This number is sponsored by gener8tor: Apply by Jan 2nd to be one of five sustainability and climate tech startups that will receive $100k investment through the gener8tor Sustainability Accelerator. The companies will gain access to a national network of investors, corporate partners and mentors through this three-month program starting in February 2022.

1. Interview with Bruno Mariani, CEO and founder of Symbiosis Investimentos

“Trees are like stocks, do you want one stock or more? Diversification is key” Bruno Mariani in the once severely degraded Atlantic forest. He reintroduced native species and a business model that would allow the forest to flourish.

To the interview

2. Climate Careers: Working on the climate emergency

More and more people are pursuing a career to solve climate change. In this number we explore how they commit their careers to the opportunity. It also includes an interview with Nestlé’s Senior Environmental Manager Owen Bethell. Plus, in "The Impact” you can find an op-ed corresponding to this careers article.

To the article

3. Climate Investing: Betting money on climate solutions

The “Greta Effect” is real. Students strike school on Fridays and investors allocate capital to reverse climate change. Corporate and venture capital funds now invest billions in solutions that will reduce and remove carbon emissions. But (how) can you profit from the climate craze? In this number you will also learn more about the difficult relationship between bitcoin and the environment.

To the article

4. How wild animals can help us deal with capricious climate

Furry firefighters: Beavers prevent wildfires from spreading and help ecosystems recover post-fire. Beavers provide a whole range of services: water purification, moderation of extreme events and greenhouse gas sequestration amongst others.

To the article

5. Design meets Decarbonization: Seven Objects from the Milano Design Week

Sustainability was a major component of the Milano Design Week. We ventured out from behind our screens to the real world and brought you seven particularly interesting findings.

To the article

6. Solar Geoengineering: Will we have to cloud the sun?

Next to GHG mitigation and adaptation, solar radiation management is part of a three-pronged climate policy solution. Essentially, solar geoengineering is the possibility to reflect a small fraction of sunlight back into space to lower temperatures on Earth. This number also includes an interview with SV Group's sustainability manager Dörte Bachmann.

To the article

7. See where Pioneers across Europe stand on four critical climate questions

From September to November I had the opportunity shape the Europe-wide community of the EIT Climate KIC´s Pioneers programme. Before a workshop participants had to make tough decisions about nuclear energy, taxing carbon, flying short-haul and eating meat.

To the article

8. Benchmarking materials: How could we make low-emission furniture?

In this issue we compare materials and peek into the future of furniture design. We explore questions such as: What’s the problem with furniture? What is the impact of materials? Who is doing resourceful furniture design? Read the article and study the resulting design proposal of the Benchmark.

To the article

9. Machines against climate change: How neural networks help cutting emissions

Organizations across sectors make use of machine learning to tackle climate change. For example by automatically adjusting the heating in buildings or detecting the sound of chainsaws in rainforests. This number also contains a short interview with Sven Bruchfeld, Managing director of certified B Winery Polkura from Chile.

To the article

This newsletter is sponsored by…

Apply by Jan 2nd to be one of five sustainability and climate tech startups that will receive $100k investment through the gener8tor Sustainability Accelerator. These 5 companies will gain access to a national network of investors, corporate partners and mentors through this three-month program starting in February 2022.

Do you enjoy giving back to the community and getting paid for it? Here is a low-key side hustle to fund your habit: Wynter is looking for professionals to join its research panel. Participate in research studies and get $15-$50 per 5'-15' survey.

1. Energy: Promote nuclear or not?

One of the hottest debates revolves around including nuclear in the “clean” energy mix. This video is doing a pretty good job explaining the pros and cons. The group leaned towards not promoting nuclear energy. What is your tendency?

• Yes

• No

2. Mobility: Eliminate short-haul flights?

In Europe flights under 300 miles cause the majority of aviation emissions. Yet many destinations lack the infrastructure to make roads and trains competitive alternatives. The group had a tendency to eliminate short-haul flights. What is your preference?

• Yes

• No

3. Policy: Taxing carbon or not?

Many say that a carbon tax is absolutely necessary to get emissions under control. The group is clearly agreeing with this position. What do you think, to tax or not to tax?

• Yes

• No

4. Food: Eating meat or not?

While some say ”It’s not the cow, it’s the how” other sources argue that switching to a plant-based diet is indispensable. However, the majority of the group wants to keep meat on the plate. Would you ban eating meat or not?

• Yes

• No

With the exception of a carbon tax, the other topics remain contested. There are a lot of nuances that make taking a clear position about nuclear energy, animal meat, short-haul flights more difficult. I guess innovation will lead the path forward, yet continuing the public conversation will determine how rocky that path will be. What do you think? Let us know in the poll and comments.

Now it’s your turn: What is your standpoint on the topics?

To the poll

We’re curious to see whether one group of Pioneers agrees or disagrees with the other group of Pioneers ;)

Learn more about EIT Climate-KIC and the Pioneers programme

Pioneers is a flagship programme of EIT Climate-KIC, a Knowledge and Innovation community supporting systemic climate innovation co-funded by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology. You can join their Week of Action from October 25–31. Check out the full schedule on the event page.

A great thank you to Strategic Programme Builder Lisa Janßen for reading drafts of this issue and running the workshop together with Sigmund Kluckner and me.

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Earlier this month we ventured out from behind our screens to the real world. At the design week in Milano we had plenty of eye-pinching moments.

In this number, you will get to learn about seven particularly interesting findings (click on the images and links further below to get more details) in random order.

Enjoy!

A) Activated carbon parts clean dirty air in subway stations and turn pollution into pastels by Marie Melcore

Pollution is pretty bad for your lungs, but also for your brain. Design researcher Marie Melcore made structures of activated carbon parts that are able to filter fine particles from the air and make polluted spaces like subway stations more breathable. The parts are made from upcycling food waste. When deconstructed, they can be used as pastels. From waste to art. Discovered in the Isola Design District exhibition Materialized. 

B) Robotic forest ranger: “Chunk” is responsible for sawing, pruning and mowing by Segev Kaspi

Reforestation efforts can contribute much to solving the climate crisis – but who will take care of all the newly-created forests? Segev Kaspi designed a family of robotic forest caretakers: “Chunk is responsible for sawing, pruning and mowing; Dixon, for planting, reforestation of seedlings, and cuttings; Rikko, for gathering, monitoring and analysing data from the forest.”

C) A table and dishes made from industrial food waste by Studio Traccia

All the dishes and cutlery on this table are made from food waste. Industrial food waste from today (like rice husks for example) can become tableware tomorrow. What's best: even the tabletop is made from materials sourced from organic waste. Tabula non Rasa was designed by Studio Traccia.

D) A 100% biodegradable gown for healthcare professionals by Benjamin Bichsel

In hospitals, disposable clothing is an unavoidable part of safety procedures. It protects both the staff and the patients against infections and transmissible diseases. However, this procedure causes tons of synthetic textile waste. Our talented compatriot Benjamin Bichsel created a 100% biodegradable medical clothing line.

E) Artificial reefs to provide a new home for fish and friends by Anna Kaiser and Kyo Mangold

Natural coral reefs are dying because of warming and acidifying oceans. Anna Kaiser and Kyo Mangold created Coral City, a structure that can provide a home to coral larvae, allowing them to grow even in warmer temperatures.

F) Repurposed street material: Furniture made from materials found in cities by Haruka Isono

Why drive to the IKEA in the suburbs if you can just assemble your furniture from within your urban neighbourhood? Haruka Isono designed a series of unconventional furniture pieces. This chair is made of grating metals that are typically found in the streets. This kind of repurposing could be an early example of urban mining in the field of furniture design.

G) Plastic that smells good and biodegrades within 60 to 120 days by Crafting Plastics

This is a 3D-printed room-divider. The special thing about it is that it’s made from 100% renewable resources and, unlike regular plastic, this one smells good. When it has come to the end of its lifecycle, the “BreaZea” can be placed in an industrial compost, where it will biodegrade within 60 to 120 days.

Now it’s your turn: Which one is your favourite object from the selection above? Cast your vote in this survey. If you are also interested in further exploring these findings with some of the designers, we invite you for a short online session on October 5th at 4pm CET - Sign up at the bottom of the survey for the meeting link (max. 100 participants). The vote is over, here are the results:

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Dear Climate Pioneer

Can animals protect us against extreme weather events? In this number we look at a few examples and other interesting things:

• Animals assisting us in creating a liveable climate

• This startup is turning CO2 into physical products

• Microsoft requests information to accelerate climate action

• Let’s create low-emission products and services

Especially after a grim IPCC report earlier this month it is important to stay pragmatic and positive.

Thank you for reading!

Sam

A collection of animals providing ecosystem services that can prevent climate risks

You might have heard that bees contribute billions to the economy (wild bees pollinating fruit and vegetable crops is estimated to be worth over $3,000 per hectare on average). Are there animal activities that have very specific climate benefits? A short collection.

Furry firefighters: Beavers prevent wildfires from spreading and help ecosystems recover post-fire

Beavers provide a whole range of services: water purification, moderation of extreme events and greenhouse gas sequestration amongst others. By cutting trees and building wetlands, beavers mitigate the spread of wildfire and provide refuge and recovery. Their work is worth millions to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. But beavers are a bit like humans. They have the capability to transform landmass quite fundamentally. When beavers start building it can also be destructive and lead to flooding of sewers and wells. They can also damage farm land. And in Alaska they’re changing the landscape in ways that could actually release more greenhouse gases.

Marine food transportation system: Whales are as important as wind and worth as much as 1000 trees

Whales may be as important as wind for mixing the ocean. Sperm whales, for example, feed on fish and squid in the deep ocean, and then come to the surface and enrich it with feces rich in iron and nitrogen. Whales also accumulate carbon in their bodies during their long lives. “When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean; each great whale sequesters 33 tons of CO2 on average, taking that carbon out of the atmosphere for centuries. A tree, meanwhile, absorbs only up to 48 pounds of CO2 a year.” The National Geographic estimates protecting whale populations could be equalising the annual carbon emissions of Brazil. If the 1.3 million great whales could be increased to the pre-commercial population level of 4-5 million, they could capture about 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Hairy seed planters: Squirrels plant trees because they only find a fraction of the thousands of nuts they hide every year 

Researchers at the University of Richmond found that squirrels fail to recover up to 74% of the nuts they bury. The study says that the misplacing of so many seeds like acorns, is likely responsible for oak forest regeneration. 

Shell-ter from the storm: Oysters protect coasts from storm surge and wave action and help reduce erosion

Oysters and clams are known to filter particulates and remove excess nitrogen from coastal waters. Oyster beds, coral reefs and seagrasses can also break up the seafloor and buffer the severity of storm surges and waves in hurricanes and coastal erosion.

Feathery gardeners: Birds spread seeds and eat insects and worms, and thereby protect plants and help them grow

Birds don’t just snack seeds, they’re spreading them when they travel, drop or digest. Similar to squirrels, some birds hide seeds and forget about it, thus allowing plants to colonize new areas. Birds also pollinate plants and protect them by eating insects that are pests to plants. 

Thanks to Minda Monteagudo, Emilie Danna, Alex Kats-Rubin and Lassor Feasley for contributions to this collection. Do you know of more good examples we should add? Add them in the comments.

Leave a comment

One could argue the climate situation already is crucial for us and other species. The question is, can we intelligently make use of other species and create win-win situations? This requires extensive imagination and knowledge.

The more we occupy earth, the better we need to understand its inhabitants in detail to be able to create a liveable climate. In fact, if human organizations and technologies manage ecosystem services, we will need to know all about life out there.

Today, we may know only 10% of all plant and animal species. For example, we have perhaps a hundred million species of insects yet to find. Let’s discover.

What are your thoughts on this?

Turning CO2 into physical products: “Technology gives us options, so we have choices. So we can choose to do something about climate change”

Twelve is a company that produces material for shoes, cars or phones out of CO2. Turning pollution into items is an amazing achievement. The products of the future are made from dirty air. "I don't think we're doomed" says their CTO Kendra Kuhl,  “Technology gives us options, so we have choices. So we can choose to do something about climate change”.

Microsoft is looking for ideas to accelerate carbon removal, renewable energy and materials with lower or negative carbon footprint

Microsoft has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to accelerate carbon removal, renewable energy and materials with lower or negative carbon footprint. Deadline for submissions is September 15. Evelyne Viegas, Microsoft’s Senior Director for Global Research Engagement, says “With this RFI we are looking at engaging with the research and technical community committed to driving to a carbon negative globe. Responses to this RFI may help inform our future plans around engaging with and supporting the research community, including research collaborations, in the areas described in the RFI.”

Let’s help organizations to create low-emission products and services – submit your introductions or interest

Following our call, we have received initial introductions and are currently talking to potential partners. We want to continue exchanging with decision makers for new ways to source sustainable solutions for their businesses. Are you interested to talk to us about an innovation competition or do you know anyone who could be? Please do get in touch and let’s bring low-emission products alive.

Email us

Dear Climate Pioneers

In this number we kindly ask for your advice in order to launch an open innovation competition.

1. Concept: What do you think about a competition to solve sustainability challenges?

2. Introduction: Can you help us find a first partner organization? Get a $500 reward.

Thanks for your support & Enjoy the summer!

Sam

1. Can we source solutions and knowledge from anywhere to solve decarbonization challenges everywhere? An open innovation competition for corporate climate action.

I have been fascinated by open innovation for a long time. Most recently I came across 1729.com, a newsletter that pays readers for completing tasks. What if we apply the same concept to source solutions for reducing GHG emissions? Can we match the toughest questions to the brightest answers? 

To begin, we need one challenge sponsor. An organization that specifies a task to be solved. Let’s walk through an example. The scandinavian furniture retailer IKEA has committed to “becoming climate positive by 2030 by reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the value chain emits, while still growing the business”. To reach their climate target, the company has already identified a number of challenges. For example, the company has found that “Fossil-based glue represents 6% of the total IKEA climate footprint”. Now, what if IKEA launched an open innovation competition to find solutions? Kind of like Elon’s $100M Xprize for carbon removal, but to answer a different question: “Can you help us make a carbon neutral glue? Solve the challenge and win prizes worth $100’000” – Wouldn’t that be cool?

The benefits for participants and organizations to engage in a competition are manifold:

• Organizations can make problems visible and tap the knowledge from sustainability enthusiasts and experts all over the world. A simple way for organizations to make actual progress on their road to net-zero emissions.

• Participants get to solve real-world problems and connect and collaborate with other participants. Their solutions can accelerate the decarbonization of the economy and win juicy rewards.

We want to start such a competition with one organization. The organization can be much different or smaller than the furniture giant, ideally a company with physical products or production. But basically any organization that would like to cut GHG emissions within their supply or value chain: A factory that wants to redefine an inefficient process, a multinational that aims to reduce CO2-emissions from transportation, a brand that looks for ways to lower a product's carbon footprint, a manufacturer that needs to replace a material or a city that wants to optimize waste management.

There are two things you can do to help us make it happen:

1. Would you like to contribute your knowledge to transition to a clean economy? What is something you would enjoy participating in over the long term? What’s your advice for the concept, how would you approach it? Any thoughts and ideas you want to bring in? Anything you would add or remove?

2. Help us find a partner to launch an open innovation competition and get $500 for a successful introduction. Find more details below.

2. Do you know someone who knows someone? Make a successful connection and get $500.

Connect us to someone working at a company that is open to explore the opportunity to open source solutions to cut GHG emissions. All you need to do is send a short intro email with the subject “Introduction to Climate Pioneers Open Innovation”, put hi@projectoasis.ch in cc and a link to this post to the person in question. If your introduction turns into a collaboration you get $500 in the currency you want. Here is an example:

From: me
To: tim.cook@apple.com
Cc: hi@projectoasis.ch

Subject: Introduction to Open Innovation Competition from Climate Pioneers

Hey Tim

Hope you are doing fine. I came across an interesting opportunity in the last Climate Pioneers issue (link). It’s about crowdsourcing viable solutions to cut a company's GHG emissions. 

I believe this could be a low risk opportunity for you to get great returns. Sam from Climate Pioneers would be more than happy to talk to you and provide further details.

Let me know how it went,

Satya

The recent catastrophic floods in Europe underlined that we need collective efforts in the fight against a changing climate. Some victims of the floods in Germany literally said it is “worse than a bombardment" and "a state of emergency like World War II”.

I’m thinking a lot about how this publication can be useful in this context. What if we become a place to exchange challenges and knowledge to initiate and implement the development of low-emission products and processes? At this moment I’m exploring the opportunity with decision makers and would be very happy to get your support in this endeavour. Thanks for your help!

Legal disclaimer: The reward is given to the person/group at the origin of the first competition realized through this publication. It is possible that multiple prizes are awarded, depending on the success of introductions (launches of competitions). At the moment we will reward up to five introductions that result in collaborations with the identical reward. We keep the right to end or continue the call at all times. The decisions are final, there is no recourse to legal action permitted.

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Symbiosis Investimentos is a Brazilian timber operation that orchestrates everything from raising capital, to selecting species and managing forests. In this interview, CEO and founder Bruno Mariani elaborates how his company aims to set a new standard for the wood industry.

Why did you start a timber company?

Bruno Mariani: Pastures and eucalyptus plantations for pulp production have eaten the Atlantic forest in Brazil. More than 90% of the original surface is devastated. In 2008 I started thinking about large- scale restoration of the forest. As a former investment banker I knew human beings are economical beings and donations to restoration organizations will not be enough. We would need huge amounts of money to restore these large surfaces. A company was the right tool to make the vision happen and control the costs.

What happened next?

Bruno Mariani: I analysed the successful pulp and paper industry in Brazil sourcing uniquely from eucalyptus monocultures. But trees are like stocks, do you want one stock or a balanced portfolio? Diversification is key. I saw a big opportunity in producing wood from endemic trees for construction, architecture and design purposes. But there was one big problem: we had no data on local species at that time. Brazilian universities only researched pine and eucalypt. So on the basis of estimates I calculated a real rate of return of 12% and went to investors with a proposal of a pilot research project to produce data on local species. We started a test ground on 1’000 hectares in Bahia. This region is excellent for silviculture: high temperatures, a lot of sun and rain. In the next 7-8 years we collected data to confirm our calculations. We tested 56 species and narrowed the list down to 22 species after 5 years. We started to collaborate with universities and NGOs such as the World Resource Institutes to research and publish data of tree growth, costs of land and wood prices and quality. A whole ecosystem around local species was born.

What are the plans for the future of Symbiosis Investimentos? 

Bruno Mariani: We can now estimate the real rate of return between 12-20% and are ready to expand. We’re slowly building up the surface from 1'000 to 10'000 of hectares of rich forests, and then will go to 100’000 hectares in the next 15 years. Territory for expansion is no issue, since Brazil has huge areas of degraded land to plant forests. The wood quality is excellent as has been proved by the federal universities of St. Paulo and Bahia. We’ll be selling the wood in Europe, US and China. But most of all we’ll continue to restore the forests and ecosystems. 40% of our total surface is reserved for restoration of native forest (the law in Brazil is 20%). Every river bank on the property has to be planted with native trees, not for wood production, biodiversity is the objective there. So in total 40% of the surface is restoration, 60% is production, which covers the cost for restoration. The fauna can benefit not only on the conservation areas but on 100% of the area. We’ve been monitoring the impact on the fauna over the years, and the positive impact measured was amazing. The CO2 sequestration has also been measured, and is now a relevant part of our cash flow. Monoculture plantations are just a huge risk for diseases, mimicking the natural way makes much more sense, and there is plenty of research to prove it! We have learned how to do it the right way over the past 10 years, now we are starting to scale.

What is one current challenge you are working on?

Bruno Mariani: We are looking to raise $25 million from long-term investors such as forest companies in the US and Europe, who are fine to get their money back in 20 years or sell the equity on the secondary market (we think of going public in 10 years). The challenge is: for impact investment programs we are too big and for pension funds we are too small.

Note: This conversation originally took place in October 2019, we revised the interview with Bruno Mariani for this number. The images in this post are from this World Resource Institute article used with permission from the author Bruno Calixto.

Symbiosis Investimentos Profile

The company has five key activities to secure commercial viability and native species for the Atlantic forest:

1. Seedlings Nursery

2. Production Forests

3. Forest Improvements

4. Sexual Breeding

5. Cloning

Facts & Figures

• Location: Atlantic Forest (Google maps)

• Surface: 81’897 hectares of planted production forests

• Carbon: 6’718 tons of CO2 fixed annually with plantations.

• Plantation: 1’302’806 planted trees of 55 different species

For further information, check out their website, facebook and instagram.

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Dear Climate Pioneer

Do you want to create a carbon negative furniture product together? Come on a quest to find out how. For the sake of benchmarking, we’re assuming to make a bench.

For this special issue I teamed up with my brother David, an industrial designer, to compare materials and explore the future of furniture. We look at four questions:

1. What’s the problem with furniture? Global and user perspectives.

2. What is the impact of materials? A comparison of 5 materials.

3. Who is doing resourceful furniture design? A list with 21 examples.

4. So how can we make it? A first conclusion and 6 ideas.

If you enjoy the content, consider forwarding it or becoming a member to access past and future publications anytime.

Thanks!

Sam & Dave

To the design proposal

1. What’s the problem with furniture? Short life cycles, indoor pollution and hard to get rid of.

Cheap and disposable furniture fit well into flexible lifestyles. On the other hand ‘fast furniture’ is polluting the environment not just at large, but also at home: 

• Greenhouse gas emissions from overall material production increase.

• The average piece of furniture generates around 47 kg of CO2e.

• Chemicals like formaldehyde in furniture pollute the air indoors.

• Furniture piles up into millions of tons of waste in landfills.

We also asked a few people what they find frustrating about furniture. Here is what they said:

• No furniture is cost-friendly and robust at the same time.

• The cheaper it is, the more vulnerable.

• Getting the right size can be difficult. 

• Keeping it without scratches and new looking.

• Hard to resell or dispose (especially larger furniture).

It seems we’re in a short-cycled flatpack furniture trap. How to get out of it? Is it possible to make more durable and healthy goods at competitive prices and convenience? To answer this question we start off with looking at materials. In the next section we evaluate five widely used materials.

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2. What is the impact of materials? A comparison of five common materials and their embodied carbon footprint, exposure risk and recyclability.

Which one is your favourite bench material? Vote for it.

Our estimations on five common materials are based on the material pyramid, inputs from Viola Hasani and Jonas Scheyrer from Worldwatchers and various other sources as stated below.

Aluminum is at the top of the pyramid with over 10 kg of CO2e per kilo of product. The high number is largely dependent on the type of energy used in manufacturing. Smelters running on hydropower can reduce emissions to around 2-4 kg of CO2e. On the bright side aluminium can be recycled indefinitely and thereby save 90 percent of the energy use and reduce the footprint by a factor of 10 to 18 kg CO2e. Exposure limits exist in manufacturing environments. Aluminium is currently priced at about $2.40/kg. Our bench needs 18 kg of material resulting in $43.20.

Concrete for lightweight elements emits 202.3 kg CO2e per m³. Globally concrete generates roughly 8% of CO2 emissions! Plus its excessive need for sand destroys landscapes. Companies like Carbonbuilt, CarbonCure or Neustark are improving concrete’s carbon footprint. Concrete is toxic in occupational exposure, but performs also as an anti-allergic surface at home. Concrete can be recycled and reused, but currently the vast majority is dumped in landfills. Concrete costs $300 per m³. At the bench’s volume of 0.054 m³ this would cost $16.20 and 10.9 kg CO2e.

Plastic is made from fossil fuels. Polypropylene has a carbon footprint of 3.5 kg CO2e per kilo. Our bench can be made with 6 kilos of polypropylene, which would translate into an embodied carbon footprint of 21 kg. Currently less than 10 percent of plastic is being recycled. With recycled PP we could half the footprint. Also, with PDK, a new product is on the horizon that can be recycled without losing its strength. In terms of toxicity, polypropylene is usually considered safe for humans. Polypropylene prices are currently at about $1000 per ton resulting in $6 for our bench.

Steel emits on average 1.85 tons of carbon dioxide per ton. For the volume of our bench we would need 52 kg (7850kg*0.0067m³) of steel that embodies 96.2 kg of CO2e. Long-term exposure of steel can be harmful to humans. Steel is 100 % recyclable and frequently done so. With recycled steel the bench’s CO2e footprint decreases by a factor of 2. A ton of steel is currently about $850 per ton resulting in a material cost of $44.20.

Wood from forests that are replanting trees can sequester CO2: 1000 kg of wood absorb 1600 kg CO2e from the atmosphere. Our bench would need 41.6 kg of wood and embody -66.56 kg of CO2e. Carbon can be stored in wood furniture for about 30 years. Wood is being recycled for energy generation, paper production or wood pellets. However, decomposing wood in landfills can release methane. Except for manufacturing environments (saw dust), the exposure of wooden materials can have positive health effects on humans. Hardwood like oak costs roughly $1500 per m³/750kg, resulting in material costs of $83.20.

Besides wood, none of the compared material is carbon-neutral or negative. Of course, the manufacturing and transportation of the bench will further influence the carbon footprint. For example, in a life cycle assessment (LCA) for the wooden bench with timber from Canada manufactured in Switzerland, the net carbon emissions might switch to positive. The bench is relatively easy to build with the exception of one material. Polypropylene would need to be melt into form, depending on the electricity used that could increase CO2e significantly. We could offset the footprint. With a carbon removal cost of $100/t the material cost for a carbon-neutral aluminium bench would jump from $43.20 to $61.20.

To go further into the details of the process will be the next step. Now we want to know what’s going on in the futuristic corner of the furniture world.

To the design proposal

3. Who is doing resourceful furniture design? 21 highlights including digital sofas and growing chairs.

What follows is a number of products, studios and startups working on exciting and sometimes weird solutions.

1. Alice and Gavin Munro grow and harvest chairs in their orchard. 🎋

2. Andres Reisinger sells furniture as digital tokens before making it. 💿

3. Empa researchers turn wood until it’s a formable supermaterial. 🔬

4. Ekoa makes wood from plants. 🌿

5. Feather lets you rent and swap furniture. 🛋

6. Forust prints wood in 3D. 🖨️

7. Ian Anderson shares designs of Do It Yourself objects. 🔨

8. Jonas Edvard made a chair with seaweed. 🌊

9. Merdacotta is a cow dung material for outdoor furniture. 💩

10. Naturloop makes panels from coconut husk. 🌴

11. Neolign turns wood chips into recyclable furniture. 🪑

12. Newlight does straws and cutlery from captured carbon. 🕸️

13. Opendesk forwards orders for office furniture to makers. 🚚

14. Pollima is launching CO2-negative furniture. 📉

15. Robots assemble furniture or self-assemble into furniture. 🤖

16. Solid wool designs chairs made of wool. 🐑

17. Tiptoe and Jakob Schenk make legs to turn boards into tables.🦵

18. UBQ materials converts waste into climate positive plastic. 🍕

19. Vepa makes furniture from hemp. 🌿

20. Wehlers took ocean plastic to make a chair. 🌊

21. What Design Can Do hosts over 1400 ideas to rethink waste. 💡

Which one do you like, what did we miss? Let us know via comments or the form.

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4. Conclusions and ideas: So how can we make durable and affordable low-emission furniture?

After looking into five materials and industry trends it seems that the individual elements exist to make furniture that has a low carbon footprint, no negative health effects, can be recycled and is affordable. Not only must we continue the quest for materials, but also look into the manufacturing process, eventually the two are inherently bound together.

Along the way we have already found these ideas particularly interesting:

• Pre-selling furniture designs online and forwarding the orders to artisans.

• Designing with the afterlife in mind: easy disassembly, recycling and reuse.

• Modular quality materials: long-living materials with flexibility of use cases.

• Making waste available as sources for new products across sectors.

• Super durable wood furniture to store carbon over decades.

• Renting out as a solution to address the waste problems.

In an ideal world, resources would turn into products in a snap and disappear again into thin air as desired. What are you thinking about all this? Share your thoughts via replies, comments or in the poll.

Our grandmother often sat on a simple bench in front of the farm where we grew up. In a break from playing we would sit next to her and listen to her colorful stories. We can create stories and designs with you, get in touch: sam@projectoasis.ch

To the design proposal

If you ever find yourself bored on a bench, you can check one of these three articles:

• What 250 Years of Innovation History Reveals About Our Green Future

• Climate Migration: “Where Will Everyone Go?”

• After Climate Despair — The New Atlantis

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Dear Climate Pioneers

Can and should we engineer climate to cool down the Earth? In this number we explore:

• Solar geoengineering: Reflect sunlight to control the temperature

• Knowledge snack: Albedo – the mirroring effect

• How they do it: “Will we still need synthetic meat by then?” (Interview with Dörte Bachmann, Sustainability Manager of SV Group)

• Best pick: A movie about bringing back the mammoth

• Future fantasy: The Gashole

This is a free issue, If you like it and want to access it forever including all past numbers, you can subscribe here. Each new membership can give one away for free. You can also advertise with Climate Pioneers, reach out to me for details.

Thank you!

Sam

P.s. we have a readers quiz! Answer 3 questions and win a free membership!

Solar geoengineering: Will we have to cloud the sun?

Every year we emit billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The results of this experiment are in: it gets warmer. The question is, can we reverse engineer global warming? A story about solar geoengineering. In bullet points:

• Solar geoengineering is the possibility to reflect a small fraction of sunlight back into space to lower temperatures on Earth.

• Scattering aerosols in the stratosphere seems to be the most promising method to reflect the radiation.

• Volcano eruptions in the past have shown that large amounts of sulfur aerosols in the stratosphere have a cooling effect.

• Solar geoengineering cannot replace existing climate action, simulations suggest that it won’t work if GHG emissions go up.

• Opponents point out that solar geoengineering distracts from reducing GHG emissions and could make everything much worse.

• Solar geoengineering not only needs more research, but also a broader public discussion. Preferably before it needs to be deployed.

Let’s dive in. The basic idea of solar geoengineering is to protect the earth from sunlight. The more sunlight enters a greenhouse, the warmer it will get inside. The solution? Filter the amount of sun hitting the earth. Before we get into the how, let's look at why this crazy idea could even be considered appropriate.

Cutting emissions is not going to cut it, we might also need to engineer the temperature

World leaders signed many climate agreements in the past decades, yet global annual carbon emissions continue to increase. It seems existing measures are simply not efficient. Therefore Joseph E. Aldy and Richard Zeckhauser propose a 3-prong approach (a prong is the pointy part of the fork): GHG Mitigation + Adaptation + Solar Geoengineering. The authors use politicians to illustrate the concept:

• Trump was a 0-prong player: he did nothing but deny climate change.

• Al Gore was a 1-prong player: he focused on GHG Mitigation (reducing emissions).

• Obama was a 2-prong player: he wanted both, GHG Mitigation + Adaptation (reducing emissions and preparing for impacts).

• Yang is a 3-prong player: he promotes GHG Mitigation + Adaptation + Solar Geoengineering (reducing emissions, preparing impacts and controlling temperature).

In this perspective, climate action is much like a swiss knife: Use the blade to cut emissions and other tools to adapt to the changing climate and control temperatures. Each of the three strategies help in the fight against climate change. In fact, simulations suggest solar geoengineering will not work if GHG emissions keep increasing. But, the tools can also compete with each other, just one reason why it is difficult to bring solar geoengineering to the table. More on the risks later.

Knowledge snack: The albedo effect

The albedo measures the reflectivity of surfaces. Bright surfaces have a high albedo and dark surfaces have a low albedo. Snow reflects sunlight better than dense forest. Light surfaces have a cooling effect, dark surfaces absorb heat.

Now, let's get into solar geoengineering, often also referred to as solar radiation management or modification (SRM). How exactly would it work?

Scattering reflective aerosols is the most promising method to reflect a small amount of radiation back into space

Scientist propose four solar geoengineering methods in total:

1. Cirrus cloud thinning: thinning or removing cirrus clouds to reduce their heat trapping capacity.

2. Marine cloud brightening: evaporating spray of sea water microdroplets from ships traversing the ocean.

3. Space-based techniques: positioning sun shields in space.

4. Stratospheric aerosol scattering: introducing tiny reflective particles into the stratosphere.

According to professor David Keith the last one, scattering sulfate aerosols, is the most feasible and promising method. Why? Because it already happened.

Solar geoengineering could be done with a modified fleet of aircraft and a few billion dollars

Another advantage is the technical feasibility. All you need is a fleet of modified aircraft and 2 million tons of sulfur. Plus, it's also relatively cheap to spray the aerosols into the stratosphere. People have estimated a few billion dollars for the aircraft fleet and the material. It can be redone every one or two years for the cost of ~1 billion dollar.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

”We could, with solar geoengineering, keep temperatures under 1.5°C with confidence and we could prevent the loss of the major ice sheets and keep the Arctic more the way it is. I think that is pretty high-value thing!" David Keith

Moral hazard and termination shocks: Will solar geoengineering make everything worse?

On the other side, there are multiple known risks. The low barriers could pose a moral hazard, meaning if we know solar geoengineering works and can be done cheaply it could reduce incentives to cut GHG emissions and distract us from “real” solutions.

Another concern is that we will be depending on solar geoengineering for a long time or else risk a termination shock: if SRM stopped suddenly it could cause a sharp temperature increase and have reverse and more damaging effects than what would have occurred without it.

Major doubts belong to the weather effects: Will solar geoengineering create new winners and losers? Who will control the temperature switch? This and many more questions need to be discussed and researched.

Solar geoengineering needs more research and involvement, easier said than done

Earlier this month a balloon test flight was cancelled due to pressure from locals and opponents. The public in general is skeptical of geoengineering. So perhaps most importantly solar geoengineering must continue to build understanding of its risks and opportunities.

To sum up: solar geoengineering is the possibility to reflect a small fraction of sunlight back into space and lower temperatures. Solar geoengineering does not replace reducing emissions (mitigation) and preparing for impacts (adaptation), but it might be a potential supplement.

Everyone wants a blue sky, but in the case we don’t have the choice to deploy solar geoengineering, it would be great if we sorted all the necessary questions beforehand.

How do you feel about it?

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The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: “I am wondering if we still need synthetic meat by then”

SV Group is a swiss-based hospitality management group with over 7000 employees. Their Sustainability Manager Dörte Bachmann shares how the group is taking climate action and is reducing their carbon footprint.

Do you think we will all soon be eating synthetic meat as Bill Gates is suggesting in his new book?
Dörte Bachmann: As Bill Gates writes in his book, synthetic meat (i.e. cell-based meat) is still very expensive and we won't find it on our shelves until the mid-2020s. However, I already perceive an increasing awareness of the impact of food on climate change. People care about the origin of the food they eat and more and more people want to change their diet by eating less meat. Plant-based meat is an already available and promising alternative to meat from animals. The quality and diversity of the products is continuously improving and demand for plant-based meat is increasing. I'd rather think that we will soon eat plant-based meat more regularly than cell-based meat. Plant-based meat is kind of a vehicle for the transition from a meat-heavy to a plant-rich diet. It helps to eat more plant-based without much changing your behavior. Once people are used to eating less meat, they will also try out new recipes without meat-alternatives but with a variety of vegetables, pulses and crops. I am wondering if we still need synthetic meat by then. Nevertheless, if the production of synthetic meat is more efficient later on, why shouldn't we include a small share of synthetic meat into our diet?! The recommendations from the EAT-Lancet commission summarize very well how a so called planetary health diet could look like. All food products, including meat, are allowed, but only in an amount that is healthy for the planet and us.

Organizations talk about aligning economic and environmental targets, have you found the secret and what is it for your company?
Dörte Bachmann: Together with our partner WWF Switzerland, we have set ambitious targets to reduce our Scope 3 CO2eq emissions. As we all need to eat and we don't have to relinquish a delicious meal, eating more plant-based dishes would have the highest impact to reach both our economic and environmental targets.

What are the main uncertainties related to the sustainability goals?
Dörte Bachmann: Though the awareness of the impact of food on climate change is growing, many of our guests still choose dishes with meat. However, to make the plant-based choice the easy choice, we train our staff to improve their vegetarian cooking skills and we continuously increase the share of vegetarian and vegan meals offered. We have also implemented many other measures in our operations such as reducing food waste to a minimum. Furthermore, we have established very efficient supply chain management and we purchase seasonal food. We measure our CO2eq emissions on an annual basis, but I would love to provide more transparency of the carbon footprint of each menu for our guests. Unfortunately, due to Corona that project has to wait a little longer.

Anything else you would like to share?
Dörte Bachmann: Well, I often notice that people are overwhelmed by all the global issues we are facing and the things we could do better. In regard to a sustainable diet, I think we can already do a lot if we focus on two main actions: eating less animal proteins and reducing food waste. Instead of worrying too much, we could start with these two easy, but impactful actions.

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Would you like to feature the efforts of your organisation? Please answer four questions.

The “Best pick” section present a selected article, podcast, video or other resources

Best pick: Father and son make Siberia ready for mammoths

There is more coverage of Sergei and Nikita Zimov on Youtube. Hat tip to Eli Dourado for this finding.

Take the quiz

The “Future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story from the future

Future fantasy: The Gashole

30.04.2102 – Much of the 21st century was dedicated to reducing and removing emissions. Only with limited success.

The carbon sequestration and storage solutions were just not efficient enough to perform the required removals in time. Climate technology didn’t scale as expected. Many large-scale carbon capture operations rolled out and were running for decades without meaningful results.

It seemed all possibilities had been exhausted. That was the moment to turn everything upside down. “What if instead of drawing down greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere back to earth, they were released into space?”

The question almost seemed too stupid. Pretty soon researchers acknowledged it should work in theory. The Chinese space army was the first to shoot chemical rockets to the skies to pin a hole into the layers of the atmosphere. The final breakthrough of the air tunnel followed today.

The ‘Gashole’ is leading greenhouse gasses from the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere to the exosphere and solar winds. The valve works. And a kind of space zipper for regulation is also put into place. But the development brings the climate change conversation to a new level.

Interplanetary panels are discussing the impact on each other's systems and the exchange of resources. And the public debate has already been on fire for several months. One idea is to create dedicated roles for each of the planets: a planet for food production, a planet for mining, a planet for living. And so on. The planning approaches are countered by the argument that interplanetary systems would “work best when governments would leave them alone”.

The Gashole seems to solve one problem, but create new ones.

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In the next issue

A main story, a Knowledge snack, How they do it, a Best pick and another Future fantasy will wait for you. Subscribe now, if you want to receive the next issue, access the entire archive and draft notes. Together we can help reverse climate change.

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Read more: 17 climate newsletters you should have a look at

If you like newsletters, and especially climate newsletters, here is a selection of 17: Carbon Curve, Climate Camp, Climate Money, Climate Tech VC, Climatic Thoughts, Evergreen, Innovate Climate, Into the Green, Josh Green, Not My Problem, Our Green Offering, Reasons for Hope, Robinson's Newsletter, The Impact, The Weekly Climate, This Week in My Climate Journey, Work on Climate Newsletter.

About Climate Pioneers

Climate Pioneers is a monthly magazine. Readers receive findings at the intersection of business, science and sustainability. By the way, the footprint of this publication is removed via soil carbon certificate.

My name is Sam. As a teenager I really wanted to get away from the farm I grew up on. So I worked, studied and travelled in over forty countries. Only to come back and run a startup for meat from organic family farms. In 2019 I started Project Oasis with the idea to promote land restoration and carbon removal. The research and insights from talking to farmers and sustainability professionals emerged into this online magazine about climate solutions.

Do you want to work on solving climate change? In this number we explore how people commit their careers to the opportunity.

• Climate careers: How people start to work on climate change

• Knowledge snack: 18 million more green jobs by 2030

• How they do it: Changing Nestlé will be a nonlinear process (Interview)

• Best pick: "Pollution: bad. Removing pollution: good."

• Future fantasy: The return of the green Sahara (incl. Illustration)

What would you like to read next? Vote here.
Would you like to place an ad here? Check the offers.
Do you know anyone who could like this post? Share it.

Thanks!

Sam

Climate careers: How people start to work on climate change

The last story was about investing to fight climate change. This time we look at addressing climate change through work. In a nutshell:

• Climate change is not a job killer. The innovation needed for a low-carbon economy will likely create millions of new jobs.

• There are three prevailing paths for transitioning into a climate career: transforming an existing role, switching to a different position or organization, or starting a new business.

• In any case, learning about the matter is a good idea. A selection of virtual classes and communities offering free and paid fellowships further below.

• Examples from three individuals and startups reveal that preparation got them into the space and success will hopefully keep them there.

• As the economy shifts towards sustainability, it remains open if new job descriptions will effectively solve the climate emergency or more radical career changes are needed.

Everyone can do something to reverse climate change. Unless you have been working in the space for many years, your situation could be one of the following (I’m a bit in all of these):

• You’re cheering on the sideline and can’t wait to jump into the game.

• You are about to switch the jersey to be on team climate for the second half.

• You have been on the team for a couple of seasons but didn't play all the games.

People who went down the rabbit hole have collected useful information in blogposts, audio-articles and threads on where to start. One thing they have in common is learning about the matter. Specialized study programs from Airminers, On Deck or Terra.do can facilitate that process. Universities such as Stanford, Harvard or Cambridge offer online degrees on sustainability. There are also many great free courses on Coursera or edX.

It is also not a bad idea to browse through the growing number of job boards like Climatebase, Tech Jobs for Good, 80000hours, Green Collar, Unjobs or GIIN. Plus, slack channels and newsletter such as Work on Climate, Climate Action.tech, Greentech Alliance, Climate Tech VC or MCJ have rapidly expanding job listings.

Now, what is it like to find a climate job? Here are three stories from individuals that have recently transitioned into their climate roles:

• Doreen Wong, Entrepreneurship Lead at the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (refer startups here): “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to attend one of the last in-person professional networking events with the Women Investing for a Sustainable Economy (WISE). There, I met Daniela Fernandez, CEO/Founder of Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and one of SOA’s portfolio companies, Novoloop (formerly, BioCellection). I was captivated by their stories - women leaders in tech, advancing technology solutions in ocean health and circular economy. After what was a difficult 2020 year for many, I had an epiphany that year - it was in my core mission and values to dedicate 100% of my career to climate tech. This position popped up at the end of 2020; I applied, interviewed, and got the role!” 

• Harsh Dubey, General Manager at Lowercarbon Capital: “I became interested in helping solve climate change after the IPCC 1.5 degree report came out, and decided on Venture Capital as my medium of choice after an internship at Founders Fund. During my third and fourth years at college, I started reaching out to entrepreneurs doing cool things in this space to see how I could help them with fundraising, which is how I got in touch with the team at Lowercarbon. Just as I was about to graduate a role opened up on the team, and thankfully it turned out to be a good fit!”

• Ryan Orbuch, Climate at Stripe: “I was always interested in climate, environmental stuff when I was way younger [...]. Joined Stripe because I wanted to see an example of how a well run company works. And then suddenly we had made this climate commitment [...]. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to start working on our negative emissions commitment, kind of as a side sort of 10% thing. And I immediately got just very excited about it. Started reading a lot, started chatting with some scientists, started getting a sense of how we might be able to kind of actually make an impact here. And yeah, just talking to these projects and scientists, I got sufficiently excited about it, that we worked with other folks at Stripe to turn it into a real team [...].”

And what about people who founded a climate company? Here are three critical moments in the creation of startups: 

• Diego Saez Gil founded Pachama after he visited the rainforest and read about the potential of forests to capture carbon.

• Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher met at the research institute of solar energy where they dreamed of founding a company – result Climeworks.com.

• Paul Gambil and Jaycen Horton worked on ‘Carbon Harvest’ in a hackathon, which turned into Nori.com.  

Other climate tech founders have started climate companies with their roommates or siblings.

18 million more green jobs by 2030

Climate change is not a job killer. Massive modernization towards a low-carbon economy will destroy old foundations and thereby likely accelerate job creation. So called green-collar jobs are said to grow rapidly and the economy will gain a net of 18 million green jobs by 2030. Seems like a small number, given the magnitude of the problem (although some actually believe it will take only 12-15 entrepreneurs to reverse climate change). Anyhow, moving from conservation to regulation and investment, green jobs are expanding throughout the economy. Like software is eating the world, sustainability is snacking job descriptions.

As the economy shifts towards sustainability, the push to replace a white with a green collar is real and deserves an applause. But maybe it's an illusion that we can continue our careers as business managers or software engineers to reverse climate change. Maybe effectively taking care of patient earth will require a massive workforce of oceanographers, soil scientists, meteorologists, hydrologists, farmers, foresters, recyclers and renewable energy engineers.

For now, the debate of the new normal and the future of work is in full swing and we can take into consideration how it will affect our career. Why not to work on climate change is what we should be asking given the magnitude of the problem. In order to find a suitable personal path, good questions to ask are:

1. What can I do in my existing job to make a difference?

2. Could I switch to a climate-dedicated role or company?

3. Should I start a climate-related business or service?

Good luck!

The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: “Changing the way we grow food will not be a linear process”

Today, two thirds of Nestlé’s carbon footprint originates from agricultural production. Nestlé’s Public Affairs Senior Manager for Environmental Impact Owen Bethell reflects on the company’s target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Will we all soon be eating and drinking synthetic chocolate and coffee from Nestlé?

Owen Bethell: No – our priority is to help farmers transition to regenerative agricultural methods, that keep more carbon, water and biodiversity in the ground. We believe that agriculture can be part of the solution to many of the challenges we face – but needs to undergo significant changes to get there. As a major buyer of cocoa and coffee, we have an opportunity to drive the transition for these crops.

Organizations talk about aligning economic and environmental targets, have you found the secret and what is it for your company?

Owen Bethell: Nestlé has worked for many years around the principle of creating shared value – value for both our shareholders and wider society. Expectations on companies have evolved and we are now stepping up our game to tackle shared challenges like climate change in a way that ensures long term commercial success. I don’t think we’ve found a secret formula at Nestlé – but we do have a good balance between managing our impact on communities and the environment and meeting the demands of the market. It helps that many of our investors are now pushing us to go faster and further on societal issues – and that consumers are also increasingly looking to choose products and services with a positive impact. Ultimately, we want to be a company that puts back more than it takes from the world in every sense. We don’t have all the answers for how to do this yet and will continue learning as we work towards our ambitions.

How confident are you to reach the sustainability targets of your company?

Owen Bethell: We have a high degree of confidence in our ability to meet our targets because they are realistic and yet stretching at the same time. Nestlé has already identified interventions in agriculture that will deliver most of the carbon savings required up to 2025 and 2030, as set out in our industry leading net zero roadmap. We need to ensure robust data collection to measure our progress – and this is something that will improve over time. It’s also important to remain flexible as we learn about what works and what doesn’t work. Changing the way we grow food is a huge challenge and will not be a linear process of simply phasing out one method and switching to another (as you might see in the power sector). Our aim is to ultimately ensure that our ingredients come from net zero sources. We believe this is possible with the right mix of portfolio changes and interventions in existing supply chains. For example, the significant popularity of plant-based foods coupled with our strong innovation base will allow Nestlé to offer more products with a lower environmental footprint and strong growth prospects.

Achieving our environmental objectives will be done in a way that also delivers successful business outcomes. Changes will need to be phased correctly and will partly reflect the maturity of complementary sectors – such as transport. For example, as the availability of zero emissions options like hydrogen trucks improves, so it will become more feasible for Nestlé and others to switch over. However, this requires system wide transformations that rely on many different types of actors, including governments. We’ll do what we can to help drive the changes required to reach net zero in a cost-sustainable way.

Anything else you would like to share, to inspire others or to get off the chest? 

Owen Bethell: It's great to see so many companies making big climate commitments, but the variation in what these commitments cover is a source of some frustration. We need to see companies account for the vast majority of their emissions in their plans. These often occur in ‘Scope 3’ – that is activities sitting outside of the company’s immediate footprint – and which require strong collaborative action with suppliers and other organizations. Around 95% of Nestlé’s emissions lie outside our immediate control, so we strongly encourage other companies to adopt comprehensive net zero plans to help drive collective success.

Would you like to feature the efforts of your organisation? Please answer four questions.

The “Best pick” section present a selected article, podcast, video or other resource

Best pick: "Pollution: bad. Removing pollution: good."

In this interview, professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò recommends western governments not to overthink carbon removals.

"They are really just overthinking it. Like, a section of the world that has the lion’s share of economic, political, and interpersonal security, and that has the lion’s share of wealth, has also emitted the lion’s share of pollution. And now there are ways emerging to literally, in direct ways, address that pollution; ways of removing pollutants from the air and putting them someplace else where they can do less damage to the world."

The “Future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story from the future

Future fantasy: The return of the green Sahara 

30.03.2044 – Where to transform arid land on scale? Twenty years ago, space agencies from around the world united to answer this question. They launched a competition for greening the Sahara desert. Soon the best ideas and people caravanned around the prize. The winners pitched a plan that would take over two decades to execute. An army of over 50’000 engineers, farmers and scientists stormed the desert, desalinated ocean water, redirected rivers, dug artificial lakes and started hundreds of independent small scale oases. Growers used state of the art breeding technologies, geological and geospatial data, and eco-machines perfectionizied in the terraformation of the Sinai peninsula to accelerate plant growth. They also produced biochar onsite to enhance soils and simultaneously sequester gigatons of CO2. The Great Green Wall expanded from the south and joined into the efforts. Eventually the different ecosystems grew and matched like puzzle pieces into one massive 9 million square kilometer biosphere. After being dry for 5’000 years the Sahara is green again. Forest and farmland blend with surreal cities. From desert to place to live: The Sahara.

In the next issue

A main story, a Knowledge snack, How they do it, a Best pick and another Future fantasy will wait for you. Subscribe now, if you want to receive the next issue. Together we can help reverse climate change.

Subscribe now

About

Climate Pioneers is a monthly magazine. Readers receive findings at the intersection of business, science and sustainability. By the way, the footprint of this publication is removed via soil carbon certificate.

My name is Sam. As a teenager I really wanted to get away from the farm I grew up on. So I worked, studied and travelled to over forty countries. Only to come back and run a startup for meat from organic family farms. In 2019 I started Project Oasis with the idea to promote land restoration and carbon removal. The research and insights from talking to farmers and sustainability professionals emerged into this online magazine about climate solutions.

Subscribe now

We cannot not invest. Every day we must make decisions on spending time and money. In this issue we look at how consumers and companies invest capital in climate solutions, startups and stocks.

• A fresh flood of capital to cool down global warming

• Knowledge snack: Bitcoin – pros and cons through a climate lens

• How they do it: The fast route to carbon neutrality

• Best pick: Play climate change like Elizabeth Harmon

• Future fantasy: Download your holiday adventures

This issue is free. You ‘only’ have to invest your valuable attention when scrolling and reading through it. You can place your advertisement here. Check out the new offer.

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Climate investing: A fresh flood of capital to cool down global warming

The “Greta Effect” is real. Students strike school on Fridays and investors allocate capital to reverse climate change. The main story in bullet points:

• In 2019, corporate and venture capital funds invested $16 billion in solutions that will reduce and remove carbon emissions.

• However small or big our financial vote is, climate investing represents an opportunity to make a difference and express a voice.

• Everyone can make bets on climate solutions via publicly traded stocks, crowdfunded projects, banking and savings accounts.

• As all aspects of the economy need to decarbonize, the investment focus shifts (from cleantech) to climate tech.

• The noise around sustainability adds a layer to the numbers game that requires investors to remain vigilant and open minded at the same time.

I grew up in a world where capitalism was set apart from environmentalism. This has changed. So-called impact investors started to allocate capital to solve social and environmental issues. The trend is particularly expanding into technologies addressing the risks of climate change:

• A growing number of venture capital firms are spotting climate as an investment opportunity.

• According to the Diamond List, a list of 75 early stage climate startups, investments in climate ventures increased fortyfold in the last 6 years.

• In 2019, corporate and venture funds have deployed $16.1 billion into climate solutions.

Whilst most of these funds are closed to the public, everyone with internet access can directly search climate-related startup deals on Republic and Seedrs, support individual climate efforts on Kiva and Lendahand or invest into projects on Bettervest and Ecoligo. In the coming years, financial technology and decentralized finance are likely to make the investment sector more accessible.

For publicly traded stocks, banks offer baskets that adhere to environmental standards. “We know that climate risk is investment risk” wrote Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, an investment company that manages over $8 trillion, earlier this year. Not just investing, also how you pay or where you keep your money matters. Banks like Tomorrow, Atmos or Triodos are actively positioning themselves to ‘use’ your savings for ‘good’ causes. And for your purchases, credit cards that plant trees or offset emissions have been launched. Services like Carbon Collective or Yova let you invest according to sustainable values. If you care about a specific field, you can go through an ESG portfolio like IEM, EIP or ETHO and pick a stock from their holdings. For example:

• WOA may be your choice in regenerative agriculture,

• BYND for plant-based food or

• TSLA for renewable energy.

In the energy sector there is also a rising number of special-purpose acquisition companies. Their special purpose is to take thriving companies to the stock market. For example, ArcLight Clean Transition Corp. has merged with the electric mobility company Proterra and trades as ACTC.

But how to form an educated opinion about an investment option? Using a company’s product helps. Simply put, if you love Converse shoes, you can buy Nike stocks. Such a direct evaluation approach may be difficult with climate investment opportunities, unless you are a customer or industry-insider. From the outside it can help to evaluate the option and get a better feeling about its potential by:

• Researching the internet, going through videos, podcasts, threads and customer reviews. Reading financial statements and reaching out to people working for the company in mind. Checking the target’s websites and apps in detail, because companies who walk on a solid digital foundations might have an advantage.

• Reading and imagining future scenarios and thinking how your choices will play out in the long-term is another important exercise for making investment decisions. This also includes wondering what could potentially go wrong. It can help to write all this down as an investment thesis or decision-making journal (see this example).

As impact investing is trending, it is super important to cut through the noise and find no-hype information sources on sustainability. In a world where religion is fading, marketers like me add a pinch of spirit to every product and service to satisfy the human need for spirituality. If investing is becoming a religion that holds you accountable for your actions, then funds are modern churches that channel your beliefs. Dogmatic beliefs may not be congruent with scientific knowledge and climate investors must remain open to new solutions, ideas and people entering the market. For example, the transition from cleantech to climate tech might require an ideological shift from against- to pro-nuclear energy. But also, folks moving from software into climate tech, might need to adapt expectations in regards to scaling and returns. In that sense, sound judgement is an achievement and investing is an act of responsibility and participation in our society’s destiny.

The climate problem has reached broad consensus and large parts of the economy will be undergoing decarbonization. Investors, governments and companies committed to net-zero emissions weigh almost hundred trillion dollars by now. In the end, all the capital will be worthless if it didn’t help to cool down global warming.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I do not participate in any of the above listed investment options, nor did I receive any fees or other benefits for listing them.

Knowledge snack: Bitcoin – boosting renewable energy production or polluting the environment?

The cryptocurrency that glues the internet community to the screens has an energy problem. To mine and transact bitcoin, data centers consume the same amount of electricity as the entire country of Chile. The source of the electricity is estimated to be 20-70% renewable, which translates into CO2 emissions ranging from 22 to 58 million tons per year. That’s undoubtedly a lot. But are there any upsides for the climate? It’s disputed whether Bitcoin can or cannot incentivize renewable energy production by converting clean excess power into monetary value. Bitcoin Strategist Meltem Demirors claims that “Bitcoin is a money battery that allows energy to be utilized over long spans of space and time”. However, Hal Finney(RIP), the bitcoin developer involved in the first transaction was aware of the problem in 2009.

Initiatives and ideas to solve the challenge are underway and hodlers can calculate the footprint of their bitcoin. In the meantime it is fair to ask whether the traditional financial system including operating banks, printing bills, minting coins and mining gold has a better environmental impact than bitcoin.

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The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: Delivery Hero takes the fast route to carbon neutrality

The food delivery company Delivery Hero runs carbon neutral in Europe and Latin America. According to an article in Sifted, the company has offset 215’000 tons of CO2 to equalize their estimated emissions. Its chief director of sustainability Jeffrey Oatham admits that “Offsetting has a troubled past” and justifies their chosen path as follows:

• “It’s a very short time frame to begin with, and the only way to achieve [carbon neutrality] at that pace is through offsetting”

• “We want the emissions to be addressed in some way while we take time to find solutions to reduce… We can’t really do the big, strategic, scaled reduction programmes until we know where the big problems are.”

• “All players need to do something. We have to step up, and in doing so we hope to show that it’s possible. Whether or not it’s possible by reducing first, we’ll leave that to others, but we want to show that having an offsetting-led [strategy], so we can account for all of our emissions and then find sustainable ways to reduce those over time, is also possible.”

It’s great the company has set out on this journey, in the long run they should aim towards aligning carbon offsetting with net-zero.

Would you like to feature the efforts of your organisation? Please answer four questions.

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The “Best pick” section present a selected article, podcast, video or other resource

Best pick: Play climate change like Elizabeth Harmon

In a recent article, Project Drawdown Executive Director Jonathan Foley compares the climate fight to a chess game and outlines seven rules to win it. 

1. The board is bigger than we think, and includes more than fossil fuels.

2. We need to rapidly reduce all sources of greenhouse gases, not just a few.

3. We need to protect and maintain nature’s massive “sinks” of greenhouse gases.

4. We should create new, long-term carbon sinks. But we need to be keenly aware of their limitations.

5. We need to actively manage a broad portfolio of solutions. And we need to consider solutions that come from outside traditional climate thinking.

6. We need to pursue multiple tactics to bring solutions to scale.

7. See the whole board, and collaborate with others to play the game.

The “Future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story from the future

Future fantasy: Download your holidays on the marketplace of memories

26.2.2038 – Travelling is a carbon-intensive activity. The hunger to explore new places accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The push and incentives for more local tourism has not made any significant difference in the last years. The negative trends inspired neuroscientist Zhang Qian to rethink the underlying assumption of travelling: “The best holidays are made of experiences and connections we have formed with others and ourselves. We safeguard these positive memories deeply in our brains to access anytime”. Zhang thinks of developing an alternative travelling solution. “What if you could plan your most fantastic holidays with your best friends and then experience it without having to physically relocate?” or “What if you could live and store the real memory of climbing Mount Everest without leaving your home?” or “What if you could be your favourite basketball player just for one game?”. Zhang’s brain–computer interface startup Memory has raised 10 bitcoins from over 800 people who can’t wait to test the experience firsthand. With the capital, Memory’s developer community will launch an experience designer platform and contract 20 extreme experience creators like athletes and adventurers. Eventually the idea is to democratize experiences and exchange to and from everyone on the marketplace of memories.

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In the next issue

A main story, a Knowledge snack, How they do it, a Best pick and another Future fantasy will wait for you. Subscribe now, if you want to receive the next issue. Together we can help reverse climate change.

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About

My Name is Sam. All I wanted as a teenager is to get away from the farm I grew up. So I worked, studied and travelled to over 40 countries. Only to come back and run a startup for meat from organic family farms. In 2019 I started Project Oasis with the idea to restore land and remove CO2. The insights from talking to farmers and sustainability professionals emerged into an online magazine about climate solutions. Climate Pioneers is a monthly magazine. Readers receive fresh findings at the intersection of business, science and sustainability. By the way, the footprint of this publication is removed via soil carbon certificate.

• What machine learning can do against climate change

• Knowledge snack: The cost of training the machines

• How they do it: A winemaker sets sustainability goals first

• Best pick: From digitialization to decarbonization

• Future fantasy: No more pets in the Portuguese capital

You can also download my report on machine learning and corporate carbon emissions. And you can vote for the topic in the next issue through Linkedin or Twitter.

This issue is freely available for one week. Subscribe now to receive future updates.

Thank you for reading and supporting this work!

Intelligent machines against climate change: How neural networks help cutting carbon emissions 

In this issue we explore how machine learning can help humans in the fight against climate change. The main story in bullet points:

• Machine and deep learning are subfields of artificial intelligence and mirror how computers learn: the computer is fed with data and returns a program that can understand texts, photos or sounds.

• The most advanced machine learning software can even talk, create images, drive cars or write (you find computer-generated thoughts regarding climate change at the end of this story).

• Organizations across sectors make use of machine learning to tackle climate change, e.g. by automatically adjusting the heating in buildings or detecting the sound of chainsaws in rainforests.

• Like many technologies, machine learning is not a silver bullet and how we use it determines its climate impact.

Have you ever talked to your smartphone, used a spell checker or searched the internet? All these applications are powered by machine learning. Machine learning is how computers learn: the computer is fed with data and answers and returns rules that can understand text, images or sound. Machine learning is somewhat similar to showing a baby a picture of a dog accompanied by the sound of barking. After some repetition the baby will be able to apply the “WoofWoof” knowledge for a lifetime. The difference is that machines need a lot of training and input data to learn and that they can still mistake a dog for another animal or for an item. On the other hand, computers are often better in recognizing patterns that are hidden to our eyes or ears. Machine learning applications can diagnose a covid infection from the sound of your cough, determine skin cancer with an image of your skin or predict blindness with a scan of your eyes. Now, what if instead of a person the planet is the patient – how can machine learning help to tackle global warming?

Here are five fields in which machine learning helps to reduce GHG emissions:

• Agriculture: machine learning can help farmers lower chemical inputs on their land. The robots of Ecorobotix or Naio detect weeds through machine-learning software. Drone analysis of Gamaya and enhanced maps from Onesoil provide farmers with tools to better know their fields and reduce the need for chemical fertilizer.

• Buildings: machine learning can reduce energy usage by accurately forecasting heating, cooling, ventilation or lightning needs. WattTime’s automated emissions reduction keeps refrigerators perfectly chilled whilst minimizing energy use. Machine learning methods can be extrapolated to entire neighbourhoods, where it can adjust the lightning of streets for example.

• Electricity: machine learning can help to forecast supply and demand. Startups like Octopus Energy or Stem use machine learning to balance electricity across the powergrid. The Electricity Map estimates carbon emissions of networks and provides real-time visualisations of carbon impact.

• Forests: computer vision can track deforestation or tree growth via LiDAR from satellite imagery, Pachama and Silvia Terra are using such technology for estimating and selling carbon offsets. Rainforest Connection uses machine learning to detect and report chainsaw sounds via old smartphones powered by solar panels. Overstory or Blue Sky Analytics use machine learning to track wildfires.

• Mobility: Machine learning can reduce transport activity by improving routes and bundling shipments. Flexport uses machine learning to help businesses optimize its supply chain and ship cargo around the world. Another mobility use case are more efficient vehicles. Turntide Technologies develops software that makes electric motors use less electricity.

Machine learning has potential across sectors. For further insights I really recommend this thorough analysis from Climate Change AI. One of the more obvious applications is predicting climate scenarios. CarbonPlan is a great resource for climate-related data and tools. Please let me know if you have any additions.

Now, without further due let’s ask the GPT-3 based text-generating software Philosopher AI some final questions. Be prepared for strong opinions.

How can machine learning help businesses reduce carbon emissions?

AI: “…if businesses are relying on human labor to perform resource-intensive tasks such as growing crops that can be sold to generate income for a business, then it should be possible to reduce the amount of carbon emitted per dollar earned or some other metric by using less human labor.” read the full answer.

How do we get to zero emissions?

AI: “In summary, I think that we should fully embrace nuclear power and stop listening to the media. They only want you to fear what will help you.” read the full answer.

What is the best carbon capture technology? (in reference to Elon Musk’s tweet)?

AI: “Sequestration through coal mining, on the other hand, is a much more practical solution to capturing and storing CO2. The carbon dioxide simply has to be transported from its original location in the atmosphere via pipelines.” continue reading this answer or an alternate (but even worse) version.

Knowledge snack: The environmental cost of training the machines 

Machine learning is not a silver bullet in the fight against climate change, it is much rather a double-edged sword. It can be expensive, require a lot of energy and have a terrible carbon footprint. The problem is not the use, but rather the training of the models: training a single model can emit as much CO2 as five cars in their lifetimes. Not just the process itself, but also the outcomes might benefit high-emitting sectors or drive increases in consumer demands. In a paper on quantifying the carbon emissions, researchers promote energy efficient hardware, algorithms and deployment times and locations to reduce the environmental cost. The ongoing controversy about this challenge requires tech companies to be more transparent. In the end, the way we use machine learning determines whether it alleviates or intensifies the climate emergency. 

The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: Set goals first, align policies later

Polkura is a certified B Winery from Chile. Managing director Sven Bruchfeld shares how his wine business approaches sustainability. 

Businesses talk about aligning economic and environmental targets, have you found the secret and what is it for your company?

Sven Bruchfeld: The secret is, there is no secret. Every company, big or small can align economic and environmental targets. Every company can be a changemaker and has the ability to be much quicker than governments and NGOs. The "secret" is to set goals first and align policies later to actually reach that goal.

How confident are you to reach the sustainability targets at your company?

Sven Bruchfeld: We are 100% confident. Polkura Winery in Chile will be carbon neutral in 2030. There is no conflict between cost and ecology. We are business people. There are ways of designing business models that make the economic and the environmental model sustainable. Of course certain investments need to be done but that is where creativity comes in.

How do you measure and monitor emissions?

Sven Bruchfeld: Using the classic carbon calculators but also adapting them to our reality.

Anything else you would like to share, to inspire others or to get off the chest?

Sven Bruchfeld: I will make everything in my power so that the bottle of Polkura wine someone drinks anywhere around the world is not responsible for climate change.

Would you like to feature the efforts of your organization? Start with answering four questions.

The “Best pick” section present a selected article, podcast, video or other resource

Best pick: From digitialization to decarbonization

Andrew Beebe notes that “The decarbonization of the global economy is a transformation on par with the digitization of the economy before it” and identified five key differences between today and the cleantech wave in 2000:

1. Corporate and Consumer Demand Both Go Clean – companies are making bold targets to meet the increasing consumer demand for sustainability.

2. Cost and Performance – solar panel and electric battery cost have dropped to a level where the environmentally better option is also the economically cheaper one.

3. Follow the Money – an increasing number of venture capitalists, limited partners, family offices and institutional investors are coming onboard.

4. The Next Generation – the younger generation is committed to live and work sustainably.

5. Policy and Regulation – governments around the world are promoting the transition.

The “Future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story from the future

Future fantasy: No more pets in the Portuguese capital

04.10.2032 – “Before we restrict human procreation we will restrict the number of other animals on this planet.” Says Lisbon Mayor Paola de Sousa at the city's yearly climate briefing. “The footprint of our little friends in this city is massive”. Over 1 million cats and dogs live in the capital of Portugal and they are responsible for a remarkable share of the city's carbon footprint (globally, pets produce more than 100 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year). De Sousa further notes “We can think of changing their diet all we want, in the end the most effective measure is not to have pets”. From January 2033 the sale, purchase or trade of all types of pets will be strictly forbidden. Licenses are handed out exclusively for rescue or guide dogs. “There won't be any other exceptions – we are peak pet”. Current furry family members can be kept as long as they live, but must be neutered. Any new addition is highly illegal and will result in a fine for the owner, withdrawal and euthanization of the pet. Lisbon is the first administration to ban pets. Will other cities and countries follow?

In the next issue

Vote through Linkedin or Twitter on the main topic in the next issue. Next to the main story there is a Knowledge snack, How they do it, a Best pick and another Future fantasy. In the meantime you can also get updates on your preferred social channels: Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Youtube. Together we can help reverse climate change. Subscribe now, if you want to receive the next issue.

About Climate Pioneers

Climate Pioneers is the first service of projectoasis.ch. Every month readers receive freshly filtered findings at the intersection of business, science and sustainability. By the way, the footprint of this publication is removed via soil carbon certificate.

My Name is Sam. I cover low- and high-tech climate solutions and run an innovation agency. It would be a pleasure to connect on Linkedin or Twitter. I'm thrilled by the idea to build bridges between capital, climate and the community. Every day counts.

• How CO2 travels through the ocean

• Knowledge snack: A great whale is worth 1000 trees

• How they do it: Plastic packaging made from pollution

• Best pick: 6 online climate communities

• Future fantasy: Babies for space (with illustration)

My favourite discovery of this edition are tiny little organisms called coccoliths and  foraminiferans – they look super cool and capture atmospheric carbon.

This issue will be freely available for one week. Subscribe now to receive future updates.

Thank you for your support in 2020. I wish you limitless energy in the new year!

Ocean sinks: Pumps and projects that transport carbon through the seas

The oceans are considered natural carbon ‘sinks’ since they take up more CO2 than they release. The main story in bullet points:

• The ocean absorbs a quarter of man-made greenhouse gases.

• CO2 enters the ocean on the surface and then follows three major paths:

  • Carbon enters the marine food chain through phytoplankton.

  • Coral, oysters, shrimps and shells are built from carbon.

  • Cold water transports dissolved CO2 down to the deep ocean.

• The ocean balances out the carbon in the atmosphere: the more there is, the more the ocean absorbs.

• The more CO2 seawater absorbs, the warmer and more acid it gets. These effects threaten many marine organisms.

• The enhancement of coastal ecosystems, addition of nutrients to the sea surface to stimulate phytoplankton photosynthesis or spreading of rock particles intent to ‘heal’ oceans and accelerate carbon uptake.

Carbon travels between the atmosphere and the earth. Venting volcanoes and decomposing plants boost billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In return the biosphere absorbs large amounts of carbon. We already looked into how plants store carbon in the soil. Now we want to know more about how the seas are soaking up CO2. 

CO2 enters the ocean on the surface when it winds or rains. The carbon dioxide then follows down three distinct paths: 

1. The biological carbon pump: When the sun hits the sea, tiny marine organisms called phytoplankton capture atmospheric carbon. Just like plants, phytoplankton sequester carbon through photosynthesis. Phytoplankton are the beginning of the marine food chain: they are eaten by small fish, who are consumed by larger fish. These fish poop and die(if they are not eaten). Dung and carcasses sink and settle in the sediments on the seabed. The process is also called marine snow (I hope you continue enjoying snow falling from the sky).

2. The carbonate pump: some chemical process that I honestly don’t understand enough, but this site explains it quite well. Basically, the ocean carbonate system helps to form coral, oysters, shrimps and shells.

3. The physical carbon pump, also called solubility pump: carbon dioxide is soluble and can dissolve into water. Water doesn't just stream around the globe, it also travels up and down. Cold water sinks and transports dissolved CO2 down to the deep ocean. It can stay there for hundreds of years before it returns to the surface and releases some of the dissolved CO2 back to the atmosphere.

The pumps can also interact with each other, since seawater is like a soup in a big bowl. In total the ocean bowl absorbs about a quarter of all CO2 we release into the atmosphere. In fact, the ocean balances out the carbon in the atmosphere: as emission levels increase, the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean also increases. This makes oceans more acid, which reduces the amount of carbonate and makes it harder for marine organisms like shrimps to grow their shell. Vicious cycle.

Knowledge snack: A great whale is worth 1000 trees

A great whale can absorb 33 tons of CO2 throughout his lifetime: “Whales accumulate carbon in their bodies during their long lives. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean; each great whale sequesters 33 tons of CO2 on average, taking that carbon out of the atmosphere for centuries. A tree, meanwhile, absorbs only up to 48 pounds of CO2 a year.” The National Geographic estimates protecting whale populations could be equalising the annual carbon emissions of Brazil. If the 1.3 million great whales could be increased to the pre-commercial population level of 4-5 million, they could capture about 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year.

The question is, can we manipulate the ocean carbon cycle to take more or release less CO2? The short answer is yes. Climate engineering approaches to ‘heal’ oceans and accelerate carbon uptake include:

• Ocean fertilization: adding nutrients to the surface ocean to stimulate photosynthesis.

• Blue carbon: growing mangroves, salt marshes, seagrasses and macroalgae.

• Oceanic enhanced weathering: spreading rock particles, also reduces ocean alkalinity.

Much of the risks and side effects remain to be examined. Here are a variety of projects that are working on better understanding and utilising the oceans to accelerate the removal of carbon from the atmosphere: 

• GreenWave is growing a mix of seaweeds and shellfish while sequestering carbon and rebuilding reef ecosystems, bringing a centuries old industry back.

• Project Vesta is creating green sand beaches from olivine rocks. Spreading the sand on 2 % of the coastline could remove 100% of man-made GHG.

• Econcrete produces concrete units that enhance biological life of oceans and coasts.

• Urchinomics is harvesting sea urchins to make space for kelp to grow.

• Ocean-based develops an oxygenator pump to facilitate downwelling of CO2 seawater. 

• Saildrone is not directly removing CO2, but delivering important information via a fleet of self-surfing boats.

• Coral Vita restores dying coral reefs. (Netflix’s Chasing Coral is a great documentary on the bleaching phenomena of corals).

• Arc Marine is accelerating reef creation by building marine habitat structures.

There is much potential. The ocean covers 70% of earth's surface. Our natural and technological climate solutions are often by default focused on land. I have a feeling the ocean needs more attention and we should promote both efforts – protecting whales and trees – whilst we continue to understand the risks and implications of our interactions. There is no way back, voluntarily or involuntarily, we are engineering the climate.

The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: Plastic packaging made from pollution

In France three firms managed to turn carbon emissions into a packaging material. The  companies Lanzatech, Total and L'Oréal announced their breakthrough this October. This is how they do it: 

1. LanzaTech recycles industrial carbon emissions into ethanol.

2. Total converts the ethanol into ethylene before polymerizing it into polyethylene.

3. L’Oréal uses this polyethylene to produce plastic cosmetic bottles.

L’Oréal Packaging & Development Director Jacques Playe said that “We have the ambition to use this sustainable material in our bottle of shampoo and conditioner by 2024 and we hope other companies will join us in using this breakthrough innovation.”

The “Best pick” section present a selected article, podcast, video or other resource

Best pick: 6 online climate communities

If you are into technology and climate change, here are half a dozen great communities to join on slack, discord and the like:

1. ClimateAction.tech

2. Tomorrow

3. Impact Makers

4. Yale Openlab Collabathon

5. My Climate Journey (paid)

6. Witnesses Of Climatology

See you there!

The “Future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story

Future fantasy: Babies for populating space

28.03.2041 - Earlier this century the theory circulated that having children is the most harmful thing people do to the world. This notion no longer sounds odd. Today, the members of the United Nations have passed a global one-child policy. There are more plans. According to the Population Bureau, women can now even sell their surplus eggs. The eggs will be frozen and sent to the moon, where they are kept in the Space Colonization Center. The center is a launching hub to reach unpopulated planets. The eggs will be transported on spaceships alongside people and medical equipment to guarantee genetic variance and healthy population growth. No one knows yet if and how the concept of a family remains, will there even be brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers? Back on earth it seems the plans are well received by the UN officials, Miguel Fernandéz from Mexico said to the press “This is the best solution for both, the earth and space. We need babies to colonize the universe”.

In the next issue

Artificial intelligence and climate change, a Knowledge snack, How they do it, Best picks and another Future fantasy will wait for you. In the meantime you can also get updates on your preferred social channel: Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Youtube. If you want to receive the next issue, subscribe now. Together we can help reverse climate change.

• Carbon tracking: From Spanish Netherlands to Space

• Knowledge snack: The carbon bubble

• How they do it: Inside Swiss Re’s net-zero strategy (Interview)

• Best pick: Not just trees, biodiversity matters

• Future fantasy (new incl. illustration): Energy from lightning

This issue will be accessible freely for a week. Subscribe if you want to access the content forever, there is a discount now. Also if someone you know could like this content, a membership is a great gift.

Thank you for your interest!

From Spanish Netherlands to Space - Monitoring greenhouse gas emissions all over the planet

We can’t manage what we can’t measure, can we? This article explores the origins of carbon dioxide and the means and methods of how greenhouse gasses can be tracked in real time today. The main story in bullet points:

• Discovery of "gas sylvestre" (carbon dioxide) in Spanish Netherlands in 1640.

• Precise CO2-monitoring since 1958 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

• The ecological footprint emerged 1992 at the University of British Columbia.

• In 2005 oil company BP popularized the carbon footprint in a media campaign.

• Since then tools to calculate individual, corporate and product carbon footprint are being developed to facilitate tracking and reporting of carbon data.

• Ibuki, the world's first greenhouse-gas-observing satellite, was launched in 2009.

• Today satellite imagery, remote sensing technologies and modern approaches of processing data provide previously unseen environmental information.

In 1640 the chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont burnt charcoal in a closed vessel and noticed the ash weighed less than the original charcoal. His interpretation was that the difference must have transformed into an invisible substance and named his finding “gas”, derived from the Greek word chaos. In the 1750s the physicist Joseph Black explored and identified the properties of “fixed air”, something we call carbon dioxide today.

Fast forward to March 1958, when Charles David Keeling started high-precision CO2 measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Keeling measured atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in parts per million (ppm). There is a curve named after him and you can probably guess in what direction it's going. On November 19 it was at 412.44 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in the air and we are now at the highest level in human history. To control warming ppm ideally stays below 400 - as if we didn't have enough to get under control, we need to flatten this curve as well. But before we get off track let’s continue with the carbon tracking.

In the 90s William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel developed the concept of an ecological footprint to examine how much water and land a population consumed. The carbon footprint emerged from the ecological footprint and made it to the center stage in 2005, when a big oil company promoted the concept to talk consumers into believing it was their responsibility (1, 2, 3). By now organizations seem to embrace accountability: Many guides (1, 2, 3) and calculators (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) help companies analyse their footprint. The carbon footprint of a product is usually established through a life cycle assessment (LCA) with this type of calculator, tools and databases. This year many corporate footprints might be a bit different, due to reduced travelling and use of office space – two important contributing factors.

The first step towards a carbon footprint is gathering data. Chasing down all these numbers somehow doesn’t feel how I would have imagined saving the world. But innovation is happening. New services promise to make the task of carbon reporting for small and large enterprises easier, many of them require a login or demo request: Bloom, Emitwise, Fidenso, Greenwise, Normative, Patch, Persefoni, PlanA, Sweep, Watershed, Salesforce Sustainability Cloud or SAP Climate 21. 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can’t be far wherever there are cutting-edge tools. In July former Vice President Al Gore announced a new global coalition that aims to track GHG emissions with unprecedented detail and speed to its source. The coalition embodies nine organizations who research, record and report environmental data:

• WattTime’s automated emissions reduction (AER) can optimize refrigerators to perfectly keep drinks chilled whilst minimizing energy use and carbon impact.

• Rocky Mountain Institute helps businesses to accelerate the development of climate smart products like low-carbon residential cooling solutions.

• OceanMind uses onboard sensors and machine learning to track movement and verify authorizations of fishing operations. The digital ocean police.

• Hypervine uses digital technologies to help the mining and construction industry understanding the footprint of building materials for example.

• Hudson Carbon uses an on-farm soil laboratory and satellite data to quantify soil carbon sequestration to help the agricultural sector sell carbon offsets.

• Earthrise Alliance aggregates environmental and satellite data so it can be used to inform readers or students on what’s happening in our changing world.

• Carbon Tracker monitors coal plant emissions with satellite imagery to convince the finance industry that carbon plants aren't profitable.

• Carbon Plan applies data science for carbon removal and climate solutions to produce datasets, models and interactive reports. 

• Blue Sky Analytics uses satellite data with ground measurements to provide near-real-time environmental information, to track wildfires for example.

Not all of these ideas are ready to use. The new possibilities emerging from pairing data science with the availability of satellite imagery are promising. Ibuki, the world's first satellite dedicated to greenhouse-gas-monitoring was launched 2009. NASA’s OCO-2 satellite has observed anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions from space since 2014. ESA’s CO2M is on track to map global CO2 emissions from 2021.

I wonder what Jan Baptist van Helmont and Joseph Black would have thought, if they knew that we would be dedicated to monitor “their” gas from space. It seems the urgency of the climate crisis will enable us to measure the carbon cycle down to the level of the breath of a mouse. Hopefully that will also allow us to figure out the best ways to manage it.

Knowledge snack: The carbon bubble

Stock markets are not reflecting the risk of climate change. The flaw in a company's stock market valuation is described as the “carbon bubble”. According to this idea, share prices do not reflect real value, because the true costs of CO2-emissions and global warming are not yet taken into account. New tools like this digital globe let investors assess the sustainability of their investments.

The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: Inside Swiss Re’s net-zero strategy

Reinsurer Swiss Re is a pioneer in corporate climate action. Last year the company committed to achieving net-zero emissions in their operations by 2030. Just recently they doubled down on their efforts by introducing a triple-digit real carbon price. Swiss Re’s Senior Environmental Management Specialist Mischa Repmann reveals some of the sustainability secrets.

Can you tell us more about the recent developments towards net-zero emissions? Why is Swiss Re pushing this target?

Mischa Repmann: Climate science tells us clearly what it takes to prevent the worst of the climate crisis: we, as the world, need to reach net-zero emissions at around 2050 and then stay net-negative during the second half of the century. This requires first of all to reduce as much emissions as possible as fast as possible. But you can read it in the name "net"-zero. Reductions alone won't do the job. It will also require negative emissions to balance the unavoidable "gross" emissions. And it will require a lot of them, the longer we wait to effectively reduce, the more. Currently it looks like by 2050, some 10 to 20 billion tonnes of emission per year will need to be removed from the atmosphere and stored permanently. This is just about the amount of CO2 that is currently emitted by all the oil and gas that's used worldwide within one year. Hence, using this 'same amount, same scale' analogy, you may argue that over the next three decades, we need to build a negative emissions industry of the size of today's oil and gas industry. Only then, according to science, do we have the chance to limit global warming to well below 2°C. And this is ultimately the target of the Paris Agreement!

Now, Swiss Re has a reputation as thought-leader in corporate climate action that aligns with the science and UN recommendations. In 2003, for instance, we were among the very first to become climate-neutral in our own operations. Today, other corporations are catching up and start compensating emissions via conventional carbon offsets. Swiss Re is now moving ahead to lead the corporate push towards net-zero. For companies, too, the task is two-fold: emission reduction efforts need to be intensified and residual emissions compensated via carbon removal, which is much more costly than carbon offsetting. A year ago, Swiss Re committed to net-zero emissions by 2050 across the company – on the insurance side we signed the UN Business Ambition for 1.5° pledge and on the investment side we became a founding partner of the Net-zero Asset Owner Alliance. Our own operations will be at net-zero emissions already by 2030 through our new CO2NetZero Programme. The programme builds on top-down emission reduction targets, and a 10-years funding scheme to move from carbon offsets to carbon removal certificates.

How confident are you to reach these climate targets? What are the main uncertainties and how will you address them?

This is a great time to answer that question – 2020 has for us been a transition year between the end of our GHG Neutral Programme – where we achieved all targets, for instance 100% renewable power - and the launch of the new CO2NetZero Programme. Uncertainties around net-zero and carbon removal are manifold, owing to the early stage of this movement. There is no carbon removal market as we know it from the carbon offset market. Supply is uncertain, price points are rapidly moving, likely both up (demand surge) and down (learning curve), etc. The 10-years funding scheme is designed to at least keep the programme properly funded, in other words: it puts the right price on carbon: In January next year we start to collect an internal carbon levy of 100$ per tonne CO2 for all our direct and most material indirect operational emissions. The funds are then used exclusively to compensate these emissions. The levy increases linearly from 100$ per tonne in 2021 to 200$ per tonne in 2030. By then, 100% of the residual emissions will be compensated via carbon removal – in line with our net-zero target. 

To obtain the necessary buy-in from our business units, group functions, and of course the management, we have been maintaining a steady stream of guidance and communication to our employees – and also to external stakeholders. We will continue to monitor and adjust our system to adjust for business feedback. Generally though, I should add that Swiss Re has been broadly aligned behind the company's goals of sustainable business and emission reductions for over two decades, so I do not envision us running into any hidden areas of conflict between decisions of cost over the environment. The feedback from colleagues on the stringent triple-digit levy, for instance, has been overwhelmingly positive.

Many businesses talk about aligning economic and environmental targets, have you found the secret and what is it for your company? 

Swiss Re is in the enviable position where the best interests of the environment and our business naturally align – as a leader in risk management and underwriting, we have a direct business stake in the rate and intensity of natural disasters. The scientific consensus is clear – as we continue to emit CO2 and warm the planet, the intensity and number of perils like hurricanes, floods, droughts, and heat waves will continue to rise. The importance of this link has not been lost out of sight by our management or employees – Swiss Re's CEO Christian Mumenthaler recently became Co-Chair of the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders. So I think the secret for us is that not only is there a valid economic incentive to pursue our environmental targets, but we have strong buy-in across all levels of our company structure – be it in risk underwriting, asset management, or in the way we tackle our own operational footprint.

Anything else you would like to share, to inspire others or to get off the chest? 

Maybe let me draw a link to the current situation with the global pandemic. In view of the corresponding economic downturn you could argue that it is a particularly inept time to drive sustainability initiatives in your company. But the special circumstances of the year 2020 may in fact offer the opportunity to kick-start, not to delay, your net-zero journey. Think of the way we very quickly adapted to the new normal of remote business interactions. In the financial sector, business flights are usually the major part of the operational footprint. So, certainly our sector can seize the special times to set ambitious flight reduction targets, and on top to make good use of this year's and future savings from avoided travel spend -  invest in reduction measures, support removal projects, engage employees and stakeholders.

The “Best pick” section present a selected article, podcast, video or other resource

Best pick: Not just trees, biodiversity matters

Ecosystem ecology professor Thomas Crowther presents what his research lab discovered:

• Before human civilization, the tree population was twice as high.

• Today there are o.9 billion hectares suitable to plant 1 trillion trees.

• There is no single solution to reverse climate change.

• Trees are just a symbol for ecosystem restoration.

• Monoculture tree plantations actually damage ecosystems.

• Healthy ecosystems are a network of fungi, plants and animals. 

Capital, local communities and open data will help restore and manage ecosystems everywhere. Check out the Restor platform the Crowther Lab has developed.

The “Future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story

Future fantasy: First successful attempt in harvesting energy from lightning

28.11.2063 - The team finds the drone in the middle of the desert. It is demolished but still carries the container the size of a large suitcase. Two members measure the voltage of the container - it is fully charged! A breakthrough for the company Bolt, which is trying to disrupt Tesla's monopoly. Tesla produces and distributes 99 percent of renewable energy, storage units and transportation vehicles worldwide. Now the startup Bolt has successfully passed an experiment to capture energy from thunderstorms. A thunderstorm can contain the amount of energy equivalent to several hours of the world’s electricity use. The team at Bolt sends swarms of cargo-drones into storms. The drones carry charging surfaces and battery containers to load during exposure of lightnings. If they can, drones fly back, otherwise they parachute down and leave GPS-signal for collection. Bolt operates on an open source basis and helps engineers all over the world harvest energy from dark skies. It might be the last hope to solve the renewable energy crisis. Despite the sun, water, wind and biomass producing massive amounts of energy, renewable energy progress is still insufficient. And the disposal of nuclear waste remains unresolved. All whilst energy consumption keeps increasing.

In the next issue

Oceans and climate change, a “Knowledge snack”, “How they do it”, “Best pick” and another “Future fantasy” will wait for you. Thank you for reading this issue, together we can help reverse climate change. If you like the content, please subscribe now to receive future issues. New issues are free.

• What is net-zero and why it is important

• Knowledge snack: The difference between carbon neutral and net-zero

• How they do it: Reaching a corporate climate protection plan

• Best picks: “Business is screwed” and counterfactual thinking

• Future fantasy: Human photosynthesis - fed by the sun

Thank you for reading!

The carbon clock is ticking: Not many years are left to achieve net-zero emissions

The climate clock displays 7 years 64 days as of today. This is the time left to achieve net-zero and to take all man-​made greenhouse gas emissions back from the atmosphere thereafter. The main article in bullet points:

• Our atmosphere can absorb another 301 Gt of CO2 before we can no longer limit global warming to 1.5°C. At current emission levels we’ll be there in 7 years.

• To limit global warming to 2°C the budget is at 1’051 Gt of CO2. At current emission levels we have 25 years left to exhaust it.

• 1.5°C or 2°C, 7 or 25 years - it will get warmer in any case, but the differences in consequences can be dramatic and if we cross the budget we risk famines, streams of refugees and conflicts.

• More and more countries, cities and companies are now announcing their climate targets to become carbon neutral or reach net-zero emissions.

• Carbon neutral is compensating by funding CO2 reduction elsewhere (offsetting) and net-zero is funding the removal through negative emission technologies.

• For reductions, emissions are often divided into scopes: 1, 2 (reducing emissions from direct operations and energy sources) and 3 (reducing emissions in the value chain).

The bucket is almost full. According to the MCC in 2017 we had another 420 Gt of CO2 to pump into the atmosphere to stay on track with limiting global warming to 1.5°C. With annual global CO2-emissions of ~40 Gt we are now at 301 Gt and have, as mentioned, about 7 years to exhaust the remaining carbon budget . The global carbon project is a bit more optimistic. In their 2019 conclusion we have 9% of the budget left and another 10 years at current emissions as shown in the following graph.

The more emissions are stored in the atmosphere, the longer it takes for them to be removed again (more on space and volume in a future issue). For now we are still filling up the bucket, where in theory we should be reducing CO2-emissions drastically to stop climate change, stabilize global temperature and prevent irreversible climate damages. What are these damages? Relative to the achievement of the temperature targets, here are examples of three scenarios for 2050:

1. Target 1.5°C achieved: The world would still be hotter than it is now.

2. Target 2°C achieved: Developed nations would have constructed storm-surge barriers to keep out the sea and erected border walls to keep out refugees. And according to the World Resources Institute, the difference between reaching the 1.5°C or 2°C target will be quite dramatic.

3. Targets failed: On top of the previous consequences, global warming could produce conflict, within and between poor and rich nations.

Society, politics and businesses seem to have understood the situation. Countries, cities and companies are announcing their climate targets. “We aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060” said China's President Xi Jinping just recently. In January, Microsoft announced it would be carbon-negative in 2030, meaning from then on it will remove more CO2 than it will produce and thereby neutralize all direct and electricity emissions since it was founded 1975 by 2050. Companies from all industries are joining forces to save the planet. Even multinational oil and gas company BP declared its ambition to become a net-zero company by 2050. So far, over 1000 companies have signed the Science Based Target initiative and even more have joined the We Mean Business Coalition.

Knowledge snack: The difference between carbon neutral and net-zero

The term “net-zero” has more and more replaced “carbon neutral” in public discourse since the Paris Agreement in 2015. The basic difference between the two: 

• Carbon neutral refers to the effort of a certain entity (e.g. a company) to achieve emission neutrality through carbon offsetting and reduction. For each ton emitted into the atmosphere, a ton is avoided elsewhere.

• Net-zero emissions is the overall approach to balance out the total amount of CO2 released to the atmosphere by taking it out again. For each ton emitted, a ton needs to be removed again through negative emission technologies.

Industry players advocate to move from carbon neutral to net-zero.

To reduce emissions, businesses can divide their footprint into scope 1, 2 and 3. Scope 1 and 2 reductions (reducing emissions from direct operations and energy sources) are simpler to implement. Nevertheless, scope 3 (reducing emissions in the value chain) often represents the largest reduction opportunity.

A particularly bold example for avoiding emissions has just been demonstrated by Apple. The company decided to remove headphones and chargers from their new iPhone boxes because customers supposedly already have them. These changes allow Apple to cut annually 2 million tons of CO2 emissions in their supply and logistics chain.

In all our organizations we should now wonder what are the chargers and headphones or even better: how we can reduce emissions without limiting customer benefits? Because the carbon clock is ticking and acting on climate change is not an option. Surely, the entities who figure out how to improve will come out of these uncertain times with a headstart.

The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: “Sustainability and economic success go hand in hand”

Life science and pharmaceutical company Bayer is aiming to become carbon neutral in its own operations by 2030. This August the Science Based Targets initiative approved that Bayer’s climate protection plan is in line with keeping warming to 1.5 °C. Bayer’s Head of Ecological Footprint, Delf Bintakies, provides insights on the plan.

How confident is Bayer to reach its targets?
Delf Bintakies: We are very confident to reach our plan. We will regularly map out our progress in achieving these climate protection targets in its annual report and sustainability report. The Science Based Targets initiative will also review compliance on a yearly basis. 

What are the uncertainties related to the climate protection plan? What will Bayer do to address these issues?
Delf Bintakies: Addressing Scope 3 emissions is a challenge. A special challenge is to find scalable solutions to work with multiple thousands of suppliers. Additionally the majority of emissions is related to earlier stages in the supply chain that are not direct suppliers of us. Bayer has joined forces with other companies in the initiative “Together for Sustainability” to enhance the approach. Industry collaborations are essential to achieve impact.

How will Bayer measure and monitor the emissions?
Delf Bintakies: Bayer already has an established measurement of our emissions that is reported on an annual frequency in our Sustainability report. These numbers are validated and audited in a similar way as our financial figures. Even more details are provided in our participation of the CDP benchmark where we received the highest rating last year with an A-Rating.

How does Bayer deal with conflicts of interest (e.g. decisions between cost and ecology)?
Delf Bintakies: Last year we announced that sustainability is one of our key pillars of our group strategy. We understand sustainability as an impact generator which means that sustainability is not a nice to have, it is an essential part of our strategy and we want to earn money with sustainable business models. Sustainability and economic success go hand in hand. Therefore, the sustainability goals have become part of the long-term managerial compensation model.

Further insights on how the company aims to achieve the targets can be found in this article.

The “Best picks” section presents selected articles, podcast and videos

Best picks: “Business is screwed” and counterfactual thinking

“Business is screwed if we don't fix climate change"

"I think business should fix capitalism." says economists Rebecca Henderson in her TED Countdown speech and provides four pillars of change:
1. Build a business that can set the right price and still be profitable.
2. Persuade your competitors to do the same thing.
3. Make sure that investors understand there's money to be made.
4. Push governments to put the right price into law so that bottom-feeders can't survive.

Climate change and counterfactual thinking

Counterfactual thinking is basically what we do after something bad happened. We come up with countless ideas how it could have been prevented from happening. Your favourite team lost, your phone screen cracked or worse, you got into a car accident? How could you have prevented it? Stay home, different route, go slower. This podcast and transcript of a conversation explores how counterfactual thinking could make it easier for us humans to act on something that’s happening slowly and distantly. What if it already happened? What should we have done to prevent it? That’s what we should probably do now.

The “Future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story

Future fantasy: Fed by the sun

After humans acknowledged that they are playing a role in climate change in the beginning of the century, they tried to get it under control. Numbers soon showed the measures are not working and by mid-century it was clear that limiting global warming failed. At this time also 9 billion people had to be fed, but fruitless or entirely eliminated harvests broke the supply chains. Many farmers had already been replaced by companies. They explored all kinds of alternative locations and methods: indoor, underground and vertical farming, but none of them prove efficient enough. Hunger is starting to spread out. Depleting reserves and long waiting lines in front of stores increase tensions. Local and global conflicts are on the doorstep. But a field is already looking at the problem from a different angle: the human body. The idea of human photosynthesis seems to have its breakthrough. First humans with implanted “solar” panels all over their body have gone without eating since last Wednesday, October 28 2065. This feels like the death of restaurants and the digestive system. We might be at the beginning of making more use of the abundance of sunlight.

In the next issue

From global to product carbon tracking, we will be looking at tools to analyze carbon emissions. Nasa has a satellite in space to observe the carbon cycle. The image below show higher and lower than average atmospheric CO2 levels (A. Eldering et al., 2017).

Besides the main story, a Knowledge snack, How they do it, Best picks and another future fantasy will wait for you. If you want to receive the next issue, signup before October 30 and receive a 30% discount on a yearly subscription. Together we can help reverse climate change.

Subscribe now

Dear Climate Pioneers

How do soils swallow CO2 from the atmosphere? After neutralizing the emissions of our communication channels with a soil carbon certificate in the last issue, today we are exploring how soils store carbon underground and much more:

• Soil carbon sequestration: The dirt that stores CO2

• Knowledge snack: The theoretical impact of agroforestry

• How they do it: Soil carbon in the executive floor of a Swiss bank

• Best picks: New data and new ideas

• Future fantasy: The age of the immortals

This is a monthly publication. If you want to receive the full issues in the future you can subscribe now.

Thank you infinitely for reading and supporting this work. Amongst others, your coolness will help stop global warming!

Sam

Soil carbon sequestration: The dirt that stores CO2

Reducing emissions will not be enough to reverse climate change. We must additionally remove already-emitted CO2 from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide removal methods such as soil carbon sequestration are needed to store CO2. Soil carbon sequestration in bullet points:

• When plants grow they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere

• The plants direct carbon to the roots to grow and feed the soil

• The soil sequesters carbon by converting it into organic matter

• Soil organic carbon(humus) can increase ~0.4% per year

• Soil can capture up to 20t CO2 per hectare and year

• The global potential is ~5 Gt CO2 per year

• There is a range of agricultural methods to “farm” soil carbon

• Erosion and desertification are the enemies of soil carbon

I met Wolfgang Abler, Joe Santo and Benjamin Seitz on a field in the east of Switzerland . They are running companies to measure and market soil carbon. In this video they answer seven questions on soil carbon sequestration (German with subtitles, transcript in the description).

When a farmer first becomes a carbon capturer, Joe and Benjamin take soil samples. They send the samples to an accredited lab to establish a baseline for the carbon content of the soil. The results are shared with the farmer and Wolfgang’s company Carbocert. Two to six years after the initial analysis the second sampling takes place. The new data is compared with the baseline and the difference is converted into tons of CO2 (see and calculate the data) and sold as soil carbon certificates. Farmers receive two thirds of the sales price. To guarantee the durability of the sequestration a third soil analysis takes place five years after the payment.

Planting trees and protecting forests is the most commonly referred natural climate solutions. Soil carbon sequestration is the lesser known sibling of biological negative emission technologies in the land sink sector. According to Project Drawdown land sinks are currently absorbing a fourth of our emissions. Within the next thirty years they have the potential to store 243.1–387.8 gigatons of CO2e. Soil alone can sequester up to 5 gigatons per year. But how securely is carbon stored in soils?

Currently, wildfires in California show the vulnerabilities of natural climate solutions. Millions of trees can be planted, but if they burn down, the positive effects are gone, respectively negative. The risk of reversibility in soils is different. As a large proportion of organic matter is present in the top 10 centimeters of soils, protecting the soil surface from erosion is essential for retaining soil carbon. There are a number of land management practices to protect and increase soil carbon. The methods generally go under the term of carbon farming or regenerative agriculture. They include cover crops, mulching, no tilling, composting or planting trees in pastures and crops, also known as agroforestry.

Knowledge snack: In theory, agroforestry has a remarkable climate impact

Agroforestry is an agricultural production system that includes trees in crops or pastureland. It can increase soil fertility, control erosion and improve water availability. In Europe alone, agroforestry on 9% of agricultural land could offset up to 43% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, without reducing food and feed production. However agroforestry is labour intensive, which is pretty much the opposite of where modern farming is heading.

For farmers who are new to regenerative agriculture, knowing "how" is a particular challenge. To increase soil carbon, farmers also need to produce nutrition under their fields. According to soil researcher Paul Mäder a hectare of soil needs to nourish 25 tons of earthworms, fungi and bacteria. That’s the equivalent of 30 cows. “As farmers we have to change our approach completely”, says Pirmin Adler: "From solving problems to creating a resistant system that prevents them".

In addition to new knowledge, investments in machinery and equipment are also necessary, says farmer Stefan Brunner. The investments and risks are worthwhile if the soil becomes more fertile and yields remain stable. Selling certificates is just a pleasant addition. Joe Santo adds "Humus is the sum of the farmer's work". Even in difficult years, humus-rich soils can hold more water and recover faster from climate shocks.

Besides the many benefits, monitoring soil carbon sequestration is difficult and costly. And increasing the carbon content can take a lot of time. “The key is the amount of organic matter that is brought into the soil”, says Daniel Bärtschi, founder of Carbon Farms. The 4p1000 initiative assumes growth rate of 0.4% per year. To grow land restoration is a necessity, globally almost 2 billion hectares are degraded.

Isn’t it crazy that the very soils that are affected by climate change are a solution to climate change? I was going to say soil carbon sequestration deserves more spotlight. But it already has. A soil scientist received the World Food Prize 2020. A company dedicated to carbon farming has raised 850 million dollars. Regenerative agriculture also arrived in Hollywood and on the stock market. Way to go!

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The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: Soil carbon in the executive floor of a Swiss bank

“It was a coincidence, a BLKB-colleague learned about the project on television. Afterwards we got in touch with the people in charge.” says Marilen Duerr, Head Sustainability at the Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB). Together with the Ebenrain Center for Agriculture, Nature and Food the bank is looking for 1’000 hectares of land and will incentivize its farmers to take measures for increasing soil carbon. It is the aim to use the soil in the canton of Baselland and Basel-Stadt as a CO₂ sink. Experts at Ebenrain Center and the research institute for organic farming (FiBL) estimate that one ton of carbon dioxide per hectare can be fixed in the soil every year. The bank pays farmers 100 Swiss francs per ton of stored CO₂ and also pays for the first two scientific soil tests that measure the increase of soil organic matter within the next six years. However, according to Marilen Duerr the greatest value for the farmers will be the improvement of the soil, which makes it less vulnerable to degradation and consequently produces a more reliable harvest. The board of directors and the executive committee have defined a strategy for BLKB of how to become the most forward-looking bank in Switzerland. “We are fully committed to implement this strategy”, confirms Duerr. It is even an option that the bank adds the carbon hectares to banking products for customers. For example, by making customers godfathers or godmothers of a piece of land or offering them climate neutral accounts that have been compensated in their region. “From 2021, we’ll be providing our carbon offsets on a completely local basis,” says Marilen Duerr — thus ensuring the region has a bright future.

The “Best picks” section presents selected articles, podcast, videos and links

Best picks: New data, ideas and funding

Our World in Data has a new site on CO2 Emissions

The new site includes graphs of some of the most central points around GHG emissions:

• Global emissions have not yet peaked

• Current climate policies won’t reduce emissions fast enough

• How do we make progress in reducing emissions?

First five recipients of Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund

Last year Amazon announced a $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund. This are the first recipients:

• Redwood Materials recycles electronic waste into high value metals and chemicals.

• Pachama is a marketplace for forest carbon offsets that are verified by satellite imagery.

• CarbonCure Technology injects recycled CO2 into fresh concrete.

• Turntide Technologies develops software that makes electric motors use less electricity.

• Rivian develops electric adventure vehicles.

The lowest carbon newsletter and your emission remover

Innovation happens everywhere. Here are people I personally know and would like to share their ideas with you:

• Maisie and Dom of Halo help companies to put sustainable materials into everyday products. Apparently, they also make the world's lowest carbon newsletter. I receive and read it on Fridays. You can sign up here.

• Fabienne and Ewan of Carbon Removed sell negative emissions to permanently remove your carbon footprint. Choose to compensate a flight; give the gift of negative emissions to a loved one or subscribe today to erase your future emissions on the go. Live carbon neutral today.

The “Future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story

Future fantasy: The age of the immortals

In greek mythology Prometheus made humans out of clay. His brother Zeus had wished for a gadget to play. But the creation of mortals was also meant to be kept under control (seems like we are leading the same discussion today about artificial intelligence). We know for sure it got out of hand with humans. Humans have become their own gods and are working to become immortals. But not without backlash, in 2028 longevity experiments are being forbidden altogether. A few biohackers continue their efforts in the dark. In 2030 a new human creation leaks a lab. The inventor gets sentenced to prison and the underground movement is being fought even harder. Only years later, environmental necessities bring the idea back to life. The creation of an immortal species is the key to fix unsustainable behaviours. But biotechnology can not just massively decrease our footprint, it also massively increases our diversity. The outcomes are wild. Thanks to the advancement in brain–machine interfaces humans can transfer into mice, birds and fish. We become much more nature and much less a burden for earth. The greek gods and goddesses would envy us.

In the next issue

There is a clock in New York that counts how much time is left to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. More about net-zero emissions in the next issue.

Besides the main story, a Knowledge snack, How they do it, Best picks and another future fantasy will wait for you. If you want to receive the next issue, signup before October 30 and receive a 30% discount on a yearly subscription. Together we can help reverse climate change.

Subscribe now

About the author, the project and the publication

My name is Samuel Bühlmann and combining ecology and business is my passion. I still know little about climate action. But every day I’m learning something new and I get better in finding questions worth answering and stories worth sharing. I served in large and small companies, launched an organic meat brand and worked for a farmers newspaper. I studied international management and information systems, where I recently delivered a thesis on a platform to remove carbon and help reverse climate change.

At Projectoasis.ch we support executives in reaching their emission reduction targets. Climate Pioneers is our first service. Every month readers receive freshly filtered findings at the intersection of business, sustainability and climate change. I'm thrilled by the idea to build bridges between capital, climate and the community. Every day counts.

Subscribe now

Dear Climate Pioneers

Did you know that the internet causes twice as much emissions as the aviation industry? When I first read this here, I said wait a moment, what is the carbon footprint for this publication? These are the stories for today:

• Digital footprint: The CO2-emissions for sending emails and running websites

• Knowledge snack: Carbon offset and carbon removal

• How they do it: Logitech will carbon-label all their electronics

• Best picks: Mourning a pioneer

• Crazy future fantasy: The crew who moved the earth

Spoiler: the digital footprint of this publication has been removed with a soil carbon certificate and I got to visit the site of the sequestration (more about the dirt that stores CO2 in the next issue).

Climate Pioneers is a monthly publication and our first service at Project Oasis (see about section in the footer). Subscribe now if you are interested in receiving a next issue.

Thank you infinitely for reading and supporting this work, your coolness will help stop global warming!

Sam

The footprint of websites, emails and videos

Just like greenhouse gases, the internet seems immaterial. The climate impact of the virtual world is very real though. Digital technology currently contributes 3.7% of global GHG emissions, twice as much emissions as the aviation industry.

As kids we were told to clean up our own backyard first. But can I calculate the digital footprint not just for this publication, but for different channels of Project Oasis? And how to track it over time? It’s trickier than I thought. Let’s start.

• Websites: There’s a tool for establishing the footprint of a website, right? Kind of. The website carbon calculator spits out between 0.04g to 1.49g of CO2e(carbon dioxide equivalents) as amount produced every time someone loads a particular page of projectoasis.ch. The calculator also states that the average website produces 1.76 grams CO2 per page view.

• Email: According to the Carbon Literacy Project a standard email causes 4 g CO2e. Fun fact: the source of this number is Mike Burners-Lee, the brother of the inventor of the internet, Tim Burners-Lee.

• Video: the footprint numbers for streaming videos vary too. Geroge Kamya’s fact check calculated 0.056-0.114kg CO2e per hour, contra 0.42kg CO2e by a study he cites and the 3.2kg CO2e established by the Shift Project. Video is a rapidly growing format and represents 20% of the total digital footprint.

And that’s not all. Even though we listen no longer to music on plastic discs, streaming music has actually a worse footprint and is responsible for emitting 200-350 million kilograms of CO2e in the US alone. This podcast estimates to emit in average 1,160 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 30-minute episode they produce. Plus, think about mobile apps (1250kg CO2e for a year's phone usage at 1 hour per day) and web searches (0.2 grams of CO2e for each query). Downloading a file of 500 megabytes results in 0.61 kilos of CO2 emitted. For further reading, this book, guide and magazine are dedicated to the topic of web sustainability.

As the internet use will unstoppably increase, we will hopefully also increase in energy efficiency and decrease the environmental impact of the web. In the meantime, what can users and creators of web services do about it?

• As a user I can install a browser extension that analyses the carbon footprint. Turn off videos when listening to music clips or even just listen to local files.

• As a creator or company I can do at least 1 or 17 things in the description, design, development and hosting of my web services to reduce their footprint.

And then?

After optimizing to the best, I can remove the rest. There are two options for compensating the footprint: removal and offset.

Knowledge snack: Carbon offset and carbon removal - eat less or stock more?

To limit temperatures at +1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels, already-emitted CO2 must be removed from the atmosphere. The difference between carbon offsets and removals is, that offsets reduce emissions and removals take them out of the atmosphere. If the carbon budget was a pot, offsets are like eating less and carbon removals are like adding more to it. We need to do both, eat less and add more to the pot. Depending on the success of our diet, hundreds to thousands of gigatonnes of CO2 will need to be removed in the coming decades. Luckily there are a number of negative emission technologies.

To remove the footprint from this project and publication, I choose soil carbon sequestration. It belongs to the most promising climate solutions with an annual capture potential of up to five gigatons. And has benefits that resonate immediately with someone like me, who is biased from growing up on a farm. I found a company called Carbocert and bought a soil carbon certificate for 1 ton of CO2. It compensates for the following actions:

• 671’140 pageviews with 1.49g per visit or

• 250’000 emails with 4g per delivery or

• 2’380 hours of video with 420g per hour of streaming

That’s not all. My browsing footprint analyser, also estimates an hourly average of 30g of CO2e for the last 80 hours of work. A ton would provide 33’333 hours of carbon neutral work. But how can I keep track of the carbon footprint? Basically I need to do accounting of website traffic, video views, email opens and online work. Here is a demo of a website certificate and monitoring page.

Since July 20 running channels of Project Oasis produced 6.40471Kg of CO2e. This publication alone has generated 32.43g of CO2e so far from views and will add at least another 108g for the emails sent with this issue.

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The “How they do it” section explores how businesses are tackling climate change

How they do it: Logitech launches a carbon label

Logitech’s customers can soon read product carbon footprints on the packaging. The firm will roll out carbon footprint labelling on all their products. The first labels will appear on gaming products later this year, as was announced in their press release.

“Just like calories went on the packaging in the food industry years ago, we believe that carbon content level should be a choice factor for the consumers who are interested in it,” Logitech’s CEO Bracken Darrell in The Verge.

Logitech works with several third parties to back-up their internal calculations, one of which is iPoint. According to Martina Prox from the iPoint group “the biggest value in communication related to sustainability is credibility and transparency, therefore further documentation on the calculation rules used by Logitech can be expected."

The “Best picks” section presents selected articles, podcast and videos

Best picks: Forecast, fruits and tragedy

The future of carbon removal

The Economist published an article that forecasts three things:

• Oil companies turn towards carbon capturing activities.

• International marketplace for carbon credits will emerge.

• Biggest concern remains how securely carbon dioxide is stored underground.

Apple announces carbon neutral supply chain by 2030

Apple CEO Tim Cook pledges on Twitter: “By 2030, Apple’s entire business will be carbon neutral – from supply chain to the power you use in every device we make. The planet we share can’t wait, and we want to be a ripple in the pond that creates a much larger change.” You might also want to meet the woman behind the mission.

A true climate leader lost his life in the fight against climate change

Swiss scientist Konrad Steffen fell into a crevasse in Greenland’s melting ice. On August 10 his institute announced his death. What a sad loss! Steffen leaves a clear call to action behind "Make your contribution – big or small – to create the difference."

The “Crazy future fantasy” section provides a fictional short story

Crazy future fantasy: The crew who moved earth

We write the year 2048 and the world is about to miss the climate targets by far. The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declares "despite all the efforts, we simply haven't made an effective breakthrough to stop global warming". Hope is fading and surrender is near. People are about to accept the inevitable apocalypse. Amongst the very few who remain hopeful is a subunit of a space agency, that has mastered interplanetary mobility in the meantime, but strongly desires to keep a link to earth. The subunit discovered that a tiny change of the planet's position would result in a cooling factor. People came up with tons of crazy ideas: attach earth to the moon, shoot it with a meteorite rocket or hit it with a giant wrecking ball. It is 3th February 2049 when the first attempt is taken to pull planet earth with seven cargo spacecrafts. The mission crew launches the heavy Space Invaders X32. At 4100 feet the captains ignite a boost that should move the earth by 1 meter north and alter its temperature and future forever. Less than a year later we see positive effects. Temperature starts to normalize. The mission is accomplished. For now.

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In the next issue: The dirt that stores CO2

Wolfgang Abler, Joe Santo and Benjamin Zweig are obsessed about the soil. In the next issue they will answer seven questions about soil carbon sequestration.

Besides the main story, Knowledge snack, How they do it, Best picks and another Crazy future fantasy will wait for you. Subscribe now, if you want to receive the next issue. Together we can help reverse climate change.

Subscribe now

About the author, the project and the publication

My name is Samuel Bühlmann and combining ecology and business is my passion. I still know little about climate action. But every day I’m learning something new and I get better in finding questions worth answering and stories worth sharing. I served in large and small companies, launched an organic meat brand and worked for a farmers newspaper. I studied international management and information systems, where I recently delivered a thesis on a platform to remove carbon and help reverse climate change. At Projectoasis.ch we support executives in climate action that positively affects their business and the planet. Climate Pioneers is our first service. Every month readers receive freshly filtered findings at the intersection of business, sustainability and climate change. I think we are living in fascinating times and I'm thrilled by the idea to build bridges between capital, climate and the community.

Hi and welcome to Climate Pioneers!

This is a monthly publication where pioneers like you can explore climate action and knowledge. There are three options to join over 300 subscribers and get the issues:

• Free - access to new updates for one week (select None)

• Paid - get issues in inbox and access full archive (select Annual/Monthly)

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You can start with free and then change as you see fit.

In the meantime you can access issue No1, No2 or No7, tell your friends and connect on your favourite social channels: Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube.

Just like swallows finding water in the desert, we must be persistent and clever to find solutions to climate change.

Thank you!

Samuel