Just a few minutes ago I found the following images within Google Maps and took some screenshots because I just can’t figure out why there are these detailed shots of the scenery (south of Embu in Kenya). Maybe you know? Is this some sort of highway to-be-built?

Heck, you can even count the plants. This is an amazingly detailed view, imo (2m vs. 5m in e.g. Frankfurt).

Twestival is a world-wide, almost simultaneous event (live streaming) and attendees are encouraged to donate some money to Charity Water, an NGO active in Ethiopia.

Somehow in a Prof. George Ayittey-way and having previously gained some experience on NGOs, the water business and having a different perspective (of an African/European intellectual) on it, I do of course feel a bit discomforted with such mass-donation events that a) promote water as a sexy (and innocent) cause and b) provide absolution to some Westeners who “want to do good”. Sorry, but sustainable approaches just don’t work that way. I would rather prefer institutional changes than the drilling of wells for areas on which we do not even have groundwater maps. But maybe that’s just me and my scepticism.

On the other hand, I somehow adore how they are making use of social media tools to mobilize the masses. Maybe this is what it takes to reach the masses. And this is also very cool:

“Tweet some facts” via Twitter.

I think we should also use this for ecological sanitation projects. Using social media to mobilize the masses. Kudos to CharityWater for this really smart approach!

—

One of the reaons for the success of Twitter and other micro-blogging services, I think, is also the lack of alternatives.

Yes. Even in 2009, there’s still no decent mobile blogging client except for Twitter & Co.

What I am looking for is an application designed for a smartphone that enables me to quickly post an update to my website, with annotated images, maybe also video content and the ability to edit all of this as well as moderate comments. All of the previously mentioned apps for Symbian S60 phones and plugins for WordPress.org installations just don’t do the job for me. And I don’t know about this on the iPhone. Is it any better? Would be a reason to switch phones.

So, even though Twitter is just a micro-blogging service with a limitation to 140 characters / message, it helps to serve the basic idea behind blogging: connecting people through conversations. And besides, with this character limit it is also compatible with another popular service: SMS.

—

I really like the idea of combining social media tools with the sector I am active in: sustainable sanitation.? Maybe that’s just the way forward for me.

The Peepoo bag is a biodegradable bioplastic bag “that sanitise the human excreta shortly after the defecation, preventing the faeces from contaminating the immediate as well as the larger environment”. It’s clearly aimed at current users of flying toilets (~ defecate in a bag during the night or at dawn and throw it away), which is why Peepoople are currently testing it in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya.

2008 is almost closing and with all that terror and stupidity we’ve seen in the world, I’ve? asked myself about the impact of the International Year of Sanitation which was set up by the UNSGAB for 2008 and whether it actually changed anything to the better.

What about you? Have you thought about or improved your sanitary facilities? Do you have a proper toilet at home and at work? Yes?

Am asking because my (former) colleagues at work actually tested these bags and – not being used to the Flying Toilet system – came up with a list of pros and cons regarding this “technology”:

pro

• good for temporary / emergency situations
• may be used at home at night
• allows for a sanitization within a short time and prevents odours
• polyethylene (PE) bag decomposes into carbon and hydrogen compounds after about ~ 80 days
• relatively low cost

cons

• no permanent nor sustainable solution
• plastic bag may be too thin + too small
• ammonia gas may leak from torn bags & will become an immediate public health problem
• bag system is patented => how do you prevent fake (= non biodegradable) bags?

Turns out I am the only person in the office who thinks this may be an improvement to the people in Kibera.

What do YOU think? Will this be an interesting alternative for over-populated areas such as Kibera?

[UPDATE]: There’s a follow-up to this post on Saniblog.

Eine sehr gute Dokumentation von Kathrin Latsch namens “Die grüne Revolution” über Braungart/McDonough, den Stoffkreislauf für technologische und biologische Nährstoffe und mit jeder Menge guter Praxisbeispiele – die vom NDR leider auf den unmöglichsten Sendeplatz überhaupt gesetzt wurde: in der Nacht vom Montag auf Dienstag, 15.-16.12, morgens um 3:40 Uhr.

Michael Braungart wies uns letztens auf den Sendetermin hin, also schnell den Online Videorekorder programmiert und schwupps ist die Sendung auf dem eigenen Rechner. Wer eine Kopie der Dokumentation für den Privatgebrauch haben möchte – bitte bei mir melden. Sind 460 MB, DiVX-Qualität.

Was Ihr auf dem Screenshot seht, stellt den Windelbedarf eines Kindes während des ersten Lebensjahres dar. 1800 Stück. Wären die Windeln alle biologisch abbaubar, würden sie später nicht als Sondermüll enden. Braungart sagt in der Dokumentation u.a., dass das Feuchtigkeitsbindemittel in den Windeln beispielsweise auch zur Begrünung von Wüsten in Spanien eingesetzt werden könnte.

Unter anderem erwähnt er auch, dass 2/3 des Kohlstenstoffs in den Böden vorhanden ist – und weißt damit auf das Problem des Humusverbrauchs hin. Brennstoffe aus Biomasse? Gerne, aber nur dann wenn für die Anpflanzung von Zuckerrohr – aus dem in Brasilien u.a. Bioethanole hergestellt werden – keine Wälder gerodet werden. So gesehen ist der ecosan Ansatz das fehlende Glied in der Nährstoffkette – Fäkalien und Urin werden entweder getrennt gesammelt und kompostiert bzw. als Dünger eingesetzt, oder zur Gewinnung von Biogas vergoren und danach vererdet.

Vor allem aber wird auch in dieser Dokumentation (siehe die andere aus den Niederlanden) deutlich, dass Umweltschutz und gutes Wirtschaften sich nicht gegenseitig ausschließen, sondern gut ergänzen können. Genau diesen Ansatz verfolge ich auch mit meiner Diplomarbeit zum Thema “sanitation as a business” – gute Sanitärversorgung bringt wirtschaftlichen Mehrwert und eben nicht nur mehr Würde. Alleine schon aus volkswirtschaftlicher Sicht ist eine durchdachte Sanitärversorgung (nicht -entsorgung!) förderlich – man denke an all die Menschen, die aufgrund von Krankheiten (hervorgerufen durch mangelnde Hygiene, Toiletten, etc.) nicht am Arbeitsleben teilnehmen können. Dies betrifft alle Menschen auf diesem Planeten.

Unser kleiner Studienstandort Suderburg wird in der Dokumentation übrigens auch erwähnt. Und auch hier zeigt sich, dass Suderburg eben nicht nur im Wasserbau einen guten Ruf hat, sondern auch durch Experten wie Braungart überregional bekannt gemacht wird. Bleibt nur zu hoffen, dass die Kollegen vor Ort die Chance nutzen und ihr Studienangebot dementsprechend anpassen.

Der Deutsche Bundestag fordert die Bundesregierung auf,

…

2. dafür zu werben, dass in der internationalen Zusammenarbeit zukünftige Trinkwasserprojekte immer eine Sanitärkomponente enthalten;

…

4. dazu beizutragen, dass die lokale Bevölkerung in Angelegenheiten der sanitären Grundversorung und Trinkwasserversorgung angemessen informiert und beteiligt wird;

5. eine Strategie vorzulegen, wie die Kompetenzen deutscher Unternehmen…….im Bereich der Sanitärversorung stärker genutzt werden können….

…

14. den Ecosan-Ansatz auch bei internationalen Organisationen wie der FAO und regionalen Entwicklungsbanken bekannt zu machen und seine Anwendung einzufordern;

Na, das liest man doch gerne.

Gefunden in der Drucksache 16/11204, einem Antrag (vom 03.12.08) verschiedener MdBs um die sanitäre Grundversorung international zu verbessern.

Eigentlich erschreckend, dass hierfür eine Große Anfrage nötig war, um die Aufmerksamkeit der Bundesregierung auf dieses wichtige Thema zu lenken.

Nutec is all about nutrients that will remain in a biological or technical loop, or as the tagline on their website reads: “Everlasting Cycles: How Waste becomes Food”.

Nutec was partly organized by EPEA which is run by Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart – who is the B in MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry) – an international consulting company that tries to a) sell the philosophy of the so-called Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept and b) tries to achieve this by convincing companies to obtain a C2C certification.

closing the loop on technical and biologial nutrients

Since Michael was my professor at university and since I a firm believer in this philosophy of closing the loops (which is one of the reasons I started becoming active in the field of ecological sanitation), it was particularly interesting to see how this event was set up, where the aims are, what kind of visitors it would attract and what any possible outcomes are.

Those of you who frequently visit other green blogs like Treehugger.com, know that C2C is a “sexy” and already very popular approach at dealing with the protection of our environment. And those who have read McDonoughs & Braungart’s famous Cradle to Cradle book often agree that their idea of another industrial revolution actually is the way to go. Maybe not at once, but in small steps and by starting today. I’ve even convinced some older folks in the business who have a very green background, especially since this whole green movement has been active here in Europe way back in the 1980s when our US-American friends only had green flower people – so opinions on “what needs to be done” had already been settled, with the usual discussions. Unfortunately, green activists had in the past often only experienced a negative image, partly due to their bad rhetorics. You simply can not tell anyone he’s doing someting bad if your only solution is to advice him on doing less (bad things).

McDonough & Braungart both achieved to market their idea of another industrial revolution, where they are asking companies to redesign their products into greener products. Products whose materials remain as nutrients and may then be reused for another purpose. I won’t go into more details here because I’ve blogged about this subject more than once during the last three years and there are various other resources online that give a much better insight into the subject.

Trigema – Germany’s famous manufacturer of clothes who produces compostable shirts right here in Germany. The CEO of Trigema was present at their booth and really impressed me. Talking about Corporate Social Resposibility - big up for Trigema!

Back to the Nutec exhibition: this year’s event was a trial set up by EPEA to see / test how the public and international scene reacts. Messe Frankfurt, the world’s largest trade fair organiser, actually accepted a loss of 1,2 Million Euros to host this event – provided that EPEA/ElcaMedia continues to invite to another Nutec conference & fair, maybe next year in Hong Kong.

And this is what it was all about: an international event, hosted to pool interested visitors and their contributions, with about 60 exhibitors (this time only) that showcasted some of their ideas and approaches. And mind you, the idea behind all this is not to display eco products, but instead show the world that a better world is possible with economic incentives. After all, no company in this world will change its products only because of some environmental concerns. Instead, there’s money to be made out of this – analyzing your material flow streams and processes will help you (as a company) to save on lots of hidden costs you may not have been aware of. So instead of telling companies to stop polluting the environment, these guys invented the C2C certification which provides a detailed analysis of production processes and shows them a way forward.

Backhausen - an Austrian company producing returnable fabrics. These guys were certified with a GOLD C2C certificate for their products.

The C2C certification has in the last few month also received some criticism online, especially as portrayed in this story on FastCompany last month. Despite of some personal resentments some CEOs may have with MBDC, the C2C certification is a smart way to cash-in on environmental protection, as it helps everyone involved.

For some reasons, which may also include this 49-minutes long documentary on MBDC, the C2C philosophy has become very popular in The Netherlands lately. It probably also is one of the reasons why Nutec this time attracted many Dutch exhibitors – green start-ups that are often looking for investors and who have some very smart ideas.
Braungart is a German though, and when I look back at university, I think I am save to assume that only a handful of students really understood his concepts and the importance of his message. It’s like the prophet who’s an outsider at home. I blame this on the German culture, and often wish my fellow countrymen here would be much more open to new ideas and willing to take more risks. So it’s very nice to see the Dutch side being so open to his ideas. We urgently need much more of this enthusiasm in Europe.

Other interesting exhibitors included:

Nike – with a small booth displaying their shoe recycling concepts.

These guys from Austria run a networking agency and set up a pilot project in the city of Graz where they managed to obtain funds from the European Union that helps them turn the city centre into a greener place. Simple, but smart and making sure to use what’s available (the EU has these grants + there’s a whole industry busy trying to apply for these).

XeroFlor – these are the guys that provided the green (grass) roof to the Ford Rouge Center in Dearborn, Michigan, USA – the world’s largest green roof, covering 46,500 m² and thereby protecting the roof from heat and cold, improving the interior climate, saving on heating energy and offering habitat for smaller animals and plants.

I recently visited a friend who lives in a green roof building. If I ever manage to build a house one day, I’ll try to get my hands on such a roof. It’s just awesome! Didn’t ask for a price though.

Ron from Redwood Renewables in California who’s offering solar panels integrated into roof tiles. “Redwood has developed the first disruptive environmentally friendly, chemical free, patent protected technology that can inexpensively recycle waste elastomers (tires) into devulcanized rubber high quality integrated solar roofing tiles and molded consumer end products“.

Told him about solar systems being in use in rural Kenya and how popular the system already is over there. For a typical household of 4-5 pax, you’ll need about 417 solar panel tiles on your roof.

Ron is currently looking for investors.

(Funny thing is that I had read about his project before when someone had sent me a link to his one-paged website some time ago and upon seeing his logo (!), I instantly remembered the link from the other day. It’s a small world :-)

The famous Herman Miller collection must not be missed on this event. Comfortable and well-designed furnitures (and lamps, visible in the background) that make the difference. The materials used on each chair have been reduced to a limited selection and inspected for their toxicity. That’s the kind of chair you’d want to have for your office. Or?

Some other crazy Austrians who invented this new show concept consisting of three different parts. The company name Wexla apparently is a joke on the word “Wechsler”, which would prolly translate to something like “exchangeable”. And exchangeable is what their shoe soles are.
These are prototypes, so don’t be fooled by the somehow strange design.

The idea behind this obviously is to provide exchangeable shoes to customers. I’ve even seen another Dutch company offering a very very nice laptop bag which can be rented for a period of three months and then returned. Could you imagine renting consumer goods instead of buying them? Well – that’s exactly the scenario we’re talking about here. Imagine your desk at work being occupied by someone else so you’ll have to work on another desk. How would you feel about that? Are human beings ready to accept such new habbits?

I tend to compare that with the YouTube Generation that stopped buying complete (music) albums and instead downloads single tracks online. Because it suits their needs.

EcoWorx - another US-American product line the “Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the Presidential Green Chemistry Award for its environmental and performance benefits”.

We walk on carpets almost every day and inhale the abrasion. Think about it!

A talented industrial designer at VelopA-Citystyle developed this new bench system created of two different materials, which is currently waiting for an official Cradle to Cradle certification. Appart from the green cover in this 1:2 scaled model above, “the bench is made from one piece of steel, without nuts and bolts, and is less vulnerable to vandalism and damage”.

That’s one those moments where I think: damn, I should have studied industrial design! :-)

And this idea, ladies and gentleman, is one of the craziest concepts I’ve heard of lately. But a very good one, indeed.
What you see here as a scaled egg model, is supposed to become a comfy building for expecting mothers who want to give birth to their children in a much better, eco-effective environment. It’s a new type of childbirth centre, so urgently needed in Europe because birth rates are alarmingly low these days and in some European countries, giving birth is only possible in hospitals (and not at home, where you’d probably feel more comfortable). Once investments for this project are secured, they will try to build the first project in Spain.
Obviously, I couldn’t resist telling them about urine diversion toilets that would add a greener side to their sanitational facilities. :-)

————–

These are just some of the exhibitors, and there were only 60 around this time. Maybe there will be 200 next time – featuring innovative products from toxic-free cleaning detergents, healthy toys to edible fabrics and cleaner toner cartridges. Who knows? Everything is possible if you start analysing the products that surround us and realize how much we’re currently poisoning ourselves.

Interestingly, we saw a lot of (industrial) designers on this event – as opposed to traditional engineers which is what you’d prolly expect from an engineering perspective. But then – these designers are the ones to create the demand side, the ones who will have to ask for better materials.

It will be particularly interesting to see where we are in let’s say five years from now – what kind of products will have changed and found their ways into our daily lifes. What seems obvious to me is that C2C is a great marketing tool to promote innovative products for a better world. Oh, and there’s lot’s of money involved.

When will we see the first African C2C certified product?

[n.b.: Talking about environmental matters - what do you do with all these brochures you normally pick up at fairs? Read them at home and then throw them away? Many of the above mentioned projects have interesting brochures but still lousy internet websites. How come? I actually prefer a good website to obtain the relevant information instead of a papered brochure....]

I had a professor at university who was given many important international awards, even some under the Bush-administration – but at home his fellow colleagues made fun of him whenever he wasn’t around. Working as a member of the faculty council and being his student, I often had to defend his unordinary actions because his fellow colleagues never understood his scope of work and genius mind.

Talking about taking financial risks, my impression is that there’s a different culture in the US that almost pushes people forward and provides them with some financial backup to put their ideas in place. Not so in Europe, where you will either have to convince as a person & your reputation or have a very very tight business plan & idea of what you’re going to do. Meaning, the willingness to carry a risk is so much higher in the US than in Europe. I may be wrong on this, but that’s my impression so far.

Take the US election campaigns, for instance. With the involvement of the new media channels and blogosphere, the individual is approached at his point of interest and guided into a wonderland full of emotions, nationalism/honour and some private tidbits of the candidates.

Whenever I watch these campaign videos online, I think: well – would this work in Germany? Would such emotional campaigns also work in Europe?

Yes. Voters wouldn’t be used to that, but the majority is the same all over the world and that’s why I think what makes a strong leader isn’t lipstick, but a positive charisma that may be sold to the masses.

I am a sceptic 1/2German who does not believe the hype, but at the same time I so often wish my fellow countrymen would at least sometimes be more open to new ideas, take more risks and ease up some bureaucratic processes.

——

I tried to follow the BarCampAfrica event last night that took place at Google’s Mountain View Headquarters in the US, with streaming & recorded video sessions from Kenya, SA, Nigeria and Ghana. A quite interesting networking event. From what I heard during the panel discussions, I can only assume that the Ayittey/Shikwati approach of “less help, more trade” still needs to reach even more open minds in the US and elsewhere, and that there are indeed some countries on the African continent that are already capable of providing IT work.

attendees at the BarCampAfrica (picture by Maneno.org)

This is exactly why I endorsed the BarCampAfrica actually taking place in the US – to reach those who still need to understand that we’re not (only) talking about water pumps, proper sanitation, food security or health issues, but instead about Africa as a market. I strongly believe that the creation of such business opportunities is the only way forward as all other approaches aren’t sustainable enough.

I am currently in the process of writing my diploma thesis (Dipl-Ing.) on “sanitation as a business in Africa”, and the basic concept is to promote (public) sanitation facilities as a business and combine that with a reuse concept. A reuse of nutrients contained within the different waste streams.

So, even though I am coming from this green/environmental engineering background, I do not follow the “…Africans need proper watsan/food/health supply before anything else”-approach. Instead, I believe that even such fundamental issues will be resolved by proper markets – not because they represent such a fair system, but because they do work and are sustainable. You may not agree on this, but then pls show me a sustainable project that has been build up with outside help and has grown into a full business.

Next we’ll need to have such a BarCampAfrica event in Europe. The only similar events I’ve seen so far were invitations on behalf of a local Chamber of Commerce that invited some permanent secretaries from African nations and key investors from Europe – where the aim clearly was to attract investment in Africa and to create a network of potential investors who would pressure local governments on opening up their trade policies. A BarCamp is different as everyone is free to join. And that’s exactly the spirit I’d like to see in Europe much more often. Take the risk, meet new people, share your ideas (for a better world, *cough cough*) and feel the “Yes we can” spirit. After all, most of the now much celebrated Web 2.0 projects started off as small 3day hacks – so even small ideas have the potential to work out and prosper.

The video transmissions via ustream.tv at one point later in the night broke off, but conversations continued on Twitter & Co. even until Sunday, so I take it that the BarCampAfrica was a real success – and much needed.

*mobile phone project: a WAP-based dictionary that would also have an sms-based frontend.

If you have access to kids ;-), think they should learn something about computers and don’t want to buy any extra gadgets/toys, then GCompris may just be what you’re looking for.

“GCompris is an educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10. (…) Currently GCompris offers in excess of 100 activities and more are being developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it with children everywhere.”

“In order to promote the use of GNU/Linux, the windows version has a limited number of activities. It is possible to access all the activities for a fee” – which is 20,- EUR. Best option is to use the LiveCD version, or – if you can – try Ubuntu with the Edubuntu add-on package.

Edubuntu has really improved since I’ve first blogged about it in 2005. Nice! My new boss has 3 kids who often play in the office. So I thought about giving them an older laptop with Edubuntu + a mouse and see how far they’ll get with it.

What you see here is the first page of a brand new textbook for 12-year-old German kids who want to learn Spanish (as a foreign language).

It starts with a listening comprehension unit and provides relatively short exercises throughout the whole textbook. Nothing really new so far, but with the difference that most pages come within a teen magazine style.

And that’s exactly the trend today: providing small bits of information which may then be served to the inattentive YouTube generation – a new generation used to max. 10-minutes videos online, single mp3 files instead of complete (music) albums, Google-able knowledge and interests for specific topics (only).

This development, however, is not as bad as it may sound in the first place. Sure, today’s kids may find a different learning environment than what we had when we were kids, and one could argue if a school should continue supporting this open, free & easy approach. But then, in today’s world where everything and everyone needs to be *special*, needs to have specific knowledge on something and thus requires much more of this *modular knowledge* (as I call it – modular, as in exchangeable), it’s very interesting to see that publishers are already starting with textbooks to adopt to new learning (teaching?) methods.

It’s not that things had really changed over the years when it comes to language textbooks. I remember having a longer discussion with my mum many years ago on such a topic where we were both wondering about the very strange and embarrassing approach in textbooks for German as a foreign language (Deutsch als Fremdsprach, DaF). Some of those exercises were just so….ouch! + *sigh* + out of this world.

The real difference between this DaF textbook back in the days and today’s “Gente Joven” Spanish textbook is that the latter is focused on the YouTube generation.

Now, if we argue that the next generation is our biggest asset – how will they perceive this world in future, how will this upcoming generation positively influence the future and in which way does their specific knowledge, paired with a healthy ambition to win competitions, contribute to the future?

In the end, it all starts with what we’re providing them with right now – as much as our own success is based on previous generations (e.g. the creation of programming languages and integrated circuits, implementation of a world-wide IT network, etc.).

Another interesting developement is the introduction of A1/A2, B1/B2, C1/C2 levels on a school level – the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR): Learning, Teaching Assessment…

… which provides “clear standards to be attained at successive stages of learning” and helps to evaluate “outcomes in an internationally comparable manner”. I wish we already had this system way back in school!

Clearly, the harmonization of (language) learning levels and setting of standards is a very good way to create a common basis in Europe. Imagine the problems I am always having explaining my German degrees to the English speaking world… and again, Europe is becoming such a modular world.

The goal of the competition is to promote upcycling by encouraging the use of wasted materials to generate innovative designs and redefine the standards of environmental sustainability by fostering balance between conservation and development.

Despite this rather unfortunate phrasing ;-), there’s a very smart upcoming competition promoting the upcycling ideology (waste = food). Nice!

[h/t Erik!]