It was the banana that did it. Brian O’Kelley, who had recently sold his previous startup, ad platform AppNexus, to AT&T for a reported $ 1.6 billion, was watching a lecture through MIT during COVID as part of a yearlong course on supply chain management. “There was this one slide in a lecture about the […]
Direct ocean capture may be the next frontier for carbon removal
For the past few years, direct air capture has been seen as a potential silver bullet to the climate crisis. But now a startup originally from the snowy wastes of Iceland is taking a new approach: removing carbon from seawater. The industry standard for removing carbon with direct air capture methods costs anywhere between $ […]
Phlair’s carbon sucking technology could lower direct air capture’s costs
When it comes to climate change, there’s no such thing as a “get out of jail free” card. But there might be an inexpensive alternative: direct air capture. The technology isn’t exactly an exoneration, but more like community service; it promises to suck massive amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, atoning for our […]
Tech’s emissions may be way higher than disclosed due to ‘creative accounting’ of carbon
Accounting for the emissions of a global tech empire is not a simple task, and what industry standards we do have for disclosure may allow tech companies to systematically understate their carbon footprint. A Guardian report compares official declarations of carbon emissions, including what amount to offsets purchased elsewhere, with “location-based” emissions, another standard metric […]
Electricity Maps calculates the carbon intensity of electricity consumption to optimize usage at scale
If you’re an electricity nerd, chances are you’ve already spent quite a few hours looking at Electricity Maps and its mesmerizing export flow animations. This open-source data visualization project has been around since 2016. But companies like Google and Samsung are increasingly relying on this rich data set to hit their sustainability goals and empower […]