To live, people need food to eat and water to drink. That’s a simple fact. But with growing water scarcity around the world and an ever increasing population, we have to find better ways to produce the food we all need to survive. The solution could lie in one
Heat pumps are versatile, efficient, and great for both heating and cooling … or are they? Whenever heat pumps are mentioned, critics bring up their ineffectiveness in the cold, so is that still true? Or do more modern heat pumps continue to work effectively in cold climates? I’m currently building
One of the benefits of a factory built home is that the insulated wall panels are assembled in a climate controlled facility. However, they still need to get assembled on site … and that’s when mother nature can take her revenge. My factory built house started getting raised on site
Where there’s tech, there’s magnets. The strong magnets that generate their own magnetic field, AKA permanent magnets, aren’t only on your fridge. They’re in multiple places inside your fridge, and in your cell phone, headphones, and hard disk drive, too. Permanent magnets are also a critical
Whether it’s to regulate the temperature of food, medicine, or people, we’ll always need some form of cooling tech to survive. We tend to turn to air conditioning to solve these problems, but that has us stuck in a positive feedback loop that isn’t at all positive.
COP27, the annual climate change conference hosted by the United Nations, concluded last month in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with one of the main discussions centering around a new agreement to provide “loss and damage” funding to vulnerable countries that are experiencing the worst effects of climate
With the ever-growing demand for electrifying everything, we need more sustainable batteries. Li-ion devices are cost-effective but rely on lithium, graphite, and other materials, whose sourcing has significant environmental and social impacts. One potential solution is being developed where wood is used to replace these materials with a bio-based alternative.
We blinked, and here we are at another holiday season. This year if you want to make the memories go far, but keep your footprint limited, here are five eco-friendly tips you can work into your traditions.
The southwestern U.S. is in the throes of a “megadrought” so severe that we’ve broken the record — all 1,200 years of it. According to a study published earlier this year, soil hasn’t been this dry since the scientific record began around the year 800.1 This
I’m in the process of building a new energy efficient, net zero modular home that’s being built in a factory. Why did I choose this path versus one of the many other sustainable and energy efficient methods like stick built passive homes, ICF, earthships, etc. (fill in your
Recently I’ve talked about my new net zero home I’m building, but not all net zero buildings have to be homes or houses. The same net zero, passive house concepts can be scaled up to large buildings, offices, and apartment buildings. In fact, I had a chance to
With electric vehicle demand skyrocketing and the growing need for energy storage for renewables, lithium-ion batteries are one of the key technologies for our sustainable future. However, “how sustainable?” is the million dollar question. Between the supply chain issues of the past couple of years and inflation, the cost of