Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
To Ecogeek : “ A team of engineers at the University of Illinois have figured out how to create self-healing circuits in electronics and batteries, a discovery that could lead to longer equipment life ”
” As electronics have become more complex, one small circuit failure can render a device useless, especially since it is hard or often impossible to diagnose where that failure occurred to fix it. “
As our smartphones and other computers seem to last less and less, this invention could sure help solving the issues revolving around e-waste.
The French magazine Science & Vie [Fr] published this month a lengthy series of articles on thorium-based nuclear, and how it could solve the various issues encountered with uranium-based energy generation.
Much more safer, without the need to be enriched, Thorium is also four times more abundant than Uranium. Molten salt reactors could also recycle the waste of current reactors.
In today’s post we will have a look at the various other advantages of this still not commercially developped technology. Continue »
I would like to share with you some personal experience on energy efficiency and sobriety as I got back for a few days to visit my parents. I then noticed my dad has the bad habit of letting some CFLs on.
I told him that this really wasn’t good for their purse and our common planet. I also reminded him that leaving lights on in empty rooms is just pure waste since nobody benefits from them.
His answer was that since they consume very little energy and this is thus absolutely not a big deal. Is he right ? Or am I ? Continue »
As Sustainable Business notes : ” As part of its new sustainability goals, 3M aims to improve its energy efficiency 25% by 2015. 3M’s 2015 Sustainability Goals build upon its record of environmental achievements, which go back to 1990. “
” Since 1990, the company has cut greenhouse gases 72% and reduced solid waste indexed to sales by 66%. Those achievements have built its reputation as a global sustainability leader.”
Here is another great example of a global company that understood that the environment can go hand in hand with business. Congratulations 3M !
To TreeHugger : ” Electronics giant Sony announced today that since 2000, it has achieved a 31 percent reduction in global CO2 emissions. The company boasts that means it surpassed its 2006 “Green Management” goal by 24 percent ”
” It did also achieve, though, a 54 percent reduction in waste generation (the goal was 40 percent) and a 41 percent reduction in water use at business sites (the goal was 20 percent).”
” The announcement comes after a third-party analysis of data from Sony’s facilities worldwide confirmed that the company met or exceeded several of the targets laid out in 2006 in its Green Management 2010 plan.”
What struck me during my two stays in Germany is that recycling was already pretty important in everyday lives. Indeed, the country is already recycling or reusing 70 % of its waste. (the proportion in the United States is of only 33 %.)
Earth911.com explains how the country achieved such a performance : “In 1996, German lawmakers who were concerned about the country’s growing number of landfills passed the Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act.”
For more details on how Germany achieved a key requirement of a more sustainable development, please check out the full article.
Energy efficiency is the very basis of a more sustainable society and Russia seems to have understood that. This is a great news as the country is one of the largest coal consumers. As I note in my latest article for CleanTechies :
“Some interesting news recently went unnoticed. Indeed, last month, Russia unveiled a massive energy efficiency plan as the country wastes as much energy as the French economy consumes.”
The $300 billion plan will save the country up to $35 billion per year. For more please read the full article there. All comments and feedback are welcome !
While browsing CleanTechnica I found an interesting article on peak oil. According to a leaked military report from the German Bundeswehr, peak oil will occur this year and the consequences will be dramatic.
Among them are market failures and tremendous risks for democracy itself. As Cleantechnica notes “ it is unlikely that any nation would be unaffected by such crises. “ This is not exactly encouraging news.
Meanwhile, the US Army is also thinking about the risks of peak oil and may stop completely using this energy source by 2040. Continue »
While traveling at 220 km/h in the TGV between Nancy and Paris I read about the Fresh Kills landfill and how it became a beautiful park in Staten Island. This is a continuation of my previous post, Turning a landfill into a beautiful garden.
Indeed Courrier International proposed last week the translation of the full article from The Ecologist on how what was considered as the world’s biggest landfill became “a bird-watcher’s paradise”
This article really made me think about what we can – and should – do about our planet’s landfills. As we will see, this would be a win-win-win project. Continue »
This is not news as we have seen it in Sustainable energy – without the hot air but some facts need reminders. The internal combustion engine – like incandescent light bulbs – is extremely inefficient. To GOOD :
If you had to invent an efficient way to move (…), you could hardly do worse than the modern automobile. After more than a century of refinement, (a car) wastes 85 percent of the energy in the fuel we put into it.
Hence the importance of developing alternatives. And from electric vehicles – cars, trucks and scooters – to biking, walking or simple public transportation, it is not as we lacked options. Continue »
