New Light Source Lasts 15 Years Without a Recharge

How about a glowing light source that lasts for 15 years instead of the typical 15 minutes of a glowstick? GlowPaint’s newest product does just that and is also non-toxic and inexpensive and doesn’t require a recharge via solar or electrical sources for its entire lifespan. According to the company, “This has potential to save billions in energy costs world-wide. Litroenergy™ surpasses all known available lighting options for cost/durability/reliability and safety.” Their products are expected to be used to replace other forms of safety, emergency and novelty lighting duties normally performed by glow sticks, LEDs and other light sources.
“The Litrospheres are not effected by heat or cold, and are 5,000-pound crush resistant. They can be injection molded or added to paint. The fill rate of Litroenergy micro particles in plastic injection molding material or paint is about 20%. The constant light gives off no U.V. rays, and can be designed to emit almost any color of light desired.” PureEnergySystems
Litroenergy was also submitted to the Nasa Create the Future Design Contest to compete based on its originality and potentially major impact on sustainable energy technology. More information can be found via GlowPaint’s online patent application though much of their research remains proprietary.
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Where Will GM Go from Here?

Ethanol? Hydrogen? Plug-in Hybrids? Dare We Say Electric Cars?

Recently, it seems like everyone is speculating on the future of General Motors. Some are saying that the Volt will decide it all, others are saying that in the light of current gas prices, it's probably already over.

Last month, sales of small cars rose dramatically and the "tiny" 4-cylinder finally overtook the 6-cylinder in U.S. sales. In less recent history, GM was unseated from its eight-decade long spot at the top by Japanese manufacturer Toyota.

Where does all this leave GM then? Well, the company isn't exactly belly-up yet, but you can surmise from its heavy advertising of the Volt, a car that's still two years away, that the company is trying to look to future technological developments to resurrect it from the SUV-sized grave it's dug for itself.

On that front, GM does have some grand promises. Aside from the much talked about Chevy Volt, GM plans to roll out new hybrids on a regular basis for the next several years (though at the same time they don't seem to be selling any). Diesel techs have developed a new 4.5 liter V8 diesel that seems promising. Finally, engineers are looking further down the road to HCCI technology, in hopes that it will make environmentally friendly driving more affordable and widespread.

From this, and conversations with people within GM, I think it's fair to say that GM is aggressively pursuing the greening of their business. At the same time, however, I think it would be prudent to look at the long-term goals of the company. I recently spent some time at a very insightful GM conference, where I learned a little bit about the company's plan for the future.

Liquid fuels, as the engineers pointed out, are very good energy storage media, which is why they are so prevalent currently. GM aims to move from today's liquid fuels to ethanol, a move we currently see in effect with GM's varied and rarely used Flex-Fuel Vehicles. Ethanol, especially from corn, certainly has its fair share of issues right now, however, and not everyone is happy with this move. From ethanol the company wishes to explore hybrids, which, as I have already mentioned, they are aggressively rolling onto the lot, but not so aggressively rolling off.

From there the company will try to make the leap from predominately liquid fuel-based vehicles to other modes of propulsion. After hybrids, E-Flex technology (the system being developed for the Volt), will create a generation of "extended range electric vehicles," which to me is a greenwashed version of the more used term, plug-in hybrids. While E-Flex promises decent electric-only range, it still relies on gasoline energy and does not require the paradigm shift that a true battery electric would. GM would then, somewhere far in the future, transition to hydrogen electric vehicles. Like the current hydrogen cars you see so much chatter about, these would use hydrogen as an energy storage system, which would create electricity to power electric-drive vehicles.

Whether this is folly or not, I shall not claim to be the judge of. However, I do wonder, where are the electric cars? GM did it years ago, the limited range would definitely be more than sufficient to service a majority of the population, and the technology is available now. Hydrogen should certainly be explored, but why pin our hopes on something so uncertain when we already have an efficient, tangible solution at our fingertips?

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How Are College Campuses Going Green?

A student harvests radishes at Yale University's organic garden, which supplies the campus and surrounding community.

Photo: Yale University/E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: What initiatives are taking place on college campuses to reduce the footprints of these large users of energy and other resources? -- Shawna Smith, Hamilton, NY

Microcosms of the world at large, college campuses are great test beds for environmental change, and many students are working hard to get their administrations to take positive action. The initiatives that are emerging are models for the larger society, and the students pushing for them will be taking these lessons with them, too, as they enter the work force after graduation.

Foremost on the minds of green-leaning students today is global warming, and many are joining hands to persuade their schools to update policies and streamline operations so that their campuses can become part of the solution. Largely a result of student efforts, for example, nearly 500 U.S. colleges and universities have signed the American College and University Presidents (ACUP) Climate Commitment.

This agreement requires schools to put together a comprehensive plan to go "carbon neutral" in two years of signing. (Carbon neutral means contributing no net greenhouse gases to the atmosphere either by not generating them in the first place or by offsetting them somehow, such as through tree-planting or by buying "offsets" from companies that fund alternative energy projects.)

ACUP also commits schools to implementing two or more tangible (and easily implemented) policies right away, such as improving waste minimization and recycling programs, reducing energy usage, providing or encouraging public transportation to and from campus (and switching campus buses over to bio-diesel fuel), constructing bicycle lanes, and implementing green building guidelines for any new construction.

Signatory schools also pledge that they will integrate sustainability into their curricula, making it part of the educational experience.

One place where students are forcing green changes on campus is the dining hall. According to the Sustainable Endowments Institute's 2007 report card, which looks at environmental initiatives at the 200 colleges and universities with the largest endowment assets in the U.S. and Canada, 70 percent of such schools now "devote at least a portion of food budgets to buying from local farms and/or producers," while 29 percent earned an "A" in the "food and recycling" category. Yale University even has organic gardens that are student-run and that supply an on-campus farmer's market for use by campus food services, the local community and students alike.

Another area where college campuses are leading the way is in water conservation. Colleges consume huge quantities of water in dormitories, cafeterias, at athletic facilities and in maintaining their rolling green grounds. According to Niles Barnes of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), most of the 3,800 institutions of higher education in the U.S. have engaged in some sort of water-saving program. Low-water-volume toilets and urinals, as well as low-flow showerheads and faucets, are "pretty much standard practice across U.S. colleges today," says Barnes.

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