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Implementing simple energy- and water-efficiency upgrades in US households would save nearly $200B per year in residential utility bills.

Unfortunately, these upgrades are often unaffordable or inaccessible for the average US home.

Growing up in West Virginia, my community was largely part of the 1/3 of Americans who can’t afford their energy bills, let alone the efficient home tech upgrades that would make these bills affordable.

This is why Kaitlin Highstreet and I founded Scope Zero, where we created the Carbon Savings Account™, or CSA. The CSA is similar to a health savings account, where employers and employees both contribute funds to the account. With the CSA, the employees use the money for home technology and personal transportation upgrades that reduce their utility bills, fuel spend, and carbon footprint.

CSA-eligible upgrades include everything from Energy Star refrigerators, low-flow showerheads, smart thermostats, and LEDs, to home solar and EVs.

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Planet

Ammonia will ​​play a major role in fighting climate change

The emission-free fuel is key to decarbonizing maritime shipping. Here’s why.

Amogy CEO, Seonghoon Woo, with the tugboat that is being retrofitted with Amogy’s ammonia-powered technology

The world economy runs on maritime shipping. More than 80% of international goods by volume are transported by ships, which together weave the essential fabric of the global supply chain.

But all of that shipping comes at a high cost to the climate: Right now, every ship is powered by carbon-emitting fuel, which means maritime shipping is responsible for an estimated 3 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Curbing those emissions as soon as possible—and fully decarbonizing the industry as a whole—is an important piece of the worldwide project to fight climate change and reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Just to get on track, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has concluded that international shipping emissions must remain steady through 2025, then decline by three percent annually until the end of the decade. And the average lifespan of a shipping vessel is 25 years, which means that ships built from 2025 onward will need to run on zero-emission fuel or be powered by engines that are convertible to zero-emission fuel.

We need to build ships that can run on zero-emission fuel, we need to build them as soon as possible, and we need to scale up the production of fuel that will keep those ships running efficiently.

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We’ve all been hearing urgent warnings from scientists, government, and corporate leaders on the need to limit the planet's global temperature warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change.

Several studies, including research from the National Academy of Sciences indicate if we continue on the path we are on, we will likely hit that pivotal moment of global warming in the early 2030s. It’s clear that more needs to be done —and faster—to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and secure a thriving and sustainable economy for everyone.

Broader research is also showing people care more than ever about what companies are doing to address this challenge. In a 2022 global survey from IBM, 51% of respondents said environmental sustainability is more important to them now than it was the year before. And a 2022 Yale survey found that 51% of U.S. business students would even take lower pay to work for a company with better environmental practices — a signal of the topic's importance.

T-Mobile is an example of a company that has led the wireless industry in these efforts starting with its pledge in 2018 to source 100% of its total electricity usage with renewable energy and being the first in U.S. wireless to set science-based carbon reduction goals and then reach them in 2021. This year, T-Mobile stepped up even more by becoming the first U.S. wireless provider to announce a net-zero target for its entire carbon footprint.

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All photos courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company

Behind the Scenes Making Recycled Records with Mark Ronson

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You’re walking down the sidewalk, earbuds in, listening to your favorite hip-hop beats. As your head bobs to the sounds, the sun warms your back. It’s a perfect day.

When the chorus hits, the empty Sprite bottle in your hand becomes a drumstick, passing traffic becomes a sea of concertgoers, and the concrete beneath your feet is suddenly a stage. Spinning on your heels, you close out the song with your face to the sky and hands in the air.

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