Last weeks catch up
In case you missed it ...
Many as you will know that we have two blogs, this one and The Sustainable Investor on Ghost. They are subtly different. This blog is for people who care about creating a sustainable and financially viable future, and want to understand better what it will entail, without the PR and greenwashing that you might get from sites that are trying to sell you something. The Ghost blog is the next step on. It’s for people who get the sustainability transitions, and who want to understand in more detail what needs to happen on a theme by theme basis. And where we should be allocating our capital (money to you & me) to really make a difference. The two often overlap.
Every Monday, we will bring an update here on what we have been writing about on the Ghost site, with a short explanation of why its important.
Bridging the gap … between sustainability objectives and financial reality.
Before moving on, this is not the place to come if you are looking to find out which new company to invest in, or to get detail on ESG scoring. As interesting as those things are, they make no sense without context. Welcome to the blog that gives you context.
To subscribe to this blog …
Here is a selection of recently published long blogs, Perspectives and Quick Insights that our subscribers get to read in full ...
Hardware-based electricity grid stability (Electricity systems)
Air pollution and dementia (Health and wellness)
Precision agriculture, producing more with less? (Agriculture / Natural capital)
Electric trucks - the future of freight? (Greener energy applications)
... plus a blog from the archives that you might find interesting...
A BBC article this week showcased a novel heat recovery solution in a Burger King in Malmo. OK so we are not going that far back into the archives, but here is a Quick Insight from a couple of weeks ago, in case you missed it, that looks at, amongst other things, using heat from wastewater to heat buildings 👉🏾 The good stuff in wastewater - part 1 (Built environment)
Excellent LinkedIn post from Nicola Shaver, CEO and Co-founder at Legaltech Hub highlighting the differences between 'AI', 'generative AI', 'ChatGPT' and 'large language models'. Beyond definitions, our choice of language can have important implications for how we think, react and problem solve. This crosses all disciplines from science, sociology, law, and pointedly, sustainability. This perspective is from January 2023 👉🏾 Language, Timothy! (Transitions / Human rights)
Hardware based electricity grid stability
(Greener energy applications, Professional)
This blog was previously published in December 2022 as "More renewables are coming - but that's not the interesting bit". We have updated and republished it, to include some recent news flow around the growing grid interconnection challenge. This republication is to coincide with the upcoming publication of our blog on software based electricity grid stability solutions.
As the percentage of renewable electricity generation on the grid increases, the way we store and use electricity will need to change and change dramatically. This will be a massive disruption to the existing system.
Why this is important: This is our attempt to start to identify where the very real investment opportunities lie in the electricity systems of the future. We start with how you can invest in an electricity grid that enables more renewables to happen. Why? In part because this is where some really interesting investment opportunities can be found. But there is another reason - without these investments in the grid, we will never achieve our renewable targets. It's that simple.
The big theme: From an investing perspective, as well as the obvious question as to how big will wind and solar become, there is a much more interesting question - what supporting investments will we need to make to allow the electricity grid to run with a higher percentage of renewables? This is going to be a massive investment theme even if we don't hit 100% renewables.
Link to blog 👇🏾
Air pollution and dementia
(Health and wellness, Professional)
A meta-analysis of research studies into the link between air pollution and incidences of clinical dementia has found a link at concentration levels of PM2.5 particles below the limits currently set by a number of country environmental agencies.
Why this is important: There are 55 million people with dementia globally and that is expected to rise to almost 153 million people by 2050. The estimated global cost of medical, social and informal care associated with dementia in 2019 was more than US$1.3 trillion with more than half attributable to care provided by informal carers.
The big theme: Air quality in general, and pollution in particular, have various significant investment and decision-making implications. Air pollution can be both naturally occurring or produced by human activity. Decreasing pollution with the aim of reducing human illness and suffering should be a goal unto itself. In practice it is also important to consider how such initiatives, that more often than not increase costs and dig into profits, will be beneficial to business and society in the long run, whether it be through decreased healthcare costs, increased health and productivity of the workforce, and reputational gains for such decisions.
Link to blog 👇🏾
Precision agriculture, producing more with less?
(Agriculture / Natural capital, Premium and Professional)
One of our key focuses over the coming decades, both financially and socially, must be on making our food production more efficient. But this doesn't necessarily mean more industrial scale farming. It means using technology and new approaches to make the type of agriculture we want financially viable. There are ways of growing more with less, and precision agriculture is an important contributor to of this. We need to focus more on these “easy” wins, but we also need to do so in a way that respects the financial reality faced by many farmers.
Why this is important: The role of agriculture in delivering net zero, regenerating our environment and enhancing our social systems is often the “elephant in the room” that we just don't talk about in a coherent way. Food prices and food security are massive political issues in many countries, and we argue that with increasing urbanisation we have become disconnected from where our food comes from, effectively exporting the negative impacts in return for low prices and year round availability.
The big theme: Our global food production system contributes roughly one third of all global GHG emissions. Close to 70% of this comes from agriculture and related changes in land use, with the rest coming from activities such as transportation and packaging. And with expected increases in food production, industry emissions might increase by up to 80% by 2050. There is no single silver bullet to solving this challenge in an economically viable way, but there are many actions that together can make a real difference.
Link to blog 👇🏾
Electric trucks - the future of freight?
(Greener energy applications, Premium & Professional)
While it might appear from recent news stories that the debate about what will power the trucks/HGV’s of the future is ongoing, in reality it's actually pretty much already decided. Short of any surprises in the next couple of years, it's going to be electricity. There is still an ongoing discussion about battery charging vs overhead power, but the notion that we will be using hydrogen or biofuels at any scale is fading, and fading fast. But the process has really only just started, and we have some tough decisions ahead of us.
Why this is important: Decarbonising transport, especially heavy transport, is partly about GHG emissions, but it's also about reducing air pollution - while at the same sustaining the freight transport sector. At present pretty much everything we consume spends at least some time in a (currently) diesel truck/HGV. Our freight infrastructure is essential to our economy. We need to be realistic. This is not going to be an easy or low cost transition. Issues include what charging infrastructure do we need, the capacity of our electricity grid, who pays for any overhead power lines, and of course financial support for early adopters.
The big theme: According to Our World in Data, Transport accounts for 24% of energy related emissions and 16% of total emissions, of which nearly half (45%) is from passenger transport. The Transition in Transport is one of the most advanced, especially for passenger cars, but as the industry moves up the innovation S curve, there will be numerous new challenges.
Link to blog 👇🏾
The good stuff in wastewater - part 1
(Built environment, Premium and Professional)
A BBC article this week showcased a novel heat recovery solution in a Burger King in Malmo. OK so we are not going that far back into the archives, but is a Quick Insight from a couple of weeks ago, in case you missed it that looks at, amongst other things, using heat from wastewater to heat buildings
In a world of increasingly scarce resources, wastewater can provide us with heat (for our buildings) plus raw materials for fertiliser and for energy. It now makes sense to better use the good stuff in our waste water - resources that we are currently just wasting.
Why this is important: We tend to think about wastewater treatment as being an environmental and health issue. That is why we treat our sewage rather than just pump it into rivers and the sea. But in our growing circular economy, recycling the resources in our wastewater increasingly makes financial sense.
The big theme: In their 2021 update, UN Water estimated that globally nearly half of household water flows were NOT safely treated. And the data shows massive variations, with the lowest levels of treatment in Central and Southern Asia & Sub Saharan Africa. Funding this is a massive challenge, so finding alternative revenue streams can really help.
Link to blog 👇🏾
Plus - from the archives
Language, Timothy!
(Transitions / Human rights, Free to read)
Excellent LinkedIn post from Nicola Shaver, CEO and Co-founder at Legaltech Hub highlighting the differences between 'AI', 'generative AI', 'ChatGPT' and 'large language models'. Beyond definitions, our choice of language can have important implications for how we think, react and problem solve. This crosses all disciplines from science, sociology, law, and pointedly, sustainability.
Language is an important tool in driving the transitions and arriving at appropriate solutions. How we frame questions is important - we look at examples including the 'hydrogen economy', diversity and inclusion, the built environment and ESG.
Why this is important: Incorrect framing of a sustainability question may lead to a sub optimal solution either in totality or for individual regions - for example, a solution being appropriate in the UK, but not in Nigeria.
The big theme: In order to transition to a more sustainable future it is important that we are asking the right questions to ensure that we have solutions and routes to get to those solutions that don't make our situation worse!
Link to blog 👇🏾
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Please read: important legal stuff.