Stadler, the “connected intelligence” of waste
For most of its history, the recycling industry has been a business of steel and motion: conveyor belts, ballistic separators, screens, magnets. STADLER is a German family firm now in its eighth gen...
Nunc est Bibendum
In contemporary Western society, the ritual and spiritual dimension of the act of drinking is often reduced to mere material consumption or, at best, hedonism. And yet, our human history is peppered...
Critical raw materials, Luca Meini: “It’s urgent to move from strategy to execution”
In just a few years, critical raw materials (CRMs) have become the true bottleneck for Europe’s green and digital transition. Lithium, cobalt, rare earths, gallium, germanium – without t...
Serena Giacomin: “It’s not a strange summer: it’s climate change”
What can we expect in the coming weeks of this scorching summer? What are these Omega-shaped heat domes? Is the super El Niño on its way? To what extent is the climate crisis really to b...
Walter Stahel: “The owner has become the manufacturer’s slave”
Walter Stahel is one of the founding thinkers of the circular economy. A Swiss architect and industrial analyst born in 1946, he first outlined the concept of selling performance rather than product...
Euro-Mediterranean Water Forum: Italy’s challenge to blue diplomacy
From 29 September to 2 October 2026, Rome will host the first Euro-Mediterranean Water Forum. Organised by the One Water Committee with the support of CIHEAM in Bari, in collaboration with the Union...
Italy-China Circular Economy Forum: addressing the challenges of the transition
Shanghai – Circular economy, water security, decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors. A packed agenda of B2B talks and meetings awaited participants at the “Italy-China Circular Ec...
Artificial Intelligence: unveiling the real environmental impacts
“One of the most consequential dimensions of AI that remains comparatively under-examined is its environmental footprint and the justice implications that follow.” This is how the latest...
Serfs: the hidden cost of food in global supply chains
In the European Middle Ages, the term “serfdom” referred to a legally defined status that fell somewhere between slavery (servus) and free man, in that the individual was not considered ...
Michele Merola: “Sustainability in cosmetics is not just for show”
This article is part of our Beauty and Cosmetics feature: discover it here A varnished wooden cap with an aluminium screw – not FSC-certified, non-separable at the end of its life, and imposs...
The Chinese Century
Back in the day, when you wanted to glimpse into the future, you’d head to San Francisco or Las Vegas. Today, you travel to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chengdu or Hangzhou. Robotics, AI, renewable en...
CBAM: the challenges of international accreditation
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter Who monitors emissions from a steel mill in Wuhan on behalf of Europe when we import material...
Forests, climate and the timber supply chain: turning a crisis into an opportunity
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter Global warming may be ignored, like many governments have decided to do, but it will not stop...
An Orderly Chaotic World
Some of the most fascinating explanations are often found in the etymology of a word. When Jean Baptiste van Helmont first coined the word “gas” in the 17th century, he took it from &chi...
Energy and geopolitics, Francesco La Camera: Crises accelerate the transition
Geopolitical tensions have once again brought energy to the forefront of global debate. The escalation in the Middle East, with the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran and the i...
CCS, how to resolve the incomplete carbon management chain
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer. Subscribe to the newsletter or update your preferences. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is often described as a singular, monolith...
Conflict in Iran: reactions from the US and the energy markets
The peaceful weekend of the US capital, which woke up to its second day of war on a sunny Sunday, contrasts with the scenes seen in Tehran, Tel Aviv, and various capitals of the Gulf countries. Unti...
KEY 2026 grows and eyes Europe next: “Transition is a system, not one single technology”
Twenty-four pavilions, 125,000 square metres of exhibition space, and 1,056 exhibiting companies, including 315 from abroad. These are the numbers behind Key – The Energy Transition Expo 2026,...
The Board of Whatever
World diplomacy reduced to a curtain-raiser. That's how one could sum up the first meeting of Donald J. Trump's Board of Peace, held on Thursday, February 19, at the Donald J. Trump United States of...
Stopping the rise of the lakes in the Rift Valley
Last year, around five thousand people were displaced by the rising water level of Lake Naivasha, 50 kilometres from Nairobi. Similarly happened on Lakes Nakuru and Lake Baringo, located further nor...