If you walk into a supermarket in Switzerland sometime early next year and buy a bottle of Valser–a brand of sparkling water owned by Coca-Cola–the fizz inside might have come from CO2 sucked from the atmosphere. Coca-Cola HBC Switzerland, the bottling plant that makes the drinks, just partnered with Climeworks , one of the world’s pioneers of direct air capture of carbon dioxide, as a new supplier. At its plants, Climeworks uses stacked shipping containers filled with technology that pulls air inside and through filters that capture CO2 like an ultra-powerful tree. Once a filter is full, the collector is heated, releasing the gas in a pure form that can be injected deep underground for storage–one way to help begin to address the fact that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is higher than it has been at any point in the last 400,000 years–or used by manufacturers. The company’s first partnership was with a nearby greenhouse that used the CO2 to help plants grow faster, and the beverage industry was the natural next step. “The beverage industry is among the only existing markets currently using CO2,” says Christoph Gebald, cofounder and director of the startup. Other […]
Latest Articles
Halving Pesticide Use, Dismantling Dams: EU’s Ambitious Draft Law to Restore Nature
Takeaways: The European Commission has drafted a law that will halve pesticide use across Europe by 2030 and dismantle big dams to make rivers...
Why Growing Forests Are Awesome
Why Growing Forests Are Awesome Guest Post by: Job van Hooijdonk, co-founder of Regreener In 2016, a record of 29.7 million hectares of forest disappeared. That's2 90,000 square...
The Benefits of Adaptive Reusing Old Buildings into New
Takeaways: Reusing old buildings instead of building new ones can benefit communities, inhabitants and the environment.
Reusing these buildings helps maintain the community's roots...
How Replacing Coal with Renewable Energy Could Pay for Itself
Takeaways: Transitioning from coal to renewable energy can result in an economic gain of $78 trillion.
The benefits of ending coal use come from...
Unilever Invests in Biotech Alternatives to Palm Oil for Greener Cleaning
Takeaways: Unilever is investing in a plan to use plant-based ingredients in their extensive household product range.
The company has partnered with a U.S....
How Indigenous Traditions Are Saving Zimbabwe’s Endangered Wildlife
Takeaways: A mix of beliefs, taboos and myths, passed orally from generation to generation, has been at the centre of wildlife conservation in many...