The gusher in the gulf continues to spew, the oily sheen and clumpy globules seeping into every nook and cranny of the marine environment along hundreds of miles of coastline. Not a bad time to consider the extent to which petroleum has seeped into nearly every aspect of daily life. Whether it is a product, food or service odds are it was created, packaged, stored, shipped or sold using numerous convenient innovations derived from petroleum or fueled by it.

Disposable plastic packaging, bags and food service containers are just some of petroleum’s many uses. Making the move away from fossil fuel dependency will require substituting renewable materials for oil-based sources we currently rely on in numerous industries. One company working to achieve this move is Michigan-based Fabri-Kal, which produces high quality food service containers called Greenware® and other consumer packaging made from a biopolymer derived entirely from plants.

(more…)

“It is estimated that harnessing just 2 one-thousandths of the oceans’ untapped energy could provide power equal to current worldwide demand.”
-Annette von Jouanne founder of the Wave Energy program at Oregon State University (OSU)

With 70 percent of the world’s surface covered by ocean a remarkable opportunity exists to produce clean energy. The sea remains the greatest pool of untapped renewable power on the planet. The wave energy off American coasts alone can provide as much electricity as the nation’s hydroelectric plants.

“Full scale of the wave resource is about the same as the hydro resource, which is approximately six percent,” Dr. Ted Brekken told me by phone. He is the co-director of the Wallace Energy Systems and Renewables Facility at Oregon State University, “the highest-power university energy systems lab in the U.S.”

“The resource will be fully developed when there are five to seven wave parks with each of those generating over 100 megawatts,” he said. The amount of electricity from one park could power several hundred thousand homes.

(more…)

By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
(reposted with permission)

Some people live off the grid, eat local food, and have an energy footprint so minuscule that even the canniest hunter couldn’t track them down. But the rest of us buy from supermarkets, get our energy from at least in part from traditional sources like coal, and occasionally forget to turn off the lights when we leave the house. For those of us who are still living with one foot in the old energy world, here are a few helpful hints about what you should buy and what the consequences of shifting to “clean energy” sources like natural gas and nuclear energy are.

(more…)

Vancouver, host to the ongoing winter Olympics, has long been considered one of the world’s most livable cities. And with the Olympics come the eyes of the entire world. Vancouver is now on display and one of the crown jewels of the Olympian host city is the Richmond Olympic Oval.

Completed a little more than a year ago, the facility has won numerous architectural awards, including the Structural Engineers 2009 Award for Sports or Leisure Structure.

Located just outside Vancouver along the Fraser River in Richmond, the $178 million complex features a distinctive wave-shaped roof that is the largest clear span wooden structure in the world. Inside the building 15 soaring wooden arches span the expansive roof, creating a rippling effect that evokes a feeling of “being sheltered by a massive heron’s wing,” a city official recently told Planet Ark.

Innovation in sustainability

The roof for the 7,600-seat facility is constructed with a million board-feet of pine beetle-infested wood that would have otherwise gone to waste. The sweeping curves of the roof harvests rainwater for irrigation and flushing toilets. Incorporated into the skating rink’s refrigeration plant, a heat recovery system heats the rest of the building.

By almost all accounts, the Richmond Olympic Oval is a marriage of aesthetics and functional sustainability worthy of its surroundings. Designed by Canon Design, the structure evokes an emotional response from those lucky enough to see it and use it first-hand. Says Australian skater Sophie Muir:

“It’s just absolutely amazing, like nothing I’ve ever seen. The place is just beautiful in the way they’ve set it up to be quite environmentally friendly, which scores brownie points in my books.”

After the games the Olympic Oval will be used as a multi-sport facility and exercise center. No doubt one of the most distinctive and beautiful sport and exercise centers in the world.