Among the huge surge of parcel shipments in this Christmas season, with volumes expected to rise as much as 40% and UPS and FedEx refusing to take some shipments from retailers that have blown past their earlier forecasts, some retailer are pushing customers to consider slower deliveries.
Africa has the richest solar resources of any region, yet today is home to only 5 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity, less than 1% of the global total. With the right policies and financing, solar PV could become the continent’s top electricity source by capacity. While solar PV is set to expand most rapidly, all renewable technologies are needed to support energy access and development, especially an expansion of hydroelectric capacity. Over 40% of global gas discoveries in recent years were in Africa and, if used locally, this gas has the potential to complement electricity generation from renewables and support industrialisation. All such resources could help bring about a much less carbon-intensive development trajectory compared to other developing regions. Tapping Africa’s potential for energy efficiency, renewables and domestic use of natural gas is crucial to put all African countries on track for universal access to reliable electricity by 2030. To achieve this goal, over the next 12 years, the average number of people gaining access to electricity each year would need to triple from around 20 million today to over 60 million people. More decentralised and modular technologies, mainly based on renewables, are now available and they are reducing the length of time it takes to provide access to electricity and cutting the costs of doing so. According to the IEA’s latest geospatial analysis (developed in collaboration with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology), while grid expansion and densification will remain essential, mini-grids and stand-alone systems could provide power to more than half of the population who need to gain access by 2030, or almost 450 million people. A reliable electricity supply for all would require an almost fourfold increase in power sector investment, averaging around $120bn a year to 2040, half of which is needed for networks. Mobilising…
Flint Group Packaging Inks, a global leader in the supply of print consumables and services to the packaging industry, has signed up to the HolyGrail 2.0 project that seeks to solve the complexities surrounding the recycling of post-consumer plastic packaging. Project HolyGrail was established in 2017 to speed up the transition to a global circular economy for plastics by improving recycling rates through more effective, high quality sorting of materials. In 2020, the second phase of the project, HolyGrail 2.0, was launched to open it up as a cross-value chain initiative with greater scale and scope. Partners involved in the project are exploring the viability of tagging packaging with unique, machine-readable codes to improve automated detection and sorting within current recycling systems. One technique being considered is to apply an optical code utilising digital watermarking technology. The watermark would be applied directly within the packaging artwork and printed onto the expanse of the printed package, usually in a repeatedly tiled manner. Paul Winstanley, Senior Director – Technology & Innovation at Flint Group Packaging Inks, commented: “HolyGrail 2.0 aligns perfectly with our vision to support the packaging industry achieve a circular economy by developing responsibly-built products and sustainable solutions. It made absolute sense to commit ourselves to working with the European Brand Association (‘AIM’), which is spearheading the project, and other HolyGrail partners, to further develop this technology that will significantly increase the recycling of plastic packaging. “Flint Group Packaging Inks can bring some unique capabilities and expertise to the project to drive the development of digital watermarking and coding. This includes our Global Innovation Centre where we can design supporting ink and coating technology and test full scale simulations of any proposed solutions.” One of the biggest hurdles to achieving high volumes of quality recycled plastics lies in the complexity…
By Ryan Purcell (pictured) Director, Global Impact at LLamasoft…
Register now to join us on Thursday 17 December for our final conversation over coffee, this time focusing on sustainability.A big topic of conversation for bu…
Signature Renew is a conscious effort towards environmental responsibility for business and private aviation through Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), solar, electric vehicles and more.
London-based property giant Canary Wharf Group (CWG) has outlined plans for reaching net-zero by 2030, including new commitments on electric vehicles and heat.
Ikea partnered with Vox Creative and American RV and tiny home builder Escape to design a space-saving house with eco-friendly features.
L’Oréal has been awarded a Triple A rating for its corporate sustainability for the fifth consecutive year, making it the only company in CDP’s annual ranking to achieve such a record. CDP, a global nonprofit organization that urges companies to share their environmental data and assesses their performance and efforts to be transparent, grades groups on how they undertake climate change, protect forests and safeguard water security.
Understand your place of business through geospatial thinking. Location analytics empowers sustainable business practices that help outpace the competition.
The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textile and Apparel (HKRITA) has entered into a five-year collaboration plan with the H&M Foundation to drive the sustainable development of the fashion and textile industry through research into technology enhancements.
– The electric bus will use a flash-charging system that quickly charges the battery while passengers get on and off the bus.
– IIT Madras will host the infrastructure required to operate the flash-charging system for the e-bus.
The City of Ames is adding seven new dump trucks to their fleet, equipped to run on B100 biodiesel from Renewable Energy Group.
Researchers of the study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel used computer models to predict the current and historical mass of all things on Earth dating back to 1900.
Conversion of glycerol to acrylic acid represents an emerging application in transforming waste biomass to valuable products in chemical industry.However, achieving almost perfect atomic efficiency and intrinsic zero-waste generation still remain a grand challenge to meet stricter regulations on …
By 2050, an estimated 10 billion people will live on Earth. To provide them with a healthy diet, eating habits need to change.
Join Paul Jarquin, President and founder of REI Habitat, and two other experts for our Construction webinar on 16 December.
Rapid urbanisation and urban population growth in SSA have led to the development and expansion of cities which have generated increasing pressure on their transport systems. Some major cities in SSA have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems to address some of their mobility challenges at the lowest possible cost. Total length of BRT corridors under development in six SSA cities is 343km (including 141 km under operation in four cities) representing a total capital investment estimated at US$ 1.8 billion. Two of these cities (i.e. Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria) have operational Quality Bus Service and BRT-Lite system. BRT implementation in SAA cities has shown mixed results. Financial sustainability and commercial viability challenges have often materialized. They translate BRTs’ high upfront infrastructure investment costs and operational subsidies requirements to maintain services quality. In this context, private sector solutions have been explored to address known public financial gap. To date, mobilization of private sector capital has been slow and difficult, however. This is due to cross cutting challenges encompassing political economy, regulatory, institutional, technical, social and financial characteristics of these projects. It is critical for SSA governments to have in-depth understanding and comprehensive assessment of those challenges if they are to develop contextualized and effective solutions to them.
‘Tis the season to be writing your Christmas list, checking it twice and figuring out who’s been naughty or nice. Before you hit the shops this year, take a minute to think about the impact your gifting has on the planet. Australian households generate 30% more waste over the Christmas period. We can all do our bit to help minimise waste and protect our environment by gifting sustainably. Give an experience Instead of giving ‘stuff’, give an experience to remember, like: A voucher for your loved one’s favourite restaurant, a show or workshop. A Groupon, Cudo or RedBalloon voucher will cater to all types of interests – sports, massage or an outdoor adventure. Treat your loved ones to a meal at one of our fabulous local eateries Make something There’s nothing quite like receiving a gift you know has been made just for you: Pot some fresh herbs for cooking. Bake a few treats. If you are super creative – paint, draw or whip-up a Christmas stocking on the Janome. Donate If there is someone in your life who already has everything, do you know if they have a charity or interest you could support? Here are a few ideas: Kids and animal lovers might like to adopt an animal at Taronga Zoo or through the WWF. Support bushfire victims in NSW and QLD or drought affected farmers who are doing it tough this Christmas. Donate to community development organisations like World Vision, or Oxfam and contribute to sustainability programs (tree planting, food production, education etc.) in developing countries. Many environmental charities have donation programs over Christmas, including marine conservation, reforestation to help our koalas or regenerative farming – just to name a few. There are also many charity groups assisting native animals who have been injured during bushfires. Who…
Smart urbanization has become a popular discourse in urban policy circles across the world. This is due to the rising popularity of the smart city notion, the main premise of which is achieving hei…