Sustainability Outlook Headlines

India's Renewable Energy Efforts Poised for Resurgence

 National elections are underway and dominating headlines and conversations across India. In parallel, the timely release of the second new consensus report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) documenting the impacts of climate change, has confirmed again the current and growing risks to the economy, human health and food supply of India’s communities. This latest warning of the growing impacts of climate-fueled disasters should refocus attention on the country’s efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

After a bumpy year, India’s renewable... Read more..

Energy storage: The key to a smarter power grid

Energy grids across the world are struggling to cope with a surge in demand for electricity and increasingly volatile supply from renewable power sources.

Take the UK, where the government is committed to stringent carbon dioxide reduction targets. These can only be met by massively increasing electricity use - which currently accounts for about a third of all energy consumption - at the expense of oil and gas.

Peak demand on the UK grid is currently 60GW, but by 2050, the government estimates... Read more..

Eight years on, civic agencies still struggling to streamline waste management

 Almost eight years after the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) outsourced waste management, the civic agencies are still struggling to streamline the system. From installing GPS in trucks carrying waste to uploading pictures of dhalaos online, they have tried everything but without any results. 

Poor monitoring, lack of infrastructure, accountability and awareness, and multiplicity of authorities are prime reasons for the failure of all the schemes introduced by the civic bodies ever since waste management was privatized in 2005. Private concessionaires claim they didn... Read more..

Drones Are Becoming Energy’s New Roustabouts

 THE egg white drone lifted off from its ground station at a hospital construction site here, hovered for an instant, then zoomed off, sounding like a five-pound bee as it buzzed around the cranes towering over the six-acre project.

Capable of carrying a high-resolution camera and other sensors, the quadcopter, a helicopter with four rotors that resembles a spaceship from a 1950s science fiction movie, was flying in a demonstration of its ability to serve a potentially lucrative new market for drones: the energy industry.

BIG RIG  A Petróleos Mexicanos complex in the... Read more..

China carbon cash party over as U.N. Credit Stream dries up

 BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) - Revenues for China's biggest sellers of U.N.-issued carbon credits shrunk last year to a tenth of 2012 values, choking off billions of dollars flowing to clean energy projects in the world's top carbon-emitter.

China will now have less money to put into a stepped-up campaign to cut greenhouse gas emissions, clean its air and raise the share of fossil-free energy in its total mix to 15 percent by the end of the decade, from a current 8 percent.

The U.N.'s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is part of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international... Read more..

Ministry of Water Resources Recruiting for Senior Positions: Chairman and Vice Chairman

 Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India has invited applications for the recruitment to the posts of Chairman, Vice Chairman and Financial Advisor. Last date for application is June 3, 2014.

Vacancies

Chairman: 1 post

Eligibility: Age of the candidate should be below 58 years. The candidate should have a Degree in Civil Engineering from a recognized University or equivalent with 10 years experience in the field of Investigation, planning, design, execution, Operation and Maintenance of Water Resources Development Projects.

Vice... Read more..

This Innovative Structure Could Provide Drinking Water Even In A Desert

 The tower in the image above might look like art, but the strange 30-foot gourd shape is an incredibly practical device that can pull water out of the air - up to 25 gallons a day.

The tower, called the Warka Water, works even in the desert and costs less than $700 for materials.

The beauty of the structure is its low-tech simplicity.

The Warka Water, a product from Architecture and Vision, is biodegradable and can be set up without mechanical tools in less than a week. The primary ingredients are bamboo - which can be bought or harvested where local conditions allow... Read more..

Mailhem Ikos Environment to Tap Waste for Energy in India

Mailhem Engineers, a leading Indian waste management and renewable energy company, and Lhotellier Ikos, a French-based 200 m € group specialising in infrastructure and renewable energy as well as in water management and treatment, announced the joint venture to provide waste to energy solutions for India - Mailhem Ikos Environment Private Limited.  With the growing concerns of energy and waste management in India, Mailhem Ikos will be able to provide centralized solutions for waste management. Furthermore, the solutions will enable close to 85% of the waste to be... Read more..

NDMC plans small-scale waste-to-energy plants

As part of its green initiative, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) plans to set up small-scale waste-to-plants in its localities. The first plant will be set up near Safdarjung Hospital. Officials say the civic agency will soon float tenders for the project.

At present, waste generated in NDMC areas-close to 250 metric tones daily- is sent to the waste-to-plant in Okhla. Officials say due to high transportation cost and technical problems, often, the entire waste is not transported to the landfill site. These small-scale waste-to-plants will bring down the transportation cost and... Read more..

4.5L child workers in e-waste industry: Assocham report

 A study by an industry body has found that there are about 4.5 lakh child workers in the 10-14 age group engaged in e-waste (electronic waste) activities, without adequate protection and safeguards in various yards and recycling workshops.

The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (Assocham), in its study released on Monday, said a meagre four per cent of India's total e-waste gets recycled due to poor infrastructure, legislation and framework which lead to a waste of diminishing natural resources, irreparable damage of environment and health of the people working in... Read more..

Japanese Giant Mitsui Leads $60M Investment In A Startup That Turns Pollution Into Pure Money

 As places like China and India continue to grow, an ever-increasing number of billowing smoke stacks mark these countries’ landscapes. 7 million people died in 2012 from air pollution. LanzaTech wants to clean up those industries by turning all that pollution into extremely valuable fuels and chemicals.

And LanzaTech has just raised $60 million Series D round with Mitsui, one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Japan, in the lead at $20 million to help build the company further. Other new investors in this round include the venture capital arm of Siemens'  and the private... Read more..

New generation eco-friendly ACs at CII expo

‘Follow-Me’ air conditioners, an interactive range of ACs, a wide range of all-weather, energy-efficient deep freezers, refrigerators and other cooling systems to beat the heat were on display at the ongoing CII Coolex-2014 Expo at Himachal Bhawan on Sunday.

Visitors from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, including residents, hoteliers, industrialists and factory owners, visited the expo that will end on Monday.

Air-conditioners based on green and eco-friendly technologies were also on display... Read more..