SUBMISSIONS & FEEDBACK

VOL ONLINE

ADVERTISING SALES

Calle Castellana, 43, 2º, WeWork

28046, Madrid - Spain

We are more than an editorial company. We are a socially-aware company formed by mindful individuals that are actively taking action for the good of the planet. We dedicate our efforts to empower everyone to not only be conscious, but also become proactive in what's happening in everyday life. As a B2B publisher, we inform and connect the voices of prominent leaders in innovation, sustainability, circular economy and impact investing through our exclusive digital magazine and a new B2B connecting feature.

At VoL, we don't just make digital magazines, we make a digital communication experience. Touch, click, slide, connect and discover how exactly a digital media experience should feel like.

VOL eMag TEAM

Co-Founder & Editor: Mayte Mascarell

Co-Founder & CFO: Luca Bugialli

Brand Guardian: Javier Minguez

Journalism: Daiva Sen & Natalia Díaz

Lead Graphic Designer: Ramón Navalón

& María Ángeles Galán

Image Credits: Shutterstock (structuresxx, Chris Watson, Mohamed Abdulraheem, FloridaStock, SS studio photography, honglouwawa, Cristina Ramos Hernando, Edgy Labs, Mady Macdonald, Vadim Chugaev, Sandratsky Dmitriy), Alan Bigelow, Ph.D. Solar Cookers International, Vegware, Ejido Verde, Ecosia, 8 Billion Trees, Bosques Sostenibles, Circle Carbon, NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Kathryn Mersmann, Ecobnb, Robert Kneschke, 1% for the planet, Source: inhabitat.com, Source: Fecupral sk.

Each page of the Voices of Leaders eMag is interactive and animated. When you see one of these icons, we encourage you to discover and enjoy exploring each item.

Click & go to the content.

Ignorance is no longer bliss

Once upon a time, it was a lot easier to be blissfully unaware or willingly ignorant of the planet’s rising sea levels and temperatures. For all heads once buried under the sand, now, the effects of climate change are essentially, unignorable. Nowhere is this more apparent right now than in Australia. The effects have been nothing short of catastrophic and the images terrifying. Ten million hectares have been burnt down since the start of 2019’s fire season, billions of animals and plants have been killed (many of which are unique to Australia), over thirty people have lost their lives, and all these numbers keep rising.

As much as the tangible effects of climate change, their prime source — us, is equally

difficult to ignore. The Amazon Rainforest fires of last year saw the destruction of 900,000 hectares — most of these fires were deliberately manmade. The findings of The Carbon Majors Report of 2017 show that 71% of our carbon emissions come from 100 companies, including the likes of Gazprom, Shell, and China National Petroleum Corp. Both Ejido Verde’s Shaun Paul and Circle Carbon’s Christer Söderberg make no bones about pointing the finger in the direction of, for example, illegal loggers who cut down 66,000 hectares of forest in Michocán, Mexico in Paul’s case. Söderberg on the other hand, highlights the “unlevel playing field” of the global market, dominated by subsidised fossil fuel companies. He also takes aim at climate sceptics, suggesting that there are ways to make them see reason, in addition

to the images we see on the news every day — “for those who have any doubt we have to talk about how many thousand deaths on air pollution there are, in The Economist, they are calculating 4,000 deaths a day based on air pollution”. Indeed, Söderberg’s citation of The Economist figures are even more relevant when considering for example, the affirmation of Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s (President of the Community of Madrid in Circle Carbon’s native Spain) that “no-one has died” as a result of pollution, a claim discredited and criticised by Spain’s Superior Council of Scientific Investigation (CSIC).

The severity of the situation is irrefutable, as is the evidence of our role within that process. The question therefore, is, what are we willing to do about it? World Peace One’s Chairman Doug Ivanovich has an interesting way of looking at the question saying that if you asked most people if they want the human race to continue, they would say “yes”, without hesitation. But if you asked them the same question, and told them they would have to sacrifice X hours of watching their favourite sports team, for example, then they would take longer to answer. Reflecting on this point, we can find the essence of where we are at in our response to the climate crisis. Logically, nearly all of us would say “no, we don’t want the human race to end”. But it is up to us to prove that we truly believe that, and the only way to do this, is through action.

“Perennial prophets of doom”

January’s World Economic Forum in Davos saw the coming together of TIME magazine Person of the Year Greta Thunberg and American President Donald Trump, as both put forward different perspectives on the urgency around the global climate crisis. For Thunberg, immediate action is paramount as she demanded from the Forum’s attendees to “Immediately halt all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction. Immediately end all fossil fuel subsidies. And immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels. We don’t want these things done by 2050, 2030 or even 2021, we want this done now”. The US President’s own speech, which responded with plans to plant 1 trillion trees, was

perhaps hard to swallow for those aware of his poor track record on climate action, which includes the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement. Moreover, those sympathetic towards his dismissal of the likes of Thunberg as “perennial prophets of doom” need look no further than the devastating fires of Australia to see that demands for immediate action are far from groundless scaremongering.

Nonetheless, the notion of positivity should not be dismissed either. When speaking to VoL, World Peace One Chairman Doug Ivanovich jokingly likened watching the evening news to getting mugged, as the wave of negativity is endless. The constant negative energy is one that can provoke a sense of paralysis in individuals when faced with the overwhelming challenge of saving the planet. The necessity for balance is perhaps best summarised by Christer Söderberg, who told VoL “More than anything we need to show solutions. We have to leave behind this idea of saying how bad things are. Even though they are very bad”.

Söderberg’s analysis of the situation is worth reflecting on as it strikes a balance between acknowledging the severity of the situation, and looking for and supporting solutions to it.

Reasons to be positive

The newfound centrality of green issues at the front of collective consciousness is a great source of positivity and hope. Around the world, leaders are prioritising environmental issues in their policy. Setting a net zero carbon emissions target and setting up an independent climate commission, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has been a vocal advocate of climate policy prioritisation since her election in 2017. Countries including the UK, Germany and France have similarly set 2050 goals for net zero emissions, whilst Finland (2035), Iceland (2040), Uruguay (2030) and Norway (2030) have all set even more ambitious targets.

The importance of climate policy has also been recognised by the recently formed Spanish government. Pedro Sánchez named

four vice-presidents in his cabinet, one of whom is Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera. Ribera’s scrapping of a tax on solar power and the closing of coal mines in Spain demonstrate her environmental attitude going forward. The important notion of both acknowledging severity and showing a willingness to act is visible in Ribera’s thinking. Speaking to The Intercept about Spain’s green policy, Ribera said “we are in an emergency moment where we need to transform”. As well as his support of the Green New Deal, Sánchez’s appointment of Ribera as a vice-president, is reflective of the action the government intends to take in its response to the climate crisis.

As well as rising action and awareness from global governments, the emerging solutions and people acting upon those solutions is another cause for optimism. Amongst possible solutions identified by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), the planting of an extra one billion hectares of trees was identified as one way of mitigating the rise in the planet’s temperature. This may seem a tall order when taking into account the damage being done by forest fires and illegal loggers, but there are plenty of organisations and businesses behind the cause, which bring this possibility far closer to reality. Several of these organisations spoke to VoL, and whilst they may all center around the planting of trees, there is still a level of variety in the method and type of project. Bosques Sostenibles partner with big businesses to focus on reforesting depleted areas in Spain, 8 Billion Trees move closer towards the goal implied by their name through membership subscriptions, and search engine Ecosia have planted over 80 million trees and simultaneously empower local communities through employment.

Across the board

Just as charities, businesses and foundations are all getting behind the valuable, carbon off-setting cause of planting trees, diverse involvement from the private sector suggests that change may well be taking a hold. Taking into consideration the different backgrounds

of those who spoke to VoL, the spread of those taking action is hopefully an indication of different branches of the private sector realising their ecological responsibilities. In the world of tourism, Ecobnb encourage tourists to minimise their carbon footprint on their travels, and in the world of catering, Vegware have innovated compostable food packaging.

Elsewhere, organisations like Solar Cookers International (SCI) are both advocating and facilitating environmentally beneficial causes. Whilst not selling solar cookers, SCI promote and spread their usage, replacing open fire cooks with the green, solar-powered alternative. Similarly, whilst focused on their local area, Circle Carbon are using their experience to spread the word about the carbon sequestering biochar, which offers a creative, though perhaps not widely heard of solution to the climate crisis. Solution-focused businesses and organisations such as this will surely play a crucial role in the green movement going forward.

As solutions to climate change demand movement across both public and private sectors, the need for collaboration is a recurring theme and exemplified by the likes of Bosques Sostenibles and 1% For The Planet. Bosques Sostenibles teams up with high-profile businesses, facilitating them in offsetting their carbon emissions through the planting of trees, whilst 1% For The Planet teams up with businesses and individuals from all around the world to divert the donation of 1% of their earnings towards helping worthwhile environmental causes in areas ranging from wildlife to renewable energy.

There is therefore, no shortage of people actively working towards a positive resolution of the climate crisis. It cannot be said that there are no answers being offered. The exemplary work being done is not only a cause for hope, but gives people something, something to get behind. Climate change pressure groups would go a long way to shift their jargon, placing a greater emphasis on how to support solutions, rather than the constant reminders of how dire and desperate the climate situation is. Though

this latter idea should of course, not be ignored, it does not seem to have worked so far in mobilising action on the scale they would have wanted. Therefore, for the green movement, showcasing the organisations and businesses that are making a difference, may be a strategy to bear in mind moving forward.

How far green can go….

Whilst aspiring to greater environmental impact, social good should not be completely forgotten within new sustainable business models and global objectives. The equality of these two issues is identified by Shaun Paul of Ejido Verde, who identifies climate change and wealth inequality as the two greatest challenges facing mankind today. Ejido Verde are a perfect example of a business striking a balance between social and environmental impact. As they plant hectares of trees to Carbon echoes

in the work of Solar Cookers International. Women and children are saved the treacherous, long-distance walks (often in the heat) as they transport firewood, with solar cookers providing them with an economically viable alternative. Likewise, Christian Kroller of Ecosia pointed towards the financial independence and employment for women that can come through the planting of trees.

As we look to make our world more sustainable, we can also make it more equal. Environmental and social impact, as demonstrated by those who spoke to VoL, can go hand in glove, rather than being two very separate issues.

Crossroads

This year and decade have been highlighted as crucial by the likes of the United Nations,

with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set for 2030 serving as an example of the vision for the kind of future we want. That said, these long-term visions often struggle to engage people, much like conceptuals attempts to stimulate collective consciousness such as “if every person turned off their light bulb…”

produce pine resin, they also empower the indigenous community in Michoacán, who make their livelihoods from pine resin. Local actions, local solutions is the philosophy that Paul advocates as he cites the weakening influence of governments and the necessity for the private sector to step up. Christer Söderberg of Circle

the necessity for a local focus, claiming that change needs to come from the ground-up, with the failure of the COP25 (UN Climate Change Conference) demonstrating the inability of wider government bodies to achieve the necessary change. Kate Williams of 1% For The Planet was also keen to highlight the wider-implications of local action, telling VoL — “we’re this powerful global movement and yet a lot of our companies and individuals tend to give locally. We see that people want to be part of creating change at the global scale but they also want to be able to connect to it and understand it in their local environment. So it’s a global scale, local impact, and that’s pretty powerful”.

How environmental initiatives or businesses can fit perfectly with social impact — and sometimes in unexpected ways — is evident

To spur the world into action against climate change, a solutions-focused, role-model narrative may be the way forward. The time for debating just how severe the repercussions of inaction could be is over, as is the time for despairing over how desperate the situation has become. Now, is the time to get behind those who are doing something about this crisis and play our part. VoL’s Top 10 green organisations and businesses all serve as examples to everyone on how we should move into the new decade, and how, despite the doom and gloom caused by climate change’s worsening effects — there are reasons to be hopeful.

Since their founding in 1987, California-born Solar Cookers International (SCI) has been working towards spreading solar cooker usage across the world. As Executive Director Caitlyn Hughes highlights — about 40% of the population of the planet is currently using open fires to cook their food. The impact of substituting these open fire cookers with a renewable substitute — solar power — is not to be underestimated.

For their instrumental role in the implementation of solar cooking from refugee camps to developing countries to modern urban settings, SCI makes our list. Research, advocacy and capacity building all fall under the net of SCI’s contributions as they advise and liaise with the United Nations (UN), share how to build solar cookers, educate and train people how to use the cookers, and generally stimulate the growth of solar cooking worldwide. Their field work has taken them all around the world most recently to locations including Kenya,

Click to hear the interview,

voiced by Natalia Díaz, Daiva Sen, Caitlyn Hughes and Alan Bigelow

India and Haiti, where they have been able to establish solar cooking in local communities and bring new, key players on board.

Whilst not manufacturing solar cookers, SCI is the prime connector, educator and facilitator on the worldwide solar cooking scene. Working with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the United Nations, establishing testing standards and measuring impact and managing the world’s largest solar-cooking database are also incorporated into SCI’s role within the solar cooking world.

Solar cooking, in many ways, seems like a simple, almost obvious solution, in that the science is simple — light energy is converted into heat energy; solar energy is renewable; it reduces fuel costs; and of course, it does not pollute the planet in the same way as the open fires used by 3 billion people worldwide do. That said, their impact goes beyond the seemingly obvious environmental benefit and

extends to important social issues. The extent of the benefits of solar cooking and just how far-reaching they are may well be surprising to some as they were to us when when we spoke to SCI Executive Director Caitlyn Hughes and Alan Bigelow, Ph.D., Science Director and Main Representative of SCI to the United Nations.

Voices of Leaders: Why is solar cooking important and what difference can it make as it continues to grow?

Caitlyn Hughes: With about 40% of the world — 3 billion people — cooking over open fires, there’s a huge need for solar cooking because it’s a great alternative to that, there are so many benefits to it — it can reduce the cost of fuel because sunshine is free, we encourage local production of solar cookers so that helps strengthen local economies. It reduces smoke and all the harmful effects that come from that, which predominantly

affect women and children all over the world. It could allow people who normally spend their time gathering fuel the chance to go to school or augment their income, and support their communities and families. Even the most basic solar cooker can save 1 family 1 ton of wood in a year. So with the over 3.9 million solar cookers that we’ve identified around the world, that’s a huge impact for our environment. It prevents deforestation by not chopping down wood. Some communities would otherwise use animal dung as fuel, but if you can use that as fertilizer, it can greatly increase crop production as well.

VoL: SCI has mentioned “ensuring safety from violence” as another benefit of solar cooking. Could you elaborate on this?

Alan Bigelow: I grew up living in different countries because of my father’s work. One of those countries is Burkina Faso — it was called Upper Volta at that time — in West Africa. When we travelled around the country, we would often see women and young girls walking for large distances across barren areas with few trees and spending a lot of time looking for firewood. That’s a memory from my childhood that I never forgot. This is something that about 40% of the people on our planet are doing regularly if they need to access fuel for cooking. That happens while they’re out and about for several hours a day on average, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where there can be encounters with wild animals or other people, and tensions over high demand for such precious resources can sometimes lead to violence, sometimes sexual or gender-based violence. Rape cases have been reported from the perimeters around refugee camps where you have families that are coming in from neighbouring countries, and they’re really challenged for fuel for cooking.

For example, in Kakuma Refugee Camp, a very large refugee camp in Northern Kenya, which close to 200,000 people are living in today — I was there twice this past year — the NGOs supplying firewood for the refugees are not close to supplying at a hundred percent of the need. So that means the refugees themselves need to supplement what they

provided for free, by either buying charcoal or firewood that’s brought in by the local community (the host community) or they might go out and wander about to look for this firewood and it’s that tension with the local community that can lead to violence. Meanwhile, in a place like Northern Kenya, there’s a tremendous amount of sunshine — it’s one of the wealthiest areas on our planet for sun access — so a solar cooker can really be transformative for a family, primarily for women and girls.

VoL: So how do solar cookers work? Could you take us through your available product line, from the simplest set up to the bigger, more complex ones?

AB: We have an acronym for it: C.A.R.E.S. to help describe how a solar cooker works.

C — Collecting light

A — Absorbing light and converting light energy to heat energy

R — Retention of heat

E — Easy and Efficient

S — Safe and Sustainable

CH: Solar Cookers International actually designed a model called a “Cookit”. Our organization was requested by the United Nations to design something that was affordable and

could be made anywhere in the world. We made the plan open source, because we want more people to have it. That’s one of the most basic models, we have plans on our websites (www.solarcookers.org and www.solarcooking.org). Then there are very advanced models such as solar steam models. SCI actually organized a conference in India in January 2017, where there are systems that can cook for thousands of people at a time, for example, in ashrams, universities, schools, hospitals and spiritual centers.

AB: The Cookit is very simple and this is something that people can make themselves; it’s an open-source, reflective-panel design so even students at school can make that. A box oven is an upgrade of the reflective-panel cooker. The parabolic cooker is a little different; you don’t necessarily have a greenhouse but you’re focusing light at the region where the cookpot is placed. There also exist hybrid cookers with electrical backup, so even if there are clouds people can use electricity to warm their food. An example of a larger-scale solar cooker is a large solar thermal Scheffler system that converts water to steam that is then piped indoors to a sizeable kitchen.

VoL: Up to how many people can the most advanced solar cooker serve?

AB: The numbers are extraordinary. We’ve heard that the highest number is about 50,000 meals per day.

VoL: Do you both get to work on the ground still and work with local communities or do you have other members around the world working on the ground to introduce the solar cooker?

AB: I would say it’s both. It’s important to be in the field, on the ground, and to stay connected with the users, and to see how new products are working for people. Last year I was able to travel to Kenya two times, once in March and during that month I was working with our local collaborator who was manufacturing solar cookers. I was also able to get to the refugee camp for an entire week and interact with users, see how the training is happening, see how the uptake is really working. There is really nothing better than

having the first hand experience. Otherwise things can be missed if we’re only receiving pictures and Skype calls. There are certain things where being on the ground you’ll be able to get on to some of the finer details, which are actually very important. Fortunately we are solar cooks ourselves and by being

practitioners we can often realize if a user is actually using their cooker based on their mannerism and their behaviour when you ask them to show you how they solar cook. If they approach the solar cooker with confidence then you know they likely are a regular user.

The previous year I was also able to get to Haiti and we have several interesting pieces of work happening there. One of the exciting collaborations is at a University in a town called Hinche. It’s the University Notre Dame D’Haiti. It’s a university that focuses on biomedical aspects. We have worked together with several organisations (Public-Private Alliance Foundation, Solar

CITIES, Konbit pou Developman Commune Kotes-de-Fer, Solar Education Project, Solar Household Energy and the University of Notre Dame of Haiti at Hinche) to initiate a course in solar and biogas cooking. These are two complementary methods that can truly benefit communities such as in Haiti where accessing cooking fuel is a struggle and a challenge for many people. The two techniques combined can really fulfill someone’s cooking needs throughout their entire day year round. When it’s sunny use the solar cooker or if it’s cloudy or at night, use biogas.

That course is up and running now. Again, I have to talk about the opportunity to travel in Haiti. In this case I was travelling with one of our associates Rose Bazile. She’s a Haitian woman who lives in the New York City area, but regularly travels to her home country. And I was able to travel with her and not only work together with her at the University to help get the programme started there but then also visit some of the solar cooks in her hometown of Côtes-de-Fer which is on the Southern Coast of Haiti. To just be with her and see the users, meet the users, it’s a way to really understand how things are going on the ground.

We visited a woman named Bibine who runs a restaurant from her home in Côtes-de-Fer. With SCI’s support and guidance, she was able to gain more confidence in using her solar cooker and incorporate it into her restaurant activities. If we’re on the ground we can provide training by solar cooking together and that’s actually what we did when we were in Côtes-de-Fer with Bibine. By all accounts, she is now a very successful and regular solar cook herself, and is inspiring others in her community. She now has an additional way to support herself by using a solar cooker in her restaurant, without having to pay for fuel when she solar cooks. Definitely a success story.

So that is a part of our best practices, it’s very important and it also should be a part of every solar cooking project, not just those that SCI is involved in, but anybody taking on a solar cooking initiative really should include a good amount of training, a good amount of follow-up and of course the surveys as well.

CH: One thing I will add too is one of the ways SCI has connected the different aspects of our work is we actually brought Rose Bazile to the United Nations during the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) to share her voice about the importance of solar cooking in Haiti and I think that’s one of the important aspects that SCI tries to do in all aspects of our work but especially in advocacy — to bring the voices of people like Rose. We also brought Dr Janak Palta McGilligan from India to HLPF to share her successes and her positive experience.

CH: It points to the broader role that SCI plays is terms of facilitating that expertise sharing. We do that in a variety of ways. Professor Antonio Lecuona-Neumann was able to share some of his recent accomplishments. We can then help share that work with the solar cooking sector and they can see what might be applicable for them. SCI does this in so many different ways like I mentioned before, our global conference — we had representatives from various universities there. We also organise webinars periodically.

AB: Another voice (from Kenya), is SCI Global Advisor Godfrey Mawira. He’s an engineer. He represented the Kenyan Bureau of Standards as a delegation member from Kenya to the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) work. That was really very important that it helped keep solar cookers within the scope of the standards development for clean cook stoves and clean cooking solutions. There were a few voices among the technical committee members that suggested solar cooking should not be included, and we thought “that’s not right”, but by bringing a voice from Africa, where there is tremendous need for solar cooking, we think that was very important for keeping solar cooking within the scope of the testing standards.

VoL: You spoke at the University of Madrid during COP25 and have mentioned your University collaboration in Haiti. Could you talk to us a bit more about your collaborations with Universities?

AB: Solar cooking is such a cross-cutting solution and it requires input from so many sectors. It truly is an interdisciplinary work

in the academic field with opportunities for many departments to get involved. Not only physics where we might focus on the actual technology and on materials but the side of the social sciences, usage, food sciences. There are many opportunities at the University level.

I sometimes teach at Columbia University, which has a programme for gifted high school students, the Science Honors Programme, and I developed a course called Sustainability Engineering. Within that course one entire lecture is devoted to solar cooking. One of my students really latched on to this and after the course asked if there were any opportunities for an internship or something he could do with the organisation. So I worked with this student who built several solar cookers using open source design plans that are on the Solar Cooking Wiki. He and his father then came here to New York, and we did some PEP testing outdoors to measure the standardized cooking power of those cookers. This student has gone on to write that up as a paper and

submitted an abstract to go to the Solar World Congress in Santiago, Chile last fall. So this young student who is now going to go to university next year has been able to take solar cooking as a project that probably will be a stepping stone for launching his career.

VoL: Maybe you can work with young chefs as well!

AB: Yes! There are several chefs that have taken on to solar cooking and one celebrity chef – José Andrés of World Central Kitchen. He’s worked with solar cookers in the past. Primarily in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

VoL: What is the best thing you’ve cooked with a solar cooker?

AB: I try to cook everything on a solar cooker! I have been able to prove myself a solar cooker can basically cook anything that you would cook indoors on your gas or electric range. I think what I’ve been most excited about when I’ve solar cooked has been when I am working with a team of collaborators, for instance in Kenya last November. We brought a large solar box oven to the refugee camp as a first version of that cooker and tried it out using local foods. So we were able to load this large cooker intended to cook for families of 10-15 members, so it’s a very large box-oven and we were able fill it with seven different dishes and cook rice, ugali, githeri, some goat meat, sukuma wiki, which is based on local vegetables, corn, eggs and also do some water pasteurization experiments. But to really witness local people for the first time tasting their own foods with

this device is to me, the most exciting thing possible to experience with our work at SCI.

VoL: What would be your strategic goals for the next 3-5 years?

AB: We’ve been learning how things work at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP). This will fit into our strategic plans for strengthening the capacity of the solar cooking sector. So through our advocacy work, particularly this time, our third COP experience, we've been able to learn more details for the mechanisms of unlocking access to funding. We reviewed the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) from various countries and found that only one country lists solar cooking within their NDCs, and that is Somalia. So it’s interesting to see the mechanisms of how things work for the UN agencies for funding solutions to climate change. The funding mechanisms look for things like what is actually specified in the NDCs and if solar cooking is specified, there then that helps to unlock funding channels. By going to COP and interacting with people we think we’ve gained a lot of traction in how all that works. We are very hopeful that given this higher level of understanding we will be able to steer proposals, give guidance, and offer more consulting services out of SCI for basically scaling solar cooking so that it does become more commonplace worldwide.

CH: Really in our hearts it’s about more women like the ones we’ve mentioned, in Haiti, and everyone of us around the world who is affected by extreme changes in our climate. Solar cooking has so many benefits on the individual but also the community and on the global scale. 3.9 million solar cookers is a number but there are names and there are faces and there are families and there are stories and there are futures and there are hopes attached to each of those. And so we want to see that number but also the positive impacts on an individual and global scale continue to grow.

The time to act is yesterday. The time is right. We’re very eager to continue empowering people with this incredible solution. The strategic plan helps guide us but it’s really about the angle of making the world a better place.

Woman in Kenya solar cooking with a Heliac Fresnel-lens solar cooker | Photo by Alan Bigelow, Ph.D. Solar Cookers International

Click for more info

Time is up!

Click the circles to see the consequences

Joe Frankel first had the idea for Vegware when he was working at the University of California in Berkley back in 2005. One day, his wife brought home a plant-based spoon which she got from a farmers’ market, and the idea took root – what if catering disposables could be made from plant materials? What if the waste could be composted after use?

Joe carried his ideas and California’s entrepreneurial spirit back home with him to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he eventually founded Vegware in 2006. The company’s core mission is simple: to reduce the catering industry’s environmental impact on the planet through plant-based, compostable food packaging. In just 14 years, Vegware has grown to become a leading, multi-award winning brand and global specialist in plant-based and compostable catering disposables today, with products sold in 70 countries worldwide across Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. They have operational bases in the UK, US, Hong Kong and Australia. Some of Vegware’s customers include the UK government, the National Health Service (NHS) and Disney.

Vegware’s expansion could not come at a more opportune time when the world’s plastic crisis has reached alarming levels, with an estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic ending up in the ocean – think of a full garbage truck dumped into the sea every minute – with 89% of this plastic pollution composed of single-used plastic items, including plastic bags, straws, and disposable cutlery, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment). In response to the growing environmental disaster, the European Council of the European Union adopted the ban on single-use plastics in 2019. Consumers worldwide who are concerned about plastic pollution are increasingly looking for viable alternatives.

Plant power

Vegware offers a full range of over 350 eco-friendly and attractive products manufactured from plants with renewable, lower carbon, recycled or reclaimed materials. Many of them look deceiving – what looks like a plastic cup is actually bioplastic, which is derived from the glucose extracted from milled corn. Plates and takeaway boxes are made from bagasse,

a by-product of the sugarcane industry, while their tableware is created from naturally fallen Areca palm leaves in Southern India. Even their disposable clear bags are made from NatureFlex wood pulp. Each of these products are fully compostable – thus solving the food contamination problem of conventional packaging, which, once contaminated, cannot be easily recycled and usually ends up in a landfill or incinerator. Vegware’s products on the other hand can be composted alongside food waste in commercial composting facilities, turning into nutrient-rich compost for local land use.

Across Europe and other parts of the world, Vegware works with waste operators and regional waste consultants to identify commercial composting solutions for catering operators. Joe Frankel revealed that one of their European clients, Demo Forest, held a successful two-day event in Belgium that hosted 50,000 people on-site, and successfully processed 420kg of organic matter – composed of 20,000 used Vegware catering disposables, leftover food and other biodegradable materials – transforming it into green energy and quality compost for local use.

Paying it forward

Beyond eco-friendly products and composting campaigns, Vegware goes the extra sustainable mile by empowering communities and protecting the natural environment. In 2009, the Vegware Community Fund was established to support grassroots projects around the world, offering monthly grants and a regular donation of Vegware’s eco packaging to support various organisations. In 2019 alone, the Vegware Community Fund supported 93 charities and organisations including youth associations, community gardens, refugee shelters, soup kitchens, recycling initiatives, beekeeper societies and many more.

VoL caught up with Vegware CEO Joe Frankel to discuss the key milestones of Vegware and the promising future of the company and the plant-based industry.

On Vegware’s quality and

award-winning product line:

“If an eco-friendly product doesn’t look good and function perfectly, nobody is going to order it again. We have won more than 70 industry awards for our sustainability, performance and quality, as well as design and style. Our products are practical and stylish, and also happen to be sustainable. We now work with the world’s largest contract caterers and distributors, helping foodservice establishments meet their sales and sustainability goals.”

On championing composting:

“Our full product range is commercially compostable where accepted. That means that in industrial composting, our products can break down in under 12 weeks to create nutrient-rich compost for local farmers to enhance their land. We hold the deepest set of compostability certification in the sector. In regions where commercial composting is available, our environmental team works with our clients and the waste sector to set up robust composting schemes.”

On spearheading waste activism:

“Waste activism is us taking a proactive approach to producer responsibility. We’re committed to helping our clients identify solutions to commercially compost used Vegware in their region.”

“Packaging companies don’t normally take an active interest in what happens to their waste, but at Vegware we enjoy being hands-on. We employed a Recycling Consultant to start building relationships with the waste sector. Back then, compostable packaging was only accepted at commercial waste collections in 2% of UK postcode districts. Now in 2020 our Environmental team has five people dedicated to helping clients find composting solutions, and regular trade waste collections for Vegware clients are available in 40% of UK postcode districts — that covers the majority of major UK cities and many large populated areas. In the U.S., our US Waste Director covers coast to coast composting solutions for clients.”

On Vegware’s exponential growth and the upward trend of the plant-based industry:

“As a high-growth global business, change is a constant for us. We had a 53% increase in sales from 2018 to 2019, with a 25% growth in European sales. Our growth has been accelerated by the increased awareness of the issues with conventional plastic. Governing bodies, foodservice operators and the general public are waking up to the benefits of plant-based, renewable materials and the opportunities in composting.”

“When it comes to industry growth, plant-based is on trend in the food industry for 2020. The awareness by the industry, legislative bodies and the public is very much there around the importance of utilizing our renewable resources and not tapping into our planet’s finite oil-based resources.”

On Vegware’s near future:

“In terms of a major strategic goal, it’s to continue working at the forefront of sustainable food service packaging — new products, new innovations, and new waste solutions in more regions around the world.”

Ejido Verde faces an uphill battle as the effects of deforestation in Michoacán not only manifest themselves in the 66,000 hectares of forest cut down a year, but in the livelihoods this impacts.

Ejido Verde CEO Shaun Paul explains that the pine resin industry has been hit hard over the last sixty years, as the raw material has been

slashed by 300%, making the economic viability of indigenous lands ever more precarious. The Purépecha (Michoacán´s indigenous people) find themselves between a rock and a hard place as constitutional agrarian reforms prevent them from selling their land, while illegal loggers wreak havoc and lay waste to large areas of their forest. This leaves indigenous youth with their futures cut down around them, and families forced to search for opportunities in other cities in Mexico and over the border in the United States.

Click to hear the interview,

voiced by Natalia Díaz, Daiva Sen and Shaun Paul

This is where Ejido Verde comes in. Having planted 4,200 hectares of forest since their foundation in 2009, little by little, the Morelia-Mexico based pine-resin company has been resurrecting the livelihoods of Michoacán communities. By planting trees which yield pine resin, Ejido Verde is creating the necessary raw material on indigenous lands, meaning that the Purépecha can continue the work they have always done and are not forced from their homes in search of other economic opportunities.

Pine resin is a multi-billion dollar industry with hundreds of modern day uses, the main ones being adhesives and inks. But new markets such as biofuels and biocarbonated beverages have also been opened up in recent times. Ejido Verde buys crude pine resin from its forest community partners. This resin is later made into either turpentine and gum rosin or derivatives and speciality ingredients sold to global corporations across 12 industries and 20 countries.