Piezoelectric is the word to remember

The weight of a footstep is packed with energy – if only this energy could be harnessed.

In fact, there is electric potential within 20 varieties of naturally occurring crystals when force is applied. Piezoelectricity is the word used to describe this process of matching force with a crystal to gain electricity. The electric potential is proportionate to the force exerted upon it.

Today the concept is not just imaginative, but already powering Dutch dance clubs via dancers, Japanese train stations via commuters, and soon, French street lamps via pedestrians.  As futuristic as piezoelectricity sounds, it is the same principle that enables a scanning electric microscope, or ignites a cigarette lighter.

A Netherlands-based company called Sustainable Dance Club offers the world’s first dance floor which converts mechanical energy (the force of dancers’ footsteps) into electricity (though the company website does not name this process piezoelectric capacity.) Sustainable Dance Club’s flagship project is called Watt, a dance club and bar in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The average dancer generates between 5 and 20 Watts – admittedly not enough to stop climate change – but a gesture in the right direction. The floor lights up interactively as club-goers dance. According to the New York Times, the 270 ft2 floor cost $257,000 – an investment that will not be recovered in saved electricity costs. Since this is a first generation prototype, club owner Aryan Tieleman predicts that costs would reduce once further development of the concept occurs.

In 2009, the Miami Science Museum installed Sustainable Dance Club floor in its permanent collection. Sustainable Dance Club recently installed their floor panels in the sidewalk in Toulouse, France. The modest pilot project there produced energy sufficient to power one street light.

German auto manufacturer, Audi, is testing methods to deploy piezoelectric devices capable of capturing vibration and converting it into energy to run onboard electronics, according to GreenTech Media.

In Japan, the company Soundpower Corp., ran a pilot project in several train stations including Shibuya Station in Tokyo. In December 2008, commuters’ footfalls ran the Christmas lights decorating the station. Likewise, at another pilot site, the electric arrival/departure board was run via passengers footsteps.

Soundpower Corp has an history with a familiar ring: Hayamizu Kohei left graduate school to found his company. Within two years, the startup launched its Power Generating Floor™. The floor is composed of 20 in2 rubber tiles with a piezoelectric element inside. The average person weighing 125 pounds will generate 0.1 Watt in the 2 seconds it takes to cross the rubber tiles of the Power Generating Floor™.

Since electricity turns into sound through speakers, could sounds not be turned into electricity? Soundpower founder Hayamizu Kohei is investigating further innovation to leverage this principle. Proposed applications include a cell phone that can be recharged through conversations, or sound insulating walls that generate electricity from the noise of passing vehicles.

Piezoelectricity was first understood in the late 1800s.  German physicist Woldemar Voigt published his Textbook on Crystal Physics (Lehrbuch der Kristallphysik) in 1910.

It’s appropriate to remember another German physicist, Albert Einstein, who urged using the imagination, believing that creative thoughts might lend more to the advance of progress than academic knowledge alone. 

Solar Club: Giving Micro-Investors a Chance

A solar club provides ownership potential for people who do not own their own homes, have suitable roof space on which to erect solar panels, or who lack significant capital to invest. The Haydern Solar Club in a suburb of Munich, provides local residents the chance to participate in renewable energy generation.

The club works like this: citizens pool small investments and then invest in solar arrays located on the roofs of local, public buildings. The minimum investment is 1,500€, which equals one share. A conservative estimate of investors’ average rate of return is 5%. Investment of the same money in a German mutual fund might earn 7-8%, but as Eugen Kunze of the Haydern Solar Club says, climate protection is the goal, not maximizing the rate of return. The number of investors per installation ranges from 10 to 40. All solar arrays are roof-mounted on public buildings to prevent legal issues should the building owner change hands. Since inception in 2002, a total of 35 projects have been realized under the Haydern Club’s umbrella, with a total installed capacity of 1MW.

The average investor is middle-aged or retired. It is not uncommon for a grandmother to make the investment in the name of a grandchild as a gift. Investments in solar clubs are also tax advantaged. “We’ve found that once someone makes an investment and becomes a member of the club they are really activated for climate protection. One roof becomes not enough and they want to own a share in another roof,” reports Eugen. Kunze.

The maximum investment is 10 shares or 15,000€. According to Mr. Kunze, “We don’t want people with thick wallets coming in and making the whole investment themselves.” To this end, more than 50% of the participants contribute one to two shares. Shares are not managed with elaborate software, but rather an Excel spreadsheet. The investment functions like a life insurance policy payment, returning monthly principle and earnings payments. The term of ownership is limited to 20 years, reflecting the term of the German feed-in-tariff remuneration schedule; thus a portion of principle must be returned with every interest payment. The club carries a 5M€ insurance policy on each solar installation. The insurance protects against risks to people or property as well as protection from hail, lighting, vandalism, etc. The organization is administratively light, run by a 5 person Board of Directors, with an elected president per installation.

Mr. Kunz emphasizes the role of the German Feed in Tariff.  Because of this financial policy, the rate of return on even micro investments is economical.  What is a Feed in Tariff? 

Many people are on the waiting list to invest, so the club has plans to install a 2 Megawatt greenfield array. Greenfield solar arrays are controversial in Germany, given the potential for arable land to become more attractive as solar fields rather than cultivated agriculture. To prevent a food vs. fuel scenario, some regions of Germany prohibit greenfield development. The Haydern club recommends public buildings like local schools or city halls.

The Solar Club concept has expanded to other German cities including Hannover, Berlin, Kiel and Saarbrücken. The Hannover Protestant church community was among the first to adapt the model, and other church communities have raised solar clubs among their congregations.

Whenever a new solar installation is officially opened the ribbon cutting ceremony is instead an Einspeisungsfest. In German, Einspeisung is a play on words between the term for feeding electricity into the grid, and the formal word for eating. The chance for member owners to come together and eat foods from the region underscores the community purpose and path to realizing a solar club.

Marienkoog, in North Germany, offers an example of a citizens’ Wind Club.  The wind developer offered 1/3^rd of the shares in the wind park to locals; 240 residents invested €5 million -- representing 40% of the district’s adult population. It is proven that enfranchising local citizens reduces resistance to new projects dramatically.

In Carbondale, Colorado, the Clean Energy Collective  innovates on the club model, with an ownership structure that offers micro-investment opportunity for citizens, while passing along tax credits and rebates, providing access to bulk purchase of solar panels, and a maintenance contract — yet providing investor autonomy unlike the solar club model. CEC investors receive a direct credit on their electricity bill, proportionate to their investment and the solar electricity generated. Cooperation between CEC and the Holy Cross Electric negotiated a credit at a premium to the standard residential rate to participating citizens. The minimum investment is $3.50 per Watt, and includes an iPhone app to monitor the electricity produced. Their first initiative is a 77 kW project sited adjacent to a water treatment facility. Prospective sites for expansion include a nearby airport and former landfill.

Online Solar Atlas

View of solar potential on downtown Berlin rooftops

One common barrier to solar panel installation has been reduced. The Solar Atlas concept provides  free rooftop analysis of solar generating potential on precise sites, roof by roof, using GIS software. This data then becomes available through an internet portal accessible by any citizen curious about the solar potential of their property.  Using a GIS toolbox, 3D analysis of rooftops’ slope, the square meter area of solar radiation, and buildings’ cardinal orientation is calculated, and then expressed visually. Solar maps bring macro level solar radiation data to the micro, rooftop level. Thus homeowners can visualize their own power production.

The methodology for the Solar Atlas was developed by a graduate student in Basel, Switzerland. A pilot project is now in Berlin.  “With a few mouse clicks,” reads the press release, “one can read whether a rooftop is well suited for solar panels.”

The 3D model depicts the house in question, and all surrounding buildings – but with the twist every building is shown not in its actual height, but rather, taller or far shorter in proportion to their energy generating potential. From this, an investor can determine the potential rate of return on investment in solar panels, and CO2 savings.

Harold Wolf, an elected official tasked with economic concerns, said, “The ‘green economy’ is a key factor for growth and innovation in Berlin. Plus, resource efficiency plays a very important role in terms of our competitiveness. Our goal is to use the potential of ‘green technology’ to strengthen and expand Berlin’s role as a leading location for solar energy.”

The methodology assesses the following parameters:
1)    The roof’s slope in degrees
2)    Roof orientation
3)    Size of useable portion of the roof
4)    Solar irradiation per roof in question, as a percent of total global irradiation
5)    Power output in KWh, assuming a 12% efficiency rating
6)    Overall suitability of the roof , measured in 4 qualitative classes:

1. Very well suited
2. Good
3. Conditionally suited
4. Inappropriate

7)    CO2 saving potential
8)    Estimated investment costs
9)    Annual cost amortization

Informed about power generation potential, investors or building owners are one step closer to engaging a solar firm to audit or ultimately install panels on the roof.
To visit the Berlin site, in English, click here

Meet your Romeo: Ride the Bus?

By Leah Arabella Germer 

"Social well-being and psychological health depend upon community. It is no coincidence that the 'helping professions' became a major industry in the United States as suburban planning helped destroy local public life and the community support it once lent."

    --Ray Oldenburg; American sociologist and father of the theory of Third Place

Buses, trains, subways: public transportation carries us from place to place, but we don’t often recognize vehicles as “places” in and of themselves.  This view of transportation may be changing; urban planners and sociologists consider the advantages of instilling personality, character, even community in nontraditional public places like a bus.

Combining the public with the personal draws on the work of American sociologist Ray Oldenburg, who advocated for the creation of “third place” in urban areas.  Third place, as opposed to the “first” and “second” places of home and work, is designated for the informal public gatherings on which grassroots politics, the arts, and community vitality thrive.  Pubs, cafes and parks can serve as third place as long as they are local and, in Oldenburg’s words, “do not necessitate getting into an automobile.”

Even though Oldenburg excluded transportation from his vision of third space, urban planners today might be convinced to reconsider:  could public transportation become third space? The Berlin Transportation Services (BVG) would likely agree.  Searchable via its homepage Berlin Public Transit Homepage the BVG-sponsored site Meine Augenblicke is an example of the city’s attempt to create third space inside its public transportation system.  

First launched on February 14, Valentine’s Day, 2007, Meine Augenblicke (roughly translated as ´"My Moments") refers to those meaningful exchanges of glances between fellow subway or bus riders who catch each other´s attention but fail to strike up a conversation.  Its mission, translated from the website, reads: 

A shy laugh at the ticket counter or a wink at the last stop is enough to create the single, magical moment that could spark the love of your lifetime.  Weren´t brave enough?  Here´s your second chance!  Take the initiative.

After registering, subscribers to Meine Augenblicke can post to a public forum information about the person they´re seeking and the context of their ´´moment.´´ Best case scenarios involve both passengers consulting the forum and recognizing each other´s posts; worst case scenarios result in unanswered posts but -- due to anonymity -- minimally bruised egos.  Subscribers can also choose to have transportation information sent to their cell phones.
The focus of Meine Augenblicke is primarily romantic.  Illustrations used in the campaign’s advertising portray pairs of passengers experiencing their ´´moment,´´ while depicting successful outcomes brought about by Meine Augenblicke as reflected in the bus window pane. 
                     
The following post dated June 25, 2010, offers an example:

We first bumped into each other because we simultaneously went for the same seat on the train.  I then sat next to the window, facing the direction the train was moving, and you sat down right across from me.  You rode the train from Ostkreuz to Bundesplatz.  At first, it was totally normal: but then we looked at each other – first timidly, in the reflection of the window pane, and then directly.  You flirted with me in an unbelievably lascivious way: I think my pulse reached at least 270… I´d like to experience that again!  P.S.  You: sunglasses, very sweet, womanly figure, I had a book and a pen and was wearing a green t-shirt.

The hundreds of similar posts written since Meine Augenblicke’s inception in 2007 illustrate how third space is expanding into the realm of public transportation in Berlin.  Similar online forums like Craigslist´s ´´Missed Connections´´ http://newyork.craigslist.org/mis/ have existed for some time, but mostly under umbrella services that cover many kinds of personal advertisements.  Meine Augenblicke on the other hand, is sponsored by the Berlin Transport System and explicitly presented as a feature that transcends the “home-to-work-and-back-again” model of transportation.

Why should public transportation double as third space?  The BVG itself certainly has an interest in creating an attractive product for Berliners. Broadly, however, advocates for sustainable mobility everywhere are positioned to benefit from this approach. By building community inside a single train car, the commuter gains a sense of identity in the course of an otherwise indistinctive routine. 

Transportation planners recognize the role that creating a “commuter identity” for their passengers plays in increasing ridership on public transportation. Digital, real-time bus timetable displays, sophisticated iPhone apps, on-board power outlets for laptops, advertising the work productivity gains possible when not driving, are tactics to help passengers identify themselves proudly as commuters.

The more commuters identify with the experience of public transportation, the more people could choose public transportation over individual methods of transit. Connection building initiatives like Meine Augenblicke offers strangers community and camaraderie, and is a balm for lonely lives.     

3.4 MW biogas plant from Berlin's household compost

*

If all trash companies belong to the Mafia, then it shouldn’t be surprising that the Berlin Municipal Waste Management Company wants you to be part of “the family.” Through advertising and corporate strategy, consumers are deliberately enfranchised through advertising that is funny and frank. The latest reason for the family feeling, is a forthcoming  3.4MW biogas plant owned by BSR (Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe – the  Berlin Municipal Waste Management Company) and powered exclusively by household compost.

BSR has collected household compost since 1996. Today 83% of Berlin families participate in the weekly collection of organic household waste; a 30 gallon trash can of compost costs 31€ per quarter for weekly pick-up service. Fifty-two thousand  tonnes of organic waste was collected in 2009 from Berlin households (which does not count restaurants or commercial organic waste).
 

The planned anaerobic biogas digester will run on household compost, which includes urban woody biomass trimmings, Christmas trees, and household organic matter like banana peels and flower bouquets.
The 3.4 MW plant, built on a brownfield site in Berlin, will accommodate 60,000 tonnes of compostable waste, and produce 4.12 million cubic meters of gas / yr. This biogas will then be upgraded to natural gas grade methane, fed into the natural gas grid, and ultimately used across town by BSR to power over 150 compressed natural gas vehicles. This efficiency will save the firm 66 million gallons (2.5M liters) of diesel fuel, and the 6,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The biogas plant will provide 16 full time jobs.
 

BSR scientists say high quality organic waste from home compost bins exceeds other municipal sources, in terms of caloric content. The purer the input to a biogas digester, the more energy comes out. Therefore outreach to potential composting waste-clients is worth the marketing expense.
To advertise for the Compost campaign, BSR partnered with the Berlin City Gallery’s Oil Painting Collection. The resulting billboards edited fine oil paintings to spotlight the pieces of fruit or flowers within them; “Old flowers belong in the bio bin!” was a slogan draped across Hans Hohlbein des Jüngeren’s stunning work “Salesman Georg Gisze” painted in 1535.
 

BSR’S award winning advertising campaign, pictured here, recently put the company’s own trash haulers  as models. It features slogans like “We Kehr for you” where Kehr is a play on words between the German verb to “sweep clean” and the sound of the English verb “Care.” A consciousness of responsibility is BSR’s vision for their marketing, and helps explain the high percentage of customers who separate out their compost.
 

To BSR’S 5,000 employees, their firm is an environmental company, not a waste management firm. Since the caloric value of refuse is roughly equal to that of brown coal, the firm’s 700 MW power plant in a Berlin neighborhood provides garbage-fueled electricity and heat through Combined Heat Power system to the city. Electricity is supplied to 63,000 households and 31,000 households receive heat from this plant. Further, BSR captures and deploys 40M cubic meters of methane from company-operated landfills, offers the full suite of recycling options, runs its operations in energy efficient buildings, and drives its trash collection vehicle fleet with lower carbon fuel sources. BSR serves 3.4M citizens in an 890 Km2 region.
 

According to Dr. Thomas Klöckner, of BSR’s Public Relations, “You can do good things, and you can talk about them, but only in that order,” referencing the firm’s commitment to implement respectable environmental practices, before boasting in their environmentally themed marketing.  Public tours of the recycling center and waste-to-energy facility educated 1,700 people during 2009.
 

In every city, the waste management plan is specific to the waste stream and local conditions. As of 2005, no more waste in Germany may be landfilled, thus providing incentive for waste diversion, energetic use of the trash, and management of multiple waste streams. For BSR, the climate protection potential of the waste management sector is an opportunity they will seize.

* Translation from the German into English: Good for your Circulation!
In the green dot: Through converting your bulky household waste into energy, we are saving 45,000 tonnes of Coal

Architect in the House - bringing good design to the British masses

The value and necessity of architecture is often lost on the layman. That buildings emerge from a skyline, or even in the neighborhood, appears the work of people who sling hammers, not those with sharp pencils. Thus, when costs must be saved – be it in designing the family home or the new civic center – an architect may not be the first call. Several websites report the decrease in pages published by various international architecture journals, and the decline of people choosing architecture as a profession.  So, do we need architects?

An initiative in the United Kingdom aims to heighten the prominence of the profession — one homeowner at a time. Architect in the House offers one free hour of architectural expertise to families considering a remodel or a new build project. In exchange, the family makes a suggested contribution of 40£ to Shelter, a British non profit organization providing for the homeless.

The concept is simple, and organized by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Now in its 14th year, Architect in the Home pairs RIBA Chartered architects with curious homeowners. The architects provide their time for free, offering design inspiration, green building tips, price-to-value analysis, help troubleshoot existing problems or guidance on steering clear of likely pitfalls. Consultancy beyond the first hour is at the homeowner’s expense. Interested families are asked to sign up by a certain date, then matched with a RIBA Architect in their area, with the consultation following shortly thereafter.  So far, more than 50,000 homeowners across the UK have participated.

Since inception, the initiative has raised 1,000,000£ for the beneficiary charity, Shelter. 105,000£ was raised in 2009 alone.  In 2009, participating architects worked double time: 3,000 families and 1,250 architects participated.

It is uncertain what percent of families who participated in the scheme would otherwise not have called an architect.

One case study on the Architect in the House website identifies a couple who live in a split level terraced house. Approaching retirement, the couple wished to live on one floor – a desire made impossible by the location of the bathrooms, upstairs. The house was redesigned with the help of their new architect.

The American counterpart of RIBA is the America Institute of Architects.

Ecosystem based management meets planning: South Carolina case study

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has funded PlaceMatters* to run three pilot projects, with the purpose of combining ecosystem-based management (EBM) tools within traditional planning.

Three counties in South Carolina are approaching planning in a new way: the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester region is using new methods to assess their vulnerability to natural hazards, resource conservation, and socioeconomic factors. This analysis will then shape the BCD Council of Governments regional land use and transportation plans.

The approach is to get experts together, identify hazards, areas of biological sensitivity, and economic considerations. Then PlaceMatters worked with local partners to engage the community to come up with an actual plan based on the science. The team hosted a Tools Expo in April of 2008 in South Carolina that brought together regional decision-makers and colleagues who could provide new methods to achieve town goals. As the BCD process goes forward, feedback from stakeholders will be provided via an interactive website that provides feedback to the planning process.

Some key lessons learned and successes in the project to date include:
·    Creation of a Local Project Implementation Team.  This team connected PlaceMatters staff with local experts on biodiversity, sources of hazard data, as well as acting as liaison with local partner organizations. 
·    Biodiversity Expert Group. Initial outreach to biodiversity experts to ask for assistance in gathering data was challenging.  Eventually, a group was gathered for one afternoon to collectively determine conservation goals and discuss available data. 
Some key tools, used by the firm PlaceMatters, are:
·    CommunityViz to analyze various social and economic impacts and create a future build-out scenario
·    NatureServe Vista to analyze performance of the current conditions and two future scenarios with respect to conservation goals
·    NOAA’s Community Resilience and Vulnerability Assessment Tool to analyze hazard risk with respect to vulnerable populations and facilities

The results of the scenario analysis will be shared with the BCD COG and its consultant team in order to successfully integrate this information into the public engagement and planning process.

Project Website: www.resilient-communities.org
--Jacob Smith
Jacob Smith, is a PlaceMatters-Packard Fellow based in Denver, Colorado

* PlaceMatters is an organization that helps citizens visualize and shape the impact of development and changes in land use upon their communities, operating as a 501c3 organization. This section of the Internal Revenue Code denotes an officially recognized, American, not for profit organization.

Summer Silent Film Festival - Sustainable means more than Kilowatts

Community that plays together, stays together: sustainability through culture

Outdoor film screenings are the stuff of summer love, all over the world.
For Summer Cinema in Bonn, Germany, it’s a little different. George Clooney won’t play this summer, but rather … Charlie Chaplin.
A Silent Film Festival of this sort exists nowhere else in the world.
For eleven days each August, locals gather beneath the stars  and attend the Bonn Summer Silent Film Festival a “Screen on the green” of sorts. Within the large courtyard at the University of Bonn, community happens. Each night, as the twilight comes, a surprise dawns on the crowd: “I didn’t think silent films were so entertaining!” whispers the murmur through the audience. Once beloved but now forgotten stars of 1920s Hollywood, (and their European, Mexican, Korean or Japanese counterparts) grace the screen once again.
In the early age of film making, lack of sound technology demanded creativity on the part of directors and actors. Subtitles carried the stories.  Expressive faces were a must. Slapstick humor went far.
2010 marks the 26th season of the Bonn Silent Film Festival. For 10 nights in mid August, at 9pm, a crowd of 1500 movie goers sit in open air, regardless of weather, to watch films. Shorts of 10 minutes, as well as features 120 minutes long play. Some are black and white. Others showcase the early days of color. Known and unknown films and actors share the screen. Not a person falls asleep.
Professional silent film musicians (there are such) improvise accompanying music, live.  A piano, violin, and drums provide themes of suspense, victory, and romance. The audience sits in folding chairs before a giant sixteen by twenty-two foot screen.  Experienced film goers know to bring an umbrella or light blanket in case -- the program runs rain or shine.

A single curator selects the films to feature during the program. Archival film libraries offer the films for such festivals. The array of films is characterized by diverse genres, lengths, languages and origin countries.
Despite the cost, there is no entry fee. Bonn Film Culture Organization (Förderverein Filmkultur Bonn) believes that, “Film is relevant for the larger public, regardless of income level,” according to Sigrid Limprecht, of the Förderverein Filmkultur Bonn. The City of Bonn, and the State in which it resides, provide half the funding; the other half comes from donations, concessions and sponsorships. The University of Bonn donates the space.
The popular event inevitably leaves a line of late comers without a seat. Local politicians pick the summer film event as a place to network, greet their constituents, and if appropriate, make a speech! A mixed demographic is also drawn: the elderly sit beside the young. In 2009 more than 22,000 people attended over the 10 day event.
Even if not all fall in love with their neighbor, they surely will fall in love with silent film.
www.film-ist-kultur.de/sommerkino/

Maximize a budget to get a lot done

Your lovin' give me a thrill
But your lovin' don't pay my bill.
Now gimme money 

That's what I want!

– The Beatles

Money is what most of us want. Recent hardships call for a different tune, so could old fashioned cooperation leverage a city budget better?
The Beatles’ hometown proved it. Liverpool, England offers frugal budgets everywhere a guide.

The headline “Our City, Our Planet,” is shorthand for Liverpool’s push during 2009 to engage the public in improving town’s environmental sustainability. During the Year of the Environment the City of Liverpool hosted more than 900 events with environmental themes.  Flower and vegetable shows, bird box making, compost giveaways, a bike tour between churches (Cycle4Faith), and “Zen and the Art of the Wildflower,” were among formal programs.  The public events were not lectures about the carbon cycle, so much as community bicycling and mushroom gathering. Mini-grants of around 500-1000£ were awarded to improve neighborhoods around environmental themes: citizens created hundreds of hanging flower baskets, cleaned up their streets, and practiced EcoYoga. Response to the call for grant applications so overwhelmed staff a new position was created to liaise with the public.

City staff scoured department budgets for existing funds upon which Year of the Environment could piggyback. Staff time, marketing, webdesign, surveys, city clean ups all came from reallocating existing budget and employee priorities.  The total budget for the year of programming was £1.03; more than £85,000 of in-kind contributions were contributed. The Chamber of Commerce, various neighborhood organizations, the Art Council and wider Liverpool Community Network underwrote other pieces of the Year.
“To know that we were running alongside other people for a year was helpful,” said Christine Darbyshire, of Liverpool City Council, on the value of officially naming 2009 the Year of the Environment. As well, the year-long focus provided “an opportunity to accelerate our collective progress toward becoming a low carbon city,” according to official documents.

Partnership included:
–    The Green Ambassador program featured schools, businesses and citizens publically committed to personal change
–    A first-time event called the Green Power Forum brought architects, builders, real estate professionals together for a training on green building and renewable energy.
–    November’s £120 per plate annual Chamber of Commerce gala featured Marks & Spencer chief executive Sir Stuart Rose as a guest speaker. M&S, a household brand in Britain, has pledged 100 commitments to become carbon neutral, send no waste to the landfill and improve sustainable sourcing.
–    The Liverpool Echo newspaper wrote a weekly feature about green activities in the City.

Unfortunately, some Liverpool neighborhoods  suffered from multiple indicators of deprivation with low employment, poor health and a degraded physical infrastructure. In light of this, referencing environment in terms of sustainability or more compost would neglect residents’ more pressing need: cleanliness and beauty.
Thus, Liverpool focused on basics: all major supermarkets were tasked with collecting abandoned grocery carts blighting the City. Neighborhood clean ups were held. Seven new bike cycling routes were added in an initiative called “Cycle Speke,” to provide access to employment for residents of this historically poor corner of Liverpool. The Art Council Cultural Investment Program produced a film called “Mend and Make Do” wherein people “explore, remember and relearn skills of a bygone era when recycling was something all did naturally.”

To understand the context of Liverpool’s initiatives, know that the City had long suffered a reputation as a poor city, with high crime rates and antisocial behavior. Unemployment was among the highest in the UK during the 1980s. But regeneration abounds. The European Capital of Culture was bestowed on Liverpool in 2008. Large wind turbines, recently erected, grace the coastline. The most common comment heard is, “You won’t believe how much town has changed!”

The City hopes visitors and investors could be drawn to Liverpool as an environmental showcase, forgetting the image of a brawling and rusty port. “We think the environmental strengths of the city and its natural resources will ultimately be how the city turns itself around” said Darbyshire.

Year of the Environment site:
http://www.ourcityourplanet.org.uk/

How can land use planning save lives and property? Reduce risk of natural hazards by making a map

Practically speaking, what does climate change look like?
In many cases, natural catastrophes.

However, good planning can reduce the expensive and dangerous effects of large floods, high stormwater, increased tornados, rockfalls, avalanches, mudslides, and treefall across roadways.

The Swiss Federal Office of Spatial Planning has responded to increasingly frequent natural hazards with planning:  Switzerland mandated that each of its 3,000 municipalities draft a comprehensive natural hazard map.

The maps identify where potential risks like rockslides, or floods might occur. The data comes from both professional hydrologists, engineers, and through historical news accounts of past disasters. Even elderly residents were solicited for their memories about past avalanches or floods. With this data, decision makers and planners can employ a risk assessment matrix, which charts the intensity of the effect vs. probability of the risk within given zones in a community.

The cost to develop a natural hazard map is shared 40-40-20, with the Swiss federal government and Cantons (Swiss states) each paying 40%, and towns covering the last 20% of the costs to prepare the hazard maps. The timeline for researching and drafting the natural hazard maps runs from 2009-2011. So far more than 60% of communities have finished. Towns who fail to complete the maps may face fines.

What does a natural hazard map look like? Color-coded zones indicate where mudslides, rockfall, avalanches or floods are likely within the community. Identifying the zones forms the rationale behind discouraging development in sensitive areas (though property owners still have final say), or even authorizing municipal planners to deny building permits in areas of high risk to human life.

The maps start a town conversation about emergency response. Bern, Switzerland experienced deadly floods in 2004 when the Rhine River overflowed its banks. Now Bern has an emergency system in place to alert citizens living at the banks, via text message, that a flash flood is impending.

The village of Pontresina constructed a massive rock wall to protect the road and village property from frequent rockfall that results from melting permafrost. Other mountain towns installed traffic lights on sensors to stop traffic when rockfall occurs. Nationwide, Switzerland prioritized educating planners and design professionals (architects, builders, engineers) about natural hazards. Professionals can then mediate landowners’ concerns and prevent problems before they occur.

The also Swiss launched PLANAT. This is a natural hazard working group and website resource that provides tactics to respond to the host of natural disasters induced by climate change. Available in English:
http://www.planat.ch/index.php?userhash=120494600&l=e&nav=1,1,1,1

Another natural hazards platform is operated by the Alpine Convention:
http://www.alpconv.org/theconvention/conv06_WG_c_en.htm

Global scale:
Because of the claims burden natural hazards pose to insurance companies is so large, unstable climatic conditions are expensive. Munich RE opened a “NatCat” or Natural Catastrophe division in 1979, and penned a report warning the industry of the risk exposure posed by climate change.

In 2009, the total number of destructive natural hazards recorded was above the long term average: 850 natural catastophies occured, whereas 770 events reflect the ten year average. Approximately 75,000 deaths per year are attributed to weather-related natural hazards. “In particular, the trend towards an increase in weather-related catastrophes continues, whilst there has fundamentally been no change in the risk of geophysical events such as earthquakes", said Prof. Peter Höppe, Head of Munich Re’s Geo Risks Research department.
http://www.munichre.com/en/media_relations/press_releases/2009/2009_12_29_press_release.aspx

Gareth Thomas, the British International Development Minister backed by a recent Oxfam study,  said that by 2015 the number of people who will need to be rescued from natural catastrophes “will rise by more than 100 million as more hurricanes, typhoons, floods and mudslides triggered by climate change add to the toll caused by earthquakes and manmade disasters.” (“Un Will Struggle To Cope with Tide of Natural Disasters, Warns Minister” Guardian, March 29th  2010.)

Specific mitigation measures could  include:
·    Physical protection directly on individual buildings
·    Avalanche Control
·    Building rockfall protection nets, mountain flood locks or protective shelters
·    Disseminating instructions to the public: how to secure an oil tank and prevent explosions, evacuating the home or office promptly
·    Developing a hydrogeological basis for land-use planning and watershed management
·    Improving the financing of flood warning systems, and therefore broaden their implementation
·    Altering the town building code for heightened electrical security in case of floods
·    Ensuring that sloped driveways or access roads can be passed by emergency response vehicles
·    Increasing the setback from a ridgeline for new homes or buildings

Delivery: Use the Bike

From ordering-in pizza, to the daily newspaper, to the milkman, home delivery systems are an historic part of commerce. While dare-devil bike couriers are common in many metropolitan cities, could the courier service be transferred to other sectors and environments?
Like mailing a letter?
The average postal mail carrier in Germany delivers 7000 letters a week. On a bike.
Despite an average rainfall of 80 inches per year, cold temperatures, and a winter with diminished daylight (Berlin lies at 52º N), there are 26,000 bikes in the Deutsche Post mail delivery fleet. It is not uncommon for the bike’s saddle bags, full of mail, to weigh 132 pounds. Since 1896, Germans have used bikes for standard mail delivery; it is also common in Austria and Switzerland.
For delivery routes in hilly areas, the Deutsche Post fleet now includes electric bikes that travel about 14 mph.
Die Deutsche Post, the German mail authority, has established the goal of a 30% reduction in delivery-related emissions by 2020. Reducing fuel consumption is king. So, of the 54,000 mail delivery employees, about 50% use bikes to bring the 71 million letters per week to their recipients. Customers may also mail individual letters with a carbon offset.
The bikes, equipped with transport bags, extra stabilizers, and a lock, cost about 500€.They are expected to last between 4 and 8 years. The average delivery route spans between 6- 18 miles (10 to 30 kilometers). The bikes are maintained by a mobile technician, who operates within a broad region. One of the manufacturing companies Deutsche Post patronizes is called Sachsen Zweirad.

German pharmacies and pizza joints employ bike deliverers too. According to the Hamburg-based national franchise, Joey’s Pizza, bike delivery is a question of efficiency: for a short distance, bikes can deliver a hot pizza faster.

Back to the milkman. A friend who earned his childhood pocket money helping the milkman, discovered a secret about community fabric. It was the milkman who recognized that an accumulation of still full milk bottles on Old Mrs. Smith’s front porch signaled something amiss. Personal, daily delivery services are a small and essential part of the relationships that give us community. Moving past one another at a slower pace and a quieter level could reveal a clue into the sort of interactions which keep us whole.

For Deutsche Post's Sustainability Report:
http://www.dp-dhl.com/en/responsibility.html

For images of historic bike delivery, German text
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postfahrrad

Bike delivery by the USPS
http://www.usps.com/green/report/2008/Our_Environment3.html

School Weatherization Funding Strategy

Ask more of your janitor, ask more of the 5th grader, and then ask them to work together.

An initiative in Germany, called 50/50, motivates students to transform the energy profile of their schools. The changes are modest and realistic. The methods of conservation are traditional and inexpensive. But they pay. If a school can decrease its annual energy needs by at least 10%, the savings is split in half between the students and the school district.

The average participating school saves 100 MW of heating, 10,000 kWh of electricity, 40T of CO2 and earns 5,000€ (when a total of 10,000€ in energy costs was saved).

Students and janitors work as a team. Five to ten students tour their school with the janitor and an energy auditor. Together they develop a plan for implementation, and then communicate the plan to the rest of the school with creative messages. The school pays for cheap investments like a boiler blanket. Any larger investment requests are submitted to the school district, but large investments like new windows are not actually the point.

“We really want to focus on user behavior,” said Almuth Tharan, of the Unabhängiges Institut für Umweltfragen (UfU) e.V., one of the national project coordinators.

One hundred and fifty schools in Berlin participate in the program. Annually, the 50/50 program saves €600,000 citywide. With a population of 3 million, the 150 participating schools represent just ¼ of all schools who could participate. The program is nearly 20 years old.

50/50 is just one piece of energy and resource education. In German schools this begins at an early age. Students are taught solar energy and resource conservation through a variety of locally developed curriculum measures. Pre-fab kits are widely deployed. An energy suitcase with a digital thermometer and a light meter help 5th graders learn measurement and graphing. “Renewables in a Box,” brings big concepts to even small pupils: the Sunshine Suitcase visits Kindergartners too.

To learn more about 50/50 in Germany: http://www.ufu.de/media/content/files/UfU_Englisch/Climate_Protection/Fifty-fifty_Energy_Education.pdf

Renault: Driving the Change
"Has there ever been a finer creation than the automobile?

"But is it still in tune with society today? Is it acceptible that some of us are able to drive while others barely have the means to get around? Why should making the most of our lives today imply a lower quality of life tomorrow? Does enjoyment for some have to cost the lives of others? Do you still have to be one of the lucky few to reap the benefits of progress?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm1Bb0H8QCs&feature=related