ExO Hits of the Week - 15 July 2022

In this week’s ExO ‘Hits of the Week,’ here is what our community is reading:

• Will China’s new renewable energy plan lead to an early emissions peak?
• Playing offense on circularity can net European consumer goods companies €500 billion
• Which Key Technologies Are Improving Sustainability in Your Sector?
• Waymo’s New Self-Driving Trucking Hub Opens in Texas
• Ghost DNA from hybrid coyotes could save endangered red wolves
  

Here are our top five Exponential ‘Hits of the Week:’

1. Will China’s new renewable energy plan lead to an early emissions peak?

Publication: Hu Min, Carbon Brief

Date: 07 July 2022

China’s climate pledge (its “nationally determined contribution,” or NDC) aimed for 1,200 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar power capacity by 2030, and for 25% of energy consumption to be met by non-fossil fuels by 2030. Achieving these goals is expected to ensure China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions peak before 2030, but to fall short of a pathway towards carbon neutrality.

Read more here.

2. Playing offense on circularity can net European consumer goods companies €500 billion

Publication: McKinsey&Company

Date: 29 June 2022

Forget linear; think circular. The consumer goods growth paradigms of the past were usually predicated on ever-rising volumes—producing more and faster was how to add value to the bottom line. But not anymore. The sustainable model of the future will be increasingly circular, meaning the useful value of products and resources will be maintained for as long as possible. This will significantly reduce high-emissions manufacturing, enable sustainable business models, and provide a powerful mechanism for companies to differentiate from their peers.

Read more here.

3. Which Key Technologies Are Improving Sustainability in Your Sector?

Publication: James Anderson & Greg Caimi - Bain & Company

Date: 22 March 2022

The sustainability goals of most companies and industries can’t be achieved without digital technologies. Digital tools make it possible to measure and track our progress against sustainability goals. And they foster the collaboration and innovation critical to solving our greatest sustainability challenges.

Read more here.

4. Waymo’s New Self-Driving Trucking Hub Opens in Texas

Publication: David Seeley - Dallas Innovates

Date: 06 July 2022

“This facility has been built from the ground up to support Waymo Via, which is our Class 8 trucking solution,” Rocky Garff, head of trucking operations for Waymo, said at a ribbon-cutting event at the hub last Wednesday. “We’re growing our operations and our investment here in Texas, and across the southwestern U.S. region. We’re super excited for what’s to come.”

“The vision is that we can launch trucks autonomously and then receive them autonomously here,” Garff added as he offered a tour of the facility and its 10 truck maintenance bays, six EV charging stations, and diesel fueling operations.

Read more here.

5. Ghost DNA from hybrid coyotes could save endangered red wolves

Publication: Jason P Dinh - New Scientist

Date: 29 June 2022

A genetic reservoir of red wolf “ghost DNA” has been found hidden in coyote-wolf hybrids in southwestern Louisiana. The long-lost genes represent genetic diversity that experts thought disappeared when the last 14 wild red wolves were captured and bred in the 1970s.

Red wolves are critically endangered. Just over 200 live in captivity, and only one population was reintroduced to the wild in North Carolina in 1987. By 2012, that population reached 120 individuals, but today only 20 remain.

Read more here.

Additional research support from Shabbir Esmael.