We reported that Saudi Arabia is invested in electric cars with Lucid Motors. And a manufacturing plant is being set up for Saudi Arabia. But the US-Chinese-Saudi-invested venture is not enough. The prince of Saudi Arabia wants his very own car company and just announced Ceer, the country’s first electric vehicle company, which should attract over $150M foreign direct investment and is expected to be available by 2025.
Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of its Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced that Ceer will be the first Saudi electric vehicle brand that will contribute to Saudi Arabia’s automotive manufacturing sector. Even though Lucid did announce it will open a plant in Saudi Arabia.
The launch of Ceer comes in line with the ruler’s strategy to help his country outgrow oil, to diversify the economy, and to help achieve the objectives of his Vision 2030. In addition, the company will contribute to Saudi Arabia’s efforts towards carbon emissions reduction and driving sustainability to address the impact of climate change.
“Saudi Arabia is not just building a new automotive brand,” he says. “We are igniting a new industry and an ecosystem that attracts international and local investments, creates job opportunities for local talent, enables the private sector, and contributes to increasing Saudi Arabia’s GDP over the next decade, as part of PIF’s strategy to drive the economic growth in line with Vision 2030.”
Ceer is the first Saudi automotive brand to produce electric vehicles in Saudi Arabia, and will design, manufacture and sell a range of vehicles for consumers in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East North Africa region, including sedans and sports utility vehicles.
A part of PIF’s strategy to diversify Saudi Arabia’s GDP growth by investing in promising growth industries, Ceer will attract over US$150 million of foreign direct investment, and create up to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. Ceer is projected to directly contribute US$8 billion to Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2034.
The company, which is a joint venture between PIF and China’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (“Foxconn”), will license component technology from BMW for use in the vehicle development process. Foxconn will develop the electrical architecture of the vehicles, resulting in a portfolio of products that will lead in the areas of infotainment, connectivity and autonomous driving technologies.
Will they be driverless?
Each vehicle will be designed and manufactured in Saudi Arabia, and tested to the highest global automotive quality control and safety standards. Ceer vehicles are scheduled to be available in 2025.
Chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group, Young Liu, said: “Foxconn is excited about our partnership with PIF to create a new automotive company that will focus on designing and manufacturing electric vehicles in and for Saudi Arabia.
“We will leverage Foxconn’s technological expertise to support Ceer’s vision of creating a range of iconic electric vehicles that are built around the themes of connectivity, infotainment and autonomy. We want to make electric vehicles mainstream, and that is what Ceer is going to achieve in Saudi Arabia and the wider region.”
Artificial city lights are a “turn off” to crickets who sing love songs to their mates. A new study from the University of Haifa in Israel has found that even low levels of artificial lighting at night cause an interruption in the biological clock of male crickets. This may lead to extinction of the species, the researchers speculate.
Artificial lighting at night (ALAN) has become a factor that negatively influences our ecological environment, especially the one close to the cities.
“The damage to the gene expression of the biological clock as a result of artificial lighting greatly disrupts the timing of vocal communication habits of the cricket, which are essential for establishing contact with the female and could endanger the existence of the cricket population,” said Prof. Eran Tauber, from the University of Haifa.
According to estimates, about a tenth of the Earth’s land surfaces are illuminated by artificial lighting, and this estimate increases to 23% if you regard the glow of the sky as part of the light pollution created by this lighting at night. According to Prof. Tauber, many animals use the timing of natural light to synchronize their behavior and the course of their lives.
For example, migratory birds use light to schedule their time of flight, and artificial light of a certain intensity may disrupt this. Another example is the animals that have different interactions with other organisms – In the case of pollinating flowers for example, insects need to “know” when to visit the plant during the day, and the plant needs to “know” when to bloom.
Any disruption of the timing of pollination that is caused by artificial lighting upsets all interactions among organisms.
When city light is brighter than 2 moons
In the current study, which was published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, showed that even at the lowest intensities of artificial lighting – at the level of 2 lux (1 lux is the power of a full moon) – significant changes in the expressions of genes related to male crickets’ biological clock were found.
The most significant changes were identified in eye tissues compared to tissues in other areas.
“The male crickets chirp love songs to the females when they are standing still, and this is the chirp we hear at night. The females choose the cricket they liked the most and agree to mate with him. This phenomenon has a certain timing during the 24-hour day; as soon as they are exposed to artificial light, it disrupts their biological clock and any timing of these behaviors go awry, so the crickets out of sync with their environment.
“In extreme cases, this could endanger the cricket population and even lead to the insect’s extinction,” Prof. Tauber added.
How we can help save crickets
When we install artificial lighting on roads and in parks and gardens, we need to consider the damage that could be caused to animals and plants. A study conducted in Germany estimated that street lighting caused the death of some 60 billion insects all over the world in just one summer. So turn off your lights at night.
The results of the current study and the growing awareness of the damage of artificial lighting should be translated into public policy and intelligent urban planning to reduce the damage to the environment. The use of focused lighting at low intensities and wavelengths that do not affect the biological clock will create a safe urban environment alongside nature that thrives.
Children search for scraps of wood to help their parents rebuild their house after it was destroyed by the strong winds of Hurricane Iota in Nicaragua. UNICEF
So the world’s largest climate event, COP27, now happening in Egypt meets the usual challenges. But a few key points stick out over all the media covered and dozens of press releases I’ve received:
Policies and promises for carbon targets are not lining up. Not enough action towards climate change is happening fast enough. This is old news. We hear it every year.
Egypt is criticised for its double-faced stance as “wanting” to be progressive yet it holds free-media activists in prison. This news is rising above the smog. Free media means that people can start reporting factually and accurately against the world’s leading greenwashers like Saudi Aramco. Saudi Aramco is responsible for 4% of all global carbon emissions. If you don’t care about climate change, just go skiing on one of their fake ski hills. Or go live on The Line.
Egypt, and dozens of other poorer nations, in development, meanwhile, are asking the richer carbon hungry nations to pony up and pay for the effects of climate change. Also old news. But it’s fair.
Greta Thunberg is not bothering to go to the event this year which once crowned her as the unlikely princess against climate change (that was COP24). This year? COP27? It’s “greenwashing” she told the media.
The tomato soup can incident, sadly, seemed to be the year’s biggest media stunt against climate change. Kids being washed away in floods? These images no longer affect us. We need soup streaming down things we care about, and find holy.
So what’s COP27, if you are asking?
Some 200 nations from around the world are meeting this week in Sharm el-Sheikh, a beach and diving town in Sinai, Egypt, to discuss climate change problems and solutions. The United Nation’s climate event, COP takes place every year. Every time a new one is held, since the first, they add a number. So this year we are at COP27. And this year businesses, governments, activists and companies are meeting from November 6 to 18 to discuss, solve and deal with the pressing problem of our generation.
Also every year the messages become more urgent, yet key activists known for making statements at the annual UN event, like Greta Thunberg, aren’t even attending this year.
She’s skipping the “greenwashing” event, as she calls it, because the UN’s climate conference will be “used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention”.
At last years’ COP26, the wealthier nations of the world agreed to pay $40 billion per year by 2025 to help developing nations build defenses against floods. An UN report says that this sum is about 1/5 of what these countries need to hold back the effects of extreme weather effects.
The effects on poor nations, is a dominant theme in this year’s UN COP27 event
“Countries must urgently ramp up action to adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change, as efforts now are too little and too slow,” the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in its latest report, published on Thursday.
Climate data from UN reports
UNEP also publishes an annual data report. This might be helpful for students, businesses and governments lobbying and pressing for change. Climate change is a global problem and we must act locally with our own actions, but also we must influence stakeholders.
A recap from UNEP: “To limit global temperature rise to below 2°C aiming for 1.5°C, as promised in the Paris Agreement, countries must cut 30 gigatonnes of GHG emissions annually by 2030. The necessary solutions exist yet currently more emissions are entering the atmosphere making it harder to keep the planet safe.”
UNEP adds: The world’s wealthiest 1 per cent emit more than twice the emissions of the poorest half combined. That is why developed nations must step up to make rapid and large-scale emission reduction and support developing countries as they build low-carbon economies and make adequate climate adaptation.”
Hassan Fathy’s off-grid living and architecture inspired generations of architects in the Middle East and beyond. This is the Akil Sami House in Dahshur, Egypt
To end this climate brief in a way that makes sense for today and Egypt, read a little more about Hassan Fathy. He had a dream for the people of Egypt, and an appreciation for vernacular architecture. Living, building and thriving closer to the land and our planet may cut out the need for capitalism that makes us ever so hungry for more.
A dense ‘funerary avenue’ flanked by Bronze Age tombs, leading out of al Wadi Oasis near Khaybar in north-west Saudi Arabia.
As the Saudi Arabian regime opens its doors to the west more progress can be made on understanding ancient archeology in the Arabian areas. A recent finding this year is a deeper understanding into the strange burial highways, a series of pendant tomb graves along travelling routes, called funerary avenues. They are located in the same area as Saudi Arabian’s giant mirrored music hall called Maraya.
Why did the ancients, our ancient ancestors mark major byways with thousands of burial monuments? Why are they shaped like pendants and what stories do they tell?
Archaeologists from the University of Western Australia (UWA) working in Saudi Arabia under the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) have determined that the people who lived in ancient north-west Arabia (and not aliens!) built these long-distance ‘funerary avenues’.
These routes are major pathways flanked by thousands of burial monuments that linked oases and pastures, reflecting a high degree of social and economic connection between the region’s populations in the 3rd millennium BCE.
A dense ‘funerary avenue’ flanked by Bronze Age tombs, leading out of al ‘Ayn Oasis near Khaybar in north-west Saudi Arabia.
Publication of the findings appear in the journal The Holocene sheds light on the lives of the ancient inhabitants of Arabia.
What do these strange pendant tombs mean?
The existence of the funerary avenues suggests that complex social horizons existed 4,500 years ago across a huge swathe of the Arabian Peninsula, the researchers report. They also document that there are big hidden stories to be uncovered about the ancient kingdoms and earlier societies of north Arabia.
In the recent study, the team used satellite imagery analysis, aerial photography, ground survey and excavation to locate and analyse funerary avenues over an area of at least 160,000 square km in north-west Arabia. They recorded more than 17,800 ‘pendant’ tombs in their primary study areas of AlUla and Khaybar counties, of which around 11,000 formed part of funerary avenues.
A 3rd millennium BCE infilled ringed cairn from the Khaybar Oasis in north-west Saudi Arabia.
Whether on basalt plains or mountain passes, the densest concentrations of funerary structures on these avenues are located near permanent water sources. The direction of the avenues suggests that many were used to travel between major oases, including those of Khaybar, AlUla and Tayma. Other avenues fade into the landscapes surrounding oases, suggesting they were used to move herds of domestic animals into nearby pastures during periods of rain.
The Australian team’s work is part of collective that includes 13 archaeological and conservation project teams from around the world collaborating with Saudi experts in AlUla and neighbouring Khaybar counties in Saudi Arabia.
“The more we learn about the ancient inhabitants of north-west Arabia, the more we are inspired by the way our mission reflects their mindset: they lived in harmony with nature, honoured their predecessors, and reached out to the wider world,” says Amr AlMadani, the CEO of RCU.
A 3rd millennium BC pendant burial on the southern edge of the Khaybar Oasis in north-west Saudi Arabia.
In other ancient news from Saudi Arabia:
In August in the journal Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy the team dated the pendant-shaped tombs of the Khaybar Oasis to the 3rd millennium BCE – the first published radiocarbon evidence dating the tombs. Archaeological exploration of the mysteries of Khaybar is still in its infancy.
The monumental structures known as mustatils are much older than previously believed, dating as far back as 5,200 BCE, and appear to have had a ritual function. What that is, time will tell.
The Australian team discovered the remains of the oldest known domesticated dog in Arabia.
The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) was established by royal decree in July 2017 to preserve and develop AlUla, a region of outstanding natural and cultural significance in north-west Saudi Arabia. RCU’s long-term plan outlines a responsible, sustainable, and sensitive approach to urban and economic development, that preserves the area’s natural and historic heritage, while establishing AlUla as a desirable location to live, work, and visit. This encompasses a broad range of initiatives across archaeology, tourism, culture, education, and the arts, reflecting a commitment to meeting the economic diversification, local community empowerment, and heritage preservation priorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 programme.
Your house is your private heaven. Upgrade it ecologically.
As the earth feels the effects of climate change and energy bills continue to rise, taking steps to make your home more sustainable and eco-friendly can save you money and help protect the planet. From installing solar panels to using eco-friendly laundry detergent, you can take several steps to make your home more environmentally friendly.
Check out the following green living ideas to transform your house into a sustainable haven, allowing you to discern the most advantageous choices for minimizing energy costs, nurturing the local ecosystem, and embracing an eco-friendly lifestyle.
Invest in Reusable Products
In addition to being expensive, single-use products are one of the major sources of ground and water pollution today. You can reuse all sorts of products you already have in your home, from refilling soap, cleaner and shampoo bottles to upcycling older furniture by reupholstering them and giving them a new life.
You can avoid purchasing single-use products by cleaning with reusable paper towels instead of single-use towels. You can buy products in bulk, put them in smaller containers and purchase products that come in reusable containers made of glass or metal to set yourself up for sustainable usage from the get-go.
Use Energy Efficient Appliances
The EPA’s Energy Star label was invented to help consumers pick the most energy-efficient appliances. This label helps you identify products that save you money on electricity bills without sacrificing performance. The label will often tell you how much money you can expect to save and help you budget for the future while helping protect the environment. Popular energy appliances include refrigerators, windows, washers and dryers. Even with higher upfront costs, choosing the most efficient model possible can save you considerable money over the long term
Use a Smart Thermostat
A smart thermostat is a key product for any eco home. Ecobee
A smart thermostat, particularly one connected to an app, can reduce your energy bills and carbon footprint. You can customize these thermostats to ensure you are not heating or cooling an empty house and wasting energy.
A smart thermostat can run your HVAC system at night or during off-peak, low usage times, which lowers the strain on the grid and saves you money. Some thermostats can even factor in weather forecasts to optimize your home’s heating and cooling before potential storms, heat waves or cold snaps. This can save you between eight percent and 31 percent on your annual energy bill.
Here’s a running list of smart thermostat models we’ve heard great things about:
Amazon Smart Thermostat
Ecobee3
Emerson Sensi
Honeywell Lyric
Johnson Controls GLAS
Lux Geo
Nest Thermostat
Resideo Honeywell Home T9
Wyze Thermostat
Install Solar Panels
Solar powering your house is easier when you are off-grid. In cities, a bit harder. Check with authorities before signing any contracts
Solar panels are one of the best ways to make your home more sustainable and can reduce your energy bills. See our DIY solar energy guide here but be warned. If you need to connect to the grid you will face challenges. These panels come in various sizes, and you can even consider installing an entire roof made from building-integrated photovoltaic shingles. These PV panels or shingles generate electricity from sunlight that can power your home during the day and, if paired with a battery system, power your home at night as well.
While there is an upfront cost, your government might offer several incentive programs to help people purchase solar panels. In the US, all panels purchased in 2022 are eligible for a 26 percent income tax credit, while those purchased in 2023 will receive a 22 percent income tax credit.
Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
The cleaning products you use in your home can harm your local ecosystem. Common cleaning chemicals such as ammonia, different dyes, chlorine bleach and volatile organic compounds, as well as petroleum-based microplastics, can be very harmful to your local water system and can lower the air quality in your home.
Instead, choose all-natural organic cleaning products that do not cause ecological damage, including vinegar and baking soda-based cleaners, essential oil-based soaps and eco friendly laundry detergent and eco dishwasher tablets. These gentle cleaners are also safer for your family, as they won’t harm your children or pets. They also offer a way to clean your home without leaving chemical residue on cooking and eating surfaces that could cause cumulative health issues.
Upgrade Your Windows and Insulation
If you own a home or small business, no one likes a draft. Retrofit your windows
Loss of climate-controlled air through drafty windows and insufficient insulation is a major drain on your energy bills and can prematurely age your HVAC system. All your walls should have a solid wall or cavity insulation, and your roof should be well insulated with spray foam, blown-in, loose fill, batt insulation or pre-cut structural insulated panels. This keeps your house at a reasonable temperature without stressing your HVAC system and increasing your carbon footprint.
If you notice a draft coming from one of your windows, you should replace it as soon as possible. You should install fiberglass, metal or composite window frames with cavities for extra insulation if you live in a cold climate, and choose windows with at least two panes and a low-emissive coating on the glass.
Consider Harvesting Rainwater
Harvest rainwater to grow a greenhouse
A great way to reduce your home’s environmental impact and make it more sustainable is to reduce the amount of water you use from your city’s municipal water supply. Harvesting rainwater and using it as a source of gray water can reduce how much water you draw from your city’s system and lower your water bills.
Rainwater is harvested through your gutters before being filtered and stored for use as gray water. This water can be used to clean the outside of your home or vehicles, to water outdoor landscaping and can even be used as toilet water or water for your washing machines.
How effective this system will be depends on how much rainwater your area receives, but areas with moderate amounts of rain can significantly reduce water usage. Be sure to consult your local authorities, as rainwater harvesting is not allowed everywhere and may be subject to regulations that help replenish depleted aquifers.
Save Money and Help the Planet
Making your home more sustainable can help you live a better, less carbon-intensive life and reduce your monthly bills. From switching to more eco-friendly cleaning products to installing better insulation and windows, any steps you take will be helpful and lower your impact on the environment. Savings from minor steps you take to make your home more sustainable can help you save money and create a greener future for the planet.
North America is the place to be in the fall, when the weather is perfect for cycling. Try out this list of iconic places you can see by bike
Fall arrives with its cool breeze, just leaving the summer heat behind. The beautiful trails are framed with autumn colors, ablaze with a warm orange hue. The high treetops make the view ethereal.
The crisp air provides the perfect climate to hop on your electric bikes and ride through the road. A proper destination can change the thrill of the ride. If you are a bike enthusiast looking for exciting trails in the season of falling leaves, then you have come to the right place.
Follow the list of the best biking tours that are perfect for this fall.
The Outer Banks in North Carolina
Outer Banks, NC. Meet some new friends.
The outer banks stretch over a hundred and five miles of sand and ocean covered in the fall sunshine. The biking trail in this area extends with the entire shoreline.
There are a lot of biking paths to go on tour with your group of experienced cyclists or casual riders. The wide paved roads are perfect to take your family on a ride. The landscape is not covered with tall trees, allowing you to enjoy the clear-sky beach view.
Duck is the northernmost town in the Outerbanks, with a seven-mile private beach for its residents and visitors. You can ride through the natural beach and autumn foliage on your electric bikes to make riding easier.
The roads are marked with “Bicycles – Share the Road,” and there are some official NCDOT-marked bicycle routes. While on the mainland, there is little to no traffic to worry about as you ride through rich farming country and wildlife preserves.
Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina
Pisgah National Forest
North Carolina has a stunning panorama, including Pisgah National Forest, which bikers must visit. It is jam-packed with outdoor activities and astonishing landscapes.
The area is thirty miles downtown of Asheville. The trails run hundreds of miles, surrounded by waterfalls and swimming holes. Biking through this picturesque view will clear your mind of any stress.
The forest has horseback riding, biking, and rock climbing trails, with campgrounds for picnics and overnight camping. It is perfect for a biking tour in the fall.
The bike trails display the most beautiful foliage during mid to end of October. There are bike rental outfitters and roadhouse pubs where you can rent a bike early in the morning and unwind after a day on the road.
The town has been named one of North America’s best biking destinations. Historic New Mexican towns, such as Taos and other Native American landmark sites, fall enroute the trail. It is possible to go on week-long tours through the trails in autumn.
Santa Fe’s curving mountains and varied terrain provide some incredible biking experiences for veteran and novice bikers. The easy trails include the Santa Fe river and rail trail.
You can tour through Dale Ball, Aspen Vista or the Pajarito mountain bike trails for intermediate and difficult trails. There are hotels for you to rest in during your biking tour in Santa Fe.
Sonoma County in California
Cycling and sampling. We won’t tell.
It is a cycling fact that you can bike three times faster using the same energy you use to walk. Why not travel through beautiful sites with your bike to enjoy the crisp fall air?
Sonoma County is a lesser-known gem for fall biking tours. There are acres of land surrounding the trail that is filled with vineyards. During fall, the grapes ripen, and the leaves turn golden, creating a stunning picture.
Fun fact, the Windows XP wallpaper hill is situated in Sonoma County!
There are tracks through Sonoma County to satisfy a tour group’s desires. You can go biking, sip fine wine, taste world-class food, and stay at posh lodging during the prime golden vineyard season.
If you are lucky, you can cycle through the festivals of the harvest season. The areas light up to give you a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington
Mountain trails galore
Washington, especially the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, has the best mountain biking trails in the region. The tracks travel along the mighty Columbia River and are framed with Alpine larches. They lose their needles in the fall and turn a beautiful golden hue.
The view of the glimmering larches against the pristine lake and the frozen soil of North America is breathtaking. Your biking tour will be elevated once you hop on your bike and face the fresh mountain air.
The Leavenworth Ski Hill MTB Loop, also known as the Angel Loop is the best trail in the forest. The track is almost 9 km long with an elevation gain of 351 m, making it the highest singletrack trail in Washington state.
Waterbar Heaven and Bergman Gulch have the second-highest elevation gain of 263 m. The landscape and the tracks make it perfect for a biking tour.
La Route Verte in Quebec, Canada
Go abroad, and visit this famous trail in Canada
A little north of New York, lies the city of Quebec. According to National Geographic, the city’s La Route Verte is considered the number one biking track. Ranging from country terrain to cityscapes, the path is more than two thousand miles long.
The Route Verte is North America’s largest chain of cycling trails. It runs through some of Quebec’s most scenic areas, linking the province to bike paths in Ontario, New Brunswick, and the United States.
You can have the pleasure of enjoying the fall breeze through a variety of landscapes. The area is filled with bike rentals, repair shops, and lodging for your rest.
Riding your electric bike through this trail in the fall, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Final Thoughts
Biking tours during the fall can be a breathtaking experience through the country, city, and mountain regions.
The outer banks in North Carolina are home to a stunning trail along the shoreline. The Pisgah National Forest tracks are filled with great visuals and outdoor activities.
Santa Fe covers scenic Native American historical sites, while Sonoma County can take you through some beautiful vineyards. If you want to bike through the highest track elevations around a loop, then Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest should be your choice.
The most diverse trail in North America for your bike tour in fall is La Route Verte in Quebec.
Muhannad Shono, Biennale Arte 2022 in Venice, Teaching Tree
Ever watch a palm tree for any length of time? They tower over barren landscapes. They thrive in cities. And up top in their hairy mane they house wildlife of all sorts from crows to baby pigeons. Some give tasty fruit, others drop annoying seeds on spindly arms. It is the lowly palm, turned sideways that features in a Saudi Arabian contribution to the Biennale Arte 2022 in Venice.
Multidisciplinary artist Muhannad Shono has been selected to represent Saudi Arabia at Biennale Arte 2022 in Venice. Curated by Reem Fadda and Assistant Curator Rotana Shaker, The Teaching Tree is a large-scale, ambitious installation exploring themes of creation, regeneration, nature, and mythology.
Muhannad Shono, Teaching Tree: My work embodies the irrepressible spirit of creative expression: the power of the imagination that grows despite what may attempt to limit it but instead makes it more resilient.
Commissioned by The Visual Arts Commission, one of 11 sector-specific commissions overseen by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture, the installation will be on display at the Arsenale-Sale d’Armi until November 27.
As Saudi Arabia’s art scene continues to define itself on the world stage, Shono has emerged as a compelling voice among a new generation of rising artists from the region.
The Teaching Tree is a vast, 40-metre-long, organically formed structure made of palm fronds painted in black and animated by pneumatics. The enigmatic form fills the length of the pavilion, embodying Shono’s investigation of the drawn line and its potential for creation and destruction.
Through this he explores ideas of resilience and regeneration both in the natural world and within human imagination. Shono’s practice counters the limits of singular narratives, instead questioning truths, ontologies, and the basic concepts underpinning human life. Investigating the drawn line, Shono interrogates the impact of writing and the generation of thought, as well as their respective potentials.
For Shono, embracing the line and mark making is an act of creative agency. As such, The Teaching Tree builds on central concepts within his practice, interrogating the self, tradition, mythology, and the natural world.
Al Khidr, known as the Verdant One, is a figure described but not mentioned by name in the Quran as a righteous servant of God possessing great wisdom or mystic knowledge. In various Islamic and non-Islamic traditions, Khidr is described as a messenger, prophet or wali, who guards the sea, teaches secret knowledge and aids those in distress.
The stories of Al Khidr have also had a profound influence on Shono’s personal and creative life. Made of plant matter, it was known that wherever Al Khidr sat a garden would grow, symbolising rebirth, regeneration, and healing.
Reem Fadda (left), Rotana Shaker
The Teaching Tree thus alludes to ‘mother nature’ and its hope for rebirth in face of warning signs of past and future ecological struggles.
Commenting on his work, Shono said: “My work embodies the irrepressible spirit of creative expression: the power of the imagination that grows despite what may attempt to limit it but instead makes it more resilient. This is a resilience that is taught by nature, in its continuous cycles of death and re-growth, like trees nourished by the ashes of wildfires.”
The exhibition’s curator, Reem Fadda, added, “The Teaching Tree references the drawn line overgrown, now encapsulating a multitude of dimensions. This object becomes emblematic and dichotomous in imaginations represented, words written, and marks engraved, reflecting upon their irreversible effects on history.”
If you have an organization or breakthrough that can suck up carbon emissions, melt ocean plastic; if you have a technology or idea that can improve human health, transform social conditions and farms for the world’s meekest. Have you a way to make sustainability a way of life in energy production, maybe in hydrogen gas, solar energy?
Do you have a converter or engineered product that transfers the way energy is used or delivered? Can you clean water like there is no tomorrow, or protect source water –– and make women in the world meaningful contributors to the businesses that they want to be in? If yes to any of these ideas and more, here is a list of prizes that might help you further your goals. Some come with cash prizes, and some with honor –– or both.
Environmental Awards and Prizes
List of world’s top environmental awards and Prizes
Champions of the Earth Outstanding environmental leaders from the public and private sectors, and from civil society
Akino Memorial Research Studies in the fields of human security and sustainable development in Central Asia and neighboring regions
Burtoni Award Outstanding contributions to the science of adaptation to climate change
Earthshot Prize Incentivizes solutions to the world’s environmental problems
Edison Award Honoring excellence in innovation
Equator Prize
Forest Hero Award Individuals who have devoted their lives to protecting forests
Glinka World Soil Prize Direct contributions to the preservation of the environment, food security and poverty alleviation
Global 500 Roll of Honour Environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the worldInternational
J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership
World Wide Fund for Nature Outstanding leadership in global conservation
Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award Work of governments, organisations and individuals in promoting the wise use and conservation of wetlands[
Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation Outstanding contributions by individuals, groups of individuals, institutes or organizations in the management or preservation of the environment
Sustainable Transport Award
Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement Environmental science, environmental health, and energy
Color Health, is an Israeli-founded startup democratizing healthcare
Who doesn’t want to improve human health? Whether it’s reducing pain and inflammation from medical cannabis innovations or targeting cancer cells through personalized mRNA immunotherapy drugs, or novel insights into gut bacterial systems that increase our longevity. If you have a company or biomedical startup in this field, MIT and Harvard want you!
These universities are hosting a new prize, called the Richard N. Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology and the winners will share $400,000 for their work.
The prize recognises novel technologies that have improved human health.
About the Merkin Family Foundation
The Merkin Family Foundation was founded by health care executive Dr. Richard Merkin, MD. Dr Merkin is the founder and chief executive officer of Heritage Provider Network and focuses his work and the bulk of his philanthropy on new paths to cures and to affordable, high-quality health care.
The prize will celebrate a novel technology and recognize up to four key contributors to the development of the technology, with a cash award of $400,000 to be shared among each year’s recipients. The winning technology must have made a demonstrable real-world impact on human health by improving the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of disease.
The Merkin Prize is administered by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, one of the world’s leading biomedical research institutes.
“The Merkin Prize will highlight the inventors of an important medical technology and will demonstrate how their work is transforming healthcare,” said Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize winner for his work on the origins of cancer.
Eligibility for receipt of the Merkin Prize extends to all living investigators from anywhere in the world, using any discipline in academia, the commercial sector, or government. Anyone may submit a nomination, but self-nominations are not permitted.
Online platforms like Etsy make it easy to sell handcrafts and jewellery online. Here’s a guide to getting started
Have you already chosen to turn your jewelry-making talent into a business? Starting a jewelry business might provide you with additional cash or a full-time job.
Jewelry is a popular item that people wear for personal enjoyment or gifting a loved one. If you have a natural talent for crafting jewelry, you might experiment with different materials to produce unique designs. This industry is extremely competitive. So if you want to get your jewelry design business noticed, you’ll have to work hard.
But don’t be intimidated by the prospect of competition or launching a business. This guide shares tips that will help you start a successful jewelry business.
Choose your Niche
Deflect energy and bad forces with amulets you can buy online
To guarantee that your jewelry stands out from the crowd, you should create it with a distinct brand. However, your jewelry should also fit into a specific category since choosing a niche will assist your buyers quickly recognizing your work. There are several standard jewelry style categories to pick from.
Fashion or costume jewelry is manufactured from low-cost materials and metals and is marketed to stylish, everyday buyers.
Fine jewelry is created for upmarket consumers and special events and is fashioned with precious or semi-precious gems and stones. Click here to see examples of crystal jewelry.
Mid-priced jewelry focuses on individuality and style that makes a statement.
Sourcing materials and supplies
Now that you have established the jewelry niche you want for your business, you need to know where you will be sourcing your materials from. Purchasing wholesale supplies helps enhance your earnings on jewelry sales. A fast web search reveals several possibilities for purchasing bulk supplies. Order more supplies than you think you’ll need to accommodate for mistakes and to inspire new ideas and projects. Consult your designs for the particular quantity of materials required for a project.
Many wholesale jewelry vendors supply raw metals, gemstones, semi-precious stones, beads, pearls, and metalworking equipment. Consider contacting other jewelry designers for recommendations on wholesale suppliers, and visit as many trade fairs as possible to broaden your supplier relationships.
Plan how you’ll generate your artistic designs for product development. Some choices include handwork, at home, in a factory, or through outsourcing. The intricacy of your ideas, the materials utilized, the pricing point, and skill level will all influence your decision.
Some fine art jewelry production techniques, such as weaving, soldering, or goldsmithing and silver, need specialized qualifications or training. If you’re starting out, try taking an online course to help you figure out your artistic path.
Budget
Starting a jewelry company can be quite expensive, but may be even less if you already have the necessary supplies. Most of the expenditures are for materials and tools, including pencils, drawing boards, design templates, and 2D, 3D, and jewelry-specific design software.
As your company expands, you’ll need to budget for increasing manufacturing and material prices, which will rise as more items are sold. If you intend to open a physical business, include the cost of rent and utilities in your budget.
Register a creative name for your jewelry business
Do you want a business name that is memorable enough to express your style and creativity while also attracting the attention of potential customers?
It may take time and effort to pick a name for your business since you’ll need to choose a name that’s catchy, innovative, and successfully represents your company’s purpose and objective. Check to see whether the name is accessible as a domain name on the Internet so you may create a website to display or perhaps sell your jewelry. Consider trademarking your company name if you want exclusive control of it.
Create a logo for your jewelry business
For your jewelry business, you must have a memorable personalized logo. In a competitive market, the logo will represent your jewelry firm and its distinctive merchandise. Customers will recognize your brand by its logo. Jewelry logo designs aid in the development of a jewelry company’s brand identity.
You should know who your target audience is so that your logo will appeal to that group of people. This means that a logo for a costume jewelry company aimed at teenagers would look very different from a design for high-end or pricey jewelry.
Identify your target audience.
Perhaps you make beautiful jewelry for special events like weddings, anniversaries, or engagements. Maybe you want to appeal to the younger generation with more geometric, minimalist works. Alternatively, you may have stuff that many people find fascinating and appealing. Whichever niche you choose, you must decide who is most likely to purchase your designs.
This allows you to tailor your marketing strategy to that specific target audience. Not sure about your target audience? Set up social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest to gain insights and information about your client base.
Have a marketing strategy
Because the jewelry industry is competitive, you need to employ a multifaceted marketing plan to make your product stand out to potential clients. Create marketing items such as business cards that include your website URL and email address. Consider creating an e-commerce site using a low-cost hosting platform like Shopify.
Consider employing a public relations agency to promote your designs if your budget allows it. Social media is a simple method to sell your products and reach a large audience. A simple photo of your jewelry with an encouraging message on Facebook or Instagram may create fantastic results.
Diversify the places where you sell your jewelry
One of the simplest ways to sell jewelry is through your website or a proxy. However, selling your works at pop-up shops and artisan fairs may help your boost sales.
Moreover, it will help spread the word about your company, and get the opportunity to meet and engage with your consumer base while sharing your love for designing jewelry. You should also approach local stores about wholesale and consignment sales of your designs, this may help boost your sales to an even larger audience.
Alstom hydrogen trains in Germany. Source: Christoph Busse, Alstom
Hydrogen is plentiful as an energy source. If you’ve seen BMW’s bet on hydrogen cars leaving a trail of only water emissions behind, you might be very excited. But extracting energy from hydrogen, until recently, has been very hard. And processes along the way, like containing leaks, cannot be overlooked because if they are, hydrogen is not a better source of power than oil or gas, it could be worse.
So as important as rallying for the cause and jumping into investments and spreading the good news of new projects in America and Oman, it’s important for investors, governments and energy stakeholders to be educated about the challenges of hydrogen along with the promise and potential.
A short train ride from Cologne or Dusseldorf, the first international NRW HY Summit 2022 will take place in Duisburg and Essen in the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany from November 8th to 10th. Attendants can immerse themselves in the world of hydrogen onsite as well as virtually and learn everything about the future of the planet’s smallest element.
Hydrogen can be used to power vehicles, generate electricity, power the industry and heat our homes and businesses. It could make a huge difference in our carbon emissions and will be critical to achieving net zero. With climate leaders meeting around the same time for COP27 in Egypt, show your company’s commitment to a CO2-free future. This event is for you if you are living the startup dream in shades of hydrogen.
So how do you start building new companies, investment portfolios and projects? Making it real in the investment heart of Europe, in the NRW province of Germany, is the aim for its November energy summit and startup conference.
Business and investment arms of the NRW government and its partners are organizing a 3-day conference on hydrogen as a business opportunity and a way for our planet to achieve net-zero goals facing a climate in crisis. Consider that NRW is home to the entire hydrogen chain: plants that generate green hydrogen from green electricity, and pipelines that transport the gas across the country. The event will include networking with the state prime minister and key investment leaders.
Taking NRW’s experiences into account, attendants can be expected to meet high-level participants who can share real-world experiences in infrastructure, production and R&D. The state will include tips on how young companies can get started in NRW, with incentives and investments in hydrogen and new energy ventures.
Meet H2UB, the European platform for hydrogen start-ups and innovative Projects of start-ups, corporates and science.
Why Hydrogen and Germany’s NRW wants you!
Everyone knows Germany is the world’s most serious country regarding meeting and exceeding renewable energy goals. Germany’s words matched with its ambitious and reliable workforce make it a great country in Europe to partner with. Hydrogen will help Germany’s ambitious goal of a CO2-neutral future. If it works, this will be an example to the world.
Particularly in the industrial state of NRW, the need for alternatives to fossil fuels is great. Hydrogen is becoming important for the region and therefore offers investors and companies enormous growth potential in a stable economy, with the Euro now on par with the USD.
NRW is already a top location for hydrogen and fuel technologies. Experts estimate that up to 130,000 new jobs could be created in connection with hydrogen. And this is happening in all areas of the value chain: research, production, mobility and application.
To ramp up the market for hydrogen products and applications, innovation is needed at every stage of the value chain, a team from NRW’s business unit tells me. NRW.Global Business says that NRW, as a state supports start-ups from the hydrogen economy, so they will play a significant part in the hydrogen market.
Who should attend the HY summit?
International hydrogen companies
Government stakeholders
Startups looking for operations and ecosystems
Who to meet?
Meet 50 speakers, including Hendrik Wüst, the Prime Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Mona Neubaur, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economics, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Panel discussions, high-ranking representatives from business and research discuss the value chain of the hydrogen economy.
More about NRW.Global Business, event partner
NRW.Global Business conducts international location marketing for Germany’s No. 1 investment location, North Rhine-Westphalia, and promotes foreign direct investment worldwide. Some 20,000 foreign companies are already based in Germany’s economically strongest federal state. They analyze investment plans, identify suitable locations and accompany an investment project from the first step to a successful settlement.
Keeping things sanitized, clean and dust-free has been a regular routine for people since Covid hit, and of course if you are an environmentalist like me you are going to cringe before you use a paper towel to wipe up a spill.
A mainstay to an eco-ists home should be cleaning supplies and materials that do no harm. Persik, a microfiber cloth that needs no additional soap to clean should be in your tool kit along with some vinegar and baking soda. It cleans windows, mirrors, bathtubs, glasses and floors. According to material supplied by the company, their Pure Sky cloth can remove 99% of bacteria with no soap or anti-bacterials.
The secret to its magnet-like thirst for dirt is patented, composite ultra micro fibers, consisting of multifilament yarns that are made of more than 1,000 strands per yarn. This technology lets you clean nearly any surface using just water. It picks up large puddles of liquid in the kitchen and a larger size can be used to mop the floor and keep one in your car for the dust around the home.
So buying a cloth that outlasts your kitchen might be a no-brainer, but eventually it will need to be cleaned. Americans can find these cloths at Walmart online, at Better Homes & Gardens and international buyers on Amazon.
Wash, rinse, repeat. No dangerous soaps or chemicals needed, even for the windows. This keeps you and pets safe and happy.
Commonly asked questions about microfiber cloths:
How to clean a microfiber cloth
After you’ve used your microfiber cloth to clean grime and dust bunnies, how can you clean them? Throw them in the washing machine. A microfiber cloth will last as long as you do. Do not wash with water temperature more than 140 F (60C). Do not use bleach. Detergent is enough to get them clean. If stained heavily soak in water before you wash. If you insist on soap, just add a tiny amount to clean. No fabric softener please, This creates a layer that makes the cloths less effective.
Microfiber cloths should be washed alone so they don’t add bacteria to the rest of your load and so they don’t collect lint, rendering them less effective.
If they are musty microfiber cloths, add a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar to the water they are soaking in to deodorize.
Unlike one-time cloths for your floor that you throw away you can use this one forever
Can microfiber cloths be used wet or dry?
The answer is both.
Clean dry crevices to remove dust, very fine dust and hair. Great for the car!
Use it wet to clean up stains, and liquids and if you want to clean mirrors or glass, spray water first on the surface and wipe with dry cloth. So both wet and dry together.
Use a tiny bit of eco-soap, baking soda or vinegar for stubborn stains.
Does Pure Sky really remove over 99% of bacteria?
Yes. It’s made with ultra-microfibers that surround each strand of the cloth and catch bacteria as the cloth is wiped over the surface, allowing for a green clean because you do not need to use detergent. The bacteria can then be washed away with warm water. The water washes through the strands, taking the bacteria down the drain with it.
It’s double sided, why?
The blue scrubber side is for multi-use removing dust or stains
The purple smooth side is for cleaning windows, glass, mirrors without leaving any streaks or smudges.
If you live in a city with poor sewage infrastructure, every time it rains, storm sewers dump piles of plastics and oil pollution onto beaches and waterways.. In the case of city storm sewers no-one and everyone is accountable for the pollution that goes into the sewers from the people driving cars, to the small businesses that work on the streets and throw chemicals and plastic bits into the drain.
Matters are compounded when small businesses rely on drains to handle their waste. Small pottery and ceramic studios need special filters to stop the drains and sewers from clogging. Local mechanics need special containers for recycling oil. But imagine what it takes to handle waste and sewage if you are a major energy supplier and one that needs all the help it can get with meeting pollution and containment goals?
Swiftdrain, a New York-based company that has worked on city projects and with clients like John Deere shared a recent project with us how they are helping energy companies meet their drainage challenges in a more ecologically-sound way.
Swiftdrain develops and manufactures trench drain systems for commercial and municipal applications. Their solutions work in concept and practice to help remove, isolate and treat upstream and downstream waste in applications all around the United States.
Their recent project is removing coal ash waste from Dominion Energy at the Chesterfield Power Station in Chester, Virginia.
The company provided a special system, called a radius trench drain, so that heavy slurry and drier than usual particulates can flow to where it needs to go for recycling, containment or treatment.
Their drains are designed for fast installation, superior structural integrity and simple maintenance — essential factors for Dominion Energy’s safe, environmentally friendly coal ash removal project.
A dirty job that the right drainage system has got to handle
Earlier this year, the industrial contractor Saiia Construction approached Swiftdrain for help with a large-scale radius trench drain system. The proposed drain is one of the key elements in Saiia’s project with Dominion Energy Virginia, which involves removing 15 million cubic yards of coal ash from the Chesterfield Power Station.
“Saiia Construction approached us early in the design phase for a custom radius drainage system for Dominion Energy,” said Ankit Sehgal, CEO of Swiftdrain. “We are proud to have supported Saiia and Dominion Energy in their coal ash removal efforts at the Chesterfield Power Station and share their commitment to conscious growth and design innovation.”
The project experts expect the removal process to take 13 years; to meet the high-stress industrial project’s demands, Swiftdrain worked closely with Dominion’s engineers to design a strong, durable radius trench drain system.
Considering an industrial coal ash job site’s conditions and traffic levels, Swiftdrain furnished a 6 inch wide radius drain spanning over 140 feet. The drain size can accommodate the expected water flow levels while preventing debris buildup and allowing easy maintenance. Radius couplings, which have a range of up to 3 degrees, provide the necessary design flexibility to fit the site geometry.
Swiftdrain sourced materials and furnished a pre-sloped trench drain that satisfies the project’s environmental goals. The drain components are made from durable, lightweight structural foam HDPE, which features UV inhibitors to prevent deterioration during the extensive coal ash removal project. The entire system can withstand the loads and freeze/thaw cycles at the site.
The project with Saiia Construction and Dominion Energy is only one of Swiftdrain’s recent accomplishments. The company recently furnished fiber-reinforced concrete trench drains for John Deere. It also provided dog kennel drains for the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University ,furnished drains for Callaway Golf’s manufacturing facility and supplied hangar drainage for Lake Cumberland Airport. Swiftdrain proudly works with commercial, residential and municipal customers across the United States.
A new study shows that the Israeli part of the Levantine coastline of the Mediterranean Sea is contaminated with over two tons of micro-plastics
Last week the rains started falling in the Eastern Mediterranean, or Western Middle East. One man in Lebanon died because the storm sewers over-flooded from plastic bags and he drowned. The next day storm sewers in Tel Aviv opened to the sea bringing piles of plastic bits and wrappings along the beach. Oily tar and other pollution built up from the summer also joined the party. But just how much plastics is going out to sea from Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon or Egypt? Look to this first of its kind study to get an estimate of what’s probably happening in other countries spewing out plastics unchecked.
A new study by Tel Aviv University and the Mediterranean Sea Research Center found that Israel beaches are contaminated by 2 tons of microplastics. The most polluted Israeli beaches are in Tel Aviv and its northerly neighbour Hadera. The study’s findings show that the sources of plastic pollution include food packaging, single-use plastic products, and fishing nets.
The dangers of microplastics
Microplastics pair up with other volatile pollutants, compounding their effects in the human or any animal body. In light of the alarming findings, the researchers warn that given the current situation in Israel, exposure to microplastic waste, which is dangerous to the environment and human health, is inevitable.
The study was led by doctoral student Andrey Ethan Rubin and master’s student Limor Omeysi from the laboratory of Ines Zucker. The study was published in the scientific journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Some people are turning to pink Himalayan salt, mined in the east on mountains, free from microplastics
Rubin explains that over the course of 2021, the researchers collected samples from six areas along the coast: Ashkelon, Rishon LeZion, Tel Aviv, Hadera, Dor Beach and Haifa. The samples were then taken to the laboratory where various analyses were performed, including particle count, mass measurements, image analysis, and chemical analysis to identify the polymer the plastic was made up of, as well as the elements adsorbed onto the microplastic particles.
“It was interesting to see that plastics of terrestrial origin, such as food packaging, were more dominant than plastics of marine origin, such as fishing nets,” says Rubin. “This indicates a need for better regulation of coastal waste.”
The research findings show that the beaches of Tel Aviv and Hadera were the most polluted of the beaches tested. The level of contamination on these beaches, which are located near stream estuaries (the Yarkon in Tel Aviv and Nahal Alexander in Hadera) was four times higher than that of Rishon Lezion and Dor Beach, which were the two beaches with the lowest concentration of microplastic particles. Still, even in the Dor Beach nature reserve, which is cleaned frequently, a considerable amount of microplastic particles were found.
Where do the microplastics come from?
Where do microplastics come from? Probably streams, rivers, storm sewers. The researchers’ assessment is that the high level of pollution on the beaches of Tel Aviv and Hadera and the fact that they are in close proximity to streams indicates that the stream’s waters carry microplastic particles with them into the sea, thereby intensifying the level of contamination on the beach.
For example, the researchers say that Nahal Alexander collects leachate from untreated sewage from the West Bank, as well as waste from agricultural and industrial areas located near the riverbeds. Similarly, microplastics accumulate at the Yarkon River from the industrial centers in Tel Aviv.
“Our research reveals that the Israeli coastline likely contains over two tons of microplastic waste,” says Rubin. “Environmental conditions slowly break this plastic down into even smaller particles. The smaller the plastic particles, the harder it is to remove them from the environment, and the more dangerous they are to the environment and to our health. The microplastic particles that drift into the sea are swallowed by fish, and their remains eventually reach humans.”
Zucker adds: “Plastic monitoring research in Israel is still lacking, and we must monitor the smaller plastic particles and additional environmental samples, such as sea water and streams, in order to better understand environmental patterns with regards to the presence of microplastics.
“In a practical perspective, regulatory steps are required in order to reduce Israel’s contribution to microplastic pollution in the Mediterranean.”
Websites made with the environment in mind are minimal like this page
Web 1.0 has brought us the opportunity to learn and know about everything in this world. For that reason, human possibilities widened, and technology evolved so much in a few years that now we can have everything at a simple touch on our devices. But along with this huge benefit, when Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 emerged, we found that these high-tech solutions were causing issues regarding sustainability.
In other words, the devices used worldwide are using enormous quantities of energy that are not regenerative, contributing to the current climate issues. On top of that, websites, too, are responsible for 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions. Knowing this, is there something to be done to decrease this percentage?
What are sustainable websites?
A sustainable website is nothing more than a clean, efficient and resilient page. Sounds simple and easy to do, but that’s not the case because websites need constant maintenance in order to function well. Contrarily, a wasteful web design includes too many photos, the file formats are all over the place, the files are too big, and even the written code on the website can create unnecessary file duplicates.
Websites should be optimized for search engines to function at their best, most efficiently. This is a wireframe mockup before the design process goes into effect.
So, a sustainable website has the following features:
It’s powered by renewable energy; wind farms, solar energy. It’s services are considered net zero.
It uses the least amount of energy and resources possible; or it replenishes what it uses by enhancing ecological projects, like rewilding.
It’s accessible and allows users to control their data;
It doesn’t exploit users;
It helps support an economy that respects the planet;
The consequences of poor website design
If a website isn’t constantly maintained, it can reach rock bottom in a matter of months. But what happens when a page is unsuccessfully launched? Well, such a website can:
Load too slow, resulting in a high bounce rate;
Lack the mobile-friendly design;
Make it difficult for users to understand or navigate;
All these elements will make users doubt the website’s reliability and immediately exit it because odd-looking websites are linked to malware. And it can be true since malicious sites are known to be designed in the same manner as trusted ones, but they’re often messy and easily distinguishable from the original ones. If you’re not aware of the malicious elements of such a website, you may experience a security outbreak. In that case, you can claim for data breach compensation in the UK to cover your financial losses or to recover from any psychological results.
The benefits of sustainable web design
While wasteful design can lead to data breaches and a lack of customer trust, sustainable web design does more than fix those issues. It can benefit any business to:
Reduce monthly bills due to less energy consumed;
Reduce carbon footprint since there’s less searching time;
Improve business efficiency and productivity because the workflow streamline is improved;
Comply with energy use regulations since many countries have started to constrain enterprises to adopt greener practices
Set apart from the competition since green companies are drawing more attention than regular ones;
Boost public image and brand recognition because the business fights for a cause;
By providing fast load times, superior image resolutions and simultaneous website use worldwide, businesses can become reliable regarding the use of customer data and contribute to a safer and greener internet environment. But how can you make your website more sustainable?
How to create a sustainable website, sustainably
Before starting your green journey, it’s essential to audit your website and clarify where improvements are needed. Start by recalling when the latest content and design update. If it was a long time ago and the designs seem outdated, people might have the impression you’re out of business. Then, take the time to analyse how easy your website is to navigate and how long it takes to load. Finally, evaluate your website’s readability and organising. If your customers are having a hard time understanding what you’re selling, they’ll rapidly exit the site.
Then, if you decide your website needs a change, try to improve these elements:
Optimise images to reduce file size. High-resolution files consume too much energy and take time to load, so you can try to reduce them through software tools that can maintain their quality;
Limit the videos on your website and use the low resolution to avoid slow website loading;
Improve the website performance by setting up catching (JavaScript or CSS) to increase speed;
Change the site navigation and make sure people can find the information they require when entering your page;
Choose a green web host that employs renewable energy. However, be aware that this sector is still developing, so finding such a reliable company can be challenging so take your time to find a green hosting provider;
Going the extra mile on SEO sustainability
However, after performing the audit and concluding your website is working decently, you may want to have a different approach and change your SEO strategy. An excellent SEO strategy will help people find relevant information quickly, which translates into less time surfing the internet’s pages forever. Which means more time finding you and what they need. When search engines are able to return the best results, the number of pages loaded reduces the energy required for this action, which can significantly make a difference.
Adopting a SEO strategy must be done according to your company’s characteristics. However, some tips can be easily applied to any type of business. Here are some aspects to consider changing for good SEO:
Write and use clean codes to make your website more efficient and to ensure it works on any device format or platform. WordPress is a good and low-cost, even free platform to build on. It’s open source so ongoing fees you will pay will be just server costs.
Mind the fonts you use because larger files demand more energy for storing, delivering and loading. Image sizes should be reduced because what’s great for print is too much to handle in web format, taking up server space and increasing load times.
Improve user experience (UX) design to provide high accessibility and valuable content delivery;
Optimise your content by paying attention to the URL of your website, titles, meta descriptions and headers;
If you are selling products and services, make real deal claims. Don’t pollute this planet. Think about plastics and that according to this Greenpeace report sent to us, plastics aren’t really recyclable. Help people make it better.
Wrapping it all up
The urgency of slowing down climate change has helped us discover issues in everything we use, especially the websites we browse. Since internet surfing is causing greenhouse gas emissions to increase, website optimisation is crucial to minimise the energy consumed on slow-loading pages and poor web design. What do you think about this strategy?
