UPCOMING EVENTS

Fall 2007:

Our next general body meeting is on Tuesday, October 23rd at 6:00PM (Location TBA). At this meeting we will learn about what all of the project groups have been working on and what they will be doing in the future.

Project Meeting Times:
Orphan Care Center in Malawi: Every other Tuesday at 6:00 PM, Blue Lounge of GG Brown
Gallery Exhibit and Lecture Series: Mondays at 5:00 PM, Dana Commons
Sustainable Housing: Wednesdays at 6:00 PM, Blue Lounge of GG Brown
Sustainable Development in Jamaica: Wednesdays at 7:30 PM, Blue Lounge of GG Brown
Detroit Outreach: Thursdays at 8:00 PM, Blue Lounge of GG Brown
Biodigester Design Project: Thursday 8:00PM in the Blue Lounge of GG Brown

Tuesday November 6th, 2007
Room 1005 Dow
6:00-7:30 PM

Title: The US EPA SmartWay Program: Combating Global Warming from the Freight
Transportation Sector.

SmartWay is a voluntary partnership between the freight shipping industry and the US Environmental Protection Agency that establishes incentives for fuel efficiency improvements and greenhouse gas emissions reductions.  By 2012, this initiative aims to reduce 33 - 66 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and up to 200,000 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions per year.  At the same time, the initiative will result in fuel savings of up to 150 million barrels of oil annually.  So far, the program has been extremely successful.

Matthew Payne has been with the US Environmental Protection Agency in Ann Arbor for over 16 years.  He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering, a BA in International Relations, an MBA and a MS in Systems Science.   He is currently heading up development of the SmartWay Global Transportation Supply Chain Model.

PAST EVENTS

Winter 2007:

BLUElab to host third annual lecture series starting Fall 2006. This year the speakers will discuss issues related to innovation in the design of sustainable technology. The Lecture Series resumes this semester, featuring Jim Bodenner (Director of Water Initiatives at International Aid) and Trevor Field (Founder of Playpumps International), starting on January 9th, 2007    more

BLUElab is co-sponsoring the open lecture of Trevor Field, founder of Playpumps International, scheduled on January 11, 2007, 7-8:30 PM at Rackham Auditorium

Recently featured on NPR and Nightline, Trevor Field has spearheaded an effort to create sustainable clean water systems within poor villages in South Africa.

Field teamed up with an inventor and came up with the "play pump" -- a children's merry-go-round that pumps clean, safe drinking water from a deep borehole every time the children start to spin. The pumps take a few hours to install and costs around $7,000. Field's idea proved so inventive, so cost-efficient and so much fun for the kids that it received a 2000 World Bank Marketplace Development Award.

Field's also uses the play pump's water towers as billboards, selling ad space to help pay for the upkeep. He reserves a spot for the an ad campaign which helps educate children about HIV and AIDS.

Today, some 700 PlayPump systems are installed in disadvantaged communities across South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland, transforming the lives over a million people.

Take Boikarabelo village, for example. Journalist Kristina Gubic describes the scene. Two hours drive from Johannesburg, Boikarabelo is home to 700 people living in corrugated iron shacks. Before, the residents had to walk across boulders and grasslands to the edge of a farm to collect water from an underground spring. Just carrying the minimum for cooking and washing was exhausting work. Today, each family has a vegetable garden and laundry hangs everywhere. The school is constructing greenhouses to make it independent of the sporadic donations on which school meals used to depend. With cabbages, spinach and beans to supplement the maize diet, the children's nutrition has improved dramatically.

The economic and social impact reaches further. Clean water prevents the diseases which kept children from school and parents from work. Freed from the daily toil of water-carrying, girls have time for education; and the women elders of Boikarabelo have started a small craft business.

If PlayPumps International achieve their goal, they will reach ten million people throughout Sub-Saharan Africa within the next three years.

This event is sponsored by BLUElab, the College of Engineering, the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute (GESI), the Global Health Research Training (GHRT) Program, the School of Public Health, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities (UROP) Program, The William Davidson Institute, and the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program.

Fall 2006:

BLUElab hosted the second annual gallery exhibit at the Duderstadt Center. The exhibit, ran from November 28 to December 11 and provided an interactive design experience entitled Mass Collaboration = Innovation.   more

2005-2006 Academic Year:

• October 26, 2005: Pathways to Sustainability Gallery Exhibition   more
• Fall 2005: 2nd Annual Engineers Without Borders Lecture Series   more

2004-2005 Academic Year:

• Fall 2004: First Annual Lecture Seies in Socially Responsible Engineering   more

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