A Short Stop in Vancouver.B.C.

Ramona Madhosingh-Hector
Urban Sustainability Agent, Pinellas County Extension


I recently had the opportunity to visit Vancouver, British Columbia for an international conference on sustainability – the conference planners totally lucked out with this location! Vancouver is well known for its sustainability initiatives and it plans on becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. Check here for Vancouver’s green city plan. In this blog, I’ll share my insights about Vancouver’s green efforts.

Although the conference was a short one, I couldn’t resist the opportunity for an early afternoon stroll through downtown Vancouver. The hotel was conveniently located in the city center and little did I know that it was connected to a modern shopping oasis called the Pacific Shopping Centre. Tempted as I was, I actually started my tour in Gastown.

I could easily tell that this was an historic neighborhood with its cobblestone streets and old Victorian buildings. The chic restaurants, trendy furniture stores, lofts and bars all with on street parking screamed urban renewal. The Gastown Steam Clock had a flock of tourists taking photos, including me! The clock replica is powered by a series of underground pipes which also heat downtown buildings. At night, Gastown gleamed with LED light strings and bustled with people.

Elsewhere in Vancouver, old and new buildings were creatively used. Lofts, offices and gyms were seamlessly woven into the downtown fabric. From my vantage point at the hotel, I could easily locate green spaces which weren’t restricted to street level view. In fact, many of the skyscrapers had green spaces and the parking garage at Vancouver International had a green wall installation. Trendy apartments along the waterfront had great vistas but were also well connected via the transit system.

The mixed uses in both the historic neighborhood and the traditional downtown provide many opportunities for residents to develop a sense of place and community where they live. The ability to work and play close to where you live is definitely sustainable. You save money on your commute, develop deeper relations with your neighbors, and contribute to economic stability within your community.

In the next blog, I’ll talk about Vancouver’s transit system.

Resources:
EPA Livability Principles
American Planning Association
Land Use fact sheet
Land Use: Subdivision Design fact sheet

Pinellas County Extension Shines a Light on Energy Consumption, Saturday January 28 at the Gulfport Library

Through its Pinellas Energy Efficiency Project, Pinellas County Extension is promoting a new gadget that aims to get citizens more energy conscious and eco-friendly.

The Kill-A-Watt™ Energy Monitor is a simple tool used to see how much energy the devices in a home are actually using, whether they are on or off. Users simply plug the monitor into an outlet, plug an appliance into the monitor, follow The Kill-A-Watt’s™ instructions and watch it work. The monitor measures various aspects of electrical consumption, from voltage of an outlet to watts and kilowatt hours. Users can find out exactly how much energy and money is being consumed by most of their household electronics.

Pinellas County Extension and the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative have come together to make these Kill-A-Watt™ monitors available for check-out at their libraries to make the assessment of personal energy consumption even easier.

Extension specialists will also be holding upcoming classes at select libraries to further explain how the monitors work and to give easy tips to make a home more energy efficient in their effort to decrease electric bills and increase environmental friendliness.

On Saturday January 28 we will be hosting a class at the Gulfport Public Library. Click here for a map to the library. Participants of the class will receive handouts and worksheets from the University of Florida and take part in an interactive presentation. Door prizes will be awarded.

Sign up today to participate in this class. Visit www.pinellascountyextension.org and click on the 28th on the calendar on the front page. Registration is free and easy.

See you on the 28th!

Pinellas County Extension Shines a Light on Energy Consumption

Through its Pinellas Energy Efficiency Project, Pinellas County Extension is promoting a new gadget that aims to get citizens more energy conscious and eco-friendly. 


The Kill-A-Watt™ Energy Monitor is a simple tool used to see how much energy the devices in a home are actually using, whether they are on or off. Users simply plug the monitor into an outlet, plug an appliance into the monitor, follow The Kill-A-Watt’s™ instructions and watch it work. The monitor measures various aspects of electrical consumption, from voltage of an outlet to watts and kilowatt hours. Users can find out exactly how much energy and money is being consumed by most of their household electronics. 


Pinellas County Extension and the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative have come together to make these Kill-A-Watt™ monitors available for check-out at their libraries to make the assessment of personal energy consumption even easier. 


Extension specialists will also be holding upcoming classes at select libraries to further explain how the monitors work and to give easy tips to make a home more energy efficient in their effort to decrease electric bills and increase environmental friendliness. 


The Kill-A-Watt™ classes will be held according to the following schedule: 


Wednesday, Jan. 11, 3 to 4 p.m. Tarpon Springs Public Library 138 E. Lemon St., Tarpon Springs Phone: (727) 943-4922 www.tarponspringslibrary.org Saturday, Jan. 28, 10 to 11 a.m. Gulfport Public Library 5501 28th Ave. S., Gulfport Phone: (727) 893-1074 www.mygulfport.us 


Saturday, Feb. 18, 11 a.m. to noon Palm Harbor Library 2330 Nebraska Ave., Palm Harbor Phone: (727) 784-3332 www.palmharborlibrary.org 


Tuesday, March 13, 7 to 8 p.m. Dunedin Public Library 223 Douglas Ave., Dunedin Phone: (727) 298-3080 www.dunedingov.com 


Saturday, March 31, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Clearwater East Branch Library 100 N. Osceola Ave., Clearwater Phone: (727) 669-1280 www.myclearwater.com 


Thursday, April 12, 6 to 7 p.m. Safety Harbor Public Library 101 Second St. N., Safety Harbor Phone: (727) 724-1525 www.cityofsafetyharbor.com 


Thursday, April 26, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Oldsmar Public Library 400 St. Petersburg Drive E., Oldsmar Phone: (813) 749-1178 www.oldsmarlibrary.org 


Monday, May 7, 1 to 2 p.m. St. Pete Beach Public Library 365 73rd Ave., St. Pete Beach Phone: (727) 363-9238 www.stpetebeach.org 


It is important to remember that all devices cannot be measured using the Kill-A-Watt™ monitor. For example, air conditioners and electric heaters are not compatible with the monitor.  


Registration for classes is required. For more information on the Kill-A-Watt™ monitor, classes or Pinellas County Extension, visit www.pinellascountyextension.org or call (727) 582-2581. To register, visit the website or stop by the library holding the class you wish to attend.


Pinellas County Extension is a partnership between Pinellas County government and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences as part of a nationwide network of land grant universities. The University of Florida is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. 


The mission of Pinellas County Extension is to provide research-based knowledge and education programs enabling people to make practical decisions to improve their quality of life and the world around them. Education focuses on sustainable living, lawn and garden, families and consumers, and 4-H youth development. 


Pinellas County Extension offers programming at the Extension office, 12520 Ulmerton Road, Largo, (727) 582-2100; Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center, 3940 Keystone Road, Tarpon Springs, (727) 453-6800 and at Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center, 1800 Weedon Drive N.E., St. Petersburg, (727) 453-6500. For more information, visit www.pinellascountyextension.org and find Pinellas Extension on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. 


Pinellas County complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you are a person with a disability who needs any accommodation in order to participate in this class you are entitled, at no cost to you, to the provision of certain assistance. At least seven days prior to the class, please contact the Office of Human Rights, 400 S. Fort Harrison Ave., Suite 500, Clearwater, FL 33756, (727) 464-4062 (Voice/TDD).

New UF Solar Research Breakthrough

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers report they have achieved a new record in efficiency with a prototype solar cell that could be manufactured using a roll-to-roll process. 


“Imagine making solar panels by a process that looks like printing newspaper roll to roll,” said Franky So, a UF professor in the department of materials science and engineering. 


Industry has eyed the roll-to-roll manufacturing process for years as a means of producing solar cells that can be integrated into the exterior of buildings, automobiles and even personal accessories such as handbags and jackets. But, to date, the photovoltaic sheets cannot muster enough energy per square inch to make them attractive to manufacturers. 


The UF team has crossed the critical threshold of 8 percent efficiency in laboratory prototype solar cells, a milestone with implications for future marketability, by using a specially treated zinc oxide polymer blend as the electron charge transporting material. The full report outlining the details of their latest laboratory success in solar cell technology is published in the Dec. 18 online version of Nature Photonics. 


The researchers said the innovative process they used to apply the zinc oxide as a film was key to their success. They first mixed it with a polymer so it could be spread thinly across the device, and then removed the polymer by subjecting it to intense ultraviolet light. 


John Reynolds, a UF professor of chemistry working on the project, said the cells are layered with different materials that function like an electron-transporting parfait, with each of the nano-thin layers working together synergistically to harvest the sun’s energy with the highest efficiency. 


Reynolds’ chemistry research group developed an additional specialized polymer coating that overlays the zinc oxide polymer blend. 


“That’s where the real action is,” he said. The polymer blend creates the charges, and the zinc oxide layer delivers electrons to the outer circuit more efficiently.” 


Reynolds’ chemistry research team is aligned in an ongoing collaboration with So’s materials science team, which they call “The SoRey Group.” 


The most recent fruit of their collaboration will now go to Risø National Laboratory in Denmark, where researchers will replicate the materials and processes developed by the SoRey Group and test them in the roll-to-roll manufacturing process. 


“This sort of thing can only happen when you have interdisciplinary groups like ours working together,” said Reynolds. 


So and Reynolds plan to continue their collaboration with Risø National Laboratory, and expand it to include researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology where Reynolds is now moving. Their work is funded by a grant from the Office of Naval Research. -30- 


Credits 
Writer:  Donna Hesterman, donna.hesterman@ufl.edu, 352-846-2573 
Source:  Franky So, fso@mse.ufl.edu, 352-846-3790 
Source:  John Reynolds, reynolds@chem.ufl.edu, 352-392-2012