The New Global Three Rs:
Responsible, Renewable & Resourceful
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Electric Car Sharing Comes to Singapore.
With an initial fleet of 80 cars, 30 charging stations, and both the Land Transport Authority and Economic Development Board behind it, BlueSG is the first operator to roll out a large-scale electric car sharing scheme in Southeast Asia. Photo by
BlueSG.
The three R's used to be Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic. For business the world over - and for all of us - the new three R's are Responsible, Renewable and Resourceful.
Let's take
Responsible
first and what cropped up at the Responsible Business Forum in Singapore in November where there was very strong attendance from UN agencies, the investment community and business, large and small. We also report from the Paris climate event where big business - Bloomberg, Branson included - made a strong push for a global business response.
Renewable
next. And at numerous forums, including the Singapore International Energy Week events, the clean energy sector was rattling cages and showing its global presence, most notable through the record adoption of R100 - companies committing to 100% renewable energy. More to follow.
Resourceful,
yes, a big push for everyone to be more resourceful in every way. Managing all resources more efficiently. Innovative and productive. Seeing waste as a resource.
We can connect the new global three Rs with our four Es of sustainability - Energy, Environment, Economy and Ethics - as we know that's the collaborative way to achieve the ambitious but vital 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Targets are set. Action is underway. Now it's time to start scoring the Goals! - Ken Hickson
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Cashing Out from the Climate Casino.
The financial community is starting to divest fossil fuel holdings and cut funding to oil and gas projects. Read
the Bill McKibben commentary
which started in the New York Times and spread around the world. Meanwhile, David Fogarty in the Straits Times. writes "Science is revealing every day the danger that climate change poses to the world". Quoting French President Emmanuel Macron at this month''s One Planet Summit attended by dozens of world leaders and executives in Paris.
Go here to see/hear the You Tube version.
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Companies Come Clean to 100%:
Brought to you by The Climate Group in partnership with
CDP
, as part of the
We Mean Business
coalition,
RE100
is a global, collaborative initiative of influential businesses committed to using 100% renewable electricity. It will accelerate the transformation of the global energy market and aid the transition toward a net-zero economy. Companies gain a better understanding of the advantages of going 100% renewable, benefit from peer-to-peer learning and technical guidance, as well as greater public recognition.
Read more about R100. Who's in and who's not!
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Bringing Mars Down to Earth:
Mars, one of the world's largest food companies - for humans and animals - is tackling the most significant environmental and social impacts in its supply chain. This was a clear message Mars delivered at the Responsible Business Forum, where it explained how its businesses work in partnership with experts, farmers and community groups to address challenges together. Sustainable sourcing is Mars’ commitment to drive down the environmental impact of its raw materials, advance respect for human rights across its value chain and help to lift farmers out of poverty.
Read More
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Data Driven Cities:
In 2011, the Danish government decided that all its cities had to prepare for the future by preparing maps of today’s flood risk together with the risk under an altered climate in the year 2100. In order to facilitate this, the government ordered a high-resolution survey, where the terrain in the whole of Denmark (43,000 sq km) was surveyed and turned into a digital atlas. The atlas contains a digital terrain model specifying the locations of houses, watersheds, etc. All part of the
World Economic Forum initiative on Data Driven Cities; 20 Innovative Stories.
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Global Climate Change Update
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Global Climate Change update by
Professor Jeff Obbard
- Globally October 2017 was the second warmest October since reliable measurements began in 1880, 0.90oC warmer than the 1951-1980 mean.
- October temperature was +1.18oC relative to the 1880-1920 base period, which provides the best estimate of pre-industrial global temperature.
- The warmest October was 2015 at +1.08oC relative to the 1951-1980 mean. 2016 was the 3rd warmest at +0.89oC.
- The 2017 January to October 10-month mean is second highest, behind 2016, compared to the first 10 months of other years.
- Although a weak La Nina is present (a cooling influence on global climate), the global mean temperature in October stayed relatively high; polar regions were especially warm.
- 2017 will likely to be the second warmest year in the record.
Note: Information provided by:
Climate Science, Awareness & Solutions. Earth Institute, Columbia University. The graphic below comes from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA).
Jeff Obbard,
our "scientist-in-residence" and Contributing Editor to ABC Carbon Express,
is a Professor of Environmental Science, who's been based at Qatar University for the past three years. He returns to Singapore and will be actively engaged as a consultant with SASA.
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The New Arctic: Leaving the Fridge Door Open
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By Jeff Obbard
The 2017 NOAA Report Card stresses the perilous state of the Arctic’s ice or ‘cryosphere’. According to the latest NOAA data, a warmer Arctic climate is the ‘new normal’, thanks to continued global warming that is closely associated with climate change. The report highlights:
The Arctic is now changing faster than at any rate in at least the last 1,500 years.
The speed of change is rapidly becoming a survival challenge to the Arctic’s ecosystem and its indigenous communities that are struggling to adapt.
Read More
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EAT Asia Pacific Food Forum
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Over 750 delegates from 30 countries congregated in Jakarta for two days at the inaugural EAT Asia-Pacific Food Forum at ShangriLa Hotel on October 30 and 31, co-organised by the Indonesian Government and EAT Foundation. Created with the aim of facilitating cross-sectoral collaboration, the forum gathered the brightest minds from science, politics, business, civil society, farming and the culinary arts to share and uncover local, regional and global solutions to fixing the planet’s broken food system. For greater insight into the event, here's access to some relevant articles,
go to EAT Foundation.
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The pathway to the Shangri-La for food
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EAT Foundation President Dr. Gunhild A. Stordalen from Norway was impressive as the conference leader with her opening speech setting the tone and theme for the event. The health of the environment and the health of the planet's people depends on food. How its produced, distributed and consumed. "The agricultural sector is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. And the main driver of deforestation, biodiversity loss and destruction of ecosystems".
Here's her full speech.
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Can Palm Oil ever be Sustainable?
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Bhavani Shankar, Professor of International Food, Agriculture and Health, SOAS University of London, asked if palm oil can ever be sustainable, taking account of the well documented debates over health and environmental trade-offs versus economic success. Bhavani thinks it's possible only if we encourage a strategic shift from using palm oil in food to using it instead as a biofuel.
Here's the article based on his paper.
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Agora Food Studio in Timor
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Timor-Leste faces a long list of public health challenges like other nations in the Asia-Pacific with high rates of malnutrition and stunted growth. Alva Lim of the
Agora Food Studio
in Dili joined some 500 creative makers and thinkers in Jakarta, for the inaugural
EAT Asia-Pacific Food Forum
, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Indonesia, to help build resiliency into the food system in her region of the world.
Read this Huffington Post report.
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Food and Flavours of the Pacific
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New Zealand Chef Robert Oliver, was one of the most entertaining contributors to the EAT show. As Chef Ambassador for Le Cordon Bleu, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, he is the presenter of REAL PASIFIK, a television series based on the food culture of the South Pacific. His first cookbook, "Me’a Kai: The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific", which was written with a mission to connect Pacific Islands agriculture to the region's tourism, won the title of “Best Cookbook in the World 2010,”
More on Chef Oliver.
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France Leads in Race against Waste
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Food waste was on the agenda at the EAT Asia Pacific Food Forum. A war on waste food in France, where supermarkets are banned from throwing away unsold food and restaurants must provide doggy bags when asked, has helped it secure the top spot in a ranking of countries by their food sustainability. See who else is in the running.
Read the Thomson Reuters Foundation News Report here
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The doors for the next EAT Stockholm Food Forum will open on 11-12 June 2018. Where experts and enthusiasts from around the world will gather to discuss progress on solving the interconnected challenges of climate, sustainability and health, and take action on transforming our global food system. EAT forums are a breeding ground for uncommon collaborations, new research, new solutions and new connections.
More from the EAT Foundation.
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An Ocean of Waste Spread Globally
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We attended an excellent one day event in Singapore in October which focussed on the scourge of plastic littering our oceans, causing untold harm to fishing and sea life. Our beaches are becoming worse than rubbish dumps
.
It was organised by the Dutch Embassy, along with EU and Singapore partners.
We also recognise the excellent work of
SKY News Network,
out of the UK, in drawing attention this global problem.
Read more in this article by David Fogarty in the Straits Times.
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Mentoring Student Power for Good
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Profile: Martin Henz: Sailing into the wind with solar power
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In just one of Martin Henz projects, his team converted one of the smallest available sailing yachts, a 7.7m long motorised yacht to a carbon-neutral vessel by retrofitting it with a 2.0kW electric outboard motor and two 24V lithium-ion phosphate battery sets. Three mono-crystalline solar panels serve as cockpit roof and are mounted on a custom-built stainless steel truss.
He's also "engineered" his students at National University of Singapore (NUS) come up with a clean and simple way to realise our dreams of flying.The personal flying machine was built over a one-year period, under the auspices of FrogWorks, a collaboration between NUS Faculty of Engineering's Design-Centric Programme (DCP) and the University Scholars Programme (USP).
When he gave an inspired talk at the Singapore International Energy Week, you realise he needs to be taken seriously. He’s a great believer in the unique opportunities of experiential learning in university education.
Call him a master mariner, a mad professor, a genius inventor, a clean energy guru or a mentor extraordinaire. He is all of these - and more - at the same time.
Read more.
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Can't See the Wood for the Trees!
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Can't See the Wood for the Trees:
SASA Chairman and ABC Carbon Express Managing Editor Ken Hickson was one of the invited speakers at the Global Timber Conference in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia 7/8 November 2017 , addressing the conference on
“Assessing the Impact of COP 21 - the Paris Climate Change Agreement - on Natural Forest and Forest Plantation in Asia”.
Go to the SASA website to see the full presentation in pdf.
We also reported to the conference on Norway's efforts to help Indonesia deal with deforestation:
In 2010, Norway and Indonesia entered into a climate and forest partnership to support Indonesia’s efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests and peat lands.
In March 2016, Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s climate and environment minister visited Indonesia and was reported by Financial Times as saying: “We would obviously have hoped things would have progressed more quickly. We haven’t seen actual progress in reducing deforestation.”
So far, of the US$1 billion that Norway has offered to Indonesia for reduced deforestation, only US$60 million has been handed over.
We heard from an authoritative Norwegian source that, diplomatically speaking, there's been "slow progress"!
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Sustainability Education & Events
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New Delhi, India:
The India Energy Access Summit (IEAS) on 12/13 February 2018 brings together stakeholders to collectively identify emerging sectoral needs, innovation and business opportunities, catalyse private investments, celebrate achievements, and determine ways to replicate successes.
Read More
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia:
The 2018 National Sustainability in Business Conference on 8 and 9 March 2018 at Hotel Grand Chancellor, Brisbane. The 2nd annual conference will explore sustainability best practice within organisations, creating resilience in business and ways to implement change. The sustainability topics will include integration, politics, technology, automation, future of renewables, procurement, food security, sustainable construction and waste as a resource.
Read more
Phoenix, Arizona, USA:
More than 1,000 sustainability leaders meet at GreenBiz 18 on February 6-8, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. The annual GreenBiz forum convenes decision makers — from the business world, academia, NGOs and government agencies — to explore emerging challenges, trends and opportunities in sustainable business.
Read More
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Last Word:
Tropical and Topical
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What comes first: Chicken or the Egg?
That doesn't matter as much as how the egg is produced. Are the hens caged up so tight that their welfare is at risk and productivity is in decline? The Humane Society International is campaigning around the world to get farmers to think of the consequences of irresponsible and unethical practices. It was pleasing to see the Singapore Food and Beverage group, Lo and Behold adopt cage free eggs as its standard.
Read Ken Hickson's article on the subject.
Waste2Wear.
Plastics are used everywhere now, but plastic production is only traced back into 1950. Research from Geyer (2017) identifies that a total 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic was produced between 1950 and 2015. Of this, 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste was generated, and only 9% has been recycled. So Vision Textiles and Waste2Wear clothing has come up with a multitude of wearable uses for recycled plastic, mainly from PET bottles.
Read the full story here.
Martketplace for Sustainable Technology.
We learnt about WIPO GREEN when attending a fascinating conference in Singapore organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation directed at media across Asia. WIPO GREEN has received a grant from Australia to launch a matchmaking project in the Asia-Pacific region. The project will focus on energy, air, water, and agriculture needs in the region and start in mid-December 2017
.
The aim is to
promote innovation and facilitate green technologies. Match making with a purpose!
There's more.
Chicken Feet Travel:
There is always an option that supports a social or environmental cause. That's the philosophy of Chicken Feet Travels, the Singapore and Southeast Asia adventure tour company. Positive impact travel is a core part of it and Lin and Simon, the founders, strongly believe that as individuals, we need to empower the local people, preserve nature and protect its wildlife for the future.
Learn more about the travel opportunities in South East Asia with Chicken Feet.
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ABC Carbon Express is brought to you by:
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The Christmas Issue is designed with you in mind.
It comes from the same team:
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