Posts tagged solutions
CU potty project gets a “download” of green
Aug 14th
CU-Boulder team wins nearly $780,000
‘Reinvent the Toilet’ grant from Gates Foundation
‘Reinvent the Toilet’ grant from Gates Foundation
An interdisciplinary team of student and faculty engineers from the University of Colorado Boulder has won a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its proposal to develop a solar-biochar toilet for use in developing countries throughout the world.
The grant is part of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, or RTTC, initiated by the Gates Foundation to address a sanitation challenge affecting nearly 40 percent of the world’s population.
CU-Boulder, which was awarded one of four grants in the second round announced today, will receive nearly $780,000 from the Gates Foundation over a 16-month period starting Sept. 1. CU joins last year’s grantees Caltech and Stanford as the only U.S. universities to receive an RTTC award.
The ol’ outhouse
Environmental engineering professors Karl Linden and R. Scott Summers will join with chemical and biological engineering professor Al Weimer on the project.
Biochar is a highly porous charcoal made from organic waste. The idea proposed by the CU team involves using concentrated sunlight delivered through a bundle of fiber-optic cables to heat and decompose toilet waste for reuse in improving agricultural soils.
“This project integrates areas of expertise at CU in solar-thermal processes, disinfection and biochar that would not typically work together and creates a great team to tackle such a complex and important problem as sustainable sanitation solutions in developing countries,” said Linden, who is the principal investigator on the project.
Environmental engineering graduate student Ryan Mahoney and postdoctoral researcher Tesfa Yacob, who received his doctorate in civil engineering from CU-Boulder in May, along with Richard “Chip” Fisher, a professional research assistant in Weimer’s chemical engineering group, also will be involved. Two expert consultants round out the team, one focusing on solar-thermal design and one on sanitation and hygiene in developing communities.
An upgrade
A preliminary analysis indicates that a household-sized system for a family of four could be developed at a cost of 5 to 10 cents per person per day. An intermediate-scale system for community facilities also will be evaluated as part of the grant.
Linden and Summers are working on other environmental engineering projects for developing communities, including investigating hydrothermal biochar production and low-cost water filtration and treatment technologies. Weimer will add expertise in the area of solar-thermal processing and reactor design, which he has tested extensively for the development of alternative fuels.
“This project is also very student-driven,” said Linden. “Students with classroom and field-based experiences in our Engineering for Developing Communities program have provided some excellent ideas, expertise and enthusiasm to make this project possible.”
Environmental engineering doctoral students Josh Kearns, Kyle Shimabaku and Sara Beck are also contributing to the project.
Boulder grabs the gold ring on energy merry-go-round
Apr 26th
SmartRegs/EnergySmart programs win national award for innovation
The City of Boulder’s SmartRegs ordinance and the EnergySmart service were presented with the J. Robert Havlick award for Innovation in Government by the Alliance for Innovation at its annual conference in Kansas City, MO, on April 18.
Innovation Awards are chosen from the 70+ applications received by a multi-member selection committee consisting of city and county managers from across the United States and Alliance staff. The selection committee looks for local governments that have shown a dedication to stretching and improving the boundaries of day-to-day government operations and practices, implementing creative business processes, and improving the civic health of the community.
These programs “won the 2012 J. Robert Havlick Award for Innovation in Local Government for demonstrating a pragmatic and progressive approach for long-lasting energy savings in their community,” said Karen Thoreson, president of the Alliance for Innovation. “The work combined the successful and innovative approach of utilizing a regulatory platform, financial incentives and technical assistance tools for homeowners and renters in order to achieve measurable and meaningful results.”
In September 2010, Boulder City Council adopted three ordinances requiring all of Boulder’s rental housing – approximately half of the city’s housing stock – to meet energy efficiency standards by 2019. The new “SmartRegs” requirements went into effect in January 2011, and are part of the Climate Action Plan’s (CAP) “Reduce Use” strategy area, which was established to promote energy-conserving behavior in homes and businesses throughout Boulder.
To help homeowners, landlords and tenants navigate the new SmartRegs ordinance, the city and Boulder County created a SmartRegs path through EnergySmart. EnergySmart services provide efficiency solutions for homes, whether rental or owner-occupied, commercial businesses, and property owners in all Boulder County communities, resulting in permanent improvements to the existing building stock. The EnergySmart service provides people with an energy assessment, as well as an expert Energy Advisor who recommends upgrades specific to each property, helps with rebate and financing applications, and even helps collect bids from contractors to perform energy upgrades.
Some of the key results in the City of Boulder from 2011’s SmartRegs and EnergySmart efforts include:
- 678 owner-occupied units participated in the EnergySmart services, with 67% completing upgrades.
- 2,081 renter-occupied units participated in the EnergySmart service as a result of the SmartRegs policy, with 33% completing upgrades.
- Owner-occupied units that participated saw an average annual energy savings of 714 kWh of electricity and 226 therms of natural gas (equivalent to $219 per year).
- Renter-occupied units that participated saw an average annual energy savings of 217 kWh of electricity and 72 therms of natural gas (equivalent to $63 per year).
- 1,687 services were provided to 960 individual businesses.
- Commercial property owners and businesses receiving quick installs saw an average annual energy savings of 421 kWh of electricity (equivalent to $52 per year), and 14,930 kWh of electricity for businesses receiving upgrades (equivalent to $1,318 per year).
The results achieved through both EnergySmart and SmartRegs demonstrate an innovative approach to complementing a policy requirement with assistance and funding to ease the burden of compliance.
EnergySmart aims to reach at least 10,000 homes and 3,000 businesses throughout Boulder County by June 2013. It is designed to stimulate local economic growth; increase energy efficiency investment in Colorado; and advance the state’s energy independence through energy upgrades. EnergySmart is a collaborative partnership throughout Boulder County, funded by a $25 million grant from the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Program, combined with contributions from the City of Boulder’s Climate Action Plan tax and the City of Longmont.
The Alliance for Innovation is an international network of progressive governments and partners committed to transforming local government by accelerating the development and dissemination of innovations. They seek out innovative practices, challenge existing business models, exchange knowledge, and provide products and services that help members perform at their best.
For more information on EnergySmart programs and services, visit www.EnergySmartYes.com, or call 303-544-1000 for residential information and 303-441-1300 for commercial information. More information about the Alliance for Innovation can be found at www.transformgov.org.
Watch Out For Boulder Boomerang Effect With City Park Ban On Homeless by Rob Smoke
Apr 2nd
Someone needs to ask Boulder fire chief — county sheriff — city manager …
Rob Smoke, columnist
….DOES the possibility of increased wilderness usage by homeless people —
people who may have been affected or influenced by Boulder’s new rules
banning people from parks at night — indicate a higher risk of fire?
In fact, there’s no other conclusion that can be reached.
It should be pointed out that stating an increased risk is not bashing the homeless.
If someone is outdoors and physically exposed, and there are limited options,
a fire is something very useful, even if it is in violation of an ordinance.
Also, the circumstances that can lead to a campfire turning into a wildfire
can be as simple as leaving the fire unattended when it appears to be out —
and it’s a phenomena that need occur only in an extremely small fraction of all
instances of people using an outdoor fire to create a disaster, which is not to call homeless people
as a group “firebugs.”
If I’m not mistaken, the Fourmile and/or Dome fires were considered likely to have
been caused by outdoor campfires, according to sheriff Pelle.
The city of Boulder, and soon to be city of Denver, it appears, are enacting
ordinances which essentially ask homeless people to disappear.
One has to consider the availability of “disappearable” locations —
our wilderness areas comprise, geographically, the largest subset of
disappearable locations. It should also be noted, the new rules and
regulations — and the anti-camping ordinances — are essentially a violation
of civil rights, putting people in harm’s way without recourse.
Whilst officials tell their constituents they are “cleaning up” the homeless problem;
facts are, a wildfire caused by a homeless person who might have otherwise
stayed in a city park, without a fire, but closer to basic services —
would be a horrible boomerang effect — not a small price to pay for
relying on law enforcement to solve a social crisis.
People need to open their eyes — not because the homeless
somehow threaten to burn down Colorado, but because
the risk of fire is substantial enough that the only prudent thing
to do under these circumstances is everything in our power
to lessen risk. It would be one thing if every homeless
person represented a lost tree. The mathematics of the risk, in this case,
indicate that it could be one non-malicious homeless person out of thousands causing
the loss of a forest or homes or lives. That increased risk, in light of the new
laws, is a serious issue. The risk situation is analogous
to nuclear power safety. It’s perfectly safe, except when it isn’t.
Put another way, although many thousands of matches
may be lit that do not lead to a forest fire, it still takes only one lit match.
Another aspect, of equal concern I’m certain,
is that putting people into the wilderness — which is simply an obvious possible
result of the anti-homeless ordinances — exposes them to a spectrum of dangers.
People die out in the wilderness all the time for lack of food, water, warmth
or emergency medical services.
The immediate solution is to suspend enactment of ordinances
banning people from public places. If Boulder or Denver residents find the presence of homeless
people inconvenient or unpleasant, then solutions that don’t involve making them “disappear”
must be sought.
Rob Smoke is a political columnist for Boulder Channel 1 often writing about city politics. Rob is a critic and one man watch dog of the council and has been for over 20 years. He has been a writer and journalist for many local papers. Tuesdays nights he can be found at Boulder city council meetings.
