sustainable – DesignApplause

us-china joint glasgow declaration on enhancing climate action in the 2020s.

Nov 11, 2021

china and the united states, the world’s top two carbon polluters jointly pledged wednesday, 10 november, to work together to accelerate the emissions reductions required to meet the temperature goals of the 2015 paris agreement on climate change. china agreed for the first time to crack down on methane leaks and both countries agreed to share technology to reduce emissions. in a joint declaration, both countries expressed ‘alarm’ by scientific reports detailing the progress of what they both term the climate crisis.

critics say this declaration is a step in the right direction but was short on commitments that would significantly reduce heat-trapping gases. both countries called for accelerating the phasing out of coal and fossil fuels – the biggest source of man-made emissions – although there was no set timeline. greenpeace international director, jennifer morgan, said that the call in the draft to phase-out coal would be a first in a u.n. climate deal, but the lack of a timeline would limit the pledge’s effectiveness. also, the latest declaration is not as strong as the 2014 obama pre-paris agreement was.

can the two largest economies deal with globalization, trade, human rights and climate – competition and cooperation – at the same time?

what may be the best line item in the declaration, the two countries will also establish a bilateral working group that will meet regularly to address the climate crisis, focusing on enhancing concrete actions in this decade. as the countries have fallen behind their 2015 goals, we need a dose of urgency.

the idea of a science and technology-based effort that ignores political and economic roadblocks is inspiring and has the exciting feeling of a race to space led by the two biggest offenders.

above> greenhouse gas emissions by top emitters, 2018 // below> cumulative emissions, 1751-2017

[ us-china joint glasgow declaration on enhancing climate action in the 2020s ] [ c2es – emissions ]

it’s about time greta thunberg for your #climatestrike.

Dec 18, 2019

above >thunberg skipping school in august 2018, sitting in front of swedish parliament to demand climate action / michael campanella—getty images

starting in august 2018, a swedish 15-year-old greta thunberg began a global movement by skipping school. she did so by setting up shop in front of the swedish parliament holding a sign painted in black letters on a white background that read skolstrejk för klimatet: “school strike for climate.” her question for adults, for people in charge: if you don’t care about my future on earth, why should i care about my future in school?

by now you know the time magazine 2019 person of the year is greta thunberg. the runners up were: hong kong protesters (won the readers poll), nancy pelosi, donald trump, the whistleblower in trump-ukraine scandal.

winning does come with controversy. but we won’t talk about that at this time. here.

on the first day of her climate strike, thunberg sat alone. she posted about her strike on social media, and a few journalists came by to talk to her, but she spent day one alone.

on day two a stranger joined her. “that was a big step, from one to two,” she recalls. “this is not about me striking; this is now us striking from school.” within a couple of days, a handful more joined in. then they became a group – from one person pushing back became two, then 10, then 50, then hundreds. then thousands

by september, enough people had joined her climate strike in stockholm that she announced she would continue every friday until sweden aligned with the paris agreement.

the fridays for future movement was born.

at the end of 2018, tens of thousands of students across europe began skipping school on fridays to protest their own leaders’ inaction. in january, 35,000 schoolchildren protested in belgium following thunberg’s example. the movement struck a chord. when a belgian environmental minister insulted the strikers, a public outcry forced her to resign.

a year later in september 2019, the climate strikes had spread beyond northern europe. in london, 100,000 swarmed the streets near westminster abbey. in new york city, 250,000 reportedly marched in battery park and outside city hall. in germany, a total of 1.4 million people took to the streets, with thousands flooding the brandenburg gate in berlin and marching in nearly 600 other cities and towns across the country.

on 20-27 september 2019, a global climate strike brought an estimated 4 million people of all ages to protest. their signs told a story. in london: the world is hotter than young leonardo dicaprio. in turkey: every disaster movie starts with a scientist being ignored. in new york: the dinosaurs thought they had time, too. hundreds carried images of thunberg or painted her quotes onto poster boards. make the world greta again became a rallying cry. the 20 september protests were likely the largest climate strikes in world history. more than 2,000 scientists in 40 countries pledged to support the strikes.

in a little more than a year, one frightened, angry, defiant 16-year-old, became a game-changer, became an icon who brought climate to the forefront. after noticing a hundredfold increase in its usage, lexicographers at collins dictionary named thunberg’s pioneering idea, climate strike, the word of the year.

bravo greta !

greta is the z generation – ages 7 to 22. in 2050 she will be 46. in 2080 grandchildren will be 25. according to a december amnesty international survey, young people in 22 countries identified climate change as the most important issue facing the world. they know how much adults are failing them.

above> greta thunberg smiles during a press conference / lito lizana/sopa images/shutterstock

[ time person of the year ] the tradition of selecting a man of the year began in 1927, with time editors contemplating the news makers of the years. the idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year of not having aviator charles lindbergh (see guinnes world records below) on its cover following his historic trans-atlantic flight. by the end of the year, it was decided that a cover story featuring lindbergh as the man of the year would serve both purposes.

in 1999, the title was changed to person of the year. since the list began, every serving president of the united states has been a man or person of the year at least once with the exceptions of calvin coolidge, herbert hoover, and gerald ford.

record-breaking american aviator charles lindbergh became the first person to be named time man of the year in 1927

[ guinness world records ] thunberg takes the crown of youngest time person of the year from us aviator charles lindbergh (1902–74). he received the accolade at the age of 25 years 332 days as of the 2 jan 1928 issue.

[ quotables ]

“we can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow, that is all we are saying.” – greta

“i want you to panic, i want you to feel the fear i feel every day. and then i want you to act.” – greta to the annual convention of ceos and world leaders at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland, in january.

“people are underestimating the force of angry kids. we are angry and frustrated, and that is because of good reason. if they want us to stop being angry then maybe they should stop making us angry.” – greta

“for sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads, greta thunberg is time’s 2019 ‘person of the year.” – time’s editor-in-chief edward felsenthal penned a column explaining the choice.

brilliant decision for @time to choose @gretathunberg as its person of the year. greta embodies the moral authority of the youth activist movement demanding that we act immediately to solve the climate crisis. she is an inspiration to me and to people across the world. – @algore

“don’t let anyone dim your light, like the girls i’ve met in vietnam and all over the world, you have so much to offer us all.” – the former first lady michelle obama wrote on twitter

“so ridiculous,” “greta must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! chill greta, chill!” ~ donald j. trump

“a teenager working on her anger management problem. currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.” – greta’s twitter bio in response to potus tweet

@gretathunberg @time @greenpeaceusa #climatestrike #fridaysforfuture #parentsforfuture #climate #climatechange

citizen centric cities – the sustainable cities index 2018.

Nov 1, 2019

above > london / courtesy arcadis

in many cities, citizens face huge challenges to meet their basic needs of survival, including shelter, access to food, water and warmth. once these are met, the human need for community, managing society and moving from “a to b” take on far greater importance. ~ john batten, global cities director / arcadis global

the 2018 edition of arcadis’ sustainable cities index (sci) explores city sustainability from the perspective of the citizen, to understand in more depth how different cities enable different citizen groups to meet their particular needs. top 100 overall rank below:

100 kolkata, 99 cairo, 98 hanoi, 97 cape town, 96 nairobi, 95 manila, 94 jakarta, 93 mumbai, 92 johannesburg, 91 bengaluru, 90 chengdu, 89 new delhi, 88 chennai, 87 wuhan, 86 salvador, 85 lima, 84 rio de janeiro, 83 tianjin, 82 istanbul, 81 buenos aires, 80 bangkok, 79 mexico city, 78 sao paulo, 77 santiago, 76 shanghai, 75 athens, 74 guangzhou, 73 beijing, 72 tampa, 71 detroit, 70 atlanta, 69 phoenix, 68 baltimore, 67 kuala lumpur, 66 shenzhen, 65 jacksonville, 64 indianapolis, 63 miami, 62 lisbon, 61 new orleans, 60 pittsburgh, 59 dallas, 58 moscow, 57 budapest, 56 melbourne, 55 honolulu, 54 warsaw, 53 denver, 52 philadelphia, 51 houston, 50 leeds, 49 wellington, 48 chicago, 47 brussels 46 lyon, 45 los angeles, 44 brisbane, 43 antwerp, 42 milan, 41 macau, 40 rome, 39 washington, 38 birmingham, 37 calgary, 36 geneva, 35 canberra, 34 sydney, 33 tokyo, 32 glasgow, 31 montreal, 30 toronto, 29 manchester, 28 barcelona, 27 rotterdam, 26 vancouver, 25 ottawa, 24 taipei, 23 prague, 22 boston, 21 madrid, 20 dublin, 19 seattle, 18 berlin, 17 hamburg, 16 san francisco, 15 paris, 14 new york, 13 seoul, 12 amsterdam, 11 copenhagen, 10 frankfurt, 9 hong kong, 8 oslo, 7 munich, 6 zurich, 5 vienna, 4 singapore, 3 edinburgh, 2 stockholm, 1 london

above > (1) largest city by continent > europe, north america, asia, australia, south america, africa, and antarctica.

[ people planet profit ] note, edited for clarity and brevity
the sci ranks 100 global cities on three pillars of sustainability: people (social), planet (environmental) and profit (economic).

performance across the people pillar is relatively consistent across the top 50 cities. edinburgh tops the sub-index. affordability of city life, access to public transport and income inequality are the big swing variables.

there’s a real shortage of housing. that’s why house prices and trending prices are sky high. you pay a lot of money for not a lot of space. ~ kirsten, 27, amsterdam, netherlands

a group of smaller european cities led by stockholm, sit at the top of the planet pillar. determinants of a high ranking include low carbon energy infrastructure and significant green spaces. for the top 10 cities, a leading indicator of investment is in low-carbon infrastructure, all of these cities have made significantly larger investments in including bike sharing and electric vehicle incentives – highlighting the rapid adoption of these solutions in many cities.

above > stockholm

the profit pillar measures the economic health of a city, incorporating indicators that reflect the productive capacity of cities today, as well as the presence of infrastructure and regulatory enablers that support growth and prosperity in the present and the future. the profit sub-index highlights the extreme disparities in income. the top of the sub-index is dominated by global financial centers. singapore, london and hong kong head up the list and hold a sizeable lead over new york in 4th place.

above > singapore / courtesy arcadis

london is ranked the world’s most sustainable city in 2018 has high scores in the people and profit pillars. the results highlight that strengths reflected in london’s status can offset challenges associated with affordability and congestion. stockholm, edinburgh, singapore and vienna complete the top five in the index.

new york, san francisco and seattle are the only u.s. cities in the top 20. two additional cities, tokyo and sydney, are lower – ranking high for people, but need to improve in both profit and planet.

above > new york

although coastal cities including new york and seattle feature in the top 20, most u.s. cities fall in the bottom half of the ranking. u.s. cities tend to score evenly across the three pillars, highlighting that these cities face broad challenges across all pillars to improve their sustainability.

in latin america, santiago, são paulo, mexico city and buenos aires are all tightly clustered at the top of the bottom quartile, typically scoring better in people and planet than in the profit pillar.

kuala lumpur benefits from consistent scores across all pillars and outranks all the cities in china except for shenzhen as well as a number of u.s. and european cities.

low profit performance places major cities across africa and asia are represented in the bottom 10 of the rankings.

[ citizens face huge challenges ]
in many cities, citizens face huge challenges to meet their basic needs of survival, including shelter, access to food, water and warmth. once these are met, the human need for community, managing society and moving from “a to b” take on far greater importance.

cities are powerful engines that bring people together and allow for resource sharing to meet collective needs. our study highlights that emerging needs, such as digital connectivity, are being addressed in cities at all levels of sustainability.

a critical point is that human needs are fundamentally hierarchical in nature. and if certain needs are not met, for example if housing is too expensive, then dissatisfaction will follow. the sci and other studies show that even highly developed cities can struggle to meet the basic needs of their citizens. as a result, the level of peoples’ satisfaction associated with their purpose or well-being are undermined. viewed from a citizen’s perspective, a city that is highly ranked as sustainable but with elevated levels of congestion not meeting accessibility needs, is not truly sustainable.

this points to a series of core challenges for all cities that influence not only how they seek to improve their performance, but also how they prepare for a digitally-driven transformation. it is important to look at how cities maintain services at current levels of performance as they evolve, specifically if they use innovation to ensure that currently recognized needs and wants are met. ~ john batten, global cities director

companies seeking an unfair advantage by going climate neutral certified.

Oct 28, 2019

we’ve become familiar with the labels ‘carbon neutral, zero carbon, and climate change. here’s another and yes, the timing will give those certified an unfair advantage.

by kevin j. ryan / inc.

it’s easy to tell if products are organic, fair trade certified, or made in america–they often bear a certification stamp to prove it. why isn’t there an equivalent for companies to disclose their impact on climate change?

that was the thinking that prompted peter dering and jonathan cedar to create climate neutral, a nonprofit that certifies companies as having a net carbon footprint of zero. launched on september 23, the company looks at everything from the raw materials businesses use to their supply chains to their office energy consumption. forty-four companies have worked with climate neutral to become certified as carbon-neutral in 2020, including drinkware maker klean kanteen and sneaker company allbirds.

dering and cedar are both founders who continue to run their own for-profit businesses. dering founded san francisco-based backpack and camera equipment maker peak design in 2011, while cedar founded the outdoor equipment company biolite in 2012. the brooklyn-based startup makes products that sustainably produce light, heat, and energy, and has been offsetting all of its emissions dating back to its founding, at a cost of less than $20,000 annually.

a former engineer, dering has always been fascinated with energy and sustainability, but only recently decided to get involved with what he calls “the carbon cycle.” during a visit to peak’s manufacturing plant in vietnam last year, he was shocked by how much foam, packaging, aluminum, and other materials went into creating and shipping the company’s products. he hired a consultancy to tally the company’s carbon footprint and found that peak, which generated $30 million in revenue in 2017, could offset that year’s entire carbon footprint for just $60,000. most of that would be done by purchasing offsets–essentially a way of paying for the prevention of an equivalent amount of carbon from entering the atmosphere, through projects like the development of wind farms, forest restoration, or methane gas capture.

in the coming months, climate neutral will roll out an online emissions calculator. companies will input information such as how much they spend on each of their raw materials, the energy costs at their facilities, the amount of travel employees do, and how and where their products are shipped. the companies will identify where they can become greener, make reductions where possible, and purchase offsets for the rest. even for companies that manufacture physical goods, the co-founders say, the annual cost will be 0.4 percent of the company’s revenue or less, which can be rolled into the products’ prices.

above > courtesy climate neutral

once a company is certified as carbon-neutral, it can stick the climate neutral logo on its packaging, website, or hang tags, thus signaling its green status to consumers. “you hope that consumers start to understand it well enough,” dering says, “so that it becomes, ‘hey, wait a second–this company doesn’t pay for their carbon. what the hell? i’m not buying that toothpaste.’ that’s the dream.”

it might not be far off. as reports from the u.n. highlight the increasing urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, public awareness of the issue seems to be growing. a 2018 nielsen survey found that 73 percent of consumers would alter their consumption habits to reduce their impact on the environment.

avocado green mattress went through the certification process earlier this year, calculating the emissions of its headquarters in new jersey, raw material farms in india, and shipments to customers all across the united states. “it was rigorous,” admits co-founder mark abrials, adding that, in the end, it was worthwhile. “this provides a straightforward way for companies to be part of the climate solution.”

carbon offsets, it’s worth noting, aren’t a perfect solution. from an environmental standpoint, the ideal scenario is to not put carbon into the atmosphere in the first place. to that end, before certifying a company, climate neutral requires that it undertake two new reduction efforts before paying for offsets. in avocado’s case, for example, the company is changing its distribution strategy to reduce shipping needs and diverting returned mattresses from landfills by donating them instead.

climate neutral isn’t generating revenue yet, instead relying on funding from peak design and biolite. in the future, dering says, climate neutral could earn revenue by buying offsets in bulk at a discount and reselling them at a slightly higher price.

the co-founders hope to have 200 companies certified by the end of next year and 700 by the end of 2021. some brands, dering points out, have already declared themselves as carbon-neutral or vowed to get there soon. he hopes they can be persuaded to get climate neutral-certified in the process.

“it’s on us,” dering says, “to convince those companies that joining up with us is going to add solidity to their claim. we’re all going to speak much, much louder collectively.”

[ carbon neutral on kickstarter ] [ kickstarter joins 50+ companies going ‘climate neutral‘

there’s a new all-electric pickup in town : 2021 rivian r1t.

Nov 26, 2018

the world’s first electric adventure vehicles™ [ rivian ]

thinking when general motors got wind of this new detroit(!) upstart all-electric pickup truck packing performance, innovative features, and…supercar stylishness, they announced in 2019 they’re dumping their losses and focusing on self-driving and electric vehicles for their future. smart.

“gear tunnel” — a storage area that spans the width of the vehicle

[ vitals ]

> up to 400 miles per charge – $90,000 usd / 230 miles – $70,000 usd
> zero-to-60 mph in three seconds
> quad motor system – for superior on road control and way off
> wading depth of three feet
> a debut at the 2018 los angeles autoshow

mcdonald’s makes a bold environmental pledge using green packaging.

Jan 16, 2018

“our customers have told us that packaging waste is the top environmental issue they would like us to address,” said francesca debiase, mcdonald’s sustainability officer, in a statement.”

mcdonald’s aims to get 100 percent of its packaging from recycled, renewable, or certified sources by 2025, with a preference for forest stewardship council certification, which ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests.

a 2014, company study of two restaurants, one focused on dine-in business and one centered on the drive-thru found the per-restaurant average was more than 2,200 pounds of waste a week.

mcdonald reminded us their sustainable packaging journey dates back to 25 years ago when they established a groundbreaking partnership with environmental defense fund (edf), a group not paid by the chain.

they not only phased out polystyrene sandwich boxes, but also significantly reduced their environmental impact by cutting solid waste and streamlining material choices. the initiative eliminated more than 300 million pounds of packaging, recycled 1 million tons of corrugated boxes and reduced waste by 30 percent in the decade following the partnership.

“other food companies have said for years that they want to use more recyclable material, but the mcdonald’s plan is more substantive and collaborative,” said erin simon, director of sustainability research and development for world wildlife fund.

last week, mcdonald’s said it would eliminate foam packaging from its global supply chain by the end of this year.