Starbucks Completes Issuance of Third and Largest Sustainability Bond

Figure 2. Marginal Emissions by Month of Year, and Hour of Day. Columns 1 to 12 on the y-axis equate to Midnight through Noon; columns 3-24 are the PM hours. Source: NYSERDA, NY DPS 2016. New England: Reducing Emissions In New England, off-peak marginal emissions were shown to be significantly lower –0.7 percent less than during on-peak hours.[vii] On-peak emissions are at their highest when the temperature is highest. “In New England, high electric demand days (HEDDs) are typically characterized by high temperatures leading to elevated cooling (energy) demand. During peak energy demand periods, such as HEDDs, the ISO relies on peaking units, which are less utilized during the rest of the year but respond quickly to meet system demand. These peaking units are often jet (aero-derivative) or combustion turbines with higher emission rates.[viii] – ISO-NE. April 2019. Research showed that marginal emissions for hot, “high electric demand days” in 2017, were a full 34 percent higher than during off-peak hours.[ix] So by relying on energy stored at night to cool the building during the day, thermal energy storage can have a big effect on greenhouse-gas emissions in New England. This impact is only expected to grow as more wind power comes online across the region.[x] From Ice to Heat: Thermal Energy Storage in the Age of Electrification In recent years, regulators and policy-makers across the Northeast have embraced the electrification of heating as a means of reducing the region’s greenhouse gas emissions: by shifting heat from natural gas-powered boilers to electric heat pumps, consumers and businesses can reduce their carbon footprint by relying on an ever-cleaner grid rather than a fossil fuel. Thermal energy storage will soon be playing a role in this transformation. Trane has developed a thermal energy storage solution for both heating and cooling, the Thermal…

A circular economy enables us to restore natural ecosystems while still accelerating business and financial objectives. With 90% of CEOs seeing sustainability as important to success and 66% of consumers paying more for sustainable brands, the circular economy might be closer than we think—and it often starts in the supply chain.
Let’s look at a few examples. IKEA is on a journey to become more circular. Back in 2017, it developed its first designing for circularity guide, which helped define IKEA’s circular design. The results in the past few years have been impressive. In financial year 2019, the retail giant gave 47 million products a second life, 38 million products were resold through the as-is specialty shop, and more than 9 million products have been repacked back to the shelf.
Read the full article at: connectedworld.com

Sea-level rise is not a major threat in South Africa but, tied with other climate crisis consequences, it can become one. Here’s how higher sea levels could affect the country’s coastal cities. With the world heating up, countries are expected to make ambitious efforts to keep global temperature rise below 1.50C at the upcoming COP26 negotiations. Africa, one of the most vulnerable regions to the climate crisis, is likely to get hotter at twice the global rate, with sea-level rise a consequence. For a long time, global warming was almost solely a phenomenon associated with melting glaciers. Alongside this notion were images of polar bears stranded on cracked-off pieces of ice — and land expected to almost disappear as it was swallowed by sea-level rise.