Posts Tagged ‘innovation’
Low-Tech Vertical Veggie Gardens
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on November 3rd, 2011
Source: Nourishing the Planet: Worldwatch Institute
Photo: Roots of Health
From “Working With the Community to Foster Deep Roots of Health” by Molly Theobald:
Roots of Health, an organization based on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, views maternal and reproductive health as concerns that impact the well-being of entire communities.[...]
Roots of Health and its staff of young nurses and teachers, work directly with mothers and children, to bring reproductive and maternal health, nutrition, and education into the community.[...]
Roots of Health is also providing families with the tools they need to improve their nutrition.
One of these tools is a vertical garden—a large plastic drum with 40 holes cut evenly around the sides. These holes create an area for planting that is more than six times greater than the top surface of the container. The drum is filled with compost-enriched soil and planted with seeds such as eggplant, chili, pumpkin, okra and various indigenous leafy greens such as alugbati and pechay. Straw is used on the top surface as a mulch to help the soil retain moisture and nutrients.
The soil used in the vertical gardens is a homemade mixture of soil, charcoal, which acts as a conditioner, limestone, to reduce the acidity, and compost, to add additional nutrients to the soil. In this way, the vertical garden is its own self-contained and fertile growing space, producing healthy and nutrient rich harvests that are isolated from ground pollutants and pests.The organization prefers to use the plastic drums because the plastic stands up best in the humid, tropical weather, explained Marcus Swanepoel, Media and Program Manager for Roots of Health.
The drums cost approximately $15 USD each and the organization provides them to families in exchange for a small deposit. The vegetables grown in these vertical gardens not only help to improve nutrition for mothers and their children, they are also helping to diversify the diets of the entire community. Each drum produces enough food to supplement household diets, with surplus left over to be sold within the community. And households have really made the vertical gardens their own, adds Marcus. “I know some families that have set up poles on the top of the drums in order to grow beans—that isn’t something we taught them to do. They are doing it all on their own.”[...]
Read the full article by Molly Theobald, or visit the Roots of Health website.
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Effective Use of Trigeneration in Australia
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on May 11th, 2011
Source: Green Buildings Alive via Sustainable Cities Collective
Investa’s Trigen Image via The Fifth Estate
From “Australia’s first trigeneration ‘precinct’ is up and running!” by Craig Roussac:
[...] Sydney now has its first trigeneration precinct, where one building’s engine can power another one’s energy needs. Why was it necessary? To answer that question, let’s clarify a couple of things. First, when we say trigeneration we’re really describing a more elaborate form of cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP). Cogeneration describes a system where the waste heat from a natural gas-powered engine that generates electricity is captured and used on-site. In instances where that waste heat (thermal energy) is directed through an absorption chiller to generate cooling, the system is referred to as trigeneration. Using gas as a fuel offers a significant reduction in carbon emissions when compared to coal-fired power generation, and the heat reclaim adds to the system efficiency. Sounds good, doesn’t it? As always, the devil is in the detail – particularly in warm climates such as those enjoyed by most Australians.
It goes without saying that electricity is almost always useful in buildings, wherever you are. Heat, on the other hand, is useful for much of the year in cold climates, but its benefits are greatly reduced in mild climates such as the one we’re blessed with in Sydney. The obvious solution for warm-weather situations where you don’t need much heat is to convert it into another form of thermal energy known as “coolth”. Hence the popularity of ‘trigeneration’ in this part of the world.
Investa installed a trigeneration plant along with a host of other environmentally-friendly features at its new 6-star office development, Coca-Cola Place in North Sydney. Ideally such plants are designed and operated to strike a balance between electrical loads and thermal loads. That is to say, you want to run the generator for extended periods at peak efficiency and have sufficient demand for thermal energy to take up all the waste heat from the electricity generation process.
Reciprocating gas engines need to be heavily loaded. If the electrical load drops below 60-70% the engine has to stop. If there isn’t demand for all the waste heat, you merely have a gas ‘generator’, not co- or trigeneration. What Investa found was that efficiency measures which were driving down electricity demand were compromising the efficient operation of the plant. It was sitting idle almost all the time. Because the base building is operating so efficiently, even with increased demand for electricity during warm weather (due to air-conditioning) the problem didn’t go away because the electrical load would drop right off whenever the absorption chiller kicked in. There was simply no way to run the building efficiently and also operate the trigeneration plant. This appears to be the choice faced by many owners of trigeneration plants.
Investa’s solution was to lease the building’s entire Energy Centre (plant room) to a specialist operator and enter into two 12-year energy supply agreements to round out the package. The arrangement links the Coca-Cola building and Deutsche Bank Place via the electricity grid. Because Investa’s partners, Cogent and Origin, are licensed electricity retailers, they are able to manage the electrical loads between the two buildings on the National Electricity Market. Effectively the system now services an electrical load of a combined 70,000 sqm highly efficient building coupled to the thermal load of a 28,000 sqm building. This is sufficient to allow for daily and seasonal fluctuations in energy demand while still allowing the plant to run efficiently for up to 14 hours per day. Most of the thermal energy will now be captured and used efficiently most of the time.
[...]
Read the full article by Craig Roussac for Green Buildings Alive.
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Flexible Paving Harvests Pedestrian Footprints as Energy
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on May 4th, 2011
Source: EcoVoice
From “Human power generates new business energy” by Richard Maino:
Go for a walk and help power your town or city. That could happen soon on the streets, according to a UK inventor who says a paving stone in a busy area is stepped on by more than 50,000 pedestrians every day. To harness that power, young graduate Laurence Kemball-Cook came up with the idea of the energy-harvesting floor tile he calls Pavegen. It is the first device of its kind to capture this energy and transform it into electricity. When fitted in heavily pedestrianised areas it can power street lights and bus shelters, providing localised energy independence.
Pavegen is celebrating a contract for the massive Westfield shopping centre on the site of the London 2012 Olympic Games & Paralympic Games as well as its first permanent installation in a school walkway. Some seven million people are expected to walk through Westfield in the two weeks of the 2012 Games and all of them will step on Pavegen tiles. The tiles are made of 100 per cent recycled rubber from old tyres. Every time someone steps on one, it flexes a dynamo technology that stores the kinetic energy produced. The tile glows to show pedestrians they are creating power. The footfall energy could power street lighting, information signage and other applications that spring into life when people approach them.
The tiles can be used almost anywhere. Pupils at a boys’ school in Canterbury, southern England, are now lighting up a corridor simply by walking through it. And the Pavegen tiles will also help the Olympic site’s Westfield shopping centre to meet its stringent targets for environmental sustainability, making it one of the greenest shopping arenas.
[...]
Flexing just five millimetres, the Pavegen slabs absorb the kinetic energy produced by every footstep, creating 4-10 watts of electricity. The energy is stored in the slabs in a battery for up to three days or distributed to nearby street lights, information displays and even electrical appliances such as computers and fridges. The energy generated from five slabs can illuminate a bus-stop throughout the night and, with heavy use, a Pavegen installation could pay for itself within two years, with each slab targeted to have a five-year lifespan. The technology is suitable for indoor use and Pavegen is finalising the design for the outdoor units. Only five per cent of the footfall energy goes to the low-energy LED lamp to make the tile glow, while the remaining 95 per cent powers the tile’s environs.
Read the full article by Richard Maino.
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“Innovation: driving resilient energy and economic futures” Conference
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on April 8th, 2011
How can innovation and economic reform assist in developing the new energy sources required to reduce the impact of climate change? Intergenerational equity needs to be considered when developing enduring climate change solutions. This conference will deal with these issues and aims to offer many benefits for those operating in varied policy, planning and management contexts in energy, environment, planning, economics, communities and more. This conference will contribute to the debates on the practical application of innovation to the shifts required by industry, government, and the community in addressing climate change.
Join prominent and insightful presenters such as Prof Will Steffen, Dr John Hewson, Anna Skarbek & Dr David Martin to explore the themes of Australia’s innovation performance, creating new energy markets, climate prosperity and intergenerational equity.
April 14, The Australian National University, Canberra
Visit the Australia 21 website for more details or to register.
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OpenIDEO Challenge for Australia: Local Food
Posted in seeking by Kate Archdeacon on March 28th, 2011
Image: robstephaustralia via flickr CC
How might we better connect food production and consumption?
The Challenge asks design thinkers and people in the food sector to consider ways to improve and enhance the relationships and interactions between producers and consumers, rural and urban communities, growers and retailers. At the heart of this challenge lie issues of food security, global sustainability and local happiness.
Help us close the gap between rural food production and urban food consumption to create more sustainable, happy and healthy communities. OpenIDEO has partnered with the Queensland Government in Australia and the IDEAS Festival 2011 to create a closer connection between local food production and consumption that can make a dramatic impact on sustainability efforts.
Food, glorious food: a fundamental need yet how often do we take it for granted? We’ve come to expect the convenience of plucking the very best in fresh produce from our supermarket shelves or local markets all year round – but at what cost to our farmers, our environment and future generations?
The Challenge asks us to consider ways to improve and enhance the relationships and interactions between producers and consumers, rural and urban communities, growers and retailers, retailers and consumers. We’d like the community to consider issues such as energy use, transportation, biodiversity, food security, nutrition, obesity, the health of rural economies and the strength of inter-generational and intercultural knowledge sharing.
At the heart of this challenge lie issues of global sustainability and local happiness to improve life for rural and urban communities. We hope to cast a wide net for inspirations and concepts that will address the challenge in a holistic way. Think about new services, campaigns, policies, products, systems that could address these issues.
The concepts that we create together through this process will be as good or as bad as the community that gets involved. Please do share what we’re up to in your social networks and if you’re on Twitter you can use our hashtag #oi_localfood
For more information or to get involved, visit the challenge page at: http://openideo.com/open/localfood/inspiration/
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Big Green Idea 2011
Posted in seeking by Kate Archdeacon on March 23rd, 2011
Big Green Idea 2011 is now open for entries.
Big Green Idea is a British Council funding initiative designed to attract, encourage and assist Australia’s brightest entrepreneurs to develop inventive new sustainability projects. In 2011 up to six grants will be awarded to environmentally conscious innovators with plans to make a real contribution to Australia’s environmental future. Big Green Idea is designed to provide seed funding to new projects that equip people to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change in cities, and/or promote sustainable living and commercial practices.
Through a unique partnership with one of the leading global experts in environmental management, Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), applicants can apply for either a $10,000 or $20,000 cash grant.
We’re looking for people with savvy, creative ideas that will help address some of the biggest sustainability challenges for urban communities while making a positive impact on the way we live or work.
Successful Big Green Idea applicants will also benefit from project mentoring by business and sustainability leaders from LRQA and/or its partners and the British Council to help projects engage the widest audience and have the greatest possible positive effect on their communities.
Visit the Big Green Idea website for more details or to enter.
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Social Enterprise for Water Harvesting
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 24th, 2011
Source: Sustainable Innovations, via Springwise
Aakash Ganga, River from Sky, is a domestic rainwater harvesting system [in Rajasthan]. It channels rooftop rainwater from every house in a community, through gutters and pipes, to a network of multi-tier underground reservoirs as shown below.
Aakash Ganga’s strategy is to form public-private-community partnership or social enterprise to provide drinking water to the people. It rents roofs from home owners or acquires rights to harvest their rooftop rainwater. The local government or Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) leases, at no cost, about 10,000 M2 land next to the shared community reservoir. A social takes care of the post-implementation upkeep and holistic sustainability ? social, cultural, economic, institutional, political, operational, and ecological. One half of the harvested rooftop rainwater is stored in the reservoir attached to the house for the exclusive use of the home owner. The other half flows to the shared community reservoir. People who live under thatched roofs or who cannot afford to have their own reservoirs take water from the shared reservoir.
Read about the Social, Engineering and Place-making innovations associated with this project on the Sustainable Innovations website http://si-usa.org/projects/rainwater-harvesting/
Check out some great photos from the project on flickr: Life Post Aakash Ganga Implementation (all copyright or I’d put some up here).
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Tax Resources, Not Labour – New tax system enabling sustainability?
Posted in Models, Research by Rob Eales on January 14th, 2011
via No Tech Magazine
Image by suttonhoo via flickr under this Creative Commons licence
“In our society, high taxes on labor drive businesses to minimize the number of employees. Resources remain untaxed, so we use them unconstrained. This system causes both unemployment and scarcity of resources.”
This post from the No Tech Magazine links to the site Value Extracted Tax which discusses changes to the current taxation paradigm in order to enable sustainability to be build into the taxation regime.
Visit No Tech Magazine and Value Extracted Tax
Could urban heat islands produce geothermal power?
Posted in Research, Sustainable Cities by Kate Archdeacon on November 3rd, 2010
Via Environmental Research Web
Image: dustinphillips via flickr CC license
From Hot water to get cities out of energy trouble? by Liz Kalaugher
Cities are generally warmer than the rural land surrounding them, in a phenomenon known as the urban heat-island effect. It’s not just above-ground temperatures that rise – the soil beneath also experiences several degrees of warming. Now, researchers have found that the extra heat stored in groundwater beneath cities around the world could provide enough geothermal energy to heat urban homes.
“In most cities, with a variety of populations and climates, the large amount of geothermal energy stored in the urban local subsurface is capable of fulfilling the annual space-heating demand for years and potentially decades,” Ke Zhu of the University of Tübingen, Germany toldenvironmentalresearchweb.
Together with colleagues from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, St Francis Xavier University, Canada, and ETH Zürich, Switzerland, Zhu measured groundwater temperatures in Cologne, Germany, and Winnipeg, Canada. Both cities had extensive underground warming, with temperatures 3–5°C higher than surrounding rural areas. Similarly, the subsurface beneath urban green spaces was cooler than that below business districts.
The urban heat-island effect arises because of factors such as buildings preventing heat from leaving the ground at night, changes in the properties of the ground surface and the absence of plants that provide cooling by evapotranspiration.
“Urban aquifers with elevated temperature are attractive shallow geothermal-energy reservoirs, and meanwhile there is high energy demand just above,” said Zhu. “In our opinion, it is important to study the geothermal potential of urban heat islands before planning large geothermal projects.”
Low-Income Sustainable Housing: South Bronx, NY
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on October 22nd, 2010
Source: The Ecologist
From “Greening the Big Apple: how building got sustainable in the Bronx” by Gwen Schantz
In 2008, in an effort to raise money in the face of a crippling budget deficit, the New York City Housing Authority announced that it would sell off several acres of public land in the South Bronx. Rather than simply giving the land to the highest bidder, however, the city prioritised developments that would incorporate sustainable design and give affordable housing a modern green face. Blue Sea Development Company was one among four firms with winning proposals, and will break ground this October on the Forest Houses development, a beacon of green building set among 15 ageing brown-brick public housing towers in the neighbourhood of Morrisania.
[...]
This new building will raise the bar for New York’s green building sector as a whole. Inside and out, the structure is designed to maximise efficiency and exploit green materials and techniques. Energy savings add up bit by bit throughout the building, from the smallest energy-star household appliances to the direct-drive lifts that use as much as 60 per cent less energy than conventional ones.
[...]
In addition to energy-saving systems and design for healthy living, the development will be a showcase of green building materials. The apartments will feature durable faux-wood flooring made from 70 per cent recycled vinyl content, common areas will be laid with recycled nylon carpet tiles and doormats made from recycled tyres, and vinyl panelling made with 53 per cent recycled content will cover interior walls.
[...]
Perhaps the most interesting feature of this new development, however, is the 10,000 sq ft hydroponic greenhouse on the roof that will tie into the efficiencies of the building, utilising waste heat while insulating the top storey against heat and cold. Photovoltaic panels will supply electricity to the greenhouse and power air conditioners in the summer, cooling the greenhouse during the hottest times of the day. Additional cooling will come from passive design that maximises air flow and incorporates shade cloth and evaporative cooling pads.
The greenhouse will collect and filter rainwater to grow hydroponic vegetables year-round, yielding 10-20lb of fresh food per square foot. The rooftop structure won’t be carbon-neutral, but according to Benjamin Linsley, whose firm Bright Farm Systems designed the greenhouse, the energy draw of an urban rooftop greenhouse ‘is tiny compared to putting a greenhouse on the perimeter of the city’, because it benefits from the rising heat that constantly radiates from below.
Read the full article by Gwen Schantz for more details on the construction, including systems for heating & cooling, and reducing pollution-related illnesses for the residents.
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