleets across Scotland as possible, at least half of it over the course of the next couple of years, and we’ll set out our plans later on this year of how we’ll drive that forward.”

Transport is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland which are responsible for accelerating climate change.

In 2018 the sector was responsible for 31% of the country’s net emissions.

First Glasgow has been trialling two electric buses since January 2020.

Driver Sally Smillie said they had gone down well with passengers because they were much quieter than diesel buses.

She added: “In the beginning it was strange for them not hearing them coming but they adapt very easily and they check now.

“It’s a lot more comfortable. You’re not feeling a gear change and the braking’s smoother. I think they’re great buses to drive.” – Sally Smillie

By Kevin Keane – Environment correspondent BBC Scotland

Source BBC

Unilever, Google and Amazon among new Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions

Posted on June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 by dishanth

Humanity is falling short of its climate goals. More investment is urgently needed—especially in the next decade—to transition to a low-carbon economy. The IPCC estimates that achieving a low-carbon transition will require US$1.6-$3.8 trillion annually between 2016 and 2050 for the supply-side energy system alone. Alongside ambitious emissions reductions from their own carbon footprints, funding from businesses—including carbon credit purchases, philanthropy, and impact capital—can be catalytic in scaling investment in the climate solutions necessary to achieve a just and sustainable 1.5°C future. The impact in play is enormous. For example, natural climate solutions have the potential for capital flows greater than $100 billion annually, with opportunity across the world and especially in the Global South.

Led by founding businesses Amazon, Disney, Google, Microsoft Corp., Netflix, Salesforce, Unilever, and Workday, and partners Environmental Defense Fund, United Nations Environment Programme, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US), with global sustainable business organization BSR serving as Secretariat, BASCS aims to gather and disseminate information and opportunities for and from peers, practitioners, and experts, including sharing best practices, funding opportunities, and research and insights to scale and improve climate solutions.

Significant momentum exists: Many organizations and initiatives are already working with funding from businesses to deploy climate solutions. The BASCS offers an opportunity to help connect and support these initiatives and the surrounding community of practice by providing a central, neutral platform for businesses and experts to meet, learn, discuss, and act together.

The work will be grounded in core principles:

Emissions Reduction: BASCS members prioritize work to reduce their own emissions in line with a science-based target (e.g., through the SBTi) and pursue high impact climate investments that go even further to curb climate change. Members will seek scalable solutions to help make hard-to-achieve reductions feasible in the future. Climate solutions funding is a complement rather than a substitute for science-based emissions reductions.

Ambition to Action: BASCS members work to catalyze and deepen investments in global emissions reductions, avoided emissions and removals across and beyond value chains (e.g., mobilizing others in the corporate sector to invest alongside us).

Measurable Impacts: BASCS members support applying sound and verified methodologies to ensure high social and environmental integrity of investments. Carbon credits claimed by companies must represent additional, real, quantifiable, and verifiable emissions reductions or removals, and must not be double counted.

Co-Benefits: BASCS members support investments that deliver environmental and social integrity and co-benefits and have strong safeguards, in addition to driving real greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Members will seek investments that quantify these co-benefits when possible.

BASCS seeks to serve and engage all organizations working to scale and improve climate solutions opportunities for business investment. To learn more and engage with the Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions, please visit scalingclimatesolutions.org

Founder Commentary

Amazon “As part of our commitment to The Climate Pledge, Amazon is on our way to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, which is good for the planet, people and our business. We remain focused on driving decarbonization strategies throughout our business, as well as investing in additional and quantifiable natural climate solutions to remove carbon and tackle climate change. We look forward to continuing to work across sectors with BASCS to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.” – Kara Hurst, Vice President, Worldwide Sustainability

BSR “In this Decisive Decade, we need urgent climate action to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and achieve an inclusive net zero economy. BSR is proud to serve as the secretariat for the Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions, advising the initiative in its effort to unlock finance for much needed climate solutions. We believe collaborations such as BASCS are key to transforming climate ambition into meaningful action and scaling impact.” – Aron Cramer, President and CEO

Disney “The Walt Disney Company is committed to protecting the planet and delivering a positive environmental legacy for future generations as we operate and grow our business. Transitioning to a low carbon economy demands fundamental changes in the way society, including the private sector, operates and innovates. Collaborating with other members of BASCS will create opportunity to scale high quality climate solutions necessary to drive a more sustainable future.” – Vijay Sudan, Executive Director, Enterprise Social Responsibility, The Walt Disney Company

EDF “The time is now for companies to take bold action on climate change. We have 10 years to dramatically reduce emissions and there is no way we can achieve a stable climate without stopping deforestation. The Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions can help close the climate funding gap and speed resources to protect what is most valuable. It is the kind of visionary leadership and action we need from the world’s biggest and most influential companies.” – Elizabeth Sturcken, Managing Director, EDF+Business

Google “At Google, we were the first major company to become carbon neutral in 2007 and we’ve met this commitment for over a decade. We look forward to working with the BASCS to share our learnings and accelerate our collective work to decarbonize.” – Kate Brandt, Google Sustainability Officer

Microsoft “The climate crisis is the defining challenge of our lifetimes. If we are to achieve a 1.5-degree Celsius future, we will all need to work together. Today, we are joining the Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions, working with other members to accelerate the maturation and scale of a range of climate solutions.” – Elizabeth Willmott, Carbon Program Manager, Microsoft.

Netflix “Netflix has committed to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2022. We will get there by reducing our internal emissions in line with climate science and by investing in the power of nature to retain and reduce emissions from the atmosphere, starting with natural ecosystems like forests above-and-below water. Scaling up the highest quality projects to “retain” and “reduce” emissions is best done collaboratively, which is why we look forward to this timely collective effort taking flight.” – Emma Stewart, Netflix Sustainability Officer

Salesforce “The time for climate action is now. Every business, government and individual must step up to the urgent challenge of climate change and to create an inclusive and sustainable future for all. At Salesforce we believe that business can be one of the greatest platforms for change. That is why we are proud to be a founding member of BASCS, an initiative to rapidly scale and improve climate solutions funding from businesses.” – Patrick Flynn, Head of Sustainability at Salesforce

UNEP “Drastically reducing deforestation and simultaneously restoring forests is the single largest nature-based opportunity for climate mitigation. UNEP is therefore proud to be a co-founder of the Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions, supporting the private sector’s climate ambitions for deep cuts in their own emissions – working towards high-integrity outcomes for carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner.” – Susan Gardner, Director of the Ecosystems Division

Workday “We are committed to a 1.5 degrees Celsius science-based target, but we know there is still much more work to be done, and one of the most powerful ways we can accelerate climate action is by coming together with other organizations. This alliance is an opportunity to collaborate with others who share our vision to increase the scale and impact of climate solutions funding, so we can achieve a zero-carbon future.” – Erik Hansen, Senior Director, Environmental Sustainability, Workday

WWF “To tackle the climate crisis, we need to act immediately to drive climate emissions down. BASCS highlights that business must set science-based targets for their own emissions while bringing the investment in solutions to scale. WWF is excited to help found this clearing house for collaborative learning and support companies to make impactful investments to tackle the climate crisis.” – Marcene Mitchell, Senior Vice President for Climate Change

SOURCE The Business Alliance for Scaling Climate Solutions (BASCS)

Source PR Newswire

The 10 best sustainable luxury fashion brands for 2021

Posted on June 3, 2021 by dishanth

Can sustainable and luxury fashion really go hand in hand?

When we think of the term ‘sustainable fashion’, words like cruelty-free, ethical, organic, and recycled spring to mind. The word ‘luxury’ however isn’t an idiom we tend to associate with the phrase ‘sustainable fashion’. Thankfully, spurred on by consumer demand and in part the pandemic, this is all set to change.

In fact, a whole host of luxe sustainable fashion brands are sashaying their way down Paris Fashion Weeks (albeit virtual) runways, making themselves known as champions for our planet’s dwindling resources, opting instead to use sustainable threads and manufacturing processes that have less of an impact on the world and the people in it.

This guide features everything you need to know about sustainable luxury fashion today, as well as the low-down on the latest luxury lines to embrace ethical fashion and the new eco-luxe labels who have seized sustainability from the start.

Even though Paris Fashion Week has been a quieter, more virtual, affair this year, the sustainable message has been at its heart. Photo by Dimitri Kuliuk from Pexels

Can High-end Fashion truly be sustainable?

There are many ways in which the fashion industry impacts the environment. From fabric sourcing to manufacturing, to distributing, sales, and dealing with returns. Sustainable fashion brands must ensure their design journey is one that avoids exploiting the planet and the people in it.

Despite what many think, with the right motivation from designers, sustainability and high-end can go hand in hand. Top luxe brands, including the famed Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood, are just a handful of the high-fashion houses producing ethical clothing ranges today – creating trends that not only complement our wardrobes, but our planet too – focusing on embracing quality working standards, organic materials or the latest sustainable fibre inventions.

This isn’t purely down to a luxury brands’ good nature, of course. A greater percentage of high-end shoppers are beginning to ask questions about the sustainability and ethics behind their favourite labels. If they are paying a premium, they want to know brands are also paying the appropriate premium to the people and planet they profit from.

A greater number of shoppers are starting to ask questions about sustainability and ethics when shopping. Photo by Heidi Fin on Unsplash

Joining the dots between luxury and sustainability

If, like many, you’re failing to join the dots between a high-end brand and it’s sustainability credentials, you’re not alone. Research shows that more and more of us are willing to pay a premium for sustainable clothing, but many of us don’t know what the word sustainability now entails.

There is so much noise in the industry now, such as false sustainability claims and contradictory data on a brands eco-credentials that it can be overwhelming. Many consumers who try to do their research end up with analysis paralysis. Even Stella McCartney said recently in her latest Spring presentation that she ‘Barely knows what sustainability means anymore’. So it’s not just consumers that are getting confused!

“I barely know what sustainability means anymore” – Stella McCartney

However, whether you’re a luxury shopper embarking on a greener journey, or a seasoned sustainability pro entering the luxury market, we can all do our part to ensure this segment of the fashion industry leads the way in the fashion revolution.

Be it learning more about the latest initiatives or lobbying our favourite eco-luxe designers to embrace their ‘green game’ in the most effective manner. As consumers, we hold the power.

Consumers hold the power to influence the fashion industry through their purchases. Photo by kyonntra on Getty Images Signature (Canva)

Sustainability Issues Facing Luxury Brands Today

High-end fashion brands are now, more than ever, facing a plethora of challenges. External stakeholders in the industry have expanded their attention from fast fashion to include designer brands. Challenging them to address sustainability issues through experience, innovation and collaboration.

Because of this, more and more of the big-name brand designers are getting on the sustainability train, fashioning garments that promise to outlive the fast-fashion pieces in our current wardrobes. The top improvements in luxury sustainable fashion brands is either through an amalgamation of innovative textile inventions, progressive production techniques or taking it back to the roots of traditional slow fashion production.

However, ensuring the wellbeing of customers, employees, and supply chain communities isn’t an easy feat, especially amidst a pandemic. The pressures to seem like a sustainable brand can lead to claims that are not 100 percent honest.

With high-end fashion comes power and money, and some brands will use their ample resources on campaigns to make them appear philanthropic and eco-friendly, while often cutting corners. This is when knowing what to look for is key to a sustainable investment.

Greenwashing

Put simply, greenwashing is a method used by many luxe brands to convey misleading information about how their products are manufactured and distributed. In a nutshell, companies using this method are making you believe that they are doing more to safeguard our planet than they are.

With a huge amount of greenwashing going on, it can be almost impossible to know which ethical clothing brands are 100 percent ‘ethical’, and which high-quality labels are putting what they preach into practice.

From clothing that features eye-catching labels to clever wording that suggests the threads you are about to buy are ethically sourced – words like clean, earth-loving, quality, happy, and green are being used to trick consumers into thinking they’re doing their bit for the planet.

Misconceptions of luxury vs sustainable fashion

When it comes to high-end clothing, many shoppers are under the misconception that the higher the price, the more ethical the attire. This is far from the truth. In most cases, you are paying for the label and not the quality or quantity of the fabric.

Other factors used by powerful labels to delude buyers into thinking they are sustainable is the introduction of small sustainable ranges to make them look like they are doing their bit for the environment.

Similarly, using recycled bags or packaging is a great sustainable incentive, but of little use, if the garments being housed in this packaging are made from a poly fibre or other non-degradable material.

Many ethically-created sustainable luxury fashion brands believe one of the biggest issues preventing their growth is this sustainable smoke-screen that large powerful labels create. This leads to a lack of understanding among consumers or an unwillingness to pay more for sustainable brands if a high-street brand is selling at a lower price and also (wrongfully) claiming sustainability credentials.

However, even though the majority of eco-labels’ price margins are slightly higher, these products are likely to last a lot longer, meaning you’ll spend less in the long run on replacement garments.

Before we go into our list, it’s important to remember that the most sustainable option is to not buy anything at all! If you are in need of a new purchase however, here is some advice on keeping your carbon footprint down when buying fashion.

How do I reduce my carbon footprint through buying fashion?

So, what can we do to lower our carbon footprint? Even if you’re already shopping for ethical and sustainable labels, there are several other things you can do to lower your footprint.

These include:

Supporting ‘circular’ or zero-waste labels
Investing in labels who support social and environmental organisations
Opt for in-store pick-up options if locally based and opt-out of speedy shipping
Prolong your favourite purchases by following aftercare guides, hand washing clothes and using eco-detergents
Pick clothing created from high-quality materials like organic cotton or community silk, which cause less harm to the planet
Try to reduce your clothing consumption in general by making your clothes last longer through repair and/or upcycling

So now to the list! One more quick point, if you find the majority of luxury brands on this list a little over your price limit, don’t worry, be sure to check out our article on how to shop ethically on a budget.

Top Luxury Sustainable Fashion Brands

From low luxe to high-end, many companies are doing their bit for the environment, incorporating innovation into their manufacturing and distribution methods to embrace brand sustainability in the fashion industry.

Thanks to these sustainable luxury fashion brands, who have taken it upon themselves to tackle flaws within the industry’s manufacturing methods, it’s easier than ever to keep sustainability firmly on our radars and invest in designer, conscious attire. Change starts at the top, and these guys are definitely at the top of their games!

As well as manufacturing clothing and products that are kind to the environment and sustainably sourced, a number of these green brands also support environmental organisations and fair trade working conditions.

By investing in these eco-luxe labels, you too are doing your bit to support the environment, ensuring we’re on the right track to embracing a more sustainable fashion industry in the future.

1. Stella McCartney

Eco-Luxury Values | Ecosystem protection, social responsibility, measuring impact, cutting-edge sustainable technologies

Sustainable Materials | Re-engineered cashmere & silk, fibres from forests, recycled nylon & polyester, vegetarian leather, organic cotton.

When it comes to sustainability, this is a designer label that won’t compromise on quality, constantly pushing boundaries and embracing new technologies to create an on-trend brand that is as stylish as it is sustainable.

In 2014, Stella McCartney launched Clevercare, an easy-to-understand, five-step labelling method, helping to educate consumers on clothing care and how to prolong the life of their favourite pieces. The result? A lot less waste, and probably the reason many fashionistas own at least one vintage Stella McCartney item.

To ensure the brand is always ahead of the game, regular audits are conducted to measure environmental impact.

In addition, the McCartney label is a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative, which ensures the careful selection of ethical-renowned suppliers, as well as collaborations with several environmental conservation organisations and NGOs, including Parley for the Oceans and Wildlife Works.

2. The Social Outfit

Eco-Luxury Values | Social responsibility, community engagement, waste reduction

Sustainable Materials | Repurposed and reused fabrics, donated deadstock

Australian-based brand, The Social Outfit, are a social enterprise and charity with an amazing mission. The label provides employment and training to refugees and migrant communities in all aspects of the fashion world, from clothing production to marketing. In many cases, working at The Social Outfit will be their first paid job and the first step of integrating into the Aussie way of life.

They also take their sustainability seriously. With a focus on waste reduction, they have saved tonnes of waste from landfill, through their goal to repurpose and reuse fabrics destined for the skip. So far they have partnered with over 28 Australian brands in this mission, including Alice McCall and Bec & Bridge!

3. Vivienne Westwood

Eco-Luxury Values | Environmental and human rights campaigns, cutting-edge sustainable technologies

Sustainable Materials | Silk, organic cotton, hemp, coir, tencel

Practising exactly what she preaches, Vivienne Westwood’s legendary label is setting an example to fashionistas across the globe by slowly transforming her brand into a sustainable masterpiece. How? Through adopting recycled and eco-friendly fabrics and using the label’s voice to educate people on Human Rights and Climate Change.

Her latest initiative is one that embraces modern-day sustainability, using collaborations and catwalk events as platforms to create awareness, encouraging ethical fashion fans to protect Mother Earth. The campaign focuses on three areas; Quality V Quantity, Gaia and Arts & Culture.

4. Eileen Fisher

Eco-Luxury Values | Transparent supply chain, non-hazardous dyes, workers rights, sustainable fibres

Sustainable Materials | Organic cotton, Recycled fibers, responsible wool, lyocell

Eileen Fisher has been creating elegant and ethical womenswear since 1984. She designs luxury sustainable pieces with a focus on minimalism and inclusivity, that flies in the face of constantly changing fashion trends.

Always leading from the front, her company started their first recycling programme back in 2009, taking back old purchases to repair, clean and sell at discounted prices. Now a Certified B Corp corporation, the brand has a strong focus on supporting women, the fair treatment of workers and creating a circular fashion economy that reuses and replenishes the resources involved.

5. Rare & Fair

Eco-Luxury Values | Sustainable natural fibres, social responsibility, community engagement, transparent supply chain

Sustainable Materials | Natural cotton, organic cotton, community silk, handwoven fabrics

This boutique slow fashion brand focuses on the promotion of handmade clothes and accessories, created by artisans using sustainable, raw materials. Their aim? To embrace the ethical treatment of workers, use planet-friendly materials and reduce waste.

Their hand-loomed, natural clothing and products come straight from the hands of the artisans, then directly to you. Opting for this method allows Rare & Fair to fully back artisan communities and handloom weavers.

The styles, despite embracing traditional methods, boast modern designs, allowing customers to look and feel great, knowing that they’ve done their bit towards supporting these ancient production techniques.

6. Reformation

Eco-Luxury Values | Local production, carbon neutral, waste reduction

Sustainable Materials | Repurposed clothing, upcycled fabrics and salvaged deadstock

LA based contemporary fashion label, Reformation, was doing sustainable before sustainable was…well, fashionable! All of their production stages, from design to shipping and everything in between, takes place at their innovative eco-facility in downtown Los Angeles.

Each collection is made using salvaged deadstock, offcuts, upcycled fabrics, repurposed vintage clothing or new sustainable materials. Their gorgeous new leisurewear, Ref Active, is produced using recycled plastic bottles.

Find out more about all of Reformation innovations and materials they use here.

7. Dai

Eco-Luxury Values | B-corp certified, Living wage guarantee, waste reduction

Sustainable Materials | Eco-certified textiles, recycled fabrics

It’s always been a problem finding sustainable office wear, especially that also ticks the comfort box as well. Dai’s creator, ex investment banker Joanna Dai, was so unimpressed with her workwear that she decided to create her own. Setting out on collections that delivered performance, versatility and function but which she was as comfortable to wear as her yoga pants!

The brand is also big on the sustainability front. 88% of their textiles are eco-certified and their Eco Luxe Essentials range is made from trees certified sustainably managed forests, meaning biodegradable and compostable. On top of that, they pay all of their staff above the London Living Wage.

8. Acne Studios

Eco-Luxury Values | Sustainability targets and reporting, External monitoring of labour conditions

Sustainable Materials | Recycled and repurposed fabrics, organic silk, organic linen, lyocell

Celebrated for their contemporary, uber-cool style, Acne Studios increased their collection in 2020 with the addition of a sustainable line titled ‘Repurposed’. Using a series of discarded offcuts and recycled fabrics, which otherwise would have gone to waste, the Swedish brand has created a variety of capsule lines, which have since been launched quarterly.

Acne Studios have been a member of the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) since 2008, who supports the brand to monitor and improve labour conditions, including an external and independent ‘Brand Performance Check’. This means the brand is open to their faults and constantly trying to improve year on year, all of which can be found in their annual sustainability report.

9. Re/Done

Eco-Luxury Values | recycling and repurposing, heritage marketplace, free repairs, waste reduction

Sustainable Materials | Recycled and repurposed demin, cotton and upcycled mixed fabrics

Re/Done, another guilt-free, sustainable brand, offers on-trend pieces made from recycled materials. They first hit the scene in 2014, and have been renowned for upscaling worn Levis into bespoke, contemporary styles ever since.

The eco-conscious brand is extremely focused when it comes to adopting the latest tech to create the best sustainable fashion results. Since its launch, their offering has grown in a big way. On top of their celebrated jeans, they now design high-quality t-shirt styles, sweats and dresses, as well as a select few suits.

Often seen hanging off celebs, this cult sustainable brand is a must buy if you’re looking for a guilt-free, chilled vibe with affordable price points.

10. Maggie Marilyn

Eco-Luxury Values | Sustainability strategy, locally produced, transparent supply chain, circular production

Sustainable Materials | Organic cotton, ethical silks, FSC viscose

Maggie Marilyn is a New Zealand based designer who creates glamorous luxury designs using organic cottons and ethically produced silks. All manufacturing is done in her home country of New Zealand. She is on a mission to transform the fashion industry to one that is “transparent, circular, regenerative and inclusive”.

What we love about this brand is that they don’t just talk the talk. They produce their own sustainability strategy in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as well as a suppliers code of conduct. This isn’t a box ticking exercise for the brand, with regular updates on the performance of their strategies and new targets set annually.

Hopefully you’ve managed to find your next perfect ethically-made luxury item within this list. It would be great to hear from you what is your favourite eco-luxe label or the latest sustainable initiatives from your favourite brand. Comment below!

By Maxime Ducker (Founder and Chief Editor, Our Good Brands)

Source Rare and Fair

New York bans mini toiletry bottles from hotels, saving tons of plastic from the ocean

Posted on June 2, 2021June 2, 2021 by dishanth

The State of New York has passed legislation that will eliminate millions of single-use plastic toiletry bottles from hotels. Bills S543 and A5082—led by State Senator Todd Kaminsky and Assemblymember Steve Englebright—prohibit hotels and motels from providing single-use plastic toiletry bottles smaller than 12 ounces in guest rooms. The hotels are expected to switch to larger, refillable dispensers, thereby reducing both the amount of unused liquids discarded and the amount of plastic waste generated during every guest visit. The new laws take effect January 1, 2024 for all hotels with more than 50 rooms and one year later for all smaller hotels.

Approximately 8 to 10 million tons of plastic ends up in the world’s oceans every year where it threatens marine life. In recent years, reports and images of suffering animals have flooded the Internet, many showing whales with stomachs full of plastic, turtles with plastic straws stuck in their nostrils, and fish wrapped in plastic six-pack rings. A famous photo posted to Instagram in 2017 showed a seahorse off Indonesia clutching a plastic swab in his/her tail.

“Reducing single-use plastics is vital in the fight against the climate crisis—plastic is a major source of carbon emissions and a financial anchor to the fossil fuel industry. This new law tackles the ever-growing problem associated with plastic waste and will prevent tens of millions of plastic bottles from becoming a waste burden in New York every year,” Eric A. Goldstein, Senior Attorney and New York City Environment Director at Natural Resources Defense Council, said. “The Kaminsky-Englebright toiletry bottle ban legislation is a step forward in its own right and emblematic of emerging efforts to break away from all throw-away plastics made from fossil fuels.”

Hotel chains ditch single-use plastic

Once it is signed into law, New York will become the second state in the nation to enact such a ban. In 2019, the State of California enacted a ban on single-use plastic toiletry bottles, set to take effect beginning in 2023.

In recent years, several large hotel chains have begun embracing reusable alternatives. In 2019, Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, committed to stop its use of plastic mini toiletry bottles in all of its 7,000 properties by December 2020. The company estimates that it will prevent around 500 million small bottles, or 1.7 million pounds, of plastic waste every year. The announcement followed a similar commitment by InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza chains, as well as Walt Disney Co. and Hyatt Hotels.

By Nicole Axworthy

Source Veg News