Social Good Startup: Em{Power} Energy Group

Second in the series of Startups for Good Challenge. 

Em{Power} Energy Group, was one of the eight finalists to Startups for Good Challenge, hosted by the good guys of Mashable, 92Y and UN Foundation.

In this interview I talked with Ryan Integlia and Nasir Uddin, who are Executive Director and Vice President of the organization, respectively. We talked about the business they are in and challenges facing such organization.

Em[Power] Energy is in the business of helping landfill communities, people who are living close or near landfills – around the world.

Their mission is to “revitalize waste scavenging communities throughout the world using a modular and scalable cooperative development based on renewable resources.” In layman’s term, they will help these communities to improve their living conditions by converting organic waste and waste water into electricity, compost and have them take charge of the business – once all said and done.

Unless you come from developing world, you probably not accustomed to see people living near, at or very close to the big dumpster. We don’t see them around here anymore. But, in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mexico, Indonesia, India – they are coexist – with today’s modern world.

DuPont Packaging Awards Show Sustainability Drives Innovation

DuPont made the announcement of the winners for their 23rd packaging awards yesterday. DuPont packaging awards dates back to 1986. “The awards is the industry’s longest running, global, independently judged celebration of innovation and collaboration throughout the value chain.”

And welcome to social media! Because I learned about it via @DuPont_ability (their witter account for their sustainability news) and the winners was announced through a global webcast.

A Thrift (Home Improvement) Store with Social Mission

Construction and demolition debris makes up over half of our nation’s solid waste. That’s the problem that Community Forklift trying to solve with their business. They are not a forklift store, rather it is a thrift store that sells surplus, salvaged and new green building materials – with a social mission. Think of it as a combination of Home Depot and Goodwill thrift store wrap in one package.

So the other week I talked to Ruthie Mundell, Outreach and Education Director with Community Forklift, to get an insight from her about their business.

Green Words That Sell… in the UK

While the U.S., we have six Americas when it comes to conversation about global warming. People in the UK have a simpler way of liking and understanding the words that get them talk about sustainability. 

GREEN WORDS

 Bold are some of the words that I think might work over here. 

• Zero Waste
• Less is More
• Second Chance Rubbish
• Smart Appliances
• Energy-greedy Appliances
• Flight Addict
• Savvy Driving
• In-house Generation
• Independent Power
• Citizens Consumers
• Green Life Style
• One Planet Living
• Globally Alert 
• Carbon Footprint
• Positive Footprint

image: Futerra

For details, check out here.

Recycling still the most effective waste disposal method, report finds

Recycling is almost always the best way to get rid of waste, even when it is exported abroad, according to the biggest ever report on the industry for the UK government.

The report, which addresses persistent claims that householders are often wasting their time recycling, calls for better recycling facilities but also an increase in incineration of waste, an option that is opposed by many environment groups.

It also backed up last week’s controversial report published by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs warning that biopolymer plastics made from crops should be recycled rather than put into compost, despite being widely marketed as “biodegradable”.

Wrap, the government’s waste and packaging agency, said it had analysed 200 reports covering seven different materials: paper and cardboard, plastics, biopolymers, food, garden cuttings, wood and textiles. The experts then looked at the evidence for seven methods of disposal, including recycling, composting, incineration and landfill, measured by four different criteria: energy use, water use, other resource use, and greenhouse gas emissions.

In more than four out of five cases, recycling was the clear winner, said Keith James, Wrap’s environmental policy manager.

But there were “different messages” for different materials, said James.

“For biopolymers, I think the preferable option is recycling, which isn’t what people have commonly thought,” he said.

“For textiles, there’s not very many statistics, but what there is shows reuse is clearly optimal, followed by recycling and then energy recovery [incineration].

“For food and garden waste, anaerobic digestion looks preferable; then composting and incineration with energy recovery come out very similar.

“For plastics, we have got strong evidence this time that recycling is the better option, because recycling has improved.

“For wood, recycling looks preferable.

“For paper and cardboard, what the statistics throw out is the importance of quality: the higher the quality [paper and cardboard], the better it is to recycle, but as you go down to the lower end, energy recovery [incineration] may be preferable.”

via guardian.co.uk

Waste Could Meet 7 Percent of Spain’s Electricity Demand, Study Says

The burning of solid urban waste, sludge from water treatment plants, and livestock slurry could generate more than 7 percent of Spain’s electricity needs, according to a new report. Researchers at the University of Zaragoza say incineration of these materials has the potential to produce up to 20.95 terawatt hours annually

via e360.yale.edu