Author: Matti Karinen

How can oil palm regain legitimacy? The simple answer is by doing palm oil right in a way that respects planetary boundaries (i.e. mitigates climate change and prevents biodiversity loss) and drives development outcomes (i.e. is good for people too). We do more or less know how to do this on an individual plantation level.… Continue reading Pathways for Palm Oil

If we can’t connect our green mobility infrastructure into functional networks, we won’t drive mobility systems change. This applies to new infrastructure, but is even more critical in making best use of existing infrastructure. Today’s post is brought about by a recent walk to “ventilate my brain”. Coming back from a circuit in Maksimir park,… Continue reading Disconnections and infrastructure

This is a tale of getting the Haldex (AWD) pump changed in our 2013 Volvo V60. Not my usual sustainability stuff, and I know it’s not exactly fitting that a “climate and sustainability researcher” like myself (sometimes) drives and does so with a vehicle the burns (!) dinosaur juice. Long post. Our car is now… Continue reading Service shenanigans

One use for a blog is to liberate me – as a writer – from strict styles of writing (as I understand them). For academic writing this means that I can try, here, to spell out what it is I think and know more freely. No less factually, but with… less infrastructure required? Why? I’ve… Continue reading Getting back at it

Palm oil must become more productive in order to be more sustainable. Even though palm oil is already the most productive source of vegetable oils – in terms of tons of oil per hectare – increasing productivity is critical for protecting forests and biodiversity. This is because palm oil production growth is largely due to… Continue reading Productivity for sustainability in Oil Palm

Zagreb has more asphalt devoted to cars than I think it needs (or has money to look after). While public transport is actually very good, the core high-capacity tram network does not reach as far as one would expect. Busses cover many routes but suffer from the plague of cities: cars. Please don’t misunderstand –… Continue reading Sustainable infrastructure isn’t car centric

You know, I’d have expected there to be many more solar panels on roofs here. Given that insolation is miles better here than Finland, the pay back period for installation must be much shorter. I’ve asked around a little and heard that installation is very expensive. I don’t have numbers yet on relative installation cost… Continue reading A few observations on solar

Hi – Colleagues, friends, and random people on the internet. Welcome to my as yet unnamed blog on sustainability, policy, and, occasionally, the topic of my doctoral project of legitimate sustainable palm oil. I’m not going to write in high academese. That wouldn’t be fit for purpose, and is a pain to do in any… Continue reading Hello world – from Zagreb