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10 Ways Google Empowers Sustainable Choices in 2024

10 Ways Google Empowers Sustainable Choices in 2024

1. Get more sustainable choices when you travel

You can now find relevant train routes when you search for flights in Google Search making it easier to consider options like high-speed rail when you travel. When you choose to fly, you can also find a carbon emissions estimate for nearly every flight in Google Flights results — right next to the price and duration of the trip. This means that when you’re choosing among flights of similar cost or timing, you can also factor carbon emissions into your decision.

2. Take a more fuel-efficient route

People are looking for information about how to reduce their environmental footprint when in transit. That’s why we continue expanding fuel-efficient routes to new countries, like India and Indonesia. You can find these routes by looking for the little green leaf in Google Maps – it indicates the most fuel efficient route if it isn’t already the fastest.

3. Understand your car-buying choices

For people shopping for an electric vehicle, it’s now even easier to understand the costs associated with buying a new vehicle. In the U.S., when people search for terms like “best electric cars,” they can quickly compare prices, battery range, charging times, and power output of individual models. They can also find federal government incentives for qualifying vehicles in the U.S and parts of Europe.

4. Use our Fuel Cost Calculator to find the most affordable options

If you’re considering buying an EV or if you’ve had an EV for a while, it’s helpful to understand the cost of charging. That’s why we’re adding an updated Fuel Cost Calculator to electric and fuel-based car results to help drivers see the cost of charging compared with filling up at the pump. This is available now in 21 countries around the world.

5. Mitigate EV range anxiety with Battery Range Explorer

When you search for an EV, you’ll get a visualization of how far you can go on a single charge—specific to that model. You can enter your own destination and we’ll show how much battery you’d have upon arrival. And, for really long trips, we’ll show you how many charges are needed along the way. This prediction takes into account factors like elevation change and speed limits.

6. Find more detailed charging information

Finding EV charging stations has never been easier. If you search ‘EV charging’ in Google Maps, you’ll see nearby stations and information about when a charger was last used so you can get a sense of how reliable it is.

7. Locate speedy charging options

EV drivers on Android and iOS can also see even more helpful charging station information. Update your plug types in your electric vehicle settings in Maps to see whether a charger is compatible with your vehicle, real-time charging availability, and if the available chargers are fast, medium or slow.

8. Compare home heating and cooling systems

We’re making it easier for people looking to replace their home heating or cooling system. When you search for queries like “boilers” or “air conditioning” in Google Search, you’ll see information about potential options, including their capabilities, energy efficiency, and financial incentives, all in one place.

9. Find nearby recycling points

We provide a group of recycling attributes for Google Business Profiles on Search and Maps, allowing local storefronts and shops to show the recycling services they offer and helping people share this information with others in their community. Now you can search for nearby recycling drop-off locations — through searches like “plastic bottle recycling near me” — all over the world.

10. Buy used clothes and products

When you search for products on Google, like a winter coat, you’ll see a grid in the organic results with photos and listings from retailers across the web. If any of those products are pre-owned, you’ll see a “Pre-owned” label under that listing. There’s also a similar label for “Refurbished” electronics.

 


Source  Google Blog

The ShAPE Aluminum Recycling Method Could Change The Industry Forever

The ShAPE Aluminum Recycling Method Could Change The Industry Forever

Our Lives are Built with Aluminum

Aluminum is one of the most widely used industrial materials available today. It exists in our cars, our boats and ships, and in the buildings we live in.

In the EV industry, the importance of aluminum cannot be overstated, given that it is required to create the casing of the batteries that power the vehicle. The benefits of aluminum come down to its strength and its weight.

However, mining the raw materials that go into aluminum harms our environment. Bauxite is a mineral used in the creation of aluminum, and the mines that pull the ore out of the ground are responsible for acres of deforestation, water pollution via the Bayer process, air pollution due to the temperatures required to forge it, and other environmental impacts.

The aluminum manufacturing industry has been taking steps to reduce its reliance on new aluminum, though current technology still requires a sizeable amount of new aluminum to recycle scrap aluminum.

However, a new technology has been created that could eliminate that need entirely. This is how the ShAPE aluminum recycling process could change how we procure aluminum.

What is it, and How Does it Work?

The Shape aluminum recycling (Shear Assisted Processing Extrusion) process is an innovative new method of recycling aluminum created by the United States Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.

This process was created primarily for the automotive industry so as to reduce the reliance on freshly created aluminum and cut the environmental impacts of creating EVs. The process was also created in collaboration with Magna, a leading mobile technology company.

This process could reduce 50% of the embodied energy and 90% of the carbon dioxide emissions output by reducing the amount of aluminum required by mining. The ShAPE aluminum recycling process is unique because it doesn’t require any pre-heating step to remove impurities in the scrap aluminum.

It works by rotating the aluminum on a die in the ShAPE aluminum recycling machine while being pushed through a small opening. Combining rotation and deformation ensures that the metal elements are distributed evenly, eliminating the need for a pre-heating process.

In testing to ensure that the aluminum produced by ShAPE aluminum recycling is as strong as they think, they used electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction to create an image of the placement and microstructure of the metal particle within the finished product.

They did this test using aluminum 6063, also known as architectural aluminum. They found that this aluminum product was uniformly strong and lacked manufacturing defects that would otherwise cause the aluminum to fail in its application.

They also found no impurities in the metal, which is important due to the fact that the metal they used was entirely recycled, and raw scrap metal is full of impurities.

While incredibly promising, EV technology currently relies on industries and industrial methods that are incredibly damaging to the environment. The EV industry is working hard to eliminate this contradiction of being eco-friendly yet requiring damage to the environment to be created.

With the ShAPE aluminum recycling method, there could be significant changes to multiple industries, not only the automotive industry. A lead researcher on the project, Scott Whalen, said, “We are now working on including post-consumer waste streams, which could create a whole new market for secondary aluminum scrap.”

While current methods are being used, the environmental damage cannot be understated. However, in the future, using this new method, things could change forever for the better.

 

 


 

 

Source Happy Eco News

TECH Hyundai plans $5 billion investment in U.S. on mobility technology

TECH Hyundai plans $5 billion investment in U.S. on mobility technology
KEY POINTS
  • Hyundai Motor announced on Sunday that it plans to spend $5 billion in the U.S. on developing mobility solutions such as autonomous driving and robotics.
  • Last week, Hyundai said it would spend $5.54 billion to build its first dedicated electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
  • The investment is part of a larger push by Hyundai to advance mobility electrification more broadly.

 

Hyundai Motor said on Sunday it plans to invest $5 billion in the U.S. by 2025 to further develop mobility technologies in areas like autonomous driving, robotics, and A.I.

The investment comes alongside the automaker’s recent announcement of a plan to spend $5.54 billion to build its first dedicated electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S., located outside of Savannah, Georgia. That facility is expected to open during the first half of 2025 and is projected to have an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles.

Some $10 billion of new investment will be used to further Hyundai’s “goal to provide sustainable and smart mobility solutions,” the company said.

Hyundai is aiming to be one of the top three electric vehicle providers in the U.S. by 2026 and is one of several global automakers establishing new supply chains and production facilities in America to take advantage of what is expected to be a decade ahead of exponential growth for the category.

The company had previously announced a plan to sell 3.23 million fully electric vehicles worldwide annually by 2030.

It also dovetails with a push from the Biden administration to have companies set up electric vehicle supply chains in the U.S. as opposed to overseas. The administration announced a $3.1 billion plan earlier this month to boost the domestic manufacturing of batteries, which followed the president invoking the Defense Production Act in April to encourage domestic production of minerals that are required to make electric vehicle batteries. The White House has set a goal of 50% electric vehicle sales by 2030.

This newly announced investment from Hyundai will allow it to strengthen its partnership with “U.S. public and private entities to offer innovative products and mobility solutions to our valued customers in the U.S. while supporting global carbon neutrality efforts,” Euisun Chung, executive chair of Hyundai Motor, said in a statement.

That will include areas like robotics, advanced air mobility, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving, the company said.

Hyundai Motor bought an 80% stake in robot maker Boston Dynamics from Softbank in December 2020, The company, known for its four-legged dog-like robot Spot, was valued at $1.1 billion. Boston Dynamics, which was previously financed by Google, started selling its first robot commercially in June 2020.

The automaker is also pushing into driverless technology through Motional, a venture formed with U.S.-based mobile technology company Aptive. Motional is currently testing its robotaxi service on U.S. public roads and intends to start offering commercial service in 2023, one of several efforts to bring autonomous vehicles to roads across the country.

In November, Hyundai formed Supernal, which is aiming to develop a family of electric air vehicles in the burgeoning advanced air mobility industry. The company said it plans to launch its first commercial flight in 2028.

 


 

Source CNBC