Energy & Infrastructure

It was 1983 when an engineer from Michigan met a Yellow-Naped parrot from Honduras. Little did Joe Azzarello know that “Otis” would be a part of the family for 33 years (and counting) and would affect not only his personal life but his career as well.

During my years with KLD Research & Analytics, we saw our mission as two-fold. Our job was to remove the barriers at the top and to build the demand at the grassroots. We therefore created an index of companies created with social and environmental standards. That index outperformed the S&P 500.

The year 1966 brought the TV debuts of “Batman” and “Star Trek,” which both enjoy a cultlike following 50 years later. With less fanfare in the same season, General Motors tested the Electrovan, the world’s first hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle.

Last week, grid storage provider Younicos, in partnership with the German utility WEMAG, broke ground on a new facility to increase grid storage capacity at the Schwerin battery park. The Schwerin facility was Europe’s first battery storage facility, commissioned in 2014 with a capacity of 5MW. The primary function of the storage facility is to level out momentary dips in output coming from the grid, which is mostly powered by wind turbines.

Alliance 8.7 was launched on September 21 during the UN General Assembly in support of meeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7, to “take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms”.

In 2015, 73 percent of Domtar's electrical power requirements were met through cogeneration or on-site hydropower generation, providing environmental, cost and reliability benefits.

Sustainable infrastructure is a confluence of ideas. It’s physical, eco-friendly, and smart. It seeks to minimize costs and maximize the use of resources. It’s also global. The United Nations specifically mentioned infrastructure in its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The role of infrastructure is to provide essential services to societies and industries, including transportation networks, energy grids, and wastewater-treatment plants. Such projects are critical to economic development and to connecting people and ideas.