The following is a reprint from the DAI website. Read the original here
Date: February 19, 2009
The DAI team in Indonesia on February 19 had the honor of helping to host U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at one of its U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project sites.
The former first lady and U.S. senator, visiting Asia for the first time as a member of the Obama administration, traveled to Indonesia as part of a four-country trip that included meetings in Japan, South Korea, and China.
Secretary Clinton walked through the Petojo Utara neighborhood in Jakarta, where she toured projects implemented by DAI’s Environmental Services Program (ESP) and other USAID partners. Ms. Nur Endah Shofiani, ESP’s regional coordinator for Jakarta, explained the DAI projects to the Secretary, showing her around an urban composting site and a shop where women make handicrafts out of recycled materials.
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In the wake of the devastating earthquakes in Indonesia, Haiti, and Chile recently, experts in the US say that we, too, should be prepared for a major earthquake to strike our country, particularly in the Pacific Norhtwest.
Watch this informative video from NBC Nightly News
The Yale University Chapter of Engineers Without Borders works closely with local communities in developing countries to deliver much needed services and education to people in need. In February 2010, they had the opportunity to invite Leonardo J. Stoute, Founder and President of the LSI Group, to discuss with them the needs and opportunities for sustainable infrastructure in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Professor Stoute, who also teaches at Andalas University in Padang, brought the group up to speed on the aftermath of the devestating earthquakes that hit West Sumatra in the fall of 2009.
Prof. Stoute discussing with Engineers Without Borders at Yale
Prof. Stoute’s presentation began with an introduction to the geography and culture of West Sumatra, Indonesia, home of the Minangkabau, one of the oldest and largest matrilineal societies still in existence today. He touched briefly on the uniqueness of the Minang culture as one of the foundations of other cultures throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia. Over 1 milion of the Minang were effected when the magnitude 6.9 and 7.9 earthquakes hit on September 30, 2009. The people, strong-hearted, generous, and welcoming, are currently experiencing the aftermath of a tragic natural disaster, and are still feeling the consequences of the lack of necessities such as adequate shelter.
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This story originally appeared on the Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) website on August 29, 2009. We are reposting here for the benefit of our readers.
A pilot project in Aceh, Indonesia recently won approval to collect the waste byproducts generated at a palm oil production site and use them as feedstock for making biodiesel.
The project, proposed in a paper by DAI consultant Thomas B. Fricke, will create a prototype for developing biofuel feedstocks for local and international biodiesel markets. Indonesia’s palm oil industry is a significant provider of livelihoods, but also a prolific polluter. The project’s significance lies in the fact that it goes beyond merely using the oil from oil palm fruit: it converts the entire captured biomass into renewable energy resources.
Eventually, according to Fricke, the project — which will expand an existing small-scale processing plant for palm oil byproducts — could help turn a notoriously dirty industry into a relatively green one.
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Tags: biofuel, Indonesia, palm oil
Bioenergy, Biodiversity, Food and Global Change Mitigation
– Can we have it all?
Brazil has successfully replaced over 40% of its petroleum with ethanol in a largely and increasingly renewable manner, and without impact on staple crops. Can the USA do the same? Although the USA currently produces more ethanol, the current system based on corn lacks sustainability or carbon mitigation, with significant negative indirect effects on global biodiversity and animal feed supply. The emergence of technical capacity to convert celluloses to fuels, opens the use of a much wider range of plant feedstocks that can be grown in our climate, and including plants that can be grown on abandoned land or land unsuited to agriculture. Proposed feedstocks range from restored prairie to highly productive monocultures of perennial energy grasses and trees, depending on the location. Facts indicate that the latter solution on abandoned or degraded agricultural land may come closest to allowing the USA to address all four areas of the title.
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Tags: Biofuels, Environment, Harvard
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smashmi | Posted in:
Sustainability | Posted on: 01-13-2010
The Office of Sustainability at Yale University is making great strides toward achieving and maintaining sustainable operations across campus. Several buildings which have been recently completed or are sill in the planning stages have achieved high marks in terms of their ‘sustainability indices’. This includes the recently renovated Stoeckel Hall.
Two of Yale’s residential colleges, through a grant from the Rocky Mountain Institute, are installing energy monitor systems to allow students to first monitor and then self-regulate energy usage in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The latest on this development can be found in the Yale Daily News article here.
The interior of Kroon Hall. Yale School of Forestry
The newest edition to the Yale School of Forestry, Kroon Hall, pictured above, has achieved ‘ultra-green’ status and a platinum rating from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The full story can be found here.
The Yale School of Engineering has installed several wind turbines atop one of its main laboratory facilities, designed to generate up to 26 megawatt hours per year. More information on these turbines and their operation can be found here.
