Frontline

Hey readers one way i have been staying on top of news lately is through Frontline. PBS's frontline has videos available online! goto PBS.com and check it out for yourself!

Lean Thinking

Natural Capitalisms chapter had me really intrigued on the "muda" all around us. I researched further and here are some notes on my findings...

Taiichi Ono –father of Toyota (premier manufacturing org.)
-interesting approach, rare in Japan
-popular successful in the west ie. US

Article quotes from Lean Thinking

Ono’s intellectual and cultural framework for eliminating waste.
-opposition to every form of waste
-“muda” means waste in Japanese
-pinpoints and identifies “muda all around us” we would not have realized in the first place.
-Filling a lot with vehicles with no specific demand, than discounting then discounting them enough to sell them
-Does this sound like literal waste?

Not all Ono’s “muda” is perceived as waste but as a manufacturer they are things to be avoided.

Identifying “Muda”

“Airtravel” misdirection

Womack and Jones- Lean thinking...

continuous flow of value
as defined by the customer
at the pull of the customer
in search of perfection

nothing produced upstream until downstream requests it

“more muda”
cheaper production example

product travels from plant to manufacturer to factory to store, yet none of which contributes to customer value

ideal : manufacturer with small plant that can produce windshields only as fast as the assembly line pulls them in.

high batch example Coca Cola

Personal Action Plan Draft

Heres a draft of My Personal Action Plan I have taken up for this class!

WHAT

INTRODUCTION

Over the past fifty years there has been an increasing concern for landfill space, and a general questioning on the concept of landfill waste on a whole. One of the ways society has found to combat this issue is through the idea of Recycling; the adaptation of a reduce/reuse methodology. Over time as science has explored the realm of possibilities on the matter one crucial method has come about: composting. The idea of composting is really not a difficult one to grasp. Gather specific organic materials and carbon-based leafy materials, and let nature do its work essentially. The science of the procedure is much more in depth than this and I will show you my research in class.

WHY

CONCEPT

I have chosen this to be the topic and central focus of my personal action plan because this is an up and coming area of environmentalism and it is extremely important. This personal action plan is highly unique because it starts after a month and a half of implementation. So, in early September I took the ecological footprint measurement test and it told me that I require 3.2 earths to sustain my lifestyle. This is a staggering, yet incredibly effective way of notifying a person of their impact on the world we live in. I live in a house on Moorhead, and my roommates and I actually chose to live distant from the school so that we could have a yard to grow vegetables in. This motion to do so was brought about by the fact that as college students’, food is quite expensive in our eyes and organic and local foods are even more so.
So in August, we began collecting all organic waste produced by our house in a couple of buckets. This was a very elementary way of starting up the collection process but yet effective. Flash forward a couple weeks time and we had already collected two buckets full; so we then built a 3x3 frame structure to house our collection. As time progressed and our house increasingly became conscious of all the possible compost-able items our output was greater and greater. To research the subject and find out anything and everything on composting I went to the library for book sources and online journals which I have sited at the end of this paper.

FRAMEWORK

My assessment of the problem is based on the ideology of sustainability. My goal at the beginning of August was to begin to rid myself of many of the hazardous actions our society tends to run with. My house mates and I all share this same philosophy so essentially I have driven them to the point where this is their pseudo-action plan as well. We choose not to have cable, we recycle, we compost, we have a fireplace so we will not heat our house this year, we bike to and from everywhere, we shop at sun flower market for the things we need, and down the road we even have a water collection system we are going to implement. The goal is eventually to be off the grid and not impact our living ecosystems in such a negative way, but this can only be done by one step at a time in my eyes.

HOW

GOAL

My goal is to have my household produce less then two 13-gallon bags of non-recyclable trash per week. This goal will be a difficult one because my house as of right now (much improved from august) still produces about four-five 13-gallon bags of trash a week. This is the only measurable goal in the timeline of this class; however, it needs to be noted that this is not just for this class. This is a framework that has been in the making for months and will continue throughout the rest of my life and hopefully my housemates’ as well. The compost is not a measurable device in the timeline of this class due to its slow process of decomposition, however; it is the basis of the measurable goal and the foundation of this project, so it is in context.

MEASUREMENT

Measurement of progress will be very easy. Every time trash goes to the curb I will note the amount as well as the amount in commingled containers and mixed paper likewise. I will also continue my measurement of the compost collection as the year progresses.

STRATEGIES

My method and strategies for achieving this goal is first to
· Reduce purchasing of items with non-recyclable packaging.
· Reduce purchasing of items with excess packaging.
· Increase and implement stricter recycling code in my house. If unsure if an item can or can’t be recycled, look it up. Do not trash it. This is typical avoidable laziness.
· Increase awareness and collection of all compostables within my household. It is not waste if it is compostable.

CONCLUSIONS

As a member of a young generation, my actions are incredibly influential and impressionable. Part of my difficulty with the concept of environmentalism is that it really asks the individual to step up and take action. I feel that I have a duty to change my predisposed wasteful behaviors and help to change others’ behaviors as well. All it takes is the individual to become a leader. As humans we were given so many tools that set us apart from other species. The ability to organize is one of our greatest tools, and yet in terms of a global idea like environmentalism, we are incredibly lacking. I believe that the individual can make a difference and I am going to do so starting small scale with big things in mind.


Sources

“Compost Manual.” The Compost Manual. 2008. http://www.compostmanual.com/

“Compost Guide.” Compost Info Guide. 2007. http://www.compost-info-guide.com/

China's Climate Change

BBC posted an article recently on China's CO2 emissions and it came to my attention that it is now believed that China is the number one emitter of carbon dioxide! Check out the short but sweet article here. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7052115.stm

Gore

I always like hearing from Al Gore and his spin on the world. In the latest newsweek there is an article centered on his recent view on everything from the election to the environmental issues most important in the world today. Heres the link so you can check out the article. http://http://www.newsweek.com/id/171252

Garbage to Garden

I thought this was a pretty great photo i found on the web!

Compost Project

Here are some photos from our compost bin construction in october. They are out of order but still are great documentation of how easy and fun bin construction can be! Our method of construction was simple. We use recycled bricks,layered them with mud, and stacked. It was an extremely easy yet fulfilling process. It was a great activity for my friends and I.

                     

What is Biomass. We are Biomass.

In a recent Science Daily article on fuel production I learned about the economics of some alternative methods of production

What is biomass. Well it is an organic non-fossil material collectively. Essentially biomass is a term to plainly reference the mass of any and all organisms dead or alive that can then be used as a fuel. a wood burning stove or fire is an example of biomass for instance. You may ask why is this important? mmyess? Well it has come to my attention the Liquid fuels can now be produced from biomass in a very economic fashion. In fact even if all the raw materials are imported from other countries the process and procedure would still be economical. This little fact was found through many carefully conducted case studies by Robin Zwart and crew in the Netherlands (of course) for the ACS journal of Energy and Fuels.

These case studies were conducted using the biomass to liquid fuel technique (the most efficient technique around thus far). After meticulous testing Zwart and his collegues concluded that high-quality liquid fuel could be produced from imported biomass for about 2.60 a gallon, with a total of 60$ a barrel.

Man we need to start tapping into this resource. Imagine a world where composting is only a small portion of biomass recycling. I can see it now. eat a banana for breakfast, put the peal in my car and drive...

The full article can be found at Science Daily here

Portugal Steppin' Up Yo Game

So I recently did a post on Wind Power and I was so intrigued that I researched a bit further on the Portugal's wind power initiative that I had to do a follow up and give you readers a site to look up this kind of information. The National Wind Watch site I have found to be incredibly useful. GOOD LUCK

Global Warming and You and Me

Upon reading a recent post on the Bioneers website (great source of enviro-news), I beacame a little more aware of the staggering statistics on Global warming. In the article entitltled, Stepping Back from The Brink Of Global Warming, the damage is measured and computed, and in turn, broken down and classified into managable groupings.


Hey Reader, did you know???:

The US is 5% of the global population, but 25% + of the global greenhouse gas emmission (direct cause of depletion of our so covated ozone).

• Typicall, your food travels 1500 ft to 2000 ft from farm to plate.

Agriculture generates 8% of our greenhouse emmissions.

100% wind and solar power is a viable option 20-30 years down the road.

...But assuming we made it an emergency mandate to establish 100 % solar and wind tommorow we would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a solid 50% +.

Along those lines.....

Places like Portugal are starting to implement strategies similar to this plan of action. They recently installed a wind power initiative in which 750,000 homes with be juiced by wind energy. Portugal is clearly trying to move up in the renewable energy resource elite, a chic club that only certain EU members have achieved as well as the likes of Denmark and Spain. This is truley class act by Portugal, i'll research and tryto post my findings on their operation as well as similar ones.

To read more posted by the Bioneers and check out their website

Click Here



Their is also a Bioneers conference this weekend on the CU Boulder campus. I will be attending select lectures with a few of my peers. Hope to see you there!

Surfs Up

Of the many potential alternative resources to fossil fuels, one possibility is typically not talked about. Turning ocean energy into electrical energy. What may seem far fetched to some is also viewed by many scientists as the nations most untapped renewable resource. Could we be overlooking a crucial component to a mass that takes up nearly 76% of the earths surface?

Many companies are now starting to think so. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article exploring the possibility of such a thing and the research companies like Chevron are well away in exploring. There are many theoretical ways to tap such a resources though there are only a couple being implemented already, in our world today. One small firm, Ocean Power, has produced a buoy based system driven by vertical movement and pressure sensitive pistons. The buoy in simpler terms takes the vertical movement of the waves and through pistons within the buoy is able to convert that movement in to electrical energy. Another attempt to tap our our oceans energy is being done by Verdant Power. Verdant Power is exploring the possibility of tapping into the possibility of our earths tides as a source of power. In New York's East River, Verdant Power has positioned in-water turbines that take the movement of the tides in and out and convert it to energy (much like a turbine system found at a dam).

While it is very exciting to see companies of all shapes and sizes attempt to explore potential resources, one thing is still unclear. How will something like this ever be done at a magnitude that will a large effect. And how will that large effect not also inversely have a large impact on the billions of life forms co-existing within the very resource. It seems very clear to me that our research can not be complete without researching that entire realm of impaction.

To read the article Click Here

Assessing the Endangered Species Act

In an article posted on NewScientist.com, a comprehensive critique of climate change and analysis was taken. The article notes that the US Endangered Species Act posted earlier this year has over 17,000 species classified as endangered. In a playful manner the article questions why the polar bear (#1 on the list) is getting all the hype and attention. Are not all the other 16,999 species of equal importance. By no means is this an actual argument.

To understand the Endangered Species act one should know what analysis went into produce it.

Each animals survival had to be assessed in so many words. How they reproduce, how they feed, How they raise young, et cetera. Here are a few examples of those aforementioned criteria. There were 90 criteria in total.

• Requirements for a specialized habitat: some amphibians depend on a stream or pond, so if that dries out there is no way they can survive.
• Specific environmental tolerances: many corals cannot survive if the water temperature or pH exceeds a certain threshold.
• Dependence on environmental cues: many species depend on changes in day length or rainfall to start breeding
• Dependence on interactions with other species: without prey a specialized predator cannot survive; lichen depend on trees, and many plants on their pollinators;
• Ability to disperse: as their historical habitats become increasingly hostile, species will need to move to new territories but may not be able to do so if there is something - a body of water, perhaps - in their way.

The researches then looked at all the criteria and which species would be affected by these. Then they also had to pinpoint the location of each species and how climate change would effect each location. 

Is it getting harder to do the Endangered Species Act each year?

Is it our faults?

Brass Tax: Look it Up

1/2 of all amphibians

1/3 of all birds

2/3+ of all corals  assessed are susceptible to climate change.

What protection methods should be used when nearly every ecosystem and ecological entity is at threat?  When even our own species is inevitably at threat?

To check out this article  Click Here!