The New Chemistry Is Worth $80 Trillion
Let us begin with your book, regarded as the Bible by those in the know. Will you help us understand where the world’s chemical industry is heading for? Over the last ten years, the chemical ...
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...
A Marketable Seaweed Production
The global demand for seaweed biomass is rising. According to recent figures from the FAO (2014), about 25 million tonnes of seaweeds and other algae are utilized annually: used as food, in cosmetic...
Beach Umbrellas Surrounded by Litter
The investigation was carried out – from April to May 2015 – by Legambiente volunteers, in line with the monitoring protocol set up by the Ministry for the Environment and ISPRA, over a ...
Edible Films? Courgettes Invented Them!
Well, we could eat food containers, by designing them edible, of course. There are some interesting results with mineral water algae-based containers. A solution that could prove very fruitful and t...
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...