Renewable energy company Masdar has been making strides towards its sustainability goals by utilising the latest technology
As a global leader in renewable energy and green hydrogen, Masdar has pioneered commercially viable solutions in clean energy, sustainable real estate and clean technology in the UAE and around the world for over a decade.
Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, the business is currently developing large-scale renewable energy initiatives, in a bid to drive the progression of clean technologies and further grow technology in the renewable energy sector. In doing so, Masdar is focused on creating new long-term revenue streams for the UAE.
How is Masdar utilizing technology to boost sustainable energy?
Committed to advancing clean-tech innovation, Masdar utilises technology to enhance the renewable energy sector.
Masdar hosts a range of wind farms in its offshore project portfolio, including sites in London Array and the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm in the United Kingdom. The business has also partnered with Hywind Scotland, the world’s first floating offshore wind farm.
Additionally, Masdar deploys solar photovoltaic (PV) technology in utility-scale and off-grid solar power plants and rooftop systems, including monocrystalline silicon panels, polycrystalline silicon panels, and thin-film panels.
Depending on the solar potential, geographical location, and financial requirements of a specific solar PV project, a suitable PV system is implemented to meet the project’s needs.
Likewise, concentrated solar power (CSP) systems – which use mirrors to focus a large area of sunlight onto much smaller areas – are used to convert concentrated light into heat, to drive a heat engine connected to an electrical power generator. CSP systems have become known as a promising solar power technology for large-scale power generation.
When CSP and thermal energy storage (TES) are used together, it is capable of producing constant power for up to 24 hours a day.
Masdar’s sustainability commitments
With the aim of investing and actively supporting the development of young people, Masdar strives to help support the sustainability leaders of tomorrow through its Youth 4 Sustainability (Y4S).
His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi invested in the initiative, ensuring it aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to bolster the nation’s sustainability efforts.
By 2030, Y4S aims to reach up to one million youth, creating awareness of the skills needed for future jobs in sustainability.
Supply chain leaders are under pressure from all sides to become more sustainable, not just from board-level executives but also from customers and investors. In fact, research by Celonis and IBM found that more than half of Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) would be willing to sacrifice up to 5% of profit to become more sustainable.
One key way of improving sustainability is getting rid of process inefficiencies which create significant waste and increase unnecessary emissions. Excess stock or production waste is often the result of unclear processes, miscalculations, quality deficiencies, or capacity bottlenecks. The materials and products wasted in the process drive up costs and have a negative impact on a company’s carbon footprint. But it’s often the case that companies can’t even see hidden process problems.
Through data-powered process mining, it is possible to find and fix the hidden process problems that you don’t know you have and improve your sustainability performance.
The missing data
The sustainable procurement of materials is fundamental to achieving overall sustainability in the supply chain. Transparency with regard to the exact ecological and social impacts of suppliers is important. However, this is precisely where sufficient insight is often lacking or information is not always available in a timely manner.
Shipping delays at ports worldwide have wreaked havoc on global supply chains, with research suggesting that as little as 34% of container vessels arrived without any delay to their destination in February 2022. This statistic is only a glimpse of the huge inefficiencies in supply chain that lead to unnecessary carbon emissions and a negative environmental impact. As an example, 1.6 billion tonnes of food are wasted each year, contributing to roughly 8% of the world’s carbon emissions. 78% of this waste occurs before the food reaches the consumer due to inefficient supply chains, meaning food is actually perishing before it hits supermarket shelves. Businesses are therefore forced to order more food than is needed in order to account for the shortfall.
A common problem here is that decision-makers simply do not have the necessary information for climate-friendly route planning, and the amount of data is one of the biggest obstacles. What seems paradoxical at first glance has its roots in the increasing number of IT systems and applications as well as the virtually exploding mass of stored information. Whereas 25 years ago even larger companies worked with only a handful of different IT systems, today there are usually hundreds, often with numerous applications being used to support a single process. This complexity leads to breaks and inefficiencies in processes that cannot be detected, let alone fixed, with traditional methods.
At the same time, these weak points mean unnecessary consumption of resources and thus increased costs and avoidable CO2 emissions.
Why process mining works
This is exactly where process mining and execution management come in. Process mining works like an X-ray machine for internal procedures and can illuminate and subsequently optimise critical business processes. It does this by visualising the current state of internal operations, including all process variants on the basis of data. With valid, data-based insights across all procedures it is possible to break down silos and incorporate sustainability into every decision or measure. All processes and different data sources are taken into account. By bringing together data from all common IT systems, such as SAP, Oracle or Salesforce, and mapping it in its actual form, business processes become holistically understandable.
By applying process mining and the right execution management in this way, companies can shrink the time it takes to find a process problem from years to hours, and make great leaps and bounds in sustainability goals in a short span of time.
The path to sustainability
Making a business more sustainable actually has a positive effect on the bottom line. Some of the world’s leading companies measure the impact of inefficiencies within their supply chain processes in order to minimise resource waste. Process mining and execution management helps these companies find and realise opportunities to significantly optimise fuel consumption, yielding material, financial and environmental benefits.
Carbon commitments and sustainability goals are no longer seen as afterthoughts. Rather, they are fundamental aspects of a company’s overarching business strategy. As processes determine how businesses run, they enable operational and even systemic change. Once processes are analysed and improved with intelligence and data execution, it becomes possible to prioritise sustainability in every operational decision.
This continuous measurability is a crucial aspect for many companies in view of the increasingly strict regulatory requirements. To put it in a nutshell: AI-supported technologies and continuous follow-up are the prerequisites for a sustainability process that is ‘sustainable’ in the literal sense of the word.
The world is one step closer to nighttime solar power after a breakthrough discovery by Australian scientists.
University of New South Wales (UNSW) scientists have found a way to ‘catch’ energy that flows out of the earth at night.
“This could mean being able to achieve the ultimate dream of renewable energy: power generation uninterrupted by the setting of the sun,” the researchers claim.
So how does this sci-fi technology work – and when will it hit the market?
How does nighttime solar power work?
Nighttime solar taps into a “large and unused spectrum of potential power,” the research team says.
Heat – which is a form of energy – flows from hot areas to cold areas.
Every day, the earth absorbs heat from the sun. At night, this heat escapes the earth in the form of infrared light, and is sucked out into the icy vacuum of space.
If it didn’t, the planet would quickly become far too hot to sustain life.
The UNSW ‘nighttime solar’ team was captured via infrared camera. Source: University of New South Wales
UNSW scientists use the catchily-named ‘thermoradiative diode’ – a type of semiconductor also used in night vision goggles – to capture the infrared radiation as it escapes earth.
They then convert the ‘captured’ power into electricity.
Both normal and nighttime solar depends on the flow of energy from hot to cold areas, explains Ned Ekins-Daukes, the teams’ lead researcher..
“[With normal solar power], the sun provides the hot source and a relatively cool solar panel on the Earth’s surface provides a cold absorber. This allows electricity to be produced,” he adds.
“[At night] it is now the Earth that is the comparatively warm body, with the vast void of space being extremely cold.
“By the same principles of thermodynamics, it is possible to generate electricity from this temperature difference too: the emission of infrared light into space.”
When will nighttime solar be widely available?
‘Nighttime solar’ power is still in the early stages of development.
The amount of energy produced by UNSW researchers was very small, roughly equivalent to 0.001 percent of a normal solar powered cell.
But given the right investment, the technology could one day generate around 10 percent of the power produced by a solar powered cell.
Other teams around the globe are also working hard to develop night solar. Stanford scientists are developing a different technique to ‘catch’ the earth’s radiant heat.
The concept has huge potential, claims Dr Michael Nielsen, co-author of the UNSW study.
“Even if the commercialisation of these technologies is still away down the road, being at the very beginning of an evolving idea is such an exciting place to be as a researcher,” he says.
“By leveraging our knowledge of how to design and optimise solar cells, and borrowing materials from the existing mid-infrared photodetector community, we hope for rapid progress towards delivering the dream of solar power at night.”
Did you know that 80 per cent of our regular shampoo is made of water? This water however does not enhance the formula in any way. On the contrary, it dilutes the product so consumers need a larger quantity for a single wash.
“The thing is, when you shampoo, you still need to wet your hair to lather the product. So why do we need to add water to the shampoo formula in the first place?” said Lynn Tan, founder of The Powder Shampoo.
“Also, why are we transporting gallons and gallons of liquid shampoo around the world? The water makes it heavier than it needs to be. And because of the liquid, brands usually use single-use plastic to store the product. It is all so unnecessary.”
Her solution is so logical, it is a wonder no big brands have picked up on it sooner. To reduce single-use plastic and the carbon footprint of transporting products – simply subtract water from the formula.
This April, Tan will launch four variants of Singapore’s very first powder shampoo. Don’t confuse these for dry shampoo, which you sprinkle on your scalp to absorb excess oil. Tan has designed her product to be applied directly to wet hair for the full lathering shampoo experience.
THE POWDER REVOLUTION
Beauty insiders will know Tan. The 43-year-old runs a distribution business BBN International, which specialises in botanical brands such as Phyto, Lierac and Trilogy.
In early 2021 however, as she was watching Netflix documentaries on sustainability, she felt increasingly shaken and saddened, and began asking questions about the beauty industry – especially the need for single-use plastic bottles in personal care products.
“Only 9 per cent of plastic is recycled; 12 per cent is incinerated, which releases toxic fumes into the air. The rest is living among us.
“This plastic harms our ecosystem, birds, animals and sea creatures. It also becomes microplastic, goes in the air we breathe and the water we drink, and affects our lungs, brain, nervous system and reproductive system. A lot of reports show that plastic is poisoning us,” she said.
“This led me to wonder if there will be a beautiful earth left for my children, my grandchildren and everyone’s grandchildren if we keep going like this,” added the mother-of-three.
Tapping into her extensive haircare expertise, Lynn Tan created Singapore’s first powder shampoo and tweaked the formula 10 times to get it right. (Photo: The Powder Shampoo)
It also dawned upon Tan that she has been part of the problem. “As a business owner, you want to sell as much as you can, as often as you can, to as many people as you can. However, the more I sell, the more I contribute to this plastic plague,” she reflected.
“While a lot of us are trying to be eco-friendly, it is so hard because we have very limited sustainable options. You can shampoo less, pick products that use recycled plastic packaging (but these can only be recycled once), or use shampoo bars.”
While shampoo bars were a good option, Tan did not enjoy the experience. She wanted a sustainable product that was “easy to use, lathers nicely and smells amazing”.
Tan decided to go to the drawing board to create her own product from scratch. And so The Powder Shampoo was born.
WHY SWITCH TO POWDER?
Tan’s product is not the first powder shampoo. Over the past couple of years, a handful of cult brands from the US, UK and New Zealand have launched similar products.
Most consumers, however, aren’t even aware of them. And Tan’s goal is to create more awareness and more options.
“This should be a new movement and new category because you would reduce so much single-use plastic just by switching to powder,” she said.
Tan also stressed that powder shampoos are longer lasting, reduce overconsumption and are more cost effective as compared to liquid shampoos. “You only need 0.5g to wash short hair, 1g to wash shoulder length hair, and 1.5g to 2g to wash thick long hair. Our 100g bottle can last for 100 washes, which means you only need to buy a new bottle in three to six months,” she said.
She added: “In comparison, a 100ml bottle of liquid shampoo only lasts for 10 washes on average. Most liquid shampoos are 250ml to 500ml and only last for one to two months.”
The Powder Shampoo’s water-free formulas are easy to use, gentle on your scalp and hair, and leave it feeling soft and bouncy after each wash.
A self-confessed aromatherapy junkie, Tan incorporated micro-encapsulated essential oils such as bergamot, grapefruit, tea tree and mint into the products. These double as a natural preservative, giving the paraben-free products a shelf life of two years after opening.
She also uses a biodegradable coconut-based ingredient as a sulphate-free surfactant to thoroughly cleanse the scalp.
Tan has taken pains to ensure her shampoos are free of common controversial ingredients. These include: Parabens and phthalates, which Tan believes harms the body; silicone, which may clog pores and harm marine creatures when it goes into the water stream; sulphates, retinol, artificial fragrances and mineral oils, which may irritate sensitive skin.
The products are vegan and cruelty-free. “There is no need to use animal byproducts when we have so many options in the plant world. And there is certainly no need to test products on non-consenting animals when there are so many people willing to volunteer to try the product,” stressed Tan, who tested her products on 100 friends and colleagues from Singapore, Canada, Europe, the Philippines and China, to ensure that they suit different climates, hair types and types of water – including hard water.
In place of plastic, Tan says The Powder Shampoo is packaged in aluminium bottles because each one can be recycled 100 times or more. (Photo: The Powder Shampoo)
Packaging was another big concern for the eco-entrepreneur. She chose aluminium because it is durable, light and can be infinitely recycled, unlike plastic, which can only be recycled once.
To reduce the production of aluminium bottles, Tan also offers 100g refill packs of the shampoo, which are packaged in 100 per cent paper; all products are available on the brand’s online store.
FEEL GOOD BEAUTY
Having said that, one cannot help but wonder why powder shampoo as a haircare category hasn’t taken off sooner? Tan has a theory. She believes it goes against the grain of how businesses usually run.
“As a big brand, if you create a culture of people buying shampoo every month, why would you suddenly create a product where people buy from you every quarter or only twice a year?” she asked.
Nonetheless, the straight-shooting businesswoman is not afraid to speak out against liquid shampoos even though it remains one of the key products she currently distributes. “Why hasn’t haircare evolved? Why are we still making shampoos the same way as we have in the 50s?” she asked.
Will speaking out alienate the brands she distributes? “It may,” she mused. “Then maybe (the big brands) want to do something about it? My dream is not to be the only one selling powder shampoo, but for everyone to sell it because it makes the most sense. I hope this will create a ripple effect across the globe.”
Another cool bonus for consumers, The Powder Shampoo works with non-profit organisation Tree-Nation. So each time you purchase a bottle, you will get an email notifying you that a tree has been planted in your name in Tanzania, Eastern Africa.
Tan spent her childhood playing at her mother’s plant nursery in Malaysia and is a huge tree lover. “My dream is to plant a million trees by 2030, or in this lifetime. This is my beacon and will be my legacy. It’s important to choose a beacon that you feel deeply for, so you can look towards it when times are tough and you feel lost,” she said.
Lynn Tan credits her children (from left) Julian, 6, Kaela, 13, and Reynna, 17, for inspiring her to create The Powder Shampoo; when she has to work weekends, her husband helps with childcare duties. (Photo: The Powder Shampoo)
After this launch, Tan will be introducing head-to-toe washes in the third quarter of this year and powder conditioners in the last quarter.
“I spent the first 20 years of my career as an advocate for scalp care, hair care and plant-based products, but I contributed to the plastic problem. I feel everything has come full circle and I will spend the next 20 years trying to address this problem (with powder shampoos),” she said.
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email [email protected].
Zureli, the global search engine for eco-friendly, green and sustainable products and services has been recognized as a Green Ambassador representing Sri Lanka by the London based Green Awards 2021 for having a real and positive impact on the adoption of green technology and services to businesses.
Zureli has over 45,000 green products and services listed in our directory and over 5.1 million have viewed the listings in the directory. It has now become the global search engine for eco-friendly, green and sustainable products and services.
At Zureli, we make it so easy to find and implement green solutions, so companies can make an immediate impact towards achieving their objectives. Whether the requirement is to reduce single-use plastics in a hotel or office, harness renewable energy, source green building materials and equipment, achieve zero waste or reduce your carbon emissions, we connect companies with the right solution from our ever-expanding database of more than 45,000 products lines and we add around 400 new companies to our database every month.
Zureli can help you integrate and partner with your procurement and operations teams to develop customised and dynamic product and supplier listings, featuring key purchasing information that covers areas from geographic relevance, green certifications, minimum order quantities and pricing, to the contact details of suppliers. Our team of expert researchers will work with you to uncover green solutions and empower your team to make the changes required to achieve your sustainability goals.
Webinars
To this end Zureli Sri Lanka in collaboration with GIZ Sri Lanka, one of the premier NGOs in Sri Lanka organized a series of webinars to help support the SME’s in the Sri Lankan hospitality sector to Go Green by introducing a number of sustainable products and services. These webinars were focused on the use of environmentally friendly products and services primarily targeting Small & Medium Hotels, Guesthouses and Restaurants.
Their goal was to help position the SME Hospitality Sector as an eco-tourism destination that addressed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the individual business that drives new customers to your doorstep. This series of webinars targeted six key issues – Plastic Alternatives & Clean Water Solutions, Green Property Maintenance, Energy Solutions, Plant-Based Food & Vertical Farming, Waste Management and Green Marketing. This was one of their most successful programmes in their event calendar.
So, now is time that you took advantage of this bespoke service for businesses, which we are sure will greatly reduce the time and resources required to locate the sustainable solutions that you and your clients are looking for by bringing in new green ideas and solutions to your attention.
Zureli – we give you unprecedented access to the world of eco- friendly products and services.
In a year beset with environmental and social problems made worse by a pandemic that refused to go away, scientists, engineers and other types of clever people found solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
From lab-grown furniture to net-zero alcohol, Eco-Business highlights the sustainability innovations that gave humanity a bit of hope in another troubling year.
Milk pants
Underwear made from waste milk doesn’t sound particularly hygienic. But United States-based sustainable fabric brand Inner Mettle claims to be able upcycle underwear from surplus milk. The underwear is natural, breathable and super-soft, according to the manufacturer, which also makes shoes from recycled lycra and vegan suede.
Inner Mettle’s milk pants, made from waste milk. Image: Inner Mettle
Lab-grown furniture
Loggers take note. Furniture could soon be produced in a laboratory. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) boffins say they can rear in a lab what would take decades to grow in nature. They could even engineer the wood tissue to grow into the specific shape of the chair or table. “Trees grow in tall cylindrical poles, and we rarely use tall cylindrical poles in industrial applications,” Luis Fernando Velásquez-García, a principal scientist in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories, told Fast Company about his research paper, published in Journal for Cleaner Production. “So you end up shaving off a bunch of material that you spent 20 years growing and that ends up being a waste product.” Though the research is still in its infancy, MIT’s researcher say this could be the beginning of a new way of producing biomaterials that could also help to replace single-use plastics.
Net-zero booze
Producing a single bottle of vodka emits an average of 6 kilogrammes of carbon, according to New York-based carbon-neutral alcoholic spirits startup Air Company. The company produces carbon-negative vodka, making their alcohol from recaptured CO2 and takes an extra 45 grammes of carbon from the air in the process. Air Company’s carbon-neutral booze clinched a prize at Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards this year.
Surfing to save the ocean
A surfboard that measures water acidity, temperature and wave movements could be used to find out more about the declining health of the ocean. “The reason these parameters are important is because they’re changing directly as a result of climate change,” says Dr Andrew Stern, founder of Smartfin, in a video interview with Great Big Story. “We have detailed information about the deep ocean, but very limited accurate information about the near shore.” Data is collected from an implant in the surfboard’s fin and sent the user’s phone for analysis.
Tyler Cyronak, post-doctoral fellow at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Image: YouTube
Coffee capsules that die
The sort of invention that should have been invented ages ago and before disposable coffee capsules made from aluminium and plastic began lining landfills: coffee capsules that actually breakdown in the environment. The Nexe Pod, developed by plant-based materials design firm Nexe Innovations, is for people who want to drink half-decent coffee instantly, without worrying as much about the packaging footprint of such convenience (because they’re already worrying about the deforestation footprint of the coffee). Nexe Pods are plant-based, compostable in just over a month, non-toxic in soils and and can apparently fit more coffee than a standard single-serve Nespresso capsule. “We arechasing the compostability side of the market,” said Nexe Innovations president Ash Guglani in an interview with Proactive in May. “There’s a lot of recyclable alternatives out there. But recycling requires work. We’re bringing convenience back to single-serve.”
Skateboard wheels made of recycled chewing gum. Design students Hugo Maupetit and Vivian Fischer, from Nancy in France, found a way to collect discarded chewing gum, encouraging people to stick their used gum on a sign board rather than drop it on the floor. Once 10-30 used gums had been collected, they were melted down and moulded into wheels.
Early versions of chewing gum were made from tree sap, but most modern gum is made from the same stuff as car tyres, a synthetic rubber called polyisobutylene. Image: Dezeen
Batteries from trees
The material most often used for the anode in lithium-ion batteries is synthetic graphite, which is non-renewable. Finish pulp and paper manufacturer Stora Enso says it can replace synthetic graphite with lignin, the sturdy stuff found in the cells and bark of trees, for use in the batteries found in electric vehicles, mobile phones and laptops.
Homes from shipping containers
There’s a growing surplus of shipping containers that have reached the end of their lives. German architects and developers the Schween family teamed up with real estate expert Sean Woolley tocreate aesthetically pleasing and affordable homes made from used containers in Marbella, Spain.
A home made from used shipping containers. Image: Sean Woolley
Eau d’Industrie
German chemicals giant BASF has found a way to create the fragrance found in perfume and the flavours found in food from industrial waste. Called n-octanol, the stuff, which is made from a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is sourced from steel industry waste. Using this technology, companies will be able to make any product containing n-octanol from municipal and industrial waste gases, replacing fossil fuels in the production process and also preventing them from getting into the atmosphere.
Waterless beauty
Freeze-drying used to be a popular technique for preserving food for astronauts. Now beauty brands such as Korean brand Saro de Rúe and Beijing-based biotech company Weibo Hi-Tech Cosmetics are using the method for skincare products. Freeze-drying helps the product last longer, as there is no water for bacteria to multiply on, so no need for preservatives, and the product’s ingredients can be transported in vacuum-sealed bags rather than liquid containers, saving on space. If there is a drawback, they still use plastic packaging.
The city of Barcelona is on a mission to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. To help it do this, it has starting laying solar panels on pathways. The first installation is 50 square metres of photovoltaic panels in a park in the Glòries district. The path will generate 7,560 kWh a year, enough to supply three households. “We’ll have to assess the wear and tear because obviously it’s not the same as putting panels on a roof, although they are highly resistant,” Eloi Badia, who is responsible for climate emergency and ecological transition at Barcelona city council, told The Guardian newspaper.
PV pavement. Image: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona
Washing with waste
Personal care giant Unilever teamed up with biotech company LanzaTech and green chemical company India Glycols to manufacture laundry capsules made from recycled carbon emissions. Launched in China in April, the capsules are made from recaptured industrial emissions which are repurposed into surfactants, a product normally made using fossil fuels.
OMO capsules, made from industrial waste. Image: Unilever
Electric steps
Footsteps can be converted into enough electricity to power LED lightbulbs or other small appliances, by attaching an energy-harvesting device to wooden flooring. Called a nanogenerator, the device is based on sandwiching two pieces of wood between electrodes.
Vegan diamonds
Diamonds are typically dug up or produced in labs. Both methods are environmentally-intensive. US firm Aether claims to make the world’s first diamonds that “help reverse the historical damage done to ecosystems and the environment by the diamond industry.” The company’s atmospheric collectors suck carbon dioxide from the sky, pulling it into specialised filters. The CO2 is then synthesised into the right hydrocarbon for growing diamonds. The raw materials are placed into powerful reactors for the diamonds to be grown. The energy used comes from “renewable and low-emissions sources”, the company told Forbes. The product is now vegan certified.
Energy firms are pressing on governments in Asia-Pacific to facilitate the development of renewable power and technologies on the back of the COP26 global climate summit where countries pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
In a series of forums organised by media firm Thomson Reuters last week, industry leaders said that political will is key to ensuring a smooth switch to green fuels.
Nitin Apte, chief executive of Singapore-based solar and wind power firm Vena Energy, said governments need to provide transparent and predictable pathways for companies to align with their sustainability targets in the next few decades.
“Projects that we develop take several years,” said Nitin. “They’re around for 20, 30 years in the communities that they are going to be built in.”
Nitin added that he wants to see countries collaborate and help firms on cross-border energy projects, pointing to examples like Singapore’s slated import of up to 100 megawatts of hydroelectric power from Laos. The venture involves Keppel Electric, a Singapore-based power retailer, and the Laotian state electricity company.
Other speakers said demand for hydrogen power from “centres of consumption” like Japan, China and Taiwan, could be fulfilled by Australian exports. Australia is set to become one of the world’s largest producers of green hydrogen.
Each country has a different history, a different energy mix. Does that mean each country will just look at its roadmap in isolation? I guess not, maybe that’s precisely where collaboration comes into play.
Valery Tubbax, chief financial officer, InterContinental Energy
“Each country has a different history, a different energy mix. Does that mean each country will just look at its roadmap in isolation? I guess not, maybe that’s precisely where collaboration comes into play,” said Valery Tubbax, chief financial officer of Hong Kong-based hydrogen power firm InterContinental Energy.
Chairperson of Taiwan’s Offshore Wind Industry Association Marina Hsu agreed, saying that associations can invest and advocate for development, but it’s the job of country leaders to “liaise and really think strategically” across the region.
Singapore Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling, speaking at the forum, said countries in Asia-Pacific need to play to their strengths, and “given different countries’ circumstances, the energy transition strategy for countries in APAC will really differ from one another”.
Low said Singapore is focusing on developing emerging technologies, and it recently awarded US$40 million to 12 projects on low-carbon hydrogen, as well as carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
“I hope we will only see an acceleration of the pace of deployment of carbon-neutral technologies,” said Thomas Baudlot, CEO of the Southeast Asia arm of French utility firm ENGIE.
But how much cash other governments in Asia-Pacific can pour into decarbonisation remains in question. In Southeast Asia, the Covid-19 pandemic caused delays in renewable energy projects and put a strain on the public purse to fund capital projects. Many member states’ climate pledges are also contingent on foreign funding.
Countries in ASEAN may need to place a greater emphasis on balancing social economics with sustainability.
Mohamad Irwan Aman, head of sustainability, Sarawak Energy
“Countries in ASEAN may need to place a greater emphasis on balancing social economics with sustainability,” said Mohamad Irwan Aman, head of sustainability at Malaysian utility firm Sarawak Energy.
Others point to the government’s role in managing private players to prevent a chaotic scramble for power generation and distribution markets. Australia’s electricity market hit a crisis point in 2017, when high wind and solar investments caused the closure of fossil fuel plants, while the grid was not prepared for intermittent power supply. After a series of black-outs and close shaves, the government worked on coordinating supply between power plants and invested in batteries – steps that led to a smoother roll-out of renewables in the years since.
“The foundation for net-zero in the energy infrastructure space, where everyone can be a winner, starts with a thought through and orchestrated plan,” said Morris Zhou, co-founder and executive chairman at Australian solar power firm Maoneng. “I believe that this responsibility sits with the policymakers around the world.”
Citing the need to adapt to climate change, Irwan said companies shouldn’t wait for policy changes before building a business case around addressing climate change. “This is not about environmental issues, it’s about the company’s survival in the long term,” he added.
Balancing green power and efficiency
Despite the rapid escalation in renewables, discussions also focused on increasing energy efficiency for existing power infrastructure, particularly in India, which will remain reliant on coal-fired power for some time. Currently the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States, India has pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2070. While there will be an overall reduction of coal’s contribution to electricity in the coming years with the ramping-up of renewables, India’s coal consumption is expected to grow in absolute terms.
India’s electricity consumption per person increased by over 30 per cent since 2012, although it’s just 40 per cent of the world average in absolute terms. But as the middle class in the world’s second largest country expands, its energy demand in the next 20 years is expected to outstrip all other countries.
This means not just adding incremental power capacity with renewables, according to Raman Kalra, chief digital officer of Indian solar and wind energy firm ReNew Power, but making the efficiency of existing power assets “much, much higher”.
Kalra said that involves using digital technologies to make the electricity grid work optimally, and to create better public transport networks to take cars off the road. India’s car ownership is expected to increase five-fold by 2040, which will drive demand for oil.
Wasting power is not just India’s problem. A United Nations report found energy efficiency to be the most useful tool in curbing energy demand in Asia Pacific, followed by developing renewable energy. Mismanaged road traffic is the main culprit for energy inefficiencies, alongside manufacturing and a lack of building regulations for houses which end up wasting energy in heating and cooling.
The International Energy Agency also factors in a “major worldwide push to increase energy efficiency” in its projected net-zero scenario, where the 2030 world economy is 40 per cent larger but uses 7 per cent less energy.
No carbon is produced from energy that’s not used. It’s not been sexy to have that discussion, but it’s a missing piece.
Jeff Connolly, Chairman and CEO, Siemens Australia and New Zealand
“No carbon is produced from energy that’s not used. It’s not been sexy to have that discussion, but it’s a missing piece,” said Jeff Connolly, chairman and CEO of Siemens Australia and New Zealand. The firm provides energy management and tracking services.
While smart meters for energy optimisation, along with renewables like solar and wind, areready for mass deployment, speakers conceded that other popular technologies like green hydrogen and carbon capture are nascent and expensive. But they’re bullish about the prospects.
“Technology has always surprised us on the upside,” said Vipul Tuli, South Asia CEO of Singapore energy firm Sembcorp.
The climate emergency is the biggest threat to civilisation we have ever faced. But there is good news: we already have every tool we need to beat it. The challenge is not identifying the solutions, but rolling them out with great speed.
Some key sectors are already racing ahead, such as electric cars. They are already cheaper to own and run in many places – and when the purchase prices equal those of fossil-fueled vehicles in the next few years, a runaway tipping point will be reached.
Electricity from renewables is now the cheapest form of power in most places, sometimes even cheaper than continuing to run existing coal plants. There’s a long way to go to meet the world’s huge energy demand, but the plummeting costs of batteries and other storage technologies bodes well.
And many big companies are realising that a failure to invest will be far more expensive as the impacts of global heating destroy economies. Even some of the biggest polluters, such as cement and steel, have seen the green writing on the wall.
Buildings are big emitters but the solution – improved energy efficiency – is simple to achieve and saves the occupants money, particularly with the cost of installing technology such as heat pumps expected to fall.
Stopping the razing of forests requires no technology at all, but it does require government action. While progress is poor – and Bolsonaro’s Brazil is going backwards – countries such as Indonesia have shown regulatory action can be effective. Protecting and restoring forests, particularly by empowering indigenous people, is a potent tool.
Recognition of the role food and farming play in driving global heating is high, and the solutions, from alternatives to meat to regenerative farming, are starting to grow. As with fossil fuels, ending vast and harmful subsidies is key, and there are glimmers of hope here, too.
In the climate crisis, every fraction of a degree matters and so every action reduces people’s suffering. Every action makes the world a cleaner and better place to live – by, for example, cutting the air pollution that ends millions of lives a year.
The real fuel for the green transition is a combination of those most valuable and intangible of commodities: political will and skill. The supply is being increased by demands for action from youth strikers to chief executives, and must be used to face down powerful vested interests, such as the fossil fuel, aviation and cattle industries. The race for a sustainable, low-carbon future is on, and the upcoming Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow will show how much faster we need to go.
Transport
Responsible for 14-28% of global greenhouse gas emissions, transport has been slow to decarbonise, and faces particular challenges in areas such as long-haul flight.
But technical solutions are available, if the will, public policy and spending are there, too. Electric cars are the most obvious: petrol and diesel vehicles will barely be produced in Europe within the decade. EV sales are accelerating everywhere, with the likes of Norway well past the tipping point, and cheaper electric vehicles coming from China have cut the fumes from buses. Meanwhile, combustion engines are ever more efficient and less polluting.
Employees on the assembly line for electric buses in Xi an, Shaanxi province, China. Photograph: Visual China Group/Getty Images
Bike and scooter schemes are growing rapidly as cities around the world embrace electric micromobility. Far cleaner ships for global freight are coming. The potential of hydrogen is growing, for cleaner trains where electrification is impractical, to be followed by ships and even, one day, planes. Manufacturers expect short-haul electric aircraft much sooner. Most of all, the pandemic has shown that a world without hypermobility is possible – and that many people will accept, or even embrace, a life where they commute and travel less. Gwyn Topham
Deforestation
Deforestation and land use change are the second-largest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The destruction of the world’s forests has continued at a relentless pace during the pandemic, with millions of hectares lost, driven by land-clearing in the Brazilian Amazon.
Volunteers plant mangrove tree seedlings in a conservation area on Dupa beach, Indonesia. Photograph: Basri Marzuki/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
But there are reasons for hope. The UK has put nature at the heart of its Cop26 presidency and behind the scenes, the government is pushing hard for finance and new commitments from forested nations to protect the world’s remaining carbon banks. Indonesia and Malaysia, once global hotspots of deforestation, have experienced significant falls in recent years, the result of increased restrictions on palm oil plantations. However, the 2000s soy moratorium in Brazil shows these trends are reversible. Finally, there is a growing recognition of the importance of indigenous communities to protecting the world’s forests and biodiversity. In the face of racism and targeted violence, a growing number of studies and reports show they are the best guardians of the forest. Empowering those communities will be vital to ending deforestation. Patrick Greenfield
Technology
Emissions from technology companies, including direct emissions, emissions from electricity use and other operations such as manufacturing, account for 0.3% of global carbon emissions, while emissions from cryptocurrencies is a huge emerging issue.
Mining – the process in which a bitcoin is awarded to a computer that solves a complex series of algorithms – is a deeply energy-intensive process and only gets more energy-intensive as the algorithms grow more complex. But new mining methods are lighter, environmentally. A system called “proof of stake” has a 99% lower carbon footprint.
Researchers pose for a group photo at the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals in Beijing, China. The centre was inaugurated to support the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
Scrutiny of the whole sector is increasing, spearheaded by tech workers who walked out in their hundreds to join climate change marches in 2019. The companies have pledged to do better: Amazon aims to be net zero carbon by 2040 and powered with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Facebook has a target of net zero emissions for its entire supply chain by 2030 and Microsoft has pledged to become carbon negative by 2030. Apple has committed to become carbon-neutral across its whole supply chain by 2030.
They’re still falling short when it comes to delivering, but employee groups continue to push. Kari Paul
Business
For decades Exxon Mobil has arguably been corporate America’s biggest climate change denier. But this year, the activist investor Engine No 1 won three seats on the company’s board with an agenda to force the company to finally acknowledge and confront the climate crisis.
Across corporate America and all around the world there are signs of change. The Federal Reserve, the world’s most powerful central bank, is beefing up its climate team. BlackRock, the world’s biggest investor, has made environmental sustainability a core goal for the company.
This isn’t about ideology: it’s about “common sense.” According to BlackRock, failure to tackle climate change is simply bad for business. The investor calculates that 58% of the US will suffer economic decline by 2060-2080 if nothing is done.
Much more needs to be done, and some question whether corporate America can really solve this crisis without government action. But the days of denial are over – what matters now is action. Dom Rushe
Electricity
The rocketing global market price for gas has ripped through world economies, forcing factories to close, triggering blackouts in China, and threatening to cool the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
But it has also spelled out a clear economic case for governments to redouble their efforts in developing homegrown, low-carbon electricity systems.
The good news is that renewable energy is ready to step up and play a greater role in electricity systems across the globe.
A woman completes paperwork by the light of solar-powered lamps in a village shop for solar products. Photograph: Kunal Gupta/Climate Visuals Countdown
The precipitous fall in the price of wind and solar energy has helped to incentivise fresh investments in electricity vehicles and energy storage technologies, such as batteries, where costs are plummeting too. Soon, wind and solar power will help to produce green hydrogen, which can be stored over long periods of time to generate electricity during days that are a little less bright or breezy.
All of these advances are made possible by cheap renewables, and will help countries to use more renewable energy too. There has never been a better time to step back from gas and go green. Jillian Ambrose
Buildings
The built environment is one of our biggest polluters, responsible for about 40% of global carbon emissions.
Over the past two decades, the carbon footprint of buildings “in use” has been greatly reduced by energy-saving technologies – better insulation, triple-glazing, and on-site renewables such as solar panels and ground-source heat pumps. Onheat pumps, the UK lags far behind: Norway, through a mixture of grants and high electricity prices, has installed more than 600 heat pumps for every 1,000 households.
As national energy grids are decarbonising, the focus is shifting to reducing the “embodied energy” of materials – which can account for up to three-quarters of a building’s emissions over its lifespan – for example by reducing the amount of concrete and steel in favour of timber.
The Vertical Forest in the Porta Nuova district in Milan. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty
There is also a growing movement to prioritise refurbishment and reuse over demolition, driven by the realisation that the most sustainable buildings are the ones that already exist. Oliver Wainwright
Food and farming
The hoofprint of the global livestock industry is a significant one, accounting for about 14% of total annual greenhouse gas emissions. But it is increasingly recognised and accepted by national governments.
New Zealand now has a legal commitment to reduce methane emissions from agriculture by 10% by 2030, while Denmark has passed a legally binding target to reduce climate emissions from the agricultural sector by 55% by 2030.
While global meat production is increasing, there is a growing shift towards fish and poultry, which have a comparatively lower emissions footprint than red meats. The food industry is also developing a range of lower-carbon products using plant-based proteins such as soy and pea, and insect and lab-grown meat alternatives. Tom Levitt
Manufacturing
Decarbonising the manufacturing of every product needed by a modern economy is a vast and varied task. Some sectors are well on their way. For instance, Apple, the world’s third-largest maker of mobile phones by volume, has pledged to produce net zero carbon throughout its supply chain by 2030.
For many others, advances in efficiency of factories and their products will be accelerated by machine learning and other artificial intelligence technologies that are still in their infancy. There are even hopeful signs in some of the hardest sectors to decarbonise, such as plans by Volvo to replace coal with hydrogen in the steel it uses in cars.
One of the greatest reasons for optimism is manufacturers’ increasing awareness of circular design principles. Making products easier to recycle from the start will help to cut emissions from fresh resource extraction– although a bigger question remains as to whether rich societies can reduce consumption, the most obvious way to cut emissions. Jasper Jolly
There is no doubt that in the post-Covid-19 world, we have entered a new era for business, and sustainability is now a key component of any company’s competitive advantage.
In essence, sustainability today should be on any leader’s radar, as the most powerful opportunities for profitable innovation are embedded in their ability to understand the challenges it presents, and to accurately address them.
Many businesses are already discovering this, through what can be referred to as the ‘Sustainable Business Model Innovation’ (SBM-I).
They are innovating business models – building on and expanding beyond their core assets and capabilities – to address significant environmental and societal challenges in their local contexts. In this way, they create new sources of value and competitive advantage for their business.
Among the numerous examples of this is a Northern European oil and gas producer which has transformed to become one of the largest offshore wind developer cleaning products manufacturer and has sought to own the whole cycle by scaling up its in-house plastic recycling to create distinctive, greener packaging at a stable cost.
Businesses also cast their net wise when it comes to stakeholder engagement, partnering with non-profits, governments and other corporates including their competitors. The Maersk McKinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, offers a good case study, bringing together different stakeholders in the shipping industry to come up with sustainable solutions to reduce the environmental impact of the global shipping industry.
Link to drivers of value and competitive advantage
Any new business model must be tested, improved and refined to ensure that it yields environmental and social benefits, as well as creating value and business advantage for the company.
Business advantage can come in many forms:
differentiating your brand and making it more competitive
reducing the risk of commoditisation by making your product or service hard to imitate
attracting new customers and leveraging network effects; and harnessing wider business ecosystems
increasing returns to shareholders while not sacrificing environmental/societal benefits
Scale the business model innovation
Realising the full potential of a new sustainable business model only comes when it is rolled out at scale, across your own operations, your suppliers, customers and your broader stakeholder networks.
There are three key ways to drive scale:
Join forces with other organisations, within and across sectors, to pool resources, plug capability gaps and unlock new markets. One global cosmetic brand shared its learnings and methodology on sustainable packaging across its sector, thereby driving industry-wide transformation.
Harness digital technologies to create new, more cost-effective distribution channels to customers that were previously underserved or not able to buy your products at all
Develop a culture that attracts and engages new people to your organisation and your products
The best response to the challenges of sustainability issues is to seize the opportunities it presents to your business to turn them into sources of competitive advantage. The race to sustainability is on and it will take a rigorous innovation approach.
A Biden administration plan to force the rapid uptake of renewable energy would swiftly cut planet-heating emissions and save hundreds of thousands of lives from deadly air pollution, a new report has found amid growing pressure on the White House to deliver a major blow against the climate crisis.
Of various climate policy options available to the new administration, a clean energy standard would provide the largest net benefits to the US, according to the report, in terms of costs as well as lives saved.
A clean energy standard would require utilities to ratchet up the amount of clean energy, such as solar and wind, they use, through a system of incentives and penalties. The Biden administration hoped to include the measure in its major infrastructure bill but it was dropped after compromise negotiations with Republicans.
But the new report, conducted by a consortium of researchers from Harvard University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Syracuse University, suggests it would be the most effective tool in reaching a White House goal of 80% renewable energy use by 2030. Joe Biden has said he wants all electricity to be renewable by 2035.
A clean energy standard to reach the 80% goal by the end of the decade would save an estimated 317,500 lives in the US over the next 30 years, due to a sharp reduction in air pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas. In 2030 alone, 9,200 premature deaths would be avoided once the emissions cut is achieved. The number of lives saved would be “immediate, widespread and substantial”, the report states.
A total of $1.13tn in health savings due to cleaner air would be achieved between now and 2050, with air quality improvements most acutely felt by black people who currently face disproportionate harm from living near highways and power plants.
Every state in the US would gain better air quality, the report found, although the greatest benefits would go to Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and Illinois, all states with substantial fossil fuel infrastructure.
The rapid switch to renewables would cost around $342bn until 2050, via capital and maintenance costs, although fuel costs would dwindle as renewables are cheaper to run than fossil fuels. The study added, however, that the financial benefits from addressing the climate crisis would dwarf this figure, at nearly $637bn.
“The cost are much lower than we expected and the deaths avoided are much higher; there really is a huge opportunity here to address climate change and air quality,” said Kathy Fallon Lambert, a study co-author and an air quality expert at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
“This would be a huge leap in ambition and we’d see that in the health impacts, there would be millions of fewer asthma attacks, for example. And this doesn’t even consider the health impacts from heat and other climate-related causes.”
Lambert said a clean energy standard would be “extremely effective” at slashing emissions, far more so than other proposals such as a carbon tax.
Biden is facing pressure from environmentalists, as well as major companies such as Apple and Google, to implement the new standard after it was dropped from the infrastructure bill. The president has said the measure will be included in a new reconciliation bill that can pass along party lines, although that will require every single Democratic senator to vote for it, which will prove a challenge.
The White House is determined this will happen however, with Gina McCarthy, Biden’s top climate adviser, saying the measure is a “non-negotiable” in the next infrastructure package.
“We need to make sure that we’re sending a signal that we want renewable energy and that it’s going to win,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News last week.
