This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.
This past week, Forbes hosted its second Sustainability Leaders Summit, which brought together business leaders, entrepreneurs, policy leaders and newsmakers to talk about viable and innovative solutions to address climate change and other environmental challenges while also pushing business and technology forward. Highlights include a panel on advances being made with hydrogen, a discussion on how AI can be used to find climate solutions and a panel taking a look into what the future holds for sustainability, with deep technologies such as fusion and asteroid mining.
You can learn more about this event here.
The Big Read
With Resale App TipTop, Postmates Founder Bastian Lehmann Wants To Turn Your Junk Into Cash
Bastian Lehmann spent 10 years building on-demand delivery service Postmates into a popular way to buy more products, fast. Now, he’s back with a new startup called TipTop looking to do the reverse: make it easier, and more lucrative, to sell them. The problem, according to Lehmann, is simple: buying is now easier than selling. And while services like eBay and Facebook Marketplace offer ways to list, stage and price those items for repurchase, the hassle and uncertainty around getting a fair value means that many of us don’t bother. With TipTop, Lehmann is taking a big bet on a new approach that uses software to predict the value of a product to offer a consumer instant cash, sight unseen.
Read more here.
Discoveries And Innovations
The past few weeks of extreme weather are part of a new and alarming trend in which the compounding effect of multiple weather events occurring simultaneously creates devastating impacts.
A drought in Spain, record-high temperatures and a pause in Turkish exports have driven prices of Spanish olive oil to a record high of $8,900 per ton this month, and there’s no clear indication as to when they’ll fall.
Annual levels of plastics seeping into the environment could almost double by 2040 unless urgent action is taken, according to a new study.
The Big Transportation Story
Waabi’s Robot Trucks Move From The Virtual World To Uber Freight’s Network
Automating heavy-duty trucks has become a priority for tech and logistics companies as, in addition to solving a shortage of long-haul drivers, it’s believed that robotic big rigs will reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions owing to more efficient driving. Waabi, a curious Canadian startup, has spent the past two years intensely training its robot driver to handle road conditions in the virtual world. This week it deployed its first trucks on Uber Freight’s network and has started earning revenue carrying loads for paying customers.
Read more here.
Sustainability Deals Of The Week
Home Chargers: Hyundai has announced that car buyers who buy certain Hyundai or Kia electric cars will also get a free level 2 charger for their homes, along with $600 applied to its installation.
Yard Trucking: Fernride, which is developing autonomous, electric yard trucks, announced it raised a $19 million extension to its series A, bringing the round’s total up to $50 million.
Climate Investing: Venture firm Regeneration VC has entered into a strategic partnership with the Circle Economy Foundation to invest in the scaling up of Dutch climate tech companies.
Battery Storage: Battery storage Enel North America announced that it’s brought five new battery systems online in Texas, which brings 555 MWh of utility-scale energy storage capacity to the state’s grid.
What Else We’re Reading This Week
Florida rail line Brightline brings faster trains to Orlando, Miami (Washington Post)
Earth’s average 2023 temperature is now likely to reach 1.5 °C of warming (Nature)
For Many Big Food Companies, Emissions Head in the Wrong Direction (New York Times)
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