India’s waste-to-cng miracle model makes waves in Davos
DAVOS: Pune’s city-waste-to-citybus model is among the global innovations to manage food waste that are being showcased at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos, which has listed climate emergency as one of the most pressing issues facing the world today.
In Pune, Exchange Environment Solutions (NEX) converts 350 tonnes of food waste that is collected by the municipal corporation every day into 16,500kg of bio-cng to fuel public transport buses.
“The bio-cng that is generated substitutes 17,000 litres of diesel per day to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 105,000 tonnes per year, 31 acres of landfill every 10 years. The amount of methane prevented from being released in the atmosphere is the equivalent of 15,000 flights between India and London,” said Adar Poonawala, CEO of Serum Institute of India, which funds NEX.
Abi Ramanan’s Impactvision in the UK reduces food waste by using the NASA’S aerial imaging to assess the quality of produce, including meat and fruits, to give food companies real-time information about their stock.
Impactvision uses data gathered to transform food supply chains to reduce waste and detect contamination, which eventually helps prevent costly food recalls.
DATA PRIVACY IS A HUMAN RIGHT: NADELLA
When you do well, the world around you does well, said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, speaking at the WEF.
“People and institutions are all part of our society. So if you don’t think about the broader systems, it’s not stable. The question ultimately goes back to what is the market saying and what is society saying?” he said.
Data privacy is a human right and must be protected at all cost, Nadella stressed. The next level of work is not just about protecting privacy, but it’s about controlling how one’s data is being used.
“More work needs to be done around data dignity and new business models in the 2020s,” he said.