World Met @ World Met: Atmospheric Methane at Record High

Concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere are the highest they’ve been since systematic measurements of greenhouse gases began almost 40 years ago, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced last Wednesday. Researchers discovered a drastic increase of methane in particular, which is at a record high.

Methane is the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide. It is 25 times more damaging to the climate than CO₂ but remains in the atmosphere for less time. Methane hangs around for around 10 years, while CO₂ can linger for centuries.

According to the WMO, the global average atmospheric methane concentration has been rising steadily since 2007. Analysis indicates that the largest contribution to this increase comes from biogenic sources such as wetlands or rice paddies.

The increase in concentration of CO₂ from 2020 to 2021 was higher than previous 10 year average. According to the report, the concentration increased by 2.5 parts per million to 415.7 ppm in 2021. That’s about 150% of the level before industrialization began. The increase is primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels and cement production.

Atmospheric nitrous oxide – also known as laughing gas – also grew more last year than the average over the past decade. The concentration was 334.5 ppm, or about 125% of pre-industrial levels. Nitrous oxide is about 300 times more harmful to the climate than CO₂ – no laughing matter!

According to the German Federal Environment Agency, CO₂ contributes about 65% to the greenhouse effect, methane 16% and nitrous oxide about 6.5%. All greenhouse gases combined have led to an average global warming of more than 1.1 degrees Celsius since the end of the 19^th century.

The WMO reported in May that the average annual temperature could already be 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels in at least one year between 2022 and 2026. The probability of this is almost 50%. If warming goes above 1.5 C on a permanent basis, the consequences of climate change are considerable.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said on the occasion of the new figures, “The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin once again underscores the enormous challenge – and vital need – for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent further increases in global temperatures in the future.”

He said the continued rise in concentrations of key greenhouse gases shows that “we are heading in the wrong direction.” Taalas warned, “We need to transform our industrial, energy, and transportation systems, as well as our entire way of life. The necessary changes are economically affordable and technically possible. Time is running out.”

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SusDAYnability!

Today, like on every fourth Wednesday in October each year, is Sustainability Day 2022!

It is hard to say who exactly came up with idea, but many universities around the world celebrate Sustainability Day. It seems to be connected to the Campus Sustainability Day, which was started in 2014. Colleges and universities are encouraged to create events on campus and elsewhere that draw participants for the exchange of ideas and knowledge among faculty, staff, and students, from across all departments and disciplines, and even from across the campus ‘edge’ between town and gown. to remind the community of the importance of caring for the environment and the steps to do so.

Sustainability Day 2022 gives the world the opportunity to become more familiar with the topic and come together to learn what can be done to promote sustainability. Currently, schools, companies and organizations globally have dedicated the day to sustainable living and consumer behavior.

And in sustainable consumer behavior, climate protection continues to play a major role, as a survey conducted by the market research institute Appinio on behalf of ClimatePartner found recently. Despite many economic and political uncertainties, 66% of consumers want their purchases to be climate friendly. To this end, they expect companies to provide appropriate offers and transparent information.

The Climate Action Awareness Report 2022 surveyed almost 10,000 people aged 14 and older in 10 countries. More than 2,500 of them were from Germany, Austria and Switzerland

“The responses send a clear signal: companies must take responsibility, implement climate protection measures effectively and communicate them transparently and clearly,” said Moritz Lehmkuhl, CEO and founder of ClimatePartner. “At the same time, the survey shows that climate-friendly products are desired.” 

For 77% of respondents, companies have a particular responsibility and feel it is very important for industry to take action. They also see climate labels as a helpful guide. Sixty percent consider them very important when making purchases, and in Germany as many as 65% do. According to their own statements, 33% of those surveyed in the three countries even actively look for corresponding labels when consuming. “Transparent and comprehensible information should thus be standard for all climate labels,” added Lehmkuhl. 

Consumers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have fundamental trust in climate friendliness labels. Only 12% deny this. Those surveyed also understand that products in a wide range of categories can be climate-neutral. 53% believe that food and beverages, for example, can follow this concept. By contrast, only a minority (15%) are of the opposite opinion. 

Consumers are demanding that companies take responsibility for climate protection and are also applying this standard to themselves. A large proportion of those surveyed are prepared to change previous habits in order to support climate protection. The first rank, with 45% of respondents, is taken by the renunciation of air travel. Meanwhile, about 33% can say goodbye to an internal combustion engine car. 

Regardless of the climate-neutral product or climate-friendly service, 60% of those surveyed consider information on companies’ climate protection measures and their impact to be important for making their own decisions. For 24%, transparency is even the top priority. 

“Companies have to meet this expectation and this also includes continuously expanding the communication options by means of labels and further landing pages,” Lehmkuhl added.

This holds true also for lubricant companies and sustainability consultancies, such as Fokus Zukunft, which are focused on supporting them with the necessary tools.

STAY SusDAYnable!

New Guidance for German Supply Chain Act

In August, Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) issued guidance on the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG). The LkSG requires German companies to carry out human rights and environment-related due diligence on themselves and their suppliers. When it comes into force on Jan. 1, 2023, the act will apply to enterprises with at least 3,000 employees. As of Jan. 1, 2024, this will drop to 1,000 and starting from then some companies in the broader lubricants space will also join the game.

Under the act, companies must ensure that it identifies, prevents, stops or at least mitigates risk. This applies to both their own business and their suppliers. As for money laundering or anti-corruption, companies must establish a risk management system that forms the organizational and procedural framework for fulfilling other due diligence obligations. BAFA will monitor and enforce due diligence obligations and may impose penalties and fines for breaching obligations. BAFA will also assist companies by publishing handouts that provide information, assistance and recommendations on compliance with the LkSG.

With respect to risk analysis, authorities may impose a fine if it has not been carried out correctly, completely, on time or not at all. At the same time, enterprises should always bear in mind that the BAFA is not the legislator.

The handouts are non-binding and are subject to judicial review, at least when they take on concrete form in an administrative order imposing a fine or other administrative act. The LkSG only makes abstract stipulations for the risk analysis. It does not provide any further details on how companies should carry out a risk analysis. Companies can exercise their own discretion in this respect.

As things stand, the Supply Chain Directive planned at the European Union level (officially known as the Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence) provides for almost no relief for companies with respect to indirect suppliers. If it came into force, there would be an express legal requirement to include indirect suppliers in all risk analyses. However, by the time companies have to comply with the requirements of the EU Directive, they likely have established or expanded risk management systems and gained experience with risk analysis in their supply chains.

On October 15, BAFA published a questionnaire on LkSG reporting, allowing companies to check their compliance. All companies that fall under the scope of the LkSG must regularly publish a compliance report with the statutory due diligence requirements. The answers to a structured questionnaire form the basis of a report, which when published fulfils a company’s reporting obligation.

“Plausible statements … on internal processes that have already been started, will be given appropriate consideration during the BAFA audit,” said BAFA President Torsten Safarik.

BAFA published the questionnaire in advance so that companies can examine the content of the subsequent questionnaire. This allows them to check if they already have the required information for a complete report or require more preparation.

A broad participation and stakeholder process preceded the conception of the questionnaire. The focus was on practical and procedurally efficient design within the framework of the legal requirements of the act.

The first BAFA handout has useful tips and information on the concept and methods of risk analysis, according to the LkSG. The companies concerned should read the handout carefully, but only implement its recommendations after critical evaluation. BAFA goes beyond the wording of the LkSG, because it takes the position that indirect suppliers should also be included in this risk analysis. This is especially with respect to the risk analysis on an ad hoc basis due to a change in business activity.

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Warm Wind Computing Climate: New Supercomputer Helps Study Climate Change

Scientists from the German Climate Computing Center in Hamburg unveiled this in September a gleaming new climate research supercomputer. Named “Levante,” it’s the sole supercomputer in Germany used solely to study climate change.

Levante comprises 2,832 nodes, each with two processors, which together deliver peak computing power of 14 petaFLOP per second. A FLOP is a floating point operation, and Levante does 14 quadrillion of them per second. A quadrillion is a one and 15 zeros.

>Read more about sustainability and climate change here.

The computer also has a 132-petabyte storage system for storing and analyzing the simulation data. This equates to storage capacity 130,000 times greater than a 1 terabyte laptop.

The device is five times more powerful than its predecessor, which should make it possible to forecast climate change more accurately for the current century.

“If we want to slow down and stop climate change, we need to understand the climate as a whole even better,” Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger said at the inauguration. With the help of the €45 million project, more comprehensive, higher-resolution and better climate projections are possible.

Levante will provide information on the effects of climate change that current simulations cannot yet offer. 

“In order to respond to the challenges of climate change and develop solutions, we need to understand the climate system in all its complexity,” said Hamburg Science Senator Katharina Fegebank. For this, she said, the supercomputer is “a real gamechanger.”

Modelling is an essential part of climate research. It allows climate scientists the ability to simulate the Earth’s climate system based on scientific laws and assumptions that researchers make.

“The long-term goal is to create a digital twin of the Earth to better understand and more accurately predict how weather and climate occur – on a global scale, but even more specifically on a local scale,” said Martin Stratmann, president of the Max Planck Society, in a press release.

The name Levante is Spanish for “warm wind”. It is one of the winds in the Mediterranean and originates between Spain and the North African coast. A levante happens every month and has an influence on the climate in many areas in and around the Mediterranean.

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European Energy Efficiency Extraordinaries!

The European Union has grappling with all-time high energy prices in 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Brussels has moved swiftly to reduce its reliance on Russian fossil fuels, hurried by the Kremlin constricting supply. Energy imports from Russia now account for about 9%, down from 41%. 

But while these initiatives have managed to strengthen European energy supply security, prices have continued to climb. Last month, an extraordinary Energy Council tried to ease pressure on domestic and commercial consumers through a range of legislative initiatives. Next week, is the first European Energy Efficiency Day.

States’ Savings

Energy Efficiency Day originated in the United States and is observed on the first Wednesday in October, which was yesterday! It’s a collaborative effort of dozens of energy efficiency advocacy groups around the country. Its message is “Save Money. Cut Pollution. Create Jobs.” 

Since the inaugural Energy Efficiency Day in 2016, this annual awareness event has been supported by hundreds of prominent advocates, organizations, companies, government agencies, utilities and others in the U.S. who showcase the benefits of energy.

Last year 66 universities, state, county and city governments issued proclamations for Energy Efficiency Day 2021. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution that officially designated October 6 as Energy Efficiency Day in 2021 “in celebration of the economic and environmental benefits” driven by efficiency!

(World Energy Efficiency Day was March 6 this year.)

European Efficiency 

Back in Europe, the first European Energy Efficiency Day conference is next week on October 13. It will bring together policymakers, businesspeople, civil society organizations and energy experts. Its goal is to create a platform to explore cost-efficient and socially fair decarbonization efforts and raise awareness of energy savings as the way forward to achieve the EU Green Deal.

According to the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 report, achieving climate neutrality by 2050 requires pushing the average rate of energy efficiency improvements in the period 2020-2030 to about three times the average of the past two decades.

We can do this by massively scaling up energy efficient solutions for buildings, vehicles, home appliances and industry. This includes the lubricant industry, too.

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Decarbonizing Dark Data

Companies generate vast amounts of digital data. More than half of it is collected, processed, stored and never used again. Outdated spreadsheets, data from Internet of Things sensors, autosaved document backups, cloud pictures. This so-called “dark data” requires huge amounts of energy to power and cool the server farms where it’s stored. But dark data has a significant yet hidden cost to the environment.

The generation of digital data could reach 181 trillion gigabytes by 2025, almost double the current 97 trillion gigabytes. Data centers are responsible for 2.5% of all human-induced carbon dioxide, a greater carbon footprint than the aviation industry at 2.1%. 

>Read more about becoming carbon neutral by clicking here.

With this in mind, it’s surprising that policymakers pay little attention to reducing organizations’ digital carbon footprints, write Tom Jackson and Ian Hodgkinson of Loughborough University, in an article for The Conversation.

Jackson and Hodgkinson point out that climate change activists mostly focus on limiting transport and energy emissions. But the emissions profile of digital data processing is comparable and is still growing. 

“In the drive toward net zero, many organizations are trying to reduce their carbon footprints. Guidance has generally centered on reducing traditional sources of carbon production, through mechanisms such as carbon offsetting via third parties,” they write.

Digital Decarbonization

To help reduce an organization’s carbon footprint, the authors have introduced the idea of “digital decarbonization”. By this, they don’t mean using phones, computers, sensors and other digital technologies to reduce an organization’s carbon footprint. Rather, they are referring to reducing the carbon footprint of digital data itself. It is key to recognize that digitization is not itself an environmental issue, but there are huge environmental impacts that depend on how we use digital processes in daily workplace activities.

The authors have created a tool to calculate an organization’s data carbon cost. They found a 100-employee data-driven business generates almost 3,000 gigabytes of dark data per day. Storing this data for a year generates as much carbon as flying from London to New York six times. Currently, companies produce 1.3 billion gigabytes of dark data a day – that’s more than 3 million London to New York flight, according to the article.

The rapid growth of dark data raises questions about the efficiency of current digital practices. In a recent study in the Journal of Business Strategy, the authors identified ways to help organizations reuse digital data and highlight pathways for them to follow when collecting, processing and storing new digital data. They hope that this could reduce dark data production and contribute to the digital decarbonization movement. 

This is also true for lubricant companies. They’ve rightly started on the path to carbon neutrality with their products, as well as within their organization.

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Industry Launches Chemical Product Carbon Footprint Guideline

Last week, a group of 37 companies including BASF, Brenntag, Evonik, Clariant and Lanxess, launched a global chemical product carbon footprint calculation guideline. The new guideline allows chemicals-consuming companies and the wider market to directly compare and assess their products’ climate impact.

Global lubricant additives, base oils and other raw materials find their way into about 37 million tons of lubricant worldwide. Product carbon footprint calculations help manage emissions generated by the chemicals value chain, of which lubricants are a part.

The chemical product carbon footprint guideline provides specific calculation instructions for emissions from cradle-to-gate for chemicals. It also draws together footprint calculation methods from across the chemicals industry. BASF has already been sharing its product carbon footprint calculation methodology with its suppliers, customers and peers. The methodology conforms to ISO standards 14040, 14044 and 14067, and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard.

“This industry-wide agreement … brings us a big step closer to achieving unrestricted comparability of product carbon footprints and, therefore, a level playing field within the chemical industry,” Christoph Jäkel, vice president of corporate sustainability at BASF, said in a press release.

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Watchdog Wants Oil Extraction Advocate on Exxon Board

An independent ethics watchdog is using a new SEC rule to get an advocate for continued oil and gas extraction onto the ExxonMobil board. 

In a five-page letter to Exxon, the conservative National Legal and Policy Center believes its candidate, Donald van der Vaart, would “promote greater diversity.” He would also “recalibrate” the board after activist investors Engine No. 1 instigated a management shake-up. Engine No. 1’s aim was to secure shareholder value beyond oil and gas by voting for three new members who are sympathetic. The NLPC feels the three are “hostile to Exxon’s core competencies.” 

Ex-Shell chemical engineer van der Vaart would make up for lost “critical expertise and understanding of the industry,” the letter said. Exxon stock, of which the NLPC owns, has risen to U.S. $90.95 from $59.45 in June 2021, when the three joined. 

The new SEC new rule makes it easier for shareholders to nominate candidates to corporate boards using proxy voting cards. It allows shareholders to pit their candidates against those nominated by the board. NLPC’s proposal goes to Exxon’s Board Affairs Committee. If that committee votes for van der Vaart, his candidacy goes before the board. The board then decides if he will be on the shareholder ballot at the 2023 annual meeting. 

“He is an eminently qualified scientist, engineer and lawyer. His candidacy should be a no-brainer,” said Paul Chesser, director of NLPC’s Corporate Integrity Project.

Van der Vaart was North Carolina’s Secretary for the Department of Environmental Quality. During his tenure, he clashed with the U.S. EPA and called for its abolition, despite aspiring to become its director, according to North Carolina Policy Watch. 

Charter to Cover Climate Crisis Comprehensively!

Today is September 21 and the annual Zero Emissions Day has come round again. This time last year, I explained the meaning and importance of this date in a blog. But what has happened since? The consequences of the climate crisis continue to be manifold and the interrelationships highly complex. Yet the media doesn’t always do the portrayal of the climate crisis justice. In its newest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reminded the global media of its crucial role in shaping public perception, understanding and willingness to act through their reporting.

The lack of information on these issues relevant to the future is preventing citizens from making informed decisions. It is also delaying action at a time when we need to mobilize societies more than ever to contain the climate crisis or adapt in time to its worst impacts, the IPCC report warns. As greenwashing, misleading lobbying and misinformation have flourished, the responsibility of journalists has also become enormous, it said.

France’s media professionals took the wake-up call to heart. On the France Info website, a group of journalists and scientists called for better climate reporting. They feel that tendentious reporting that fails to name the true connections damages the democratic debate. The also think that the causes and perpetrators must be mentioned. For example, when forest fires ripped through Europe this year, destroying property and wildlife, as well as extreme heat deaths, direct connections with the climate crisis were seldom named concretely.

According to a 2021 survey by Viavoice in 2021, 53% of French people believe that the media doesn’t give enough space to environmental and climate issues. More than half of citizens interested in the media would like to see more constructive and solution-oriented reporting.

In the declaration Charte pour un journalisme à la hauteur d’urgence écologique (“charter for journalism commensurate with the ecological emergency”), more than 500 French journalists have pledged not to treat manmade climate change as a single issue. Instead, they will try to take its effects more into account in their overall reporting and better research and explain interrelationships and overarching issues. 

To emphasise the situation’s gravity and not trivialize it, the charter to cover the climate crisis urges avoiding photos of children in a pool to illustrate heat waves. Around 30 editorial offices, including foreign broadcasters such as France 24 and some journalism schools, also support the charter.

According to the signatories, reporting should not only focus on the effects of the climate crisis, but also highlight strategies for more climate protection. In the charter, the journalists commit themselves to indepth research and further training on the topic in order to convey the findings of science in an understandable way and to train their critical eye. They also need to focus more on the responsibility of the economy, politics and society as a whole, and more honestly examine the structural interrelationships and dependencies.

Climate protection should also be integrated into the company’s working environment. Editorial teams want to reduce CO₂ emissions in their work by using environmentally friendly transport and avoiding unnecessary travel.

The media is depends on advertising revenue and thus transport-targeted content to a large extent. So efforts must also be made here to set the course in the direction of climate protection. Products that are harmful to the climate should be avoided wherever possible. A big, but probably also the most difficult adjustment screw. Editorial teams are therefore also demanding more journalistic independence from their owners. Let’s see where this charter to cover the climate crisis leads.

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Three Fingers Up! The Fifth World Cleanup Day

Tomorrow is the annual World Cleanup Day, a day of global social action aimed at combating the world’s solid waste problem. Being held on the third Saturday of September annually since 2018, people from 157 countries worldwide participated and removed nearly 90 thousand tons of trash from nature in the first year.

An organization now called Let’s Do It! World, based in Tallinn, Estonia, founded World Cleanup Day. Things began when the group encouraged 50,000 Estonians to go out into their communities in an event called Let’s Do It 2008! They collected 10,000 tons of illegally dumped waste.

Word spread, and by the next year, 250,000 people joined in around Europe. By the end of 2011, more than 2.5 million people had participated in cleanup actions in 16 countries around the world. Let’s Do It! World is now an accredited member of the United Nations Environment Program. Since 2017, the movement uses the hand gesture W sign, aka “Three Fingers Up,” as its symbol.

The event builds on similar actions, including Clean Up the World in Australia and National Cleanup Day in the U.S.

The goal of the first World Cleanup Day in 2018 was to involve 5% of the world’s population (about 380 million people). The effort fell short of the target but still mobilized about 18 million people worldwide.

World Cleanup Day includes trash picking and waste mapping spanning every time zone, on sea and land. Nearly every country holds an environmental cleanup event, concluding near the international date line in Hawaii and American Samoa.

In the places where participants live, groups form to collect trash from streets, squares or natural areas. For 24 hours, garbage is piled up at a collection point and taken away by municipal waste disposal companies. 

The initiative aims to motivate cities and communities worldwide to remove waste and keep public spaces clean. Actors report their annual activities, which include recycling and resource conservation projects, tree planting, water conservation and water saving programs.

STAY SuSTAYnable! or Clean Up!

SBTI Conducting Survey on Key Topics

The Science Based Targets Initiative is conducting a survey until Sep. 30, 2022, on the most important four topics for corporate climate action.

The four topics are: SBTi criteria updates, Scope 3 targets; measurement, reporting and verification; and communication of progress – SBTi annual progress report and targets dataset.

SBTI’s aim is to help avoid the worst effects of climate change by helping companies and financial institutions to set and implement science-based emissions reduction targets. More than 3,500 companies use the SBTI’s guidelines.

According to the initiative’s website, SBTI is currently developing targets for companies in the oil and gas industry. In March this year, SBTI paused validating commitments from hydrocarbons companies, which includes refiners, marketers and distributors of oil products. Lubricants and base oil fall within this scope.

OQ Chemicals Launches Oxlube L7-NPG Ester Base Oil for EV Fluids

OQ Chemicals will launch a new ester base oil called Oxlube L7‑NPG at the upcoming Lubricant Expo in Essen, Germany. The company optimized Oxlube L7‑NPG for plugin electric vehicles, and applications include e-motor cooling, among others.

The company says the ester lets lubricant manufacturers formulate e‑driveline low-viscosity, high-flash point lubricants that are readily biodegradable.

“Modern EV fluids must meet requirements that go beyond conventional lubrication. For instance, thermal and dielectric properties gain in importance. We engineered our new Oxlube L7-NPG to be an efficient base oil for novel e-driveline applications, where conductivity, heat transfer, and stability are of the essence,” said Svea Meuser, OQ Chemicals’ global marketing director of acids. “As an ester-based product, it has significant environmental advantages compared to mineral oil-based products.”

Oxlube L7-NPG complements Oxlube L9-TMP – a co-solvent ester in engine oils and a drop-in for the conventional C8/C10 acid-based trimethylolpropane ester, the company said.

Boss-Level Business Travel: Environmental Impact Increasingly Important

In the 2020 sci-fi movie Boss Level, a retired special forces soldier stuck in a never-ending time loop eventually escapes through persistent trial and error. Similarly, a study on business travel called “Chefsache Business Travel 2022” (Chefsache means “boss” in German) reveals that at last, boss-level management teams in German companies have escaped the dilemma loop of necessary business travel and mitigating the environmental impact.

The German Travel association and market research institute Schlesinger Group Germany conducted the survey earlier this year. They asked 100 managing directors who regularly travel on business and 100 business-traveling executives and specialists from companies with 250 or more employees about their travel habits. Among them were also senior managers from the chemicals and lubricants industries. 

The survey found that after two years of lockdowns, the number of business trips is rising again and so is environmental awareness. As the lubricant industry’s in-person conference calender starts to fill up again, it could be time for both companies and event organizers to make offsetting travel emissions as an essential part of the process as booking the hotel.

“Going green is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s an absolute necessity for businesses. However, the maturity stages of clients’ business travel programs vary widely,” said Alexander Albert, managing director of BCD Travel Germany, a business travel and logistics company.“ Cost continues to play a major role, but is increasingly taking a back seat when it comes to doing the right thing.”

In 2022, there will be more travel again, but not to the extent as before the pandemic. According to the survey, 60% of company representatives say that business travel is being replaced by virtual meetings. This is not only sustainable, but also serves to reduce costs. 

However, doing without face-to-face meetings altogether is not an option. Almost 40% said they attach great importance to getting to know people in person, especially at the first appointment. 

The survey also foun that 56% of companies with 250 or more employees take ecological and social standards into account when making bookings for business travel. That is 6 percentage points more than at the beginning of 2019. Two-thirds of business travelers try to combine several appointments on business trips, an increase of 5 ppts. 

The larger the company, the more pronounced are efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. Only 47% of companies with 250-500 employees have initiatives to reduce emissions from travel whereas 67% of companies with more than 1,000 employees have. 

The situation is similar when it comes to including sustainability and CO₂ reduction topics in corporate guidelines, with 64% of large companies saying they have and 45% of smaller companies. In addition, 38% of companies with fewer than 500 employees and 61% of companies with more than 1,000 employees have travel policies on sustainability or informal guidelines that serve this goal.

The sustainability effect is particularly pronounced in companies that work with business travel agencies. For 58% of companies that have their travel needs met by a specialist service provider, sustainability plays a major role in the booking process. This is compared with 47% of those companies without professional support. 

The frequency of business trips also matters. Of those who travel every other month or less on average, 44% aren’t as concerned with the trip’s environmental impact. Whereas that percentage of 64% of those that travel one or two times a month. Among frequent drivers with three or more out-of-town appointments per month, three out of four respondents make sure to adopt environmentally friendly behavior.

Lastly, companies’ environmental awareness extends to the details, too, with 54% of travelers only carrying digital documents instead of paper. That represents an increase of 5 ppts compared with 2019. Every little bit helps, but more is always better.

TRAVEL and STAY SuSTAYnable!

Moral Combat: US Senate Passes Billion-dollar Package to Combat Global Warming

The best-selling video game and film franchise “Mortal Kombat” is known for its graphic violence and infamous “finishing moves,” whereby characters dispatch their opponents with devastating force. Democrats in the United States Senate may have delivered a finishing move to the Republican Party’s obstructionism in the game of political “Moral Combat.”

The world has a moral responsibility to combat climate change and yesterday the U.S. Senate might have made a huge step forward in this endeavor. Against unanimous Republican opposition and exclusively with votes from the Democratic Party and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Senate yesterday passed the most comprehensive legislation to date in the fight against climate change in the United States. 

If the bill makes it through the House of Representatives – where the Democrats’ majority is slimmer – the U.S. will invest more than $370 billion in climate and energy programs, writes the New York Times.

According to independent calculations, this could reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40 percent by the end of the decade compared to those in 2005. That would be significantly more than achievable under current regulations.

In the U.S. media, the decision is seen as a major and surprising success for the Democrats ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. Until a few days ago, it looked as if the opposition within the party to the package would be insurmountable. 

Joe Manchin, one of the senators from West Virginia, had torpedoed all attempts to do so. He was now able to push through, among other things, the construction of a gas pipeline through his home state, explains the New York Times. Manchin had previously derailed a more than $2 trillion investment and climate change package, and until the surprise agreement on the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” it had looked like it would not be followed by an ambitious package.

Passed on Sunday, the legislative package is intended to use billions in tax breaks to ensure that more electric cars are bought in the U.S. and more solar and wind power plants are built. 

It also provides for billions of dollars in support for areas that are particularly hard hit by climate change. This is to be financed, among other things, by a minimum tax for large companies of 15 percent. In addition, various changes are to be made to the U.S. healthcare system to reduce costs for patients, i.e., the legislation touches the ecological, as well as the social dimension of sustainability.

According to reports, the U.S. House of Representatives intends to interrupt its summer recess to give its approval to the package this week. Then U.S. President Joe Biden could sign it into law. Biden – who has called the bill “historic” – has pledged to return the US to the international stage on climate action. In April last year, he pledged to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030. Last month, he announced $2.2bn to help build infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and natural disasters. The US has been hit by deadly flooding and wildfires in recent years.

After pumping his fists in the air, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said “after more than a year of hard work, the senate is making history. To Americans who’ve lost faith that Congress can do big things, this bill is for you,” he added.

Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, reportedly cried tears of joy as he left the chamber. “Now I can look my kid in the eye and say we’re really doing something about the climate,” he said according to the New York Times.

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“Sustainvestment”? Fund Managers Must Query Sustainability of Investments

Investing money and doing good at the same time isn’t so easy. Terms such as “green,” “sustainable” or “climate friendly” are not protected. Since August 2, new European Union guidelines are intended to provide more clarity, compelling fund managers to look at the sustainability of their investments.

Green investments are booming in Europe, and Germany in particular. Europe accounts for 80% of inflows into the sector, according to analysts at Morningstar. From Germany alone, that’s a total of more than €130 billion. In the past year, private investors in Europe’s largest economy have tripled their investments that are considered sustainable. 

The deputy managing director of the German Protection Association for Securities Ownership, Jella Benner-Heinacher, notes the growing interest in green investments, but she advises caution. 

“Unfortunately, there are still no really precise minimum standards, and there’s also no real label yet that says: it’s sustainable, i.e., green.” As a result, “a lot of things are sold as green that are actually classic products,” she says.

Making returns with a clear conscience by putting money into sustainable funds is the dream of many investors. This is precisely where the EU Commission wants to bring light into the darkness with a series of regulations. 

Under the abbreviation “Mifid II,” new directives have been gradually coming into force since 2018, which are intended to make securities sales more transparent and the financial system more sustainable at the same time.

On Tuesday this week, another part of this reform program went into effect. From now on, financial advisors must explicitly ask investors whether they want to invest their money sustainably. But even here, pitfalls lurk, believes investment strategist Christian Kahler of the private asset management firm Kahler & Kurz Capital.

“We know these processes: There are 20 to 30 pages of fine print handed out. In the end, the customer still has to sign, and there is always the danger that in detail not everything is read so carefully after all,” Kahler said.

Consumer protectors advise anyway that investors should inform themselves about the main business of the company or fund, because some providers renounce investments in coal or weapons, but invest predominantly in highly controversial industries such as nuclear power. The EU taxonomy, with its catalog for climate-friendly investments, is intended to help investors classify their investments. 

However, it also recognizes investments in gas and nuclear power as climate-friendly. This caused some criticism in the run-up. Benner-Heinacher considers it therefore crucial that investors themselves think in advance, which criteria are important to them with the investment of funds.

“Most investors who contact us also want to achieve something with their investments,” she said.

Kahler thinks the idea of sustainable investments is a good one, but, “You should still look very carefully and, very importantly, not lose sight of costs, returns and risk. After all, sustainable does not mean without risk and without costs.”

All these points cannot be weighed up in general terms, according to the experts. Especially since some non-governmental organizations found in studies of sustainable funds that their composition hardly differs from conventional funds. Even oil companies with poor environmental records worthy of criticism were included in so-called sustainability funds.

However, with a clear, straight and prudent sustainability strategy in place, even listed lubricant players might be interesting add-ons for investors in their sustainability fund portfolios.The bottom line is that investors need to look closely at how sustainable the companies or funds they want to invest in actually are.

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Earth Overshoot Day 2022 Pops Earlier than Ever

Today is Earth Overshoot Day, the day of the year when humans have taken as much from nature as the planet’s ecosystems can replenish in an entire year. According to the Global Footprint Network, EOD is the earliest ever since records began in 1970.

EOD reminds us that the overshoot has persisted for more than half a century and has led to massive declines in biodiversity, excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and increased competition for food and energy. This is further highlighted by unusual heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods.

With foreseeable climate change and resource scarcity, resource security is becoming an increasingly essential economic advantage. This is true for countries, cities and businesses. There is no advantage in waiting for international agreements. Rather, it is in the interest of every country, city and company, to take action themselves and strengthen their own ability to function in the inevitable future.

A new generation of circular companies has already recognized this: They offer products and services while reducing overshoot. The expansion of such companies means global overshoot is falling.

“Circular solutions give companies the best chance to succeed in a predictable future,” says Mathis Wackernagel of the Global Footprint Network. “There are many examples that show how this can be done. We show a lot on the Power of Possibility platform.”

Here are a few examples of circular businesses:

Construction – Worldwide, more than 6 billion tons of waste are generated from demolished buildings each year. Eberhard, a Swiss construction company, opened the first plant in Europe 10 months ago that converts mixed demolition waste into new, high-quality, recyclable secondary raw materials. One application is a low-CO₂, circular concrete made largely from recycled materials. If only such concrete were used worldwide instead of conventional concrete, EOD would be 2.4 days later.

Water technology – All life needs clean water. To enable the safe use and reuse of water, the Aqseptence Group offers specialized products and solutions for municipalities and industry to filter, separate and treat water. Through its innovative and sustainable products, the company contributes to the preservation of our planet, reduces CO₂ emissions and sustainably conserves our natural resources.

Waste recycling – By closing a wide variety of material and product loops and sorting and recycling large waste streams, including plastics, Interzero reduces society’s dependence on virgin raw materials. Based on Interzero’s data, researchers from the Global Footprint Network have confirmed that for every euro of added value generated by the company’s zero-waste solutions, the global overshoot shrinks by over 28 global square meters. In contrast, for every euro of economic output added to the global economy, the global overshoot increases by an average of 2.6 global square meters. This means that for every euro of economic output, Interzero returns 10 times more to our planet than the global economy, on average, overshoots it. Without Interzero, EOD would occur 4 minutes and 20 seconds earlier worldwide. Thus, the contribution can be measured globally. 

As described in blogs and articles on this platform many times before, the players of the global lubricants industry have all power of possibilities to further develop their operations into true circular businesses, if not yet done so.

Companies that are able to produce goods and services in demand while reducing global overshoot are better positioned for the foreseeable future. Such companies are more likely to be needed and therefore remain valuable than companies that ignore these global trends. 

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33 in 22 on 11 – World Population Day

Yesterday, July 11, 2022, was the 33^rd World Population Day (WPD)! The theme of this year’s WPD is “A World of 8 billion: Towards a resilient future for all – Harnessing opportunities and ensuring rights and choices for all.” 

What is the connection between WPD and sustainability? Climate change is one of humanity’s most critical challenges. The warming of the planet threatens food security, freshwater supplies and human health. While there is almost unanimous scientific consensus over the link between human action and the planet warming, the links between population growth and climate change deserve further exploration.

With 2 billion people to be added to our human ranks by 2050, and 1 billion more by 2100, demographic trends and variables play an important role in understanding and confronting the world’s climate crisis. Population growth, along with increasing consumption, tends to increase the emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases. Rapid population growth worsens the impacts of climate change by putting strain on overstretched resources and exposing more people to climate-related risks ­– especially in low-resource regions.

People have been reluctant to integrate discussions of population growth into climate education and advocacy. Yet climate change is tightly linked to population growth. As the U.K.-based charity Population Matters summarizes: “Every additional person increases carbon emissions – the rich far more than the poor – and increases the number of climate change victims – the poor far more than the rich.” 

>Read more about the UN and sustainability here.

For example, just over 4% of the global population live in the United States. Yet they account for 17% of the world’s energy use. Per-person carbon emissions are among the highest in the world. People living in the U.S., Canada and Australia have carbon footprints close to 200 times greater than people in some of the poorest and fastest-growing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Chad, Niger and the Central African Republic.

Between them are the middle-income economies that are home to 75% of the world’s population. Here, industrialization will increase living standards and consumption patterns over the coming decades. But without changes to how economies tend to grow, carbon emissions will rise.

Different population projections on future economic growth and energy use show that slowing population growth can significantly reduce future greenhouse gas emissions. Incorporating various population projections into climate models shows higher population growth results in higher emissions. However, slowing global population growth through rights-based measures, such as by increasing access to voluntary family planning services, could contribute over a quarter of the emissions reductions needed by 2050 to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change.

The links between population growth and climate vulnerability are visible around the world. Nine out of the 10-most climate vulnerable countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where the population could double.

Rapid population growth poses grave challenges for the environment and economic development. Unabating population growth undermines food security, the ability to alleviate poverty, conserving natural resources and human health. 

Adding the impacts of climate change and rapid population growth on regions already dealing with wealth and gender inequality presents a humanitarian problem that will only worsen if left unaddressed.

WPD was first suggested by Dr K. C. Zachariah, who was at the time a senior demographer at the World Bank. The day was officially established by the Governing Council of the UN Development Program in 1989. It was an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion on July 11, 1987. WPD was first marked on July 11, 1990, and then December that year, the UN General Assembly decided to make it yearly to raise awareness of population issues and their connection to the environment and development. Nowadays, people in more than 90 countries celebrate WPD annually.

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Tacks on Taxonomy – Gas and Nuclear Classified as Sustainable

On Wednesday, the European Parliament cleared the way to classify investments in natural gas and nuclear power plants as sustainable under certain conditions. Specifically, they voted on a supplementary legal act to the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

The Taxonomy guides private investment in sustainable economic activities and thus supports the fight against climate change. It is relevant to lubricant companies because it could influence investors’ investment decisions and thus have an impact on project financing costs, for example. Investors should also be put in a position to avoid investing in sectors of the economy that are harmful to the climate.

In a first step, it was already decided last year to classify electricity production with solar panels, hydropower or wind power as climate-friendly. In addition, criteria were defined for numerous other economic sectors. They regulate, for example, that passenger and freight train traffic without direct CO₂ exhaust emissions can be classified as climate friendly.

Under pressure from some member states, the EU Commission additionally proposed at the end of 2021 that investments in gas and nuclear power plants should also be classified as climate-friendly under certain conditions. France, which sees nuclear power as a key technology for a CO₂-free economy and is keen to continue exporting the technology to other countries, played a decisive role in this. In return, Germany advocated a green label for gas as a transitional technology. Both countries lobbied for their inclusion in the taxonomy, while their neighbors Austria and Luxembourg threatened legal action if the proposal went ahead.

A motion to block gas and nuclear from being classified as sustainable in the Taxonomy failed to pass in the plenary session in Strasbourg two days ago on July 6. Instead of the required 353 MEPs, only 278 voted against the legal act.

The implementation of the Commission’s proposal can still be prevented if at least 20 EU states representing at least 65% of the EU’s population join forces by next Monday, July 11. However, the possibility of a majority in the EU Council is thought to be impossible due to the interest of many states in the use of nuclear power.

Environmentalists had urged MEPs to vote against the new Taxonomy legislation before the vote. Among other things, critics point out that natural gas emits greenhouse gases when used to generate electricity. Nuclear power brings with it the problems of waste disposal and the risk of accidents. Most recently, opponents also argued that incentives to invest in the construction of new gas-fired power plants stand in stark contrast to the efforts to become independent of Russian gas.

On the other hand, proponents point to the need for transitional technologies. They argue that gas-fired power plants can use liquefied natural gas from the United States or hydrogen.

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Castrol to Develop IT Immersion Fluids

Castrol, the U.K. company known for its automotive and industrial lubricants, entered the world of immersive coolants for technology infrastructure. The U.K. company signed an agreement with Spanish firm Submer to develop thermally conductive and dielectric immersion fluids for equipment such as servers.

According to a press release, Castrol and Submer will work on the global supply, standardization and development immersion cooling fluids. The collaboration will “accelerate the adoption of immersion cooling as a path to more efficient and more sustainable data centre operations.”

Estimates vary on absolute quantities, but the consensus is that the server industry consumes about 1% of all energy globally. Those in the European Union use about 104 terawatt hours per year.

Castrol’s agreement comes on the heels of Fuchs’ purchasing a stake in battery electrolyte developer E-Lyte Innovations in June. The two companies’ activities signal their shift away from traditional automotive product lines into new business segments.

One Charger for All, and All for One

One of my longtime dreams has come true. I can bid adieu to the chaos of wires and chargers that fill a whole drawer in my office and sometimes snake around the furniture, making an unsightly mess and posing a trip hazard. European Union lawmakers reached an agreement on a common charger cable for phones and small devices.

The agreement states that by 2024, everything must use USB-C chargers. Buyers will not have to buy seperate chargers for each mobile phone, tablet or  portable video game. Many see the agreement, which the European Parliament and the Council both must formally approve, as an important step in “consumer convenience.”

But the initiative goes far beyond saving consumers money and getting rid of the frightful cable clutter that blights most homes. It will also protect the environment.

“With an estimated half a billion chargers shipped for portable devices in Europe each year, the initiative to reduce consumer inconvenience and easily avoidable e-waste caused by the prevalence of different, incompatible chargers is, we believe, both necessary and much overdue,” the One Planet Network newsletter said.

The EU’s fastest growing waste stream is e-waste, yet according to the newsletter, less than 40% is recycled. E-waste covers many products, such as white goods, laptops, printers and gadgets thrown away after use.

In February 2021, the parliament adopted a resolution on the new circular economy action plan. It demanded additional measures to achieve a carbon-neutral, environmentally sustainable, toxic-free and fully circular economy by 2050. Included were tighter recycling rules and binding targets for materials use and consumption by 2030.

Then, on Sep. 23, 2021, the European Commission adopted a legislative proposal to amend the 2014 Radio Equipment Directive. The amendments was a first step toward mandating a common charger for mobile phones and other small portable devices. The proposal dictates these devices must be equipped with a USB-C socket and can be charged with USB Type-C compatible cables. Devices must also use the USB Power Delivery communication protocol, the parliament newsletter said.

Among other directives, companies have to offer consumers an option to buy devices with or without a charger (unbundling). They still have to offer cables with every device. The proposal would accompany an initiative on the eco-design of external power supplies, so that the receptacle and the communication protocol for both ends of charger cables would be harmonized.

Electrical wires and chargers are a small proportion of all e-waste. But these cables end up in the trash and are unlikely to ever see an afterlife. The EU initiative should help curb squandering valuable resources and redcue the amount of electronic parts that end up in a landfill, as well as stop the environmental harm that they create.