Sustainability Momentum Sdn Bhd

Photo Credit: Elga Reyes

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila has moved a step closer to sustainability by switching completely to 100% renewable energy. This significant initiative, by changing its energy dependency from grid electricity to solar and geothermal energy, is the highlight of ADB’s efforts to promote its second year of its ‘No Impact Week’ project. In addition, it is expected to reduce almost half of ADB’s yearly carbon footprint and achieve CO₂ emission reduction of more than 9,500 tonnes.

Photo Credit: The Green Reporter

The release of new forest maps for Sarawak recently uncovered large-scale destruction of rainforests, peat lands and traditional lands which has occurred over the past 50 years. The new online platform revealed that Sarawak has only 11 percent of its primary forests left, which contradicts the 70 percent value claimed by the Sarawak Chief Minister in 2011. Logging and conversion of forest to oil palm plantation are the main culprits for the loss. The tool published by Bruno Manser Fund aims to enhance the degree of transparency in the State by reducing the problem of mismanagement, corruption and misinformation provided by officials. Sadly, the government still plans to explore more traditional lands for mining, hydroelectric dams and timber plantation, leading to more forest destruction.

Scientists are currently investigating deeper into the world of Plastisphere, an ecological group of microbial organisms living on floating marine plastic debris, which was only discovered last year. Previous research found that there are at least 1,000 different kinds of microbes living on the floating plastics and some are known to be harmful to animals and humans. This new research shows that they can colonize rapidly on the plastics and prefer a plastic environment. The research not only provides important information to better understand the potential risks of the Plastisphere but to also urge material scientists to create better materials which have the lowest impact possible.

Photo Credit: DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

A study conducted by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory revealed that volcanic eruptions in the early 21st century played an important role in offsetting the warming produced by greenhouse gases. These eruptions have effectively cooled the planet, ‘slowing down’ global warming. The injection of large amounts of sulphur dioxide from volcanic eruptions into the stratosphere increases the formation of tiny droplets of sulphuric acid known as ‘volcanic aerosols’. These aerosols reflect some of the incoming sunlight back into the space, thus cooling down the Earth’s surface and troposphere naturally. Nature is truly marvellous.

Photo Credit: Bonnie Alter

As a sponsor of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Samsung went all out to impress visitors via its Galaxy Studio in the Olympic Park. The Studio was made up of 16 recycled shipping containers, stacked together like Lego building blocks. The building was used for information booths, walls, and was spacious enough for a performance stage. After the Olympics, Samsung will be donating these reusable containers to an educational facility in an effort to minimise waste production.

Photo Credit: Eco-Business

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and Google have collaborated with over 40 partners to develop the free Global Forest Watch (GFW) system, a new web app which can be used by the public to track the gain and loss of tree cover around the globe. The system enables users to identify regions of protected areas, logging and mining activities, forest fire alerts from NASA, agricultural commodities, preserved forest landscape and biodiversity hotspots. The features of near-real time monitoring, speed of cloud computing and crowdsourcing make it easier and faster to detect deforestation hotspots and collect evidence, thus allowing NGOs to take immediate actions on companies that are responsible for illegal deforestation. Malaysia is so pink for all the world to see.

Links: http://www.eco-business.com/news/wri-google-launch-ground-breaking-online-tool-to-protect-forests/

Date & Source: February 24, 2014, Eco-Business

In association with Asia Bioenergy Technologies Bhd (AsiaBio), Nexfuel Ltd, is planning to construct three biofuel production plants in Johor and Pahang. These plants will have 10 million gallons of capacity using Cool Planet’s technology in the fuel production. Nexfuel will local biomass feedstocks such as agricultural waste from palm oil mills.

                                                                                              Photo Credit: Xeros
                                                                                           
A British company, Xeros has recently introduced its innovative washing machine which is more efficient in saving water as compared to standard washing machine by using polymer beads to clean clothes. The Xeros’ washing machine uses bead-cleaning technology as the alternative solution to clean clothes with 70 percent less water than standard washing machine. More than a million of polymer beads are require for each cleaning process and they can be reused for up to 100 times before replacement is needed. Xeros claims that the used beads, after replacement, can then be utilised in other polymer industries.