Sunday Brunch: the values-behaviour gap
Understanding human behaviour is critical to all aspects of sustainable investing. If we don't know why people do things, we cannot get them to change. And if they are not going to change, we will need to rethink how we make company business model's sustainable and financially viable.
Formalisation - the answer to artisanal mining?
One solution is to formalise the ASM sector, making it possible for the miners to legally earn a living. This is a good solution, but we need to recognise that each location has its own specific challenges - there is not a single catch all solution.
What do ducks have to do with revenues from solar?
Solar is probably going to become our core renewable electricity generation technology. It's simple, it works in lots of situations, and it's getting cheaper. One challenge we need to face up to is 'too much of a good thing', when our solar panels all produce their maximum output at the same time
What investors can do to improve our soil (and why)
Investors need to care about the state of our soil. It's not a problem taking place 'over there'. It impacts us directly, via the food we grow on the soils in our home region, and indirectly, through the food we import. Impacting the supply chains of all companies in the food industry.
Healthy soil elsewhere drives our economy.
Europe relies on the world for it's imported low value agricultural raw materials. Which means that our way of life is supported by soil health, not just within our own region, but globally.
Sunday Brunch: getting financial people to listen
Understand who your customer is, what they care about - that is the way to think about innovation - David Robertson, MIT Sloan This might seem a strange way to start a discussion about how sustainability professionals can get finance people to listen. But if you think about it, as
Will Sustainable Aviation Fuel make airlines sustainable?
Unless aviation gets political priority, SAF looks like its going to struggle to be a financially viable decarbonisation solution for the aviation industry.
Why we need to cut fertiliser use
Yes, fertiliser is really important, its a big part of the 'green revolution' that enables us to feed the world. Fertiliser runoff pollutes our waterways and excess fertiliser can pollute and deplete our soils. And, for farmers, if they use too much, its wasted. An expense they didn't need to make.
Why does our sewage end up dumped in our rivers?
Untreated sewage being dumped in our rivers and oceans is moving up the social and political agenda across Europe - nowhere more so than the UK.
Green cement - there are solutions
The production of concrete, or more accurately cement, accounts for between 5-8% of global GHG emissions. This is a similar scale to the GHG emissions of passenger cars. There are solutions - and not all revolve around new technologies.
Software based electricity grid stability
The software based solutions that will make our electricity grids fit for purpose for the coming decades are a massive investment opportunity, that will also enable countries to have a realistic chance of hitting their decarbonisation and net zero targets.
Hardware based electricity grid stability
What supporting investments will we need to make to allow the electricity grid to run with a higher percentage of renewables. Without them our green electricity targets will not be met.