Author: Laura B.

I'm a degreed librarian with over 30 years of experience as an environmental information professional. I'm currently the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center's Sustainability Information Curator and also manage the Center's strategic communications.

The latest ‘right to repair’ law is the broadest one yet

Read the full story at Stateline.

Do-it-yourselfers and repair shops are celebrating a victory in Minnesota with the enactment of a new law that requires many manufacturers to share parts and information with tinkerers and small businesses.

The so-called right to repair law will allow equipment owners and independent shops to more easily fix devices like phones, laptops, appliances and other equipment.

Minnesota is the latest state to approve such a law, following Colorado earlier this year and New York last year. Massachusetts’ law covering vehicles was enacted in 2020. Do-it-yourselfers, farmers, handyman companies and small repair shops argue that without such laws, big tech companies make it almost impossible to get manufacturers’ parts and instructions.

Manufacturers, however, argue that broadening access could pose dangers to would-be repairers and the equipment as well as compromise the safety and security of devices.

As the bills make their way through the states, tech firms have successfully lobbied to exempt some types of equipment or allow other exceptions such as allowing manufacturers to provide only full assemblies of parts, rather than individual parts such as a chip, for what the manufacturers say is safety or security reasons.

Webinar: Solutions for water in the 21st century

Jun 28, 2023, 3 pm CDT
Register here.

The Conversation invites you to a webinar to discuss today’s water challenges and potential solutions. Communities in the U.S. and around the world are facing water problems of all kinds – drought, flooding, contaminated water, lack of access to water, and more. You’ll walk away with an understanding of some of today’s most pressing water-related issues and ideas on how individuals and communities can address them.

Speakers

Rosalyn LaPier
An award-winning Indigenous writer, environmental historian, and ethnobotanist. Professor of History at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Gabriel Filippelli
Expert in climate change and environmental health. Professor of Earth Sciences and Executive Director of Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute.

Burke Griggs
Professor of law at Washburn University.  His scholarship explores the historical, technical, and cultural aspects of natural resources law, especially water law.

Moderated by Brett Walton, a journalist who has worked as a correspondent at freshwater news site Circle of Blue for more than a decade.

Speakers are all contributors to the book The Conversation on Water, part of the Critical Conversations series published by Johns Hopkins University Press. 

The Conversation on Water is a collection of essays from contributors to The Conversation on the world’s water crises and the necessary steps to build a more sustainable and equitable water future for all. The Critical Conversations series includes collections on gender diversity, biotechnology, guns and work.

Amazon, Yum and RBI shareholders vote against proposals about plastic packaging use

Read the full story at Packaging Dive.

Shareholders at Amazon, Yum Brands and Restaurant Brands International recently rejected proposals that requested the companies report on their plastic packaging use and reduction plans.

At Amazon’s May 24 meeting, 32.3% of votes (excluding abstentions and broker non-votes) backed a resolution supported by shareholder advocacy nonprofit As You Sow that said the e-commerce giant was “falling behind” plastic reduction targets set by other major companies such as Unilever, Walmart, Target and Ikea. A related shareholder resolution also didn’t pass at the company’s annual meeting last year.

Texas welcomed Elon Musk. Now his rural neighbors aren’t so sure.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

While happy for the investment, local residents don’t trust Musk’s companies to properly handle wastewater, erosion and other issues.

Q&A with EPA Associate Chief Lana Suarez: Food waste prevention tools and solutions

Read the full story at Waste360.

A quick Google search will give anyone some alarming facts about food waste and the total loss that it is for the United States.

About one-third of food intended for human consumption is wasted or lost every year, which is about 1.3 billion tons. Luckily, awareness on the ongoing food waste issue is rising every year and tons of companies and individuals are taking steps to help divert food from landfills and fight insecurity.

Lana Suarez, associate chief at the EPA, took the time to answer some questions from Waste360 ahead of the Federal Food Loss and Waste Reduction Initiatives panel at WasteExpo about the state of food waste in the United States, tools that her agency has available for food loss prevention, what federal funding currently looks like for the issue, and more.

Frito-Lay, Quaker open Greenhouse Learning Center

Read the full story at Pro Food World.

Frito-Lay and Quaker have opened a Greenhouse Learning Center that will field test, measure, and analyze compostable packaging with the goal accelerating the rate of innovation. The R&D packaging team will use the center to test the biodegradation properties of compostable packages in different environments to validate lab results through simultaneous, real-time experiments as packaging formulations are improved.

Diageo drones increase farming efficiency, environmental benefits

Read the full story at Pro Food World.

Drones are being employed in tequila farming to accumulate data on agave plants to make better farming decisions and reduce water and fertilizer use, while cutting carbon emissions.

DOD Climate Resilience Workshop 2023

Jul 10-13, 2023, St. Louis, MO
The event is free
More information and to register.

This Workshop will provide a forum for DOD stakeholders and partners to explore the many facets of climate change, a national security threat that has tangible impacts to military readiness. Installations, environmental organizations, and climate change professionals will all be broadly represented to help inform the Military Departments on data, tools, and resources for addressing and combatting climate change threats. Workshop attendees will share lessons learned on built and natural infrastructure solutions and set the course for new and improved partnerships to connect missions, resources, and communities in support of military installation resilience.

Half of Chicago neighborhoods lack electric vehicle chargers for public use

Read the full story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Building a robust network of chargers to make EV ownership feasible, whether you live in a rural town or a big city like Chicago, is proving difficult.

Moving from corporate responsibility to impact

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

ESG and the impact economy are changing corporate responsibility forever. Here’s how.