Author: Katherine Radeka

Myths About the Role of Carbon Offsets in Achieving Net Zero

This article co-authored by 41 scientists shares ten myths about the role of carbon offsets in achieving Net Zero, starting with the idea that we can compensate for fossil fuel emissions using offsets:

In the face of growing demands for action, many countries and companies are making promises and setting targets to reach “net zero” emissions or “carbon neutrality”. These often sound ambitious and may even give the impression that the world is awakening and ready to take on the climate crisis.

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Design Thinking to Electrify Industry

How do you convince medium sized companies to convert their fossil-fueled industrial processes to renewable energy?  And how do you do that if the amount of emissions saved seems tiny compared to the overall problem of global warming? It requires listening deeply to them, and building partnerships to meet them where they are, even if that means less electricity use in the short-term.  It means understanding the fundamental economics behind their decisions,and working with them to develop solutions that address their fundamental concerns. Sarah Williams of Simply Energy has taken a Design Thinking approach to help medium to large New Zealand companies have deeper conversations around how they source and use energy. 

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SME Climate Hub: Climate Change Action Tools for Small & Medium Businesses

Most of the major climate change initiatives I’ve seen mostly target big business.  On the surface this makes sense because they are the largest emitters. But when you look at the overall economic landscape, small and medium businesses contribute much more, in aggregate, and lack resources to invest in their own sustainability experts to help them develop a strategy. The SME Climate Hub is a collection of tools and resources aimed at smaller enterprises.

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How Safe Is It to Talk About Circularity? Conversations Around Sustainability Challenges

The concept of circularity is an exceptionally challenging topic for many businesses.  Today, most companies push out products, and then it’s up to the consumer to figure out what happens to them at the end of their useful lives. Circularity closes the loop, to look at how waste products can become feedstocks for other processes that continue to generate value.  It has the potential to completely change the role that a company plays in delivering customer value, the business model, and the product itself.  How do you introduce such a difficult topic, and how do you even begin to generate the ideas you need to develop innovative products and services with circularity at their core?

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“For the Greatest Benefit of All Humankind”

In this episode, I share more about why I chose to launch this project at this time, and how it fits in with my own personal story. You’ll hear about my time at HP, how Rapid Learning Cycles developed, and a visit to the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm that proved to be transformative, showing me what work was mine to do. If you are working in this area, I encourage you to connect with me here, or on LinkedIn, to continue the conversation.

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Water In Sight: Better Data to Make Better Decisions About Water

When people think about innovations around climate change, they naturally go to the big projects: solar energy farms, offshore wind, and the electrification of everything that uses fossil fuels today.  But a lot of the technology we need doesn’t generate the same kinds of headlines, or attract the same level of funding and government support. 

In this episode, we’re going to go into one of these small-but-important pieces: water management data collection. Droughts and floods are both effects of global warming that are already increasing in both frequency and severity. And the impact hits low-income populations hardest and soonest. 

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Who Are the Stakeholders for Innovations That Change the World?

Deborah Stine is a bridge between scientists, engineers and the policymakers, community leaders and other stakeholders whose choices can either accelerate an innovation team’s work or place obstacles in their way. In this interview, she shares how to identify and engage with these stakeholders so that you can integrate their needs and concerns into your solutions from the beginning.

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