It’s a bit cliché, but there are few possessions with which I identify more closely than my car. An unscientific poll of the Tricycle parking lot confirms this feeling is fairly widespread. Early on at work I learned never to criticize anything made by Audi within a certain Tryker’s earshot.
In the decade since hybrid (gas/electric) automobiles made their mainstream American debut we’ve learned a lot about what American drivers expect out of our cars and what changes we’re willing to make to be more environmentally friendly. The government pitched in to help people overcome hybrid-reluctance with tax breaks and HOV lane access. Celebrities made green cars cool and manufacturers did their part to ease the transition with better styling and a drive feel closer to conventional vehicles. Still, though sales of hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles have increased every year since 2004, they still only make up two and a-half percent of the U.S. market.
One of the criticisms has been the lack of real choices but in the next year, automakers are poised to launch several new entries in the green-automobile line-up. Toyota’s venerable Prius will get plug-in capability while it debuts an all-electric vehicle at about the same time as Nissan’s Leaf and the long-awaited Chevy Volt arrive at local dealerships.
Driving an electric car on a daily basis will mean some adjustments, some that probably haven’t been considered. A senior editor at Autoweek magazine, Mark Vaughn, set out to spend three months with a 2010 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, a zero-emission, all-electric car. He’s about half-way through his long-term test drive and has had some interesting experiences. Read Mark's musings about what the future electric charging infrastructure might look like and his successful (and unsuccessful) trip planning around the car’s limited driving range.
Chattanooga has a Bloom Box! The Chattanooga area power utility company, EPB, recently installed a 100kW energy server on the top floor of its parking garage. The device, developed by California-based Bloom Energy, already has ties to this area going back to 2006 when a partnership between Bloom Energy, the UTC SimCenter, EPB and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) conducted the first field trial of the technology.
At the time, the 5 kW test device produced enough electricity to heat and cool a large house. Today, the box installed at the EPB will provide power to about 30,000 square feet of the building. The Bloom Box is a large energy cell powered by natural gas but reconfigurable to be powered by other alternative energy sources. According to Bloom Energy founder Dr. K.R. Sridhar, electricity is produced without combustion and with little to no emissions.
Dr. Sridhar spoke at the unveiling and described a future where Bloom Boxes could provide point-of-use energy generation virtually anywhere. He credited insights gained through research conducted by TVA and UTC for helping make the technology commercially available.
City and state leaders were on-hand and expressed hope that Bloom Energy would consider placing a manufacturing center in the Chattanooga area.
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A unique geographic feature will be protected by a product that otherwise would be destined for a landfill. Officials in Walton County, Florida, in an effort to prevent oil from the continuing Deepwater Horizon disaster from reaching their beaches, have turned to a recycled carpet product normally used in construction projects. Called GeoHay, it is a highly absorbent barrier made from 100% recycled carpet fibers. Used on construction sites to control erosion, GeoHay is described by the manufacturer as more efficient than typical hay bales and silt fences that degrade and are single-use products. GeoHay can be cleaned and reused over and over in construction situations.
We’ve all been stunned by recent images from Haiti. Official numbers aren’t yet available but by current estimates the earthquake that struck last week may have instantly ended 100,000 lives with thousands more at dire risk from injury, disease and hunger.
Beyond hoping for the best, many of us have helped in small but meaningful ways, sending water and medical supplies or making direct donations to relief efforts. Chris Csikszentmihalyi, director of the M.I.T. Center for Future Civic Media recognized the need for people to connect with loved ones in Haiti and applauded news organizations for creating sites to assist people in finding each other. But he also explained in an email to the media that “this excellent idea has been undermined by its success: within 24 hours, it became clear that there were too many places where people were putting information; each site became a silo.”
Social media is a powerful tool for connecting people but only if both people are using the same channel. A volunteer initiative by Google engineers answered Csikszentmihalyi’s call. In 36 hours Google’s missing people finder was created and deployed. The Google widget is embeddable in a blog or website and includes database information from CNN, the New York Times and other news organizations as well as the U. S. State Department. The interface is easy to use, simply click on one of two situational links: “I’m looking for someone”, or “I have information about someone”, and it works in three languages: English, French and Creole. Google even provides an interface to make it easier for developers to upload/download information with the database.
Google’s crisis response page also gathers many resources into one place, providing, among other things, a tool enabling direct donations to UNICEF and CARE for Haitian relief as well as links to many other organizations accepting donations of money and supplies, instructions on how to use text messaging to make monetary donations, resource updates, local media websites and updates through the US State Department. In addition Google Earth provides imagery that anecdotally has been valuable in mapping areas where landmarks have been obliterated and for organizing on-the-ground rescue efforts.
Searching and realizing immediate results is commonplace, unremarkable. Using something familiar in an unexpected context, those same tools and processes are now saving lives and reconnecting frightened families.
In part one of our three part series, we sat down with interior designer Sara Webb of Artech Design Group in Chattanooga, TN and chatted about how she uses Tryk Sustainable Samples in her design process.
Check it out and let us know how Tryk helps in your design process!
Tryk Vids | Sarah Webb | Artech Design Group from Tricycle, Inc. on Vimeo.
