As the new year approaches, it struck me that pursuing a GREEN theme for Dorkbot was a tad open-ended.
What makes a project GREEN? When we move toward Earth Day, and beyond, what themes might guide the "play" that is so important to "people doing strange things with electricity?"
Here are some thoughts on issues that playful approaches might deal with:
Power generation
- large scale sources, community power
- individual scale sources - from "solar"-powered devices, to energy independent homes
Energy requirement minimization
- general conversation - light bulbs, etc.
- mileage for transportation
Green Design
- manufacture new goods from previously manufactured/processed materials (recycling)
- manufacture new goods with zero waste, minimized energy requirement
- manufacture new goods, designed to metamorphose (age/fail/recycle) gracefully from product to product in a maximally extended useful life
Re-using Resources
- recycling waste materials generated by current processes into new raw materials
- recycling assemblies and sub-assemblies of current technology into new uses to extend their lives before needing to be reduced to raw material
Basic Research
- new materials that respond to the environment and to processing in useful ways
- new broad scale methods for delivering/distributing power, water, clean air
What do you think - other avenues worthy of exploration?
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