Tom Raftery's Newsletter - Issue #20

So, last week's edition of the newsletter seemed to down reasonably well - great (!) I guess that means I'm publishing a weekly newsletter again :)

One of the reasons I resurrected this newsletter last week was because the Revue platform I use to send it out was bought by Twitter, speaking to the rising interest in newsletters, so I thought, why not check out Revue once more to see how it is doing? And, you know what? I like what I see!

Some interesting stories this week... read on

Tech for Good stories of the week

There were several very positive stories in the world of Tech for Good this week. To my mind the really big one has to be Blackrock CEO Larry Fink's 2021 annual letter to CEO's where he urges corporations to lay out net zero plans. Check out the analysis of why that is important here. Other good news stories, in no particular order...

Major milestone for world’s biggest solar project — www.pv-magazine.com The world’s biggest solar+storage project is a step closer to realization, as the government of Australia’s Northern Territory and Singapore-based Sun Cable have signed a deal to advance the development of the Australia-ASEAN Power Link.

Supply chains can be a climate game-changer. Here's why — www.weforum.org For leading business executives committed to climate action, there was a silver lining in the dark cloud of 2020. Greenhouse gas emissions dropped for the first time since the Second World War – by about 6-8%. Your company’s emissions probably went down along with everyone else’s.

Scania Ditches Fuel Cell Trucks To Focus On Full Electric — cleantechnica.com Sweden’s Scania AB, one of the world’s largest heavy duty truck and bus manufacturers, is benching its fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) program and pushing ahead with full electric powertrains for its zero emission transport future.

Why a Great Customer Experience Requires a Great Supply Chain — partners.wsj.com After researching home gym equipment, I decided to buy. I went online and within minutes was able to place an order—with individualized requirements—to be delivered the following week. Perfect. What a great customer experience. Not so fast.

The new use for abandoned oil rigs — www.bbc.com The grey steel girders of Platform Holly rise 235ft (72m) above the waters of the Pacific Ocean, just a couple of miles off the Santa Barbara coast. Above the water, this decommissioned oil rig is dull and lifeless, but the view below the surface is very different.

Digital Supply Chain (DSC) podcast episodes

On the DSC podcast I had

• a chat with Sergey Margaryan. Sergey is the Head of the Plant Maintenance Transformation for ERG - an international mining company and he talked about how they completely transformed their asset maintenance operations and strategy - listen here

• Then this MondayI invited Karin Bursa onto the podcast. Karin hosts the TekTok podcast on the Supply Chain Now network. We had a great time talking about all the new tech trends in supply chain. Check it out here

Climate 21 podcast episodes

On my Climate 21 podcast I published two episodes since last week's newsletter

• In the first I interviewed Rodi Basso - Rodi is CEO and co-founder of the E1 Series - the all new electric powerboat racing series. This was a fun one. You can listen in here and

• In the second, I talked to Adam Lyons about the growing focus on ESG reporting at board level in corporations. This is a fascinating new area which will have huge implications for advancing the sustainability agenda. Hear what Adam had to say here

Livestreams

I'm doing two livestreams this week - my personal weekly one, and a new 5-part livestream series for SAP

• My own one went off without any technical hitches which was nice given the mess I made of the kick-off last week! We covered some really interesting stories spanning Energy, Emissions, Transportation, and Climate, amongst others. Audience engagement was fantastic with loads of comments and feedback in realtime, which is always nice. The recording is available here

• The first of the SAP series is on how Design is a Critical Part of Resilient, Sustainable Supply Chains - it should be a good one. It goes out today (Wednesday Feb 3rd) at 5pm CET, 11am ET, 8am PT - do join, if you can

And finally...

Thanks for your interest and attention. If you like this newsletter, tell a friend!

And, if you have any comments/questions/suggestions on how to make it better, feel free to let me know :)

Have a great rest of your week