Happy Tuesday. This week has felt a little apocalyptic with the floods, we’re happy the Olympics is taking a sustainable stance.
In today’s edition:
💸 Tesla’s return to Bitcoin
👖 Recycling carbon into clothing
🥇The carbon-negative Olympics
Big Business (2-minute read)
Lululemon are recycling carbon waste into fabric
Lululemon has announced a partnership with LanzaTech, whose technology captures CO2, converts it into ethanol, before turning it into fabric for Lululemon clothing. The fabric is exactly the same as the version made from fossil fuels. By 2030, Lululemon wants 30% of all its products to use fabric from recycled carbon emissions.
The key issue: It costs more to make the fabric using this process than it does from fossil fuels, and it isn’t yet clear which product Lululemon are going to use the fabric in. Ultimately, this tech will allow Lululemon to shrink its carbon emissions, while driving tech innovation that could be crucial to the clothing industry’s net-zero transition.
Tesla to return to accepting cryptocurrency as payment after tackling concerns over environmental impact
We spoke previously, about Tesla no longer accepting Bitcoin for the purchase of its cars. They cited concerns over the environmental impact of energy-intensive ‘mining’ processes that facilitate transactions. After some ‘due-diligence’ Musk and co had a…
Change of heart: Previously, the majority of ‘mining’ was done in China, and relied on non-renewable energy sources. The Chinese government recently clamped down on crypto mining. New research shows miners have responded by shifting operations to nations where energy is cheapest (the main variable cost in a low-margin industry). Most have moved to the USA where it is predicted at least 50 percent of bitcoin will be mined using cheaper renewable energy sources.
Blackrock doubled its support for shareholder proposals in the last year
Last week we spoke about the power of shareholder activism (investing in companies to inspire sustainable change from the inside). The largest fund managers (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street) are the biggest shareholders in most companies but have historically been reluctant to challenge management. Times are a changin – BlackRock supported 35% of 843 shareholder proposals that it voted on in the last year (up from 17% in previous years).
🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read)
Electric vehicles now cheaper than their fuel equivalents?
Electric vehicle (EV) adoption saw a 41% increase in 2020. One barrier to adoption has been the perceived high costs to buy an EV. A new study by insurer, LV, has revealed this no longer holds true. The study compared nine electric cars against their petrol equivalents, across purchase prices, tax, insurance, fuel and maintenance costs. It found, six of the nine cars resulted in savings over a seven-year period of ownership. Savings for EV’s owners are mostly down to average annual running costs (£1,300 saving) and reduced maintenance.
Force for change: Leading automakers have signalled their intention to scrap internal combustion engines by 2030. This will help drive down upfront prices of EV’s (predicted to be equal to petrol cars by 2025) and boost further adoption.
A smart electricity supply for the UK
Vodafone has partnered with UK Power Networks to trial ‘smart devices’ aimed at improving the delivery of electricity from the energy grid. The devices will be installed at various locations across the UK, and due to their use of the 5G network, will be able to share data in real time. The live data will allow energy suppliers to make better decisions on the supply, power mix (i.e. renewables or fossil fuel) and storage of electricity, resulting in a more accurate and efficient network. If the tech is scaled, its estimated 63,000 tonnes of CO2 could be mitigated by 2050 – equivalent to the carbon emissions of 38,607 return flights from London to New York.
💡Start-up Spotlight (1-minute read)
The first-ever carbon-negative Olympics
This year’s Olympic games are focused on sustainability, with organisers in Tokyo pledging “to showcase solution models of global sustainability challenges”.
We’ve picked our top 3 ways the games are meeting their sustainability goals:
- Venues: Rather than building lots of brand new venues, Tokyo is using 25 existing venues, and have retrofitted many of these with advanced building tech to reduce energy consumption.
- Recycled materials: The 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals have been cast using metal from 80 tonnes of old electronic devices, which were collected through a national recycling campaign.
- Renewable energy: The Ariake Urban Sports Parks, which hosts the BMX freestyle, racing and skateboarding events, is powered by renewable solar energy.
But why? As a major global event, the Olympics have a responsibility to not just reduce emissions, but to use the platform driver for sustainable development. The pandemic and lack of overseas spectators has also allowed a potential model for large sporting events to emerge – could setting limits on the number of spectators travelling to international events be the future for improving sustainability in Sport?
💭 Little Bytes
Quote: “As sustainability becomes a ‘marketing must’, greenwashing will never be far behind; and the last thing the world needs is deflated apathy from confused consumers,” Alexia Inge, co-founder and co-CEO of online beauty marketplace Cult Beauty
Stat: The Amazon rainforest is now emitting more carbon dioxide than it is able to absorb, scientists have confirmed for the first time.
Watch: A finger pad that charges your phone with your sweat
🗞 In other news…
- UBS launches a new portfolio investing only in women-led hedge funds (In 2018, research found women-led funds outperformed the industry average by 20%)
- Food waste 1 billion tonnes higher than previously thought claims new report from WWF and Tesco
- Green search engine Ecosia will enable you to help combat forest fires with every search
- Pizza Hut Delivery is permanently adding plant-based ‘meat’ brand Beyond Meat to delivery menus
- Amazon COVID-19 community donations are helping charities across the UK tackle hunger, homelessness and isolation.
🎣 Gone Phishing
Three of these stories are true, one we made up, can you guess which?
- United Arab Emirates tackling heat by using drones to create rain
- Robert Downey Jr invests in tech that helps predict the weather
- Kevin Hart co-founder of sustainable space start-up
- Scientists convert plastic waste into vanilla flavouring
