Interesting Things Behind ECO-Redesign
Solar power is by far the Earth's most available energy source, easily capable of providing many times the total current energy demand. Covering 4% of the world's desert area with photovoltaics could supply all of the world's electricity. The Gobi Desert alone could supply almost all of the world's total energy demand.
Wind power available in the atmosphere is much greater than current world energy consumption. The most comprehensive study to date found the potential of wind power on land and near-shore to be 72 TW, equivalent to 54,000 MToE (million tons of oil equivalent) per year, or over five times the world's current energy use in all forms.
Wind energy system operations do not generate air or water emissions and do not produce hazardous waste. Nor do they deplete natural resources such as coal, oil, or gas, or cause environmental damage through resource extraction and transportation, or require significant amounts of water during operation. Wind's pollution-free electricity can help reduce the environmental damage caused by power generation from fossil fuels.
Wind turbines consume no fuel, and emit no air pollution, unlike fossil fuel power sources. The energy consumed to manufacture and transport the materials used to build a wind power plant is equal to the new energy produced by the plant within a few months of operation.
Hydroelectricity is the most widely used form of renewable energy. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, and has a considerably lower output level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) than fossil fuel powered energy plants. Worldwide, hydroelectricity supplied an estimated 816 GWe in 2005. This was approximately 20% of the world's electricity, and accounted for about 88% of electricity from renewable sources.
In the United States as of July, 2006, there were between 60,000 and 76,000 low-speed, battery powered vehicles in use, up from about 56,000 in 2004, according to Electric Drive Transportation Association estimates.
Electric car operating costs can be directly compared to the equivalent operating costs of a gasoline-powered vehicle. The energy generated by complete combustion of 1 liter gasoline is about 9.7 kWh. Accounting for inefficiencies of gasoline vs. electric engines and transmission and battery losses, 1 liter gasoline is equivalent to 2.7 kWh energy from batteries.
The greater efficiency of electric vehicles is primarily because most energy in a gasoline-powered vehicle is released as waste heat. With an engine getting only 20% thermal efficiency, a gasoline-powered vehicle using 96kW•h/100 km of energy is only using 19.2kW•h/100 km for motion.
Recently, several European cities have implemented successful schemes known as community bicycle programs or bike-sharing. These initiatives complement a city's public transport system and offer an alternative to motorized traffic to help reduce congestion and pollution. Users take a bicycle at a parking station, use it for a limited amount of time, and then return it to the same or different station. Examples include Bicing in Barcelona, Velo'v in Lyon and Velib' in Paris.
Recycling bins exist in various sizes for use in homes, offices, and large public facilities. Separate containers are often provided for paper, tin or aluminum cans, and glass or plastic bottles.
Many recycling bins are designed to be easily recognisable, and are marked with slogans promoting recycling on a blue or green background. Others are intentionally unobtrusive. Bins are sometimes different colors so that recyclers may differentiate between the types of materials to be placed in them.
Recycling 1 short ton (0.91 t) of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7 thousand US gallons (26 m3) of water, 3 cubic yards (2.3 m3) of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil (84 US gal or 320 l), and 4,100 kilowatt-hours (15 GJ) of electricity — enough energy to power the average American home for five months.
Although paper is traditionally identified with reading and writing, communications has now been replaced by packaging as the single largest category of paper use at 41% of all paper used.
Several surveys and studies have attempted to examine and compare conventional and organic systems of farming. The general consensus across these surveys is that organic farming is less damaging for the following reasons:
- Organic farms do not consume or release synthetic pesticides into the environment — some of which have the potential to harm soil, water and local terrestrial and aquatic wildlife.
- Organic farms are better than conventional farms at sustaining diverse ecosystems, i.e., populations of plants and insects, as well as animals.
- When calculated either per unit area or per unit of yield, organic farms use less energy and produce less waste, e.g., waste such as packaging materials for chemicals.
Carbon Footprint measures total amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the environment. Greenhouse gas emissions from all sources are summed up and changed into units of CO2 equivalent which is used to standardize greenhouse gas emissions and help make comparisons from different time periods and across industries. Carbon emissions are usually measured in metric tones per year (1 metric ton equals 2204lbs).
One way to reduce carbon emission is to re-use products for as long as feasibly possible. It is pity people buy certain products and use them only once or twice, even though they can be re-used many times.
From:
Coulter, S., B.A. Bras and C. Foley (1995). A Lexicon of Green Engineering Terms, 10th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED 95), V. Hubka Ed., Praha, Czech Republic, Heurista, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 1033-1039.
Bras, B., 1997, "Incorporating Environmental Issues in Product Realization," Industry and Environment, United Nations UNEP/IE (invited contribution), Vol. 20, No. 1-2 (double issue), pp. 7-13, 1997.