Sustainability A way of life!

Sustainable World -- Sustainability at Harvard University Supporting and Empowering the Community Having Strong Leadership and Goals Innovating Through Collaboration Fostering Change With Tools and Resources Taking Time to Reward and Recognize

Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA) is an innovative method to grow algae, clean waste water, capture carbon dioxide and to ultimately produce biofuel without competing with agriculture for water, fertilizer or land. NASA's OMEGA system consists of large flexible plastic tubes, called photobioreactors. Floating in seawater, the photobioreactors contain freshwater algae growing in waste water. These algae are among the fastest growing plants on Earth.  The algae use energy from the sun, carbon dioxide and nutrients from the waste water to produce biomass that can be converted into biofuels as well as other useful products such as fertilizer and animal food. The algae clean the waste water by removing nutrients that otherwise would contribute to marine deadzone formation. NASA's project goals are to investigate the technical feasibility of a unique floating algae cultivation system and prepare the way for commercial application. R...

Continuing on my previous posts on biofuels, It is great to see that  European Commission announced policy on 17th sepetember to support second generation biofuels such as those based on algae, garbage and agricultural waste after citing concerns of increasing food prices and deforestation   Clean energy sectors face a murky future with solar and wind industries embroiled in recent trade disputes and the European Union moving to restrict crop-based biofuels in its transport fuel mix. But despite these challenges, chairman of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore Edwin Khew says the outlook for renewable energy industries remains positive. Speaking to Eco-Business in a recent interview, Mr Khew said: “If you look deeper, they are all positive happenings for the market and for technology.”   For example, stiff competition and a glut in the solar parts market – which US and Europe solar manufacturers say is due to Chinese f...

Follow on from my previous blog on Is Biofuels our future - This story provides some in-depth in to Algae based biofuel production.... Scientists have, for the first time, identified a number of WA sites capable of producing large quantities of commercial biofuel from microalgae. They say the best sites for big-scale algal biofuel plants include stretches of land south of Geraldton, south-east of Exmouth and large areas near Karratha and Port Hedland. Professor Michael Borowitzka from  Murdoch University ’s  Algae Research and Development Centre  and Assistant Professor Bryan Boruff from the  School of Earth and Environment  at  The University of Western Australia  used geographical information systems (GIS) technology to study more than 2250 km of WA coastline from Lancelin to Broome and 170 km inland. Their report, ‘Identification of the Optimum Sites for Industrial-scale Microalgae Biofuel Production in WA using a GIS Model’, was prepared...

                                                                                                           source: NSW office of biofuels Today there has been much hype on the topic of biofuels. For some it’s an opportunity for new business, creating new innovation or more income through increased agricultural activity. Many governments recognise biofuel as “sustainable energy source” versus some as a way to move away from                                                 dependency on oil reach countries. Fossil fuel creates so much of carbon dioxide and pollutes our air and affects human’s livelihood....

Sustainable development has become well recognised concept since the publications of “Limits to Growth” and “Our Common Future”. The link between environment and development was institutionalised and the term “Sustainable Development” was popularised and brought firmly onto the international agenda in 1987 in the report Our Common Future. (Cox, 2008, 237). Publication of the report “ Our Common Future” initiated and supported to lay foundation for Sustainable Development and Environmental Economics. The report highlighted serious “environmental concerns” mainly related to developing countries and the global environment. (Resources for the Future, 2011, pg, 1) Limits to Growth report focused on ecological limits and economic growth. The Limits to Growth developed a neo-Malthusian model which assumed that growth in “population and industrial capital” would lead to increase in demand for basic food items and scarce resources which were assumed to be absolutely finite. Limits to Gr...

Introduction: The consequence of global warming will be felt across social, environmental and economic part of human life; for example social impact through increasing floods, droughts and environmental impact through melting ice, increase in temperature and economic impacts through market uncertainty, loss of business and agricultural activities. Global warming is a direct result of unnatural anthropogenic activities that has been proved by science and will have an impact on the world economies in many ways such as; fresh water resources, agricultural activities, sea-level rise, health of ecosystem, human health, quality of life and overall cost impacts to the economy. Globalisation has contributed in many ways towards climate change through increased quick turnover of human and natural capital in various activities and trade. Climate change is evident as explored in this essay and has already taken place in many parts of the world. Any impact  to fresh water resources,...

Climate Change and increasing level of greenhouse gases are interconnected and most concerning issues of the time. From food growing to consumption there is so much waste thrown out to go to landfill. In landfill, food waste generates methane – a greenhouse gas 22 times more harmful than CO2 (Baker, Fear and Denniss 2009). As per Australian Institute “Household Food waste is accounted for greater than $5 billion worth of food that Australians throws out each year” .(Baker, Fear and Denniss 2009). Food scrap and left over is considered as waste and discarded in many restaurants, hotels, hospitals, major food chains and individual household. Wholesaler then distributes the food to retailers in trucks which produces CO2. Individual Households throw away not required food and the food packaging is then collected by local council who employs people to collect garbage in heavy garbage collection trucks which requires petrol and produces CO2. Every single process from growing food to consum...

“Be considerate to yourself, your family, your workplace, people around you and the   nature   on which we all depend” All of these segments are interconnected and are depended on each other. In our daily lives we don’t realize that how much “waste” that we produce from our   natural actions. There are many ways to support our Business to become sustainable and environmentally friendly. By helping our business; we actually help ourselves and the society in which we live. Things you can do at work! ·          Print 2 sided – facilities are available in all of our printers ·          Do not print if NOT required ·       Well before the meeting send out Agenda and other information on email for all to  review  and feedback ·          Use projector where possible to avoid printing large d...

In 1972, a book called “The Limits to Growth” was published by using systems dynamic theory and computer model “World3”. The book presented with various scenarios on environmental outcome for the world from 1990 to 2100 detailing how humans have exploited world’s scarce resources and produced waste and pollution faster than the capacity of the earth to absorb them. Soon after the Limits to Growth, in 1987, Brundtland report “Our Common Future” stated “ Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, 1987) and also highlighted two most important concept of needs of the poor and the ability of environment to meet our needs of today and tomorrow. Three core pilars of Sustainable development is environmental, economic and social well-being of present and future generations.   Ecological sustainab...