Month: April 2021

Beneath the almond and citrus fields of the San Joaquin Valley lies an enormous system of aquifers that feeds some of the world’s most productive farmland. Hundreds of miles north and east, along the Nevada border, is the Surprise Valley, a remote, high-desert region undergirded by cone-shaped hollows of sediment that hold deposits of water. Both of these water systems, along with every other groundwater basin in California — a whopping 515 entities — must create individually tailored plans to manage their water use more sustainably.

Consumer goods giants Unilever, Coca-Cola and Colgate-Palmolive have agreed to fund and pilot innovations designed to improve supply chain sustainability through Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (AB InBev) accelerator scheme.
Image: AB InBev
Launched in 2018, the brewer’s 100+ Accelerator has supported 36 projects to date with more than $200m of funding. Key focus areas have included water efficiency and water stewardship; improving traceability; reducing pollution; increasing recycling rates and supporting renewable electricity generation and distribution.

veryone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself,” mused Russian author Leo Tolstoy in 1900. Bar the possible addition of “or herself”, the adage stands the test of time.
Change is again in the air. The world faces multiple pending crises, from an irreversible climate catastrophe and a biodiversity implosion through to growing inequality and a pandemic-crippled economy.

What kind of a new home would be fitting for a leading climate scientist who has dedicated his scientific career to proving the world can quickly transition off fossil fuel?  In alignment with his life’s work, when professor Mark Z. Jacobson decided to build his house in Stanford, he pursued an energy-efficient design that generates all its own energy from renewable sources.  Professor of civil & environmental engineering and director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford University, Jacobson may be best known for his work as a founder of The Solutions Project

Over the past decade there has been a growing interest in sustainability education in colleges and universities across the United States. The growth in sustainability education programs has been accompanied by a rich debate related to defining key competencies for these programs. A new report by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggests concrete ways to strengthen sustainability programs and curricula in higher education, and points to the importance of incorporating the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in sustainability education programs. The webinar will feature the three members of the committee that wrote the report. We will discuss the main recommendations and specific implications for schools of education and teacher education institutions.
Read the full article at: www.tc.columbia.edu

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are developed to galvanise social and environmental improvements in agriculture and create transparency in supply chains. Commodity buyers and those involved in VSS want science-based principles and methodologies to help future standard setting. In addition, VSS and their users want to provide credible impact assessments and scenarios in real time to help evaluation. Furthermore, consultation will help to decide where to target standard adoption to maximise environmental performance.
Read the full article at: www.isealalliance.org

Based in Melbourne, the Banksia Foundation is a social enterprise devoted to sustainability in society and business since it was founded in 1989. Over the years, Banksia became renowned in Australia and built many successful partnerships all over the world connecting with organisations sharing similar mission, including Nudge!  The foundation focuses on supporting initiatives from individuals and organisations that work towards a sustainable future and helps the projects gain national recognition.
Read the full article at: www.nudgeglobalimpactchallenge.com

Another major data center cluster is emerging in Northern Virginia, as more developers are building campuses near Leesburg, about 10 miles west of Northern Virginia’s primary data center hub in Ashburn.  The latest developer to select Leesburg is TA Realty, which this week unveiled plans for a huge data center campus just off the Loudoun Greenway and Sycolin Road. The company plans to invest $1.8 billion to create a 300-megawatt campus with an on-site substation and more than 1.5 million square feet of data center space. TA Realty said the initial buildings (plural) will come online in late 2021.
Read the full article at: datacenterfrontier.com

Lafarge Canada keeps sustainability at the forefront of all its operations, across Canada, and the Winnipeg Cement Terminal is the next one on the list to reap the benefits of the company’s ongoing energy efficiency reviews. Maximizing sustainability is a paying proposition, too – with Canada’s Federal Carbon Tax impacting competitiveness, the energy-intensive cement industry keeps finding new and creative ways to manage energy consumption. The energy efficiency reviews prove, however, that solutions to these challenges don’t have to be complex – and that this ongoing measurement of energy baselines is critical in determining if potential opportunities for savings exist.
Read the full article at: www.winnipegjournal.ca

“About Endlessness” is the cinematic edition of the law of conservation of energy. It evokes the concept far more artistically — although a brilliant scene mentions thermodynamics. But that’s what Roy Andersson’s latest feature is: A tasteful montage of brief moments in the in-between and the grand, the welcome and the unwelcome, “About Endlessness” splices together mostly unrelated scenes. Andersson’s film is him testing himself as a director — how smart can he make a film? 

Viking Line’s new flagship, Viking Glory, which will launch service in early 2022 on the Turku–Åland–Stockholm route, will have a Finnish flag. As a result, Viking Line, which is Finland’s largest maritime employer, will expand its fleet with another Finnish-flagged vessel.  Viking Line is Finland’s largest maritime employer, with nearly 2,400 employees. Of the seven vessels in its fleet, five currently sail under the Finnish flag. Recruitment work for the new vessel will begin soon, and recruitment will begin first among staff employed on the company’s other vessels.
Viking Line is Finland’s largest maritime employer, with nearly 2,400 employees. Of the seven vessels in its fleet, five currently sail under the Finnish flag. Recruitment work for the new vessel will begin soon, and recruitment will begin first among staff employed on the company’s other vessels.

Towards circular economy in public transport The transport sector demands around 30% of total primary energy consumption in Europe, but only less than 10% of the fuels used for transport are renewable. In this context, the European Union aims to achieve over 30% of energy consumption for transport from renewable sources by 2030. In view of this situation, NIMBUS aims to foster circular economy for a more sustainable transport. This project will develop and validate a system to produce biomethane, a sustainable and renewable fuel, from sewage sludge. Besides, the project will foster the concept of power-to-gas by turning the renewable energy surplus, which is difficult to store, into gas, which will also be used in the production of biomethane.

Union Pacific today published its 2020 Building America Report, the railroad’s annual report on its progress toward environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. The report unveils Union Pacific’s new cumulative ESG strategy called Building a Sustainable Future 2030, which includes four areas of concentration: Investing in our Workforce, Driving Sustainable Solutions, Championing Environmental Stewardship and Strengthening our Communities.
Read the full article at: www.marketscreener.com

This summer, local youths ranging from ages five through 13 will have the opportunity to participate in summer day camps, which are focused on connecting children to nature. They will take place at the Lackawanna College Environmental Education Center in Covington Township, Lackawanna County.  Each weeklong camp takes place at LCEEC’s beautiful 211-acre property and LEED Gold Certified facility.
Read the full article at: paenvironmentdaily.blogspot.com

From 2018 to 2020 UNICEF and WHO led an initiative to explore how affordability can be understood and monitored for water, sanitation and hygiene. A panel of experts was invited to contribute to the initiative at key moments. Published literature was reviewed, concepts and methodologies developed and country case studies conducted, to explore underlying concepts and practical applications to enable global and national monitoring.
Read the full article at: www.who.int

You know your fridge is in need of a serious spring cleaning when you find leftover turkey from Christmas hiding at the very back of your overstocked shelves. Or worse… leftover pumpkin pie.   While deep cleaning your fridge is an excellent way to declutter, disinfect and reorganize your fridge, it’s a huge task that tends to result in unnecessary waste that contributes to our landfills. Plus it requires a lot of cleaning supplies that often contain toxic chemicals harmful to the environment.  
Read the full article at: foodhero.com

The Sustainable Living Education Trust helps you with practical and fun ways to reduce your environmental impact, such as growing food at home. It’s about simpler, less-wasteful lifestyles here in New Zealand.  It offers you future living skills for a healthier, lower-waste yet good quality lifestyle. It’s a new approach to making smart, affordable and lower-carbon consumer choices.

Asphalt Pavement Recycling with Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) Environmental stewardship is designated as a major focus area of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) strategic plan. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), environmental stewardship is the responsibility for environmental quality shared by all those whose actions affect the environment. 

Sustainable living is the need of an hour. Its important to make conscious efforts to adapt to better ways of living. Natural and eco friendly skin care products is one such way.

The Transport for Under Two Degrees project published a report on October 8 arguing that governments around the world should stop subsiding motoring, must hike fuel prices, and, instead, build cycleways and wider sidewalks to accommodate a future of “active transport” in cities.