Category: industry
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Public Benefit Corps: The Future of “Green” Business?
The first ever public benefit corporation appeared in 2017 with an Initial Public Offering. It was Laureate Education, the largest degree-granting higher education institution in the world. Today there are over three thousand public benefit corporations (PBCs), accounting for .01% of American businesses. However, they aren’t all brand new. Existing companies can become PBCs if […]
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The Beekeeper’s Lament
Air humid enough to make your nostril hairs recoil when you step outside. Pavement scorching hot to the point where you feel bad for your shoes. Occasional thunderstorms that don’t last long enough to cool down the baking soil. This is what I call reading weather, because there is nothing you can do other than […]
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Carbon Capture and the Ethical Dilemma
New blog post on the ethical debate over carbon capture!
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What a Superfund Site Really Looks Like
This past week I took a trip to the old Bethlehem Steel site in Buffalo, NY. Although the general public is prohibited from the site while remediation is going on, I was allowed to tour the site with two engineers as guides. I got the chance to see what a Superfund Site truly looks like, […]
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The Garbage Patch
After studying the environment at university for four years, I have written over 60 blog posts on environmental issues, formulated a personal memoir on my life as an environmentalist, and maintained an environmental news page. Despite all this, I haven’t done everything in my power to end environmental issues.
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Grad School Purgatory
Since urban dictionary doesn’t quite spell it out for you, I will: This is when applications have been completed and sent, but there is neither an acceptance nor rejection from anyone. There is little to no knowledge of when an answer will arrive, if ever. This is grad school purgatory.
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Blowing Bubbles
Did you know that bubbles can clean water? Specifically, dissolved air flotation (DAF) and ultrasound are two methods of making water safer with bubbles. DAF can be used to replace sedimentation in municipal drinking water treatment. Large particles are typically settled out using gravity, but with DAF, bubbles are produced by an oxygen tank pumping […]
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Greenwashing
All Natural. Organic. Eco-friendly. Green. Farm Fresh. These are the sexy buzzwords that draw us in to products that unscrupulously exploit our desire to go green. The FDA doesn’t regulate these terms, and they are often nothing more than just words. “Green” products contain the color green on the packaging. “Farm fresh” covers essentially any meat […]
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How Clean Can UV?
“UV radiation affects microorganisms by altering the DNA in the cells and impeding reproduction. UV treatment does not remove organisms from the water, it merely inactivates them.” – Water Research Center For the longest time this summer I worked on a machine that performed persulfate-ultraviolet oxidation, but I really had no idea what it was. Looking […]
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Energizing a Continent
In my last post I mentioned non-profit and for-profit business ventures around the world with a mission to improve society and the environment. It would be naïve to say that the driving force in business is to benefit others. So what is driving entrepreneurs to Africa? An article recently featured in The New Yorker called “The Race to Solar-Power Africa” says […]
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