The Circular Economy Club (CEC) is a diverse global community of sustainability champions working to advance the circular economy – and you can be part of it.
Automobile dependency in cities negatively impacts people and the environment directly (i.e., air and noise pollution), indirectly (i.e., cardiovascular and respiratory disease), and accumulatively define automobile dependence, as “a situation in which a city develops on the assumption that automobile use will predominate so that it is given priority in infrastructure and the form of urban development.” Sustainable urban mobility (SUM), by contrast, rebalances the priorities of transportation modes in cities. Transitioning towards SUM necessitates limiting the usage of the private automobile and its associated infrastructure, promoting public and non-motorized transport modes, reducing the need to travel, shortening distances, as well as using renewable energy sources (such as biofuels, solar, etc.) to power vehicles.
The EU should promote durable and repairable products, as well as boost a second-hand market and tackle greenwashing, under a proposal backed by the European Parliament on Tuesday (24 November).
Tesla is working towards building a sustainable energy ecosystem by introducing energy-efficient vehicles and products to preserve the environment by lowering the carbon footprint.
In part one of his monthly Cheat Sheet roundup of sustainability news, Oliver Balch looks at the flurry of new innovation and commitments to tackle plastics waste. It’s been a busy month for plastic, with global brands making a string of significant announcements, new design innovations hitting the shelves, and some serious cash finally landing on the table. On the innovation side, beer brand Carlsberg has launched the world’s first “paper” beer bottle made from wood fibre. Four years in gestation, the Green Fibre Bottle is the result of a joint project with tech firm ecoXpac and packaging company BillerudKorsnäs. The innovation, which uses a bio-based PEF polymer film “inner barrier” to retain the liquid, forms part of the brand’s goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 30% by 2030 (against a 2015 baseline).