It’s the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web: 

5 mistakes most businesses will make this year with sustainability (Forbes) The drive to reduce our environmental and waste footprint is reshaping the products businesses sell and the processes used to create them. It also impacts the way businesses interact with customers, pick partners and suppliers, and engage with new business models, including circular and low-carbon economies. But the transition to a cleaner, greener business isn’t always smooth.

Transition to telemedicine has come with considerable reductions in carbon emissions: Study (The Hill) The use of telemedicine reduced carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of up to 130,000 gas-fueled cars per month in 2023, a new study has determined. These findings suggest telemedicine could have a modest but tangible contribution to curbing the effects of climate change, according to the study, published Tuesday in the American Journal of Managed Care.

Pope Francis focused on climate change as the planet continued to get hotter (NPR) In addition to being the spiritual leader of about 1.4 billion Catholics, Pope Francis advocated for taking action on climate change. That’s not surprising for a pontiff who was the first to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology. Over his 12 years as the head of the Catholic Church, Francis repeatedly raised the problem of human-caused global heating from burning fossil fuels and he encouraged people — including world leaders — to do something about it.

Louisiana wants to pave the way for small nuclear reactors, an untested technology in the US (Louisiana Illuminator) The Louisiana Legislature is working to speed up the permitting process to allow small nuclear reactors to be added to the state’s portfolio of energy production. Although the technology is not yet in use in the United States, proponents see it as a low-emissions option to provide electricity in areas that struggle to get reliable power.

Ask the expert: Why is the Earth heating up faster than expected? (MSU News) No supercomputer model has accurately predicted the rapid pace at which our planet is warming. Many climate scientists are bewildered as global temperatures rise faster than expected and extreme weather events wreak havoc on communities around the world. What are these climate models missing? The Michigan State University College of Natural Science recently discussed this question with climate researcher Wolfgang Bauer, a University Distinguished Professor in the physics and astronomy department.