Sustainable City

Sustainable Development Goals Do you know all 17 SDGs? History The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, including the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Follow DSDG on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sustdev and on Twitter at @SustDev. Implementation Progress Please, check below information about the SDG Progress Report: SDGs Icons.

Bamboo DNA High-Speed Rail in America - America 2050 A new study released today by America 2050 identifies the high-speed rail corridors with the greatest potential to attract ridership in each of the nation's megaregions. Corridors connecting populous regions with large job centers, rail transit networks, and existing air markets scored best. The study also recommends that the federal government adopt a quantitative approach to evaluating future investment in high-speed rail. Download the Press Release. The 56-page study, entitled, "High-Speed Rail in America," cites ridership potential as the number one factor in determining if a corridor is suitable for investment, identifies the specific conditions that generate ridership demand, and scores each corridor according to strength in those areas. Download the report after the break.

Eco Cooler, un climatizador ecológico, gratuito y sin electricidad Este aire acondicionado casero está compuesto por materiales reciclados y no necesita electricidad, puede construirlo cualquier persona en cualquier parte del mundo gratis. ¡Y funciona! Los sistemas más rudimentarios a veces son los más sorprendentes (recuerda aire acondicionado vs ventilador). En Bangladesh, ingenieros han desarrollado un aire acondicionado casero 100% ecológico, un aire acondicionado que no necesita electricidad para funcionar! Eco cooler (el nombre de este invento) ha sido diseñado por Grameen Intel Social Business, una empresa que trabaja para encontrar soluciones tecnológicas que puedan estar disponibles para toda la población. Relacionado: ¿Por qué han trabajado en un aire acondicionado de bajo costo? La idea era simple, pero a la vez muy ambiciosa. Con un simple tablero y unas cuantas botellas de plástico, puedes bajar la temperatura 5 °C en pocos minutos! El funcionamiento es muy simple. Las botellas de plástico se cortan en dos partes y se colocan en un tablero.

The Environment's New Clothes: Biodegradable Textiles Grown from Live Organisms When a piece of clothing wears out or goes out of fashion, it often gets tossed in the trash; clothes made up 9 percent of all municipal solid waste produced in the U.S. in 2014, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. And the impact of what we wear goes well beyond clogged landfills. The European Commission (pdf) has also linked modern clothing industry practices—often described as “fast fashion,” due to the speed and volume at which garments are produced and marketed—to high energy and water use, significant greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution. Now a small but growing group of innovators is turning to the genius of nature in an attempt to put wastefulness and pollution in the apparel industry out of fashion, right at the source: They are using live organisms to grow pieces of biodegradable textiles, creating environmentally friendly materials in the laboratory—and are even producing some near-complete items without the need for factory assembly.

List of tool-lending libraries Tools available for borrowing at Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vermont The following tool libraries allow patrons to borrow tools, equipment and "how-to" instructional materials, functioning either as a rental shop, with a charge for borrowing the tools, or more commonly free of charge as a form of community sharing. The Tool library performs the following main tasks: Tool Lending: all kinds for use in volunteer projects, facility maintenance and improvement projects, community improvement events, and special events.Tool Advocacy: for the complete and timely return of all borrowed tools, to guarantee the long-term sustainability of available inventory. Makerspace[edit] Makerspace are places where people perform the following main tasks: to learn about technology, crafts and other kinds of making;to share knowledge and skills with others; andto apply this knowledge and skill by creating things. History[edit] A tool lending library was started in Columbus, OH in 1976. Australia[edit]

Building Management System - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics 5 Use Case: Smart Building Automation This section presents a Building Management System (BMS) for Smart Building automation using the architecture explained in Section 4. The main purpose of a BMS is to increase people’s comfort by maintaining the building in the desired state every time and also reduce energy consumption by avoiding situations in which elements are being overused. For instance, by predicting the time of entrance of a person in a room, it is possible to adjust the temperature beforehand, or by detecting that a room is empty, lights can be turned off if they have been left on by mistake. The first section explains how the data is generated and which elements are being monitored inside the building. Fig. 6 shows the elements composing the system divided into the different layers stated in Fig. 5 Fig. 6. 5.1 Data Generation The first step toward the enhancement of a building with smart features is the monitoring of all the necessary elements inside it. Fig. 7.

MIT Students Create A Brick That Could End Pollution From Dirty Brick Kilns India's brick industry, spread out over 100,000 kilns and producing up to 2 billion bricks a year, is a big source of pollution. To fire to hot temperatures, the kilns use huge amounts of coal and diesel, and the residue is horrendous: thick particulate matter, poor working conditions, and lots of climate-changing emissions. MIT students have created an alternative. The Eco BLAC brick requires no firing at all and makes use of waste boiler ash that otherwise clogs up landfills. "Clay bricks are fired to 1,000 degrees Celsius," says Michael Laracy, a graduate student who's worked on the project. "They consume a tremendous amount of energy from coal and there's also the issue that these bricks are made completely of topsoil, so they're depleting the amount of farmable land [the Indians] have." The Eco BLAC brick is 70% boiler ash from paper mills mixed with sodium hydroxide, lime, and a small amount of clay.

How a Building Management System Works | Advanced Control Corp Learn how a building management system (BMS) works and how it offers you many great benefits for your property. A building management system can be retro-fitted into your existing infrastructure, or a new one can be created from the ground up. Building management system software is used to access data and manage your BMS. To learn how BMS works, Advanced Control Corporation can provide you with the necessary information, and also teach your managers how to operate a BMS system. We also provide maintenance and online support for operating your system. A building management system can add significant operating costs savings to your company, while providing security to your property, resources, assets and building occupants. A security system can be customized to meet the needs of your property and also address building vulnerabilities. We offer our clients many services that include: tech support, maintenance and service programs that meet your specific needs and budget.

10 Reasons Why EarthShips Are F!#%ing Awesome Earthships are 100% sustainable homes that are both cheap to build and awesome to live in. They offer amenities like no other sustainable building style you have come across. For the reasons that follow, I believe Earthships can actually change the world. 1) Sustainable does not mean primitive When people hear about sustainable, off-the-grid living, they usually picture primitive homes divorced from the comforts of the 21st century. 2) Free Food Each Earthship is outfitted with one or two greenhouses that grow crops year-round, no matter the climate. 3) Brilliant Water Recycling Even the most arid of climates can provide enough water for daily use through only a rain-harvesting system. 4) Warmth & Shelter The most brilliant piece of engineering in the Earthship is their ability to sustain comfortable temperatures year round. This phenomenon results from the solar heat being absorbed and stored by ‘thermal mass’ — or tires filled with dirt, which make up the structure of the Earthship.

In Africa, Chinese Developers Are Building A Mini-China | Fast Company On the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, a small sign points to “Beijing Road,” where a new housing development called the Great Wall Apartments looks like the concrete towers you’d find in a Chinese city. Across Africa, Chinese developers are building highways, light rail systems, apartment buildings, and entire cities. A new photo series from the Go West Project, a think tank focused on emerging megacities, looks at Chinese influence in seven African cities. “We know the Chinese urban model, and we also know that China’s trying to export that model to other parts of the world,” says Michiel Hulshof, a Netherlands-based urban strategist who collaborates with Daan Roggeveen, an Shanghai-based architect, on the Go West Project. Next to Lagos, Nigeria, Chinese developers have built a walled-off “special economic zone”–basically a separate city, with separate rules designed to attract investors–based on a model they’ve used inside China for the last 30 years.

Hamburg sets out to become a car-free city in 20 years Hamburg City Council has disclosed ambitious plans to divert most cars away from its main thoroughfares in twenty years. In order to do so, local authorities are to connect pedestrian and cycle lanes in what is expected to become a large green network. In all, the Grünes Netz (Green Web) plan envisages “eliminating the need for automoviles” within two decades. By connecting the entire urban centre with its outskirts Hamburg is expecting to smooth inner traffic flow. Upon completion of the plan Hamburg will pride itself on having over 17,000 acres of green spaces, making up 40% of the city’s area. According to an official, the ambitious plan will “reduce the need to take the car for weekend outings outside the city”. The entire city centre is to be linked with its outskirts by an extensive network of pedestrian and cycle lanes At the same time, the green ring will play a crutial role to help the metropolis fight against rising temperatures and urban flooding.