We just discovered GAPFRAME, a new data visualization tool developed by the Sustainability Thought Leaders group. As a national and global normative framework, it is designed to help businesses and
This episode of CBC Radio’s Ideas, featuring clips from The Enright Files, explores some great ideas on how we can improve “our communities, our countries, and our quality of life”. It opens with an interview with Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and author, who discusses basic income and how wealthy western societies have become complacent.
There is a new metric when it comes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: the ‘spillover effects’ of each country on the world at large. These spillover effects include pollution, financial secrecy, and contribution to peace abroad. Since these effects are accounted for outside of a country’s borders, they are not represented by national statistics. A country might rank very highly when judged only by its own statistics (such as the US and Switzerland), but this is a lopsided view when looked at in a global context.
The Conference Board released a report showing what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to big companies and the circular economy. The traditional linear model of ‘take, make, waste’ results in a huge amount of consumption and waste (85 billion tons of global natural resource use annually as of 2015, a number which is expected to double by 2050). This approach is not sustainable - neither for the companies nor for the planet.
India is well on its way to meeting the renewable energy targets set during the Paris Climate agreement. With plummeting wholesale prices of solar power reaching another record low in the country, renewable energy is continuing to undercut fossil-fuel generated power. Cheaper finance and growing investor confidence have resulted in this historic 40% drop in price thereby enhancing India’s renewable energy capacity. Even as the world’s third largest carbon polluter, the country is set to exceed renewable energy targets by 2027.
A museum that celebrates the founding of the coal mining industry in a small town in Southeast Kentucky will soon be powered by clean, renewable energy. Owned by Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum has ironically found a new way to cut down costs: solar energy.
This article in Scientific American calls for high-tech companies to emulate systems found in nature. Written by Yale University professor, Oswald Schmitz, it addresses the flawed manufacturing and consumerism system of advanced technology.
Public transit may not be as green as you think according to this Star article. In addressing climate change, many consider “robust networks of transit lines” as key to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
Fast Company recently interviewed the CEO of Illy and learned how the world renowned Italian coffee company does things a little different. While they work with dozens of countries worldwide, they do not work within the standard fair trade system. Instead, they cultivate their own relationships with coffee producers. This ensures superior product, fairness, and better quality of life for those employed by suppliers.
Global wealth has become increasingly concentrated, according to one alarming report released by Oxfam. Published in January 2017, it reveals that just 8 billionaires control the same amount of wealth between them as 50% of the world’s poorest population. Of the $255 trillion total global wealth, more than half of this wealth ($426bn in US dollars) has been in the hands of the richest 1% since 2015.