Tagged with technology

Sustainable Technology: Q&A with TODAY App Creator

Born from a desire to bring big changes to the world via our ever increasing reliance on technology, Seb Berry created the TODAY App, offering users the chance to take on small sustainable challenges that have big impacts on our planet.

We got the chance to speak with Seb about sustainability, solutions and the big challenges in today’s society.

Q: What inspired you to create the TODAY App?

A: For me, the first thing was to try and figure out how to bring the world’s most monumental challenges into some kind of framework that feels personal and relevant.

We live with one of the most powerful pieces of technology in our pockets, 24hrs a day. Many of us also recognise the need to make change towards sustainable alternatives, and technology can help make it more fun and easy to share.

I saw so much power in the small choices we make as individuals, which play into broader systems and dynamics with environment & climate as much as business & governance – and imagined how we might recognise our own potential in our daily habits.

I’m inspired by the incredible things people are capable of, and brought the TODAY App to life to provide a platform to empower people with the personal difference they can make on many of the biggest issues facing our generation.

Individually and collectively we share many common goals, and we can work toward them by focusing our energy and attention into what we know is important – but we tend to get distracted and forget about those things in our day-to-day lives.

 Q: Tell us a little bit more about the app. What’s your favourite feature?

A: TODAY is a sustainable living app that gives people one small challenge that they can make each day. It gives people feedback on the positive impact they’re having. It prompts little habit hacks and changes we can easily make – like going meat free for a day or grabbing a reusable coffee cup.

The vision of the TODAY App is to create a lifestyle tool that motivates us to take up more sustainable habits. You can see daily quotes alongside active challenges, personal impact and collective impact.

My favourite feature for the App right now is ‘Invite Friends’, which allows people to start building teams and a support crew around taking on positive new habits and having the support network to keep up with them.

 Q: Do you think we’re becoming more or less sustainable in today’s society? Why?

A: There is much happening that is positive. It’s an interesting and tough question to answer though, as there equally are signs that as a global community the net shift is still heading in the wrong direction.

There’s huge groundswell in awareness and action around sustainability. In media, government and non-government organisations, business, community and then of course ratified commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 by 150 world leaders.

As individuals (consumers if you will) we also drive the agenda though – and that’s a critical factor. There is something of a reliance on support structures such as government to provide answers to how we will turn the tide on unsustainable human practices. However, the Catch-22 is that consumer behaviour is the very thing that motivates business and drives policy. Equal pressure is needed from both sides to find balance with the natural world and arrive at a healthy and sustainable future.

As a business owner myself, I would say there is a real change in the air with organisations realigning with deeper values and taking the initiative to shift the goal posts around people and planet as much as profit. In this respect I would highly recommend all organisations to go through the process of B Corporation Certification and involving as many of their teams in that process as possible.

 Q: What’s your favourite TODAY challenge? Why?

A: There are so many things we can do, and I’ve only incorporated a small number of the hundreds of habit hacks that I’d like to have in there. 

My favourite challenge would also have to be the most impactful. And one of the most significant habits we can get into is reducing the amount of meat in our diets.

What I hope people get out of the App is a sense of:

Personal motivation – consider it a sustainable living buddy.

Connection with friends who also want to make a positive impact, since you can log into the app through Facebook.

Access to products and services that can help to support more sustainable living in the long term.

 Q: Tell us your top three tips for sustainable living

  1. A: Try going VEGAN
  2. Buy nothing else NEW in 2018
  3. Move all your services to GREEN

 Q: Can we look forward to TODAY for Android in the future?

A: Good question! Further work is going into the App to make it more awesome. First thing’s first, we need to help people form the sustainability habits that they’re going for, and support them with the community, information, products or services they need to maintain them.

While an Android version would be great to make available, we’re looking for resources to be able to make that happen.

To help accelerate TODAY on its journey, we’ve just built a chatbot game for Plastic Free July on Facebook Messenger. The idea here is for us to keep testing and making things better while finding the money to be able to continue App Development.

If it’s not too late, please go to https://m.me/thetodayinitiative and simply click Get Started to get involved in the Plastic Free July game – you’ll get little daily reminders to keep up the good work!

Check out the TODAY App here and download it from the Apple Store here. 

New Tech Could Turn Windows Into Solar Panels

See-through solar cells have been created which could turn windows into small-scale power plants.

Researchers at Michigan State University have developed thin, transparent, plastic-like material that can act as an energy-generating coating on windows, and provide additional power when coupled with a rooftop solar installation.

New Tech Could Turn Windows Into Solar Panels

Photo: article supplied

While the technology has existed in its early stages since 2015, it is only now developed enough for projects of scale.

The technology works by utilising organic molecules within the transparent film that absorb ultraviolet and infrared lightwaves – which are invisible to the human eye – and converts them into electricity by directing these lightwaves to small photovoltaic cells at the edge of the screen, while letting visible light through.

The film itself is less than one-thousandth of a millimetre thick.

Currently, the technology is recording energy efficiencies of more than 10 per cent, while traditional solar panels are between 15 and 18 per cent efficient.

“Highly transparent solar cells represent the wave of the future for new solar applications,” Michigan State University professor of chemical engineering and materials science and developer, Richard Lunt, said.

“We analysed their potential and show that by harvesting only invisible light, these devices can provide a similar electricity-generation potential as rooftop solar while providing additional functionality to enhance the efficiency of buildings, automobiles and mobile electronics.”

The technology can be used to improve existing solar panels efficiency levels by creating an additional layer of energy collection without interfering with conventional photovoltaic cell operation.

The application of the solar film exists for small-scale electronics, such as mobile phones, e-readers and wearables, and has been put forth as a way to extend battery life.

“That is what we are working towards,” Mr Lunt said.

“Traditional solar applications have been actively researched for over five decades, yet we have only been working on these highly transparent solar cells for about five years.

“Ultimately, this technology offers a promising route to inexpensive, widespread solar adoption on small and large surfaces that were previously inaccessible.”

This was originally published by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Click here to read the entire article.

The 2018 National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 March 2018 at Hotel Grand Chancellor, Brisbane.  The 2nd annual conference will explore sustainability best practice within organisations, creating resilience in business and ways to implement change.

Conference speakers and partners will provide insight into how  they are interweaving sustainability practices within their organisations, navigating change and the differences they are making within national and  multinational companies and small business.

Register to secure your spot today!

New Printed Batteries To Transform Australian Renewables

Solar panels could soon be made with their own embedded battery storage in what is an Australian global first.

Batteries would be laminated to the back of the panels and deliver “in-built” storage, making it eventually standard for them to deliver energy day or night as required.

It’s one of several plans for ultra-thin, flexible screen-printed batteries that could eventuate within three years and offer new opportunities for manufacturing.

Currently companies such as Tesla and South Australia’s Redflow offer solar panel and battery solutions, but the batteries are separate entities. If this idea takes hold, printed-on storage could be part of an ordinary solar panel.

printed batteries

Photo: article supplied

Because they can be printed in any shape, printed batteries could also power electronic skin treatment patches and other wearable technology.

The project is being undertaken by Printed Energy Pty Ltd, an investee company within the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund, in collaboration with two of Australia’s leading universities in the field of energy storage and materials science, the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales.

Printed Energy is the principal financial backer. It is providing $1.5 million in direct funding for the project, and $6 million in-kind assistance.

Trevor St Baker, founder of ERM Power and the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund, said printed batteries could transform everyday life.

“Unlike traditional batteries, the printed battery can be any shape required for the specific application, such as wearable electronics and medical and healthcare products such as skin treatment patches,” he said.

“It’s literally the printing of solid state batteries in a thin, flexible format that can be adapted to almost any shape.”

He said printed batteries would transform solar generation from day time energy generation to night time energy delivery.

The $12 million project has also received another shot in the arm: a $2 million grant from the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects scheme.

University of NSW Dean Mark Hoffman hailed the breakthrough as delivering the missing piece of the puzzle for renewable energy.

“The world is crying out for storage solutions, and this partnership has the potential to deliver on that urgent need. What’s exciting is that this technology also has immediate applications in wearables and small-scale devices.”

Chris Greig, director of The University of Queensland Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation and the UQ Energy Initiative is enthused about how the technology could transform Australian manufacturing.

This article was originally published by The Australian.

Click here to read the entire article.

Renewable energy and the promise of nanotechnology

nanotechnology1200x800With the goal of bringing together experts from the fields of medicine, engineering, science, and technology, the Australian Institute of Nanoscale Science and Technology officially opens its doors today at the University of Sydney.

The institute’s Founding Director, Thomas Maschmeyer, is the recent developer a nano-structured battery gel. He hopes the gel can help restructure the power grid, putting a focus on renewable energy while helping to cut carbon emissions.

Could Nanotechnology save the human race? The Australian Institute of Nanoscale Science and Technology hopes to expedite the process. To listen to the podcast click here.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology involve the ability to see and to control individual atoms and molecules. Everything on Earth is made up of atoms—the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the buildings and houses we live in, and our own bodies.

But something as small as an atom is impossible to see with the naked eye. In fact, it’s impossible to see with the microscopes typically used in a high school science classes. The microscopes needed to see things at the nanoscale were invented relatively recently—about 30 years ago.

Once scientists had the right tools, such as the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the atomic force microscope (AFM), the age of nanotechnology was born.

Although modern nanoscience and nanotechnology are quite new, nanoscale materials were used for centuries. Alternate-sized gold and silver particles created colors in the stained glass windows of medieval churches hundreds of years ago. The artists back then just didn’t know that the process they used to create these beautiful works of art actually led to changes in the composition of the materials they were working with.

Today’s scientists and engineers are finding a wide variety of ways to deliberately make materials at the nanoscale to take advantage of their enhanced properties such as higher strength, lighter weight, increased control of light spectrum, and greater chemical reactivity than their larger-scale counterparts. To read more click here.