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10 Ways Google Empowers Sustainable Choices in 2024

Posted on January 9, 2024January 9, 2024 by dishanth

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

More Conscious Travelers, Climate Concerns Impacting Accommodation Design

Posted on March 13, 2023 by dishanth

In a race to avert the climate crisis, the tourism industry is evolving. More travelers decide to keep their feet on the ground; the industry responded with flight-free services and itineraries. Concerned with how the climate impacts biodiversity and wilderness areas, many tour operators began actively supporting carbon reduction and rewilding programs. It turns out that where travelers finally lay their heads at the end of a busy day affects the climate, as well.

According to research conducted by the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, “The hotel industry needs to reduce its carbon emissions by 66 percent per room by 2030 and 90 percent per room by 2050 to ensure that the growth forecast for the industry does not lead to a corresponding increase in carbon emissions.”

Responding to regulatory changes, consumer preferences and proactive climate commitments, hotel chains and independently owned accommodations are making changes — though at varying speeds and to differing degrees. This includes pursuing LEED certification, shifting to renewable energy, and reducing waste and water consumption, among other actions.

“When I designed our first villa, Villa Punto de Vista, that was back in 2007 — just after the release of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth — so I was already in tune with the concept of a warming planet and designed the building with an eco-conscious mindset,” said David Konwiser, co-founder and architect of the Costa Rica property. “However, ten years later and after seeing the devastating storms and worsening drought ravage our planet over that next decade, I designed our second villa (Villa La Isla) with even more emphasis on carbon neutrality.”

From natural fiber ceilings produced by Indigenous Peoples living in Costa Rica’s mountains to the microfiber bedding made from recycled plastic bags, nearly every square inch of the property reflects Konwiser’s climate concerns. “The villas’ materials and finishes had to be of premium quality, ecologically sourced, and surpass the challenging esthetic and safety expectations of the world’s most discerning travelers,” he said.

Villa Punto de Vista certainly isn’t the only property built from the ground up with the climate top of mind. In fact, there’s been a wave of them lately: Svart — a luxury property in Norway expected to open in 2024 — is said to be the first off-grid, energy-positive resort. The recently opened Hotel Marcel in New Haven, Connecticut, is completely powered by solar electricity.

Similarly, Populus — a 265-room hotel currently under construction in Denver, Colorado — is being billed as the first carbon-positive hotel in the US. It features window “lids” that provide shade while improving energy performance and a roof terrace planted with regional vegetation intended to attract local wildlife and insects.

Critics of “sustainable” buildings rightly point out that an eco-friendly, resource-efficient building is one thing; but construction itself has a massive carbon footprint. As noted in a 2022 Bloomberg article, the Marcel may be designated LEED Platinum; but on its way to being the US’s first net-zero-emissions hotel, its calculations failed to include embodied carbon — which includes all the greenhouse gases emitted during renovation, construction, demolition and disposal of a building.

According to Transforming Existing Hotels to Net-Zero Carbon, a guide developed by four companies including IHG Hotels & Resorts, embodied carbon makes up between 30 and 70 percent of a typical building’s total lifecycle emissions. Further, approximately 80 percent of the buildings that will be in use in 2050 are already in existence today.

“Adapting and retrofitting existing buildings to lower GHG emissions is critical and needs to be embraced as part of the hotel sector’s ‘Routemap to Zero Carbon,’ particularly as expectations of hotel investors, owners, staff, and guests shift towards greener, more sustainable models of investment, business operation, and living,” noted Gillian Breen, director of Gleeds at the time of Transforming Existing Hotels’ publication.

The natural solution for most properties, then, is to renovate existing buildings with an eye on sustainability. For example, Hotel Belmar — located in Costa Rica’s Monteverde cloud forest — was built in 1985 with environmental stewardship, cultural appreciation and economic benefits for the local community in mind. Upgrades nearly 30 years later further reduced its environmental footprint.

“The 2012 renovation of Hotel Belmar kept our traditional wooden architecture; but we adapted most rooms, some bathrooms and hallways to have floor-to-ceiling windows, skylights and big sliding glass doors,” said Pedro Belmar, CEO and general manager of the hotel. This increased lighting efficiency and ventilation, and decreased energy consumption. Property owners also invested in solar panels, upgraded water-treatment systems and installed rain-collector systems.

Regardless of whether properties are renovated or built more sustainably (while accounting for embodied carbon), time is of the essence when it comes to making climate-conscious accommodations an industry standard.

“It is widely acknowledged that this decade needs to be one of climate action,” wrote Simon Gill, hotels and leisure business leader for UKIMEA at Arup, in his forward to Transforming Existing Hotels. “Without taking bold steps now, we will not be able to achieve the net-zero carbon target set for 2050 and avert climate catastrophe.”

Source Sustainable Life Media

New superyacht is virtually INVISIBLE with mirrored glass to reflect sky and clouds

Posted on March 3, 2023March 3, 2023 by dishanth

A jaw-dropping new superyacht has been designed to be virtually invisible – with mirrored glass to reflect the sky, clouds and surrounding environment.

The Pegasus aims to be the world’s first 3D-printed vessel, its designer Jozeph Forakis said.

The 88m yacht’s design means it is “invisible both in design and in her environmental impact”, Mr Forakis added.

He explained that reflecting “Solar Wings” would provide solar-electric power in tandem with a hydrogen hybrid source.

The glass of the superstructure incorporates transparent solar panels to power electrolysers extracting hydrogen from seawater.

Fuel cells then convert hydrogen to electricity stored in Li-ion batteries for powering azimuth pods, a type of engine, and all operating and hotel systems.

The theme of zero emissions is also reflected in a multi-level “Tree of Life” hydroponic garden, providing fresh food and air purification.

The interior of the yacht features four levels connected by a sculptural spiral staircase.

There is a spacious guest lounge showcasing minimalist design and living nature, both inside – with living greenery – as well outside with uninterrupted views in all directions.

The top level is exclusive to the owner, with forward facing master suite featuring a large private terrace.

The forward pool club has an aquarium-style lap pool and expansive horizontal windows that transform into open balconies on both port and starboard. When closed, the pool cover functions as the helipad.

At the aft of the ship, the open beach club with an oversized jacuzzi and fold-down balconies transforms into an enclosed solarium with sliding glass panels across the ceiling and down the transom bulkhead.

The superyacht’s construction would use robotic 3D printing to create a mesh framework integrating both hull and superstructure.

The result would be an extraordinarily strong and lightweight structure that can be produced using less energy, material, waste, space, and time compared to conventional construction.

The futuristic yacht was conceived on a beach in Koufonisia, Greece.

Mr Forakis explains: “I was inspired to create a yacht as close to the sea and nature as possible, made of clouds floating above the waterline.

“I wanted to honour nature by blending into it, becoming virtually invisible.”

He adds: “Now is the time for courageous leaps toward our collective sustainable future.

“Pegasus is a bold but achievable vision for the near future of the superyacht industry, where man and machine live in harmony with nature rather than competing or compromising it.”

With no price formally announced yet, the Pegasus has been prepared to show to interested shipyards and could be in production by 2030.

Source Mirror

Five of the best sustainable holidays across Europe

Posted on August 22, 2022 by dishanth

Green Wellness Route, Slovenia

This summer the country’s tourist board launched a new Green Wellness cycling route. A looping cycle trail of nearly 200 miles linking natural spas, it starts in Ljubljana and heads north towards the Austrian border and then south-west towards Croatia, winding through mountains, plains and vineyards. There’s a castle on an island, a beer fountain and miles of wild flowers. The first leg ends in medieval Kamnik, a red-roofed town of castles and monasteries with a view of the mountains, Slovenia’s biggest arboretum (sporting 2m tulips in April) and the Terme Snovik spa in the forested Tuhinj valley.

Resorts along the route are all certified by Slovenia Green, which encourages recycling, renewable energy, arriving car-free, eco-friendly cleaning, locally grown food, natural building materials and so on. The spas offer pools fed by thermal springs, mineral waters to drink and wellness experiences involving salt, saunas, massage and barefoot paths.

Slovenia launched a Green Wellness cycling route this summer, including stretches along the River Savinja

Along the route cyclists can visit the world’s oldest noble vine at Maribor or sip a crystal glass of magnesium-rich water at Rogaška Slatina. Slovenia’s temperate Mediterranean climate means good cycling for most of the year, though April to October is recommended. The Wellness route has several companion trails, including a Green Gourmet cycling route or a three-day Pannonian route through the Pomurje region. The Gourmet trail starts with a train ride on the Bohinj railway under the Julian Alps. A free pass encourages public transport use in the area for those who want to linger.

Sustainable city break in Berlin, Germany

When luggage storage company Bounce recently surveyed sustainable hotels and transport, Berlin emerged as Europe’s most eco-friendly city. According to its analysis, 84% of tourists and residents get around on bike, foot or public transport. And Germany’s summer scheme, offering unlimited travel on local and regional trains for €9, has got even more people out of their cars.

An upcycled caravans in Neukölln’s Hüttenpalast. Photograph: Jan Brockhaus

From upcycled caravans to a hammock-strung hotel overlooking the zoo, Berlin is full of cool places to stay

Berlin joined the Global Sustainable Tourism Council in August 2021 and Visit Berlin lists eco hotels, restaurants and sights. They include places like SPRK Deli, which makes everything from surplus food. Klub Kitchen is popular with Mitte’s hipsters, serving up salady bowlfuls of sweet potato, ginger, pumpkin seeds, edamame and other tasty things. From upcycled east German caravans in a former vacuum cleaner factory in Neukölln’s Hüttenpalast to the hammock-strung 25 Hours Bikini hotel overlooking the zoo, the city is full of cool places to stay.

To explore Berlin’s wilder corners, buy an all-zone travelcard (€10 a day, including Potsdam with its parks and palaces). Buses 100 and 200 are good sightseeing routes, running from Alexanderplatz to Zoo through leafy Tiergarten. Head into the Grunewald on bus 218 to find Berlin’s best hike, the cliff-top Havelhöhenweg. Follow this six-mile waymarked walk past sandy beaches for wild swimming and leisurely woodland cafes.

YHA Festival of Walking

Those lonely months of strolls during the Covid lockdowns sparked a lot of interest in walking. The UK’s Youth Hostel Association hopes to tap into that with its new Festival of Walking. There will be group walks, routes to download, free tea or coffee for walkers, and 25% off at various youth hostels. There’s a guided Snowdon dark skies challenge – climbing up the mountain by torchlight and down as the sun rises for breakfast in the hostel. Lots of hostels, such as Eskdale in Cumbria and Blaxhall in Suffolk have been pioneering sustainable practices: energy-efficient lighting, solar hot water, and community recycling schemes.

The festival runs from 4 September to 20 October. “We want more walkers to discover our hostels and all they offer,” says YHA chief executive James Blake. “Whether it’s a bed for the night, a day visit for a cuppa, filling up a bottle at a refill station, using a drying room or just grabbing a loo break.”

A guided Snowdon dark skies challenge will feature in the festival

Individuals and groups can log their miles on the festival website to tramp round the world in 46 days. Blake points out that if 5,000 people walk five miles each, together they will have walked around the world. The YHA was set up in 1930 to help foster a “greater knowledge, love and care of the countryside – an aim that feels as fresh and necessary as it did 92 years ago.

Bird watching in Extremadura, Spain

Extremadura is one of Europe’s top birding destinations, with everything from bee-eaters to honey buzzards. The birds of prey are particularly dramatic, with 23 breeding species including 1,200 pairs of black vultures. More common cranes overwinter here than anywhere in Europe. Covering 16,000 square miles, Extremadura is bigger than the Netherlands, with a human population of just over a million and a huge range of habitats.

As most visiting birders get here independently, the Extremadura tourist board set up the world’s first bird tourism club, following the model of wine or whisky routes, to help travellers find information, guides and places to stay. Travel can actually help conserve biodiversity because the bird-watching cash provides a sound economic reason to preserve habitats.

More common cranes overwinter here than anywhere in Europe

A magnet for visiting birders since it opened in 2005, the Casa Rural El Recuerdo (three nights from €216 room-only) is a converted farmhouse with an organic olive grove and vegetable garden. The guesthouse generates half its energy from solar panels. Owners Claudia and Martin Kelsey encourage year-round wildlife trips for the large number of migrant birds, plus summer butterfly and dragonfly tours. As a local guide, Martin can take visitors to see species they want to find without having to drive too far, meaning less fuel and more time in the field.

Green Velo, Poland

With more than a thousand miles of linked cycle paths and quieter roads through wild natural landscapes, Poland’s longest fully-signed bicycle trail tours the country’s eastern areas. Five regions, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund, cooperated to create the epic Green Velo trail. Miles of cycle path have been designed to be low-maintenance with no impact on water supplies or vegetation; there are benches, refill points, bike racks and rubbish bins. Accommodation varies from campsites to castles.

The Green Velo trail passes through marshes near the Narew River

The trail meanders through 12 areas or “bike kingdoms”, such as the Świętokrzyski national park, with its huge forests and mountains. In another kingdom, the marshes around the Biebrza and Narew rivers are great for birdwatching and elk spotting, for cycling past gold marsh marigolds and purple Siberian iris. The waymarked Green Velo route circles the edge of protected valleys, with views across the spring-flowering marshes. There are bats, beavers and lots more wildlife along the Narew valley towards Łomża with its convent and cathedral.

Other attractions along the route include the mysterious Krzyżtopór castle near Ujazd, and the city of Kielce, with its palaces and galleries. The Green Velo loops through the centre of Kielce, passing the Kadzielnia Reserve in a limestone quarry; there are concerts here in a natural amphitheatre among fossil-filled rocks.

Source The Guardian

Solar-powered electric vehicles move one step closer to market

Posted on July 26, 2022 by dishanth

Solar-powered electric vehicles are one step closer to reality.

On Monday, solar EV company Sono Motors released the production design for its passenger car, dubbed the Sion, as well as for its “solar bus kit” designed for public transportation fleets across Europe.

“Basically every moving object can be equipped with that solar technology,” Sono co-founder and CEO Jona Christians told Protocol, including buses, trucks, trains and even ships.

The four-door Sion is a simple electric hatchback that’s compact but still spacious by European standards. What sets it apart from other EVs are the solar panels set into the body of the car on all sides. These will allow the Sion to generate its own electricity, which can add up to roughly 150 miles of range per week to the regular battery and create “full self-sufficiency on short distances,” per the Sono website.

The Sion’s solar panels will allow the vehicle to generate its own electricity, adding up to about 150 miles of range per week to the regular battery.Photo: Sono Motors

Over the past five years, Sono developed the technology to do more than just slap some solar panels on the roof of the Sion.

“We had to develop a completely new technology and get experts from the automotive sector and from the solar sector and let them sit together,” Christians said. “Because these were two separate industries, and they did not talk with each other so much. And so we had to have … the experts sit together and bring up solutions that are automotive-grade and made to be really durable and sustainable.”

Sono left behind the fragile and heavy glass encasements that solar panels typically rely on in favor of monocrystalline silicon cells protected by a layer of polymer, integrated into the body of the car itself. The polymer is shatterproof and provides extra protection for the cells in the case of collision.

Sono signed a binding contract with Finnish manufacturer Valmet Automotive in April and already has at least 19,000 pre-order customers, all of whom have already paid a down payment of roughly 2,000 euros (though these payments are refundable once the car is available).

While the Sion is Sono’s flagship, it represents just the first of Sono’s two pillars. The company’s solar bus kit is the tip of the potentially fruitful iceberg of licensing its technology to other, non-Sono vehicle makers. Christians said the company’s focus is divided “fifty-fifty” between these two priorities, as both have huge potential for growth.

Sono co-founder Jona Christians said the company’s focus is divided “fifty-fifty” between its passenger vehicle and a solar bus kit.Photo: Sono Motors

“In Europe alone, there are 80,000 buses driving around, and all of these buses have the potential to integrate solar,” Christians said, pointing out that just a few manufacturers make the vast majority of Europe’s fleet. Sono adapted its bus kit to fit the most common models. While the buses are primarily diesel-powered, the addition of the solar panels can generate enough power to run the buses’ auxiliary systems, such as lights, heating and cooling. Sono estimates that the systems save nearly 400 gallons of diesel per bus per year.

The company is also in talks with other automakers to share its technology. “We don’t want to simply keep it for ourselves,” Christians said. “There is a bigger problem, and that’s climate change.”

For the time being, Sono is focused on the European market, though it has seen interest from other markets. Of its 19 unnamed B2B partners, Sono already has one in the U.S. applying Sono solar technology to its own vehicles.

Sono’s model brings together two emerging trends as the world looks to address climate change: The price of solar technology has fallen even as efficiency has improved, while at the same time, the public is clamoring for EVs.

Of course, Sono is also emerging right as the supply chain of critical minerals needed for both batteries and solar tech is in serious trouble, something Christians acknowledged has had an impact. He expressed optimism at the company’s path ahead, though.

“Because production will start next year, we are still able to adapt and change to make sure we have all materials in place,” he said.

Sono has suffered major production delays in the past — its first round of pre-orders was set for delivery in 2019 — which have cost the company, at the very least reputationally. Sono went public in November 2021, which brought the influx of cash it needed to get to this production design step.

The Sion is set for delivery in early 2023.

Source Protocol

‘It keeps on going’: driving the world’s first production-ready solar car

Posted on June 28, 2022 by dishanth

Winding past the ochre-coloured plateaux of the Bardenas Reales natural park in northern Spain, Roel Grooten nudged me to take my foot off the accelerator.

The car continued to barrel down the open stretch of road, its speed dipping only slightly. “It keeps on going,” said Grooten, the lead engineer for the Dutch car company Lightyear, as we whizzed through the lunar-like landscape. “What you feel is nothing holding you back. You feel the aerodynamics, you feel the low-rolling resistance of the tyres, of the bearings and the motor.”

It is this streamlined design that the company credits for allowing it to muscle its way into a space long overlooked by most car manufacturers. As early as November, the company will start delivery of what it describes as the “world’s first production-ready solar car” – the Lightyear 0, a €250,000 (£215,000) sedan draped in 5 sq metres of curved solar panels that top up the electric battery while the car is driving or parked outdoors.

“If we would have the same amount of energy that we harvest on these panels on any other car that uses three times the amount of energy to drive, it becomes useless. It becomes a very expensive gimmick,” said Grooten. “You have to build this car from the ground up, to make it as efficient as possible, to make it this feasible.”

In optimal conditions, the solar panels can add up to 44 miles a day to the 388-mile range the car gets between charges, according to the company. Tests carried out by Lightyear suggest people with a daily commute of less than 22 miles could drive for two months in the Netherlands without needing to plug in, while those in sunnier climes such as Portugal or Spain could go as long as seven months.

In optimal conditions, the solar panels can add up to 44 miles a day to the 388-mile range the car gets between charges. Photograph: Nacho Bueno Gil/The Guardian

But whether the company’s gamble on solar will pay off remains to be seen, said Jim Saker, professor emeritus at Loughborough University and president of the Institute of the Motor Industry.

“You’re having to pay an awful lot of money and have solar panels stuck on the car for just 44 additional miles. The question mark at the moment is the fact that, in reality, is that actually worth it? The actual concept isn’t bad. It’s just whether the technology is actually viable to make it economically sustainable for anybody wanting to do this.”

Sales of the Lightyear 0 would probably be limited to a handful of early adopters, he added. “But in reality, it’s not a commercial proposition at the moment.”

Others questioned the idea of a car being touted as a salve to the ever deepening climate crisis. “The most sustainable way to approach car ownership is actually to avoid it entirely, if you can at all,” said Vera O’Riordan, a PhD student focusing on low-carbon pathways and policies for passenger transport at University College Cork in Ireland.

While electric vehicles may have a limited role to play in rural areas that lack public transport, she cited research suggesting these vehicles are often sold to high-income households in urban areas. “So you have to ask yourself the question: are you serving this individualised, very inefficient, very harmful and traffic-inducing transport in urban areas where it could otherwise be perfectly met by public transport and walking and cycling?”

The need to move away from cars to tackle the climate emergency is – perhaps surprisingly – echoed by Lex Hoefsloot, the 31-year-old chief executive of Lightyear, who has raised about €150m in investment to get it running.

“It would be great, I fully agree,” he said. “But I think we’re not going to change our lives too much. Perhaps, when we’re really panicking in 20 years, we might. But in the meantime, we have to work around that.”

Since 2016 the company has championed solar energy as a key part of this work-around, envisioning solar cars capable of running on clean energy and accelerating the transition away from polluting fossil fuels. “People were saying it wasn’t possible, mostly because of the limited amount of solar power you could get on a car,” said Hoefsloot.

Roel Grooten, the lead engineer, explains the car’s controls. Photograph: Nacho Bueno Gil/The Guardian

His own experience, however, suggested otherwise. The Lightyear 0 – a sleek four-wheel drive – traces its roots to a squat box-on-wheels that ferried four helmet-clad university students across the Australian outback to win in its class in the 2013 world solar challenge.

“If it works in Australia, then it works everywhere. That was the thinking,” said Hoefsloot, who founded Lightyear with four other members of the solar challenge team. “Early days, I must admit there was a hesitation whether we should go full car manufacturing, because we all know it’s not the easiest thing. But there was nobody else out there that was really willing to or doing something similar.”

In recent years there has been an upswell of interest in integrating solar panels into cars: Mercedes-Benz recently revealed plans to outfit an upcoming electric car with rooftop solar panels, while Toyota has at times offered limited-capacity solar panels as an add-on to its Prius hybrid.

Next year, Munich-based Sono Motors plans to roll out a €28,500 solar-assisted family car, while the California-based startup Aptera Motors said in 2020 that preorders for its futuristic three-wheeled solar electric vehicle sold out in less than 24 hours.

With months left before the Lightyear 0’s production run, there are still kinks to be worked out, from a stiff steering wheel to the buzz that at times fills the car when the air conditioning kicks in.

Once you are in the car, there is little about the driving experience that feels different from other electric cars – “That’s a huge compliment, that’s what we’re aiming for,” one staff member tells me – save for a smattering of reminders about the constant drip feed of solar energy. One screen shows exactly what cells are feeding off the sun at any given moment, while another quantifies how much solar energy is being absorbed.

The car’s body panels are made from reclaimed carbon fibre. Photograph: Nacho Bueno Gil/The Guardian

In an effort to use as much of this solar energy as possible, the windswept design eschews side-view mirrors for cameras and runs off lightweight electric motors tucked into its wheels. The body panels are crafted from reclaimed carbon fibre and the interiors are fashioned from vegan, plant-based leather with fabrics made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate bottles.

The 20-minute test run is probably the only time I will sit at the wheel of the Lightyear 0. With its hefty price tag – ideally paid by those who have an outdoor parking space to maximise the car’s gain from the sun – it is not a car for the masses.

Instead, the company envisions the production run, which will offer up to 946 vehicles for delivery across Europe and the UK, as a beginning of sorts. “This is a small scale to validate to the world that we can produce a car,” said Telian Franken, the prototype team lead.

From there, the company will shift its focus to a second solar-assisted electric car it is aiming to sell for about €30,000 as early as 2025. “We’re trying to make the difference, not for the millionaire who can afford a €250,000 car, but to get us to the point where the average person can get off grid – get a reliable sustainable vehicle that beats toe-for-toe any econo-box you can get at the time,” said Franken, citing the Toyota Corolla or Honda Accord as examples. “That’s what we’re trying to beat – and replace – because it’s not sustainable.”

Source The Guardian

17 things you can change to reduce your impact on the environment while overlanding

Posted on May 27, 2021 by dishanth

Overlanders are usually use large vehicles, with either gas or diesel engines with low mpg’s.

While using hybrids or even electric vehicles for overlanding is still in the distant future (and those types of vehicles may not even be desired by the overlanding community), there are still several things that overlanders can do to decrease their impact on the environment.

— Please Click Here For The Infographic —

Travelers should preserve nature in a way for their children and grandchildren to enjoy as well.

While it is a fun, family activity, camping and overlanding have both positive and negative effects on the environment.

Camping is great for socialization since often there’s no technology around, and you have more interaction and communication with family and friends.

It also improves your mood and reduces stress. On the negative side, people may end up making campfires which can release toxic gases into the air and are harmful.

These toxic gases contain carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which both heavily pollute the air.

Ultimately, if the fire is not placed in an appropriate spot, it can often kill wildlife and even plant life in the area that you are camping in.

We’re not against campfires, we love them! But with moderation and with precautions.

Also, some people fall into the habit of leaving garbage and waste behind after their camping trips. This leftover trash can harm the animals because they may end up eating the garbage and choking on whatever waste is left behind, to only mention one of the downsides of such recklessness.

Ultimately what people need to remember is that how they live, shop and camp have an effect on the places that they journey actually to experience.

However, it’s never too late to start making positive choices such as using less water, pollutants, plastic, and fuel as well.

At the end of the day by creating an eco-friendly footprint, you’ll not only protect the wildlife and environment, but you’ll also save money in the interim.

During our travels, luckily literally no campers or overlanders we ever met were inconsiderate. Quite the opposite!

There seems to be a great trend among overlanders to really look after the environment, and many follow the awesome principle of “leave the campground cleaner than you found it“.

So let’s see, as overlanders and campers, what can we do for the environment. Here are thirteen habits that you may adopt in order to improve your stamp on the world.

Don’t Use Plastic Bags

The best way to protect the environment is to stop using plastic bags. By refusing to use plastic bags like the ones you buy at checkouts, you’re taking the first step in making an eco-friendly footprint on your local environment.

The next step, however, is to choose plastic-free food and groceries. Always opt for items packaged in recyclable cardboard cartons, tins, bottles, and boxes as these are more environmentally friendly than plastic.

Furthermore, plastic is hard to recycle, and it is never really biodegradable.

You may also choose to switch to bleach-free paper products when it comes to household items. These are supplies such as paper towels and toilet rolls and pack your fruit and vegetables in drawstring bags made from mesh as opposed to plastic packets.

Always Recycle

It’s not always easy to find recycling bins in remote places; however, it’s not impossible either.

If you simply keep the good housekeeping habits that you exercise at home when you are camping, you’ll do your share to limit waste and your footprint on the environment.

So basically staying committed to recycling means that you have to keep your glass bottles, tins, cardboard and newspapers, and jars in your own bags until you reach town or home.

Ultimately, this is the best thing that you can do as a traveler and it also it forces you to account just how much waste you are responsible for on a daily or weekly basis.

Before making your way to your camping destination, remove and recycle as much packaging from your groceries as you possibly can.

So if space is limited and you are camping in a remote site, consider switching to aluminum, crushable beer cans, and compact wine casks as opposed to space-hogging glass bottles.

Another environmental nightmare is dead batteries dumped on the roadside. While it’s all too tempting to simply throw them on the side of the road and drive away, you should think twice about this.

Avoid Single-Use Products

USB rechargeable gadgets, kinetic watches, and solar torches are all cutting-edge and mobile camping products that have been making disposable batteries a thing of the past.

However, everyone just needs to learn how to start using them.

This is the year to stop investing in single-use batteries and other once off only throwaway containers, especially the little butane stove canisters that seem to be very convenient.

We’re guilty of that too! It’s a habit we’re changing right now!

A good example where most people don’t realize the large amount of single plastic use is toiletries or anything similar, like cotton swabs!

We’ve switched over to only use reusable ones, such as the ones from Last Object:

They are extremely popular with travelers for quick stop cooking; however, they are incredibly harsh on the environment as well.

So instead opt for refillable gas bottles to cook your food and choose solar lights and solar powered device charging as often as you can.

Slow Down and Pump your Tires up

You can save yourself a lot of money by simply using less fuel.

By simply reducing your speed and covering fewer miles each day, you will also lessen your carbon emissions. Also, do what you can to inspect your roof and reduce your vehicle’s drag.

By keeping your tires inflated to the maximum recommended pressure on the bitumen and having your vehicle regularly serviced, you’ll keep it running smoothly.

Also, try to opt for biodiesel (if your vehicle allows) as often as you can.

Be Wise with Water

Cherishing your water supply keeps you off the beaten track for longer, but it’s also good for the environment you are camping in.

By making peace with the dust in your rig, showering less, and saving your laundry for the next holiday park, you’re doing your part for a campsite and the environment.

Ultimately, by using a lesser amount of soap and shampoo, you also reduce the amount of time you’re spending in the shower and the amount of water you’re using and storing on board.

The amount of detergent being released into the environment would also be much less.

Some tips that you can apply while water hoarding is to install low-flow taps in your rig, water-saving showerheads, and always ensure that you catch a rain shower.

Have your vehicle rigged up to catch and channel rainwater directly into your water tank is a good idea.

Another tip while showering is to use a bucket at your feet to catch the water that flows while waiting for the hot water to kick in. Ultimately this can be used in your hand-operated washing machine.

Alternatively, for long-term usage consider modifying your rig to redirect the water from the sink and shower so it can be used to flush your toilet.

– Further tips from Sirocco Overland:

Filter/Purify Water

“Do not buy water in plastic bottles. Before you leave ensure you have a sustainable water filter/purification system along with replacement filters and a back-up.

Even developed countries struggle with plastic recycling, do not increase the burden.

Fill your containers/bottles from mountain springs, streams, people’s homes etc and filter from there. We have had no issues with this since using a proper system (we do not recommend chlorine or iodine for longterm use).”

Eat Local and Organic

Always consider your foods fuel bill. By purchasing locally grown food that has fewer food miles and uses a lesser amount of fuel to transport and refrigerate it, you’ll be supporting the environment.

Consequently, you also enjoy more nutritious, fresh, and tasty produce while supporting local farmers wherever you go.

As much as possible, opt for healthier, organic food that makes use of fewer fossil fuels to produce.

Also, try to buy produce that uses no artificial fertilizers, energy-intensive pesticides, and chemical feeds. Produce that contributes less nitrogen into the environment is also recommended.

Use Eco-Friendly Products

This is the year that you should make a priority to switch to biodegradable and natural personal and washing products.

Products such as shampoo, soap, sunscreen as well as laundry and kitchen detergents.

Not only are biodegradable products healthier for you and your family, but they are also kinder on the environment.

Natural ingredients such as vinegar and bicarbonate of soda are not only cheap but safe ingredients as well.

They can be used to clean toilets, floors, showers as well as bench tops. All you need to do is spray any caravan surface with bicarbonate of soda and a blend of vinegar and water and watch it fizz.

After that simply wipe the residue off.

You can also choose to spray and wipe all hard surfaces in your RV with the vinegar mix and thereafter wipe with clove oil and one liter of water before leaving to dry.

This makes your hard surfaces mold resistant.

Change Your Camping Habits

Some people are under the impression that just because they are staying in an established campground with all the amenities and power access right at each site, they can forget their power saving habits.

Always ensure that you switch off the shower while you soap up your hair and body and press the half flush button on the toilet each time.

Never leave a tap running as it can drain up to 16 liters of water per minute from your tank when left unattended.

Switch off the valve while you brush your teeth as well.

Furthermore, consider whether you actually need to wash your vehicle when returning from a camping trip.

If you would rather wear it as a badge of adventures honor letting everyone know where you’ve been, that’s perfectly fine.

However, if you absolutely must wash our vehicle, use less detergent and more elbow grease to ensure that you reduce the amount of water needed to rinse off the soapy residue.

Ditch Plastic Straws

Did you know that every single straw you have ever used is still on the planet today and they will never go away?

So basically they will always accumulate. Research suggests that people use millions of straws each day, and it’s a big problem with a rather simple solution.

And that is merely leaving straws on the counter. However, straws make sipping on your favorite drinks more convenient, and this is why people use them.

The more environmentally safer alternative is bamboo straws.

Not only are they renewable and sustainable, but they are 100% compostable.

So if you are a smoothie or juice drinker, bamboo straws are easy to pack and most come with a thin cleaner.

Ditch Single Use Coffee Cups

Perhaps one of the best and most earth-friendly things that campers do at 10:30 AM in the morning is stop to brew a cup of coffee.

Brewing your own coffee ensures that you keep non-recyclable cups at bay and out of the landfills.

You’ll be surprised at the number of cups you can keep out of the waste by simply making your own coffee in your own cup.

It is estimated that approximately 3 billion coffees are sold in disposable cups each year.

These cups are not biodegradable, and they leave behind a polyurethane lining that lives longer than you.

So if you do fancy a cup of coffee while you are on the road, you can always order one in a ceramic cup or mug and sit down and enjoy it.

And if you need to take some coffee away, simply hand the waitress your own reusable travel mug.

The best solution is, of course, is to make your own coffee in a remote place and just enjoy the moment!

Switch to Safer and Eco-Friendly Sunscreen

Sunscreen is a campers best friend; however, you may be surprised to know that most sunscreens sold contain toxic ingredients that are not only harmful to humans but also the waterways.

If you check the back of your sunscreen bottle and you see ingredients such as oxybenzone or octinoxate, then your sunscreen is toxic.

In fact, these ingredients have recently been banned in states such as Hawaii as it was proven to damage and kill coral reefs.

Natural sunscreens make use of the zinc oxide to shield your skin from harmful solar rays. This ingredient is human safe, as well.

Using toxic sunscreen is also making showering dangerous as it washes off into the drains, which eventually end up in your waterways.

So the chemicals that you put on your skin also affects the environment.

Invest in Good Camping Gear

Perhaps it may seem like a challenge to invest in proper camping gear since what’s good is never cheap, quality gear actually lasts the distance.

So ultimately you’ll save money in the long run. Furthermore, quality gear will never fail you when you need it the most.

Neither will it end up in a landfill sooner than it should. So make your goal for this year to invest in quality travel and overlanding gear, especially when it comes to clothing, footwear as well as portable fridges, kayaks, and car tires. Cry only once!

Spend your hard-earned cash wisely and invest in environmentally motivated equipment companies, such as Kupilka, that make use of recyclable materials that are not harsh on the environment and leave a small ecological print.

Ditch Wet Wipes

Using wet wipes are delightfully convenient. However, you may want to the rethink this convenience.

While lots of supermarkets claim that they are biodegradable, the truth is that many of them are not.

Most wet wipes end up in sewers after being flushed down the toilet and become what is known as fatbergs.

Unfortunately, the next destination for these wet wipes is the ocean where it will take approximately 100 years for them to break down or worse kill a sea creature that ingests it.

So an alternative which is biodegradable and environmentally friendly would be washable muslin cloth which is natural and also soap free.

Manage Waste Vehicle Oils

Top tip from Sirocco Overland: “Probably the biggest problem for long-haul overland travel.

Try to plan your service intervals around large or even capital cities (usually when you’re waiting for visas), this may be the only place with facilities to at least store or better still recycle oils responsibly.

If your servicing yourself make sure you have oil spill mats and enough containers to carry/store the waste oil in. Try not to use soft drink or milk bottles as these will likely leak in the heat.

Take all spill mats/rags, old filters along with the oil for disposal.”

Manage Daily Trash

Top tip from Sirocco Overland: “Only dispose of this stuff in towns or cities with proper facilities. Depending on your destination you may be carrying out 3-4 weeks worth of rubbish and it soon stacks up.

Consider what you are carrying and the space it will take up after you are done with it. Tinned foods for example take up a lot of room and are not easy to crush.

Transfer suitable food types to ziplock bags for re-use later whilst your in a town/city to minimise carrying waste later on.

Consider your space for waste. We use a Trasharoo spare wheel trash bag. (Read the full Trasharoo Review here.) This keeps the waste and smells outside and can take a huge amount of bagged rubbish.

We took the time to separate this stuff out so we could easily handle and recycle when needed. We managed 3 weeks of waste in ours whilst in Mongolia easily.”

Manage Poop

Top tip from Sirocco Overland: “Yes, it was going to come up sooner or later. Realistically you cannot pack this out when overlanding so its the bury option.

Human waste should be disposed of in a shallow hole six to eight inches deep at least 200 feet from water sources. Cover and disguise the hole with natural materials.

It is recommended to pack out your toilet paper but again realistically you should burn this responsibly.

Don’t forget the hand gel afterwards!”

Alternatively, we’d also say that another option is to purchase (real) recycled and eco-friendly toilet paper that you can just also bury, so there is no need to burn it.

You can read our full guide on How to Poop in the Wilderness.

We had a modified camping chair that functioned as a toilet. Get yourself something similar and in remote areas you can enjoy a view in your most private moments!

If you don’t want to be viewed, though, use a shower tent over your modified camping chair for a full setup.

Be Careful with Jerry Cans and Fuel Filling

Top tip from Sirocco Overland: “Only fill your vehicle or jerry cans at filling stations. Take your time and prepare in advance to avoid spillages.

Some pumps do not have auto shutoff and will continue to run when you have your back turned. Line up your cans in advance with lids open and have your fuel cap(s) open ready.

Only used approved fuel cans for transport not plastic barrels.”

We also came across several gas stations where the equipment was from the Soviet era and the pumps didn’t have auto-shutoff.

Those can surprise you in a very nasty way, as one of our friends’ have experienced a full diesel-shower on one of our trips in 2014 in Uzbekistan.

In Conclusion

Camping is a wonderful way to de-stress and enjoy quality time with family and friends.

Thanks to beautiful and natural campsites, you are afforded the privilege of enjoying what Mother Nature has to offer.

Therefore, it is in your best interest and that of the generations to come that you try your utmost best to limit your impact on the environment.

Overlanding may not be the most environmentally friendly option while camping, however, there are dozens of good habits that you can start practicing to ensure that you limit your carbon footprint on nature.

Source Over Land Site

Could carbon-removal tech make travel more sustainable?

Posted on July 27, 2020November 30, 2021 by dishanth

If your 2020 travel plans were cancelled by the coronavirus, carbon offsetting is probably the last thing on your mind. As few as 1% of airline passengers participated in voluntary carbon offsetting before virus-induced travel restrictions took hold, according to The International Air Transport Association (IATA), indicating that purchasing carbon “credits” from your airline or a certified carbon offsetting organisation to compensate for your travel emissions likely wasn’t high on your priority list to begin with.

Yet amid predictions that the drop in global emissions recorded during coronavirus shutdowns may be shortlived, and that the economic impacts of the virus may slow efforts to reduce aviation emissions long term, voluntary carbon offsetting will arguably be more important than ever when the international travel industry is firing on all engines again.

Could a new form of carbon offsetting help to increase traveller participation?

The rise of carbon removal tech

Born out of the Kyoto climate talks in 1997, carbon offsetting has long struggled with an image problem. Offsetting schemes allow people to invest in environmental projects designed to sequester carbon emissions (such as planting trees) or prevent emissions from occurring (such as renewable energy projects), but a lack of regulation and accountability in the early days fuelled widespread distrust of their effectiveness.

More recently, the wildfires that have ripped through Australia, California and the Amazon have magnified the issues involved with forestry-based offsetting schemes (when a tree burns, it releases its entire carbon stash back into the atmosphere).

The difficulty in accurately quantifying most carbon-offsetting programmes (it’s difficult to gauge, for example, the volume of emissions you’ll offset by contributing to a clean cookstove project, an energy efficiency initiative typically funded by offsetting organisations) hasn’t helped.

Then came Climeworks, a Swiss start-up that pioneered a technology that sucks carbon out of the air and turns it into stone, effectively removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere instantly, safely and permanently.

Located on the mossy slopes of an active volcano in south-west Iceland, Climeworks’ first carbon removal plant with a permanent storage facility commenced in 2017. Powered by waste heat from a geothermal energy plant, it harnesses direct air capture technology (DAC) to draw ambient air into giant vacuum cleaner-like machines called CO2 collectors. The carbon is then separated from the captured air, combined with water and pumped 700m underground. Through natural mineralisation, the carbon dioxide reacts with basalt rock and turns into stone within a few years, while the remaining air simply returns to the atmosphere.

Like planting trees and building wind farms, DAC is what’s known as a carbon dioxide removal solution, or negative emissions technology. These solutions typically form the basis of carbon-offsetting projects supported by airlines such as Qantas and Delta, with most carriers now aligned with projects verified by the likes of Gold Standard and the Verified Carbon Standard. Once considered much less important than reducing emissions from the outset when it comes to mitigating climate change, carbon dioxide removal solutions received significant scientific endorsement in 2018 when the publication of the IPCC report on keeping the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C this century identified that these technologies would be essential in reaching climate targets “with limited or no overshoot”.

While most climate scientists agree that a portfolio of carbon dioxide removal solutions is required to help turn back the clock on global warming, the efficiency and measurability of DAC with permanent storage combined with its minimal physical footprint and negligible environmental impact (Climeworks’ side emissions total less than 10% of the CO2 it sucks out of the atmosphere) has seen this technology emerge as a particularly promising approach.

“In terms of efficiency, one tree removes approximately 25kg of CO2 per year, making one Climeworks CO2 collector 2,000 times more efficient per area than a tree,” said Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and co-director of Climeworks, which in June was named among 100 Technology Pioneers of 2020 by the World Economic Forum.

“Over the last decade, we have proven that direct air capture is not only possible, but also commercially viable on a large scale.”

Indeed, while Climeworks’ first permanent carbon removal facility is capable of turning just 50 tonnes of carbon to stone per year – a drop in the ocean compared to the 36 billion tonnes of carbon emitted globally in 2019 – the company is rapidly expanding, with a new facility in Iceland, capable of permanently removing several million tonnes of carbon per year, due to open by the end of 2020.

Climeworks also has more than a dozen other plants in Europe that capture carbon to sell commercially, for use in everything from carbonated drinks and synthetic fuels, which helps fund the permanent carbon removal arm of the business.

Mobilising travellers

In June 2019, Climeworks became the first company in the world to launch a personal carbon removal via DAC service to the public, with a subscription of €7 per month funding 85kg of carbon per year being turned into stone.

Now a new permanent carbon removal platform, aimed at travellers and launched in partnership with the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), has joined the movement to help offset the whopping 8% of global emissions that the international travel industry is responsible for.

“The findings of the IPCC report, particularly the urgency needed to make impact, deeply affected me,” said Christina Beckmann, vice president of global strategy at the ATTA.

After attending a climate summit designed to help delegates take climate action within their own spheres of influence, Beckmann founded carbon-removal education platform Tomorrow’s Air on Earth Day 2020 (22 April). Two months later, in June, Tomorrow’s Air launched its own online carbon-removal service in partnership with Climeworks.

Until we come up with a genuinely sustainable way of flying people around the planet, we need to fly less

While carbon credits sold by Climeworks and Tomorrow’s Air both go towards turning carbon into stone (with Tomorrow’s Air keeping US$2 from a $10 monthly subscription to fund awareness building), Beckmann is confident that launching a carbon-removal platform incubated by the ATTA, which reaches more than six million adventure travellers, will help motivate more travellers to sign up. Travel perks for “Clean Up Champion”-level subscribers (who pledge US$75 per month to remove 600kg of carbon per year), including travel gear discounts and exclusive destination tips and contacts, sweeten the deal.

If you’ve just done the maths on that, however, you’d have figured out that an annual Clean Up Champion subscription (at a cost of US$900) barely offsets a one-way economy flight from Los Angeles to New York City, making turning carbon into stone very expensive in comparison to traditional carbon-offsetting schemes. To put the price difference into perspective, offsetting a tonne of carbon via German non-profit Atmosfair, which supports Gold Standard-certified sustainable-development projects, costs just €23 (£20.80). But with Climeworks predicting that it will slash its costs by two-thirds within three years, the price gap is closing.

“Ultimately, Tomorrow’s Air will be successful for the awareness it creates as much as for the carbon it removes,” said Beckmann, who recently launched virtual tours of a Climeworks plant in Switzerland via Airbnb Experiences so consumers can see for themselves how DAC technology works. “We know that travellers want to take climate action into their own hands, and Tomorrow’s Air offers an easy and fun way to make an immediate impact while helping to drive the cost of permanent carbon removal down.”

Could this be the new carbon offsetting?

As permanent carbon removal becomes more accessible to travellers through these two schemes, environmental sociologist and University of Southampton research fellow Dr Roger Tyers, who explored carbon offsetting in his PhD, says it may help to bolster the offset industry.

“More measurable offsets like direct air capture (either for permanent removal or for creating alternatives to fossil fuels) could lift standards across the whole offset market,” he said. “They might also help shine a light on cheaper and less effective offset schemes that have dominated the market so far, which are often too good or cheap to be true.”

Until carbon removal with permanent storage becomes more financially viable for travellers to adopt, other offset providers perhaps shouldn’t be too worried about losing customers. But the founders of Climeworks and Tomorrow’s Air hope that the need for urgent action on climate action will encourage travellers to incorporate permanent carbon removal into their carbon offsetting strategies sooner rather than later.

“Travellers should not stop making other sustainable choices – we need them all,” Beckmann said. “But by contributing a percentage of their offsetting budget to carbon removal with permanent storage, travellers can show their support for this faster and more durable solution.”

However, as international borders slowly begin to reopen following coronavirus lockdowns, Tyers advises that carbon dioxide removal via turning carbon into stone, just like any other form of carbon offsetting, shouldn’t be viewed as an excuse to book a long-haul holiday with a clear conscience.

“Until we come up with a genuinely sustainable way of flying people around the planet, we need to fly less,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

By Sarah Reid

Source: bbc.com