Author: Paul B

Green Matters spoke with tentree's CEO to learn more about the company's mission and business model.
UPDATED Jul. 9 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET
PUBLISHED Feb. 26 2019, 4:00 p.m. ET
Ever since TOMS popularized the one-for-one business model, many other companies have followed suit and built brands around donating their products to people in need. The apparel company tentree also took a page out of that book — except instead of producing more apparel and donating it, tentree plants 10 trees for every item purchased. Tentree uses natural, recycled, and mostly animal-free materials to make its clothing, and the brand has a goal of planting 1 billion trees by 2030. To learn more about the company and how it strives to be sustainable, Green Matters spoke with Derrick Emsley, CEO and co-founder of tentree.
“We believe that planting trees is one of the most important environmental missions today. It provides jobs, protects eco-systems and wildlife, sequesters carbon, and more,” Emsley tells Green Matters in an email. “By planting ten trees for every item sold, every single tentree product will have an impact that long outlasts the lifespan of a t-shirt.” So far, tentree has planted more than 25 million trees, meaning the company hopes to plant 975 million more trees in the future. 
“When we started the brand we didn’t feel like any of the current environmental missions really resonated with us so, instead, we decided to build one,” Emsley says. “Before tentree existed, my brother and I actually started a tree planting company that planted over 150,000 trees and sold carbon offsets,” Emsley adds, referring to he and Kalen Emsley’s first business, Greenfield Carbon Offsetters Inc. “In many ways, it was that experience that led Kalen and Dave to land on the tree planting mission,” he explains, referring to his brother Kalen Emsley and buddy David Luba, who came up with the idea for tentree while exploring nature in Hawaii in 2012.
Derrick Emsley
Since the Emsley brothers already had the knowledge of the mass tree-planting space, it was a no-brainer for David and Kalen to bring Derrick Emsley onto tentree. “During our time planting trees, I saw the impact it had on the environment and was able to connect with people across the globe that were using tree planting to support under-privileged communities,” Emsley tells Green Matters, adding that since closing the carbon-offset business, he had been itching to work in the environmental world again.
To get customers invested in the whole tree-planting thing, tentree has made the process interactive. (No, you won’t actually have to go out into the field.) Each item comes with a tree code which you can enter on tentree’s website. You’ll then be prompted to choose where you want your trees planted: Madagascar, Senegal, Haiti, Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia, the U.S., or Canada. You can learn more about tentree’s tree planters on its dedicated @treeplanters Instagram page.
And speaking of Instagram — tentree is well-known on the social media platform, with more than 2.3 million followers. The company has curated a clear image for itself over the past few years, consistently showing young and beautiful models exploring nature in tentree gear.
Planting trees is not the only way tentree shows its dedication to the environment. As explained on the company’s website, tentree makes its apparel from a variety of sustainable materials. Instead of using plastic or leather for fixtures, tentree uses coconut shells for buttons and cork for patches, trims, zipper pulls, and more. Additionally, some of the company’s clothes are dyed with natural, plant-based dyes.
Tentree’s clothing is made from natural materials including hemp, organic cotton, TENCEL lyocell, modal, and linen. A few items also include recycled polyester (plastic), as well as wool and recycled wool (the only non-vegan fabric the company still uses, since they phased out leather in 2018). Some people consider wool an eco-friendly fabric since it is natural and biodegradable; however, the process is often painful and cruel to sheep, as shearers are typically paid for how much wool they shear, leading to a lack of concern for the animals, according to Woodstock Farm Sanctuary. Not to mention, breeding sheep for wool also has a negative environmental impact, because the process contributes to land degradation, water pollution, and more, as per PETA.
“We don’t want to contribute to the waste that has been created from fast-fashion manufacturing,” Emsley writes to Green Matters. “We look to be a part of the solution and a big portion of that comes from creating product that will last.” 
Many conscious shoppers have distanced themselves from fast fashion, instead opting to buy clothes from sustainable brands or in secondhand stores. While shopping from fast fashion retailers (such as Zara, H&M, and Forever 21) may seem like a good deal in the moment, the environmental and ethical repercussions make those $12 jeans seem like a pretty bad deal. To learn more, the 2015 documentary The True Cost details the unsustainable and dangerous business model of the fashion industry today. Tentree’s products are manufactured overseas in factories, and the website has a page dedicated to its “ethical manufacturing” practices. Emsley adds that tentree is working to improve things like “fabric wastage, recycling programs, solar energy and more” in the company’s factories.
Tentree may not be perfect — but when comparing the company’s efforts to the numerous fast fashion brands that are destroying the planet, tentree is clearly a more sustainable choice overall. As tentree continues to grow, it will be interesting to see what other apparel brands start putting values ahead of profit.
If anything, Emsley wants customers to understand that tentree’s environmental mission is at the heart of the business, and not an afterthought. “What most people don’t realize about tentree is that we are tree planters first,” Emsley explains to Green Matters. “We didn’t originally found tentree because we wanted to create a clothing brand. We founded tentree because we wanted to create a positive impact on the world and we believe that tree planting is one of the best ways to do that.”  
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We are on the forefront of research that characterizes how environmental exposures—industrialization, unplanned urbanization, effects of climate change and microbial and chemical contamination of water, air and food—affect human populations, particularly the most vulnerable members of society, such as young children, pregnant women, workers, and those lacking resources and power.
Our faculty and students develop and apply cutting-edge methods, build research collaborations with global and domestic partners, and lead major research centers and projects around the world. Through our programs of study, faculty educate, challenge and inspire tomorrow’s leaders in environmental health.
The field of Environmental Health Sciences encompasses many topical and technical areas, and is fundamentally interdisciplinary in nature. The Division of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) at the University of California, Berkeley, draws on the expertise of our world-class EHS faculty, as well as that of faculty across the Berkeley campus, together with which we have achieved exceptional distinction in multiple areas of environmental health. The Berkeley Compendium of EHS Expertise provides current and prospective students an overview of our areas of distinction, our faculty and their expertise, related coursework at Berkeley Public Health and across the UC Berkeley campus, and recent Masters-level student culminating work within each area.
Microbial and chemical contamination of water and air, unplanned urbanization, industrialization, climate change, and other sources of environmental exposure affect human populations everyday. Through cutting-edge methods and multinational research collaborations, we prepare tomorrow’s leaders in environmental health to assess the impacts of environmental exposure and advance the means for their control.
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2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre Review: Eco-Conscious Excess Never Felt So Good  Cars.com
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TotalEnergies has placed sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its strategy, projects and operations, in order to contribute to the well-being of the populations.
TotalEnergies has structured its sustainable development approach for conducting its activities so as to contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to which TotalEnergies committed its support in 2016.
TotalEnergies actively works on each of its sustainability pillars in order to make its development a vehicle of progress that benefits as many people as possible and to be a factor of positive change for the societies and regions where it is present.
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(1) Measuring Stakeholder Capitalism: Towards Common Metrics and Consistent Reporting of Sustainable Value Creation, white paper, September 2020.
TotalEnergies has been present since 2001 in the FTSE4Good index series (London Stock Exchange) and was reintegrated into the DJSI World and DJSI Europe indices in December 2022.
In 2022, TotalEnergies obtained a score of A- on the CDP questionnaire on climate change.
In 2022, TotalEnergies obtained Platinum status for its commercial entities listed on the EcoVadis platform for TotalEnergies Electricité et Gaz France and Greenflex, the Gold status for TotalEnergies Marketing & Service, TotalEnergies Gas & Power Limited and Saft Groupe and the Silver status for TotalEnergies Refining & Chemicals.
 

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March 29, 2024
This article has been reviewed according to Science X’s editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content’s credibility:
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by DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)
DGIST’s Physics and Chemistry Professor Park Jin-hee and her research team have developed a technology that allows easy detection of hazardous chemicals. Allowing one to detect harmful substances by analyzing color changes using a mobile phone camera, the technology is expected to be utilized for various purposes, such as the detection of environmental pollution and prevention of gas leakage.
“Volatile organic compounds” are harmful chemicals that are widely present in the environment. They enter the environment through factory gases, indoor air, and other sources and cause pollution and sometimes even illnesses. Therefore, it is vital to detect them quickly. Traditional detection methods are either expensive or can detect only a limited number of chemicals.
To solve this problem, Prof. Jin-hee Park and her team have developed a sensor that uses a material called “metal-organic framework” to induce color changes. The sensor has been created using six different solvents, which can distinguish between 14 volatile organic compounds and water. To enable the observation of color changes with the naked eye, the team has developed large-area films that can be easily produced at a low cost.
By analyzing color changes using a mobile phone, it is possible to detect, qualitatively and quantitatively, low concentrations of harmful compounds that are difficult to detect with the human nose. The sensors may be used for various purposes, such as environmental pollution detection and gas leakage prevention, as they perform well even in high-humidity environments.
“The sensors we have developed have great commercial potential because they are operable without power and implementable at low costs,” said Prof. Lee. “With these sensors, we look forward to securing source technologies to develop sensors for various purposes, such as environmental pollution detection, terrorism prevention, and safety accident prevention.”
The research is published in the journal Advanced Materials.
More information: Kangwoo Jin et al, Comprehensive Qualitative and Quantitative Colorimetric Sensing of Volatile Organic Compounds Using Monolayered Metal–Organic Framework Films, Advanced Materials (2023). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202309570

Journal information: Advanced Materials
Provided by DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)
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PUBLISHED Apr. 6 2022, 12:18 p.m. ET
If you strive to live a zero-waste, sustainable, or vegan lifestyle, there’s no need to ignore those values when it comes to buying sports gear. It’s true that a lot of athletic equipment is made from unsustainable materials, but there are a number of brands making animal-free and eco-friendly sports equipment, from balls to boxing gloves.
Keep reading for a look into just a few sustainable sporting brands changing the game!
Sporting goods company Eco Sports was founded in 2021 with a goal of making sustainable, vegan, and high-quality sporting equipment that is otherwise made from leather. Currently, the company produces basketballs, footballs, soccer balls, volleyballs, and baseball gloves (prices start at around $24.99), which are all composed of a biodegradable, recyclable, and vegan material called TPU.
Eco Sports believes that its TPU products are just as durable as leather-based professional balls and gloves, as well as far more durable than other, cheaper, leather-free equipment on the market. The company also packages its products plastic-free, and donates 10 percent of profits toward planting trees. According to Eco Sports, 35,000 cows’ hides are used to make NFL footballs every year — so opting for cruelty-free balls can make a big difference.
Sporting goods company Waboba has a line called the REWILD Eco-Friendly Series, which includes footballs, soccer balls and volleyballs, all made from natural jute and rubber. The collection also features a set of two paddles that are made with a blend of pinewood and basswood, which come with oak cork balls. The REWILD products range from $14.99 to $19.99.
Waboba also uses completely plastic-free shipping materials across its entire product line, which includes fun and unique products like Moon Balls, Wingman Discs, and Water Gloves.
Sanabul is a completely vegan company that specializes in vegan boxing and jiu-jitsu gloves and other accessories. Though boxing gloves are typically made from animal-based leather (a notoriously pollutive industry), Sanabul has perfected the recipe for professional-level vegan boxing gloves.
The company makes most gloves using Performance Engineered Synthetic Leather, but also offers a few styles made from two different kinds of sustainable, partially biodegradable plant-based leather: cactus leather and grape leather.
A post shared by Biodegradable Golf Balls (@biodegradablegolfballs)
When golf balls wind up anywhere other than a hole, they run the risk of becoming litter, as they are typically made from plastic surrounding a rubber core. Fortunately, a number of companies are making golf balls out of biodegradable materials like corn starch and wood. There’s even one company that has fish food in the center of its wooden golf balls, in case the ball winds up in a pond. Check out our guide to biodegradable golf balls here.
If you are struggling to find eco-friendly or vegan versions of the sports equipment you need, consider shopping for the gear secondhand. There are a number of stores and websites that sell used sports gear, such as Play It Again Sports or SidelineSwap. This is an eco-friendly option, it allows you to avoid directly purchasing unsustainable or animal-based gear, and it can save you money.
Renting sports equipment is another fantastic option, especially for items you just need for one trip, or for items that a child will quickly outgrow. Many local sports stores offer rental programs, so make sure to check with yours. We’re also fans of REI’s gear rental program, which offers gear rentals for a number of outdoor sports, such as skiing and rock climbing, at many stores across the country.
Green Matters’ new book, Green Living, is the perfect guide to living an eco-friendly lifestyle for people at every stage of the process. You can order Green Living here.
Biodegradable Golf Balls for a Low-Impact Hole-In-One
The Ultimate Guide to Recycling and Reselling Sports Equipment
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This example has a greater focus on comfort but is still powered by a race-derived 2.0-liter four-cylinder
Cyan Racing has just unveiled the latest Volvo P1800 Cyan, its wild $700,000 recreation of the classic Swedish sports car and this one is a little bit special. This P1800 is finished in a beautiful shade of metallic green and is a new GT version of the car that’s slightly more comfortable and road-focused than the original unveiled a few years ago.
The company says that one of the biggest changes comes with the suspension. While the GT model still has fully-adjustable suspension, it has been tuned for “winding country roads” and long distance driving. In addition, Cyan Racing has fettled with the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine to improve driveability.
The green car is one of the first GT versions of the P1800 and is heading to a client in the U.S. Contrasting the metallic green paint is a chrome front grille and chrome accents on the front bumper and around the headlights. The chrome continues onto the wing mirrors, door handles, window surrounds, and the rear fascia. Beautifully complimenting the green paint are a set of stunning gold-painted wheels sitting over brake calipers with a bronze finish.
Watch: Jay Leno Is Bound To Love The Volvo P1800 Cyan, Right?
Found inside the cabin is sand-colored leather and fabrics, a three-spoke Momo Prototipo steering wheel, and a titanium roll cage wrapped in plush leather.
“The new version highlights the versatility and almost endless tailoring options of the Volvo P1800 Cyan, adding another dimension to our interpretation of the original model,” Cyan chief executive Christian Dahl said. “The joint journey of tailoring a car from start to finish with a client is a thoroughly rewarding process for the entire team, just as it is to see two further cars being shipped to the US.”
The 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder of the P1800 Cyan is based on the unit found in the Volvo S60 TC1 race car and in flagship guise, pumps out 413 hp and 335 lb-ft (455 Nm). Cyan allows buyers to choose how much power they want, starting from 350 hp. All examples are rear-wheel drive and use a dog-leg five-speed manual transmission.
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The agency says the move will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced its new emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles on Friday, which the agency claims will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
The move comes in an election year when the Biden-Harris campaign is working to demonstrate achievements in their climate agenda.
The new standards impact vehicles such as freight trucks and buses manufactured for model years 2027-2032. This follows last week's announcement of updated standards for light and medium-duty vehicles.

"In finalizing these emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, EPA is significantly cutting pollution from the hardest working vehicles on the road," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release. "Building on our recently finalized rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles, EPA's strong and durable vehicle standards respond to the urgency of the climate crisis by making deep cuts in emissions from the transportation sector."
The new performance-based standards reduce the allowed emissions across manufacturer fleets, but are technology-neutral, according to the EPA. This means manufacturers can utilize different combinations of emissions control technologies in order to meet the emissions requirements, including advanced internal combustion engines, hybrids, battery electric vehicles and others.
Over the period covered by the new standards, model years 2027-2032, the required emissions reductions will gradually increase each year.
The administration noted in its announcement of the new rules that heavy-duty vehicles are "vital to the United States economy," but said that they do create about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.
"The 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided by these standards is equivalent to the emissions from more than 13 million tanker trucks' worth of gasoline," the EPA said in the release. "With this action, the Biden-Harris Administration is continuing to deliver on the most ambitious climate agenda in history while advancing a historic commitment to environmental justice."
American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer celebrated the announcement in a statement on Friday.
"Transportation is the largest source of pollution driving climate change. These strong standards that will help drive toward a zero-emission future for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are a critical part of the solution The American Lung Association celebrates this new rule, which will improve the health of people across the U.S.," Wimmer wrote.
The administration estimates the new standards will also provide $13 billion in net societal benefits via savings related to public health, the climate and for truck owners and operators.
"EPA's clean truck standards will cut one billion metric tons of climate pollution by 2055. They'll also reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxides by 53,000 tons in 2055," the Environmental Defense Fund noted. "And they'll save our country money — $3.5 billion in average annual savings for fleets, $300 million in average annual health benefits and $13 billion in total annual societal benefits."

The Heavy-Duty Leadership Group, a self-described "informal alliance of the nation's leading heavy-duty manufacturers and supply companies," responded to the new standards Friday, emphasizing their own commitment to reducing emissions from their products. The companies also credited the EPA's prior rules for "accelerating the industry's adoption of advanced technologies while minimizing market disruption."
Cynthia Williams, Ford Motor Company's global director of sustainability, homologation and compliance, said the EPA's new rule is "challenging," but that "Ford is working aggressively to meet the moment."
"Our industry is making important progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both light- and heavy-duty vehicles," Williams said in a statement. "We also need policymakers to pair emission standards with incentives and public investment so that we can continue to deliver on the next generation of vehicles and for our nation to lead the future of this industry."
But some in the trucking world are expressing more opposition to the announcement.
The American Trucking Association released a statement Friday saying the standards set "unachievable targets" that will create consequences across the U.S. supply chain and economy.
"ATA opposes this rule in its current form because the post-2030 targets remain entirely unachievable given the current state of zero-emission technology, the lack of charging infrastructure and restrictions on the power grid," ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said. "Given the wide range of operations required of our industry to keep the economy running, a successful emission regulation must be technology neutral and cannot be one-size-fits-all. Any regulation that fails to account for the operational realities of trucking will set the industry and America's supply chain up for failure."
The ATA objects to restrictions in the later years covered by this new set of standards, saying, "forced zero-emission vehicle penetration rates in the later years will drive only battery-electric and hydrogen investment, limiting fleets' choices with early-stage technology that is still unproven."
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Watch CBS News
By Li Cohen
March 27, 2024 / 11:43 AM EDT / CBS News
Your favorite wines may soon cease to exist. Some of the world’s traditional wine regions, from Europe to Southern California, are at risk of almost completely disappearing within decades, researchers found, as the conditions necessary to produce their grapes grow more unfruitful due to climate change. 
As humans continue to burn fossil fuels, the planet is getting warmer. And those increasing temperatures — which impact everything from the water cycle to locations where people can safely live — are fueling more extreme weather. In a new literature review published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment on Tuesday, scientists found that climate change’s impact in the coastal and lowland regions of Spain, Italy, Greece and Southern California — all home to some of the world’s most traditional wine producers — is significant. 
By the end of the century — just 76 years — they found roughly 90% of these specific regions “could be at risk of disappearing.” Specifically, they found that excessive drought and more frequent heat waves fueled by climate change are responsible for the threat. An area’s temperature, precipitation, humidity, radiation and carbon dioxide levels are also vital components of wine production, and are all altered by climate change. 
Overall, the study says, “We estimate a substantial risk of unsuitability (ranging from moderate to high) for 49-70% of existing wine regions, contingent on the degree of global warming.”
Southern California, for example, has a moderate risk of being unsuitable for producing wine with 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, compared to pre-industrial levels. if average temperatures rise between 2 and 4 degrees, however, the region faces a “high risk of unsuitability.” This could pose a major problem for the U.S. West Coast, which produces most of the wine in North America and 10% of the global supply. 
“Overall, the net suitable ara for wine production in California could decline by up to 50% by the end of the 21st century,” researchers said. “Similar risks exist for Mexico, the southwestern United States and those regions of the east coast south of New Jersey.” 
That shift is seen across much of southern Europe as well. 
But all hope isn’t lost for wine itself. The rising temperatures may make other regions more suitable for growing the grapes, such as Washington State, Oregon, Tasmania and Northern France. That suitability, however, will “strongly” depend on how much temperatures rise, the researchers say, and there may be risks to environmental preservation. And even though it could bring a new form of economic growth to those areas, people will still be facing extreme weather and its costly impacts. 
A changing climate also brings the risk of areas experiencing new pathogens and insects that can impact agriculture and overall environmental and human health. Drier conditions would make some grapevine issues, like downy mildew, less likely, but when it does happen, the outbreak would likely occur earlier and spread faster, the study found.
As with all elements of climate change, adaptation is “mandatory,” researchers said. Wine producers will need to consider grape varieties that are better suited for their changing regions and harvest times. It’s not just essential for global supply, but for overall wine quality. 
For example, climate factors affect the levels of pH, alcohol content and acidity, researchers found. While the alcohol and pH levels are increasing in wines, the acidity levels are decreasing, which makes the microbiology within the beverage more unstable. That can lead to “increased risk of microbiological spoilage,” researchers said, and lead to an “overripe and/or cooked fruit aroma.” 
Scientists have warned that current global efforts to slow global warming are not enough. Last year was the warmest on record, and the beginning of 2024 has already seen record-breaking heat as well as weather extremes ranging from unusually large blizzards to out-of-season warmth. 
Already, global temperatures are 1.35 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average overall. And the world just recently surpassed for the first time 12 consecutive months where the global average was 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average — a fact that doesn’t mean we’ve permanently crossed the critical 2-degree Celsius threshold that experts warn could have disastrous implications, but means we are well on the way there. 
“One thing is certain,” researchers say in the end of their analysis, “climate change will drive major changes in global wine production in the near future. Having the flexibility to adapt to these changes will be essential.” 
Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.
First published on March 27, 2024 / 11:43 AM EDT
© 2024 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Natural resources-environmental sustainability-socio-economic drivers nexus: Insights from panel quantile regression …  ScienceDirect.com
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