This post was written by Paul O’Callaghan, founding CEO of the Clean Tech consultancy, O2 Environmental Inc.and lecturer on Sustainable Energy at the BC Institute of Technology.
‘Any plan to switch from gasoline to electricity or biofuels is a strategic decision to switch our dependence from foreign oil to domestic water’.
Webber comments on the links between water and energy, the potential conflicts, but also about the potential opportunities which arise when you start to understand these links and realize that saving water saves energy, and saving energy saves water. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes the solution to a complicated problem arrives in a simple form, and that’s the case with Hydro International’s Hydro Stormbloc system. The Stormbloc modules look like nothing more than oversized milk crates but they could help some communities finally resolvechronic stormwaterflooding problems that have bedeviled them for years, and harvest rainwater for recycling, to boot.
Mom always said to take your vitamins, and now it looks like she was right. A good dose of vitamin B12 could be the key to cleaning up thousands of sites contaminated by solvents, particularly industrial degreasers and dry cleaning chemicals known as trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (perc). These are two of the most common ground contaminants in the U.S., and when they get into aquifers, they are among the most difficult to remediate. All that may be about to change.
The lowly cattail is emerging as the weapon of choice against water contamination, and perhaps even global warming. In addition to its use in large phytoremediation projects to absorb contamination from groundwater and wetlands, the cattail could also work in on a small, inexpensive scale, helping to reduce arsenic contamination in impoverished areas. All this and biofuel, too? Read the rest of this entry »
Some people like to call them swamps — usually folks who want to turn them into concrete developments.
Others call them wetlands, for their abilities to reduce flooding and filter out contaminants that run off of city landscapes.
The fact is, you may not like wetlands or swamps (mosquitoes), but they do a lot of good. The next time it rains, watch the water run off of a driveway, sidewalk, street or nearby parking lot. That water used to go into wetlands, depending on where you live. Now it goes into sewer systems, and often ends up being flushed untreated, or only partially treated, to rivers and lakes.
Many cities are turning to constructed wetlands, which can’t replace the natural work of Mother Nature, but can do a pretty good job of keeping contaminants out of waterways that supply drinking water, fishing and good ol’ recreation. Read the rest of this entry »
Google only announced its PowerMeter smart-meter platform in February (see our posts on the announcement here, here and here). But some startups are already chomping at the bit to access the platform.
In fact, two of the startups that presented at Earth2Tech’s Green:Net conference last week specifically said they are interested in using PowerMeter when it becomes available.
Researchers at New Mexico State University are testing a relatively inexpensive plumbing retrofit that could help buildings capture relatively clean graywater from plumbing before it hits the sewers, and reuse it onsite for outdoor watering. It’s a green four-for-one: the NMSU graywater system conserves water, relieves sewer systems of excess flow, fosters tree growth to cool buildings, and reduces stormwaterrunoff by improving soil and vegetation.
Go on, admit it - how many times have you forgotten to water your houseplants? Maybe you’ve even left some of them so long they’ve withered away to nothing. In fact, the chances are that if a plant could talk the thing they’d be most likely to say would be WATER ME!
One of my most shameful vices is taking long showers. But my shame could be at least partially relieved now that the EcoDrain is on sale. The simple heat exchange unit works by transferring heat from shower-waste water to incoming cold water. Read the rest of this entry »
The robots (video), shaped like Carp, will be set free off the coast of Gijon in northern Spain. If the trial proves successful, the fish could be used in rivers, lakes and seas across the world.
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‘Any plan to switch from gasoline to electricity or biofuels is a strategic decision to switch our dependence from foreign oil to domestic water’.
