Sustainovation

Superbus

2012-01-17T16:32:00.003+05:30

“Carefree and comfortable travel, customized according to your needs. You can get in the vehicle wherever and whenever you need. It will take you to your destination without any changeovers. During the journey, you can get on with your work, or sit back and enjoy the speed and the luxury. This service will be yours for a fare which is comparable to the prices of present day’s public transport.”This is not a dream, but a concept that formed the starting point for the development of Superbus as an innovative alternative for today’s personal mobility.Superbus is a new concept for sustainable mobility, which consists of a new vehicle, new type of dedicated infrastructure and new logistics. For this new concept, all of the intelligence and innovation is put into the vehicle, whereas the dedicated infrastructure, where the Superbus runs at 250 km/h, is made of relatively cheap concrete roads.Superbus is 15 meters long and provides seating for 23 passengers. In order to improve comfort and to allow individuality, it has 8 doors per side.Superbus does not have a fixed schedule and the logistics allow for flexibility in high volume transport on demand, via a central routing optimization system. Thus the vehicle transports passengers from target to destination without the need for changeovers.The design of Superbus has been developed around some key themes. Superbus is safe due to obstacle detection systems (through radar equipment and a fast responding electronic guidance system), high maneuverability and formidable breaking power.Superbus is designed to be flexible regarding different travel needs. The two different interior cabins are designed for people travelling alone or in groups. Superbus is also flexible due to the routing, since there is no fixed route for Superbus and the routes are customized based on the preferred starts and destinations of the passengers. Since it also runs on standard roads, it can fit seamlessly into the existing infrastructure.Superbus is sustainable. It is an electrically powered vehicle which uses rechargeable batteries. Because it is lightweight and because of its highly streamlined construction, Superbus has low energy consumption.Beside all this, Superbus is designed to provide a sensational travel experience. The level of comfort should be comparable to travelling with a luxurious sedan. This sensational experience will be realized through high speed, ergonomic interior design and personal multimedia equipment for each individual passenger.Superbus is developed in the Netherlands, but it can be regarded as a global investment since the Netherlands will subsequently be able to market it worldwide.
Get more on Superbus at: http://www.superbusproject.com/

Natural Paints

2011-12-28T16:36:00.000+05:30

Free of chemical ingredients and biodegradable
Unlike conventional latex paints (even the "environmentally-friendly," zero-VOC versions), natural paints are biodegradable and free of petrochemical ingredients. Conventional paints, which contain a variety of toxins that must be carefully disposed of to prevent environmental contamination. Natural paints are made with a limited number of minimally processed ingredients and are biodegradable. Natural paints are paints that are made with raw ingredients such as clay, chalk, marble, and earth and mineral pigments and that are not produced with petrochemical (oil-derived) or synthetic ingredients. There are many different kinds of natural paints, which include lime paint, casein (milk) paint, clay paint, and distemper paints (like Unearthed Plant Glue Paint).Natural paint relies on the inherent qualities of natural ingredients that can be used as binders (such as casein, a protein glue), fillers (such as marble, which provides opacity and whiteness), and pigments (such as earth pigments that derive natural color from their mineral content). A variety of different unique natural paint types exist, and include clay paint, milk paint, and lime paint. Most natural paints, including the entire line of paints by Unearthed Paints, are 100% zero-VOC and safe to use while pregnant.
Significantly less energy-intensive than conventional latex paints to produce
Many of the main ingredients in conventional latex paints, including petroleum products and titanium dioxide, are extremely energy-intensive to produce. Natural paints are made with ingredients that are minimally processed and are also abundantly available (like the clay in our Clay Paint) or recycled (like the reclaimed Italian marble that serves as the whitener in our Vega Paint).Many of our paints are shipped to you as a dry powder. Shipping powder, rather than pre-mixed liquid paints, significantly reduces the energy used to ship our paints. Shipping powdered paints also allows us to sell products that do not contain chemical preservatives. When kept dry, these powders can be stored without spoiling for several years. Unearthed powdered paints come pre-measured in amounts that make a gallon. You just mix in the water.
Breathable
The differences between natural paint and conventional paints are significant not only to your health and the environment, but also to building health. With their synthetic binders (usually acrylic or vinyl), conventional latex paints produce a plastic-like coating on your walls that does not allow moisture to pass through. In comparison, natural paints are breathable and contribute to a positive room climate. Using natural paint prevents moisture problems. The diffusion open qualities of natural paint are especially desirable in highly- insulated passive houses.
Read more on: http://www.unearthedpaints.com/

Eco-friendly Shower

2011-12-05T11:38:00.001+05:30

Eco-thinkers have come up with an amazing new way to create drinking water - by putting plants in the bottom of a shower.Designers Jun Yasumoto, Vincent Vandenbrouk, Olivier Pigasse, and Alban Le Henry came up with the concept when looking for new ways to recycle precious H2O.After you have washed in the special eco-shower the water passes down into a series of physical filters and is treated by plants such as reeds and rushes growing around your feet.Yasumoto, 34, said: 'These plants have been proven to be able to remove the chemicals from your shampoo. 'Using a natural filtering principle called phyto-purification, the bathroom becomes a mini-eco-system by recycling and regenerating the wastewater.''With this project, we tried to combine the pleasure of taking a shower with the satisfaction of recycling water. We wanted the recycling process to actually interact with the use of shower.'The waste water passes into a chamber below the shower floor where it goes through a maze of filters.Included in the network is sand, reeds, rushes, a mesh filter, water hyacinths and lemnas, and finally a carbon filter. And the inventors - all graduates from French national design school Ecole Nationale Supirieure de Creation Industrielle - hope that the impact of their concept doesn't just alter the way we bathe.'We thought that by conceiving this very intricate relation between the recycling of water and the user experience, we could get the users to also re-think the way they use water,' said Yasumoto.After posting their seven-year-old design on the internet, the eggheads have been inundated with queries about where their shower can be bought.'No prototype has been made as the project is just a concept for the moment, but it is interesting to see the positive feedback we are getting since we put these images online,' Yasumoto said.'It has made us think we should keep on developing this idea and start thinking of ways to integrate it and bring it closer to reality.'
Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1208895/Scientists-design-plant-filtration-lets-drink-SHOWER-water.html#ixzz1fdeIYWCs

Air Driven Car

2011-12-02T18:33:00.001+05:30

This latest version of AirPod has the benefit of a unique architecture that has never been utilised before in an urban vehicle. After conducting intense research and trials, a base consisting of a composite sandwich of fiberglass and polyurethane has been incorporated, providing the vehicle with over 30 functionalities. Cast aluminium frame fixed to this base holds the mechanical components such as the engine, the transmission, the suspension and the wheels. This type of architecture is normally only available on the high-end sports cars using carbon fibre. However, since this functionality is already built-in through integration and has also facilitated drastic reduction of mass, MDI has opted for fibreglass instead of carbon fibre; thus making such innovative technology available to all the other manufacturers of MDI vehicles.The Fourth Wheel!By now, it should be obvious that the Latest Model of AirPod is four-wheeled. When the AirPod was originally conceptualised, the main objective was to design a vehicle that could virtually turn on its own axis. Out of sheer technical necessity, the AirPod had to be three-wheeled or both the front wheels had to be placed close together; but after extensive research the MDI Engineers have come up with yet another innovative technology. Without sacrificing the tiny turning circle, the AirPod has now been given ‘The Fourth Wheel’ ! This has not only increased the performance of the vehicle but the process has rendered the AirPod highly stable at maximum speeds. The final result is exceptional handling and stability, and, the beauty is that the new AirPod can still turn virtually on its own axis !!! These three attributes are verified by test-driving the AirPod.CertificationThe application for European approval had been submitted for the three-wheeled AirPod and full ‘L2e Certification’ had already been granted in Luxembourg, Belgium and Malta. The process of application for both the three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles follow the same directive (2002/2004) and therefore supplanting the application from one category to another requires only a few modifications such as braking functionality. The technical documentations have already been prepared and will soon be submitted to the European Authorities.Outstanding Performance In constant search for more and more optimum engine efficiency with guaranteed range, MDI has now developed an engine that is capable of reaching a performance level of 68%. This has been validated independently and will go into full production next year.Significant progress has been made on the system that controls the flow of compressed air into the engine, making it possible to do away with the pressure reducing regulator. The engine can now operate at the same pressure as the reservoir tank pressure. The performance level of 68% has been achieved by simplifying the architecture of the active chamber of MDI Engine and the intake circuit of the engine, the ‘fuel’ system. The major challenge overcome by MDI was to be able to have a consistent engine performance when the pressure in the tank decreased. The increase of engine efficiency has been a vital step that enabled MDI to use the tank that complies with ECR110 specification of the Certification. This has already been approved for the AirPod L2e. Even if this specification does not permit maximum pressure higher than 248 bars (instead of 350 bars initially programmed for the AirPod) the range will still be between 120 km and 150 km in urban cycle because of the following reasons:Larger tank volume of 260 litres (instead of 175 litres);The engine management that enables a cut off of intake of air during braking phase;Recovering of kinetic energy while decelerating;The Engine designed for AirPod is a 2-cylinder engine with a capacity of 430cc that develops 7 kW at 1,500 rpm. Torque is constant at 45nm from 200 rpm to 1,500 rpm. Maximum rpm in the urban areas is only 950 rpm. Such a low rpm is advantageous in terms of durability, efficiency and low noise output level.The weight of the Engine is not more than 24 kg including all the accessories.
Get more at: http://www.mdi.lu/english/

Natural Air Purifier

2011-12-02T12:01:00.001+05:30

Breathe easy. ANDREA is a revolutionary new air cleaner engineered to significantly improve the air filtration capacity of natural plants. This living filter accelerates room pollutants through the active infrastructure system of a plant to continuously clean and oxygenate the rooms in your home. Based on experiments performed by RTP Labs, Andrea improves the efficiency of formaldehyde removal from the air relative to plants alone by 360%. Relative to HEPA and carbon filters, comparison between the RTP Labs data and literature data show an improvement in formaldehyde filtration efficiency of 4400%. These data confirm that while plants alone in an interior setting are more efficient than HEPA and carbon filters at removing toxic gases from the air, they are significantly less efficient than Andrea. Even more important, the rate of gas removal by Andrea is, according to the RTP Labs data, over 1000% faster than for plants alone. That is, Andrea dramatically accelerates the efficiency of air cleaning relative to plants alone.ANDREA employs both active plant filtration, along with water and soil to provide a multistage system that cleanses air from harmful toxins that can irritate and be harmful to your lungs.It naturally purifies air by drawing it with a whisper-quiet fan to propel it through the leaves and root system of a plant, then out through water and soil filtration and back into the room environment. Since the late 1980s scientists have sought to improve the efficiency of living plants to naturally clean the air of harmful pollutants. ANDREA advances on these efforts with world-class design, elegant simplicity, and improved filtration. ANDREA continuously draws polluted air from the environment and passes it across living surfaces that absorb and metabolize gaseous pollutants. The biochemical transformation of waste, through the plant’s natural metabolic activity, eliminates the pollution beyond simply collecting it on filter surfaces.Get details at: http://www.andreaair.com/

Zero Emission Bus

2011-12-02T11:38:00.001+05:30

An entry at "My City," a scholarship competition of Instituto Europeo di Design's School of Transportation Design, the “TAKHT LAHORI" by Pakistani designer Ali Murtaza is an articulated, zero emission bus that apart from allowing safe and brisk commutation in Lahore city, the second thickly populated city in Pakistan, will also help in improving the surrounding environment. Powered exclusively by motors located within the wheels that come with an active suspension and regenerative braking, the bus concept also features an “Active Bumper” to provide a mechanical, airbag-powered crumple zone on all sides.The in-wheel motors are backed by Lithium-ion batteries that can be charged by either integrated 3D photovoltaic panels or a regular A/C plug. Combining the classic patterns of the great Mughal Empire with hi-tech designing, the TAKHT LAHORI presents a retro futuristic design to become a modern cultural symbol of public transportation.See more pics at: http://www.designbuzz.com/entry/takht-lahori-zero-emission-bus-combines-culture-with-modern-traits-of-public-transport/

Disaster Control Brick

2011-12-01T16:43:00.001+05:30

Providing food and shelter to victims of a natural disaster is one of the first priorities for emergency services, but the process can often generate a lot of unnecessary waste. To help tackle this problem, UNICEF has developed an amazing reusable LEGO-inspired brick that doubles as a food storage container and a building material, addressing multiple needs in one fell swoop. Read on to see more pictures of this clever object designed by Psychic Factory!The bricks have two compartments – one that holds rice and another that holds water. Once these vitals have been consumed, the bricks are then filled up with soil and sand to give them weight and stacked just like lego bricks into temporary shelters that gives disaster victims relief from the elements. In the meantime, all of the packaging that might have been used to provide clean drinking water and food are spared, as well as the headache of sourcing and distributing them. And the best part? When this area recovers, the bricks can be re-used somewhere else!Read more at: http://inhabitat.com/unicef%E2%80%99s-amazing-lego-inspired-bricks-carry-food-and-water-to-disaster-victims/

Plastic Bottle House

2011-12-01T16:39:00.001+05:30

With a serious housing shortage but no shortage of plastic bottles littering the streets, the Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) – an NGO based in Nigeria – decided to build this incredible two-bedroom bungalow entirely out of plastic bottles! Although many in Kaduna were dubious when the project began construction in June this year, the nearly-complete home is bullet and fireproof, earthquake resistant, and maintains a comfortable interior temperature of 64 degrees fahrenheit year round!Hundreds of plastic bottles were filled with sand and then linked together at the neck by an intricate network of string. The bottles were then strategically laid and packed down with a combination of mud and cement, creating a building material that DARE claims is stronger than cinder blocks!The multi-colored bottle caps extend from the 624 square foot bungalow’s wall, creating a facade that gives an otherwise dull building a lovely splash of color. DARE received assistance from African Community Trust, a London-based NGO, and hopes to roll out similar buildings in the future. This project has the potential to not only improve the housing shortage, but clean up the streets as well!Read more at: http://inhabitat.com/africas-first-plastic-bottle-house-rises-in-nigeria/

Eco-Light

2011-12-01T16:29:00.001+05:30

The Eco Light is an EL coated bulb made out of paper. This simple and minimal design removes the burden of packaging and disposal of used bulbs for a better environment. Their kitsch looks up the glam quotient and make them a trendy display. As the designer puts it, “once the paper bulb is no longer useable, consumers can simply change a new paper bulb for their lamp and the old one can be recycled.”Get more on Eco-light at: http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/10/24/bulb-reinvented/

Summer 2009: Technical Writing

2009-07-30T08:41:00.004+05:30

This course was instructed by: Dr. Doreen Piano, Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, University of New Orleans.

Instructions for 'How to buy a laptop?'

[Please click on the slides to enlarge]

Spring 2009: Geospatial Analysis II, Final Project

2009-07-04T08:29:00.017+05:30

This course was instructed by: Dr. Deepak Mishra, Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, University of New Orleans.

Assessment of Landfill Gas Migration in Closed Landfills using Remote Sensing Techniques

[Please click on the slides to enlarge]

Fall 2008: Toxicology and Human Health, Final Project

2009-07-04T04:52:00.015+05:30

This course was instructed by: Dr. Patricia M. Williams, Toxicologist and Coordinator of UNO-Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences

Exposure to H2S: Mechanisms of Toxicity and Remediation

[Please click on the slides to enlarge]

Summer 2008: Environmental Planning, Final Project

2008-08-18T09:11:00.031+05:30

"Your final presentation was wonderful. You included all of the issues and presented them in their entirety." : Dr. Wilma Subra, Microbiologist and Environmental Activist

Effect of Discharges from Landfill to Wetlands and Its Mitigation through Better Planning
[Please click on the slides to enlarge]

Latest Innovation in AD world: Behaviorial Targeting

2007-06-20T22:17:00.000+05:30

Technologies for monitoring and interpreting Internet habits as a predictor of future behavior cropped up at the start of this century, but only now are gaining momentum as the newest gold mine for Web sites and their advertisers.

Known as behavioral targeting, the premise is to follow the sites you visit and build a picture of what products may interest you, then deliver related advertising in time for you to choose your purchase.

Innovation Management

2007-06-17T13:36:00.000+05:30

Glossary:

Invention, Innovation, product innovation, process innovation, service innovation, incremental innovation, radical innovation, continuous innovation

Innovation strategy, strategy for innovation, managing innovation, management of innovation

Three stages of innovation - idea creation, development, commercialization

Innovation has occurred when any aspect (e.g. capability, use) of a product, process or service provides an improved solution to a need

Incremental innovation involves small improvements and extensions to existing products, processes and services. The target is to increase efficiency - higher quality, reduced times and lower costs. For an incrementally new product the customer is known and the technology does not radically depart from conventional practice

Radical innovation involves major change. Typically there are unknowns concerning both customer and technology.

Why you have to innovate?

Advancing technology

Changing environment

Changing industrial structures and strategies

Evolving society

Evolving customer desires

Competitors improve their products, processes and services

Customers stop buying your old products and services so you need to replace them and add new products and services

What happens if you don't innovate?

Customers stop buying your products, processes and services

Sales drop

Revenues drop

Shareholder returns drop

Stock price drops

Key employees leave

More customers stop buying your products, processes and services

Sales drop

Why innovation is becoming more important?

Technology is changing fast, new products come from new competitors

Fast changing environment, product lifetimes shorter, need to replace products sooner

Products are increasingly difficult to differentiate

Customers are more sophisticated, segmented and demanding, and expect more in terms of customization, newness, quality and price

Customers have more choice

New technologies no-one understands

Apparently separate technologies come together

Markets forming and changing fast

With markets and technology changing fast, and good ideas quickly copied, there is continual pressure to devise new and better products, processes and services faster

Innovation is a positive message?

Tell people you are going to cut headcount - and lose their support

Tell people you are going to downsize - and lose their support

Tell people you are going to re-engineer - and 80% won't cooperate

Tell people you are going to be innovative - and win their enthusiastic support

Innovation as your corporate strategy

Poor implementation of many recent corporate initiatives - such as ERP implementation, ISO 9000 implementation, re-engineering, and downsizing - hasn't resulted in fast growth. Often it's led to a reduction in quality levels and stagnation in sales

Innovation leads to faster growth, increased market share and better corporate positioning

Innovation is the prime strategy for the first decade of the twenty-first century

http://www.johnstark.com/in4.html

Sustainable Housing

2007-06-17T03:10:00.000+05:30

Why is Sustainable Housing Important?

We live in a fragile world with limited resources and growing environmental problems associated with greenhouse emissions and climate change, deforestation and the loss of old growth forests, decreasing biodiversity, pollution of ocean and inland waterways, to name just a few. Each of us has a moral responsibility to help minimise our impact on the environment. By making your home more sustainable you can make an important contribution towards that end.

An added bonus is the tremendous cost savings that can be obtained from installing sustainable housing technologies. So, sustainability housing is not only good for the environment but is good for the household budget too!

What Does Sustainable Housing Involve?

Sustainable Housing includes technologies that cover a wide range of applications including the following (click on the category to find out more on each technology area):

http://www.ecologicalhomes.com.au/sustainable_housing.html

Sustainable Innovation aka Sustainovation????

2007-06-17T02:47:00.000+05:30

Sustainable Innovation is a pattern of social learning and problem-solving that is, itself, sustainable. The sustainability of innovation, moreover, is linked to the sustainability of its outcomes, which manifest themselves in what people produce and do in the world. It can be called as ‘transitive property of innovation’.

Sustainable Innovation, then, is a necessary pre-condition for sustainability in how societies and organizations function; the ways they organize, the products and services they make, the energy and resources they use, and the wastes they produce.

To be sustainable, patterns of learning and innovation in human social systems must:

1. Actually enhance their members' ability to adapt; that is, the outcomes of such patterns (human innovations) must demonstrably enhance, and not diminish, the bottom-line sustainability of what people do when tested against the sustainability measurement and reporting approaches that we advocate (i.e., the 'Quotients Approach');

2. Be internally authentic, meaning that they (the patterns) must be consistent with the ways in which people in societies and organizations tend to self-organize around problem-solving when left to their own devices;

3. Be open, in the sense that they (a) are transparent to and inclusive of stakeholders of all kinds regardless of their rank or standing in the system, and (b) are 'fallibilist' in their orientation towards knowledge, meaning that they reject the notion that anyone can ever know anything with certainty, be they leaders or followers.

According to the criteria above, most contemporary patterns of innovation in human social systems and organizations are not sustainable. This prevents people from learning effectively, from recognizing and solving their problems, and from operating in sustainable ways. It is arguably why societies, businesses, and industries around the world are so unsustainable. But it is also a point of leverage!

http://www.sustainableinnovation.org/what-is-sustainable-innov.html

Innovation ????

2007-06-17T02:36:00.000+05:30

The classic definitions of Innovation include:

the process of making improvements by introducing something new
the act of introducing something new: something newly introduced (The American Heritage Dictionary).
the process of translating new ideas into tangible societal impact (Krisztina Holly, Vice Provost, University of Southern California, and Executive Director of USC Stevens Institute for Innovation)
the introduction of something new. (Merriam-Webster Online)
a new idea, method or device. (Merriam-Webster Online)
the successful exploitation of new ideas (Department of Trade and Industry, UK).
change that creates a new dimension of performance Peter Drucker (Hesselbein, 2002)
A creative idea that is realized [(Frans Johansson)] (Harvard Business School Press, 2004)
"The capability of continuously realizing a desired future state" ([John Kao, The Innovation Manifesto, 2005])
"The staging of value and/or the conservation of value." (Daniel Montano 2006.

for more on Innovation, go to Wikipedia

Sustainability ????

2007-06-17T02:32:00.000+05:30

Sustainability can be defined in various ways as follows:

Direct dictionary meaning = Capable of being sustained

With respect to Environmental issues = Capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment

With respect to Economy = that has the ability to pose least effect on natural resources n hold business in a certain pace for a long time.

With respect to Development = that will fulfill present generation's need without reducing chance of prosperity of future generations.

'Sustainable' a common 'soft' word is used to denote one of the most difficult goals to achieve. Its achievement depends on knowledge about natural resources, systems, human ecology, psychology and foresight of need. Still it is possible to a reasonable extent.

for more on Sustainability got to Wikipedia