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.
Precision agriculture, producing more with less?
There are ways of growing more with less, and precision agriculture is an important contributor to this. We need to focus more on these “easy” wins, but we also need to do so in a way that respects the financial reality faced by many farmers.
Electric trucks - the future of freight?
While it might appear from recent news stories that the debate about what will power the trucks/HGV’s of the future is ongoing, in reality it's actually pretty much already decided. Short of any surprises in the next couple of years, it's going to be electricity.
The good stuff in wastewater - part 1
In a world of increasingly scarce resources, wastewater can provide us with heat (for our buildings) plus raw materials for fertiliser and for energy. It now makes sense to better use the good stuff in our waste water - that we are currently just wasting.
If only markets were long term, our sustainability problems would be fixed?
What if financial markets were not focused on short term gain? What if markets are actually long term focused, but that they believe that the pace of the sustainability transitions will be so slow that the business as usual scenario is still financially optimal.