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Green Jobs, 80% Renewables in 2020, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Brief season’s greetings from knowtheflow, with a thought that I was delighted to discover in the The Wealth Report 2012, stated by telecommunication…
10 Appropriate Indicators to Measure Green Growth in Industry
Green Growth, Sustainable Growth, Green Economy – All of these concepts require decoupling. A decoupling, in a nutshell, that maintains economic…
The Outweighed Efficiency Gain – 13 Rebound Effects in Detail
According to Tilman Santarius, one essential concept is missing in all the scenarios that lead toward a green economy. It is, so he wrote, that…
19 Industry Reports – How Global Compact Promotes Efficiency
Energy costs are on the rise. Their increase is so steady that now even the United Nations has established a program to promote energy efficiency in…
Do Universities Practice What They Preach? On Academic Sustainability
As I wrote in my articles on the future-proof Bachelor and verbiage-free Masters in sustainability, academia is a big driver of sustainable…
31 Innovations for Maximum Resource Efficiency in Manufacturing
The amount of manufacturing in Germany is vast. To guarantee survival in the global rotation of who is who among industrial nations, companies in…
4 Pressing Questions on the Ozone Hole Recovery
Two months ago, newspapers around the world happily reproduced a news headline from Reuters – the ozone hole was shrinking, it said, for the first…
Burn or Bury? Analyzing Waste Management Options in Detail
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – the waste imperative is as clear as it can get. What’s less clear, however, is what we should we do with the remaining stuff.…
5-Fold Increase in Efficiency – Not Delusional at All
Some of my recent articles have circled around an apparent antagonism between different schools of thought in sustainability. I mentioned the two main…
“A Balanced Mix of Technologies and Strategies” – The Sustainable Path is a Multi-Lane Highway
When it comes to discussing ways to limit human influence on global warming, the most popular reaction is to pass the buck: So who’s in charge of…
Why Environmental Regulation Is Not Scaring Off Industry – On Declining Evidence for Pollution Haven Theory
Some say strict environmental regulations in individual countries are useless, especially from a global perspective. The thought behind this view is…
Europe’s 10 Most Verbiage-Free Master Programs in Sustainability
Almost all interdisciplinary study programs introduced to the teaching universe in the past 5 years contain some form of “sustainability” in the…
Better, Different, Less – Green Economy Revisited
“Post Growth Economy or Resource Efficiency Revolution – How Should We Face the Limits of Our Planet?” This question I asked in a blog post half a…
Green Ocean Hunters? The Environmental Effects of Fishing and Aquaculture, Part 2
Last week, in part one of this article, we ended with the tragedy of the commons and the question of whether overfishing is a logical consequence of…
Green Ocean Hunters? The Environmental Effects of Fishing and Aquaculture
Shrimp farms destroy sensitive mangrove forest ecosystems, salmon escape from designated aquaculture spots and spread parasites, fish trawlers leave…
Carbon Neutral Online Shopping – How Green are Mail Order Companies?
In the last 150 years, three major trends have changed the way humanity consumes. First, industrialization shifted production from self-sufficiency to…
LCA, CF, MFCA? What to Expect From Umberto User Workshop Hamburg, Sept 17/18
Sustainability and efficiency: a couple of terms that couldn’t be more misused and greenwashed. A pernicious conspiracy of PR and CSR departments…
Why and How the Manufacturing Industry Should Go 100% Renewable Now
Renewable energy has a positive connotation in society and business, that’s for sure. The Fukushima incidents have led to a run on renewable energy…
What’s the Greenest 1 L Packaging? Two Powerful LCAs Give the Answer
It was a month ago when I heard the surprising news that milk packaged in cartons has the best environmental performance as compared to other…
6 Options to Maintain Current Lifestyles with Far Less Raw Materials: “With Both Eyes Open”
There is this old, ever repeating view of humanity as a counter-productive force when it comes to nature conservation, and that action toward a…
Carbon Neutral World Cup? Green Stadiums? Really?
Fancy pictures of green stadiums have been fast to hit the media since FIFA’s decision to give the 2022 soccer World Cup to Qatar was published. FIFA…
Integrated Reporting: How Business Can Transform Society through Serious Sustainability Communication
It goes without saying that providing investors and shareholders with financial performance data is a key responsibility of big companies. Companies…
To Recycle or Not to Recycle – PVC Cable Waste is the Question
Recycling – it’s the magic word when the ill-informed think “environmental friendliness”. “Recyclable” – the number one green term that doesn’t mean a…
Let’s Take the Green Economy in Hand Ourselves – The Conclusion From Rio+20’s Failure
One week has passed and the deeply disappointed comments on the outcome of Rio+20 slowly fade from the media and blogosphere. I wonder where all this…
Only 16.7% of Global Energy Consumption Is Renewable – Ways for Industry to Increase This Share
You know studies. You know reports. You know data collections. But you don’t know Ren21? You should. Ren21, calling itself an international policy…
More Than Ecosystem Dynamics – Understanding the Different Concepts of Resilience
There are these technical terms – complicated words with Latin origins – that experts have used for ages without any outsider noticing. All of a…
The 8 Most Specific LinkedIn Groups for Industrial Ecology
The social media marketing hype seems to be declining, whereas a seemingly infinite flood of mobile internet devices, smartphones and tablets conquer…
A Challenging Task: Promoting Energy Efficiency in Tajikistan
knowtheflow: Marjolaine, you work for the French organization GERES, which deals with promoting energy efficiency. Marjolaine Boitard: Yes, it was…
The Five Most Important Changes for Global Sustainability: Living Planet Report 2012
We live above our limits, the planet does not provide sufficient resources for our consumerist lifestyle, and things get worse. The rich exploit the…
7 Measures for Efficient Climate Control on the Factory Floor
How, exactly, can a medium-sized industrial company save on energy without negatively affecting production? What are the concrete measures that were…
To Harvest Green Business, Feed Eco Incentives to the Decision Makers
Incentive-based pay isn’t new; it’s been around for centuries. Ship captains transporting prisoners from England to Australia were once rewarded, not…
Environmentally Harmful Subsidies: Behind the Scenes of a $400 Billion Waste
Ever since the 1980s, during the early years of the environmental movement, there has been a call to abolish harmful subsidies. Technologies and…
From a cup of coffee to a bowl made of coffee
Currently we are at the Hannover Messe, the world’s largest industrial trade show. We have a booth at the special exhibition called Materials Café,…
Last Chance for a Powerful Shift – On Quarrels About the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive
In July 2011, knowtheflow covered the possible failure to reach the EU’s energy efficiency target. Of all 20-20-20 goals, efficiency was the only one…
The OECD Turns Green – Why Saving the Planet Pays Off
Continued degradation and erosion of natural environmental capital is expected to 2050, with the risk of irreversible changes that could endanger two…
Avoiding the Relocation of Emissions – How to Face Carbon Leakage
In the course of the last 20 years, some of the more developed countries achieved a remarkable reduction of carbon emissions. However, taking a closer…
Why SMEs Should Foster, Not Fear the Corporate Carbon Footprint
Most firms are occupied with selling products and meeting payroll and feel they don’t have time or aren’t all that impassioned about “saving the…
“Everybody Should do Their Share” – The Long Road to Sustainability in Turkey
knowtheflow: Prof. Dr. Inci Gökmen, you offer a course named “Sustainable Living and Green Chemistry” at the Middle East Technical University in…
Post Growth Economy or Resource Efficiency Revolution – How Should We Face the Limits of Our Planet?
Economic growth is a means of producing wealth. No doubt about that. However, there are two central problems linked to this logic. First, the term…
What is an Environmental Product Declaration? And What is it Good For?
When talking about product labels that deal with the environment, it is often argued that there is an excessive variety of labels swamping consumers…
What is Carbon Footprinting and Why Does it Facilitate Effective Energy Management?
Costs to the environment, generated throughout your company’s production process, can be assessed in different ways, just as its financial costs can…
The Path to a Green Economy – Lessons From Germany
What green economy deals with is the idea of running our businesses in a sustainable way. All of them. All of us. Running a business in a sustainable…
What Conclusions Can We Draw From Tesco Dropping its Carbon Footprint Labeling?
A week ago, the Guardian published the news that the Tesco grocery store chain dropped its plan to put a carbon label on all of its products. I felt a…
Four Fit-For-Future Bachelor Programs in Europe
Remember the time when you struggled to find the right program of study? Or have you just finished high school recently and are now searching for a…
Why the Carbon Tax Makes Sense and How to Gain a Competitive Edge From it
Instead of hoping that your lobbyist negotiates another carbon tax exemption for your industry, you could be preparing your business for the…
Stayin’ Alive: Survival Strategies for 2012
If you read these lines, it is more than likely you are still alive. And if you read these lines, the date will be January 2012 or later. What do…
Brief theoretical guide to Sustainable Production
The Brundtland Report systematically defined the various factors related to society’s new paradigm known as “sustainable development”. From its…
Getting it Straight: Exact Carbon Emissions From One Bottle of Wine
I bet you know how much carbon dioxide your car emits per kilometer. Maybe you are also well informed about the carbon reduction goals of the country…

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