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Most shoes have about seven parts, but add other elements for design appeal and function, and those parts can add up to a few dozen. Hence one problem fashion brands struggle with as they try to roll out more sustainable shoes: Between an entangled supply chain and dodgy materials that have long been a part of shoe design, responsible manufacturing is a challenge. Of course, there are the materials themselves, many of which are plastic.

Some brands are cracking that nut, however, and are rolling out responsible and sustainable shoes that both look great and have less of an impact on the environment.

Adidas: Kermit the Frog hooks up with Stan Smith

The minimalist Stan Smith has been around for half a century and was a fixture in many a teen’s wardrobe during the 1980s. These classic tennis shoes are still able to stay relevant. For one of the shoe’s latest editions, Adidas introduced a Kermit the Frog line — perfect for the tween or the adulting type who seeks a podiatric nod to the sustainability movement. The best thing about these Stan Smiths? The uppers are made from a material that includes 50 percent recycled content. Like Kermit said while dodging Miss Piggy, it’s not easy being green, but these are a start.

Aloha, Converse

To paraphrase Dame Edna, “If it looks good in Hawaiʻi, it stays in Hawaiʻi.” Some may disagree how kawaii the islands’ trademark shirts (the truth is many are stellar and are more chic rather than screaming a mainlander going full muumuu), it’s a safe assumption to think thousands, if not millions, are hanging and hidden in many a closet.

Converse says it has a solution. According to an emailed announcement the company sent around last month, its designers nabbed about 7,000 shirts and are churning them into a limited-edition version of the iconic Chuck 70s. If the company’s plans go without interruption, the shoes will be available starting today.

In addition, Converse says it will also release sneakers made in part from those pesky Tyvek mailers, as well as hi-tops dyed with more sustainable materials; another product line with an upper that is made from 85 percent recycled materials is also in the works.

Sustainble shoes leader Allbirds sees the forest from the trees

Depending on one’s point of view, the eucalyptus tree, which originally hails from Australia, provides spectacular scenery and its scent evokes an indulgent spa day. To others (especially in California), it’s more of a giant weed that is a fire hazard, or during heavy rains inspires too many love letters to home insurers for whom their properties may unfortunately may have been plunked in these trees' gargantuan path.

Allbirds has found a use for the mercurial eucalyptus: It’s the base of what the company says makes for a smart pair of sustainable shoes. Rather than using cotton, the shoes’ uppers are made from eucalyptus fiber, which makes for an airy, breathable, easy-to-care-for pair of shoes that are yes, a more responsible option.

Clarks goes back to its origins

It’s highly improbable Clarks inspired the Proclaimers’ song “I Would Walk 500 Miles” — after all, the tune was featured in the 1993 movie Benny and Joon — but serious walkers have long been very serious, if not ebullient, about Clarks. TriplePundit tried out a pair of the new Origin sneakers, and in addition to the fact they pair well with seersucker shorts, they are amazingly lightweight. The outsole is made from 51 percent recycled content, and here’s what really makes the Origin a winning pair of sustainable shoes: They are made out of only five parts including the laces, and no glue is used in their construction.

Will they last as long as 3p’s other pair of Clarks, which were scored during a 2008 biz trip to D.C.? Check in with us in 2034 — the older pair is proving to be fairly indestructible. If durability defines sustainable shoes, then the more ancient pair has already passed the test.

Vans: Black Lives Matter

The social side of sustainability is just as important as the environmental side — perhaps even more, as it is clear many marginalized communities have been overlooked by the sustainability movement. We’ve profiled this line of shoes from Vans and have no hesitation about showcasing them again. As part of these shoes' backstories, one of the series' featured artists, Chris Martins, discussed the impact of racism on the Black experience in America.

“My Blackness is completely inseparable from all aspects of my life. The ideology and bigotry of American history shaped the consciousness of all souls inhabiting Black bodies. Through my work I’m able to hold a mirror to this dark experience and share perspective, inform, and gain the attention of anyone willing to take part in the uneasy American truth,” Martins wrote earlier this year.

Cover image credits: Leon Kaye

The drive for global decarbonization is bringing new industries into new areas, where they can conflict with reforestation goals and other habitat conservation efforts. These points of conflict are also calling more attention to the role of human encroachment in sparking viral outbreaks that can lead to pandemics. Energy companies and other stakeholders that claim to be part of the climate solution need to educate themselves on land conservation in order to help prevent the next pandemic, and they should be learning from the lessons of Indigenous people.

Decarbonization and deforestation

There is no question that the global economy must decarbonize, and quickly. However, fossil energy has already done a vast amount of damage. That makes it difficult to build significant new infrastructure without causing fresh harm.

Some solutions are already at hand. For example, forests don’t need to be razed for new solar arrays. Smaller arrays of solar panels are already commonplace on rooftops, parking lots, and other pre-built infrastructure. Utility-scale fields of solar panels can be located on brownfield sites, abandoned mines and other industrial sites. Co-locating solar panels on working farmland is also emerging as a solution. In addition, the falling cost of energy storage adds new opportunities to expand the use of all these solutions.

The issue is somewhat more complicated for biofuel. Although the use of corn and other food crops for has fallen out of favor, second-generation biofuel crops can pose a deforestation threat.

Fortunately, a third generation of biofuel crops is on the horizon. Growing algae on pre-developed sites is one emerging option. Researchers are also looking into shifting biofuel farming out to sea, in the form of seaweed. However, these solutions will take years to scale up, if ever, and time is running short.

A problematic picture also emerges for renewable or green hydrogen. The main pathway for producing green hydrogen is electrolysis, in which electricity is deployed to split hydrogen gas from water. Depending on the availability of renewable energy and water, electrolysis facilities can be located practically anywhere in the world. That leaves the door open to another deforestation threat.

Fortunately, there are numerous opportunities to build green hydrogen hubs on pre-developed sites. To cite one example, the world’s largest electrolysis facility to date is under construction at an existing commercial site at the Port of Pecém, in northeastern Brazil.

Deforestation and pandemics

With so many solutions at hand, there is all the more reason for renewable energy stakeholders to make habitat and forest conservation their top priority, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As reported by an expert panel convened by the international Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), pandemics are becoming ever more frequent due to climate change and habitat loss. Rather than responding to outbreaks after they occur, the global community must focus more attention on pandemic prevention through habitat conservation.

“The underlying causes of pandemics are the same global environmental changes that drive biodiversity loss and climate change,” IBPES explains. “These include land-use change, agricultural expansion and intensification, and wildlife trade and consumption."

“Escape from the Pandemic Era requires policy options that foster transformative change towards preventing pandemics,” IBPES concludes.

The rise of the Indigenous voice

The IPBES panel advocates for the “One Health” model of land use planning, which links human, animal and environmental well-being. One Health is a global, collaborative and multidisciplinary effort. In the U.S. it is spearheaded by the Centers for Disease Control.

That is a good start, but the voice of Indigenous people appears to be missing. The CDC describes One Health as a network of health and science professionals collaborating with “law enforcement, policymakers, agriculture, communities, and even pet owners.” 

The failure to highlight the Indigenous voice stands in contrast to action elsewhere in the Americas. In particular, Costa Rica has become a model for Indigenous empowerment in government. The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging the resiliency of Costa Rica’s Indigenous population like never before, sparking calls for more government help. However, Levi Sucre Romero, coordinator of the Alianza Mesoamericana de Pueblos y Bosques, points out that the relationship is reciprocal.

“In Costa Rica, we Bribri [an Indigenous people living within the country] not only produce world-class cocoa, we have knowledge and a way of life that keeps our forests standing and our environment in ecological harmony,” he wrote last May, when the pandemic was new.

Romero was also the subject of a BBC profile last May, in which he explained how his warnings on deforestation could apply to new energy infrastructure, biofuel farming and any other form of encroachment.

“We’re unbalancing the habitat of species, we’re cutting down trees, we’re planting monocultures, we’re filling the world with cities and asphalt and we’re using too many chemicals,” he said. “It’s a cocktail of bad practices.”

“My people have cultural knowledge that says when Sibö, our God, created Earth, he locked up some bad spirits,” he added. “These spirits come out when we’re not respecting nature and living together.”

Learning, listening, and prioritizing conservation

There are some signs that the U.S. is beginning to pay attention, as climate change is already disrupting Indigenous communities in Alaska and elsewhere in the polar North.

One indication of positive change is the participation of Columbia University’s Earth Institute in a U.S. Climate Action Week event organized by the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, a coalition that covers 35 million forest peoples in 18 countries, focused on the Amazon Basin, Brazil, Indonesia and Mesoamerica.

Concurrently, this week Columbia announced its leadership roster for the new Columbia Climate School, the first school of its kind in the U.S. and the first new school for the university in 25 years. Alex Halliday, Director of the Earth Institute, will take on the role of Founding Dean while continuing at the Earth Institute.

It remains to be seen to what extent the Climate School itself places Indigenous voices at the top of the conversation. Meanwhile, another positive step occurred earlier this year, when former U.S. Representative Deb Haaland became the first Native American in U.S. history to join the presidential cabinet, as Secretary of the Interior.

A member of the Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican, Secretary Haaland formerly served on the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors, where she advocated for environmentally responsible business practices. She also advocated for environmental justice and climate action while in Congress.

With new leadership at the Interior Department and new networking resources like the Columbia Climate School, energy stakeholders have many new opportunities to engage with Indigenous communities on forest and habitat conservation — and they have no excuse for failing to do so.

Image credit: Frank Ravizza/Pixabay

Any journalist who covers anything related to the environment will tell you how they feel about Earth Day in three words. It’s similar to how many single people feel about the messaging surrounding Valentine’s Day:

“Make it stop!”

While the sentiment and history behind Earth Day is legit, it has been unfortunately hijacked by organizations touting their “green” work, which largely serves as a ploy to sweep their behavior the other 364 days of the year under the rug.

One problem with how we commemorate Earth Day is that we largely overlook the poorer communities that could benefit the most from a greater focus on the environment.

Take St. James Parish, a Louisiana community on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, as an example. St. James Parish is small in size and population — 86 square miles and just over 20,000 people call it home. But many of residents feel overwhelmed by the specter of a $9.4 billion petrochemical plant that a Taiwan-based conglomerate is seeking to build. The company says the project will create 8,000 temporary construction jobs and 1,200 permanent jobs paying upper-middle income wages.

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Opponents of the plant, often called the “Sunshine Project,” say it will just pile more environmental problems on this section of the Mississippi River that has long been called “Cancer Alley.” The region has attracted many new petrochemical plants over the past few decades, and critics of the industry say an increase in illnesses including cancer has been among the results. Even one trade publication acknowledged data suggesting 85 percent of the air pollution in St. James Parish is concentrated in areas where residents are overwhelmingly Black.

Further, local critics of what would be a massive plant the size of 1,200 football fields have pointed to a $50 million settlement that the company, Formosa Plastics, paid in 2019 after staff at another plant in Texas was accused of illegally discharging plastic pellets into local waterways. While state political leaders continue to push for the plant’s approval, construction and opening, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revoked the Sunshine Project's permit in November. For now, the plant’s future is in limbo.

Environmental concerns are not the only reasons driving the pushback against Formosa Plastics. Last summer, a group of Black residents in St. James Parish accused the company of preventing them from visiting a burial ground of slaves located within the site.

Further, at least one nonprofit said the plant does not make any economic or financial sense. The promise of exporting plastic feedstocks from the plant to China aren’t promising, they argue, as the country is building up its own plastics manufacturing capacity. There’s also a case to be made that the market for petrochemicals in the U.S. is close to being tapped out. And the costs of the plant’s construction continue to rise. 

Then, of course, there is the timing of such a project: Mobilizing activists during the era of COVID-19 has been tough, and some of the company’s actions over the past year have been bad for optics.

Such opposition does not lie solely in St. James Parish: New Orleans’ city council has voiced its opposition to the project. “What happens upstream is going to reach us down here,” council member Kristin Gisleson Palmer told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “The plant might be in St. James, but the environmental effects have the potential to spread over a much larger area.”

Bottom line: The controversy swirling around the Sunshine Project is far beyond a jobs-versus-environment debate, as plenty of locals say any promises of employment are not worth the risks.

“The plants aren’t building our communities,” Clyde Cooper, a St. James Parish council member, said in an interview with the Washington Post. “They’re destroying them, and we have to stop it.” That’s a sentiment shared by many activists who have been saying for decades that environmental degradation has been most punishing to communities of color and poorer urban and rural areas across the U.S.

Image credit: St. James Parish/Facebook

Despite a global pandemic that kept many of us indoors for months on end, our fascination with viewing nature from our living room windows hasn’t resulted in the global sustainability movement that we assumed would unfold. While worldwide investment in renewables enjoyed steady growth last year, evidence suggests the growing climate crisis is outpacing any transformation from conventional energy to more sustainable sources.

“The world’s dependency on fossil fuels is likely to get even worse in the coming decades, exacerbating the risk of a climate catastrophe as world leaders and CEOs repeatedly tout their commitment to the so-called ‘energy transition,’” headlined one CNBC story last week.

And after being cooped up for the past year, it’s clear that any calls to curb our collective energy demand could for the most part go unheard. An anticipated global economic boom signals an increase in just about everything that requires energy, from road trips to shipping and manufacturing.

Yet last week, one country announced that its energy transition is well underway. Statistics Finland, the Nordic country’s national information service, said renewables outpaced the use of fossil fuels and peat last year. Although consumption of renewable sources of power decreased by 1 percent, their share of Finland’s energy portfolio increased to 40 percent, due to a decline in usage of both fossil fuels and peat.

The decrease in peat usage is particularly encouraging, as the burning of this partially decayed turf for fuel has been a significant contributor to Finland’s carbon footprint. Largely welcomed a half century ago when Finland, like much of the world, faced an energy crisis, the use of peat for energy has longed been slammed by critics for its carbon intensity and impact on ecosystems such as wetlands.

Wind power surged across Finland last year at a rate of 30 percent, followed closely by hydropower. Finland’s government has been keen on boosting wind power capacity by leasing state-owned land to wind farm developers; investments on that front keep hitting the newswires in the meantime.

The Finnish government also appears to be looking at the long game: Its president, Sauli Niinistö, recently expressed his wish to host a major global climate summit in 2025, 50 years after the historic Helsinki Accords, which was one important step in easing relations between the then-Soviet Union and major western powers.

The nation of 5.5 million still has some catching up to do with its neighbors, however, when it comes to the deployment of renewables. For example, Norway generates most of its power from hydropower and has been a leader in electric vehicle adoption. Critics have responded that the oil-rich nation has simply exported its carbon emissions. And in between those two countries, Sweden says 54 percent of its power needs are derived from hydropower and biomass, the latter of which poses its own challenges, say industry observers.

Image credit: Simo Saarinen/Unsplash

For decades, critics of the home mortgage industry argued its lending practices have routinely discriminated against people of color. Defenders of the sector counter that such assumptions aren’t necessarily the case — blaming disparities on factors like lower incomes or poorer credit scores, fairly typical reasons for someone to be denied a home loan. 

Not so fast, say researchers at Morgan Stanley.

A team of four Morgan Stanley professionals poured over Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 2010 to 2019. They found that Black home loan applicants with a minimum income of $150,000 were more than twice as likely to be denied mortgages as white applicants. The denial rate for Latino borrowers was also high when compared to that of whites. Further, the percentage of Black and Latino borrowers denied a home equity loan was also much higher than that for whites.

And, to confirm this decades-long practice, the gaps are even wider when comparing people of middle- and lower-incomes. 

The study also concluded that the average mortgage rate spread for white borrowers was about 0.5 percent, while Black and Latino borrowers who scored the same loans had a rate spread almost five times as high. As a result, years of such practices taken by the mortgage industry has made home ownership far more expensive for Black and Latino borrowers, which Morgan Stanley says can get in the way of long-term wealth creation, one factor that explains the massive wealth gap between whites and people of color in the U.S. Even more disturbingly, in states with a higher Black population, Black borrowers are even more likely to be denied loans, according to the report. 

In any event, the home ownership gap between Black and white families is wider now than it was 50 years ago.

This research from Morgan Stanley is yet another example of the systemic racism that has long been part and parcel of many lives in the U.S. And as much as it is a source of frustration for communities of color, this latest survey, say its authors, is also problematic for investors who are determined to eliminate any evidence of inequalities within their assets.

So, how can the mortgage industry curb this harmful practice and gain the trust and confidence of their investors that they are truly doing the right thing? According to Morgan Stanley's team, much can be achieved through more transparency. “If [Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and Ginnie Mae] collected and disclosed the lending patterns of mortgage originators in an aggregated report collected quarterly, for instance, it would help investors to make informed decisions based on racial equality considerations,” the report reads.

In other words, if investors were able to see which financial companies were applying fairness to their lending practices as well as their competitors who were falling short, the resulting pressure could lead to more banks changing how they approach home mortgage loans. And in an industry that amounts to a $7 trillion market, such transparency would force lenders to review their loan practices — or else risk that investors begin to shun them and shed such equities from their portfolios.

Events of the past several weeks suggest that banks and the wider financial sector need to turn the corner, finally, on what at a minimum has been a half-century of discriminatory practices. Whether it’s through the transparency in the mortgage industry that Morgan Stanley suggests or taking a hard and close look internally, the sand is already beginning to shift under financial companies’ feet. BlackRock, for example, announced earlier this month it would undertake a third-party racial audit to gauge its own role in systemic exclusion and division.

Image credit: RODNAE Productions/Pexels

Photo: Ragged Point along Highway 1 in northern San Luis Obispo County, California. This is one of several scenic byways that the Federal Highway Administration has marked as an “All-American Road.” (Credit: Leon Kaye)

As the U.S. embarks on a fitful reopening this summer, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently dangled its own economic stimulus package to many small businesses, just in time for the spring and summer.

The gift from the FHWA comes in the form of the designation of dozens of scenic roads across the country as “America’s Byways." Announced in February, the news first came in the dead of winter and while the future of mass vaccination was still in doubt. But as the number of people who are partially or fully vaccinated continues to climb, more Americans are ready to break free of their cabin fever, yet they may just not quite be ready to fly with the ongoing “middle or no middle seats” on airplanes debate still unfolding.

Is there one of FHWA’s scenic byways near you?

Most of us have few, if any, fleeting thoughts of the Federal Highway Administration — unless, of course, we are cursing construction or gridlock on an interstate. But in addition to building and managing the country’s highway systems, the FHWA runs several smaller programs, including America’s Byways.

Whether they are “National Scenic Byways” or “All-American Roads,” the routes that the 30-year-old FHWA program recognizes are streets and highways that in some way contribute to the American experience. The process is fairly straightforward: Such roads and highways must already be recognized as a state-level scenic byway and demonstrate regional importance. Finally, depending on the designation, these routes but possess at least one or two of the following attributes: They must show archaeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational or scenic significance.

A lift for independent businesses and the outdoor recreation industry

The scenic byways that have won these FHWA seals of approval run literally and figuratively all over the U.S. map, from remote desert highways in California to Charles Street in historic downtown Baltimore. For visitors, the experience of driving along these highways and streets can be stellar. Just ask anyone who has experienced Highways 1 and 101 versus Interstate 5 in California; the same goes for U.S. Routes 9 and 9-W in upstate New York compared to Interstate 87.

The winners aren’t only the likes of history buffs, antiquers, kayakers or rockhounders — local businesses could benefit this summer as well. The new scenic byways are a boon to main street businesses, independent hotels and roadside diners that have cause for some optimism as they get ready to welcome visitors a year after the dreadful summer of 2020.

"Through their many unique qualities, each of these new additions to the National Scenic Byways program helps America’s roads tell our national story," said Tom Everett, FHWA’s executive director, in a February public statement. "These special routes offer travelers exciting new opportunities to explore the nation, from coast to coast or close to home."

The economic case for branding that scenic country road

The newly designated routes are scattered afar, from inland Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters Scenic Byway to the Flaming Gorge-Green River Basin Scenic Byway in southwestern Wyoming.

Scenic America, one nonprofit that is focused on preserving the character of older towns and cities, as well as much of the U.S. countryside, also welcomed the move — noting this was the first batch of newly labeled scenic byways since 2009. “The program’s revitalization comes at a critical time for the travel and tourism sector as it contends with the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on communities that rely on a robust hospitality industry,” the group announced shortly after the FHWA’s statement.

Just as evidence suggests investments in the arts can spark local economies, a similar argument can be made for these scenic byways. Over a decade ago, for example, the University of Minnesota completed a study concluding that that investments along some of the North Star State’s scenic routes paid off for local communities.

And with over 180 of these routes across the U.S. — the only two states without any are Hawaii and Texas — the results could mean more local spending and a break from the pandemic routine most of us have been living for more than 12 months.

Image credits: Gene Gallin/Unsplash; Christian West/Unsplash; Joel DeMott/Unsplash; Leon Kaye

Events over the past few weeks, notably the court trial of Derek Chauvin for his role in the killing of George Floyd coupled with the shooting and death of Daunte Wright, offer a reminder that the U.S. still has much work to do on the racial equity front. And while the U.S. business community by and large has said it is aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement, the responses of many Americans to that sentiment can be summed up in two words: “Prove it.”  

To that end, the nonprofit Just Capital recently launched an initiative it says will help keep America’s largest companies accountable on their racial equity work over the next several years.

The Corporate Racial Equity Tracker is designed to help stakeholders gauge how companies are performing when it comes to tackling racial equity. At the same time, Just Capital says this project will help companies make the progress necessary to ensure their actions match their words.

The tracker, which monitors an A-list of marquee American brands from Amazon and Microsoft to Verizon, suggests that most companies have completed the easy steps necessary to begin building an equitable culture. For example, all of the companies Just Capital analyzed have issued at least one anti-discrimination policy. Further, close to all of these companies — over 90 percent — have invested in some level of an education and training program; the same is true about “community investments,” whether that’s donating to local schools, or sourcing goods and services from businesses owned by people of color.

But as far as the harder and more challenging work goes, a starkly different story is at hand. Only a third of these same companies have confirmed that they undertook a pay equity analysis to ensure complete fairness in employee compensation. Less than 30 percent of them have disclosed any measurable targets for increasing diversity within their employee ranks. And despite the ongoing national conversation about criminal justice reform, less than 10 percent of these companies said they have a program in place to train and hire formerly incarcerated people.

“Although many of our nation’s largest companies have made improvements in addressing diversity and inclusion, our Tracker reveals companies still have a long way to go to demonstrate that they are walking the talk and implementing meaningful actions that help fundamentally advance racial equity in America," said Just Capital’s Yusuf George in a public statement. “Corporate America has a significant role to play in undoing the racist structures that have fostered and enabled inequities for decades. With most U.S. corporations promising to create a more equitable economy and future for all, we can help hold them accountable to those commitments and ensure they deliver for their employees, customers, and communities."

Just Capital says its research is about doing more than calling companies out on their work (or lack thereof) on racial equity. The organization also has a wealth of resources available for companies committed to doing better, but are perhaps befuddled as to sorting out how exactly they can start.

Similar to how talking about climate change does not necessarily mean a company is changing its business approach in order to minimize its impact on the planet, Just Capital has made it clear that conversations about diversity and inclusion are not the same as getting that work done.

“We are at a significant inflection point where people have really not just looked at D&I as a word, but really the action behind it, and the importance of it to business and society,” said Dawn Jones, Intel’s acting chief diversity and inclusion officer. “We have to be active and engaged and innovative and disruptive in order to make the change that we are seeking in all of our businesses.”

Image credit: Katherine Hanlon/Unsplash

In case you missed it, NFTs (non-fungible tokens, which doesn’t necessarily clarify much if you haven’t wrapped your head around what they are all about) have become a thing, and the market for them is growing. Whether they are in the form of photos, digital art, videos, audio files or even those cringeworthy Awkward Family Photos, the market for NFTs is surging at a breathtaking pace. From Grimes to LeBron James to Jack Dorsey, just about anyone who’s a big-time or small-time anyone, in any industry, is churning them out — and many NFTS are going for a very pretty penny.

So why buy something non-fungible when you can buy a fungible item like a unique artistic masterpiece or the epic white dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in “The Seven Year Itch?” Well, fans and buyers of NFTs will tell you they are a unique digital asset that can be traced to the original owner. After all, reproduce a Modigliani or a Fendi. The same logic applies to a baseball card from decades ago, or a recreation of Lil Nas X’s “Satan” shoes.

But NFTs are stored and verified through the use of blockchain, which to date makes them impossible to fake — and therein lies a problem, as chatter about their collective climate impact is growing almost at the rate of their value.

All those digital transactions and algorithms that allow for the running, monitoring and verification of blockchain, including bitcoin trading, amount to what critics say is a massive carbon footprint. According to at least one tracker that gauges the energy consumption of the global bitcoin market, the trading of bitcoin alone is requiring more and more power. One recent study suggested that the bitcoin market uses as much power as the all the world’s data centers; another study suggested the industry requires more energy than producing all the gold and copper mined in the world.

Now the focus is turning to the energy consumption that’s fueling the rapid rise of NFTs; one profile on Wired, for example, describes the shock of one NFT artist when he learned that one of his pieces of crypto-art required as much power as his studio consumed over two years.

Further, as Justine Calma wrote for The Verge last month, “Famed auction house Christie’s just sold its first 'purely digital piece of art' for a whopping $69 million. For that price, the buyer got a digital file of a collage of 5,000 images and a complex legacy of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Estimates of how much energy an NFT requires are all over the map. One observer suggested that a collection of Grimes’ NFTs used as much energy as a citizen of the European Union would use in 33 years. Another concluded that a single-edition NFT used as much energy as a typical European household. We’re not talking about online banking or even binging on Netflix — a lot of energy is needed to power these digital masterpieces, and critics have also pointed out that the data centers that allow them to exist are often in countries where regulations are lax at best.

Headlines such as “Ukraine to Set up a Large-Scale Crypto Mining Data Center in a Nuclear Power Plant” don’t exactly paint this world in the most flattering light, either.

The bottom line is that more artists who create NFTs, as well platforms on which they are sold and traded, know that they have a climate action challenge on their hands — and they are beginning to respond in kind.

For example, Nifty Gateway, one platform on which NFTs are sold, says it’s working on a plan so that it can stay compliant with the Paris Agreement — details on how that will occur are currently vague. There’s also talk of a global “Crypto Climate Accord” that could help reduce the industry’s carbon intensity. The worlds of blockchains and NFTs know action is needed, but the total amount of emissions for which this sector is responsible means there is no easy solution such as carbon offsets, which Gizmodo’s Brian Kahn has described as “at best, self-deception and at worst, greenwashing.”

Image credit: Anni Roenkae/Pexels

Black Americans make up 13.4 percent of the U.S. population, but own only 2.2 percent of overall businesses, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This data shines a light on the existing equity gap in the business world today – and the opportunity for companies to close the gap through supplier diversification as well as by creating access and opportunities for Black makers, entrepreneurs and business owners to thrive and flourish. Today, we explore how three companies are launching initiatives to build racial equity.

With social media apps continuously flagged for lack of diversity or having hostile environments, Pinterest is course-correcting by establishing a $500,000 Creator Fund. In addition to policy changes to better protect its users, the Fund focuses on uplifting creators from minority communities by offering consulting, ad credits and compensation for content creation. Alexandra Nikolajev, Creator Inclusivity Lead for Pinterest, explains that this Fund is part of the brand’s overall “journey to build a globally inclusive platform where Pinners and Creators around the world can discover ideas that feel personalized, relevant and reflective of who they are."

Hornitos Tequila has teamed up with The Black List to create the ‘Take Your Shot' program that will spotlight underrepresented filmmakers. The project kicks-off with a contest to identify five emerging producers to support through funding and mentorship – ultimately turning their screenplays into proof of concept short films. This campaign aims to empower diverse creatives to create content that can inspire future generations and break through the historic marginalization of creators of color in media production.

Target is taking large strides in its commitment to racial equity by pledging to spend over $2 billionwith more than 500 Black-owned businesses by 2025. Through this initiative, the retail company will focus on shelving wide-ranging products from Black-owned companies, as well as bolster Black entrepreneurs by assisting them with product development and scaling their production for mass retail. This drive for equity is part of Target’s ongoing dedication to social justice led by its REACHcommittee. 

As brands continue to “do the work,” it is important to keep in mind that external efforts are just as critical as in-house JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) strategies. Indeed, 74 percent of Americans believe that companies should not only address internal inequalities, but also engage and take action in the broader societal movement. As more brands focus on how they can support Black communities, they must go beyond their ‘four walls’ and statements of support and start to create extrinsic opportunities within communities and throughout broader business sector.  

Previously published in the 3BL Media newsroom.

Image credit: My Networking Apparel/Unsplash

The powerful lobbying organization ALEC has been losing corporate members in recent years, partly due to its efforts on behalf of fossil energy stakeholders. ALEC’s latest initiative is all but certain to drive more members away as it gears up to fight the Biden administration on climate action. However, ALEC could still remain a force to be reckoned with, and a hint of its ongoing influence lies in Texas.

Texas vs. the Biden administration on climate action

At first glance, Texas seems to be a tailor-made bastion for ALEC’s anti-Biden lobbying efforts. It is the centerpiece of the nation’s oil and gas industry, and its current Republican governor, Greg Abbot, is firmly on the side of oil and gas stakeholders.

Just eight days after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Abbot signed an executive order in support of the state’s energy industry. It requires “every state agency to use all lawful powers and tools to challenge any federal action” that could undermine the energy industry in Texas.

Though the order does not specify what kind of energy is to be protected, Abbot made his interpretation clear in a press conference on January 28.

"I am in Midland to make clear that Texas is going to protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack from Washington, D.C.," Abbot stated.

Abbot is also leading a multi-state charge against Biden’s climate action initiatives.

Earlier this week, reporter Naveena Sadsivam of Grist noted that Texas and Montana are spearheading multi-state legal action against the Biden administration over the cancellation of the notorious Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline.

These could be just the opening salvos in a longer-running campaign against the Biden administration, assisted by ALEC. As reported by Sadsivam, the organization seems to have launched a new working group, called the Functional Federalism Working Group, aimed specifically at fighting the Biden administration on climate action.

Brand reputation as stake as corporations desert ALEC

ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) has become notorious for pushing state-based model legislation on a raft of issues associated with conservative Republican party leadership, including “stand your ground” gun rights laws that effectively codify violence against Black citizens. The racial aspect of stand your ground legislation came into stark relief in 2012, when the murderer of Trayvon Martin successfully enlisted  Florida’s stand your ground law to defend himself. The fallout motivated Amazon and more than a dozen other leading corporate supporters of ALEC to drop their membership, and many more have left since then.

More recently, ALEC has become associated with Republican voter suppression efforts. Beginning as early as February 2020, the organization reportedly promoted former President Trump’s “Big Lie” leading up to the failed insurrection of January 6, 2021, and a new wave of state-based legislation that makes it harder to vote.

Global energy stakeholders (finally) flee ALEC

If these reports bear out, the organization will all but certainly lose even more corporate support.

That remains to be seen. In the meantime, signs of a crack in ALEC’s fossil energy agenda have already appeared.

When ALEC’s role in organizing anti-science climate misinformation came to light during the Obama administration, several global energy stakeholders dropped their membership, including Shell, and BP. By 2018, even ExxonMobil had enough.

The possibility remains that these companies continue to influence ALEC policy indirectly. However, some of them have begun aggressively pursuing new business opportunities in the renewable energy field. Shell and BP are two good examples of former ALEC members that may have a solid bottom line motivation for pushing back against the organization’s anti-Biden efforts.

The many faces of the Texas “energy industry”

As for Texas itself, the state’s energy profile is rapidly diversifying into renewable energy and other clean tech, partly with the aid of fossil energy stakeholders.

Texas’s wind energy industry (as in the West Texas turbines pictured above) is a firmly entrenched national leader, and Shell has a stake in it through ownership of a 160-megawatt wind farm in Brazos.

The state’s utility scale solar sector is also beginning to grow rapidly, thanks in part to new projects under the umbrella of BP’s Lightsource branch. In addition, the U.S. firm Invenergy recently announced that it will build the nation’s largest solar array in Texas.

Wind and solar stakeholders also stand to benefit from new research demonstrating how smart grid technology can balance wind and solar assets in Texas, reducing the need for expensive new energy storage systems.

Energy services in Texas are also pivoting to renewables. For example, the upcoming May 2021 issue of Texas Monthly draws a rosy portrait of a Texas shipyard finding new business in the offshore wind industry.

Adding to the mix is Texas’s growing reputation as an epicenter of national and global clean tech innovation.

In recent months, the state has seen the beginning of plans for a regional green hydrogen hub, and the launch of a new clean tech venture fund anchored by Korea’s sprawling GS Group. Last fall, the U.K.’s Octopus startup also chose Texas as the launchpad for its move into the U.S. rooftop solar services market.

ALEC vs. the Texas “energy industry”

More broadly, ALEC faces an uphill battle as a younger generation of more environmentally aware workers, consumers, and voters takes shape.

In that regard, it is interesting to note that Abbot’s executive order of January 28 casts a wide net. Though the Governor insists in public that he is protecting the state’s oil and gas stakeholders, the order itself does not specifically direct the protection of oil or gas.

The order does reference several of the Biden administration’s measures that could have an impact the state’s oil and gas industry. However, the beginning clauses can apply equally to renewable energy stakeholders in Texas.

“The energy industry is vital to economic growth in the state of Texas, fueling prosperity for all Texans by creating jobs and expanding trade,” the order begins. It continues in that vein for three more clauses that celebrate the role of the “energy industry” as the economic backbone of Texas, and of the nation, without a word about oil or gas.

Clean tech stakeholders could use the opportunity to pressure Abbot into backing down on his anti-Biden maneuvers, but they had better act quickly.

As demonstrated by the failed insurrection and the torrent of voter suppression bills, ALEC and its allies are capable of swift, widespread action in state legislatures. They have already weaponized the “cancel culture” slur against voting rights, and they are poised to apply it to the energy field as well.

Corporate stakeholders that fail to stand up against state-based efforts to torpedo the clean power movement will be swept aside by the same forces.

Image credit: Sam LaRussa/Unsplash