May 12, 2008

Amsterdam first in energy saving street lighting

Filed under: Dutch first,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 3:21 pm
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The Amsterdam council and Dutch electronics giant Philips will start a test exercise this summer, using a range of Philips LED street lighting called ‘UrbanLine’. The innovation is aimed at stimulating the more economic use of energy. Amsterdam is therefore the first big city in the world to install the new LED street lighting. The council will determine whether it will proceed further with the technology on the basis of the results of the exercise, with specific reference to the issues of sustainability, energy savings and lighting requirements. The LED street lamps along the bicycle path by the Amsterdam city hall/music theatre will be switched on for the first time on 21 July.

Replacing the existing compact fluorescent lamp (PLL-) by the Amsterdam city hall with the Philips UrbanLine LED innovation could lead to energy savings of as much as 51%. The Amsterdam city council’s environmental policy commits the city to the highest energy consumption reductions possible, and if the exercise proves successful, it intends to extend the use of the economical street lighting.

Working on its own account and with partners, the Amsterdam council intends to develop innovations for economical energy consumption in the city in a wide range of areas. For example, Councillor Herrema and a number of Amsterdam companies signed a declaration of intent on 1 April 2008 regarding an approach to sustainable mobility within the city, and established a platform for sustainable mobility. The aim is to support and develop projects that stimulate sustainable mobility.

(Link: iamsterdam.com)

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April 6, 2008

No need to refresh car’s oil says former oil mogul

Filed under: Automobiles,Sustainability by Branko Collin @ 2:02 pm

“Refreshing your car’s oil regularly is nonsense, a myth that’s been spread by the oil and car industries for years now,” says Henk de Groot. And he should know, as he is a former CEO of Castrol Nederland. Apparently all you need to do is regularly top up the oil in your car, and check it with a special dipstick that won’t just tell you the level, but also the quality of the oil, and you should be good for hundreds of thousands of miles. Luckily for all of us, Henk de Groot just happens to have invented this magical dipstick.

De Telegraaf (Dutch) helpfully calculates that the costs of excessively refreshing your motor oil are 600 million euro per year to Dutch drivers alone, not to mention the environmental costs. “I am doing this for my grandchildren,” De Groot explains.

“But the industry’s tentacles reach far. That is why they silenced me, the interests are too big.” Nary a word about the faked moonlandings though.

I welcome links to this magic dipstick in the comments.

Via De Telegravin (Dutch). Photo by Dvortygirl, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license version 3.0.

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February 19, 2008

Hay good looking, watcha got cooking?

Filed under: Design,Food & Drink,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 10:17 am
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This week, patrons of the restaurant De Witte Tafel in Eindhoven will be served their meals on a hay box cooker. The restaurant wants to show people how to save energy and so they pulled out the old-fashion hay box cooker.

In this box, covered in hay, food can be simmered and kept warm, saving on gas use. According to Mounir Toub, one of the chefs, the box of hay is great for cooking.

Being very curious orange at 24 oranges, here’s what I learned about the hay box cooker:

Haybox or retained heat cooking is simply cooking a liquid based food like a soup or stew in its own heat. During WWII, cooking oil was rationed for the war effort, and so this method became popular as a way to conserve cooking fuel. They used hay in a box because the air spaces in the hay trapped in heat and allowed the soup or stew to cook in its own heat. Hay, shredded news paper, rice hulls, cotton balls, corn husks, etc., will work as long as it is packed loosely and creats air spaces.

And then of course, there probably is a risk of fire, but the green point is definitely well-made.

(Link and photo: omroepbrabant.nl)

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January 23, 2008

Tony’s Chocolonely punished after all

Filed under: Food & Drink,Sustainability by Branko Collin @ 12:29 pm

Last year journalist Teun van de Keuken failed to get convicted for complicity in slavery, as we reported back then. But now Van de Keuken’s campaign has led to at least one indictment, although probably not of the kind he was looking for: the Dutch Media Authority (Commissariaat voor de Media) has fined his broadcaster for illegal product placement.

Van de Keuken set out to raise awareness for the fact that the people harvesting cocoa, the raw material of which chocolate is made, are basically slaves. He did this by turning himself in after eating a bar of chocolate, making him complicit of slavery. The case was dismissed because the court held he was not an aggrieved party. Van de Keuken also produced his own brand of slave-free chocolate, Tony’s Chocolonely, which he talked about on his show.

Product placement is illegal on Dutch television, and the Dutch Media Authority is the watchdog that tries to ferret out any instances of it. It does not matter whether the placed products are for a good cause, but the fact that petty issues trump major ones must be bitter for those who want to see new forms of slavery banned. The DMA had some pity though, and in recognition of “this unique and experimental program” reduced the fine to EUR 20,000, the lowest in its ‘range’.

(Via print magazine De Journalist. See also Molblog (Dutch))

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January 16, 2008

Schiphol airport final destination for ‘green’ airplane

Filed under: Aviation,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 11:13 am
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British airline Virgin Atlantic has recently started testing biofuel on a 747 flight to Amsterdam. The flight from Heathrow to Schiphol is part of an initiative to apply profitable, alternative biofuel in commercial aviation. The flights are done in collaboration with Boeing and motor manufacturer GE Aviation.

Virgin Atlantic claims that it is the first time a commercial aircraft flies on algae-based biofuel, a fuel that does not pose a threat to the food market or fresh water reserves. The goal of the test is to reduce the CO2 emissions level of the aviation sector. The plane flew without passengers.

The reason I am on about this is because while on the motorway last Sunday, a Virgin Atlantic 747 flew overhead, which it apparently never does. Now I know why it did.

(Link: luchtvaartnieuws.nl)

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December 14, 2007

Meat better for the environment than T-shirts

Filed under: Animals,Food & Drink,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 9:06 am
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According to the University of Twente, you’re nicer to the environment if you eat meat than wear cotton T-shirts. A cotton T-shirt takes 2,700 liters of water, while some 100 g of meat takes 1,550 liters of water and a cup of coffee 140 liters. The Wereld Natuur Fonds (World Wide Fund for Nature) plans to use the calculations in awareness-raising campaigns. “Per capita, the Netherlands uses a whole lot of very thirsty crops,” says the WNF. A Dutch person uses 100 litres of water from the tap, which is just a fraction of the 3,300 litres of water used daily in the consumption of many imported foods.

Last Monday, party leader Marianne Thieme of the Partij voor de Dieren (Dutch Party for the Animals) presented the climate film ‘Meat the Truth’, where the message was that eating meat is bad for the environment. Not so, if we believe scientists instead of politicians.

Drinking coffee is bad too because you waste water in someone else’s country (the study calls this ‘invisible water use’) and that goes for cotton T-shirts as well.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)

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October 28, 2007

Dutch solar car wins fourth title

Filed under: Automobiles,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 10:39 pm
Nuon solar challenge 4

The Dutch solar car Nuna4 won the 20th World Solar Challenge, a 3,000 km race through the Australian outback. The Nuna4 took 33 h 17 min for the race and was the fourth win for the Dutch team Nuon Solar, which holds the race record at 29 hours and 11 minutes. The sun-powered cars from around the world raced from Darwin on Australia’s tropical north coast to Adelaide on the country’s southern coast. Travelling only during daylight, sometimes in scorching temperatures, Nuna4’s average speed was 90.7 km/h.

Read up on the team as we reported some time back.

(Link stuff.co.nz)

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June 27, 2007

The Nuna 4 unveiled today

Filed under: Automobiles,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 10:12 am
Nuon solar challenge 4

Today in Delft, South Holland (and hopefully with some sun) the unveiling of the Nuna 4 solar-powered car (see the car here) will take place, an event open to all.

The team designed a whole new solar-powered car in order to meet new rules of the World Solar Challenge: less solar cells on the car, the driver needed to be sitting up straight and security measures were tightened. In short, this new car is the first step towards an actual solar-powered car that is more like an ordinary car.

Oh, and the Delft University of Technology is looking for its fourth win in a row.

The Nuna 4 was designed and built by 11 enthousiastic students from the Delft University of Technology, who will be leaving for Australia this summer for the World Solar Challenge, the world championship of solar-powered cars, held from 21 to 28 October.

The unveiling will take place at 16:25 at the field in front of the Delft University of Technology on the Mekelweg for anyone in the neighbourhood.

(Link: TU Delft)

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June 2, 2007

Harvested meat for mortals and astronauts

Filed under: Food & Drink,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 5:13 pm
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Dutch researchers in the city of Utrecht are trying to grow pork meat in a laboratory with the goal of feeding millions without the need to raise and slaughter animals. According to Bernard Roelen, veterinary science professor at Utrecht University, the goal is make meat without killing animals. Although it is in its early stages, the idea is to replace harvesting meat from livestock with a process that eliminates the need for animal feed, transport, land use and the methane expelled by animals, which all hurt the environment, he said.

Research is also under way in the US, including one experiment funded by Nasa to see whether meat can be grown for astronauts.

(Link: Times of India, via Netherlands Post)

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May 3, 2007

Dutch scientist receives prize for wastewater system

Filed under: Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 10:33 am
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Dutch scientist Gatze Lettinga has been awarded the Tyler Environmental Prize for a wastewater treatment system that is making an impact in the developing world. The process offers inexpensive treatment of industrial waste and sewage in countries that cannot afford centralised systems. The system was developed for agricultural industries in the Netherlands and is currently used in industrial installations around the world. Lettinga refuses to patent the system in order for it to be freely available throughout the developing world. He wants sustainable systems like this to become the norm.

(Link)

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