Pique Behind the Curtain Vol. 24

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

April 06, 2022

Microalgae is Oil You Need 

Welcome back to our weekly newsletter, Pique Behind the Curtain. We’re here to show you the latest in positive climate content by sharing micro docs that highlight mind-blowing technological solutions.

Checkerspot

The production of microalgae oil releases 66% fewer greenhouse gasses than the production of fossil fuels. 

What if this natural resource could be used to produce the products you find in your own cabinet? What if nature could be used to make products and chemicals that you find in your house? It can!

Checkerspot is using this microalgae oil to create products like skincare, paint - even automotive parts - sciencing our way to a more sustainable consumer economy. But they aren’t stopping with lotions and skis. They’re engineering new molecular building blocks that can be applied to a whole host of possibilities. 

Watch the full video here.

Sneak Pique

We’ve all heard about the important role EVs are playing in the green energy transition. The precious minerals that go into those batteries, however, are often tied to destructive and expensive extraction processes like cobalt mining in Congo or massive lithium pools in Chile. 

The demand for these critical minerals is skyrocketing as electrification takes off. Unfortunately, we aren’t very good at recovering the value of these minerals. 

The existing technologies like pyrometallurgy, which uses large, energy-consuming furnaces, and hydrometallurgy, which uses harmful acids and solvents that creates tons of environment-damaging chemical waste, are dirty and inefficient. Not only that, but they’ve been in need of a serious upgrade. Both processes were invented over 50 years ago. 

Nth Cycle is taking a different approach. Megan and her team are using the power of electro-extraction - basically, they’ve figured out a way to use electricity and water to extract these minerals from batteries. Rock on 🪨🤟🏼.

Tune in next week to see how they do it.

Good Climate News!

This week in good climate news 🌍:

I’ll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours 👀 

(Emissions reports, of course. Wait, what were you thinking?)

Public companies have been required to disclose their financial status to stakeholders for a long, long time. But up until recently, they’ve been allowed to exclude one of the most credible threats from those reports. 

That threat is… you guessed it… climate change.

Climate change has significantly affected and will continue to affect the stability of financial markets and systems of the U.S. economy. Enterprises that address climate risks in their annual reports do so by choice, but the hundreds of publicly-traded companies in the United States have no obligation to disclose the ways in which climate consequences can threaten their profit margins. Thankfully, that may soon change.

On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took a critical step toward requiring companies to publicly disclose various climate risks. Specifically, this bill proposes to explain how climate risks may affect revenue and profitability in public filings which they are required by law to submit. The rule requires the consideration of scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, important measurements that help companies identify the spots in their value chains that produce the most GHGs (more info on that here).

If adopted, businesses will have one to three years to comply with the rule.

https://www.corporateknights.com/natural-capital/emission-impossible/

What We’re Watching, Reading, and Listening to

Searching for more positive climate content? Look no further!