Looking for some good news? We all need some and here are two articles that will help you feel more optimistic today. We are making progress in supporting human growth/population, as well as the earth’s climate, through industry (public and private) and agriculture tech innovations. Two of the biggest environmental polluters, industry and agriculture, are using tech advances and information gathering to revolutionize how we do things. Target dates that seemed far out in the future for things such as 0 Carbon Emission, Green Energy and Lowering Climate Temperature are now achievable in a shorter time frame. Read on to feel the optimism flowing through you!
I’ve included excerpts below for the two articles, “From autos to agriculture, top executives hail new ideas for sustainable tech”, and “Green roofs, solar panels and digital monitoring: How the world’s buildings are changing”, both written by Anmar Frangoul, Jan. 27th and 28th 2021. The links follow the excerpts, so you can read entire articles and watch the videos.
“From autos to agriculture, top executives hail new ideas for sustainable tech”
‘At a recent panel discussion moderated by CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick, ex-Unilever CEO Paul Polman touched upon the subject, referring to the Paris Agreement on climate change in the process.
“One of the reasons we’re moderately optimistic that we can achieve the one and a half (degrees Celsius) … warming target and be net zero by 2050 is obviously technology,” he said. “And this is where the private sector comes in.”
The automotive industry is one area where technology and concerns about the environment have driven change in recent years.
Today, major players such as Daimler, Nissan and Volkswagen are ramping up their electric vehicle offerings in a bid to compete with Elon Musk’s Tesla.
At the political level, a number of governments around the world have pledged to ban the sale of new diesel and gasoline vehicles by the end of the decade.
During the discussion Polman, who’s the co-founder and chair of the social venture Imagine, went on to highlight the pace of change taking place.
“We thought the tipping points for electric vehicles would also be 2050 — we now think that the tipping point is 2024,” he said.
“We’re very close to obsoleting the combustion engine,” he added. “Many countries (are) already making agreements to go out of the combustion engine by 2030, 2035, and most of the major car companies have done the same thing.”
Food production is another industry where digital innovations and technologies are helping businesses find value and conduct operations in smart, sustainable ways.
Last year Polman’s former company, Unilever, announced it would partner with Google Cloud to “use satellite photos to help monitor the ecosystems connected to our raw materials.” The collaboration would initially focus on palm oil, Unilever said.
“Thanks to technology … like Google Earth, we’re now able to match, (to) … the square meter, concessions that are given to … palm oil plantations with deforestation or with fires,” Polman explained.
Armed with this kind of knowledge, firms are able remove such plantations from their value chain, he added. “That’s a verification or a compliance measure, that is enormous.”’
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/from-autos-to-agriculture-top-executives-hail-sustainable-tech.html
“Green roofs, solar panels and digital monitoring: How the world’s buildings are changing”
Features Pittsburgh, US , London, UK and Tampere, Finland.
“From older structures modernized using connected devices, to more recent developments which integrate sustainable and technologically-advanced design features, the buildings people live and work in are changing.
It’s clear that, as governments and businesses around the world look to increase economic productivity while reducing their carbon footprint, the built environment will need to be both functional and sustainable in the years ahead.
It’s a big challenge. According to the latest Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction, emissions stemming from building operations hit their highest-ever level in 2019.
Slowly but surely, however, change is afoot. Below, CNBC takes a look at some key features of three buildings that made the shortlist for the upcoming BREEAM Awards 2021.”
Date Palms & Camels 