The Hidden Value of Plants
“I will plant, says he, in the desert, cedars, hawthorns, myrtles, olives, firs, elms and boxes.” Therefore, if you wish to own plenty of these trees, and if you yearn to ...
10% of Biofuels Without Giving up a Single Sandwich
At global level, biomass currently amounts to 10-12% of energy production: it is the first amongst renewables and it has an enormous expansion potential both for the production of heat and electrici...
Business Models Reaching For a Circular Slot
When they created the Product Life Institute in Geneva in 1982, Orio Giarini and Walter Stahel stood as lonesome cowboys exploring the newfound land of the circular economy. Indeed, during the 60&rs...
Ecological Debt's Hidden War Increases Tensions in the Mediterranean Area
There is another public debt resting on our shoulders. It is neither less dangerous nor lighter than the financial one. Above all, it is completely out of control. It increases every year, especiall...
$655 Million for Fairtrade Food
Big global philanthropic foundations are determinedly committed to support research promoting sustainability in the agricultural and food industry of the future. This has been highlighted in a study...
The Bioeconomy Gets to the Fridge: Packaging is 100% Biobased
Beer in wooden bottles, milk in cartons produced with residues of sugar cane, drinks in PET cans made from organic resources. The future of packaging – and in some cases the present – is...
The M�bius Strip
Paper history is linked to resources. Already in the 18th century, in Europe, paper experienced the “rags crisis” – the then raw material – and later the extraction of cellul...
Green Paper that Gives Agribusiness Waste a New Lease of Life
Rather than being sent to landfills or waste-to-energy plants, that waste can now become cardboard for high-end packaging, cards for wedding invitations or the paper of the magazine you are leafing ...
The Circular Economy at the Reach of Municipalities At Zero Cost
Let’s imagine that an Italian local administration wants to be an active part of the circular economy, for example through the Green Public Procurement (GPP), using environmental based criteri...
Made in Food Waste
Expo 2015 has certainly brought to the international attention different aspects related to the safeguard of food resources. Among various issues, food waste is particularly important from many poin...
Water, Energy, Matter and Employment from End-of-life Tyres
It is all very well to talk about sustainability reports. But not all reports are equal. One thing is carefully choosing some data (perhaps overshadowing the less palatable ones) to use them skilful...
Agriculture's Second Green Life
Plastic Films in Agriculture: Lights and Shadows In 2013, demand for plastic films in agriculture at a global level amounted to about 4 million tons, mainly in Asia (roughly 70%) followed by Europe...
When Innovation and Recycling Go Hand in Hand
Let us have a look at exercise books, notepads and diaries made from recycled paper. It is a well-established niche market. But it is also an industry that over the years has both played the design ...
Still Too Many Landfills, and They Will Only Last Two More Years
In the last few years, in Italy the situation has improved thanks to a drop in waste production and an increase in separate collection. However, the objective of decoupling waste production ...
Glass Recycling Is km 0
Glass has a very ancient origin. It seems that the first people who produced it were the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, although the oldest fragments that we know of are from Egypt dating from 1500 b.C...
How the World's Economic Growth Is Actually Un-Economic
The focus of the recently concluded G20 summit was economic growth. The final communiqué begins: “Raising global growth to deliver better living standards and quality jobs for...
Over 50 Billion Tons of Matter Wasted Every Year: Resources to Preserve
The surface of the Earth has always been in slow but constant movement: excavated by waterways and glaciers, eroded by winds, upset by mountain formation and volcanic eruptions, subjected to changes...
The Doughnut Economy
Between Social Boundaries and Planetary Boundaries In 2009, a group of leading Earth-system scientists brought together by Johan Rockström of the Stockholm Resilience Centre put forw...
Rockstrà¶m, 'Biomaterials: A Viable Alternative to Fossil Fuels'
Our ecological footprint surpasses the Earth’s absorption capacity. One of the less known elements of the planetary equation is the impact of the extraction of many raw materials.&nb...
Elemental Sustainability
The unique chemical and physical properties of metals mean that they are extensively utilised by industry in a huge variety of applications, including electronics, transport, materials, industrial c...