FedEx’s Post

Transitioning from #linear to #recycle to #circular chemistries needs to be systematic to gain speed and adoption. This excellent report sets a great context and content to activate #SustainableChemistry #collaborations to #scale to deliver #action and #impact. THANK YOU ACS Green Chemistry Institute(r)! Adelina Voutchkova Christiana Briddell David A. Laviska Isamir Martínez, Ph.D., PMP Edmond Lam! The White House’s August 2023 report Sustainable Chemistry Report: Framing the Federal Landscape defines sustainable chemistry as “chemistry that produces compounds or materials from building blocks, reagents, and catalysts that are readily-available and renewable, operates at optimal efficiency, and employs renewable energy sources; this includes the intentional design, manufacture, use, and end-of-life management of chemicals, materials, and products across their lifecycle that do not adversely impact human health and the environment, while promoting circularity, meeting societal needs, contributing to economic resilience, and aspiring to perpetually use elements, compounds, and materials without depletion of resources or accumulation of waste.”3 In a more simplified definition, the UMass Lowell Sustainable Chemistry Catalyst and partners defines sustainable chemistry as “the development and application of chemicals, chemical processes, and products that benefit current and future generations without harmful impacts to humans or ecosystems.”

This editorial in Frontiers in Environmental Science was written by Battelle Technical Fellows Justin Sanchez and Amy Heintz, along with Jill M Brandenberger from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Jill Engel-Cox of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Ralph Muehleisen of Argonne National Laboratory. "Innovations in climate resilience" is a synthesis of papers and presentations from the Innovations in Climate Reslience #ICR conferences Battelle hosted. https://okt.to/UeMAYn "It is clear that we need a whole of society approach to continue advancing innovations in climate resilience. We are making progress translating climate science into plans, processes, and operations across many different dimensions of human security (i.e., energy, water, food, infrastructure, and health). However, to continue making bold leaps that translate into actions in climate resilience we must continue to gather multidisciplinary teams and public private partnerships to assess what the future climate holds (i.e., downscaled climate modeling), what intervention pathways are sustainable, and what technologies we must continue to create to enhance our global resilience."

This editorial in Frontiers in Environmental Science was written by Battelle Technical Fellows Justin Sanchez and Amy Heintz, along with Jill Brandenberger from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Jill Engel-Cox of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Ralph Muehleisen of Argonne National Laboratory. "Innovations in climate resilience" is a synthesis of papers and presentations from the Innovations in Climate Reslience #ICR conferences Battelle hosted. https://okt.to/Na4yjM "It is clear that we need a whole of society approach to continue advancing innovations in climate resilience. We are making progress translating climate science into plans, processes, and operations across many different dimensions of human security (i.e., energy, water, food, infrastructure, and health). However, to continue making bold leaps that translate into actions in climate resilience we must continue to gather multidisciplinary teams and public private partnerships to assess what the future climate holds (i.e., downscaled climate modeling), what intervention pathways are sustainable, and what technologies we must continue to create to enhance our global resilience."

This image shows to me the crisis of framing that so much conversation at the vanguard of public discourse about climate action and a new economy more generally feels like it is trapped in. When I look at this image, I see my generation passing the earth to my grandchildren's generation. The context is that we, as humans, are outside of Nature - we hold the earth in our hands, almost as if we are the owners of the earth. The message, of course, is that we want to pass to our children a good earth. But we are not outside of Nature. We are not the owners of the earth. We cannot hold it in our hands. So the imagine conveys a mixed message. One good: we must reckon with the future. One less good, because we are not owners of the earth. A better story might be that will live, as humans, in partnership with Nature. Subject to the laws of Nature, but empowered, within the limits of those laws, to take the world of Nature as we find it, and by learning to manipulate the laws of Nature, change that world to make it be more a way we choose to make it. That is, we live in a world of technology solutions that we make for ourselves in which to live, out of the world of Nature into which we all are born and by the laws of which we all are bound, and bounded, as a safe and dignified house for humanity within built environments of Urban, Rural, Curated and Left-Alone landscapes, along the creative edge of a Human-Nature partnership that is interactive, and not extractive.. Ian Edwards of The Cape Cod Center for Sustainability, challenges us, through the imagining Bank of Nature initiative, to see that Nature is a bank. Climate change is an eviction notice. We have let our accounts with Nature run seriously into deficit. We need to bring those accounts back into balance. Right away. Or else the laws of Nature are going to enforce a reckoning. I like that visual metaphor better as a framing for our situation. How do you feel?

On May 1st, Chuck Sabel, Professor of Law at Columbia University, and David G. Victor, Professor of Innovation and Public Policy at UC San Diego, will be in conversation with Inês M.L. Azevedo, Associate Professor in the Department of Energy Science & Engineering, Stanford University, as a part of the 2023-24 Wesson Lecture Series. Join their talk “Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World” to learn more about how experimentalism can uncover new possibilities for the future of climate change. https://bit.ly/3vwYjmp #StanfordEthics

To take effective #climateaction we need to be able to comprehensively track our progress on carbon emissions and removals. That's why the #GlobalCarbonBudget - compiled by an international team led by the University of Exeter's Professor pierre friedlingstein - is so crucial. #GreenFutures Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter

Happy Friday! Thanks for tuning in to this week's edition of the Economic Perspective! We have some great articles for you this week, covering topics like creating bioplastics from native seaweeds, climate change litigation, pollination programs in the EU, and more! Our data visualization this week showcases the results of a study quantifying the economic impact climate change is expected to have over the next 25 years, showing that climate change has more than an impact on just the environment, it has a real impact on global business as well. Interested? Keep reading below! https://lnkd.in/etnren_d #TBG #EconomicPerspective #bioplastics #climatechange #litigation #pollination #climateeconomics

One of the potentially-transformative aspects of the new MIT Climate Policy Center directed by Christopher Knittel: a shift in the incentives that drive academia. (Because what's policy without incentives, right?) "...researchers will be evaluated on their policy engagement, which aims to be bipartisan, rather than strictly more typical academic achievements." #climatepolicy #academia #highereducation

In carrying out our mission, we seek to strengthen the understanding of the role of science and the scientific process in addressing complex public policy issues like climate change. Science produces empirical, measurable, objective facts and provides a means for testing hypotheses that can be replicated and potentially disproven. Approaches to policy that do not adhere to the scientific process risk grave damage to the economy and to science.

Doom and gloom messages about climate change do well on social media 👍 but have limited effect on policy support, climate beliefs or action. New article shows how difficult it is to drive behaviour change on climate mitigation. 📖 For the article "Addressing Climate Change with Behavioral Science: A Global Intervention Tournament in 63 Countries" in Science Advances, the authors tested 11 interventions across almost 60,000 participants in over 60 countries on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and action (measured as effort dedicated to planting trees 🌱). ➡ Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), whilst no intervention had a significant impact on increasing tree planting. ➡ No silver bullet for spurring climate action. Impact of behavioural climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviours. Findings show how difficult it is to mobilise real, effortful action on climate change. 🌎 Conclusion: "Understanding how different messages work, and in what contexts, will be critical to changing beliefs, spreading the word, and mobilizing action" See journal article in Science Advances here ▶ https://lnkd.in/diFvXYcV See opinion article in Scientific American here ▶ https://lnkd.in/dysSw4Sr