Webb Helps Casella Waste Systems Expand its Sustainability Goals
Abbie Webb, sustainability director at Casella and a 2018 Waste360 40 Under 40 award recipient, discusses the company’s goals for 2019.
Source: www.waste360.com
Abbie Webb, sustainability director at Casella and a 2018 Waste360 40 Under 40 award recipient, discusses the company’s goals for 2019.
Source: www.waste360.com
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) on Monday said its researchers have developed a sustainable antimicrobial wrapping material that can prevent packaged food contamination by bacteria as well as reduce the plastic waste generated in the environment when disposing off the wrappers.
The workshop will incorporate carbon footprint evaluation and circular economy into a structural design workflow with a focus on timber structures. Through the combined use of parametric tools for structural design such as Karamba3D, and optimization tools such as Octopus, comparative strategies will be used to mediate between purely structural and environmental criteria, suggesting a more holistic design process. In the context of the climate emergency, architects and engineers try to reduce the environmental impact of structures through a shift in their design process. The use of recycled material plays a major role in this approach. One of the central questions is how can we design sustainable and smart structures by intelligently using recycled elements. Many factors such as the history of the elements, their condition, or their location influence the design, the carbon footprint, and the price. Parametric structural design tools, coupled with multi-dimensional optimization methods, can help to explore the design space and evaluate designs concerning those criteria.
Find out more about the ban and tax levy Ireland is working on to stop the use of single-use plastics and promote recycling, minimal food waste and a green future.
“Our goal is to reduce carbon and to do this we must adopt new approaches by using alternative feedstocks, including existing wastes and residues instead of fossil. Today we have an abundance of carbon in all the wrong places. We can turn it from a liability to an opportunity by using it again and again”. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, on of the most dynamic and growing bioeconomy companies at world level
This is a profound time in our shared history. It is a moment full of rage as well as promise. Fear as well as potential. With each passing day, more battle lines are being drawn to confront every individual, government and corporation that threatens our quality of life.
A global energy consumption reduction is essential to address the many dimensions of the current ecological crisis. In this paper we have compiled the reasons that justify the necessity to start this energy descent process in the countries of the global North, where the annual per capita final energy consumption was 118 GJ in 2017. Based on recent research, we approach the necessary redistribution of energy consumption at the global level and the elements that should be present in energy descent strategies. We establish an approximate threshold of minimum and maximum per capita final energy consumption, between 15.6 GJ and 31.0 GJ for the year 2050, which serves as a reference for evaluating scenarios. We continue with an analysis of two ecological transition scenarios for Spain between 2020 and 2030, Green New Deal and Degrowth. Based on a schematic calculation model defined in “Labor Scenarios in the Ecosocial Transition 2020–2030” report, we evaluate the variations in energy consumption for 86 sectors of economic activity. Results show an annual final energy consumption per capita in 2030 of 44.6 GJ and 36.8 GJ for each scenario. We conclude by analyzing the hypothetical main drivers of this sharp decline in energy consumption.