Day: July 31, 2021

Dr. Zaid, Secretary General of Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, and Dr Sandra Piesik, Founder of 3 Ideas B.V, say as we rebuild our economies, grow our societies and look to protect the planet, everything must ‘link back to nature’. Here, they look at the potential of the date palm in creating a bio-circular economy. 2021 marks the beginning of a new era for sustainability. It’s the year that the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) has begun. It’s the year where climate change returned to the agenda for America, with Joe Biden sworn in as President. And, with a degree of hopefulness, it’s the year where countries around the world could emerge from the pandemic. The final point is perhaps the most important. It’s been spoken about a lot and even branded as ‘The Great Reset’ by the World Economic Forum. As countries begin to open up again, there’s a great opportunity for the world to build back better and with a green recovery in mind.

Parliament adopted comprehensive policy recommendations to achieve a carbon-neutral, sustainable, toxic-free and fully circular economy by 2050 at the latest. The report, adopted today with 574 votes in favour, 22 against and 95 abstentions, is a response to the Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan. Binding 2030 targets are needed for materials use and our consumption footprint, covering the whole lifecycle of each product category placed on the EU market, MEPs stress. They also call on the Commission to propose product-specific and/or sector-specific binding targets for recycled content.

A regional coalition, led by UNEP, will support access to financing by the public and private sector, with special emphasis on SMEs — to foster innovation and the implementation of specific projects in the region. The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has launched a regional coalition that aims to support Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) transition to a circular economy. As the region continues to grapple with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a circular economy transition offers new and better growth opportunities to build a resilient and low-carbon economic recovery.

Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the circular economy. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked startups developing metals & mining solutions. The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 1.379.000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks. The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 282 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 startups that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 277 metals & mining solutions, get in touch.

New research by the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (FFW CRC) shows beef, bread, cheese, and salad are the most thrown out foods in Australian kitchens. The study is the largest investigation ever undertaken in Australia, using data from multiple sources to determine the how, why and where of food waste in Australian homes. FFW CRC chief executive officer, Dr Steven Lapidge, said the researchers used on-line surveys, electronic kitchen diaries, audits of kerb side bins and focus groups to understand what is really happening. The study shows that while most of us think we don’t waste food, we do, and we waste a lot. The average household throws away 219 kg of food a year. That adds up to an average of $965 per person per year – enough for a holiday.