Morning all. In the run up to Christmas we’ve been wondering what’s stopping Jeff Bezos from taking on Santa’s duties? After all, he’s got the drones, our addresses, our wishlists… and enough $$$ to make it happen.
In today’s edition:
📖 Ikea drops its famous catalog
⛓More novel innovations from Singapore
📱How tech is helping the poorest in the world
Big Business (2-minute read)
Ikea says farväl to its iconic catalog
A mainstay of coffee tables everywhere, and with more copies printed annually than the Bible, IKEA’s catalog has been discontinued. Surprisingly, the sustainable giant didn’t explicitly cite its environmental credentials for the move (200 million catalogs/year will save a fair few trees), but instead highlighted that Online sales (up 45% last year) have become increasingly important to Ikea’s business, and customers just weren’t using the paper catalog as much as they used to.
Bottom line: Online furniture sales have boomed during the pandemic so it makes sense for Ikea to refocus on growing their slice of the pie. Just don’t get rid of the meatballs.
Lighter than air: British Airways (BA) pursue Hydrogen flight
BA is collaborating with hydrogen plane startup ZeroAvia to accelerate the switch to hydrogen powered commercial aircraft. The project is part of BA’s parent company, IAG, Hanger 51 technology accelerator programme, which gives startups the opportunity to test their products on a global scale. ZeroAcia’s goal is to fly over 1,000-miles in aircraft with more than 100 seats by 2023.
Battle for the skies: Airbus have a similar programme, but US manufacturer Boeing are yet to follow suit. The geographical split may be no coincidence – EU/British public policy is green and has translated into funding via the Clean Sky 2 programme, but no such support has been offered in the US to date.
Dell’s redesigning it’s products for circularity
Dell is leading the electronic industry’s fight against e-waste ending up in landfill by adopting a circular business model to reduce, reuse and recycle its products:
Reduce: Improving device longevity by redesigning outer materials to resist wear, while using artificial intelligence to improve the energy efficiency of internal systems.
Reuse: As e-waste recycling grows, more materials will be returned to Dell to refurbish devices for second and third lifecycles.
Recycle: Typical computers are difficult to disassemble, Dell has designed a prototype laptop that will pop apart making components easier to recycle.
“It’s not a competition”: Dell plans to share ideas on circularity openly with the industry – this isn’t just a sustainable move, but also a commercial one. Scaling up adoption of circular technologies will lead to lower costs, higher consumer awareness, and improved profits.
🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read)
$100 million in funding for the largest ‘virtual power plant’ in the U.S
In the traditional electric grid, large centralised power plants send power to homeowners, and in periods of high demand utilities companies fire up dirty, expensive ‘peaker’ plants (usually coal or natural gas). OhmConnect just received $100 million dollars to scale its sustainable alternative: a ‘Virtual Power Plant’ to orchestrate sharing of energy back to the grid when demand is highest by incentivising users to save energy. It works like this:
Get notified: The utility lets Ohmconnect know that a time of intense demand is coming (and pays them). OhmConnect notify customers about it
Reduce: OhmConnect community members reduce energy usage by turning off lights, giving thermostats a break and not using electronics
Get rewarded: If you’ve used less energy than you were forecasted to, you get rewarded with cash payments or an entry into a bi-weekly prize draw
$80 million in funding will be used to subsidise smart home devices, such as Nest thermostats, to Californians. Customers will then be able to opt-in to have their home automatically reduce usage at peak times to improve the effectiveness of the Virtual plant.
Singapore offers $8million for Blockchain projects – starting with farmer finance
Last week we covered how, in a world first, Singapore approved the sale of lab-grown chicken. Continuing the trend of innovations, government agencies in Singapore have launched the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme (SBIP) which will provide $8.9 million in funding to accelerate the commercial adoption of blockchain. The first project focuses on improving farmers’ ability to gain finance through blockchain solutions – by tagging the farmers’ high-value produce, investors are provided evidence on the security of their finance. Over the next 3 years SBIP aims to make Singapore a “crypto hub” and position the city-state as a global leader in blockchain development.
💡Start-up Spotlight (1-minute read)
GiveDirectly – finding the poorest people in the world and sending them cash using AI
COVID-19 has been devastating for the world’s extreme poverty level with an estimated 150 million living on less than $1.90 per day by 2021. GiveDirectly lets donors send money directly to the world’s poorest – offering individuals the freedom to invest in what they need instead of relying on aid organisations. Their new partnership with UC Berkeley harnesses a Machine learning algorithm, making the targeting process faster, more accurate and completely contactless
The algorithm works in three stages:
1) Identifies the poorest villages in a region by analysing high-res satellite imagery for hundreds of poverty markers (roof material, building density, sizes of farm plots, and unpaved roads).
2) Finds Individuals most in need by analysing mobile phone data for clues on cheaper phone usage (call length and frequency, inbound vs outbound calls, mobile data used).
3) Poorest individuals are prompted to enroll via mobile phone, and then instantly paid.
The first rollout has begun in Togo, where 55% of the population lives on less than $1.90 a day. After five months the team will analyse results and optimise the algorithm, critical to preventing any biases as exclusion could be the difference between life and death. One impactful use case could be ‘pre-positioning’ relief ahead of natural disasters to mitigate the effects, before they happen
Little Bytes
Quote: ““The biggest challenge facing humanity is our ability to deal with environmental issues, to be more green, to be kinder to the planet and there are lots of technology use cases where we can do that.” Shawn McAllister, CTO, Solace
Stat: 77% of Americans agree that it is more important to develop alternative energy sources such as solar or wind than to produce more coal, oil, and other fossil fuels, Pew Research Centre
Do: Calculate your environmental footprint with WWF calculator
🗞 In other news…
Amazon becomes World’s largest corporate buyer of renewable energy
Breakthrough Electric Vehicle that never needs to be plugged in
The Pope commits the Vatican to net-zero by 2050
Apple CEO calls for stricter corporate climate goals
- Christmas Trees – what’s the eco-friendly option
