In the modern nutrition universe, that level of commitment deserves an applause. But for those who don’t live in a Nordic fishing village, the nutrition company Zinzino has built its omega-3 research and formulations around these principles, combining biomarker testing, antioxidant protection and traceable sourcing across both sustainably harvested small-fish oils and a vegan marine-microalgae alternative.
Dubai Municipality has set up 12 AI-powered "Ehsan Stations" to safely and officially feed strays. The city also officially supports Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs.
A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems.
People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.
In the modern nutrition universe, that level of commitment deserves an applause. But for those who don’t live in a Nordic fishing village, the nutrition company Zinzino has built its omega-3 research and formulations around these principles, combining biomarker testing, antioxidant protection and traceable sourcing across both sustainably harvested small-fish oils and a vegan marine-microalgae alternative.
Dubai Municipality has set up 12 AI-powered "Ehsan Stations" to safely and officially feed strays. The city also officially supports Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs.
A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems.
People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.
In the modern nutrition universe, that level of commitment deserves an applause. But for those who don’t live in a Nordic fishing village, the nutrition company Zinzino has built its omega-3 research and formulations around these principles, combining biomarker testing, antioxidant protection and traceable sourcing across both sustainably harvested small-fish oils and a vegan marine-microalgae alternative.
Dubai Municipality has set up 12 AI-powered "Ehsan Stations" to safely and officially feed strays. The city also officially supports Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs.
A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems.
People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.
In the modern nutrition universe, that level of commitment deserves an applause. But for those who don’t live in a Nordic fishing village, the nutrition company Zinzino has built its omega-3 research and formulations around these principles, combining biomarker testing, antioxidant protection and traceable sourcing across both sustainably harvested small-fish oils and a vegan marine-microalgae alternative.
Dubai Municipality has set up 12 AI-powered "Ehsan Stations" to safely and officially feed strays. The city also officially supports Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs.
A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems.
People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.
In the modern nutrition universe, that level of commitment deserves an applause. But for those who don’t live in a Nordic fishing village, the nutrition company Zinzino has built its omega-3 research and formulations around these principles, combining biomarker testing, antioxidant protection and traceable sourcing across both sustainably harvested small-fish oils and a vegan marine-microalgae alternative.
Dubai Municipality has set up 12 AI-powered "Ehsan Stations" to safely and officially feed strays. The city also officially supports Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs.
A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems.
People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.
In the modern nutrition universe, that level of commitment deserves an applause. But for those who don’t live in a Nordic fishing village, the nutrition company Zinzino has built its omega-3 research and formulations around these principles, combining biomarker testing, antioxidant protection and traceable sourcing across both sustainably harvested small-fish oils and a vegan marine-microalgae alternative.
Dubai Municipality has set up 12 AI-powered "Ehsan Stations" to safely and officially feed strays. The city also officially supports Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs.
A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems.
People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.
In the modern nutrition universe, that level of commitment deserves an applause. But for those who don’t live in a Nordic fishing village, the nutrition company Zinzino has built its omega-3 research and formulations around these principles, combining biomarker testing, antioxidant protection and traceable sourcing across both sustainably harvested small-fish oils and a vegan marine-microalgae alternative.
Dubai Municipality has set up 12 AI-powered "Ehsan Stations" to safely and officially feed strays. The city also officially supports Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs.
A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems.
People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.
In the modern nutrition universe, that level of commitment deserves an applause. But for those who don’t live in a Nordic fishing village, the nutrition company Zinzino has built its omega-3 research and formulations around these principles, combining biomarker testing, antioxidant protection and traceable sourcing across both sustainably harvested small-fish oils and a vegan marine-microalgae alternative.
Dubai Municipality has set up 12 AI-powered "Ehsan Stations" to safely and officially feed strays. The city also officially supports Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs.
A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems.
People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.
A new study has found for the first time that magnetoelectric nanoparticles — tiny, wirelessly controlled particles activated by magnetic fields — can both locate and destroy pancreatic tumors in preclinical models, offering a potential new approach to minimally invasively treating one of the deadliest cancers.
The study was led by scientists and engineers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University of Miami College of Engineering, Moffitt Cancer Center and Cellular Nanomed, Inc. The findings appeared in the issue of Advanced Science.
In the study, a single intravenous dose of these magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENPs), when activated by a magnetic field inside an MRI machine, caused pancreatic tumors to shrink to one-third their size and completely disappear in one-third of the treated models. The treatment also more than doubled survival time, all without damaging healthy organs.
Unlike chemotherapy or surgery, this approach uses no drugs, heat, or invasive procedures. Instead, MENPs are injected into the bloodstream, guided by a small magnet to the tumor site, and then activated by the magnetic field of a standard MRI scanner. When switched “on,” the particles generate tiny electric fields that disrupt cancer cell membranes and trigger natural cell death — leaving nearby healthy tissue unharmed.
The approach could overcome key limits of existing electric-field-based therapies, such as tumor treating fields (TTFs) and irreversible electroporation (IRE), which require either wearable devices or surgical electrodes.
“This study brings us one step closer to connecting to the human body wirelessly to help it heal in real time,” said Sakhrat Khizroev, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Engineering and the study’s co-senior author. “We hope it opens a new era in medicine where technology can precisely target diseases that were once considered untreatable.”
The research shows how MENPs can be delivered directly to pancreatic tumors, where they are remotely activated by a magnetic field inside an MRI scanner. Once activated, the nanoparticles generate local electric fields that distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells based on their molecular properties, causing only the malignant cells to undergo apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
MRI scans confirmed that this treatment reduced tumor size and produced clear imaging signals, supporting MENPs as a powerful therapy and diagnostic, or “theranostic,” tool. Because the particles function without pharmaceutical drugs or biological reagents, the approach minimizes side effects and could eventually be applied to other difficult-to-treat diseases.
The idea of using MENPs to wirelessly control local electric fields was first proposed by Khizroev and Liang in 2011. Over the past decade, the concept evolved through global research partnerships and technological breakthroughs, culminating in this study.
Despite major advances in oncology, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the deadliest cancers, with a five-year survival rate below 10%. It is projected to become the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States by 2030. Traditional methods, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, often harm healthy tissue, while newer approaches such as immunotherapy have shown limited success.
One of the greatest challenges in treating PDAC lies in controlling the electric fields that influence cancer cell growth. Because human tissue conducts electricity, it has been nearly impossible to manipulate these fields precisely inside the body.
The new findings suggest that MENP therapy could one day give patients a safer, more precise option.
Along the cold Pacific waters of British Columbia, Canada sea otters float belly-up, cracking shellfish on their chests. They look playful and carefree, yet inside their bodies something far more troubling is happening. A recent study of 11 dead sea otters found along B.C.’s coast revealed that every single one carried high quantities of eight different “forever chemicals” in both liver and muscle tissue.
These PFAS compounds—used in everything from food packaging and cosmetics to non-stick pans, water-repellent outdoor gear, and electronics—do not break down in nature. Over time they accumulate in the food chain, becoming more concentrated as they move from small organisms to fish and ultimately to top predators like otters.
One compound, perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), once a key ingredient in Scotchgard, stood out. Its presence in multiple tissues signals long-term environmental exposure and a chemical load that these animals had no way to escape. Sea otters are more than charming coastal icons; they are keystone predators that keep kelp forests alive by controlling sea urchin populations.
When otters become sick or die, entire marine ecosystems begin to unravel. Their contamination is not a side note. It is a warning.
The danger does not end at the tide line. Humans eat the same shellfish and fish, swim in the same waters, and breathe the same coastal air. PFAS chemicals are already linked to fertility problems, hormone disruption, immune system suppression, cancer, and developmental issues in children. If sea otters are saturated with these chemicals, it raises a blunt question: what is happening in our own bodies?
While Canada has taken preliminary steps to regulate PFAS, efforts lag behind those in parts of Europe and the United States, where governments are moving to phase these chemicals out almost entirely. Here, the pace is slower, and monitoring remains limited. Meanwhile, each rainfall carries more PFAS into rivers and coastal ecosystems, and each product we buy that claims to “repel water or stains” brings the problem closer to our homes and oceans.
Saving sea otters is not simply about protecting a beloved species. It is about defending the health of coastal communities, marine food webs, and future generations. The toxins building up in otters are the same ones that build up in us, and their decline is a message we would be foolish to ignore. In the slick sheen of their fur and the stillness of their bodies on the shoreline lies a truth about modern life: we have filled our ocean with chemicals designed never to disappear, and now they are coming back to us through the creatures that depend on those waters to live.
If we want healthy oceans, healthy seafood, and healthy children, we must act before the kelp forests fall silent and the otters vanish from the Pacific coast. Their fate is tied to ours, and time is running out to change course.
As the 28th edition of Ecomondo opens in Rimini, Italy it comes with a quiet truth that feels almost subversive in the era of climate mega-summits and scripted ministerial statements: this trade fair — full of waste-sorting robotics, composting technology, soil-remediation systems, and industrial biogas machinery — may now matter more to the planet’s future than the COP conferences that dominate global climate headlines.
COP has always been about diplomacy, negotiation, and political signaling. It is the global stage where nations gather to pledge emissions targets, debate loss-and-damage financing, and reaffirm their commitment to a shared climate agenda. It’s a place where people meet when the previous work has already been done.
But we are no longer living in a decade where promises are the substance of climate action. We are living in the decade of execution.
ANAS – CANTIERI STATALI. Incontro con Sindaco Alessandro Barattoni e tecnici Anas sui lavori della SS16 Adriatica e della Ss 67.
And execution does not happen in marble plenaries or UN press tents. It happens in exhibition halls like those in Rimini — in the sight of shredder lines turning textile waste into new feedstock, water-recycling systems being stress-tested, algae vats bubbling quietly, and biofertilizer reactors feeding regenerative agriculture.
In other words: COP is where the world talks about climate action. Ecomondo is where the world actually builds it.
This year Ecomondo brings together more than 1,700 exhibiting companies, 30 halls, 166,000 square meters of circular-economy innovation, 380 hosted buyers from 66 countries, and over 200 conferences led by industrial, academic, and regulatory experts. It’s a demonstration of scale — but not the theatrical scale of global diplomacy. It’s the scale of supply chains, of business models, of industrial ecosystems.
Walk through Rimini and the difference is instant: instead of panels debating ambition levels, you see companies demonstrating anaerobic digesters, next-gen composting infrastructure, optical sorters for plastic waste, textile-recycling machinery, aquifer-restoration systems, AI-enabled climate monitoring tools, lithium battery shredders, and sludge-to-fertilizer technology.
Europe’s emissions goals will not be met by pledges, but by infrastructure. The circular economy will not scale through slogans, but through procurement, factories, and financing models. And Ecomondo understands this.
The 2025 programme leans into the hardest industrial questions of the decade:
How do we close the loop on textiles under new EU rules?
What happens to 2030’s waste solar panels and wind turbines?
Can biogas and biomethane scale fast enough to displace fossil gas?
How do cities transform waste streams into economic resources?
How do we regenerate degraded soils at continental scale?
How do we secure critical minerals without opening new wounds?
COP’s theater vs. Ecomondo’s workshop
COP is necessary — it forces nations to face each other and acknowledge a shared emergency. But it is also a place of gesture politics, where governments announce recycled commitments, fossil fuel lobbyists measure influence, and energy companies pose as climate champions while expanding extraction.
In Rimini, the performance drops away. Nobody wins Ecomondo with a pledge or a photo op. You win if your system works, if your process scales, if a municipal department or multinational buyer signs a deal to decarbonize their operations.
Italy is not always positioned as a climate-policy powerhouse. Yet in circularity, water treatment, bioeconomy, and industrial ecology, it is quietly one of the most advanced economies in the world that knows how to dream –– and work.
In a global conversation often dominated by the U.S.–China technology rivalry, Ecomondo is a reminder: Europe’s strength is systems thinking. Decarbonization here looks like integration — circular supply chains, wastewater reuse, biobased feedstocks, land restoration, local manufacturing, and policy synchronized with industry.
Over the last month Saudi Arabia’s government-owned ACWA Power has signed roughly $10 billion in clean-energy and water-infrastructure agreements, stretching from the Gulf to Central Asia and Africa. On paper, it’s a renewables story as they erect gigawatt-scale solar farms, grid-scale batteries, and desalination plants powered by clean electricity. Development finance is flowing into emerging economies. The deals were signed at the Future Investment Initiative (FII9) in Riyadh known as Davos of the Middle East.
But strip away the slick branding and this feels uncomfortably like a new-era greenwash: the same wealth built on hydrocarbons now deciding the fate of clean power. One truth remains — oil money is now one of the biggest buyers of renewable infrastructure on the planet.
Should we cheer or flinch? It’s a moral knot: the petro-economies that fueled climate breakdown are now financing the transition — selling the sickness and then the cure. If this is the price of decarbonization, it forces a reckoning. Who gets to build the future? And why do we trust the arsonists to run the fire brigade?
ACWA’s largest shareholder is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia which is owned by Saudi Aramco. PIF’s finances come largely from oil revenue and Aramco dividends. Those petrodollars are now underwriting solar and wind farms abroad such as Uzbekistan’s vast steppe, North Africa’s desert grids, along with water-stressed coastlines from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
The company announced the commercial commissioning of the Karatau Wind 100 MW Project in the Qorao’zak and Beruniy districts of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan. The project comprises 16 Envision Energy wind turbines of 6.5 MW each, a 15.4 km overhead transmission line, and a 220 kV substation, with associated Balance of Plant facilities. Electricity will be supplied under a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement to the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (NEGU).
For Africa, ACWA Power deepened its long-standing partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) through two strategic agreements aimed at accelerating clean energy and water infrastructure deployment on the continent. The first Framework Agreement, valued at up to USD 1 billion, will provide project and corporate financing as well as capacity building and advisory support for ACWA Power’s growing portfolio across Africa.
This includes participation in the OPEC Fund for project financing, equity bridge loans, as well as equity investments support with USD 450 million as the initial target. “The agreement reflects the parties shared commitment to advancing utility-scale clean energy and water projects that drive inclusive, low-carbon growth across the developing world,” says ACWA, signaling its virtuousness as saving the world it is helping us destroy.
Halloween in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is modernizing, however, and this may open the monarchy up for criticism. Saudi Arabia let women drive in 2018, and this year users on social media showed how a Halloween party, considered haram by Muslims, was allowed to take place in Riyadh.
Swim suits Saudi Arabia
The country is scaling up for tourism and a culture shift by building megacity projects under the name of NEOM. Celebrities in favor of a great paycheck are already lining up to visit places like Shebara, a pristine island in the Red Sea built with no sustainability impact report.
View from above, Shebara in Saudi Arabia
This is not philanthropy but strategy. While Saudi Arabia can announce the “discovery” of a new oil reserve as a PR drill, consumers and oil importers will change loyalties the minute a university invents a way to create practical, unlimited, non-pollution energy. Saudis, whose wealth knows no limits, are building stakes in a post-oil world, and they’re doing it faster and more decisively than many Western democracies whose politics have stalled climate spending.
In Washington, clean-energy capital flows through regulatory funnels and election cycles. In Riyadh, it’s sovereign mandate and execution, but it’s complex because Saudis do not have convention ambitions in size and scale of anything they create, with little concern for the environment except “on paper”. See The Line.
ACWA’s $10 billion announcement is about procurement, equipment orders, power-purchase frameworks, project finance. Meanwhile, the West is still arguing over heat pumps and carbon taxes. (Luckily Torus, connected to Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway is putting practical energy in motion with a flywheel invention to stabilize the grid.)
There is a paradox here in every move ACWA and Aramco makes. Some call it green hypocrisy or hedging. But the more honest description is energy geopolitics moving into its next phase. Whoever builds and finances tomorrow’s grids will shape tomorrow’s trade routes, alliances, and dependencies — just as oil once did. So if you enjoy the west and your freedoms, fight for renewable energy independence by raising up and influencing projects and companies locally.
China understood this early through batteries, solar manufacturing, and Belt-and-Road transmission lines. Now the Gulf sovereigns have joined the board. They don’t want to be buyers of technology, but as builders and exporters of clean-power megaprojects.
The uncomfortable question is not whether oil money should fund renewables but maybe if anyone else can move this fast.
Investors debate between scaling up in Riyadh or Dubai, but the UAE will be the favored Middle East investment hub along with Tel Aviv insofar that conditions are made for great for employees, entrepreneurs and startups. A good business starts from the ground-up and co-working spaces give community and credibility to those who’ve outgrown the bomb shelter or second bedroom.
Emirates NBD, a banking group in the Middle East has partnered with Dubai’s own Letswork, a leading co-working workspace provider in the region, to offer bank employees access to over 4,000 coworking desks, meeting rooms and offices across the UAE and beyond. In Canada, leading banks are telling disgruntled staff working from home since COVID, that they need to come back to the office. What if there could be a middle way to large financial hubs in city centers? Could bank employees be shuttled around to co-work offices around the country?
According to the terms of the partnership, select Emirates NBD employees will join a 12-month pilot program to experience on-demand workspaces through Letswork’s intuitive platform, with the potential for wider rollout across the bank. The collaboration follows Letswork’s participation in Emirates NBD’s National Digital Talent Incubator Program, where early conversations between the bank and startup laid the foundation for this engagement and future ones.
The UAE is investing in AI and new businesses, including banks, will need places to work.
By leveraging Letswork’s secure and flexible platform, employees can book meeting rooms, coworking spaces and private offices instantly across over 100 hubs in Dubai, and more than 25 hubs in Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates, and additional international locations. according to a news release.
Aligning with the bank’s focus on excellence and customer service, the collaboration allows for greater flexibility and convenience when travelling for meetings in Abu Dhabi, with easy access to high-quality working and meeting spaces. It offers a more streamlined and efficient way to book external workshops and meeting spaces across the UAE through Letswork’s intuitive platform.
Letswork’s network of coworking hubs gives employees based in the outskirts of Dubai and the Northern Emirates to work closer to home thereby reducing commuting time and improving work-life balance.
Letswork was co-founded in 2019 by Omar Al Mheiri and Hamza Khan in Dubai, UAE. They identified a gap: freelancers and startups in Dubai needing flexible, affordable workplace options without the commitment of long-term leases. From one hotel partner in Dubai they expanded into a global network. It was modeled after WeWork, a global networking and office space provider. WeWork emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2024 after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the company’s restructuring plan, which eliminated approximately US$4 billion in debt.
Before co-working spaces were a business model, communities organized their own community-focused and shared office spaces. As interest grew, so did the concept as a scalable business opportunity.
Coworking spaces are a sustainable choice as a multitude of businesses can share many resources such as machines and physical office space and meeting rooms, desk staff, marketing, kitchens and security.
Emirates NBD (DFM: Emirates NBD) is a leading banking group in the Middle East region with a presence in 13 countries, serving over 9 million active customers. As of 30th September 2025, total assets were AED 1.139 trillion, (equivalent to approx. USD 310.1 billion). The Group has operations in the UAE, Egypt, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Russia and Bahrain and representative offices in China and Indonesia with a total of 797 branches and 4,526 ATMs / SDMs. Emirates NBD is the leading financial services brand in the UAE with a Brand value of USD 4.54 billion.
Emirates NBD contributes to the construction of a sustainable future as an active participant and supporter of the UAE’s main development and sustainability initiatives, including financial wellness and the inclusion of people of determination. Emirates NBD is committed to supporting the UAE’s Year of Sustainability as Principal Banking Partner of COP28 and an early supporter to the Dubai Can sustainability initiative, a city-wide initiative aimed to reduce use of single-use plastic bottled water.
The global energy transition isn’t only about solar panels, electrolyzers, or the glamorous green-hydrogen whispers in Dubai conference halls. The revolutions come from the places the public hasn’t heard about, like an industrial campus outside Salt Lake City, where a company called Torus just secured $200 million to build a different kind of battery future.
Years ago when I interviewed the late David Anthony from 21Ventures, he told me his secrets to deal finding: hang out in laboratories and find the innovation before it gets to the tech transfer office. (Tech transfer offices have already done the due diligence and you’ll find deals there too, but they are no longer secret).
This story here isn’t lithium mining in the Andes or sodium-ion chemistry in Shanghai. This is physics, spooling at thousands of revolutions per minute and it started at a company called Torus.
Torus combines flywheels — ancient devices (think pottery kick wheel) that store energy mechanically by spinning at high speed — with traditional batteries. The result is a hybrid system that can absorb and release power instantly, smoothing the chaos of electrons on a stressed electrical grid. A flywheel is like a spinning prayer wheel for the grid, storing kinetic intention, and releasing it stably when everything around it shakes.
In engineering-speak: “A flywheel comprises a rotating mass that stores kinetic energy. When charging, a torque applied in the direction of rotation accelerates the rotor, increasing its speed and stored energy,” explains Sandia National Laboratory. “When discharging, a braking torque decelerates the rotor, extracting energy while performing useful work.”
Flywheels are already powering parts of modern life. In big cities like London and Philadelphia, transit systems use flywheels to capture braking energy from trains and feed it back into the grid. In data centers at Microsoft and major telecom hubs, flywheel UPS units provide instant backup power before generators kick in.
Utilities from New York to Ontario use flywheel farms to stabilize the grid when wind and solar fluctuate. In space, satellites use flywheel “reaction wheels” to orient themselves without fuel. Even race cars like Porsche hybrids have used flywheels for rapid energy recovery and boost. This is proven tech, now scaling to the grid.
Why the world needs a stable grid?
Torus energy storage that uses a flywheel
AI and token-mining data centers are consuming city-scale power. The US grid is aging making it difficult to absorb new energy sources even when they become relevant. Extreme heat and cold events are becoming the new normal. And these factors influence whether or not the heating will go in Texas or Canada in the winter.
Torus’ new financing, led by Chicago-based Magnetar Capital, will scale a Utah manufacturing facility called GigaOne and push capacity beyond 1 gigawatt of storage within three years. Letters of intent are already on the table from PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric, both utilities managing real-world wildfire risk, winter storms, and transformer-meltdown summers.
Michael Cooper, our trusted in-house investment researcher from 36North says that Warren Buffet is the model for all investment students of the world to follow. So this latest round and interest in Torus by PacifiCorp caught his attention.
“As an investor, I am most excited by the potentially lower risk environment whereby industry is combining disciplines and technologies from physics to chemistry to build products and solutions. This stage is more rewarding than exploring theoretical physics or pure chemistry,” he says.
Though still private, Torus has already attracted major utility interest, including letters of intent from PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric—early signals that its technology is transitioning from promising pilot to grid-relevant infrastructure. Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett’s conglomerate) via its subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway Energy (formerly MidAmerican Energy Holdings) owns PacifiCorp.
In a blog post on September 9, Torus CEO and co-founder Nate Walkingshaw described the company’s “modular power plant” technology in somewhat flowing terms, though the basic point is the key point. Flywheels are more responsive than conventional batteries, and batteries support the duration factor.
“The magical combination of flywheels, batteries, chipsets and cyber security appliances allows us to respond in milliseconds, and stay online with 99.9% uptime,” Walkingshaw said. “This year we have been deployed by our utility partners nearly every day to assist them with frequency and voltage support plus assisting our customers with peak shaving, emergency back-up and power quality concerns,” he added.
Torus
Lithium batteries are miracles we use every day and they are in our phones, laptops, Teslas. But lithium alone isn’t enough to stabilize a renewable grid. Batteries degrade. But flywheels don’t degrade the same way. They don’t catch fire. They don’t care if it’s −20°C or +50°C. They can discharge and recharge millions of times.
This isn’t a moonshot investment but one that Warren Buffett could get behind. Torus already runs a 400-MW manufacturing facility and it has purchase orders in the pipeline and has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Rocky Mountain Power (a division of PacifiCorp) to deploy up to 70 MW of its hybrid flywheel + battery storage solutions in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho.
“This partnership highlights our commitment to exploring new technologies and optimizing infrastructure as we work to meet the energy demands and challenges over the next decade,” said Dick Garlish, President of Rocky Mountain Power.
How flywheels work to store free energy
The opportunity is enabled through Rocky Mountain Power’s industry leading virtual power plan, specifically the Wattsmart Battery program. The partnership will deploy Torus’s cutting-edge Nova Spin and Nova Pulse technologies across multiple sites. These innovations allow for real-time response and deliver twice the lifespan of traditional batteries.
“Working with Rocky Mountain Power at this scale demonstrates the growing recognition of demand response as a crucial tool for modern utilities,” said Walkingshaw. “As Utah attracts more data centers, manufacturing facilities, and technology companies, reliable and affordable energy becomes even more critical. Our technology improves grid resilience and efficiency while supporting Utah’s vision for energy abundance that will power the next generation of economic growth.”
The story here isn’t that flywheels will replace lithium batteries but that the energy future will be stacked, layered, and hybrid.
Gilbert Lee, Torus
Torus Inc., based in South Salt Lake City, Utah, was co-founded in 2021 by systems-engineer-turned-entrepreneur Nate Walkingshaw and energy technologist Gilbert Lee, with a vision to build a grid-storage platform that blends the physics reliability of flywheels with the flexibility of batteries.
The company has grown to roughly 70 employees as it scales its “GigaOne” manufacturing campus and deploys hybrid storage systems for utilities and data centers. Torus recently secured $200 million in growth capital from Magnetar Capital to boost production capacity beyond 1 GW within three years, following earlier funding that valued the company at approximately $535 million.
Belém’s COP30 puts forests, freshwater and oceans at center stage. How are emerging markets treating nature as infrastructure— and plugging it into finance and trade. We know that the world has reached the coral tipping point, and as you are busy saving the trees and oceans, know how activists, locals, banks and business can work together. Learn the lingo of finance mechanisms to help save the planet.
Everyone will cover the headlines from the United Nation’s climate conference, this year called COP30 and which is in Belém, Brazil. Fewer will explain the mechanics of how nature becomes cashflow, trade leverage and resilience infrastructure—especially for the Global South. That’s the gap we’re filling. Green Prophet offers a practical question: what instruments exist right now to turn living systems into value chains that stand up to droughts, floods and supply-chain shocks? And how can MENA, Africa and Latin America lead instead of only react.
Know your terminology if you want to follow the conversations in the room
Blended Finance
Econcrete restores coastal habitats with low-cost concrete that mimics a natural shoreline.
Blended finance is the engine room. Public and philanthropic “first-loss” capital de-risks deals; commercial investors come in behind. The aim is to move beyond pilot projects into pipelines that pay for restoration at scale. The World Bank’s recent review shows a surprising depth of activity in nature-based infrastructure, with millions of people already benefiting from coastal and watershed projects that reduce disaster risk while growing local economies.
Let’s take an example we can get behind: Imagine there is huge project to fix a coastline that’s getting destroyed by storms over and over again. We know that planting mangrove trees and building natural barriers to protect homes and schools works. But who pays for this, especially in developing nations like Thailand, where government money might be tight, especially on small islands.
Thailand’s, and Saudi Arabian mangrove forests can help mitigate climate change by keeping rising tides and storms at bay
The problem is that it costs a lot to plant and maintain mangrove trees and natural barriers, and even less natural ones like the ones built by Eco-Concrete in costal areas of New York. There is a lot of good reasons why protecting coastlines are good: tourism, business and stability to invest in a region pay off in the long term.
So how does blended finance work? Big investors might not build a university or a business center in an at-risk area like Indonesia because its islands are at-risk from flooding. They watch as government and charities go first to build pilot projects. These groups take the first losses and are buffered to do so. When investors see a project or pilot is working, the investors and banks can join in.
The end result is that if it’s a project on island resilience, and it’s done well with the local community, the fishermen get more fish, the houses and infrastructure don’t flood, and tourism and businesses in the area improve. Now instead of the government or local municipality working to clean up new disasters as they happen, the community and investors protect a community and its economy.
Where this is doing well: Indonesia: planting mangroves to protect coasts and create jobs, in Kenya where they are restoring forests to secure water for cities and farms and in Colombia, where they are rebuilding riversides to stop floods and boost tourism. The World Bank found millions of people already benefiting from nature-based projects like these. They’re not just experiments — but are becoming real business pipelines.
Debt for Nature Swaps
Debt-for-nature swaps are also keywords you will hear coming out of COP30 and debt-for-nature is having a moment. By refinancing sovereign debt of a nation and locking savings into conservation endowments, countries can protect mangroves, reefs and forests while improving fiscal stability.
The Bahamas’ swap—backed by private guarantees and insurers—unlocked roughly $124 million for ocean protection and mangrove recovery. Expect more hybrids like “blue bonds,” watershed bonds, and biodiversity-linked notes as COP30 pushes nature up the finance agenda.
Canada is beginning to explore similar nature-finance mechanisms. They are offering grants for businesses that support climate change initiatives. While small island nations pioneered debt-for-nature swaps, the logic applies anywhere natural assets protect economies. Take the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes Basin. This is a freshwater system worth trillions in trade, shipping, drinking water, hydropower, and fisheries — yet it faces rising storm surges, coastal erosion, surges in algae blooms, and biodiversity loss.
Imagine a Canadian “watershed bond” modelled on the Bahamas’ blue bond play: federal and provincial governments refinance aging municipal debt in water-adjacent cities like Toronto beaches, Kingston, Thunder Bay, and Windsor. Interest savings are then routed into a protected watershed fund to restore wetlands, rebuild fish nurseries, and reinforce natural floodplains that protect ports and neighborhoods.
Who backs it? Pension funds like CPP Investments, insurers hedging climate risk, and Indigenous-led stewardship trusts that secure long-term governance. Satellite and LiDAR data verify improved water quality, carbon storage, and flood protection — giving investors confidence that nature isn’t just a moral win, but a balance-sheet asset.
Nature Markets
Circle farming in Holland uses AI and nature together.
Nature markets are growing up fast — and not just carbon trading. Investors and governments are starting to put real contracts behind things like restoring habitats, protecting species, and improving fisheries. In the past, these ideas lived in Canva or PowerPoint presentations and pilot projects that didn’t go far beyond the anecdote stage. Today, they’re showing up in legal agreements, budgets, and deal pipelines.
What changed? Measurement tech and startups working in the impact space. We can now track how many fish return to a reef, how much flood damage is avoided when wetlands are restored, or how many species come back when forests regrow. When you can measure nature’s value, you can finance it. Also, investors found that impact companies can return significantly higher returns on investment.
The early winners will be projects that do more than one thing: reduce carbon, protect coasts, boost fishing incomes, create jobs, and improve water security. In short, projects and companies that score high in ESG. Instead of selling just one benefit, they’ll earn money from many revenue streams. The future natural economy isn’t supposed to be about charity — it’s revenue, resilience, and concepts like regenerative agriculture working together.
What to watch at COP30
A Brazil rainforest
Belém in Brazil may be remembered as the summit where nature moved from a side-event to system change. If you are there at the event, Look for bigger blended-finance vehicles for forests and watersheds, standardized biodiversity/ecosystem credit frameworks, clearer guidance on how trade tools like CBAM and deforestation-free rules interact with development and equity goals, and concrete deals in the Amazon and beyond that link restoration to export growth.
Media attention will swirl around politics, but the durable story is finance and how data can turn ecosystems, including jungles and seashore towns, into resilient value-chains.
A conference “for peace” in the Mediterranean, funded by the EU and which demonizes Israel in its core
The European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) in Barcelona, a so-called peace making think tank for the Mediterranean Region, is hosting the twelfth edition of its Aula Mediterrània lecture series—27 talks spanning politics, migration, and culture under the banner of “Thinking about the Mediterranean of the 21st Century.”
At first glance, it looks like a celebration of regional dialogue and academic exchange. But beneath the polished program lies a troubling current of politicized bias that calls into question the values the European Union claims to uphold: fairness, democracy, and balanced dialogue.
This year’s series devotes significant attention to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict—yet the framing of that attention is anything but balanced. One talk is titled “Palestine’s Maritime Rights vs Israel’s Bully Take Over: An Exit Path.” Another accuses the European Union of “Complicity, Silence and Double Standards.” Later in the schedule comes “The Fifteen Wars of Israel against Gaza,” a phrase that reads more like an activist slogan than a scholarly topic.
Not a single lecture explores Israel’s security concerns, democratic institutions, or peace efforts. Or how the Arab world works to combat terror. There are no Israeli speakers, no balance, and no nuance—just repetition of a single narrative that paints one country, and one people, as the villain of the Mediterranean story.
The Union for the Mediterranean, funded by the EU and the UN engages in the same flavor of dialogue when it comes to environmental issues and climate change. See the women on stage in keffiahs meant to virtue signal and intimidate Israelis and Jews. I have written to their directors, and spokesperson multiple times about exclusionary policies against Israelis and Israel data in the Mediterranean. No reply.
Union for the Mediterranean hosts climate events but turns them into a political spectacle.
That is not dialogue. It’s dogma.
When European taxpayers fund programs through institutions like IEMed, they do so under the promise of promoting mutual understanding and academic rigor.
Instead, Aula Mediterrània has become a platform for the normalization of anti-Israel bias wrapped in academic legitimacy –- and offers credit when you attend these lectures online. By platforming speakers who describe Israel’s policies in loaded, accusatory terms—without offering countervailing voices—the event risks turning the European lecture hall into an echo chamber for politicized grievance.
The EU’s own policies call for cultural initiatives that strengthen democratic debate, not replace it with monolithic thinking. How does a lecture that calls Israel a “bully” advance understanding between “both shores of the Mediterranean,” as the program claims? How can we speak of inclusion when the only Jewish and Israeli perspectives are erased from the conversation?
There is a dangerous irony in a publicly funded institution promoting exclusion under the guise of inclusion. Europe’s academic landscape is increasingly shaped by the politics of one-sided empathy—solidarity for some victims, silence for others. This is not just unfair; it is anti-democratic. True scholarship depends on the freedom to debate, to test ideas against evidence, to listen even when it is uncomfortable. By indulging in moral absolutism, Aula Mediterrània abandons the very foundations of intellectual democracy.
If the EU wishes to preserve credibility as a defender of democracy and dialogue, and the Arab world aspires to become a democracy in any shape and form, it must ensure that the institutions they fund and support reflect those principles. Supporting events that vilify one democratic state while romanticizing its enemies sends a message of hypocrisy, not harmony.
The Mediterranean deserves better—an academic space where truth, complexity, and compassion coexist. Until Aula Mediterrània embraces genuine pluralism, European taxpayers should ask a simple question: why are they paying for propaganda?
For an easy, luscious appetizer, wrap a semi-firm white cheese like Brie or feta in grapevine leaves and bake or grill it. It’s a delicious way to make the most of a few grapevine leaves left in the jar after you made mushrooms cooked in grapevine leaves or grilled fish..
The cheese becomes subtly flavored with an earthy, tangy note from the leaves and olive oil. Then there’s the wow factor when you unwrap the cheese and reveal the soft, spicy feta, or release the gooey, luscious Brie from the toasty grape leaves.
As always when cooking brined grapevine leaves, first rinse, then drain them, and pat dry. Snip off any stiff stem pieces.
First, the fluffy grilled feta…
Feta Grilled In Grapevine Leaves
Seasoned feta cheese grilled in vine leaves
length kitchen twine
scissors
8 large brined grape leaves (rinsed of salt and drained)
A block of feta of approximately 7-oz (200 grams)
Olive oil
Sprinklings of: dried oregano or za’atar leaves; sumac; ground pepper
2 tsp grated lemon peel
Put down a layer of grape leaves large enough to wrap the block of feta, depending on their size. Place the cheese on the center of the layer.
Dribble olive oil over the cheese.
Season with sprinklings of the dried herbs and pepper and grated lemon peel.
Wrap the cheese in the leaves as you would wrap a package. If needed to contain the cheese, place a leave over the top and fold in the sides.
Tie kitchen twine around the package. Brush with olive oil.
Grill the cheese package 3 minutes on each side.
Snip open the twine. Leave the cheese on the leaves to stay warm.
Serve immediately.
Appetizer
Mediterranean
cheese, Easy, edible leaves
And here’s your melty, rich baked Brie…
Brie Baked In Grapevine Leaves
Rich and gooey baked Brie
4-6 large brined grape leaves
1 Brie cheese of about 7 oz. – 200 grams (at room temperature.)
1 tblsp. olive oil
Garnishes of choice
Pre-heat the oven to 375°F – 190°C .
Rinse and dry the grapevine leaves. Cut away any stems.
Arrange the leaves to overlap in a circle.
Rub the olive oil into the Brie on all sides.
Place the cheese on top of grape leaves. Wrap it completely in the leaves.
Place the wrapped cheese on a baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes.
The Brei will have melted: be prepared with a spatula to lift it off the baking sheet and onto your serving dish.
Spread the cheese on good crackers or crostini for a lovely start to a meal for four, or an intimate dinner for two.
To accompany the salty feta, put a selection of raw sliced vegetables on the table. Slice bell peppers, carrots, celery, even raw button mushrooms if they’re very fresh and perfectly white. If you want a mildly sweet flavor contrast, firm apples and pears also complement grilled feta.
Mild baked Brie pairs well with seasonal fresh fruit like grapes, figs, apricots, apples, or pears. No fresh fruit on hand? All sorts of dried fruit work too; in fact some favor a dried fruit garnish for the concentrated sweetness.
Don’t stop at feta or Brie. Goat cheese and mozzarella are also very good baked in vine leaves. Season with herbs as in the feta recipe above, or not, as you choose, but always dribble olive oil generously over the cheese before you wrap it in the leaves, and brush a little more over the wrapped package.
Photo of feta cheese on vine leaves via BBC Food.
Photo of Brie wrapped in vine leaves by Alexandra Tran via Unsplash.
Black cats banned for adoption so they won’t be used in witchcraft or as Halloween props
In early October, the Spanish town of Terrassa, north of Barcelona, made headlines for taking an unusual step to protect its feline population. From October 1 to November 10, all adoptions and fostering of cats — particularly black ones — have been suspended. The local animal welfare service said the measure was taken “to prevent possible risk … derived from superstitions, rituals, or irresponsible uses” during the Halloween period.
The announcement, made on October 6, echoes a growing concern among animal-welfare groups in Europe and North America: that black cats face abuse, abandonment, or death around Halloween. The folklore that links them to witches and bad luck still casts a long, dangerous shadow.
According to Noel Duque, Terrassa’s councillor for animal welfare, adoption requests for black cats tend to spike each October. Some people, he told the local Diari de Terrassa, want them “for ritual purposes” or “as decoration because it’s cool.”
On his own Facebook page, Duque sits next to a ginger cat — a small sign of solidarity with the animals he’s sworn to protect.
In previous years, Spanish shelters reported disturbing incidents: cats adopted as “Halloween mascots” and later abandoned, and others used in occult ceremonies. While many of these claims are difficult to verify, the risk is real enough for Terrassa to take precautionary action. “We cannot look the other way when faced with a grim topic,” Duque said.
The stereotype of the black cat as an omen of death dates back to medieval Europe, when cats were believed to be witches’ familiars. Despite centuries of scientific progress, superstition still dictates their fate each October. Social-media trends have made matters worse: black cats are sometimes adopted as props for Halloween photo shoots, only to be discarded afterward.
Terrassa’s policy is not absolute. “Exceptions will be duly justified and assessed by the technical team of the centre, where there is a full safety guarantee and a reliable history of the applicant,” the municipal welfare office said. Regular adoption procedures will resume after November 10, though the city hasn’t ruled out making the seasonal ban permanent.
Terrassa is home to more than 9,800 cats, according to municipal data — a population that lives quietly among its 220,000 residents. The temporary ban forces the town, and perhaps the rest of us, to confront a deeper contradiction. How can a culture that loves animals and fills social media with cat memes still tolerate cruelty in the name of tradition or aesthetics?
Halloween began as Samhain, the Celtic festival marking the boundary between life and death — a time to honor ancestors, not harm the living. Terrassa’s decision reminds us that compassion, not superstition, should guide how we celebrate.
So when the candles flicker this Halloween and black cats cross your path, consider it not a curse but a challenge — to outgrow our ghosts and protect those still paying for them.
We talk a lot about renewable energy, electric cars, and ocean cleanup projects when we talk about sustainability. But the fight for a greener planet often starts closer to home — behind the supermarket, in the back of a hotel, or inside a city recycling depot. Waste management doesn’t usually grab headlines, yet it’s one of the most immediate ways to cut emissions, save resources, and make sustainability practical instead of theoretical. Enter the unsung hero of modern recycling: the humble trash baler.
For decades, managing waste has meant hauling it away and hoping someone else deals with it. Trucks burn fuel, bins overflow, and recyclables get contaminated long before they reach a processing plant. But that model doesn’t really work anymore. As landfills fill up and the global waste stream keeps growing, cities and businesses are realizing they need to handle more of the problem right where it starts. The trash baler is part of that shift — a simple, industrial tool helping to reshape how we think about sustainability.
Rethinking Waste From the Ground Up
The old take–make–dispose model has been under pressure for years. Urban centers from Dubai to Los Angeles are wrestling with the logistics of waste that just won’t stop coming. Every delivery, every product, every plastic wrapper adds to a growing mountain of materials that, ironically, could have been reused if only they were managed better.
That’s where trash baler come in. By compacting waste — especially recyclable materials like cardboard, plastic, and paper — balers make it possible to keep materials clean and organized at the source. Instead of sending dozens of half-empty bins to a landfill, businesses can store compressed bales for recycling, reducing both transport costs and carbon emissions. It’s a simple fix, but it’s quietly powerful.
Small Machines, Big Change
A trash baler doesn’t look revolutionary. It’s a vertical machine that presses waste into neat, stackable cubes. But the ripple effects are huge. Less volume means fewer trucks, less fuel burned, and less air pollution. For small businesses or apartment complexes, that’s a direct line between everyday operations and measurable sustainability progress.
Companies like Bramidan USA have refined this technology to make it even more efficient and easy to use. Their vertical balers are designed for shops, restaurants, and warehouses that want to handle recycling in-house. The result is cleaner waste streams, less mess, and a lot less waste ending up where it shouldn’t.
It’s worth noting that many businesses adopt these machines not because they have to, but because they want to. They’re tired of paying for overflowing dumpsters and unreliable waste pickups. When people see that sustainability can save them time and money, it stops being a buzzword and starts being common sense.
Why Local Waste Management Matters
If you’ve ever watched a recycling truck weaving through city streets, you’ve seen the problem firsthand. Most of what we call “recycling” still depends on long-distance transportation and centralized sorting facilities. Those systems are energy-intensive and prone to contamination — the dreaded mix of wet food, plastic wrap, and paper that renders recyclables useless.
When businesses use balers, they can separate and compress materials on-site. That means cleaner recyclables and fewer rejected loads. The material that leaves the premises is ready for reprocessing, not another round of sorting. Multiply that across thousands of small operations, and suddenly local waste management becomes a genuine climate solution.
It’s not glamorous work, but it’s exactly what sustainability needs more of: everyday, scalable efficiency. You don’t have to overhaul an entire supply chain or build a new power grid to make a difference. Sometimes you just need to manage your trash better.
From Waste to Resource
In the circular economy, waste doesn’t really exist — it’s just material waiting for its next use. Compacted bales of cardboard and plastic have value. They’re easier to sell, ship, and recycle. Instead of paying to throw waste away, businesses can often make money by selling these materials back into the recycling market.
That small economic incentive turns sustainability from a burden into a business case. When you can quantify the savings — fewer pickups, lower disposal fees, extra revenue — it changes how organizations think about environmental responsibility. Sustainability stops being a side project and becomes part of daily operations.
The Human Side of Waste
There’s something almost poetic about it. The more we automate and globalize, the more sustainability comes back to something simple: caring about what we leave behind. Waste management might not feel as exciting as solar panels or carbon capture, but it’s deeply human. It’s about cleaning up after ourselves and doing it a little better every year.
That’s why machines like the trash baler are quietly revolutionary. They give power back to people and businesses to handle their own waste responsibly. They make recycling visible and tangible. And they remind us that progress isn’t always about new inventions — sometimes it’s about using old ideas more intelligently.
Making Sustainability Practical
Sustainability can sometimes sound like a lofty ideal, something reserved for big corporations or government programs. But in reality, it’s built on small, repeatable actions. Every time a store compacts its cardboard instead of throwing it away, every time a logistics center reduces its trash pickups, the planet benefits.
That’s what makes the story of the trash baler worth telling. It’s proof that practical, everyday choices can scale into real environmental progress. Machines like these are redefining what sustainability looks like — not as an abstract goal, but as something you can switch on, load up, and actually see working.
Does your rental include an eco mattress made from bamboo? Little things can add up to be meaningful for renters
Sustainability is a smart revenue strategy. Renters want green features where they live, and they’re willing to pay a premium. Some people won’t rent from an apartment building unless they have at least some green practices in place, like LED lights, low-flow plumbing, and smart thermostats.
That’s great news for landlords who are willing to add sustainability to their rental properties’ features. Practical green amenities equal higher rents, faster lease signings, and happier, long-term tenants. For landlords in major cities, it gives them an edge on the competition. For example, Green Residential – a Houston property management company – helps their clients add eco-friendly amenities to their rentals so they rent faster and to higher quality tenants.
If you’re a landlord looking for ways to go green, here are the top five features to prioritize.
Plug-and-play appliances
Swapping out old lightbulbs, washers, and refrigerators for efficient models is the cheapest way to reduce your tenants’ bills. This makes premium rent a lot easier to charge. Lighting alone tends to be around 15% of a home’s electricity use, and just by using LEDs, households save around $225 per year.
A smart thermostat by Nest
ENERGY STAR appliances use around 25% less energy, and washers use 33% less water, which makes them a marketable upgrade for tenants. Where thermostats are concerned, tenants can save a lot of money on their heating and cooling costs just by having a programmable thermostat. These appliances are low-friction upgrades with tangible cost savings that will make your property more attractive.
Heat pumps
Home heating and insulation. Sustainability is really just about pipes and pumps
Heat pumps are quickly becoming the new default for energy efficient, electric comfort. They can cut electricity use for heating by up to 75% compared to heat generated by electric resistance. They’re up to 4.5 times more efficient than ENERGY STAR gas furnaces.
Heat pumps can heat and cool a space in Toronto apartments, and they make excellent dehumidifiers in summer, and work well with ductless installs in older buildings. When prospects get to enjoy comfort and lower bills, charging premium rent is justified.
If you haven’t already switched over to all-electric heat pumps from combustion like gas, it’s worth considering before your hand is forced. States and cities are quickly passing laws that make combustion harder to maintain.
EV chargers
For tenants who own an electric vehicle, having an onsite EV charging station is a big draw. In fact, in some areas, it’s becoming an expectation rather than a convenient amenity. In California, starting in 2026, some landlords will be legally required to install EV charging stations in most new overnight parking spots.
A Tesla Powerwall can stabilize the grid and keep your home running during a blackout
It’s not easy to find a place to charge an electric vehicle, and having an onsite EV charger will sweeten the deal and get you higher rent. In fact, according to a Multifamily Executive survey 58% of renters planning to buy an EV in the next five years said they’d pay more rent for onsite charging.
EV-friendly rental listings are still pretty rare, so if you have chargers you’ll stand out in search filters and shorten the time it takes to get leases signed. As electric vehicle ownership grows in dense urban markets like Toronto apartments, EV charging has become a standout amenity that renters increasingly look for when browsing listings on Rentals.ca.
Drought-resistant landscaping
Water is easy to waste, and nothing uses more water than having to maintain a front or backyard full of plants. And you can’t just let them die – that would look awful. The solution is for landlords to install drought-resistant landscaping and smart irrigation controllers for plants that require regular watering.
The Treetoscope sensor collects information about water and soil nutrients to turn on irrigation systems at the right time
A smart irrigation system can reduce water usage by up to 40% and avoid the problem of watering the sidewalk. According to some reports, this translates to saving around 15,000 gallons of water per year per home.
A healthy air package (not just an HVAC system)
Tenants don’t want literal headaches from their homes. But the average American spends 90% of the time indoors, where pollutant levels are 2-5 times outdoor levels. Upgrading your property to MERV-13 filtration, adding balanced ventilation, and using low-VOC paints and flooring is a simple way to support tenant health while justifying premium rent.
Lab tests show MERV-13 filtration can capture around 90% of PM2.5 contaminants and reduce cooking and wildfire particles. This is especially important in areas where air pollution and forest fire smoke are common.
Rooftop solar
Rooftop solar power can be a leasing magnet. On the right roof, a solar system can offset a meaningful chunk of electric usage to lower utility bills significantly. For tenants who prioritize green amenities, solar is at the top of the list of features they’ll pay a premium for.
Add eco-friendly features renters value
When you “go green,” you’re actually building pricing power. By offering tenants amenities and appliances that save money while providing comfort, you’re delivering the kind of value tenants won’t hesitate to pay more for. That means shorter vacancies, faster lease signings, and higher profits.
As world leaders and billionaires descend on Riyadh for this year’s Future Investment Initiative — better known as “Davos in the Desert” — we wonder where the planet fairs in all this political business talk. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan has turned the kingdom into an unlikely global stage for innovation and investment, drawing over 20 heads of state, 50 ministers, and hundreds of financiers, tech executives, and policy shapers.
Some of the “diplomats” include Syria’s newest leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, a Syrian politician, revolutionary, and former leader of Al Qaeda, that once had a bounty of $10 million USD on his head. We can see where this is going.
I am always hopeful, if not naive. Can this gathering of powerbrokers truly help save the planet, or is it another round of green-tinted self-congratulation? The event’s stated goal is to explore “new pathways for global prosperity.” In practice, that has meant spotlighting artificial intelligence, clean energy, healthtech, and new financial models.
The 2025 program dedicates half its panels to technology — a smart move given AI’s potential to optimize energy grids, improve climate modeling, and make sustainable materials scalable. Yet the conference’s foundation remains an oil-wealth economy seeking reinvention.
That contradiction — a fossil-fuel kingdom hosting a climate-focused summit — is what makes Davos in the Desert both fascinating and ridiculous.
Those attending read like a cross-section of global capital: sovereign wealth fund managers, CEOs of major banks, and tech visionaries courting Middle Eastern investment. Delegations from Africa, Asia, and Europe are also there, positioning their nations for partnership in a rapidly diversifying Gulf. Deals worth billions will likely be announced — infrastructure, AI, renewables, even biotech.
Yet the “green” voice remains muted. Few grassroots environmentalists or Indigenous leaders will sit beside the financiers. And while Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in solar, hydrogen, and reforestation, the absence of climate justice advocates, biodiversity scientists, and youth voices limits what the event can achieve beyond rhetoric.
Who Should Be Invited Next Year?
If Davos in the Desert wants to pivot from an elite networking forum to a genuine force for ecological regeneration, the guest list must evolve. Imagine Indigenous guardians of the Amazon, coral reef scientists, African solar entrepreneurs, and women leading rewilding projects in the Sahel sharing the stage with Wall Street executives. These are the people who embody solutions already working on the ground — the missing link between boardroom strategy and planetary repair. Or real, proven climate tech leaders who don’t mince words? Where do the voices of reason get lost when big money is on the table?
Saudi Arabia’s desert may seem an unlikely place to host a green renaissance, but it could become one as we showed with the investment in the company iyris, a greenhouse tech developed by foreigners from the UK and Turkey. Water scarcity, heat, and rapid urbanization make the region a living laboratory for resilience. If the FII community directs even a fraction of its capital toward desert greening, regenerative agriculture, and circular infrastructure, it could turn the Gulf into a model for climate adaptation. Oil is not going to last forever. Wells may keep getting “released” but the moment we fix fusion and have limitless energy, the Gulf Countries will become obsolete. Their fancy cities will look like a mirage.
To save the planet, investment summits like this must go beyond pledges. They must measure success in restored ecosystems, revived species, and resilient communities — not just in GDP growth. Until then, Davos in the Desert remains but a mirage: shimmering with possibility, but still waiting for its true oasis moment.
We know about Chernobyl and Las Alamos: the lasting effects of radiation on the Saharan Tuareg in the desert
Between 1960 and 1966, seventeen nuclear detonations took place deep in Algeria’s Sahara Desert — first at Reggane and later in the Hoggar Mountains near In Ekker. Conducted under French supervision during the Cold War, these experiments were designed to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Their physical and political fallout is still with us.
The nuclear testing was not done in a vacuum and like at Las Alamos in New Mexico it affected the people nearby. In Algeria that was the Tuareg people. Others affected with the Berber-speaking nomadic group of the Sahara, whose territory spans large parts of southern Algeria; The Kel Ahaggar community which is a specific Tuareg confederation located in the Hoggar Mountains region off Algeria, and other local residents.
While less clearly documented in accessible sources, sites of the nuclear testing such as In Ekker and the surrounding desert zone indicate that French military, local manual workers, nomadic pastoralists, and their settlement communities were exposed.
The Hoggar Mountains (Arabic: جبال هقار, Berber: idurar n Ahaggar) are a highland region in the central Sahara, southern Algeria, along the Tropic of Cancer.
A peer-reviewed study in Applied Radiation and Isotopesfound measurable levels of plutonium and other radionuclides remaining at former test sites decades after the final detonation. A broader review of global weapons tests published in Environmental Sciences Europe confirms that radioactive contamination from Sahara tests persists in soils and fractured rock and can be re-mobilized by desert winds. If England gets locusts blown to its shores from Egypt, imagine how far radioactive dust can travel.
Algeria declared independence from France in 1962, but the Évian Accords that ended open conflict also granted France continued access to certain military and research sites in the Sahara for up to five years after independence. These terms were negotiated between the French state and Algeria’s provisional government (the FLN leadership at the time). This means the testing program after 1962 did not happen in a legal vacuum: it was authorized in writing by the Algerian Government, and it served strategic interests on both sides at the time. There was a power imbalance, giving the Algerians not much choice.
For France, the Sahara was a proving ground for weapons credibility as the Americans did in the deserts around the Los Alamos nuclear testing facility, established in 1943 as Project Y, a top-secret site for designing nuclear weapons under the Manhattan Project during World War II. For Algeria’s new leadership, the agreement helped secure full political recognition, state continuity, and material support at a fragile moment of transition to their autonomy. The cost of that compromise was largely borne by remote southern communities, as is the case in many of today’s superpowers.
Gerboise Bleue siteThe nuclear bombs tested
Some of the underground nuclear shots tested at In Ekker were supposed to be fully contained. In reality, not all of them were. One detonation, known as the Béryl Incident (1 May 1962), vented radioactive dust and hot debris into the open air when the test tunnel’s seal failed. French military personnel, engineers, and nearby residents were all exposed –– some highly contaminated. Decades later, radiation dose reconstructions and site surveys continue to document contamination in the blast zones and surrounding scrap fields.
People living downwind describe long-term health problems, loss of grazing land, restrictions around traditional water sources, and the normalization of sickness with no official acknowledgment. The same which happend in Love Canada, USA, a site I visited in the 90s. This happens in Turkey today where the government fails to recognize cancer clusters in industrialized zones outside the city. One scientist we interviewed was threatened to be put in jail if he continued his scientific research on the issue.
French veterans of the Sahara tests have in some cases received recognition and partial compensation under later French law, while Algerian civilians have struggled to access comparable review or support. Algeria, like most countries in North Africa and the Middle East are about 30 to 40 years behind on environmental issues and research. It’s not so easy to point a finger and find a villain. Algeria, 65 years on does not have a great environmental record.
Algerian air quality is listed as Unhealthy via IQAir
Algeria faces a complex mix of environmental and pollution challenges that extend from its Mediterranean coast to its Saharan interior. The most pressing issue is air pollution in major cities such as Algiers, Oran, and Constantine, where outdated vehicles, industrial emissions, and open waste burning raise fine particulate (PM2.5) levels to more than three times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit.
Air pollution in Algiers
Water contamination is another critical concern. Much of Algeria’s wastewater is released untreated into rivers and the sea, carrying agricultural runoff, heavy metals, and plastic debris. Coastal zones near industrial centers like Skikda and Annaba are among the most polluted in the southern Mediterranean, threatening fisheries and tourism. Groundwater in rural regions also suffers from nitrate and pesticide infiltration.
Finally, oil and gas extraction along with urban waste management gaps add to Algeria’s pollution load. While national plans now emphasize renewable energy, afforestation, and stricter environmental monitoring, progress remains uneven. The challenge is balancing economic growth with sustainable resource stewardship. With an estimated 2,400 billion cubic metres of proven conventional natural gas reserves, Algeria ranks 10th globally and first in Africa. It also has the third largest untapped unconventional gas resources in the world.
Algeria has 12.2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, ranking it 15th in the world and third in Africa. Currently, all oil and gas reserves are located on land and it is a major contributor to oil pollution in the Mediterranean Sea. Algeria is exploring new possibilities for oil and gas extraction, including offshore and shale gas opportunities.
The legacy of Sahara nuclear testing is often framed as a simple one-direction story, but the reality is more entangled. France designed, managed, and detonated the devices. Oversight after 1966 has involved both governments and, at times, international agencies. What has not happened at scale is transparent, long-term medical screening for affected communities and a full clean-up of contaminated waste that was left in place.
But putting it in scale, Algeria has a lot of environmental accounting to do. Just blaming France or “colonial” powers is short-sighted and distracting, absolving locals from trying to better on its own locally-made problems due to extremely high levels of corruption. At Green Prophet we zoom out and try to show you the wider story to issues that affect every human on this planet.
Want to learn more about the environment in Algeria? Start here:
Once a prized source of protein among Bedouin tribes, the Arabian spiny-tailed lizard—known locally as ḍabb or dhab—is finding new attention as a window into folk traditions, desert ecology, and sustainability in Saudi Arabia. Like locusts eaten by Jews in Egypt and Yemen (get the recipe here), lizard tails are delighting Saudi Arabians as news of this dish circles social media. The roots of lizard tails are rooted in survival, like Americans who eat prairie oysters, Gazans eating whales that swim close to shore, or pickled pigs’ feet were for slaves in the Caribbean.
In the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, long before farms and refrigeration, desert communities relied on their surroundings to survive. Among the most unusual yet enduring examples of this resilience is the tradition of eating the spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia), a reptile that thrives in the arid sands of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the UAE. Known in Arabic as ḍabb or dhab, the creature has been hunted, roasted, and stewed for generations by Bedouins who considered it a gift from the desert.
Bedouin in Israel making rugs for their tents
In many tribes, dhab stew was seen not as an exotic but as essential—a reliable protein source that could be found during long migrations. Historical accounts from travelers and early British explorers describe entire desert feasts centered on lizard meat, cooked slowly over open fires and served with flatbread. The meat, they wrote, was “white, mild, and a little like chicken.”
The Arabian spiny-tailed lizard is herbivorous, feeding on desert grasses, making it clean and permissible (halal) to many desert dwellers. The Prophet Muhammad reportedly neither ate nor forbade the consumption of ḍabb, leading Islamic scholars to conclude that while it’s not a delicacy for all, it is permissible—especially in times of need. Bedouins respected the animal for its toughness and spiritual symbolism: surviving where few other creatures could. To eat it was to honor the desert’s wisdom.
Traditionally, the lizard was hunted using snares or chased into burrows, then roasted whole or cut into chunks for dhab stew—a mix of meat, desert herbs, salt, and occasionally camel milk. The dish embodied the values of resourcefulness, adaptation, and gratitude—hallmarks of Arabian desert culture that began in what is known as Saudi Arabia today.
From a sustainability perspective, the lizard stew tradition is more than a curiosity—it’s a reflection of a closed-loop ecosystem. Bedouins hunted only what was needed, never to excess. The spiny-tailed lizard helped maintain insect and grass balance in the fragile desert biome. Understanding how traditional diets aligned with natural cycles offers modern lessons for food security in the Gulf.
Today, as Saudi Arabia reexamines its cultural identity through Vision 2030, heritage foods like dhab are being discussed not just as relics but as pathways to sustainable living. Perhaps this dhab will be a featured dish at one of the Saudi’s so-called sustainable resorts.
How do you hunt the reptiles: “There are several ways to hunt the dabb lizard, one is to let it sink in water by pouring water into the hole and forcing it to come out, another way is by chasing it and hunting it especially if it is far from the hole, the other way of hunting it is to use a firearm,’’ said Saudi lizard hunter Majed al-Matrudi to Al Arabiya News.
This blog woldbirder provides photos and a recipe from Jordan:
Recipe for Dhub Mansaf (recipe from eastern Jordan)
2 whole dhubs
½ kilo rice
5 pieces Arabic bread (Khubz mashrouh)
¼ kilo laban or yoghurt
100 g ghee
50 g pine nuts
Salt, pepper, allspice, cardamom
Serves 2 to 3.
Method: Catch two adult, well-grown dhubs, skin them and remove organs (except liver). Cut the dhubs into small pieces, wash them and cook in a small amount of water together with spices until the meat is half done. Add the laban and simmer until tender. Add the browned ghee, reserving a small quantity to brown the pine nuts. Meanwhile in another saucepan cook the rice. Keeping some bread aside to dip, break open the rest over a large tray, leaving an edging around the rim. Spread more of the laban sauce over this and pile with rice. Arrange the pieces of dhub on top of the rice. Sprinkle the entire plate of rice and dhub, with browned pine nuts.
Eat with right hand.
Dhab biryani, a classic fish from Saudi Arabia
Like the problematic hunting of birds and owls in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, modernization has made lizard hunting largely symbolic. They are a protected animal in the UAE but are still reportedly eaten in Jordan.
The ḍahb population is under pressure from habitat loss, 4×4 vehicle use, and over-hunting. Conservationists now warn that without regulation, this ancient species could disappear from Saudi sands. The Saudi Wildlife Authority has begun monitoring populations and promoting education to protect the reptile’s role in the desert ecosystem. Since there is no free press in Saudi Arabia, your guess on how that’s going is as good as mine.
By exploring forgotten folk dishes like lizard stew, Green Prophet continues to connect the dots between culture, ecology, and the future of sustainable living in the Middle East.
