Embodied Emissions of Buildings – A Forgotten Factor in Green Building Certificates

The oft-repeated and rarely challenged view that energy solutions to address climate change are expensive and uneconomical has long thwarted public support for even the most sensible measures – despite the evidence that the damage caused by climate change is far more costly.  Those who oppose climate action point to th ...

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, which set out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and 231 unique indicators as a significant initiative towards global socioeconomic sustainability.  Governments commonly use construction as the principal means for the pol ...

The latest Global Carbon Budget 2024 report, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, shows that global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels will reach a record level in 2024.  Caused by fossil fuels from combustion engines of all kinds and agriculture, the global carbon budget increased by 0.8 percent compared t ...

Der jüngste Bericht „Global Carbon Budget 2024“, der in dem Fachjournal Earth System Science Data erschienen ist, zeigt, dass die weltweiten CO2-Emissionen aus fossilen Brennstoffen im 2024 ein Rekordniveau erreichen werden.  Verursacht durch fossile Brennstoffe aus Verbrennungsmotoren aller Art und der Landwirtschaft, ...

Greenwashing-Verurteilungen können zu hohen Geldstrafen für Banken führen.  Unter den üblichen Verdächtigen wird die Deutsche Bank-Tochter DWS des Greenwashings im Zusammenhang mit „grünen“ Investitionen beschuldigt, während den meisten Banken vorgeworfen werden kann, dass sie keine angemessene Due-Diligence-Prüfung du ...

Circular economy strategies can be achieved using such financial instruments as green bonds, green loans, sustainability-linked loans and circular leasing.  Sustainability-linked finance calls for innovative business models and financing that integrates circularity in discrete development projects and for general corpo ...

A circular community promotes an equitable transition to sustainability across the urban space through multiple city functions and departments in cross-sectoral collaboration with research institutions, local businesses, and community residents.  In a circular economy, existing materials that were once used in a produc ...

CO₂ emissions from burning wood to generate heat can be 150% higher per unit of energy produced than from natural gas and 30% higher than from coal.  Harvesting trees for heat releases carbon into the atmosphere that would otherwise have remained sequestered in the forest and forgoes increasing carbon capture as the tr ...

Nuclear energy is propagated by science, companies, and governments as a source of clean energy source, as opposed to CO₂-producing plants.  However, the effects nuclear energy has on the environment pose serious threats that cannot be ignored or greenwashed.  The principal environmental and safety concerns are CO₂ emi ...

Private finance is essential for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  To mobilize the finance and harness capital flows for sustainable development and investing, the investment community must make sense of the SDGs.  For this, a global benchmarking tool, SDG rating harmonization, a globally adopted taxon ...

Our current economic system can be considered a “linear economy”, built on a model of extracting raw materials from nature, turning them into products, and then discarding them as waste.  Currently, only 7.2% of used materials are cycled back into our economies after use.  This has a significant burden on the environme ...

We need to change the way we think about climate change in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and meet the targets set out in the Paris Agreement. Energy efficiency and switching to renewable energy is only half the story. It is vital, but would only address 55% of global emissions. To reach net-zero, we a ...

In response to global challenges regarding resource scarcity and environmental concerns, the circular economy (CE) has emerged as a transformative model focused on resource efficiency and waste reduction.  As the discourse intensifies, understanding the skill requirements of CE becomes imperative for effective policy-m ...

The fact of dangerous anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is now accepted by all but an insignificant number of climatologists worldwide, by every major national and international scientific society, and by every major nonpartisan humanitarian and economic organization.  This chapter in the book The Truth About Denial: ...

According to the recent IPCC report, "Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change", if urgent action is not taken immediately, humanity won't limit warming to 1.5°C – the threshold for more devastating fires, drought, storms, and other anthropogenic environmental disasters.  At their presently rising levels, howe ...