Posted in Sustainable Living

‘Limitless Applications’: The ‘Magic Powder’ That Could Prevent Future Crises

It sounds like a distant dystopian crisis: a world where global food and water supply chains buckle under the strain of overpopulation and climate change, before being contaminated by weapons of mass destruction unleashed in a desperate fight for access to what little is left.

Photo: article supplied

While the crisis may not be as unrealistic or far away as it seems, scientists are already coming up with potential solutions. One is the curiously named metal organic frameworks (MOFs), a powder of nano-engineered crystals with an apparently endless variety of uses.

One teaspoon of these crystals contain the surface area of an entire football field, and scientists have been able to customise them to absorb and store vast quantities of a desired substance.

In 1998 Professor Omar Yaghi, a chemist who now works at the University of California, Berkeley, made the breakthrough that showed it was possible to craft structures that can be imagined as metal scaffolding at a molecular level, bound together by organic links.

Less than two decades later, MOFs are being applied to purposes that even he could not have imagined, many of which would be particularly handy in a world falling apart – such as fabrics that can protect against chemical weapons, devices that can artificially replicate photosynthesis to transform carbon emissions into oxygen, and glowing crystals that can detect and trap contaminants in water.

Yaghi himself has developed a MOF that enables the harvesting of moisture out of the sky, and unlike other technologies that can already do this in high-humidity areas, the device using Yaghi’s powder works in the dry desertified conditions that are gradually expanding around the globe.

“We are living in an uncertain time,” Yaghi observes, “and fresh water is going to be one of the most precious and sought-after resources to humanity.”

In 2014, Yaghi reached out to MIT mechanical engineer professor Evelyn Wang about creating a machine capable of using his MOF technology. Wang and her team developed a transparent box with a top surface painted black to absorb solar heat, which prompts a reaction that delivers enough drinking water for a person’s daily needs with 1kg of the powder, even in areas of 20% air humidity.

“During the night, these MOFs soak up the water from air, and when the sun comes up, the MOFs will release water to be collected due to the warmth of the sun,” Yaghi says. “Then these empty MOFs will be ready to absorb water from the air at night again.”

Yaghi hopes these devices will enable people to access what he calls “personalised water” – off-grid and free of any impurities.

This article was originally published by The Guardian.

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Melbourne’s Trams To Be Solar Powered

Melbourne’s trams network will soon be powered by the first large-scale solar plant to be built in Victoria.

The solar plant, which will be completed by the end of 2018, is expected to be located in Victoria’s north-west.

melbourne-solar-powered-trams

Photo: article supplied

The state government announced on Thursday that the solar plant would produce 75 megawatts of power, with about half of that production to be linked to the tram network.

Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the government would use its purchasing power as a “large energy consumer” to boost investment in renewables.

The project is expected to create 300 new jobs. The tender to construct the solar plant will open in the first half of this year.

Ms D’Ambrosio said 35 megawatts of power was sufficient to cover the energy needs of 410 trams in the Melbourne network.

She said the solar power arrangement was “notional” but the growth in renewable energy would be sufficient to cover the tram network’s needs.

The energy produced by the plant will flow into the broader electricity system. But the government will buy so-called renewable energy certificates from the plant, which help to give it financial certainty.

Renewable power producers can sell both electricity and renewable energy certificates giving them an additional potential revenue stream.

Ms D’Ambrosio would not be drawn on how much the project was likely to cost. She said money had been put aside in the budget that would cover the cost of building the plant.

This article was originally published by The Age.

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Living Pods and Naturescapes: Transforming Residential Areas into Sustainable Living Environments

As an Architect, I’m able to see a bird’s eye view of trends in design. A significant movement that continues to expand in our consciousness, is how to create a sustainable world (for ourselves and generations to come) amidst an expanding population and increasing use of natural resources.

Now more than ever, we see people responding to this challenge. We are re-discovering our fundamental connection with the earth and with each other and communities are being created around environments where food, nature and aesthetics are re-united.

Paul Barnett

My own work on “Living Pods”, a term I use to relate to home habitats, has developed over many years, as I acknowledge an increasing need to design and implement living environments that are in harmony with our beautiful world.

Living Pods are flexible living habitats that combine to create a diversity of living environments for couples, mixed family units, several groups or single people at any stage of their lives. The concept is based on single and multiple small buildings that enable privacy as well as social interaction. They are accessible, adaptable, natural and beautiful spaces to inhabit.

The Living Pod system sits at the pinnacle of sustainable design. Their footprint is small, requiring less materials and energy. Using Solar Passive and Passiv Haus design elements, the pods are carbon neutral and are built from sustainable and natural materials. The concept elegantly integrates greenhouse areas that connect interior space to nature and enable an indoor garden with extended growing seasons.

The Living Pod system is also perfectly designed to harmonise and integrate with natural, water harvested landscapes. Waterharvesting involves creating an underground river bed system that appears in the landscape as small creek beds. Tested over 25 years, waterharvesting has been shown to enhance subsoil environments for trees, shrubs, ground covers and edible gardens fed by rainwater and grey water. There is no maintenance of the waterharvesting system, it is natural and utilises microorganisms to digest greywater particles.

An environment created with living pods and naturescapes enables families and friends to grow through generations in a healthy, dynamic and sustainable living space, which supports the cycle of life with social enhancement, and connection to an abundant naturescape.

Paul Barnett is an Architect specializing in Sustainable Building and Naturescapes in Schools, Urban Spaces and Housing. He currently working on 10 star Living Pods and Naturescapes in Schools and urban areas.

Australian Cotton ‘Pick of the Crop’ as More Global Consumers Demand Sustainable Fibres

Consumer desire for sustainably produced goods is driving domestic and global demand for Australia’s $2.5-billion cotton crop, according to retailers and millers.

Leading brands are now introducing clothing ranges made entirely from Australian cotton as an alternative to cheaper fibre mixes.

Photo: article supplied

“More and more international retailers and brand owners want to know the story about the production cycle,” Cotton Australia CEO Adam Kay told ABC News.

“They want to know about the sustainability and the environmental story,” he said, adding the industry had worked hard for years on winning a social license to operate.

“We can clearly demonstrate over 40 per cent improvement in water use efficiency over the last decade and we’ve reduced the amount of pesticide used by 90 per cent in the last 15 years.”

Mr Kay recently hosted a visit to the cotton fields of Narrabri, New South Wales, for designers and retailers from some of the biggest brands in the country.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in interest,” said Cotton Australia’s Brooke Summers, whose job is to sell the story of Australian cotton to the world.

“A couple of years ago we struggled to get even eight people on a plane out to a visit like this, and now we’ve got thirty people here today.”

For Lisa Hunter, who manages womenswear for Jeans West, the tour gave her a feel — quite literally — of the fibre in the field, as well as an insight into the ginning process and the research being carried out to continually improve the crop.

“[Environmental credentials are] incredibly important to our customers,” Ms Hunter said.

“So we’ve been working transparently trying to trace back the cotton to the region and to the farm.”

The jeans retailer will feature its first all-Australian cotton shirts this spring.

This article was originally published by ABC.net.au.

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Housing Affordability: A Problem With A Solution?

The unaffordability of housing is an almost universal problem, with planners and politicians alike being accused of killing the Aussie or Kiwi Dream. This is not a new issue —in the 1950s the ‘working man’ faced problems financing their first home. That was addressed by the emergence of the ‘working woman’ and her income and government assistance from soft loans to building subsidies, to smooth the way to home ownership.

While government intervention is still possible, present governments are less willing to intervene in those ways and the ‘working family’ has no one left to send out to work. Governments have instead instituted supply side solutions such as removing planning restrictions or increasing land supply. These have had limited success, often at the cost of further sprawl and a less sustainable city.

Caroline Miller

We first need a better understanding of who house buyers are and what expectations they have for the home they are having difficulty buying, to underpin more effective housing policies.  Houses as investments and stores of value for small time and overseas investors are a reality, and can add speculation pressure to a rising housing market.  That’s an issue best dealt with by tax policies or limits on overseas buyers. Home buyers are also changing and look for a complete housing package including landscaped grounds.

For Generation Y, a house is more than a place to live; it is an expression of their values and aspirations and is expected to demonstrate those values and aspirations to the world. Simply proving more fringe suburbia will not meet their needs. Higher densities are a solution if planners, architects and developers can create developments existing communities will tolerate and which speak to younger buyers.

Financial issues also need to be addressed making monetary policy as reflected in housing interest rates, an integral aspect of addressing affordability. Address housing affordability requires comprehensive policies addressing both the demand and supply sides of the affordability equation and solutions that are informed by the expectations of all sectors of every generation.

Associate Professor Caroline Miller, Resource & Environmental Planning Programme, School of People, Environmental & Planning, Massey University, Palmerston North, NZ.