Reducing our carbon footprint by transitioning to renewable energy
Circular Economy
A circular economy tackles global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution.
A model of economic, social, environmental production and consumption which aims to build a sustainable society based on a circular model. The goals are to eliminate linear development and waste by transforming actions into a circular model of reuse and repurpose; creating economies and societies to become more autonomous, sustainable, and mindful of environmental resources.
Transforming business to a circular economy the process creates an ecological economy. Keeping products, materials, equipment, and infrastructure in use for longer periods reduces of the number of materials used, increased usage life and a reduction of impact on the environment: creating a pattern of “make, use, reuse, remake, recycle”.
A simplified example: food industry creates waste during its production while humans produce waste during its consumption, waste is collected and processed via anaerobic digestion to create green biogas. The biogas is used to create green electricity and green biomethane gas to power the industry, green biomethane gas & heat for human consumption and green hydrogen for transportation, agricultural and industrial used to create more food stuffs.
Carbon Negative
Most providers of renewable energy work to become carbon neutral, meaning that the amount of CO2 emissions that they put into the atmosphere are the same amount of CO2 emissions being removed by using renewable energy. Carbon negative goes a step further in that the process of anaerobic digestion can remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than the energy being replaced.
To demonstrate - Sprouter Energy uses feedstock such as animal manure or food waste which is usually left to decompose naturally, releasing methane and CO2 into the atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse gas problem. By removing this feedstocks from the equation, it no longer contributes to the GHG issue. In using methane emitting feedstock in the anaerobic digester process Sprouter Energy is creates carbon negative energy.
In using natural organic feedstocks Sprouter Energy contributes to clean energy while reducing the amount of GHG emissions, the proper collection and application of anaerobic digestion feedstock can result in threefold reduction of greenhouse gas emissions resulting in a carbon negative rating.
Some biomass - biogas producers have been relying on using purpose grown crops and wood pellets as feedstock, both of which contribute to greenhouse gas levels. Biogas which is rated as grey-biogas or black-biogas is almost as damaging to the environment as fossil fuels and should not be considered as an alternative in the move towards net-zero emmsions.
Net - Zero
Net zero refers to a state in which the amount greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by the same amount of greenhouse gases being removal out of the atmosphere.
The difference between net zero and carbon neutral is that carbon neutral refers to a policy of not increasing carbon emissions and of achieving carbon reduction through offsets. While net zero carbon means making changes to reduce carbon emissions to the lowest amount and only using offsetting as a last resort.
Net zero is important especially for CO2, as this is the state at which global warming stops. The Paris Agreement underlines the need for net zero, requiring states to ‘achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century’.
Most countries will be able to achieve absolute zero or zero emissions though the process is fraught with numerous hurdles such as the amount of renewable energy needed to replace fossil fuels, the transition of economies from carbon-based energy to renewable, the operational limitations of renewables in some sectors and humanities desire to accept change.