Certain large industries capture much public scrutiny, including energy, iron and steel production, transportation, and construction, when it comes to the size of their carbon footprints.
There is another, perhaps less obvious sector, with a significant environmental impact: Households. This is in terms of the average consumer buying everyday things like phones, clothes, furniture, computers, and toys. Such items make a significant contribution to global emissions. Here.
Of course, the household is not generating the emissions directly but instead using the products generated by industry, fuelled by the dynamic within capitalism that encourages consumers to dispose of one item and to purchase another.
This assessment of the contribution made by these by-products of industrial processes that reach the hands of the consumer is based on the International Society of Industry Ecology.
The complexities of these sectors have proven difficult for governments to tackle. Professor Peter Ralph from the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) says, in a statement provided to Digital Journal: “I’m a research scientist by background, but my goal is to use science to help all industries decarbonise.”
Professor Ralph’s research uses algae to remove carbon from the atmosphere and integrates it into industrial production processes: “I’m remaking the things people want and need using net zero technologies.”
Achieving net-zero in the world of manufacturing is the next topic of discussion in the UTS Global Game Changers series, entitled The Big Carbon Rethink.
On 8th August 2024, Professor Ralph will participate in a discussion with Vice President of Manufacturing at global technology conglomerate, Siemens, Dr Gunter Beitinger; co-founder of the plastics-alternative company Uluu, Dr Julia Reisser; director of brand and marketing at swimwear group Piping Hot, Amy Low; and UTS researcher and marine ecologist, Dr Alex Thomson.
The discussants will examine factors driving consumer behaviour and enabling companies to transition to net zero.
As an example, in pursuit of the most innovative and sustainable outcomes, Piping Hot Australia has commissioned the UTS research collective to develop a new biomaterial derived from algae that can sequester carbon from the ocean and reduce the environmental impact of synthetic fibres.
In parallel, Dr Julia Reisser is developing technology to remove plastic from the seas, based on producing a material that acts like plastic but is made from seaweed.
