li-cycle

Fortune Staff

Change the World

Lithium-ion batteries are key to a zero-emissions future, but mining their raw materials exacts a harsh environmental toll. Li-Cycle extracts metals like cobalt and nickel from end-of-life batteries (regardless of their size or chemistry). Its soon-to-open Rochester, N.Y., recycling plant will be the first major new North American source of battery-grade lithium, producing enough for 225,000 EVs annually.

Li-Cycle | 2022 Change the World

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Li-Cycle

Li-Cycle | 2022 Change the World | Fortune

You missed out on some sleep during the workweek and are looking forward to sleep in and pay off that "sleep debt" once the weekend rolls around. But is that actually good for you? Sleep scientist Dr. Rebecca Robbins breaks down our sleep cycle and everything you should know about our natural circadian rhythms.

Fact or Fiction: Is it possible to pay off your sleep debt?

Health

Dr. Rebecca Robbins of Harvard Medical School breaks down sleep cycles, circadian rhythm, and "sleep debt".

Is it possible to pay off your sleep debt?

Dr. Rebecca Robbins of Harvard Medical School explains.

One of the most common trends in our population is curtailing the amount of sleep that we get during the work week and thinking that we can repay our sleep on the weekend, doing things that we often view as luxurious like sleeping in. But believe it or not, sleeping in is one of the worst things that we can do for our sleep spending enough time sleeping is of course one of the most important and central parts of what we're increasingly referring in the field to sleep health. It is a myth to think that we simply crawl into the sheets and enter the state of sleep and then we wake up and haven't moved an inch to the contrary. Sleep is actually a very rich and very variegated process. The gold standard of sleep measurement is something called policy sonography and that is largely done in the context of a laboratory setting. Policy. Sonography simply refers to multiple modes of measurement. We're gonna be monitoring your brainwaves, your respiratory effort, your heart rate, a host of different things that allow us to understand which stage of sleep you're in at which time Over the course of your sleep. When we crawl into the sheets at night we enter some of the lighter stages of sleep and we're entering sleep slowly and it's a stage stage one and two that are marked by slightly slower brain waves in the wake state. But as we're entering sleep, this is a period of time in the lighter stages of our sleep at night. They were very able to be awoken by noises or things that are going on around us. Then we enter stage three deep sleep, which is the closest thing we get to hibernation as human beings in a 24 hour day and then something fascinating happens after about 20 minutes in a healthy sleeper, we enter our first rapid eye movement period of the the dreaming period of our night actually plays a really vital role for our brain to bring up events that happened from the day. The rapid eye movement sleep is where we believe. We got a lot of the benefits cognitively of our sleep and our ability to retain and remember information. What's so fascinating is that the structure of sleep is actually intact almost remarkably no matter the amount of sleep that you get. So what's so fascinating is that the human body and the brain adapt to that maybe shorter period of sleep. But then in the nights following those nights of curtailed and shortened sleep, our body and our brains actually spend a little bit more time in rapid eye movement sleep, we call this rem rebound because such a vital stage for our cognitive performance and excellence. Our sleep is governed by two processes. The first is called our home a static sleep drive and what that refers to is our overall sense of sleepiness. That homo static drive simply builds with the amount of hours that we've been awake over the course of the day and then that declines it's repaid with our sleep over the course of our nighttime. The other process that has a really significant role in our sleep is something called our circadian rhythm. Now that rhythm as it sounds eggs and flows over the 24 hour day in a very rhythmic, beautiful and predictable fashion and our circadian drive determines the times that we're optimally alert and times that work optimally sleepy over the course of a 24 hour day. The circadian system is most influenced by our environment and the pattern of light and darkness in the world around us. The on switch to the sleep phase of our circadian rhythm is darkness going into an envoy is free of light when we're ideally able to align our wake up time with sunlight exposure. That flips the off switch, stops the floodgates of melatonin and allows us to be alert and go about our days without the presence of those time cues. Our circadian rhythm becomes very confused and unsure when it should be awake and when it should be sleepy. Now when we change our sleep time, believe it or not even one hour makes a big difference. So if you've ever slept in late on a saturday morning and wake woken up 234 hours beyond your normal work week, Wake up time and felt really groggy. The circadian system is why, because what you've done is you've actually done the same thing as popped in an airplane and fly into a new time zone so your brain is starting to play catch up. We often think that sleep is just relegated to the nighttime hours or just the time that you plan to start sleeping. But believe it or not, a good night's sleep really starts as soon as we wake up. So things to keep in mind over the course of the day are getting natural light exposure. That helps us think our circadian rhythm to the pattern of light and darkness around us exposure to natural sunlight also can boost our energy. So ideally what we want to do, not only get enough sleep, but one of the core tenants of sleep is keeping a consistent sleep schedule. We're all so unique and different and diverse that we each have a different sleep need now do your best to protect that night in and night out.

Amid one of the most complex economic environments in recent memory, what behaviors can enable companies to gain ground and enter the recovery phase poised to create even more value—for their shareholders, employees, and communities? Taking inspiration from outperforming companies and resilient sectors—like the burgeoning Titanium Economy—this conversation will explore strategies to help business leaders strengthen their companies' resilience and thrive—not just survive—in the changing economic landscape.

Modern Leadership: How to Build Resilience, Survive a Downturn, and Thrive in the Next Cycle

Leadership

This will explore strategies to help business leaders strengthen their companies' resilience and thrive—not just survive—in the changing economic landscape.

 Modern Leadership: How to Build Resilience

This conversation will explore strategies to help business leaders strengthen their companies' resilience and thrive—not just survive—in the changing economic landscape.

EMERGING CFO: RETHINKING KPIs IN THE DIGITAL ERA
The corporate lifecycle has been dramatically compressed by digital disruptors and subscription-based business models, with profound implications on how corporate finance can drive growth and deliver value. In response, smart CFOs are rethinking the KPIs they measure, shifting from only focusing on traditional ones such as cash flow, revenues and customer acquisition costs, to implementing KPIs that track the employee experience, the customer experience, and customer lifetime value. In this virtual Emerging CFO discussion in partnership with Workday, we’ll discuss strategies to measure how value gets created today, and the importance of agile systems that enable cross-functional collaboration and broader integration of your people and finance data.
In partnership with Workday
Moderators: 
Sheryl Estrada, Senior Reporter, CFO Daily, FORTUNE
Matt Heimer, Executive Editor, Features, FORTUNE

Subject Matter Expert:
Michael Schrage, Research Fellow, MIT Sloan School Initiative on the Digital Economy

Discussion Leaders:
Harmit Singh, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.
Alka Tandan, Chief Financial Officer, Gainsight


The Emerging CFO: Rethinking KPIs In the Digital Era 

Conferences

Discussing strategies to measure how value gets created today, and the importance of agile systems that enable cross-functional collaboration 

EMERGING CFO: RETHINKING KPIs IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Companies like Samsung and Fairphone are focused on making products that use recycled and ethically-sourced materials.

Your smartphone is bad for the planet; these companies want to help

Environment

Your smartphone is bad for the planet

Samsung and Fairphone are focused on making sustainable products.

there's an unsustainable consumption pattern that's happening. You know, we talk about fast fashion, but fast tech right at their phone, we strongly believe that we want our business to be a force for good and for us that means both environmentally socially, but also financially maybe it's coming off the pandemic, but I think the timing that is really right for these products and I think it's it's good for a company. But I think more importantly, I think it's good for the environment. If you're not considering social and environmental impacts when you're making business decisions, then you're not making fully informed business decisions. Mhm. The electronics industry is notorious for making thin light capable machines when you know, mobile computing started in the 80s. It wasn't something that came into the consciousness of corporations. You know, maybe we should think about the fact that this cobalt mine is in a place that may use a lot of child labor may use a lot of unclean energy to get it out of the earth. We still want thin light fast devices but there's a growing movement that is really interested in how sustainable something is in our few the rapid life cycles and the short lifetime of devices actually is the main problem um designing a device that is meant to last and also building the ecosystem around it that actually a device can last longer by introducing this longer term vision. Um I also start immediately tackling problems not only for the planet, but also for the people in this, in this supply chain. If you look at mobile products, about 80% of the life cycle, greenhouse gas impacts all the way from raw material extraction through production to use and then back around again is in production and so it doesn't make sense, you know, to be throwing these things away, I sat down with Mark Newton who is the head of sustainability for Samsung. Now, Samsung is a massive company. They don't just make smartphones and refrigerators and washing machines and home appliances, they also make semiconductors, they make battery packs for electric vehicles, they're a tremendous company. Their goals are pretty aggressive, so by 2030 they want to become net zero with consumer electronics, they have manufacturing plants, they have locations all over the world and that means that in order to become net zero, they have to essentially work with each individual country to raise up the infrastructure essentially. Samsung is sort of planting the flag and saying, okay, you know, we're going to do this and we're gonna make this happen, sustainability is crucial for tech because of the level of consumption and how integrated tech is into our everyday lives. You know, the most sustainable phone is the one that's in your pocket. It's the one that you can use and repair and change and swap and customize as technology gets better. Fair phone is a company that started in 2013 and their whole model is essentially to provide a smartphone experience, that you know, looks very similar to say, your iPhone in your pocket that incorporates sustainability recycling bility, repairability and even ensuring fair wages for workers Every year. We sell and buy their 4, 1.4 billion smartphones worldwide and we use them around 2-3 years and then after use less than 20% actually is handed in for recycling. It's actually a huge waste machine Plus also these rapid lifecycle said you can imagine the effect it has on the C. +02 and material use, but also the short term focus is quite a big influence on the people working in this supply chain. They're doing something in this space to innovate for long enough that larger companies are coming to them and being like, okay, what have you learned? How did you do this small part that you see here, it makes your phone shake and that's made of constant from here. What can we learn from you so that we can incorporate more sustainable products. You wanted a compromise to be as small as possible because for me, my goal as fair phone is I want my users that they love to keep their phone and use longer. Yet for me, what is beautiful? Is it beautiful? They're just thin thinner, thinnest or is it actually beautiful that say, hey, there's a design idea behind this that cares for the materials for the people working in the supply chain and for the environment. Ace is interesting because they're known mostly for gaming computers. They offer a lot of really innovative stuff in that space. They also work in chromebooks, things that kids use at schools. They're launching their very first sort of 30% post consumer recycled laptop called the vero. We've made sure that it is used to operate able so it's pretty easy to pop in more memory or in a gaming laptop to put a different graphic processor. And so I consider that table stakes today where the customers want that and the idea is over time, there's no premium, you know, it's chicken and the egg as you get scale and you get your production lines up the the added cost to have recycled plastics comes down and after a while it'll be just, you know, I think everyone will have green products. The question is how soon will people have it? We're ready now. And I think some of the competitions maybe a year or two behind Once, it's part of our design criteria. Um, just like energy efficiency and performance and all those things. Just as part of that trade off analysis that we do then it just becomes something that is ubiquitous with the product are buds to pro it has 90% recycled content in the plastic even one generation before we were like really proud to get 20% recycled content and so we know we can do it. I went into this story thinking why hasn't this happened? Like why haven't we seen more green products on the market, all of those sort of different groups are converging to move us towards the future that's a little bit more sustainable from an employment perspective, from a global supply chain perspective from an environmental perspective. The first step is that we want to raise awareness. So we uncover for that complex supply chain and figure out, hey, where are things going wrong? The second step is that we innovate in our company and our supply chain on solutions to the malpractices that we found. But then the third step is that we want to convene other industry players and convince other players, hey, we now have a scalable solution that works, join in one of the things that I'm seeing that's really driving a lot of this is investor interest in the idea that companies that are considering sustainability in their business model are better run companies. It can be commercially successful to make both ethical choices in your supply chain and indeed be a commercially successful company. But I think ultimately, you know, I don't think, I don't think that we're coming out with green product of higher margins and make more money. I think it's just that the market is going to be asking for green and rather being a slow or fast follow, we want to leave the market. I am quite hopeful and I also see the different actors. I see legislation upcoming. I see other companies also moving in this direction. So I really am hopeful that Fair phone is not going to be the exception like we are now, but that we in the in a few years time, this actually will be the more instead of the exception.

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