Tom Raftery's Weekly Newsletter - Issue #21

Welcome to another edition of my Wednesday newsletter, as I attempt to get you through Humpday, and heading into the weekend in fine fettle

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. One of the most important ones, I think is the news that eccentric super-hero/villain Elon Musk has given $100m to the XPRIZE Foundation to incentivise research into removing CO2 from the atmosphere. More details here.

I spoke to Microsoft's Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa on my Climate 21 podcast a few weeks back and he shared some of the incredible initiatives Microsoft are undertaking to also incentivise removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. You can listen to that interview here (includes full transcript)

Other good news stories, in no particular order...

The next act for messenger RNA could be bigger than covid vaccines — www.technologyreview.com On December 23, as part of a publicity push to encourage people to get vaccinated against covid-19, the University of Pennsylvania released footage of two researchers who developed the science behind the shots, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, getting their inoculations.

The Incredible Challenges Of Vaccinating The World - Twice — www.forbes.com That was the commitment made by newly installed President Joe Biden as he entered office in the USA. COVID-19 is probably his biggest challenge and one of the biggest any president has ever faced as they enter the White House for the first time.

EY data model: 24x more fleet electric vehicles by 2030 — www.electrive.com The EY consultancy coproduced a new report with Eurelectric looking at electrification in Europe. The consultants identified fleets as having the largest potential for electrification – in particular if incentivised effectively.

South Korea unveils $43 billion plan for world's largest offshore wind farm — finance-yahoo-com.cdn.ampproject.org SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea unveiled a 48.5 trillion won ($43.2 billion) plan to build the world's largest wind power plant by 2030 as part of efforts to foster an environmentally-friendly recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

bp supports new World Economic Forum stakeholder metrics initiative — www.bp.com The Davos Manifesto 2020: The Universal Purpose of a Company in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, articulates the principles of stakeholder capitalism and reflects the ethos of the World Economic Forum since its founding in 1971.

We're Just Out Here 3D-Printing Meat Now, I Guess — gizmodo.com If you can 3D-print a gun... if you can 3D-print a home... then brother, you might as well pull up a chair and 3D-print yourself some meat while you’re at it, because these masses aren’t going to feed themselves.

Digital Supply Chain (DSC) podcast episodes

On the DSC podcast this week I talked to

• Ted Rozier of Festo Didactic. Festo Didactic works with third level education institutions and educators to roll out "mini-factories" so students can work with and gain experience the robots, assembly lines, and data tech they'll bump into in the workplace. A fantastic initiative - listen here

• Then this Monday I invited Mike Lackey onto the podcast. Mike and I had an excellent chat about Industry 4.0, automation, and what manufacturing will look like in a post covid world. Check it out here

Climate 21 podcast episodes

On my Climate 21 podcast I published an excellent episodes this morning (as a reminder, the Climate 21 podcast goes out every Wednesday morning at 6am CET)

• In this week's episode of the Climate 21 podcast I talked to the Global Leader of Climate and Environment for Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Michel Frédeau, and the Global Procurement Lead for BCG, Daniel Weiss about BCG's initiative to go carbon negative, and their initiatives to help their clients also reduce their emissions. Check out the episode here

Livestreams

I put out my weekly Tuesday Tech for Good - live show livestream yesterday and this week's show was extra special

• As well as my usual co-host Chris Kernaghan, for the first time I invited a guest to come on the show. Our guest was Dr Fiona Edwards Murphy, Founder and CEO of Apisprotect. Watch the recorded livestream to see the excellent Tech for Good stories we covered, and Fiona to find out about the incredibly important work ApisProtect are doing. Watch the playback here

And finally...

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

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