Tag Archives: sustainability

News

Sustainability : How Edible Food Packaging Could Reduce Plastic Waste

With eco-friendly packaging being considered as part of the green product decision-making process of today’s customers, here we look at food packaging that could save on plastic waste because it is edible!

Edible Food Packaging 

The concept of edible food packaging is not new and has been around for centuries in the form of natural materials like leaves, fruits, and vegetables used to wrap food. However, the first commercial edible packaging was developed in the early 21st century.

In 2010, a company called WikiCell Designs, Inc. developed the first edible food packaging made from natural ingredients like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. The packaging consisted of a thin edible membrane that could be filled with liquids or semi-solids like ice cream, yogurt, or beverages.

Since then, other companies have also developed edible food packaging, such as Skipping Rocks Lab’s “Ooho” which is made from seaweed extract and can hold water or other liquids, and Loliware’s “HyperChiller” which is a coffee cup made from a seaweed-based material that can be eaten after use.

What Are The Benefits Of Edible Food Packaging?

Some of the main benefits of producing edible food packaging include:

– Reducing plastic waste. Edible food packaging has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste generated by traditional packaging materials. This is because edible packaging can be consumed after use, eliminating the need for disposal.

– Sustainability. Edible packaging made from natural ingredients can be more sustainable than traditional packaging materials, which are often made from non-renewable resources.

– Convenience. Edible packaging can be a convenient option for on-the-go consumption, eliminating the need for additional utensils or packaging.

– Novelty. Edible packaging can be a unique and interesting way to package food, which can be a selling point for certain products.

– Health benefits. Some types of edible packaging can even provide additional health benefits, such as fibre or vitamins from the natural ingredients used to make the packaging.

Examples Of Edible Food Packaging Available Now 

Some prominent examples of edible food packaging manufacturers include:

Notpla 

Notpla (a play on the term ‘Not Plastic’) says its “on a mission is to make packaging disappear and are focused on providing sustainable alternatives to single-use packaging through the use of seaweed and plants.” Its edible, seaweed-based food packaging is described as being “neither plastic nor bioplastic. “ Notpla’s products include:

– Ooho: created for drinks and designed to be 100 per cent edible.

– Notpla Film: designed to replace conventional fossil-derived, and bioplastic based, flexibles, and will breakdown naturally without releasing any microplastics.

– Notpla Paper: made from the fibres and biomass of seaweed, this paper enables a new circular way for Notpla to use entire seaweed and creates an eceo-friendly, edible alternative to normal paper.

Evoware 

Also mostly seaweed based, Evoware’s products include biodegradable, home compostable, and planet friendly packaging products like bags and mailers, sachets and wrappings, straws and cups, food containers and cutlery. Evoware also makes packaging products from rice, cassava, sugar cane, bamboo, birchwood, and the leaves of Areca palm trees. Edible packaging products from Evoware include ‘Ello Jello cups’ made in different colours and with different flavours such as peppermint, orange, lychee, and green tea. Also, Evoware make edible food wraps and edible sachets which are odourless, tasteless, and biodegradable.

Traceless 

Traceless says it envisions “a world where the materials we use impact positively on the planet, rather than leading to pollution and waste.” In line with this vision, it makes naturally compostable and edible packaging out of biopolymers which have been extracted from plant residues and by-products of agricultural food production. An example of the German company’s edible packaging include edible ‘plastic’ films and coatings made entirely from plant residue, which are also completely compostable so if they end up in the environment or oceans, they break down completely into CO2 and H2O, leaving no residues, or can be eaten by animals with no ill-effects.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

The huge environmental problem of plastic waste pollution and microplastics in the seas and water supplies, and mountains of other non-biodegradable or compostable and toxic food packaging waste pose a huge challenge. Creating edible and sustainable packaging alternatives, as the above-named companies (and others) are doing, is an innovative way of reducing the environmental burden of food packaging and its manufacture, and of creating more of a circular and sustainable packaging production model. Edible packaging manufacture may also present exciting new opportunities for many businesses and start-ups. While still in the early stages of development, edible food packaging, therefore, has the potential to reduce plastic waste and provide a sustainable alternative to traditional packaging materials, but there may be challenges to overcome in terms of scalability, cost-effectiveness, and food safety. Additionally, not all types of food can be packaged using edible packaging, as some foods may require more durable or moisture-resistant packaging materials.

News

Sustainability-in-Tech : Search Engine Sustainability Shock

With the integration large language models (LLMs) into search engines, some are predicting that the massive increase in computing power needed could mean huge carbon emissions.

What Are Large Language Models? 

Large language Models (LLMs) are types of artificial intelligence (AI) models that are trained on vast amounts of text data to understand natural language. These models are typically based on deep learning architectures such as neural networks, and are capable of generating human-like language and carrying out a variety of natural language processing tasks. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbots are examples of LLMs.

Integrating LLMs Into Search Engines 

Following the massive success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT (OpenAI has close working links with Microsoft), both Google, Microsoft, and now Chinese search company Baidu have all announced plans to upgrade their search engines by integrating generative AI tools which use LLMs to enable their search engines to understand and respond to complex questions. This is intended to give search engine users a better search engine experience and enable the search engines to compete with eachother in this new area.

For example:

– Microsoft has announced that it is to introduce a “new, AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser” (in preview Bing.com), using OpenAI’s LLM, to “deliver better search, more complete answers, a new chat experience and the ability to generate content.”  

– Google has announced that it is testing and will soon be introducing its own conversational AI chatbot, powered by LaMDA, Google’s own AI, and that it will be integrated into the Google search engine.

Environmental Implications 

In addition to worries about inaccuracies in the answers given by chatbots e.g., Bard’s recent costly wrong answer given in an advert for the chatbot, one major concern that many have overlooked is how much carbon emissions could be increased through the wider use of LLMs.

How And Why? 

As highlighted in quotes from University of Surrey Professor Alan Woodword (in Wired), “There are already huge resources involved in indexing and searching internet content, but the incorporation of AI requires a different kind of firepower.” Professor Woodword is referring to his view that the wider use of LLMs could be a step change in online processing that could massively increase the power and cooling resources needed by large processing centres which could, of course, have a much bigger environmental impact i.e., more carbon generation. There may also be increased challenges in how data centres will deal with the extra heat produced.

How Much? 

An idea of how big environmental problem this could be may come from a third-party study published on a Cornell University arXiv archive which states that “larger models translate to greater computing demands and, by extension, greater energy demands.” The research paper highlights how training GPT-3, autoregressive language model that ChatGPT is partly based on, consumed 1,287 MWh and that this led to emissions of more than 550 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. To put the figure in perspective, this is the same amount of CO2 that would be produced by a single person taking 550 roundtrips between New York and San Francisco. Adding to this the fact that more LLMs are being introduced, and integrating chatbots into search engines such as Bing and Google which have tens of millions of users per day has some tech commentators, such as Martin Bouchard of Canadian data centre company QScale to estimate that this will mean “at least four or five times more computing per search.” In order to process this demand, more hardware and more data centres will be needed, which is an unwelcome prospect considering that data centres already account for one per cent (IEA) of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. This may also make it very challenging for big tech companies to meet their green targets e.g., Microsoft aiming to be carbon negative by 2050.

AI Can Also Help Reduce The Impact Of Itself 

That said, there are several ways that AI could be used to help offset the extra energy and carbon impacts that the increased use of Large Language Models (LLMs) produce. For example:

– Helping to develop more energy-efficient training methods. AI researchers can use machine learning algorithms to optimize the training process and reduce the number of computations required to train a model, which can significantly reduce the energy consumption.

– Cloud providers can use AI to optimise their data centres and reduce their energy consumption. For example, machine learning algorithms can be used to predict the demand for cloud resources and allocate them more efficiently, reducing the number of idle servers and minimising energy waste.

– Researchers are also exploring the use of green computing technologies to reduce the energy consumption of LLMs. AI algorithms can be used to optimise the scheduling of computing tasks and reduce the number of idle processors, which can significantly reduce the energy consumption.

– Sustainable computing practices can be adopted to ensure that LLMs are developed and used in an environmentally responsible way. This includes using renewable energy sources, reducing waste, and recycling materials whenever possible.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

So much has been reported about the amazing capabilities of LLMs and the new generation of chatbots led by the arrival of ChatGPT, and of how search engines could be seriously upgraded by incorporating them, that the possible environmental impacts appear to have been overlooked and under-reported until now. Data centres are already struggling to cope with demand and the need to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and incorporating chatbots (which already have large energy requirements) into search engines which process hundreds of millions of searches per day looks likely to have a huge negative environmental impact i.e., higher energy requirements, greater carbon emissions, and the need for even more data centres. Now may be the time for tech and computer giants to get together and focus on finding new and innovative ways to minimise the environmental impact of these new technologies e.g., perhaps using more environmentally friendly AI-based solutions. Also sourcing more green and sustainable energy and being transparent and ethical in the use of data could help, but in the short term, it looks as though the rise of these new super-powerful chatbots is likely to create more environmental challenges than solutions.

News

Sustainability-in-Tech : Nuclear-Powered Data Centre

Cumulus Data has announced the completion of key milestone in the construction of Phase 1 of its 475-megawatt zero-carbon “Susquehanna” data centre that’s directly connected to 2.5-gigawatt nuclear power stations.

First Phase –Shell Ready For Lease 

The company, a subsidiary of Talen Energy, says that the construction of the powered shell for its first 48-megawatt, 300,000 square foot data centre is now complete and available for lease.

The Advantages Of Being Connected To Nuclear Power Stations 

Cumulus Data says that having a data centre that’s directly connected to the “Susquehanna” nuclear power stations, without intermediation by legacy electric transmission and distribution utilities, will provide the customer that leases the data centre with “significant value and competitive advantages”.  For example:

– Data centres typically require enormous amounts of energy. Being directly connected to the source (a nuclear power station) can ensure an ultra-reliable, zero-carbon, 24×7 supply.

– Industry-leading total cost of ownership (“TCO”) with the most attractive power rate in the U.S. – a low-cost supply of energy.

– Scalability, flexibility, and time-to-market advantages with build-to-suit options, due to the design of the Cumulus campus.

– Zero-carbon environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) customer benefits.

– As Cumulus CEO Alejandro “Alex” Hernandez states on the company website, having data centres directly connected to nuclear power stations could be a way to “solve the energy ‘trilemma’ which we define as the rapidly increasing consumer demand for zero-carbon, low-cost, and reliable electricity”.

– The ability to supplement the zero-carbon offering with 400 megawatts of new solar generation capacity (currently under development).

When? 

Cumulus Data says that it expects to welcome its first tenant and commence commercial operations at the nuclear-powered data centre this year.

Other Benefits 

In addition to meeting the need for zero-carbon, low-cost, reliable energy to power technology applications, it is anticipated that the “Susquehanna” data centre campus investment could deliver many other benefits. For example, these could include the creation of family-sustaining jobs, the provision of technology training, and economic benefits including tax revenue and increased consumption of local goods and services to both Pennsylvania and the surrounding community.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Data centres have long been a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, due to the large amount of energy they consume for cooling, power, and network operations. There is clearly a need, therefore, to find ways to decrease the amount of carbon that data centre operation produces. For many people, however, nuclear energy comes with concerns about safety and what to do with the highly toxic waste. That said, nuclear energy is a low-carbon source of electricity, benefitting from high energy density and low greenhouse gas emissions in the production of energy. This means that it could, as Cumulus Data believes, play a role in reducing data centre carbon emissions and help to combat climate change. In this sense, having a data centre powered by a direct link to a nuclear power station could be a real step forward in the decarbonisation of data centres. There are, of course, other methods currently being tried e.g., using immersion cooling technology, and using more generally more efficient cooling systems, server virtualisation, and dynamic power management, but these are more related to reducing the amount of carbon in operation and cooling rather than in the supply of energy to the data centre. Cumulus Data’s nuclear powered data centre also appears to be able to offer some significant cost savings to tenants and other benefits to the area in addition to the low-carbon energy on-tap, and the reliable power source which may make it a very economically attractive option.

News

Sustainability-in-Tech : Report Questions Benefits Of Electric Cars

A report which shows huge sales of EVs in the US only resulted in only a 0.54 per cent fall in gasoline consumption in 2021 has led to disappointment and questions about the beneficial Impact of EVs so far.

EV Sales 

A recent Argonne National Lab report shows that a massive 2.1 million plug-in vehicles, including 1.3 million battery EVs were sold in the US between 2010 and 2021.

Despite these impressive numbers, however, plug-in vehicles still only make up almost 1 per cent of all light vehicles on the road in the US.

That said, the low 0.54 per cent US gasoline consumption reduction figure has proven disappointing to many.

The Upside 

Looking at the positives of the Argonne National Lab report, the 70 billion miles and 22 terawatt-hours of energy consumption of EVs since 2010 in the US has displaced the use of more than 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline and a 19 million tons of greenhouse gases.

Context

Put in context, however plugin vehicles only saved the equivalent of two days of consumption (690 million gallons) of gasoline in 2021.

Why? 

Apart from the obvious fact that EVs still make up only a tiny proportion of vehicles on US roads, other reasons why they haven’t made much of an impact on gasoline consumption include:

– A reduction in mileage covered during the pandemic.

– Different battery sizes and differences in driving situations e.g., city driving (43 per cent) and highway driving (43 per cent).

Impact On The Electrical Grid 

Although EVs are a great way to tackle the pollution and carbon emissions problem that petrol and diesel cars currently cause, they still need electricity. Some critics have warned about the pressure on the electrical grid of widescale EV adoption and the fact that this may increase the power demand, reshape the electricity load curve, increase in evening peak loads, cause more burning of fossil fuels in power plants initially, and that manufacturing EVs could be more emissions-intensive to make because of their batteries. The Argonne National Lab report also highlights how the manufacture of bigger and heavier electrified SUVs may have had a negative effect on electrical range efficiency of EVs over the last 3 years.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

With it still being very early days in the curve of EV ownership and with EVs only making up one per cent of America’s vehicles at present, it is perhaps not surprising that EVs haven’t yet led to a significant reduction in petrol and diesel consumption. Also, the US grid still contains a mix of fossil fuels (60 to 70 per cent) and other sources, which also affects how green they are generally. The industry also still faces challenges with the price of EVs, the availability of charging points, and battery limitations, which affect the rate at which EVs are being adopted. There is also the matter of changing city policies towards traffic anyway and people looking more at other ways they can get around e.g., electric buses, cycling, trains, and walking. EVs alone are not, therefore, the complete answer to transport and emissions challenges, and there is long way to go yet before their benefits are really noticeable.

News

Sustainability : World’s First 3D-Printed 100% Bio-Based House

The University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) in the US has unveiled the first 3D-printed house made entirely with bio-based materials.

BioHome3D 

The 600-square-foot prototype ‘BioHome3D’ has 3D-printed floors, walls and roof made of wood fibres and bio-resins. The fully recyclable house also has 100 per cent wood insulation and customisable R-values. ASCC has also said that another bonus of Biohoime3D is that the precision of the printing process of the house construction means that waste was almost eliminated.

Could Solve Housing Problems and Help The Environment 

The University of Maine has highlighted the advantages of the technology in helping with a housing and environmental crisis as:

– Addressing labour shortages and supply chain issues that are driving high costs and constricting the supply of affordable housing.

– The use of automated manufacturing and off-site production cutting the time for on-site building and fitting up the home.

– Printing using abundant, renewable, locally sourced wood fibre feedstock reducing the dependence on a constrained supply chain, supporting the revitalisation of local forest product industries, and making the process more resilient to global supply chain disruptions and labour shortages.

– The sustainably grown wood fibre used is a renewable resource that captures carbon during the tree growth cycle. This could help reduce the 40 per cent of global carbon emissions that buildings account for (UN Environment Programme figures).

– BioHome3D houses could act as carbon storage and sequestration units during their lifetime and after they are recycled.

How And Where? 

The prototype BioHome3D was printed in four modules, then moved to the site and assembled in half a day. Electricity was running within two hours with only one electrician needed on site.

The house is sited on a foundation outside ASCC and has been equipped with sensors for thermal, environmental, and structural monitoring to test how it performs through a Maine winter. Researchers say they expect to use the data collected to improve future designs.

Scalable 

ASCC says it will be able to scale its advanced manufacturing research in housing construction with the opening of the Green Engineering and Materials (GEM) research ‘Factory of the Future’. When complete, GEM will serve as a hub for AI-enabled large-scale digital hybrid manufacturing and will have bays dedicated to scaling up the production of housing, such as BioHome3D, as well as boatbuilding (an important industry in Maine).

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

Finding ways to quickly provide enough affordable housing while facing a labour shortage are two big challenges in themselves. The BioHome3D, however, looks as though it may be a way to meet these challenges whilst also addressing ecological and climate change challenges i.e., by using sustainable, renewable, locally sourced, recyclable natural resources in a way that also captures carbon. The fact that the main parts of this type of home can be pre-made (printed in four modules), then moved to the site and assembled in half a day with only one electrician needed on site shows huge promise in terms of cost and labour saving and getting affordable homes to where they’re needed fast. This project is another example of the enormous potential of 3D printing technology and how its innovative use is revolutionising many parts of different industries. Being in Maine where boatbuilding is an important industry, 3D printing at scale in this way also shows how this method could be adapted easily to build boats. This is an exciting development that could be reproduced in other parts of the world and could create new opportunities not just in housing but in many different industries and sectors.

News

Sustainability : Data Centres In Space?

A feasibility study is to be carried out into whether solar powered data centres could be put into orbit to reduce their carbon footprint.

Who And What? 

The European Commission has chosen Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between aerospace and defence companies Thales (67 per cent) and Leonardo (33 per cent) to lead the ASCEND (Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovereignty) feasibility study as part of Europe’s vast Horizon Europe research program.

Why? 

A growing number of devices and the IoT, the increased demand digitalisation and for cloud services mean that data centres in Europe and other parts of the world are growing at an exponential rate. Data centres, however, require large amounts of power and are major carbon producers. This means that they are having environmental and energy impact.

The idea of moving data centres into the earth’s orbit, powered by solar power plants would not only solve the problem of the carbon (and physical) footprint of data centres but, in the process, make it more likely that Europe’s Green Deal goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 can be met.

The Feasibility Study 

Thales says that the project is expected to demonstrate to what extent space-based data centres would limit the energy and environmental impact of their ground counterparts. Thales also says that feasibility study will have two main objectives, which are:

1. “To assess if the carbon emissions from the production and launch of these space infrastructures will be significantly lower than the emissions generated by ground-based data centres”. 

2. “To prove that it is possible to develop the required launch solution and to ensure the deployment and operability of these spaceborne data centres using robotic assistance technologies currently being developed in Europe, such as the EROSS IOD demonstrator.” 

Investment If Feasible 

If the feasibility study indicates that building and launching orbiting solar-powered data centres produces less carbon than normal, terrestrial data centres, Thales says this could mean major investments within the scope of Europe’s Green Deal. It could also justify the development of a more climate-friendly, reusable heavy launch vehicle, thereby enabling Europe to regain its leadership in space transport and space logistics, and the assembly and operations of large infrastructures in orbit.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

Data centres are power-hungry and produce a lot of carbon. With demands upon and demand for data centres increasing, but the need to reduce their carbon footprint and meet environmental targets mean the search for solutions is on. Carbon offsetting has been a major way that big tech companies have tried to become carbon neutral, but this doesn’t stop the carbon being released in the first place. On the face of it, putting solar-powered data centres into orbit sound a promising idea, but the scale of the data centres needed, and the carbon footprint of the development, testing, and operation of spacecraft that blasts them into orbit in the first place mean that it’s possible that they may not be more environmentally friendly than current data centres. If the feasibility study shows that putting data centres in orbit does significantly reduces their carbon footprint, this could bring the funding that could help make it a reality.

News

Sustainability : Environmental Benefits of Lab-Grown Meat

With lab-grown, cultivated meat looking as though it could tackle environmental and animal welfare issues, we look at the Dutch origins of this new produce, its benefits, and how tech has played an important role in creating the product.

What Is ‘Cultivated Meat’? 

Cultivated meat / cultured meat is real meat, but not taken from as living animal that has been slaughtered. Instead, it is made from collected animal cells (fat and muscle stem cells) which are then grown in vitro (in the lab) and shaped into familiar forms of edible flesh. The process can take two to three weeks to complete.

The Issues 

The issues of continuing down the path of slaughtering 80 billion animals per year for meat are:

– Animal suffering and the ethical perspective.

– Livestock produce 14.5 per cent of global greenhouse gasses (UN figures).

– A massive 26 per cent of the earth’s terrestrial surface being taken up by livestock grazing.

– Livestock using 8 per cent of global freshwater.

– Human population growth is making the above numbers unsustainable.

Benefits 

The benefits of cultivated meat are:

– Satisfying the appetite for protein in human diets without the farming or animal cruelty issues.

– Reducing the risk of viruses being transferred from farm animals to humans.

– Having complete control of the nutrition profile.

– No waste in production and less need for the quantity and expense of raw materials compared to the meat industry (and plant-based meat industries) and, therefore, less environmental impact in producing the raw materials.

– Sustainability.

Challenges to the Growth of Cultivated Meat Adoption 

Although the cultivated meat sector is growing, its faces many challenges in achieving the wider adoption of cultivated meat products. For example:

– High production costs which may be passed on in high prices.

– Difficulty in scaling-up (it is currently small-scale production).

– Ethical concerns. For example, some have questioned the ethical stance of the biggest producers (SuperMeat, Future Meat Technologies) and their investors. Also, a lack of packaging disclosures, the possible use of modified yeast cells, and lack of knowledge about the long-term health and environmental consequences of eating the cultivated meat have all been discussed as ethical concerns.

– Opposition by the meat industry and its supply chain and farmers who have a lot to lose if cultivated meat is accepted as a viable and preferred alternative to their products.

– Food regulations.

– Public perceptions of and knowledge about cultivated meat (mainly concerns about safety). For example, Food Standards Agency Research (UK – conducted by Ipsos Mori, Dec 2021/Jan2022) shows that although 78 per cent of people have heard of cultivated meat, a quarter of people would only try it if they knew it was safe, and 23 per cent said they would try it if they thought it was properly regulated.

– The need for fat and salt to get a similar taste profile to other meat products, making it a less healthy options.

Origins 

Cultivated meat was first produced as far back as 1948 in the Netherlands by Dutch medical school student researcher, Willem van Eelen. Fast-forward to 2005 and Van Eelen (with others) convinced the Dutch government to fund research into cellular agriculture. From this came Dutch cultivated meat companies Mosa Meat and Meatable. There are now around 170 companied globally working on cultivated meat.

Already On The Market In Singapore 

Singapore is currently the only country where cultivated meat is on the market (since 2020), following the country’s food agency becoming the first regulatory body to approve the sale of lab-grown chicken from Eat Just, a Californian start-up.

How Technology Is Helping The Development of Cultivated Meat 

One of the main ways that technology is helping in the development of cultivated meat is in computer modelling (simulations of living systems) e.g., to help predict behaviours with bioreactors. This could contribute to the scaling-up of production and reducing of cost that would be needed to meet and stimulate higher demand in the future.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

At present, challenges such as very high production costs, the need for regulation and approval by food standards bodies, along with the need to find effective ways to scale-up, the success of plant-based alternatives and public perceptions are all challenges for cultivated meat to overcome before going mainstream. Technology such as computer modelling is already contributing to meeting the two major challenges of scaling up production and bringing down costs. Out in the marketplace, however, although many companies are working on cultivated meat, it is only actually on the market in one country. Plant-based meat products have shown that the public will buy and use alternatives to meat, but overcoming consumer concerns about safety and perceptions that lab-grown meat may be a slightly creepy concept are factors which, along with the other challenges, may mean that that it will be some time yet before most of us will be picking up lab-grown meat in the supermarket.

News

Sustainability : Microplastic-Eating Robot Fish Takes To The Water

A prototype of an award-winning robotic fish design that fish filters water to trap microplastics has now been tested in lakes as well as the lab.

Gilbert Wins 

Eleanor Mackintosh’s design for the glow-in-the-dark, water-filtering ‘Robo-fish’ named “Gilbert” won the University of Surrey’s public competition, the Natural Robotics Contest, which resulted in Gilbert being turned into fully 3-D printed working prototype.

How The Robo-Fish Works 

The robo-fish has been designed to work in the following way:

– The watertight tail contains electric motors to power the fins that move the unit around. The head is designed to flood, and the gills either side contain a fine mesh that can filter two-millimetre (microplastic) particles out of the water.

– While swimming, the mouth opens (gills closed) as wide as possible.

– The mouth cavity fills with water, the mouth closes, and the gills open as the floor of cavity is compressed to force water over gills.

– The mesh catches microplastics and the water is ejected.

Other Advantages of The Robo-Fish Design 

It was decided that the robo-fish should only use affordable off-the-shelf components and manufacturing techniques, so that the design is accessible to all. With this in mind, some of the other advantages of the robo-fish design are:

– It can be entirely 3D printed in ABS plastic (dipped in acetone to seal it) with a low-cost fused deposition manufacturing (FDM) printer.

– The modular design i.e., a sealed ‘tail’ unit, onto which the ‘head’ of the robot is attached via a snap-fit joint means that the head can be changed to be updated and meet different gill arrangements in the future.

Tested 

A prototype of Gilbert the motor-driven, currently remote controlled robo-fish has been tested in an outdoor lake in Guildford (UK) and has demonstrated effective swimming and steering on the water surface.

However, although the prototype, which was developed from a simple sketched idea from the designer can currently swim, ingest, and retain particulates, it cannot yet distinguish between organic matter that is vital to the ecosystem such as plankton and ‘marine snow,’ and harmful synthetic pollutants /microplastics. More development is needed, therefore, to enable the robo-fish idea to work as an effective tool for ocean clean-up and sampling. Also, the developers have suggested that the finished working robo-fish should be automated rather than remote controlled (as it is currently).

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

Although the robo-fish was developed from a simple sketch idea in the first iteration of a contest and needs more work to enable it to be effective, it demonstrates that there could potentially be many different ways to use technology help tackle the microplastic pollution crisis. In reality, the number of robo-fish needed to make even a dent in the level of microplastic pollution wouldn’t be feasible but some good could come from focusing thinking of developing effective filtration systems of biological solutions such as algae that can break down plastics. The fight is now on to find ways that different technologies can be combined to develop multiple solutions to tackle the existing problem, but real progress will be made when the use of non-biodegradable plastics is finally halted and replaced with a better solution for the environment.

News

Sustainability In Tech: The Challenge Of Verifying Supply Chain Green Claims

With sustainability credentials ever more important to stakeholders, we look at how IT buyers can ensure that the green claims made by those in their supply chain can be trusted.

The Greenwashing Challenge 

One of the main challenges buyers face is ‘greenwashing’ whereby supply chain companies may create a false impression about how sustainable they are in order to win business. Buying from a supplier that is found to be greenwashing will leave the buyer’s company open to questions about their own green claims, could lead to legal/regulatory problems, and reputational damage. It could also require the buyer’s company to revise their own emissions reduction or circular economy targets.

Some of the general warning signs of greenwashing in a supplier can include the use of vague or unclear terms e.g., ‘all natural’ or ‘eco,’ potentially misleading descriptions, the use of logos/labels that aren’t from accredited associations, and claims that don’t match up with sector-specific laws.

Ways That Sustainability Claims Can Bed Checked And Verified 

Some of the many ways that IT buyers can check and verify the green credentials of supply chain companies include:

– Prepare and ask a series of questions e.g., what share of the energy they use is renewable? What are their lifecycle emissions figures? What verification of human rights in their supply chains do they have?

– Check claims against the UK government / Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Green Claims Code (6 key points: https://greenclaims.campaign.gov.uk/.

– Check whether the supplier’s data is published alongside their claim.

– Look at what (if any) voluntary standards they adhere to and what these standards really mean.

– Look for labels or logos on company literature / online / on products which identify them as environmentally friendly, and check annual reports, mission statements and website corporate social responsibility pages for details of the supplier’s environmental policies and practices.

– Check whether they adhere to sustainability models and guidelines e.g., factors of sustainability.

– Check with the list of businesses with sustainable practices held by trade associations e.g., the FSB and British Chamber of Commerce.

– Look them up in relevant directories e.g., World Fair Trade Association.

– Check sustainability disclosures e.g., climate related financial disclosures.

– Look at your suppliers’ suppliers i.e., tier 2, or tier 3 suppliers.

– Look for third-party verification e.g., finding out by asking questions or looking at company reports / published content to see if they’re signed up to the UN-backed Race to Zero, or whether they’ve adopted the Human Rights or Greenhouse Gas Protocols, and many others.

– Research what green initiatives the supplier belongs to or supports.

– Look for recognised, audited accreditation e.g., ISO 14001, or whether they are a member of an accredited ethical scheme such as Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production, Green Mark, and Green Accord.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

The accuracy of a company’s own green claims are important from a truly ethical, legal/regulatory, and business perspective and one of the ways IT buyers can reduce the risk of their company suffering in those areas is due diligence in checking supply chain green credentials. Greenwashing is quite common so having a well-thought-out checking procedure in place, which includes asking the right questions can help IT buyers to make good choices which protect and validate their own company’s sustainability claims.

News

Sustainability : Venue Uses Human-Heating For Renewable Energy

Glasgow arts venue SWG3’s innovative new heating and cooling system uses the capture the body heat emitted from its victors to provide a renewable energy source.

The BODYHEAT System 

As part of its drive to become a net zero venue, the first of its kind BODYHEAT system took 3 years to develop. The system is now active across the 1250-person capacity event space, a 1000-person event space, and the main foyer entrance. BODYHEAT is able to capture the body heat emitted from all of the venue’s visitors. This heat is then pumped 200m underground beneath a new community garden space at the back of the venue, and then stored across 12 underground boreholes. This stored energy can then be used to heat or cool the venue later date.

Rocks 

The BODYHEAT system, developed by heat pump technology company TownRock Energy, uses air collectors in SWG3’ ceilings to capture heat from e.g., people dancing at the venue, and take that heat some 650 feet into the Earth, warming the surrounding rocks and cooling the club during parties. Rocks can act like heat batteries which means that during non-club times i.e., when SWG3 is simply being used as an office or arts venue, the stored heat can be pumped back up from the rocks to warm the venue space.

Thermal batteries in the form of chambers containing rocks are not new but the technology of these systems has advanced in recent years. For example, back in 2017 Energy Technologies Institute and Newcastle University started work on a major new research centre developing the energy storage technology of the future, focusing on hot rock batteries.

Simultaneous

The venue says that one of the heat pumps is even able to provide simultaneous heating and cooling. Also, body heat to be captured live during an event e.g., from dancing, and be instantly delivered to the foyer to provide heat and maintain a desired temperature.

Complete Disconnection From Gas Boilers 

SWG3 plans to rely totally on the BODYHEAT system and completely disconnect from the gas boilers, thereby substantially reducing the amount of carbon used and, of course, energy costs. The fact that the electricity used to run the BODYHEAT system comes from 100 per cent renewable sources, means that the venue’s heating and cooling system offers net-zero carbon emissions.

May Influence Other Venues 

Andrew Fleming-Brown, MD of SWG said of recent switch-on of the new BODYHEAT system: “We’re thrilled that after three years of planning, consultation, and construction, we are able to switch on the first BODYHEAT system. As well as being a huge step towards our goal of becoming net zero and will hopefully influence others from our industry and beyond to follow suit, working together to tackle climate change.” 

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

SWG’s innovative new heating/cooling system shows how hot rock batteries combined with other new technologies could provide a sustainable, renewable, cost saving, no-carbon heating and cooling system for busy public buildings, clubs, and other venues. If more widely adopted this could be a way for other cities and towns to reduce their carbon emissions, help meet their environmental targets, and move towards a more sustainable future. The combination of the natural properties of rocks and front-end technology could revolutionise energy requirements in some sectors, helping some businesses and organisations to reduce their costs, elevate their environmental credentials, and inspire others to follow their example.