Green Options

No one knows for certain what is exactly in store for us as the effects of climate change set in. One infant has an idea…

The recession deepens.  Even Barack Obama is saying that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  Unemployment is getting dangerously close to 10% nationwide, a level we haven’t seen in decades. With every cloud is a silver lining, of course, and I think one that we must focus on is that we should be taking this time to plant some seeds that will pay off handsomely down the road. 

I’m an avid gardener.  I live in San Francisco, and have a garden full of winter crops:  lettuce, kale, kumquat, lemons, spinach, rosemary, mint, and a variety of other herbs that are in full force right now.  I recently added a plum tree, an almond tree, and an apple tree, all ultra-dwarves to accomodate my limited San Francisco-style backyard, and was telling a friend how much fun I was having.  He said, and I quote, “Sheesh.  Are you hunkering down for the Great Depression, or what?”

It was a brilliant comment, and made me think about what businesses could be doing during this downturn that would ‘bear fruit’, if you don’t mind the pun, later down the road.  For a green business during this time of economic hardship, there are a lot of opportunities to reach out to a disgruntled workforce, a slowing customer base, and other local businesses in the area to plant some seeds. 

Scientists from the University of Calgary in Canada have created a method to efficiently capture carbon dioxide directly from the air around us. The device, which is built on near-commercial technology, was built by Uof C climate change scientists David Keith and his team.

“At first thought, capturing CO2 from the air where it’s at a concentration of 0.04 per cent seems absurd, when we are just starting to do cost-effective capture at power plants where CO2 produced is at a concentration of more than 10 per cent,” says Keith, Canada Research Chair in Energy and Environment.

“But the thermodynamics suggests that air capture might only be a bit harder than capturing CO2 from power plants. We are trying to turn that theory into engineering reality.”

When the future of our planet’s environment is concerned, one of the groups that we hope are paying attention is those currently attending college. They will be the leaders, the decision makers, the discoverers and changers of the future. But at the moment, they are simply learning the value of calculus and being exposed to copious amounts of beer.

But thanks to the National Wildlife Federation’s just released Campus Environment 2008 report card, conducted in partnership with Princeton Survey Research Associates International, we can at least be certain that, in addition to learning about beer and the opposite sex, our college students are getting a lesson in green.

The report follows up on its first run, back in 2001, by providing a review of programs at 1,068 institutions, grading them on an A to D scale for collective, national performance on a range of issues such as energy, water, transportation, waste reduction and environmental literacy.

One of the big advances we’ve seen in moving towards a renewable future is in the field of biofuels. And one of the sources of biofuels currently being studied is algae. It grows on your pond, or at the lake near your house, but it might also one day keep your car running and your plane in the air.

And a joint venture between Rose Ann Cattolico at University of Washington and investment company Recently Allied Minds might soon see a different type of algae for different types of situations.

"People don’t realize how many types of algae there are – from single cells to large kelp – and each one develops differently," Cattolico said. "What we’re trying to do is choose the best of the best, the ones that produce the right lipids for a particular type of fuel."

“Students are already interested in the environment and how to help what they perceive as the problems they’ll face when they join the workforce,” said Robb Larson of Montana State University. “So the goal is to get them thinking about wind and alternative energy as a career path.” And to help the students Montana State, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has named Montana State the home for a new Wind Applications Center.

“We’re a land grant institution dedicated to outreach and engineering,” said Larson, who is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. “It makes sense to support this industry that will eventually help students find jobs in their own state and support this clean, renewable energy industry.”

One of the biggest problems facing the use of solar power as a viable means of replacing fossil fuels is the fact that the sun disappears at night. There have been no efficient or easy ways to store the energy produced for use during the darker hours. This, despite the fact that in the space of one hour, the amount of sunlight that hits the surface of the Earth is enough to power the planet for a year.

However a new discovery by MIT researchers has been made, that will essentially make this problem nonexistent.

I had the occasion to stumble upon two uniquely imagined facets of the same future over the past week. The first: The World Without Us, an eerily quiet scenario in which humans disappear from the Earth and nature slowly and persistently takes over. The second: Children of Men, a visually stunning dystopia in the form of a sterile

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This is the final installment of my summary of our Green Design Dialogue discussion on May 25. I introduced the participating designers in my first post, and continued summarizing our discussion on green design in the second post.

We wrapped up our discussion on sustainability in the design industry by summarizing the challenges facing green design and how we might handle them, and discussed new ideas for bringing about change in our field.

One

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Screen shots of Design Can Change

In my first report on Green Design Dialogues, I introduced the six participants of our May 25 discussion on green design and summarized a bit of what we talked about. Obviously, sustainability and design is a huge topic, and one these green designers love to talk about, so here is a continuation of our first Green Design Dialogue.

The energy

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Like all industries, the design and visual communications industries are changing. The recent wave of green consciousness sweeping the world has rubbed off on everyone from designers to CEOs. This is an exciting time to be a designer in a changing industry and a changing world. And of course, I have high hopes for the future of my chosen field.

The design industry has come a long way. There are now many sustainable options for

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