• Food market

    A new report shows the worldwide magnitude of food waste

    By Roberta Attanasio The foreword of a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report starts with a poignant observation: “If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste also burdens waste management systems, exacerbates food insecurity, making it a major contributor to the three planetary crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.” The report (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021) was produced by the UNEP in collaboration with the partner organization WRAP, a global NGO based in the UK. It was released on March 4, 2021, and shows that substantial amounts of food…

  • To help the environment, turn your camera off during virtual meetings

    By Roberta Attanasio All the activities we carry out online come with an environmental cost—no, it’s not only the relatively small amounts of carbon dioxide emitted because of the energy it takes to run our own multiple devices and power wireless networks. Rather, it’s the large amounts of CO2 emitted by the energy intensive high-end servers and data centers that usually sit in places we almost never see. Think of large facilities consisting of agglomerates of technical equipment, power subsystems, uninterruptible power supplies, ventilation and cooling systems, and so on.   Now, results from a new study (The overlooked environmental footprint of increasing Internet use), show the environmental impact caused…