Auf Wiedersehn, Pet?

A robotic wall laying machine could dramatically change the way buildings are erected. From an eco point of view, the materials used can be changed and complex shapes formed- if the solar ventilation for a pbuilding requires complex ducting the robo-builder can do it from CAD designs- and labour savings can bring the prices down.

Khoshnevis is inspired by the technology’s potential to build dignified low-income housing. “A billion people today do not have adequate shelter,” he says. Using soil dug from the building site and stabilized with cement, the contour crafter could erect inexpensive dwellings customized to a family’s needs.

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Construction

Smarter than Smart

The G-Wiz promises to be the greenest car to run in the UK. Charge it up overnight for daily running costs as low as £1.64. You don't even need to worry that the electricity used is unsound, the company promises to carbon balance the production, shipping and first 16,000 miles of running. Whilst being carbon neutral in your daily transport you can campaign for more green electricity to charge it in its twilight years.

I might even forgive the school run if this is what the mums were turning up in.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Electric car, Transport

Compost

Casa Spinneyhead still throws away a lot of perfectly good composting material, so I'm looking at ways to utilise it.

Hippyshopper recommends wormeries, but I'm working on a budget. Recyclemore.co.uk has cheaper options. The Community Composting Network has resources if I wanted to get my neighbours to muck in. Allegedly the council has a scheme where I can get cheap compost boxes, but the number on the website has been disconnected, so that's not much use. They do run the Kerb it green waste recycling service, but we're obviously not in any of the chosen pilot areas.

To conclude- it's off to B&Q I go!

UpdateJeff pointed me to this easy DIY wormery, and I found the Green Cone, designed to speed up the composting through solar heating and insulation and feed the nutrients direct into your soil.

Technorati tag: Compost

Toward the Carnot limit

The Carnot Limit is the maximum efficiency possible for a heat engine. Until now thermoelectric devices have only had an efficiency of 15% of the Carnot limit. However, research with nanostructured materials will allow a new generation of thermoelectric devices to operate nearer to the limit, opening up a whole range potential uses from silent computer cooling to geothermal power.

Technorati tag: Heat Engine

CCL

The Climate Change Levy (Fuel Use and Recycling Processes) Regulations 2005. I'm going to go back and digest this later.

Technorati tag: Climate Change

Solar Campus

A new building on Napier University's Merchiston Campus is to have solar panels installed on one wall that will power 80 of the building's 500 PCs and sell electricity to the grid on the days the building is empty.The University is also going to be using the array to research the efficiency and effectiveness of the panels.

Technorati tag: Solar Power, Green Building

Waterworld

CLIMSystems of New Zealand have released SimCLIM, a program that will simulate sea level changes at various scales. From the press release-

CLIMsystems Ltd., Hamilton, New Zealand (PRWEB) April 7, 2005 -- A new software package has just been released on the World Wide Web that enables coastal zone managers, coastal zone property owners and any other people or organisations interested in coastal zone issues to create scenarios of future sea-level change at global, regional and local scales. The SimCLIM Sea-Level Scenario Generator software, found at http://www.climsystems.com/site/home/, provides an easy-to-navigate windows platform for creating a wide range of sea-level change scenarios using the latest scientific knowledge. The software is unique as it is the first of its type to provide users with the capacity to create scenarios of future sea-level anywhere in the world that take into account global, regional and local components of change.

I'm going to use it to see what conditions would result in a beach on my doorstep, but it will have serioususes for coastal inhabitants and the people who manage our coastlines.

Technorati tag: Sea Levels, Global Warming

Planting on the ceiling

Recommended by Treehugger- Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls. The book details weight bearing requirements and the various other requirements for a thriving lawn on a roof- which will improve insulation in winter and cooling in summer as well as cutting down on the amount of run off water for drainage systems to deal with.

Technorati tag: Architecture, Grass

Long Road

Worldchanging reprints another piece from The Natural Advantage of Nations. It's about just how much we have to do to create sustainable development in the developing world and "sustainable re-development" in the industrialised world.

Technorati tag: Sustainable Development

Rurbanism

An extract from The Natural Advantage of Nations has been reprinted on Worldchanging today. I'm going to go back and read it later.

Technorati tag: Books

Yes, Minister

The Commons environment, food and rural affairs select committee says that, if the Government's grand proclamations about reducing greenhouse gas emmissions are to be taken seriously, the UK should have a dedicated Minister for Climate Change.

via WorldChanging

Technorati tag: Climate Change, Greenhouse Gasses, Politics

Multi Rotor

WorldChanging on a new, more efficient wind turbine design that uses multiple turbines on a single turbine unit.

Technorati tag: Wind power

Recar

Lots of current cars are built to be recycled, but what about older vehicles? After being crushed the larger chunks of metal can be re-used, but that leaves a sludge of smaller parts that can leach toxins into landfills.

CSIRO Minerals are developing methods to clean this sludge up and get the maximum value from it by using mineral processing techniques. At present it's a low margin operation but any number of factors, from rising material costs to more stringent landfill controls, could make it a money spinner.

Technorati tag: Recycling, Landfill

Home Brew

Off-Grid on making your own Biodiesel. I almost wish I had a car so I could try this stuff out.

The book recommended in the post isn't available through Amazon, but you can get How to make Biodiesel

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

Carbon calculator

Work out how many trees a year you need to plant to become carbon neutral.

via Power Frontiers

Technorati tag: Energy consumption, Carbon Neutral

Eco Blogging

Chandrasutra has a long article on eco blogging, with a lot of resources that I'm going to check out later.

Technorati tag: EcoBlog

Recommended Reading

A few books reviewed or suggested by other green blogs

The Natural Advantage of Nations. Reviewed at World Changing

Save Cash and Save the Planet. Suggested by Hippyshopper.

A Good Life. Also from Hippyshopper.

Technorati tag: Books

Grass

I remember haytime. the bales produced on the local farms generally went to produce winter feed and bedding. An American professor is arguing that grass from marginal farmland could be turned into pellets and used as fuel.

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Bio Fuel

Green State

Washington state now has a law requiring that new municipal buildings incorporate energy saving and "green" technologies. It costs more up front, but the long term savings more than cover it. The law's supporters also promised a better environment for those who work and study there, which is probably true, but a lot harder to argue in any concrete way.

Technorati tag: Sustainable development

The Party Party

The Greens stand even less chance than the Lib-Dems of making it into Government, so their election pledges are things they plan to do anyway.

Green Party Website

Technorati tag: Politics, Election, Green Party