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A nationwide strike of inmates in 40 facilities in 24 states kicked off Friday morning. The strike was coordinated by IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) according to an announcement from the the organization. The strike comes on the 45th anniversary of the prisoner protest and takeover at Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, NY. In a statement, the IWOC likens prisons to modern slave holding pens, where prisoners are forced to work for little or no pay.

They may have replaced the whip with pepper spray, but many of the other torments remain: isolation, restraint positions, stripping off our clothes and investigating our bodies as though we are animals.

In federal prisons, prisoners earn 12 to 40 cents an hour and in Texas, Arkansas and Georgia they earn nothing at all. Jobs include everything from groundskeeping to janitorial services to preparing and serving meals. In addition to maintaining the prison, common jobs also include labor to benefit private corporations from Walmart to Victoria's Secret. Prisoners even farm tilapia for Whole Foods and fight forest fires in California. Alongside these corporate jobs, which exist to bring in revenue for the contractors who run the prisons, prison conditions have weakened due to overcrowding, continued cost constraints and a general lack of care. In Louisiana, prisoners sued for the right to A/C after interior temperatures rose into the hundreds, resulting a myriad of health impacts. NPR recently chronicled the rise of ramen noodles as the currency of choice as prison officials limit the quantity and quality of food provided in cafeterias. A rash of deaths at Nassau County correctional facility brought that facility's private health contractor into the limelight for inadequate care. Basically, conditions are pretty terrible nationwide, even considering that we're talking about prison.

People are inclined to strike when they feel they have no other option and nothing to lose.

What's interesting about this strike is the coordinated effort between facilities, which seemingly took months to coordinate via contraband cell phones, sympathetic family on the outside, and secret social media accounts like this protected Twitter account from the Free Alabama Movement and its associated YouTube page, where video from a contraband cellphone captures an inmate describing prison officials' efforts to keep a food poisoning outbreak under wraps:

https://youtu.be/xkkos_noGMo

Despite months of preparation, the strike is still extremely risky. Cole Dorsey, an IWOC organizer in the Bay Area, explained to Mother Jones: "inmates could be put into solitary confinement or segregation, and could lose phone call and visiting privileges— in addition to the physical risks that come with participating in even the most non-violent protests. "

IOWC explains the reason for the strike:

This is a call to end slavery in America. This call goes directly to the slaves themselves. We are not making demands or requests of our captors, we are calling ourselves to action. To every prisoner in every state and federal institution across this land, we call on you to stop being a slave, to let the crops rot in the plantation fields, to go on strike and cease reproducing the institutions of your confinement.

Prisoner strikes differ from facility to facility but may include work stoppages and other non-violent protest techniques.

The strike was coordinated with a number of protests outside prison walls in cities around the country, which are well-documented on social media. Unsurprisingly, news from inside the gates has been slow to emerge today -- many prisons will respond with a communications lockdown as a first line of defense to prisoner unrest. We do have confirmation of 35 workers striking from their jobs producing license plates at Holeman correctional facility in Alabama. A press release called it a "peaceful protest." Two Florida prisons are on lockdown and will be through the weekend.

It's going to be a little while before news from the inside filters out and we see what kind of impact, if any, this strike has on inmate's living and working conditions. We'll be watching. At the very least, the scope of the strike brings attention to a population whose wellbeing is often ignored.

Update 9/15: Follow along here at It's Going Down for a rolling update of prisons involved in the strike. 

 

Image credit: Bart Everson, Flickr

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.

Cotton is one of the most widespread and lucrative commodities on earth. Its production supports 250 million people's livelihoods and employs almost 7 percent of all labor in developing countries.

But the billion-dollar industry finds itself under the microscope, as critics point out environmental and human-rights concerns in its supply chain. With this many people depending on the crop, it's clear that eliminating its use isn't the answer. Efforts such as the Better Cotton Initiative seek to improve cotton-farming practices, limit environmental damage and prevent labor abuses. Proponents say programs like BCI can improve the cotton supply chain while ensuring people's livelihoods.

This fall, TriplePundit will run a series in partnership with Cotton Incorporated to examine how this transformation will take place. In many cases, say trade groups like Cotton Incorporated, the solution is finding more applications for cotton, not less.

Consider this: One 480-pound bale of cotton yields approximately 740 pounds of seed and up to 200 pounds of other waste. If lucrative end-uses are developed for these secondary materials, farmers can sell them and turn waste into profit. On a sustainable farm, investments from these new revenue streams can translate to further improvements in farming practices.

And while most of us think of cotton as the main ingredient in our jeans and T-shirts, the crop has a variety of untapped applications across multiple sectors. Let's take a closer look at six of them:

1. Medicine

In 2010, researchers from the National Institutes of Health published a paper on what they called a "promising agent" against prostate cancer. Their research centered around gossypol, a cotton phenol that serves as a natural pesticide. They determined that gossypol reduced the viability of some cancer cells, without harming healthy cells, and could also slow the growth of tumors.

Another study published three years later in the journal Nature found similar results using gossypol to treat pancreatic cancer, in tandem with another agent. And researchers with the University of Kansas Cancer Center began early-phase clinical trials using gossypol to treat prostate cancer earlier this year.

It may sound crazy to think the stuff that's in your jeans could treat cancer, but that could be the wave of the future. And any agent that can prevent more people from losing a loved one to this indiscriminate disease is surely good news.

2. Food for people

As she's known to do, Vani Hari (aka the Food Babe) popped into the headlines again last May. This time her gripe was with cottonseed oil, saying bluntly: "This ingredient isn't food."

James Pruden, director of public relations for Cotton Incorporated, begs to differ. He posted a point-by-point rebuttal to Hari's argument on the company's Facebook page, saying simply: "Cotton is regulated as a food crop in the United States." Even Fortune magazine took notice of the dispute, saying of Pruden and Cotton Incorporated: "Their product is soft, but they have bolls of steel."

Yes, those who are concerned about GMOs and pesticide application may have some qualms with cottonseed oil. But the same can be said for other food crops we consume far more regularly. (We're looking at you, corn and soy!) And due to its high smoke point and neutral flavor, cottonseed oil makes sense for a number of cooking applications.

Whole cottonseed is also promising a human protein source, particularly as the global population is projected to hit 9 billion by 2050. In 2013, Forum for the Future noted cottonseed's potential as a food source. But there's a hitch: Gossypol, the same agent being tested for cancer treatment, can be toxic if ingested at high doses. Gossypol is removed from cottonseed oil during the refining process. But more research is needed to optimize cottonseed production and cultivation for human consumption.

3. Food for animals

More than 30 percent of the calories produced by the world's crops are used for animal feed. Corn is the primary U.S. feed grain, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It's also a staple the human diet. And as we climb to 9 billion, we must use more of our acreage to feed people, not animals. Using waste materials from commodity crops like cotton can help in this area.

Cotton waste, such as stems and hulls, is perfectly nutritional for beef cattle if used as part of a balanced diet. Whole seeds are also packed with protein and provide an "excellent supplement to poor quality grass and hay" for dairy cows, say researchers from the University of Georgia Extension.

And cows aren't the only animals that have a taste for cottonseed. Last year Tracey Carrillo, a professor from New Mexico State University, turned heads for raising jumbo shrimp in the desert. Raised in aquaculture tanks and sold via a student-run company, the shrimp reached their impressive size on a mostly cottonseed diet. The shrimp farm is part of a broader project with Cotton Incorporated to expand end-uses for cotton.

“When cotton is running 60, 70, maybe 80 cents a pound for the lint, and if you can add a buck a pound or $2 per pound for the seed, then we’ve significantly increased the value of cotton production,” said Carrillo, assistant director of NMSU campus farm operations.

4. Biodiesel

Cottonseed oil, like other cooking oils, can be converted into biodiesel. And recent research concluded that cottonseed oil is an effective drop-in fuel for existing diesel engines. Of course, now that we've established that cottonseed oil can be used for food, the good ol' food-versus-fuel debate rears its ugly head once again.

But waste oil is also an option. A study published this spring focused specifically on waste cottonseed oil. Researchers noted a "reduction carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions" with waste cottonseed biodiesel, albeit with a marginal increase in nitrogen oxides. They concluded, "Biodiesel produced from waste cotton seed oil possess a great potential for being source of alternate fuel." Not too shabby.

5. Insulation

The cotton fibers used in clothing can often be recycled into new garments. Levi's new line of jeans made from post-consumer cotton offers plenty of evidence to that effect.

But it can become challenging to extract cotton for closed-loop recycling when it is blended with other fibers. In this case, the blended fiber is often recycled into non-apparel products -- the most common being household and building insulation. The Blue Jeans Go Green program, for example, collects old jeans and transforms them into insulation for Habitat for Humanity houses.

Levi's also turned to jeans to insulate its Bay Area HQ: “There are 25,500 pairs of old denim jeans used in the insulation in our headquarters building in San Francisco," Michael Kobori, Levi’s vice president of global sustainability, told TriplePundit in 2014. "It is actually a better insulator than fiberglass.”

He's not wrong. Even home improvement guru Bob Vila touts the benefits of recycled denim insulation, noting its durability, improved sound absorption, and high air-quality rating compared to fiberglass.

6. Mulch

Okay, so this one may not sound so surprising on the surface. Cotton is a plant, so it makes sense that you can chop it up and compost it. But emerging applications for cotton mulch could actually save cities big bucks.

Namely, city planners are looking to reduce wind and water erosion along roadways. Roadside vegetation is widely used for its erosion-busting benefits. And it turns out compost made from cotton waste, such as stems, leaves and hulls, can help.

In 2011, researchers from Texas Tech proclaimed: "Cotton waste used for compost has huge market potential for the establishment of roadside vegetation." But they noted a lack of research into the effect on soils. After testing, they found cotton compost applied as a top-cover improved the soil's water retention without negatively affecting other properties.

Another cost-saving benefit of cotton waste mulch is that it can be used in spray-on applications. Often called hydromulch, the green slurry can be sprayed on roadsides, as well as construction sites, to slow erosion.

Image credit: Flickr/Kimberly Vardeman

Last week, the U.S. and China formally joined the Paris Agreement, just a day before the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China. The U.S. and China are the top greenhouse gas emitters in the world and are responsible for nearly 40 percent of global GHG emissions.

Seeing these two huge emitters join the Paris Agreement means it is more likely to be ratified this year, or even as soon as this month. Ratification requires 55 percent of the 180 signatories, representing over 55 percent of global GHG emissions.

On April 22, the Agreement was opened for signature, culminating in the largest one-day signing event in the history of the U.N. As of Thursday, 27 parties formally joined, according to a ratification status tracker from the the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The signatories represent a little over 39 percent of global emissions, bringing the Agreement tantalizingly close to full-force. 

On Sept. 19, representatives will meet in New York City for the annual General Assembly of the United Nations. The “next wave of ratification,” is expected to happen here, Emilie Mazzacurati, CEO of advisory firm Four Twenty Seven, wrote on TriplePundit.

Let's take it back

Here's a bit of background, for those who may be rusty: In December, the Agreement was adopted by all parties during the COP21 climate talks in Paris. That basically means all representatives agreed on the language in the agreement. But it must go through several steps before entering into force in international law.

The first step is for countries to sign the Agreement, and 175 did in April. The pen-to-paper aspect of the signature is purely ceremonial. It signals that a country supports the agreement and “its intention to align its domestic policies with the Agreement terms and start the process of formally joining,” as Climate Nexus put it in a fact sheet.

Heads of state must then return to their countries and gain domestic approval to formally join, the second step. The third step begins when 55 countries covering 55 percent of emissions formally join the Agreement. “When these two thresholds are met the Agreement will enter into force,” according to Climate Nexus.

At a press conference last week, President Barack Obama referenced the 2014 climate pact between the U.S. and China. It set “landmark targets for our two countries to meet,” Obama said, and “set us on the road to Paris by jumpstarting an intense diplomatic effort to put other countries on the same course."

In 2015, China and the U.S. came together in Washington to “lay out additional actions our two countries would take, along with a roadmap for ultimately reaching a strong agreement in Paris,” the president went on. Now, of course, the two countries meet again “to commit formally to joining the agreement ahead of schedule, creating the prospect that the agreement might enter into force ahead of schedule, as well.”

“Of course, the Paris Agreement alone won’t solve the climate crisis,” Obama said. “But it does establish an enduring framework that enables countries to ratchet down their carbon emissions over time, and to set more ambitious targets as technology advances.

"That means full implementation of this agreement will help delay or avoid some of the worst consequences of climate change, and pave the way for more progress in the coming years.”

What's next for the agreement: Could a Trump presidency spell the end?

China and the U.S. formally joining the Agreement makes it harder for the next American president to scrap it. GOP hopeful Donald Trump said he will renegotiate the Agreement if elected, and even hinted toward ditching it. "I will be looking at that very, very seriously, and at a minimum I will be renegotiating those agreements, at a minimum. And at a maximum I may do something else," Trump told Reuters.

But it may be hard for Trump to scrap the Agreement. Obama entered into it as as executive agreement and not a treaty, arguing that it isn’t a treaty since it doesn’t “impose any legally-binding constraints to the U.S.,” Mazzacurati wrote on 3p this week. While a treaty requires Senate ratification, an executive agreement does not. So, Trump wouldn't be able to get the Senate to revoke ratification.

Another roadblock: After the Agreement is entered into force, a country that has ratified it has to wait three years before starting the withdrawal process, and it will take a year after that to complete the process. So, it wouldn’t be likely that Trump, if elected, would be able to withdraw from the Agreement in just one term.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s purported views of the Agreement are in stark contrast to Trump’s. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention, Clinton said the Agreement must be enforced. “I’m proud that we shaped a global climate agreement – now we have to hold every country accountable to their commitments, including ourselves."

Image credit: Flickr/U.S. Department of Agriculture

Violent altercations over the weekend on the freshly-bulldozed remains of a Native American cultural landmark left a lot of questions.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who filed suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in August over a controversial oil pipeline, were on one side of the disagreement. They stood aligned with several hundred environmental protesters from across the country. A small but well-prepared crew of security guards, armed with attack dogs and mace, were on the other.

The issue was the land contractors proceeded to tear up, and a series of documents the tribe filed in court only a day earlier. According to a press release issued by the tribe on Saturday evening, contractors for Energy Transfer Partners, LP, the company behind the pipeline, destroyed "[sacred] places containing ancient burial sites, places of prayer and other significant cultural artifacts of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe." They argue the destroyed landmarks would have been important to the suit to stop the pipeline.

The tribe's attorney, Jan Hasselman, said the destruction was particularly ill-timed:

“We’re days away from getting a resolution on the legal issues, and they came in on a holiday weekend and destroyed the site,” said Hasselman, who is representing the tribe with the assistance of Earthjustice.

Representatives of the tribe and environmental organizations accused the pipeline company of deliberately destroying the burial sites in order to prevent the tribe from strengthening its claim in court.

Dakota Access and Standing Rock Sioux: Longstanding disputes

Protests against the 1,168-mile Dakota Access pipeline (which crosses North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois) have been going on for months. And they forced Energy Transfer Partners into court more than once.

In June, a stop-work order was lifted in Iowa after Energy Transfer agreed to amend its route and run the pipeline underneath a Native American burial site and protected wetlands not far from the South Dakota border. The agreement to burrow underneath burial sites, however, did not apply to the North Dakota cultural site, which is on private land.

Tim Mentz, a former cultural protection officer for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who helped compile the list of burial sites for court submission, feels differently. He insists that some of the destroyed sites would have "unquestionably" qualified for preservation under the National Historic Preservation Act and would have required Energy Transfer to amend its route.

“I surveyed this land, and we confirmed multiple graves and specific prayer sites,” Mentz said. “Portions, and possibly complete sites," were "taken out entirely” during last Saturday's construction.

Mentz said the sites he surveyed were left out of a cultural-resource survey the pipeline company submitted to the Corps. That led to a disagreement over whether the pipeline would damage cultural artifacts. Two other historians have also come forward to say the survey done by the contractor was incomplete.

Water at the heart of debate

But the burial sites aren't the only issue of conflict for the Sioux tribes. Water is once again a focal point in the debate over crude oil transport.

Water problems are legendary in this part of the state, and the tribe makes clear on its website that "water is the key to increasing the quality of life and promoting full economic development on the Standing Rock Reservation." According to court documents submitted by the tribe, the pipeline comes within a mile of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Critics say this is too close to assure it won't affect the tribe's water source if a pipeline break or leak occurs.

But in earlier court documents, the Army Corps of Engineers said they reached out to the tribe for discussion but their efforts were rebuffed. The Corps also claims to have required Energy Transfer officials to offer the tribe the opportunity to monitor construction at certain points along the route. If so, the requirement was clearly missed last Saturday as bulldozers began working on disputed ground.

But the tribe insists supervising the route isn't the issue.

"The Corps puts our water and the lives and livelihoods of many in jeopardy,” Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said in a prepared statement last August. "We have laws that require federal agencies to consider environmental risks and protection of Indian historic and sacred sites." He said the Corps "fast-tracked" the project, disregarding key objections and problems in favor of making a construction deadline.

Standing Rock Sioux's emergency injunction

The Corps remained fairly silent on last Saturday's violence and the way the situation was handled by company officials.

It isn't clear why the contractors started on the plot of land that had been in contention for months. Many also wonder why law enforcement officials, who were reportedly seen on the outskirts of the construction zone, didn't intervene when the violence started. But according to onlookers, many of whom had video cameras and phones, the skirmish started when protesters and tribal members realized the bulldozers were ploughing over the disputed cultural sites.

Hundreds of protesters poured through the fences and were met by security guards armed with mace and dogs. Tempers flared when one protester was stopped and thrown to the ground, and protesters charged the bulldozers.

An interesting side note of this altercation was that it was extremely well recorded. Democracy Now! moderated as the fight ensued, and numerous video accounts were published live. For their part, the security guards who charged against protesters with bite dogs seemed fairly unconcerned about being taped as people were being bitten or maced. One female security officer repeatedly commanded her dog to charge into crowds, rather than defend property.

By the time the fight stopped, four people were bitten by dogs, including one child and a pregnant woman. The oil company released a statement saying several of its security personnel and dogs were injured.

The bulldozers halted for a day while the judge overseeing the suit sorted through the issues. The tribe, having filed an emergency motion, called on the court to issue a restraining order against Energy Transfer and its contractors.

The next day, U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the company to halt construction on roughly 250 miles of pipeline. The affected area spans between State Highway 1806 in North Dakota and 20 miles east of Lake Oahe, South Dakota. But according to a statement released by Waterkeeper Alliance, the judge said "he lacked jurisdiction over the lands west of the highway, where the destruction of sacred sites has been occurring, because the National Historical Preservation Act applies only to federal agency action, and the land was not under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps."

The limited power of U.S. regulations

It's unlikely the Sioux Nation ever thought its ability to protect or have access to culturally-significant areas would be weakened when they ceded lands in treaty centuries ago. But the inability of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protect cultural sites that weren't within the boundaries of their reservation, but were always regarded as accessible, points to a concern that isn't just limited to Native American communities. In fact, it's an issue that has been played out through the centuries in the United States, and culture often has little bearing over its outcome. Neither, apparently, do the years of acculturation that we often, and passionately, claim lie between the injustices of the 17th or 18th centuries, and our more informed way of handling civil rights issues today.

As the Army Corps of Engineers observed when it agreed to halt the pipeline for now, the push for oil across lands that communities have always regarded as theirs to protect is changing the way we regard the importance of a community caught in the middle.

The outcome of lawsuits like the Sioux Nation's may have a lot to say about a community's legal rights. But unfortunately, they don't regulate or ensure what is most needed -- and most at risk -- in controversies like this: the common decency of respecting hallowed ground.

Image credit: Flickr/Ray Bodden

It’s easy being green in the city of Cincinnati. In fact, the city is quickly becoming one of the greenest, most innovative cities in the country. No longer known for just chili, baseball and the second largest Octoberfest in the world (outside of Munich), Cincinnati is evolving into a hub for technology, sustainability and social innovation.

Startup Cincy

Many people think of the U.S. tech industry as a bi-coastal phenomenon, but between Silicon Valley and New York City lies 3,000 miles of countryside dotted with booming business hubs. In fact, within the next five years, the Midwest will have more startups than Silicon Valley. 

One of the fastest growing centers for tech innovation is Cincinnati. The city has seen the biggest startup growth in the nation as one of five metros jumping drastically in rank over the past year, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship.

Home to the headquarters of 10 Fortune 500 companies, including Macy's and Procter & Gamble, the metropolitan area also supports a growing community of tech startups through accelerator programs, low business taxes and connecting entrepreneurs with established companies and funding.

"There's a community of entrepreneurship [here] that you wouldn't necessarily expect in a flyover city," Mike Bott,  the co-founder of popular Cincinnati-based startup accelerator, The Brandery - told Entrepreneur. Recognized as one of the top accelerator programs in the U.S., The Brandery pushes startups through a four-month program, providing each with $20,000 in seed money and mentorship.

And they’re not alone. Millions of dollars are invested in Cincinnati based startups each year through a variety of incubators, accelerators and innovative funding strategies. It’s not that Cincinnati has more money than other Midwestern cities, it’s just that those with the money are more deeply connected to the ecosystem of people and young companies with innovative ideas.

Sustainable Cincy

Cincinnati has about 60 sustainability initiatives outlined in the Green Cincinnati Plan which covers everything from renewable energy, to transportation, to food waste. The City’s ambitious sustainability efforts are focused on opportunities to meet multiple objectives at the same time.

“In addition to benefiting the environment, our initiatives must make economic sense (save money, create jobs) and improve quality of life for residents (improve public health, mobility, connectedness)” explained Ollie Kroner, the Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Cincinnati.

As a newly appointed, passionate Millennial, Kroner brings a fresh, visionary perspective to the position. “Our office takes on some of the world’s biggest, most challenging problems and we develop strategies that aim to improve quality of life for Cincinnatians as global citizens. It’s an opportunity to think big and be innovative. Honestly, it’s a big, difficult dream job” Kroner told TriplePundit.

And the city has already come a long way. It was one of the first major cities to move to 100 percent green energy for its residents and businesses through the city’s Green Electricity Aggregation program. Not only did this reduce city emissions by approximately 247,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year, but also saves nearly $7 million dollars for the city annually.

“There are several big picture issues we are looking at right now” said Kroner. “How can we accelerate the adoption of energy efficiency upgrades and solar energy? How can we divert our organic waste stream from the landfill? How can we prepare our city for electric vehicles? How can we embrace Smart City technologies to improve our environment, economy, and quality of life?”

The City of Cincinnati has several exciting projects on the horizon. “We are currently working to roll out curbside textile and housewares recycling for residents. Anything you would have taken to Goodwill will be accepted for curbside pickup. We estimate these items to constitute 11 percent of our current waste stream, so this is an opportunity to put a big dent in our landfilled waste.”

Solarize Cincinnati has installed solar panels on 20 homes in just the past two months and that pace is expected to accelerate. The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati is pursuing anaerobic digestion to turn sewage sludge into an asset. This technology would replace incineration with a process similar to composting. Rather than burning the “waste,” sewage sludge can be a source of renewable energy and a fertilizer product. These are just a few of the many ideas the city is cooking up.

Innovative Cincy

When it comes to the intersection of sustainability and innovation, Cincinnati is certainly thinking outside the box. The city is exploring issues like how sustainability can be used to combat poverty, crime prevention through environmental design and how we can leverage the power of big data to drive change.

Last year the City of Cincinnati completed building a LEED Platinum Net-Zero district police headquarters. The new solar and geothermal powered building consumes less than 50 percent of the energy used by traditionally designed facilities of the same size, making it a strong contender for the greenest building in Ohio.

The Net-Zero Police Headquarters has green features that double as security features – like high-performance windows that insulate, but are also bulletproof; daylighting that reduces the need for artificial light, but also provides high visibility around the site and storm water collection that allows the rain to infiltrate into the soil, but also provides a physical barrier that would prevent a vehicle from crashing into the building. The city is currently evaluating the building’s performance to see if it can serve as a model for future city buildings.

One day in the not so distant future, cities all over the globe will be tapping into big data to assess and drive change amongst their constituents. They will be able to access clear and concise data from every department that they oversee. For the City of Cincinnati, the dream is already a reality.

“The City’s leadership has prioritized the use of data to drive good government decision-making.” explained Kroner. “We are currently working to build a dashboard of sustainability indicators to help us track the impact and progress of our sustainability initiatives. For example, by using smart sensors on our recycling bins, Cincinnati now has the largest publicly-owned body of recycling behavior data in the country. We use this data to target our outreach efforts to improve recycling participation rates.”

“Many aspects of sustainability require behavioral changes – drive less, eat healthier, drop empty cans in the recycling instead of the trash” said Kroner. “Generally speaking, people don’t like change. Old habits die hard. Designing a program that provides multiple benefits and minimizes harms is hurdle number one. Communicating the benefits of a proposed change can be even harder.”

However challenging the journey may be, it’s clear that Cincinnati is on the right track. It’s definitely one of the cities to watch in the coming years.

Image credits: 1) Mark Brown, 2) City of Cincinnati, 3) Flickr/Mark Seymor

By Pari Kasotia

Addressing climate change requires a two-pronged approach. One approach is implementing preventative policies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan, intended to reduce carbon emissions. Other examples of preventative policies include carbon tax or a cap and trade system. A second approach is designing communities that are able to withstand climate change impacts.

To effectively address the risks of climate change, adoption and application of technological breakthroughs that build smart and resilient communities is essential.  The clean energy revolution holds significant promise in terms of mitigating climate change impact. The actual transition, however, is a long-term process with many moving parts and one that requires careful planning and consideration. How, then, can countries safeguard and plan against climate related events that continue to threaten livelihoods, economies and health of individuals? Solar combined with storage offers one viable solution.

The 2016 Climate Change Vulnerability Index below points out to countries that are at extreme risks from climate change. African nations such as Chad, Niger, and Central African Republic and parts of Asia such as Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable. Fortunately, these countries possess strong solar PV potential, as measured by the level of solar irradiation, which when combined with storage can significantly increase resiliency of these countries to handle climate change impacts.

While storage is primarily seen as a strategy to integrate variable renewable energy into the grid, solar combined with storage can serve as a resiliency mechanism to prepare communities to handle extreme weather events caused by climate change, and risks to the grid system which are becoming increasingly more pronounced.

 

A series of projects are already underway in the United States intended to demonstrate the efficacy of utilizing solar plus storage as a resiliency measure. San Francisco’s Solar + Storage for Resiliency program, through funding from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative, aims to serve as a national model for integrating solar and storage into the city’s emergency response plans. Similarly, in 2015, Oregon undertook an energy storage demonstration project in collaboration with Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) to create an island system comprised of batteries and solar PV to provide clean, resilient power to three critical facilities. These projects, when completed, will provide a wealth of best practices for other communities to emulate.

High-risk developing countries that are just beginning to plan their mitigation and resiliency strategies are at an inflection point to create a framework to incorporate solar plus storage. This is particularly valuable for communities with massive urban centers, island locations, and regions with weak grid access. Below are some recommendations communities should implement.

1. Incorporate solar plus storage as a resiliency measure in disaster preparedness plans. An ideal community disaster preparedness plan is synchronized with the local utility provider’s emergency response plan and identifies back-up power assets such as solar plus storage that can be deployed during disastrous situations. These assets should include those already developed and those in the pipeline. Additional planning should incorporate details regarding the duration of power supply from the storage systems, the distance and the level of power storage systems will provide, as well as a prioritized list of facilities that will be first in line to draw power from storage. Having this information readily available will greatly aid communities restore normalcy in disastrous situations with power outages.

2. Regional or national database of implemented and to-be implemented solar PV projects. Establishing a database of existing or forthcoming solar projects will help Energy Planning Authorities to understand if incorporating storage on these projects will create a value-add. Factors that should be evaluated include the risk profile of communities where solar projects are sited, the strength of the existing grid, and the load factor of that community. Creating a priority matrix will streamline the planning process and effectively deploy storage resources where they are most needed.

3. Designing cost-competitive solar plus storage systems to suit local conditions. For developing countries to effectively adopt clean energy technologies, they need to be cost-competitive and compete with fossil fuel energy sources. Moreover, these technologies should also be able to sustain physical conditions as well as technological limitations of these countries. For example, is internet access and speed a factor in effective deployment of solar plus storage systems as well as other energy management systems?

4. Take technological maturity spectrum into account: As emerging clean energy technologies such as solar and storage continue to move from “demonstration” and “deployment” phase to “mature” phase, utility and community planners need to assure that today’s investments will not become obsolete tomorrow. One approach can be to deploy new technologies in tandem with technology roll-out plans with solar plus storage companies. Increased collaboration among energy, community, and technology developers can aid with this.

5. Continued training of energy and utility workforce: Emergence and deployment of new technology calls for a greater need in ensuring that the local workforce is trained on effective utilization of these technologies. New training programs need to be designed for solar installers, grid operators and power dispatchers. This is especially critical for Sub-Saharan Africa which is already witnessing a shortage of skilled workers for the clean energy industry. Research shows that qualified workers in the region are unable to keep up with the investments and the penetration of clean energy technologies in Africa.

According to International Energy Agency (IEA), 17 percent of the world population or 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity. Ninety-five percent of these are located in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Moreover, the same countries are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The swiftest way to grant these people access to electricity is through utilization of readily available energy source – the sun. And to protect these communities from climate change impacts, solar plus storage is a promising answer.

Image credit: Pixabay

Graphic: Verisk Maplecroft

Paritosh (Pari) Kasotia is the Deputy Director of The Solar Foundation (TSF) based in Washington DC dedicated to advancing solar energy use worldwide. Prior to her role at TSF, Pari founded and led Unfolding Energy and also led the State of Iowa’s Energy Office by managing multi-million dollar projects to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy. You can follow her on twitter and LinkedIn.

By Geoff Ledford

Sustainability can be incredibly engaging. The pressing issues of our day demand that humans find new ways of existing – and quickly. Happily, society’s attitudes about sustainability are heading in a positive direction. In recent years, consumers have begun to demonstrate a preference for sustainable products and services, while many businesses have embraced sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as part of the way they operate. As sustainability practitioners and communicators, the world is primed to listen to our message.

So, why is it that the vast majority of sustainability messaging isn’t as nearly memorable or effective as an average beer commercial?

Although a full answer to that question is large and complicated (and far out of the scope of this blog post), some insight can be gained in understanding how marketing folks (the ones who come up with those clever beer commercials) go about their craft. Oftentimes, you’ll remember an ad or a jingle for a product you’d never seriously consider purchasing – meaning that the messages are often of a higher quality than the products or services being promoted. Marketing people are incredibly adept at engaging audiences – and we should take time to study what makes them so effective.

In honor of the return of Bill Belichick and the forthcoming NFL season, what follows are four plays that have been “stolen” (a la Spygate) from the marketing playbook. These techniques serve as a reminder that we can amplify our sustainability messages if we’re willing to borrow from others.

1. Be concrete

Human brains are programmed to like concrete thoughts and ideas. “Zero emissions” is an abstraction. The Tesla Model S is concrete – and a whole lot more memorable. When explaining abstract material issues or priority focus areas, use as many concrete words, examples, and stories as possible to make your message resonate. (Then back up your claims with concrete data.)

2. One overarching message at a time

Ever notice that companies generally only run one big marketing push at a time? (For example, “Live Mas” would never have cohabitated with “Yo Quiero Taco Bell.”) Meanwhile, material issues tend to come in clusters of ten or twenty.

Trying to address more than one or two “focus areas” won’t work if these focus areas aren’t connected into a larger narrative or strategic framework. If you want your CSR messaging to resonate, pick an overarching message, cause, or theme that you want to communicate – and let material issues reinforce that message. They won’t work nearly as well if they’re forced to stand alone.

3. Put your brand in the driver’s seat

Messages coming from CSR or sustainability departments often look, sound, and feel entirely different than those coming from the rest of a company. This can leave stakeholders feeling like a company has a bit of schizophrenia.

Infusing brand voice into CSR communications does not mean that sustainability messaging needs to be watered down or turned into marketing fluff. Rather, if CSR messaging reinforces the brand – in look, feel, and tone of voice – it can make those communications engaging, consistent, and unmistakably recognizable.

4. Leverage the power of emotion

Advertising and marketing communicators use a finely-tuned balance of emotional and rational appeal to ensure that messages engage their audiences. Meanwhile, hardcore sustainability communications (such as sustainability reports or corporate CSR messaging) tends to be more heady. As a result, they miss an opportunity to appeal to what (at our core) makes us most human.

While pulling on heartstrings without substantive action to back up claims is never a good idea (and can lead to a painful fall from grace for brands that employ this tactic), the manipulative ploys of a few bad actors do not mean that all emotional appeal is categorically bad. Things like vision, mission, and purpose – the things that have the power to motivate truly disruptive change – all work precisely because they appeal to humans on an emotional level. And emotional appeal can be a powerful catalyst for change.

Before you can convince anyone of anything – be it buying an electric vehicle, reducing water consumption during production of goods, or simply remembering to put down the toilet seat – you have to first give your audience a reason to care. Sustainability practitioners should take note of the tactics and techniques of our marketing and advertising counterparts, and, ahem, “borrow” (thanks, Bill) them whenever possible. Because, our messages often focus on telling audiences what we are doing, when they should be focused on giving them a reason to care and believe.

Geoff Ledford is a Creative Strategist at thinkPARALLAX – a strategic creative communications agency with a passion for building brands with purpose. We work at the intersection of business strategy, sustainability, and communication. Our values stem from the belief that profit and sustainability are not mutually exclusive – good business means doing the right thing. We cultivate knowledge, spread awareness, and create purposeful connections with audiences.

Image courtesy of thinkPARALLAX

This is the first in a series on sustainability and the internet, excerpted in parts from Designing for Sustainability: A Guide to Building Greener Digital Products and Services (O’Reilly Media, 2016) by Tim Frick. 

The internet is something that over half the world’s population uses every day. Yet few consider that it is well on its way to becoming the world’s largest source of carbon emissions. In this series, we will discuss some potential ways to build a cleaner, greener internet.

Depending on who you ask, there will be between 20 billion and 50 billion devices connected to the internet by the end of this decade, each of them updating, tweeting, sharing, posting, or sending usage data back and forth to servers across the planet. Whether it’s a car self-diagnosing faulty brakes or a chip in your pet’s collar that texts you Fluffy’s location when she has run away, anything that can be assigned an IP address and transmit or receive information will contribute to the huge amount of data we produce. In fact, in the past 12 months alone, according to Salesforce, we have created over 90 percent of all data that ever existed.

The impact of a single tweet is small, less than 0.02 grams of CO2 according to the website Tweetfarts (yes, that’s a thing). But when you multiply those interactions by the number of people on this planet who send, search, and post each day—over half the world’s population, by some calculations with a total of 7.6 billion expected by 2020—that impact becomes much, much larger. When barriers to access disappear, demand rises: Jevons Paradox in action.

Fueled by this growth, the ability to deliver software on a global scale has led to a digital/information economy that in their Information Economy Report the United Nations estimates is in excess of $15 trillion for business-to-business (B2B) and another $1.2 trillion for business-to-consumer (B2C) with both expanding rapidly (the latter faster than the former). And that is just e-commerce. The UN’s report doesn’t take into account the amount of money saved by companies as they undergo the processes of transmaterialization, turning products into services, or dematerialization, converting resource-heavy physical products to their digital equivalents. The financial opportunities also drive huge demand.

Now, couple this exploding demand with the current inefficiency of our digital products and services. The average web page is nearly 2.5 MB in size, despite the fact that many devices will have problems loading that amount of data quickly due to lack of processing power or network availability. In fact, one in four websites are not properly configured to perform well on mobile devices, even though they drive the majority of internet traffic and, starting in 2014, Google penalizes websites that aren’t optimized for mobile in search results. Moving video backgrounds, rotating image carousels, social sharing widgets, excess server requests, and many more commonly requested bells and whistles added to web pages lead to bloated, inefficient sites that waste energy and frustrate users.

Plus, streaming video services already make up more than 70 percent of consumer internet traffic. And virtual reality, which is on the rise, takes up 20 times more bandwidth than fullscreen HD video. This all puts massive energy demands on both front-end devices and back-end servers and data centers. In the U.S., less than 15 percent of this energy comes from renewable sources.

Lack of awareness is a huge roadblock for this issue, but we are not entirely without tools or resources. Some companies, like Carbon Analytics, Third Partners and ClimateCare, have started including digital properties as part of their overall sustainability assessments. Agencies like Manoverboard and DOJO4 have begun folding sustainable design principles into their existing processes for building digital products and services. My company Mightybytes created a free web tool, Ecograder, to help companies better understand how to make their digital products and services more sustainable. With Ecograder reporting, you can improve your own website in four key areas:

• Search and content strategy: If content is clearly written and optimized for search, users will spend less time (and energy) locating information that is relevant to them. This results in reduced server requests and fewer page elements—like photos and videos which take up a lot of bandwidth—loading unnecessarily. These small energy savings accumulate over time.

• Performance optimization: Speedy, reliable pages are better for users and better for the environment. Your customers expect to get the content they want instantly. Performance-optimized websites or mobile apps send fewer files and use less processing power on both the server and front-end sides, which of course means they also use less energy. Optimizing your site for performance can also significantly reduce bounce rates and abandoned shopping carts.

• Design and user experience: Creating a great experience across devices and platforms—including enabling technologies for users with disabilities—is more sustainable. If users have to struggle with design experiences not optimized for their particular devices they waste time and, you guessed it, energy.

• Green hosting: The servers that store your files require power 24 hours a day, so the single most impactful thing you can do is to use a hosting provider that runs on 100 percent renewable energy.

By following sustainable web design principles, you can reduce the impact of your digital products and services. In this series we will explore each of the above topics in greater detail.

Image credit: Pexels