Energy

In this article BAB-GB An image of the £4.6 million FastBlade facility. Scotland has a long association with North Sea oil and gas production, but in recent years it’s also become a hub for companies and projects focused on tidal power and marine energy in general. Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images News | Getty

Third in a three-part series. Read Part One here and Part Two here. Let’s start by stipulating a couple of things: ESG ratings are first and foremost an independent opinion about the environmental, social and governance risks facing a company and its shareholders, not the risks to people and the planet. And the ratings can

This article was originally published on World Resources Institute. Read it here. The last decade was defined by commitments to tackle the climate crisis. It began with a slow trickle and ended in a torrent of countries, cities and companies announcing goals to end deforestation, shift away from coal, transition to electric vehicles and more.

Unilever is to trial the use of ice cream freezers that operate at slightly warmer temperatures in the hope that cutting down on energy use could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 20 to 30 percent per freezer, the consumer goods giant announced this week. Starting with a trial in Germany next month followed by

This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here. Seagrass beds and mangrove trees in the Bahamas’ crystal-clear waters may soon be drafted into the fight against climate change.  The Caribbean country plans to offer “blue carbon” credits this year as a way for companies internationally to offset their

When it comes to plastic, films and flexible formats — like the air pillows that protect goods shipped by e-commerce retailers, heavy-duty bags that hold dog food or soil, and the wrap that might hug your vegetables — are the bane of a recycler’s existence. It’s easy to understand why: This type of single-use plastic

A shopper at a San Francisco grocery store on May 2, 2022. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Inflation is a growing concern as Americans spend hundreds more every month. But some retirees may avoid the sting of price hikes for gasoline, groceries and other costs.   Annual inflation rose by 8.3% in April,

This week’s run time is 1:02:27. WEEK IN REVIEW (4:45) FEATURES Funding underrepresented climate tech startups (27:00) Dimitry Gershenson, CEO and co-founder of Enduring Planet, discusses a new form of debt financing for entrepreneurs that don’t have the connections or collateral to play in the VC world. Considering circularity (40:30) James Murray, editor-in-chief of BusinessGreen,

This article originally appeared as part of our Food Weekly newsletter. Subscribe to get sustainability food news in your inbox every Thursday. Catering to consumers’ preferences and needs is key for all companies — after all, there’s no use in manufacturing products that aren’t in demand. But for food companies, a focus on preferences and habits is

A gas station is seen as the average price of gasoline reach all-time high at $4.37 per gallon (about 3.8 liters) in Virginia, USA on May 10, 2022. It’s claimed that gasoline prices vary by region. Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Retail diesel and gasoline prices climbed to another record high Thursday,

The insurance industry has been honing methods of risk distribution since Babylonian traders hit the sea to sell their wares in what I imagine were not the sturdiest vessels. The industry is especially equipped to support the sustainability agenda. As former Bank of England governor Mark Carney said, the insurance industry is “a faithful reporter

KYIV, UKRAINE: Director General of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC (GTSOU) Serhiy Makogon. GTSOU will block Russian gas flows via two key entry points in Russian-occupied territory from Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Yuliia Ovsiannikova/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images European natural gas prices jumped after Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator suspended Russian flows through

Part 2 of a three-part series. Read Part 1 here. Rating a company on its environmental, social and governance performance and policies is a daunting task. It can require mining mountains of data from dozens of sources, eventually boiling it all down to a single metric — a letter grade or numeric score, in most cases.

A few weeks ago, I shared a conversation with Alison Taylor, executive director of Ethical Systems, about the pervasive misconceptions of ESG and why ethics are, and must be, “part of the equation.” It was clear that a massive swath of you dear readers got a lot of value from it.  I suspect it’s because

The prices for gas and diesel fuel, over $6.00 a gallon, are displayed at a petrol station in Los Angeles, March 2, 2022. Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images Gasoline prices surged to the highest level on record Tuesday as oil holds steady above $100 a barrel, contributing to inflationary pressures across the

Part 1 of a three-part series The letters E, S and G have become so intertwined with the world of sustainability that the three-letter acronym ESG can mean almost anything and, at times, nothing at all. But when it comes to the ratings of companies’ environmental, social and governance policies and performance, those definitions can

Bitcoin is off nearly 55% from its November peak, and 40% of holders are now underwater on their investments, according to new data from Glassnode. That percentage is even higher when you isolate for the short-term holders who got skin in the game in the last six months when the price of bitcoin peaked at

During the past several decades — and often with great fanfare — a select number of Fortune 500 enterprises have established corporate-level panels of external advisers to provide specific advice on a growing number of sustainability issues. The exact number of such bodies is not known, but it is not likely to be large. In

Ørsted is plotting a “world first” attempt to grow corals on the seabed foundations of its wind turbines, in a bid to test the potential biodiversity benefits of scaling up the approach across its vast fleet of offshore wind developments worldwide. Working alongside local partners, the Danish energy giant said it would test the concept

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm takes questions during a media briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 23, 2021. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Thursday it was taking its first steps to disburse more than $2.3 billion for carbon capture technology included in Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which the

Ask a fashion retailer where the cotton in their clothes comes from and most throw up their hands: They simply don’t know. “We buy through middlemen.” “Cotton fibers get blended.” “The mechanisms for tracking back to individual farms simply don’t exist.” The reasons they give for not knowing are legion, and, in most cases, perfectly

The prices for gas and diesel fuel, over $6.00 a gallon, are displayed at a petrol station in Los Angeles, March 2, 2022. Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images Diesel prices are surging, contributing to inflationary headwinds due to the fuel’s vital role in the American and global economy. Tankers, trains, trucks and

When we think about what it will take to transform our global economy, it is easy to suffer from one of two thought distortions: The first is an overwhelming sense of existential dread. Something like, “This can never be done! The task is too big!” I think of this as the sad Charlie Brown persona.

This week’s run time is 41:37. WEEK IN REVIEW (5:40) FEATURE Meet the firm advised by Leo DiCaprio and Bill McDonough (25:15) Regeneration.VC is dedicating $45 million to early-stage companies embodying regenerative and circular business models. Dan Fishman and Michael Smith, general partners of the venture capital firm, talk about what differentiates its investment thesis

This article originally appeared as part of our Food Weekly newsletter. Subscribe to get sustainability food news in your inbox every Thursday. In March, the Lemonade Foundation, a charity run by the founders of the digital insurance provider Lemonade, announced plans to use “blockchain to protect farmers in Africa from climate change.” I tend to be skeptical

The state of New York wants to ban new bitcoin mining operations, a move that some industry insiders fear could have a domino effect across the U.S. The bill, which is swiftly making its way through the state capitol in Albany, calls for a two-year moratorium on certain cryptocurrency mining operations that use proof-of-work authentication

Nuclear energy’s star may be on the rise — again.  This week, California Gov. Gavin Newsome indicated that the state will seek federal funds to delay closing the state’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon.  The reason: Climate change. Diablo Canyon provided California 6 percent of its energy last year, making it the second largest

In this article RUN Sunrun employee Gonzalo Najera carries a solar panel before installation at a home in Alamo, Calif., May 17, 2021. Scott Strazzante | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images Sunrun shares jumped 11% during extended trading Wednesday after the company posted first-quarter earnings results, including a 39% increase in

The role of digitization and enterprise software in corporate climate action doesn’t snag the same headlines as other climate tech, but it’s vitally important in operationalizing sustainable business measures. Carbon accounting and management software really came into its own last year, spurred by corporate net-zero commitments, and it looks as if 2022 could represent a

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a news conference with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Brussels, Belgium, February 27, 2022. Stephanie Lecocq | Reuters The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU,

The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) laid out a bleak future: adapting to climate change will become progressively harder if we fail to invest in protecting ourselves now. Examples of disasters from last year alone show the growing urgency. Multiple tornadoes left a trail of destruction across the midwestern United States, while

Water levels are at a historic low at Lake Powell on April 5, 2022 in Page, Arizona. Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Post via Getty Images The federal government on Tuesday announced it will delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River’s major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will temporarily address

Corporate fleet buyers have a rich array of potential choices when it comes to updating their last-mile delivery fleets to electric vehicle technology. The van portion of the market is particularly competitive, big names such as General Motors (with its Brightdrop subsidiary) and Rivian (with its public market status and all those Amazon orders) claimed

As Europe looks to move away from dependence on Russian energy, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said nuclear power needs to play a larger role. Johnson visited England’s Hartlepool nuclear power station Monday, saying that nuclear power is “absolutely crucial to weaning us off fossil fuels, including Russian oil and gas.” “Instead of a new

Reprinted from GreenBuzz, a free weekly newsletter. Subscribe here. I’ve become reasonably immune, for better or worse, to most mind-numbing headlines. They seem to happen daily. The full plate of issues that comprise my daily media diet has been overflowing with dispiriting news as we humans seem to gorge ourselves on a smorgasbord of conflict

In this article HIVE-V BODEN, Sweden — Tucked away in snowy Swedish Lapland is a modern-day gold mine. But instead of picks and shovels, it’s filled with thousands of computers. These machines, known as mining rigs, are working around the clock to find new units of cryptocurrency — in this case, ethereum, the second-largest token

How we talk about issues affects how other people feel about them — and, crucially, whether they pay attention or even take individual action. When the FrameWorks Institute reframed poverty in the U.K. to highlight the lived reality of people, the root causes of their situation and, ultimately, that poverty is a solvable issue, they

This is an excerpt from “Reimagining Systems for a Sustainable Future” by Sade Bamimore. It is published here with permission from the author. In an effort to expand my knowledge of how sustainability is understood, I wanted to hear from other sustainability leaders who have varied outlooks on how to define the concept. I had

Earth Month in April is a time when companies push their sustainability press releases. Sometimes the announcements are legitimate efforts to change their practices to be less harmful to the Earth. Other times they’re a bunch of greenwash. To that end, this month my inbox was filled with announcements about new products, partnerships and programs.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this latest aggressive move by Russia is another reminder that we need to work with reliable partners, and build our energy independence. Thierry Monasse | Getty Images News | Getty Images The European Union is racing to find alternative suppliers of natural gas after Russia’s Gazprom cut

This month marks the five-year anniversary of the launch of Patagonia’s Worn Wear resale site. This was the first brand-owned digital “recommerce” experience in the apparel industry. Then, and still today, it operates by Patagonia purchasing used clothing from its customers, cleaning it, and reselling via a recommerce website built by Trove. The resale portion

In this article XOM A view of the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, May 15, 2021. Kathleen Flynn | Reuters Shares of Exxon Mobil slid on Friday after the company took a $3.4 billion after-tax charge related to its Sakhalin-1 operation in Russia. Exxon earned $5.5 billion during the first quarter, up

This week’s run time is 47:50. WEEK IN REVIEW (3:10) FEATURES  Resale and our relationship with ‘stuff’ (18:30) Nellie Cohen, formerly of Patagonia’s Worn Wear used apparel program, talks about her new venture, circular fashion consulting firm Baleen.  Creativity abounds in carbon removal XPrize (35:30) The innovative approaches to removing excessive carbon emissions from the

A logo of the Exxon Mobil Corp is seen at the Rio Oil and Gas Expo and Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 24, 2018. Sergio Moraes | Reuters California’s attorney general on Thursday announced an investigation into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries for allegedly overstating the role of recycling in curbing global

It’s been five years since Apple decided to get proactive about extending its ambitious renewable electricity commitments into its supply chain — an incredibly important gesture for any company serious about addressing its Scope 3 emissions. It continues to disclose impressive progress.  And slowly but surely, other multinationals including Walmart, PepsiCo and more than a

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks about climate change and protecting national forests on Earth Day at Seward Park in Seattle, Washington, April 22, 2022. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters The Biden administration on Tuesday announced new energy efficiency regulations that will phase out old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs, a move that will drive down electricity use and

Reprinted from GreenFin Weekly, a free newsletter. Subscribe here. China is the world’s largest economy in purchasing power parity, the world’s largest annual emitter of greenhouse gas emissions and the world’s largest renewable energy market. As a result, China-based investments are an important part of an institutional or retail investing portfolio for green and decarbonization

In this article EUR= The euro traded almost 0.4% against the U.S. dollar to a level not seen since 2017. This after Gazprom decided to cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. Kinga Krzeminska | Moment | Getty Images The euro tumbled against the U.S. dollar Wednesday morning as investors grew increasingly concerned with energy