G7 heads call for decarbonisation of industry and other headlines from the week

LanzaTech

Danone Announcement

Advanced Biofuels USA: LanzaTech, with the Support of Danone, Discovers Method to Produce Sustainable PET Bottles from Captured Carbon
Bioplastics News: Danone and Lanzatech Partner on Carbon Capture for PET
BusinessGreen: 'Game changer': LanzaTech transforms captured carbon into plastic  
Food & Drink Technology: LanzaTech-Danone consortium discovers method to produce sustainable PET bottles from captured carbon

Ganar-Ganar: Danone desarrolla proceso para convertir el carbono capturado en componentes para fabricar PET

Green Car Congress: LanzaTech, Danone develop method to convert carbon emissions directly into MEG, a key building block for PET

Industry Europe: Danone & LanzaTech to turn captured carbon into plastic bottles
Packaging Digest: PET Bottles Made from Carbon Capture
Plastics Today: PET Bottles Made from Carbon Capture
Sustainable Brands: LanzaTech, with Support of Danone, Discovers Breakthrough Method to Produce PET from Captured Carbon
Sustainable Plastics: LanzaTech demonstrates MEG production from carbon emissions

Jiemian.com: TOPBRAND | 元大陆/三胖蛋获融资；亚马逊将停止Kindle中国运营；美妆集团Puig收购Byredo

Bridgestone Announcement

Happy Eco News: Bridgestone’s Tires are Going Circular

Waste360: Bridgestone’s Niaura Talks Sustainable Tire Innovations

ArcelorMittal Partnership

BusinessGreen: ArcelorMittal plots $100m-a-year green steel innovation investment fund 

Leadership + Events + Other Areas

Chemical Engineering: Cemex and partners inaugurate the Carbon Neutral Alliance at Rüdersdorf Cement Plant - Chemical Engineering

European Biotechnology: G7 heads call for decarbonisation of industry
Harvard Business Review: The Science and Economics of Carbon Recycling (with LanzaTech’s Jennifer Holmgren)

SAF
CleanTechnica: Peptoids Add Spice To New Biofuel Formula For Aircraft & More

LanzaTech Alumni

Global AG Investing Gazette: Hyfé Foods Raises Pre-Seed Funding to Upcycle Wasted Sugar Water Into Flour - Global AgInvesting
FoodNavigator-USA: What feedstocks will fuel the next wave of microbial fermentation? High-protein ‘mycelium flour’ startup Hyfé Foods turns to ‘goldmine’ in waste water…

Services to Enhance Potential

Dearborn Times-Herald: SWCRC to host 6th annual awards ceremony honoring Downriver women in business leadership
Detroit Free Press: Pop-up gallery gives artists with disabilities their own space to express themselves

Game changer!

“Game Changer!” That’s how the media is describing LanzaTech’s partnership with Danone with coverage in Europe and The Americas. Leading up to a holiday weekend in the U.S., a holiday in the middle of the week in France, and other national holidays in Europe with some of the same press you are trying to reach who are Switzerland covering Davos 2022, we were able to share some of the amazing innovation and partnerships from our clients. This week we also represented our client, Fermata Energy at the Global Fleet Expo and continue to advance the reputation of all the companies we work with. To those honoring Memorial Day in the US and Ascension Day in Europe, let’s remember the sacrifices people made to get us here. And let us never forget the innocent children of Uvalde, Texas.

LanzaTech

Danone

BusinessGreen: 'Game changer': LanzaTech transforms captured carbon into plastic  

Edie.net: 'A game-changer': Project led by Danone and LanzaTech successfully transforms captured carbon into plastic feedstock

Ethanol Producer Magazine: LanzaTech converts captured carbon into PET @EthanolMagazine
GlobeNewswire: LanzaTech, with the support of Danone, Discovers Method to
Green Car Congress: LanzaTech, Danone develop method to convert carbon emissions directly into MEG, a key building block for PET

Industry Europe: Danone & LanzaTech to turn captured carbon into plastic bottles
Plastics in Packaging: LanzaTech and Danone perfect direct-to-MEG process
SPACInsider: The Latest SPAC News and Rumors: May 26, 2022
The Fly: LanzaTech discovers method to produce sustainable PET bottles

Sustainable Brands LanzaTech, with Support of Danone, Discovers Breakthrough Method to Produce PET from Captured Carbon

NS Packaging, LanzaTech, Danone find new method to make PET bottles from captured carbon

Plastic news/Sustainable Plastics - LanzaTech demonstrates MEG production from carbon emissions

Chemical Engineering - LANZATECH AND DANONE DEVELOP TECHNOLOGY TO CONVERT CARBON EMISSIONS INTO MEG

Plastic Packaging - LanzaTech and Danone perfect direct-to-MEG process

Bridgestone

A Green Living Blog: Earth911 Podcast: Bridgestone’s Bill Niaura on Creating a Circular Tire Recycling Infrastructure

Earth911: Earth911 Podcast: Bridgestone's Bill Niaura on Creating a Circular Tire Recycling Infrastructure

Corporate

Associated Press: LanzaTech NZ, Inc. Publishes 2021 Annual Report

GlobeNewswire: LanzaTech NZ, Inc. Publishes 2021 Annual Report

Global IP News:  Lanzatech New Zealand Submits Chinese Patent Application for Biomass Liquefaction Through Gas Fermentation

Green Reporter: Decarbonization | Wilson Sonsini

Events + Presentations

Biofuels Digest: Transforming Carbon into Products: The Digest’s 2022 Multi-Slide Guide to LanzaTech

Woodside

Biofuels Digest: Woodside changes name, merges with BHP Group

SAF

Biofuels International: Vision of the future

Ethanol Producer Magazine: Ethanol’s Own SAF Runway @EthanolMagazine
GlobeNewswire: ArcelorMittal launches XCarb™ Accelerator Programme to
Inside EPA:  Biofuels Producers Urge Changes To RFS Rule To Boost Aviation Fuel (paywall)

News Fall Out: WORLD'S FIRST NET ZERO TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT COULD TAKE TO THE SKIES IN 2023

The Business Travel Magazine: Finding your way to sustainability

ArcelorMittal

CleanTechnica: Steel Giant Comes Out Swinging Against Fossil Fuel

Orissadiary.com: ArcelorMittal launches XCarb™ Accelerator Programme to support breakthrough technology start-ups and drive decarbonisation
Paperjam News: ArcelorMittal invite les start-up à décarboner la sidérurgie

LanzaTech Alumni

Commercial Baking: Fungi flour company Hyfé Foods bags $2 million investment
Fast Company: This startup makes carbon-neutral, high-protein pasta from fungi

Beauty/Fashion
L'ADN: Ancrée, régénératrice... La beauté et ses nouveaux modèles industriels
Personal Care Insights: Scientists unveil cost-effective CO2 capture method to lower carbon footprint (Beiersdorf)

Thomas: Recycled Carbon Perfume

Fermata Energy

Telecompetitor: Verizon Adds More AWS Wavelength Zones

GSA - Green Proving Ground Program Selects Innovative Technologies that Enable Transition to Net-Zero Carbon

Marquis

Shaw Local: Bureau County United Way celebrates successful 2022 campaign

At Capacity!

*This editorial was published in the April 27, 2022 edition of The Detroit News.

There is a silent crisis facing our region, growing like a virus. Left untreated, it will spread, and our community will face higher rates of ER visits and hospitalizations, incarceration, homelessness, suicide, and community violence. And very soon, we will see further declines in success rates and academic growth in those same kids due to increased problems in and around behavioral health.

Before the pandemic, there was a crisis in mental health for youth and adults. According to CDC data among high schools in 2019, 1 of every three students reported persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, and 1 in 5 reported seriously considering suicide. The pandemic has accelerated a preexisting problem. Faced with isolation, disruption in routine, loss of loved ones, and continued uncertainty, our children need our help, and we are glad people are starting to listen. 

We are grateful that our legislators finally made our mental health a priority. The Governor's budget shows that it is also her administration's priority. But the priorities they are both focusing on come up short of solving the problem. 

Significant inequities exist among economically disadvantaged populations and shifting resources to the schools will deplete any investments in an already underfunded community mental health solution. 

Adding more behavioral health specialists in schools is no panacea for the crisis our children face. Community mental health (CMH) providers are already providing these services to our children in and out of school. We need to strengthen the systems we already have in place. Not dilute it by forcing community mental health providers to compete against the schools for an already limited workforce. Funding behavioral health specialists in schools will leave children without any support or services when they are not in school, namely over the summer. School specialists also are not equipped to provide the full array of services community mental health providers are already providing.

Community mental health providers offer a full continuum of behavioral health care and substance abuse treatment for severely ill and often low-income populations in underserved communities. They fill the gaps when individuals cannot obtain treatment from private providers and provide a lifeline in getting individuals the mental health care they need to function in their everyday lives. When people can access care, community mental health providers can help them achieve successful outcomes. Yet a shortage of workers able to support this increased need is standing in the way for people to access vital behavioral health services. 

According to a recent article in Bridge Magazine, Michigan has a current shortage of 34,000 direct-care workers, with projections that the shortage could exceed 200,000 by 2026. 

In a recent independent compensation survey of twenty-three behavioral health agencies in SE Michigan (primarily Wayne County) representing nearly half a billion dollars in revenue, all these providers are understaffed, with 90% reporting related service delivery challenges.

Turnover at these organizations has grown very high during the pandemic, and leaders say workers are leaving for higher-paying jobs in schools, private practice, and large hospital systems. Due to the enormous administrative burdens that regulatory agencies place on them, professionals are also leaving our public health system. With a limited workforce pipeline, a high turnover rate, and constrained funding, the problems plaguing our behavioral health system will only get worse. 

Over 600 behavioral health positions are unfilled across the two dozen agencies cited and represent a loss of services to 10,000 to 20,000 severely mentally ill or developmentally and intellectually disabled adults and children in Wayne County alone. Hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Michigan are left with untreated behavioral health issues that could be addressed if our legislators had the political will to focus on the real problems plaguing our system rather than suggest private payors take it over or loan guarantees would help.

If legislators cannot find any immediate relief by releasing unspent federal funds or providing other relief, then following the election, they will have to deal with the unintended consequences of people not getting the help and support they need. 

Michigan needs to stabilize and strengthen its community mental health system while developing a consistent pipeline. This starts with pay equity to allow providers to compete against the private sector. Then the state needs to remove the administrative burdens that stand in the way of so many people advancing through community mental health. Next, the state must find a way to support students in making the transition to work in community mental health through paid internships so they don't graduate in debt, helping the state keep people out of jails or emergency rooms. Finally, the state has already allowed for the expansion of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), which Senator Stabenow has been a driving force behind. The state must let the expansion continue, which will help deliver the outcomes we desperately need. 

If the legislature fails to act before the election, we will see the need for acute care services increase. The criminal justice system is already consumed with cases that could have been prevented with intervention, and suicide rates and overdoses continue to rise. In Wayne County specifically, health disparities increase, including significant and avoidable early mortality for those with behavioral health conditions. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the system and make behavioral health a priority that will ultimately impact health care, corrections, criminal justice, and public safety for a generation. It's time we make community mental health everyone's priority and not just an election-year promise.