A Climate Hole in One in Spain

- Adam Clare

Golf courses are notorious for being awful for the environment and as a place that ruins otherwise good walks. Spanish Extinction Rebellion members have had enough of local golf courses consuming vast amounts of water for an elite sport while the world literally burns. The water golf courses use can be better used in nature, for crops, or for people to drink. Good on XR Spain for taking some direct action and calling out the horrible practices of golfers.

XR said it wanted to point out the “cynicism of continuing to allow this type of elitist leisure while Spain dries up and the rural world suffers millions in losses due to the lack of water for their crops.”

Spain has been in a long-term drought since the end of 2022, with conditions exacerbated by soaring temperatures. In April, temperatures in the city of Córdoba reached 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 Fahrenheit), the highest April temperature ever recorded in mainland Spain. And in late June, temperatures soared to more than 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) in parts of the country.

The drought has had far-reaching impacts. Some reservoirs sunk to less than 10% of capacity, millions of hectares of crops across the country have been lost and some towns and villages have been forced to to rely on trucked in water.

Read more.

Hydrogen Train Takes to the Rails in Quebec

- Adam Clare

In an effort to show North Americans that train travel can be both good for the environment and getting around Alstom has sent a train to Quebec. The train company has been making a hydrogen powered train to replace diesel engines on routes that don’t support electric operations. Hydrogen isn’t as efficient as electric engines but it provides a good transitional solution in areas that currently only use diesel. Every step we take away from oil makes the world a little better.

According to Serge Harnois, CEO of Harnois Énergies, which supplies the fuel for the train, it uses up about 50 kilograms of hydrogen a day, replacing about 500 litres of diesel that would be burned during the same journey. A diesel-powered truck carries the hydrogen to the train station for refuelling, which results in some carbon footprint, but according to Harnois, hydrogen would likely be produced on-site “one day.”

Read more.

Thanks to Trevor.

Collision 2023 Day 3

- Adam Clare

The final day of Collision conference and there are still more startups to write about. It’s neat that there are so many companies looking to address the UN SDGs!

Loop wants to be the so called middleman, and that’s good. They are on a mission to make it super easy and simple to buy/sell children’s items from other parents in your local community. They will literally handle pickup and delivery of kids items you want to resell.

Everyone knows we need to get cars off the road, and one way to do that is to encourage car sharing instead of car owning. RideALike is a new car share company with a slightly different business model similar to AirBnB.

Future Fields genetically modifies fruit flies to produce proteins and other biomolecules. The output can then be used to make vaccines, insulin, or other useful bio products. This is a really neat approach to speeding up production of biomolecules and doing so in a green fashion. The CEO of the company told me that the fruit flies can’t escape because they are genetically engineered to have curved wings.

Today I had to park at a bike rack further away from the entrance. It’s good to see so many people using two wheels to attend Collision. Let’s hope for more bike parking next year.

Collision 2023 Day 2

- Adam Clare

I’m back at Collision Conference for another day of finding startups doing good in the world. Let’s see what today brings.

Ensogo provides a system for teams to track and ensure they are meeting their ESG and sustainability goals. They do this by breaking down an abstract goal like better gender parity into concrete actions organizations can take.

Fenri focuses on ensuring clean water and proper wastewater treatment. They use a combination of sensors and cameras to monitor water systems in real time. This helps companies and governments better plan and react to changes in their water system. Their system can connect to government monitoring regulators too.

South Pole is a sustainability consulting firm to help other companies achieve their sustainable goals. They provide carbon offsets and insights into how companies can best reduce their carbon footprint.

Despite the smoke from the wildfires the bike racks were yet again full.

Collision 2023 Day 1

- Adam Clare

I’m at Collision conference today in Toronto looking for some cool new good things to share. I’ll update this post as I find stuff.

A record-breaking 30 percent of startups this year at Collision are women-founded.

The first company that’s a good one is Unwrapit. They want gift giving to be more about experiences tHan physical artifacts.

We believe that giving gifts and making a positive impact can be one and the same. That reaching out, saying thank you, and providing an engaging and branded experience can be seamless. That receiving corporate gifts from a client, your employer, or at an event, doesn’t have to feel corporate at all.

Smart Cocoon sets to optimize HVAC in your house be utilizing some tiny fans. They’ve created a smart fan system that boosts the airflow from your furnace to the whole house.

GoParity funds good projects by using the power of the crowd. Each project must be related to one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. They tell me they have funded some solar projects in Portugal among others. Check it out!

Muuvment helps corporations engage their workers in making a meaningful impact on the planet. The system relies on self reporting from employees to see a company wide impact. By celebrating the good work everyone in the company keeping their employees engaged.

Homestozero are on a mission to get 10.5 homes in Canada to net zero as quickly as possible. They’re a service that helps homeowners understand the current state of their home and gives personalized advice on to get to gas zero.

Earthnet connects AI with experts to help craft projects from idea to impact around climate action projects. What’s more the site will help connect projects with potential finders.

Sponge Microgrids helps small renewable producers stay active and live. They use a suite of tools to help micro grid operators predict and control energy production. This may sound boring but is crucial to moving to a fully renewable energy grid.

Lastly, Collision needs more bike parking for all the eco conscious attendees.

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