Pique Behind the Curtain Vol. 42

A Car Free Paris?

For the record, that title rhymes if you read it with a French accent. Anyways...

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!

But First…We’re Hiring!

Do you know your audience?

We're hiring a Director of Social & Audience growth. Whether you've always been passionate about saving the planet or are just now considering making the switch to #workinclimate, come join us! (Not for you but know someone perfect for the job? Feel free to pass along our invitation.)

Check out this latest and greatest earth-saving opportunity here.

A Car-Free Paris?

For the record, that title rhymes if you read it with a French accent. Anyways...

Like most major cities, Paris and its 10 million plus residents have historically experienced the poor air quality. Long-term exposure to poor air quality has been associated with approximately 55,000 deaths annually in France.

Road transportation accounts for a significant proportion of primary emissions and, among the European Union members, France had the fourth-highest transportation health burden in 2015. By 2021, smog has become such a prominent topic in policy that Mayor Anne Hidalgo set out on a mission to build Paris into a city that puts its people before its cars.

Now, a city plan has been put in place to ban all non-essential traffic by 2024. The goal is to turn Paris into a walkable, bikeable, clean-air-breathable 15-minute city, similar to how Amsterdam reclaimed their streets in the late 20th century.

The city has already ungerone a number of changes to become bikeable, adding over 100 miles of bike lanes during the coronavirus pandemic. The strategy mirrors similar moves across the European continent towards lower-emission, electric forms of transportation to decrease reliance on fossil-fuel driven vehicles and help meet the standards set by The Paris Agreement. Regions like Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK are taking measure like offering bike-to-work incentives through ‘bike allowances’ while others are offering tax incentives - all in an effort to encourage green modes of transportation.

If Paris can pull off its plan, residents of the city and tourists alike would benefit from a cleaner, less-congested city of love!

Sneak Pique: Sublime Systems

At a whopping 8% of global emissions, the cement industry is one of the biggest global GHG emitters - not to mention the most abundant man-made material on the planet. Decarbonizing this sector is crucial if we are ever going to make meaningful progress on climate change.

Sublime Systems, founded by electrochemist Leah Ellis and entrepreneur Yet-Ming Chiang, has coined a climate-saving term: zero-carbon cement. By applying proven industrial electrochemical concepts, they’re creating a platform to sustainably scale the world’s demand for this building material.

Leah Ellis was an Activate Fellow as part of their 2020 cohort.

Have we Piqued your interest? Tune in next week for the full film on Sublime.

Good Climate News!

This week in good climate news 🌍:

Labels Aren’t Everything… Except When They Are.

Climate Neutral is trying to build a net-zero labeling system that drives change - and dollars.

If you’ve ever been confused about “organic” food labels and what they mean, you’re not alone. It’s no synonym for healthy - but rather notes the product you are buying follows a certain set of FDA guidelines. Whether or not those guidelines are perfect is a different conversation - but the idea that we can rely on the government to hold producers to a certain standard is very good thing.

What if we could certify products in the name of climate? What if we could remove the ambiguity surrounding how much carbon it takes to make a given pair of shoes, desk chair, or can of tennis balls?

Austin Whitman decided we can - and should - be able to. In 2019, he co-founded the nonprofit Climate Neutral to certify small and large businesses that prove they’re offsetting their carbon and ensure they have an attainable carbon reduction plan for the future.

The certification takes around four months to complete. During the process, companies are required to disclose their complete scope of emissions for the past year as well as how they offsetting those emissions (and there are a ton of ways to do that: carbon credit programs, power purchase agreements, renewable energy certificates, etc.).

While there are plenty of “eco labels” that smell a bit like greenwashing, Climate Neutral is being hailed as more trustworthy due to its requirement to reapply annually and detail plans for 18-24 months into the future on companies plan to reduce their carbon footprints.

So far, Climate Neutral has certified 294 companies including brands like Allbirds, Kickstarter, and REI and have measures an offset of 1,077,544 tonnes of carbon. For the majority of people, individual carbon footprints come from the carbon life of products they purchase early in the supply chain. This nonprofit isn’t only motivating brands to cut carbon, but helping consumers become more conscious, too.

What We’re Watching, Reading, and Listening to

Searching for more positive climate content? Look no further!

• A brand new newsletter that investigates how cities around the globe become more beautiful, livable, and resilient in the face of a changing climate. Check out Parachute - it's live!

• How the New Clean Energy Bill Would Combat Climate Change - CBS News

• Why Swiss Trains are the Best in Europe - Not Just Bikes

• Scientists May Have Created a Truly Carbon-Neutral Jet Fuel - EureAlert!

• New Research Finds that EVs Will Help Protect Wildlife - Ecological Economics

We’re Going Live!

Join us today, Wednesday August 10th at 5 pm ET for a TikTalk live with The Garbage Queen herself, Alaina Wood. Bring your sustainability solution questions - we’ll bring answers! Tune in at @pique_action.