The U.S. Army released its first climate strategy this week, an effort to brace the service for a world beset by global-warming-driven conflicts.
The plan aims to slash the Army’s emissions in half by 2030; electrify all noncombat vehicles by 2035 and develop electric combat vehicles by 2050; and train a generation of officers on how to prepare for a hotter, more chaotic world. It is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to address climate change across government agencies, including at the Pentagon.
The Russ College of Engineering and Technology’s Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (ISEE) at Ohio University has been awarded $2 million for two projects by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop advanced filaments for additive manufacturing and graphite for energy storage applications from mining wastes.
Smog is a leading cause of ill health around the world, but one Indian inventor is hoping to make it easier to breathe by scrubbing soot from the air and recycling it.
Shaw’s Tim Conway recently spoke with the Lab’s director, Alison Mears, about how it is raising awareness about building material ingredients and educating the next generation of designers and architects.
Reform and adaptation of spaces represent a significant parcel of projects ordered to architecture firms, and reuse of preexisting structures is not newness. Functions and needs change over time, therefore adaptations are required to meet new demands. However, no matter how much the maintenance of a building is, in most cases, preferred in economic and ecological sense to its demolition and a new construction from the beginning, the logic of the reuse of a space does not usually extend to its parts that become, thus, rubble.
In France, hundreds of pleasure boats reach the end of their life every year. According to the database made available by the Shom (Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Navy), more than 4,700 wrecks sleep on the seabed off the French coast, including 4,200 near the metropolitan coast.
Faced with this observation, the APER (Association for Eco – Responsible Pleasure) has set itself the task of recovering end-of-life boats and recycling them.
As companies begin renovations to accommodate hybrid work environments, what considerations are being made for materials being removed from the project site? Can the beneficial recovery and reuse of materials during construction steer our industry’s resiliency efforts, relieve material supply chain issues, and support local communities in job growth creation?
The green building materials market is expected to skyrocket in the next five years, catalyzed by an urgent need to build structures that can respond to more intense weather patterns and offer lower carbon footprints. But until now, there hasn’t been a way to compare basic materials and understand the impact of using them.
Northwestern University and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have partnered to develop an international tool that supports construction industry professionals in making environmentally responsible decisions as they select, source, use, and dispose of construction materials. Originally created for disaster recovery and reconstruction guidance, the Building Material Selection and Use: An Environmental Guide (BMEG) examines environmental impacts, material alternatives, and design and construction best practices.
A Rendleman Orchards worker loads boxes onto a truck for delivery to a food bank (photo credit: Zach Samaras)
The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) and Feeding Illinois partnered with Rendleman Orchards during the 2021 growing season to ensure no fruit went to waste. Through the USDA’s Farm to Food Bank grant, Feeding Illinois was able to pay Rendleman Orchards its picking and pack-out costs (PPO) which represent the farm’s costs to harvest and package the product and enabled the donation of the peaches, nectarines, and apples. The fruit was either off-spec, meaning it did not qualify to be sold in typical primary markets due to size/weight/blemishes, or surplus, meaning that the farmer did not have a buyer or market outlet for the fruit. The project team helped Rendleman Orchards avoid waste, recoup their costs, and provide fresh local nutritious fruit to Illinois neighbors in need.
Rendleman Orchards started by providing 48 cases of peaches to Tri-State Food Bank’s Vienna, IL hub. After initial success, St. Louis Area foodbank and Northern Illinois Food Bank began receiving cases of peaches and nectarines as well. As demand grew from the food banks, Rendleman Orchards aggregated peaches and nectarines from neighboring Flamm Orchards.
Each week Rendleman Orchards reached out to a specific contact at each food bank with quantities available. Interested food banks placed orders with Rendleman Orchards by the end of the week and either pick-up or receive a delivery the following Tuesday. Tri-State Food Bank and Northern Illinois Food Bank orders were delivered, while St. Louis Area foodbank picked up directly from the farm. All invoices were sent to Feeding Illinois and were paid upon confirmation of receipt from the food banks.
By the end of the 2021 growing season, Feeding Illinois reimbursed Rendleman Orchards $272,182 to cover the PPO costs for the donation of 567,085 pounds of Illinois-grown fresh fruits: 7,458 cases (372,900 lbs) of peaches; 539 cases (26,950 lbs) of nectarines; and a combined 167,235 pounds of bagged and bulk apples. An additional $10,420 was paid for associated deliveries to the four recipient food banks.
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