United
Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in
The C02 Cube is a digital media art installation designed by a collaboration of
artists, architects and technologists. It represents the actual scale of 1
metric ton of carbon dioxide. Picture 20 of these cubes to visualize the
average
*MIT (2008,
April 29). Carbon Footprint Of Best Conserving Americans Is Still Double Global
Average.
Scott Andersen, Mike Graham and team from Smart Product Innovations won the ConocoPhilips Energy Prize for their Eco-Auger developed with the participation of Bresslergroup.
The Eco Auger™ was judged
the best Creative, Scaleable, Sustainable, and Innovative concept that
can be commercialized in the shortest time.
ECO-Auger™ is a
hydrokinetic machine that converts moving water from river and ocean currents
to renewable electric energy. Its hydraulic storage pressure compensation
system guarantees constant energy output regardless of tidal current strength.
Designed with tapered helical leads on each end rather than sharp edges, the
machine does not impact marine wildlife.
The ConocoPhillips Energy Prize is a joint
initiative of ConocoPhillips and Penn State to recognize new ideas and original, actionable solutions that can help improve the way the nation develops and uses energy.
.
A team of researchers at MIT are in the process of developing unique tags that will be placed on individual pieces of trash in the public trash cans of New York City and Seattle. They plan to broadcast the movement of the trash in real time for the public to view. They will also be closely analyzing the movement in order to determine the cost and impact of trash on our environment and economy. Finally we will know where "away" is in our system of disposable products. By making the journey of trash transparent MIT hopes to shift consumption behaviors in consumers and at the beginning of the production stream. The conclusions should serve as a valuable tool in designing products for a less disposable future.
Bresslergroup's own Power Hog has made it into the top 50 of Core 77's Greener Gadets Design Competition.
Power-Hog is a power consumption metering piggy bank is designed to sensitize kids to energy cost associated with running electronics devices. Plug the tail into the outlet and the device into the snout; feed a coin to meter 30 minutes of use.
It's designed to capture the interest of parents and kids alike and serve the wider environmental cause.
Power-Hog visually and symbolically associates power conservation with savings by using the iconic piggy bank as a visual reference. Kids can use their allowance to turn on the TV or video games by feeding the Power-Hog with loose change. The Power-Hog meters consumption and blinks red when time is running out. It also helps parents meter their children's TV time.
It's peizo week here at Bresslergreen. Recent discoveries by Texas A&M researcher Tahir Cagin show that certain sized nano-particles exhibit a tremendous increase in energy generation capability. As discussed in this article in ScienceDaily, as well as in the original article published in Physical Review B, crystals of about 21 nanometer size may soon be used to power nano and micro electronic devices.
image from abovetopsecret.com
Just a few hours ago Chrysler announced a full line up of electric cars in several different categories. This follows the ongoing news of the Chevy Volt. The US automakers are certainly investing in the electric car but it just seems like there are so many alternatives that can increase fuel efficiency across the board right now. There is alot of discussion these days on the efficiency improvements available to the internal combustion engine and though this is certainly an area of research others are thinking more outside the box.
Check out this system that Audi is supporting called Travolution. The system allows communication between traffic lights and cars. In the testing program that Audi is participating in the communication only provides speed information to the car to allow the driver to avoid stopping at lights. Audi hopes that in the future the system allows communication between cars and the light network to ease congestion and reduce the time idle time sitting at lights. Personally, I avoid driving in my neighborhood as much as possible because most of the time is spent sitting at traffic lights. The number of times that I must stop and sit while not a single car goes from the other direction is obviously a huge waste of time but also ruins fuel efficiency and causes massive congestion. I think Audi is on to something here by approaching the problem from several different areas.
Anyone have any thoughts on this system from Audi? Would you buy an electric car?
Design for assembly is often used to describe those features and design decisions used to make the final assembly of products easier and more efficient during production. It is very important to the product development process to decrease product costs and assembly time.
A recent article from Treehugger discusses Design for Disassembly, or the process of considering the end of life disassembly steps for the product. Designing a product that will be disassembled for maintenance or upgrades is nothing new, but this article talks about designing a product for total disassembly to allow for easy recycling or even complete rebuild and reuse to give the product an entire new lifecycle.
The first part of the article discusses a few different approaches and examples. I particulary like the remanufacturing example from Caterpillar..
"Within the heavy industry sector, Caterpillar has emerged as a leader. At a plant in Corinth, Mississippi, it recycles some 17 truckloads of diesel engines a day. These engines, retrieved from Caterpillar's clients, are disassembled by hand by workers who do not throw away a single component, not even a bolt or screw. Once the engine is disassembled, it is then reassembled with all worn parts repaired. The resulting engine is as good as new. Caterpillar's remanufacturing division is racking up $1 billion a year in sales and growing at 15 percent annually, contributing impressively to the company's bottom line."
Not only is Caterpillar reducing waste, they are growing a business unit at the same time.
Check out this report from MIT Technology Review. MIT Technology Review Special Report on Better Batteries
Many of the products we design require batteries and their efficiency and size is often a limiting factor. A large inefficient battery can drive the entire product envelope, creating waste in materials and packaging. In this special report, TR features battery technologies ready for use now, but also some cool possibilities for the future.
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