Building a Sustainable World

Building a Sustainable World

Robert D. Cormia

Foothill College

This is Your World

• Begin with a vision– What kind of world is it?– How did we get there?– How do we live?– How is it built?

• Sustainability systems

• Building the electron economy = green jobs

Imagine Our World: 500 Years From Now

• What does our world look like?• How do we live, work, and

conduct ourselves?• A world of peace? Or conflict? • What problems did we solve?• How did we get there?

Civilization 2.0

How do we live?What do we do?

Is the planet healthy – or in peril?

Civilization 2.0

• A world in balance

• A planet in harmony

• Global collaboration

• How did we get there?

• What do humans do?

Visioning a Green World

• A green civilization

• New models of living

• New models of learning

• Living within biosystems

• Responsible world citizens

What is Green?

• Green is an arc between the environmental movement and sustainability

• Less environmental impact• Healing the planet• Living a cleaner life• Building sustainable systems• Living in equilibrium

Green Collar Economy

• Van Jones – Green Jobs Guru

• Two problems – one solution

• New models of living

• Engagement with the earth

• Sustainable economic models

Collision of Business Models

• Shown in ‘The 11th hour’

• Nature vs. humans

• Property and dominion

• Extraction and consumption

• Equity and ‘capital’

• Need to work within nature’s models

Sustainability System

Social

Natural

Economic

Self

Directed Sustainability Graph – goal is to build ‘capital’ in all four dimensions!

Sustainable Capital

• Human capital

• Social capital

• Natural capital

• Economic capital

Unsustainable Models

• Extracting from society (theft, inequities)• Extracting from nature (mining, fishing)• Extracting from yourself (poor health habits)• Extracting ‘wealth’ from the economy (debt)• Polluting the biosphere (ecosystem damage)• Polluting your body (drugs / poor nutrition)

Creating capital in the sustainability system (model) enriches the entire system

Wrenching on Humanity

http://www.valuenewsnetwork.com/davos-2015-a-pivotal-decade.html

The Story of Stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

Green Thinking

• Purpose

• Impact

• Systems / cycles

• Biomimicry

• Equity

Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired by Nature

• Follows nature’s ‘business models’

• How does life make things?

• How does life make them better?

• Life builds ‘things’ into systems?

Sustainability by Design

http://www.greenskinslab.sala.ubc.ca/

Imagine a World…

Buildings designed with efficiency as a 'first ethic',

some net zero, and all integrated with the

environment

With renewable energy and zero emission power

A smart energy infrastructure, seamlessly

integrating distributed production with demand

GE Digital Energy Solutions

A world of smart appliances - designed to communicate internally and designed for

low power demand

Transportation systems integrated with cities, and driven by electricity, and

some of it 'recycled' (quantum rail technology)

Integrating Food into Cities

• Vertical farms• Hydroponic food• Locally grown• Low transportation• Minimal pests• Bioengineered

medicines

Water recycling to reduce the energy needed to

purify and transport water

What is Clean Technology?

• Building things with ‘efficiency first’ design

• Low use of new materials• Demanufacturing, recycling,

and remanufacturing• Clean energy systems• Biosynthetic fuels• Food system development• Clean water technology

This is Clean Technology

Industry Sectors

• Renewable energy• Biofuels• Green / LEED building• Transportation • Batteries / fuel cells

• Smart grid / metering• Advanced materials• Water technology• GHG management• Environmental tech

Cleantech is the ‘technology side’ of green jobs. It would include developing energy efficiency technology, but not replacing the

insulation itself. It is the development of new technology as much as the manufacturing of it. It includes environmental technology,

and especially remediation of contaminated soil and water. These jobs generally require more education than traditional green jobs.

Energy Renewables

• Solar– Solar installation– Solar development

• Wind– Wind installation– Energy provisioning

• Biomass– Conversion to electricity and biofuels

Biofuels

• Biodiesel– Fuel production– Plant construction

• Ethanol distillation

• Bioalgal research

• ‘Renewable petroleum’– GMO research

http://www.amyris.com/

Green Building

• Green building– USGBC efforts

• LEED certification

• Commissioning

• Retrofits / HVAC

• Energy efficiency

http://www.usgbc.org/

Transportation Solutions

• Electric vehicles– Tesla Motors– Electric scooters

• Transportation management– Traffic analysis– Ridesharing solutions

• Cisco TelePresence– Advanced conferencing solutions

Batteries and Fuel Cells

• Batteries– NiMH– Lithium

• Fuel cells– DMFC– SOFC– Hydrogen

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/alternative-fuels/fuel-cell.htm

Smart Grid

• Demand response– Appliance and networking– Setting organizational rules

• Net metering / smart metering– Integrating appliances, meters, ISO– PG&E Standard Net Energy Metering

• IntelliGrid™ and GridWise™ Alliance– Developing next generation power grid

Water Technologies

• Water analysis– Water / soil analysis

• Water purification– remediation

• Water recycling / graywater

• Systems planning / modeling*– Organizational and community

http://www.crystalwatertech.com/

GHG Management

• GHG accounting / audits– WRI / GHG Institute

• GHG management

• Clean energy procurement– Energy provisioning / REC management

• Carbon accounting / trading / CDM

• Carbon offset investment

Environmental Technologies

• Analysis– Water testing– Soil / remediation– Remediation projects

• Environmental chemistry

• Hazardous waste mgmt

• Recycling / down cycling

• EMS and SMS (sustainability)

CSQ Environmental Technologies

Earth Out of Balance

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20050428/

Accelerating Change

• Heat storms• Droughts• Storm intensity• Fires / duration• Ice quakes

• Methane release• Sea ice extent• pH of the ocean• Pest migration• Sea level rise

Ecosystem degradation, loss of biodiversity, failure of ecosystem services

One Solution – One Vision

• No petroleum in 2030

• It’s a 12 step program!

• We made a bad decision

• And we need a new vision– A world not built around petrol– A world not built around carbon

Vision an Electron Economy

A Subsystems Approach

• Renewable energy• Distribution systems• Smart energy• Energy efficiency• LEED / green building

• Electric vehicles• Alternative fuels• Batteries / fuel cells• Urban planning• GHG sequestration

Smart energy Smart cities

Smart citizens

Smart policy

An Apollo Program?

• We’re building it!

– Vision

– Commitment

– Plan and a process

– To build and support a team

– To make our vision a reality

• We can do this in 20 years! http://apolloalliance.org/

Energy Equity – 5 million jobs

A New Energy Economy

• $1 - 2 trillion in solar and wind energy• $1 trillion in a new power grid• $2.5 trillion in fuel saving cars

– $1 trillion in new electric motor and battery technology for cars and other appliances

• Smart energy for the electron economy – a melding of the Internet and ‘the grid’

• This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

IntelliGrid™ - Smart Grid

http://intelligrid.epri.com/

Building a Solar Economy

• Solar power is a primary, not alternative energy

• 25% of electricity could be generated by solar in 2025

• Solar brings true energy independence from carbon

• It requires a commitment, not just an investment of $s

• Research in newer thin film technology shows promise Our Solar Power Future – The US Photovoltaics Industry

Roadmap Through 2030 and beyond – published in 2005

http://www.solarelectricpower.org/

Wind Power – Real Power

Why Wind is the Answer to EV

• One motor winds up – another unwinds

• 1MW of wind supports 1,000 EV cars

• See the math (calculation below)

• Need to ‘forward store’ wind energy for later EV charging (like email distribution)

• Predictive analytics, grid-scale storage, collaborative EV charging networks are key

1 MW of wind => 24 hrs * 365 days * 1/3 utilization = 2.9 * 10^6 KwHrs annually1,000 EVs * 10,000 miles / EV * 300 watt-hrs / mile = 3.0 * 10^6 KwHrs annually

Vanadium redox flow cells

Store excess power for later use!

A plug-in hybrid or full electric EV looks like an entire house to the utility. The majority of electric vehicles will need to draw power at about the same time of day. Need to coordinate EV charging through two-way Internet communications, including transfer of ‘stored power’

EVs use half to a quarter of the BTUs per mile compared to ICE (gasoline), and GHG emissions can be significantly lower if RE is used.

Building a Better World

It’s time that we got serious about working together to build a better world

Sustainable Core ValuesEnvironment 1. Ecosystem services – Eco-economy and valuing ecosystem services2. Concept of limits – linear / exponential rates of extraction in a finite world. Peak Everything.3. IPAT (Gapminder) – impacts from population, affluence (consumption) and technology4. Waste = food and ‘cradle to cradle’ manufacturing / remanufacturing and recycling5. Biomimicry – learning from nature – and employing ‘natural’ (biogenic) solutions6. Diversity – how it works in nature – how it works in society – specialization of skills (economic) Social 7. Social equity – healthy societies / social systems – foundation of sustainable societies8. Environmental justice (more complex subset of industry, and social systems, class issues)9. Cultural sustainability – awareness of cultural identity and cultural values, language, art10. Personal sustainability – health, personal relationships, foundation for lifelong learning11. Intergenerational impacts (economics and environmental – debt and resource depletion)12. Civic engagement (interaction of individual and society) – healthy societies / social systems13. Ethics (doing what’s right when no one is looking)14. Conflict resolution (at all levels – personal / interpersonal / organizational / political) Economic 15. Sustainable development – building new innovation economies not tied to consumption16. Built to last – design, build, and maintain for the long haul 17. Collaboration vs. individualism (as an ethic vs. individual wealth)18. Collaborative value creation (personal, social and economic models) – Wikinomics 19. Value vs. wealth (new economic models and metrics)20. Social production / Social capital (adding to information, knowledge and culture)

Personal Sustainability

• Nutrition & health• Personal relationships• Social networks• Conflict resolution

• Chemicals have consequences!

Indigenous Sustainability Science

Nature-society interactions confront a range of challenges including maintenance of ecosystem services, conservation of biodiversity, and continuance of ecosystem functioning at local and global scale. Local people over thousands of years, have developed an intimate knowledge about landscapes they interact with, inhabit and manage. Natural and social sciences are now converging into a novel discipline called sustainability science. Recognizing that transition to sustainability shall be a knowledge-intensive journey, this paper argues that a careful use of Indic resources provides options to design innovative policies and programs for management of natural resources. Sustainability science of tomorrow shall be a basket of tools drawn across disciplines from the natural and social sciences, as well as local and formal knowledge systems. Equity of knowledge between local and formal sciences results in empowerment, security and opportunity for local people. Incorporation of people’s knowledge into the resource management decisions, reduces the social barriers to participation and enhances the capacity of the local people to make choices to solve the problem. In order to facilitate the humanity’s progress towards a sustainable future, traditional knowledge systems and Indic traditions can contribute to local actions relevant to the sustainability of earth system as a whole.

http://www.infinityfoundation.com/indic_colloq/papers/paper_pandey2.pdf

Spaceship Earth

• This is our only ride• No ‘do-over’ option • Ecosystem services• Redefining the

mission – • A 500 year plan?• Sustainable Values

Imagine a World...

• Creating a vision

• Sharing a commitment

• Crafting a plan

• Developing a process

• Building and supporting a team

• Together we can do this – it is time to be leaders – and make this vision our reality!

This is Our World

• Share your vision

• Share your decisions

• Sustainability systems

• Build your ‘capital’

• Develop your ‘Green Economy Competency’

• Help build an Electron Economy infrastructure http://www.praxisgreece.org/