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Editor's Note: A version of this post first appeared on Unreasonable.is.

By Cecily Mauran

Literacy in Brazil is a major problem. Of the 28 million students enrolled, 50 percent scored below the basic proficiency level in the 2012 PISA international assessment tests. According to the Instituto Paulo Montenegro, 27 percent of Brazilian adults are functionally illiterate.

Text comprehension is vital to literacy because it enables readers to engage with information and acquire new knowledge. When Danielle Brants realized that text comprehension, or lack thereof, was a major contributor to the performance gap amongst students, she decided to act.

“Instead of just looking at the numbers, I decided to see this as an opportunity to turn it into an impactful social business,” Brants recalled.

In 2014, she quit her job and founded Guten, an interactive reading platform for elementary students designed to improve engagement and reading comprehension. In Brants’ words, Guten’s mission is to “foster reading proficiency and engagement for Brazilian students, creating a new generation of readers.”

And the key to helping students become great readers is Guten’s bespoke technology. The program gamifies content like news stories and current events. Guten then captures each child’s reading level and sends weekly assessments to his or her teacher. The assessments inform teachers of the students’ “major comprehension skills, such as making inferences, distinguishing facts from opinions and detecting the theme of a text.”

In addition to providing a tool for building reading proficiency, the inclusion of news and current events informs students about their own culture.

"Guten brought the world into our school and enabled our students to amplify their cultural background while playing reading games that stimulate and engage them," said Angélica Xavier, a 5th grade teacher who uses Guten with her students.

Students like using Guten so much that they even created a verb in Portuguese to describe the act of reading with the program (much like the now-ubiquitous term 'Googling'). Teachers announce that “it’s time to ‘gutar,’” or students might say “I am ‘gutando,’” and so on. Brants even claims that students continue reading and playing with Guten when they get home.

To date, 25,000 students across 70 schools use Guten. In 2015, Brants was named one of the “10 Innovators Under 35” by the MIT Technology Review. She said Guten has also signed a cooperation agreement with the University of Sao Paulo “to co-develop scientific research capabilities in natural language processing and machine learning applied to literacy.”

While these milestones are encouraging, there is still much more work to be done. Brants and her team are focusing on reaching the most at-risk students -- which, coincidentally, is also the hardest student demographic to reach. Their strategy is to partner with state agencies so that “students with the biggest achievement gaps will be able to benefit from the product and its learning outcomes.”

Guten is still an early-stage company, but Brants and her team are confident their technology is the key to scaling reading mastery among students. With its ability to customize to every student’s reading level, Guten democratizes reading mastery -- allowing children to take a proactive role in society.

Images courtesy of Guten

Cecily Mauran is an Associate Editor for UNREASONABLE.is. She is an entrepreneur, writer, photographer, dog lover, outdoors enthusiast, and hot sauce connoisseur. She believes in entrepreneurship as a tool for social impact.

With a busy week behind you and the weekend within reach, there’s no shame in taking things a bit easy on Friday afternoon. With this in mind, every Friday TriplePundit will give you a fun, easy read on a topic you care about. So, take a break from those endless email threads, and spend five minutes catching up on the latest trends in sustainability and business.

With the start of the new year, business leaders around the world are contemplating how to take their companies to the next level when it comes to sustainability. And despite what's happening in Washington, American businesses are rising the occasion -- cutting carbon emissions, conserving water and energy, and engaging employees around their goals.

If you're looking for a bit more inspiration for the new year, consider this: Has your company ever thought about going zero waste? These 10 firms working toward zero waste to landfill prove it's possible. And no, it won't kill jobs or hurt profits.

1. Subaru

Subaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA), the automaker’s only U.S. manufacturing plant, hasn't sent waste to local landfills in over 12 years. The same goes for two of Subaru's manufacturing plants in Japan.

Thanks to suggestions from employees, Subaru reuses everything from auto part packaging to staff food scraps. On a net basis, its Indiana plant saves $1 to $2 million per year due to reduction and reuse -- and Subaru has the best profit margin in the automotive industry.

And the reuse and recycling doesn’t stop at the factory: About 96 percent of the components in a Subaru vehicle can also be recycled or reused.

Organizations across the world noticed Subaru's moves and asked the company how the heck they did it. Subaru agreed to benchmark with several of these organizations, including the National Park Service, to help them accomplish zero waste in their own operations.

2. Sierra Nevada

To accomplish this feat, the company sends its spent brewing ingredients -- at least 150,000 pounds of malted barley and 4,000 pounds of hops a day -- to local cattle and dairy farms for use as feed.

Its Chico brewery is also home to the first HotRot composting system in the U.S. Since it was installed in 2010, the system has transformed more than 5,000 tons of the company's organic waste into rich compost which is then used in its Estate hop field, barley field and garden. The company has a similar partnership with a local composting company near its brewery in Mills River, North Carolina.

3. Toyota

The company's North American facilities reduced, reused or recycled 96 percent of their non-regulated waste in 2015 -- totaling over 900 million pounds.

The automaker became a founding member of the U.S. Zero Waste Building Council two years earlier. It now has 27 North American facilities that meet the council's definition of a zero-waste site, including 10 manufacturing plants. And the U.S. EPA recognized Toyota Motor North America with a WasteWise Partner of the Year Award last year.

4. Unilever

Unilever says its journey to zero waste saved the company over $225 million and "created hundreds of jobs." To help others achieve similar results, Unilever teamed up with value-chain platform 2degrees last year to help bring organizations together around the zero-waste model.

“While I am proud of what our employees and partners have achieved across our manufacturing operations and the wider business, there is a lot more to be done to inspire a wide-scale movement," Pier Luigi Sigismondi, chief supply chain officer for Unilever, said in a statement last year.

"It is time to accelerate efforts to move towards a zero-waste world and our new collaboration with 2degrees will allow us to share lessons and experiences, and to encourage other businesses and industries to take up the zero-waste challenge. By building a network of partners and working together, we can eliminate waste on an unprecedented scale across the globe.”

5. Ford

The company now operates 63 zero-waste-to-landfill facilities around the world, including all of its Mexican and Canadian plants. In 2015 alone, six Ford manufacturing plants and 29 non-manufacturing plants achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status.

6. Fetzer Vineyards

Fetzer Vineyards, one of Mendocino County, California's largest wineries, has been sustainable from the start. It's the largest wine company in the world to receive B Corp certification and the first winery in California to operate on 100 percent renewable energy.

Fetzer, which was purchased by Chilean wine company Viña Concha y Toro in 2014, was also the first winery to publicly report its greenhouse gas emissions with the climate registry, but even that is not enough: The company hopes to be net carbon positive by 2030.

Fetzer's bold sustainability goals include eliminating waste from its supply chain. It was the first wine company in the world to receive zero-waste certification from the U.S. Zero Waste Building Council -- and it achieved the council's highest honor, platinum certification.

"This achievement reinforces that companies can work to create a closed loop system that is both profitable and sustainable,” Josh Prigge, sustainability manager at Fetzer Vineyards, said of the milestone in a 2014 statement. And we're inclined to agree.

7. Procter & Gamble

Today, more than 55 percent of P&G sites are send zero manufacturing waste to landfill. Other waste produced, such as office paper and food scraps, is diverted through employee-led programs. And the company says such staff-led initiatives allowed its Costa Rica plant to go entirely zero-waste-to-landfill.

In the future, P&G also hopes to completely eliminate consumer waste stemming from its products through the use of recycling education campaigns and moves to increase the recyclability of its packaging.

8. New Belgium Brewing

Another leader in the brewing space, New Belgium now diverts 99.9 percent of its waste from landfills. It also achieved platinum certification from the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council.

To achieve this feat, the company carried out an exhaustive waste audit of more than 500 waste collection points across its Fort Collins, Colorado, facility. By identifying best management practices and end-of-life scenarios for each material, staffers were able to find a useful application for nearly every bit of waste they produce.

"However, there is still more to do!" the company says on its website. "We are constantly looking at ways to close loops and eliminate waste generated in the first place."

9. Google

Although Google didn't set a deadline for when it expects to go fully zero-waste, six of its 14 data centers sent nothing to landfill last year. And 86 percent of the tech giant's waste is reused or recycled globally.

Google's 'moonshot' campaign to cut waste at data centers includes aggressive reuse campaigns to create a second life for data servers. Googlers are also looking for ways to recycle old office furniture and introduce more composting to further reduce waste.

10. Microsoft

The company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington -- where more than 44,000 employees work in 125 buildings across 500 acres -- now diverts 90 percent of its waste from landfills.

Image credits: 1) Subaru (press use only); 2) Fetzer Vineyards (press use only) 

energy storage EV glass battery Toyota

The first week of the new year was a newsworthy one for Ford Motor Co. What's getting most of the attention is the company’s announcement that it will opt against opening a new $1.6 billion manufacturing plant in Mexico.

Instead, Ford will invest $700 million in its plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, adding 700 American jobs in the process. Though a certain high-profile individual would have you believe he forced Ford’s hand in this decision, the automakers’s own analysis of its business imperatives was behind this change of plans.

Other news from Ford, however, should not be overshadowed: This week the company also announced details of its growing commitment to electrified vehicles, with an important expansion in its range of offerings over the next five years.

Perhaps most notable is Ford’s 2020 plan to launch a new fully-electric small SUV that will have an estimated range of at least 300 miles, according to a company press release.

The new SUV will be designed from the ground up, as opposed to using an existing vehicle platform - a new approach for the company, Hau Thai-Tang, group vice president of purchasing and Ford’s EV champion, told us in a telephone interview this week.

“This is the first time we have optimized architecture for a full-battery electric vehicle,” Thai-Tang explained. This allows the company to deliver the full benefits of an electric vehicle -- in terms of both vehicle packaging and how the car’s engineering is configured -- as well as provide an optimized occupant experience.

But as well as introducing the pure EV SUV, Ford will also launch several new hybrid electric vehicles over the next five years, which Thai-Tang said will allow the automaker to “showcase the full benefits of electrification, beyond just fuel-efficiency benefits.”

Specifically, three iconic Ford sub-brands will get the hybrid treatment; both the venerable Mustang and F-150 pickup truck will see hybrid versions added to the line. In its commercial vehicle sector, Ford will add a plug-in hybrid to the Transit line of vehicles.

In the case of the Mustang, adding hybrid technology will allow the company to showcase both performance and low-end torque, Thai-Tang explained. The hybrid F-150 will showcase capability, and the Transit will be all about enhancing productivity.

These attributes -- performance, capability and productivity -- are key benefits of electrification that go beyond fuel efficiency.

Fuel efficiency is a given, but Thai-Tang conceded it’s a tough selling point by itself while fuel prices are so low; so part of Ford’s mission will be in educating customers about these additional performance benefits which electrification adds.

We asked whether Ford’s commitment to EVs is based mainly on demand for them outside of the U.S., and what would be the effect if the incoming administration doubles down on emphasizing fossil fuels. In answering, Thai-Tang indicated Ford has to take the global -- and long-term -- view:

“As engineers and scientists and business people, we have a much greater understanding of the importance of CO2 on climate change. We know our consumers around the world, and municipalities, are concerned about air quality; we know consumers are concerned about access to sustainable, clean sources of energy and all these are global societal trends.”

That said, Ford recognizes many cities in Europe and China are more active in terms of regulatory measures that restrict vehicle access to city centers and demand zero-emissions cars -- something seen in California, too. On top of this, China also regards electrification in terms of energy independence, and their government sees it as a way to level the playing field.

“So we look at all these factors; we are a global company, and electrification will reach a tipping point,” Thai-Tang insisted.

In fact, Ford thinks deliveries of electrified vehicles will exceed those of gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 15 years. And as Thai-Tang added, “10 to 15 years is only two product cycles away.” Consequently, Ford believes a combination of pure EVs and hybrid vehicles is the future for which the automaker must plan.

Ford also sees a future in autonomous vehicles. In another big announcement to start 2017, Ford says it will have a fully autonomous, steering wheel-less vehicle ready by 2021.

On top of that, the company says it came to a memorandum of understanding with several other automakers to create an ultra-fast charging network at around 400 sites in Europe -- a network that will be faster than the most powerful charging systems deployed today.

Finally, Ford also plans to pilot wireless charging technology in the U.S. and Europe -- which, according to this week’s press release, will make charging as easy as pulling into a parking space.

All of this comprises Ford’s $4.5 billion investment in electrification by 2020.

Oh, and about that Mexico plant cancellation: Thai-Tang explained it was essentially the result of an analysis of what was best for Ford's business.

“We looked at consumer demand in the North American market by segment. For small vehicles, there is a plateau -- perhaps decline -- in demand, forcing us to look at how best to use our manufacturing footprint. ... That meant we didn’t need to add a manufacturing site -- we had capacity we could use.”

Indeed, Ford confirmed that the new Focus, its small compact car, will be made at its existing Hermosillo, Mexico, plant. This, Thai-Tang explained, is “consistent with what we said throughout the election campaign” and is essential for keeping the Focus profitable.

However, the investment of $700 million in Ford’s Flat Rock plant is undoubtedly good news for American workers. And the new electrified and autonomous vehicles will be built there -- work the company “felt was important to do in our home country,” Thai-Tang said.

Image courtesy of Ford (press use only) 

By Kasey Krifka

The Climate Trust, a mission-driven nonprofit that specializes in mobilizing conservation finance for climate benefit, announced its fourth annual prediction list of 10 carbon market trends to watch in 2017.

The trends, which range from more native tribes joining carbon markets to environmental justice concerns playing an increased role in climate policy discussions, were identified by The Climate Trust based on interactions with their diverse group of working partners — government, investors, project developers, large businesses and the philanthropic community.

“After collectively looking at the overall market, our team has identified areas of potential advancement, despite the anticipated inaction around climate at the federal level,” said Sean Penrith, executive director for The Climate Trust. “

This year, more than ever, we felt there was a need for positivity, and have primarily chosen to share industry insights that are positive in nature — yet still strongly based in reality. We expect that the New Year will bring together unlikely, yet strong, domestic partnerships with corresponding resolve to address climate change, and we look forward to seeing what we can accomplish by banding together.”

1. States, cities and regions will lead the U.S. fight against climate change

It’s clear to us that many states and regions have already committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting a clean-energy future. In New York City, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg threw down the gauntlet and warned that if the Trump administration withdraws from the Paris Accord, mayors from 128 cities will pick up the cause. In the Midwest, wind turbines continue to rise out of the cornfields. And back here in Oregon, the Department of Environmental Quality is wrapping up the draft considerations for a cap-and-trade program for the state.

In the vacuum created by a Pruitt-led EPA and a Tillerson-led State Department, rulings like the one issued by Judge Aiken, and statements like the one from California Gov. Jerry Brown challenging Trump on climate change, indicate where the action will be for the next four years. We predict that as our nation heads into uncertain times with respect to climate change policy and action, states, cities and regional collaborative groups are going to lead the fight against climate change.

2. Progressive states and foundations will pick up support for domestic climate finance in the absence of federal action

Additionally, the political will for carbon pricing will grow in progressive states, demanding more immediate state action. Increasingly, public entities are aware that their dollars are most efficiently and effectively used when they leverage private capital.

In 2017, states and foundations will look for opportunities to mitigate risks to private climate finance providers investing in the U.S. through creative new financial mechanisms like first loss capital contributions, loan guarantees, credit enhancements and other new structures.

3. Global climate litigation campaigns will gain momentum during 2017, legitimizing our children’s right to a healthy planet

The young people alleged that the government over the last 50 years, including President Barack Obama, violated their constitutional rights and imperiled their future by failing to adequately reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Whether the case is heard in federal court or settled, it provides a solid legal foundation for future climate litigation -- and gives hope to the growing ranks of youth climate activists and their supporters.

The world is watching this historic precedent set in Oregon. We predict the optimism gained from this victory will encourage judges and activists alike to look to the courts to validate the science behind climate change and allow judicial systems to require governments to take tangible action.

The Oregon case alleges that the government defendants, by continuing to “permit, authorize, and subsidize fossil fuel extraction, development, consumption and exportation … have acted with deliberate indifference to the peril they knowingly created.” We believe that more judges will acknowledge that the climate change crisis is inside their purview, and that the constitutional rights of youth plaintiffs will be upheld against other governmental branches. This case is just the tip of the iceberg.

4. Private industry picks up U.S. government slack making progress toward Paris commitments

While he has walked back these statements somewhat over the last few weeks — most recently saying that “nobody really knows” if climate change is real — his pick of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certainly suggests that Trump is going to try and make good on his campaign promises.

Trump may not yet have an official stance on climate change; however, we anticipate that his administration will be left on the sidelines while the rest of the world rallies to meet the commitments made in Paris.

We use the term Trump administration deliberately, because we also predict that the current momentum built by John Kerry and the Obama administration will be picked up by private industry in the U.S. In fact, we are already seeing this develop.

In the days after the election, business leaders quickly called on Trump to honor America’s agreement to the Paris Accord. It seems to be that savvy business leaders and people like Bill Gates, who recently drew attention to his $1 billion clean-technology fund, not only understand that climate change is real, but also understand that taking no action will have a negative impact on their bottom line.

Our prediction: Progress will be made toward our U.S. Paris commitments due to the efforts of private industry, regardless of President-elect Trump’s designs to pull out of the Agreement.

5. Environmental justice community concerns increasingly built into climate policy discussions throughout the U.S.

A 2016 preliminary paper rightly points out that large carbon polluters are more likely to be located in poor communities and communities of color. Environmental justice proponents successfully ensured that the passage of SB 32 that extends California’s climate goals to 2030 was contingent on the approval of AB 197 that requires the Air Resources Board to “prioritize … emission reduction rules and regulations that result in direct emission reductions” while designing cost-effective policy to meet the steep emission reduction requirements of Senate Bill 32.

Meeting the incredibly ambitious greenhouse gas goals now required by law in California in the cheapest manner possible is therefore a central equity issue. There will be continued attention given to these environmental justice concerns both in California and across the country as state climate policy evolves.

6. U.S. citizens become climate refugees in one of the hottest years on record

Regrettably, it is anticipated that this continued trend will give rise to an increasing number of climate refugees, even within U.S. borders. In a sad turn of events, the Biloxi-Chitimacha Tribe in Louisiana is considered the first official community of climate refugees in this country.

Whether it’s a 1,000-year flooding event in Louisiana, or devastating wildfires on the West Coast, global warming is altering our country in ways that will displace thousands of Americans. This changing geography will necessitate the development of new solutions that not only sequester carbon, but also focus on adaptation — protecting us from the dangers of a warming planet.

Fortunately, some of these solutions are already under development. One such effort is the Blue Carbon Initiative, which seeks to restore coastal wetlands that will not only sequester carbon in plants and soils, but also protect against dangerous storm surges. The reality of climate change in the U.S. has become increasingly dire, making it more important than ever to address the root of the problem, while also tending to the symptoms that are already creating a new class of displaced and homeless peoples.

7. More native tribes will join carbon markets

The financial and environmental benefits from participating in carbon markets provide a clear incentive for tribes to become market actors. The National Indian Carbon Coalition published an article, Carbon Credits Help Tribes Preserve Culture, Climate and Bottom Line, in early 2016, describing how securing a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant was a game-changer in improving tribal access to carbon markets, and the wide array of benefits market participation brings.

Tribes that have taken part in carbon transactions have indicated that credit sales provide a new way to make money while improving wildlife habitat, expanding the tribe’s natural resource program, and acquiring and protecting land in its ancestral territory. In other words, forest carbon projects are typically very closely aligned with tribal nations’ long-term view of sustainable land management and use of natural resources.

Carbon payments could be a very important boost to these underserved communities, and we expect that more tribes will make the move to participate in the carbon compliance market in 2017. In fact, last year, the protocol rules for the California market were expanded beyond the lower 48 U.S. states to include Alaska — opening the door for even more tribes to engage. All regional and village corporations that operate in Alaska’s timber belt now have the opportunity to participate in the forest carbon market. Estimates say this could result in an additional 20-30 million tons of forestry offsets over the next several years.

8. China takes the lead in carbon markets, encouraging linkages

“As a developing nation and large emitter, China’s bold commitment to carbon markets will send a signal that will be felt in America and beyond,” said Erika Anderson, a climate change attorney doing business in China.

9. U.S.-based institutional investors will increase commitments to investments that hedge out carbon risk

Lindsey Brace Martinez, founder of StarPoint Advisors, LLC and long-term advisor to institutional investors and asset managers alike, remarks: "Given the prevailing sentiment for a low return environment, U.S. institutional investors are looking for investment managers who have a competitive edge and can deliver value over the long term. Investment managers who systematically review and update their risk management approaches and apply their expertise through focused strategies will have a competitive edge.” 

We believe that forward-thinking institutional investors will price in the negative externalities inherent in the energy sector and turn to more proactive investment in sustainable, carbon-mitigating strategies that offer lower risk and better returns.

10. California Air Resources Board prevails in CalChamber lawsuit and commits to cap and trade

The lawsuit argues that the auctioning of the cap-and-trade allowances constitutes an illegal tax since it does not have the approval of two-thirds of the Legislature. There are three possible outcomes for the suit. It may be deemed a tax, and cause California to have a cap-and-trade system without the auction element unless the Legislature approves with a two-thirds vote. It could be deemed a regulatory fee, and thus uphold the validity of the allowance auctions. Or, the court could find that the auction is neither a tax nor a fee but something else not subject to the strictures of tax voting requirements under the state constitution.

We believe that this third option will be the outcome of the suit and be a complete victory for the cap-and-trade program. If the state were to win on the grounds that the auction is neither a tax nor a fee, then the state’s Air Resources Board could not only continue with its cap and trade program to meet the 2020 goals established by AB 32, but could also — without constitutional limitation — extend the program to meet the new 2030 goals that were enacted last year under SB 32 and include an auction as part of the program’s design.

Oral arguments are scheduled in Sacramento for Jan. 24, 2017.

The bottom line

“The divest movement has provided a valuable market signal to support the needed flows of conservation finance. Riding this wave of interest from large institutions, late last year, The Trust executed a milestone contract with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation — securing a $5.5 million Program-Related Investment to seed our first-of-its-kind carbon investment fund.”

Image credit: Flickr/Christian Schnettelker

Kasey Krifka is the Marketing and Communications Manager for The Climate Trust.

January will be a busy month for water-stricken Flint, Michigan.

The feds will attend a water data summit on Jan. 10 in Chicago hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. What exactly is a water data summit, and how does it manually fix century-old lead pipes anyway? No matter, Congress just awarded Flint $170 million to do its repairs, so all that data will be put to good use. Hopefully.

The day after the analysis meeting, the city will hold its own water meeting, presumably to inform listeners as to how it will fix the 3-year-old contamination problem. The meeting was initially open only to invited guests, but the city since decided to open the premises to those most impacted by the water scandal: the public.

Additionally, a group of veterans is coming to Flint, possibly sometime this winter. They will be fresh off the icy plains of North Dakota, where U.S. Army veteran Wesley Clark II and his entourage of some 2,000 veterans spoke up for the civil rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The vets are hoping to help train the same kind of attention on the needs of Flint residents, the majority of whom are still surviving off Nestlé bottled water for potable needs.

And Nestlé may find itself back in the news as well. Seems that while the Flint city government was pumping its drinking water from the bowels of the Flint River, Nestlé had a contract to pump Michigan groundwater into its bottles. Some Michiganders are asking why the city of Flint couldn’t have been awarded the same opportunity for the benefit of its residents when it was forced into receivership in 2011. The controversy over Nestlé’s planned expansion has ignited a debate similar to one in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, about public-versus-private rights to public resources.

Meanwhile, environmental and human rights groups are reminding the Michigan and Flint governments that it has effectively been three years since Flint’s water services went offline -- and most residents are still without any idea as to when their pipes will be replaced.

The real problem, of course, is that city officials have no idea either.

Research suggests that cost of replacing the pipes connecting to many Flint homes could actually exceed the value of those homes. To city officials paying the tab, that means something. To the residents now caring for children diagnosed with the permanent effects of lead poisoning, it’s another troubling excuse to fixing a human rights fiasco.

But some progress is happening. According to state estimates, 600 pipes were replaced by the end of 2016. The work is being overseen by former National Guard Brigadier General Michael McDaniel, whose own status may say volumes about the city's realistic view of the project's timeline. The project coordinator worked for the first seven months without pay because the city didn't have the resources to cover his paycheck. A private organization, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, stepped in last September to cover the $120,000 yearly salary.

With over 29,000 more city pipes to go, it's anyone's guess when Flint's pipes -- and access to safe, potable water -- will be restored.

The state estimates that, at this rate, it will take until 2067 to replace the rest of the pipes. By that time, Flint's economy may be up and running and able to absorb the other several hundred million dollars officials say it will take to really do the job right.

If there is any bright side to be gained from the Flint water fiasco, it's what it has unwittingly given to the country: a dawning realization that the nation's ailing infrastructure really can't wait much longer.

The Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law on Dec. 10, is intended to avert another tragedy like Flint's by solid funding and better planning across the board.

But according to researchers, time may be of the essence: Recent investigations by Reuters suggest that there are "thousands of locales" in the U.S. where children are at even greater risk from lead poisoning than in Flint, either from water or paint-based sources.

America's greatest test case on how to replace a city's vital infrastructure en masse will hopefully offer some road map in coming years about how to fix those unimaginable crises we aren't able to avoid as America's infrastructure grows older.

Image credit: Flickr/USDA

hydrogen fuel cell EV GM Colorado

By John Mandyck

With the busy holiday travel season, my thoughts turned to the large numbers of people who took to the skies to visit friends and family these past weeks. Advancements in green aviation technologies and new international agreements like the ICAO measure to curb carbon dioxide emissions have brought us a long way in making air travel more sustainable. Most of us think about how the planes and engines are becoming more efficient (and they are!), but advancements in ground-based operations can make aviation even more sustainable.

Commercial air travel shows no sign of slowing down – in fact, the number of airplanes in service is expected to nearly double by 2030. With less than 20 percent of the world’s population ever stepping onto an airplane, it’s not surprising that aviation growth is upon us. These trends are covered in a white paper I co-authored earlier this year.

Let’s keep in mind:

• Every day, 9.8 million passengers take 104,000 flights carrying $18.6 billion worth of goods.


• The global air transport industry supports almost 63 million jobs worldwide and contributes $2.7 trillion or 3.5 percent of global GDP.


• Civil aerospace spends $15 billion per year on sustainability and efficiency-related R&D.

Going green on the ground

• Aerospace production and technology evolution initiatives from additive manufacturing, which can reduce a part’s “buy-to-fly” ratio by 90 percent, to nanomaterials that allow for weight reduction and better performance, are helping the industry create a more sustainable future.


• Green airports are an essential component of long-term success. A focus on becoming “carbon neutral” has ripple effects in greening transport systems and buildings, and improving the quality of life in nearby communities. Creating greener ways to service aircraft and move passengers efficiently are vital to improved sustainability. At San Diego International Airport’s Terminal 2, for example, performance enhancements include high-performance glazing, on-site solar power, low-flow fixtures for water conservation, and the diversion of more than 90 percent of construction waste from landfills. The terminal is the world’s first to be certified LEED Platinum.


• Green aerospace factories -- which focus on more efficient operations, new production technologies and green supply chains -- will also make a substantial contribution to the industry’s long-term sustainability. In my own company, we’ve reduced greenhouse gasses 34 percent and water use 57 percent all while we tripled revenues over the last twenty years. Others in the industry have made great gains too. Aerospace manufacturing and supply chain is where green aviation begins!

Where the ground and sky meet

This presents the industry with an opportunity to make a significant contribution to both economic growth and environmental sustainability. Technologies like the Geared Turbofan jet engine will play a big role by reducing fuel burn by 16 percent, particulate emissions by 50 percent and noise footprints by 75 percent. The advancement of lower-carbon alternative fuels – many bio-based -- will also make a big difference with the long-term potential to reduce fuel carbon emissions by 80 percent.

The timing is right for the efforts on the ground and in the sky to come together to advance the sustainable future of aviation.

To read more about how we can do this, click here. To continue the conversation, tweet me @JohnMandyck.

John Mandyck is Chief Sustainability Officer for United Technologies.

Image credit: Pexels

What's behind the rise of plant- based dairy? And why is it a positive choice for personal health and the environment?

Since I started writing for Triple Pundit this past year, like any guest blogger, I seek to find a subject matter of interest to readers but, firstly, myself.

One subject came to me last year after attending Natural Products Expo West in March, and Expo East in September: the significant growth of dairy alternative products.

Dairy alternative milks, creams, yogurts, and nut- and soy-based cheeses are a seriously growing industry. My business partner and I noticed this year after year at the Expos, and you can certainly see it in the supermarkets -- even 'conventional' ones.

With the New Year comes a new incentive for many of us to eat more healthfully, so with that let's explore what’s behind this growth -- and why switching even some of your intake to plant-based dairy alternatives is a good thing.

Our company has already worked with a few brands in that space: Califia Farms, which makes almond milk products and juices, and Melt Organic Spread -- an all-natural, plant-based butter alternative. It was our client at Melt who introduced us to the newly formed and growing Plant Based Foods Association. The organization seeks to help further growth in all areas of plant-based food production, sales, availability and marketing (not just dairy alternatives but also meat alternatives).

As milk and butter alternatives have been around for a while, I wanted to learn more about the growth in plant-based cheeses. To do this, I spoke with Matthew Sade, the CEO of Kite Hill. Kite Hill is one of those plant-based, non-dairy cheese companies you'll notice in both organic and conventional supermarkets. Matthew explained that with the founding of the company, his team sought to make non-dairy, plant-based yogurt and cheese products that would appeal to all palates, even those are reluctant to consume mass-produced, plant-based cheese because they felt the texture was not as pleasing as traditional cheese.

He explained that previously many plant-based dairy alternative cheese products were made with oils and starch, processed with heat, to approximate a cheese-like texture. What Kite Hill does is use a proprietary process to culture the nut based milk, which is a process more like the way traditional cheeses are made.

Vegan chefs have been successfully experimenting with this type of nut cheese production, but it is only recently that these types of cheeses appeared on the scene for retail purchase. As someone personally who, as I’ve aged, has trouble digesting more than a small amount of dairy, I’ve been trying out a number of these types of products myself, and it’s a welcome surprise to find such a variety of tasty products out there.

So, who is buying this product? "Yes, it is vegans (a growing sector who eat an entirely plant-based diet), but also people looking to avoid high-fat diary for health reasons," Matthew said. "This growth is indeed a 'macro trend'."

Next, I spoke with Dina Cheney, author of several cookbooks and creator of the website and resource The New Milks.

She said the drivers for growth in this sector are: alternative dairy is innately more sustainable; the growth in veganism and paleo diets; alternative milk products are kosher; and consumers run no risk of being exposed to the hormones that can be found in some traditional dairy products. Lastly, some consumers have dairy intolerance, like I’ve begun experiencing.

According to the National Institutes of Health, from Dina’s website, “Approximately 65 percent of the human population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy."

The health benefits to alternative milk products are that they contain less sugar, less calories and no cholesterol. And, yes, even the nuts, including almonds, grown for nut milk products use less natural resources than what is needed for commercial dairy farming.

We discussed some of the new trends, which include pea- and legume-based milks, hemp milk, macadamia milk, and cashew milk along with the more established almond, coconut, rice and soy milks. More of these alternative milks are being experimented with to make yogurt and cheese alternatives, as well.

To get the perspective of a chef who works with alternative dairy, I turned to Doron Petersan of the well-known D.C. vegan bakery Sticky Fingers. She’s also a cookbook author, two- time "Cupcake Wars" winner and last year opened a vegan concept diner, Fare Well.

Long a fan of her incomparably delicious cookie, the Cowvin cookie, I was looking forward to chatting with her, as she’s been a vegan baking and cooking alchemist for over 17 years. At her bakery and now her diner, she serves not only sweet dairy alternatives but also savory ones. She mentioned that her delicious baked goods were the gateway product that got plenty of omnivores to try her other vegan foods.

Doron makes nut-, coconut- and soy-based flavored spreads, ice cream, mozzarella and cream cheeses for a number of years. She sees the growth in this sector not only from the growth in veganism, but also in omnivores looking to diversify their diets, as well as the number of people with food allergies and sensitivities.

Initially, soy was the main ingredient in these products, but in recent years she’s incorporated cashews -- with a high fat content and a natural sweetness -- along with coconut and even pea protein.

The awareness of the benefits of a plant-based, or even more diverse diet, which includes plant-based dairy alternatives, is becoming more widely known. The exciting thing is the growth and increased availability of delicious, sustainable, lovingly crafted foods in this sector that speaks to the overall growth in the sustainable food business in general.

To get back on track with a more healthy regime -- for you and the planet -- for the new year, why not include some plant-based alternative dairy in your shopping cart, refrigerator and diet? You’ll join a growing number of consumers who are making positive changes to do just that.

Image credits: 1) Courtesy Doron Petersan & Fare Well; 2) Courtesy kitehill.com; 3) Courtesy Doron Petersan & Fare Well 

As we enter 2017, the business case for sustainability has never been stronger. Smart/clean tech is on the cusp of disruptively reshaping our buildings, vehicles and businesses. This mega trend is the business opportunity of the 21st century.

I actually predicted this in a 2008 Entrepreneur.com article that projected a $1 trillion annual global green economy by 2017. I called this projection a Green Economic Revolution. The social media reaction at the time ranged from a few calling me a visionary and more than a few calling me a green idiot.

Today, the Green Economic Revolution annually generates trillions of dollars in annual sales and investments. Over a dozen 'Green Giant' businesses like Costco and Target sell at least $1 billion annually in more sustainable goods and services. Companies from Apple to Walmart are saving billions of dollars annually using sustainability best practices like zero-waste manufacturing and green supply chains. Global investment in renewable energy is growing at a rate projected to reach $1 trillion annually. And financial data increasingly documents that sustainably-managed companies deliver higher returns.

The coolest response from my 2008 article were the emails from a then-emerging group of green entrepreneurs. Inspired by how they were making money and a difference, I took on the goal of telling their stories. To do so, I created a website called Earth 2017 to host articles profiling their best practices.

Two years later, I started a YouTube channel called Earth 2017 TV. I use this site to host video interviews with CEOs, business owners, and community leaders that are pioneering how to grow jobs and win customers by going green.

Today, these two sites have hundreds of articles and videos. They are a gold mine of proven green best practices for saving money, growing sales and making a difference. Both of these sites are available without charge, ads or requests for your email address.

Green does build business

Through GBB, I worked with hundreds of business owners covering every imaginable industry across 11 cities. The coaching provided business and community attendees with:

1. A survey lecture on proven green best practices


2. Assistance in designing a green project that could make money in 90 days


3. One-on-one coaching

Building a green auto body shop was a huge investment challenge for this small business, so we focused on low-hanging fruit. The father and son agreed to invest in higher-efficiency lighting and water-saving technologies to save money and reduce the business’ environmental footprint. We also developed a plan for investing in lower-emissions paint technologies. At that time, these combined actions gave their business competitive advantage.

Within 90 days of starting their GBB project, this father and son won a competitive bid with their local police department. Shortly afterward, they won a contract with a national rental car agency. Being greener than their competitors had opened the door to their sales success. Today, this company is truly a green auto body shop -- thanks to its continued investment in green technologies and best practices funded by its sales successes.

I could not be prouder of them, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Walmart and our country! To me, this is how America is supposed to work together for business success and a greater good.

Earth 2017

But here’s the insight every business person must recognize about the Green Economic Revolution: Its growth was never based on politics.

The Green Economic Revolution is driven by green products winning on price. It is anchored on smart/clean technologies gaining manufacturing economies of scale to drive down prices. One example is that we enter 2017 with utility-scale solar and wind being lower in price than coal or natural gas power plants.

The Green Economic Revolution is also a customer revolution led by urban millennials. Urban millennials are driving innovations in lifestyles and work practices around diversity, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, connectivity, mobility, renewable energy and health. Their innovations will grow our economy. Their adoption of smart/clean tech will restore our environment and improve human health.

Look no further than smartphones, companies like Patagonia or Toms with strong corporate responsibility programs, and the renewal of downtowns across America to see the influence urban millennials are having on our economy. This influence will surely continue in 2017 and beyond. And if the past is any indication, it will continue to drive low-carbon technologies into the mainstream.

This article is the first in a series on Earth in 2017. I hope you find them engaging and thought provoking. Most importantly, I hope they provide you with at least one best practice that you can implement during 2017 for making money and a difference.