Fertilizer has long been treated as a purely industrial product: mined minerals, chemical reactors, and massive global supply chains delivering nutrients to fields. But a new idea is beginning to take shape in agricultural science, and it sounds almost like science fiction. Instead of spreading chemicals across soil, farmers may increasingly rely on living organisms designed to feed crops from below. Engineered biofertilizers—microbes modified to help plants access nutrients more efficiently—represent one of the most intriguing shifts underway in modern agriculture.

Sustainability LIVE: The Net Zero Summit returns to London on 4–5 March 2026, taking over the QEII Centre in Westminster for two tightly packed days focused on what actually moves the needle on net zero. Part of BizClik’s global sustainability portfolio, the summit is positioned less as a vision-setting conference and more as a working forum for organisations under real pressure to decarbonise, report accurately, and translate climate ambition into operational change.

Microsoft has announced a strategic investment in Fortera, a green cement manufacturer, through its Climate Innovation Fund (CIF). The deal secures Microsoft access to Fortera’s ReAct™ low-carbon cement and environmental attribute certificates (EACs), marking a decisive step in the company’s effort to reduce embodied carbon in its datacenter construction footprint. Cement accounts for roughly 7–8% of global CO₂ emissions, making this sector one of the most critical targets for deep decarbonization.

PERTH, Australia, July 15, 2024 - Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation (NAC) and Rio Tinto have agreed to pursue the development of an 80MW solar farm on Ngarluma Country, near Karratha, to supply renewable energy to the company’s iron ore operations in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The solar farm is the first proposed project the Ngarluma people and Rio Tinto will pursue after a memorandum of understanding was signed to explore opportunities for renewable energy projects on Ngarluma Country.

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, July 10, 2024 - SKF and voestalpine Wire Technology, a subsidiary of the leading steel and technology group voestalpine, have successfully produced the first prototype bearing made from steel that contains hydrogen direct reduced iron (H-DRI). This represents a breakthrough in the efforts to decarbonize bearing production as H-DRI is a low emission alternative to conventional iron ore-based steelmaking and one of the important methods to make steel sustainable in the future.

PHOENIX, July 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ – EarthEn Energy, a US-based climate-tech startup, is proud to announce that it has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, also known as America’s Seed Fund. This award supports the development of a novel Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system, aka heat battery for EarthEn’s sCO2-based, thermo-mechanical, long-duration energy storage. The NSF STTR program is a highly competitive award that funds innovative technologies with high potential for commercialization and societal impact.