YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Common Wealth Inc. will host Sustainability Festival at its Wick Park campus Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring the opening day of the Northside Farmer’s Market and educational seminars.
Source: businessjournaldaily.com
Despite a 2020 with many economic and health difficulties, makesense , an organization that designs social and environmental impact programs, had a positive impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. It did so through the development of 21 programs in Mexico on entrepreneurship, health, education, violence and gender equality, water care, promotion of clean energy and climate change. Working together with three groups: citizens, entrepreneurs and organizations, makesense made possible the development of social impact projects
Climate change is here to stay. But the great news is: we get to decide how we act now. Since COVID-19 hit around the world, we have not only seen a great deal of uncertainty and suffering—we have also seen what is possible.
A couple of months ago I wrote about the roadside pollution from electric cars – the particles from tyres and brakes. In the UK, non-tailpipe emissions are around 8% of air pollution, so it’s not a huge contributor to the problem. But due to the weight of their batteries, electric vehicles may produce more tyre particles than fossil fuel vehicles, and so it may be a more significant source of pollution in future. If we want electric cars to live up to the ‘zero emissions’ labels that many of them already boast, we’re going to need better tyres. Particles from tyres also enter watercourses and are a significant contributor to ocean pollution, giving us a second reason to pay attention to this more or less invisible environmental problem. Enso is a start-up that is developing tyres specifically for electric cars – the first to do so that I’m aware of, and potentially ahead of a rush in that direction. That means they will be designing for efficiency, in order to maximise range. They’re also working on durability, and a cleaner, lower carbon tyre.
Cargill has moved to enhance its environmental policies in becoming one of a small number of large-scale US suppliers of segregated palm oil certified by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), writes Neill Barston…
Hyatt Hotels Corporation is announcing a series of initiatives to reduce waste at Hyatt hotels globally, including introducing large-format bathroom amenities and reducing single-use water bottles by June 2021.
About the pilot project The tropical areas suitable for palm oil plantations are incredibly rich in biodiversity. For many years, oil palm production has been associated with negative impacts on global biodiversity, as it significantly contributes to land-use changes in tropical forests, peatlands, and other species-rich habitats. The major direct impact on biodiversity caused by palm oil cultivation is habitat loss caused by deforestation and the burning of peat or natural vegetation to prepare the land for planting. Since the 1990s, palm oil has become a global commodity widely used in processed foods and is the highest yielding plant producing vegetable oil. Palm oil is produced from palm trees cultivated in Western Africa and South and Central America, but the most considerable extension of palm oil fields is in Indonesia and Malaysia, which provide 85% of the world production. This pilot aims to advance Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and biodiversity conservation practices at the farm level for palm oil producers. To sustainably produce palm oil, there is more than concentrating on preventing deforestation or habitat loss. Advanced integrated pest management (IPM), less toxic plant protection products, and improving biodiversity-friendly production practices are crucial to arrive at environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable production systems with maximum resilience. The pilot includes the development of an additional module of Malaysia-specific pesticide data for the Pesticides & Alternatives APP, a survey of biodiversity-friendly practices currently implemented by farmers, and a census of insect diversity and their associated host plants on oil palm farms – both pest and beneficial insects. The results of this census will provide important additional information about the natural history of beneficial and pest insects and their host plants in local oil palm production regions. An international team of entomologists and botanists will discuss the results to understand plant-insect interactions and…