Posts Tagged ‘consumption’
Ethical and Green Christmas Guide via The Guardian
Posted in Movements by Rob Eales on December 23rd, 2010
Image: sdminor81 via flickr CC
How to be festive and green – from rentable Christmas trees and organic turkeys to original ethical gift ideas and tips on recycling electrical waste… From the Ecologist, part of the Guardian Environment Network
Check out the article for heaps of ideas (and links) for Food, Booze, Christmas Trees, Original Gift Ideas, and Waste: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/18/ethical-living-christmas.
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Zeer Pot Fridge: Low-energy technology
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on December 9th, 2010
Source: Nourishing the Planet: Worldwatch Institute
Practical Action’s Zeer Pot Refrigerator:
In the heat of Sudan, food doesn’t stay fresh for long. Tomatoes go off in just two days. After four days carrots and okra are rotten. For poor families in North Darfur and Blue Nile State, without any means of preserving their crops, this can lead to hunger and even starvation. The situation is especially grave for those most vulnerable like children and elderly family members.
One ingenious solution is the zeer pot: a simple fridge made of local materials. It consists of one earthenware pot set inside another, with a layer of wet sand in between. As the moisture evaporates, it cools the inner pot, keeping up 12kg of produce fresh for up to three weeks.
Fruit, vegetables, water. The zeer pot keeps them all fresher for longer – providing much needed help to starving families.
You can see from the table below the incredible difference that a zeer pot makes to food preservation in Sudan. For many families, it can mean the difference between potential starvation and having enough food to feed themselves.
Visit the website for more details on the Zeer Pot Fridge, including how to make one, and basic information on evaporative cooling. http://practicalaction.org/our-work/ourwork_zeerpotfridge
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What if we didn’t use electricity to store all of our fresh food? Our energy-hungry fridges could be much smaller if we used more passive technology. For other fridge designs, check out these VEIL student works: “Circular“, “Tower of Power” and “Split Fridge“ -KA
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Introducing the Smart Grid! via Mexico City
Posted in Movements, Research by Kate Archdeacon on November 19th, 2010
Sustainable Cities Net: Posting from the UCLG Congress in Mexico City 18-25 November
A Smart Grid, described by Siemens as the “intelligent network infrastructure” that supports the “systematic optimization of the energy system”, would allow energy production and consumption to become more aligned, reducing waste in energy production and increasing consumption awareness through smart meters, tariffs and smart appliances.
Siemens have erected their Smart Grid Dome in the Plaza Santo Domingo, here in Mexico City. The interior dome acts as a projection screen for a multimedia introduction to Smart Grid Solutions, while touchscreens around the walls divide the information into (roughly) Grid Management and ICT, Renewable Energy, and Scales of Application (Industrial, Commercial, Residential). The information is a mixture of technical specifications, background information, current research, case studies and proposals.
While it may seem like shifting to smart appliances and meters does not reduce the need for “stuff” (and what we do with all the “non-smart” stuff when it’s not wanted anymore), there are opportunities to combine Sharing Services and Product Service Systems (PSS) with smart grids. For example, a smart grid might encourage people to set their smart washing machine to run during off-peak supply for wind power – say at 3 in the morning. In this model, everyone still owns a washing machine. But what if your local laundry service did the same thing – using less resources and energy while creating a central point for water-saving infrastructure? (Local Laundry Service?? Check out this pedal-powered laundry service in Buenos Aires.)
More to come on this…
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To follow the posts from the Summit follow or bookmark this link, http://www.sustainablecitiesnet.com/tag/mexico-city/.
How Might We Live Better Minus Oil? An Ideas Showcase
Posted in Opinion by Kate Archdeacon on September 10th, 2010
Source: Treehugger
With the BP oil spill fresh in everyone’s minds, and the call for solutions to end the collective petroleum addiction rising louder than ever, it’s tempting to just say let’s just stop using oil. But the fact of the matter is that oil has so thoroughly coated every aspect of our lives—despite plenty of personal efforts by TreeHugger readers to limit their eco-impact—that getting us off oil is a gargantuan task, one that is simply impossible to do in one step. Rather it’s a transition, a wholesale shift in the way we construct our towns and cities, how we move ourselves and goods around, how we make and package the goods we consume (as well as how many of them we purchase), how we grow our food, and more. It will take time, effort, and frankly will not be easy. But it is the right thing to do, for ourselves, for the United States, and for the planet.
Check out this Treehugger Slideshow: a thought-provoking look at how we can start this all-important transition, and how we can all live minus oil.
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The Story of Bottled Water
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on August 20th, 2010
The Story of Bottled Water ( and manufacturing demand…)
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Grow Different, Not Bigger: Animation
Posted in Opinion, Research by Kate Archdeacon on August 12th, 2010
From the Drucker Institute:
Wegmans, a regional (US) grocery chain with just 75 stores in five states, earlier this year beat out its much bigger rivals—Kroger, Publix and Safeway—to be named tops in its industry in a major consumer survey. The recognition caused one marketing expert to note that “you don’t have to be the biggest to be the best.”
In a world in which high-growth companies such as Google tend to grab the headlines, it’s an easy lesson to forget. But it’s one that Peter Drucker promoted. In a 1979 essay, Drucker advised that “nothing can grow forever” and that “today every business needs . . . ways to distinguish healthy growth from fat and cancer.”
British author and social philosopher Charles Handy also echoed these ideas in a 2009 Drucker Centennial lecture. In this short cartoon (under 3 mins), the Drucker Institute has brought Handy’s words to life, illustrating the distinction between healthy growth and unchecked “growth for growth’s sake.”
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Concentrated Cleaners: Reducing Impact
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on August 5th, 2010
Source: Springwise
Forward-thinking manufacturers are working to decrease the amount of packaging used for their products. Some offer concentrated formulas, others sell refills in bags instead of containers. Now, a Canadian startup has come up with an innovative solution we hadn’t yet spotted: refill cartridges that consumers dilute at home, with tap water.
Developed by Planet People, the iQ line of household cleaning products features small cartridges of plant-based concentrate. Consumers fill a spray bottle with ordinary tap water and pop in a cartridge. The coloured concentrate visibly mixes with the water, and voila: a full bottle of cleaner. iQ comes in four varieties: glass, bathroom, floor and all-purpose cleaner. All made with non-toxic and environmentally sustainable ingredients.
Besides reducing packaging and plastic waste, the system obviously cuts down on transportation, reducing fuel consumption and vehicle emissions. And—appealing to people’s wallets as much as their conscience—iQ passes on packaging and transportation savings to its customers. iQ starter kits, which include a spray bottle full of solution and a first refill cartridge, retail for approximately CAD 6.49, while cartridges are approximately CAD 2.79.
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Bicycle-Based Coffee Service
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on July 29th, 2010
Source: Springwise
Brooklyn-based Kickstand Coffee uses two bicycles, a fold-up stand and a hand-cranked grinder to serve up sustainable hot and cold coffee at events around NY City. Kickstand’s stated goal is to provide the best possible cup of coffee to community events in NYC with the smallest environmental impact possible.
The brainchild of three baristas, Kickstand Coffee relies on two 160-pound rolling carts that are each towed to location by a custom-built bicycle, according to a report on NYDailyNews.com. Once there, the carts unfold and attach to create a 9-foot-long bar that includes everything the trio need to make coffee. Beans are hand-ground on a cup-by-cup basis, and the iced coffee is cold-brewed; only Kickstand’s hot coffee – brewed on location using specially adapted Chemex glass beakers—uses any propane or electricity. The company is working on a mini folding bicycle that customers will be able to use to grind their own beans. Pricing for Kickstand’s coffee is USD 2.50 per cup, hot or cold.
Read the Springwise article.
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Greening My Office Blog: First Success!
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on July 21st, 2010
Source: Greening My Office via The Ecologist
From I got them to switch the heating off! by Sylvia Sunshine:
My office is over 70 square foot in size, but only half of the space is ever being used at one time. The other half lies empty. The organisation that pays my wage rents a large office space and sublets out to two other companies. However, my company has been unable to sublet the remaining space on the floor. According to research by the property agent NB Real Estate, there is now over 10 million square foot of office space lying empty in London alone, up from 7.8 million in 2008. The capital has been left with over 10 per cent of its offices empty, with the situation at its most drastic in the West End (where I’m based). And of course, with this waste comes the predictable onslaught of environmental damage.
Because there are so few people in the space I’m in, it takes more energy to heat, in both real and relative terms. Furthermore, in the empty office adjacent to my office, we heat the entire space day and night, even though it lies vacant (and has done for nearly a year).
The next morning I approach the company head honcho about the empty space in our office. ‘No one wants to buy at the moment,’ he says. ‘We’ve tried to lower to price too, but nothing seems to work’.
‘Can we switch off the heating in there?’ I murmur, head hanging low over a bowl of organic museli. My boss looks at me carefully. I can see the cogs turning as he remembers previous conversations. As time stands still I think he’s about to upbraid me for being too much of a goody (non-leather) two shoes. But instead of attacking me – as has become par for the course – he glances over to Jill and squawks: ‘Can we get building services to switch off the heating in the other offices? Rooms 2a and 2b? They’re not being used at the moment, are they?’
‘Sure,’ Jill shouts back across the empty office, ‘I’ll email the landlord now’.
‘Wow,’ I think. No qualms, no questions and no awkward silences. Just action. Maybe my technique is improving? Or maybe some kind of sea change is underway?
Read more about Sylvia Sunshine’s efforts.
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Extending Value: The Life Box
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on July 19th, 2010
Source: Core 77
From “The Life Box: Packaging That Turns Into Trees“:
Now this is some truly brilliant package design: Mycologist Paul Stamets’ Life Box, a simple cardboard box impregnated with a mixture of Department-of-Agriculture-approved seeds.
The Life Box suite of products builds upon the synergy of fungi and plants by infusing spores and seeds together inside of packaging materials that can be planted. The Tree Life Box is made of recycled paper fiber. In this fiber, we have inserted a wide variety of tree seeds, up to a hundred, dusted with mycorrhizal fungal spores. The mycorrhizal fungi protect and nurture the young seedlings. For millions of years, plants and beneficial fungi have joined together in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship.
You can get started by simply tearing up the box, planting in soil, and watering.
The fungi “sprout” or germinate to form an attachment with root cells and extend into the soil with a network of fine cobweb of cells called mycelium. The mycelium mothers the seed nursery by providing nutrients and water, thus protecting the growing trees from disease, drought, and famine.
Stamets estimates that 1 tree out of 100 will survive to the 30-year mark, at which point it will have sequestered one ton of carbon. And how’s this for an endorsement: Al Gore is shipping his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, in Life Boxes.
Read the full article on Core 77.
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