Air conditioning accounts for a significant and growing share of global electricity use. This week, we spoke with Martin Zhu about his clean energy startup i2cool, which uses passive cooling technology inspired by the Saharan silver ant to cool buildings, vehicles, and more.
Carbon dioxide, a main driver of climate change, is naturally drawn into oceans, trees, soil, and other carbon sinks. This week, we spoke with Dr. Sabbie Miller, a researcher at UC Davis, who’s working to sequester carbon in buildings with a material called biochar.
Lowering heating and air conditioning energy use by improving air filtration efficiency through sonic vibration technology. We sat down during Hong Kong Climate Week with Philip Yuen, CEO of Aurabeat, to learn more.
Climate-friendly banks are financial institutions that employ public and private capital to support sustainable technologies and climate-forward initiatives, and commit to not investing in the fossil fuel industry. This week, we spoke with Charley Cummings, the CEO of a climate-forward bank called Walden Mutual, about how greener banks are pushing for a more sustainable future. For a transcript, please visit climatebreak.org.
Carbon dioxide is both a potent greenhouse gas and a necessary input into the natural process of photosynthesis in plants. This week, we spoke with UC Berkeley researcher Dr. Peidong Yang, whose artificial leaves replicate photosynthesis to generate products currently dependent on fossil fuels.
India faces severe air pollution, much of it driven by the transportation sector. This week, we spoke with Dr. Rashi Gupta about how lithium-ion batteries can power the shift toward cleaner energy and a healthier future.
Typical wind turbines, critical as they are to the renewable energy transition, are wasteful to produce and almost impossible to reuse. We spoke to Ryan Clarke, a materials scientist at Hexion Inc, about new turbines made out of recyclable resin, which not only utilize less energy in production, but also create less waste as they can be recycled.
How can we reimagine the construction industry to be more sustainable? Plantd, a company dedicated to developing sustainable construction materials, seeks to answer this question through developing a new form of wood materials. We spoke with Plantd CEO Nathan Silvernail about the company’s goals and achievements.
Potential adverse effects of climate change, known as climate risks, increasingly concern economists, city planners, ecologists, and many others. This week, we spoke with Dr. Ron Dembo, an expert in multi-factor scenario modeling, who is pioneering the use of AI to run climate risk assessments.
As cities and communities around the world grapple with the need for affordable housing while also addressing climate change, sustainable wood provides a promising solution. Able to replace carbon-intensive traditional building materials, sequester carbon, and lower emissions, sustainable wood has the potential to redefine the future of low-carbon building. On this week’s Climate Break, UC Berkeley Professor Dr. Paul Mayencourt, explains how sustainable wood from mass timber could help mitigate the impact of climate change and transform the construction industry.