Two reports out this spring from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) carry stark warnings not just for the future of business on Earth, but for life itself. According to <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NfxqrezhaB30eh1FUPrXpka4-SQAjBWp/view" target="_blank">Global Land Outlook 2</a>, released in April, $44 trillion (half the global GDP) is at risk from the effects of land degradation, and half of all people on Earth are already being negatively affected in one manner or another. While as much as 40 percent of land is already degraded, another cumulative chunk near the size of South America is predicted to join it by 2050 unless major changes are made. To make matters worse, drought has increased by 29 percent over the previous decades and will continue to worsen, according to the second U.N. report released this month. As a result, humanity is facing a crisis of increasing demand for food and fresh water even as our planet’s land is rapidly desertifying and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense.

It isn’t all doom and gloom, however. The GLO2 report does offer viable solutions that can help curb desertification. And, as the nonprofit <a href="https://drawdown.org/publications/climate-poverty-connections-report" target="_blank">Project Drawdown</a> has demonstrated, climate action does not have to come <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2022/climate-extreme-poverty-global-south/741411" target="_blank">at the cost of development or equity</a> in the Global South. While the time to act is now, the potential return on investment is certainly worth it — with between $7 and $30 amassed in environmental benefits for every dollar that is spent on land restoration.

GLO2 presents three scenarios along with the future consequences of each: baseline, restoration and, in the most optimistic scenario, restoration and protection. In the first scenario, no changes are made to land use patterns. By 2050, not only will 6.2 million square miles (16 million square kilometers) be further degraded, but land productivity will decrease an additional 12 to 14 percent even as the population increases. At the current rate of degradation, carbon storage loss will likely result in an excess of 69 gigatonnes of carbon being released into the atmosphere over the same time period.

In the restoration scenario, 5 billion hectares (or 35 percent of the planet’s total land) would need to be restored. This would require strategies such as transitioning from monoculture to <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2019/agroforestry-can-combat-climate-change-it-scalable/84256" target="_blank">agroforestry</a> and <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2022/silvopasture-sustainability/740161" target="_blank">silvopasture</a>, assisted <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/benefits-assisted-natural-regeneration/" target="_blank">natural regeneration</a>, and <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.534187/full" target="_blank">regenerative grazing management</a>. Instead of the decreased crop yields expected in the baseline scenario, restoration would increase yields by 5 to 10 percent and the water retention of rain-fed cropland would increase by 4 percent. Biodiversity loss would be less extreme — with approximately 11 percent of species that would otherwise be lost remaining. 

By adding protections to the restoration model, the UNCCD expects to avoid substantial land degradation and desertification from clearing, draining and conversion, while also increasing natural areas by 4 million square kilometers as of 2050. This would help avoid one-third of predicted biodiversity loss and continue to store 83 gigatons of carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.

If land degradation and desertification are not enough to motivate leaders to follow the third option, perhaps the UNCCD’s warning regarding global drought will push them over the edge toward sustained and targeted climate action. According to the convention, we are “at a crossroads” when it comes to managing drought. “The facts and figures of this publication all point in the same direction: an upward trajectory in the duration of droughts and the severity of impacts, not only affecting human societies but also the ecological systems upon which the survival of all life depends, including that of our own species," Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UNCCD, said in a statement. 

Land restoration is vital to protecting human life and biodiversity from drought. At the same time, biodiversity <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/drylands-and-land-degradation#:~:text=Land%20degradation%20in%20drylands%20is,human%20vulnerability%20to%20climate%20change." target="_blank">is crucial</a> to soil’s capacity to filter and store water as well as cycle nutrients. Continued land degradation will only make drought worse, creating a cyclical downturn for a food system that will be increasingly strained by the need to feed a growing population. “Modern agriculture has altered the face of the planet more than any other human activity,” Thiaw <a href="https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/press-releases/chronic-land-degradation-un-offers-stark-warnings-and-practical" target="_blank">explained</a> regarding GLO2. “We need to urgently rethink our global food systems, which are responsible for 80 percent of deforestation, 70 percent of freshwater use, and the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss.”

Land restoration and protection should be made an immediate priority in order to mitigate further desertification and protect against extreme drought. Failure to do so will worsen climate change and its effects on humans and biodiversity loss. Left unchecked, humanity faces a crisis of food production at the same time that our population is rapidly expanding. Global leaders must act now to reverse course. Doing so protects business and the GDP from threats to the market while ensuring a sustainable planet that can continue to supply us with food, water, and the means for profit. 

Image credit: Leon Kaye

Land Restoration is a Must to Mitigate Global Desertification and Drought

Earth has a 50-50 chance of warming 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the next five years, according to a <a href="https://mcusercontent.com/e35fa2254c2a4394f75d43308/files/c739c482-e277-fc7c-12ea-c9e368e10b88/WMO_GADCU_2022_2026.pdf" target="_blank">new report</a> from the World Meteorological Organization. Climate change has reached a dangerous place. The climate is on track to warm 2.7 to 3 degrees Celsius (4.9 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times, with devastating consequences for human safety and well-being. Around the world, communities will suffer more frequent and intense heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, storms, flooding and other calamities. The changes are already being felt, with the frequency of such (not-so-natural) disasters quadrupling since 2000. As always, the world’s poor will suffer most.

More alarming still is the growing risk that warming will trigger abrupt, catastrophic shifts in Earth’s natural systems. Such <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03595-0" target="_blank">potential tipping points</a> include an accelerated melting of permafrost and a rapid collapse of the Amazon rainforest.

It’s easy to be frightened about the future we are facing with global warming. Fortunately, there may be a lifeline, albeit an unorthodox one. It is called sunlight reflection, or solar climate intervention (SCI), and it involves slightly increasing the reflection of sunlight from clouds and particles in the atmosphere to reduce climate warming. Society needs to explore this option because climate change poses a catastrophic threat now. That is the central message of a <a href="https://www.cfr.org/report/reflecting-sunlight-reduce-climate-risk" target="_blank">report</a> from the Council on Foreign Relations, for which we served as author and advisor, respectively.

The world currently has three main strategies to manage climate risk: emissions reductions, carbon removal, and adaptation. Unfortunately, the changing climate is now outpacing these efforts. Emissions must decline 50 percent by 2030 to meet the 1.5°C target, but are on pace to rise 16.3 percent instead. New technologies to capture and permanently store atmospheric carbon could take decades to scale. Efforts to build resilience against warming and its impacts are expensive, underfunded, and inherently limited. Most local measures will be overrun by warming effects in the interconnected climate system.     

How much worse it will become depends on how warm it gets. Given this predicament, the world cannot afford to ignore a potentially rapid climate response that could keep people safe and natural systems stable while humanity transforms the global economy and reduces the amount of carbon we release into the atmosphere. 

Increasing sunlight reflection to cool the climate could be accomplished in various ways. The most promising options are based on naturally occurring events. One approach would involve dispersing aerosols in the upper atmosphere (or stratosphere), likely from aircraft. This would be a safer version of the cooling effect of particles emitted during volcanic eruptions, such as that of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, which reduced global temperatures by about 0.5°C (1.1°F) over the ensuing fifteen months. Another approach involves spraying a mist of sea salt from ships (or ocean platforms) to brighten low-lying marine clouds. This approach would be a cleaner version of the global cooling effect of current particulate pollution, estimated at 0.5-1.2°C.  
      
Despite these precedents, the idea of sunlight reflection has been controversial, though that is starting to change as the risks of warming intensify. Critics worry that climate interventions could carry large, uncertain risks and will give governments, corporations, and citizens a perceived pass to continue polluting. These warrant careful consideration. They need to be weighed not in isolation, but against the rising safety risks of an already warming the planet. The key question is: Can increasing the reflection of sunlight from the atmosphere reduce the dangers posed by global warming? 

Unfortunately, we don’t know the answer because our understanding of the relevant atmospheric processes and their impacts on natural systems is too low. This leaves policymakers flying blind, unsure of the feasibility of—and unable to make informed decisions about—reflecting sunlight to cool the climate. Complicating matters, the world lacks monitoring systems and specific agreements to govern the implementation of such approaches. This increases the threat, as the National Intelligence Council has warned, that a single country could launch a unilateral program sometime soon, with global effects and geopolitical ramifications.      

To ensure the world has the information it needs to evaluate these approaches, the Biden administration and Congress must launch an ambitious, well-funded national research program on reflecting sunlight to reduce climate risk. Such an initiative would build on recommendations issued last year by the U.S. National Academies, as well as direction already given to U.S. science agencies by Congress in the FY22 funding bill to develop a 5-year plan for research to support an assessment of near-term climate risks and solar climate intervention.         

This U.S.-led effort must be grounded in international cooperation. The United States should promote mechanisms for scientific collaboration, multilateral monitoring and assessment, and joint decision-making on any deployment of these techniques. The Montreal Protocol for Protection of the Ozone Layer, which is already reviewing the implications of sunlight in the stratosphere as part of its next Ozone Assessment, is a promising place to start. That convention’s universal membership and commitment to science-based decision-making have helped make it history’s most successful environmental treaty.                 

Although current global tensions will complicate diplomacy, we believe that a mutual vulnerability to climate change could create opportunities for collaboration that cut across traditional geopolitical and ideological lines, including between the United States and China and between advanced economies and developing ones. 

The ultimate solution to climate change is ending carbon emissions and removing carbon from the atmosphere. The dilemma for humanity is how to survive, much less thrive, during this transition. Sunlight reflection could be a bridge that offers safe passage to a sustainable future. To protect people and natural systems, we need to do the work to find out.

Image credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a3xymeWNDso" target="_blank">Huper by Joshua Earle</a> via Unsplash

Reflecting Sunlight Could Ensure Human Safety on a Warming Planet

The very notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) was unthinkable a century ago when the relationship between companies and their workers was overwhelmingly tilted in favor of employers.

Then sweeping changes within U.S. labor law occurred over the years. Starting in the early 1900s, a slew of much needed employee-centric laws was passed. In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was introduced, along with collective bargaining. Before passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 (FLSA), as many as 1.75 million workers in the U.S. were between 10 and 15 years old and not attending school. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act became law in 1964. In 1970, the Occupational Safety and Health Act established safe standards in the workplace. And Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibited discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities.

Still, gradually, and then suddenly, the pandemic highlighted an imbalance in the relationship between employees and employers. The mass work exodus and ensuing “<a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2021/dark-side-great-resignation/730736" target="_blank">Great Resignation</a>” as a result of quarantine resulted in businesses failing and employees gaining an element of power and negotiation not seen before. 

Workers have now leveraged their newfound worth to include better work/life balance, flex time, mental health days and time for volunteering — things unheard of in the Industrial Age. And, inspired by societal events that include mass shootings and racist attacks, the symbiotic relationship between employee and employer expanded to include what’s good for the community and society as well.

Now it matters more than ever that what the stakeholder holds as sacred is also of value to the business. When that is not the case, well …

Bob Chapek, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, is certainly the poster child for blunder in stakeholder relationships. He underestimated the implications of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education act—otherwise known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” — and it took a near employee revolt for him to get the message.

But Ron DeSantis — Governor of Florida, not technically a CEO, but close enough — deserves to have a book written on “How To Alienate Dang Near Everyone In Your Sphere:” workers, business leaders, constituents, and probably small children who love Mickey Mouse. 

Tunneling through with his own narrow, ultra-conservative political agenda, and on the heels of having introduced legislation criminalizing abortion after 15 weeks and having launched a ban on math books deemed to have questionable social content, DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education act went too far. Or maybe he didn’t bother to test the waters ahead of introducing the bill. 

And so, DeSantis shares some blame for the upheaval taking place at Disney. He multiplied this mistake exponentially when he revoked Disney’s special district tax status, failing, again, to consider that Floridians might object to the largest employer in the state being manhandled. Now he is being sued by his constituents for the actions he’s taken against Disney. 

So far, DeSantis has the look of a leader who doesn’t know the value of his stakeholders in the form of business relationships, employees, community organizers or constituents.

On the other hand, there’s a question as to whether or not businesses have yet to fully embrace the CSR concept at all or are still looking for shortcuts. 

For example, in response to Texas Senate Bill 8, Governor Gregg Abbott’s ban on abortion after the detection of fetal cardiac activity, which normally occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy, mega-corporations such as Tesla, Apple and Citigroup joined the growing list of others who will <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2022/corporations-abortion-access/742001" target="_blank">pay travel expenses</a> for employees seeking an abortion who cannot access these services nearby due to legislation.

Last fall, Salesforce <a href="https://www.axios.com/2021/09/11/salesforce-relocate-employees-texas-abortion-law" target="_blank">offered</a> to relocate employees and their entire families away from Texas altogether.

But before we grant any “Golden CSR” award to any of these, imagine establishing a relationship that means you seek an abortion through your employer. What must you disclose as you complete that paperwork? And it should be noted that this option is of no benefit for women who are not employees of these companies. This is watered-down CSR at best. 

And do corporations really care about the sensitivities of their employees if a big enough payday looms? Twitter employees would say that accepting an offer from Elon Musk to buy the company for $43 billion means “no.” 

“Turmoil” would describe the atmosphere around Twitter, with a real concern for attrition and difficulty in hiring. Recent news from Elon Musk that he would reverse the platform’s ban on Donald Trump only compounded the concern that employees have for maintaining discretion over content.

Ultimately, CSR will likely look different for different companies. Some corporations will continue their focus on earnings and employees and let society figure itself out. This may be all that some workers require or expect. 

No matter the nuances, the hope is that the common thread includes authenticity and integrity. 

Image credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Ha2-2jGRJcI" target="_blank">Ernie Journeys</a> via Unsplash

Clearly, Corporations Struggle Being Beholden to Both Shareholders and Communities

The water technology company Xylem recently announced an initial commitment to invest $5 million in financial institutions that focus on underserved communities of color and rural communities in several states in the South, Midwest and in Hawaiʻi. The investment specifically targets regions and banks that are aligned to Xylem’s organization and customers, such as areas where the company has a large commercial presence, or a large employee base, says the company.

“Historically, communities of color and rural communities in the U.S. have had less access to capital and investment than other communities,” Xylem’s Chief Financial Officer Sandra Rowland told TriplePundit. “These groups often use small, regional financial institutions to access loans, day-to-day banking and other financial activities.” 

Xylem typically has a sum of cash on hand that is held in large financial institutions, Rowland explained. By partnering with <a href="https://www.mycnote.com/" target="_blank">CNote</a>, the women-led social enterprise platform, she said Xylem can invest a portion of that cash in small, regional banks and credit unions operating in underserved communities. 

“CNote streamlines the investment and maximizes impact,” Rowland told 3p. “And each investment allows the institutions to provide loans and other services to support their community.”

The investments are flowing through CNote’s Impact Cash platform, which provides an easy-to-use and measurable tool for streamlining Xylem’s investment with one interface 
while maximizing the impact created for underserved communities of across the U.S. 

Austin Alexander, Xylem’s vice president of sustainability and social impact, explained to 3p that the company became interested in working with CNote because of the platform’s ability to effectively evaluate each institution in which it is investing.

“It was important to us that every dollar invested was being used in a meaningful way, and CNote’s Impact Cash platform allowed us to do exactly that with confidence and ease,” Alexander said.

Xylem’s initial investments include Bank of Cherokee County (Hulbert, OK), Carver State Bank (Savannah, GA, pictured above), City Federal Credit Union (Amarillo, TX), Hope Federal Credit Union (Jackson, MS), Education Credit Union (Amarillo, TX), Legacy Bank and Trust (Springfield, MO), Self Help Credit Union (FL, NC, SC, VA), Kaua’i Federal Credit Union (Kauaʻi, HI), Optus Bank (Columbia, SC) and Virginia Community Capital Bank (Richmond, VA).

“We are proud to partner with a corporation that has a longstanding, industry-leading position in sustainability and community development,” said Catherine Berman, CEO of CNote, in a <a href="https://www.xylem.com/en-us/about-xylem/newsroom/press-releases/xylem-invests-$5-million-with-cnote-to-benefit-community-financial-institutions-serving-black-and-underserved-communities-in-the-u.s/" target="_blank">public statement</a>. “Now Xylem is extending its leadership by joining the vanguard of companies unleashing their balance sheets to promote racial equity and help communities across the U.S. thrive.” 

Rowland said that Xylem discovered CNote, which has deployed <a href="https://www.mycnote.com/blog/100m-dollars-deployed/" target="_blank">more than $100 million</a> to underserved communities across the country, after several months of researching options for using the company’s cash-on-hand investments to support underserved communities. 

“Their mission resonated with us, and we were enthusiastic about working with a women-led impact investment platform,” added Rowland. “We were also impressed by their use of technology to increase economic mobility and financial inclusion in underserved communities.”

The investment further advances Xylem’s innovative “green” finance strategy as the company continues to place economic, social and environmental impact at the center of its business operations and functions. In 2019, Xylem announced an $800 million revolving credit facility with a sustainability-linked pricing mechanism, followed by a $1 billion green bond offering in 2020. Most recently in 2021, Xylem added a sustainability-linked cash account tied to its 2025 sustainability goals.

“Our social impact is just as important as environmental impact within our sustainability strategy,” Alexander said. “This investment complements the environmental impact outcomes we have established with other green finance solutions.”

Image credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/xP1ySp_Nnjo" target="_blank">Tyler Edic</a> via Unsplash

Xylem and CNote Partner to Invest in Underserved Communities Across the U.S. 

TriplePundit recently had an opportunity to speak to the director of sustainability and government affairs at Audi of America. What particularly piqued our interest in speaking with him is, not only is it atypical to combine sustainability and government affairs into one role at a car company, but in this case, the role is occupied by a person who is also a climate scientist.

We were interested to understand how placing a climate scientist in this role helps Audi navigate and perhaps drive an auto industry increasingly committed to electrification, and to learn what lies ahead for the company and for an industry in flux. 

<a href="https://www.media.audiusa.com/en-us/releases/257" target="_blank">Spencer Reeder</a>, who started out as a chemical and materials scientist, is the person driving these efforts at Audi of America. Having previously worked for Boeing on environmental programs, and in particular, researching ways to reduce the toxicity of products used in the aerospace industry, Reeder later went back to graduate school to study earth sciences. This led him to focus on geophysics and climate science, and later to developing the environmental portfolio for Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen’s philanthropic organization. 

Four years into his current role at Audi, we asked Reeder to talk a bit about Audi placing sustainability and government affairs in one role, and his approach to the job. 

“It’s only when you align government policy advocacy work with sustainability goals, that you truly mean what you say” he explains, adding that when he came on board he was “going to be a loud voice for this” both in terms of his engagement with the industry but importantly, internally within Audi.

By this he meant, he saw his role as one which needed to inspire the organization to see sustainability as something that would become part of its DNA. This was particularly important because <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2016/volkswagen-agrees-pay-147b-following-emissions-scandal/24726" target="_blank">around that time</a>, Audi’s parent company, <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2015/3p-weekend-your-cheat-sheet-vw-emissions-scandal/31281" target="_blank">Volkswagen</a>, was recently emerging from its “<a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15339250/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-vw-diesel-emissions-scandal/" target="_blank">dieselgate</a>” scandal.

Though Reeder recognizes he is just one voice in a large organization, aligning sustainability with government affairs manifests in things like opposing the previous administrations’ efforts to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-31/trump-rolls-back-fuel-economy-standards" target="_blank">roll back national fuel economy standards.</a> Audi, as part of VW, was one of only four car companies which joined with California to maintain more stringent mileage standards, for example.

Audi also aggressively prices carbon emissions within its own organization. Setting a price of $200 per ton — a level higher than industry standard, by an order of magnitude — Reeder says, rather than operating this as “shadow pricing,” the company actually makes a transfer of funds which is then used to undertake further CO2 mitigation activities internally. “The only way to effect long term change is through pricing carbon into your business systemically,” Reeder asserts.

Reeder was also a voice internally advocating for the company to lean-in to battery electric vehicle (BEV) technology for the future, even over competing technologies such as fuel cells. With that in mind, we asked him what he thinks the opportunities and impediments are for electric vehicles (EVs) in the short term.

First of all, he says customer demand is “very strong” though concedes it remains quite regionalized at the moment. Unlike California, many states have yet to make strong commitments to EVs, but Audi is not having any difficulty selling the ones it’s producing. 

Unfortunately, though, for the time being at least, costs are heading in an adverse direction. “Things are going to get more expensive before they get cheaper,” Reeder says. This is a result of higher commodity prices, and supply chain shortages in general — the latter, or course, impacting many industries in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another important challenge Reeder identifies is the need for better charging infrastructure. Federal funding, he says, is “completely insufficient,” especially at this moment when he believes EVs have passed the point of the early adopter phase and are quickly moving into the initial stages of the mass market. He warns, “the mass market won’t tolerate inconvenience.”

As such, he says, broadly distributed fast charging infrastructure will be necessary to sustain the mass market, equipped with 150 kW fast chargers at a minimum. 

Given Reeder’s chemical and materials science background, we were keen to ask him about end-of-life battery considerations, since this is often cited by EV detractors as an environmental concern associated with the push towards electric vehicles. 

As well as identifying energy storage as an important second-life use for vehicle batteries, he is quite bullish on the opportunities for battery recycling, even to the point that recycling valuable battery components may even help wind down raw materials extraction at some point in the future. Indeed, Reeder says, most vehicle batteries probably won’t be repurposed for energy storage, so it is “critical for Audi to have a closed-loop life cycle for batteries.”

The automaker's goals are to have reduced its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2025 compared with 2019 levels and for 30 percent of its vehicle portfolio to be fully BEV or plug-in hybrid by 2025.

Image credit: Audi <a href="https://media.audiusa.com/en-us/models/e-tron-gt-rs-e-tron-gt#gallery" target="_blank">media relations</a>

Meet the Climate Scientist Heading Sustainability and Government Affairs at Audi

Anyone who has stood downwind of a dairy farm knows the digestive processes of dairy cattle packs a noxious punch to the olfactory senses. Those same processes generate greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. Estimates suggest livestock produce about 30 percent of the total <a href="http://www.sustainabledairy.org/publications/Documents/DairyCap_Methane_FactSheet_Final.pdf" target="_blank">methane emissions</a> produced from human activities in the U.S., with beef and dairy cattle as the major contributors to climate change.

With dairy ingredients accounting for more than 50 percent of Ben &amp; Jerry’s total greenhouse gas emissions, the ice cream maker has made a bold, but not atypical, <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ben--jerrys-pilot-project-plans-to-cut-dairy-farm-ghg-emissions-to-half-of-industry-average-by-2024-301542564.html?tc=eml_cleartime" target="_blank">commitment</a> to bring greenhouse gas emissions on 15 dairy farms to half the industry average by the end of 2024. Once proven, pilot project initiatives will be expanded to farms across Ben &amp; Jerry’s global dairy supply chain.  

The pilot program, <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2022/05/mootopia" target="_blank">Project Mootopia</a>, will use regenerative agricultural practices and new technology to address methane-producing enteric emissions (cow burps), manure, and feed crops.

In a public statement, Jenna Evans, global sustainability manager for Ben &amp; Jerry’s, said this new approach could be a “game changer” for dairy farming. 

“It has the potential to make a meaningful reduction in emissions on dairy farms and help fight the worst effects of climate change,” said Evans. “All of us, especially businesses, must take action before it’s too late and the climate crisis makes our world uninhabitable.” 

The company will <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2022/01/reducing-enteric-emissions" target="_blank">take on enteric emissions</a> by switching dairy cattle to a high-quality forage diet and innovative rumen modifiers that act as a digestive aid. Digestion can produce up to 50 quarts of gasses (mostly carbon dioxide and methane) an hour in the rumen, the largest component of a cow’s four-chambered stomach, and most of that gas is released by belching. Research has shown, for example, that adding <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/feeding-cattle-seaweed-reduces-their-greenhouse-gas-emissions-82-percent" target="_blank">small amounts</a> of seaweed to cattle feed can reduce greenhouse emissions as much as 82 percent.

A single dairy cow produces about <a href="https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-biogasconverting-waste-to-energy" target="_blank">80 pounds</a> of manure a day. Project Mootopia will <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2022/01/turning-waste-into-a-resource" target="_blank">manage manure</a> through methane reduction technology such as digesters and separators, which reduce the need for commercial fertilizer.

Ben &amp; Jerry’s says the project will use regenerative practices to grow more grass and other feed crops to maintain healthy soils, increase carbon sequestration, improve grassland use, lower synthetic inputs, promote biodiversity and raise the percentage of homegrown feed.

The company says Project Mootopia is also promoting renewable energy on dairy farms and continues Ben &amp; Jerry’s tradition of meeting high animal welfare standards. The 15 participating farms will be split between members of the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) cooperative in the U.S. and CONO Kaasmakers in the Netherlands. 

“Too often, corporations buy up carbon offsets from somewhere else to claim they are ‘carbon neutral’,” <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ben--jerrys-pilot-project-plans-to-cut-dairy-farm-ghg-emissions-to-half-of-industry-average-by-2024-301542564.html" target="_blank">said</a> Taylor Ricketts of the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont. “Ben &amp; Jerry’s is taking a more meaningful and direct approach: attacking the systemic causes of climate change in its own supply chain to achieve measurable, science-based targets.”

Intensive cooperation among researchers, advisors and farmers is key to developing tailored mitigation methods that are “feasible, affordable and safe,” said Theun Vellinga from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands in a public statement. 

“We have constructed the ‘Mitigation Engine’ as a tool to combine the science around [greenhouse gas] mitigation with the knowledge and experience of the farmer,” said Vellinga. “We cannot stick to one mitigation option only; there is no silver bullet. But a package of options will help us reach the target reduction.”

Ben &amp; Jerry’s received $9.3 million to prove and scale regenerative practices on dairy farms from the billion-dollar Climate and Nature Fund <a href="https://www.unilever.com/climate-nature/" target="_blank">of its parent corporation</a>, Unilever, which has set several ambitious goals for reducing its carbon footprint. In addition to the Climate and Nature Fund, Unilever has committed to net zero emissions for all its products by 2039; a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023; empowering a new generation of farmers and smallholders to protect and regenerate their environment; a new Regenerative Agriculture Code for all suppliers; and water stewardship programs for 100 locations in water-stressed areas by 2030.

In addition to its environmental work, Ben &amp; Jerry’s commitment to social activism is widely known, as evidenced by its efforts on behalf of <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2019/justice-remixd-ben-jerrys-flavor-criminal-justice-reform/84801" target="_blank">criminal justice reform</a>, <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2020/10/milk-with-dignity" target="_blank">worker’s rights</a>, and the ice cream company’s <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2020/responding-george-floyd-murder-ben-jerrys-targets-elephant-room/120506" target="_blank">public statement</a>s against racism and former President Donald Trump. On its website about <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2022/01/turning-waste-into-a-resource" target="_blank">turning waste into renewable resources</a>, Ben &amp; Jerry’s says they strive to be guided by their values in everything they do, that the climate crisis is the “single greatest challenge to life on this planet,” and that “everyone, especially businesses, must do their part to get greenhouse gas emissions under control <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58130705" target="_blank">before it’s too late</a>.” 

Image credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/nKUkTnHMg48" target="_blank">Annie Spratt</a> via Unsplash

Ben & Jerry’s ‘Mootopia’ Seeks to Prevent Climate Dystopia

In Miami, home of the Miami Heat, buses soon will be plastered with images of sweating pregnant women imploring people to seek shade, drink water and rest. It’s part of a vanguard campaign by Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/chief-heat-officers" target="_blank">Chief Heat Officer Jane Gilbert</a> and their <a href="https://miamifoundation.org/extremeheat/" target="_blank">Climate and Heat Health Task Force</a> to save lives – lots of lives – as extreme heat impacts escalate due to climate change.

I’ve written <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2016/how-health-climate-change-and-social-justice-intersect-chicago/20941" target="_blank">before</a> about extreme heat’s impact on health. And we know definitively now, based on COVID-19’s deadly toll, that real social determinants erupt from these impacts. Climate change shocks, like COVID-19 impacts, aren’t fair. Heat disproportionately impacts Black and Hispanic workers and could claim <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/extreme-heat-the-economic-and-social-consequences-for-the-united-states/" target="_blank">nearly 60,000 lives a year by 2050</a>.

Which is why it’s particularly important that anyone with a stake in our cities uses that involvement to support extreme heat mitigation. As with many climate resilience interventions, local governments lead. And, fortunately, many of their tactics can be adopted easily by the corporate sector.  

Change outdoor work hours to allow for working when the sun isn’t blazing. A local Phoenix <a href="https://www.maricopa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2013/P-22---Hours-of-Construction-Ordinance-PDF#:~:text=1.,7%3A00%20p.m.%20each%20day." target="_blank">ordinance</a> allows for construction to begin at 5a.m., and Home Depot obliges by opening then, too. Also in the West, the <a href="https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/news/night-work-growing-trend-western-agriculture" target="_blank">growing tren</a>d is to harvest crops at night to escape the worst of the agricultural sector’s heat.

Consider impacts for indoor workers in workplaces without air cooling options. Many job sites are blistering. Make frequent breaks compulsory. Require cooling centers. Ensure that a hierarchy doesn’t prohibit any of your employees from benefiting from such cooling actions. Also, reward foremen and teams that comply, change key performance indicators to include breaks per hour and discard performance measures that drive overwork in too-hot conditions. (And, while we’re at it, change cultural norms to waive dark suits for office workers in hot workplaces.)

Make drinking water accessible. At outdoor entertainment venues – including summer festivals where bottled water prices rival beer prices – make water free and easily available. Some municipalities are considering this requirement for events on public property.

Invest in cool community spaces that community residents actually will use. <a href="https://www.climateresolve.org/" target="_blank">ClimateResolve</a>, which in Los Angeles builds collaborations to champion equitable climate solutions, is working to create privately funded resilience-hubs – community-serving facilities that includes use as public cooling centers when it gets hot there. 

Install publicly accessible spray pools and water fountains; and in addition, build integrated shade and cool pavements, walls and roofs (think white reflectivity); install as much vegetated space outdoors as possible; and orient buildings to maximize shade.

Plant trees. Keep in mind that trees need water, so make it your business to care for trees in and near your property. It can take years for a tree to provide the shade and air cooling that the evapotranspiration we learned about in school confers. Check out the <a href="https://www.americanforests.org/tools-research-reports-and-guides/tree-equity-score/#:~:text=Tree%20Equity%20Score%20calculates%20a,the%20tool%20is%20wide%2Dreaching." target="_blank">Tree Equity Score</a> developed by American Forests to determine where your investment can pay significant dividends. Begin now with investments that confer <a href="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5602e09be4b053956b5c8d3a/1623179809355-B8E47X81HCSD06O274P7/Health+Benefits+of+Trees+final+png.png?format=1500w" target="_blank">multiple benefits</a> to our communities for a generation.

While major coastal storms often catch the headlines, extreme heat <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heat-related-deaths#:~:text=Heat%20is%20the%20leading%20weather,heat%2Devents%2Dguidebook)." target="_blank">is the leading weather-related killer</a>. Increasingly, academics are pouring through death records of people who died during extreme heat times to identify heat-related deaths. Often, such deaths are a co-morbidity with heart attacks, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Are these casualties in your community? What can you do to contribute to preventing future deaths – beyond the tips above?

Build partnerships with health care providers, emergency responders, faith communities, workers’ rights organizations, different units of government, corporations and small business to share the responsibility of caring for everyone when it’s scorching outside and to raise awareness about the danger of extreme heat and how to address it. 

And, of course, meet and exceed your ambitious net zero greenhouse gas emission targets. Because while heat will continue to rise due to the current greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, the prospects for unlivable conditions (did you read about the astonishing heat <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/astonishing-heat-grips-india-and-pakistan/#:~:text=On%20April%2030%2C%202018%2C%20Nawabshah,wheat%20harvests%20in%20some%20areas." target="_blank">in India and Pakistan</a>?) are incredibly dire if all countries continue on today’s path of global emissions. 

At the recent Forum on Global Resilience convened by the <a href="https://www.onebillionresilient.org/" target="_blank">Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center</a>, Mayor Cava launched Miami-Dade County’s (and the nation’s ) first <a href="https://www.miamidade.gov/releases/2021-11-02-mayor-heat-season.asp#:~:text=Today%2C%20Miami%2DDade%20Mayor%20Daniella,with%20the%20annual%20hurricane%20season." target="_blank">Heat Season</a>. She and Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Center, are on a mission to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/climate/heat-wave-names-greece.html" target="_blank">name heat events</a> like we identify hurricanes. 

In the face of rising city temperatures, more Americans are inspired to ensure that those most at risk in hot weather, the poor and minorities, survive and thrive. And many more must be so motivated. Simply consider this: Vivid Economics, a strategic economics consultancy, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/59e0a95f40f0b61ab035cb3d/VIVID_Heat_impacts_on_labour_productivity_and_VfM_adaptation.pdf" target="_blank">estimates</a> that heat-related losses of labor productivity will cost the U.S. economy half a trillion dollars annually by 2050. 

Let’s agree: We are not playin’ with heat. All of us have a role – indeed, a stake – in creating ways to stay cool even as global temperatures rise. 

Image credit: <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/areal-photography-of-high-rise-buildings-821338/" target="_blank">Daniel Alvarado</a> via Pexels

Extreme Heat: We Are ‘Not Playin’ in Miami and Beyond

The political leanings of U.S. Supreme Court justices are not a matter of routine discussion in corporate DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) meetings. However, they should be, they must be, and they will be if business leaders really are serious about their responsibility to ensure diversity, equality and inclusion in the corporate family. Or was DEI always just a joke, all along?

<h2>How to sidestep the bystander effect</h2>

Activists seeking to ban abortion have held the rhetorical cards for far too long, thanks in part to business leaders who stood by while phrases like “right to life” and “pro-life” set the terms of debate.

Business leaders can begin to take action by defining abortion in the context of their DEI programs. Rather than getting distracted by arguments over the beginning of life or the legal status of a fetus, employers can —  and should —  insist that the anti-abortion movement is rooted in an extremist religious belief, not a civic one.

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As a matter of social morality, legal principle and medical ethics, it is generally agreed that society has interest in fetal life, limited to the advanced stages of pregnancy.

In contrast, the idea that society has an unlimited interest in preserving the existence of a zygote, embryo or fetus is of apiece with fundamentalist theory. It places men at the center of the decision-making universe and while treating everything else having to do with gender, sexuality and sexual identity as sins to be quashed. In short, it is <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2021/texas-abortion-law-hr/728066" target="_blank">the complete opposite</a> of DEI.

In the context of DEI programs, the idea that non-believers should be held to an extremist position on pregnancy is as ridiculous as the notion that everyone in a company should be forced to adopt the behavior and clothing of a particular religion, whether or not they identify with that religion.

<h2>Calling out the anti-pregnancy movement</h2>

It is high time for employers to take control of the rhetoric and call the “pro-life” movement by its real name.

Unlimited social and legal control over an individual person’s pregnancy is not pro-life. It is anti-pregnancy. It stigmatizes all pregnancies, by identifying the womb as a human organ under community ownership, to be monitored and controlled by any passing stranger.

The anti-pregnancy movement reduces all pregnant people to a less than human status. Regardless of the risk to their health, life and safety, their right to self-determination is superseded by community control over their womb.

The resulting picture is about as ugly as it can get, for everyone. Every pregnant person is literally reduced to a community-owned vessel. Under this regimen, even those who plan their pregnancy and carry it to term are vulnerable to constant surveillance, harassment and stalking.  

<h2>The social bulldozers are coming for your DEI program</h2>

Against this backdrop, business leaders are deluded if they think they can wall off their DEI programs from the outside world.

That is made abundantly clear by the authenticated <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473" target="_blank">draft opinion of the Supreme Court</a> attributed to Associate Justice Samuel Alito, which was leaked to the news organization Politico last week. In the draft, Alito outlined the fundamentalist case for overturning Roe V. Wade and other pregnancy rights precedents.

Court watchers quickly pointed out that the opinion does not stop at pregnancy rights. It upends decades of decisions affirming privacy rights of all kinds. As written, the draft opinion threatens the right to contraceptives along with marriage equality and LGBTQ+ protections, among other areas.

A nationwide ban on abortion could also be the ultimate outcome of the Alito opinion, forcing the anti-pregnancy movement onto states where privacy rights have long been respected.

<h2>Yes, let’s talk about ethics at the U.S. Supreme Court</h2>

The leaked draft has sparked a torrent of outrage, which Chief Justice John Roberts and his Republican allies in Congress have tried tamp down by expressing their outrage over the ethics of leaking an internal Court document to the public.

So, let’s have it. Let’s have that discussion about ethics at the Supreme Court. That discussion is long overdue, considering the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/30/1089595933/legal-ethics-experts-agree-justice-thomas-must-recuse-in-insurrection-cases" target="_blank">conflict of interest issues</a> swirling for years around Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

The apparent power of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/" target="_blank">a single executive at The Federalist Society</a> to influence the confirmation process under multiple Republican presidents is another ethics issue that should be under discussion.

Also in need of a thorough airing is the successful effort by Republicans in the Senate to pack the court with justices vetted by The Federalist Society. In 2016, the Republican majority in the Senate <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/20/fact-check-gop-senators-blocked-nomination-merrick-garland-2016/5916555002/" target="_blank">blocked former form president Obama</a> from exercising his authority to nominate Merrick Garland for a seat left vacant by the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. That exercise in pure partisanship enabled former president Trump to replace Scalia with <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-02-01/media-barred-from-justice-gorsuch-talk-to-federalist-society" target="_blank">another Federalist Society conservative</a>, Neil Gorsuch, after he took office in 2017.

In 2018 the rather abrupt and unexplained <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/donald-trump-justice-anthony-kennedy-retirement" target="_blank">decision of Justice Anthony Kennedy</a> to retire cleared the way for Trump to nominate Brett Kavanaugh as a younger, more reliably conservative replacement. Trump and Republicans in the Senate also rushed a third conservative nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, onto the court just days before the U.S. presidential election of 2020, after Ruth Bader Ginsberg died on September 18 of that year. The effort to install Barrett compressed a normally months-long process into weeks, but apparently that did not raise any ethical red flags in the Roberts court.

In addition, reporters have been scrolling back through confirmation hearings, during which several of the conservative nominees implied that overturning the right to privacy was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1096108319/roe-v-wade-alito-conservative-justices-confirmation-hearings" target="_blank">not on their judicial radar</a>, leading to accusations that some of them outright lied to members of the Senate. Apparently, that is not a breach of ethics, either.

<h2>What’s a corporate leader to do?</h2>

The leaked draft is actually a good thing. It has finally brought the true agenda of the anti-pregnancy movement into the sphere of public discussion. It has cleared the way for corporate leaders to mark their ground on diversity, equality and inclusion in no uncertain terms.

Either employers support DEI, or they don’t. Either they defend their employees against the anti-pregnancy movement, or they don’t.

A <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2019/abortion-now-part-corporate-activism-conversation/83906" target="_blank">pro-pregnancy movement</a> did begin to take shape among corporate leaders three years ago, when a group of companies took out a full-page ad in The New York Times to protest a growing torrent of <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2021/salesforce-texas-abortion-law/728386" target="_blank">state-based anti-pregnancy laws.</a>

Clearly, that movement needs to step up to the next level. Offering to <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2022/corporations-abortion-access/742001" target="_blank">support and protect employees</a> impacted by state based anti-pregnancy laws is a good start, but more is needed. Corporate leaders need to stop supporting candidates and legislators who seek to undermine the basic principles of a modern democratic society. 

The only answer now is money, and plenty of it, directed away from anti-pregnancy politicians, and towards allies in state legislatures and the U.S. Congress, who uphold the principle that control over one’s pregnancy is a basic human right.

Abortion is a necessary feature of individual self-determination and equality under the law, regardless of what religious extremists profess to believe.

Image credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/xENKE2dzxow" target="_blank">Ian Hutchinson</a> via Unsplash

Corporate DEI and the Bystander Effect in the Age of Court-Stacking

As discussed <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2022/return-office-dei-companies/743816" target="_blank">in the first part of this series</a>, it’s clear that many employees — particularly women of color — are hesitant to return to the office. Nevertheless, <a href="https://tarajayefrank.com/" target="_blank">Tara Jaye Frank</a>, equity strategist and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Waymakers-Clearing-Workplace-Competence-Confidence/dp/1637551800" target="_blank">The Waymakers</a>, actually sees opportunities for business executives to address diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within their organizations. A well-planned and smartly deployed strategy could result in a working environment in which everyone is encouraged to reach their full potential, which in turn can help companies retain talent and remain viable for the long term.

So, how does Frank help leadership stay on course with such goals? With six years of consulting under her belt, Frank has it down to a science. The first step is a work culture assessment. Leaders are instructed to take a good hard look at their reality and embrace it. That means analyzing payroll, promotions and retention data; paying attention to who is moving where within the organization and at what rates; and analyzing patterns across all data sets, including survey data from present employees and exit data from those who leave. Next, she helps company leadership define a vision — and they work together to determine what systems and processes need to be changed or implemented in order to achieve that vision. 

Frank is hopeful that her book will be used as a guide by more leaders to embrace their potential as “waymakers” in working to implement DEI in their organizations. Her goal for the future is one we should all commit to — a vision in which “every single person in the workplace, especially Black and Brown, can not only be themselves but also be able to achieve their highest aspiration.”

In the meantime, she does have some advice for Black women needing to safeguard their mental health upon returning to the office. She starts with a reminder to take care of themselves and take paid time off or a leave of absence, as they're able, if they need it.

When dealing with outright racism she also recommends that it is important to determine if it is an individual causing harm or part of the company culture. If there is no intervention made in response to inappropriate comments, or if high-level leaders are the ones making them, that is a sign that the problem is a company norm. So, while filing a complaint with human resources may fix the issue with an individual, it can really backfire if it is part of the company norm. Frank encourages women to connect with their external network for guidance and options and says that having such an external network is imperative for Black women in corporate America. With blatant racism, sometimes the best thing to do is find a new position. “That kind of harm gets on you and in you and it’s really difficult to unravel,” she explained.

As for leaders, Frank recommends they take their employees’ mental health seriously. “Whenever there is toxicity in any environment, it always harms the marginalized the most,” she said. As such, workers end up doubting their own abilities, and it becomes too painful for them to be so invested in their job. Instead of being able to fully contribute, they are forced to focus on self-preservation. 

It doesn’t stop with the individual either. Organizations suffer when they allow toxic and racist behavior to continue. An employee who is focused on self-preservation isn’t going to be able to be as creative in their contributions or as interested in collaboration. “Companies that don’t prioritize mental health will have a high turnover and low creativity," Frank explained. 

On the other hand, if a company wants workers to feel safe contributing and giving their all, then it is important to address racism immediately instead of trying to ignore it and pretend it won’t happen again. “Sometimes a company says they don’t want to give it attention, but that’s really saying it’s acceptable to them," Frank said. “The best response is swift, public and clear.”

Climbing the corporate ladder shouldn’t come with the expectation that Black women sacrifice their mental health or their personhood. As workers return to the office, corporate leaders have the opportunity and the responsibility to implement changes that eliminate microaggressions and encourage Black women to reach their full potential within any given organization. 

Image credit: <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-blazer-holding-smartphone-3727469/">Anna Shvets</a> via Pixabay

Companies Committed to DEI Can’t Move Forward Without Taking Employees’ Mental Health Seriously

With May ushering in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, there has been no shortage of commemorations and reminders from companies that they “stand with” the AAPI community.

But based on data that has gauged how Asian Americans across the U.S. feel about their roles in the workplace, it has become clear that messages about standing with people with AAPI heritage aren’t necessarily resulting in organizations actually doing enough to stand up for these employees to ensure they feel welcomed and included.

Bottom line: The challenges many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders feel about assimilation and acceptance across much of the country is magnified on the shop floor and in the office.

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Take a recent Bain &amp; Co. <a href="https://www.bain.com/globalassets/noindex/2022/bain_report_the_fabric_of_belonging.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> which, among other studies, confirms that a more inclusive environment can improve a company’s performance while lending a hand to other efforts such as recruitment and retention. But dig a little deeper into Bain’s research, and one will find that among various demographic groups, Asian men (16 percent) and Asian women (20 percent) overall feel less included in the workplace compared to the rest of the population.

To be clear, the AAPI community is hardly a monolith, as beyond many ethnicities, the wider community also experiences a wide range of differences in political leanings, socioeconomic statuses and how closely individuals actually identify with their culture. Nevertheless, it is clear that management needs to do more to order to make all employees feel as if they have a stake, and therefore a future, within any organization. “The facts on the ground, as opposed to widespread assumptions and stereotypes, demonstrate clearly that U.S. companies need to start paying attention to inclusion and belonging for Asian American employees,” <a href="https://www.bain.com/insights/greater-inclusion-can-help-asian-americans-crack-the-bamboo-ceiling/" target="_blank">wrote</a> Karthik Venkataraman and Pam Yee, Bain partners who are based in the company’s Washington, D.C. office.

Another dataset to consider: While about <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-and-ethnicity/2020/home.htm#chart3" target="_blank">9 percent</a> of the U.S. workforce identifies as part of the AAPI community (13 percent when evaluating white-collar jobs), less than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asian-american-ceos-rare-lack-of-promotions-2021-5" target="_blank">6 percent of senior executives</a> at America’s largest companies are Asian American — suggesting that many AAPI employees frequently find themselves overlooked come promotion time.

A <a href="https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/asian-americans-in-the-workplace.aspx" target="_blank">SHRM study</a> from last summer found that many Asian Americans witness a lack of opportunity to advance within their organizations. Completed a few months after the March 2021 murders of six Asian women in Atlanta, SHRM’s survey found that about two-thirds of Asian Americans said that the business community had ignored racism against the APPI community; 58 percent of them said racism experienced on the job damaged any relationship they had with their employer; and 55 percent believed business at large had done very little to take any action against systemic racism.

Clearly, leadership is lacking across corporate America when it comes to supporting the AAPI community. And while we’re on the topic of leadership, conventional thinking about what makes a “good leader” ranks among the problems why companies often struggle to build a more accepting and inclusive work culture.

“Many companies are trying to expand the idea of what skills and characteristics make a good manager, though they are still fighting against a long-ingrained belief that traits such as aggression and competitiveness, adjectives typically associated with alpha males, are necessary for good leaders,” Theresa Agovino wrote last summer for SHRM. “All minority groups would benefit from broader definitions that would allow for more respect of cultural differences.”

Image credit: <a href="https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1437653" target="_blank">PxHere</a>

Across the U.S., Companies Still Overlook the AAPI Community

The dream of a global hydrogen economy has tantalized policymakers ever since the 1970s when researchers began to discuss how the ubiquitous, clean-burning fuel could replace coal, oil and natural gas. Skeptics have had 50 years to scoff at the notion, but it looks like hydrogen fans are getting the last laugh — and that could open up new pathways for scaling up green hydrogen and, in the bigger picture, decarbonization across multiple commercial sectors.

<h2>The renewable energy difference</h2>

Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, but it does not exist independently. It must be extracted from something. The primary source of hydrogen today is natural gas, along with coal to a lesser extent.

Hydrogen is also abundant in renewable resources, including water as well as biogas and biomass. The problem is how to extract hydrogen from renewable hosts without adding excessive costs and greenhouse gas emissions to the global economy.

Both of those problems appeared insurmountable until recent years, when the cost of wind and solar energy began dropping. That sea change in the global energy profile has provided low cost, zero emission electricity to power <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2022/five-green-hydrogen-projects-2022/734421" target="_blank">electrolyzer systems,</a> which deploy an electrical current to push so-named green hydrogen gas out of water.

Though much of the media attention has focused on the use of hydrogen in fuel cell electric cars, recent developments indicate that green hydrogen is only beginning to flex its muscles on the global scene. 

Here are five key developments that have been sailing under the media radar.

<h2>Electrofuels</h2>

Fuel cell and battery-powered electric vehicles will eventually dominate the passenger car market, but that will take many years. In the meantime, biofuels can help neutralize greenhouse gas emissions to some extent.

However, the biofuel supply chain cannot scale up indefinitely. It is already running into <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2022/indonesia-palm-oil-ban-climate/743656" target="_blank">food supply</a> and and <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2021/indigenous-pandemics/721441" target="_blank">habitat conservation issues</a>.  An alternative pathway is needed, and that’s where electrofuels come in.

During the Obama administration, researchers began to focus on electrofuels as drop-in replacements for both conventional biofuels and fossil fuels. The initial concept was to produce fuel from solar energy and bacteria in a process that mimics photosynthesis.

More recently, researchers have begun deploying low-cost renewable energy and green hydrogen to skip the bacteria and go straight to a synthetic process that deploys captured carbon dioxide, yielding a drop-in replacement for conventional fuel.

Porsche appears to be <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2022/05/03/electrofuels-emerge-from-stealth-mode-with-an-assist-from-porsche/" target="_blank">the first automaker</a> to invest in the new electrofuels. The automaker has been investing in electric vehicles, but apparently the company also plans to lean on electrofuels to neutralize emissions from its profitable 911 line of sports cars.

Another leading firm to enter the field is Maersk. Last year Maersk invested in the Silicon Valley <a href="https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2021/09/23/maersk-investment-in-electrofuels-startup-company" target="_blank">electrofuel startup </a>Prometheus Fuels, which is developing a process that deploys direct-air carbon capture. BMW also has an interest in the project, along with American Airlines and other stakeholders.

<h2>Green steel</h2>

Heavy industry is one area that has resisted decarbonization, but that is beginning to change. In Europe, the steel industry is depending on the new HYBRIT project to demonstrate the use of green hydrogen to replace fossil energy in i<a href="https://www.lkab.com/en/news-room/press-releases/hybrit-the-worlds-first-fossil-free-steel-ready-for-delivery/" target="_blank">ron and steelmaking</a>.

Closer to home, the global steel maker ArcelorMittal recently announced a successful test of green hydrogen in the direct reduced iron process at its steelmaking facility Canada. The process normally deploys natural gas to extract oxygen from iron oxide pellets, yielding metallic iron for steel production.

The somewhat modest test involved replacing only 6.8 percent of natural gas at the Canadian plant with green hydrogen, but apparently that was good enough to convince ArcelorMittal to continue pursuing that pathway.

“This test is an important milestone in the Company's journey to produce <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/arcelormittal-successfully-tests-partial-replacement-of-natural-gas-with-green-hydrogen-to-produce-dri-899349954.html" target="_blank">zero carbon emissions stee</a>l via the DRI-based steelmaking route using green hydrogen as an input,” ArcelorMittal stated.

The company is also working on a hydrogen <a href="https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/media/case-studies/hydrogen-based-steelmaking-to-begin-in-hamburg" target="_blank">demonstration projec</a>t at its plant in Hamburg, Germany. The plans involve sourcing the hydrogen from waste gas at the facility at the beginning, then transitioning to green hydrogen as supplies become available.
<figure role="group" class="align-center"><img alt="ArcelorMittal's steelmaking plant in Hamburg, Germany" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="76895300-ad5a-4602-b110-32c40f885e97" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/steel%20plant%20green%20hydrogen%20hamburg.jpeg" width="500" height="330" loading="lazy" /><figcaption>ArcelorMittal's steelmaking plant in Hamburg, Germany (Image credit via <a href="https://germany.arcelormittal.com/Standorte/Langstahl/Hamburg/">ArcelorMittal</a>)</figcaption></figure><h2>Power generation and energy infrastructure</h2>

The design of systems that can transition from gas to green hydrogen is also taking hold <a href="https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2021/us-policy-green-hydrogen/729341" target="_blank">in the power generation industry</a>, where existing gas storage facilities, pipelines and other infrastructure can also be called into play.

The field has attracted the interest of leading global engineering firms, including Mitsubishi. The company is a stakeholder in the multi-level Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah. The project includes converting an 840-megawatt coal power plant to a mix of green hydrogen and natural gas initially, with a goal of 100 percent green hydrogen in later years.

ACES is said to be the largest project of its kind, and it is not the only one. The idea of a “green hydrogen hub” that combines <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2022/03/28/you-get-a-green-hydrogen-hub-and-you-get-a-green-hydrogen-hub/" target="_blank">production, storage and deployment</a> is already catching on among other U.S. states, including a newly announced, massive tri-state project that partners New York with neighboring Connecticut and New Jersey.

<h2>The green hydrogen-green ammonia connection</h2>

Aside from its use as a fuel, hydrogen is also entangled in other key global industries including agriculture and food processing as well as toiletries and medicines.

In particular, green hydrogen provides a pathway for decarbonizing the ammonia industry. As indicated by the chemical formula NH3, the industry currently relies heavily on fossil inputs to obtain hydrogen for ammonia production (the “N” is nitrogen, which can be drawn from the air).

Aside from its direct use in agriculture and other fields, ammonia can also serve as a low-cost, easily transportable carrier for hydrogen. Once the ammonia arrives at its destination, the hydrogen can be extracted for other uses.

The cost of extracting hydrogen from ammonia has been an obstacle, but the firm Hydrofuel Canada is among those working on solutions.

Last month, Hydrofuel licensed the patent-pending, low cost “MAPS” green ammonia system from Georgia Tech, which involves <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/green-ammonia-and-hydrogen-now-cheaper-than-fossil-fuels-301531564.html" target="_blank">generating ammonia</a> directly from electrolyzed water and airborne nitrogen. Hydrofuel plans to leverage the ammonia has a hydrogen carrier.

“Green Hydrogen can be separated out from this ammonia to sell at about $1.50 a kg, compared to traditional green H2 which sells for up to $15 a kg. Even at $.08/kWh the production of green Ammonia and releasing Hydrogen from it will be lower cost than any hydrocarbon fuel,” Hydrofuel claims.

<h2>New electrolyzer technology</h2>

Green hydrogen can be extracted from various forms of biomass, but so far most investor dollars have gone to water electrolysis. That puts the focus on lowering the cost of electrolysis systems, and activity in that area is beginning to pick up steam.

Last month, Bosch joined a growing roster of legacy firms that have committed to improving electrolyzer systems, lowering costs, and ramping up production. The company aims to market and produce “smart” electrolyzer systems in high volume.

Lowering the cost of the membranes and catalysts used in electrolyzer systems is a particular area of focus for startups and legacy firms alike. For example, the startup H2U Technologies is developing a new catalyst-coated membrane that eliminates the use of platinum and other expensive metals in electrolyzer systems. Honeywell is also working along the same lines. Earlier this year, the company announced that it is anticipating <a href="https://pmt.honeywell.com/us/en/about-pmt/newsroom/press-release/2022/03/honeywell-announces-new-technology-for-green-hydrogen-production" target="_blank">a 25 percent drop</a> in the cost of an electrolyzer stack once it commercializes its new catalyst-coated membrane.

Another cost-cutting approach is illustrated by the U.S. firm Advanced Ionics, which is marketing a steam-driven, <a href="https://advanced-ionics.com/" target="_blank">energy-efficient electrolyzer system</a> for use at industrial sites.

This is just a small sample of the activity under way. Energy stakeholders are also beginning to explore green hydrogen production as a valuable add-on for offshore wind farms, and the field of concentrating solar power could also help increase the supply and lower the cost of green hydrogen.

The window of opportunity to scoff at the global hydrogen economy of the future is beginning to close. 

Image credit: <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/duisburg-blast-furnace-ruhr-area-4609365/" target="_blank">Herbert Aust</a> via Pixabay

5 Signs the Green Hydrogen Economy is Just Getting Started

Ireland is experiencing true green momentum. The <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/2f87c-climate-action-plan-2021/?referrer=http://www.gov.ie/climateaction/" target="_blank">Climate Action Plan</a> 2021, Ireland’s all-of-government plan to tackle climate breakdown and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, is just one example of an initiative that is helping Ireland achieve its sustainability and green economy goals. In fact, Ireland <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/24/1048253/the-green-future-index-2022/" target="_blank">ranks number 12</a> in the MIT Technology Review 2022 Green Future Index, a ranking of 76 leading countries and territories on their progress and commitment toward building a low carbon future.

Here are three positive trends that are helping Ireland deliver on sustainability goals, all strategies that are worthwhile for American organizations to consider employing as well.

<h2>Make your business models circular</h2>

Achieving a circular economy requires many things that are new; new ways of designing products, new manufacturing methods, new materials and new business models. Every company produces waste – it’s unavoidable – but if you can repurpose it, you help the environment and often achieve significant cost savings. Given that the future depends on improving the planet’s climate, you also may find yourself ahead of the curve when you go circular.

For instance, the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson &amp; Johnson, located in Cork, Ireland, this year gained recognition from the World Economic Forum (WEF) as one of only six sustainability lighthouses globally, a designation given to manufacturers considered to be factories of the future that have also achieved sustainability and productivity breakthroughs. For good reason: In recent years, the company has expanded the site’s footprint by 34 percent to meet growing business needs – but lowered carbon emission per kg of product by 56 percent. The site recently announced an additional <a href="https://www.idaireland.com/newsroom/janssen-announces-150m-investment-in-cork" target="_blank">$158 million investment</a> to expand the facility.

There are ample examples of American companies creating a circular economy in Ireland, however. Rent the Runway, located in Galway, has been working to minimize the environmental impacts of fast fashion, by allowing consumers to rent high-fashion, trendy clothes instead of buying them, which helps minimize wasteful consumption practices. 

By making better use of the resources we already have, companies in Ireland can significantly reduce the cost of doing business. It is estimated that annual savings of $2.4 billion are achievable by boosting Ireland’s circularity. By embracing a circular approach to business, we can achieve growth without degrading the environment.

<h2>Deploy sustainability goals that align with your country</h2>

There is an urgent need for companies to invest in a more sustainable future. And advancing a country’s green economy starts with a plan. For example, in January 2021, Ireland announced the National Recovery and Resilience Plan as a result of COVID-19. Within this plan was the goal to cut greenhouse gases by 51 percent by the year 2030. Because wind energy is one of Ireland’s largest energy sources, the country deployed The National Energy &amp; Climate Plan, which aims to develop 5 GW of additional offshore wind energy by 2030 and 30 GW of wind energy in the next 20 years. The Codling Wind Farm, which started in the early 2000s, and Moneypoint’s Offshore Wind Farms, which started in 2021, will help make this goal a reality, together they will bring nearly 3 GW of offshore wind capacity to Ireland. 

However, not every country will be able to deploy an offshore wind farm, which is why it’s important to create sustainability goals that align with your country’s ability and climate action plans, along with knowing what resources are available. In 2018, Ireland announced its Climate Action Fund (CAF), which was established to provide assistance and financial support to projects that will help Ireland achieve its climate and energy targets. Ireland’s <a href="https://merrionstreet.ie/en/news-room/news/government_announces_first_successful_projects_under_round_one_of_%E2%82%AC500_million_climate_action_fund.html" target="_blank">Climate Action Fund</a> offers about $530 million in Government funding. Depending on your location, you may not have as many resources to draw upon, but those opportunities to make money from improving the planet are out there. The U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has numerous partnership opportunities for corporations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and become more resilient to climate change.

<h2>Go big</h2>

Big problems need big solutions. The aforementioned ESB and the energy storage technology company Fluence, a Siemens and AES Company, headquartered in Washington, D.C., had <a href="https://www.energy-storage.news/fluence-and-irish-state-owned-power-group-esb-develop-next-210mwh-of-battery-storage-in-portfolio/" target="_blank">announced</a> two new battery projects in Dublin, one of which will be the European Union’s largest battery energy storage system project by energy capacity. Financial projections haven’t been released yet, but one of the battery projects, on an artificial peninsula called Poolbeg, will power about 321,000 homes and businesses in Ireland <a href="https://www.industryandenergy.eu/ccus/esb-and-fluence-in-europes-largest-energy-storage-portfolio-deal/" target="_blank">during peak demand</a>.

One thing is certain. The demand for energy isn’t going to wane and the need for less energy utilized and to make better use of resources is going to become more important than ever. As supply chains get more complicated and geopolitics encourages the world to speed up its mission to rely less on oil, carbon-friendly initiatives will only become more important for all global firms.

Interested in having your voice heard on 3p? Contact us at <a href="mailto:editorial@3BLMedia.com?subject=guest%20article%20opportunity">editorial@3BLMedia.com</a> and pitch your idea for a guest article to us.

Image credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/FauBUuNPq5k" target="_blank">Nils Nedel</a> via Unsplash

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Editorial Team

We report the business case for sustainability.

Leon Kaye

Tina Casey

Mary Mazzoni