Pique Behind the Curtain Vol. 36

Is Insulation Bringing Sexy Back?

Welcome back to our weekly newsletter, Pique Behind the Curtain. If you’ve come in search of climate content, new film features, and all-around positive vibes, then you’ve come to the right place. If you’re enjoying this, don’t just keep it all for yourself. Please share it with a friend! 

Oh, the Difference a Year Makes!

On June 30th, 2021, Pique Action did a test launch of our first startup micro-documentary featuring, ReJoule. Since then, our films have earned over 6M views, we’ve grown to an audience of more than 125k, and amplified the incredible work of an additional 29 climate companies (with more on the way!). 

Thank you to everyone who watches, follows, and enjoys the solutions we share. We’ll keep them coming!

Fixing the Planet: Making Insulation a Sexy Solution

That was a misleading title. We have no idea how to make insulation sexy. But we do know that, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, 49% of a home’s energy bill is spent on heating and cooling. A well-insulated living space won’t only save homeowners and renters big bucks, but it’ll dramatically improve energy efficiency and help the environment by lowering emissions outputs. So that’s pretty sexy, right?

Setting government standards for minimum efficiency of walls, windows, and heating and cooling systems for new and existing buildings while working on retrofitting older ones is critical to reaching a net-zero society. 

Take California as an example. With more than 100,000 new housing units and more than 100 million square feet of non-residential offices, retail, and other building spaces built every year, new construction commands a significant portion of the energy and equipment market. The state’s goal to shift to zero-emission new construction with the implementation of their 2022 energy efficiency standards is helping move communities away from fossil fuel reliance and pollution as well as saving money for individuals in the long run.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, residential energy efficiency has the potential to be the largest source of reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Increasing insulation in all the single-family homes in the nation would lead to an annual decrease of 80 million tons of carbon dioxide from power plants, or a 4.7% reduction. That’s the equivalent of taking 15.6 million cars off the road.

There are, thankfully, so many climate solutions at our disposal. From reforestation efforts, to electrifying transportation, to revamping a typically dirty construction industry, the ideas seem promising. But many of them will take years to scale and often come with opposition about how effective they may be. At Pique Action, we love mind blowing-technology. So much so, we feel like we’ve neglected insulation for the low-tech, tried-and-trusted climate solution that it is. Sorry, insulation. We love you. We’ll never do it again. 🤞💗

Sneak Pique: Huue

You might not know that dyeing is the dirtiest part of denim production. It’s yet another place where fossil fuels have a thorny grasp. Conventional dyes and pigments are made primarily from them. It’s an extremely carbon intensive process and requires a lot of toxic chemicals and heavy metals to produce. 

Today, every kilogram of indigo produced uses 75x the amount of petroleum. But one company is on a mission to change that. Huue’s biotechnology doesn’t rely on fossil fuels of any kind. Instead, their process follows nature and enables a cleaner, greener blue that has five times less toxicity potential compared to chemical sources.

Now your favorite piece of clothing can be planet-friendly, too. 

Want to learn more? Tune back in next week for the full film.

Good Climate News!

This week in good climate news 🌍:

Natural Born Rights. Literally. For Nature.

Environmentalists in Chile Are Hoping to Enact an ‘Ecological Consitution’

Policy is everything in the climate fight. The reality of regulation is that we need rules and order to operate on a complex and crowded planet. Businesses need incentives to motivate compliance with emissions targets. Technology for both mitigation and adaptation needs funding. But some countries are showing us that climate policy doesn’t only have to be about people.

A number of ecosystems in different countries around the world have been declared living entities by local or federal governments, affording the habitats their own legal rights. These laws grant protected natural environments personhood and are codified to manage, conserve, and protect the area. The nations of Ecuador, New Zealand, Colombia, and Australia are among those that have recognized the rights of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to exist without degradation at the hands of people.

Chile is the latest nation to draft similar legislation for its constitution. Their constitutional convention, which began in April of 2021, became the first time a country has re-written its foundational document in response to the Paris Agreement in an attempt to combat climate change, biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution.

The Rights of Nature movement is about rethinking society’s relationship with nature, striving to encourage a cultural shift where nature is held in higher regard and humans are connected with it in an interdependent way as opposed to a dominant one. Granting nature legal rights on par with what we inherit as humans would allow an ecosystem the right to defend itself in a court of law against harms - for example, environmental degradation caused by a specific development project. It even offers the possibility of defense in the case of climate change (although a successful case would likely require an identifiable pollution source).

Giving legal rights to ecosystems like rivers, lakes, and mountains is a national declaration by the country that enacts it that those wild places have the right to exist, thrive, and regenerate their vital cycles to naturally evolve without anthropogenic interference. The goal of conferring these rights is to secure the highest possible level of environmental protection - and it’s really a double win. These nature rights are often associated with human rights like the right to access clean and healthy outdoors and to clean drinking water and air.

Watch our TikTok on granting nature rights here!

What We’re Watching, Reading, and Listening to

Searching for more positive climate content? Look no further!

Calling All Filmmakers!

Bloomberg Green Docs is open for submissions. They want to see your short documentaries on climate change. Submit your film by September 16 and compete to win a $25,000 grand prize, plus the opportunity to showcase your work at a special screening in Los Angeles on October 26.