Planet vs Plastic, the Hidden Cost of an Unwise Use
The industrial production of plastic began around 1950 and has increased exponentially in the years since, substantially exceeding that of any other manufactured material. A 2020 study publish...
Panamericana and biodiversity, empathy can save the world
It has been almost 2 years since the 15th of July 2022 when I took the plane that allowed me to verify with my own eyes, how much and in which form human activities are changing, sometimes irreparab...
Startup, Zupply: automation platform for circular building projects
Zupply is a Danish startup that supports companies in the construction industry in transitioning to circular economy models. They do so by using data and automation to initiate workflows to efficien...
Urban Food Policy can revolutionise food consumption. Interview with Peter Defranceschi
There is a world of meanings and connections behind two simple words like "food" and "city," spanning across cultures, economies, stories, and social interactions. In urban contexts, food is an elem...
PFAS, at Waste Management Europe a conference on "forever pollutants"
An acronym standing for Per and Poly-Fluorinated Alkylated Substances, PFAS constitute a large family of chemical compounds used in a wide variety of industrial applications and consumer produc...
Digital Twins for Water Resource Management
The need to manage vast quantities of data, simultaneously improving operational and invested capital efficiency, is increasingly driving integrated water service managers to use advanced digital in...
The shadow of consulting firms (and Tony Blair) on climate negotiations
The government of Azerbaijan seeks help for COP29. In recent weeks, proposals to collaborate with the government of Baku in managing the 29th UN climate conference, to be held in November in Azerbai...
Startup: Cloov, the rental and second-hand platform for fashion brands
By using proprietary software, the Cloov startup enables apparel and accessories brands to create an online platform for rental and second-hand sales. Through its Software-as-a-service (SaaS), in ju...
"Biodegradable" tableware violates plastic pollution regulation
This is the second article of the three-part series Bioplastic: green innovation or another plastic problem? an international investigation jointly published by Renewable Matter ‒ a...
Climate doesn't need nuclear power: new EEB report says so
Everyone's crazy about nuclear power, but the climate doesn't need it. So says a new report by the European Environmental Bureau, unsurprisingly released on March 21, the same day world leaders...
Sustainability Report, the ESRS E5 Standard on resource use and circular economy explained
In the past few months, the European Union has made significant advancements towards transparency and comparability of sustainability data. Especially for what concerns the goal of standardising the...
Gaza, impending famine: hunger and thirst as improper weapons against the population
“The IPC's analysis of acute food insecurity conducted in December 2023 in the Gaza Strip signaled the risk of famine by the end of May 2024 if an immediate cessation of hostilities was not im...
Startup: RECO2, sustainable cobblestones out of industrial waste
Metallurgic, mining and glass scraps are transformed by a patented production process into Vytreum, a material used for outdoor flooring with characteristics comparable to current ceramic and c...
Motonormativity: underestimating cars' risks and pollution
The car: an extraordinary means of transportation whose danger we have forgotten. Of course, driving implies possessing a driving licence, but it has become an everyday act to such an extent that it...
Sustainable finance across Europe, Asia, and the United States: interviews from RM49
In each monographic issue of Renewable Matter, the Think Tank section is an opportunity to hear directly from the most prominent figures in the fields that, from time to time, we cover. Scienti...
Are the ESG Ratings Working?
Raise your hand if you have never heard of ESG ratings. At least since the introduction of environmental, social and governance factors into corporate financial analysis was popularized in 2006 by t...
Startup: Broccoli, the Sharefunding Platform for Sustainable Food Companies
“In the last two years, nothing has been more important on the agenda than our health and our climate impact. Issues that will not be resolved in the next century. However, we can have an impa...
China: the year of the Dragon is the year of new productive forces
Now that the New Year festivities are over, all attention in China has shifted to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where from March 4 to 11 the so-called Two Sessions (Liang Hui), the P...
Is e-commerce really more sustainable than stores?
Useful? Yes. Convenient? Maybe too much so. But as sustainability goes, e-commerce has never had a good reputation. Now, however, research wants to overturn the environmental bad reputation of ...
Startup, Beni: the Browser Extension that Promotes Second-hand Purchases
Beni is a browser extension that makes it easy to buy specific items of clothing second-hand. The extension works by intercepting online shopping searches and pointing users toward the same pro...