Nike, Starbucks: Climate Change Policy is ‘Economic Opportunity’
by: Environmental Leader, 2013-04-11 14:46:53 UTC
Nike, Starbucks, Ikea and 30 other companies are have signed a statement urging federal policymakers to take action on climate change by promoting clean energy, boosting efficiency and limiting carbon emissions. Climate change policy is an economic opportunity, says Anne Kelly, director of Ceres’ Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy (BICEP) coalition, which organized [...]

This new breed of recyclable solar cells are made from plants
by: Ecofriend, 2013-04-12 05:57:32 UTC


Actor Jeffrey Wright Is Trying To Create A Sustainable African Goldmine
by: Co.Exist, 2013-04-11 17:00:57 UTC

Creating a social enterprise and making a film are more similar than you might imagine. In our respective careers, we’ve both had the privilege of working with visionaries able to forge partnerships between people from often wildly different backgrounds--playing a variety of roles, great and small, on camera and off--and aligning their goals. When it’s done right, the result is something to behold: It’s creating a new reality.

Now imagine what “a new reality” means in a place like Sierra Leone, where within living memory people have lived through horrors that most of us only see on the screen. The problem here, economists tell us, is the so-called “resource curse,” wherein countries with an abundance of natural resources are, paradoxically, trapped in poverty.

We’re two people from different backgrounds. Susan is a long-time international development practitioner, currently running the U.S. affiliate of the world’s largest nongovernmental organization, BRAC, founded in Bangladesh in 1972. Jeffrey is an award-winning actor who caught the development bug after traveling to Sierra Leone during the last stages of its civil war. He now runs a foundation and a business there that disrupts the old way of doing business in Africa.

Here’s one thing we do have in common though. We don’t believe in the resource curse. Based on our experience, we know we can break free from the past’s small-minded ways of thinking, in which business was business and charity was charity. Even an industry like mining, blamed for so many of Africa’s ills, can be a place for socially responsible and sustainable enterprise. Because of our shared interest, we’re discussing a collaborative venture in Sierra Leone--starting small, but thinking big--that uses market-based solutions to catalyze large-scale change, as BRAC has done in Bangladesh and elsewhere.

The first step is establishing trust with neglected communities. Established in 2011, Jeffrey’s Taia Lion Resources currently owns the concessionary rights to four tracts of land targeted for gold exploration and mining in rural Sierra Leone, with plans to expand to other properties and minerals. Taia Lion Resources devotes a percentage of its operating budget to locally driven, socio-economic development initiatives augmenting the contributions of its sister entity, Taia Peace Foundation, and its philanthropic partners. Taia Peace Foundation also controls a significant shareholding in Taia Lion Resources and will pass a majority of this ownership to local communities.

Among other work undertaken, the foundation has reconnected isolated rural villages to larger Sierra Leone by rebuilding an 18-mile road in the eastern Kailahun district, near the Guinea border, and helped local women farmers increase their output and add value to what they produce. Both of these projects were born of community desires. When barriers to capital and services are overcome, communities will do the hard work of driving their own development. They’ll use tools like microcredit, improved farming practices taught by model farmers, and micro-franchised distribution of seeds, fertilizer, medicine, and more.

The story of Taia strikes a resonant chord with BRAC. Starting out as a small relief operation in rural Bangladesh, BRAC pioneered the concept of social enterprise, using the financial surplus from pro-poor business ventures, including feed mills and the largest private dairy in Bangladesh, to finance development. It now operates 18 social enterprises in Bangladesh, spanning almost every sector, from food processing to banking.

But a gold mine as a social enterprise? As Jeffrey has said, let’s suspend our disbelief for a moment. Someone’s going to take advantage of those resources in the ground. Why shouldn’t it be a company that works with rural communities above the ground as essential partners in progress, rather than treating them as yet another resource to be exploited? If the “resource curse” is to be avoided, such companies must exist.

Today, Sierra Leone is in a situation similar to that of Bangladesh 41 years ago. When BRAC was founded, Bangladesh was the second-poorest country on earth, famously written off by skeptics as a “basket case,” in the words of a State Department official at the time. Since then, its rate of progress on basic standards of living has been unprecedented--and completely unexpected. In 2010, the average Bangladeshi woman was 75% less likely to die in childbirth compared to 20 years earlier, to cite just one measure. Observers (including The Economist) have given much of the credit to BRAC.

We can do the same in Sierra Leone and elsewhere, but not on our own. In December 2012, Sierra Leone’s economy was forecast to expand by over 15%, largely as a result of the development of its mining sector. It’s crucial that this growth be enjoyed in the communities close to those mines. Within its areas of operation, the BRAC/Taia collaboration will prove that possible.

On stage and on-screen, harnessing the full potential of your creative partners takes time, trust, and the gumption to try again and again. A director has to trust the actors and vice versa. When that happens, they can work together to craft a new reality--in this case, putting an end to the legacy of colonialism, conflict, and exploitation.

Anyone want to help us make that movie? Just one condition: that the people of Sierra Leone direct it.

Flatpack pinhole camera made from cardboard
by: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, 2013-04-11 17:17:43 UTC


Altered Appliances by Piet Zwart Institute students
by: Dezeen, 2013-04-11 15:34:29 UTC

Milan 2013: patterned rolling pins that make edible plates and a meat grinder that squeezes out biodegradable bowls are among a set of kitchen products on show at Ventura Lambrate in Milan this week (+ movies). (more...)

Concentré de Vie Sofa by Matali Crasset
by: mocoloco, 2013-04-08 17:27:53 UTC


Springs 3D-printed glasses by Ron Arad for pq
by: Dezeen, 2013-04-10 12:10:51 UTC

Milan 2013: London designer Ron Arad has created a range of 3D-printed spectacles and sunglasses for eyewear brand pq. (more...)

Designs of the Year Awards category winners announced
by: Dezeen, 2013-04-10 12:54:14 UTC

News: a folding wheel (above) and the UK Government's redesigned website are among the seven category winners of the Designs of the Year Awards announced today by London's Design Museum. (more...)

Jangada Collection by Nicole Tomazi
by: design milk, 2013-04-08 14:00:00 UTC

Remember Nicole Tomazi‘s Fractal Collection? Well, the Brazilian designer is back with an ocean-inspired series she calls the Jangada Collection. With a desire to bring attention to enjoying the sea while at the same time not destroying it, the four-piece embroidered collection hopes to show respect and admiration for it.

The collection is made up of a rocking chair, a seat, a floppy vase, and a multipurpose wall panel.

The pieces are embroidered through the perforated metal using naval rope as it, “intertwines the lines of the sea and the sky.” Combining the metal with colorful blue rope reduces the coldness of the metal and brings a cohesive vibe to the collection.

Tomazi chose to use aluminum as a way to remind people that in Brazil, they have the highest recycling rate of the material.

Photos by Marcelo Donadussi.

Scientists to develop ‘game changing’ carbon neutral fuel technology
by: Ecofriend, 2013-04-08 11:45:48 UTC

A UK university-led team of scientists is to develop a reactor that converts CO2 into fuel so efficiently it could offset every year more than three times the amount of carbon produced by Britain.

The team led by Edinburgh-based Heriot Watt University has won a grant worth £1.2 million from the Government’s main scientific research funding agency, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), to carry out the research. It will look to make ‘photo-catalytic reductions,’ which use solar energy to create common fuels from CO2, into highly efficient processes. The team estimates their high-efficiency photo-reactors could produce enough fuel to offset 700 million tonnes of carbon in the UK per year; 200 more tonnes than Government estimates suggest the UK produces.

“By developing this novel reactor and processes, we could unlock a hugely significant source of carbon neutral fuel,” said lead scientist and director of the Centre for Innovation on carbon capture and storage, Mercedes Maroto-Valer. “We are working on creating a technology that will turn this into a genuine game-changer, turning a climate-changing gas into a climate-saving fuel.”

Closed loop system

‘Photo-catalytic reductions’ are processes that use solar energy to convert CO2 into gases like methane and methanol that can be used for fuel. The carbon released from the use of these fuels can then be reprocessed, thus neutralising the fuel’s carbon emissions in a ‘closed loop’ system. But current photo-catalytic reductions do not produce enough fuel for usage on a commercial level.

“This research is a fantastic opportunity to bring a potentially hugely valuable technology to market,” said Dr. Robin Irons from energy company E.ON, one of the companies working with the team of international scientists to guide research and ensure the technology developed can be used with existing infrastructure. “Industry will be working hand-in-hand with the international team of academics, making this a truly global project designed to deliver a globally significant breakthrough,” he added.
The international research team is composed of scientists from Taiwan, US, Canada and China, as well as the UK.

700 million tonnes carbon could be offset each year

An international team of scientists is to develop a new reactor that can produce fuel using sunlight and carbon dioxide, paving the way for a game-changing transformation in the global energy industry.

The experts, led by Heriot-Watt, have been granted £1.2 million to increase the efficiency of ‘photo-catalytic reduction’, the process that uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuel, like methane and methanol. Any carbon produced when the fuel is used can then be converted into energy again, giving a closed loop system.

It has been estimated that this process, if successful at a commercial scale, could offset up to 700 million tonnes of CO2 each year, significantly more than total UK annual emissions which DECC (the UK Government) estimates at around 500 million tonnes.

Existing photo-catalytic reduction processes do not produce enough fuel to make them financially viable. This project will develop new, highly efficient photo-reactors, with conversion rates that can be scaled up to a commercial process – potentially transforming energy production and climate change mitigation.

Global team of academics and energy industry

Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, Director of the Centre for Innovation on CCS and the first holder of the Robert M Buchan Chair in Sustainable Energy Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, will lead the work in the UK and the team includes engineers and chemists based in Taiwan, US, Canada and China.

Professor Maroto-Valer said, “By developing this novel reactor and processes, we could unlock a hugely significant source of carbon-neutral fuel. We are working on creating a technology that will turn this into a genuine game-changer, turning a climate-changing gas into a climate-saving fuel. We will have the input of leading industry players throughout this research, ensuring that the technology we develop can be used with existing infrastructure.”

Professor Maroto-Valer and her team are working closely with an advisory board of representatives from the energy industry, who will help guide prototype development and ensure that it can be deployed and integrated with existing infrastructure.

Dr Robin Irons from E.ON’s Innovation Centre for CCS who represents E.ON on the advisory board said, “This research is a fantastic opportunity to bring a potentially hugely valuable technology to market. Industry will be working hand-in-hand with the international team of academics, making this a truly global project designed to deliver a globally significant breakthrough.”

The funding is part of a select stream from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), designed to support research leaders tackling key engineering challenges and to provide a team around them to deliver their research vision.

Professor David Delpy, Chief Executive of the EPSRC said, “Supporting and developing leaders who can deliver answers to the world’s major engineering challenges is one of our priorities. The work Professor Maroto-Valer’s research team are carrying out has the potential to provide enormous worldwide benefits and opportunities.”

 

This research is a fantastic opportunity to bring a potentially hugely valuable technology to market, said Dr. Robin Irons from energy company E.ON, one of the companies working with the team of international scientists to guide research and ensure the technology developed can be used with existing infrastructure. Industry will be working hand-in-hand with the international team of academics, making this a truly global project designed to deliver a globally significant breakthrough, he added.