Post by Bozur on Aug 19, 2009 19:25:49 GMT -5
Teens show the way: 14 climate-saving projects
energymap.dk — An energy-producing speed-bump, a bicycle/car hybrid, a system transforming rainwater into energy and a sustainable container house. These are just some of the ideas produced by the 500 participants at the Bright Green Youth Climate Camp earlier this month. More…
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Teens show the way: 14 climate-saving projects from Bright Green Youth
By: Charlotte E. Henriksen, EnergyMap.dk
Published: 8/17/2009
An energy-producing speed-bump, a bicycle/car hybrid, a system transforming rainwater into energy and a sustainable container house. These are just some of the ideas produced by the 500 participants at the Bright Green Youth Climate Camp earlier this month.
Bright Green Youth – a climate conference for 14-18 year-olds from all over the world – was concluded last week and resulted in 14 specific projects. The 14 projects were each accompanied by an action plan to ensure that they will be implemented, even though the climate camp itself is over. The outcome from Bright Green Youth will be made accessible for the COP15 conference in Copenhagen.
Four of the projects, chosen by the young participants themselves, were presented to a panel of experts at the closing event at Danfoss Universe in Sonderborg, Denmark. The four selected projects were:
* Power Bumps
A new technology using hydraulic speed bumps to produce energy when cars drive over. The energy can be used for electric street lights, but it can also be sent into the general electricity system.
* Senergy
A new technology using noise from cars on the highways to produce energy. It absorbs the sound waves and turns them into vibrations, and the vibrations are used to produce energy for street lights on the highway.
* Raining Men
A new technology combining rainwater collection with turbines producing electricity. The water is collected and pumped into the house to be used for all kinds of water installations.
* Climate educators
An educational webpage for students and teachers with material on environmental responsibility.
“You have shown the way, with these concrete and useful ideas. Now we need the politicians to reach a strong agreement in Copenhagen later this year,” said Frans Mikael Jansen, Secretary General of MS ActionAid Denmark. He was on the panel of experts along with Julie Levitt from World Changing, USA, Tatiana Glad from Engagency, the Netherlands, Jens Martin Skibsted from Skibsted Ideation and Peter Hesseldahl from Impact by Danfoss.
The climate camp is a non-profit project created by Danfoss Universe, ProjectZero and MS ActionAid Denmark.
Bright Green Youth has been a different sort of climate conference, focusing on climate, innovation and leadership. Instead of listening to long-winded speakers, the 500 participants spent all four days of the conference working on their specific projects and learning how to improve them using a variety of skills.
“Most importantly, we have lit a fire under a lot of energetic and innovative young people. Bright Green is about climate, but also about leadership. We have created a global group of ambassadors with a message. Now it is vital that we help them to bring their ideas forward into the world,” says Charlotte Sahl-Madsen, project leader and Managing Director of Danfoss Universe, in a statement from Bright Green Youth.
www.energymap.dk/Newsroom/Bright-Green-Youth