Paid Post: From Garbage to Gold: Tales of the e-waste pioneers

UK-based Diem, a startup that aims to combine traditional banking with a service that allows users to sell their unwanted items to the company, has secured $5.5 million in capital via a seed round that was led by Fasanara Capital. Diem provides a user account, a Visa debit card, and financial management tools. However the Fintech firm says it’s differentiating itself from other service providers with its “cash out” feature that lets clients acquire instant credit for unwanted items. Clients may use the Diem app to get an estimate or valuation for their unwanted items such as books, clothing, electronics in “nanoseconds.” If clients decide to sell some goods, then Diem will purchase them directly and will provide instant credit (deposited quickly to their accounts).

We talked to Marc Hazout of SusGlobal Energy about sustainable global management of the organic wastes and here is what he said about it. First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? Marc Hazout: We are doing fine and are grateful that we are involved in an essential business which has seen no interruption. Tell us about you, your career, how you founded SusGlobal Energy.
Marc Hazout: My background is in the Capital Markets, and I run a private equity fund founded in 1998. We mostly invest in proprietary technology, and we were identifying circular economy models and decided to start a sustainable organic waste managing and processing company that produces regenerative products from organic waste such as fertilizers both dry compost or liquid fertilizer.

Sustainability factors are critical to successful project outcomes in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, from exceeding performance requirements to improving cost control. Building design and construction stakeholders are faced with global challenges regarding limited resources and the impact of development on the surrounding environment. This panel will explore where responsibility for sustainability outcomes lies as we experience the convergence of design, engineering, and construction teams in common data environments. We will discuss the state of the industry in terms of solution maturity for advanced building insights on topics such as embodied carbon, resiliency, and materiality. We will also seek to understand key workflows that meet financial project goals while addressing environmental concerns and uncovering sustainability outcomes at the intersection of performance and ethics.