Måla miljösmart och hälsosamt | Kloka Hem Vad är färg? Färger uppkallas vanligen efter sitt bindemedel, till exempel plastfärg, kalkfärg eller linoljefärg. Höstens färger från Pure & original. Varför inte vattenburen plastfärg? Den mest använda färgen idag är vattenburen plastfärg, latex/akrylatfärg. Ibland felaktigt kallad ”vattenbaserad färg”. • Den är petroleumbaserad. • Färgen innehåller miljö- och hälsoskadliga tillsatser som mjukgörare, konserveringsmedel, filmbildare, konsistensgivare, tensider och skumdämpare. • Färgen är statisk och drar åt sig smuts. Nanopartiklar ny fara? Nanopartiklar blir allt vanligare i produkter som färg och spackel. Fantastiska färger från Byta-yta av Malin Allbäck. Miljömärkta färger Många plastfärger är miljömärkta till exempel med EU-blomman eller Svanen. Farliga konserveringsmedel och bristande innehållsdeklarationer Hälsomässigt är tillsatserna värre än plasten. Plastfärgerna avger också ämnen till inomhusluften, framförallt de första månaderna efter målning. Vad kännetecknar en bra färg?
NASA Scientists Create Biodegradable Fungus Drone Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s a… fungus drone? Yep, scientists have created a “biological drone” made mostly out of biodegradable substances, including fungal material, and it has just completed its first flight. Drones are handy little things. If the drone were to simply melt away into the surroundings when it crashed, however, no footprint would be left, and the problem would be solved. The chassis of the drone is made of a root-like fungal material called mycelium. The body was then covered in cellulose sheets grown by bacteria, which were coated in the same proteins that paper wasps use to waterproof their nests. The rest of the drone, such as the motors, propellers and controls, were borrowed from a commercially-made quadcopter and are therefore not biodegradable. Many drones are also equipped with sensors that are designed to detect various things like pollution and air quality, but these are heavy and bulky and can reduce flight times.
Bamboo Composites Bamboo Composites Steel is heavy, environmentally unfriendly and corrodes. Actually 70% of today's structural damage is due to corrosion of steel within reinforced concrete buildings. Steel is also not widely available in many developing countries. Enter the super-fast-growing grass - bamboo - renewable, carbon sequestering, lightweight, corrosion-free, stress-resistant and less expensive than steel. Bamboo grows with abandon throughout tropical and temperate zones. Concrete reinforced with bamboo composite rods. Dirk Hebel of Advanced Fibre Composite Laboratory at FCL in Singapore and Assistent Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich believes bamboo could replace steel in the not too distant future. The team is currently also testing the strength of concrete with bamboo composite mixed directly into the concrete. Resources: hebel.arch.ethz.ch sourceable.net
This Bio-Drone Grows Itself, And Then Melts Into A Puddle Of Sugar When It's Done Flying Civilian drones may someday deliver your pizza, but they'll also travel places that people can't easily go, mapping forest fires or natural disasters, tracking wildlife, and studying Mars. The further drones go, the more it might make sense to construct them out of biological materials. A new bio-drone could eventually be able to grow itself in remote locations, and if it gets lost in the wilderness,melt into a harmless puddle. The shell of the drone is made from a mushroom-like material called mycelium, and cellulose coated with the same protein used to make wasp nests waterproof. "If it crashes in an environmentally-sensitive place, such as a coral reef, then it can biodegrade and it won't affect the coral as strongly," explains Ian Hull, a sophomore at Stanford University, who was part of a large team of students from Brown, Spelman, and Stanford who collaborated with researchers from NASA on the design of the prototype. The mushroom material proved to be well-suited for flying.
All-black house in Poland is clad in sustainably harvested durable ThermoWood | Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building Here at Inhabitat, we're all about new advancements when it comes to design. That's why we are so excited about an interesting technology coming from Scandinavia called ThermoWood, a sustainably harvested, extremely durable type of timber manufactured in Finland. Design studio też architekci chose ThermoWood as cladding material for their new residential project in Poland, prompting Treehugger's Lloyd Alter to take a closer look at the product, which combines benefits of both hardwoods and softwoods and offers an interesting alternative to the often hazardous chemically treated wood. We’ve seen some great new developments in the field of sustainable cladding materials, like low maintenance softwood by Norwegian manufacturer Kebony and clever reclaimed Wabi Sabi. Related: How sustainable is wood? According to the company’s website, the manufacturing process for Thermowood includes three phases of heat treatment, and improves the stability and biological durability of wood. + ThermoWood
Plastic-Eating Fungus Found At A Landfill Site In Pakistan One of the defining characteristics of the Anthropocene, the geological epoch we have recently ushered in, is the massive amount of plastics that we manufacture and discard. One of the reasons we use so much of it is because it's difficult to degrade, but this also means that the billions of tons of plastic that we have produced are still hanging around in landfills and in the oceans. Yet fascinatingly, this new environment is also attracting organisms that are seeking to exploit it. Researchers have found a species of fungus, known as Aspergillus tubingensis, that is able to feed off of plastic. In lab experiments, published in Environmental Pollution, scientists found that the mycelium of the fungus colonizes polyester polyurethane plastic, causing surface degradation and scarring. This is not the first time that organisms have been found to be able to feed off plastic waste. These findings, and the increased rapidity in which they are occurring, is interesting in a number of ways.
Creating 'Living' Buildings The University of Greenwich's School of Architecture & Construction is poised to use ethical synthetic biology to create 'living' materials that could be used to clad buildings and help combat the effects of climate change. Researchers from the University of Greenwich are collaborating with others at the University of Southern Denmark, University of Glasgow and University College London (UCL) to develop materials that could eventually produce water in desert environments or harvest sunlight to produce biofuels. In collaboration with an architectural practice and a building materials' manufacturer, the idea is to use protocells -- bubbles of oil in an aqueous fluid sensitive to light or different chemicals -- to fix carbon from the atmosphere or to create a coral-like skin, which could protect buildings. ''We want to use ethical synthetic biology to create large-scale, real world applications for buildings,'' he says.
Metabolic Materials as a Measure of Architectural Quality | By Rachel Armstrong Between the 1830’s to 1840’s, the modern public health movement was started in Britain when Edwin Chadwick, advocate for the Poor Law, brought his vision of public health through sanitarianism into being through public works. This ultimately resulted in the construction of modern day water and sewage systems that set standards of urban infrastructure throughout the developed world. Today we are facing a similar urban crisis of environment due to the consequences of living in industrial pollution for the last 150 years. Global warming is a symptom of technological progress coupled with environmental belligerence and is facilitated by the industrial practices of capitalism. Architecture is a technology of environments. The architectural Green movement proposes designs for a nostalgic, rather pantheistic, rural existence that is perceived to be more ‘healthy’ by bringing biology itself into the urban environment in the form of green walls, roofs and even farms.
Reclaimed Bark Siding & High-End Wall Paneling | Bark House Product Scorecard - Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute Renewal date 19 June 2017 Manufacturer Description Mushroom® Materials are a bio-based alternative to expanded plastic foams and other materials. Ecovative Mushroom® Material Aerogel High-quality particulate silica aerogel enables best-in-class solutions for energy-efficient buildings and industrial infrastructure, safe-to-touch surfaces, personal care products and more. Aerogel, known as the “world’s best insulating solid material,” is used to enhance the thermal performance of energy-saving materials and sustainable products for buildings, on- and off-shore industrial infrastructure and consumer products, as well as acting as a high performance additive to coatings and personal care offerings. Our product line enables a wide range of product forms and applications, including: We are the global leader in producing high quality particulate silica aerogel. Best in thermal insulation. Upcoming Events European Coatings Show April 4-6, 2017 Exhibition Centre in Nuremberg, Germany Booth 1-418 in Hall 1 We will exhibit at this conference, which is the world-leading exhibition for paint and coatings. More Information > Solving Complex Challenges + More - Less