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Buildings “biggest lever” for improving global resource efficiency says UN

The built environment is the fastest-growing consumer of materials in the world – but it also offers the most potential for improvement according to Julia Okatz, advisor on the UN’s landmark Global Resource Outlook.

Making buildings and neighbourhoods more efficient could reduce the global need for raw materials by 25 per cent by 2060, the International Resource Panel (IRP) report found, while slashing energy demand and emissions by 30 per cent.

“Built environment patterns are the single most important determiner of a country’s emissions,” Okatz told Dezeen.

“[Firstly] because of its direct impacts, because of heating and all the climate impacts embodied in materials, but also because of its impact on people’s behaviour,” she continued.

“The built environment isn’t just concrete use, it has all these other implications on energy use, so it is probably the biggest lever overall.”

Graphic from IRP's GRO24 report showing global material extraction, four main material categories, 1970 – 2024, million tonnes — Above: IRP report shows resource use has skyrocketed since 1970. Top image: De Sijs housing in Belgium offers an example of more resource-efficient design

The need for carefully considered buildings that reduce resource use while maintaining or even improving inhabitants’ quality of life presents an exciting opportunity for architects to take more control of the planning process, Okatz argues,

“I think architects would be one of the major benefitting industries in this scenario,” she said.

“We need less mass deployment of inefficient options and much more architectural design. So I think for architects, it’s actually a growth agenda.”

Resource use tripled in the last 50 years

Launched during the sixth session of the UN Environment Assembly this month, the 2024 Global Resource Outlook is the IRP‘s latest review of the world’s resource use since the last edition of the report was published in 2019.

Our “insatiable use of resources” has tripled over the last 50 years, the latest report found, and is now responsible for over 55 per cent of global emissions and 40 per cent of air pollution impacts, making it the “main driver” of the planetary crisis.

While environmental impacts are escalating, the economic and wellbeing benefits brought by our increasing use of the Earth’s resources have stagnated – and in some cases even declined

Left unchecked, material extraction looks set to rise by a further 60 per cent by 2060, compounding these negative impacts.

FoamWork formwork for concrete slabs by ETH Zurich — Clever formwork could be used to make buildings less concrete-intensive. Photo by Patrick Bedarf

Buildings and construction are chief among the four sectors responsible for this increase, according to the Global Resource Outlook. “The built environment globally is the fastest growing material consumer,” said Okatz, who is the “right hand” of IRP co-chair Janez Potočnik and the director of natural resources at consulting firm Systemiq.

But the report also outlines an achievable path by which the industry could reduce its use of raw materials by 25 per cent by 2060, while helping to deliver “global prosperity”.

“You can lift a lot of those people now living in poverty onto a level of really good quality of life in a really efficient way if – and this is the important if – high-income countries also get a lot more efficient,” Okatz said.

Single-family homes “bad urban design”

Concrete makes up the biggest and fastest-growing chunk of the built environment’s material demand.

Sand, gravel, limestone and other “non-metallic minerals” used to make concrete account for half of all materials extracted globally and around half of the industry’s entire climate footprint, according to the Global Resource Outlook.

More efficient structural design – making use of innovations such as vaulted flooring and clever formwork – can reduce concrete use per building by around 30 per cent, Okatz estimates.

And switching to low-carbon concrete or biomass-based alternatives like timber can help to mitigate some of the adverse environmental impacts.

But perhaps the biggest and most undervalued solution highlighted in the report lies in changing what kind of buildings are built – not just how they are constructed, according to Okatz.

“About 50 per cent of residential construction in Europe is single-family homes and, to be honest, that’s just bad urban design,” she said.

“It’s also not particularly future-proof because demand might still be quite high now but the overall trend, largely, is people moving into city centres and wanting to be less car-dependent,” she added.

“So we think a lot of that will basically be a bad investment beyond 20 years from now, even if it wasn’t resource inefficient.”

Architects can lead the charge

Instead, the data suggests we need more “medium-density” residential buildings, which require fewer resources to build and operate while offering a superior quality of life compared to more dense developments.

“In a European context, the average is to say something like six-unit houses are probably best,” Okatz said. “Because it still allows people really good green space access and good noise insulation, all of these things. But it’s quite efficient.”

Following the example of Belgium’s De Sijs project (top image) and Virrey Aviles Street housing in Buenos Aires (below), making these kinds of dwellings more aspirational and attractive presents a key opportunity for architects, according to Okatz.

Aluminium Virrey Aviles Street apartment surrounded by lush greenery by Juan Campanini and Josefina Sposito — Virrey Aviles Street housing balances resource efficiency with green space access. Photo by Javier Agustín Rojas

“Architects and great design should be valued more because everyone can do a boring single-family home but not everyone can do an amazing six-unit community living space,” she said.

“What good architecture can do to slightly denser living – to me that is where I would see architects really leading the way,” Okatz continued.

“To say: if you do it right, this is how amazing life can be in these kinds of set-ups so people don’t even want to live in their own little thing anymore because it’s lonely, inefficient and expensive.”

The top image of the De Sijs housing project in Belgium is by Stijn Bollaert.

Reference

Architecture

mixed-use wooden house showcases traditional japanese and global influences

By Zarkon Group,01/09/2023

Akio Isshiki infuses three distinct functions into wooden house

Akio Isshiki Architects renovates a wooden house near the beach in Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture into the designer’s own residence and workplace, as well as a curry restaurant. Within this modest 73 sqm space, the coexistence of three distinct functions creates a unique environment in which notions of time and space, cultural elements, work, and living settings coexist. The design draws from traditional Japanese architecture and employs local materials and techniques while integrating global inspirations.

A noteworthy feature that pays homage to the region’s history of tile production is the flooring, where tiles coat the dirt ground surface. Handcrafted by Awaji’s skilled artisans, these tiles subtly echo the textures and shapes reminiscent of lava stone streets from Central and South American towns. The integration of partitions that resemble mosquito nets and Sudare blinds set against Shoji screens stand as a nod to ancient Japanese architecture. By intertwining spaces both horizontally and vertically, a gentle separation is achieved through the inclusion of native drooping plants. On the second floor, a wall facing the sea displays a scraped texture tinted with red iron oxide, skillfully completed by a local Awaji plasterer. This attempt incorporates vibrant hues of global architecture within a Japanese context. A large window cuts through the volume providing views of the sky and the sea.

all images by Yosuke Ohtake

the architecture Integrates Original and Contemporary Elements

The harmony of various dimensions introduces a sense of depth into the space. Rather than accentuating contrasts between old and new, Akio Isshiki Architects‘ approach acknowledges historical materials and designs as important parts of the ensemble. The intent is to craft an environment that harmonically fuses both the original elements and newly incorporated features, creating a timeless and contemporary look. Existing structural elements such as pillars and beams blend with new architectural features, while new Shoji screens are layered to allow glimpses through the existing figured glass. A cypress pillar stands atop natural stones giving off a feeling of timelessness. Materials with various time axes are mixed and coexist.

L-shaped windows allow views of the seascape

the kitchen appears overhanging above the atrium

the kitchen area seamlessly flows into the living room

existing Fusuma doors are reused within the interior of the wooden house

Reference

Sustainable News

ICON launches global architecture competition addressing housing crisis

By Zarkon Group,19/08/2023

This exclusive video published by Dezeen reveals the launch of a new global architecture competition to reimagine affordable housing, hosted by construction-scale 3D-printing company ICON.

The competition is called Initiative 99 and invites architects and designers to submit home designs that can be built for under $99,000 (USD).

Initiative 99 has a $1 million total prize purse and is open to all countries. Firms, individuals, and university students are all encouraged to participate.

The company has committed to building a selection of the winning designs in locations to be announced in the future.

ICON 3D-printed home — ICON has launched a global architecture competition reimagining affordable housing

More than 1.2 billion people across the planet lack adequate shelter, according to ICON, which invites designers and architects to leverage robotic construction techniques in tackling this issue with their home designs.

By employing ICON’s 3D-printing technology, submissions can depart from more traditional flat walls in order to create “entirely new types of homes”.

The multi-phase, year-long competition enlists the help of a judging panel of architectural practitioners, academic leaders and policy makers.

Among the panelists are Shajay Bhooshan, associate director at Zaha Hadid Architects.

Entry for the Initiative 99 competition is now open

ICON is headquartered in Austin, Texas, where it is currently building a neighbourhood of 100 3D-printed homes, designed by Danish architecture studio BIG.

In 2022, NASA awarded ICON a $57 million contract to develop roads, launchpads and homes on the moon.

Submissions for the Initiative 99 competition are now open. To read more about Initiative 99, visit its website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for ICON as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

Read more: 3D-printed houses | Bjarke Ingels | Architecture and design competitions | ICON | Promotions

Reference

Sustainable News

Climate Solutions From the Global South: Why the Future of Architecture Is Regional

By Zarkon Group,19/07/2023

This article was written by Carl Elefante. Architecture 2030’s mission is to rapidly transform the built environment from a major emitter of greenhouse gases to a central source of solutions to the climate crisis. For 20 years, the nonprofit has provided leadership and designed actions toward this shift and a healthy future for all.

A year after the UN climate summit relaunch in Glasgow, many participants departed COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh searching for a silver lining. For some, the bright spot was action taken toward climate justice. Although the 2015 Paris Agreement acknowledged that circumstances in developed and developing nations differ, by establishing the Loss and Damage Fund, COP27 reconfigured the international climate action framework.

The nations primarily responsible for carbon pollution are not the most vulnerable to its life-and-death consequences. Global peace and justice demand that polluting nations (largely in the “Global North”) clean up their mess and help protect others (largely in the “Global South”) from the havoc they are causing.

While nations in the Global South earnestly turn to the Global North for financial support, there is hesitation to look to the Global North for climate solutions. Too many fail to account for regional conditions and cultures.

Sana’a’s foundation dates back over 2,500 years; the city in Yemen is filled with tower-houses built of rammed earth (pisé). | Photo by: Antti Salonen, Old Sana’a, CC BY-SA 3.0

In the building sector, the mismatch between accepted Global North solutions and the needs of the Global South is pronounced. For a century, the Global North has exported its energy-consuming glass towers and concrete roadways regardless of climate zone or social structure. Still-favored Global North models are far from problem-free today, and opportunities for appropriate regional adaptation remain largely unexplored, neglecting knowledge that could benefit both the Global North and South.

For those in “advanced” countries, it can be difficult to appreciate that less-modernized cultures have ideas and know-how that are relevant and valuable today. The oldest cities, like Damascus and Cairo, have been inhabited for at least six thousand years. Until about 1800, with the rapid proliferation of fossil-fuel-driven, resource-hungry, technology-infatuated modern-era development, cities thrived without creating a global climate crisis, ecological collapse or systemic resource exhaustion.

Consider the contrast between preferred modern-era and traditional construction materials. Today, concrete is the dominant construction material in developed countries. Concrete production accounts for eight percent (8%) of annual global greenhouse gas emissions — a number greater than the annual national emissions of Canada, Germany, South Korea and Saudi Arabia combined. Concrete does not decompose and cannot be reshaped or recycled — only down-cycled from a high-value material (structural concrete) to a lower-value material (aggregate).

Nicknamed the Manhattan of the Desert,’ Shibam is a vertical city made of sun-dried mud brick tower houses that dates back to the 16th-century (Yemen). | Photo by Dan from Brussels, Europe, Shibam (2286380141), CC BY-SA 2.0

In contrast, about one-third of the world’s population (mostly in the Global South) lives in buildings constructed with air-dried, clay-based materials like adobe and cob. The clay, sand and straw used to make them are locally sourced and decompose after use. Methods are so basic that many clay-based buildings are constructed by the people who occupy them — no global supply chain required. Incorporating wood-supported floor decks allows multi-story structures like those in the Yemeni cities of Sanaa and Shibam. Faced with lime-plaster stuccos, clay-based buildings are weather tight and durable, their heavy thermal mass beneficial in both hot and cold climates.

Some contemporary architects are taking note. Schools designed by 2022 Pritzker Laureate Diébédo Francis Kéré for his home village of Gando, Burkina Faso, are constructed by villagers from clay brick.

Yet, Kéré’s buildings are unmistakably modern. For the first school, Kéré introduced a non-traditional vaulted ceiling. The building is shaded by an overhanging sheet metal canopy on trusses fabricated from bent steel rods. With louvered wall openings, the canopy and vault produce a passive ventilation system: hot air at the canopy draws cooler air through openings in the ceiling vault and louvered windows below.

Gando Primary School Extension uses vaulted ceilings to increase the school’s thermal comfort by allowing hot air to escape upwards through integrated ventilation gap. |GandoIT, Kéré Primary School Extension Gando, CC BY-SA 3.0

To better engage diverse cultural and heritage perspectives in UN climate and sustainable development activities, a coalition of cultural organizations formed the Climate Heritage Network (CHN) in 2019. CHN was launched following the publication of The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Climate Heritage in Climate Action. Prepared by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), The Future of Our Pasts provides a detailed roadmap for integrating cultural and heritage considerations into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Compelling scientific evidence about the risk of climate change was first highlighted by the UN at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Carbon polluters in the Global North have not needed better science to act but greater resolve. Their inability to make sufficient progress for more than three decades has changed the international landscape. The Loss and Damage Fund adopted at COP27 acknowledges the responsibility of developed nations to act decisively and rapidly on behalf of all people.

Culture and heritage advocates such as CHN believe it must also begin a period of profound awakening in the Global North. Ideas that brought progress in the modern era have ossified into biases that are inhibiting the fresh thinking necessary to overcome the climate emergency. For those of us in the building sector, words written by Jane Jacobs ring loud and clear: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” Her wisdom is most urgently needed for global climate solutions.

Carl Elefante, FAIA, FAPT, is a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030 and Principal Emeritus with Quinn Evans Architects. Known for coining the phrase: “The greenest building is one that is already built,” Elefante writes and lectures nationally on historic preservation and sustainable design topics. Carl serves on the International Steering Committee of the Climate Heritage Network. In 2018, Carl served as the 94th President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He is a Fellow of the AIA and the Association for Preservation Technology (APT).

Reference

Architecture

Fight Back with Fungi: How Mushrooms Can Help Solve the Global Housing Crisis

By Zarkon Group,13/03/2023

Healthy Materials Lab is a design research lab at Parsons School of Design with a mission to place health at the center of every design decision. HML is changing the future of the built environment by creating resources for designers, architects, teachers, and students to make healthier places for all people to live. Check out their podcast, Trace Material.

Namibia’s diverse ecosystem is in trouble. The main culprit: Acacia Mellifera, better known as Black Thorn or simply ‘encroacher bush.’ This dense, thorny shrub is incredibly invasive and, over the last few decades, has smothered many parts of Namibia’s increasingly homogeneous ecology. Grassy savannas are being choked by the ever-expanding plant and turned into deserts. Namibia’s government has a plan to fight back. They’ve enacted a program to thin 330 million tons of black thorn over the next 15 years. The bush waste is chipped and turned into wood dust that can be used for fuel pellets and energy sources. As it turns out, it is also the perfect food for fungi.

MycoHab, a collaboration between MIT, Standard Bank and redhouse studio, is leveraging this surplus waste and harnessing the power of fungi to address both food and housing scarcity in Namibia. Here’s the basic MycoHab run-down: The wood dust from the Acacia Mellifera waste is used as a substrate to grow oyster mushrooms. The oyster mushrooms are harvested and sold to local markets, grocery stores and restaurants. Then, the waste left behind from the mushroom harvesting, teeming with the rootlike structure of fungi called mycelium, is pressed and fired into blocks that the team plans to use to construct affordable housing. This may sound far out, but allow us to explain. To understand how we get from mushrooms to housing, it’s helpful to know a bit about the life cycle of fungi.

Fungi 101

First, it’s important to understand that while all mushrooms are fungi, not all fungi are mushrooms. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of fungi. A mushroom is like an apple growing on an apple tree––it’s the fruit, not the tree. In the fungi world the “tree” is called mycelium. Mycelium is the living body of fungi. It’s a rootlike structure that is constantly eating, expanding, and connecting in large filamentous networks underground or in rotting trees. Mycelium is the star of the MycoHab project and the key to a future of fungi-based materials.

Nature’s Glue

MycoHab’s mycelium block molds

On a typical mushroom farm, once the fruiting bodies have been harvested, the mycelium would be left behind or composted. At MycoHab, the fungi’s substrate, chock full of mycelium, becomes the foundation for a new building product. While the mycelial network is growing and eating, waiting to sprout mushrooms, it’s filling up any available space in the woody substrate and binding everything together. We spoke to Christopher Maurer, Principal Architect at redhouse studio and a Founder of MycoHAB about how this works in practice. “The mycelium, which looks like roots basically, bonds with the Acacia Mellifera bush at a cellular level,” Chris says. “They create this cellular matrix of material that can be compacted and turned into a building material. It acts like cement or glue in different building products.”

Seeing other creatives working with mycelium materials, notably the mycelium materials company Ecovative in a packaging context, inspired Chris’ own fungi experimentation. “We always wondered, could this be something that could be structural as well? We thought about processes like the creation of plywood or MDF where small bits of wood are combined together either in veneers, like plywood is, or in pulp, like medium density fiberboard.” Chris and his team set about experimenting with heat and pressure techniques inspired by these composite materials and applied them to the mycelium blocks. The results are relatively strong. Chris says, “We relate our block to a concrete block. It has about the same mass. It has a similar compressive strength. But it also has insulation characteristics and has thermal mass to it.”

Constructing Carbon Stores

MycoHab’s mycelium block storage

The potential of the MycoHab blocks are impressive: they could be be stronger than concrete blocks, they are insulating, and they are made from waste two times over. If that’s not enough, they also sequester carbon. Carbon emissions are a massive concern for the future habitability of our planet, and the built environment is one of our worst offenders. The construction and operation of buildings is responsible for nearly half of global carbon emissions. And the materials we use in our buildings have a huge impact on those emissions. Just three materials: concrete, steel, and aluminum account for 23% of emissions worldwide.

The situation is dire, and according to Chris, the materials we build with are the place to start. “We imagine a future where the building industry could be a net carbon store. Because of population growth, we need to double our building area size by 2060. If we’re using carbon emitting materials, that is going to be a huge problem. If we use materials that store carbon then we can actually start to reverse the impact that the building industry and architecture has on the environment.”

Inflate, Deflate, Repeat

An inflatable arch formwork created by Chris and the MycoHab team

In addition to being made from waste, Chris and his team are developing new, waste-saving building methods to assemble the future myco-block affordable homes. Here’s how it will work: inflatable arch formwork is erected on site and the myco-blocks are stacked on top. Once everything is in place, the arch is deflated and is able to be used over and over again. This saves a ton of construction waste because, traditionally, the forms needed to build arch or dome structures can end up creating about as much building waste as the final product.

Next, a mud-lime render is added to the blocks to protect them from the elements and a roof completed. The homes are designed for disassembly and with end of life in mind. Chis says, “The block itself would be fully biodegradable. We designed the building with protective barriers on top of it, but if you were to strip those away and recycle those materials, then the myco-blocks could be broken down and used as compost to augment the soil. That’s the way we look at the life cycle of our project—from the earth and back to the earth.”

Fungi Futures

Ivan Severus holding a MycoHab mycelium block

As things stand, MycoHab Namibia functions as a vertically integrated operation, with profits from oyster mushroom sales funding block production. Chris says that patience in these early stages of the process is key. “As we’re getting started, we want to maintain control over the process and the building so that we can thoroughly test everything and make sure that the materials we’re making are used properly.”

But, according to Chris, scaling operations are not far off. “I don’t think it can be kept a vertically integrated system for very long. It will need to kind of branch out into these different endeavors and then they could end up on the shelves of hardware stores around the world so that anybody can build with them.”

MycoHab’s Namibia-based Team

Widespread access and affordability of myco-materials will be key to realizing their potential environmental impact in the coming decades both in Namibia and around the globe. Chris and his team have crunched the numbers and calculated that if they use just 1% of the biomass that Namibia plans to thin from the encroacher bush, they could house 25% of the population currently living in shacks and informal settlements over the next 15 years. In that time, they would also be able to harvest 2 million tons of mushrooms and sequester 3-5 million tons of carbon dioxide in the process. That is the promise of fungi.

We hope that fungi-based materials like the MycoHab blocks will become a standard rather than an exciting outlier. This innovative approach, looking at the entire life cycle and systems of making a material, while taking responsibility for its origins through to its disposal, is an excellent example for a healthier future of materials and the built environment. It took decades of research, innovation, marketing and systems-building for petrochemical based materials to take over our planet. That same energy, and patience, is needed now. Thankfully, the tide is turning and a healthier future is possible.

To hear more from Chris and the MycoHab team, take a listen to our podcast Trace Material. Our third season is all about the potential of fungi-based materials and Episode 5 “Harvesting Housing” provides a more in depth look at the MycoHab project.

Reference

Interior Design

Watch the AHEAD Global 2022 hospitality awards ceremony on Dezeen

By Zarkon Group,18/01/2023

Today, AHEAD will announce the winners of the AHEAD Global 2022 hospitality design awards and its headline Ultimate Accolade. Dezeen is collaborating with the brand to show the ceremony here at 1pm London time.

The AHEAD Awards is an annual programme highlighting striking hospitality around the world, split across Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia and the Americas.

For its climactic Global leg, regional winners are pitted against each other to determine the ultimate winner in each category. The winners will be announced over a digital broadcast aired on Dezeen and AHEAD’s website.

This year the programme received over 630 entries spanning 60 countries, which were judged by a panel of leading hoteliers, architects, interior designers and industry experts.

Previous AHEAD winners include the Six Senses hotel by Jonathon Leitersdorf, a luxury resort in Cala Xarraca, Ibiza, which was named the winner of the spa and wellness category at the AHEAD Europe awards 2021.

NoMad London, a former prison transformed into a luxury hotel, was named Hotel of the Year for the AHEAD Europe 2021 award, while the One & Only Mandarina luxury resort in Mexico was awarded the Hotel of the Year for the AHEAD Americas 2021 award.

Partnership content

This ceremony was broadcast by Dezeen for AHEAD as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here. Images courtesy of AHEAD.

Reference

Sustainable News

Global innovation spotlight: Morocco – Springwise

By Zarkon Group,07/11/2022

Reflecting our global Springwise readership, we explore the innovation landscape and freshest thinking from a new country each week. This week we are heading to Morocco…

Morocco Innovation Profile

Global Innovation Index ranking: 67^th

Climate targets: A 45.5 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – 18.3 per cent of this target is unconditional with the remaining 27.2 per cent conditional on international assistance

Sustainability issues

Water scarcity – Morocco is extremely vulnerable to drought and water scarcity. Development strains, increased demand for irrigation, and population growth are causing a decline in renewable water resources. Water-stressed farms, in turn, require greater irrigation, further reducing available water in a vicious circle.

Phosphate production – Morocco plays a crucial role in the global food system. The country possesses over 70 per cent of the world’s phosphate rock deposits from which the phosphorous used in fertiliser is derived. Phosphate extraction and fertiliser production both have a major environmental impact as they are highly energy- and water-intensive.

Coastal erosion – Rising sea levels and climate-change-exacerbated coastal erosion are threatening the livelihoods of many coastal Moroccans working in sectors such as fisheries and tourism. In fact, according to the World Bank, coastal erosion threatens to swamp entire beaches in the MENA region.

Sector specialisms

– Agtech
– Fintech
– Healthtech

Three Exciting Innovations From Morocco

BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE NETWORK OF SUSTAINABLE, CONNECTED FARMS

For farmers in Africa and the Middle East, reliance on an increasingly volatile climate is making it more and more difficult to achieve a stable, predictable income. And, according to The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, aridity in parts of the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region will increase in the next century, shrinking arable lands and disrupting agricultural patterns. This worrying trend inspired the foundation of Jodoor, a Rabat-based startup that designs, builds, and installs hi-tech connected greenhouses for farmers. Read more

Photo source Sergey Pesterev on Unsplash

CULTIVATING DESERT LAND FOR AGRICULTURE

The world loses almost six million hectares of forest each year to deforestation. That’s like losing an area the size of Portugal every two years. And around three-quarters of this deforestation is directly attributable to agriculture. To respond to this problem, From Sand to Green (FSG) has developed a nature-based solution for transforming deserts into farmland. Read more

A PILOT PLAN FOR GREEN AMMONIA PRODUCTION

A century ago, a growing population pushed farmers to grow crops faster than nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil could keep up, and supplies of natural nitrates began to run out. In response, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed a process to react hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen under pressure to make ammonia for use as fertiliser. But in solving one problem, they caused another one – making ammonia in this way takes a lot of energy. Now, a new process for making green ammonia may once again come to the rescue. Read more

Words: Matthew Hempstead

To keep up with the latest innovations, sign up to our free newsletters or email info@springwise.com to get in touch.

Reference

Sustainable News

Global AI-powered weather predictor updates every 15 minutes

By Zarkon Group,03/11/2022

Spotted: Being able to better track weather and predict near-future conditions allows communities to better plan for and respond to the natural disasters that are becoming more severe and frequent, partly as a result of climate change. One solution comes from Zurich-based climate tech data platform Jua. The company uses an artificial intelligence (AI) prediction model to create regularly updated, high-resolution weather forecasts.

Rather than simply tweaking existing methodologies, Jua has built an entirely new weather prediction platform. The new modelling system provides details of one square kilometre at a time and includes weather anywhere in the world. The platform uses tens of millions of sensors to provide high-resolution imagery. By comparison, current systems typically rely on hundreds of thousands of sensors.

More than 15 different parameters are tracked by the platform, including wind speed and direction, precipitation, and air pressure. The company adds new areas of information to the platform every quarter. The power of the AI solution contributes to significantly less computing energy use, despite providing greater volumes of data and levels of detail.

The platform is currently available on request with plans to release it more broadly in early 2023. In October 2022, the company closed a successful round of seed funding that raised €2.5 million to put towards the full platform launch.

As climate change continues to affect more and more communities, access to the highest quality, near-to-real-time data becomes ever more essential. Springwise has spotted projects facilitating this, from a weather data app for farmers to renewable energy predictions that help producers match supply with demand.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Sustainable News

Global Innovation Spotlight: Sweden – Springwise

By Zarkon Group,31/10/2022

Reflecting our global Springwise readership, we explore the innovation landscape and freshest thinking from a new country each week. This week we are heading to Sweden…

Sweden Innovation Profile

Global Innovation Index ranking: 3^rd

Climate targets: Zero net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2045

Sustainability issues

Baltic sea pollution – The Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted bodies of water on earth. And a recent study has found that wastewater discharged from ships’ scrubbers (systems for treating exhaust gases) accounts for a significant proportion of carcinogenic chemical emissions. In response, the country is considering a ban of open loop scrubbers in its waters.

Impact of mining – In February 2022, the UN warned Swedish authorities not to issue a licence for an iron-ore mine in the country’s Gállok region. The organisation argued that the development would lead to large quantities of toxic waste that would impact eco-systems linked to the reindeer migration. The licence, which was ultimately granted, has also been criticised by the World Wildlife Fund.

Forestry practices – Sweden is the world’s third largest exporter of pulp, paper, and sawn wood products. The country is known for its sustainable forestry practices and its forests have actually doubled in size over the past 100 years. Nonetheless, many argue that Sweden’s model of replacing old-growth forests with monocultures is bad for biodiversity.

Sector specialisms

– Fintech

– Gaming

– Music Tech

Source: Startup Universal

A SMART TRADING PLATFORM FOR WASTE EV BATTERIES

According to the IEA, the number of electric cars on the world’s roads by the end of 2021 was about 16.5 million, triple the amount in 2018. While this may seem like great news for the environment, it is not all positive. That is because the current recycling rate for electric vehicle (EV) batteries is extremely low, with some estimates putting it at just five per cent. For electric mobility to represent a truly sustainable solution, this needs to change, and Stockholm-based Cling Systems is one of the organisations working on a solution. The company has developed a platform that connects vehicle manufacturers and buyers of end-of-life batteries to vehicle scrap yards and dismantlers. Read more

BIO-BASED MEMBRANES FOR ENERGY STORAGE

While the transition to renewable energy is picking up pace all the time, there are still several technological challenges facing those looking to build a fully sustainable future. One of these is the need for a more efficient way to store energy. Many renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, are intermittent, and it is vital to find ways to store this energy when it is not needed. Redox flow batteries are among the most efficient energy storage technologies. Now, Swedish startup Cellfion is working to make redox flow batteries even more efficient with a unique, bio-based membrane. Read more

CARBON INVESTMENTS BACKED BY AI AND SATELLITE DATA

A fintech platform Earthbanc helps farmers attract investment in carbon credits for regeneration projects. But one issue with regenerative land programmes is transparency – it is very difficult to verify that a scheme is actually sequestering a specified amount of carbon. Without having this information, it is impossible to effectively use carbon credits to contribute to land regeneration schemes. Earthbanc’s platform solves this problem by using artificial intelligence (AI), trained on satellite remote sensing data collected in collaboration with the European Space Agency, to automatically audit the carbon reduction impact of land regeneration projects and to verify carbon credits. Read more

Words: Matthew Hempstead

To keep up with the latest innovations, sign up to our free newsletters or email info@springwise.com to get in touch.

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Sustainable News

Ubiquitous Energy aims to make solar windows the global standard

By Zarkon Group,16/09/2022

US company Ubiquitous Energy has invented a thin coating that turns windows into transparent solar panels, providing other ways to harvest renewable energy in buildings beyond rooftop panels.

Ubiquitous Energy describes its technology as being the only transparent photovoltaic glass coating that is “visibly indistinguishable” from traditional windows.

Any surface could become a solar panel

The company was founded in 2011 by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Michigan State University (MSU), who engineered a transparent solar panel by allowing the visible spectrum of light to pass through and only absorbing ultraviolet and near-infrared light to convert to electricity.

Standard solar panels look black because they absorb the full spectrum of light, and because of their appearance, their deployment has been typically limited to roofs, walls and large rural solar farms.

With Ubiquitous Energy’s coating, which it calls UE Power, potentially any surface can be turned into a photovoltaic panel.

Gloved hands holding a transparent solar panel — Ubiquitous Energy’s transparent solar windows (above) are installed at Michigan State University (top)

“The mission is to turn all these everyday surfaces around us into essentially renewable energy generators,” Ubiquitous Energy VP of Strategy Veeral Hardev told Dezeen.

“Windows is where we’re focused first, but beyond that, think about vehicles, transportation in general, portable consumer electronics devices, sustainable farming like greenhouses – these are all things that see sunlight to some degree,” he continued.

“Why not improve them so that they can actually generate renewable energy themselves without changing their appearance?”

Hardev said the company’s modelling shows that with broad adoption of the technology to the point that in 30 years the coating is as standard as low-emissivity (or low-E) coatings on windows are now, it could offset 10 per cent of global carbon emissions.

All components are completely transparent

The solar window works in the same way as any other solar panel. It contains cells of a semiconductor material that create an electric charge in response to sunlight.

Wiring hidden in the window frames connects it to the building’s energy management system to direct power to where it’s needed in the building or to store it in a battery.

Close-up of person in a lab holding a vial and spatchula — The coating is made using light-absorbing dyes

The innovation with Ubiquitous Energy is that all of its materials are transparent to the human eye, including the semiconducting compounds, which take the form of light-absorbing dyes.

To achieve its thinness – the coating is about one micrometre thick, or about 80 to 100 times thinner than a human hair – it is made with nanomaterials, similar to those used in display technologies.

The semiconductor layers are deposited onto glass using vacuum physical vapor deposition (PVD) – a standard coating process using in the window industry – and Ubiquitous Energy plans to license its technology to existing glass manufacturers so that they can incorporate it into their product offerings.

Transparent panels only half as efficient

Ubiquitous Energy estimates the windows would provide about 30 per cent of a building’s electricity needs, depending on factors such as geographical location, elevation and tree cover, and imagine them being used in conjunction with rooftop solar panels to reduce the building’s reliance on the electrical grid.

Because some light is allowed to pass through, the transparent solar panel is only about half as powerful as a typical rooftop solar panel of the same size. But Hardev claims their potential scale of deployment compensates for this loss of efficiency.

“A few years ago, we reported the highest-ever performance for a transparent solar device, with near 10 per cent efficiency,” said Hardev. “Although there are options that are 20 per cent efficient today, we’re making this conscious trade-off of being transparent so we can put it in places where you can’t put traditional solar panels.”

Cities would theoretically be able to produce substantial amounts of solar power locally without changing in appearance, reducing the need for land for large solar power plants.

First factory to open in 2024

Applied in other ways, the coating could be used to make mobile phones that don’t need to be recharged, more energy-efficient cars and self-powering greenhouses, Hardev says.

“We’re first starting with windows because we think that is the area that is going to have the biggest overall impact,” said Hardev, citing the statistic that nearly 40 per cent of total global energy-related CO2 emissions come from buildings.

Ubiquitous Energy has completed a number of demonstration projects, including at Michigan State University and at the Boulder Commons apartment community in Colorado.

Ubiquity Energy solar windows installed at Michigan State University — The company is working to expand the coating’s applications beyond windows

The company plans to open its first factories producing floor-to-ceiling solar windows in 2024. It also hopes to grow its partnerships, which have so far included window companies Asahi, Pilkington and Andersen.

Past aesthetic solutions to the issue of intrusive solar panels have come from designer Marjan van Aubel, who created colourful skylights reminiscent of stained glass, and Tesla, which released camouflaged Solar Roof tiles.

Architects have also been creatively integrating the technology into buildings, with designs such as BIG and Heatherwick Studio’s “dragonscale solar skin” on the roof of Google’s Bay View campus in Silicon Valley and Shigeru Ban’s sail-like moving wall of photovoltaics at La Seine Musical near Paris.

All images are courtesy of Ubiquitous Energy.

Illustration is by Berke Yazicioglu

Solar Revolution

This article is part of Dezeen’s Solar Revolution series, which explores the varied and exciting possible uses of solar energy and how humans can fully harness the incredible power of the sun.

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Ubiquitous Energy aims to make solar windows the global standard

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