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The Extracted Earth
https://granta.com/the-extracted-earth/
What has been hailed as the ‘green transition’ – the global project to end large-scale extraction of fossil fuels – requires a shift to a new set of extractive projects. Green technologies depend on minerals and metals locked in the earth: lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and, above all, iron for steel. The exploitation, corruption and environmental destruction involved in the mining of these materials are not on the wane. But what can be done to counter the interests behind them? What possibilities are there for a less ecologically compromised and economically stratified future?
Interview with Thea Riofrancos.

Article; 90% of the World’s Goods are Moved By Sea. Says Who?
https://liquidtime.substack.com/p/90-of-the-worlds-goods-are-moved
First off: what is this stat even actually saying? Is it saying that 90% of all traded goods are moved by sea – as the World Economic Forum puts it? Or just 90% of international trade – as OECD (WEF’s source) puts it? Because these are very different claims. Additionally, the statistic is referring to volume of goods rather than value, but that’s not immediately clear in the way its often presented. These, too, are very different claims: 10 tonnes of sand is a very different thing to, say, 10 tonnes of laptops.

All the Places;
https://www.alltheplaces.xyz/


A growing set of web scrapers designed to output consistent geodata about as many places of business in the world as possible.

Food Systems Dashboard
https://www.foodsystemsdashboard.org/


The Food Systems Dashboard gives a complete view of food systems by bringing together data from multiple sources. It's now possible to compare drivers, components, and outcomes of food systems across countries and regions, gain insights into challenges, and identify actions to improve nutrition, health, and environmental outcomes.

Article; Burn After Wearing
https://grist.org/international/burn-after-wearing-fashion-waste-chile/


Fast fashion dumped in Chilean desert caught fire

Ethical Tea Partnership
https://etp-global.org/
ETP was founded by a coalition of tea companies with a shared concern to understand supply chain risks. Today, ETP is a global membership organisation catalysing long-term, systemic change, to benefit everybody who works in tea – especially people in tea-producing regions. Our work addresses the key issues within economics, equality, and the environment. The issues in the tea sector are complex; they are caused by a multitude of factors and cannot be addressed by one stakeholder alone.

FSC-certified forest management benefits large mammals compared to non-FSC
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07257-8
More than a quarter of the world’s tropical forests are exploited for timber1. Logging impacts biodiversity in these ecosystems, primarily through the creation of forest roads that facilitate hunting for wildlife over extensive areas. Forest management certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are expected to mitigate impacts on biodiversity, but so far very little is known about the effectiveness of FSC certification because of research design challenges, predominantly limited sample sizes. Here we provide this evidence by using 1.3?million camera-trap photos of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa.

Shrimp Welfare Project
https://www.shrimpwelfareproject.org/
Shrimp Welfare Project aims to improve the lives of billions of farmed shrimps worldwide

Report; Hidden Harvests
https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/hidden-harvest
This report is the culmination of three years of research and investigations into the Indian shrimp sector, examining evidence of forced labor, living and working conditions for shrimp supply chain workers, environmental impacts of the industry, and the failure of social auditing certification schemes that purport to to ensure that the shrimp sold with their imprimatur were ethically and sustainably produced.

The current system of farmed shrimp production is not sustainable – not for workers, the environment, or – ultimately – for retailers, wholesalers, or consumers. The Indian shrimp sector is rife with discrimination, dangerous working conditions, hazardous child labor, sexual harassment, debt bondage, threats and intimidation, toxic sewage, false and misleading certification schemes, and a general lack of oversight.

Rather than continue down a road littered with exploitation, discrimination, and forced labor, companies – and governments – have the opportunity and the duty to act now. There is no time to waste in treating workers with respect and addressing the substantial threats to the environment presented by the Indian shrimp sector.

Corporate Accountability Lab
https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/
That’s where CAL comes in. We are a team with diverse experiences in labor rights, human rights, and environmental rights, working towards a shared goal of making companies legally accountable when they harm people and the environment. CAL was founded in response to the crisis of widespread corporate abuse of human rights and the environment and disappearing legal tools to hold corporations accountable. In the midst of this ongoing crisis, public interest lawyers and the broader social justice community are too often overburdened with work using existing tools and lack the time, resources, and space to come up with creative strategies for broad impact. CAL aims to change that.

Global Data Hub on Human Trafficking
https://www.ctdatacollaborative.org/
The Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative is the first global data hub on human trafficking, publishing harmonized data from counter-trafficking organizations around the world. Launched in November 2017, the goal of CTDC is to break down information-sharing barriers and equip the counter-trafficking community with up to date, reliable data on human trafficking. CTDC data has so far been accessed by users in over 150 countries and territories.

Investors push Zara to publish full supply chain
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/investors-push-zara-owner-inditex-publish-full-supply-chain-2024-03-11


Inditex is an outlier among big clothing retailers in not publishing which factories it sources from. Regulators and investors want greater transparency and better disclosure from companies. Clothing retailers, in particular, are under pressure to prove that there is no forced labour in their supply chains, and that garment workers are paid decent wages.

Corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD)
https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/corporate-sustainability-reporting_en
On 5 January 2023, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) entered into force. It modernises and strengthens the rules concerning the social and environmental information that companies have to report. A broader set of large companies, as well as listed SMEs, will now be required to report on sustainability. Some non-EU companies will also have to report if they generate over EUR 150 million on the EU market.

The new rules will ensure that investors and other stakeholders have access to the information they need to assess the impact of companies on people and the environment and for investors to assess financial risks and opportunities arising from climate change and other sustainability issues. Finally, reporting costs will be reduced for companies over the medium to long term by harmonising the information to be provided.

The first companies will have to apply the new rules for the first time in the 2024 financial year, for reports published in 2025.

Duurzaamheidsrapportage CSRD
https://www.kvk.nl/duurzaamheid/verplichte-duurzaamheidsrapportage-dit-betekent-het/


Welke invloed heeft je bedrijf op de wereld? Deze vraag moeten veel grote organisaties beantwoorden in een verplichte duurzaamheidsrapportage. Dat bepaalt de Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), een nieuwe Europese richtlijn. In de rapportage presenteren bedrijven hoe duurzaam en maatschappelijk verantwoord ze ondernemen. Wat betekent de CSRD voor jou als ondernemer en hoe bereid je je voor op deze nieuwe regelgeving?

An Overview of Shrimp and its Sustainability in 2024
https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/shrimp-sustainability-2024/
Despite this steadily growing demand domestically and abroad, wild and farmed shrimp production has inherent, well-reported issues that make sustainability challenging. Consumers are more aware of these issues than ever, with considerable media attention given to the environmental and social challenges in recent years. Grocery retail buyers are responding by requiring minimum environmental certifications and labor standards for their suppliers. But how are these new criteria keeping up with demand? How sustainable is global shrimp production in 2024?

Marine Stewardship Council pauses new standards for seafood sustainability
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/marine-stewardship-council-pauses-seafood-standard-1.7105691
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), whose blue check mark is a global symbol of seafood sustainability, has been forced to pause and rework its latest fisheries standard less than a year after it was launched. The London-based non-profit organization is responding to complaints by fishing industry groups around the world, including major players in Atlantic Canada, that the new standard is vague and unworkable.

What is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)?
https://www.ibm.com/topics/csrd
The goal of the CSRD is to provide transparency that will help investors, analysts, consumers, and other stakeholders better evaluate EU companies’ sustainability performance as well as the related business impacts and risks. Introduced as part of the European Commission’s Sustainable Finance Package, the CSRD notably expands the scope, sustainability disclosures and reporting requirements of its predecessor, the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD).

CSRD reporting is based on the concept of double materiality: Organizations have to disclose information on how their business activities affect the planet and its people, and how their sustainability goals, measures and risks impact the financial health of the business. For example, in addition to requiring an organization to report its energy usage and costs, CSRD requires them to report emissions metrics that detail how that energy use impacts the environment, targets for reducing that impact, and information on how achieving those targets will affect the organization’s finances.

Double materiality
https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/double-materiality-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter/


The concept of double materiality brings environmental impacts into the focus of standard-setting in accounting. Different reasons for adopting this concept might lead to widely varying interpretations, yet the fitness of the financial system to facilitate a net-zero economy depends on how it is conceived.

Article; Measuring Global Value Chains
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-economics-080217-053600
Recent decades have seen the emergence of global value chains (GVCs), in which production stages for individual goods are broken apart and scattered across countries. Stimulated by these developments, there has been rapid progress in data and methods for measuring GVC linkages. The macro ap- proach to measuring GVCs connects national input–output tables across borders by using bilateral trade data to construct global input–output tables. These tables have been applied to measure trade in value added, the length of and location of producers in GVCs, and price linkages across countries. The micro approach uses firm-level data to document firms’ input sourcing decisions, how import and export participation are linked, and how multi- national firms organize their production networks. In this review, I evaluate progress in these two approaches, highlighting points of contact between them and areas that demand further work. I argue that further convergence between these approaches can strengthen both, yielding a more complete empirical portrait of GVCs.

Article; The governance of global value chains
https://rrojasdatabank.info/sturgeon2005.pdf
This article builds a theoretical framework to help explain governance pat- terns in global value chains. It draws on three streams of literature – trans- action costs economics, production networks, and technological capability and firm-level learning – to identify three variables that play a large role in determining how global value chains are governed and change. These are: (1) the complexity of transactions, (2) the ability to codify transactions, and (3) the capabilities in the supply-base. The theory generates five types of global value chain governance – hierarchy, captive, relational, modular, and market – which range from high to low levels of explicit coordination and power asymmetry. The article highlights the dynamic and overlapping nature of global value chain governance through four brief industry case studies: bicycles, apparel, horticulture and electronics.

Article; Entangled chains of global value and wealth
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09692290.2023.2220268?src=recsys
n recent decades multinational enterprises have developed ways to reorganize production and trade through Global Value Chains (GVCs), and to manage assets and liabilities through Global Wealth Chains (GWCs). This co-evolution has permitted the hyper-extraction of labor and natural resources through financial and legal technologies, entangling value creation and wealth accumulation. While scholars have separately acknowledged the role that GVCs and GWCs play in generating distributional outcomes, entanglements of production, trade, finance, and law are now so extensive that we need a sharper analytical lens to understand their interrelations. In pursuit of such a lens, we propose a research agenda focused on chain entanglements. We argue that GVCs and GWCs are not governed by firms as separate or even sequenced processes, but rather that value creation and wealth accumulation strategies are imbricated in ways that merit careful study. We develop a framework for analyzing entangled chains based on two dimensions: 1) the relative importance of intangible versus tangible assets; and 2) the orientation of firm strategy towards value creation or wealth accumulation activities.

Article: Global Value Mapping
https://www.globalvaluechains.org/wp-content/uploads/Frederick-GVC_Mapping.pdf
Global value chain (GVC) research has evolved from a theoretical framework to become an applied research approach over the last 20 years. As described in detail in other chapters of the Handbook and elsewhere, the GVC framework was developed based on case studies and qualitative firm-based research. As GVC analysis has increasingly gained the atten- tion of policymakers, there has become a need to link theoretical concepts to a definable research approach. This shift from theory to application has also led to the use of more standardized data sources to enable comparability and repeatability over time. Applied research implies that actionable recommendations can be made based on the outcomes of using the framework. The objective is no longer just to explain how and why certain countries participate in an industry, but also to determine how successful a country has been in the industry and to provide recommendations on how this can be sustained or increased into the future. In today’s data-driven world, to be useful for policymakers and government agencies, these comparisons and recommendations need to have at least esti- mated quantifiable metrics on key topics such as increases in exports, output, employment, wages or skill levels. This requires the use of industry-specific national and firm-level data.

Sustainable by design: A blueprint for sourcing green building materials
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/esg/the-energy-transition/sustainable-energy-infrastructure/blueprint-for-sourcing-green-building-materials.html
Roughly one-fifth of infrastructure and building emissions comes from steel and cement production alone. To address this challenge, we’ve developed a sustainable framework for procuring green materials—a critical step in the pursuit of net zero.

PDF; Our Common Future
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf
In the middle of the 20th century, we saw our planet from space for the first time. Historians may eventually find that this vision had a greater impact on thought than did the Copernican revolution of the 16th century, which upset the human self-image by revealing that the Earth is not the centre of the universe. From space, we see a small and fragile ball dominated not by human activity and edifice but by a pattern of clouds, oceans, greenery, and soils. Humanity's inability to fit its activities into that pattern is changing planetary systems, fundamentally. Many such changes are accompanied by life-threatening hazards. This new reality, from which there is no escape, must be recognized - and managed.

Our Common Future
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Common_Future
Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report, was published in October 1987 by the United Nations through the Oxford University Press. This publication was in recognition of Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Norwegian Prime Minister and Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). Its targets were multilateralism and interdependence of nations in the search for a sustainable development path. The report sought to recapture the spirit of the Stockholm Conference which had introduced environmental concerns to the formal political development sphere. Our Common Future placed environmental issues firmly on the political agenda; it aimed to discuss the environment and development as one single issue.

Impact of tracking and tracing on the tobacco industry
https://tobaccotactics.org/article/track-and-trace/
Tobacco companies, therefore, have a vested interest in gaining control of and undermining the effectiveness of tracking and tracing systems. If an effective global system was to be implemented, tobacco companies could face increased tax payments and fines. They could even be subject to further litigation related to tobacco smuggling, if they were found responsible for their products ending up on the illicit market.

Article: Chinese machtsovername in de Europese zeehavens
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/chinese-privatisering-van-de-griekse-haven-piraeus?share=uCYJY%2BKtxN%2Fonk0Mj53TNkGTOx9LykQRdIDIGeBe3pLPBycBRswcdqKhhnY98cg%3D
Het Chinese staatsconcern Cosco Shipping heeft de macht kunnen grijpen in de Griekse haven Piraeus. Nieuwe regels tegen riskante strategische investeringen door buitenlandse bedrijven hebben niets uitgehaald. Door economisch opportunisme van de lidstaten faalt de Europese Unie als geheel.

Sourcing Hub Preffered by Nature
https://sourcinghub.preferredbynature.org/


dentify and mitigate risks in your supply chains from a well-researched global resource

Preferred by Nature
https://www.preferredbynature.org/
Preferred by Nature is a non-profit organisation that supports better land management and business practices that benefit people, nature and climate.

The International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC)
https://www.iscc-system.org/
The International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) is an independent multi-stakeholder initiative and leading certification system supporting sustainable, fully traceable, deforestation-free and climate-friendly supply chains. With our certification we contribute to environmentally, socially and economically sustainable production.

Paper; Satellite mapping reveals extensive industrial activity at sea
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06825-8


The world’s population increasingly relies on the ocean for food, energy production and global trade yet human activities at sea are not well quantified. We combine satellite imagery, vessel GPS data and deep-learning models to map industrial vessel activities and offshore energy infrastructure across the world’s coastal waters from 2017 to 2021. We find that 72–76% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, with much of that fishing taking place around South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. We also find that 21–30% of transport and energy vessel activity is missing from public tracking systems. Globally, fishing decreased by 12?±?1% at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and had not recovered to pre-pandemic levels by 2021. By contrast, transport and energy vessel activities were relatively unaffected during the same period. Offshore wind is growing rapidly, with most wind turbines confined to small areas of the ocean but surpassing the number of oil structures in 2021. Our map of ocean industrialization reveals changes in some of the most extensive and economically important human activities at sea.

Paper; Monitoring Global Supply Chains
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/11591700/short%252ctoffel%252chugill_monitoring-global-supply-chains.pdf
Firms seeking to avoid reputational spillovers that can arise from dangerous, illegal, and unethical behavior at supply chain factories are increasingly relying on private social auditors to provide strategic information about suppliers’ conduct. But little is known about what influences auditors’ ability to identify and report problems. Our analysis of nearly 17,000 supplier audits reveals that auditors report fewer violations when individual auditors have audited the factory before, when audit teams are less experienced or less trained, when audit teams are all-male, and when audits are paid for by the audited supplier. This first comprehensive and systematic analysis of supply chain monitoring identifies previously overlooked transaction costs and suggests strategies to develop governance structures to mitigate reputational risks by reducing information asymmetries in supply chains.

Book; Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains: Problems, Progress, and Prospec
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv16kkx12
Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains examines the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility on improving labor standards in global supply chains. Sarosh Kuruvilla charts the development and effectiveness of corporate codes of conduct to ameliorate "sweatshop" conditions in global supply chains. This form of private voluntary regulation, spearheaded by Nike and Reebok, became necessary given the inability of third world countries to enforce their own laws and the absence of a global regulatory system for labor standards. Although private regulation programs have been adopted by other companies in many different industries, we know relatively little regarding the effectiveness of these programs because companies don't disclose information about their efforts and outcomes in regulating labor conditions in their supply chains. Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains presents data from companies, multi-stakeholder institutions, and auditing firms in a comprehensive, investigative dive into the world of private voluntary regulation of labor conditions. The picture he paints is wholistic and raw, but it considers several ways in which this private voluntary system can be improved to improve the lives of workers in global supply chains.

Paper; The Red Sea link. Geo-economic projections
https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/72105/QM-03-21-328-EN-N.pdf
The Red Sea region is becoming increasingly important in global geopolitics. Given its importance for global trade and security, growing geo-economic projections, military rivalries and the risk of confrontation between key regional players and international actors are growing and could have far-reaching and disruptive repercussions. This paper explores the critical economic and security issues that link littoral, regional and international powers to the Red Sea region. It shows how efforts by countries in the broader Gulf region and external powers to extend their influence to the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa can produce a potential new conflict zone. It concludes by offering some reflections on how to promote regional security and economic development in the region, with a view to minimising the risk of conflict and increasing opportunities for cooperation

Archaeologies of the Belt and Road Initiative
https://madeinchinajournal.com/2021/12/01/archaeologies-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative/
Since its announcement in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become the main lens through which both observers and stakeholders trace China’s global footprint. Whether cheered on as a new engine of economic development in a fraught and increasingly unequal world or frowned upon as a masterplan through which the Chinese authorities are attempting to establish global hegemony, the infrastructure component of the BRI has become such an important frame in discussions of Global China that less tangible aspects that are not in its purview tend to be lost or overlooked.

Global Ocean Carriers Halt Red Sea Transits – What to Expect
https://www.flexport.com/blog/global-ocean-carriers-halt-red-sea-transits-what-to-expect/


As of today, 389 carrier vessels accounting for 5.4 million TEUs of capacity are actively diverting, will divert, or have already diverted from the Suez Canal as a direct result of these attacks.

After Maersk’s decision on December 31 to re-pause transits through the high-risk areas, they are now diverting vessels that were idling south of the Gulf of Aden towards the southern tip of Africa.

COSCO is also now routing most vessels around the Cape of Good Hope but continues to assess on a vessel-by-vessel basis. See the below visual in which COSCO’s vessels are in yellow.

Some carriers are deploying vessels that typically service other trades like Asia to North America and LATAM to Asia to Europe trades to compensate for service disruptions. Today alone, we saw 4 vessels across HMM and Hapag-Lloyd accounting for 33k TEUs of capacity that will be deployed on the Asia to North Europe and Mediterranean trades. Vessel deployment will help, but not solve capacity constraints. Equipment shortages at origin ports are expected to rise in the coming weeks as the impacts of service disruptions make their way downstream.

The military coalition aimed at protecting the risk areas now consists of 12 nations. On Wednesday, the coalition warned Houthis of ‘consequences’ for continued attacks in the region. From the White House, “The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”

Article; Dit vliegtuigje betrapt vervuilende schepen op heterdaad
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/vieze-uitstoot-schepen?share=ZCKWX2u0XTcYLNc7BG/GFR1BALE7RsO5iUSZdXY2QcwhaI fBZH9MOcZYQSLhYA
De gevoelige meetapparatuur registreert direct hoeveel CO2, stikstofoxiden, roet en zwavel het containerschip uitstoot. Op een schermpje tonen kleurrijke lijnen die hoeveelheden in een diagram. ‘Hier zie je de uitstoot van zwavel.’ Van Roy wijst naar een donkergroene lijn die stevig fluctueert. Nog binnen de norm. Zwavel leidt in te grote hoeveelheden tot ernstige luchtverontreiniging – het is een belangrijke veroorzaker van zure regen en gezondheidsproblemen. Het vormt fijnstof dat diep doordringt in de longen en aandoeningen kan veroorzaken aan de luchtwegen. Het kan ook leiden tot hart- en vaatziekten.

Article; More than 100 container ships rerouted from Suez canal to avoid Houthi attacks
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/20/more-than-100-container-ships-rerouted-suez-canal-red-sea-houthi-attacks-yemen


More than 100 container ships have been rerouted around southern Africa to avoid the Suez canal, in a sign of the disruption to global trade caused by Houthi rebels attacking vessels on the western coast of Yemen. The shipping company Kuehne and Nagel said it had identified 103 ships that had already changed course, with more expected to go around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. The diversion adds about 6,000 nautical miles to a typical journey from Asia to Europe, potentially adding three or four weeks to product delivery times.

Rémunéra score
https://www.foodlog.nl/gespot/2023-08-08/


De Rémunéra-score was al voorzien in de wet Egalim-2, een wet die de verbetering van het boereninkomen beoogt. Frankrijk nam in 2017, na de Etats Généraux de l'Alimentation die de net gekozen president Emmanuel Macron toen organiseerde, een aantal maatregelen om de Franse landbouw te ondersteunen. Niet alle maatregelen van het Franse landbouw- en voedselbeleid pakten even goed uit, vandaar het vervolg. Door middel van een label met letters en kleuren, vergelijkbaar met de Nutri-Score, krijgen consumenten inzicht in de prijs die aan de boeren wordt betaald. Het label gaat gelden voor rund-, varkens-, schapen- en geitenvlees, verse groenten en fruit, eieren, melk en zuivel van koeien-, geiten- of schapenmelk. De sectoren wijn, pluimvee(producten) en granen vallen niet onder de regeling. In het decreet wordt geen enkele distributiemethode of afzetkanaal uitgesloten.

Article; Cold chain
https://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/59374-raising-temperatures-of-cold-storage-warehouses-would-cut-emissions-lineage-says
According to the group, academic research shows that raising the standard storage temperature of most frozen food by just 3 degrees Celsius to -15 C could make a significant environmental impact by cutting carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of taking 3.8 million cars off the road per year, without compromising food safety or quality.

Wakeo; Company Website
https://wakeo.co/
A single platform connected to the largest network on the market for freight forwarders, shippers and carriers. Unlock the value of your supply chain with multimodal real-time visibility.

SeaRoutes; Company Website
https://searoutes.com/
Searoutes leverages modern algorithms & datasets to go beyond the standard methodologies. We provide CO2 emissions for transport, and powerful routing engines, that accurately match the services operated by the carriers.

Fair Labor
https://www.fairlabor.org/
The Fair Labor Association® (FLA) provides training and tools to build expertise in companies and drive innovation in business practices, ultimately improving working conditions and the lives of the workers who make the products you buy. FLA’s wide range of evidence-based, ready-to-implement resources allows us to meet companies where they are on their journey to improving workers’ rights. We provide targeted guidance for companies working to achieve FLA Accreditation and ongoing training for accredited companies. We offer a learning program for Collegiate Licensees, whose University partners are eager to raise labor standards for merchandise bearing their logos. FLA conducts leading-edge research on critical topics such as fair compensation/living wage, supply chain innovation, and forced labor/child labor—ultimately allowing us to provide partners with evidence-based advice and tools to improve labor practices.

Supply Chain Innocation: Drone Corridor
https://techhq.com/2023/01/supply-chain-innovation-drone-corridor-unlocks-pilotless-future/
If you’re a fan of flight tracking websites such as flightradar24.com, planefinder.net, and other apps showing air traffic, then you’ll be familiar with the concept of highways in the sky. Monitored by air traffic controllers, planes keep to designated flight paths or air tracks. Point-to-point air transport has tremendous supply chain advantages, primarily in getting goods to customers in the shortest possible time. And delivery options could soon include uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) thanks to commercial drone corridor plans.

Article; How environmentally friendly are Iceland’s data centers?
https://techhq.com/2023/11/how-environmentally-friendly-are-icelands-data-centers/
Iceland certainly sees itself as one of the most viable options for handling our ever-growing data demands, and with good reason. The country has a mild climate all year round, with temperatures ranging from just above freezing in the winter to around 54°F (12°C) in the summer, and the range is even smaller on the south of the island. This essentially provides data centers, that produce a lot of heat but must be kept at around 68 to 77°F (20 to 25°C), with a free, natural cooling system that doesn’t require any energy. Iceland’s data center industry boasts an impressive power usage effectiveness (PUE) range of 1.05 to 1.2, thanks to the lack of air conditioning systems and instances of hardware overheating.

White House creates cabinet-level supply chain council
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/white-house-creates-council-supply-chain-resilience/
“Robust supply chains are fundamental to a strong economy. When supply chains smooth, prices fall for goods, food, and equipment, putting more money in the pockets of American families, workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “That is why President Biden made supply chain resilience a priority from Day One of his Administration.”

Article; Electric mountain, The beauty of infrastructure
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/nov/02/beauty-of-infrastructure-electric-mountain-dinorwig-power-station-north-wales

Infrastructural systems are more than just technical – they are social and political. They are shaped by the sustained relationships of the people who live in the places they connect, and they also form part of that relationship. They can’t easily be valued or assessed like a consumer good, where it’s “worth it” to buy something or not. Deciding to buy a car has little in common with deciding when, where and how to build the roads to drive it on. So infrastructural systems don’t lend themselves to decision-making that focuses solely on the costs or the returns on investment.

An infrastructural network can encode and promote a set of values: everyone should have access to clean water, or electricity is a necessity, or personal mobility is a human right, or a healthy population is important, or broadband access is required to fully participate in civic society, or even endangered fish should be protected. While infrastructural systems can meet basic human needs, providing agency and freedom, the specific form they take depends on cultural norms and expectations; in turn, the systems set and define those norms and expectations.

article bibliography essay infrastructure | permalink | 2023-11-02 12:16:03

The Atlas of the Offshore World
https://atlas-offshore.world/


The Atlas of the Offshore World is a new effort by the EU Tax Observatory to inform the global debate around international tax evasion and avoidance. It offers up-to-date information about the dynamic of profit shifting by multinational companies and offshore wealth.

Sedex; Company Website
https://www.sedex.com/
More than 75,000 businesses from across the world have made Sedex their trusted partner in creating a more socially and environmentally sustainable supply chain. From our platform’s unrivalled data insights to our team’s expert guidance, Sedex makes it easy for you to manage, assess, and report on sustainability performance and, ultimately, meet your supply chain goals

Standards map
https://standardsmap.org/en/home
The world’s largest database for sustainability standards We provide free, accessible, comprehensive, verified and transparent information on over 300 standards for environmental protection, worker and labour rights, economic development, quality and food safety, as well as business ethics.

Book; Dead in the Water
https://www.matthew-campbell.com/dead-in-the-water
Dead in the Water is a shocking expose of the corrupt inner workings of international shipping, told through the lens of the Brillante hijacking and its aftermath. Through first-hand accounts of those who lived it—from members of the ship’s crew and witnesses to the attacks, to the ex-London detectives turned private investigators seeking to solve Mockett’s murder and bring justice to his family—award-winning Bloomberg reporters Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel piece together the astounding truth behind one of the most brazen financial frauds in history.

Article: Met Oeigoerse dwangarbeid gemaakte vis ligt ook in Nederlandse schappen
https://www.nu.nl/economie/6285253/met-oeigoerse-dwangarbeid-gemaakte-vis-ligt-ook-in-nederlandse-schappen.html
Zo krijgen Nederlandse importeurs onder andere kabeljauw, tong en koolvis geleverd van Chinese bedrijven die gebruikmaken van dwangarbeid. Het gaat om mensen uit de West-Chinese regio Xinjiang, waar veel Oeigoeren wonen die door de Chinese staat zwaar worden onderdrukt. Zij worden uit hun regio weggehaald en moeten verplicht aan de slag bij de visserijbedrijven.

LOGINK, 2e kamer vragen
https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/kamervragen/detail?id=2023Z04278&did=2023D18889
Antwoord op vragen vragen van de leden Brekelmans, Koerhuis, Rajkowski en Valstar over het bericht ‘‘Verdachte’ Chinese kranen staan ook in Nederlandse havens: zorgen om spionage’

Supply Chain Alternatives if Climate Change-driven Water Shortages Persist at the Panama Canal
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/supply-chain-alternatives-ocean-shipping-if-climate-change-driven-water-shortages-persist


A severe drought is currently affecting the Panama Canal and, exacerbated by the weather pattern known as El Niño, water shortages are likely to persist well into 2024. For each ship transiting the canal, approximately 52 million gallons of water are needed to operate the sets of locks ascending from the Pacific Ocean toward Gatun Lake in Panama (the highest point of the canal at 85 feet above sea level) and descending again to sea level on the Atlantic Ocean side. The water required comes from Gatun Lake, an artificial lake built to service the canal, and other smaller sources. Because the drought has lowered lake water levels, a depth limit of 44 feet — 4 to 5 feet lower than normal — has been imposed on ships transiting the canal, and daily crossings have been reduced from 36 to 32, contributing to a backlog of 264 ships as of mid-August.

Securing Maritime Data: The Battle Against China’s LOGINK
https://centerformaritimestrategy.org/publications/securing-maritime-data-the-battle-against-chinas-logink-in-u-s-and-european-ports/


LOGINK is a unified digital logistics and trade platform administered by China’s Ministry of Transport. Initially developed in 2007 as a provincial initiative, it expanded regionally in 2010. Four years later, it became a global platform. Today, China continues to encourage entities like ports, freight carriers, and others to adopt LOGINK by providing it for free. The platform aggregates data from over 450,000 users in China, five million trucks, over 200 logistics warehouses worldwide, and dozens of ports in China and abroad, in addition to several other databases. With all this data, the platform “provides users with a one-stop shop for logistics data management and shipment tracking.” Due to the newness of logistics management platforms, China’s effort to obtain a first-mover advantage is significant. It could allow China to set the rules of the game.

Meanwhile, LOGINK has agreements with at least 24 ports, freeports, and port operators outside of China. Of these, nine ports are located in Europe. None are located in the U.S. Paying attention only to LOGINK’s direct agreements with foreign ports, however, does not tell the whole story. It is also necessary to look at its rapidly growing repertoire of partnerships across the world. For example, LOGINK has a data-sharing arrangement with CargoSmart, a shipping management software provider, which is in turn owned by COSCO through its subsidiary Orient Overseas International Limited (OOIL). According to Chinese news sources, this partnership provided LOGINK with “access to data on live movements of more than 90 percent of the world’s container ships through CargoSmart.” A second partnership with CaiNiao, a global logistics giant with over 200 warehouses globally and a rapidly expanding European presence, has also given LOGINK an edge. Other relevant partnerships exist with Portbase in the Netherlands and Maqta in the UAE.

CargoSmart; Company Website
https://www.cargosmart.com/en-us/
We deliver high quality data through reliable SaaS solutions and highly secure environment that allow customers to improve visibility, productivity, and collaboration. CargoSmart‘s solutions are available on application and integration to enable parties with varied technological capabilities, business needs, and roles in the shipment process to manage their shipments with multiple carriers throughout the shipment cycle and seamlessly connect to their network of suppliers, customers, logistics service providers, ocean carriers, and other business divisions.?

Article; China’s LOGINK Logistics Platform
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/chinas-logink-logistics-platform-and-its-strategic-potential-economic-political-and


LOGINK began in 2007 as a provincial-level truck and logistics tracking system in Zhejiang and by 2009 was expanding to all Chinese provinces, a process that unfolded alongside efforts to establish a unified document submission portal. In 2010, LOGINK began to incorporate data from the Northeast Asia Logistics Information Service Network (NEAL-NET), which initially covered container ship operations in the ports of Ningbo-Zhoushan (PRC), Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan), and Busan (South Korea). Six years later, the network included 11 Chinese ports, five Japanese ports, and three South Korean ports.

Fast forward to today, and LOGINK has become a world-scale information and intelligence funnel aggregating data from more than 450,000 users in China, 5 million trucks, multiple public databases in China, more than 200 Cainiao logistics warehouses worldwide, CargoSmart (which live tracks more than 90% of global container ships), Chinese domestic ports, and up to two dozen foreign ports.

Access to foreign port community systems amplifies LOGINK’s data haul. LOGINK’s cooperation agreements and partnerships include PortBase (Netherlands), Maqta (UAE), and Network of Trusted Networks data from the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA), whose members include tens of ports worldwide. Port community systems offer a critical entry point because once LOGINK is plugged into their data streams, PRC firms will not even necessarily need a physical presence at a given point in the supply chain to achieve significant data visibility and insights into cargo flows. With such expansive tentacles, LOGINK provides the most comprehensive picture available of national — and increasingly, global — logistics activities and, according to one analyst, is a decade ahead of rival information systems.

PDF; LOGINK: Risks from China’s Promotion of a Global Logistics Management Platform
https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/LOGINK-Risks_from_Chinas_Promotion_of_a_Global_Logistics_Management_Platform.pdf
As part of a broader effort to become a transportation superpower,* China aims to create an efficient, integrated platform for the transmission of logistics data called the National Transportation and Logistics Public Information Platform, branded as LOGINK. Beginning as a Chinese provincial initiative in 2007, LOGINK became part of a regional network in Northeast Asia in 2010 and a global platform after 2014. The state-sponsored and -supported platform has now expanded to partner with over 20 ports worldwide as well as numerous Chinese and international companies.

LOGINK provides users with a one stop shop for logistics data management, shipment tracking, and information exchange needs between enterprises as well as from business to government. China’s government is encouraging global ports, freight carriers and forwarders, and other countries and entities to adopt LOGINK by providing it free of charge. In addition to offering LOGINK itself as a platform for data management, China is promoting logistics data standards that would support the platform’s widespread use. A second generation of LOGINK, now under development, would offer a cloud-based suite of enterprise software applications, such as advanced data analytics and business partner relationship management tools. These upgrades would afford LOGINK even greater access to global commercial data, potentially giving China’s government an unparalleled window into commercial transactions and trading relationships.

Widespread adoption of LOGINK could create economic and strategic risks for the United States and other countries. As with other Chinese entities sponsored or subsidized by the government, LOGINK could undercut U.S. firms that provide more innovative products at higher costs without state support. LOGINK’s visibility into global shipping and supply chains could also enable the Chinese government to identify U.S. supply chain vulnerabilities and to track shipments of U.S. military cargo on commercial freight. Though LOGINK claims users can share only the data they want, the security of the platform is unclear. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could potentially gain access to and control massive amounts of sensitive business and foreign government data through LOGINK.

Outlaw Ocean: The China Report
https://www.theoutlawocean.com/investigations/china-the-superpower-of-seafood/


Since then, China has invested heavily in its fleet. The country now catches more than five billion pounds of seafood a year through distant-water fishing, the biggest portion of it squid. China’s seafood industry, which is estimated to be worth more than thirty-five billion dollars, accounts for a fifth of the international trade, and has helped create fifteen million jobs. The Chinese state owns much of the industry—including some twenty per cent of its squid ships—and oversees the rest through the Overseas Fisheries Association. Today, the nation consumes more than a third of the world’s fish.

Global data centers mapped
https://baxtel.com/map

Article; AI Data Ingestion
https://comics.packagex.io/p/ai-data-ingestion
According to a recent survey by Freightos, 95% of supply chain professionals think AI will impact logistics but only 7% are actively using it. Perhaps the largest barrier to entry to adopting AI is reliance on pen and paper, which 50% of companies still use to manage logistics operations.

Article, California's new supply chain laws
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/07/newsom-california-climate-disclosure-00120474
Taken together, the laws will change the landscape for corporate disclosure. For the first time in the U.S., large publicly traded and privately held corporations doing business in California will need to make public both their impact on the environment, including Scope 3 emissions or those generated through a company’s value chain, and how climate change is impacting their bottom line.

Paper; Mapping the realignment of global value chains
https://www.bis.org/publ/bisbull78.htm

The latest firm-level network data reveal that global value chains have lengthened, although without the accompanying network densification that might indicate that supplier relationships are diversifying.

Lengthening of supply chains is especially significant for supplier-customer linkages from China to the United States, where firms from other jurisdictions, notably in Asia, have interposed themselves in the supply chain.

Nevertheless, these recent developments have not so far reversed the long-running trend toward greater regional integration of trade in recent decades, especially in Asia.

Milk Traced
https://www.mijnmelk.nl


'Mijn Melk', literally 'My Milk', is a small scale Dutch initiative through which four dairy farmers sell their milk through supermarket chains with the promise of full traceability. The packaging of a product is personalized to the farm which takes the seriously the notion of traceability as a process of giving identity to what is produced in bulk.

On the top of the bottle there is a QR code which can be scanned and which resolves to the following url: https://mijnboerderij.mijnmelk.nl/?f=8D8F970C4BB1&b=R2337701.

This leads us to an attractive webpage (which can be used without a mouse?!) that tells us many things about the product:

-The name and location of farm
-The name of the farmer
-The date and time the cow was milked
-The time the milk was bottled
-Batch number of the milk
-What weather it was at the day of milking
-Average fat, protein and lactose contents
-How many cows the farms has
-How often the cows have been milked the last 24 hours

With just 4 farms involved the approach is boutique but hopefully it can and will scale.

Transparent milk straight from the farm
https://www.mijnmelk.nl/nieuws/melk-van-de-boerderij-transparant-en-traceerbaar-met-online-data/
nsumenten worden steeds kritischer en dus ook sceptischer. Wij willen graag het verhaal van de boer vertellen. Wij zijn trots op onze processen en producten. We hebben een heleboel data beschikbaar omdat onze boeren gebruikmaken van onder andere melkrobots die meten wanneer de koe gemolken is en wat de waardes van de melk zijn. Tegelijkertijd weten we dat consumenten behoefte hebben aan openheid. Dus waarom zouden we informatie die we hebben niet op een begrijpelijke manier inzichtelijk maken?

Database on reported incidents of abandonment of seafarers
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/seafarers/seafarersBrowse.Home?p_lang=en
This database contains a regularly updated list of vessels that have been reported to the ILO as abandoned in various ports of the world by appropriate organizations. It specifically includes information on seafarers and fishers, who have been abandoned and their current status.

Marine Sand Watch
https://unepgrid.ch/en/marinesandwatch
This platform monitors large vessels dredging sand, sediment and rock in the marine environment all around the world using the “automatic identification system (AIS)” emitted by dredging vessels, which provides identifying information and their real time position. This platform provides all stakeholders including Member States and the dredging sector with the required data and information to engage in talks with UNEP on how to improve dredging standards around the world.

Avikus; Company Website
https://www.avikus.ai
Autonomous shipping

Yara Birkeland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Yara_Birkeland


MV Yara Birkeland is an autonomous 120 TEU container ship carrying fertilizer between ports at Herøya and Brevik in Norway. The Yara Birkeland was designed to serve as a proof of concept for a fully autonomous ship capable of global travel and with multiple functions from industrial site operations to port operations.

One company nickel supply chain
https://nornickel.com/business/on-the-map/


Nornickel is the leader in the metals and mining industry in Russia and globally

Report; Forced evictions at industrial cobalt and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of the Con
https://www.amnesty.nl/content/uploads/2023/09/EMBARGOED_EN-version-Powering-Change-or-Business-as-Usual.pdf


This trend is driving the demand for other raw materials. Electric vehicles and energy storage facilities require vast and increasing amounts of mined metals, including copper and cobalt. According to the International Energy Agency, copper is the most widely used mineral in clean energy technologies, while cobalt is an essential mineral for most lithium-ion batteries. Expectations of accelerating demand for these two minerals are behind the increase in industrial mining in and around the city of Kolwezi, in the southern province of Lualaba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where many of the country’s most productive cobalt and copper mines are located. The DRC holds the seventh largest reserves of copper globally and is the third largest producer. It also holds approximately half of the world’s cobalt reserves and accounts for more than 70% of global production. The people living in the region should be benefiting from the growth in mining. Instead, many are being forced out of their homes and farmland to make way for the expansion of large-scale industrial mining projects. As this report shows, such evictions are often carried out by mining operators with little concern for the rights of affected communities and little heed for national laws meant to curtail forced evictions in the mining sector.

Article; Why shipping should be worried about soaring ocean temperatures
https://splash247.com/why-shipping-should-be-worried-about-soaring-ocean-temperatures


The biggest threat to the commercial shipping sector from the warming seas will be the increased frequency and intensity of weather hazards driven by ocean warming. These include more intense hurricanes, heavier rainfall and snowstorms as well as shifts in weather patterns so much so that some areas face rainstorms and flooding while others face worsening drought conditions and wildfire risks. There is no need to look further than the drought and water shortages at the Panama Canal which make passage through the canal less reliable and delay vessels.

GCaptain; shipping news
https://gcaptain.com/
Maritime and offshore news

Bosphorus Observer
https://bosphorusobserver.com/
Obsessive ship-spotting by the Bosphorus

Article; Microchips in the Parmigiano
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/microchips-in-the-parmigiano-and-other-ways-europeans-are-fighting-fake-food/ar-AA1fn7ct
New methods to guarantee the origin of products are being used across the EU. Some wineries are putting serial numbers, invisible ink and holograms on their bottles. So-called DNA fingerprinting of milk bacteria pioneered in Switzerland, which isn’t in the EU, is now being tested inside the bloc as a method for identifying cheese. QR codes are also proliferating, including on individual portions of pre-sliced Prosciutto di San Daniele, a raw ham similar to Prosciutto di Parma. A smartphone can be used to show information such as how long the prosciutto has been aged and when it was sliced. Food fraud is particularly rampant for cheese and wine, but is also common with fresh and cured meats, fish and produce. In addition to fighting against products that fraudulently present themselves as the European original, the EU is also waging battles over the naming rights of cheeses and other products, trying to stop other countries from using names such as Champagne, feta and Gouda.

p-Chip; Company Website
https://p-chip.com/
p-Chip Corp. brings detailed tracking capability to physical products and materials—in a package that’s tough as nails and smaller than a grain of salt. It functions like a digital anchor for physical products, delivering breakthrough visibility and index-ability at a scalable price point.

Article; What Happens to All the Stuff We Return?
https://archive.ph/dxz2X
Earlier this year, I attended a three-day conference, in Las Vegas, conducted by the Reverse Logistics Association, a trade group whose members deal in various ways with product returns, unsold inventories, and other capitalist jetsam. The field is large and growing. Dale Rogers, a business professor at Arizona State, gave a joint presentation with his son Zachary, a business professor at Colorado State, during which they said that winter-holiday returns in the United States are now worth more than three hundred billion dollars a year.

Tanker Tracker
https://tankertrackers.com/
TankerTrackers.com is an independent online service that tracks and reports shipments of crude oil in several geographical and geopolitical points of interest.

Article, The Hidden Victims of the Shadow Fleet
https://hakaimagazine.com/news/the-hidden-victims-of-the-shadow-fleet/
As staff at the ship-tracking service Tanker Trackers noted, the Pablo had spent years smuggling Iranian oil. The vessel also featured on a list of ships under investigation for sanctions-busting by the organization United Against Nuclear Iran. It quickly became clear that for as long as Tripathi had been working on the ship, the vessel he’d called home had been smuggling oil for the Iranian regime. The ship was a member of the so-called shadow fleet, which emerged in 2018 shortly after the United States reimposed a flood of sanctions against Iran. The sanctions had been waived in 2015 as part of an international effort to end Iran’s nuclear program. But in May 2018, then-president Donald Trump reversed course. In response, Iran enlisted a fleet of vintage tankers to secretly transport its oil without US oversight.

Kavida; Company Website
https://www.kavida.ai/
Automate your supplier follow-ups, detect risks to delivery dates, track your shipments in real-time – all in one easy-to-use platform.

PDF; Fisheries and Aquaculture Certification, Standards and Ratings Ecosystem
https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/sites/default/files/media-files/2023-03/LR_HRAS_Fisheries%20Human%20Rights%20Standards_8%20MARCH%2023_v1.1.pdf
As consumers we’re led to believe we hold the power to ensure the goods we buy are not harmful to humans and the planet. In classic economics, companies simply supply what the market demands. We are ‘the market’ and it is the market that sets the price. And we are increasingly aware, in this information age, that price goes far beyond the ticket on the shelf. It’s not just what’s in the tin, but how it got there – the husbandry, the working conditions, the production process. The outcome? A plethora of labels of various certification schemes aimed at meeting that demand. But do these labels really address the true cost and help empower consumers to leverage their purchases to get what they want? This much-needed data-driven examination of labels – certification standards – within the fisheries industry shows that all is not what it might seem. It demonstrates the complexity of a solution based on voluntary standards, beginning with the plethora of schemes, each with its own criteria, inconsistent both in mandate, assessment process and enforcement. The existence of such a report, on just one industry, indicates just how unrealistic it is as a means for consumers to understand the true cost of a product and exercise our purchasing power accordingly.

Eggs can be traced
https://www.was-steht-auf-dem-ei.de/en/index.php


In the EU eggs need to be stamped with an egg code.

The first integer codes the production method:

0 = organic egg production
1 = free-range eggs
2 = deep litter indoor housing
3 = cage farming

Next comes the ISO code for the country where the egg was produced (DE/NL/DK/FR, etc).

Next comes the unique registration number of the facility where the egg was produced. This is based on national or or even local schemes.

Several tools exist to look up the code I found in my fridge.

Rare Earth Graphs from FT

Mainsheet
https://www.mainsheet.mysticseaport.org/
Mainsheet is a peer-reviewed journal of maritime history and culture, the only publication of its kind produced by an American maritime museum. It is set apart from other scholarly journals by its multi-disciplinary perspectives; its accessibility to a broad, global audience on issues past, present, and future; and its freshness of design. The editorial board represents an international team of expert scholars from various fields.

Article; Europe’s Most Important Trade Route Is at Risk From Climate Change
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2023/08/02/733224.htm
The Rhine River has been a reliable shipping lane for centuries, helping spawn industrial giants along its banks. But those days are coming to an end, and the scramble is made all the more urgent as Germany’s government fails to keep pace. With water regularly receding to levels that impede shipping from late summer through the fall, companies up and down Europe’s most important trade route are rushing to adapt, underscoring how the climate crisis is hitting even advanced industrial economies.

Snofox; Company Website
https://www.snofox.com
SnoFox Sciences provides analytics focused on increasing efficiency and decreasing energy usage for the cold industrial space with no additional hardware required. Here at SnoFox, one of our core pillars is a commitment to marrying scientific pursuit and commercial value. It is with that commitment in mind that we set out to provide the first and only thermodynamically-informed data analytics platform for cold chain monitoring and preventative maintenance. At the intersection of thermodynamics, data science, and mechanical engineering, SnoFox Sciences plans to revolutionize our collective understanding of the global cold chain.

Article; Global Race for Lithium Lands in Rural Brazil
https://nacla.org/global-race-lithium-brazil
The global energy transition is set to require a staggering increase in the lithium supply. An essential element in EV batteries, demand could increase as much as 42 times over two decades according to International Energy Agency projections. Jequitinhonha Valley sits on 85 percent of Brazil's known lithium deposits, which has sparked a race to invest and develop. In May, Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema and Brazilian federal officials traveled to Nasdaq in New York to launch the “Lithium Valley” project, looking for international investors for the lithium mining companies operating in the region. A "Preserve the Environment!" sign representing the Araçuaí Environmental Secretary and Sigma Lithium (Sam Klein-Markman) A "Preserve the Environment!" sign representing the Araçuaí Environmental Secretary and Sigma Lithium (Sam Klein-Markman) The Valley of Opportunity? In promoting this investment, officials are making the case that lithium mining will remake the long-neglected region into a “valley of opportunity.” Central to that campaign is Sigma Lithium, which began production in April, the first of the new mining companies in the region to do so. Sigma promises to produce a “green” lithium using renewable energy and 90 percent recycled water, to hire local, and to voluntarily invest more than the country requires in local municipalities and environmental projects. Sigma expects its Grota do Cirilo mining site to be in production for 13 years, generating over $5 billion for the company and over $200 million in payments to local municipalities. This year, the company expects to pay around $10.7 million to Araçuaí and its neighboring town Itinga, just under a tenth of the two municipalities’ combined GDP according to data from Brazil’s 2022 census. Sigma has also instituted programs to construct wells for rural communities, create lines of microcredit for local women entrepreneurs, and pay for the preservation of local forest land. Even so, as the region appears to be undergoing a transformative lithium boom, there is growing concern about the costs for rural communities that are most vulnerable to the environmental impacts of mining, and about whether local governments can translate the presence of international mining businesses into lasting gains for the region’s residents. The Movement for People Affected by Dams (MAB) has been campaigning against the advance of lithium mining, citing inevitable environmental degradation, water-intensive practices, and the opposition of federally protected quilombo communities—settlements generally founded by escap

Article; Shortening food supply chains using forgotten crops
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/kruiprogge-zomergerst-spelt-veldje-voor-veldje-brengt-marcel-van-silfhout-de-granen-van-vroeger-terug-in-het-landschap~b7bba674/
Van Silfhout onderzocht als journalist wat er misgaat in de (lange) voedselketens van tegenwoordig. Hij besloot zelf aan de slag te gaan. Het resultaat: brood op de plank en kruiden in het veld. ‘Ik doorbreek die Berlijnse muur tussen natuur en intensieve landbouw.’

Industry Transition
https://www.industrytransition.org/
A successful transition for hard-to-abate sectors requires:

1) A level playing field globally
2)Finance for implementation
3)Accountability across value chains
4)Low-carbon technology diffusion and scale-up
5)Enabling infrastructure

Green Cement technology Tracker
https://www.industrytransition.org/green-cement-technology-tracker/
The Green Cement Technology Tracker aims to support decision-makers and experts in policy and industry, academia as well as civil society, by tracking public announcements of investments in low-carbon cement technologies and presenting them transparently in one place. The tracker currently includes carbon capture technologies. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) account for 36 percent of planned reduction levers in the GCCA 2050 Roadmap for Net Zero Carbon Concrete that forty leading cement manufacturers committed to in 2021. Upcoming steps for enhancing the tracker encompass expanding the tracker’s scope to include more technologies that reduce emissions from cement manufacturing.

Yara; Company Website
https://yaramarine.com/
Shipping emissions have grown exponentially to exceed one billion tons of CO2 each year. Future generations depend on us to reverse this emissions growth to ensure a sustainable future on this planet. At Yara Marine Technologies, our stewardship is our greatest honor, and ensuring a healthy planet for future generations is our greatest privilege. ?That is why we drive the change towards a zero-emissions industry. In the Nordic countries, we have always been at the forefront, leading the way in uncharted waters. We are pioneers, finding new ways to protect our environment. We have the skillset to create new solutions and the conviction to see them realized.

Factsheet; True Price experiment at Albert Heijn
https://static.ah.nl/binaries/ah/content/assets/ah-nl/permanent/over-ah/true-pricing-ah.pdf


Dit document beschrijft op hoofdlijnen de resultaten, aanpak, data, aannames en beperkingen van de echte prijs analyse die door True Price in opdracht van Albert Heijn is uitgevoerd. Deze analyse volgt de True Price Methodologie (ontwikkeld i.s.m. Wageningen University). Dit is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde en breed ondersteunde methode om de echte prijs van producten te berekenen. Dit document is geschreven voor lezers die meer willen weten en leren over de berekeningen.

True Price experiment at Albert Heijn To Go
https://static.ah.nl/binaries/ah/content/assets/ah-nl/core/about/duurzaamheid/paper-true-price-experiment-albert-heijn-to-go-june-4th.pdf
Albert Heijn is the market leader in supermarkets in The Netherlands. The purpose of Albert Heijn is: Together we make eating better the easy choice. For everyone. Albert Heijn wants to make a meaningful contribution to a healthy, social and sustainable society. If we want to preserve the value of food and drink for future generations, the food system will need a major overhaul. That’s why Albert Heijn wants to be crystal clear about where food comes from, how it’s made and what its ingredients are. We also want to reduce the impact of our products so that our customers can easily make sustainable choices and never doubt whether they’re doing the right thing. True Price is one of the ideas to give better insight to customers to help them make a more sustainable choice.

True Price
https://trueprice.org/
We envision a world where all products are sold for a true price. If a product is sold for a true price, then no damage is done to people or to nature: it is fully sustainable. If all products are sold for a true price, then the global economy is sustainable. We outline the philosophy behind our vision in the True Price Manifesto. We are working towards this vision by developing and releasing open-source methodology documentation.

Who owns farmer's data
https://datavaluesdigest.substack.com/p/who-owns-farmers-data
Farmers and food producers, especially in low- and middle-income countries, face immense challenges: price increases on the input end against notoriously low and unstable prices on the output end, extreme weather events, shifting consumer demand, and rapidly changing regulatory environments—to name a few. Like other industries, the agricultural sector responds to these challenges with digital technology. Think of precision agriculture technologies such as sensors and drones, which can be used to monitor crop health and optimize inputs, while AI can analyze data on weather patterns, market demand, and supply chain logistics to improve decision-making. Many of these resources, however, are restricted to large farm owners that can afford them.

Fairfood
https://fairfood.org/en/
Fairfood accelerates the change towards a sustainable food system. We develop innovative solutions that enable businesses to improve their responsible business practices. Open and attainable solutions that are designed to democratise the world of food.

Japan’s largest port stops operations after ransomware attack
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/japans-largest-port-stops-operations-after-ransomware-attack/
The Port of Nagoya, the largest and busiest port in Japan, has been targeted in a ransomware attack that currently impacts the operation of container terminals. The port accounts for roughly 10% of Japan's total trade volume. It operates 21 piers and 290 berths. It handles over two million containers and cargo tonnage of 165 million every year.

Orcascan; Company Website
https://orcascan.com/
barcode scanning app and cloud

Shipping Carriers by Market Share


“The average cost of shipping a 40ft container from eastern China to the US west coast at short notice rose from less than $2,000 to a peak of $9,699 ... In the 3 years from 2020 to 2022, the industry generated as much profit as it had during the previous 6 decades combined”

ALDI Traceability Code
https://transparantie.aldi.nl/


While it seems to have been rolled out four or five years ago, the Aldi Traceablity Tool (ATC) it is not widely known. Shown is the label of a chicken product with a QR code. Following the link or by going to the link above and pasting in:

STB230866310200180

You are shown the company and location responsible for farming, slaughtering and processing and finally the packager. Also given are the relevant certifications.

There are crucial bits of information things missing though, most of all the relevant dates. How long has this piece of chicken been in a freezer? It does show that Dutch poultry is local and has a short value chains, all companies are located close to each other. Most meat in Dutch supermarkets has a ‘Better Leven’ (better living) logo, an animal welfare scheme managed by the Dutch equivalent to the RSPCA, this product markedly does not. The ‘Beter Leven logo does not give the consumer ‘much additional information about a product. The suggestion is that by giving us more data about the product (which is a very good thing!) Aldi is potentially hiding the lesser conditions the chickens are farmed in.

Interestingly the AD newspaper ran an article in 2021 (!) that Aldi would be switching to a full product line logoed with ‘Beter Leven’ in 2023. The year has not ended yet, shall we say.