Energy

It’s Climate Week, a sprawling mélange of events, webinars, workshops, private dinners and other meetups — mostly virtual, but plenty of them taking place in New York City. And did I mention reports? Lots of them, last week and this. Call me jaded, but it’s hard to get overly excited about the litany of pronouncements and

September 19, 2021: Prime Minister Boris Johnson boards RAF Voyager at Stansted Airport ahead of a visit to the United States. Stefan Rousseau – PA Images | PA Images | Getty Images There is a six out of 10 chance an agreement on climate finance will be reached before the forthcoming COP26 climate change summit,

Earlier this summer, a slew of headlines showered doom and gloom on clothing rental schemes, proclaiming them “the worst green option,” “worse for the planet than just throwing [clothing] away” and “no cure for fast fashion.” All this vitriol came in the wake of a Finnish report that compares the global warming potential of a

Sheep on a road in view of mobile offshore drilling units in the Port of Cromarty Firth in Cromarty, U.K., on Tuesday, June 23, 2020. Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images LONDON — Costa Rica and Demark are spearheading efforts to build the world’s first diplomatic alliance to manage the decline of oil and

Reprinted from GreenFin Weekly, a free e-newsletter. Sign up here. Do-goo-der (noun): An earnest, often naïve humanitarian or reformer; a person who tries to help other people but who often does it in a way that is annoying. Last week, news circulated that a number of mission-driven companies plan to launch IPOs this fall. And

Long-duration energy storage — defined as a system that can store energy for more than 10 hours — is often called the Holy Grail of clean energy. It is the linchpin technology that will allow the economy to truly run off intermittent renewable energy sources and backup power after grid disruptions.  It’s been the Next

Deforestation has been the poster child of the environmental movement for decades. For good reason, as healthy forests are of primary importance for biodiversity, climate and local livelihoods. But they’re not the only ecosystem we should be concerned about.  In the U.S., temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands, mostly found in the Great Plains, are the

This week’s run time is 41:38. WEEK IN REVIEW (5:00) FEATURES Corporate sustainability’s diversity challenge (24:30) New research out this week from Diversity in Sustainability offers insights into the barriers that must be addressed to attract and include more Black, Indigenous, LatinX and Asian individuals in the corporate sustainability profession. Co-founder Heather Mak weighs in. 

An iceberg is seen at the shore of a graveyard in Nuuk, Greenland, September 13, 2021. Hannibal Hanschke | REUTERS To mitigate the effects of climate change, the world will have to spend at least 50% of total climate finance on adaptation, such as shoring up land at risk from rising sea level and relocating

A new model compost procurement policy developed by the Environmental Law Institute and NRDC could help municipalities around the country in their efforts to divert food scraps and other organic materials from their landfills and incinerators and, in so doing, realize myriad economic and environmental benefits. The model policy, which is designed to be an off-the-shelf, easily adaptable tool,

In this article @NG.1 Natural gas prices are making some unnatural moves. After a nearly 40% rally in the last month — an unusually outsized move for any commodity — the charts are now flashing warning signs, Miller Tabak’s Matt Maley told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Thursday. Natural gas prices fell by about 3.5% on

In 1918, German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch created a process to produce ammonia fertilizer that was cheap and effective. It’s still the most commonly used fertilizer on fields today. Pivot Bio and its CEO, Karsten Temme, are working on changing that.  The Haber-Bosch method pulls nitrogen from the air (a process called nitrogen-fixing)

Round bales of straw drying on the field are seen in front of the power station operated by RWE AG near Rommerskirchen, Germany on August 10, 2021. The cost of natural gas and electricity has surged across Europe. Ying Tang | NurPhoto | Getty Images LONDON — European power prices have spiraled to multi-year highs

This week brings part one of a two-part conclusion to my mini-series about pathways and obstacles to getting more people into electric vehicles (EVs). Learning new EV jargon, particularly related to EV charging, can be really daunting for most first-time buyers or lessees. Finding easily accessible, comprehensible information on the topic can be really difficult

In this article UBER PDG-GB A space for electric vehicle charging in London, U.K. Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images The CEO of major automotive retailer Pendragon has acknowledged the challenges facing the electric vehicle sector but believes that adoption rates will increase going forward. Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday,

In the last year, a wave of companies have committed to “net zero.” But what does being a net zero business mean in practice? There isn’t yet an agreed-upon standard; in the fervor to get going, some are misusing the term. At Watershed, we think it’s important to maintain a high bar. In this piece,

Further down the road, there will be an extended and passionate debate on when, how and why humanity lost the opportunity to mitigate the expanding climate crisis. For now, it’s all hands on deck. Several recent developments illustrate the increasing dimensions of the crisis: Intensifying and widening risks: According to the sixth assessment report of

Peter Cade | Stone | Getty Images The solar industry is among many sectors feeling the pinch of higher prices, according to a report released Tuesday by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie. Prices rose quarter over quarter and year over year across every solar segment during the period. It’s the first time

Date/Time: October 12, 2021 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT) Today, supply-chain and sustainability executives are being held to a higher degree of responsibility from both customers, regulatory officials and investors. A global study by Unilever found one in three customers purchasing from brands with perceived social or environmental impact. As a result, more companies are

Demonstrators display signs and a banner during a “No Climate, No Deal” march on the White House, in Washington, DC, June 28, 2021. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters After a summer of astonishing climate extremes, a landmark scientific report on climate change provides another stark warning.  It states we have less than a decade to stabilize

This story originally appeared in WhoWhatWhy and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalistic collaboration to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Stephen Salter was working on an eggbeater-shaped wind turbine in his machine shop in Edinburgh, Scotland, when he got a curious call. On the other end of the

Climate change is rattling the world’s central bankers. With unprecedented heat and wildfires in the American West and southern Europe, and record floods racing through German towns and Chinese megacities in recent weeks, fears are growing among regulators of a coming cascade of climate-induced economic blows potentially more far-reaching and intractable than the financial crash

This week’s run time is 31:41. WEEK IN REVIEW (6:10) FEATURES COP26 (20:00) This week, several high-profile environmental groups called for COP26 to be postponed, over potential inequity of access by developing names. James Murray, editor in chief of BusinessGreen, chats about what’s in store — at least for now.  *Music in this episode: ”Curiousity,” “Old

Date/Time: October 7, 2021 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT) The last five years have seen significant growth in the number of Americans who say they want to buy eco-friendly products — 42% as of January 2021, according to the latest Shelton Group research. There has also been significant growth in the number of people who

This story originally was published Sept. 12, 2011. On that sunny September Tuesday, as the planes hit their targets, I was sitting in a windowless conference room about 130 miles away, inside a Sheraton Hotel sandwiched between Terminals A and B at Bradley International Airport, just north of Hartford, Connecticut. I was part of a

Streetlights, headlights, and apartments with lights on around noon on Sept. 9, 2020, in Russian Hill, San Francisco. Christina Farr | CNBC One year ago today was the most terrifying day of my life. I’ve faced personal tragedies and professional setbacks, but there are templates to deal with those. You rely on friends and family,

The Biden administration is pushing to turbocharge the U.S. shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy as part of its massive infrastructure upgrade and battle against climate change. Modernizing the aging U.S. electrical grid needs to be part of this push — and new thinking, investment and innovation must be part of the plan. To

The latest science shows that preventing the worst effects of climate change will require shifting to 100 percent carbon-free energy sources well before mid-century. President Joe Biden set a goal of reaching 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 in the United States, and the new budget reconciliation package includes a Clean Electricity Payment Program, tax

The CFS and MIT teams working on the magnet. Credit: Gretchen Ertl, CFS/MIT-PSFC, 2021 Fusion took a key step forward in its movement from the lab to commercial viability with the successful test of a key technology — a very powerful magnet that uses very little energy. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s

The Jones family has a simple mantra: “There’s no need to boast about doing good, just do good.” That mindset has guided four generations of family leadership at Seaman Paper as it quietly grew from a small paper mill in Massachusetts to a global company, employing 1,000, with sustainability as a top priority. As of

In this article 7267.T-JP 7203.T-JP BMW-DE The Hyundai Xcient Fuel Cell truck on display during the 3rd China International Import Expo (CIIE) at the National Exhibition and Convention Center on November 5, 2020 in Shanghai, China. Zhang Hengwei | China News Service | Getty Images The Hyundai Motor Group plans to develop hydrogen fuel cell

In the Conshohocken borough of Pennsylvania, IKEA is buying back furniture from customers. At least until later this month. The buyback program, part of the company’s effort to become a circular business by 2030, is a pilot that started Aug. 30 and will run until Sept. 19. “This means transforming the current linear business model

“It’s easy to design aspirationally,” IDEO Director Chris Krohn told me under the fluorescent lights of a Walmart store in Mountain View, California. We hovered over a teal and black kiosk about the size of a trash can, positioned proudly in “action alley,” the thoroughfare that runs along the front of the store, separating the

Adriana Van De Wal | EyeEm | Getty Images The chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission has highlighted the role both companies and governments can play when it comes to reducing emissions, emphasizing the importance of the upcoming COP26 summit on climate change. In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” at the end

Fungi-focused food startups are starting to sprout almost overnight. New producers are finding innovative ways to supply the growing market for alternative proteins, alongside plant-based burgers, sausages and “chicken” nugget substitutes made from soy, pea or other proteins. Fermenting the root-like spores of specific mushrooms (using the same, age-old process that creates beer and bread)

Have you owned a printer?  If so, you’ve likely noticed printers’ peculiar business model. The machine itself is often extraordinarily cheap. The ink cartridges, on the other hand, are jaw-droppingly expensive. Of course, you need that ink to use the machine. Bada bing bada boom, the printer manufacturer locks you into being a loyal customer. 

(Technical) clothing does not make a mountaineer or a sportsperson. And while the year of COVID-19, with its lockdowns and restrictions on movement, reminded us as never before how important outdoor activities are to our mental and physical wellbeing, the practice of these activities has an oft-overlooked downside: The environmental impact caused by the production and life-cycle

Bitcoin enthusiasts, miners, and oil & gas execs gathered at a meetup in Houston to talk about the future of bitcoin mining. HOUSTON – On a residential back street of Houston, in a 150,000 square-foot warehouse safeguarding high-end vintage cars, 200 oil and gas execs and bitcoin miners mingled, drank beer, and talked shop on

This week’s run time is 31:14. Week in Review (4:00) FEATURES How well do ESG funds align with the Paris Agreement (20:00) More than half of the investments funds marketed with some sort of climate twist contained securities that aren’t in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to a recent analysis by InfluenceMap.

In this article F Ford Chairman Bill Ford speaks May 19, 2021 during the unveiling of the electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck outside the automaker’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. Ford DETROIT – A decade ago, Ford Motor was positioning itself to be a leader in electrified vehicles with new global models such as the

Date/Time: October 14, 2021 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT) Climate action is a planetary necessity and also a strategic organizational imperative. If progress doesn’t measure up, organizations can face consequences, including investor, employee and community activism — as well as increased operational and financial risk. Sustainability professionals are developing and operationalizing resilience and adaptation strategies

Adapted from GreenFin Weekly, a free newsletter. Subscribe here. BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN: The first time I spent Christmas with my future husband’s family, his mother Mila gave me a beautiful wool shawl she had knitted by hand. This was roughly 20 years ago, long before talk of a circular economy, but that shawl was as

An E10 petrol pump in Kettering, England, photographed on September 1, 2021. Joe Giddens | PA Images | Getty Images The U.K. government has started the rollout of E10 gasoline to pumps, claiming the fuel, which contains ethanol, could cut carbon dioxide emissions from transport by 750,000 tonnes each year. This equates to removing 350,000

Organic food once was viewed as a niche category for health nuts and hippies, but today it’s a routine choice for millions of Americans. For years following passage of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which established national organic standards, consumers had to seek out organic products at food co-ops and farmers markets. Today

A member of a rescue team walks a flooded street in Laplace, Louisiana, after Hurricane Ida made landfall on Aug. 30, 2021. Marco Bello | Reuters From Hurricane Ida to California wildfires, experts are pointing to signs of climate change. Research shows individual investors are taking notice. A recent survey conducted by professional services company