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9 simple tips to reduce your carbon footprint during vacations

Carbon Footprint Reduction Strategies

The constant yearning for a life on a quaint farm has become an almost inescapable part of the corporate experience, no matter how well-adjusted you may be. Disappointed with the unavailability of such luxuries, many urban residents take to farming within the concrete confines of their cities, often to great success and applause. Aside from just being a very fulfilling practice for overstressed metro individuals, urban <keyword id="6355165" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="agriculture" source="Orion">agriculture</keyword> has several benefits, such as the development of a sense of community, independence, and the repurposability of unused city spaces. Additionally, growing the food locally means there's no need to ship produce from faraway farms, reducing the overall <keyword id="6404408" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon-footprint" source="Orion">carbon footprint</keyword> of the meals on your plate — or so we were led to believe. A new study throws a wrench in the works, revealing that fruits and vegetables grown in urban farms have, on average, a six times greater <keyword id="6404408" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon-footprint" source="Orion">carbon footprint</keyword> than conventionally grown produce! The main culprit is the material used to build and maintain such farms, like raised beds and irrigation systems. These often have shorter lifespans, leading to a higher environmental cost per serving. Urban farming is tricky. While futuristic hydroponic systems with multi-level vertical farms might come to mind when visualising the concept, the fact remains that most farms in the city are just simple <keyword id="6355165" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="agriculture" source="Orion">agriculture</keyword> beds, with none of this resource-saving tech to show for it. Since many of these farms are the result of relatively impromptu endeavours, urban farmers often don't invest heavily in the longevity of the agriculture infrastructure. What results is that the constant damage control actually causes higher <keyword id="56310" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="greenhouse-gas" source="Orion">greenhouse gas</keyword> emissions than conventional farming practices. The study revealed that food from urban agriculture emitted 0.42 kilograms of <keyword id="66463" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon" source="Orion">carbon</keyword> dioxide equivalents per serving on average — far higher than the 0.07 kilograms emitted by usual farming. Even though the overall picture seems bleak, all is not lost yet. Certain crops, like open-air tomatoes, actually perform better than their greenhouse counterparts in traditional farms. But in order to make <keyword id="20054673" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="city-farming" source="Orion">city farming</keyword> truly sustainable, the researchers recommend using durable materials to make the grow-beds, and reusing urban waste such as construction debris, food waste and rainwater. While lowering the <keyword id="66463" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon" source="Orion">carbon</keyword> footprint is crucial, the study reminds us that urban farms offer more than just food. They improve mental health, diets, and social connections. By maximising these "non-food outputs," urban farms can become truly sustainable parts of our cities. The findings of this study have been published in Nature Cities.

City farms emit six times more greenhouse gases compared to typical agricultural fields: study

<ul class="summary-list"><li>German energy may have lost billions in income as a result of fraud in a carbon credit program. </li><li>The program lets companies offset emissions by supporting carbon reduction projects abroad.</li></ul>A scandal engulfing Germany's carbon credit market may have resulted in billions in lost income for firms.The country's program allows its biggest carbon producers — companies like Shell and other oil firms — to offset some of their emissions by supporting carbon-reduction projects abroad.However, reports in German media this year show that some projects are misleading in their claims of reducing emissions — and some don't exist at all.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.semafor.com/article/08/21/2024/a-5bn-german-scandal-is-driving-green-firms-out-of-business?utm_medium=net+zero&amp;utm_campaign=flagshipnumbered2&amp;utm_source=newslettercta">A report in Semafor on Wednesday</a> notes that in one case, a whistleblower informed Shell that a carbon-reduction project the oil giant was involved with was, in fact, a chicken farm.According to an industry group, the scandal has led to $5 billion in lost income for companies involved in inadequately verified or fraudulent projects.In December,<a target="_blank" href="https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/klimaschutz-wie-luftbuchungen-in-china-der-biodiesel-industrie-schaden/100003507.html"> a report</a> in the German outlet Handelsblatt said that half of projects in China are probably fake or misrepresenting their effectiveness.The scandal involves Upstream Emission Reduction credits, which are produced by third-party energy firms and sold to producers looking to offset 1.2% of their emissions, as mandated by the German government.Most UER projects are located in China, with others in Azerbaijan and Nigeria. However, German media identified <a target="_blank" href="https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/klimaschutz-wie-luftbuchungen-in-china-der-biodiesel-industrie-schaden/100003507.html">27 projects</a> or more that aren't actually reducing any emissions or are exaggerating their results."In 27 UER projects from China, we have received indications of massive irregularities and even clear fraud," an industry insider told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/klimaschutz-wie-luftbuchungen-in-china-der-biodiesel-industrie-schaden/100003507.html">Handelsblatt</a> in December.Some revelations about fraudulent projects — like the chicken farm Shell was involved with — come from whistleblowers, while others have surfaced from satellite photos of project locations showing empty land.Semafor notes that the scandal is highly damaging to the global carbon-reduction effort, which is already operating on little trust in the biggest polluters' ability to self-regulate and actually reduce their carbon footprint.It is also a blow to regulators who are meant to be policing the effort and overseeing the transition to net-zero. In the case of the fraudulent UERs, compliance with the 1.2% reduction is not voluntary but legally mandated by the government, leading to questions over why agencies did not have more oversight of the program.

A $5 billion scandal is rocking Germany's carbon credit market

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A University of Michigan study found that urban-farmed produce has six times the carbon footprint of conventional farms.</li><li>The study faced backlash from advocates and students, saying it overlooked broader environmental harms of industrial farming.</li></ul>Research <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdig3DFkL5V9rgD-5rPgW0GroA3pbpNmWwHXHGoo74aMXoja_anmr5pb3xh2lAililuTXgADjvTB3UukpAGOLG2SrF_kHfHX8zWICcHcKop4L0aKMXPonVY2xRp0XQZ64IarUuA1R8qw3q4PhAWCWLXY9G0Ydc33x8xgJlvwIMOIziP3Z-9UFI-oql6pfu6qQZ029n5vwVI8SKZfYQDpHggYmAQ4UKQidwQlNlDsWkZAuRowdkRGettNr8zhYW8J95CuNYB-Cw-9oK6upgD5EWEWS6iDszTxyLPdRKl875Oy0xrfCdQvujTUBTHwLNEkZzQUPamO9sHlTOsQ-4qdI45hc-8w4OddF1Nl87AQ7xMgakArmdYr9fCcdKuJiA_rugYKFOk-U9RjTT7RnXWsEZhTWR7O5EnVSqmCgZepdYmPbcW">out of the University of Michigan</a> sent shockwaves through the urban-farming and home-gardening community earlier this year.Fruits and vegetables grown on urban farms have on average six times the carbon footprint of produce from conventional farms, the study, which was <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdigyVBLt12lmLv8Kq9KF0cdQjoc2NlXgdVGSzgZOXMbm41vySv-6bNirXuVkKEe4zYtRkHu-IV1v-0W-C-yK4FbMXEzIDCy-JCwmYVkyCXPCIt2GwU70ZNcgMDFzgtobt0rzfExa7hjIiSLi_pcqLW2kO3pVFQcy7kUXs39I6Rq9wju-WZ0vlmecmINrxBN9ZlJ5IWP5OA4NsjW1Lcdyo2mGApareaYJhL08j0yXO26bFKkuoZpKWHf3GXRwKkOy8zXWmj-Kcrz1J0L6WBc62tiL4P3v0ro9hAQbfEHHc7kE_oV4DP2reIpebcW5qmhTJTl5SGFjtT9G7XfyABNejPDL36yWuOPnzr4CRUZtQ7yRsLaw9tRD6Q5rBum95o9X5wyvVfLtgRn8X0hgcDynU7SsN5GiVtwX7Hhsk4mjeU0PZLIyNOKWiVR8ho8NL8nP_KtJupdV9Nm8W6gMK_72cr67R_x7w6OxLbRRXv_bHKQhY-">published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Cities</a>, found.The backlash was swift. University of Michigan students organized a rebuttal letter, arguing that narrowly focusing on carbon emissions overlooked the broader environmental harms of industrial-scale farming such as biodiversity loss and water pollution. Some angry homesteaders on TikTok and YouTube circulated conspiracy theories about the government not wanting people to be self-sufficient. The research landed as cities including Detroit, <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdigxWxojJ8J5pQHuZpUrbvrUbrww7LkgQb0AoKMWISaksztKtNGWhZGbvGryiqPWhFFsNaqynonrY4jZWjZhw-pUXygoC1Auv-xnNPN7GXFHLkI2CdpXSvhXB65J1tq-Z7KNwMBrzEZeDJVuhbNpl1wQcXgx7t3XJKBmcOF4M2o9uCa8eQpctf2Vm6eOrxomO0Gzp72AUSDIcC7_kGXufuZOkPZ4a53ELdiw77soVlQrQLgIcfaMcckVhcpzwIN2IK3sXHOp2y_WBwNwwATroicweQP01heQnBSkyioVIyYhaKYUY_Cg2lsJcZ7tnqtHpYi8ABvbrVPPGavVaK6iAY6g-yusAyUHL2rTnUDi8Q5ln751TcAK2Xy9DpvP6b1qos-sp1bo2WuFLCi0n1JPwIWno%3D">Philadelphia</a>, and Washington, DC, increasingly invest in urban agriculture to promote sustainability and become more resilient to the climate crisis. The researchers told Business Insider that while the many social benefits of urban farming were well understood — such as improving access to fresh food in disadvantaged communities — some climate claims warranted more scrutiny."Urban agriculture is not a magical climate solution," Jason Hawes, a coauthor of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, said. "But there is evidence that with the right kind of planning and investments, it can be more climate-friendly. So we wanted to figure out what those interventions looked like."Hawes said that produce grown on 17 out of the 73 urban farms his team studied across five countries had lower carbon footprints than produce from conventional farms. The urban sites tended to have longer life spans, reuse waste for compost and building materials, reuse water, and maximize social benefits for their communities.The infrastructure used to build urban gardens matters a lot, Hawes said, because new materials come with their own carbon footprint. Choosing crops such as tomatoes or asparagus, which are typically grown in energy-intensive greenhouses and transported on a plane, respectively, also matters.<h2>Fury among urban farmers</h2>The headlines offended advocates of urban agriculture, according to interviews with a Detroit city official and other academics, as well as the letter circulated by University of Michigan students and shared with BI.These advocates questioned whether comparing the per-serving carbon footprint of produce from urban and conventional agriculture was appropriate, given the vastly different scale of these systems and the roles they serve in society.Mainly, they worried the study would let conventional agriculture — which <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdig22tyCNchXZAgdxwipimYVznOXFPGv5B5brtbrGUrJWehR9wef9PKiYCdUXXAUTzNCYnCgz5hBndgRonmOFmB8BZI1-3lB5d6Sx9aONB53xyVAKlJvXWlCjlPnSu7v9X7gCcNh3xGtMpUXVN47WmLbh2wFs0l_GI4jAPWh_pHeT7Ztm2dQTrnHg1HAWtXxEd-7j9o9KL7BxVH7ScfYjIGIec_OVLTdtt76ESASEzhfe_gQ9jq0qesHUUboO1ZbAeEC2XbWTtqDM8h-n7kl3tyPJrlQJtL8Y3N1OU6SdGlJeLKC46maN-qpJk3kfzcaBsz10HYy2wx0RZ6iDgFCzWUvQ%3D">globally accounts for about one-third of greenhouse-gas emissions</a> — off the hook and undermine a burgeoning movement to expand urban green spaces and promote food sovereignty, especially in communities of color burdened by pollution. "I thought the study took a lot of the onus off of conventional agriculture, which we are in the process of recreating," Tepfirah Rushdan, who last year became Detroit's first director of urban agriculture, told BI. "The reason for the shift is because industrial agriculture is a strain on our planet."Rushdan also argued that urban farms are a much more sustainable use of land than commercial or industrial development.The letter organized by students at the University of Michigan said the research addressed "critical research gaps" but should have been more nuanced by incorporating more of the environmental harms of conventional agriculture. The letter also alluded to the structural problems that can prevent urban farms from being more permanent, including commercial development and barriers to landownership.Hawes and his coauthor <a target="_blank" href="https://seas.umich.edu/research/faculty/benjamin-goldstein">Benjamin Goldstein</a>, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, said they're sensitive to the concerns, and were responding to them, but stood by the methodology."Our work does not lessen the many benefits that urban agriculture provides," Hawes said in an email. "We put one specific claim to the test with the best available data. This is not an indictment of the process as a whole. Instead, it is an indictment of the environment in which urban agriculture is forced to exist — with constant pressures on land tenure, with resource constraints, and with a constant back and forth about the 'true purpose' of the practice."Hawes and Goldstein said they had crafted policy briefs for city officials and the US Department of Agriculture that underscore how important urban agriculture is for sustainability and local food production. They also are working on a letter to Detroit farmers, many of whom reached out to Hawes to say they'd already adopted the best practices outlined in the study.Despite the controversy, the research led some urban gardeners to reevaluate their practices. Monica Fitzgerald, a backyard gardener in Boulder, Colorado, told BI that she didn't think the headlines were true at first. Part of the reason she grows her own food is to be more sustainable and improve local biodiversity.But after reading the main findings, she learned a few lessons and shared them on TikTok <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@colorado.monica/video/7328188157705424170?_r=1&amp;_t=8jiNGzWHC2d">to dispel other users' conspiracy theories</a>."Try to make things with materials you already have," she said. "Order fewer seeds online. Compost at home. Extend the lifetime of a raised bed, shed, or shovel. Not only does it save you money, it saves you carbon emissions."Are you a gardener or urban farmer who is finding ways to save money and reduce your carbon footprint? Reach out to this reporter at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:cboudreau@businessinsider.com">cboudreau@businessinsider.com</a>.

Gardeners are fuming about a study that found produce from urban farms has a high carbon footprint      

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Games' need for a massive infrastructure project has historically hurt host cities' environments.</li><li>Installing and using 5G technology could help minimize the Olympics' environmental impacts.</li></ul>When thousands of the world's best athletes descend on one city, it can wreak environmental havoc.No single Olympic Games held between 1992 and 2020 was sufficiently sustainable, found <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=c0d989491c74099378a20091f3e16aba6129c646e40d4b337bf98c0f4ca076c3&amp;postID=66a274b6d290cb433ad39ab1&amp;postSlug=paris-olympics-how-5g-tech-could-curb-environmental-impact-2024-7&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41893-021-00696-5">a 2021 study</a> in the journal Nature that assessed the environmental impacts of the Games during that period.For example, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games damaged the city's local environment when an estimated <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/3/166#:~:text=During%20the%20seven%2Dyear%20preparation,Azevedo%202015%3B%20Zimbalist%202017).">77,000 people in favela communities were displaced</a> to make way for the event's infrastructure, according to a retrospective report published in 2023 in the journal Social Sciences.From an environmental standpoint, the Rio de Janeiro Games <a target="_blank" href="https://katoikos.world/analysis/olympics-a-celebration-for-humanity-a-disaster-for-the-environment.html">produced</a> more than 17,000 metric tons of waste, used 29,500 gigawatts of electricity — the majority of which was not from renewable sources — and resulted in 3.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions, the Rio de Janeiro Games reported.For the Paris Games, limiting environmental impact has been a greater concern than in past Olympics, with efforts across industries to reduce waste. Rather than build a series of new venues, existing ones have been repurposed. <a target="_blank" href="https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/infrastructures">Only one new permanent venue was constructed</a>, and there's more <a target="_blank" href="https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/organising-more-circular-games">renting than buying</a> when it comes to equipment like furniture to reduce waste. Sustainability initiatives also extend to the 5G technology powering the Olympic Games.Orange, the telecommunications provider for the Paris Games, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.orange.com/en/allconnected/paris2024/paris-2024-how-orange-will-limit-its-environmental-impact">has set itself the goal</a> of limiting its carbon emissions to 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. If met, Orange's carbon emissions would account for less than 1% of the total estimated emissions of the 2024 Olympics.It's the latest example of how 5G providers are supporting sustainability efforts at global-scale live events."As sustainability initiatives around large public venues gather steam, we know IT teams are being asked to find ways to contribute to their organization's decarbonization efforts," said Kevin Swank, the product-marketing director at CommScope, a service provider that has worked on sports stadiums in France, Germany, and the US.<h2 id="1d0215d6-49e6-4444-b194-294cf1e5f1bd">Environmentally friendly technology that can support more fans</h2>Though 5G systems require infrastructure installation, their technology is more sustainable than older connectivity systems like analog distributed antenna systems, Swank said.Digital 5G systems use less power and less cooling than older systems, which need large amounts of power and cabling to run, Swank told Business Insider. And because 5G systems run digitally, they don't require as much physical infrastructure as their predecessors, Swank added.He said he witnessed the positive impact — on the environment and the fan experience — when CommScope updated the internet infrastructure at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.commscope.com/globalassets/digizuite/965502-atandt-stadium-cs-115933-en.pdf">AT&amp;T Stadium in Arlington, Texas</a>, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, in 2020."The venue was reaching the performance limits of its equipment, and its current network just couldn't keep up with the growing demands of a mobile-device-centric fan base," Swank told BI. The stadium needed a 5G network that could support augmented-reality features and mobile-ordering capabilities for concessions for up to 100,000 visitors at a time.By switching to 5G, the stadium's network performance increased tenfold, while its power use went down by about 87% and its cooling requirements decreased by up to 75%, a project report from CommScope said. Those reductions equate to over 100 metric tons in CO2 emissions savings a year, Swank said.The stadium's 5G system resulted in just five equipment storage racks compared with the 30 to 40 racks previously required for its analog equipment.Because of these advantages, 5G is quickly gaining steam within the entertainment industry as events continue to grow in scale and attendees expect more seamless experiences.<h2 id="4de8c9b0-599e-4fa3-9e87-59f5acb6ad1c">Recycling 5G equipment for more sustainability</h2>To work toward its carbon-emissions goal for the Paris Games, Orange decreased its equipment manufacturing and infrastructure-deployment footprint. Orange, in partnership with the consultancy Carbone4, estimated that 86% of its global footprint came from those two areas.For the Paris Olympics, the company is using more local suppliers and shipping bulky items by sea rather than air to reduce emissions. Orange said it planned to rent one-quarter of its equipment and estimated that 75% of the equipment would be reused or redeployed after the Games.Generally, the 5G networks used at sports venues' large events can be reused after the events end and the increased capacity is no longer needed, said Kelvin Chaffer, the CEO of Lifecycle Software, which provides support systems for network operators."By designing infrastructure that can be repurposed for other community uses postevent, and implementing green technologies and sustainable practices," Chaffer said. He added that this approach gives large sporting event organizers the ability "to minimize the environmental impact of event-triggered infrastructure projects."

How 5G technology is helping curb carbon emissions and waste at the Paris Games

Leading planters body <keyword id="174405" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Tea-Association" source="Orion">Indian Tea Association</keyword> (ITA) said <keyword id="6361617" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword> is threatening the industry globally which is resulting in lower yields and rise in production costs. A spokesman of ITA said climate change is also threatening the long-term viability of tea industry, which is also causing increasing pest infestations making pesticide residue management surfacing as a major challenge. To mitigate this, ITA said that the industry needs to adopt a multi-faceted to address the climate change issue by way of sustainable farming practices and reduction in <keyword id="6404408" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon-footprint" source="Orion">carbon footprint</keyword>. In this context, the association maintained the industry involving all the stakeholders to invest in research to come out with mitigating solutions. There has also been a decline in rainfall and increase in temperature in the <keyword id="16942294" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tea-cultivating-regions" source="Orion">tea cultivating regions</keyword> for the last several years, ITA said. According to the association, future projections indicate a substantial reduction in suitability in tea cultivation in areas where the crop is grown. The other major area where work is needed to be done by the industry is that optimisation in the use of chemical fertilisers and greater use of renewable energy. In the latest data compiled by Tea Board, production in January 2023 in the country was 13.43 million kilogramme as against 16.22 million kilogramme in the same month of last calendar year. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/desk-bombing-monk-mode-other-emerging-trends-at-the-workplace-as-per-linkedin/slidelist/98973217.cms">Desk-bombing, monk mode &amp; other emerging trends at the workplace</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/haircut-on-cases-resolved-through-ibc-not-very-encouraging-says-kotak-report/articleshow/98972743.cms">Haircut on cases resolved through IBC not very encouraging, says Kotak report</a>

Climate change threatening tea sector globally: ITA

Imagine trying to reach a specific destination, but your map is outdated, the signs point in different directions, and fellow travelers argue over the best route. This is a reality of the struggle many companies face when it comes to tackling <keyword id="6361617" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword>, a new study explains. Despite their best efforts, companies are getting tangled in a web of conflicting national targets, inconsistent government guidance, and limited options for reducing their <keyword id="66463" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon" source="Orion">carbon</keyword> footprint. This frustrating situation may be hindering their ability to effectively contribute to global climate goals, the research elaborates. The challenge begins with mixed messages. Governments and regulatory bodies often send conflicting signals, with national targets and international standards failing to align perfectly. This leaves companies confused and unsure of the best course of action. Furthermore, standardised data sources and accounting methods don't always capture the unique picture of each company's emissions. This leads to inaccurate assessments and suboptimal reduction strategies, something the world, in the current stage of the climate crisis, cannot afford. Adding to the confusion, the research explains that some companies rely far too heavily on <keyword id="1690954" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon-offsets" source="Orion">carbon offsets</keyword> to compensate for their emissions, instead of focusing on concrete reductions within their own operations. This act might make the operations seem emission-free, effectively tricking shareholders. Much like greenwashing, this can be compared to paying someone else to complete your errands while your own to-do list remains untouched. While this might ease the immediate pressure, it certainly doesn't address the root cause of the problem. Finally, companies juggle competing demands from regulators, shareholders, and customers. This makes it difficult to prioritise efficient decarbonisation strategies and resource allocation. This act of trying to please everyone at once often leads to compromises and suboptimal outcomes, the study reads. To navigate this complex maze, the researchers propose a two-pronged approach. First, companies need a more dynamic framework. This means combining a <keyword id="66463" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon" source="Orion">carbon</keyword> measurement and management process with a flexible "Plan, Do, Check, Act" cycle. This ensures alignment between climate targets, actions, monitoring, and reporting, just like having a clear, up-to-date map and constantly checking your progress. Second, governments and regulatory bodies need to work together to create a more unified international framework, similar to the somewhat recently released <keyword id="12704208" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="issb" source="Orion">ISSB</keyword> standards. This step would empower companies to accurately assess, manage, and reduce their carbon footprints, similar to having clear and consistent road signs throughout your journey. Reaching global climate goals requires a collaborative effort. Companies, governments, and regulators need to work together to create a clearer roadmap, remove conflicting roadblocks, and prioritise efficient resource allocation. Only then can companies truly navigate the climate maze and contribute meaningfully to a sustainable future. The findings of this research have been published in <keyword id="6355515" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="business" source="Orion">Business</keyword> Strategy and the Environment and can be accessed <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bse.3635" data-type="tilCustomLink">here</a>.

Is there a fundamental problem preventing businesses from contributing efficiently to climate mitigation efforts?

<div type="image" title="One Planet Banner Test" height="138" width="1100" msid="101402909" hostid="261" sizebytes="5076"></div>Do you remember your very first cellphone?Where is it now? Maybe you passed it on to a friend, traded it in for an upgrade, or sold it. Maybe it's still lurking somewhere in your home, abandoned in a drawer.It takes a lot of resources to make a smartphone. It's estimated that the production of a typical smartphone uses around <a href="https://www.twosides.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/mind-your-step-report-76803.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">12,760 liters of water,</a> which is equivalent to around 160 bathtubs full of water. The manufacturing process is energy-intensive, too, with the production of an average smartphone emitting 60 kilograms of carbon dioxide, <a href="https://green-alliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Design_for_a_circular_economy.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Green Alliance</a>, an independent think tank focused on environmental policy. It's not just smartphone manufacturing that has a big environmental impact. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to the Environmental Protection Agency,</a> manufacturing is the third-largest contributor to US greenhouse-gas emissions, after transportation and electric power. The sector also accounts for 25% of the nation's energy consumption.More often than not, the products we consume have been made from newly extracted materials. The amount of resources that we extract has <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/global" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than tripled since 1970</a>, with global material consumption totaling <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 100 billion tons every year.</a> But while consumption rates have shot up, recycling rates have remained low. Just <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/22/worlds-consumption-of-materials-hits-record-100bn-tonnes-a-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8.6% of the materials that we consume each year are recycled.</a><h2>Could a circular economy make a difference?</h2>Some industry leaders think there's a solution for cutting down on waste and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions at the same time: the circular economy. Try to visualize it. Right now, we have a linear system. We extract materials, make them into products, use the products, and then dispose of them. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity committed to creating a circular economy, calls this a <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"take-make-waste" system</a>. Think back to your first cellphone: It's probably at the "waste" stage right now.The idea of a circular economy is to take that "straight line" system and turn it into a closed loop. The basic idea is to keep materials in the loop for as long as possible. Imagine if components from your first cellphone were extracted and used in your current one, or if it was easy to upgrade and repair your first cellphone so you could still use it today.<a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/global" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research by the Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative</a> found that only 7.2% of the global economy is currently circular.There are several ways to create a circular economy. It starts with designing products that last as long as possible and are easy to repair. Once a product can no longer be repaired, it can be remanufactured — which is when you disassemble a product and make a new version of the product with used parts. Recycling — when materials are repurposed into a new product and put back together again — is the final step. When you recycle, you are using waste as a resource.Alice Bodreau, the partnership lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said that there are three pillars of a circular-economy strategy: developing products that don't create waste and pollution, circulating the materials that you put on the market, and regenerating nature.Anne Velenturf, a senior research fellow at the University of Leeds, told Insider that adopting a circular economy does not mean that consumers lose out. "Research has shown that we can all still live a good-quality life when resources are better shared across society," she said.<h2>Waste is a resource</h2>Recycling doesn't just tackle our waste problem; it helps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. That's because recycled materials skip a large part of the energy-intensive extraction and manufacturing process. The production of recycled steel, for instance, requires <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/completing-the-picture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% to 15% of the energy required to produce new steel.</a>The issue, though, is that not everything is easy to recycle. Think about the phone or computer that you're reading this article on. It's made up of lots of different materials and minerals.This problem is something that Peter Afiuny was thinking about when he cofounded the magnet-manufacturing company <a href="https://noveon.co" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Noveon</a>. "In the late '80s and early '90s, all of the stuff that we were consuming as a society started to become more complex in its product, in terms of the components that are used," Afiuny told Insider. "The waste industry didn't really catch up to how to extract the more critical components."Afiuny, who had previously worked in the recycling industry, wanted to find an efficient way to "surgically extract" components that would otherwise be discarded.Cue the creation of Noveon, a company that manufactures rare-earth magnets from recycled materials. According to Afiuny, postconsumer recycling rates for rare-earth magnetic materials are less than 3%. The traditional "mine-to-magnet" process consists of a lot of energy-intensive and waste-intensive steps and uses potentially dangerous chemicals. "We essentially invented a process that bypassed all of these upstream methods," Afiuny said.Many things need permanent magnets, including products that are essential for the green transition such as electric vehicles and wind turbines."Most of our magnetic materials come from end-of-life channels, so that includes motors, energy systems, medical devices, data-storage devices like hard disk drives," Afiuny said.Afiuny told Insider that he saw Noveon's manufacturing approach as part of a wider shift in the industry. "I think that there is just more generally a trend towards developing regional supply chains, especially as companies are becoming global entities and they're looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint," he said.<h2>Design matters</h2>Bodreau said that there's more to the circular economy than recycling."Recycling is like you have a water leak in your house and you just go and directly mop it up and try to mop everything up before doing anything else," she said. "While the circular economy is about putting the tap off and actually addressing the leak itself, and not just mopping the floor and keeping on mopping the floor forever and ever."One way to "turn the tap off" is through design. Bodreau said it's about "redesigning the way you operate and the way your product is designed that it will never end up as a leak in the world."That's the principle the electronics company <a href="https://www.fairphone.com/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fairphone</a> is putting into practice. Based in Amsterdam, the company manufactures just two types of products: smartphones and headphones. Their smartphones aren't glued shut and are easy to disassemble, which makes them much easier to repair."Seventy-five percent of the emissions connected to a smartphone occur during production," Anna Jopp, Fairphone's press officer, told Insider. "To us, this means that the most efficient way to reduce the emissions caused by smartphones is to produce less phones. And the way to achieve this is to use the phones we already have for as long as possible."If you keep your phone for five years instead of three you could reduce the phone's annual carbon footprint by 31%, Jopp said.Since phone longevity is key, Jopp said Fairfone tries to encourage people to keep their phones as long as possible by making products that are modular by design and easily repairable. "The longer a product is used, the fewer new products we need to manufacture and the less resources we use," she said.<h2>The renewable challenge</h2>The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that there will be <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/articles/we-need-to-talk-about-renewables-part-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">43 million tons of wind-turbine blade waste by 2050.</a> Meanwhile, the Renewable Energy Agency estimates that there will be up to <a href="https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Jun/End-of-life-management-Solar-Photovoltaic-Panels" target="_blank" rel="noopener">78 million tons of solar-panel waste</a> by 2050. The renewable-energy industry presents a new challenge for the circular economy, and the UK company ReBlade is trying to get ahead of the game. ReBlade's cofounder Fiona Lindsay told Insider that the team wanted to stop material from wind turbines from going to landfills. While many parts of wind turbines can be recycled, the wind-turbine blades are made from fiberglass, a nonbiodegradable manufactured composite that is extremely difficult to recycle. The company is working on solutions to repurpose wind-turbine blades when they can no longer be used to generate power. Their flagship project uses decommissioned blades to create canopies that provide shelter at electric-vehicle charging points.Lindsay said that the "newness" of the sector was a big obstacle. "Until now, blades have only needed to come down in tiny numbers, perhaps because of damage," she said."In the years ahead, blades will come down in their thousands as whole wind-farm sites are repowered with bigger turbines," she said. "What that means is that the owner-operators of sites don't, as of yet, have standardized approaches to procurement or blade-removal operations.""It takes a tremendous amount of energy and resources to produce the blades in the first place, so we believe reusing them is a better option," Lindsay said.<h2>A 'win-win' solution</h2>Velenturf said that there were many benefits for companies adopting circular-economy principles, including accessing new markets and customers and increasing the security of material supplies, which reduces risks and costs.Policymakers are starting to catch on to circular solutions, too. In June, representatives from 180 countries met in Paris and discussed a global treaty to regulate plastics. Bodreau described the meeting as a "big, big way forward." Meanwhile, New York state's recent <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-signs-digital-fair-repair-act-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Fair Repair Act</a> aims to make it easier for consumers to access the parts and information needed to repair their electronic devices.For Lindsay, the circular approach is a no-brainer. "We have a finite amount of resources so we need to find innovative new ways to reuse resources through second- or even third-life uses after they have been used in their initial applications — a win-win for everybody."This article is part of "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/the-great-transition" rel="">The Great Transition</a>," a series covering the big changes across industries that are leading to a more sustainable future. For more climate-action news, visit Insider's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One Planet</a> hub.

How the circular economy could solve the smartphone-waste problem — and curb the manufacturing industry's carbon footprint, too

<ul class="summary-list"><li>ChatGPT said its carbon footprint depended on the energy use of its computers and servers.</li><li>The climate impact of AI is a newer area of research, but the effect is likely small.</li></ul>Millions of people, like me, are now using ChatGPT, the artificial-intelligence tool that can write everything from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-chatbot-openai-chatgpt-layoff-memo-amazon-google-meta-2023-1?_gl=1*1t95lss*_ga*ODEzOTE0NTE0LjE2NTgyNDk0OTk.*_ga_E21CV80ZCZ*MTY3NjA2MDc5MS40NjIuMS4xNjc2MDYwOTk0LjAuMC4w">layoff emails</a> to <a href="https://www.insider.com/okcupid-chatgpt-generated-match-questions-wasnt-great-2023-2">dating profiles</a> to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-gave-instructions-for-making-crack-and-smuggling-report-2023-2?_gl=1*1jik3bn*_ga*ODEzOTE0NTE0LjE2NTgyNDk0OTk.*_ga_E21CV80ZCZ*MTY3NjA2MDc5MS40NjIuMS4xNjc2MDYwODE4LjAuMC4w">detailed instructions on how to make cocaine</a>.I haven't asked it to create any of those things, though I did wonder whether ChatGPT could spit out an answer on its environmental toll. Concerns about ChatGPT's carbon footprint, which is likely small at the moment, could rise as more people turn to it for day-to-day search. The chatbot had some 590 million visits in January alone, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/02/chatgpt-100-million-users-open-ai-fastest-growing-app" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to UBS analysts</a> who described it as the fastest-growing consumer app in history.The models underlying ChatGPT that train it how to understand and generate human language require heavy-duty processing power. And the data centers hosting its cloud networks must be kept cool. The energy demands for AI are likely to go up as more people ask it questions like, "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-how-to-negotiate-a-raise-job-advice-experts-approved-2023-1">How to negotiate a raise?</a>" For now, a lot of mystery surrounds the carbon footprint of AI, including ChatGPT. The murkiness isn't surprising. It's often difficult to total up a single human's carbon tab. I eat dairy and travel on airplanes occasionally. AI does neither of those — nor does it harbor the green guilt I sometimes feel for my actions. I asked the chatbot what its carbon footprint was, and its answer felt, well, human: It depends."As an AI language model developed by OpenAI, I do not have a physical body or personal actions that generate carbon emissions," ChatGPT wrote. "My carbon footprint would be limited to the energy consumption of the computers and servers used to run me and process requests. The exact carbon footprint would depend on factors such as the energy sources used to power the computers and the efficiency of the data centers."ChatGPT added that OpenAI didn't disclose how many computers and servers were used to run and process requests. It's "likely a large-scale infrastructure consisting of multiple data centers spread across different regions," it wrote. The numbers might change based on demand.And because ChatGPT's most recent <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/openai-chatgpt-update/476116/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data is from 2021</a>, it's unlikely any answer it could give would reflect its recent surge in popularity.<div type="image" title="ChatGPT screenshot" height="1146" width="1532" msid="97916879" hostid="261" sizebytes="105332"></div>Sasha Luccioni, a researcher at the AI startup HuggingFace, wasn't surprised that ChatGPT was vague — the environmental impact of AI is still an emerging area of research.Last year, she coauthored a <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.02001.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> that looked at the life cycle of emissions from HuggingFace's own language model, Bloom. The study, which wasn't peer-reviewed, measured emissions starting from the manufacturing of computer hardware to the energy used to train the model. Those emissions totaled nearly 51 metric tons of carbon dioxide — or about 60 one-way flights between London and New York, according to <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/14/1063192/were-getting-a-better-idea-of-ais-true-carbon-footprint/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MIT Technology Review</a>. HuggingFace also tracked electricity use as Bloom fielded hundreds of thousands of queries from users during an 18-day period, and emissions totaled far less than 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide. The emissions associated with Bloom were low compared with language models of similar size. A 2019 <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1906.02243.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Massachusetts Amherst</a> study of popular language models found in the case of one model, for example, that its training could emit the equivalent of 284,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or five times the average gas-powered car over its lifetime.If you take a step back, the entire global tech sector accounts for somewhere between <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666389921001884#!" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2% and 4% of greenhouse-gas emissions</a>, and AI is only a slice of that field. The aviation industry similarly accounts for <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/aviation-flight-path-to-net-zero-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about 3% of global emissions</a>.That doesn't mean it should be ignored, Luccioni said. "Most AI programs are on the low end of the emissions spectrum," she said. "A select few models seem to be disproportionately polluting, though, so it's important to understand where the sources of carbon are. Then you can at least start setting up guidelines."ChatGPT also told me that OpenAI's goal was to handle an increasing number of requests in an "efficient" and "cost-effective" way, while reducing its environmental impact. Those strategies include optimizing energy use in its data centers, looking to source renewable energy for its operations, and purchasing carbon offsets. <div type="image" title="ChatGPT screenshot" height="886" width="1773" msid="97916880" hostid="261" sizebytes="94044"></div>OpenAI didn't return a request for comment on its environmental goals.The entire exchange left me feeling like I had interviewed a politician because there were few direct answers and I still had a lot of questions, including what the carbon footprint of my query was.

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