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February 28, 2008
Sustainability Roundup: Green Message & Bike Water
Green Message?
Americans and the US have a reputation of being conspicuous with their wealth. This includes showing off their big homes and large cars. Today, with greater environmental consciousness and public demand for products that have low environmental footprint, companies selling products and services in America are under greater pressure to disclose the sustainability of what they sell.
Therefore, the companies are now actively trying to establishing their green credibility. But getting the message out to the public is tricky.
Even though marketing a product as sustainable is good for the reputation of the company, if they do not truly reduce their environmental impact, then the company runs the risk of "greenwashing." In other words, they want to appear environmentally friendly when in fact they have not put any efforts into becoming more environmentally responsible.
On the other hand, saying nothing about their sustainability efforts could hurt a company since the public will expect the firm to contribute to a greener world.
Joel Makower writes :
Companies are being pressed to talk about what they're doing — and not doing — by customers, employees, investors, activists, and others. Previously reclusive companies are rethinking their taciturn strategies.
This creates a situation where the company may disclose the sustainability content in their product but still have a hard time demonstrating they are making improvements. For example, a new product may have a label that says: contains 20% recyclable materials. But, in the public's eyes, they are not perceived as doing enough. There will questions as to why not 50% or 100% and the public will not necessarily notice the progress being made.
Pedaling for Water
Bikes are one of the best solutions for no emission transportation. There is no CO2 emission from biking and it also provides good exercise. Some people have also found interesting uses for bikes.
Some are used for generating electricity and in very rural villages, people pedal bikes to power their homes. Now, some students have adopted a bike for generating clean, drinkable water.
Bikes have many uses including generating electricity and powering the internet in rural villages.
But a group of students in California has just developed a new use. Actually it's for a tricycle but the idea is a foot-powered water filtration device-vehicle hybrid. Called the Aquaduct Mobile Filtration Device, the vehicle sucks water from reservoir in a rear tank and cleans it through a filtration system. The purified water is stored in a reservoir in the front.
Joshua Liberles writes in Carectomy:
Five California-based design students built the Aquaduct for rural, third-world countries where many people either walk for miles or use a motorized vehicle to retrieve water, and then use up time and energy to boil the water. The Aquaduct provides the transportation sans fossil fuel, eliminates the need for wood or other fuels to heat the water, and is emissions free.
投稿者 econetworks : 04:32 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
February 19, 2008
Sustainability Roundup: Honda Hybrid & Biofuel Emissions
Honda Introduces Breakthrough Hybrid Engine
The Toyota Prius is widely regarded as the standard hybrid vehicle in the US. Nevertheless, the efficiency gains are limited to driving at speeds less than 65 miles per hour (100 km per hour).
Hybrids vehicles typically have higher mileage (fuel efficiency) on local streets than they do on fast highways. That's because they capture energy using regenerative braking, which converts the motion of the car into electricity that is stored in the batteries.
Honda has announced a new type of hybrid engine that converts heat coming out of the exhaust into work. In doing so, the system is able to capture three times as much energy as regenerative braking. The system will work for both local and highway driving, improving overall energy efficiency of the vehicle.
For more on this advanced design, see this detailed article at Green Car Congress.
Research: Biofuels Lead to Increased Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In the US, certain agricultural and transportation interests have claimed environmental benefits of producing biofuels from corn but in a recent paper in Science Magazine, Tim Searchinger claims that not only does corn-based fuel offer no environmental benefits, carbon dioxide emissions are greatly increased over petroleum.
Unliked earlier studies, Searchinger's paper attempts to quantify the impact of land use changes associated with growing crops. By creating land for corn that were originally carbon sinks or forests growing in carbon capture, large amounts of greenhouse gases are released in the process.
Searchinger estimates that the overall emissions from corn biofuel is up to twice that of conventional gasoline.
投稿者 econetworks : 08:11 AM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
Lester Brown Interview: Plan B 3.0
Joining us for our inaugural feature interview at Sustainability Context is noted environmentalist Lester Brown from Washington DC. Mr. Brown is the President of the Earth Policy Institute and is a Director at Japan for Sustainability.
(Frank and Lester Brown)
He is the author of numerous books including "Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth" and "Building a Sustainable Society." Most recently, he release Plan B 3.0 which is the successor to Plan B 2.0.
In this new book, he discusses the latest indicators of global warming and efforts in the US to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Brown says, "When Plan B 2.0 came out, we were worried about ice melting for example. Now we look at ice melting and it's not just worrisome, it's getting scary. The principal difference between 2.0 and 3.0 is a greater sense of urgency now in terms of our response to trends undermining our future."
In fact, sea level rises are occurring two to three times as fast as the IPCC report had earlier indicated.
"In Plan B 3.0, wind energy is touted as an affordable and scalable solution for replaced coal-fired plants that release most of the carbon dioxide GHG. Wind is widely distributed and easily harnessed. We expect wind to be centerpiece of the new energy economy. And it's at the heart of Plan B 3.0 in cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2020, not by 2050 which politicians like to talk about," says the author.
Brown says that the world needs to reach GHG reduction sooner in order to stabilize the climate before it gets entirely out of hand. Wind is growing by about 30% worldwide per year and he thinks it can grow even faster with the right kind of government support.
Lester Brown's book is available online at http://www.earth-policy.com/ as a paperback or hardback book and also as a free download.
To listen to this exclusive interview, click here: