Friday, October 4, 2019
Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 3
1 Unlocking the circular economy — Petrochemical manufacturers lead the charge to reinvent recycling
https://www.plasticsnews.com/perspective/unlocking-circular-economy-petrochemical-manufacturers-lead-charge-reinvent-recycling
Petrochemical manufacturers are commonly known as creators of the building blocks for plastic. But increasingly, they’re making headlines for reversing that process — turning used plastic products back into their original building-block monomers — and advancing other recycling solutions critical to addressing concerns about plastic waste.
2 Net Zero Goal Comes a Step Closer in Europe
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/net_zero_goal_comes_a_step_closer_in_europe-04-oct-2019-159979-article/
The European Union’s push to set a date for eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions is gathering pace, making the bloc’s climate chief confident that a deal can be reached by the end of this year.
3 Mexico’s Renewables Market Remains Mired in Uncertainty
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/mexicos-renewables-market-remains-mired-in-uncertainty
The outlook for Mexico’s renewables market remains deeply uncertain, analysts say, despite recent indications from government officials that a canceled auction could be reactivated.
4 3 Trends Making the Case for Bus Electrification
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/3-trends-making-the-case-for-bus-electrification
U.S. electric bus manufacturer Proterra reached its 100th customer this week, in a sign of how far the industry has come.
Just a few years ago, electric buses had negligible market presence and faced an uphill battle to convince transit agencies to part ways with the buses they knew and trusted. That has changed now, thanks to declining battery prices, innovative financing mechanisms and a growing roster of customer testimonials.
5 Tesla 3rd Quarter Sales Grew 1664% In 6 Years, 271% In 2 Years
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/04/tesla-3rd-quarter-sales-grew-1664-in-6-years-271-in-2-years/
To kick off this article, I’ll make an important note: this is not about Tesla stock. Because of how much Tesla short sellers insert themselves into discussions of Tesla [TSLA], and how long and deep the battles of logic & math are between those short sellers and Tesla shareholders (of which I am one), some people assume that every discussion of Tesla sales is about the stock. Perhaps many people assume that, but, no, young Jedi, not everything is about the stock. The stock is just a sideshow. Now let’s get on to the story.
6 How Do We Accelerate Sustainable Packaging in the “Age of Experience?”
https://www.packworld.com/article/how-do-we-accelerate-sustainable-packaging-age-experience
According to Wodar, eight million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans each year, and consumers and NGOs are pushing for action to decrease packaging waste. He points out that only 7-10% of plastic bottles are currently recycled.
7 PETase—an enzyme that eats plastic—gets closer to reality
https://www.fastcompany.com/90412215/could-this-plastic-eating-enzyme-be-the-miracle-solution-to-our-plastic-problem
Three years ago, Japanese scientists discovered a tiny new bacterium with an unusual ability: The organism, which lived in soil near a plastic bottle recycling plant, could eat plastic. A year later, a plastic-eating fungus was discovered in a landfill in Pakistan. The year after that, a college student discovered plastic-eating bacteria in a polluted site in Houston.
8 Coca-Cola reveals recycled marine plastic bottles
https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/coca-cola-reveals-recycled-marine-plastic-bottles-03-10-2019
The global soft drinks giant partnered with Ioniqa Technologies Indorama Ventures and Mares Circulares (Circular Seas). Around 300 sample bottles were made using 25% recycled marine plastic retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea and beaches.
9 Final turbine in at world’s biggest offshore wind farm
https://www.rechargenews.com/wind/1858865/final-turbine-in-at-worlds-biggest-offshore-wind-farm
Danish developer Ørsted has reported that the final 7MW Siemens Gamesa turbine has been installed by Fred Olsen Windcarrier at the UK’s giant 1.2GW Hornsea 1 project, currently the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
10 The Biggest Proponent Of Solar Isn’t What You’d Expect
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Solar-Energy/The-Biggest-Proponent-Of-Solar-Isnt-What-Youd-Expect.html
Yet, it was Exxon that funded a solar power company in the 1970s when the Arab oil embargo led to long lines at gas stations in the United States and American oil companies sought to diversify into other forms of energy as they thought oil, and growing dependence on OPEC oil, could be a threat to their business and existence.
11 ACORE: ‘Sustainability’ Investments May Not Necessarily Drive Renewable Energy Deployment
https://solarindustrymag.com/acore-sustainability-investments-may-not-necessarily-drive-renewable-energy-deployment
In a new white paper, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) explores the current state of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing in the U.S. and provides recommendations for ESG methodologies that better reflect renewable energy use and investment.
12 In Drive for Sustainable Finance, Canada Wants to Include Oil
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-02/in-drive-for-sustainable-finance-canada-wants-to-include-oil
Canada’s financial industry is girding for battle as it pushes to include its vast energy resources in one of the hottest sectors of global finance — the multi-trillion market for green and sustainable assets.
13 Is This The End Of The Lithium-Ion Battery?
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-This-The-End-Of-The-Lithium-Ion-Battery.html
Researchers have been in a race to find ways to improve lithium-ion batteries. They are also looking to develop alternatives to the lithium-ion battery that would be lower cost and more sustainable to manufacture. And they may just have found one.
14 Energy Efficiency as a Service: Having Cake and Eating It Too
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/energy-efficiency-as-a-service-having-cake-and-eating-it-too
The as-a-service model, in which capital-intensive costs are spread out over the useful life of the product or offering, has become commonplace. The best example is software-as-a-service (SaaS), now the preeminent way to acquire and use personal and enterprise software. This model replaced the more capital-intensive approach of businesses buying their own computing infrastructure, purchasing and updating these servers with new versions of their applications, and spending significant amounts of money to do so.
