Amazon, Do not destroy
The first law in the world banning the destruction of returned or unsold products has been passed in France. This happened following the wave of indignation unleashed after the release of a document...
Regenerate, the tool that revolutionizes circular buildings
Embracing principles of the circular economy could bring a number of benefits to the built environment. Buildings are regularly stripped out and torn down, with new buildings frequently constructed ...
Reinventing the Fire. Again
It is a slow and beautiful drive up to Snowmass, Colorado. Cars drive at 20 miles per hour, due to icy roads. External temperature is -25°C, and everything looks pale white, like in the tale of the...
Reverse logistics, the circular economy weakest link
Reverse logistics is sometimes described as the logistics going in the “wrong direction”. Yet, by closing the loop of product lifecycles, it plays an important role to transitioning to a circula...
Cattlechain: bridging the gap between livestock farmers and consumers
Unless you are a vegetarian, pescatarian or vegan, chances are you would not let a juicy ribeye steak pass you by. Would you? Even though countries may have different meat preferences, livestock pro...
Oil Recycling: Italy is an excellence in Europe, thanks to CONOU
CONOU has a long and interesting history. As a consortium, it has been operating since 1984. Its mission is to collect and recycle hazardous waste materials ranging from waste oil that comes from ca...
A Forest
The expression “sustainability” is strictly correlated with forests. The word came into use in 1713 when the chief mining official Hans Carl von Carlowitz, from Freiberg, Saxony, published the ...
The Merchants of Doubt
Credit Kayana Szymczak 2020 will mark the tenth anniversary of the publication of Merchants of Doubt, a book that in Europe and the USA has had an impact due to its capacity to make us pond...
Biofuels: Aiming for a Greener and Cleaner India
With wind, solar and biomass gaining prominence and replacing age old sources such as coal, oil and even nuclear energy, there is space for virtuous companies to enter new markets in India’s clean...
How GPP Works in Lombardy
With the approval of the new Public Contracts Code in 2016, Italy is the only European country that has made Green Public Procurement mandatory. This means that all public authorities have to employ...
Rethinking the Chinese Economy
When was the circular economy idea first introduced in China? “As far as I know the idea of circular economy (CE) was first introduced in China in the late 1990s, by researchers and...
The Circular Republic of China
In Shanghai, the city’s administration excels in its commitment to electronic waste recycling, an ongoing ordeal that emerged from China’s digital boom. Urban mining potential is boosted by a co...
The Great Trade Challenge
A shock with worldwide repercussions: China’s ban on plastic waste imports, introduced at the beginning of 2018, has left the global recycling market reeling. The loss of the largest importer ...
How Green is Your Mine?
Western public opinion currently perceives China as a country whose prodigious economic growth has come at the price of unsustainable levels of environmental pollution. Although this idea does hold ...
Palm Oil Bioeconomy
Malaysia has an abundance of natural resources – especially, and controversially, of palm oil – and a public sector that favours innovation and attracts investments. These are the countr...
Short-Term Profits for the Few: Populism and Agribusiness in Brazil
The Amazon is on fire. We can do something. Although these are both truthful messages, they must be put into context. Indeed, scientific data about fires has often been reported with inaccura...
Regeneration: Planting Trees is the Secret Weapon for Reversing the Climate Emergency
“When I think that a man alone, reduced to his own simple physical and moral resources, was enough to cause this land of Canaan to spring out of the desert, I do find that, after all, the huma...
The Fight Against Climate Crisis Starts From the Bottom
According to data from the FAO, land conversion and organic soil drainage are responsible for approximately 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is precisely because of drainage that peat bogs are th...
Colombia Chooses the Circular Economy
Last November, Colombia’s Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development announced that it would launch the country’s first National Circular Economy Strategy. This initiative a...
A Circular Economy Must be a Social Economy
Back in 2015, the refugee crisis uncovered Europe’s ugliest face: thousands of people drowning in the Mediterranean, dying in the attempt to reach safe borders, just as the world’s wealt...