The concept dates back to January of 2009 so it’s definitely not new, but the Letout Outlet, designed by Damjan Stanković, is new to me. Of course given it’s almost two years old now makes me a little discouraged since we’ll probably never see something like this go into production, even though the idea is genius. Basically it’s your standard single wall outlet that pops-out to become five outlets instead. No need for power bars, splitters or whatever crap currently sits piled up below the outlets in your home.
Leading companies around the globe have committed to reducing their carbon footprint as part of internal environmental policies. An effective strategy needs to consider both direct emissions and indirect sources.
Today, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are being consider across a company’s entire value chain and can be viewed from two distinct view points. A company must actively work the emissions that are within their direct control. These emissions come from the company’s internal operations. Corporate strategies must also consider indirect emissions controlled by third parties. These may include products and services that are acquired with a large footprint.
Strategy 1: Reduce Energy Consumption – the reduction of energy and fuel consumption is a key component of a sustainable business strategy to reduce emissions. It is a long-term commitment to reduction at the source across a product’s entire life cycle.
• Reduce energy consumption within your supply chain. • Reduce consumption within the company’s operations. • Design products for minimal direct energy consumption. • Consider the consumer and end-life of a product.
Strategy 2: Replace Fossil Fuels with Renewable Energy – Many companies are switching to ‘green’ energy sources to reduce there emissions. There are a number of easy ways to switch to renewable energy.
• Choose a service provider that offers renewable energy choices. • Install solar collectors to aid energy consumption. • Switch corporate fleet renewable hybrid or fuels. • Work within the supply chain to reduce fossil fuel usage.
Strategy 3: Offset Emissions – For businesses with less flexibility at the source, offsetting is a concept of funding an equivalent emission reduction elsewhere. This allows any business the ability to support emission reduction.
• Offset production equipment emissions by supporting renewable energy usage by similar equipment in another area. • Buy emission offsets for corporate travel. • Fund renewable energy projects: energy efficiency, sequestration, or biomass.
With new legislation on the horizon, it has become critical for many companies to have a comprehensive carbon reduction strategy. Businesses must begin to understand both their direct and indirect exposure. Taiga Company offers professional consulting and small business resources to companies implementing business sustainability strategies to reduce emissions.
Al Gore has put his money where his, uh, urine is. The former VEEP and current environmental leader has invested in waterless urinals as a way to save energy and fresh water. I’ve used them, and I assume that Al tested them before investing as well. It’s something we have in common. These flushless, odor free urinals are a seemingly small step, but a significant one.
A recent article in Christian Science Monitor lays out the benefits of passing water without passing it through water. We all know that fresh water is a strained resource all over the world. Every drop counts. According to a report for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, a waterless urinal saves one to three gallons of fresh water per flush, compared with a normal model. Take a big office building or university campus with 10,000 men in it, peeing several times daily. That represents a savings of nearly 16 million gallons a year.
Waterless urinals have been installed everywhere from ballparks in the USA to the Taj Mahal in India. Still, less than 1% of the world’s urinals are waterless. With fresh water resources stressed all over the globe, pardon the pun, that should piss you off.
Some people think the idea of waterless urinals is gross. But they are well designed to let the stream flow, so to speak, while using special sealants and designs to keep odors out. Regular urinals, which are wet all the time, actually grow biofilms of growing organisms. And flushing creates a spray that lands on the rim, floor and as I can attest, sometimes the user, creating a breeding ground for bugs and germs.
Human urine is sterile and can be captured and made into fertilizer – it’s full of nitrogen. This waste to resource approach saves dollars and avoids petroleum based fertilizers, as well as avoids flushing nitrogen rich water into streams and oceans where they create algal blooms that suck the oxygen out of the water killing fish. And you thought peeing on your mother’s bushes was a killer.
A green-product company Ecovita in New Bedford, Mass has a urine diverting toilet and a waterless urinal that can be directed to a self-contained planter. This waterless urinal can also be used by women and is available on their website. Ornamental plants use the nitrogen in the urine- don’t tell the neighbors why the flowers are so fragrant!
Al Gore’s investment, Falcon Water Free Technologies has models that come in several styles and true to “guy stuff”, come with snappy names, from the F-1000 on the left, to the slimmer F-7000 and the sleek stainless F-9000SS! Why pee in an old plodding urinal when you can use one of these sleek models named like a jet plane?
The Benefits of a waterless urinal:
Cheaper to buy than flush urinals
Cheaper to maintain – no moving parts to break or leak
No water costs to operate
No more teenage boys stopping them up and flooding the men’s room
Water savings – one urinal can save up to 40,000 gallons of fresh water annually
Energy savings from water that does not need to be pumped, piped, or treated
Odor free
So men, stand up for waterless urinals! I mean, you’re standing anyway, right? Take matters in hand, so to speak, and hold your water until there’s no more water in your urinal! Ok, enough for now. All this writing and drinking coffee has gotten to me. I gotta go “water the garden.” And when you gotta go, you gotta go. Here, watch this video until I get back.
Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.
