Mid-range Fairphone 3 goes all-out for sustainability and confl

Safe reuse of human waste helps save water, reduces and captures greenhouse gas emissions for energy production and provides agriculture with a reliable source of water and nutrients. Climate change is accelerating. Flood, drought and rising sea levels are threatening sanitation systems, from toilets to septic tanks to treatment plants. Floodwater can contaminate wells used for drinking water. Flooding can also damage toilets and spread human waste into communities and food crops, causing deadly and chronic diseases, and posing risks to crop and food safety. Today, 4.2 billion people live without access to safely managed sanitation. Instead they often use unreliable, inadequate toilets or practice open defecation. Open defecation and unimproved sanitation are one of the main factors leading to malnutrition, being major contributors to water and soil pollution. In rural areas, polluted waters are used for crop irrigation and other agricultural activities such as livestock watering, bringing pathogens and other contaminants into contact with crops and animals. Globally, 80% of the wastewater generated by society flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, as well as untreated human waste gets out into the environment and spreads deadly and chronic diseases. When water is exposed to untreated human excreta, it becomes a breeding ground for parasites and, soil and water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, E. coli, salmonella and soil-transmitted intestinal worms (helminthiases). Everyone must have sustainable sanitation that can fight climate change and keep communities healthy and functioning. Sustainable sanitation systems also make productive use of wastewater and bio solids that contain valuable water, nutrients and energy, to safely boost agriculture while reducing and capturing greenhouse gas emissions. FAO is supporting member countries to adopt the circular economy approach applied to agriculture, making it environmentally friendly, sustainable and more resilient to shocks such as COVID-19. It is…

Last year, Aflac became the first insurance company in the U.S. to be ISO 50001 Energy Management System registered, which represents the latest best…

On the roof of Tommy Hilfiger’s European distribution center—located in the Dutch town of Venlo—are 48,000 solar panels, just one of the latest steps the fashion brand has taken to be more sustainable. CEO Martijn Hagman announced the completion of the solar panel roof at the Fast Company Innovation Festival on Tuesday, saying the company believes it’s “one of the most powerful solar roofs in the world at this moment.”