It covers almost three quarters of the Earth, but we know only a fraction of what lies beneath the ocean’s surface. Google’s parent company Alphabet has today launched a new initiative called Tidal aimed at changing that, with an overarching objective to use a better understanding of the ocean to better protect the marine environment. “We know more about the […]

Pathwater, based out of northern California, began with a Christmas Eve run to a grocery store, where three friends lamented about the lack of truly sustainable water bottle options. So they rented a space, added two like-minded partners and got down to the business of providing water in something other than plastic. The result is a sleek, aluminum water bottle […]

Shipping fertilizer to colonies on Mars could be quite a hassle – it would certainly be better if the colonists were able to grow crops using whatever’s on hand. The continuation of an existing study now indicates that urine might in fact serve as a perfectly good fertilizer. It was back in 2016 that we first heard how scientists at […]

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault has received a major a new deposit of seeds from several hundred plant species. In a formal ceremony on February 25, 2020, hosted by the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and attended by international dignitaries, the seeds from 35 gene banks spread over all seven continents were placed in the underground vault, bringing the total […]

We recently reported on a planned timber skyscraper in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and now another impressive sustainable project is coming to the city too, courtesy of Powerhouse Company. Floating Office Rotterdam (FOR) is a green-roofed, solar-powered office-on-the-water that’s due to begin construction soon. FOR will be located in Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven port and will serve as a new headquarters for the […]

For years, investing in energy efficiency upgrades was thought of as a luxury by many property investors. However, that is starting to change as property developers are starting to make tons of money by going green. While the reasons for this change are not always due to concerns about the environment. The result of this “green wave” is that operating […]

Mosquitoes are infamous for their apparent predilection for blood: notably, from a human perspective, human blood. In many parts of the world this brings with it the unwelcome possibility of the transmission of disease. Trivia buffs may also know that it’s only female mosquitoes that feed on blood. Perhaps less well known, though well-understood in the science community, is that […]

On Jan. 1, 2018, China stopped importing almost all plastic waste from other countries, after decades of being the world’s dumping ground for trash. And now, two years later, the country is ramping up initiatives to decrease plastic pollution by announcing bans on a variety of single-use plastic items. China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology […]

The waters surrounding the UK have long played home to some of the world’s most ambitious renewable energy projects, with a line of off-shore wind farms one-upping each other over the years to assume the mantle as the world’s largest. The title will soon be changing hands once again, with construction now underway at Dogger Bank, a gigantic off-shore wind […]

We’ve already heard about experimental self-healing concrete, that can repair cracks within itself. Now, scientists have gone a step further, utilizing bacteria to create building materials that can be grown on-site – and that regenerate when broken. Led by Asst. Prof. Wil Srubar, a team from the University of Colorado at Boulder started by combining sand and a gelatine-based hydrogel. […]