Ranking Enterprises

The Spanish economic newspaper has published on its front page an updated ranking of the top 10 Spanish companies using environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria (see below). elEconomista.es on 2024-10-12 shows through this updated ranking that ESG criteria continue to be relevant information for investors. It is not just a nice to have information but gives important information on the sustainability record of a company. Continuous monitoring is key to show and reward the efforts and investments companies have made to improve sustainability. This information needs large distribution in order to keep up the awareness that there is more to a balance sheet than just turnover, profit margins, debts and investment. Churning of employees creates costs to society as a whole as well. Any early information on ESG indicators, therefore, allows a much broader assessment of the full impact of enterprises, 360 degrees and over time. Certainly a good example to follow up on.

freight transport

The transport of goods is an important and crucial economic sector to achieve reductions in CO2 emissions. According to statistics from Eurostat Total Road Freight Transportation increased by an annual 0.6% percent between 2019 and 2023. Considering the slack during the Covid-19 economic restrictions this is a remarkable development. Most people agree that more freight on rail could allow a much better performance concerning CO2 emissions. This needs substantial investments in infrastructure and intelligent solutions for optimised and accessible freight loading points. The logistics of the last mile for delivery has found many innovative solutions with battery-supported e-vehicles. The tough issue seems to be the production of e-lorries at competitive prices to the Diesel-engines. Considering the legal obligations to take breaks to ensure sufficient concentration of lorry drivers, the battery charging infrastructure has to be planned accordingly. Ports and airports a certainly key infrastructure for freight transport as well. Industry has additional key locations with high freight frequencies and tonne-kilometres. Eurostat data show that EU-wide empty running vehicles account for about 22%. Scope for optimization is, therefore, a continuous challenge for the sector.
E-transportation is high on the agenda in the sector and production of e-lorries a big challenge. There a many positive signs that the sector has taken up the challenge as there are an estimated 100.000 € per year cost advantage of battery-driven lorries compared to traditional ones (Le Monde 2024-9-24 p.16). This is simply a long-term survival issue for the sector. Smart transport solutions add to the productivity potential of the sector in combination with electrification.

Green Olympics

Paris 2024 has won a medal for the Green Olympics. Sustainable building of Olympic sites is a crucial element in this struggle for saving resources. Just as important is the CO2 footprint of the transport within the city if you cannot prevent thousands of people from flying to the venues. Public transport in Paris used the occasion to improve its services considerably. The restrictions to cars driving around in the inner city also for security reasons made the Olympic experience for Paris a healthy walking experience for all. The view from the “Arc de Triomphe” during the Olympics in Paris is even more pleasant and relaxed as the noisy and polluting traffic is reduced to minimal levels. You were able to grasp the feeling what inner cities could be like if people were the overriding concern of cities rather than circulation of automotive vehicles. Redressing this balance in favor of people living, working and visiting is overdue and we all know this. The city of Paris used the occasion to demonstrate that another way or compromise is possible. This is also a way to write history and create unforgettable moments. Paris discusses already what to keep from the Olympics for longer. Maybe the vasque, maybe the cleaning crews. New Metro lines, of course. Why not the different traffic and mobility patterns? It’s well worth a lasting Green Olympic medal.

LED light

For decades now, we have the LED light technology around us. In many instances we do no longer realize the presence of light emission devices (LEDs) for example in our television screens or in road lighting. However, this still is an exciting field of electrical engineering and the replacement of gas lighting as well as other electrical devices with higher energy consumption are high on the agenda for sustainable lighting. There are important health and security aspects related to lighting (sleep and road traffic).
In Berlin the demonstration and test area for innovative LED lighting is also an open-air museum which can be experienced throughout the year. The party-goers and club visitors might best know the demonstration street as part of the “Deutsches Technik Museum” The energy saving potential of LEDs use in street lighting is substantial and should interest most rural and city councils. The demonstration of the differential effects of targeted lighting and broad illumination based on the same technology is impressive. Of course, the design aspect of LED-technology with the colourful potentials are of interest beyond the technical aspects to replace for example gas lighting. There is much more to lighting than just opening your eyes in the morning. (Image FG Lichttechnik TU Berlin)

Law Nature

There exists a rather complicated relationship between law and nature. It is part of constitutional law to check whether nature figures at all in a state’s constitution as part of the fundamental legal principles. On a global scale the nations or people living in the closest relationship with nature most often do not have written constitutions. In the same vein, animals or biodiversity do not figure in most constitutional documents (nice project to substantiate this claim). The philosophy of law has line of literature devoted to “Naturrecht” which is more concerned with human beings and their differentiation than the millions of other species.
Administrative law is probably the domain with most of the legal judgements with relevance to nature or the environment as for example any larger scale construction is either land, water, air or biodiversity grabbing. Rights and limits need to be defined precisely. In this field the role of law as “appeasement” is widely applied. However, this is more complicated in cases when a whole population of an island in the ocean is threatened to disappear due to the rise of the sea level like in the case of the Torres Strait Islands, next to and part of Australia.
The UN Human Rights Committee (UN-HRCee) in Geneva has made a decision on the claim of these people to have rights that the nature of the islands as low-lying islands is threatened by disrespect of their fundamental rights of existence and survival. The claim has been received by the court, but the court deems that the threat to their culture and survival is not imminent. In practice, therefore, the sword of law is rather weak and time until the disaster is used as a right to continue the usual economic exploitation of earth as before despite the deferred consequences for the planet in a rather unequal way.
(Image by AI copilot designer 2024-6-2 “5 judges in red gowns sit in a flooded courtroom”, 2 propsitions)

Competence Gardening

Primary Schools in Berlin have the possibility to participate in the “Gartenarbeitsschule”, the school with learning goal of gardening. It is an interesting option to go out into the real world and deal with nature, sustainability, consumption, climate and many other topics. Voltaire could complement the curriculum in philosophy with his biographical links to gardening. The access to the fields is easy next to one of the central train stations and a larger urban reforestation project as just one example of the 15 overall in Berlin in 2024. (Südkreuz, Südgelände). Hands-on experience of gardening can address multiple forms of problem-solving competencies. Beyond the use of AI, a major advantage is the possibility to train collaborative problem-solving. Beyond the multifactorial approach in determining what to plant, the organization of the implementation and individual contributions towards the realization, all these elements are learning goals. The scope of learning qualifies gardening for learning well beyond primary school as well. It is a nice example of lifelong and lifewide learning even a hundred years after their wider applications in Berlin.

Gardening School, Berlin 2024

Ethics of posterity

We have not inherited the earth from our ancestors; we are borrowing it from our descendants. (native American saying). Adeline Johns-Putra (2019) states this early in her book on “Climate change and the novel.” Her concern is how to think and write about the ethics of posterity. Approaches of ethics in the sense of parental care (for the planet) or motherhood environmentalism do not suffice in view of overpopulation of our planet. Shifting our identity away from toxic production and consumption is advocated in many novels. Science and science fiction offer many dystopian examples.
De Shalit (1995) wrote early on why posterity matters. It is not the standard of living of contemporaries that matters but we should consider ourselves as a part of a transgenerational community. The time horizon of our decisions matters. In pursuing arguments by John Rawls who re-established a contractionalist perspective on justice, we have to include future generations into our contractual obligations. Following this approach we might arrive at Brundtland’s perspective on the ethics of posterity which is called sufficientarianism in opposition to simple utilitarianism. In sufficientarianism we owe future generations a just and decent living or at least the possibility to have similar starting conditions. Shifting beyond the apocalyptic view of environmental disasters Adeline Johns-Putra (2019) brings to the forefront that we have to substantially lengthen  our time horizon both for consequences of climate change and for dealing with it, albeit the fact that most destructive practices operate much faster than the re-establishing of greater biodiversity.
P.S.:Thanks to the curators of the Lese Lounge Staatsbibliothek Berlin for ease of access to the literature.
(Image: Natur & Kultur in “Extreme tension: Art between Politics and Society” Collection of the Nationalgalerie 1945-2000“. 2024-1)

Clearing Rubbish

Just next to the Circular Line “Ringbahn” and the Gasometer in Berlin there is yet another huge area in preparation for further construction. The “Berlin Südkreuz” train station connects by ICE directly to Leipzig, Nurnberg and Munich. New company headquarters have been built in the direct neighbourhood and several housing blocks. Clearing more areas that mainly stocked rubbish like broken cars over years had to move out and thousands of people will be able to find new homes soon. Demand for such projects is still high, although the financing with high interest rates has become a challenge for private persons. Interesting building concepts have been realized in the district of Berlin with some focus on social and inclusive housing in a broad sense. A process of gentrification is also observable, whereby the higher rent in the district pushes out people and families that no longer can afford the increases, most of them even above inflation rates in the past few years.
The urban planning advances in large strides. With the almost finished Gasometer the vision from the visitors’ platform on the top will soon allow to observe the next construction site. Clearing rubbish is already a good step ahead. Getting rid of the pollution and contaminated ground will take some time as well.
In the East of Germany, the sun rises early and so do construction workers. We expect to continue to be early birds in this area. Maybe we can have a few additional trees, schools and a kindergarden as well for the newcomers. The whole local infrastructure will be put to yet another test. You have to like change and embrace the continuing challenge of becoming more densely populated in Berlin. It is a social lab right in our neighbourhood. The “Rote Insel” is clearing out its rubbish, the number of buggies with babies is rising fast now.

Nachhaltigkeitskonzept

Ein Nachhaltigkeitskonzept gehört zum Bauen mittlerweile wie das Gelbe zum Ei. Die Einreichungen zum Realisierungswettbewerb eines Portals für das Deutsche Technik Museum Berlin hatten entsprechende Anforderungen zu erfüllen. Für ein Technik Museum können dazu die Anforderungen schon etwas höher sein und die oft geforderte „Technologieoffenheit“ oder die Diskussion darüber zumindest andeuten. Der Anerkennungspreis ging an ein Konsortium für die Einreichung 1110, die eine klare Übersicht ihres Nachhaltigkeitskonzepts vorstellten (siehe Auszug Image unten, Foto aus der Ausstellung 2023-12). Nachwachsende Baustoffe gehören zum Repertoire. Gleichzeitig sollte die Erhaltung oder gar Förderung der Biodiversität Teil der nachhaltigen Konzeption sein. Innerstädtisch ist die Rückumwandlung der Versiegelung der Böden eine wichtige gesundheitsfördernde Bauweise. Kühlung in den aufgeheizten Städten ist durch Grünflächen und Beschattung zu erreichen. Tolle Architekten sind das, die den Mut aufbringen den Stachel in die Wunde zu legen. Die Anwohnenden und Besuchenden würden es den Verantwortlichen jahrzehntelang danken.
Das sind längst keine abgefahrenen grünen Ideen oder Träumereien mehr. Paris hat es schon längst vor gemacht. Ganz nah beim Eiffelturm ist das „Musée du Quai Branly –  Jacques Chirac“ das als Neubau mit Garten vom konservativen Präsidenten Jacques Chirac eine grüne Naturoase mitten im Herzen Paris hat bauen lassen. Es ist immer noch eine Art Geheimtipp für Pariser in den zu warmen Sommermonaten. Berlin könnte wie mit der vom Pyramiden-Architekten Pei geplanten Eingangshalle vom Deutschen Historischen Museum mal wieder mit einem Nachhaltigkeitskonzept mit Paris gleichziehen. Gemeinsam können wir auch nachhaltig. Mit der vom Menschen und seiner Technik verursachten Erderwärmung haben die nachfolgenden Generationen noch lange genug zu kämpfen. Mehr Nachhaltigkeitskonzepte braucht die Technik. Das ist die wirkliche Herausforderung des 21. Jahrhunderts.