Circling Towards Sustainability: the right to repair
The problem of circular economy Eurobarometer – a polling instrument used by the European Commission – revealed that 77% of Europeans feel a personal responsibility to act on climate change. Consumer preferences in buying, using, and throwing away goods have the potential to promote circular economy principles by increasing demand for products aligned with such […]
Towards the new EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism:
Following months of talks, in December 2022, EU Member States and the European Parliament have agreed to the world’s first Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) – a taxation scheme on carbon-intensive products like. The CBAM is part of the EU’s “Fit for 55 in 2030 package,” which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at […]
Why biodiversity loss is a threat to human survival
Halloween has already passed, Christmas lights have started to appear on shop windows, but winter seems to have just begun. Up until a few weeks ago, Europe was experiencing an endless summer. The Copernicus Climate Change Service, the EU program that regularly monitors and provides climate data, reported that October temperatures in Europe were almost […]
Green transition, green jobs: the professions of the future
Each historical period, including ours, is characterized by some relevant events that contribute to changing the state of the world. The recent pandemic, the continuous and incredible technological progress, the threat of climate change. Society goes through these collective experiences and evolves at an incredible speed, as does the job market. New needs and new […]
Consequences of the resolution of the European Immigration Crisis
Resolving the The European Immigration Crisis will repair the damage brought upon the E.U. and further integrate europeans, hence securing a bright and long-lasting future for Europe.
The energy of the future: renewable energy communities
Since its beginning in February, the tragic war in Ukraine has monopolized the news. And with Russia being one of the world’s largest oil and gas exporters, the energy issue soon became part of the discussion. Especially now that winter season is approaching and especially in Europe, which largely depends on Russian exports, the debate […]
From Despair to Prosperity on the European Immigration Crisis
From Despair to Prosperity on the European Immigration Crisis: The solution to the detrimental situation focused on economic and social standpoints
Fifty shades of greenwashing (and how to avoid it)
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals include in SDG 12 the objective of “ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns”. In the last decade, environmental awareness has increased rapidly and consumers have started to become more conscious of their impact on the planet. People have begun to change their consumption pattern and shop more consciously, and […]
Who will pay the price of climate change
Extreme heat, drought, wildfires. Unfortunately, summer 2022 has been an eye-opening season for many people. As the effects of global warming become more concrete and severe every day, we might finally see some collective actions taking place. However, it is too late to avoid all the consequences and we already know who is going to […]
Russia and European energy independence: the REPower EU Plan
Since its outbreak on February 24, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has altered the political, social, and economic balance of the world and, above all, of Europe. At a geopolitical level one of the main hot topics is the energy question. Indeed, Russia is the main exporter of natural gas and crude oil to […]
Is 4 the magic number? The rise of the four-day workweek
Work is a fundamental part of the life of an individual. If we think that the average person spends 90.000 hours at work, a third of their life, we can understand why money can’t be considered the only driver for a worker. The last two years of the pandemic made it clearer than ever: the […]
A Single Currency For Africa
–African Economic & Monetary Union:– Do the Regional Integrated Arrangements of Africa fall under the Optimal Currency Area Compliance Criteria? –Article by Nicholas George Donovan Grazia– The African continent is moving towards unification in economic terms, over a period of decades there have been meetings and arrangements to create the African Union (AU). The African […]
African Colonial Dynamics
The late 1800’s brought about much change on the African continent. Africa as it is known today was shaped by the events that took place in what is known as the Partition of Africa, also known as the Scramble for Africa. In 1833 the British Empire abolished slavery, this lead to a multitude of challenges […]
Don’t Look Up is the movie about climate change that we needed
Since it was released on Netflix last December, Don’t Look Up has been at the top of the platform’s most viewed titles. Adam McKay’s new movie portrays the fictional story of two astronomers and their desperate attempts to warn humanity of a comet’s impending impact with Earth. The calculations have been made many times, the […]
How fast fashion is harming people and the planet
In the USA alone, 11.3 million tons of textile materials were disposed in the landfill in 2018. This number was almost half (6.28 million tons) in 2000, and it was only 2.32 million tons in 1980. The comparison is impressive, and it describes a global tendency of growth in the consumption related to the fashion […]
Climate migration might be the next great emergency
Migration is a fact as ancient as human history. The first evidence of migration dates back to tens (if not more than a hundred) of thousands of years ago, when Homo Sapiens started to spread from Africa through Eurasia. In contemporary society migration represents a relevant and sensitive topic, because the magnitude of this phenomenon […]
The Roots of our Petroleum Addiction and the Future Possibilities of a World Detached from Oil
Oil is power, and until we move away from this very notion then we will be addicted to oil for an unseeable future and suffer the great consequences that arise from fossil fuel consumption. Dominion over oil means dominion over democracy. We must find a new dependency in order to prosper. What lurks in the shadows? What is our way out?
What will we eat in 2050?
The world population is expected to grow to 9.7 billion in 2050, an increase of 2 billion people with respect to today. Considering that Earth is able to produce a limited amount of resources in a certain period of time, the rapid growth of population is certainly going to pose some challenges in the future. […]
Planetary Boundaries – Danger Zones and a Safe Operating Space for Humanity
Regardless of the degree of agreement that surrounds the term “Anthropocene” within scholars debates, it is recognized that human activity had an impact on Planet Earth. Nevertheless, there is significant disagreement on the term “Anthropocene”, following the need of establishing a Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) that individuates a homogeneous change in stratigraphic material […]
Carbon Tax and Climate Income: How to Take Advantage of the Free-Riding Problem
Introduction: With the European Union enacting the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2005, studies over multilateral agreements that aim at reducing pollution acquired useful empirical evidence. Putting a price on carbon emission alone will not be enough to stop the global emission trend in the medium-long term. The main controversy to deal with is Carbon […]
Increasing welfare through healthy eating habits (Part 2)
Part 2 – Behavioral Change Technique applied to food decision-making Peter, on the advice of Kate and Hugo, decides to watch a documentary about the body effects of excessive consumption of animal products. Despite initial scepticism, he knows that changing lifestyle requires doing things outside of his own comfort zone. The structure of the documentary […]
Increasing welfare through healthy eating habits
Part one – The effect of loss-aversion in the hesitancy of changing food habits Peter is an 18-year-old boy in his first year of university. From an early age, he has always been used to eating meat five times a week. Peter is very satisfied when he eats it and, for this reason, he continues […]
The Forestry Sector in Italy: an Unfamiliar Instrument of Resilience and Sustainable Production
In 2015, the XIV World Forestry Congress, hosted by the Republic of South Africa in September 2015, set out a new vision for forests and forestry. The network between the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and forests became crucial. Despite having a clear reference of forest management only in SDG 15 (life […]
The new generations demand green investments: how financial institutions adapt?
Starting with some literature: What is a Financial Institution (FI)? A financial institution (FI), according to Investopedia, is a corporation that undertakes financial and monetary transactions such as deposits, loans, investments and currency exchange. All people who live in a developed country have a constant need for the services offered by financial institutions. FI’s embrace […]
Forced Movement – Social Sensitive Aspects of Disaster Displacement and Planned Relocation in the Context of Climate Change Impacts
By guest writer Frederic Grobler First evidence that climate-induced migration is taking place emerges.[1] Impacts of climate change alter weather conditions that lead to storms, monsoon changes, sea-level rise, and droughts and in consequence threat the livelihoods of millions of people. [2] Those detrimental effects motivate people to move in myriad ways, ranging from seasonal […]
Contemporary Implementation of Climate Policies – an American Approach
“Our political leader failed us,” These words will eventually echo across years of summits and conferences in the next years, as far as a coherent plan, both in scope and magnitude, will be drafted by the international community to tackle the Climate Crisis. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been drafting and […]
Risk Perception of Catastrophic Risk
How humans cope with Climate Change. Since when the “Green New Deal” has been inserted in the political agenda across many countries, the coverage of Climate Change in mass media suddenly surged. The main facet that is outlined is one of a threatening, disruptive, unavoidable phenomena. While these characteristics are supported by scientific evidence, this […]
20/04/20 – US Oil Prices went negative for First Time in History. What does it mean to the Global Economy and the Renewables Market?
Linked both to COVID-19 spreading and to the already existing tensions between oil-exporting countries, the price for May’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell to -37.63$. In other words, owners of “futures” contracts of American Crude Oil paid up to 37$ to get rid of their own stocks. With an in-depth introduction to explain the […]
Who bears responsibility for COVID-19 spreading? A review on notable 21st Century Research on Emerging Infectious Diseases
Future path of Research Development and correlation with anthropic pollution and ecosystem endangerment Kate E. Jones published a study on Nature in 2008 identifying 335 Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) that have been detected from 1940 to 2004, demonstrating non-random global patterns. Origins are significantly correlated with socio-economic, environmental and ecological factors. They also reveal a substantial risk of wildlife zoonotic EIDs in Southern […]
Introducing an In-depth Analysis of Decreasing Pollution related to Coronavirus Outbreak in Italy
In the following weeks, as an information network devoted to sustainability, we will try to look at current coronavirus outbreak from an economic perspective, to implement and offer an analysis on good practices that shall be implemented as soon as the direct emergency ends. We want to dedicate our effort to all the victims and […]
The Green Growth of China: poverty reduction and sustainable development
Starting from the last decade of the past century, China experienced a dramatic economic growth and poverty reduction. The exponential growth of GDP from around 360 billion current US dollar in 1990 up to more than 11 trillion in 2016 came with a reduction of poverty unprecedented in its speed and scale. The real per […]
Jugaad innovation keeps on opening paths
There is little doubt that lowering plastic consumption has become one of the main environmental targets of the century. Consider that until 1950, the global production of plastic was estimated to be 2 million tons per year; this decade, we have passed the 300 million tons per year mark, and it continues on growing. So […]
WCERE – the 6th World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economics
The 2018 World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (WCERE) was held at the School of Business, Economics and Law and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. It gathered over 1,300 international researchers, professors, professionals and students from June 25 to June 29 to share latest research output, policy perspectives, […]
The right of citizens to produce renewable energy
The Renewable Energy Directive establishes an overall policy for the production and promotion of energy from renewable sources in the EU. It was emended in 2009, defining both European and national targets regarding the generation of renewable energy. The European target was originally 20 per cent of the gross final consumption by the year 2020, […]
Plastic remains as one of the biggest hurdles in the path of circular economy in Europe
As European economies have flourished and developed along the last 50 years, the use of plastic has intensified enormously. According to recent estimations, plastic production has become 50 times bigger in this time period, and it is supposed to stay on growing. While this can make sense to a certain extent since population and consumption […]
Global warming threatens pollination dynamics
While politicians keep on debating the best approach to tackle climate change and the industry slowly moves towards more sustainable practices, the consequences of our footprint on the planet stay on their raising trend. Last April, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (San Diego) claimed that for that month the average concentration of carbon dioxide in the […]
SCAP 2020 – An action plan for a more sustainable textile industry
In 2012, one of the first evidence base on the environmental impacts of the fashion industry was published under the name “Valuing Our Clothes: the cost of UK fashion” by the WRAP organisation. It analysed the environmental impact of the whole journey of clothing, from raw materials and manufacturing, to purchase, use and disposal. The […]
Payments for Ecosystem Services – how to preserve ecosystem services and to improve the well-being of local communities
Ecosystem services (ES) – such as the provision of goods, regulation and support of human, natural and cultural activities – require proper and well defined management systems, which are now a core issue among the scientific community. The main types of ecosystem services with significant commercial scale are: – carbon sequestration and storage – biodiversity […]
Extreme weather events buzz louder
The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) has recently reported an increase in extreme weather over the last five years. Since 1980, extreme heat waves and droughts have doubled, while floods and big landslides have quadrupled. EASAC Environment Program Director Michael Norton has talked about this to criticize the parsimony with which most policy makers […]
“Global warming may help humans flourish” – Scott Pruitt and his curious administration of the US Environmental Protection Agency
There is overwehlming evidence about global warming and climate change being happening and being hazadous to humans worldwide. However, until there will be an even limited level of scientific uncertainty there will be place for climate change (or global warming) denial. This uncertainty would mostly refer to the anthropogenic influence on the climate, the fact […]
The evolution of agriculture: how we lost productivity, efficiency and stability of our fields
Nowadays, the agricultural sector is ruled by the industrial approach: fields are factories guided by the rule of business. Nature does not play the main role anymore. We expanded our production to places that are really not adapt for growing crops. Every year we lose huge amounts of fertile soil, destroying its capacity both in […]
Deforestation in Italy: new regulation and new problems
On the first of December 2017, the Council of Ministers approved the so called Testo Unico Forestale, a Consolidated Act aimed to regulate the forest management in Italy. So far, an organic regulation of the sector was missing. The act aims to fill the gap and provide new instruments for the promotion of the Italian […]
IONITY starts taking shape
On November, 2017, a group of automakers announced an ambitious initiative to create a pan-European High-Power-Charging (HPC) Network for electric vehicles. IONITY would be the instrument to do so, as a joint venture participated by BMW AG, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Co, and Volkswagen. By the end of the year , 20 ultra-fast electric car charging […]
Better Finance, Better World: how to make the Sustainable Development Goals more “investable” for commercial players
Today, January 24th, the Business and Sustainable Development Commission presented a consultation version of the paper Better Finance, Better World at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The commission has set up a taskforce to consider how to deploy blended finance more effectively and how to encourage growth in the sector. That would make the […]
Agrisource : an Open-Innovation Platform for Climate-Smart Agriculture
With 10% of the world facing food and water scarcity, any viable solution to meet the challenge of global food production must extend beyond field-level problems and encompass a wider, science-based approach. The main practical problems encountered across the entire seed-to-shelf spectrum are: – lack of communication and transparency between the players of agriculture – […]
Will meat tax become a reality in the near future?
Governmental dietary guidelines have been a common practice for a while. With the further research on nutrition and how it has an effect on health, it’s been on everyone’s interest to provide information on how to keep a healthy diet. However, giving consumers the right information doesn’t mean they will take the right choices. Therefore, […]
Pessimism or realism? New study claims that the increase in temperatures will be higher than expected
The goal set in 2015 during the Paris Agreement to not allow the global temperature to increase over 2º, beyond vague in the how to, might be just impossible to achieve. As pointed out on the article published last week in the journal Nature called Greater Future Global Warming inferred from Earth’s recent energy budget, […]
We Are Still In! – United States is much more than Trump
As probably many of you already know, Donald Trump announced this summer he will pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement. Only two countries were not part of the agreement: Syria and Nicaragua, for very different reasons. But now they are in as well and United States results as the only country that […]
Ecomondo 2017: an imperative meeting for the Green & Circular Economy
Last week (from 7 to 10 of November) and for the 21st time, the international expo Ecomondo has gathered in Rimini representatives of all the sectors involved in environmental issues: from waste management to renewable energies, passing through energy recovery, online networks, efficiency, sustainable development pathing… With an estimated assistance of over 100.000 visitors and […]
BALANGAY LEGAZPI is the Best Climate Practise 2017
On November 8th, in conjunction with the first week of COP23 and within the context of the “ICCG Climate Week”, ICCG organises a webinar dedicated to the Best Climate Practice Award, to showcase the most innovative and compelling projects that have participated in the 2017 edition of the contest and to explore the landscape and […]
“Being updated on your sector may be more significant than a 5% higher average mark”
We continue the interview with Professor Chalvatzis PART 1: https://steamgreen.unibo.it/2017/10/09/changes-happening-rapidly-regulators-not-managing-catch/ PART 2: https://steamgreen.unibo.it/2017/10/13/nobody-tells-people-plan-produce-renewable-energy-30-years/ PART 3: https://steamgreen.unibo.it/2017/10/23/found-waiting-almost-one-year-someone-hired-decide-project-go-forward-not/ Let’s switch the focus to RESD students for a second. You’ve talked about job opportunities in the energy market, what can you tell us about that? What about the importance of interdisciplinarity? Obviously there are many job markets, so […]
“We found ourselves waiting almost one year until someone was hired to decide if our project could go forward or not”
We continue the interview with Professor Chalvatzis PART 1: https://steamgreen.unibo.it/2017/10/09/changes-happening-rapidly-regulators-not-managing-catch/ PART 2: https://steamgreen.unibo.it/2017/10/13/nobody-tells-people-plan-produce-renewable-energy-30-years/ Now that you mention Greece, even though you are saying is not such a business-friendly country, you chose it to develop a project recently. Could you tell us something more about it? Somehow it was a bit of a stupid ambition of […]
“Nobody tells people that the plan is to produce only renewable energy in 30 years”
We continue the interview with Professor Chalvatzis PART 1: https://steamgreen.unibo.it/2017/10/09/changes-happening-rapidly-regulators-not-managing-catch/ Which level of importance would you attribute on the necessary social change in terms of conception and understanding of the renewable energies? Pretty high. And one of the main reasons why in reality you have lot of investments being blocked, at a planning level, asking […]
“Changes are happening so rapidly regulators are not managing to catch up”
As an interdisciplinary academic with background in management, environmental sciences and energy engineering, Dr. Konstantinos Chalvatzis is a trust-worthy voice in the renewable energy studies. He is an associate Professor in Business and Climate Change at Norwich Business School, and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Besides, he holds lectures at the University of […]
Ever heard about Earthship?
Michael Reynolds is an American architect internationally recognized as a pioneer of self-sustainable building designs. He developed a new way of building that perfectly meets human needs and preserves the environment, avoiding an extensive use of natural exhaustible resources. These buildings are called Earthships and are intended to be “off-the-grid” homes, with minimal reliance on […]
ALIEN (Species) INVASION
In this joyful season, and of course with that I mean the summertime, most of us will travel. Set aside the carbon footprint that we may cause which such kind of reckless choice, there may be other more or less terrible consequences. We talked about that in our previous article. One of them concerns the […]
Flying green…Is it possible?
August is almost here, and again it becomes an hectic rush hour to holiday destinations. And of course, a lot of us wish to go abroad and comfortably taking a plane. Because! It is faster, fresher, easier, thrilling and, obviously, cheap. Well, at least it is convenient for our wallets, but what about our environment? […]
New Insights on Climate Change Action. Just About Time!
In the last days climate change has come back in the spotlight. Not only for the impressive heat wave that is certainly hitting at least the mediterrean countries, but also because of the political wave that has been central in continental Europe. We are talking about G20 just ended in Germany last week. Indeed, the […]
Cities and Sustainability.
Today steamgreen will focus on sustainability in the cities. Lately indeed there are multiple articles and studies that explore this topic. Why though? The urban dimension, indeed, is becoming more and more important in the last years. It is a trend that has begun a millennium ago, circa, when hunters gathered into villages in order […]
Decarbonise Italy, at what cost?
The new National Energy Strategy for Italy, presented last week by the government, has set new targets that will transform the Italian energy sector, which will reduce the gaps with the other EU countries. At 2015, renewable energies accounted for 23% of national energy mix, which still sees natural gas accounting for a large share, 40% […]
International Workshop on the Economy of Climate Change and Sustainability
Today we are glad to report some impressions by our 1st year student Federico about the International Workshop on the Economy of Climate Change and Sustainability. On April 28-29, a singular event took place in Rimini: the International Workshop on the Economy of Climate Change and Sustainability. The main objective of this event, hosted by the […]
Why is the 1.5°C objective so important for Italy?
2015 has been a very important year in regards to the fight against climate change, a sort of year zero. In November of this year, indeed, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known also as COP21 or Conference of the Parties, was held in Paris and during this conference the Paris Agreement was negotiated. The […]
Industrial Symbiosis: a new frontier for sustainable production
Have you ever thought that one’s waste could be a precious resource for somebody else? This is some kind of naive thought, indeed. Then why isn’t is applied on a daily basis on large scale production district, so that the by- products of a company x would become the input for company y? Well, […]
Cleaning up the oceans with style? Yes, we can
Humanity has been able to create thousands of new materials during its (relatively short with respect to the world’s) history. Some of them have such incredible properties that allowed us to develop like we have never done before, to the point than now we cannot imagine our lives without them. Think, for instance, about plastic. […]
The Economy for The Common Good
What is the goal of economic activities? Money! Profit! This is the common answer that students give at business schools or at university economics departments, and it is as well the goal of the majority of CEOs. However, as Christian Felber clearly points out, nowhere in the democratic constitutions we can find evidence of this rule. […]
Good news for biodiversity
After the Industrial Revolution, by exploiting the environmental resources more than in any comparable period of human history, humans have changed ecosystems irreversibly, thus causing an alarming number of extinctions. Indeed, in regard to biodiversity loss, it has been calculated that the rate of known extinction in the XX century was from 50 to 500 […]
Masdar City Project and its criticisms: a complete failure?
Masdar City is a very famous living project in United Arab Emirates, which has been brought back into global discussion because it looks like it is empty and then its validity as global foremost model of urban sustainability is under pressure. What is Masdar City. Masdar city is a perfect example of Private and Public […]
TETRA PAK ITALIA – REDEFINING SUSTAINABILITY
An amazing article by our second year student Rohit Conudula, as we comeback from a beautiful experience at Tetra Pak Italia. We, the students of RESD, got the privilege to visit Tetra Pak Italia in Modena on the 2nd of March and it reaped wonderful results. Our experience with them was wonderful and a great […]
M’illumino di Meno day!
Today all over Italy people celebrate the 13th edition of M’illumino di Meno! A nation wide event promoting energy saving! It is well known that the biggest energy dispersion is caused by the energy wastage; a serious issue affecting every sector of our economy: food industry, transportation, communication, just to cite few. Only in the […]
Fast fashion and the Environment: what are we really buying?
Today an article written by our fellow RESD student Anna Verones! Enjoy it as much as we do! Fast fashion is a contemporary term used to define a phenomenon in the fashion industry whereby the production process is expedited to get new trends out on the market as quickly and cheaply as possible. Businesses have aggressively cut costs […]
Making Sustainability in Universities
These days in Italy there has been much ado about… something. In our university, the University of Bologna, there have been major semi-violent conflictual events between students and the university establishment. Indeed: the university has decided after years of uncontrolled occupation to reset the order in the Literature department, by installing turnstiles right at the […]
Better Life Index
An interactive and smart tool to rank how a region or a state perform according to 11 topic that make better life. The OECD Better Life Index aims at identifying the best way to measure the progress of societies, going beyond GDP and examining the areas that impact people’s lives. The OECD has identified 11 […]
The Interesting Power of European Beets
Wageningen University, a top institute based in the Netherlands when it comes to sustainability related research and studies ( and notably University of Bologna and RESD course have established multiple connections with it) has been for long enquiring about the possibility of substituting fossil fuel plastics with renewable alternatives. But WUR has recently argued […]
The Environment of 2016 in a Nutshell
2016 has been a surprising year. Then, if one would like to look back and attach a meaning to it, what could he do? What economists most oftenly prefer to do, is to look at indexes. Then, since we are concerned about the environment, Steamgreen has selected an interesting one in order to conclude this […]
International Workshop in Rimini: The Economics of Climate Change and Sustainability
This April do not miss an important appointment. On the 28th and 29th of April 2017, the school of Economics, Management and Statistic of the University of Bologna, will open the doors to the first International Workshop on The Economics of Climate Change and Sustainability. It will be a unique opportunity to meet and listen […]
Net Green against Greenwashing
Hi Steamgreener! Enjoy today’s article by our fellow student Lucia Ibanez Aldecoa! Credibility is one of the main reasons for consumers to reject green products and they have good reasons to distrust. Greenwashing is the dark side of green marketing and it is difficult for consumers to differentiate companies that have a real commitment with sustainability from those ones that […]
Tap or bottled water?
During Ecomondo 2016 edition, SteamGreen! had the chance to talk with a CAP group manager, which was the exclusive supplier of the “Case dell’acqua”- in English the Water houses- during EXPO Milano 2015. These were in practice public installations dispensing free and cool still or sparkling water. It has been a brief and interesting chat […]
Recycling: A lesson from Taiwan
Back in the days Taiwan used to be called the Garbage Island, but today is internationally praised for achieving the highest recycling rate, 55% in 2015. In 2015 the island generated 26.2 millions tons of total waste. Moreover, trash per capita production has fallen from 1.143Kg in 1998 down to 0.387Kg in 2013. The great results are […]
RESD’s students at EcoMondo
On 8th November RESD students participated at ECOMONDO, the annual largest showcase for green and sustainable technology in the Euro-Mediterranean area, taking place in Rimini. The fifth international exhibition focused on the Circular Economy, promoted at European level through the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy. (You may remember our post about Circular Economy https://steamgreen.unibo.it/2016/06/18/closing-the-loop-the-new-circle-starts-now/) […]
Marrakech 2016
From the 7th till the 18th November in Marrakech (morocco) the COP22 and contemporaneously the CMP12 are being held. In order: the first one is the Conference of the Parties, coming this year at its 22nd edition, after the 21st famously held in Paris last year which have reached the historical Paris Agreement. CMP […]
Water scarcity and property rights
Recently on The Economist has been published an article about water scarcity. In details the author asserts that water is scarce because it is badly managed. China for example uses 10 times more water for its industries than the average developed countries. Moreover, the farming sector, as we well know, uses 70% of the water […]
What now?
President Trump is a reality now. Lets skip all the jokes and ironic gifs about this unpredicted results of the American Presidentials. They are first of all useless and disrespectful (although being funny). What everybody should face now is: American people has gone through a democratic process and respectfully of that, we should now face […]
Before The Flood
Before the Flood is the docu-movie directed by Fisher Stevens, released on National Geographic channels (or also online) between the 30th and 31st of October, this year. It portrays Leonardo di Caprio, as UN Messenger of Peace, along his journey for truth about Climate Change. Steamgreen suggests you to see it, for free, here. It […]
Climategate: Why we need more media support
Today the power of the media is so strong than ever before. Thanks to social networks, podcasts and off-line streaming services we are constantly hit by news from everywhere. We can not deny the fact that the media have the power to shape people’s opinions about a certain fact. Moreover, the media coverage around an […]
Is Producing Less Our Only Possibility?
A central theme in the public debate is the green and circular economy: how can we design better production modalities in order to produce less inefficiencies (aka waste)? How can we produce greener products? And how can we make use of the side products? Ecomondo, the annual fair taking place in Rimini about green economy, […]
Google Invest in new biggest African windfarm!
Google announced a 12$ million in the new Lake Turkana Wind Power Project; this will be Google’s second investment in the continent. Previously, the company from from MountainView took part in a large investment in the Jasper Power Project, a mega-solar farm that supplies many cities in South Africa. Now, the Lake Turkana Project will supply power for up to 80,000 […]
The Year of….Pulses
Almost one year ago UN claimed that 2016 would have become the year for the celebration of pulses. Pulses are a very important ingredient in developing countries, as they very nourishing despite being cheap. Nonetheless, UN had further multiple points in favour of giving birth to such initiative. Food Security First of all, legumes provide […]
We need a new transport system
We often speak about decarbonizing our economies. We are increasing the amount of Energy from renewable sources, we are developing better recycling systems, we invest in environmental services and so on. However, the trickiest part of decarbonizing our economy is that we are carrying on the transition to a low-carbon or carbon free economy thanks […]
The Potential for Energy Citizens in the European Union
A very interesting report produced by CE Delft- an environment-related research institute – suggests, and actually proves, the idea that the target of reaching a 100% renewable energy based economy is very much approachable if we, the people, become Energy Citizens. Who is an Energy Citizen? The definition is simple: an individual or a […]
Paris Agreement: how we reached a milestone
On the 5th of October the Paris agreement has entered into force, as enough countries has ratified the document. As India, China and United States ratified the agreement, the participating nations went well above the 55% threshold of emissions, mandatory for the agreement to take effect. The Paris agreement often as “the most comprehensive international agreement ever […]
Steamgreen goes Internazionale! Book advice included.
Steamgreen has gone far this week for its readers: it has flown to China, stopping in Spain before landing in Brasil and then popping up in US. And all of this while remaining in Ferrara. In fact Ferrara, the town whose historical centre was claimed to be UNESCO heritage site, hosted during the weekend the […]
Demain… a movie for the Earth!
On the 6th of this month be free, a new documentary is coming out, and is about the environment. Demain (Tomorrow, in english) is a non fiction movie directed by Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent. We don’t want to give too much spoilers, but you should know that the movie takes place in 10 different countries […]
EuroEnviro 2017: Updates!
Do you remember our first post this year? You can read it here. It was about the coolest sustainability-and-environment related students’ symposium happening around Europe for the last 22 years. And the news was: Rimini Campus, the campus hosting RESD, has the opportunity to host the upcoming edition! What’s new? The organising team is working […]
Soil storage and capture: we must deal with new numbers!
Carbon capture and storage into soils has always been thought to be one of the best way to reduce the quantity of Co2 in the atmosphere. The Earth’s soil works as a carbon sink and is a good reservoir in the medium -long term and contains the biggest amount of Co2. However, we have been […]
The Colour of Bitcoin? Certainly not green.
Could a thought be polluting? The answer, my dears, is unluckily yes: it could. An Example In 2008 a mysterious man signing with the fictitious name Satoshi Nakamoto, spread a paper illustrating his idea for a new digital currency. Take a step back in 2008: the economic stability sounded like a sweet and far memory […]
European Mobility Week
On the 16th of September was lunched the European Mobility Week! This year EU will focus on ‘Smart and sustainable mobility’, focusing on the link between transport and economics. The main idea is that having a smarter mobility across our society, from the public to the private sector, benefits the entire economy. In 2016 there are […]
Parks and Sparks
Yesterday ANSA, the Italian National Press Association Agency, reported that in the Vesuvio Natural Park special and dangerous types of waste were found by the Police. Those were allegedly parked there in order to be delivered later on to a site of illegal disposal. Such a shame for the Neapolitan Park , which is of […]
We all are in ecological debt!
One month ago we already reached the amount of natural resources that the Earth can replenish annually. Basically, we are demanding more resources as the Earth can give. We are creating ourselves an ecological debt. Additionally, the alarm sounds stronger than in the past as earlier and earlier we are reaching the point of no […]
Why is this G20 important?
On Saturday September 3rd China and US announced their ratification of Paris Agreement, the result of last year’s COP 21. It has been big news! But not just for the reasons you might address in your mind. An historical happening First of all, but not for importance, the announcements have occurred under the framework of […]
Sustainability Tips: how to ace September and a new lifestyle!
September is approaching, and to some of us this beginning is at least as heavy as the 1st of January. After all, a new year, may it be academic or work-related, is about to get started. If not, vacations are over. And if no vacation had been on sight… it could be high time also […]
(Northern) European Capitals
A Recent news: Nijmegen was announced to have accomplished the title of European Green Capital of 2018. James I of England used to say “No news is good news”. Actually it is no news that a green, fairplay, lovely Dutch city was named to be sustainable award-winning one. But we wouldn’t say it is good […]
A New, Sad, Icy Frontier
These days, while we are conquering a new beach, a new lazy day…which are in practice new just to us, a cruise is routing on a brand novel path: the one approached for the first time during ice ages by our ancestors and then back again by Amundsen. Crystal Serenity is capitalizing climate change. Open […]
Synergic Agriculture : Having more doing less
In 1975 in a small village on the Japanese hills a man started the so-called One-Straw Revolution. Masanobu Fukuoka was a farmer and a philosopher, and understood that nature does not need any human input to provide fruits and vegetables to the mankind. Fukuoka discovered the true natural way of farming, letting to the nature […]
How much is a Wave Worth? An example of how much Economists are creative and cool people, too.
A few days ago a very interesting article was published by The Economist, “The effects of surfers on local Economies”. It illustrates the findings of a study published by Thomas McGregor and Samuel Willis of the Oxford University, originally titled “Natural Assets: Surfing a Wave of Economic Growth”, which is pretty much enlightening. What this […]
The Green Column: Tomorrow is the Earth Overshoot Day 2016
Tomorrow, the 8th August 2016, is the Earth Overshoot Day. This means that on this day the water you will be using to make your morning coffee, the salmon you will eat in your sandwich, and the fuel you will be pump into your vespa (because Steamgreen is hoping you are on a cool freaking […]
The Happy Planet Index
GDP is a good index when it comes to measure nations’ production but is a not good measure of their wealth. One of the most important thing GDP does not account for is sustainability. Although, including environmental impacts in the measurements still is not enough. Moreover, we can not just rely upon the economic growth […]
Good to know!
It is getting harder and harder these days happening to read and hear good news. This is the reason why SteamGreen decided to tell you a positive and green story. Most of all because, near to most of us, it takes place in the beautiful country called Italy. A Romagna Story On a summer day […]
Masdar City: A Carbon-free oasis
Few kilometres from Abu-Dhabi airport in the middle of the desert a new city rises: is Masdar, literally the rising city. Thanks to a conspicuous US$ 22 billion investment, it is the first world’s 100% sustainable city. Started in the 2006, the city spreads for 6 square kilometres wide and it can host up to […]
Sustainability in RIO
Vinicius and Tom are the mascottes of the Olympic and Paraolympic games in Rio 2016. Their value is highly representative: they are entitled to envisage the biodiversity and natural value of the (important) country they speak for, Brazil. Vinicius is an animal, while Tom is a tree. An overview on the Games Sustainability in […]
Green Column- Celebrating Tesla: a name, a man behind daily life.
The Name This week in the Green Column we are talking about Nikola Tesla: a man, an inventor, an engineer, too much often only associated with the brand of electric vehicles. it is in fact a recent news that the brand’s first supercharger to be taken place in Italy, was inaugurated on Friday in […]
When The Food Industry Settles Down in Silicon Valley
Just a few data. According to the UN, livestock emits alone the 14.5% of GHGs and occupies the 30% of icefree landmass. Furthermore in order to produce a kilogram of beef it takes 10 of feed, the other components of the ordinary cattle follow with modesty, still accounting for less than what received. Yet […]
The Sustainable Community! Let’s go Apes
We all well know how much time you like spending on Facebook! Posting pictures of your amazing vacation, or sharing videos and posts! It has been estimated that the global average of time spent on your favourite social network is more than 20 minutes per day! Today the green column wants to give you an […]
Sustainability tips: how to behave during SALES.
The second week of sales is about to finish, at least here in Italy. And while I am wandering along the streets of Milan, a fashion destination recognised worldwide, I spot a lot of buyers with giant bags filled with cheap items. Or, better, cheap thrills? Because that is the thing that I notice: the […]
Tomorrow is the World Population Day
Tomorrow is the World Population Day. In fact in the far 1989 the UN decided to dedicate the 11th of July to the general theme of population issues. It is of course part of a campaign of awareness on hot debated social issues, among the latest: exploding population and global peace. This year it has […]
Innovative Schemes of Public Engagement, Pros and Cons
This topic was presented by the blogger Laura in Euroenviro2016 in Denmark, hope it is going to be interesting- One of the hotly debated topics in Europe is the need of public engagement in decision-making process. This phenomenon is called “democratic deficit”, and it is referred particularly to European Union’s institutions. In […]
Environmental bonds – When the Apple becomes green
Last month Apple announced its $1.5bn green bond, to achieve the company’s conversion to 100% renewable energy, using biodegradable material, installing more efficient air system. Surely, many other will follow the initiative, reflecting the growing concern of a large number of companies about reducing their climate impact. What exactly green bonds are? How can they […]
It is time for Time Banking
The only thing we can not buy is time! It is a scarce and valuable resource. Moreover we can not know exactly how much of it we have left, therefore it would be impossible to give a price to our time! Time is priceless! So we better not waste it! Carpe diem, someone said long […]
DIVE…sting
It is a a few days’ a go news that Cambridge University declined its students’ and staff’s call to divest the fossil fuel industry while Catholic Church Orders are increasingly doing the opposite, encouraged by Pope Francis’ second encyclical “Laudato Sì”, published one year ago. What is Divesting? Divesting is actually nothing more than […]
We have a dream…100% renewable!
As more countries are expanding their supply of clean energy, a fundamental question comes into our mind: would it be possible to run the entire world on renewable energy? Someone at Stanford University think so! Professor Mark Z. Jacobson, a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University and director of the school’s Atmosphere and Energy […]
Brexit and the Environment
On the 23rd, in two days, Great Britain is going to express its lawful opinion about whether remaining or leaving the European Union. Actually it is not the first time: in 1975 the 67% of the subjects chose to stay in the EEC. Hence, the main reasons standing behind the “Leave” party (mostly formed of […]
Closing the Loop – The new circle starts now!
The Council of the European Union has just presented its draft conclusions to take the circular economy plan a step further. In the report it stresses the need for more funding in research and innovation that “are essential for developing necessary sustainable and resource efficient industrial, economic and societal processes to stimulate the transition to the circular […]
You used to call me on my…UNfairphone!
Agbogbloshie. This is the name of a city in Ghana, whose big part of livelihood is based on the electronic waste – e-waste- management. Typically, a few km away of a soccer field, there is a slum where the e-waste boys are burning wires in order to get some copper and re sell it. Agbogbloshie […]
Celebrating the Summer Solstice
This week the Green Column is suggesting to you an appetizing event for the Summer to come. We know that somebody doesn’t see it coming… but looking at the calendar there is just one week to go for the longest day in the year ( at least for the Northern Emisphere). The best way to […]
Green Vacations – Sustainability in the summertime
Spring has gone, and summer is coming on… There are few exams left and you are already thinking where to spend the weeks ahead, right? Maybe visiting an European capital, maybe an on the road-trip, or maybe you will spend the summer in your hometown! Whatever you choose, relax but not on the environmental impact […]
Water scarcity in Northern Europe… Do we any issue?
Summer is coming. These days this sounds more like a threat than a promise, as it was actually in winter. so, while you are sweatingly walking through the concrete jungle of your city, you catch yourself thinking “I wish I was in Lapland”… like really? You may change your mind with the following facts. A […]
Flydende By – Copenhagen Floating City
North-west Copenhagen, a huge warehouse. Tons of material, iron sheets, old clothes, an electric organs. Add a creative and highly motivated bunch of people and what you have is the Floating City. Fydende By, translated in Floating city, is a climate project started in 2008 in a scrapped candy factory. Less than one year ago this […]
Getting Pacha Mama Rights
Shall Mother Earth be entitled of legal rights and be considered as a human being? According to the traditional environmental regulatory system the natural ecosystem is defined as a property. This did not help to prevent the massive exploitation and damages that are leading us into a catastrophic state never experienced before. A new approach […]
Music and Sustainability – a loyal and fruitful link
Sustainability, sustainability everywhere. That could be the incipit of the nightmare of an oil tycoon. Or maybe it is just the reality. How come that the latest Coldplay music videos are starring more and more natural assets? Why does Jack Johnson ask directly to his fans to commit for the protection of environment? But above […]
It is GreenWeek time!
The first Editor’s choice for this week is an event: EU Green Week 2016! And what an event! It is an annual week of round tables and conferences organised every year in order to examine collectively the European Environmental Policy. Throughout the past years they targeted the topics “Our health our wealth”, “Circular Economy” and […]
RESD’s escape in the Sinis Protected Area
As the plane takes off, there is only one word in my mind to express what we have witnessed in those days; paradise! The marine protected Area of Sinis peninsula and Isola di Mal di Ventre is one of the most beautiful place you can find on earth. Located in the gulf of Oristano, the […]
What is Euroenviro (as a participant)?
Imagine yourself in a city you have never been before, although acting like a veteran. Then add up that you are among friendly people, who are actually strangers as you have never met them before. Plus, you are passionately chit-chatting about your dreams and commitments for a better and green world. And the best […]
Old Business Paradigm vs. New Business Paradigm
During the last couple of month we RESD Students had an interesting time while following our course in Green Strategy and Sustainable Innovation. In this course we talked a lot about generic stuff like “What is sustainability for a company?!”, and we were surprised that it is not so easy to answer this question. In […]
Loccioni Group – Sustainable&Innovative
Last Thursday was a very exiting day for RESD Students: We had the opportunity to visit the Loccioni Group Company in the Marche region. What we saw there was impressive, they call them self an Open company, that enables to all its stakeholders (customers, suppliers, competitors, the public community, visitors) to enter in the company […]
meet NOOR, the largest concentrating solar power plant on Earth
Two weeks ago, the moroccan King Mohammed VI opened the biggest solar power plant on earth: a 3500 football-field area covered with solar power plants called Noor (arabic for light). With a huge investment of about 3,9 billion dollars the moroccan government build up this huge plant, which is so special because of its moving mirrors, […]
“M’illumino di meno” day
Today an article written by our fellow RESD student Ruggiero Rippo! Enjoy it as much as we do! This year on the 19th of February all of us can make a big difference. On this day the largest broadcasting initiative takes place, to raise awareness about energy consumption and sustainable mobility. The event, called “M’illumino di […]
Life transitions can help to instil better environmental behaviours
You are most likely to change your habits if you are changing your city, a job or even a country. Maybe that’s why people say that their life changed once they moved to some other country. Different language, people or food can have a very positive effect on you. At least the researchers of University […]
Is the Earth full?
If you enjoy TED Talks as much as I do then you will certainly enjoy the following speech by Paul Gilding, a famous author (The Great Disruption) and consultant in the field of sustainability and resources. Although this TED is from 2012 it is still accurate today, when he states that human mankind uses Earths […]
Sustainable Transport – step by step reducing impacts caused by transport
It was never easier then now to reach the most remote places on earth, or to get the most exotic fruits from the furthest South American rainforest, and no end is in sight. In fact, transport will be growing strongly in the upcoming decades; with the progressing globalization and cheaper technologies, the transport of persons […]
Soil is a non-renewable resource!
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO declared 2015 the international year of soils, and if you haven’t heard and thought about why healthy soils are necessary for a healthy life I will tell you now. Way too often we forget about soil as a resource that provides food, feed, ecosystem services, […]
Circular Economy: the way forward?
The European Commission published last week some very interesting documents on circular economy: In the Circular Economy Package there are included the goals of the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, and the measures on how to reach this goals. The most important targets regarding waste management are a recycling percentage of 65% of […]
The Future of Transportation: The Port of Los Angeles
Right now I am following a very interesting course with the name of transport and regional economics. And the more I think about transportation, the more I realize how important it is to move people and goods from point A to point B. I wont annoy you with all the theoretical models that we use […]
Ever heard of: Carbon Conversations!
This is my second post of ‘Ever heard of’. The first one was based on Sustainable goals by UN. Today I would like to talk about Carbon Conversations. We were suppose to have a small ‘talk’ on it by one professor from Hamburg today but it got cancelled for some reason. I hope the ‘seminar’ […]
Steamgreen Testdrive: Toyota Mirai at Ecomondo
Like Pushkar I went to Ecomondo, and there I had the very special opportunity to test drive the new Toyota Mirai, the first hydrogen powered mass produced car EVER! The reason why I am so hyped about this car is because it is a revolutionary step in the mobility sector: Powered with hydrogen it produces […]
Ecomondo – The Green Technologies EXPO
Couple of days I went to check out this expo which is quite famous in Italy to showcase all the companies which are doing business in Sustainability. This was the fourth edition. I went there last year too but with less enthusiasm and knowledge, I could not enjoy to the best. This year was better. […]
Ever Heard of: Sustainable goals by UN
From this week and till a distant future, I will be talking about ‘Ever heard of’. I’m sure you must have heard about what I am going to write about in this post or in the future, however, my aim is some people who may not know about it, will eventually know through my posts. […]
How important is the Return on Investment when it comes to sustainability matters?
Today I would like to share with you a very interesting topic that I stumbled on while browsing trough the web: The ROI of Sustainability. If you had an economics/business class then you know perfectly what the return on investment is ,and how important it is out there in the real world to have an Index […]
IRENA – The International Renewable Energy Agency
In today’s lecture about renewable energy production, our professor Chalvatzis Konstantinos showed us some very useful sources for data and information on renewable energy stuff that everybody that is into research about RE should know about. One of those is IRENA – the international Renewable Energy Agency. You do may not know about this agency because […]
My two cents on Milan’s Expo 2015!
I know I should have written this post long time ago. Even though I went to Expo 10 days ago, I should have went there before (less people would have been there) and this review might have helped some people weather to go there or not. But it might help you right now. What do […]
Volkswagen Shows Need for Sustainable Corporate Governance : Boards should embed sustainability in corporate DNA
SteamGreeners, here a well writen Articel about Volkswagen and its CSR Policy! Enjoy and thanks to the guys from friends of the OECD guidelines!
Plastic bag’s usage has been reduced but still a long way to go!
Over the few months I have been stressing a lot in my posts regarding the use of plastic bag in our daily life. Why I say ‘the use of daily life’? Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That’s over one million plastic bags used per minute. Recently, […]
World Energy Outlook Report 2015
This September the International Energy Agency published a Special Report on Energy and Climate Change. This December a very important meeting, the COP21, will let come together the most important decision takers in the field of Sustainability. In fact this sustainable innovation forum that will be happening partnership with the UNEP, the United Nation Environment Programme […]
Australia: The first country to have Tesla’s power battery
Tesla’s new ‘Powerwall’ battery which can save excess energy which can be used to later on will hit the markets of Australia late this year. It is being launched well before the predictions in early 2016. Even if those who have already installed the solar panels for them it should be a great news. The […]
White certificates: What are they and what are they good for?
In our RESD course we hear a lot about environmental policies and how they get applied in the real world. One of them are white certificates. The main aim of this kind of certificates is to lower the energy consumption by installing a market to trade them relatively freely and doing so to achieve a […]
Sustainer Homes
As you may noticed, Pushkar and me we are reporting quite often about pilot projects and plans on how to apply new knowledge on sustainability in the real world. Today I would like to present you another project; the dream of everyone studying and working in the field of sustainability: Sustainer Homes, a house created […]
Mobility revolution: Dublin
Dublin the Capital of Ireland is soon to be one of the cities with the widest pedestrian zones all over the world. But it doesn’t finish here, they invested also more than 150 billion euros in the city center to improve public transportation with tram and a well functioning wide range net of bicycle roads. The […]
Food Waste Petition – Do you part now!
In continuance of a post about Dumpster diving last week, I would like mention about France’s supermarket waste law. I’m sure you all are aware that France has banned supermarket to throw away the unsold food. Instead they now need to give it away to food charities or to the homeless people. If they do […]
Sustainable Development of Societies – “Collapse – by Jared Diamond”
In the last weeks I focused a little bit more on energy and waste issues, but today I’d like to write something about development. As you know the RESD (Resource economics and Sustainable Development) Course that promotes this blog is also giving a good understanding on how development can be sustainable. And one of the most […]
Dumpster Diving – Written by Philipp Mitterhofer
I’m Philipp and I study Geography at the University of Copenhagen. In my studies and in my personal life I am very interested in sustainability. What interests me the most is the complexity of the many issues we face today. Food waste is one of these issues where many factors play a role and that […]
Top 10 Sustainable Cities!
Last time I wrote about documentaries on Sustainability. Today I am writing about which cities are considered to be more sustainable. The three sub-indices each city was measured on can be further broken down into the following indicators: 1) Profit – business performance, transport infrastructure, ease of doing business, the city’s importance in global economic […]
My Top 10 documentaries about Sustainability
In these summer holidays where I should be little bit focused on Maths ( I have one exam left in Sept.) all I do is watch Vikings. It is quite a show. Must watch. Then I wondered that it’s been a while that I haven’t seen any documentary and to top that a friend of […]
New way of not wasting the food – Apps are online now!
Few days ago a friend of mine spoke about an app or in fact there is an fb page too or if I can continue this sentence with another platform in US where you can give away extra food to homeless people or to those who live in shelter, doesn’t that sound wonderful. Well, it […]
Gadgettime: The Fairphone – a cool sustainable product
No this is not a paid advertising (unfortunately ;), I´d simply like to introduce you to a very cool product: The Fairphone www.fairphone.com What makes this Smartphone different from classic ones? The answer is simple and yet complicated. From outside the phone looks like a normal Samsung, iPhone, or Nokia, but what makes it really […]
Our blog has been selected as part of Sustainability project from University of Bologna
4 months ago when we started this blog, we were not expecting to get this over-whelming response from people. I love when my friends tell me that they read our posts and we talk for hours about other ways of sustainability or some other posts that I might be interested to read because it talks […]
Sustainable Design
Recently I was talkin with a friend of mine that studies Industrial Design in one of the most famous Universities in Europe in the field, the UDK in Berlin. And while we were talking he explaned to me a very interesting topic, the so clled sustainable or also environmental design. It is all about being […]
Current Environmental Problems
Even it is very clear from the image on how we all are getting effected by various environmental problems but let’s have a look together on some of those issues ( I can write long pages on that) but I will keep short and sweet in order for you to understand or at least give […]
Myths vs. Facts on Global Warming
This article might upset few people or maybe we might learn a thing or too. Before I go on about the Myths or facts bout global warming, I would like to make my stand clear. According to me Global Warming is indeed a real thing happening caused by us. More population, more consumption, more production […]
Some interesting facts, pros and cons of Solar Energy
In my previous article I wrote about Wind Energy. Today I would like to cite some facts about Solar Energy. Recently I read an article where a Swedish firm seeks to revolutionize solar energy production by creating a new solar electricity generation system that developers claim is the most efficient in the world. It is […]
How to finance SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
With all the Grexit and Iranian atom discussions you may missed some important news when it comes to sustainable development. This days the third international conference on financing for development is happening in Addis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia. The people that meet there are ministers for foreign affairs and finances from all over the world, […]
Wind Power Usage – What’s not to like!
Recently I read an article where Denmark generated 140% of it’s electricity demand. If you must know, Denmark usually produced almost 40% of it’s electricity demand. But this time not only it managed to produce more but also managed to export it to the countries like Germany, Sweden & Norway. That got me wanting to […]
Bioenergy provides 38 per cent of jobs in the renewable energy industry
According to a report released by IRENA, there has been an 18 per cent increase from last year in the renewable energy industry, The bioenergy sector accounts for over 2.9 million jobs, including liquid biofuels (1.78 million), biomass power and heat (0.82 million) and biogas (0,38 million). This means that 38 per cent of all […]
Calculate your own ecological footprint!
Have you ever asked yourself how big your own ecological footprint is? Here you get a useful tool CoolClimate Calculator This calculator has been developed by the famous Berkely University from California. The aim of this calculator is to estimate the yearly co2 emissions of your household. In the first step you have to enter some […]
International Trade and Environment
Today I would like to reblog this amazingly well made Blog from our environmental economist colleagues from the IIT Madas. The contents you can find there are the basics you need to know if you want to succeed as an environmental economist student or profesionist. Just stumble trough the page, you will be stunned about […]
How to be more Sustainable in your daily routine
I once wrote about to conserve energy. Today I would like to cite few steps that we can take in order to be more sustainable as an individuals. So here we go: 1) Drink more filtered water than from plastic bottle – Recently I have been reading a lot about drinking from tap water or […]
Energiewende Part II – a new eco era
If you liked my article about the Energiewende two weeks ago, than you will definitely enjoy the second part about the energy transition that is going to happen in the next decades. In the first part I introduced you to the argument, and today I would like to sum up a very nice article published on the SPIEGEL […]
What is Fracking? It maybe more harmful that we think it is to be
Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside. Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well. The process is carried out […]
World’s most polluted cities – 13 out of top 20 cities are in India.
Few months back I wrote on Delhi has become numero 1 as world’s most polluted city. However according to the lastest data by WHO not only Delhi tops the list but 12 other cities from India are on the top 20 most polluted cities in the world. Even for me that is really surprising. China […]
Are we eating Plastic for dinner?
Yesterday when I wrote about the dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat’s Ocean Cleanup Project, I also mentioned that around 8 Million tons of plastic is dumped into Ocean every year. I just couldn’t take this out of mind. 8 Million tons every year. Every year. That is just too much to handle. BY 2025 it will […]
The Ocean Clean up Project!
When we started our Environmental Economics course, we had a seminar over waste management. The person who was conducting this seminar mentioned about a young guy from Holland who is trying to clean up the ocean. Soon after that this young guy named Boyan Slat was in the new for generating over 2 million dollars […]
Technology and Innovation as sustainability promoter
In the past decades we explored a fascinating trend regarding innovation and technology. In fact, technologic innovations changed our planet from the very beginning of humankind, and accelerated with an unbelievable speed in the last 100 years. In some cases technology helped to solve some critical environmental problems (e.g. substitutes for damaging CFC). In the next paragraphs […]
Mountains – so impressive but still vulnerable!
I grew up in the mountains. More specifically in the Dolomites, a quite famous mountain formation in the very north of Italy. And this is also the place where I feel most protected, nowhere else I can feel a bigger sensation of freedom than on the peak of my favorite mountain. Maybe you are from […]
To eat or not to eat = The Meat
Remember I once wrote my views on Cowspiracy and on how I took a pledge to decrease my intake. Well after 5 months, I would say it has reduced. Maybe it hasn’t reduced like I would prefer but I am happy with my progress. Just thinking that I might be saving few gallons of water […]
Thoughts on EuroEnviro by Maxsim Dimitrov
I am going to be honest, I had no major expectations about EuroEnviro. After all if the world-renown experts have not solved the problem, how can a group of 60ish students (even some workers and Ph.D. candidates) is going to unravel the Gordian knot? Turns out I have been looking on the issue from the […]
What the heck is an “Energiewende”?
Have you ever heard about Germany’s long term incentive to change their energy systems from non-sustainable energies to sustainable ones? No? Well this is process is called “Energiewende” which means Energy Transition in english, and the reason why I give you the german expression is because Germany is the most notable country when it comes to […]
Summer is here, let’s talk about Sustainable Tourism!
Summer is here, and exams are done! Let’s travel! (btw sorry for the two weeks of silence here on SteamGreen, I had to study a lot for finals). Yeah, when it comes to vacation usually we just want to relax, leave our ordinary lives behind and enjoy the free time without sorrows. But just take […]
Is Zero Waste a possibility?
Few weeks back I read an article. Here it talks about the zero waste in four different cities in different countries. These four cities include San Francisco, Sweden ( every city in it apparently), Buenos Aires and Capannori. Even though their effort should be appreciated and worth talking about, however, it concerns when when I […]
Thoughts on EuroEnviro 2015 by Mariantonietta Gagliardi
My schoolmate Pushkar, who is taking care of this blog with Max and with whom I shared the possibility to take part at the international environmental symposium I am going to talk about, asked me to write down a short overview of our Swedish experience. Well, if I have to talk about my impressions, feelings […]
Impression of EuroEnviro 2015 by Simona Colaizzi
Remember I once mentioned that 6 of us went to Göteborg, Sweden. So Simona shared her experience about it. It’s really interesting. Check it out. We really appreciate and thank her for writing a post. It’s her second post here at Steamgreen. My impressions about EuroEnviro2015 EuroEnviro 2015 is a symposium where sixty students from all […]
RESD Students Study Tour to Sardinia
As you might know this Website is promoted by the two years M. Sc. Resource Economics and Sustainable Development, University of Bologna, and from time to time we report about activities of our course (like Pushkar did with Euroenviro last week). From 17th to 19th of May twenty RESD Students went to an amazing study tour […]
ThoughtBubble: Bottled fresh Air sold in China due to heavy air pollution
Have you heard about the chinese millionaire that sells canned fresh air? Believe it or not but according to more or less reliable sources the guy sold in one week more than 8 million (!) cans of fresh air as pollution levels reached record highs. Chen Guangbia, thats the guys name got rich in the […]
Actors of Change – EuroEnviro2015 (Part2)
Day 4 – Changing the mindsets Day 4 was one of my favourite days of the program. It Included a workshop of Self Leadership, one workshop of ‘How to pitch’ and one documentary called ‘Invisible Revolutions’. Self Leadership workshop meant to create a self motivated leadership. The instructor spoke about reflection and initiative among other […]
Actors of Change – EuroEnviro2015 (Part 1)
Day1 So as promised here goes my day to day article about what happened in EuroEnviro, how it was organised and especially we all got together in this symposium. Let me tell you from the beginning that the event was absolute awesome. It was so awesome that it gave a new meaning to awesomeness. EuroEnviro […]
Klimaenergy Award 2015
The Klimaenergy Award is an award for best practices of italian municipalities in the field of energy efficiency, renewable energy and waste reduction in public space. There were three categories that have been decorated: cites with 20.000 inhabitants, centres from 20.000 to 150.000 persons, and larger areas with more than 150.000 inhabitants. A committee of […]
Expo 2015: How sustainable is the universal exposition?
The Expo 2015 in Milan is the most important event in Italy this year, and its slogan is “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. But what about sustainability on the Expo? Here a sum up of the Interview with the sustainability manager of the event, Gloria Zavatta, published on Ecodellecitta.it on April 28th 2015. Zavatta […]
ThoughtBubble: How to be more green…only for woman
A new week, a new ThoughtBubble! This time the Author is our colleague Simona! How to be more green…only for woman. When I started to attend this course I start to become more and more aware about some topics and also wondered how I could be more green in practical aspects. I used to be […]
What is emissions trading and what is it good for? Part 2 of 2
Instruments that have the power to reduce pollution emissions are one of the topics we study in our course, and looking closer on certain issues it can get sometimes more technical to understand problems better. Emission trading was first developed as an economic theory to internalize damaging externalities like pollution, which means that negative effects on the […]
Audio Engineers made Diesel out of carbon dioxide and water!
Here a quick link to a nice article about good news for the environment that a friend of mine passed me (Thank you Maksim!) http://www.sciencealert.com/audi-have-successfully-made-diesel-fuel-from-air-and-water That’s it!
ThoughtBUBBLE: Planned obsolescence
Something that bothers me a lot ultimately is the huge amount of electronic waste that everyone of us generates. Me for example: in the last 10 years i had eight different mobile phones! Eight! I have to admit that I was not very careful with them and maybe one or two broke, but I’m pretty […]
Documentary Review – ‘Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story’
Few days back I saw this amazing documentary called ‘Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story’. Why amazing? Because I really hate wasting food. Sometimes when I waste food ( could be because the food was overcooked till the colour black or I am really nervous). Yes, I am one of those whose appetite goes […]
It’s time we Indians start taking the measure against the increasing pollution
I was born and grew up in Delhi. Honestly I remember one of my closest friend had severe asthma problems especially during the winters. In Delhi, in winters we have ‘Smog’. Smog is a kind of air pollution, originally named for the mixture of smoke and fog in the air. Classic smog results from large amounts […]
Green activist killing rate are getting higher
As i mentioned in one of my posts that more than 1000 environmentalists have been killed in Brazil for protesting against the Amazon deforestation. So recently i read an article on BBC ( the link is given below) about how many green activists are getting killed. It is very sad that people who are trying […]
The Nature of Cities – Documentary Review
How can we make the cities better than before, better workplaces, better schools… how can we immerse ourselves in nature everyday instead of thinking we have to get in SUV and drive 50 miles? There is no doubt that we need nature. It’s absolutely essential to daily life. We can find it in the cities […]
Noise pollution and its negative effects on the environment
Noise pollution is very often an underestimated problem, and in our modern world noise is a always present factor that influences quality of life. Environmental noise is usually defined as the summary of noise pollution from outside caused by transport, industrial and recreational activities, which can have a heavy impact on mental and physical health of […]
What is Corporate Social Responsibility about?
Today we started a new class that is mostly about Corporate Social Responsibility. If you never heard about it, don’t worry you don’t have to check it on Wikipedia, just continue reading! Corporate Social Responsibility, or short CSR is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. That means that firms try to […]
Environmental pressures from European consumption and production
Two weeks ago the Eurpean Environment Agency EEA published a synthesis report about european environmental policy in general and its implementation in the next 5 years until 2020. The report is a reflection of the European environment in a global context as well as chapters summarising the state of, trends in, and prospects for the […]
Amazing Video on Natural Resources
One month ago this gem has been published on Vimeo. Sit back, and enjoy! What do you think about it? Leave a comment below!
Sustainability according to TheGuardian.com
“Lessons from history: why what we say about sustainability matters” That is the title of an interesting article published on TheGuardian.com last Tuesday, March 10th. It describes in a very interesting way how the terminology of the word sustainability became more and more used in a business context. What do you think about it? Check […]