David Bollier: How ‘commoning’ can offer an alternative approach to sustainability
If we take sustainability seriously, we can’t return to the pre-pandemic world. But can society find better ways of doing things, or will our old habits be too difficult to shake?
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Green Group: what lived once will live again
As EU policy calls for greater and faster progress on the creation of a circular economy, European recycler Green Group is hailing a “golden age for recycling”. Here, the company’s co-founder and chairman tells us why that is – and how Green Group is turning PET packaging into new, recycled products, with a reduced CO2 footprint.
Leyla Acaroglu: a sustainability provocateur disrupts sustainability
Leyla Acaroglu considers the ways systems, sustainability and design can come together to solve Earth’s biggest problems. Through her UnSchool of Disruptive Design, this award-winning designer challenges the way we think about the global economy, consumption and recycling. Here, she tells us why companies are afraid to take action.
Enpal: a rooftop revolution
Many homeowners in the US lease solar systems for their rooftops , and the trend is now catching on in Germany. At the heart of this shift is German photovoltaics (PV) leasing company Enpal. How exactly is this four-year-old start-up disrupting the green energy market and making homes smarter?
Christian Rood: creating the battery of the future
LeydenJar Technologies is a Dutch start-up on a mission to make lithium-ion batteries last longer. Batteries are playing an important role in the transition to a clean energy future, and with higher energy density they will further unlock growth for a range of industries.
Constantin Damov: a market maker in the circular economy
Twenty years ago, Constantin Damov co-founded recycling company Green Group. His grandfather’s work and pollution in the Black Sea inspired him to make a change. Since then Damov’s company has become a market maker for recycling and re-use in the region.
Balki Iyer: storage is today's frontier
Storage is one of the challenges in the energy transition. Balki Iyer, chief commercial officer of Eos Energy Storage, tells us how Eos’s zinc batteries are “work horses” that are fully recyclable and provide energy storage in any climate.
Bart-Willem ten Cate: why we need biofuels on the road to 2030 climate targets
Bart-Willem ten Cate, Low-Carbon Strategist at FinCo Fuel Group BV, has been advocating for sustainability measures in transport for almost two decades. He believes “sustainability is becoming a licence to operate”, and tells us why low-carbon fuels have to be part of the energy transition – and how young people are key to success.
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Ezgi Barcenas: “When our communities thrive, we thrive”
As the world’s largest brewer, AB InBev is leveraging its global reach while sharpening its local agility to tackle sustainability challenges. Chief Sustainability Officer Ezgi Barcenas explains how multinationals and their local suppliers working together can bring future goals closer to the present.
Jan Willem Wieringa: plastics recycling can’t keep up with the sudden increase in demand
Jan Willem Wieringa is a veteran of the plastics and packaging industry. He tells us about the challenges of working in an energy-intensive business, and how Desch and the wider industry have already come a long way with recycling and energy efficient technology.
E-bike to go: the subscription service riding the sustainability wave
An electric bike subscription service from the Netherlands is bringing sustainable transport to both B2B and B2C customers. With its modern, robust fleet, E-bike to go is advancing sustainability one bike at a time.
Jens Müller: without staying power, it's hard to be a real changemaker
Deutsche Glasfaser has set itself the mission of delivering sustainable, thriving communities in Germany’s rural areas. According to CFO Jens Müller, accelerating the roll-out of fibre to the home (FTTH) not only generates digital opportunities for underserved areas of the population, but also goes a long way to tackling climate change.
Northvolt: the battery maker accelerating Europe’s sustainability drive
Northvolt, a four-year-old start-up headquartered in Stockholm, is building a giant production plant for lithium-ion battery cells in Skellefteå, northern Sweden. The ‘gigafactory’ is set to start producing in 2021 and is widely expected to usher in a new era for Europe’s automotive industry.
ZES: a zero-emission service cleans up inland shipping
An unlikely collaboration is addressing the problem of how to reduce emissions in the supply chain: battery-powered barges. In June 2020, Zero Emission Services began to offer an alternative to diesel-fuelled shipping on Dutch inland waterways by deploying electric barges running on modular batteries.