Sustainable Design Update

Gaialux Light

Here at the end of 2007 I want to say thank you. You SDU readers are a game bunch. You have added your click counts, time, attention – even your personal possessions to help make the world a better place. Together we have succeeded in placing FoST, a first rate non-profit in Nepal, at the top of the BBC World Challenge. We have collected used laptops for an education center in Guatemala, investigated African ingenuity and explored the world of new sustainable technologies.

December 31, 2007 is the last day for checking in on The Appropriate Technology Collaborative’s (ATC) entry in the NASA Create The Future design competition. Every page view helps! The design entry is the Gaialux light, an inexpensive LED light fixture that uses recycled cell phone chargers as a power supply. The Gaialux design is for the billion people who live where power is intermittent. The Gaialux light charges when power is available and provides light when light is needed.

When power is out in the developing world people use kerosene lamps, candles and battery powered lights. Gaialux replaces all of these inefficient lights, reduces carbon emissions and improves indoor air quality. Moreover Gaialux is affordable for the people who need it. The ATC is working to secure carbon offset credits to further reduce the price of each light.

The photo above is me with one version of the light made from bamboo and a recycled plastic bag.

Photo Credit: Lon Horwedel, The Ann Arbor News

Note: The Appropriate Technology Collaborative is a nonprofit corporation. The editor of Sustainable Design Update John Barrie is the Executive Director of The Appropriate Technology Collaborative.

Inventer Rene Nunez Suarez w/ Stove

One of our guiding principles at The Appropriate Technology Collaborative is to design things that people want and can afford. Even the best designs, ones that will save rainforests, improve health and reduce greenhouse gasses, don’t amount to a hill of beans if no one uses them.

Take for example Rene Nunez Suarez. He invented a very efficient stove that is reported to reduce wood use by 95%. No one can afford it’s price tag of $325.00 U.S.

From the Seattle Times:

In a makeshift laboratory equipped with little more than a battered chair and a cheap kitchen scale, inventor Rene Nunez Suarez displays the contraption that has become his life’s obsession.

It’s a stainless-steel cooker that uses about 95 percent less fuel than conventional wood stoves, with minimal pollution. It would seem a can’t-miss technology in a country where millions still cook with wood and most forests have been destroyed.

The device has garnered Nunez a prestigious environmental prize. It has earned him a U.S. patent. And it has won fans among some Salvadoran peasants who no longer spend a good chunk of their days hunting for firewood and then inhaling cooking smoke.

It has also wrecked Nunez’s marriage, alienated two of his three children and swallowed his life savings. At 61, he lives with his mother to save on rent and drives a 1990 Kia.

Nunez knows some people think he’s a fool to have poured $2.5 million of his and his family’s money into his project with little to show for it.

“My ex-wife said: ‘Man, you are an idiot. Poor people have no money. They are not going to buy your stoves,’ ” he said. “She was right.”

This story continues:

Better are stoves that may not be quite as efficient, but are much less expensive and loved by the people who use them.  Check This Example

The Greener Gadgets Conference, Feb 1, 2008, NYC, will feature a design competition of gadgets that address energy, carbon footprint, toxicity, environmental materials, product lifecycle and social development.

I use the term “gadget” to describe novel personal technologies. Gadgets are often novel at the expense of being truly useful.

The Greener Gadgets Design Competition is a great opportunity to showcase new tech. designs that are more than novel – designs that are environmentally preferable and useful to the greatest number of people.

From the Greener Gadgets / Core 77 website:

We’re inviting designers to explore the concept of “Greener Gadgets.” Designs should seek to minimize the environmental impact of consumer electronic devices at any stage in the product lifecycle. Areas of sustainability to consider include:

1. Energy
2. Materials / Lifecycle / Recycling
3. Social & educational development

Participants are encouraged to consider their designs as part of the entire product ecosystem, and should think as holistically as possible. Designers may choose to focus their entries on a particular area of human enterprise (learning, playing, communicating, etc.), or a particular context (work, home, school, etc.), a particular material, or a specific device. Entries may also seek to create new paradigms for products and services.

Ultimately, we are looking for “great gadgets” of the greener kind.

Via: Inhabitat

Thin Film Flexible Solar Panels From Toledo OH

From the Toledo Free Press:

The Lucas County Board of Commissioners and County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz announced a $2 million investment in Xunlight Corporation, a thin-film solar cell manufacturer founded in Toledo.

Through the treasurer’s linked deposit program, the commissioners unanimously passed a resolution Dec. 18 allowing a move to raise the cap for the incentive program from $150,000 to $2 million for the loan to Xunlight.

“The linked deposit program is designed to create jobs, and the business alone will create almost 800 jobs in the next five years. This is a public-private partnership that works,” Kapszukiewicz said.

Kapszukiewicz reported 12 other businesses have taken advantage of the linked deposit program, but none will have the transformative impact of Xunlight to Lucas County’s economy. The county’s program has a $5 million fund for making such loans.

The linked deposit program allows the county to assist developing companies to secure private bank loans with lower interest rates, which in this case were three points below the prime rate. The county purchases certificates of deposit with the bank to support those loans.

Xunlight is taking the linked deposit incentive from the county to banks and seeking to obtain an actual loan to fund its local manufacturing operations, said Bob Savage Jr., senior business adviser for Xunlight.

“We are building a high-speed manufacturing plant to produce flexible and lightweight thin photovoltaic film modules using our advanced technology,” said Xunming Deng, P.hD., president and CEO of Xunlight.

Xunlight recently purchased a 120,000-square-foot facility on Nebraska Avenue to establish its corporate offices and a manufacturing plant in Toledo. Company leaders expect to begin production in the second quarter of 2008.

The company began operations as MWOE Solar Inc. in the technology incubator program at UT, where its founder, Deng, is a professor of physics.

“It’s one of the fastest growing industries in the world and the amount of incentives offered to companies is significant, but they wanted to stay in Toledo,” Savage said.

The new company is preparing to produce a low-cost, efficient product in an emerging market, and the county wanted to keep it in the area, Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said.

“Partnerships between the public and private sectors like this help keep a homegrown business to stay home. We want to brand our area as an alternative energy corridor,” he said.

Gerken said Deng came to the county with a commitment to stay in Toledo without depending upon venture capitalists for start-up funds in order to retain control of his company. Xunlight is funded by Emerald Technology Venture, NGP Energy Technology Partners, angel investors, and various government and research grants.

Xunlight received a $1.9 million award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in September under the agency’s Advanced Technology Program. That award will allow the company to accelerate the development of the next generation of manufacturing technologies, Deng said.

“We have a chance to become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy, and Xunlight will be at the front of that charge,” Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop said.

I have posted a want ad on Craigslist Ann Arbor. If you are near Ann Arbor you may be able to help.

My Craigslist Posting:

I am going to Guatemala in early January. The computers are for a rural education center in the Solola area. I am arranging with a local 501c3 to accept the laptops as a charitable contribution so you can deduct the value on your taxes.

I am looking for relatively recent laptops. I’ve done this myself when upgrading every two years, a two year old computer isn’t worth much on the used market but it will make a world of difference to the people who will use it. You can probably recover most of the value as a charitable contribution on your taxes. (I have done this and in Michigan my total tax deduction was 75% of the receipt value)

I will pick up at your convenience and personally delete and overwrite all files if you like.

Please contact me through the Contact Page on the right hand side —>

Thank you!

I could have predicted this. The publishing of the book “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies” marks the point in time when green building went mainstream. This Dummies book gives a cheerful and breezy overview of what you can do to make your next building project green. It does not go into great detail on solar and passive solar design, for a more detailed look at these subjects you should check out “The Passive Solar Energy Book” by Ed Mazria. The checklists included in this book will keep you from making big “green mistakes” but they will not guarantee you a building you want to live in.

More important than the checklists so favored by green builders is the design of a building. A good green building first has “good bones” that is to say it has good proportions. A building needs to be a deliberate composition of shadow and light, texture and contrast.

Before purchasing a green building checklist you may want to think about what makes a building feel good to be in, what buildings delight you, and how the buildings you like love got to be that way.

The Green Building for Dummies Book:

Want to build responsibly, reduce waste, and help preserve the environment? Green Building & Remodeling For Dummies is your friendly, step-by-step guide to every facet of this Earth-friendly method of construction. Building a home—even a green home—uses plenty of resources and energy. This practical, hands-on book shows you how to build or remodel conscientiously, whether your dream home is a simple remodel or a brand-new multimillion-dollar mansion.

You’ll start by identifying green materials and sizing up potential systems and construction sites. You’ll weigh the pros and cons of popular green building methods and identify opportunities for saving money in the long run. Need to find some green professionals to assist you in your venture? We’ll help you do that, too. This book will also help you discover how to:

• Understand the lifecycle of building materials
• Choose the right system for your green building project
• Put together a green team
• Work within your budget
• Use green building methods and sustainable systems
• Speed construction and reduce energy use and waste
• Refinish old fixtures and materials
• Beware of asbestos and lead-paint hazards
• Avoid costly mistakes

Complete with lists of ten green things to do on every project and ten things you can do right now in your home in order to go green, Green Building & Remodeling For Dummies is your one-stop guide to planning and building the home you’ve always wanted.