Discussion Industrial efficiency 2013
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 Rob Laubacher Oct 23, 2012 05:47  |
On October 22, 2012, Thomas W. Malone, John Sterman, Jason Jay, and Robert Laubacher of MIT led a Sloan Innovation Period (SIP) class entitled “The Climate CoLab: Working with People from All Over the World to Address Climate Change.”
In the class, students generated a series of initial ideas for selected Climate CoLab contests, voted on the ones they liked best, and then created proposals in the CoLab based on the top-ranked ideas.
The initial ideas generated for the “Industrial efficiency” contest were:
- Platform to facilitate collaborative distribution of goods through sharing of routes, transport, and trucks
- Tax credits for industrial companies investing in carbon capture/sequestration
- Public rating system for companies and their products, based on their industrial efficiency
- Policy to shut down manufacturing plants and equipment during idle time
- Modularized architectural design to reduce emissions from the manufacturing of building materials and from construction
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 James Greyson Jan 9, 2013 09:22  |
Resource kindly sent in on twitter by @DAbeygoda
Greens embrace enzymes in climate change fight
http://www.euractiv.com/climate-environment/greens-embrace-enzymes-climate-c-news-223288
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 Pia Jensen May 11, 2013 04:27 |
Hi laubacher,
Couple questions, as I'm in process of working on a proposal to address industrial efficiency.
1) How much impact have any of the students' selected ideas had in the past year (if enacted)
2) Can you point me to any success stories of the ideas above?
3) Is it just my perception, or does it seem that industry will not take big enough steps towards change to make a difference without being forced to change?
Thank you,
Pia
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Pia Jensen May 11, 2013 05:18 |
Hi James,
That's a great resource submitted by @DAbeygoda and it makes me think about what nations allow with agricultural processing and waste "reduction" - the following jumped out at me for several reasons...
"We have directed 10% of our R&D resources into trying to convert not only starch but also agricultural leftovers into sugar," Hansen said. "You get a much higher yield from the same acre of land by using what is currently perceived as waste, all the stuff left in the fields from agricultural production."
1) I worked with an organization in Sacramento int he 90's to stop the burning of rice fields which were wreaking havoc on community health and the resulting changes (swamping rice fields instead of burning) had greatly positive impacts including soil fertility as well as better health among residents
2) Costa Rica sugar cane farmers burn their fields after harvest, resulting in negative impacts on community health
3) Because waste disposal is relatively expensive and many people do not have jobs, residents of Cost Rica burn all trash that can be burned including many forms of plastic (I've seen, and smelled this in four different regions - it is commonplace and frequent) and cancer and other health issues are prevalent.
I imagine these negative practices occur in most "developing" nations and in other places where "there appears to be no other choice" for "waste" ...
My question is:
Are there any political or regulatory actions in process to create change such as Sacramento did; and in the case of wholesale burning of plastics - any grand ideas on instituting viable plastic recycling policies in development in any nation that you are aware of?
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