Adam Clare

Canada Can Easily Have a Low Carbon Economy

Even though Canada has the tar sands it is still possible for the Canadian economy to lower it’s carbon output. According to some recent research into the matter by The David Suzuki Foundation, Canada can compete better with existing low-carbon economies by focusing on being more environmentally friendly and using alternative energy solutions to the tar sands.

In Low-Carbon Energy Futures: A Review of National Scenarios, the TEFP summarizes common themes in leading greenhouse gas reduction strategies for eight countries: Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The study shows that:

Canada and other industrialized countries have the technology to achieve an 80 per cent reduction in their energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The transition to a low-carbon energy future will be transformative, requiring a boom in clean-energy technologies and low-energy practices at least as significant as the post-Second World War boom in fossil fuel consumption.

Per capita fuel and electricity consumption is about twice as high in Canada, the U.S. and Australia as it is in France, Germany, Sweden and the U.K. Yet even those countries produced scenarios that targeted 80 per cent reductions in their remaining GHG emissions by 2050.

Asphalt That Fixes Its Own Potholes

Asphalt covers a lot of world and is worth billions of dollars and the entire industries rely on this material to make roads to transport goods. The catch is, this material that we use to make our roads is bad for the environment and requires a lot of maintenance. Filling potholes and similar road damage takes time, labour, and of course, even more asphalt.

In Germany some researchers have found a way to make asphalt self-repairing meaning that the road can last a lot longer before patching is required and will require less maintenance!

The Ideal 25 Hour Work Week

The currently popular 40 hour work week is a fairly modern notion and it’s thanks to unions that we don’t have something like an 80 hour work week. Times have changed and now scientists in the field of biodemography have suggested that a 25 hour work week is optimal. It allows people to spend more time living life than working in exchange for working later than the currently popular age of retirement.

â€œIn socio-economic terms it makes a lot of sense. The important thing is that we all put in a certain amount of work â€“ not at what point in our lives we do it. In the 20th century we had a redistribution of wealth. I believe that in this century, the great redistribution will be in terms of working hours.â€
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â€We know that elderly people are prepared to continue working if theyâ€™re capable of doing so. And Iâ€™m guessing that young people would prefer to work less while theyâ€™re young if they have the option of working more when they get older.

LED Street Lights Save Los Angeles Millions

Four years ago Los Angeles decided to change its street lighting to LEDs and the results have come in and the savings are phenomenal. They have converted a little over half of all their street lights and are already saving $5,325,793 annually in lighting costs. It’s worth noting that LEDs use 80% less electricity than traditional lighting solutions while also providing better lighting for users of the street.

Hopefully the success that LA has seen will encourage other cities to make the switch to cheaper and more efficient lighting.

Maintenance savings are real, too: In 2008, pre-LED roll-out, Los Angeles logged 70,000 street light repair and maintenance events; in FY 2012, maintenance and repair events fell to 46,300. LEDs are longer lived than the incumbent units they replace (10-15 years versus 4-6 years), which means that maintenance should steadily decline as LED units are fully deployed. A remote monitoring system, installed with the LED fixtures, indentifies problems in real time.

LED fixtures also fail at a lesser rate than incumbent technologies. After 36 months of initial operation, for instance, high-intensity discharge (HID) fixtures in Los Angeles recorded an average failure rate of 10%; the average failure rate for LED fixtures, according to the latest figures, is 0.2% (189 of 98,000 installed). At full LED deployment, Los Angeles expects to save $2.5 million annually on maintenance costs.

Movie Sets Get a Second Life

The film industry needs to custom build sets and costumes for their productions and more often than not the unique objects get tossed away after filming is done. Filming a movie can cause a lot waste and carbon output so it’s good to see that some people are trying to green the film industry.

ReadySetRecycle.com is a website that allows production companies to list sets, props, and costumes from film sets that they want to sell. They’re located in Canada but there must be something similar in California as well. So if you want unique clothing or things for you house you may want to check out what’s for sale.

We are entertainment industry professionals who are appalled to see thousands of tons of scenery, props and costumes ending up in landfill every year.

Soâ€¦ weâ€™ve created ReadySetRecycle.com a new website where industry professionals can list such items for sale (or giveaway).

Basic listings (one item per listing) are free.
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In the first year of operation, Set/Reset processed over 150 tons of scenery.

Set/Reset was a classic win win for its customers, users and the environment.

As the company grew we built up the largest inventory of rental stock in Canada.

Our monthly input was up to 25 tons. From this input, we had only 3% waste!!!

Check out ReadySetRecycle.com