Energy

For more than a decade, this has been the time of year — the run-up to Earth Day — when I’ve surveyed the public opinion polls, of which there have been many, to assess consumer and citizen trends on environmental issues, notably related to shopping. I started doing this in 2007 and, with a few

Welders work on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve pipeline on June 1, 1980, in West Hackberry, Louisianna. Begun under President Ford to reduce the threat of oil embargoes, the SPR crude oil is stored in huge underground salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico, a natural choice due to the proximity of many refineries and distribution

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg protests with her placard reading “School strike for climate” as part of her Fridays for Future protest in front of the Swedish Parliament Riksdagen in Stockholm on October 9, 2020. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND | AFP | Getty Images LONDON — A statue of the climate activist Greta Thunberg that has been

In the waning months of 2020, the European Union took ambitious steps to address the more than 12 million tons of electronic waste the bloc produces annually. Acknowledging that “Europe is living well beyond planetary boundaries,” a European Parliamen vote called for mandatory repairability scores for consumer electronics, amongst a host of other initiatives intended

John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate, speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images No single country can solve the climate crisis — and the American pursuit of greater research and

Oil tanks at an oil processing facility of Saudi Aramco, a Saudi Arabian state-owned oil and gas company, at the Abqaiq oil field. Stanislav Krasilnikov | TASS via Getty Images The chief executive of the world’s biggest oil company on Wednesday said he believes the firm will still be able to meet dividend payout expectations

In this article HEI-DE LIN EOAN-DE SZG-DE DOW MT-NL ORSTED-DK This photograph shows turbines at the Borkum Riffgrund 2 wind farm, which Orsted owns 50% of. CharlieChesvick | iStock Unreleased | Getty Images Danish energy company Orsted wants to construct a large-scale offshore wind farm in the North Sea and link it to so-called “renewable”

Oil pumping jacks, also known as “nodding donkeys”, are reflected in a puddle as they operate in an oilfield near Almetyevsk, Russia, on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020. Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg via Getty Images LONDON — A group consisting of some of the world’s most powerful oil producers on Thursday will meet to decide on

Week in Review Stories discussed this week (2:00). Features Getting together to buy renewable energy (19:45) Last month, life sciences company MilliporeSigma teamed up with Akamai, Synopsis and Uber to commit to buying 111 megawatts from an Enel Green Power wind-plus-solar project in Texas. We get the details from Greg Rizzo, director of origination-commercial office

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (2nd R), joined by national security advisor Jake Sullivan (R), speaks while facing Yang Jiechi (2nd L), director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and Wang Yi (L), China’s foreign minister at the opening session of U.S.-China talks at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska on March

Cargill’s new sustainability program, SeaFuther, expands its carbon reduction commitments from the terrestrial to the oceanic. The commitment focuses on Cargill’s aquaculture and aquaculture feed business, targeting a reduction in Scope 3 emissions of 30 percent by 2030, from a 2017 baseline.  As sustainable and environmentally friendly diets increase in popularity, the seafood market is

A handout picture released by the Suez Canal Authority on March 24, 2021 shows a part of the Taiwan-owned MV Ever Given (Evergreen), a 400-metre- (1,300-foot-) long and 59-metre wide vessel, lodged sideways and impeding all traffic across the waterway of Egypt’s Suez Canal. Suez Canal Authority | AFP | Getty Images CAIRO — Egyptian

During the 20th century, coal was a cheap and reliable source of electricity. Today it’s relatively expensive and highly polluting. The shift to cleaner, less expensive renewable energy is rapidly underway, and it’s happening faster than anyone expected. Our nation’s task now is to manage that transition in a just and sustainable way so that

In this article .IXIC HYD XLF XLI XLB XLE XLK KRE US10Y Wilmington Trust’s Meghan Shue expects growth stocks, including Big Tech, to hit more turbulence over the next three months. “Our main takeaway was to lean a little bit more into value and trim some of our growth exposure,” Shue, the firm’s head of

From cardboard boxes delivered to our doors to home appliances, nearly everything comes from industrial processes. Those processes use a lot of energy and largely come from fossil fuels; one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from industry. To achieve net-zero economy-wide emissions by 2050 and limit global warming, industrial emissions must drop while still

In this article VOW3-DE Ashlee Espinal | CNBC German automaker Volkswagen will not be changing the name of its U.S. operations to Voltswagen of America after all. The news, which appeared to leak out on its U.S. media site Monday and was formally announced in a press release Tuesday, was part of an elaborate April

When I returned to the office after having my first child, I noticed for the first time that all of the offices and conference rooms either had windows or non-locking doors, which left me without any safe spaces for pumping. Fortunately, I work for a supportive company that requested modification from building management to convert

In this article ORSTED-DK The Block Island Wind Farm, photographed in 2016, is located in waters off the east coast of the United States. DON EMMERT | AFP | Getty Images The U.S. wants to expand its offshore wind capacity to 30 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, a move the Biden administration hopes will generate thousands

As we move into a crucial decade of action on achieving serious progress on sustainability, many are hoping the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic recession will serve to reset our priorities toward a greener future in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, many experts are not optimistic about the possibility of a

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on tackling climate change prior to signing executive actions as White House climate envoy John Kerry and Vice President Kamala Harris listen in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 27, 2021. Kevin Lemarque | Reuters President Joe Biden this week is set to unveil details of

This article originally appeared in the State of Green Business 2021. You can download the entire report here. As the circular economy ramps up, we’ve seen impressive innovation in materials, products, models and processes — but innovation on how we treat people has been notably absent. However, as companies, cities and countries alike adopt a more

Texas had a rough winter in 2021. In mid-February, with temperatures dropping to the single digits, demand for electricity hit a record high throughout Texas. Supply ran short, causing the state’s electric grid operator to implement rolling power outages. At the height of the crisis, more than 4.5 million customers lost power. The freak winter

Net-zero commitments may have ricocheted across banking sector over the last 18 months, but big banks’ attestations of climate concern did not stop many from expanding financing for the world’s top fossil fuel firms during the pandemic year. That is according to the latest edition of the Rainforest Action Network’s annual fossil fuel financing tracker,

The Taiwan-owned MV ‘Ever Given’ (Evergreen) container ship, a 400-metre- (1,300-foot-)long and 59-metre wide vessel, is lodged sideways and impeding all traffic across the waterway of Egypt’s Suez Canal, on March 27, 2021. AHMAD HASSAN | AFP | Getty Images The owners of the massive ship blocking the Suez Canal aim to refloat the vessel

When we talk about infrastructure, we usually mean big, heavy stuff: roads; bridges; seawalls and the like. But as Democrats turn their attention to infrastructure measures potentially costing trillions of dollars, that focus needs broadening. Often the most cost-effective infrastructure is not made of concrete or steel, but soil. To see what I mean, check

In this article BG .SPIPSA RDSA-GB LNG A dredger attempts to free stranded container ship Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, after it ran aground, in Suez Canal, Egypt March 26, 2021. Suez Canal Authority | Reuters Companies are scrambling to reroute shipping vessels to avoid the logjam at the Suez Canal,

The grid faces twin challenges: It needs to become resilient and clean. Alone, either would be daunting. Together, with the right policy support, they might just be urgent enough to get something done.  This week, the Biden administration announced a major infrastructure package, with clean energy and updates to the U.S. electrical grid playing a

Stranded container ship Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, is seen after it ran aground, in Suez Canal, Egypt March 26, 2021. Suez Canal Authority | Reuters The massive Ever Given container ship, stuck in the Suez Canal, provides a vivid image for a world economy whose global supply chains were already

Week in Review Stories discussed this week (4:22). Features A new wave for ocean adaptation? (19:30) Oceanographer John Englander chats with Senior Editor Deonna Anderson about his upcoming book, “Moving to Higher Ground: Rising Sea Level and the Path Forward.”   BSR’s take on resilient business strategies (36:55) A new guide from the nonprofit BSR

piola666 | E+ | Getty Images Some £7.5 million ($10.33 million) of public funding will be used to support the development of eight wave energy projects led by U.K. universities, including one inspired by marine life, in a bid to boost the sector’s efficiency and resilience over the coming years. The money will come from

Unilever has become one of the first multinational companies in the world to publish a corporate net-zero action plan for oversight by its shareholders, as it prepares to put the climate strategy to an advisory vote at its upcoming AGM in early May. The consumer goods giant this week unveiled its strategy for achieving net-zero

An Exxon Mobil gas station in Chicago. Getty Images The oil and gas industry’s largest trade group Thursday endorsed a price on planet-warming carbon emissions, marking a major shift after it long resisted regulatory action on climate change. The American Petroleum Institute’s move comes as President Joe Biden prepares to unveil a sweeping infrastructure proposal

As discussions over the Biden administration’s $3 trillion infrastructure vision take shape, one principle central to the president’s ideas to help America “build back better” after COVID-19 is ensuring that investments shaping a clean economy are firmly rooted in social and environmental justice.  What better way to actually do that than by more intentionally including

Vessel ELENI M is seen after passing through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt March 24, 2021. Amr Abdallah Dalsh | Reuters The disruption caused by the grounding of a large container ship in Egypt’s Suez Canal­ — halting marine traffic through one of the busiest and most important waterways in the world — is

Interest in corporate sustainability metrics has skyrocketed in the last few years, particularly in the financial industry. With it has come a surge in demand for information related to these activities, one accommodated by existing reporting standards and frameworks produced by organizations such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB),

choja | E+ | Getty Images A coal mine turned waste depot in the northeast of England is to undergo a retrofit that will utilize a range of sustainable technologies and design features, with those behind the project hoping over 1,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide will be saved annually thanks to the changes.  The

As the global economy reawakens after the COVID-19 shutdown, air emissions and VOC enforcement in China remain a hot topic. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) combine with nitrogen oxide to create ozone, a key precursor to smog. Over the past several decades, public health and environmental concerns have made controlling smog a top national policy goal

Nova Innovation An electric vehicle charging point which uses tidal energy has started operations, providing road users on an island north of mainland Scotland with a new, renewable option for running their cars.   The facility is located on Yell, which is part of Shetland, an archipelago of roughly 100 islands. The charging point gets its

“I am discovering a whole new respect for chief sustainability officers,” I texted the facilitator of Leading the Sustainability Transformation. I was general manager of a mock company, Rio Negro Bioproducts, with the express goal to transform it from a traditional business to a sustainable one — economically, environmentally and socially — over a 20-year

Under the traditional capitalist model, financial performance for shareholders has been the primary measure of the success of a business. However, a growing awareness of ESG trends has given rise to the concept of “stakeholder value,” whereby the focus is on long-term value creation for customers, employees, society and the environment rather than just short-term

Hydrogen energy may be on the cusp of a prolonged heyday. A new hydrogen and fuel cell-based ETF, the Defiance Next Gen H2 ETF (HDRO), has already accrued $2.85 million in net assets since its launch last week — and this is likely just the beginning, Sylvia Jablonski, chief investment officer at Defiance ETFs, said

A worker at an oil processing facility of Saudi Aramco, a Saudi Arabian state-owned oil and gas company, at the Abqaiq oil field. Stanislav Krasilnikov | TASS | Getty Images Oil giant Saudi Aramco reported a 44% slump in full-year 2020 results, but maintained its $75 billion dollar dividend payout, with CEO Amin Nasser describing

The underbody of an ID.3 electric vehicle is assembled at a Volkswagen facility in Dresden, Germany, on January 29, 2021. Matthias Rietschel | picture alliance | Getty Images Volkswagen Group’s CEO has dismissed the notion that his firm could join forces with Tesla, telling CNBC that the German automotive giant was looking to go its

The Schwedenkai in Kiel, Germany. Kerrick | iStock Unreleased | Getty Images A major port in northern Germany is using technology from Siemens to monitor energy use, with the cloud-based system collating a wide-range of data which could help teams there to improve operations. The project focuses on the Port of Kiel’s shore power system,

Want more great analysis of the clean energy transition? Sign up for Energy Weekly, our free email newsletter. Portland General Electric (PGE) in Oregon manages a two-year-old program it hopes will accelerate the speed of renewable deployment in the state. It also may be a model for how other utilities can help customers choose clean

A customer fuels a vehicle at a gas station in Peoria, Illinois. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images U.S. gasoline demand is approaching normal levels as Americans once again hit the road amid the economic recovery and the Covid-19 vaccine rollout. Demand is just about at normal March levels and continues to tick higher,

As we passed the one-year anniversary of lockdown in the United States, I planned to write about how the pandemic has affected sustainability in food and ag. But I kept thinking of the number of people felled by the virus — 536,000 people in the U.S. to date — and asking myself different questions: Why

Amazon’s new delivery van Amazon Amazon is now testing its electric delivery vans in San Francisco, the company announced Thursday. It’s the latest expansion in California of Amazon’s custom electric vehicles developed in partnership with start-up Rivian Automotive, which has raised about $8 billion since 2019 from investors. Amazon announced last month it had begun