sustainability

Sustainability measures will remain among companies' top three priorities over the next few years. Pressure from consumers and governments resulted in several major tech companies pledging to achieve net zero carbon emissions within the next 15 to 20 years. Whether companies are fulfilling their promises of decreasing carbon emissions for the sake of the environment or for increasing profits and appeasing the public is up for interpretation. Nonetheless, companies are taking the necessary steps to go green.According to…

When inventor Charles Fritts created the first crude solar photovoltaic cells in the 1880s, one might have thought the achievement would rapidly revolutionize global electricity production. There is, after all, no power source cheaper, cleaner and more ubiquitous than sunlight. Yet despite enormous (and ongoing) technical advances making solar power ever more capable and affordable, some 140 years on it still supplies less than 5 percent of the world’s electricity. For all its benefits, solar power does have drawbacks…

Sustainability has become one of the most important elements in the world. Many companies are increasingly catering to a more ecologically conscious clientele by including or removing non-energy-efficient features from their products. Due to immoral actions on animals, the fashion industry, for example, has rejected the use of fur in clothes, preferring to utilise more sustainable and ethically produced components such as artificial ‘faux’ fur. Environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, is one individual responsible for…

…

The impact of the COVID-crisis on sustainability resources and implementation. Credit: State and Local Government Review (2022). DOI: 10.1177/0160323X221124896 The COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone to reexamine their priorities. Local governments were no exception, and a new study from the University of Kansas has found that while the pandemic did cause municipalities to adjust their focus on sustainability efforts, it did not…

Content provided by IBM and TNW. Business leaders are looking to ensure that their organizations are doing their part to address the impact of climate change. After another year of extreme weather events — from Hurricane Ian in the United States to heat waves in the UK and floods in Pakistan, the need to transition into a more sustainable world has become clearer than ever before, and companies are now expected to reach new levels of action. Last year, the COP26 — the United Nations Climate…

A Microsoft logo is displayed at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona on March 2, 2022.Photo: JOSEP LAGO/AFP (Getty Images)Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith wants thousands of companies to shift from pledging to help solve climate challenges to actually making good on those promises. These companies can’t rise to meet the challenge unless their workers are trained in sustainability, he wrote in a company statement this week.“Employers must move quickly to upskill their workforce through learning…

In the language of climate change, we often talk about mitigation—how we can reduce harmful gases in the atmosphere that cause global warming. But there is another pressing climate concept, especially in Africa, called adaptation. Adaptation is about coping with the negative effects of global warming, such as destruction of property by floods or food insecurity caused by severe drought. Africa is the most vulnerable continent to the effects of global warming, and adaptation is a critical step for it and other developing…

Corporate giants vowed change, but are falling short on their promises. Some of the biggest companies on Earth are all but certain to shoot past agreed upon targets to make plastic packaging more sustainable by 2025, according to a report published Wednesday.Beginning in 2018, hundreds of the world’s largest brands signed on to the Global Commitment, an initiative for tackling the problem of plastic pollution created by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the UN Environment Programme. Companies like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola,…

Modern airliner designs date from the 1950s: a metal tube and swept-back wings with jet engines slung underneath. They get you where you’re going and back. But after decades of research, something very different could be flying you on vacation by the late 2030s. Unconventional designs such as “blended-wing” shapes now used for some military jets, which combine the cabin and wings in one piece, have been floated for years as possibilities for passenger aircraft. Now the rise of climate-change concerns and…