The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation was originated by friends of the Lindberghs at The Explorers Club in New York City. It is a non-profit organization whose mission is “Supporting Great Innovations that Foster the Environment for a Planet in Balance”.

One of the programs of the Foundation is the Lindbergh Grant program where each year grants are made in support of research that promotes a balance between technology and the environment.

From the Lindbergh Foundation Website:

Each year, The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation provides grants of up to $10,580 (a symbolic amount representing the cost of the Spirit of St. Louis) to men and women whose individual initiative and work in a wide spectrum of disciplines furthers the Lindberghs’ vision of a balance between the advance of technology and the preservation of the natural/human environment.

To date, 270 men and women in the United States and abroad have received more than $2.6 million to support their work.

“The concept of a technology/nature balance, in which Charles and Anne Lindbergh so firmly believed, is now coming to the forefront as the answer to some of our global problems,” said Clare Hallward, Chairman of the Lindbergh Foundation Grants Selection Committee. “The projects of our grant recipients have, since 1978, made significant contributions to such a balance. Because of the standards employed by the Foundation’s grants program, it has earned international credibility which enables many Lindbergh Grant recipients to secure additional funding to continue their important work.”

The value of the Lindbergh Grants program as a provider of seed money and credibility for pilot projects that subsequently receive larger sums from other sources to continue and expand the work has again been confirmed. Seventy-four percent of Lindbergh Grant recipients responding to a recent survey by the Foundation said they had received additional funding for their research or educational project earlier supported by a Lindbergh Grant, with 34% receiving funds ranging from $50,001 up to $500,000 in supplementary support.

SDU will be posting on Lindbergh Grant recipients over the next several weeks leading up to the announcement of the 2008 Lindbergh Grants.

If you have a research or educational project that promotes a balance between technology and the environment you may want to apply for a 2009 Lindbergh Grant.

While no official announcement about the 2008 Lindbergh Grant Recipients has been made, check out This Link.

Via: Sustainable Design Update

Open Source Block Maker

Blocks Made From Compressed Earth

Schematics for the machine that made these blocks is going to be available free to anyone who wants to make inexpensive construction blocks.

The Liberator Project, the design for a Compressed Earth Block (CEB) machine is an online collaboration, with the final design to be available to all.

The tech. literature for CEBs should show somewhere that working with CEBs is a little tricky. The blocks don’t do well in tension. When the wind blows on an exterior wall it causes the wall to want to bend, possibly making one face of the wall “stretch”. CEBs are a brittle material and they don’t really stretch, instead the walls crack. Designers must overcome this tendency by designing CEB walls and their applied loads heavy enough to keep the inside face from stretching.

You should check out some of the following cool links:

BoingBoing

CEB Press

Sustainable Design Update

Greenhouse Gas or Fuel Source?

Cow Expressing Displeasure With Photographer

What can we do with cow emissions and animal waste emissions? Animal waste can be collected in a biodigester to make methane gas. Small farms can make enough gas to cook their meals, and larger farms can run their equipment and/or run generators that feed power into the grid. Farm animals belch and otherwise emit copious amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Near New Zealand scientists have discovered a bug that eats only methane. The bug can live in extreme conditions, and I hope it can be safely added to cattle feed to reduce the gas generated by our bovine friends.

From National Geographic:

The reason VOCs are a concern at all is because they're one of the components that contributes to the formation of ozone, which is the primary ingredient of smog," Malay said.

But VOCs aren't the only worrisome gases that emanate from livestock. Scientists say animals such as cattle and sheep are responsible for around 20 percent of global methane emissions.

Methane, a greenhouse gas, is believed to be a major driver of climate change, because it traps 21 times as much heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

"In more rural communities as much as 50 percent of the methane comes from livestock," said Jamie Newbold, professor at the Institute of Rural Sciences in Aberystwyth, Wales.

Newbold is among a growing number of scientists now investigating how farm animals influence atmospheric pollution. The field is sometimes dismissed by critics as "fart science."

Via: Practical Environmentalist

Photo: Outdooralex Via Flickr

Cadbury Chooses Sustainable Cocoa

Cadbury Chocolate Shows Their Quaker Roots

Cadbury has announced the establishment of the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership to secure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of around a million cocoa farmers and their communities in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean.

This ground-breaking initiative, which will be carried out in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other partners, marks 100 years since the Cadbury brothers first began trading in Ghana and aims to holistically support the development of sustainable cocoa growing communities.

Research by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, and the University of Ghana, Legon, into “Sustainable Cocoa Production in Ghana,” funded by Cadbury, showed that the average production for a cocoa farmer has dropped to only 40% of potential yield and that cocoa farming has become less attractive to the next potential generation of farmers. The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership programme aims to address some of the root causes of these issues - improving farmer productivity and helping to attract the next generation into cocoa farming.

More @ Cadbury

Via: The Jakarta Post

Neighborhood Renewable Energy

Qurrent is the winner of the 500,000 Euro Picnic Green sustainable technology challenge. Their technology is a decentralized renewable energy network. Here is how it works: A group of houses or businesses work cooperatively to generate renewable energy. One house may have a wind turbine, another solar panels and another may have both. That group exchange energy locally to maximize efficiency. Rather than sending your surplus electrons through the grid where up to 30% are lost, you share first with your neighbors in a Local Energy Network.

“Qurrent has in fact developed computer controlled energy management for entire streets, through which the available energy can be optimized between all houses. That’s a break-through.”

Sir Richard Branson, 01.10.07

The Qurrent design for a Local Energy Network is basically a mini-grid that is connected to the utility grid through one connection. Surplus electricity is first be exchanged within the network cluster members before being sold back to the grid. If the cluster as a whole isn’t producing enough energy, then additional energy is brought in through the grid.

One cool feature of the Qurrent system is the Qbox, a network interface device that knows energy rates and your particular energy needs. The Qbox can autonomously switch on your washing machine when it is most efficient, either when there is surplus energy in your Local Energy Network or when electric demand on the grid is low.

With prototype models already proven and a boost of 500,000 euros, Qurrent is ready for prime time, at least in Europe.

Check out more at Sustainable Design Update.

GaiaLux Light

Hi-

I have entered the NASA "Design The Future" Contest, a
product design competition, with a design for an
energy efficient LED light fixture that uses recycled
cell phone chargers as the power supply.

See the light design at:  http://tinyurl.com/yphjlu

This design is intended for the billion people who
live in parts of the world where power is
intermittent, like in "squatter cities" and in places
where war makes access to electricity difficult.

My design charges batteries when power is available
and provides light when light is needed.  The
batteries can provide light for days between charges.
It also shuts off when the batteries are charged and
has no stand-by power loss.  (we measured this)

One of the ways the contest is judged is by the number
of page views each entry generates.  I would
appreciate it very much if you looked at my entry and
checked out the graphics (click on the thumbnail
images on the left of the screen)

If I win anything it will go exclusively toward
supporting The Appropriate Technology Design
Collaborative, a not for profit that designs new
technologies for less economically developed
countries.

The link:  http://tinyurl.com/yphjlu

or:
http://www.createthefuturecontest.com/pages/view/entriesdetail.html?entryID=1087


Check out developments at Sustainable Design Update

Paint With Clay

This non-toxic alternative to paint may not be what comes to mind when you think of wall coverings, but compare it to wall paper, a material most often now made of vinyl.

From Building Green TV:

If you've been thinking about slapping a fresh coat of paint on the walls in your living room, or your bathroom, or your bedroom, or anyplace inside your home, you might want to stop and reconsider. Unless you're buying zero-VOC paint, the fumes can be harmful to your health.

You could skip the paint altogether and, instead, cover your walls in clay. Sounds a little odd; however, once you see the photo gallery at American Clay, you might be sold on the idea.

American Clay's line of natural earth plasters are non-toxic, non-dusting mold resistant, repairable—and the stuff creates essentially zero waste, as leftovers can be saved for patching or even spread around in soil outside.

Interested? You can attend a hands-on workshop near you and give the stuff a try.

Other articles on Sustainable Technology are available at Sustainable Design Update.