The average American lifestyle is kept afloat by nearly 2,000 gallons of H2O a day. Calculate your water footprint and learn ways to reduce your home’s water consumption.
Posted By: Suzanne Knizner
Project Coordinator
Campaign Consultation, Inc.
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Thanks to MIT chemistry professor Timothy Swager and his students, this futuristic fruit sorting system might soon come to fruition for produce distributers across the country. According to the MIT news office, Swager’s team developed sensors to detect tiny amounts of ethylene gas, which is the plant hormone that controls ripening of fruit. The technology would allow even small shipping operations to attach the inexpensive sensors to cardboard boxes that, when scanned with a handheld device, would reveal the contents’ ripeness. When grocers receive the boxes, they would then know which items to put on sale or move to the front – a move that could lower their losses by up to 30 percent. That’s a lot of delicious resources – sensors have been tested and found effective on bananas, apples, pears, oranges and avocados – that will no longer go to waste. Read more about the sensors from the MIT News Office. Posted By: Jasmine Touton Project Specialist Campaign Consultation, Inc. Major cities are opting to tear down aging freeways – which require expensive repairs and renovations – and finding economic, social and environmental value in creating parallel roads and promoting mass transportation. Posted By: Suzanne Knizner Project Coordinator Campaign Consultation, Inc.  Aquaponics: bryghtknyght/Wikimedia Oscar-the-Grouch might get grouchier when he hears that urban farmers in Chicago are laying roots to eliminate waste with an entirely self-sustaining vertical farm concept. Chicago’s Union Stockyards houses a former meatpacking plant and slaughterhouse. Today, things in the 93,500 square-foot plant are a little greener. “The Plant” sustains a mini-ecosystem, which includes a tilapia fish farm. Waste from the fish farm fertilizes the mushroom garden and hydroponic plants. Plants clean the water, which is then cycled back into fish tanks. Leftover grains from beer and Kombucha breweries provide the next meal for the tilapia. Could this signal a new, self-sustaining way of life for urban dwellers? Independent bakers and caterers have already taken advantage of The Plant’s communal kitchen space and there are plans to include five living spaces by the end of this year, according to Good. And, four years from now? The fully-functional building should create 125 jobs and divert more than 10,000 tons of food waste from landfills each year. And that’s nothing to be grouchy about. Read more at Good.is By: Jasmine Touton Project Specialist Campaign Consultation, Inc. The Natural Resources Defense Council graded America’s top beaches on water quality, testing regularity and speed of advisories. Click here to see how your favorite summer spot stacked up. Posted By: Suzanne Knizner Project Coordinator Campaign Consultation, Inc.
Replace the petroleum-based jet fuel that powers 700 planes with biofuel made from algae. For larger delivery trucks: swap regular gas with compressed natural gas. Exchange gas-powered delivery vans for tens of thousands of hybrid or electric delivery vans. Federal Express plans to roll out this cost-reducing, energy –efficient, greener fleet of the future – now. When burning through 1.5 billion gallons a year of petroleum-based fuels, FedEx CEO Fred Smith can’t ignore the rising cost of oil and the country’s increasing dependence on it. So he developed a corporate plan to reduce petroleum use. Smith told NPR that an all-electric pickup and delivery van would operate at a 75 percent less per-mile cost than what current delivery vehicles operate at. That saves FedEx a lot of greens, while making this country a little greener. Read more about FedEx and its Energy Efficient Corporate Plan at NPR. By: Jasmine Touton Project Specialist Campaign Consultation, Inc. Pizza boxes tarnished with food, or any paper product that is stained with grease or food, are not recyclable – unless you remove the tainted portions. Attempting to “sneak” pizza boxes in with the recycling does more harm than good, ruining the whole recycling batch – wasting time and money. Posted By: Suzanne Knizner Project Coordinator Campaign Consultation, Inc.
Springtime is cause for celebration, but given some recent helium shortages, you may want to opt for filling your balloons with your own lungs and leaving the natural gas for science. The majority of the population sees helium as what keeps Mylar Mickey afloat, but scientists use the gas, which doesn’t solidify at even very low temperatures, for equipment and study purposes. The gas can cool atoms to around -270C, reducing their vibrations and making them easier to study. Its liquid form will run ultra-cool refrigerators for a variety of different science fields. Even as the second most abundant element in our universe, the Earth only has a limited supply of helium. And unless we can sell fewer balloons, or party less, science may feel the brunt of our helium scarcity. That is, unless we begin also harvesting it from the moon. Read more about helium stocks running low in The Guardian. By: Jasmine Touton Project Specialist Campaign Consultation, Inc.
Efforts are being made to transform an abandoned trolley terminal on the Lower East Side of Manhattan into the world’s first underground park – a public space using solar technology for natural illumination to highlight all the features of an “above-ground” park including plants, trees and grasses. Posted By: Suzanne Knizner Project Coordinator Campaign Consultation, Inc.  Nize/Wikimedia “Finding Nemo” characters may seem content there, but a Unesco delegation is not content with the Australian federal government’s assessment of recent developments impacting The Great Barrier Reef. As tourists continue to flock to the reef for the promise of brilliant colors and exotic marine life, liquefied natural-gas projects and coal-port expansions are arriving too. Unesco’s World Heritage Committee first expressed concern about potential degradation to the reef last year when state and federal government-approved developers landed on Curtis Island, off of Queensland’s coast, for creation of a liquefied natural gas port. The development on Curtis Island, combined with other planned developments, could make Australia’s coal exports rise from the current 156 million tons to 944 million tons in 2020. An increase in ships crossing the reef, which could cause oil spills and threaten wildlife, in addition to the dredging needed to widen shipping lanes, poses potential danger to one of the seven wonders of the natural world. If Unesco’s World Heritage Committee does not report back favorably after its monitoring mission this year, the Great Barrier Reef will land on its list of sites in danger. Read more in the The Sydney Morning Herald. |
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