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Impact focus – Trends and technology that offer sustainable, breakthrough solutions

They sound like terms from a science-fiction movie: Dark matter. Dark energy. An exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star. But there’s no need for a Universal Translator. Three scientists from the U.S. and Switzerland have...
Key Takeaway: Scientists are responding to efforts by the Trump Administration to eliminate federal advisory committees by providing research-based evidence to shape decision-making.
The scientists who pioneered rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and opened up the possibility of a carbon-free future were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry.  “They have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society,...
Key Takeaway: Google, Amazon and other companies announcing plans to source renewable energy appear to taking real measures to cut emissions, and moving away from the practice...
Consider this the next time you buy toilet paper.  If you’re like most American consumers your toilet paper was recently a decades- or centuries-old tree in Canada’s boreal forest that was cut along with...
Key Takeaway: Science for 1.5C Cities, a side-event held in UN’s basement last week, showcased the potential of new approach to climate change: letting cities take the...
From the window of the small Italian café called Coffee Break on Main Street in Hackensack, New Jersey, Dominic Daniele has had a front-row seat to the changing fortunes, not all for the better, of his New...
Key Takeaway: The burning of biomass, trees, plants and animal poop, was once seen as a renewable fuel and answer to the climate crisis. It’s now getting...
Uber has been fighting for years to keep its 3.9 million drivers classified as independent contractors, which means they are in business for themselves and ineligible for benefits.  Now heavyweight California, home to the...
A handful of European philanthropies have banded together to create the Clean Air Fund to support projects combatting air pollution, and to cut global deaths and health problems stemming from dirty air. Announced at...
John Thornton remembers his passion for space being ignited when, in his early teens, the robotic spacecraft Pathfinder landed on Mars with a roving probe. “My ‘Apollo moment’ was seeing the Pathfinder mission” the 35-year-old Thornton...
Car shoppers soon may have another option to consider when buying -- whether or not to add solar. While vehicles powered entirely by the sun won’t be sold for a long time, if ever,...
Is it possible to change how the most ubiquitous building material on earth is made -- one so dirty that it accounts for nearly a tenth of greenhouse gases, yet so cheap to produce that it costs...
Key Takeaway: Amazon Employees for Climate Justice will strike today at the company’s Seattle headquarters to demonstrate for a zero-emissions plan and demand their company cut ties with oil and gas...
Billionaire Bill Gates has taken a side in the polarized issue of whether to dump fossil fuel stocks to effect climate change or hang on to them. Unlike the Church of England and some of the Rockefellers,...
Despite a small dip in projects in the most recent quarter, U.S. solar investors have reason for optimism. The pipeline of utility-scale solar projects hit a record 37.9 gigawatts, according to the latest U.S....
Most car fresheners try masking bad smells, with pine or fruit aromas. But why not subtly change the way the driver perceives an odor, tricking the person into thinking the smell is pleasurable? And...
China is addicted to pork. Last year, the nation, home to half the world’s pigs, produced more than 50 million tons of pork. It’s citizens ate more of the meat than any other country.
That empty plastic bottle you threw in the recycling bin used to be in for a trip to another hemisphere. That changed in 2017, when China stopped accepting U.S. waste, disrupting the way the global recycling market...
While Goldman Sachs and others in private enterprise pour billions into solar projects, a patchwork quilt of state incentives and tax breaks across the U.S. still hold tremendous sway over investment in solar energy and installations of...
The timber industry, long associated with a range of environmental problems from removing oxygen-producing trees to ruining habitats, probably doesn’t rank high on many impact investors’ lists of favorite industries. A recent study from North Carolina won’t...
The Trump administration Thursday finalized the repeal of Obama-era clean water regulations that the president has called “oppressive,” the latest in a broad assault on environmental regulations. The Waters of the United States rule...
With intensified investor and media criticism ahead of  the IPO of We Company, one of the world’s biggest remote office startups, the coworking model is facing the toughest scrutiny to date. Can We Company...
The transition to a carbon-free future risks deepening racial inequality.  But two organizations will be trying to prevent this divide by boosting both access to solar power in one of the largest African American...
Startups are increasingly on the front line as the U.S. Department of Energy nibbles at using Blockchain technology to secure the energy grid from cyber attacks. Internet security startup TFA Labs won a $199,660...
Prince Harry, whose commitment to environmental protection was questioned after a few too many private jet trips, has started a company to help consumers make more eco-friendly travel decisions. Travalyst is the first initiative...
The $1.5 trillion global meat and dairy industries are taking little responsibility for their roles in climate change even as increased droughts, floods and storms cost them money. That’s the assessment of Farm Animal Investment Risk &...
Loadsmart, a digital freight-booking company, is gaining venture and industry support for its initiative that may help shippers cut fuel use and time at ports. The company raised $19 million from Maersk Growth, the...
Think outside the bowl. That's the message from the new breed of upscale bug-protein pet food brands. The trailblazers tapping the $50 billion canine nutrition market say that “ento” insect snacks have a smaller...
Solar and wind energy aren’t spreading slowly because big oil is plotting against them, no matter what conspiracy theorists say. A far more mundane factor is at play -- batteries. Power is needed even...
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