Sustainability

On the way to buildings that act like “large-scale living organisms”, scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) are developing smart bricks which make use of microbes to recycle wastewater, generate electricity and produce oxygen.

After three years of construction work, Siemens has moved into its new headquarters in Munich, Germany. It has apparently cut its annual CO2 emissions by the equivalent of 5.6 million km of air travel, consumes 90 percent less electricity than Siemen's previous HQ and uses 75 percent less water.​

Researchers have developed a process that uses pig manure as a low-cost replacement for petroleum in the production of road asphalt. In searching for bio alternatives, the group discovered that swine waste is especially rich in oils very similar to petroleum suited for asphalt production.

In it's simplest form, cradle-to-cradle design sees products created with the recognition that, at the end of their life, they can be disassembled and their constituent parts reused to create other products. The non-profit Cradle to Cradle Products Institute has recognized six such products.

​Nike's newly-expanded European Logistics Campus covers 150,000 sq m (1.6 million sq ft) and allows the sportswear behemoth to serve its online, retail and wholesale customers across 38 countries from a single location. It also makes the firm more efficient, more responsive and more sustainable.

If humanity is to tackle the problems of a growing global population, increased urbanization, scarcity of resources and climate change, we have to rethink the way we live. The ReGen Village is aimed at doing this, by being built to be self-sustaining from the ground up.

A UCLA team has developed a technology to turn sequestered carbon dioxide into concrete. The researchers would like to see their technology applied in power stations, which are massive sources of emissions.

Reinterpretations of classic works are a stock-in-trade of Chicagoland's Writers Theatre. Now the theater itself has become a reinterpretation. The newly rebuilt facility was constructed using 98 percent of the building that stood on the site previously and boasts a host of green features.​

A new restaurant is aimed at showing that good food need not be bad for the environment. The Perennial, in San Francisco, uses sustainable produce, practices and design. It has its own aquaponic greenhouse, sources responsibly-reared meat and has recycled furnishings.

In the move toward sustainable homes, the progress of showers has been more of a trickle. Ten minutes in a traditional shower can use up to 100 l (22 gal) of water. The Hamwells e-Shower, however, promises high pressure and volume, while saving up to 90 percent on water and 80 percent on energy.

We've featured Dwell Development a number of times for its forward-thinking, green homes. Now, however, it has upped the ante with the completion of a 42-home sustainable micro-community in Seattle, US, called New Rainier Vista.

Ikea may be known for its furniture, but now it has its eyes set on bigger goals. Its new Space10 future-living space is aimed at making our lives better and more sustainable. It brings together designers, artists, technologists, makers and creatives to investigate major global challenges.