Day: November 9, 2020

Construction industry, Events

Webinar: Introducing the Contractor’s Commitment

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Nov 13, 2020 2 pm CST
Register here.

Contractors are uniquely positioned to impact the sustainability of building projects. So why aren’t there standardized guidelines for how contractors should go about enhancing sustainability of their projects and tracking progress? The Sustainable Construction Leaders created the Contractor’s Commitment to fill this gap. 

This webinar will mark the launch of the Contractor’s Commitment as a pilot program for 2021. We’ll give a brief overview of how the guidelines set a sustainability benchmark specific to the construction industry and provide uniformity in reporting sustainability performance. Attendees will also learn how to use the guidelines and make a formal commitment for their company.  

Climate change, Sustainable communities

Converging on Solutions to Plan Sustainable Cities

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Read the full story at Eos.

Climate change will exacerbate the food, energy, water, health, and equity challenges that urban communities face, but cities also have opportunities to improve sustainability and outcomes.

COVID-19, Garbage

Pandemic plastic: How PPE litter is harming Evanston

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Read the full story in the Daily Northwestern.

The coronavirus pandemic is generating mountains of medical waste that experts say are overwhelming recycling and garbage centers both in Evanston and across the nation.

Natural disasters, Renewable energy, Sustainable communities

The town that built back green

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Read the full story in the Washington Post.

After a tornado demolished Greensburg, Kan., it rebuilt without carbon emissions. Can its lessons help communities and economies rebound from fires, hurricanes and covid-19?

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate change, Land use

Restoring Farmland Could Drastically Slow Extinctions, Fight Climate Change

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Read the full story in the New York Times.

Returning strategic parts of the world’s farmlands to nature could help mitigate both climate change and biodiversity loss, a new study found.

Food and beverage manufacturing, Food waste

Greencovery: Meet the start-up upcycling food side-streams into ingredients

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Read the full story at Food Navigator.

Dutch start-up Greencovery has developed technology that helps food manufacturers recover valuable compounds from their side-streams. The resulting ‘high quality’ ingredients help the business offer an ‘attractive economical proposition’ that reduces CO₂ and water consumption, co-founder and commercial director Juan Cajiao tells FoodNavigator.

Agriculture, Energy, Illinois

Powerful pennycress: Dr. Sedbrook’s research team is transforming a weed into a crop

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Read the full story from Illinois State University.

Though farmers consider pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) nothing more than a weed, Illinois State Professor of Genetics Dr. John Sedbrook is working to change their perspective—and the plant itself. Sedbrook and his student researchers in the School of Biological Sciences are genetically modifying pennycress as part of a multistate, multi-institutional effort funded by a five-year, $10 million USDA grant and a $13 million Department of Energy grant.

The researchers are attempting to transform the plant into a commercially grown cover crop that would be a boon to farmers and the environment. The harvested plant would be processed into biofuel, jet fuel, animal feed, and other products.

Breweries, Solar

Firestone beer now brewed with Paso Robles sunshine

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Read the full story in the Paso Robles Daily News.

Firestone Walker Brewing Company this week flipped the switch on one of the largest on-site solar arrays in the craft beer industry —a 9.7-acre, 2.1-megawatt installation that promises to offset a majority of the brewery’s energy usage and account for six million cases of beer brewed annually.

Biodiversity, Publications

Tackling alarming decline in nature requires ‘safety net’ of multiple, ambitious goals

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Read the full story from George Washington University.

A ‘safety net’ made up of multiple ambitious and interlinked goals is needed to tackle nature’s alarming decline, according to an international team of researchers analyzing the new goals for biodiversity being drafted by the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Associated journal article: Sandra Díaz, Noelia Zafra-Calvo, Andy Purvis, Peter H. Verburg, David Obura, Paul Leadley, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Luc De Meester, Ehsan Dulloo, Berta Martín-López, M. Rebecca Shaw, Piero Visconti, Wendy Broadgate, Michael W. Bruford, Neil D. Burgess, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Fabrice DeClerck, José María Fernández-Palacios, Lucas A. Garibaldi, Samantha L. L. Hill, Forest Isbell, Colin K. Khoury, Cornelia B. Krug, Jianguo Liu, Martine Maron, Philip J. K. McGowan, Henrique M. Pereira, Victoria Reyes-García, Juan Rocha, Carlo Rondinini, Lynne Shannon, Yunne-Jai Shin, Paul V. R. Snelgrove, Eva M. Spehn, Bernardo Strassburg, Suneetha M. Subramanian, Joshua J. Tewksbury, James E. M. Watson, Amy E. Zanne. Set ambitious goals for biodiversity and sustainability. Science, 2020; 370 (6515): 411 DOI: 10.1126/science.abe1530
Climate change, Communicating science

Climate Feedback

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Climate Feedback is a worldwide network of scientists sorting fact from fiction in climate change media coverage. They provide analysis of articles and reviews of specific claims. Each review and analysis includes a brief explanation of the rating, a more detailed explanation, and feedback from responding scientists.

See also their sister site, Health Feedback.

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