Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.
In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous and health consciousness is at an all-time high, the fitness industry has undergone a radical digital transformation. Fitness applications have moved far beyond simple pedometers, evolving into comprehensive wellness platforms that serve as personal trainers, nutritionists, and community hubs right in our pockets.
Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil.
Solar has become the star of the transition thanks to modular hardware and straightforward installation. It fits dense cities and remote towns alike. Many companies are turning to rooftop arrays and carport systems - and exploring commercial solar installation as a practical way to lock in future savings.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.
In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous and health consciousness is at an all-time high, the fitness industry has undergone a radical digital transformation. Fitness applications have moved far beyond simple pedometers, evolving into comprehensive wellness platforms that serve as personal trainers, nutritionists, and community hubs right in our pockets.
Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil.
Solar has become the star of the transition thanks to modular hardware and straightforward installation. It fits dense cities and remote towns alike. Many companies are turning to rooftop arrays and carport systems - and exploring commercial solar installation as a practical way to lock in future savings.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.
In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous and health consciousness is at an all-time high, the fitness industry has undergone a radical digital transformation. Fitness applications have moved far beyond simple pedometers, evolving into comprehensive wellness platforms that serve as personal trainers, nutritionists, and community hubs right in our pockets.
Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil.
Solar has become the star of the transition thanks to modular hardware and straightforward installation. It fits dense cities and remote towns alike. Many companies are turning to rooftop arrays and carport systems - and exploring commercial solar installation as a practical way to lock in future savings.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.
In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous and health consciousness is at an all-time high, the fitness industry has undergone a radical digital transformation. Fitness applications have moved far beyond simple pedometers, evolving into comprehensive wellness platforms that serve as personal trainers, nutritionists, and community hubs right in our pockets.
Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil.
Solar has become the star of the transition thanks to modular hardware and straightforward installation. It fits dense cities and remote towns alike. Many companies are turning to rooftop arrays and carport systems - and exploring commercial solar installation as a practical way to lock in future savings.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.
In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous and health consciousness is at an all-time high, the fitness industry has undergone a radical digital transformation. Fitness applications have moved far beyond simple pedometers, evolving into comprehensive wellness platforms that serve as personal trainers, nutritionists, and community hubs right in our pockets.
Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil.
Solar has become the star of the transition thanks to modular hardware and straightforward installation. It fits dense cities and remote towns alike. Many companies are turning to rooftop arrays and carport systems - and exploring commercial solar installation as a practical way to lock in future savings.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.
In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous and health consciousness is at an all-time high, the fitness industry has undergone a radical digital transformation. Fitness applications have moved far beyond simple pedometers, evolving into comprehensive wellness platforms that serve as personal trainers, nutritionists, and community hubs right in our pockets.
Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil.
Solar has become the star of the transition thanks to modular hardware and straightforward installation. It fits dense cities and remote towns alike. Many companies are turning to rooftop arrays and carport systems - and exploring commercial solar installation as a practical way to lock in future savings.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.
In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous and health consciousness is at an all-time high, the fitness industry has undergone a radical digital transformation. Fitness applications have moved far beyond simple pedometers, evolving into comprehensive wellness platforms that serve as personal trainers, nutritionists, and community hubs right in our pockets.
Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil.
Solar has become the star of the transition thanks to modular hardware and straightforward installation. It fits dense cities and remote towns alike. Many companies are turning to rooftop arrays and carport systems - and exploring commercial solar installation as a practical way to lock in future savings.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.
In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous and health consciousness is at an all-time high, the fitness industry has undergone a radical digital transformation. Fitness applications have moved far beyond simple pedometers, evolving into comprehensive wellness platforms that serve as personal trainers, nutritionists, and community hubs right in our pockets.
Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil.
Solar has become the star of the transition thanks to modular hardware and straightforward installation. It fits dense cities and remote towns alike. Many companies are turning to rooftop arrays and carport systems - and exploring commercial solar installation as a practical way to lock in future savings.
It seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes you need to give evidence to city councillors: A new multi-institutional study led by UC Davis Health suggests that not all green space is created equal. Living in urban neighborhoods with more visible trees is associated with a 4% lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, while areas dominated by grass or low shrubs may be linked to higher cardiovascular risk.
The research, published in Environmental Epidemiology, analyzed more than 350 million street-level images using machine learning to distinguish between trees, grass, and other types of vegetation. The findings challenge long-held assumptions that simply adding “green space” to cities is enough to improve public health.
“Public health interventions should prioritize the preservation and planting of tree canopies,” said Peter James, associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences and lead author of the study. “Urban forestry initiatives and policies that protect mature trees are likely to yield greater cardiovascular health benefits than investments in grass planting.”
MIT city tree researcher maps trees in cities around the world to check their health. Via MIT.
Why trees outperform lawns
Unlike satellite imagery, which often lumps all vegetation into one category, the researchers used street-level images—similar to what pedestrians see via platforms like Google Street View—to capture real neighborhood conditions. Deep-learning models identified trees, grass, sidewalks, cars, and other features, creating a granular picture of urban environments.
Those visual data were then linked to nearly 89,000 participants in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study, tracking 18 years of medical records and death certificates. The results were striking: More visible trees → 4% lower cardiovascular disease incidence
More grass → 6% higher incidence: Other green vegetation (shrubs, bushes) → 3% higher incidence
The protective effect of trees held steady even after accounting for air pollution, population density, regional differences, and neighborhood socioeconomic status.
Green Prophet’s reporting played a significant role in saving Jaffa Boulevard’s trees in Jaffa from being cut down for a Light Rail Train. Image credit: Karin Kloosterman
Researchers suspect the negative associations with grass may be linked to pesticide use, emissions and dust from from mowing equipment, reduced cooling capacity, and weaker noise and air-pollution filtering compared to trees.
With cardiovascular disease responsible for over 900,000 deaths annually in the U.S.—nearly one in three deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—even small shifts matter.
“This opens a promising avenue: improving heart health through community-level environmental change, not just individual behavior,” said Eric B. Rimm, professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Solar energy in the Mojave Desert. Credit: Ivanpah, supplied.
The American Southwest is where the EV transition faces its most unforgiving conditions. Extreme heat degrades EV batteries, causing range loss of 15% to over 30% when temperatures exceed 95°F to 100°F. Long travel corridors strain range limits of commuters and long-haul trucks. Grid access remains patchy across vast desert and rural zones. In much of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, West Texas, and inland California, electric mobility is not constrained by consumer interest, but by infrastructure reality. This is despite these regions being a hub for EV battery production to be close to the source of building lithium batteries.
This is the environment where M2PV Capital is building its business.
The company frames electric mobility infrastructure as requiring more than chargers. It argues that technical precision, grid independence, and operational excellence are essential in regions where traditional infrastructure does not exist. M2PV Capital develops, owns, and operates off-grid EV charging assets through an in-house technical model designed to bypass grid dependence entirely. Micro-grids are the key.
For Southwest communities and transport corridors, that approach addresses a core bottleneck: grid expansion timelines that stretch years beyond mobility demand. M2PV Capital’s strategy is structured around designing energy independence directly into each project.
The company positions its work around locations where conventional developers often hesitate to operate: desert regions, remote corridors, and underserved communities. Where the grid is absent or unreliable, its systems are designed to function independently and perform reliably for decades. This model reflects the Southwest’s physical realities. Solar resources are abundant. Population density is low. Travel distances are long and infrastructure must operate with minimal external support.
An endless American highway. Credit: Pete Alexopoulos
M2PV Capital is currently developing two primary business capabilities: Charging Plazas and power plant development. These projects are intended to demonstrate technical execution while establishing repeatable models for scalable deployment. In practical terms, this means EV charging stations paired with dedicated power assets, allowing each site to operate as an integrated energy system rather than a grid-dependent endpoint.
For Southwest planners and investors, the approach offers a potential blueprint for EV expansion without waiting for large-scale transmission upgrades. That balance is increasingly important as public agencies seek infrastructure models that align climate objectives with regional resilience and fiscal accountability.
M2PV Capital describes its role as building the infrastructure backbone for electric mobility in overlooked markets, combining technical depth, operational ownership, and long-term asset discipline to deliver predictable performance. Green Prophet speaks with M2PV Capital to learn more about opportunities as it tests the ground in the United States, bringing proof-of-concept for regions in Canada where extreme cold is the other side of the same coin, or the Middle East where thousands of miles of relentless desert could be charging station and energy opportunities as the world weans off oil and natural gas.
GREENPROPHET: What is M2PV Capital’s main focus? M2PV Capital: We develop, own, and operate off-grid EV charging infrastructure in underserved and remote regions where traditional grid access is limited or nonexistent.
Why off-grid?
It allows us to deploy infrastructure where it’s needed most, without waiting for grid expansion. We engineer energy independence into every project.
What business capabilities are you building?
Two core businesses: Charging Plazas for public EV infrastructure and power plant development to generate the energy that powers them independently. Both demonstrate our technical execution and create scalable models.
Why focus on desert and underserved regions?
These areas lack infrastructure but have critical mobility needs. They also require sophisticated engineering—our core strength.
What makes your technical approach different?
Everything is in-house: feasibility analysis, system design, construction oversight, and operations. We control quality and performance at every stage.
How do you ensure long-term asset performance?
Through rigorous upfront planning, robust system design, and continuous operational management. Our assets are built to perform reliably for 20+ years.
What do investors and policymakers gain from this approach?
Confidence. Our projects are technically sound, operationally proven, and financially disciplined. They deliver infrastructure that works and returns that are predictable.
What is the core opportunity you see in the market right now?
We can build power plants rapidly, because we don’t have to wait for grid interconnection (we are off-grid).
This fund aims to reduce downside risk and capitalize on the accelerating EV market by acquiring prime land on which we build off-grid, clean-energy-powered EV charging stations, particularly in the rapidly appreciating desert Southwest. Our differentiation lies in our ability to bypass grid interconnection bottlenecks, enabling faster development and mitigating risks from grid instability, while having a clear path to funding subsequent EV station construction. Because we invest in Opportunity Zones, the gains can be tax free. Creating power generation facilities in areas where the grid is weak or has not reached yet enables industry to co-locate, further increasing the value of the land we invest in.
What types of assets and geographic markets will your fund focus on and why?
Our fund will focus on companies operating in the Southwest United States, specifically land in Opportunity Zones with access to water, highways, and data lines. The Southwest allows us to generate energy at a low cost due to low land cost and high solar irradiation.
How will your fund create value across its portfolio?
By investing in companies that start with low-cost greenfield land and develop energy and transportation infrastructure, we invest in land that increases in value rapidly. While competitors focus on areas with grid connection, our investments can operate slightly outside the range of the grid and generate their own electricity, avoiding competition with large corporations in the current land grab.
Our CEO has 30 years of experience in the solar industry, 10 years in power plant development, five years in batteries, and two years in EV charging stations. He has designed, procured, built, and developed gigawatts of power plants.
Our COO has a background in transportation and logistics as well as EV chargers. We know how to design and build power plants fast.
Our portfolio companies acquire low-cost land and raise its value by creating local infrastructure through EV charging stations for trucks and passenger vehicles. Our strength is the ability to build power infrastructure anywhere.
Why the Southwest comes first
M2PV Capital identifies the Southwest United States as its primary growth region because extreme climate conditions, long travel corridors, and limited grid access create a persistent EV infrastructure gap. While desert regions are a natural fit, the company’s focus extends to any underserved or infrastructure-constrained areas within the region.
Its target audience includes infrastructure- and energy-focused investors, government and regional development decision makers, and participants across the EV and clean energy ecosystem.
Although initial deployments are concentrated in the Southwest, the company’s technical and operational model is designed to be repeatable in similar climates globally. Regions such as the Middle East share many of the same challenges, including extreme heat, remote locations, and the need for energy independence. International markets are viewed as longer-term extensions of the platform rather than immediate priorities.
M2PV Capital frames its five-year outlook around disciplined execution, foundation building, and long-term profitable operation of EV assets.
In 2019, an underwater robot camera exploring the seabed in part of the Antarctica’s Southern Ocean brought up footage of something no one suspected:a huge breeding ground of yellowfin rockcod fish.
You wouldn’t think that the freezing Arctic waters can sustain much life. One startling phenomenon is the greening of Antarctica due to climate change.The icy continent’s dim light, ever-present ice and extreme cold forbid human habitation and make research challenging.
The discovery occurred when the Larsen C ice shelf in the Wedell Sea calved; that is, an iceberg broke off the body of the ice shelf. Ice shelves play a large role in the rise and fall of global sea levels and contribute significantly to global ocean circulation and climate.
“The Weddell Sea, located within the Southern Ocean, is significant for its biological richness and its contribution to global ocean circulation and climate. It plays a critical role in forming water mass interactions that drive large-scale ocean currents, regulate global gas exchanges, and influence climate patterns. These interactions make the area a hotspot for biological productivity, activity, and abundance .”
The splitting off of the iceberg revealed part of the seabed that had been unaccessible until then. The opportunity to explore was there. A research team formed: the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019 onboard the SA Agulhas II.
In addition to studying conditions on the seabed, the research team hoped to locate the remains of the Endurance, a ship on an British exploration mission that sank in 1915 (the Endurance was found in 2020). Researchers dropped a camera robot dubbed “Lassie” into the sea.
The footage showed thousands of circular or oval shapes on the sea floor, arranged in a pattern covering hundreds of kilometers. They are fish egg nests, shallow forms scooped out of the sea bed, each with a protective raised edge of sediment packed around it. Parent fish keep guard, hovering over the eggs and fluttering their fins to keep them oxygenated.
The colonies are geometrically formed so that larger fish nest on the farther edges, while weaker, smaller fish, more vulnerable to predators, lay their eggs inside the pattern, preferably close to the shelter of rocks. When the eggs hatch, leaving empty nests, some fish even return and clear out debris that currents bring, to prepare for the next generation.
At first these shapes were a mystery. No one expected to find a vastfish colony thriving in one of Earth’s most extreme environments. Marine biologist Russ Connelly, of the University of Essex, England, said, “We weren’t actually sure what the videos were showing us at the time. We thought maybe it was a Weddell seal snout that was going down and bonking down into the seabed. Or that it was pockmarks from stones dropping from the ice and making craters.”
We already knew about diverse life form thriving in Antarctica. Penguins, seals, whales, seabirds, sponges, fish and squid are some, without even considering krill, the tiny crustaceans that almost everything else eats. The huge rockfish nurseries are a link in the wildlife food chain that came to light only after the Eclipse/Weddell Sea Expedition.
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has proposed designating the Weddell Sea as a protected area. This would prevent international businesses with an eye on this huge fish nursery from mining the seabed and endangering the entire wildlife chain.
Thomas Desvignes, a fish biologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham says, “A lot of Antarctic ecosystems are under pressure from different countries to be released for mining, fishing and basically exploitation of the environment. The new research offers one more reason why we should protect the Weddell Sea.”
Connelly adds, ““In general, we need to explore more of the oceans, because … we’re so surprised at every single time that we see life exists at these depths. We need to see what’s out there before species that we didn’t even know existed have been lost.”
Kia trains mechanics of the future as part of its move to make meaning in the world. Image supplied by Kia to Greenprophet.
For decades, corporate social responsibility often meant a logo on a football jersey, a banner at a marathon, or a handshake photo with a charity. Visibility mattered more than durability. But that model is changing.
Kia’s new Bootcamp program is a clear example of this shift. This week, Kia Corporation (listed on the Korean Stock Exchange KRX: 000270) unveiled a documentary highlighting its flagship CSR initiative, which provides hands-on technological education to young people in Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and Morocco, with expansion planned to Ecuador, South Africa, and Singapore in 2026. The goal is not short-term aid, but something far more radical in corporate philanthropy: self-reliance. They are training young people how to be mechanics – on combustion engines, hybrids and electric vehicles.
“Bootcamp is a very meaningful and valuable activity that draws a bright future from the deep well of global youth potential,” said Tae-Hun (Ted) Lee, Head of Global Operations Division at Kia. “We will continue to expand various programs that provide local partners with opportunities to acquire new technologies at world-class educational facilities while experiencing the Kia brand firsthand.”
From donations to “priming water”
A student mechanic at the Kia Bootcamp program. Image supplied by Kia.
Kia describes Bootcamp (which made the news in the US over carjackings using a USB cable) using a metaphor borrowed from rural life: “priming water.” Just as a small amount of water is poured into a pump to start drawing water from a deep well, Bootcamp is designed to activate long-term capacity rather than deliver one-off charity.
Instead of giving money or equipment alone, Kia provides: Training vehicles, automotive tools and diagnostic equipment, instruction in combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicle technologies, partnerships with Kia retailers, garages and local schools. During Bootcamp 1.0 in 2025, their pilot program, Kia trained 87 professional mechanics, and 34 have already secured jobs at local dealerships. Another 50 trainees are currently in training in Morocco.
Kia is not alone.
Levi’s, for example, has shifted its sustainability focus beyond recycled denim into human skills. Through repair programs in schools and community spaces, Levi’s is teaching teenagers how to fix jeans — turning clothing care into an act of climate literacy and self-reliance.
Image by Emma Chamberlain for Levis
Patagonia has built its Worn Wear program around repair, resale, and repair education.
Microsoft funds cloud and AI skills programs in underserved regions.
And in the financial fintech world world, a similar shift is underway. My Say On Pay, a new intelligence platform for C-level compensation, monitors publicly traded companies to evaluate how CEO pay compares with shareholder value creation. Instead of celebrating executive excess (see our story on Rodney McMullen), the platform asks a harder question: Does leadership compensation reflect real performance? Its education arm, 36North, extends this philosophy to young investors, offering practical training in sound wealth management, long-term thinking, and responsible financial decision-making, with women investors at the core.
Together, these programs reflect the same emerging philosophy as Kia’s Bootcamp: empower people in the entire business ecosystem your business operates in with skills, not slogans.
We are entering an era where water, energy, labor, and skills are all becoming climate-sensitive resources. Societies cannot rely on governments alone to fill the gaps and AI is going to be fast replacing entry level jobs. This gives us hope that humans will still have work and purpose.
A study on corals. Image from Green Prophet archives.
A joint study by Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the University of Haifa set out to solve a scientific mystery: how a soft coral is able to perform the rhythmic, pulsating movements of its tentacles without a central nervous system. The study’s findings may change the way we understand movement in the animal kingdom in general and particularly in corals.
The study was led by Elinor Nadir, a PhD student at TAU, under the joint supervision of Professor Yehuda Benayahu of the School of Zoology at TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and Professor Tamar Lotan of the Department of Marine Biology at the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa. The findings were published on November 11, 2025, in the scientific journal PNAS.
The research team discovered that the soft coral Xenia umbellata, one of the most spectacular corals on Red Sea reefs, drives the rhythmic movements of its eight polyp tentacles through a decentralized neural pacemaker system. Rather than relying on a central control center, a network of neurons distributed along the coral’s tentacle enables each one to perform the movement independently, while still achieving precise, collective synchronization.
“It’s a bit like an orchestra without a conductor,” explains Professor Tamar Lotan of the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa. “Each tentacle acts independently, but they are somehow able to ‘listen’ to each other and move in that perfect harmony that so captivates observers. This is a completely different model from how we understand rhythmic movement in other animals.”
Corals of the Xeniidae family are known for their hypnotic movements — the cyclic opening and closing of their tentacles. Until now, however, it was unclear how they perform this. To investigate, the researchers conducted cutting experiments on the coral’s tentacles and examined how they regenerated and restored their rhythmic motion. To their surprise, even when the tentacles were cut off and separated from the coral — and even when further divided into smaller fragments — each piece retained its ability to pulse independently.
Subsequently, the researchers conducted advanced genetic analyses and examined gene expression at different stages of tentacle regeneration after separation from the coral. They found that the coral uses the same genes and proteins involved in neural signal transmission in far more complex animals, including acetylcholine receptors and ion channels that regulate rhythmic activity. According to the researchers, this discovery suggests that the origin of rhythmic movements — familiar to us from those underlying breathing, heartbeat, or walking — is far more ancient than previously thought. The corals demonstrate how coordinated movement can emerge from a simple, distributed system, long before sophisticated control centers evolved in the brains of advanced animals.
“It is fascinating to reach the conclusion that the same molecular components that activate the pacemaker of the human heart are also at work in a coral that appeared in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago,” Professor Benayahu adds. “The coral we studied allows us to look back in time, to the dawn of the evolution of the nervous system in the animal kingdom. It shows that rhythmic and harmonious movement can be generated even without a brain — through remarkable communication among nerve cells acting together as a smart network. There is no doubt that this study adds an important layer to our understanding of the wonders of the coral reef animal world in general, and of corals in particular, and underscores the paramount need to preserve these extraordinary natural ecosystems.”
When a 65-year-old oak tree in Steve Parker’s yard died from fungal disease, he did not cut it into firewood or haul it away. He did not erase it. He cut the tree into disks and then turned them into records that play birdsong –– a touching tribute to the years that the tree was house and home to birds and all manners of creatures.
Parker, a Texas-based sound artist known online as @parkerstevesounds played the disks of wood on a Victrola-style turntable, and from the it the wooden records emit layered avian soundscapes, transforming dead wood into a living archive. He called the project Funeral for a Tree.
I once worked on a similar project in clay. I created a series of vessels designed to hold seeds. While shaping each one, I spoke to it — prayers, fragments of thought, small conversations with the material itself. I recorded my voice and the surrounding landscape of sound into the walls of the ceramic. Today’s machines cannot retrieve those recordings. But future instruments — capable of hearing at finer scales — may. The vessels are simply waiting for the right ears.
Funeral for a tree; Promotional material – Steve Parker.Funeral for a tree; Promotional material – Steve Parker.A disk from the old oak, Funeral for a tree; Promotional material – Steve Parker.The oak tree featured in Funeral for a tree; Promotional material – Steve Parker.Funeral for a tree; Promotional material – Steve Parker.
Trees are not neutral objects. Their rings hold records of rainfall, drought, heat, and cold. Their fibers contain chemical traces of stress, recovery, and time. In scientific terms, trees are environmental witnesses. In Parker’s hands, they become storytellers.
The project was later exhibited at Ivester Contemporary in East Austin, Texas where visitors encountered both the wooden records and the physical remains of the tree itself. The installation did not explain the tree. It allowed people to sit with it.
In a time when climate loss is reported in numbers — hectares, parts per million, extinction rates — Funeral for a Tree insists on intimacy. It is easy to talk about forests. It is harder to mourn a single trunk. It’s like people fighting for Gaza or Iran or places thousands of miles beyond their city limits, but they don’t have time to call their grandmother or check on the sick boy down the street.
Parker’s work invites us to create rituals and intimacy with objects and meaning close to our homes and hearts.
Remilk is now hitting the shelves in Israel. Courtesy Remilk.
This week, Israel’s precision-fermentation milk from Remilk is finally appearing on supermarket shelves. Staff members have been posting photos in Hebrew, smiling, tasting, and clearly enjoying the moment — not because it’s science fiction, but because it tastes like the real thing.
Remilk doesn’t come from cows. It uses microorganisms programmed to produce the same milk proteins found in dairy. The result is real milk protein — without the animal.
Having fun in the supermarket. Courtesy of Remilk.
Why does that matter? Because traditional dairy is one of the most resource-intensive foods we produce. It requires land, water, feed, antibiotics, and creates methane emissions. Precision-fermented milk needs far less land, far less water, and produces dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Why many scientists say cloned (fermented) milk is better:
No cows → no methane emissions that cause climate change
No antibiotics or hormones
Much lower land and water use
Identical proteins → same taste and texture
Suitable for people with lactose intolerance (depending on formulation)
Stable, scalable, and climate-resilient
It doesn’t mean traditional dairy and the taste of brie disappears tomorrow. But it offers a serious alternative in a world facing climate pressure, food security concerns, and ethical debates about industrial farming.
Israel has become a global leader in this field, alongside companies working on cultivated meat, egg proteins, and cheese alternatives. What once sounded futuristic is now simply… food. How do you say mooooo in Hebrew?
Lebanon’s environmental crisis is not abstract. It is shaped by war, neglect, corruption, and silence. Rivers carry untreated sewage and industrial waste into the Mediterranean. Dynamite fishing shatters fragile marine ecosystems along the coast. In many areas, Hezbollah’s military presence and decades of instability have made environmental accountability nearly impossible. What flows into the sea is not only pollution — it is politics, poverty, and unresolved war.
And yet, these stories are rarely told with depth, care, or courage. Silat Wassel’s Environmental Justice Journalism Fellowship is opening space for exactly that. They are looking for a few brave souls.
Rooted in South Lebanon and guided by feminist, youth-led, and independent journalism values, the Rooted Voices Rising initiative invites young journalists to document the environmental injustices shaping daily life — from contaminated water and illegal dumping to land exploitation, unsafe construction, and the invisible costs of conflict.
This is not a workshop for press releases and sound bytes but a five-day Environmental Justice Journalism Lab designed to equip six selected journalists with tools, mentorship, and editorial backing to produce two publishable investigations each. This will set the stage for helping more people become honest, environmental reporters.
Participants will explore environmental justice frameworks, solutions journalism, digital safety, and advanced storytelling methods — while remaining grounded in ethical reporting and lived community realities.
The fellowship is open to journalists across Lebanon, with priority for:
– Conflict-affected and underrepresented regions
– Women and rural youth
– Displaced individuals
– Marginalized communities
In a country where environmental damage is often normalized as collateral damage of politics, this fellowship insists that land, water, and life still matter.
The deadline to apply is 24 January 2026. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. Training details will be shared with selected fellows.
Seaweed abaya courtesy of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Fashion’s next material revolution may not come from a lab in Paris or Milan — but from the tides of the Red Sea. Along Saudi Arabia’s coastline, scientists, designers, and textile innovators are transforming Sargassum seaweed into a wearable fabric, turning a fast-growing marine biomass into a new generation of sustainable textile. The initiative, led by KAUST Beacon Development in collaboration with the Saudi Fashion Commission and PYRATEX, is part of a broader effort to rethink how fashion sources its raw materials.
The project was recently presented as the Red Sea Seaweed Textile, demonstrating how locally sourced algae can be converted into blended yarns and finished garments. Stella McCartney does it. So why not Saudis?
“This material represents a milestone in our mission to build a future-focused, sustainable fashion ecosystem in Saudi Arabia. It demonstrates how local resources, scientific excellence, and creative talent can come together to deliver solutions for the global fashion industry,” said Burak Çakmak, CEO of the Saudi Fashion Commission.
KAUST’s role has been central. Its marine scientists studied the biochemical structure of Red Sea seaweed and developed responsible harvesting methods that preserve both the ecosystem and the algae’s functional properties.
An abaya made from seaweed?
Seaweed abaya courtesy of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
“By researching the biochemical properties of Red Sea seaweed, we were able to integrate local algae species into an innovative blended yarn,” said Fiona Symes, COO of KAUST Beacon Development.
PYRATEX then translated that biomass into textile form, blending the algae with Lyocell and organic cotton to produce a fabric that is breathable, traceable, and suitable for garment production. The Saudi Fashion Commission’s development studio produced complete garments from the material — not as conceptual pieces, but as real clothing.
Saudi fashion week features Moroccan designer Yasmina Qanzal. Courtesy photo.
These shows reflect a larger shift in how fashion in the Middle East engages global trends while honoring local sensibilities — moving beyond traditional expectations to embrace broader stylistic expressions that include functional, climate-appropriate swimwear alongside couture and everyday wear.
The seaweed fabric project reflects a growing shift across the fashion world. Designers such as Stella McCartney have long argued that sustainability cannot rely only on recycled synthetics or reduced harm. McCartney has repeatedly called for materials that are regenerative, ethical, and transparent — fibers that restore ecosystems rather than merely slow damage.
Luxury and performance brands alike are now experimenting with algae, mycelium, pineapple fiber, cactus leather, and agricultural waste. But what makes the Red Sea initiative distinctive is its regional grounding: a local marine resource transformed locally, with scientific validation and design integration.
Men’s suit courtesy of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)Men’s suit courtesy of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Fashion is one of the most environmentally demanding industries on Earth, responsible for heavy water use, chemical pollution, and carbon emissions. Changing fabrics may seem small, but materials determine supply chains, farming practices, and waste streams.
Seaweed offers a radically different model. It grows without freshwater irrigation, fertilizers, or farmland. It absorbs carbon and regenerates rapidly. It does not compete with food systems. And it invites coastal stewardship rather than land exploitation.
Images of seaweed courtesy of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). From Red Sea seaweed to runway-ready fabric, Saudi Arabia is quietly reshaping fashion’s material future. KAUST scientists, designers, and textile innovators are proving that sustainability can begin in local ecosystems. As seaweed becomes wearable, fashion is learning to grow not from fields — but from tides.Images of seaweed courtesy of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
For Saudi Arabia, this project also signals a broader narrative shift. The Kingdom is increasingly positioning itself not only as an energy producer, but as a knowledge and innovation economy — where science, sustainability, and culture intersect.
For fashion, the message is equally clear: the future of luxury will not be defined only by design houses, but by material intelligence. Garments made from seaweed may not replace cotton or polyester tomorrow. But they challenge designers, investors, and consumers to imagine clothing that begins in ecosystems rather than factories.
As Stella McCartney and other sustainability leaders have shown, fashion does not change when trends shift. It changes when materials do.
Somewhere between TikTok hauls and next-day delivery, we forgot how to fix things. We forgot how to cook without an app and a pre-made box, grow food without a kit, and sew a button back onto a shirt without throwing the whole garment away. Clothing, once stitched with intention (my mother made her own dresses!), has become fast fashion and disposable. And with it, a quiet loss of skill, patience, and care.
Levi’s is trying to reverse that. The brand has launched a new program in high schools that teaches students how to repair, reinforce, and customize their own clothes. It’s a small intervention with big implications.
“At Levi Strauss & Co., we’ve spent more than 170 years designing clothes to be worn and loved for as long as possible. The Levi’s®Wear Longer Project builds on that legacy by giving young people the confidence and tools to extend the life of what they already own,” said Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co. “By building up repair skills within the next generation and emphasizing the idea of durability, we’re helping spark a culture of creativity, sustainability, and pride in taking care of the things we value.”
The idea isn’t new. Many of us remember clothing swaps, community repair nights, and the early sustainability movement that made secondhand feel rebellious and smart. It carried the same spirit as freecycle and the pop-ups that would help women repair their clothes — spaces where fashion stopped being about perfection and started being about longevity. We also love it when people in big cities put clothes out on park benches. Nothing like finding a haul of cosy clothes.
For years, knitting circles, stitch-and-bitch nights, and repair cafés were quietly led by women in their 30s, 40s, and beyond. They weren’t trying to start trends. They were trying to make things last and they enjoyed creating and being together. Now, that knowledge is finally being passed to a generation that understands waste instinctively, but often lacks the tools to act on it.
Image supplied by Levi’s
In the 2010s, greening your wardrobe was pretty easy. But Gen Z doesn’t just want sustainability slogans. They want agency. My daughter is a Gen Z and she can repair jeans with a sewing machine, she can crochet a hat and halter top and she make a bag. Learning how to patch denim, reinforce seams, and turn damage into design gives young people something rare: control over consumption.
“Every year, millions of wearable garments end up in landfills, many taking centuries to decompose. By teaching repair, customization, and sustainable care, the Wear Longer Project interrupts that cycle,” said Alexis Bechtol, director of Community Affairs at Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi’s is supplying teaching tools so young people can learn the craft of repair. Levi’s.
Created with Discovery Education, the Levi’s Wear Longer Project brings clothing repair back into the classroom — not as a hobby, but as a core life skill. Through free lesson plans, teacher toolkits, and hands-on workshops, students learn how to sew, hem, patch, and redesign their clothes. The materials are built to fit directly into existing high-school programs for grades nine to twelve, making repair part of everyday learning rather than an after-school afterthought.
New research commissioned by Levi’s found that 41% of Gen Z lack any clothing repair or customization skills — from altering a hem to sewing a custom patch — compared to less than 25% of older generations who often learned these skills at home or in school. However, 35% of Gen Z say they would keep their clothing for longerif they knew how to alter or repair them.
Levi’s sample guide on how to patch jeans. Free from Levi’s
Gen Z may lead the way in thrifting, swapping, and upcycling, but nearly half of those surveyed admitted they don’t know how to fix their clothes. Without repair skills, even the most circular fashion habits eventually collapse back into waste. The company argues that sustainability only works when durability is personal. Knowing how to extend the life of a garment is what turns environmental intention into real impact. Without that knowledge, circular fashion remains a theory instead of a practice.
In other words: you can love second-hand clothes all you want — but if you can’t repair them, they still end up in the bin.
The Levi’s Wear Longer Project is supported by a practical set of classroom-ready repair guides that make sustainability tangible, not theoretical. Students learn how to sew on buttons, hem clothing, patch holes, and fix tears through step-by-step facilitator and student guides designed for hands-on learning. Teachers can find the guides here –– with a version for students and one for teachers.
Quentin Tarantino lives in Israel now, quietly blending into Tel Aviv life (which is pretty loud and late night!) — until Tel Aviv, of course, notices him.
This week the city spotted Tarantino walking in a bike lane and turned the moment into a public teaching joke, reminding residents that even cinematic legends must obey urban etiquette. The post went viral with the line: “Let’s make this clear right now: Unless you’ve made at least two masterpieces and permanently changed the face of film forever and ever — do not walk on the bike lane.”
It was classic Tel Aviv humor: irreverent, civic-minded, and oddly affectionate. Most citizens do not have patience though for the lawlessness of electric bike riders.
Quintin has little kids of his own and has spoken often about finding calm and inspiration in Israel, has become part of the city’s cultural landscape.
The Muslim prophet Muhammad never traveled to the city of Jerusalem in his lifetime. Yet his dream is celebrated as a spiritual transformation. The Isra and Mi‘raj story describes a spiritual or visionary experience, not a recorded historical journey. Even early Islamic scholars debated whether the event was physical or symbolic. Yet today, Muslims around the world are marking Isra and Mi‘raj as a living spiritual tradition filled with prayer, storytelling, and community rituals around the world.
The approximate date when the Prophet’s night journey occurred is the 27th of Rajab (7th month of the Islamic calendar), about 12 years after the start of revelation, which is about 1 year before the Prophet’s migration from Mecca to Medina, considered the starting point of the Islamic calendar, according to Islamic scholars.
Isra means night journey and mi’raj means ascending like on a ladder.
Isra = the night journey
Mi‘raj = the ascent
In the Old Testament at the same location, Jacob dreams of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. The vision symbolizes a connection between the human and divine worlds, made visible during a night of spiritual revelation.
In Christianity, Jesus’ Ascension into heaven mirrors the idea of rising toward God, while Jacob’s ladder (shared with Judaism) is interpreted by Christians as a symbol of Christ connecting heaven and earth. Like Isra and Mi‘raj, these stories express the belief that humans can encounter the divine beyond ordinary physical limits.
How Isra and Mi‘raj Is Celebrated Today
Across Muslim communities, the night is observed with special mosque gatherings, Qur’an recitations, sermons, and family discussions. In many countries, the evening becomes a moment for reflection rather than public festivity. Food also plays a quiet but important role. Families prepare simple shared meals, sweets, dates, and regional dishes that vary by culture:
In Indonesia and Malaysia, communal rice dishes, sweet porridge, and traditional cakes are served after prayers.
In Turkey, families share pastries and syrup-soaked desserts.
In the Middle East, dates, flatbreads, and warm drinks accompany storytelling and prayer.
Children learn the story through songs, drawings, and school programs, while elders emphasize humility, gratitude, and discipline. The night is not about celebration in a modern party sense, but about remembering faith and spiritual responsibility.
The Isra and Mi‘raj festival commemorates not travel, but transformation — and a reminder that in Islamic tradition, spiritual elevation begins with inner struggle.
When Zarathustra started preaching around 1200 BCE in ancient Persia, which is known today as Iran, he wasn’t just founding a religion—he was creating the world’s first environmental protection movement. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds. But there was a mantra and words to live by: don’t pollute the earth, water, or fire. Ever.
Take Zoroastrian burial practices. We’ve covered the Towers of Silence here at Green Prophet before—those circular stone structures where bodies were placed on top for vultures to consume. Why did they do this? Because Zoroastrians believed dead bodies were contaminated with evil (druj) and could not touch the sacred elements: earth, water, or fire.
Vultures pick on bones at the Tower of Silence in Iran. An interesting eco tourism destination.
No burial (pollutes earth). No cremation (pollutes fire). No river disposal (pollutes water). Sky burial was the only option that honored nature. The body became food for birds, a final act of charity. Today most Zoroastrians use cement-lined coffins to prevent earth contamination, or they’ve moved to other methods as vulture populations crashed from human causes such as electrical shocks and poisoning. But the principle remains: respect the elements that sustain life.
Celebrating Nature’s Turning Points
Fire jumping in Iran to celebrate Nowruz – Chaharshanbe Suri
Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrated on the spring equinox, is perhaps Zoroastrianism’s most visible environmental legacy. As we’ve written about on Green Prophet, this isn’t just a cultural festival—it’s a celebration of nature reawakening. Families grow sabzeh (wheat or lentil sprouts) weeks before Nowruz, watching green life emerge from seeds.
Goldfish are a traditional symbol of life, renewal, and fortune on the Haft-Seen table for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, representing vitality and a prosperous year ahead, though animal welfare concerns have risen due to millions dying after being released into ponds, leading some to use edible alternatives like marzipan goldfish or sugar fish instead.
The holiday marks when day and night are equal, when light spreads evenly across hemispheres. Fire is lit. People jump over flames during Chaharshanbe Suri, singing “my yellowness is yours, your redness is mine”—asking fire to take weakness and give strength. The whole celebration is about alignment with natural cycles. Spring cleaning before the new year. Visiting graves on the last Friday. Placing hyacinths and tulips in homes. Everything synchronized with the earth’s rhythm around the sun.
Engineering in Harmony with Nature
Ancient Persians didn’t just philosophize about respecting the elements—they engineered around them. As we’ve explored in previous Green Prophet articles, their architecture shows remarkable environmental sophistication.
Wind catchers (badgir) in Yazd and other desert cities are essentially ancient air conditioning. These tall towers catch breezes and channel them down through buildings, sometimes over underground water channels called qanats. The Dolat Abad windcatcher in Yazd stands 34 meters tall—still the highest in Iran—and can drop indoor temperatures by 10 degrees without electricity.
Dolat Abad windcatcher in Yazd
Qanats themselves are engineering marvels: underground channels that move water from mountain aquifers to desert cities without pumping. Some are still functioning after a thousand years. UNESCO recognizes them as world heritage because they represent “creative genius” in sustainable water management.
Qanats in Iran
These weren’t just practical solutions to live by. They were Zorastrian expressions of a worldview that said: work with the elements, don’t violate them. Here’s what makes Zoroastrianism ecologically radical even today: it treats environmental degradation as moral corruption.
The world is a battlefield between truth (asha) and lies (druj). When you pollute water, you’re choosing druj. When you contaminate earth, you’re siding with evil. Every small choice—where you put your waste, how you use fire, whether you honor or desecrate water is a moral decision that tilts the cosmic balance.
You can’t separate ethics from ecology in this system because they are the same thing.
Modern environmentalism often frames nature protection as enlightened self-interest or future-oriented planning. Zoroastrianism says: the earth itself is holy. Polluting it is sacrilege. You don’t need utilitarian arguments. You need to not be an asshole to creation.
Faravahar symbol on Fire Temple of Yazd, Iran
There are maybe 100,000 to 200,000 Zoroastrians left worldwide, mostly in Iran and India (where they’re called Parsis).
Zoroastrianism introduced a radical idea for its time: that humans stand inside a moral universe. That our choices matter. Long before monotheism found its later forms, Zoroastrianism articulated heaven and hell, angels and judgment, free will and ethical responsibility. Judaism absorbed these ideas during the Persian period. Christianity and Islam carried them forward.
The eternal flame inside the Yazd Atash Behram
Today, Zoroastrians are not fighting for dominance. They are fighting for continuity. Intermarriage, migration, shrinking birth rates, and cultural dilution place constant pressure on a faith that does not proselytize and does not adapt easily. They don’t have a leader or a “Pope” figure making it difficult to create leadership.
Yet the ecological principles remain stubbornly relevant. In a world drowning in plastic, choking on emissions, and treating the planet like an expendable resource, Zoroastrianism’s insistence that nature is sacred, not because it’s useful to humans, but because it is sacred.
The Yazd Atash Behram
If Iran becomes free, consider visiting the eternal flame: The Yazd Atash Behram in Iran shelters one of the world’s oldest living flames — a sacred fire burning continuously since 470 AD. Though the temple itself was built in 1934, the “Victorious Fire” has survived centuries of exile, invasion, and careful guardianship, standing as a quiet, stubborn symbol of Zoroastrian endurance and divine purity.
Japan’s bullet train was made with faulty Kobe aluminum.
Remember when everyone was stealing steel in your city to melt it down for the Chinese building market during the Olympics in Beijing? Grates from storm sewers were being lifted, iron gates gone, slides gone missing from Japanese playgrounds. The thing about raw materials is that once they are melted down, you can’t prove the source of the material. Same is true with gold, cucumbers and even forged products that look the same as the real thing. When it comes to steel, and how we produce it, it has a massive carbon problem. What’s happening in Japan right now could change how we think about heavy industry and climate action.
The steel sector is wrestling with an existential question—how do you prove that the product being smelted is actually “green steel”—steel produced with renewable energy and which doesn’t harm people and planet? And more importantly, how do you make sure that environmental value doesn’t get lost, duplicated, or mysteriously multiplied as steel moves through processors, distributors, and manufacturers through endless countries back and forth? You can’t put a barcode on raw material that gets changed but you can barcode the process and that’s what Fujitsu is doing.
It seems transformative but the technology has been around for 10 years. Enter Fujitsu—before your eyes glaze over, this has nothing to do with Bitcoin or crypto speculation. Think of it more like a digital receipt system that nobody can fake.
Fujistu makes green steel and tracks it in a pilot project
Starting in December 2025, Fujitsu launched a pilot project—backed by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry—to trace and track green steel certificates through the supply chain using blockchain. Fujitsu is a technology company that makes computers, servers, IT systems, and digital solutions for businesses—they don’t manufacture steel themselves but provide the digital infrastructure that helps industries track and verify their processes. The pilot runs through February 2026 and involves actual steel businesses testing whether this tracking system works in real-world conditions.
Here’s the problem they’re solving: Japan’s steel industry has developed methods to produce lower-emission steel. One approach, called the GX Mass Balance Method, lets companies pool their emission reductions from various green projects and allocate them to specific steel products. Another method, GX Allocation, distributes emission reductions across different products while keeping total emissions constant.
But the problem is that once a green steel certificate gets issued, it needs to travel through an entire supply chain—from the mill to processors to fabricators to whoever’s building the final product like cars, buildings, bridges, home appliances, or beverage cans. At each handoff, there’s a risk the environmental claim gets duplicated, lost, or disputed. One certificate could theoretically be claimed by multiple parties, inflating the actual environmental benefit. We’ve seen this with BioBee strawberries in Israel. What was once an eco label to show pollinated by bees is now believed to be a symbol for organic strawberries—which isn’t true.
They aren’t organic. Suppliers are printing their own stickers and it’s a forgery that everyone goes along with. It happens in the US too—Kohl’s and Walmart both settled with the FTC in 2022 for $2.5 million and $3 million respectively after falsely advertising rayon products as “eco-friendly bamboo fiber.” McDonald’s also introduced “recyclable” paper straws in 2019 that turned out to be non-recyclable.
What was the Japanese Kobe Steel Scandal?
The Kobe Steel scandal of 2017 exposed how Japan’s reputation for quality manufacturing could crumble when data gets falsified. Employees deliberately falsified strength and durability data on over 600 products shipped to clients, with data manipulation occurring at 23 domestic and overseas plants involving more than 40 employees—a practice that had been endemic since the 1970s according to Wikipedia.
At least 20,000 tons of aluminum and copper products with fabricated inspection data were shipped to around 200 companies =including Toyota, Boeing, and Japan’s bullet train manufacturers. The problem wasn’t poor quality steel, it was lying about the specifications. Products that didn’t meet customer standards were shipped anyway with fake certificates claiming they did. This is exactly why blockchain tracking matters: without a tamper-proof record of what’s actually in your supply chain, you’re just trusting someone’s word.
Fujitsu’s blockchain platform creates a permanent, tamper-proof record of each green steel certificate as it moves downstream. The technology ensures traceability while maintaining confidentiality—companies can verify the environmental value without exposing sensitive business information about who’s buying what from whom. Blockchain allows for complete anonymity while still proving authenticity.
What makes this interesting isn’t just the technology. It’s the recognition that producing green steel is only half the battle. The other half is building trust in those environmental claims across complex, global supply chains. Without that trust and verification, green steel becomes just another marketing claim that buyers and regulators can’t verify.
The steel industry produces roughly 7 to 9% of global CO2 emissions, so decarbonizing it matters enormously. But green steel typically costs more to produce, which means manufacturers need assurance they’re paying for something real. End users—say, a car company promising carbon-neutral vehicles—need proof that the steel in their products actually has the reduced emissions they’re claiming. Otherwise, they are just suckers with a feel-good label that means nothing.
Fujitsu is positioning this platform, which they call the Sustainable Value Accelerator, as potentially expandable beyond steel into other industries facing similar verification challenges. The company employs 113,000 people and reported revenues of 3.6 trillion yen for fiscal year 2025, so they’ve got the resources to push this forward. While products in the 60s from Japan were cheap and lousy, that label has moved to China. Everyone trusts the quality of Japan today like they trust Switzerland. We can trust they will make a system that will be fair and honest and reliable.
Except, not that long ago in 2007, Japan suffered a steel scandal. Top Japanese automakers had to assess the safety of vehicles containing products from Kobe Steel, which has admitted falsifying quality data. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi Motor, Subaru and Mazda joined aviation firms and defense contractors Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and IHI that have used the steelmaker’s products.
Japan’s famous “Shinkansen” bullet trains also used Kobe Steel’s aluminum, as did high-speed trains in Britain, according to engineering firm Hitachi. “Products used (for both Japanese and British trains) met safety standards. But they did not meet the specifications that were agreed between us and Kobe Steel,” a Hitachi spokesman told the media.
Like what Fujitsu is doing? Do you think this is the right way forward? To invest in Fujitsu, you can purchase its stock (shares) through an international or online stockbroker. Fujitsu Limited is primarily listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) under the ticker code 6702. It also trades on the over-the-counter (OTC) markets in the US under the ticker FJTSY. Green Prophet has no affiliation with the company.
Big MEGA secures loans to build wind farms in Romania
BIG MEGA Renewable Energy, a joint venture between publicly listed Israeli real-estate companies BIG Shopping Centers Ltd. and MEGA OR Holdings, has built a growing presence in Romania’s wind energy sector through two major project financings over the past two years.
In 2024, BIG MEGA secured financing for its 102-megawatt Urleasca wind farm in Braila County. That project was later constructed by Portuguese EPC contractor CJR Renewables and marked the company’s first large-scale Romanian wind development.
In late 2025, with public reporting in January 2026, BIG MEGA announced a second major financing: a €100 million syndicated loan to support the construction of a 102-MW wind farm in Vacareni, Tulcea County. The financing was arranged with a syndicate of European lenders including Erste Group Bank, Banca Comerciala Romana, Intesa Sanpaolo’s Romanian unit, and Vseobecna uverova banka, according to deal advisor Kinstellar. The Vacareni project has ready-to-build status and will include 17 wind turbines.
Together, the two projects represent more than 200 MW of wind capacity in southeastern Romania, a region with strong wind resources and increasing demand for low-carbon electricity under European Union climate targets. Romania has become one of Southeast Europe’s more active renewable markets as grid modernization and policy alignment continue.
Tafila wind farm in Israel
BIG MEGA Renewable Energy was created to extend the founding companies’ activities beyond traditional real estate into long-term infrastructure assets. BIG Shopping Centers and MEGA OR Holdings are both experienced developers and operators of capital-intensive, income-producing properties and are publicly traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
Their renewable expansion comes during a period of strong performance on the Israeli stock market. Over the past three years, Israel’s major indices — including the TA-125 and TA-35 — have delivered some of the strongest cumulative returns among developed markets, supported by gains in technology, finance, real estate, and defense-related sectors. This market strength has increased international visibility of Israeli public companies and supported their ability to expand abroad.
Foreign investors cannot invest directly in BIG MEGA Renewable Energy (on Crunchbase), which is a private joint venture led by Eran Davidi. However, they can gain indirect exposure by investing in its publicly listed parent companies through institutional brokers, global investment banks, Israel-focused equity funds, or international ETFs that track Israeli equities.
BIG MEGA has not yet announced a commercial operation date for the Vacareni wind farm, nor any additional project phases. But the two successive financings — in 2024 and 2026 — show a steady, project-by-project strategy rather than a single one-off investment, reflecting a longer-term commitment to Romania’s renewable energy market.
