Articles

By Marta Maretich Root Capital is one of impact investing’s success stories.This nonprofit social investment fund grows rural prosperity in poor, environmentally vulnerable places in Africa and Latin America by lending capital, delivering financial training, and strengthening value chains for small and growing rural businesses. Since 1999, Root Capital has disbursed more than $500 million in loans...[Read More]

Online learning classroom. Teacher giving a lecture online to a student. By Sunny Lewis for Maximpact LONDON, UK, March 20, 2020 (Maximpact.com News) – As schools throughout the world close their doors to slow the spread of coronavirus, the demand for online learning classes is growing exponentially. In the UK, after the last class on Friday afternoon is over, schools will remain closed until furt...[Read More]

Scientist Frederick Baddour is part of the National Renewable Energy Lab research team working on a milder and more scalable process to produce metal carbide nanoparticles. 2020 (Photo by Dennis Schroeder courtesy NREL) Public domain. By Sunny Lewis for Maximpact LOS ANGELES, California, February 25, 2020 (Maximpact.com News) – Futuristic power plants could function not as destructive sources of p...[Read More]

CAMPINAS, Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 17, 2023 (Maximpact.com Sustainability News) – Brazilian scientists have successfully produced biogas from the pulpy waste remaining after apples have been crushed to extract their juice. The biofuel produced from this waste, called apple pomace, could help reduce the use of climate-warming fossil fuels, the scientists say in research published this week. At a...[Read More]

The Science and Technology Facility at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab is a 100 percent net zero energy building where solar cell, thin-film, and nanostructure research are conducted, 2018, Golden, Colorado (Photo courtesy NREL) Public domain. By Sunny Lewis LONDON, UK, September 4, 2018 (Maximpact.com News) – Nineteen pioneering mayors, representing 130 million urban residents, have commit...[Read More]

Plastic fishing gear and strapping litters a beach in northern Norway, which is not an EU member state. April 27, 2014 (Photo by Bo Eide) Creative Commons license via Flickr By Sunny Lewis BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 30, 2018 (Maximpact.com News) – Beachgoers love to have fun in the sun, eating, drinking and smoking all the while, but the plastic food and drinks containers, straws, cigarette butts and ...[Read More]

Image: Bank of America Tower in the fog, New York City, May 2014 (Photo by David Phan creative commons license via Flickr) By Sunny Lewis NEW YORK, New York, October 2, 2015 (Maximpact News) – Six of the largest U.S. banks have called for a strong, legally-binding universal climate agreement to emerge from the United Nations Paris climate conference in December. The big six – Bank of America, Citi...[Read More]

Volunteers from the Belarus Red Cross deliver humanitarian aid to refugees and migrants blocked by barbed wire from entering the European Union at the Polish border. UN agencies are calling for an immediate de-escalation, following weeks of rising tension. November 9, 2021 (Photo courtesy UN International Organization for Migration) Posted for media use By Sunny Lewis for Maximpact BRUSSELS, Belgi...[Read More]

Diagram of how an energy tree will function. (Graphic courtesy Solar Botanic) By Sunny Lewis LONDON, UK, August 8, 20127 (Maximpact.com News) – Clean tech meets art meets life in a new energy tree with nanoleaves that absorb sunlight and quiver in the breeze to produce solar and wind power. A natural-looking, energy generator that looks like a real tree, the emerging new technology could completel...[Read More]

By Marta Maretich @maximpactdotcom Biomimicry has captured the world’s imagination. From the moment Janine Benyus; seminal book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature appeared in 2002, hopes have been high for this new approach to design and engineering. Elegant, poetical and paradigm-changing, biomimicry and its sibling discipline, bio-inspired design, spoke to our hopes for harnessing the ele...[Read More]

Participants in the Talanoa Dialogue share their stories and insights regarding climate change in one of seven dialogue rooms in Bonn, Germany. May 6, 2018 (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin) Used with permission By Sunny Lewis BONN, Germany, May 8, 2018 (Maximpact.com News) – “We need to dramatically increase our ambitions. We are witnessing the severe impacts of climate change throughou...[Read More]

By Sunny Lewis GENEVA, Switzerland, March 29, 2016 (Maximpact.com News) – When forests are cleared, climate warming is accelerated as the trees that were cut can no longer store carbon dioxide (CO2). Support for financial incentives that encourage the conservation of forested lands, known as REDD+, is included in the Paris Climate Agreement that 195 governments reached in December. Reducing Emissi...[Read More]