What About Sustainability?

Adam Werbach’s article asks, Is Environmentalism Dead?, then answers with a clear ‘yes’:

“The signs of environmentalism’s death are all around us: we speak in terms of technical policies, not vision and values … we treat our mental categories, ourselves and other elements of nature, as things … most of all, environmentalism is no longer capable of generating the power it needs to deal with the world’s most serious ecological problems.” p.27-28

We did not call this class “Design for the Environment,” we called it “Design for Sustainability.” In your words, what’s the difference?

Curitiba

Cities are pretty complex things because you have hundreds of thousands of people who not only demands and struggle with their own personal choices but also butt against groups of other people with conflicting interests. At the same time, the growth of the city economically and industrially often jeopardizes the city’s natural environmental and cultural heritage. What does a sustainable city mean? Fewer factories? More parks? Less garbage? Or is it more than that, including things like education, tourism, and respect, things that are less quantifiable? And more importantly, how would you make it happen?

I thought Curitiba, Brazil, makes a strong case for a sustainable city. It faced the task of making both industrial growth and environmental protection its theme. The former architect-urban planner major, Jaime Lerner, took a very holistic view of the problem. In the articles we read about environmentalism, a key point is made about thinking of the whole system environmental issues are part of, and that’s exactly what Lerner has done. First, he created a rapid bus transit system that cheaply transported people living in poor outskirts of the city to city center to work. The system had its own land on all highways so it’ll never get into traffic and the bus stations are like metro stations where you pay to get into the station, not the bus, so the bus can move more quickly from station to station. As a result, this answered the demand for more jobs and provided access to jobs for poor communities.

Sounds like a great solution to an economic problem? Well guess what, it’s an environmental problem as well because with increasing urban growth and urban income growth, more and more people buy cars. It causes congestion and air pollution. But the rapid bus system is so much more efficient than driving people ended up only driving on weekends.

Well the bus system is only part of the solution. Lerner implemented social programs that solved economic, social, and environmental problems simultaneously. It is very difficult to cost-effectively collect trash in less developed areas. At the same time, people who live in these areas lack education on recycling. Lerner founded an incentive program where residents in these areas collect and sort garbage, under the “Garbage That Is Not Garbage” slogan, and exchange it for fresh vegetables and food every week when a large truck comes by. Gives a fresh meaning to Cradle to Cradle’s phrase of “Waste is Food,” doesn’t it? This kind of program design I think really succeeded because it gave something people really wanted – a better diet, better life for their families and kids. This is the kind of program that promotes respect and environmental education that we should see more of, and this is where Curitiba really shines. The people there are now so educated in protecting the environment that it’s become a part of their normal life. They have one of the highest recycling and recyclable sorting rates in the world, and their children know this from an early age.

Curitiba also has the Wire Opera House (first photo above) and the Portugal, Italian, German, Japan, Tingul Woods, Parks, and Squares to tie cultural diversity to environmentalism but I won’t go into those here. But I do want to point out that Lerner took special approaches to get his idea implemented. A prime example is the 24 Hour Pedestrian Zone, which was in plan for 6 years with no action because legislation faced objections from various groups. Lerner ended up turning the 6-block area into the shopping promenade it is now in less than 72 hours, where it was originally going to take 4 months. The swiftness of his action cut through the governmental infrastructure that impeded its progress and it’s something to consider when we design programs or areas or whatever – how will it go through the existing system of realization.

A more detailed article about it can be found here. I also recommend you listen to his talk on TED.com here.

Plastics and Pig Urine

Found on Crave (a tech blog from CNet.com), though it would be a fun discussion topic / thing to check out for those interested.

Beginning excerpt:

“Denmark-based Agroplast wants to transform pig urine into plastic dinnerware and household items.

We all have to have dreams, I suppose.”

-Arty

A New Shade of Urban Green

Treasure Island was built out of fill dredged from San Fransisco Bay in 1939 for the Golden Gate International exposition. After its stint as a military installation during World War II, the island seemed to settle comfortably into a simple and sparsely populated low-income piece of real estate. That is about to change.

Over 50% of the world’s population lives in cities. In China, today the world’s most populous nation, 40% of its population lives in cities (and that number is growing rapidly), and 80% of the population in the United States already lives in cities. Cities today are some of the biggest environmental pollutant emitters and certainly the most rapid natural resource consumers per area on the planet.

This is a problem that the developers of Treasure Island are trying to address.

The planned development of Treasure Island is essentially the prototype of a modern sustainable city. The development currently includes 5 skyscrapers, several high-rises, an organic farm, a wind farm, a new ferry terminal and 4 distinct high-density residential neighborhoods with a planned capacity of around 13,500 inhabitants.

This all doesn’t look particularly green at first glance, but the developers are striving to build “the most ecological city in the world.” High-density residential areas means that there is more land available as open ground, for green, biologically diverse areas that would serve the city as a carbon sequestration dump. The currently sprawling blocks would be reduced from 6000 feet to a pedestrian-friendly 400 feet encouraging people to walk or bike instead of drive. Around 90% of the population would live less than a 10-minute walk from downtown. Additionally, in order to reduce traffic from the outside heading in, a $5 toll has been proposed. The new street grid would be shifted 35 degrees to “optimize solar exposure and protection from the wind” and “make outdoor spaces more comfortable throughout the year [and] save energy on heating, cooling and lighting structures.”

The developers, along with the San Fransisco Board of Supervisors, have set quite an ambitious goal for Treasure Island: zero solid waste by 2020. I personally hope this is possible, but aside from composting food and grass clippings, none of my sources detailed anything that would lead to this goal.

Of particular interest are the plans for “living machines” that would serve as artificial wetlands. They are described as “Computer-controlled tanks teeming with a food chain of microbes and plants [that would] neutralize contaminants in both gray water (from showers) and black water (from toilets).” Another ambitious estimation made in this case by some of the higher-ups in the College of Environmental Design at Berkeley (who are associated with the development effort) is that 90% of the developments water needs would be supplied by these “living machines” – and that with enough rainfall, water imports might not be needed at all.

This development would be very interesting to visit – to see green technologies in action. From what I’ve read so far, this seems like a very ambitious project, but given the state of the world we live in, we’re going to need ambitious projects to dig us out of our hole. More importantly, though, we will need successful ambitious projects.

See links for more information:

A short article at Inhabitat.

A more detailed article in Popular Mechanics.

The wikipedia page (of course).

Bio diesel from algae

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/01/algae.oil/index.html?iref=newssearch

I found this article on CNN and found it extremely interesting. It talks about a company called Valcent, which recently built a commercial-grade algae greenhouse in El Paso Tx. Although experimental now, the ultimate goal of this facility is to produce biodeisel on a commercial scale. The idea of using algae for energy has been around since the 70’s, and there have been a few government-sponsored studies. However, until recently, the private sector hasn’t made much effort to produce algae oil commercially

Biodeisel from algae has several advantages over biofuels from other sources. The biggest advantage is the potentially high yield. Theoretically, algae can produce 100,000 gallons of biodeisel per acre, compared to 30 for corn and 50 for soybeans. Significantly less land would be required to satisfy human energy needs using algae. Algae also requires less resources and labor than growing crops. Finally, algae absorbs CO2 while growing. Some researchers have suggested putting algae farms near power plants or factories, so that the CO2 from these facilities would promote algae growth.

There is a ton of research that can be done on algae. According to the article, there are over 65000 species of algae, all with different characteristics. There is a need for research to determine which species produce the largest amount of oil and which species reproduce quickest. This research would help make algae biodeisel more commercially viable against oil and other products.

There is a whole website devoted to the field of algae biodeisel. www.oilgae.com has multiple articles devoted to the subject. It’s a somewhat interesting read and a great place to start if you’re interested in researching further.

Cradle to Cradle: Class question for comment

In Cradle to Cradle the introduction is titled “This Book Is Not a Tree.” The authors refer the material it that the book is comprised of as a “technical nutrient.” There is an implied assumption that this is a good thing. Is it? …why do you think so… or why not?

California Academy of Sciences Loses LEED Race. Wait, What’s LEED?

As reported by Curbed, the California Academy of Sciences recently lost the race to build the first LEED Platinum certified museum. They had to concede defeat to the Water + Life Museums in Hemet, California, which apparently came about when, after the construction of a local reservoir in the 1990’s, several significant fossil finds were unearthed, which ended up needin a home. Naturally, the response is “let’s build a green museum!” rather than, “where are we going to get the money for this?”

The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building System was introduced in 1998 to provide a standard by which the “greenness” of buildings can be measured, and is comprised of several itemized categories. Each category has a number of attributes that, if met, contribute to the LEED point total, which then in turn determines your certification level: Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Whereas you’d only need a minimum of 38% of the available points to earn a Certified rating, Platinum requires 76% or more. Everything from adding public transportation access to switching to less-offgassing glues counts, which means that Platinum is a serious commitment to making a building more “green”. Only about 75 buildings or building projects so far have been rated (or are gunning for) LEED Platinum, versus almost 500 that have the Certified rating (LEED maintains a list of projects). The relatively large ratio of Platinum to Certified would suggest that the LEED system is indeed working, incentivizing new projects to be “greener”.

The U.S. Green Building Council (the non-profit behind the LEED standards) has also branched out into creating separate rating systems for buildings like schools, retail outlets, and even residences. It is not, however, without its weaknesses. Often cited is the fact that once a building is LEED rated, its certification need not be renewed, leaving the social engineering door wide open for abuse (leaving computers on, running the A/C cool, etc). Perhaps the next LEED standard, 3.0 (YouTube), will attempt to address these issues, along with an expected points expansion for reduction of greenhouse gases.

Meanwhile, the California Academy of Sciences’ PR department has shifted their campaign focus just a tad:

When the Academy opens its doors in 2008, the design team anticipates the museum will earn international recognition as the world’s largest LEED Platinum-certified public space.

Bamboo Bikes

In anticipation of taking the bike building class this quarter, I went up to Portland in February for the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show. http://www.handmadebicycleshow.com/2008/. I split my time between checking out the bikes on the show floor and sitting in on some custom bike making seminars. The seminar that particularly caught my attention was taught by Craig Calfee about his Bamboo Bikes.

Calfee has been a leader in carbon composite bikes for decades. Recently he has been producing some high end frames made with bamboo tubes. The joints were originally wrapped with carbon fiber, now he uses hemp fibers. Either way the joints are cured with an epoxy resin. Bamboo bikes are not the stiffest or lightest available, but they have an aesthetic appeal. He also mentions the low carbon footprint of the bike on his webpage.

To my surprise, the seminar was not focused the construction of bamboo bikes. Instead, Craig outlined the bamboo bicycle fabrication business he is trying to start in Ghana. As a raw material bamboo is readily available in Ghana, and the population could benefit hugely from improved mobility. Craig has visited Ghana twice to teach framebuilding workshops to some local entrepreneurs. The bike design he uses in Africa is much more utilitarian than the bamboo race bikes he builds in America. It can carry roughly 200 pounds of gear over rough terrain. His goal is to spawn a business that can sustain itself employing local Ghanaians building frames from inexpensive, local, renewable resources. His hope is that the frame builders will be able to extend credit to local farmers and business people. This way the whole community can work to lift itself out of poverty. Ultimately, the business will be able to run without foreign aid.

All of the component in the frame of the bikes except for the resin, head tube, and bottom bracket shell are made from renewable materials. Instead of hemp, the frames are wrapped with a natural fiber imported from Northern Africa. It has been widely used up there for home insulation. While I have not done a LCA, I imagine the environmental impact of farming bamboo is much lower than that of mining and producing aluminum or steel tubes. Also, the bikes are easy to repair. When a bamboo tube breaks, it can be cut out and another one wrapped and cured it. If an aluminum tube breaks, the frame is headed to the scrap heap because re-welding aluminum does not produce reliable results.

I was blown away by his presentation. I had expected to hear an eccentric designer wax poetic about the virtues of an unusual material. The nobility of his goal to help people help themselves by empowering them to create bikes from renewable materials inspired me. You can check out his diary of the experience on his webpage:
http://www.calfeedesign.com/Ghana2008.htm

Awesome solar energy technology

I read a really interesting article in the New York Times today about new methods that are being developed to store solar energy so that it can be used when the sun is not shining (i.e. at nighttime or on cloudy days).

With photovoltaic plants, which are currently being used around the world, the amount of energy that can be captured from the sun is directly related to the amount of captured sunlight. For example, when the sun is directly shining on a plant that covers about 300 acres, 50 megawatts are generated. However, when a large cloud comes over, those 50 megawatts are lost in about 100 seconds.

New technologies are focused on storing heat from the sun, like water behind a dam, so that it can be used in any amount when necessary. A company called SolarReserve is currently generating a lot of buzz, and has gathered significant corporate backing. The company has built a “power tower,” which is like a water tank on stilts that is surrounded by mirrors that tilt on two axes, one to follow the sun in the course of the day and the other throughout the year. In the tower and in a tank below are thousands of gallons of molten salt that can be heated to high temperatures without reaching high pressure. This molten salt is pumped into a large storage tank, and can be piped on demand into a steam generator that powers a turbine to generate electricity. This “power tower” can supply 540 MW of heat, which can produce 250 MW of electricity, an amount that is enough to run a fair-size city.

Here is a picture of the “power tower” located in Seville, Spain:

After reading this article, I wanted to know more about worldwide solar energy demand and usage, so I did a little research. Here are some cool facts I found:
~ Worldwide photovoltaic installations increased by 2826 MW in 2007, up from 1744 MW installed during the previous year. In 1985, demand was 21 MW.
~ Cumulative solar energy production accounts for less than 0.01% of total Global Primary Energy demand.
~ The earth receives more energy from the sun in just one hour than the world uses in a whole year.
~ Two billion people in the world have no access to electricity. For most of them, solar photovoltaics would be their cheapest electricity source, but they cannot afford it.

Fiberglass to Fibergrass

I really think composites are a cool material to work with. I’ve used it a lot to build the solar car (another post for another day) and it’s great because it’s lightweight and strong. The transportation industry is moving more and more towards using composites for more a lightweight means of getting around (the 787 is over 50% carbon fiber). The problem is, carbon fiber is not particularly eco-friendly. Manufacturing it is an intensive process that involves getting a polymer (acrylonitrile) to over 2000 degrees C. Even at end of life, CF is difficult to recycle. It is commonly downcycled, ground up and used in plastic as reinforcement. At that point, the reinforced plastic is no longer recyclable.

With hopes of changing the surfing industry, a team from the Eden project has used hemp, the wonder plant, to make an all natural fiber for composites. Combining that with a balsa wood core and a resin derived from an oil producing plant, they made an all natural surfboard. California had recently passed more stringent environment regulations, causing some CA based board companies to close up shop. The team hopes that their board can help these companies “go green” and reopen.

The material properties of hemp fiber isn’t good enough to replace carbon in high performance industries, but it shows that you can still get lightweight performance while still being environmentally conscious.