Turning Fishnets into Skateboards on the Chilean Coast

This summer, you could be surfing the streets on a skateboard made of fishy nets. Bureo Skateboards, is a skate company that recycles discarded fishnets into stylish plastic skateboards. Three crazy gringos came together to start a fishnet recycling company in Chile, and are now hoping to bring the end product to stores, and skateparks, near you. 

While working in Chile as an environmental consultant, Ben Kneppers saw first-hand the immense amount of waste produced by the robust Chilean fishing industry. According to Bureo, discarded fishnets amounts to 10% of the oceans' plastic waste. "It's not the fault of the fishermen," Kneppers said. "They're just dealing with an incredible turnover of this material that is constantly becoming waste."

Encouraged by the Chilean government, Kneppers came up with the idea of Net Positiva, Chile's first collection and recycling program for fishnets. "I approached World Wildlife Fund Chile and said, 'How about my two crazy gringo friends come down here and we set up the first ever fishnet collection and recycling program in Chile,'" he said. 

Those three crazy friends, Kneppers, David Stover, and Kevin Ahearn, made a formidable team. "We had this great trifecta, where I was on the ground in Chile with this environmental sense, David had this business sense, and Kevin had a product engineering background," Kneppers said.

Just collecting and recycling fishnets wouldn't sustain a business, so that business sense came into play early. The plastic would need to be parlayed into something valuable in order for the business to grow and increase its recycling capabilities. "We didn't want this to be a non-profit," Kneppers said. "We wanted it to be a social business, where as the business succeeds, our abilities to improve the environment and community will also grow."

It needed to be a product that required very little plastic, but also a relatively high intrinsic value. They found their solution in plastic skateboard decks. It takes one kilo of plastic per board, and a complete skateboard is worth more than $100.

Bureo has a Kickstarter page and hit its initial fundraising goal in three days. This will fund its first production run and help market the boards to skate shops. The company plans to road trip from San Diego to San Francisco this summer, engaging with the skateboard industry and hosting beach cleanups along the way.

Bureo has an interesting dilemma: it needs a constant source of material for the boards, yet its goal is to eliminate as much waste as possible. So would it be a success if Buereo ran out of material and were no longer able to make boards?

"Absolutely. That would be an incredible achievement," Kneppers said. "Right now, the material is probably 100 times greater than we can deal with, but if we could scale up production to a level that eliminated waste, that would be an incredible accomplishment and something we aspire to."

--Images and Video courtesy of Bureo Skateboards

Callum Beals is an editorial intern at Sierra. He recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz where he studied history and literature. He enjoys hiking, camping, and waking up at ungodly hours to watch soccer games.

 

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An Electric Car for Wheelchairs

Istvan Kissaroslaki was working in finance in Germany when he became sick -- sick enough that he had to stop working for six months. During his convalescence, his perspective on life changed: the finance world just didn't seem right anymore.

"I felt like I wanted to do something more meaningful with my life than making as much money as possible and trying to increase the yield of a financial institution," he said.

Now, Kissaroslaki is the co-founder of Kenguru (Hungarian for "kangaroo"), a company that's designed an eponymous electric car for people who use wheelchairs.

"I was thinking about teenagers in wheelchairs. What do they do when they’re sitting at home and their friends are getting driver's licenses?" Kissaroslaki said. "They hope to have public transportation or someone who can drive them. That was my motivation, to give these teenagers mobility." Between 2006 and 2008, Kissaroslaki worked on this car (which was originally designed by a company he worked for) as a side project. But in the middle of 2008 he realized that Kenguru needed more of his time and attention, so he quit his full-time job to work on the car instead.

In 2009, when the project was in limbo because of financial problems, Stacy Zoern, a Texas lawyer disabled by a muscle disease, happened upon Kenguru online and reached out to Kissaroslaki.

"I told her what happened and that we’re not building them and I’m back fundraising. This answer didn’t make her happy, and she kept calling." Kissaroslaki said.

He went to visit her in Austin a few months later, when he decided to give her a piece of the company and they started working on Kenguru together. A year later, Kissaroslaki moved from Hungary to Austin. Now, they're even earning shout-outs from President Obama.

Kenguru decided to make the car electric for practicality's sake. "It’s more comfortable to ride in a small vehicle that's electric than a small one with a combustion engine," Kissaroslaki said. "Plus, subsidies are more likely to be given by governments if the product is green."

The Kenguru is definitely small -- smaller than a Smart Car in fact. It can travel up to 25-35 miles per hour (depending on the regulations in your state) and around 60 miles a day. The first vehicles will be rolling off the assembly line sometime in 2015. 

"The first generation vehicle will have a retail price around $25,000," Kissaroslaki said. "Our goal internally is to dramatically reduce this price over the first three years, to somewhere under $15,000."

Most customers, he adds, are paying a fraction of the cost, and many pay nothing. This is due in part to subsidies for eco-friendly vehicles, but the biggest deduction available in the US and western Europe is if someone needs the vehicle to go to school, work, or otherwise engage in a way that's beneficial to their country. Some agencies or vocational rehab programs will pick up 95-100 percent of the cost in this case.

"For any city, for any government, it makes sense to invest $50,000 to $100,000 in someone in a wheelchair who’s eager to go to school or work," Kissaroslaki said.

Kissaroslaki, Zoern, and the others at Kenguru are planning to come up with more ideas to increase accessibility and independence of those in wheelchairs, but the first generation vehicle is taking the front seat in priority.

"We will have other products out that will address the same market, but for now I would like to focus on the task in front of us," Kissaroslaki said.

--All images courtesy of Kenguru

Jessica Zischke is an editorial intern at Sierra. She is currently studying environmental studies at Dartmouth College, where she also works as a staff writer for The Dartmouth newspaper.

 

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Yao Ming: A Towering Figure Against Ivory

Yao Ming is perhaps the most famous athlete in China. He towered over defenders at 7'6" during his playing days, and now he hopes he can emulate that dominance off the court. That's because Yao has become one of the most outspoken advocates against the illegal Ivory trade.

On March 4, Yao, now a member of China's parliament, delivered a petition to the government with the objective of completely banning the ivory trade. When Yao addressed the press, he promoted his two-part solution. "The first thing is to pass a law making it clear that trading in ivory and ivory products is illegal," said Yao. "The second is to make every consumer understand that purchasing ivory encourages poaching and that when you buy a piece of ivory it's like buying a bullet."

China imports more trafficked ivory than any other country in the world. It has long been a status symbol, and rising incomes throughout the country have enhanced demand. It is therefore even more important that a figure as prominent as Yao should speak out against its trade.

In 2012, Yao spent 12 days in Kenya and South Africa on a fact-finding mission for The End of Wild, a documentary aimed at curbing international ivory demand. Yao partnered with Save the Elephants and the African Wildlife Foundation to produce the film which features powerful and grotesque images of the ivory trade.

After his trip to Africa, Yao wrote an article for The Guardian about his experience, proclaiming that, "an ivory carving is far removed from the sad carcass of a poached elephant, but China must make this connection."

During his time in the NBA, Yao was a formidable presence for the Houston Rockets while also having an immense impact on the growth of basketball in China. Nevertheless, Yao's impact on basketball could be dwarfed by his potential impact on hundreds of thousands of rhinos and elephants.

--Image courtesy of iStockphoto/KreangchaiRungfamai

Callum Beals is an editorial intern at Sierra. He recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz where he studied history and literature. He enjoys hiking, camping, and waking up at ungodly hours to watch soccer games.

 

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How to Save the World with Two Wheels

If you haven’t already been convinced to start biking to work, then prepare to be converted to the Tao of alternative transportation. Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy (Microcosm Publishing, 2013) by Elly Blue is both a study and a call to action. The book provides readers with examples of cities, companies, and communities that have become bike-centric and explores how these changes reverberate beyond a single person’s actions into a bigger boost to the overall economy. Blue shares some insights into her motives for writing the book and gives us five reasons to hop on a bike today.

What led you to write this book?

A few years ago, as the bicycle movement was starting to gain traction in a big way in the U.S., I noticed something: A lot of the arguments being made against bicycling were economic. Things like bicyclists are freeloaders, they're all rich, they're all poor, they don't pay for the roads, bike lanes and parking are bad for business. What these arguments all have in common is that they are wrong. But at the time, few bike advocates had the tools to effectively set the story straight. I thought I'd see if I could come up with some decent counterarguments -- and I ended up being surprised by just how strong the economic case for bicycling really is.

What outcome do you hope to see?

I'd like to see more commonsense transportation and development policy decisions become the norm in the U.S. Americans are really hungry for options -- anything but driving, which is extraordinarily expensive and stressful. In every place where bicycling has become a comfortable or even feasible option, it has just boomed. Sometimes that's a result of infrastructure, sometimes it's a result of development -- almost always it's the result of a popular movement. My goal with the book is to empower people to spread that movement.

What are five things people should know today about your book or biking?

1. Bicycling is unbelievably fun. And there are studies that suggest it makes you happier to get around by bike.
2. You can carry truly anything by bike, with the right setup. Or anyone.
3. Bicycling is something that has a disproportionately large impact on the economy and your own finances, and you don't have to wait for the government or anyone else to act before you can get started doing it. It's, ahem, "shovel ready."
4. Speaking of things that are easy and rewarding, some readers have reported making it through my entire book in less than a day. I tried to take a bunch of complicated budgetary and economic data and make it accessible, and this feedback suggests that I succeeded. So dive on in!
5. It's not just about biking. People who are passionate about social justice, local food, housing reform, energy issues -- any of these big-picture issues that can be tackled on the level of our daily lives and communities -- will find the book helpful in terms of framing and inspiration. All of this stuff is connected.

What has been the response so far?

So far, nearly all the feedback has been positive, even, surprisingly, from a lot of folks who aren't already into bicycling. Someone wrote on Amazon that they were inspired to give it a try, and that's about the best kind of review there is.

Can you talk a bit about how the bike can serve to do more for social change?

Bikes have proved to be excellent tools for various social movements -- and not necessarily ones that are directly bike-related. Bicycles allow free, flexible personal transportation all over a dispersed city. It's easy to ride in groups and be highly visible, but it's also easy to be strategic and speedy, carry a bunch of stuff, and never get stuck in traffic or end up circling looking for parking.

Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy, by Elly Blue, Microcosm Publishing 2013.

 

--Cover image courtesy of © Microcosm Publishing, 2013

 

Bianca Hernandez is an editorial intern at Sierra. She recently received her MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Southern California and has written for various publications.

 

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Closeup: How Green Is Your Camera?

Late last year, POV released the findings from its equipment survey of documentary filmmakers. Of the primary cameras and lenses used, Canon, Sony, and Panasonic dominated the survey. The minor players -- accounting for just 9% -- were Nikon, Red, Apple, and BlackMagic. One of the survey's missing components is information on the sustainability of these manufacturers. A basic kit is a big investment, so why not be aware of whether your money is going to an environmentally friendly company?

Climate Counts and the Center for Sustainable Organizations recently released a carbon-score-based study of 100 corporations. Among them, only 49 were deemed sustainable by the study, which in addition to emissions also considered factors beyond the environment, including social and economic impacts and GDP contribution. 

Canon comes in at number 4 on the list, high in the sustainability category. This isn't much of a surprise once you look over the company's extensive "Environmental Vision," which covers the materials it uses, the products it develops, its manufacturing processes, and its energy and resource use. Canon is working on a worldwide recycling program and trying to implement inverse manufacturing in the development of future products.

Sony is ranked an unsustainable 62. While the company has a big vision to achieve a zero environmental footprint by 2050, its closer benchmark in 2015 includes these reductions: CO2 emissions from Sony sites by 30%, energy consumption per product by 30%, and CO2 emissions in distribution by 14%. Sony has a pretty holistic sustainability plan available on its website that includes conservation, emissions reductions, and higher chemical standards.

Panasonic trails among the big three with an unsustainable ranking of 75. Perhaps this low grade won't last for too much longer, as the company has launched Green Plan 2018, a massive overhaul that aims to make it "the No. 1 green innovation company in the electronics industry by 2018." Some key points of this plan include CO2 reduction, a 99.5% recycling ratio, and an environmental education program. The environmental portion of its website touts that its sustainability concerns started with its founder, so it will be interesting to see what improvements Panasonic makes.

Though only one of the three top camera companies from the POV study makes the sustainable grade, these companies have clearly taken their customers' environmental concerns to heart and decided to act on them. They all have extensive plans that look at sustainability as more than simply achieving zero waste or CO2 reductions. Time will tell if these manufacturers uphold their goals, but meanwhile it's a good thing to keep in mind when shelling out major bucks for your next video or photography project.

 

-- image courtesy of iStock/perkmeup

Bianca Hernandez is an editorial intern at Sierra. She recently received her MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Southern California and has written for various publications.

 

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Brewery to Help LA River Flow Free

While the Los Angeles River won't flow freely with beer, it very well could flow freely because of beer. That's because Golden Road Brewery, a local Los Angeles craft brewery, has partnered with the LA River Revitalization Corps for its newest brew.

Golden Road named their newest seasonal ale the 2020 IPA, in reference to Greenway 2020, a movement spearheaded by the LA River Revitalization Corps with the goal of creating a 51 mile greenway that spans the entire length of the Los Angeles River.

The LA River was channelized in 1935 after massive floods, and since then it has been more famous for movies than its natural features. But the last few years have seen momentum moving towards returning the river to its natural state, turning what was once an eyesore into a place of recreation.

A Pet Fish That Grows Your Herbs

Nikhil Arora (left) and Alejandro Velez of Back to the Roots | Photo courtesy of Back to the Roots

 

Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez didn't know each other when they enrolled in the same business ethics class at UC Berkeley. After their professor, Alan Ross, mentioned during a lecture that mushrooms can grow in coffee grounds, they approached him separately to learn more. Ross didn't have much to add about fungi, but he did introduce the curious students to each other.

"We turned Alex's fraternity into a test kitchen," Arora says, "and couldn't believe that one of the buckets actually started growing oyster mushrooms." After much research—including carting the 'shrooms to legendary Chez Panisse and asking chef-owner Alice Waters to taste them ("It was a good thing we didn't know who she was," Arora says)—they had a grow-it-yourself mushroom kit ready for market.

How You Can Help Bring Solar Power to Uganda

How can a country in which only 8.5% of people have electricity illuminate itself? What's more, how can they accomplish this without suffering from the devastating effects of kerosene smoke? Masa Energy, a Ugandan start-up, has come up with an affordable clean-energy answer. Their first product, a portable solar lantern, is easy to use and costs just $12.

Masa Energy has started a fundraising campaign on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.com with the goal of $50,000. [UPDATE: Donate to Masa Energy's fundraising campaign before February 28, 2014.] All contributions from the campaign will go directly towards building materials and factory space, with the potential to fund future product development and new hiring.

According to their Indiegogo page, Masa Energy's goal is "to make affordable solar products for the millions of people in Africa without access to electricity." The World Bank estimates that only 8.5% of Ugandans have access to electricity, by far the lowest in East Africa. Because of this, "many people, especially in rural areas, still rely on solutions that their grandparents relied upon, like kerosene lamps."

There's Money in Green Education

With the green economy demanding fresh minds, students who are environmentally concerned but fiscally challenged have options, because schools and nonprofits are rallying resources to assist eco-scholars. Aid comes in the form of both financial assistance and career-development opportunities. The Earth Island Institute's Brower Youth Awards, for one, is granted annually to six young environmental activists. Ariana Katovich, a member of the first batch of recipients, received the $3,000 award in 2000. She's now the institute's director of restoration and director of its Streets Alive! project.

"Winning the award was very cool,' Katovich says. "But more important, it introduced me to the institute's network, which played a major role in me getting the job I hold now."

That's the general viewpoint among institutions: Scholarships that develop students' careers are, in the long run, more valuable than just money. "Students are trying to figure out how to turn their passion into a paycheck. Our recipients use these scholarships to jump-start their green careers,' says Niles Barnes, senior programs coordinator at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The organization, which has been offering awards to students for eight years, provides not only grants but also access to its huge network of contacts in the environmental workforce.

6 Unique Sharing Services to Cut Your Consumption

Some life lessons learned in kindergarten stick: don't eat glue, don't run with scissors, friends don't hit one another. For some of us, the importance of sharing was a hard one to learn — what kid wants to give away half of their cookie? Fortunately, we've warmed up to sharing, and learned to harness the power of lending, borrowing, giving, and renting to care for the environment. We've collected some of the greenest of what the sharing economy has to offer — from rental chickens to leftover Chinese food, here's a small sampling of ways you can depend on the kindness of strangers to reduce your consumption and waste: 

1. To eat: Whether you have too much or too little, when it comes to sharing food, you have options. If you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, start or join a community garden. If you have lots of leftovers or made too much for dinner, services like Eat With Me and LeftoverSwap let you share your bounty with others, instead of tossing it in the trash. 

2. To farm: Interested in learning more about what urban homesteading has to offer your pantry? Give it a test run. A surprising number of groups and individuals throughout the nation rent out egg-laying chickens along with coops, bedding, and feed, at surprisingly affordable prices. Many of these groups hope to help decrease the number of abandoned chickens flooding animal shelters, which some attribute to the ever-increasing popularity of urban farming. If it doesn't work out, simply send the rented chickens back, guilt-free. Do a quick search for chicken rentals in your state, and get farming.