by: TreeHugger Design, 2013-10-28 10:04:51 UTC
Most refugees live in refugee camps for an average of 12 years and most of that time it's in drafty, tattered tents. Now IKEA has a solar-powered camp house that is flatpack and quick to assemble.
Prosthetic limbs traditionally cost many thousands of dollars, doubling the pain of people who have already suffered enough. But several projects are showing how it's possible to produce artificial arms and legs for less.
A while ago, we wrote about a couple of guys who got together over the Internet to build themselves a bionic hand from Meccano and an Erector Set. It wasn't pretty––but it was effective, and the two have since gone on to set up their company. Then, there was Pinchy––an arm made by two seniors at Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology.
Now comes another project, this time from Alabama. Zero Point Frontiers, an engineering company in Huntsville, has built a simple plastic hand, using nothing more than a MakerBot 3D printer. A two–year–old named Kate Berkholtz, who was born without fingers because of a congenital abnormality, is using the device. According to WAFF, a local TV station, the hand costs only $5, and can be made in a single day––meaning it can easily be replaced, if need be, or adjusted as Kate gets older:
It's that price tag that has the interest of parents of kids who need prosthetics. Depending on the type, you're looking at between $25,000–$50,000 for a prosthetic. The problem is, most insurance companies won't pay for a child's prosthetic. They just grow out of them too fast. At such a cheap cost, this might be the solution that families have been looking for, including Kate's.
Zero Point says it's planning a Kickstarter campaign to further develop the device, which is made of plastic pieces, screws, and bungee cords. Check out the slide show above to see what it has come up with so far.
The trend doesn't end there. A 17–year–old named Easton LaChappelle created a 3–D arm in his bedroom––an invention he recently showed off to President Obama. And this guy from the U.K. has created the "Dextrus hand." It costs less than $1,000.
None of these products yet approach professional grade, but they all show a lot of promise. There's no reason to think that prosthetics shouldn't be a lot cheaper in the future––good news for anyone who can't afford today's technology
If you're worried about the state of the planet, fear not. The next generation has it covered.
Meet Meghan Shea, an 18–year–old from West Chester, Pennsylvania. Working largely on her own, she's come up with a cheap, effective water filter that could be a help to millions of people, if developed fully. It's the sort of thing that makes you feel better about the future.
Two summers ago, Shea was on a summer science fellowship at Texas Tech University. She was supposed to be working with microbiologist professor. But he was too busy, and she was sent off to work on her own, with the vague mission of looking into "water purification." Shea started reading about moringa oleifera, a commonly occurring tropical tree. Moringa seeds had been identified as a possible low–cost purification material, but never really developed seriously.
Shea thought she would try. She took old PVC piping and made a device with four layers: moringa seeds crushed into a powder, soil, charcoal and fabric. She then tested it with water full of E. coli bacteria and another full of contaminants. She found that her device took out 99% of the bacteria, and 70% of the coloration. The seeds act as a sort of coagulant: Unwanted material bunches together as it comes into contact with the Moringa and can't pass through the other layers.
Shea says she's been obsessed with science since the age of six, telling everyone how she's going to be a biologist one day. This summer, she was in Kenya on another science trip and got a chance to speak to several locals about her idea. She particularly likes that families can build their own version. "The beauty is we can make this device out of anything, because it's the material we put into the device, not necessarily the device itself, that purifies the water," she says.
Shea has just started as a freshman at Stanford University and hopes to keep working on filter further, and eventually get it out into the world––either as a physical device, or a piece of intellectual property others can make their own.
"I found something with so much potential, it seems silly to stop working on it, until i come up with a device that can begin to be used. The trick will be in disseminating the information to people using it," she says.
by: Sustainable Design News, 2013-10-07 01:21:40 UTC A Vertical Farm project concerned with food sustainability and vertical agriculture within the context of Singapore was this year's winner of Pomeroy Studio's Design for A Sustainable Future Award (DSFA).
by: Sustainable Design News, 2013-10-16 18:04:31 UTC The Center for Green Schools (Center) at the U.S. Green Building Council has announced the 2013 Greenest Schools on Earth.
by: Environmental Leader, 2013-10-25 14:05:01 UTC Macroeconomic drivers have reignited cleantech investment and expanded its reach across sectors and industries, according to research by cleantech research firm Kachan & Co. and nonprofits As You Sow and the Responsible Endowments Coalition. Population growth, increased resource scarcity, increased urbanization, energy and resource dependence, climate change, and risk mitigation are among the continually intensifying cleantech […]
by: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, 2013-10-17 06:56:52 UTC
Joining forces with engineering firm Deka R&D, Coca-Cola has launched a project which will see the transformation of approximately 2,000 shipping containers into water purifying stations. Dubbed Ekocenter, the shipping container module has been designed to provide isolated and developing communities with facilities to produce safe drinking water, as well as access to wireless internet technology and solar powered charging...
Continue Reading Shipping container conversion provides clean water in developing countries
by: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, 2013-10-18 07:46:19 UTC
For automobile manufacturers, the electric elephant in the room continues to be bulky and weighty battery packs. This week, Volvo unveiled an innovative potential solution to the problem that it has been working on for the past three and a half years with other European partners; replace steel body panels with carbon fiber composite panels infused with nano-batteries and super capacitors. ..
Continue Reading Volvo to replace body parts with energized carbon fiber panels
There is no simple way to identify a leading company in sustainability. Given the proliferation of ratings, rankings, blogs, and indices, there is no shortage of opinions, and often these are in direct conflict with one another. The methodologies used to calculate performance are often very opaque, or nonexistent. Even highly reputable organizations, based on a good core of data, often produce wildly divergent results from one another. And once the pundits get a hold of any ranking, they usually tear it to pieces, bringing their own criteria, opinions and biases to bear and further muddying the waters. While the debates are often fierce, no one can really agree on what sustainability itself really means.
This is good news for the majority of companies that are still trying to get their footing on sustainability performance. If even the experts can't agree, why worry about trying to please them––or anyone? The muddied waters give companies room to chart the course forward themselves. So instead of looking for outside verification that they're on the track, companies should inward to their people.
It all starts with the culture of the company. After all, when people aren't really on board, it's tough to get anywhere. If one of your company's goals is to make genuine progress, then you must think about sustainability in terms of the people who make up your employee base.
Culture is a tricky subject. It's intangible, and when something is hard to define, it's hard to address, improve, or measure. Accordingly, here are a few simple tips. Certainly this is not an exhaustive list, but these techniques will help any company––regardless of where they are––to go further.
Depending on how you see the world, it can be maddening or exhilarating that there is no one–size–fits–all definition for sustainability. While no one can tell you what sustainability should mean for your company, this also creates the opportunity for dialogue. Have conversations inside your company and involve as many people as you can. The more input you get, the more likely you are to get buy–in. These conversations will help everyone feel ownership of the final outcome. Even companies that have established a clear definition of what sustainability means to and for them can benefit from re–visiting their definition. The final result is important, but the conversations internally will yield enormous dividends.
Once you have the definition agreed up, take good care to communicate it to everyone. In order to facilitate this process, consider appointing an internal council comprised of employees representing as many parts of the business as possible. Not only will these people help make sure there is a diversity of perspective represented in discussions, they will also be terrific internal ambassadors once the definition is established or revised, further helping carry the message internally.
Hiring people with specialist experience into specialist roles is safe, but it might be dangerous. An army of specialists can create a proliferation of silos, and decrease collaboration. As it relates to sustainability, the consequences can be significant. Sustainability is a generalist topic. It's more of a corporate discipline, rather than a corporate function. To create a culture of sustainable performance, companies need people that are cross–functional collaborators; they need generalists more than specialists. Hire and promote generalists to cut across the vertical silos, bring people together, and drive a culture of cooperation on sustainability. This will have the benefit of creating a solid corps of critical thinkers who can be rotated into different jobs as a way to advance the sustainability agenda along they way, diffusing institutional knowledge throughout the company.
This is easier said than done, because it requires human resources leaders and recruiters to come outside of their comfort zones. One simple way to start this process is to put people in HR that have no background in HR and charter them to think about development of generalists as an organizational goal. Without being inculcated in the 'normal' way of doing things, the barriers to doing things differently will be much lower.
The best companies often are the ones that know that they still have a lot to learn. Only by letting go of the need to be seen as the best can companies have enough collective humility to build a culture of learning and intellectual curiosity. Bring fresh perspectives into your company to keep the ideas flowing. Sustainability is a new way of thinking about old topics. And in a field with so much novelty, there is so much still to learn. In sustainability, the best aren't that far ahead and the worst aren't that far behind. There is an incredibly compressed learning curve. Encourage your employees to find their counter–parts in other organizations and talk to them, to learn and to share what they learn. Bring good ideas from outside the company inside. No matter how well your company is performing, you can always learn. Set this tone within the company. Companies can and should join industry associations and peer networking communities. Before doing so, the participating employees should develop a plan and get approval for how they will bring the ideas back into the company and share them with everyone. This will increase the ownership at the individual level and the value returned at the company level.
Many of the aspects of sustainability are pre–competitive. In fact, you probably have more common cause with your competitors on the range of issues within sustainability than you do ground for suspicion. If for no other reason, regulators tend to look at whole industries, and improved performance for any company in and industry makes life easier for every company in the industry. In this way, opening dialogues with your competitors is actually self–serving; if they improve, it's benefits you directly. Companies can and should compete in the markets, but as it pertains to sustainability, demonstrating to your people that even your competitors have something useful to say on sustainability will set the tone for a culture of honesty and openness. Having CEOs of competitors come out to issue joint statements on the importance of sustainability would certainly go a long way to establishing this cultural value.
It's hard sometimes, but companies must stay away from negativity when discussing sustainability, either internally or externally. Shaming or criticizing people for lack of compliance to or support of sustainability only serves to shut them down. This is easier said than done; the consequences of many of the big–picture issues are quite dire. It's easy enough to fall into the trap of speaking to the consequences of behaviors. In building a culture around sustainable performance, companies must stick to the positive. Thank people for their support, encourage engagement, and talk to the positive outcomes associated with behaviors. Negativity and fear are a final line of defense if nothing else is working, and should be used accordingly. But to create momentum, people work better when they feel good. Companies should appoint a project manager to evaluate all of their communications. gauge them for tone and look for opportunities to shift the messaging when and where appropriate.
No matter where a company is on its sustainability journey, it can go further. The more its people are aligned, the faster the progress. In trying to set goals for your company, thinking about them in terms of people will help ensure success.
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-29 15:43:11 UTC
My favorite sustainable design of the short list of the Dyson Award is the OLTU. The OLTU is intended as a fridge-free way of storing fresh fruit and ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-23 08:31:09 UTC
Research has shown the benefits of keeping indoor plants. They purify the air of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's) that are responsible for lots of ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-18 14:21:56 UTC
Collaboration, Co-creation & New Business Models is the title of this years Sustainable Innovation conference which will be held the 4th-5th November ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-18 13:59:41 UTC
The original Tide chandelier is part of a larger body of work based on the collection of ' man made' debris washed up on a specific stretch of Kent ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-17 07:30:03 UTC
A series of armchairs and ottomans. Since it first appearance, in 1969, the UP series has been an outstanding expression of design. The UP5 is the ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-17 07:29:35 UTC
Their thermoreflective filters utilize advances in nanotechnology, pioneered and patented by RavenBrick, to transition from a transparent to a reflective ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-13 15:11:12 UTC
After five years, MUJI will be holding the international competition for the MUJI AWARD 2013. Entry in October 2013.
The theme for this year’s awards ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-10 08:48:10 UTC
Windcentrale crowd funded it's third windmill to 1700 households in just 17 hours. It sourced an existing windmill for sale and cut the capacity and ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-07 08:49:51 UTC
Fam Mizra the head of Mizra Minds, a product and branding firm in Chicago experience both the hardships of the third world and the comfort of the first ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-10-03 07:06:02 UTC
It turns out that 75% of jars sold worldwide use the same size lid. For designer Jorre van Ast this simple fact inspired the clever Jar Tops.
These ...
Most refugees live in refugee camps for an average of 12 years and most of that time it's in drafty, tattered tents. Now IKEA has a solar-powered camp house that is flatpack and quick to assemble.
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