Tag Archives: green

Green Gym

Finally a gym that uses the energy expended by people working out to power electronics. We already know that working out is good for the mind. Now you can help your mind and body at a green gym.

The idea has serious potential for gyms nationwide, to provide both cost savings and environmental benefits. At the Green Microgym, the Team Dynamo and Spin Bikes can generate 0.750 kWh a piece. And Mr. Boesel is currently cooking up new gizmos to harness the power of elliptical trainers.

Some may feel that it is outlandish for a 2,800 square-foot gym to be fueled by manpower. Mr. Boesel doesn’t think so. He states, “It’s just going to move the human powered renewable energy technology to the next level. We’re going for 100 percent. I think at the beginning, we may be 20 to 25 percent.”

The gym is not the first worldwide to have dabbled in human power. In Hong Kong, there is a gym with gadgets connected to the weight machines, where athletes power up the gym with every lift. The Hong Kong gym’s patrons produce enough power to fill its batteries and keep the lights burning bright. Other companies are also seeking to exploit human based kinetic energy, such as M2E Power, which is debuting a human based iPod/cell phone recharger next year.

Optimistic Take on Economics and Climate Change

“We’ve just seen the first big win in the fight to stabilise the world’s climate”

Green Futures has an interview with Lester Brown and Brown has a neat take on the current state of the human relationship with how we use the environment.

Sound business sense, says Brown. “Unlike the Texan oil fields, there’s no way they’re going to deplete the wind! So when you build the infrastructure – the wind farms, the transmission lines and so on – you’re basically there for the long haul. Sure you’ll have to replace parts from time to time, but once it’s there, it can last as long as the Earth itself.”

And once you make that decisive shift to renewables, he adds, you start benefiting from all kinds of positive feedback loops. “For example, in the US, we use [a huge amount of] freight fuel to transport coal. If you phase out coal, you have a dramatic drop in diesel fuel use, and an associated fall in carbon emissions. It’s the same with water. If you have wind farms in place of thermal power plants (whether coal, gas or nuclear), water demand drops precipitously.”

Take a Greener Vacation

Vacations vary greatly on the impact that they can have on the environment. Backpacking in the woods would cause significantly less carbon to be produced than flying halfway around the world. Here’s five tips to make your vacation more environmentally conscious.

The list is clearly focused on Americans, but this is one that can apply to the planet:

4. Find A Green Hotel

This may seem like a monstrous task, but it’s not– check this registry of environmentally friendly hotels. They’re standing ready to assist in your eco-escape, conserving waste, and committed to reducing their toll on the planet.

Paris Airport to be Powered by Water

Orly Airport, outside of Paris, will be using geothermal energy to lower their carbon footprint. They’ll drive two 1.7km long pipes into hot water that is below the surface of the airport.

“We have the unprecedented luck of having hot water below our feet that can heat a large part of Orly without CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions. We are the first airport in Europe to do this,” Pierre Graff, who is chairman and managing director of Aeroports de Paris (ADP), said on Wednesday.

The project, launched after a technical and financial feasibility study, will cost 11 million euros (17.27 million dollars). The Orly-Ouest terminal, part of Orly-South, the airport’s Hilton Hotel, and two business districts will be hooked up to the system from 2011.

Cars Being Used Less in Toronto

Some more information form the 2006 Canadian census has been released and it paints a green future for transportation in Toronto. The census asked how people get to work (car, walk, public transit, bike, etc.). In the city the younger one is, the more likely it is that one is taking a more green approach to getting to work.

Workers under the age of 25 in the Toronto region use public transit 30.8 per cent of the time, walk 9.5 per cent of the time and cycle 1.5 per cent of the time.

That’s a considerably higher reliance on environmentally friendly means of getting to work than the average commuter in the Toronto region, who commutes by public transit 22.2 per cent of the time, by foot 4.8 per cent of the time and by bike 1.0 per cent of the time.

Reliance on the car in the Toronto region seems to increase with the age of the commuter.

Commuters younger than 25 used a vehicle to get to work — either as a driver or a passenger — 57.2 per cent of the time. Those age 25-34 commuted by car 66.1 per cent of the time, and those 35 and over drove or were driven 75.8 per cent of the time.

What really stood out to me was that the desire to own a car is shrinking!

Owning a car used to be a rite of passage for young people, but environmental awareness in that generation has made gas guzzlers uncool, says Dan McDermott, director of Ontario’s chapter of the Sierra Club of Canada. The high cost of gasoline is another factor for those with limited incomes.

“The desire to own a car is diminishing for a number of reasons — environmental consciousness being high on that list,” said McDermott.

I’ve never understood why people want to own cars even if they don’t need one.