The 3Cs of Innovation in Low-Carbon Concrete: Clinker, Cement, and Concrete

As the Paris Agreement calls for net-zero pathways for all sectors, new and innovative decarbonization technologies are actively being developed across the concrete production value chain. This is a dramatic paradigm shift for the concrete and cement industry. It has been traditionally innovating to optimize for consistent quality, lower costs and higher performance, but now must also look to optimize for lower carbon in cement and concrete. The readily available technologies alone will not get us to net zero. The development and deployment of emerging technologies are necessary for the sector’s decarbonization pathway.

The time is now to invest in …

Microgrid Testing and Control Standards Briefing

Microgrids have the potential to provide customers with clean, low-cost, and most critically, resilient power. SEPA hosted a briefing for Microgrid Controller Standards IEEE 2030.7© and IEEE 2030.8© to provide an overview of the standards and explore the challenges and next steps for microgrid standards. The briefing focused on the adoption and testing associated with IEEE 2030.7© or IEEE 2030.8© by providing:

An update on the newest version of these standards A review of potential gaps in the testing standard (IEEE 2030.8©), and A look at potential future work or development the discussion group hopes to see

Framework for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Planning: Industrial Portfolios

The Framework for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Planning: Industrial Portfolios articulates a process to help industrial organizations develop a specific, actionable plan to achieve Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction – an Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP). An ERP covers an entire portfolio of facilities, yet contains enough detail to be practically useful at the facility level.

Organizations may find many benefits to developing an ERP. An ERP translates targets into action and ensures members of an organization at all levels understand the resources needed to achieve goals.

The Framework guides organizations through five milestones to developing …

Land-Based Wind Market Report: 2023 Edition

Wind power additions in the United States totaled 8.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2022. Wind power growth has historically been supported by the industry’s primary federal incentive—the production tax credit (PTC)—as well as myriad state-level policies. Long-term improvements in the cost and performance of wind power technologies have also been key drivers for wind additions. Nonetheless, 2022 was a relatively slow year in terms of new wind power deployment—the lowest since 2018—due in part to ongoing supply chain pressures, higher interest rates, and interconnection and siting challenges, but also the reduction in the value of the PTC that was in place …

Clean Energy Investing in America

Since federal clean energy incentives were passed last year, signs of rapid growth for maturing American clean energy industries are emerging. U.S. wind manufacturing plants that closed in recent years are bringing back workers. Plans for an unprecedented amount of new solar, battery, and offshore wind plants are being drawn and developed. The U.S. is in a position to secure our energy independence and become a global leader in the buildout of clean energy.

The new incentives offer companies significant opportunity to invest in new utility-scale wind, solar, and storage projects and manufacturing facilities, while passing on savings to American …

Natural Gas Odorants: A Scoping Review of Health Effects

The primary component of natural gas is methane, a highly combustible, yet completely odorless gas. Natural gas is intentionally odorized using a variety of sulfur-based odorant compounds to aid in leak detection. Without odorants, gas leaks would be completely undetectable.

To date, no comprehensive assessments have been performed on toxicity or human health risks of commonly used natural gas odorants. In this rigorous literature review, published in Current Environmental Health Reports, researchers evaluate the scientific evidence on the toxicological and human health outcomes of the most widely used natural gas odorants. A total of 22 articles were identified, of which …

Playbook for Decarbonizing Process Heat in the Food & Beverage Sector

In the U.S., food & beverage processing produces more emissions from industrial heat use than any other sector outside of refineries, chemicals, or iron & steel. 97% of the heat in this sector falls in the low-temperature range, making electrification with heat pumps and electric boilers a promising opportunity for cutting emissions in the near-term. According to the Renewable Thermal Vision Report, by 2050, electrification will be able to provide more than 85% of the process heat in the sector, mostly from heat pumps.

To accelerate decarbonization in this critical sector, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Guidehouse co-authored the …

Carbon Commoditization – How Businesses Can Price in Environmental Impact

This report highlights the need to understand and take advantage of the carbon market; covering regulations, investment opportunities, technologies and solutions.…

Key Trends of Energy Providers: The Latest Global Research

A global survey by ESG found that nearly three-quarters of energy providers plan to implement AI/machine learning solutions to achieve operational efficiency and meet customer demands while combating macro market forces such as rising costs and rigorous regulations. This insight is part of a broader story of the rapidly evolving energy industry, and how energy executives are rising to meet the moment.

This survey report uncovers energy providers’ top challenges and the solutions to address them, including:

Concerns about regulation, rising costs, and supply chain constraints Optimism about analytics and forecasting tools to power informed decision-making How a clear market

10 Tips for How ESG Leadership and Staff Can Support Company Boards

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programs have experienced significant growth in both visibility and importance in the past five years.

Companies across industry sectors, faced with a reckoning on ESG concerns and initiatives, invested in staff, program developments and data systems specifically concentrated around ESG. At the highest levels, company directors depend upon in-house leaders and professionals to keep them abreast of ESG issues, distill and interpret ESG data, offer guidance and answer questions.

While ESG leadership and staff bring visibility, credibility and technical expertise of ESG to the board level, it also creates a burden to communicate often complex, …