Forgiveness and high performance leadership / What to do with Plastics – 5 Innovations / Breaking out of long term unemployment / Grass roots research in defence of Cows / Cutting customer service affects employees most / Green energy system could power home and car
Power of Forgiveness: Key to High Performance Leadership?
Lessons from the father of a murder victim:
Professor George Kohlrieser of the International Management School (IMD) in Switzerland asks - Imagine what your life would be like if someone murdered one of your immediate family members. What if it was your son or daughter? Think about the anger and bitterness you would feel towards that person. Surely it would consume both your personal and professional life. Would you ever be able to move on?
Hopefully, none of you reading this have endured such a tragedy. But surely all of us have dealt with profound feelings of betrayal, injustice and loss of an important expectation whether on the job or at home. Do you let such occurrences consume you or hold you hostage? Or are you able to go through the recovery and grieving process so that you defeat and overcome the adversity as quickly as possible, not vice versa?
No person better personifies this than Aim Khakis, a former investment banker who tragically lost his only son to gang violence. His story epitomizes how one can learn to forgive and to ultimately find peace again in all areas of life. For more on this story and its relevance to leadership go to:http://www.imd.ch/research/challenges/TC012-10.cfm?MRK_CMPG_SOURCE=webletter-mar-10&wt.mc_id=webletter-mar-10
What to do with Plastics -
Plastic innovation 1: Using CO2 to make plastic
Melbourne-based Cardiac Bioplastics has unveiled a new technology that allows it to make a bioplastic from a CO2 feedstock, polypropylene carbonate (PPC), blended with starch. It reduces petrochemicals in bioplastics by more than 60%.
“Cardia’s process is a breakthrough by compatibilising PPC and starch to produce a biodegradable plastic of high renewable content,” said Cardia chairman Patrick Volpe.
Until the advent of the technology, Cardia claims PPC was not suitable for intimate blending with starch. Cardia has also signed a non-binding agreement with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to develop and manufacture a new polypropylene carbonate (PPC) resin to Cardia’s specification.
The breakthrough enables Cardia to use CO2 as an inexpensive and renewable raw material. For more on this story go to: http://www.environmentalmanagementnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=1109682
Plastic innovation 2: Turning waste plastic into fuel
A new plant, which turns mixed waste plastics into liquid synthetic fuels, is now fully operational in Ireland, with the promise of more similar plants to come in the UK and throughout Europe.
Cynar Recycling's first plant in Portlaoise, Ireland can process up to 10 tonnes of waste plastics per day. Although plants can be built to process up to 20 tonnes of waste per day producing up to 19,000 litres of fuel products at a conversion rate of 95%.
The plant uses a technology involving pyrolysis and distillation to liquefy the plastics, ordinarily destined for landfill, into low sulphur hydrocarbon fuels that are less harmful to the environment than standard petrol or diesel. For the full story, visit MRW at http://www.mrw.co.uk/page.cfm/action=Archive/ArchiveID=21/EntryID=6391
Sourced via the Resource Recovery Forum: www.resourcesnotwaste.org
Plastic innovation 3: Making waste plastic bags more valuable
A scientist has discovered a new method to recycle plastic bags into valuable multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Researcher Vilas Ganpat Pol from the Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, has found a new way to convert waste plastic like "throwaway" carrier bags into carbon nanotubes, the cylindrical carbon molecules that exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties. Pol converted high or low-density polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE) into valuable multiwalled carbon nanotubes and also used the nanotubes to make lithium-ion batteries, Journal of Environmental Monitoring reported.
He made the nanotubes by cooking 1-gram pieces of HDPE or LDPE at 700 °C for 2 hours in the presence of a cobalt acetate catalyst and then letting the mixture cool gradually.
"Above 600 °C the chemical bonds within the plastic completely break down and multiwalled carbon nanotubes grow on the surface of the catalytic particles," Pol said. The researcher added, "This method of converting a waste product into something more valuable is called upcycling. Finding ways to upcycle waste could encourage more recycling: for instance, bacteria can convert plastic drinks bottles into a more expensive plastic".
Expert in recycling plastic Geoffrey Mitchell from the University of Reading, UK, thinks the new technique is an "interesting part of the jigsaw" of recycling plastic waste to make high-value electronic materials. Story sourced via: www.resourcesnotwaste.org from ZeeNews: www.zeenews.com
Plastic innovation 4: Producing plastic without fossil fuels
A team of South Korean scientists claim to have succeeded in producing the polymers used for everyday plastics through bioengineering, rather than through the use of fossil fuel-based chemicals. This research, which may now allow for the production of environmentally conscious plastics, is published in two papers in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering to mark the journal’s 50th anniversary.
Polymers are molecules found in everyday life in the form of plastics and rubbers. The team, from the university KAIST and the Korean chemical company LG Chem, led by Professor Sang Yup Lee, focused their research on polylactic acid (PLA), a bio-based polymer which holds the key to producing plastics through natural and renewable resources.
“The polyesters and other polymers we use every day are mostly derived from fossil oils made through the refinery or chemical process,” said Lee. “The idea of producing polymers from renewable biomass has attracted much attention due to the increasing concerns of environmental problems and the limited nature of fossil resources. PLA is considered a good alternative to petroleum-based plastics as it is both biodegradable and has a low toxicity to humans.”
For more on this story go to: http://www.sustainabilitymatters.net.au/articles/38420?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Emailmarketingsoftware&utm_content=423947345&utm_campaign=sm_1002+_+ooukk&utm_term=readmoreonthisArticle
Plastic innovation 5: Plastic with potential for infinite recycling
Scientists from IBM and Stanford University claim to have made a major breakthrough in the reuse of plastics. Edie News reported that the results of 'many years' of research could lead to a new recycling process that could 'significantly increase' recycling and reuse of common PET and plant-based plastics in the future.
While plastics are recyclable, the resulting materials are often limited to 'second generation reuse' only. Meaning materials made from recycled plastic bottles are generally disposed of in landfills, according to the team.
And in the United States alone up to 63 pounds of plastic packaging per-person is disposed of each year, instead of being repeatedly recycled. The IBM-Stanford breakthrough in green chemistry could, the team states, lead to a new recycling process to reverse the polymerisation process to regenerate monomers in their original state, reducing waste and pollution significantly. For the full story, visit Edie News at: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=17770&channel=0&title=Scientists+unveil+plastic+with+potential+for+infinite+recycling
Story sourced via the Resource Recovery Forum: www.resourcesnotwaste.org
Breaking out of long term unemployment
Big résumé gaps, or current unemployment, may mark a job seeker as “damaged goods” and make a long job search even longer. Read “Breaking Out of Long-Term Unemployment” by Larry Buhl to see how you can fill the gap. Go to: http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-breaking_out_of_long_term_unemployment-1176?WT.mc_id=EM4811M&WT.dcsvid=1930024308. Sourced via: www.asq.org
Grass roots research in defence of Cows!
"It's been generally assumed that if you increase livestock numbers you get a rise in emissions of nitrous oxide. This is not the case" stated Klaus Butterbach-Bahl of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, who is among the authors of a study that overturns the theory that farm animals stoke releases of nitrous oxide (N2O).
In fact, grazing by cows or sheep can cut emissions of nitrous oxide -- a powerful greenhouse gas -- in grasslands from China to the United States, according to the study, Reuters reports. Adding to understanding of links between agriculture and global warming, the report in a recent edition of the journal Nature said livestock can help to limit microbes in the soil that generate the N2O, also known as "laughing gas."
Nitrous oxide is one of several heat-trapping gases linked to farm animals and the scientists said there was a need for more study to see how far their findings would affect agriculture's total impact on climate change. Emissions of the gas account for 6-8 percent of global warming from human activities, making it the third most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane, Butterbach-Bahl said. Estimated nitrous oxide emissions from temperate grasslands account for 1-2 percent of the total.
Story Sourced from Global Development Briefing at: www.devex.com
Cutting customer service affects employees most
Of the many actions taken by companies in the past few years to bulk up the bottom line and fight the recession, cutting internal and external customer service could cause the most damage. That’s according to a new American Society for Quality (ASQ) and Metrus Group national survey on how a number of recession-survival tactics impacted employees.
Learn more including links to the survey and article from http://www.asq.org/media-room/press-releases/2010/20100406-cutting-customer-service-affects-most.html?WT.mc_id=EM4896M&WT.dcsvid=1930024308
Green energy system could power home and car
A wireless green energy system being designed by University of Auckland engineering research fellow Duleepa Thrimawithana would harness and integrate renewable energies, such as solar and wind, to power a house and an electric vehicle. The first working model of the concept is being built in the Faculty of Engineering over the next three years.
“Household renewable energy systems need a very large battery to store power, which usually cost tens of thousands of dollars, on top of the cost of installing solar panels or wind turbines,” says Thrimawithana, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “The concept here is to use an electric vehicle, which already has a powerful battery, to store some of the power for the system. This would make its installation much more financially viable.”
While such systems may be many years off, the project aims to demonstrate that they can work in practice. The system would make use of emerging technologies in wireless power transfer and intelligent power management. In comparison to existing systems, it would be more cost effective, safer and versatile. Thrimawithana intends to develop new technologies in bidirectional power transfer and new circuitry techniques to improve the efficiency of the system.
Thrimawithana’s project recently won a Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Postdoctoral Fellowship, awarded to New Zealand’s brightest young scientists, funding it for three years.
For more on this story go to: http://www.sustainabilitymatters.net.au/news/39508?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Emailmarketingsoftware&utm_content=423947345&utm_campaign=sm_1004a+_+okjcl&utm_term=Greenenergysystemcouldpowerhomeandcar
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