In general, we don’t spend too much time thinking of the energy it takes to send an email. The computer (smartphone, tablet, whatever…) is switched on anyway and the battery indicator doesn’t change one bit if we send an email.

One email, even with an attachment and a fancy video background doesn’t make a difference.

Taking a global view, things look a little different.

1. The impact of internet on the environment

In an article that is already more than nine years old, The Guardian states that “around 62 trillion spam messages are sent every year, requiring the use of 33 billion kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity and…

I have been lucky…

Because I have travelled a lot, I have always been the little French, before being the black girl.

Racism is not an issue all the sudden.
This is not an issue for you (white people), but this is not all the sudden.

It is like when the people assume that I am the cleaning lady or the secretary; or when people talk to me as if I was retarded while I often know way more than them.

I have to say, I play with it and it does make me laugh to see their face when…

Demands create markets and vice versa.

Nowadays, not least due to public demand there is significant incentive for companies to become more socially responsible (or, at the very least, to be perceived as such).

Numerous companies and individuals offer Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) services and choosing the right one can be tricky.

Forbes has published a list hints to look out for.[1]

The article may be seven years old already but has lost none of its pertinence.

1. Depth and breadth of experience

The question you should ask a potential CSR consultant is not only “Have you done this before?” but also

“Have you done this…

What is Corporate Social Responsibility ?

You have heard about companies making huge profits while hiding their assets in some fiscal paradise, profiting from child labour, bribery, knowingly endangering their employees, the environment, and ultimately the society at large with harmful pesticides or other chemicals.

Corporate Social responsibility, often abbreviated as CSR, is the obligation of an organisation to make profit following sustainable development principles.

This involves:

· social responsibility (i.e. having a positive impact on the society),

· economic sustainability (i.e. making profit in an ethical way), and

· environmental sustainability (i.e. minimising the impact on the environment).

By 2050, the Earth is conservatively estimated to be 2°C warmer by the end of the century, and the world’s ice sheets are melting at much faster rates than in the previous century, leading to increasing sea levels.

Simultaneously, the world is losing much of its biodiversity, which scientists predict would have “unprecedented and unpredictable” implications for life on Earth.

Considering this, global sustainability efforts are now more important than ever.

Fortunately, innovative techniques may be used to solve the most important issues.

What is Blockchain?

For several years now the term blockchain crops up in discussions, either hailed as THE next new…

Everybody is talking about ‘green energy’.

Attentive followers of all things environmental might have come across the term ‘blue energy’.

What does blue energy mean?

Generating electricity from funnelling rivers from their springs in the mountains downhill through turbines is an old hat, however, it is somewhat restricted to mountainous areas, which is bad news for places like The Netherlands.

On the other hand, the Dutch are no strangers to water, everything but.

For centuries they have defended their land against the sea which is constantly gnawing away at their shores and threatening to flood the land.

Is there a way to harness the power…

For those who don’t know, in 2015 (yes, that’s six years ago already) the General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted a collection of 17 goals seen as essential to building a better and more sustainable future.

These are collectively known as the Sustainable Development Goals (aka SDGs aka SDG17) and the member states of the UN aim to achieve these goals by the year 2030.

We will look at one of these 17 goals from time to time (in no particular order).[1]

Number 6 of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is “Clean water and sanitation”

Wherever you go someone is going to talk about the mobility of the future and there is no shortage of concepts: Car-sharing, e-bikes, scooters, delivery services instead of shopping yourself, battery powered vehicles vs. fuel cells…

There is one environmental aspect that is not going to be affected by all these and this is the tyres all these vehicles roll on, regardless of what their power train looks like or who is driving or owning the vehicles in question.