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January 2005

in this issue:

Introduction - Sea birds suffer

Design

• Ideas that matter?
• Eco-globe Bra

Technology

• Solar Water
• Globalized hi-tech design

Environmental

• Pollute, and counteract greenhouse effect !?
• Lomborg Goes West
• Denmark, Maersk, and Kyoto
• Sweden most sustainable country
• Danish billion wind potential

Case Stories

• Wine alternatives, from GMO to RFID
• SoundScapes & Tony Brooks

Resources

• iNSnet

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Introduction

Due to the warm winter this year, many birds already appeared to be preparing to breed in early January. Furthermore, thousands of seemingly healthy North Sea birds didn't breed at all last year, causing alarming reports on the matter. There is little doubt amongst scientists using the oldest maritime data in the world, that global warming is the cause of these issues. Throughout the UK, newspapers such as The Independent and The Observer reported that precious stocks of plankton in the North Sea, the microscopic organisms on which all life in the sea-life depends have been depleted due to warming of the waters:
“As the very building blocks of the food chain disappear, fish and the birds that feed on them, such as the puffin and guillemot, are starving to death in what has been their natural home for thousands of years.” (source: forests.org/Observer)

Birds have many ocean-related problems, not limited to the North Sea or global warming. One major threat is plastic. In late 2004, Norwegian researchers claimed that a new additive can make plastic decompose faster than an apple. If true, perhaps there will one day be an end to reports such as the one sent a few years ago by Captain Charles Moore aboard Oceanographic Research Vessel, Alguita, from the threatened idyll of the Pacific Ocean:
I know that when people think of the deep blue ocean, they see images of pure, clean, unpolluted water. After we sample the surface water in the central Pacific, I often dive over with a snorkel and a small aquarium net. I have yet to come back after a fifteen minute swim without plastic fragments for my collection. I can no longer see pristine images when I think of the briny deep. Neither can I imagine any “beach cleanup” type of solution. Only elimination of the source of the problem can result in an ocean nearly free from plastic, and the desired result will only be seen by citizens of the third millennium AD. The battle to change the way we produce and consume plastics has just begun, but I believe it is essential that it be fought now. The levels of plastic particulates in the Pacific have at least tripled in the last ten years and a tenfold increase in the next decade is not unreasonable. Then, sixty times more plastic than plankton will float on its surface.
...
I am often asked why we can’t vacuum up the particles. In fact, it would be more difficult than vacuuming up every square inch of the entire United States, it’s larger and the fragments are mixed below the surface down to at least 30 meters. Also, untold numbers of organisms would be destroyed in the process. Besides, there is no economic resource that would be directly benefited by this process. We have not yet learned how to factor the health of the environment into our economic paradigm. We need to get to work on this calculus quickly, for a stock market crash will pale by comparison to an ecological crash on an oceanic scale.

If you dare to read the full report, it is to be found at mindfully.org
If one prefers the video footage, there's still some blue water to be seen at:
www.alguita.com/video_footage.html (9 min. 25 sec.)However, sustainable development also includes environmental considerations and we wonder why the environment so often seems to be ignored or forgotten, as though we either are powerless or do not want to change direction or indeed pay any attention to the environmental consequences of our human activity.

It is easy to find stories about ethical issues but has become more difficult to find stories about people and companies who really make a difference in terms of environmental impact. Ethics have become trendy. We need to remember the other aspects of sustainability as well.

" . . . instead of climate change, let us create a climate for change"
(Secretary-General Kofi Annan's message to the UN Energy Globe Awards)

Design

• Ideas that matter?

ICIS is currently assessing the effects of an initiative for sustainability through creative design, sponsored by international paper company, Sappi Europe. Sappi is the world’s leading producer of coated fine paper used in the production of high quality print. Their Ideas that Matter campaign provides funding to support creative design for social good and awards financial grants of up to €50,000 to pay for the full implementation of a print campaign for a non-profit organisation. Read more about the Ideas that Matter initiative on www.IdeasThatMatter.sappi.com.

• Eco-Globe Bra

Triumph International Japan has presented the company's 'Eco-globe Bra' for their spring/summer 2005 collection. The lingerie maker produced the globe-shaped brassiere from corn, Deccan hemp, and paper as a licensed product, that sadly will not be available for general sale. It will promote EXPO 2005 which will be held with the global theme of 'Love and the Planet' from next March in Aichi prefecture, central Japan.
Source: Tokyo Times

Technology

• Solar Water

A child dies of dehydration due to diarrhea every 15 seconds. In countries hit hard by the tsunami, this is likely to be an even higher statistic, as water suppies and sewage systems were damaged and salt water has intruded huge fresh water basins. If water disinfection took place in decentralized systems, much less harm would have been done to entire areas in such situations.
Several solutions have been developed in the past decade, including sun powered cleaning devices such as the Osprey system launched last spring.
In 1991 the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology developed and tested the Solar Water Disinfections Process, SODIS. During the World Water Days 2001, SODIS was recommended by the WHO as a cheap and simple method of drinking water treatment, and received a special award at the 2004 Energy Globe World Awards for Sustainability.
SODIS offers a simple technology, using solar radiation to destroy pathogenic microorganisms. Contaminated water is filled into transparent PET bottles - putting discarded plastic to good use along the way - and exposed to sunlight for six hours. Sunlight treats the contaminated water through two synergetic mechanisms: Radiation in the spectrum of UV-A and increased water temperature.
Source: www.energyglobe.at.

• Globalized hi-tech design

Many countries in Europe are facing the challenge of globalization. Lower wages and transportation costs and sparse environmental demands overseas make it difficult to compete globally in the manufacturing and agriculture industries, without heavy subsidies. Instead, research, hi-tech and innovative design have become the future "Western niche".

Bio-tech has certainly won, and nano-technology may become the next big thing in the West. However, prospects for innovation technology look more dim as Indian software engineering is reaching very high levels of output and increasing sophistication. On the hardware side, Macworld 2005 in San Francisco certainly revealed exciting news in terms of consumer electronics, particularly from CEO Steve Jobs (the man behind the stunning development of Pixar Studios in the lucrative area of animated entertainment).
But recent news from across the Pacific Ocean shows Samsung taking innovation to new levels, perhaps showing joint ventures exemplified by SonyEricsson to be a model for the future, as the following cases illustrate:

Samsung Cell Case:
Samsung's new SCH-S310 mobile phone recognizes continuous movement in 3-dimensional space: shake the phone twice to end a call or delete the last SMS you've read; move it in a circle to make it write a "yes", etc.
Samsung has developed and commercialized a moving algorithm to calculate the recognition of moving shape in 3D space, using only sensors built into a mobile phone. Movement sensors in mobile phones have so far been limited to slope calculations and applied to some games and bio-related features.
Samsung's press release claims that this technology will do away with the need for complex keypads on mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras and other handheld products. In particular, this will effect the way games are played on a mobile phone as many functions will be controlled by movement instead of buttons.
In its communication, Samsung makes clear that the development of 3D movement recognition was a joint project between Samsung Electronics and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology. The project has resulted in applications for 22 domestic and foreign patents and 14 technical papers presented at leading academic societies.
Source: www.samsung.com


Samsung Display Case:
Samsung Electronics also has developed an extremely light 5" LCD panel prototype, made from bendable plastic and intends to commercialize products based on the technology by 2007.
The first products using the screens will be notebook PCs and other portable consumer electronics product. More exotic wearable display products such as helmets, glasses,and fashion accessories could come later.
One year ago, Dutch Philips announced that it would be ready to mass-produce a similar 5", curved, and even roll-up type displays by 2005. However, their low-resolution black and white version would only last for months, not years, which is neither the most attractive or sustainable solution.
Samsung’s prototypes were developed in cooperation with South Korean plastic LCD maker SoftPixel as part of a program funded by the South Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy.
Sources: PC World and GeekCom

ICIS View: Samsung received a poor score on the 2004 Computer Report Card by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition as reported by ICIS NeWS (july 2004). The company then promised Greenpeace to engage in an ambitious program to reduce toxic materials in various products. This move further narrows any lead on environmental efforts that Western companies claim to have when appealing to consumers with a conscience.

Environmental

• Pollute, and counteract the greenhouse effect !?

It seemed to be a horrible irony, when the world learned a few years ago that pollution may reduce the greenhouse effect, particularly because pollution and global warming generally stem from the same types of human activities.
However, NASA’s Ames Reseach Center has released a new study which refutes this connection. “Contrary to expectations, scientists observed that polluted, low-lying clouds do not generally hold more water than cleaner clouds. Low clouds cool the planet by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth’s surface, and more water makes a cloud more reflective.”
NASA scientist Andrew Ackerman comments that “the results of this work should provide for more realistic treatment of polluted clouds in climate models, improving predictions of future climate”.
Source: NASA

ICIS View:
So, no helping hand from polluted clouds; bad news for some. The good news is that the contrary view isn’t true either: fighting the green house effect won’t automatically create more pollution. Let’s do it!

• Bjørn Lomborg Goes West

Last summer, Bjorn Lomborg left the still new Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen with a desire to return to an academic environment (more on this).
However, this career change didn't last long; Lomborg has just quit his position as associate professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus and is currently based in San Francisco where he intends to contribute to the debate on environmental “myths” from a cost-benefit perspective.
In the Danish daily Politiken (01/06/2005), Bjorn Lomborg rejects the idea of creating a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean – the $20 million is better spent on other serious problems, he comments: “Security is an asset, but it’s also an asset to be able to give medical care to a child suffering from diarrhea-related diseases”.

ICIS View:
It is amazing that a serious journal like The Economist welcomes such an idea. This kind of logic should make us stop investing in airport and flight security - and only spend money on halting the many daily killings in road traffic.

• Denmark, Maersk and Kyoto

Three journalists from the Danish daily newspaper Politiken have written a new book about the country's largest company, A.P. Møller - Maersk, and about Mr. Maersk himself (Mærsk - Manden og magten).
The portrait includes some alarming statistical data: Maersk activities account for more than one-third of the Danish energy consumption, and more than one-fourth of the country's CO2-emissions. Maersk is also responsible for some 80% of the total sulphur dioxide pollution in Denmark.
The U.S. Army would be in trouble without A.P. Møller – Maersk; the company runs the world's largest container fleet, but also operates a commercial airline and oil and gas enterprises in the North Sea, amongst other things. Politiken's journalists, Bjørn Lambek, Peter Suppli Benson and Stig Ørskov, point to the lack of balance between these figures and the company's actual contribution to the Danish economy. Maersk companies contribute approx. 9% to the national economy, and its work force share is well below 5%.
Backed by a 2002-report from the Environmental Assessment Institute, the Danish government has decided not to do too much about the emissions for the time being - and comes in last in the European Environment Agency's assessment of CO2-reductions in Europe. In 2010, Denmark will have exceeded its emissions quota by almost one third unless measures are taken, an EEA January 2005 report says.

ICIS View:
It is a mystery why these Maersk figures have not been disclosed before. The discussion of possible strategies for reducing its Danish CO2-emissons has been intense and has been considered with regards to the national economy; the energy sector, and general business conditions in the country.
These Maersk figures are not even included in an October 2002 report from the Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen. IMV sets out to analyse various scenarios for costs associated with Denmark's reduction of CO2-emissons following the Kyoto Protocol. The entire report consists of comments and recommendations from statistical data - but completely fails to mention that more than a quarter of the emissions can be attributed to a single company. The Maersk economy becomes national economy, which severely limits the report's perspective on possible strategies for CO2-reductions in the country.
Since Denmark is to reduce its emissions by 21% from a 1990-level by the year 2012, one possible strategy would be coercive measures, including green taxes, on Maersk-type activities - and to reimburse the company in other ways.

• Sweden most sustainable OECD country

Sweden is the most sustainable developed country in the world, according to a survey of the 30 OECD countries. The study was undertaken by Swiss bank Züricher Kantonalbank (ZKB) and measures one hundred indicators of sustainability, covering environment, health and social issues. Sweden topped the chart, ahead of Denmark, who initially came first on the chart when ZKB first performed the exercise in 2002. Switzerland came in third. At the bottom of the list are the USA, Turkey and finally Mexico.
All countries with a high sustainability score also had a good credit rating. However, not all those with a sound credit rating did well in the sustainability index (download pdf-file here: http://www.zkb.ch/zkb/nachhaltigkeit-en/pdf/rating_04.pdf)
The exercise is intended as a counterpoint to the more established system of credit ratings, ZKB states. These systems chart the financial and economic standing of countries but "include only minimal information on the environmental situation and social factors".
Source: BEIDS

• Danish billion wind potential
  

Converting more fuel burning plants in Denmark into alternative energy sources, could save the country some $20 billion in a 25-year period, according to the Danish technology daily, Ingeniøren (The Engineer). This is also a net figure which excludes environmental gains, job effects, etc.
Another report released this winter by Danish Metal union and the association of engineers, IDA, suggests that such a strategy may create some 4,000 new jobs in just a few years. Windmills and other non-fossil sources are able to replace large parts of today's oil and coal, in combination with energy-saving technologies and incentives.
Now that neighbouring Sweden has just decided to close down its nuclear reactor at Barsebäck, Denmark is likely to make plans to compensate for that cheap Swedish electricity. But how? Sweden probably felt secure after Denmark decided not to reduce its electricity production (in order to meet its Kyoto treatise goals), which may have left Nordic power networks temporarily suffering - the two countries are partners in an interconnected Nordic electricity system.
Jørgen Henningsen, chief advisor to the EU Transport and Energy commissioner, comments that Ingeniøren is in accordance with the EU sustainable energy policies, but adds that sceptics are right in warning that a liberalized energy sector lacks the “mechanisms for focussed energy politics in a deregulated energy market".
Source: Ingeniøren, 12 November 2004

Case Stories

• Wine alternatives, from GMO to RFID
  

If you love red wine, you may be familiar with Fetzer Zinfandel and other wines from the Northern California vineyard. It‘s less likely that you know of Cortes de Cima in Portugal where a Danish wine grower, Hans Kristian Jørgensen, uses sustainability principles in his high quality wine production.
Both of the wineries mentioned, amongst others have initiated recycling programmes for many parts of the company - a rather complex operation at Fetzer, with several wineries involved and a much larger operation than Cortes de Cima. The Fetzer sustainability programme is huge, and even includes the instructions for how the corks - from Portugal - are packed in containers for shipping and bottling.

Paul Dolan has been the president of Fetzer since 1992 and is highly committed to sustainability. In an interview with Enlightened Brand Journal last year Dolan explains the ideas guiding the company:
"Fetzer is actually tightly focused on and continuously balancing several bottom lines. Fetzer calls this focus E3, and it is how they both define their company purpose and measure success. E3 is shorthand for Economics, Environment, and Equity. Sustainability was a concept. E3 is all about action."

California's Energy Commission is involved in electricity-saving projects with Fetzer, and Silicon Valley has moved in at the Mendocino vineyards where Fetzer has equipped its vines with radio-transmitting sensors. The RFID-type chips on every fourth plant in every other row send information on light intensity, humidity, temperature and the amount of moisture escaping from the leaf.
This reduces the need for water, fertilizer and other types of management - to the extent that Fetzer has ruled out the ideas of GMO crops in its wineries. In fact, Fetzer recently teamed up with regional farmers and Mendocino inhabitants who managed to introduce a county-wide ban on GM growing, so as to avoid airborne GM contamination as well.
And Fetzer doesn't even stop at that, with its intention to go all-organic from 2010 and has already produced quality wine from organic grapes with more success than most local or global competitors.

Cortes de Cima is not an entirely organic operation, but Jørgensen's approach comes close. "In Portugal we have been pioneers of an environmentally friendly solution for the disposal of our winery waste water", says Jørgensen. The waste water is conducted through a variety of holding ponds and a reed bed purification plant, a natural method of sewage purification.
An elevated trellis system exposes the grapes to the additional sun and air that helps fight fungus and mildew the natural way - with less spraying. This is an important part of what Cortes de Cima terms its Integrated Protection program that was initiated in 1996.
The effort for achieving biological diversity and balance, both above and below ground, is not just a romantic idea. It originates from the recognition that healthy soils are critical to sustainable systems. The system prefers healthy biological processes over chemical inputs, Jørgensen says – “but where chemicals are used, several techniques are encouraged to ensure that the chemical is the least disruptive, least toxic, and is applied most effectively.”

ICIS View:
The Syrah 2002 received a silver medal in last year’s San Francisco Intl. Wine Competition. And forget about Primitivo - coincidentally, this Syrah wine has a rare resemblance with Fetzer's Zinfandel! Could it be the rich taste of sustainability that shines through in both wines?
Sources:
www.cortesdecima.com/pages/pages.php?id=19
www.fetzer.com/fetzer/wineries/philosophy.aspx

• SoundScapes - Exploring the Human Interactive Kinesphere

Care Here is a European project for creating “aesthetically resonant environments” as an aid to disabled and elderly persons and for rehabilitation. “Care Here” is based on a unique technology developed by Tony Brooks, Associate Professor at Aalborg University Esbjerg, in Denmark. At the University Tony is the leader of the Sensorama complex, coordinator of the Medialogy education and is involved in the new Digital Design education - M.Sc.Eng. Digital Design in Esbjerg (including specialising in Computer Games).

Tony Brooks has created SoundScapes, a unique, camera- and sensor-based platform for inter-disciplinary research, application, and new knowledge exchange, towards investigation of new opportunities in human performance so as to realise potentials in quality of life.
The system - based on MCA, synchronized multiple camera analysis - can be modified to various ends, but basically synchronizes with human gesture as a virtual coach in rehabilitation therapy. A brain damaged or severely disabled person may experience sudden access to a range of expression in sound and imagery that they was always (or by accident) cut off from.
Even the slightest movement of head or finger can be captured by the sensor system and mapped to control of sound, colours, images and other feedback. However the most important element is "FUN" - it is fun to have SoundScapes therapy and often users are motivated beyond their usual threshold. see a video demo here. (8 mb quicktime video).

Tony Brooks' SoundScapes system is permanently installed in several Scandinavian therapy studios, but it has been applied in a variety of contexts internationally - and won him a Eureka top prize in 1999 for user oriented multimedia with his design of a "Telehealth system". Brooks' work has been at the heart of several publicly sponsored projects in Denmark, including Centre for the Rehabilitation of Brain Injury CRBI, Copenhagen University where SoundScapes was the basis of the feasibility study Humanics. www.cfh.ku.dk
It all started back in Wales, with music: Tony created a pedal which enabled his spastic uncle to control the level and sound pattern from Tony's electric guitar in which way they could interact through music. An Auckland organization recently documented an extended and localized "concert" version of Brooks' aesthetic resonant environments in a 30 min. video. More visual introduction is available at www.expressivetherapy.com - where Tony Brooks is referred to as "perhaps the world's leading expert on interactive multi-sensory installations and new human performance systems".

In September 2006, the Department of Software and Media Technology in Aalborg University Esbjerg will host the sixth International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies, ICDVRAT 2006 and the Inaugural ARTABILITATION® conference where Brooks is co-chair and chair respectively. ICDVRAT 2006.
At www.soundscapes.dk Brook's open source approach to software and research is fully demonstrated: Tony Brooks networking partners in an EU-financed development project are listed, and directions to his university site are also available here. He has developed a commercial application of the system which may have game potential as well.

Quotes and comments on Tony Brooks:

"The view taken here is that research in the area of Neuromuscular control, biomechanical aspects of performance, the link between cognition and action, together with recent developments related to pathology and adaptation can inform rehabilitation methods through implementation of this concept. "
- Marshall, F.J. M.D. Neurologist

“An EU leader in interventional informatics assistive technologies and entirely new methods of human - computer interaction”
- Tarnanas 2004

"Musicians, philosophers, poets, performers, artists of all persuasions continue on their earnest unending search to define music, the 'what' and 'how' and 'wherefore' of it. Tony Brooks, a visionary performing musician, must be included in this roster. Tony Brooks has conceptualised and actualised his ideas through the use of extremely sophisticated technological machinery which enables those with brain injuries to express themselves in turn. It is the music that ultimately gives them that freedom."
- Joyce Rohr, USA/Denmark

“What so deeply touched me was the fact that, in your message, I found a very strong echo of what is a major concern in my life: that people must be in first place even in a world impregnated with technology. "
- Jose Morais, Portugese ministry of education, Lisbon

Resources

• Internetwork for Sustainability

iNSnet is a great Netherland-based news service in English. The new site promotes a sustainable society by offering access to news, opinions and information sources related to sustainable development and by supporting sustainable projects with communication and knowledge.

Source: www.insnet.org

Contact ICIS

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Copy editor: Trudy Follwell