Thanks to the pupils who created this comics!
> Solar Impulse has excited French and British students in two FuturEnergia school visits in February and July. The presentation of the Solar Impulse, a solar airplane which flies with the help of plastic materials, has been the main highlight for both visits, including a more general presentation on saving energy and protecting the planet.
> Pupils in Copley High School wrote grateful letters to the experts sharing their enthusiasm and inspiration: "You had managed to make us laugh, smile and learn by interacting with the students"; "the work and dedication going into the project is absolutely astonishing and I would like to be part of it"; "we really enjoyed watching the video, as it made the whole lecture really clearer".
> FuturEnergia organised four online debates from January until June 2012.
The online debates gave teachers and pupils the great opportunity to ask questions to the experts on crucial topic about energy efficiency, such as: Sustainable Buildings, Marine Litter, Bioplastics, and Plastics and Sports. Few more debates are foreseen for October/November. Stay tuned on the website!
Anna Komorowska, who is the wife of Polish President, Bronislaw Komorowski, has become the chairwoman of the Council in February, when she received the nomination from Jerzy Buzek, the previous leader of the Council. ‘This coalition connects people who represent government, parliament, NGOs, businessmen and regular citizens and shows that such cooperation is possible, and what is more important, brings incredible results’, said the First Lady during the meeting.
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A Love Story… In Milk from Catsnake on Vimeo.
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One of the companies producing mineral water in Poland – Zywiec Zdroj – has launched a project which aims at planting as many trees as possible. There are many celebrities, politicians and other famous people who promote the idea among the citizens of our country. So far they have been able to plant over 2 million trees in the southern part of Poland, prepare and conduct 55 local ecological projects with 3,000 inhabitants and 130 local organizations involved, prepared 23 workshops for 300 teachers all over the country.
In order to plant your tree you simple enter the website, pick the location and it’s ready!
CEMEX – one of the companies in Poland, together with an ecological organization ‘Nasza Ziemia’ launched a competition among the companies producing concrete to collect the electro-waste. The result was unbelievable – almost 15 tons of electro-waste was collected. It is going to be recycled. The competition was part of an ecological educational program introduced at CEMEX to promote the issues concerning saving of the environment among the workers of the company.
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On the 11th of June 2011, in Warsaw we will be able to visit an ecology-friendly motor fair with a vehicle constructed by the students at the Technical University in Warsaw; it is an electrical car. The fair is organized to promote the ‘Using less, living better – Green Week 2011’ in Poland, according to the debate which took place in Brussels. There will also be an exhibition of jewelry and toys made from every-day things, which we often throw out.
Lifecycle thinking tells us that to understand the true impact of a product on the environment, we need to consider every stage of its existence. This could typically include extraction and production of raw materials (such as crude oil or metal ores), transport to production sites, production, transport to installation, installation, use, removal, transport to waste management facility (e.g. recycling plant), and recycling.
What we have today is a mass of different measurements and methods for calculating product impacts. Most people will be familiar with the carbon footprint, which measures greenhouse gas emissions associated with particular products or activities. A number of other calculation methodologies also exist, such as the water footprint, sustainability appraisal, social footprint and cradle-to-cradle certification. However many of these methodologies are flawed, for the reason that they only measure a very small number of environmental impacts, and not always across the entire lifecycle.
Lifecycle assessments (LCAs) are more rigorous tools to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service. This involves compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases, evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with these inputs and releases, and interpreting the results.
This final stage – interpretation of results – is crucial in identifying the most important materials and choices for climate protection. To give an example, the materials used to construct vehicles determine how heavy they are. The heavier the vehicle, the more fuel it will burn, and the more carbon dioxide it will produce. Understanding the right mix of materials to reduce vehicle weight without compromising other aspects such as safety will therefore help protect the climate. On average 15-20% of materials used in the construction of a car are plastics. However, the weight of each car is not increasing as much as if alternative materials were used in place of plastics. This saves around 5% in emissions. For aviation, 22% of the Airbus A380 is made of plastics, helping to reduce fuel consumption by 15% over its lifecycle.
Science – and in particular chemistry – also helps us understand the most beneficial ways to deal with products which have reached the end of their useful lives. Most of the plastics that are in use are thermoplastics. After they have been collected and sorted, they can be melted again and reshaped into other articles. This enables plastics to be used in a number of different formats throughout their lifecycle. One good example is the front screens of mobiles: the different colour front-plates are made from recycled polystyrene earlier used as disposable coffee cups. This is not possible with thermoset plastics, which have a molecular structure that makes the material decompose if heated to very high temperatures.
For those plastics which can’t be recycled, LCAs demonstrate that the most effective way to protect the climate is to use them as a source of energy. Plastics are in essence solid oil, so can be used as fuel in special incinerators which efficiently convert the energy released into heat and electricity.
This chat will help students to understand some of the ways in which science can help us identify the right choices to make to protect the climate.
However, in an era of fossil fuel constraints, do plastics as oil derivates still have a place in the material mix of the future?
In fact, plastics are flexible, resource-efficient and adaptable to the changing needs of society. They can provide innovative solutions to challenges such as energy generation and distribution, as well as reduce the consumption of natural resources.
Plastics also play an integral role in the development of new technologies to help manage the energy crisis. Polymers are the basic material for flexible solar cells, providing a range of functions that are required by fuel cell membranes; rotor blades and weather-resistant turbine components for wind power stations must be made from plastics to ensure that they withstand rough weather con¬ditions, on and off shore.
Photovoltaics (which capture energy from the sun) are already widely used across many applications, from solar panels on the roofs of buildings to solar farms on fields and pastures. These sys¬tems cannot operate without components made from polymers with insulating, sealing and protective properties. Photovoltaic cells are increasingly printed onto plastic film. For countries with a lot of sun, the potential uses of photovoltaics are limitless: mobile solar cells can be integrated into small mobile devices. Similarly, vehicles can be covered with a thin layer of photovoltaic film to generate electricity.
Plastics can also help save natural resources. A new product showing us a glimpse of the future is Perfectuile, an innovative tile manufactured from recycled HDPE and LDPE (two types of plastics. It is the first plastic tile to combine ecological performance with aesthetics, lightness and solidity, as well as heat and sound insulation. It is highly resistant to wind, snow and hail and will not flake or crack. The manufacturing process allows for waste recycling with an energy balance lower than that for ceramic tiles, and at a cost lower than that for slate.
Polymers can also save valuable drinking water. Thanks to smart engineering, modern washing machines consume much less water than ever before. At the end of the 19th century, washing machines used about 100 liters of water per washing cycle. Modern machines and modern detergents have helped cut this figure to 50-60 liters. This helps the 24 million households in France that wash 100 times/year, save at least 950 million liters of water!
Plastics are also fundamentally changing hi-tech products. OLEDs (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) are already used for the illumination of mobile phone, PDA and e-book reader displays – with polymers as the source of illumination. These diodes are very bright, very efficient and they consume very little power. Plastic displays have become flexible and can be rolled or moulded into any desired shape. One of their very latest applications is about to enter many homes in extra-flat television screens, which are even flexible and can be rolled up.
Thanks to new research, advanced polymers are now also making sophisticated contributions in medicine. German researchers have worked with plastic electronics to develop new flat screens. Electrochromic substances that change colour in an electric field work to show colours and attractive lettering on plastic foil. This new technology could be particularly useful on medical packaging, by displaying multi-lingual, potentially life-saving information at the touch of a button.
Personal health monitoring may also become possible by incorporating sensors into clothes to measure and transmit vital information, such as blood pressure. In this way, smart textiles could transform the lives of people suffering from chronic disorders, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, by detecting warning signs early and regardless of the wearer’s location.
This is just a tiny glimpse of some of the ways in which plastics can help shape the future. No-one can say what the next 100 years will bring, but plastics can contribute to helping mankind face the unpredictable challenges ahead.
We wish to create a long-term energy efficiency and renewable energy strategy as well as an operative plan for primary, secondary, higher professional schools and universities at national level. We will contribute to the energy culture of students, teachers, building managers, school management and other representatives of educational institutions. This will take place through different educational and promotional activities, dissemination, informational tools for energy management and energy sustainable organisational measures. With well developed national energy strategy and dissemination activities we will also influence representatives of local authorities and the competent national bodies responsible for national legislation and directly linked with financing of expenses for all energy use and almost all investments in renewable energy sources in the educational sector.
Involving schools and introducing curricular and and extra-curricular activities
a) organisational/practical actions covering energy control operation systemisation, energy management, energy book-keeping, adaptation of school time-tables, making web connections.
Picture 1: Simple of ŠCV Energy engineering web portal http://ei.scv.si
b) education and training activity for pupils, students, employed staff to make them aware of RUE (Rational use of Energy) and RES (Renewable Energy Sources) in and outside school.
Picture 2: Meeting of project partners Active Learning and Kids for Future
Pictures 3 & 4: RES and students
c) implementation of the project weeks of RUE and RES for students
Students participating to the project week on the school subject The rational use of energy made energy audits of their homes and took part of information on rational energy use and renewable energy sources and ecology. This information relates to sustainable development and is today an extremely important modern topic. In addition, pupils participated to laboratory exercises.
One of the school’s energy experts was responsible for the organization of the project and the general learning. Another teacher conducted laboratory exercises with some of the older students, who helped the younger ones and ensured safety. Students of 1st year did experiments in the real environment in accordance with safety regulations. The subject of renewable energy sources was introduced by a school expert and students could learn about the newest applications of solar power technology.
At the final presentation attended by school teachers, students, their parents and media, students presented the results of their home energy audits. These audits will be taken into account in the overall course assessment.
Pictures 5 & 6: Students of 1st class - The environmental technician – RUE & RES project week
We would like to invite you to register your classes to take part in the next FuturEnergia Online Debate. A maximum of two schools per country will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis, as it is said in English.
The forthcoming online debate is a chat with Nadia Weekes, experienced editor specialized in European environmental affairs.
• Theme: “COP15: limits and achievements”
• Age group: 14-20
• Date: 10 February 2010
• Time: 13.00 CET
• Guest: Nadia Weekes, editor of ENDS Europe, a leading Europe's environmental news and information service.
• Resources
• Language: English
How to register?
The teachers who would like to take part in the chat with their classes should register by sending an email to futurenergia@eun.org
The registration email should contain the following information:
• School name, town and country
• Students' age
• Teacher name
• Teacher e-mail
• Phone number during the chat
• Registration deadline: 5 February 2010