Speculation over Ontario's Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program is now causing job loss

• The FIT program was started by the Liberal Ontario government a few years ago, to ween Ontario off coal-fired electricity and enhance the renewable energy sector in Ontario. It covers ALL renewable power (not just solar photovoltaic cells), and pays industries/homes that feed renewable-electricity into the grid over 10 times the standard per-unit cost of electricity.
  
• Now, with Ontario elections coming up in October, the Conservatives (who are leading in the polls) are threatening to gut the FIT program... this threat is causing solar companies to fire over half of their workers, such as the one described in this CBC news article!
• The Conservatives do have a point - Solar may not be as well suited in Ontario as in the Arizona desert, and so may not be as economical in Ontario. Currently, Solar power is expensive and the industry wouldn't survive if not for expensive government subsidies.
  
• But the FIT doesn't just apply to solar, it also applies to wind, geothermal, even tidal energy. And I think weening Ontario off coal-fired electricity is a noble goal, and would show other provinces that it can be done. Solar power can be made cheaper with larger scales of production. Not taking advantage of clean energy when it's there would just be a shameful waste.
  
• What do you think?

FUN FACT: Just last year, our Queen's University took advantage of the FIT offer and made plans to lease out the majority the university's roof space for solar panel installation, which would earn Queen's hundreds of thousands of dollars per year over 20 years (the length of the FIT contract).

Students in Serbia develop first public solar-powered mobile charger

Check out this fascinating BBC article on how a group of Serbian students from the University of Belgrade developed the first public solar-powered mobile charger.

It's truly an innovative concept and this short video demonstrates how it works.

As you can see below, the solar panels are the only source of energy. Since the equipment is public property anyone who needs to charge their phone can do so by connecting it to one of the 16 power chords. 

Image of The Public Tower

The chords used to charge cell phones. Each side has 4 chords for a total of 16.

The tower has had almost 20,000 charges to date and there is enough energy to sustain a month of demand if the sun disappears.

Bright ideas that use bright energy: what a concept! The group of students won the European Energy Award for their work making them the youngest group to win the prestigious award.

By Trevor S. (link contributed by Yan Yu.)

Top 5 Environmental Blogs (Except for ISH of Course)

As passionate bloggers, we at ISH wanted to share our five favourite environmental blogs. These websites inspire us and share some of the world’s biggest and most profound environmental innovations.

1.   Treehugger

Treehugger is without a doubt the most well known environmental website out there. Treehugger’s biggest strength is the diversity and experience of its writers with expertise in: architecture, product design, eco-living, science, technology. The Discovery Channel liked them so much that it recently acquired Treehugger for a whooping $10 million. Click here to follow Treehugger on Twitter.

2.   InHabitat

As hinted in their moto, “green design will save the world”, InHabitat focuses primarily on sharing green innovations in the realm of architecture and design that will push us towards a more sustainable future.  Click here to follow InHabitat on Twitter.

3.  Techcrunch- GreenTech

GreenTech is a section of the Techcrunch publication that highlights the world’s biggest green innovations. If you want a quick highlight of what’s happening in the environmental world make sure you check it out! Techcrunch was recently acquired by AOL. You can follow Lora Kolodny, GreenTech writer, on Twitter here.

        4.  GreenOptions

Green Options is different from the three aforementioned website as it focuses on providing YOU with practical tips to live your life sustainably. The blog is dedicated to increasing environmental literacy and education. You can follow Green Option on Twitter here.

        5.  Enviroboys

Run by two Canadian university students, Enviroboys writes about a wide array green topics including: public policy, transportation, water policy and technology. You can follow Enviroboys on Twitter here.

By Trevor S.

Innovative Thinking: Toronto Zoo turns animal poop into power

As a collective group, we at ISH love reading about organizations that are able to turn challenges into solutions. Organizations that lead the pack in creating sustainable solutions have a quintessential role, as they often change industry norms and increase the expected degree of environmental responsibility. Thus, the efforts of one innovative organization often snowball into industry wide improvements.

The Toronto Zoo is an excellent example of an innovative organization that turned a large (and smelly) problem into tremendous opportunity for cost savings and reduced GHG emissions. 

 

The organization is in the process of developing a 500kWbiogas plant that converts animal waste into electricity, heat and fertilizer. This is equivalent to a reduction in GHG emissions of approximately 10,000 tonnes of C0₂: which corresponds to removing 1,800 cars off the road each year!

The plant will be the first of its kind in all of North America and I am hopeful it will inspire other zoos to follow suit. It’s organizations like the Toronto Zoo that take the lead when it comes to sustainability rather than following the pack.

Which organizations do you think truly value sustainability? 

Which superficial organizations do you think have sustainability policies for the sole purpose of greenwashing the public? 

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

By Trevor S. (link contributed by Yan Yu)

The Difference Between Compostable, Biodegradable, and Degradable Packaging

Greenwashing is ubiquitous in the packaged goods sector. Companies will do whatever they can to appear environmentally friendly with  the ultimate goal of driving sales. Thus, it is our responsibility to be educated so we can identify these tactics, and ensure we are buying products that use lower impact energy sources. One area that is gravely misunderstood by the general public is the various forms of packaging and associated environmental impacts. I have summarized the three types of degradable packaging below:

Classification 1: Compostable Packaging

Compostable packaging has three implications: first, 60 to 90 percent of the packaging will break down within 180 days; second, 90 percent of the packaging will break down into pieces that are less than 2mm; and finally, when the product breaks down in a commercial composting facility, it will not leave toxic heavy metals in the soil. 

Classification 2: Biodegradable Packaging

Many individuals are misled by packaging that is “biodegradable” or “degradable”. Biodegradable simply means the packaging must degrade due to the functioning of living microorganisms. However, biodegradability standards do not address the amount of time the material needs to break down nor whether the material leaves toxic residue. Consequently, when biodegradable waste is buried in landfills with an insufficient supply of bacteria, methane GHG emissions are released. Furthermore, “biodegradable” materials can leave behind toxic residues such as heavy metals.

Classification 3: Degradable Packaging

For a plastic to be considered degradable, it must simply be capable of being broken down through chemical reactions in a manmade environment. These plastics are typically oil based.

This video captures the difference between compostable, biodegradable and degradable succinctly.


By Trevor S.

Experiences with Sustainability in China (May 2011)

Just returned from my trip to China. While I was there, it was interesting to see China's progress in environmental sustainability on so many different areas:

Green lawns/public spaces - signs everywhere reminding people to be more "civilized" (a term used by the Chinese): not littering, not trampling on grass, not smoking too much (China is obsessed with smoking), and protecting the environment in general.
But these signs aren't enforced. So many people (not most) still litter. On Huang Shan, a mountain that's basically a Chinese national icon, I was appalled to see just how many plastic-bottles were littered about the landscape, and some people even still smoked in the non-smoking trails!
Better enforcement of more "civilized" behaviors, and punishment for those who are "uncivilized" (fines, etc) are definitely needed to reduce incidences of littering, smoking in non-smoking places, etc. But since they aren't being done, China obviously doesn't think they are a national priority... or the authorities may have just given up trying.

Solar panels. Specifically, solar thermal hot water heating.
I don't think I saw many solar electricity panels in China - they were mostly small ones located on streetlights. But I did see millions of solar thermal hot-water heaters. They're plastered on the roofs of almost all Chinese apartment buildings. And even my grandparents who live in poorer, rural China has one - it helps heat their shower-water to 100+ degrees, especially during the summer, and all for free! (photo to the left: a solar-thermal panel on a rural-Chinese hut!)
Solar is of course dependent on the availability of sunlight, and for many areas of China this may not be feasible. But in Southern China, where sunlight is abundant (esp since it's in a drought right now), solar thermal does seem like an excellent idea for hot-water heating... but it's costs of production would also have to be evaluated. Complicated!

Drought in Southern China (2011):
Southern China, where both my grandparents live, is in its worst period of drought since 1950. Some 34million people are affected - i.e. almost the entire population of Canada! Crops, aquatic animals, etc are all suffering, and it's contributing to rising food prices (esp rice) across China. The river in front of my grandparents' rural house, once so high that it reached the levees on either side of the river, now flows about 20 meters away from the levees on either side. The tributaries of the Yangtze river that flows through my other grandparents' city are just as low, and even canals are drying up! Not good! Wonder how much of this drought is due to seasonal variation, how much is due to dams upstream, and how much is due to climate change??
(Photo: Drought on the farm-fields surrounding my grandfather's rural chinese town)

Eco-art: turning waste into art.
The 798 Modern Art Gallery in Beijing is truly a work of Eco-art on many levels. The gallery grounds/building is itself located inside a shut-down arms factory, thus reusing the land and the building material. The smokestacks scattered across the grounds serve now as piece of art as well. Within individual art exhibitions themselves, many artists have decided to use recycled materials to create art. One masterpiece involved tens or hundreds of rear-view mirrors arranged in a hemisphere around an old, worn-out school chair. It looks fantastic, and to me it's the perfect piece of art for the nostalgic student! (Photo: artistic statue in front of the many formerly-functional smokestacks in this re-used factory)




Transportation:
One saddening thing that I noted in China is that people are switching from old-fashioned bicycles to motorized bikes and scooters. Not only could this raise emissions caused by transportation and increase the demand for resources/energy needed to make more scooters, etc, this may also reduce public health as exercise levels on a bicycle decline. Could this be a reflection of people getting lazier? Or is this a response to cities getting bigger, forcing people to now commute longer distances to work and thus requiring a motorized vehicle? (Photo: crowded transportation in Zhenjiang, China)

Encouragingly, China is also making advances into mass public transport at a tremendous pace.
Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, and many other big cities now have state of the art metro systems (Beijing's has been expanded and renovated, with 13 different lines!). Xi'an, the former capital of ancient China where the Terracota soldiers are, will be getting it's new metro system in 2012!

China also has a high-speed rail system, with two classes of high-speed rail trains: D and G. D-trains are fast, over 200km/h, but G-trains are even faster, over 300km/h. I took a G-train from Zhenjiang to Nanjing, and the once hour-long trip was reduced to a meager 15 minutes!
China has invested over 4 trillion Yuan into these trains sine 2008, and they certainly are good at increasing rail capacity and reducing travel times - possibly leading to more efficient, productive workers. (Photo: high-speed rail in Shanghai Hongqiao train station, one of the hundreds of new train stations recently built across China just to accommodate high-speed rail)

Some definite advantages of high-speed rail over road and air transport is that, if designed properly, high-speed rail can 1) reduce land usage per passenger, 2) use less energy per passenger per kilometer, 3) accommodate more passengers than can airplanes or busses over defined travel corridors between cities.

Sadly, Beijing has cancelled it's production of huge Straddling Busses due to safety reasons :(


Population:
It's impossible to go to China and NOT talk about the effects of population on the Chinese and world environment, and the ability of China to sustain its rate of growth and energy use into the future. But there's also massive social issues that the government has to manange: 30 million bachelors are expected by 2030 (according to the Chinese govn't), and people have began stealing male babies to sell to parents who want them, and girls from rural china to bachelors! The population is on its way to declining though thanks to the 1-child policy: the UN projects an increase from 1.3 billion (now) to 1.5 billion people in China by 2025, but then declining to 1.4 billion by 2050. Good for survival with limited resources, but social problems? We'll see! (photo: travelers in Shanghai's Hongqiao train station! and this is not so crowded!)

Important Information on Biofuels

When most people hear the words "biofuel" they generally think of an eco-friendly and renewable fuel source. As a result of the significant increase in demand, biofuels are severely threatening the stability of crops. Here are some additional pieces of information you should know about biofuels.

• In the States, currently a huge percentage of their corn grown goes to biofuel, which, as I'm sure you know has driven up the price of corn and corn products.

• What is interesting, which this article mentioned, is using cellulosic ethanol (aka making trees into fuel).

• This technology is relatively new and there are two potential ways of processing the trees both of which are mostly still in the research and development stages and are not currently contributing hugely to biofuel production. 

• Cellulosic ethanol is a better option than starch-based ethanol because it does not compete with the agriculture sector for land and other resources.

• There is just a lot of money needed to expand and develop these technologies, and the government is hesitant to supply this money, as fossil fuels are still "relatively cheap".

• I think there is great potential here and with "plantations" of C4 plants such as switchgrass and miscanthus, which have high energy potentials and can be grown on marginal land (thus not competing with the best crop land). 

• ·Further research should be emphasized to expand these sectors, with less of a reliance on other biofuel crops that inhibit food production... more food should be grown in urban environments anyway! (Perfect world!)

Do you think the benefits of biofuels outweigh the cons? Check out this article by the BBC on the unethical nature of biofuels.

(From Marlaina M)