Pique Behind the Curtain Vol. 23

A newsletter for those who are interested in climate solutions, media and film production

March 30, 2022

Soaprising Solutions

In this week’s edition of Pique Behind the Curtain, we’re debuting some content that’s so fresh and so clean, clean. We soap you like it! 

CleanO2

Having heating systems is not optional - but between 7 and 10% of global emissions come from heat-reliant comforts like being warm and having hot showers. 

So the question is, how do we make it clean?

Clean O2 is a company on a mission to reduce emissions in the heating industry. Their carbon capture technology, CarbonX, uses a chemical process to convert CO2 captured from heating system exhaust into a stable carbonate used in soaps and detergents. On average, a single CarbonX unit will reduce between six to eight metric tons of carbon per year.

That’s the equivalent of 300 trees! 🌳🌳🌳

Watch the full video here.

Sneak Pique

Checkerspot is a company designing performance materials at a molecular level. It does this by optimizing microbes to biomanufacture unique structural oils produced in nature, but not previously accessible at a commercial scale. 

By engineering microalgae to produce new molecular building blocks, they can apply chemistry to create materials with novel physical properties. Checkerspot’s vertically integrated, rapid iteration development process optimizes the time, resources, and the footprint it takes to go from innovative ideas to leading products.

Want to see that science in action? Check-in next week for the full film.

Good Climate News!

This week in good climate news 🌍:

Natural Rights (Literally)

Panama has recently joined countries like Bolivia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, among others, to recognize the legal rights of nature, lending another tool to environmentalists to help protect local ecosystems. It’s about time someone did!

President ​​Laurentino Cortizo signed legislation on Thursday that defines nature as “a unique, indivisible and self-regulating community of living beings, elements and ecosystems interrelated to each other that sustains, contains, and reproduces all beings.” The idea that nature should have legal rights similar to those of humans, corporations, and governments stems from the world view of some Indigenous cultures as well as the “deep ecology” movement of the 1970s. Embracing this legal movement by giving land, trees, rivers, coral reefs, and mountains critical legislative rights helps promote the idea is that all living beings - not only humans - have intrinsic value and that humans are interconnected with the natural world.

What We’re Watching, Reading, and Listening to

Searching for more positive climate content? Look no further!