Happy Tuesday. WATCH THIS SPACE: Our climate Fintech playbook drops on Thursday
In today’s edition:
📈 A pioneering scheme for youth employment
🏫 3D printed schools in Africa
📡 Eco Friendly mobile networks
Big Business (2-minute read)
A pioneering training programme for green jobs & lowering youth unemployment
In the quarter March to May 2021, there were over half a million young people (aged 16 to 24) unemployed in the UK. Macquarie Group (Australian investment bank) and Generation: You (non-profit), have announced a new UK based training programme for unemployed young people between the ages of 18-29, that will provide the skills needed to thrive in jobs in the green sector.
A first of its kind… in the green sector. It’s an opportunity to tackle youth unemployment and a rising demand for green jobs, with the sustainable energy sector in the UK expected to require an extra 400,000 employees by 2050.
First-of-its-kind standard for hotel food waste
In the US 40% of food waste is generated from consumer-facing businesses like hotels. WWF in collaboration with hospitality giants Accor, Hilton and Marriott International has developed a new methodology to help hotel chains record and reduce food waste. The methodology will harmonise methods of data collection and address common data gaps and challenges. It builds on two other industry methodologies – the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) and Hotel Water Measurement Initiative (HWMI) Harnessing the power of collaboration: by bringing the entire hotel industry around a common goal which offers improved business efficiency while making progress against environmental goals
Ikea open-source their circular design research
IKEA is on a journey to design all products to be repurposed, repaired, reused, resold, or as the last resort recycled, to facilitate its shift to becoming a fully circular business by 2030. After assessing over 9,500 products, IKEA is now ‘open-sourcing’ its insights by sharing them into an online interactive tool for all to see.
Why? Circular ‘loops’ often fall outside the operations of a single company. By inspiring and engaging designers and partners, Ikea is forming ecosystems for change.
🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read)
An eco-friendly 5G network
To allow us to call, text and scroll on the go, mobile network providers use radio stations that receive and transmit 4G and now 5G signals. These base stations consume large volumes of energy (around 4% of global electricity consumption). Vodafone has completed testing on a new, energy-efficient 5G radio station in London. The new radio station’s improved energy management reduced Vodafone’s electricity consumption by 43 percent. 1500 of these new radio stations will be deployed across Vodafone’s network by 2022 – ensuring a sustainable 5G rollout.
Drones for good: Vodafone are using drones with cameras and laser-scanning to lower environmental impacts (manpower and travel requirements) of radio station surveys and upgrades.
3D Printing houses in Africa
The challenge: UNICEF estimates a shortage of 36,000 classrooms in Malawi which would take 70 years to build using conventional methods. The result… a teacher to student ratio of 115-to-1, and long commuting distances for students.
Printing education: 14Trees, is deploying 3D printing technology at scale to build affordable and low-carbon housing and schools in Africa. The tech is fast – 14Trees predict they could bridge the classroom gap mentioned above in just ten years. It also reduces the carbon footprint for building new homes by up to 70%. The ultimate aim is to create a skilled labour force across the country to operate the printing machinery, and address the country’s chronic infrastructure shortage. Watch it in action.
💡Deep Dive (1-minute read)
A definition of gamification: adding game mechanics into nongame environments to increase participation. Think… when your supermarket issues points per purchase or your fitness app ranks you against friends.
The challenge: Biodiversity loss is one of the world’s most immediate challenges yet it is becoming increasingly challenging to fundraise for nature conservation – with an estimated funding gap of up to US$ 824 billion needed to restore the planet by 2030.
An engagement issue: Traditional fundraising fails to engage a digital-savvy generation and exploit the fact that researchers now hold more real-time data on protected animals than ever before (GPS collars, camera traps and remote sensing).
Making wildlife accessible: Several organisations are coupling conservation data and gamification to reach untapped audiences and generate new revenue for conservation:
- Internet of Elephants – ‘Satellite Stories’ tells compelling stories about animals in conservation reserves as told through their in-real-time movement data, which users can then explore on an interactive platform.
- Adidas Run: pits millions of runners in a race against wildlife (based on daily updates on their movements) and learn more about what it takes to keep them safe through micro-stories about their daily activities.
- Ant Forest: rewards its users with “green energy points” each time they take a step to reduce their emissions, such as going paperless. These points grow into a virtual tree on the user’s app, which Alipay matches by planting a real tree.
All of these initiatives are helping to make wildlife a positive part of people’s everyday lives and reveal new sources of conservation funding.
💭 Little Bytes
Quote: “The greatest threat to global public health is the continued failure of world leaders to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5C and to restore nature.” – Editorial from over 200 Health Journals
Stat: Leaded gasoline is no longer used anywhere in the world, according to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).
Watch: 5 innovative ways drones are saving lives and the planet
🗞 In other news…
- Volkswagen and BMW fined $1billion for emissions cartel slowing the deployment of green technology
- Former Walmart executive wants to build the most sustainable city in the world
- New tech from Nissan recovers 98% of rare elements from electric engines
- How indigenous communities are building energy sovereignty
- Regulators increasing scrutiny on greenwashing after Deutsche Bank’s DWS sustainability claims called into question
🎣 Gone Phishing
Three of these stories are true, one we made up, can you guess which?
