Issue 72
In which we give the distraction economy a good kicking. Plus, another interview with a fantastic Irish biodiversity entrepreneur!
Good afternoon, and welcome back to this small corner of the Interweb that strives to remain drama-free, hope-filled, and green to the core.
I’ve been working on this writing project for a little over three years now (here’s the article that kicked it off, if you’re interested), and the primary goal for this has been furthering my own education and knowledge of the area of sustainability and impact, and how that applies to Ireland’s innovation and start-up communities. I’d quite honestly continue this work with a readership of just one (yours truly), as I find it to be such a personally valuable exercise, and I often find myself searching through the back catalogue of issues, seeking the name of an event, project, or investor that I want to follow-up with.
That said, I’m also conscious of contributing to the insane volume of noise that exists online, as a thousand thousand voices compete for your bandwidth in our economy of distraction. I’m guilty of it myself: all too often I’ve subscribed to another well-intentioned podcast or newsletter, seeking to fill my eyes and ears with something soothing so that I can avoid dealing with whatever white-hot dumpster fire the world has thrown at me that hour.
I get it. We do what we can to stay sane (like Wonko, forever living Outside the Asylum) and somewhat well-resourced.
But once in a while, I’ll listen to or read something which becomes a catalyst, and causes me to take an action (something more meaningful than clicking on yet another Subscribe button). For me, the pinnacle of action in this instance is buying a book (a real one, that I can touch, and always avoiding lining the pockets of billionaires).
Here’s my latest example. Having listened to the excellent first season of The Last Archive, Jill Lepore’s exploration of the changing nature of truth and evidence, I bought myself a copy of Silent Spring, a book that is considered by many to have kick-started the modern approach to ecological policy.
I’ll be reading it over the summer, with a goal of improving my own ability to tell stories, and communicate, but I’m also moved by having an opportunity to connect with the author, and get a sense of a shared purpose, despite being separated by many decades.
So, dear reader, thank you for your attention during this little digression. If you’re still with me at this point, I’d love to hear about your own experiences with breaking free of the distraction economy. If there’s been a piece of content that drove you to take a real-world action, drop me a quick note about it.
Even better if it’s something that you read about in SDG Alpha, as my ego would be just delighted 😁
Peace.
Here’s the news round-up for Issue 72:
Some fundraising to start; ZeroMission, the Tipperary HQ’d provider of fleet electrification support tools, announced that they’ve secured seed investment of $3M; the investment round was co-led by Delta Partners and Greencode Ventures.
And more good news for Irish mobility start-ups, as MOBY, the provider of e-mobility solutions, were awarded the prize as “Best Infrastructure Solution” at the recent EUROBIKE Awards.
Here’s an intriguing little announcement from under-the-radar Irish start-up Ulysses, who have been awarded funding from the Milkywire Climate Transformation Fund to restore thousands of hectares of seagrass meadows in Western Australia using their robotic technology.
Corre Energy, the Dublin-based renewable energy developer, have joined forces with SemperPower to bring a 320MW BESS onstream at a location in the Netherlands.
Waste and energy specialists Encyclis and Beauparc have entered a partnership to develop and operate a new facility that will extract and repurpose material from the residual ash from the Dublin Waste to Energy Facility (a.k.a. the Poolbeg incinerator, which Encyclis operates.)
Staying with waste-to-X, Antrim-based AIC Group have secured a contract to develop and deliver mobile systems for turning waste into a resource for composting, horticulture, and agriculture for Ecoverse Industries in Ohio.
Artemis Technologies, the Belfast HQ’d maritime technology company, have unveiled plans for a new zero-emissions passenger ferry, which will be navigating The Solent under the Red Funnel flag from 2025.
Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) have unveiled plans to develop parallel infrastructure networks, one for hydrogen, the other for biomethane, as the state-owned entity steps up efforts to transition to 100% renewable supplies by 2045.
But we might be seeing increased deployment of hydrogen as a source of dispatchable energy a little sooner than 2045, as evidenced by the ESB’s demonstration of a Hydrogen Fuel cell, recently unveiled at their Dublin HQ.
If GNI want to construct an entirely new gas network for hydrogen, they’ll no doubt be lobbying hard for changes to the planning system around strategic infrastructure: as evidence, look no further than the trials and tribulations facing East Laois Solar Farm (a subsidiary of Statkraft), the latest in a long-running dispute regarding substations and power lines.
Credit to The Economist. If you love renewable energy, you gotta love power lines… The Mid-Ulster Biorefinery and Circular Economy Cluster, established in 2022, have announced that Alltech, a global provider of animal nutrition solutions, has joined the consortium which aims to develop a 10MW biomethane facility in Northern Ireland.
The Department of Rural and Community Development is seeking applicants to the New Solutions Social Innovation Fund. The fund will provide up to €2.8M for the development of a new Social Innovation Hub, and applications close on August 30.
Turning to some innovation funding and collaboration news, FarmCredit is a new project based in TCD that is investigating how the costs of investing in biodiversity actions can be more equitably shared across the Agri-Food supply chain.
I really like the look of this new initiative, led by the Circular Bioeconomy Cluster: BioDirect has worked with a number of industry and academic partners to identify eight challenges, for which they’re seeking circular and bioeconomy solutions. The challenges themselves are fascinating to read, providing rich detail on issues facing a range of industry sectors (Agriculture, Construction, Packaging and Textiles). The BioDirect challenge is currently open, applications need to be submitted by August 5.
A bunch of new projects were awarded funding yesterday, in the SFI-IRC Pathway programme: alongside a fun project seeking to stop the spread of counterfeit Irish whiskey, a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that about €2.4M of the €14.6M has been allocated to climate projects.
Sticking with SFI, who recently announced a jointly-funded project with the SEAI to develop Ireland’s capability in the area of battery technology. Based at UL, the National Rechargeable Battery Fabrication and Test Facility (better known as Ampeire, which is a stroke of genius), will create the materials for more sustainable, energy efficient batteries.
And SEAI are also seeking input from interested parties as they investigate barriers to the use of biomass as a fuel for the generation of renewable heat - survey available here.
While the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications wants EVERYONE to participate in Climate Conversations 2024, the ongoing consultation that will help shape our State’s policy on climate action.
Let’s close with some events, and community activities to get you out and about! First, the Supply Chain Sustainability School is hosting a webinar on August 26, which will share practical ways to streamline carbon accounting and reduce emissions in construction projects.
On July 26, the team at Change By Degrees will host the latest in their Climate Club series, with an online conversation between Dr. Tara Shine and Marcello Palazzi on Marcello’s work with B Lab Europe, and his thoughts on reframing leadership to benefit human progress and development.
On July 22, the Women's Infrastructure Network Ireland host an in-person event, discussing Climate Justice with former President, Mary Robinson. Tickets are limited for this free event, so move fast.
Now, two very different events for your calendar, all designed to drive that catalytic action I mentioned in the intro above. First, learn about sustainable ways to produce colour in textiles and other materials at the Archipelago Festival of Colour, held in Willow and Lore in Antrim, on July 27, 28.
Or, you can tip along to Buckarooney!, an event which brings together an opportunity to hike the coastal landscape at Buckroney Dunes, while giving your creative side a chance to shine by encouraging you to work on an art or writing project in a collegiate and natural setting. This free event will take place on July 21.
To close out the issue, it's time for another "Three, Sixty" feature, where we pose three questions on the theme of sustainability to an impact entrepreneur or innovator, to get a better understanding in sixty seconds of how they're working to achieve the SDG targets. For Issue 72, I chatted with Meg Brennan, co-founder at Polliknow, who are developing devices to make monitoring wild pollinators easy.
On a personal level, what impacts of the climate crises are you most concerned about?
Half of our global GDP directly relies directly on nature’s resources ($58 trillion) and we are exploiting it at a rate far above what we’re restoring at the moment. Since the 1970’s alone we now know we’ve lost 68% percent of all documented wildlife on earth which has fundamentally changed ecosystem operation in many areas.
Ecosystems regulate climate processes, decompose waste and recycle nutrients, filter and purify water, protect against flooding, maintain soil fertility, clean the air, and supply natural resources like wood, textiles, and food. To allow continued biodiversity loss means losing the essential services that biodiversity provides.
What concerns me is how poorly we currently track nature and biodiversity. For example, everyday we know that approximately 100,000 acres of the Amazon rainforest is burned or cut down to be converted for profit, however we have no idea of the amount of insects, mammals, birds, bats etc. are killed/ displaced because of this because we don’t measure it. The ICUN Red List which is one of the most comprehensive databases, only has the data to assess 7% of all species on Earth.
Which UN SDG’s did you start Polliknow to address?
Polliknow empowers organisations to easily get verifiable biodiversity data on pollinator populations.
Insect pollinators play a crucial role in ecosystem management and world food production. 75% of the food we eat needs animal pollination and 80% of wild plant life also needs pollination to reproduce.
The health of pollinators is therefore linked with five of the UN SDG goals: SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 3- Good Health and Well Being, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production SDG 13 - Climate Action and SDG 15- Life on Land.
How does your business model enable the transition to a low carbon or more sustainable future?
The model of not tracking our natural resources and biodiversity closely has not served us well to date. You can’t improve what you don’t measure and I believe that if we can better measure, track and understand biodiversity we can halt and reverse the decline.
We lease and sell our devices to organisations and rewilding projects who can track the volume and diversity of pollinators on their sites year on year. Our system captures real-time data, offering detailed insights into pollinator activity, biodiversity, and ecosystem health.
We believe in the future there will be several specialized biodiversity measurement services and when these are combined we can get a much clearer picture of ecosystem health and can fully integrate natural capital into every company’s balance sheet to drive change.