Category: Sustainability

Factor Ten – is about making a ten-fold improvement in the use of energy and resources. It can also mean a 90 percent cut in your business or personal costs and its possible to achieve this today – possibly saving ourselves $9 out of every ten dollars.

The picture shows one example – LED downlights. Costing between about AUD 10 and 20 dollars per light, the lights use 2 to 3 watts each. A normal downlight would use 50 watts.

The lights shown in the picture will pay for themselves within 6 months. After this, it’s money in the bank. In addition they should last many times longer than an ordinary 50 watt halogen downlight. This saves you or your business the time and cost of replacing ordinary bulbs.

Of course the answer to climate change is not just about light – although the International Energy Agency finds we could cut global electricity consumption by almost 10% with similar changes. Nor is it (only) about changing light bulb jokes…. But it is a great illustration of profitable and meaningful change that delivers economic and environmental carbon advantages.

Clear simple communication really helps when dealing with a complex global problem like climate change. The United Nation’s book, Kick the Habit, is a great example with plenty of useful comparisons.

Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, launched the book. He says:

Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions. Our society is in the grip of a dangerous greenhouse gas habit. The message of this book is that we are all part of the solution. Whether you are an individual, a business, an organization or a government, there are many steps you can take to reduce your climate footprint.

Picture – examples of greenhouse gas emission amounts generated by different activities or goods. Pictures like this are throughout Kick the Habit.

In the world of hard climate science, carbon pricing schemes and emissions targets you could be forgiven for thinking that human attitudes are of lesser importance. Nothing is further from the truth. For example – Nicholas Stern, ex Chief Economist of the World Bank and author of the UK government’s seminal Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change highlights the importance of behaviour change. He emphasises:

Three elements of policy for mitigation are essential: a carbon price, technology policy, and the removal of barriers to behavioural change. Stern Review p.xxviii

Its one of the reasons I (Simon) am thrilled to win a scholarship for a Harvard, China and Australia joint climate change symposium. My excitement is not just for the event but also as it merges science with society. It recognises there is as much to be gained working with people’s attitudes, views and perspectives as with science, technology and pricing.

The humble light bulb is a great illustration. Look around you. In nearly any country you will see incandescent light bulbs or halogen down lights. As Amory Lovins puts it, each of these lights, remaining in its socket unchanged, is the same as walking past a $50 note on the pavement. But, for the last two decades while effective alternatives have been available, many people have nevertheless continued to walk past the light bulb.

Why? Read the full article here>>>

50% off electronics’ greenhouse gases, the world’s largest tidal plant, and a hydrogen fuel cell that powers 3000 homes are just some of the impressive Korean green business initiatives.

The first, Samsung has just announced over 4 billion dollars of investment to green its electronics. It will cut the greenhouse gas embodied in its products by 50%. Once past the factory gate goods also use power and, Samsung says, its TVs, refrigerators and air conditioners will be the most efficient (lowest power use) products available.

Efficiency is also central to the stationary hydrogen fuel cell. The plant producing heat & electricity for 3000 homes does so by using 80% of the available energy from gas for a current cost of about AUD 0.23 per unit.

And the world’s largest tidal power plant – it will deliver power at approximately half the cost of wind power. Hydrogen and tidal power plant pictures and detail are here. Cost comparisons here.

Over a third of Australian businesses are already taking action to cut greenhouse emissions and reduce energy use according to a recent Australian Industry Group and KPMG survey. The report finds nearly 70% of businesses – from a random sample across construction, service and manufacturing industries – are currently acting or plan to act to manage carbon footprints.

For any company there are many reasons to address climate change. Increasingly major companies will demand a supplier understands its carbon footprint. The international Carbon Disclosure Project reports this is already occurring with Cadbury, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Unilever, Vodafone (1) and Walmart (2) among the companies asking suppliers to report on carbon footprint and climate change strategies.

The Carbon Disclosure Project represents Investors with assets of $55 trillion. Its just one of the major reasons why, across the world, companies are looking to find carbon advantages.
The picture shows a stationary hydrogen fuel cell power plant in Seoul, Korea.

As governments around the world move to implement green stimulus packages a standout initiatives is in Korea.

The country is spending $38.5 billion on clean technology and environmental restoration. The Korean Presidential Committee on Green Growth says it will deliver 956,000 new green jobs. The four year package is about 2.6% of Korea’s yearly gross domestic product (GDP). Funding goes to rivers, forests, clean transport and bikeways and, green homes and neighbourhoods.

At the same time this strategy is driving private investment. JP Morgan has just announced that it is raising $1 billion to invest in Korean solar, LEDs (high efficiency lighting) and green cars.

Picture: Back to A future, the restoration of Cheong gye cheon. 5.8kms of freeway back to a river.

China is growing and urbanising at an extraordinary rate. With its economic growth there is increased environmental pressure. Among the initiatives to change this – have growth while giving back to the environment – is the Network City by Brearley Architects with GreenMode. Its initiatives include:

• Green roofs and walls plus light coloured hard surfaces and/or vegetation across roads – increasing amenity, cutting heat and consequently power use.
• Building energy efficiency through the use of green roofs and walls as well as solar hot water, efficient lighting and high efficiency appliances.
• The network city integrates commercial and industrial uses throughout its residential, agricultural and recreational areas. This reduces the demand for motorised private transport.
• Throughout the city food production is integrated into the street plantings, arbours, parks and gardens plus, roof spaces and walls. The net impact of creating edible landscapes is to reduce the city’s food footprint.

The improvement is illustrated by comparing it to a standard city of 45,000 people. The reductions, such as halving people’s power and home footprints, are illustrated in the figure above.

Its a well known and obvious fact that when a surface faces the sun it is exposed to more light. Tracking the sun with a solar panel gives you up to 35% or more power over a similar sized fixed installation. But the motors to make this happen impose extra costs.

In the natural world, plants have evolved to follow the sun. So could we artificially mimic a sunflower and use this to point solar panels at the sun? MIT has demonstrated just such a system using a curved arch made from two different metals. Simple systems like this should be cheap and the techniques, known as biomimicry, have many applications beyond just tracking the sun.

But brining the natural world into today’s society is not just about hi tech applications. The picture illustrates living furniture, grow your own garden settings, certainly unique!

Traditional perspectives about renewable energy are increasingly being challenged. China’s wind and solar growth is one example. Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of China’s national development and reform commission, talking to the UK Guardian sees 100GW of wind power coming from China by 2020.

That’s 50 to 100 coal fired power plants worth of electricity. On top of this solar electricity is set to expand 75 fold. Cummulatively he sees renewables providing close to 20% of China’s power in 2020.

In 2008 China ranked second behind the USA for wind power growth. It’s been doubling every year for the last four years. With nearly 38% of China’s financial crisis stimulus package being spent on green initiatives, western countries will be challenged for clean technology development leadership.

White roofs and surfaces could be worth a staggering $1,100 billion according to recent research.

Nobel prize winner Steven Chu, Obama’s Energy Secretary, is promoting this change. Chu says just changing the colour of roofs and blacktopped freeways and streets is equivalent to taking all of the automobiles in the world of the road for eleven years.

White reflects heat and a worldwide change would help cool the world. As a bonus, light surfaces can help reduce the cost of cooling buildings which reduces emissions. However, Hashem Akbari, the lead scientist behind some of this research is careful to point out that converting to cool urban surfaces does not address the underlying problem of global warming.

These impressive numbers from white roads and roofs are not the only option. Living green roofs and walls can drop temperatures (and associated air conditioning costs) by as much as eleven degrees.