ByFusion is a 100% modular technology platform that converts all types of waste plastic into a new building material called RePlast.
Plastic waste has become one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st Century. Globally, we produce over 300 million tons of plastic every year and recycle only 8%.
In the US alone roughly 28 million tons of plastic is sent to landfills every year at the staggering cost of over $1.5 billion dollars annually.
We envision a future where communities can put their plastic waste to work – building infrastructure, housing, and municipal projects. Imagine using all of the plastic waste we see littering our roadways, parks, neighborhoods and oceans to rebuild our communities without long processing times, labor-intensive overhead, or toxic output. Now we can. With ByFusion, the future is now.
This information comes from the website of ByFusion.
The fleet of plug-in electric vehicles in Norway is the largest per capita in the world, with Oslo recognized as the EV capital of the world.
As of July 2016, the market concentration was 21.5 registered plug-in cars per 1,000 people, 14.2 times higher than the U.S., the world’s largest country market. Norway’s fleet of electric cars is one of the cleanest in the world because 98% of the electricity generated in the country comes from hydropower. In March 2014, Norway became the first country where over one in every 100 passenger cars on the roads is a plug-in electric, and the segment’s market penetration passed 3% in December 2015.
The stock of light-duty plug-in electric vehicles registered in Norway totaled 121,330 units at the end of September 2016, making the country the fourth largest plug-in market in the world after the U.S., China and Japan. As of September 2016, the Norwegian fleet of plug-in electric vehicles consist of 92,813 all-electric passenger cars, 26,225 plug-in hybrids, and 2,292 all-electric vans. The total stock includes more than 14,000 used imported electric cars from neighboring countries. The Norwegian plug-in electric vehicle market share of new car sales has been the highest in the world for several years, reaching 22.4% in 2015, up from 13.8% in 2014. The highest-ever monthly market share for plug-in electric segment was achieved in March 2016 with one in three passenger cars registered being a plug-in electric car (33.5%). Registrations of light-duty plug-in electric vehicles in Norway passed the 100,000 unit milestone in April 2016. Norway is the largest European market for both the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S.
Among the existing government incentives, all-electric cars and vans are exempt in Norway from all non-recurring vehicle fees, including purchase taxes, and 25% VAT on purchase, together making electric car purchase price competitive with conventional cars. Also, the government approved a tax reduction for plug-in hybrids in effect starting in July 2013.
Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde and his team of experts have created the world’s largest smog vacuum cleaner. The Smog Free Tower uses patented ion technology to produce smog-free bubbles of public space, allowing people to breathe and experience clean air for free.
The Smog Free Project is not only intended to be a local solution for parks, but also an inspirational experience of a clean future. Along with governments, NGOs, pro-bicycle campaigns and the clean-tech industry, people can work together to make a whole city smog free.
Specifications:
2014-2018. The first 7-meter high Smog Free Tower equipped with environment-friendly and patented ozon free ion technology. The Smog Free Tower cleans 30.000m3 per hour without ozon, runs on green wind energy and uses no more electricity than a waterboiler (1170 watts). Smog Free Jewellery available on request.
This information comes from the website of Studio Roosegaarde.
At The Ocean Cleanup, we’re developing the first feasible method to clean up world’s ocean garbage patches. Five vast areas of Open Ocean, known as the subtropical gyres, act as a trap for ocean plastic. We specifically focus on the North Pacific accumulation zone – also known as ‘the Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ – since about 1/3 of all oceanic plastic is concentrated in that one area between Hawaii and California 1.
When I founded The Ocean Cleanup almost three years ago, there was no realistic way to clean up these accumulation zones, each several million square kilometres in size. I realised that coastlines are evidently very effective in catching plastic. Unfortunately, there is no landmass in the middle of these gyres, so I then proposed to deploy a very long array of floating barriers attached to the seabed. This would act as an artificial coastline, allowing the ocean to clean itself. We aim to deploy our first pilot system in 2016, and hope to be able to start cleaning the North Pacific by 2020.
Yet a common argument against our efforts is that focus should instead be on preventing more plastic from entering the oceans. I fully agree prevention is top priority. Having to clean up the gyres again a few decades after cleaning up would be nothing short of annoying. But in my opinion, one does not exclude the other – they complement each other.
First of all, the ocean garbage patches do not go away by themselves and hence need to be cleaned up at some point in time.
This information comes from the website of The Ocean Clean up.
AskNature is the world’s most comprehensive catalog of nature’s solutions to human design challenges. This curated online library features free information on more than 1,800 (and growing!) natural phenomena and hundreds of bio-inspired applications.
Think of AskNature as your home habitat. Whether you’re a designer, architect, engineer, or chemist looking for life-friendly solutions to a design challenge or a biologist who wants to share what you know about an amazing organism, AskNature is where biology and design cross-pollinate, so bio-inspired breakthroughs can be born.
BIOMIMICRY
Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies—new ways of living—that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul.
The core idea is that nature has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. After billions of years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival.
This information comes from the website of AskNature.
In 1997 Samsoe became Denmark’s (first) Sustainable Energy Island and achieved self-sufficiency in sustainable energy within 10 years.
100% of Samsoe’s electricity consumption is generated by 11 land-based windmills, and 70 % of the heat comes from sustainable energy sources.
“More than half the private oil-fired boilers in the island’s 2000 households have been replaced by eco-heat, solar heat plants and heat pumps.
10 offshore windmills south of Samsoe produce so much energy that they compensate for the heat, which is still generated by e.g. oil-fired boilers and the islanders’ private transportation in petrol and diesel-powered vehicles.
The island is therefore proud to be 100% CO2 neutral.
One of Samsoe’s offshore windmills produces electricity covering 2000 households’ electricity consumption. A land-based windmill covers the consumption of 600 households.
The wind power on Samsoe has demanded an investment of 40 million EURO. 3700 local citizens have personally invested 70 % of the total 58 million EURO in sustainable energy.
The Energy Academy has a solar heat plant, solar cells and reuses rain water.
Media from all over the world have visited Samsoe to document the great story.
This information comes from the website of Visit Samsoe.
By using a high efficiency Multijunction cell, the cell surface is reduced down to 1 % compared to the same power output as a conventional silicon cell in optimal conditions. In combination with dual axis tracking, the system generates twice the yield of a conventional panel.
This project is the largest of its kind in Norway. The development consists of about 700 new dwellings, a kindergarten, and some commercial buildings, and is located at Ådland, near the Bergen airport.
The project design has focused on several interrelated topics such as minimizing energy use, effective production of local, systems, design for solar access and noise minimization, and exchange of energy between the buildings, with the local energy central, with the grid, and with transportation (electromobility).
The knowledge gained from the planning process has contributed to the general understanding of zero emission neighborhoods as something very different and much more complex than a single zero emission house.
The planning of Zero Village Bergen has also led to several scientific reports and press coverage about zero emissions and inspired several public funded research initiatives with local partners in Bergen such as BKK (Bergen Utility Company), Christian Michelsen Research, The Norwegian State Housing Bank, Bergen University College, UNI Research in Bergen, etc. The realization of Zero Village Bergen will be very important in the work towards a zero emission society.
This information comes from the website of ZEB Center.
