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Engineering a Better World: Goal #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Have you ever considered how a city apartment building could be used to help reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? Engineers across the globe are asking questions just like this to help make cities and communities more sustainable, as well as to contribute to the SDGs. The SDGs, also known as the Sustainable Development Goals, are 17 goals laid out by the United Nations that aim to make the Earth a better and more sustainable place to live.

Here are 3 innovative and unique ways engineers are working towards Goal #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Vertical Forest

Have you ever looked at the top of an apartment building and noticed a few trees growing on the roof? Well, picture that times about 800! This is called a Vertical Forest, and was first designed in Milan, Italy. It was created with the purpose of reducing air pollution and producing new, clean oxygen within cities. Trees are able to do this through the process of photosynthesis. Their leaves take in carbon dioxide, water, and energy from the sun, and turn it into food for them to eat, producing oxygen in the process! This is especially impactful in cities, which account for 70% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. These buildings are not only beautiful, but help our cities stay healthy!

Mexicable Gondolas

Cities have a lot of traffic due to the people who drive into the city to work, and those who already live there. This is the case in Mexico City, where serious traffic is not just an annoyance, but a health concern as well. As a car is driven, it burns gasoline which creates harmful pollutants that enter the atmosphere. In Mexico City specifically, which is surrounded by mountains, that pollution stays trapped above the city. In 2016, Mexico City only had 26 days with acceptable air quality levels! As a solution to this, the city introduced gondolas called the Mexicable, which allows citizens to glide overhead of the traffic. These produce less emissions, and it is estimated that its invention allowed 5800 cars to be taken off the roads, reducing 17,400 tons of carbon emissions. The use of gondolas as public transportation is a sustainable way to travel and reduce car use!

Calearth Sandberg Homes

Did you know that across the globe, about 1.6 billion people don’t have access to adequate housing? The non-profit organization CalEarth is helping change this with SuperAdobe — sustainable, durable and low-cost homes using sandbags! The structures are made in a dome shape by layering long sandbags on top of each other. This simplistic design does not require heavy machinery and can be constructed by anyone. To make the design permanent, a layer of plaster is applied to the outside, protecting the home from weather. They’ve been endorsed by the United Nations, and these sandbag homes can currently be found in at least 49 countries across the world!

Through engineering, we have the power to make the Earth a better place and improve the quality of life of people everywhere. Whether it’s in a big city or a rural community, by putting our minds together to come up with unique, sustainable solutions like these, everyone benefits.

Sources

https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/project/vertical-forest/

https://www.smartmeetings.com/magazine_article/vertical-forests-new-green-architecture

https://www.c40.org/why_cities#:~:text=Cities%20consume%20over%20two%2Dthirds,levels%20and%20powerful%20coastal%20storms.

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2015/03/17/power-one-tree-very-air-we-breathe#:~:text=Through%20a%20process%20called%20photosynthesis,and%20released%20by%20the%20tree.

https://www.bdcnetwork.com/blog/public-transportation-future-four-new-sustainable-technologies

http://gondolaproject.com/category/engineering/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/mexico-city-chokes-on-its-congestion-problem

https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/cities-grow-so-do-numbers-homeless#:~:text=Based%20on%20national%20reports%2C%20it’s,population%2C%20may%20lack%20adequate%20housing.

https://www.arch2o.com/7-innovative-low-income-housing-materials-that-might-save-the-world/

https://www.calearth.org/intro-superadobe

https://www.calearth.org/alumni-projects2

Ways to Support Female Engineering Entrepreneurs

by wemadeit

As you most likely know, there is a major gender gap in leadership roles in the workforce. In 2017, only 15.6% of Canadian businesses were owned by women, while 63.5% were owned by men and 20.9% were owned equally by men and women. Research shows that in communities where female-owned businesses thrive, the country’s GDP grows and the global economy benefits. In places where women’s entrepreneurship is restricted or limited, the opposite happens. Individuals, communities, countries and the global economy miss out on unrealized economic gains when women are underrepresented. Here are ways to help lessen the gap and support women engineers and entrepreneurs.

1 – Buy from women-owned businesses

The easiest way to show your support for women entrepreneurs is to help keep their sales booming. All you have to do is search which businesses in your region are women-owned, keep them handy in a list, and remember to prioritize them the next time you go shopping or are looking for a particular service. Chances are, some of your favourite businesses are led by women. Some examples of female-owned tech and software companies are Canva (Melanie Perkins), Cloud9Insight (Carlene Jackson), Rumarocket.com (Kathleen Yu), LaunchDarkly (Edith Harbaugh), Task Rabbit (Leah Solivan), and Re:3D (Samantha Snabes).

2 – Promote these businesses on social media

Every business needs new customers coming in regularly and a good way to get in contact with potential buyers and make new connections is through social media. Everyone has their own audience on social media that the business may not have access to, so posting the products you buy and tagging the female entrepreneurs that you support will help increase interest in their businesses. There are even existing hashtags like #NWSBM (National Women’s Small Business Month) and #BuyWomenOwned that have lots of followers which can help you get your posts noticed by an even bigger audience. Fun Fact: Both Facebook and Youtube have women in their executive positions, with Sheryl Sandberg as the COO of Facebook and Susan Wojcicki as the CEO of Youtube.

3 – Invest in women-owned companies

You’ve probably noticed that a lot of businesses are suffering due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a lack of financial support. Similarly, a lot of businesses are having trouble getting off the ground because of these economic issues, so making an investment can help give women the means to keep their business thriving. Even making a small donation and telling a few friends can amount to a big impact on these small businesses.

Links

https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/h_03115.html

Supporting Women Entrepreneurs Is Just Good Business

https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/top-women-in-tech-entrepreneurs-in-2018–cms-30686

https://www.women-in-technology.com/wintec-blog/7-female-tech-entrepreneurs

Engineering a Better World: Goal 3 Good Health and Wellbeing

by wemadeit

Have you ever thought about how 3D printing could be the answer to helping more people get organ transplants? Engineers across the globe are thinking about things just like this that contribute to the SDGs. The SDGs, also known as the Sustainable Development Goals, are 17 goals laid out by the United Nations that aim to make the Earth a better and more sustainable place to live. Goal #3, Good Health and Wellbeing, looks to promote and ensure healthy wellbeing for all.

Here are 3 innovative and unique ways some engineers are improving health and wellbeing across the globe:

Virtual Rehab

The uses of virtual reality (VR) are truly endless, and engineers like Dr. ir. Isabel Van De Keere are applying just that to healthcare. She created Immersive Rehab, a type of neurorehabilitation (a process of healing or helping with nervous system-related injuries, like multiple sclerosis and strokes) that combines treatment with VR. Through the use of a VR headset, patients are able to enter a virtual world to perform rehab exercises, interacting with virtual objects. She created this after going through neurorehabilitation herself, following a workplace accident, and finding the exercises tedious with slow recovery. Immersive Rehab is not only fun but aims to improve recovery for patients and reduce lengthy referral times.

Phone App to Prevent Maternal Mortality

*https://twitter.com/theGiftedMom/status/1019489078578958336*

In Cameroon, as of 2017, for every 100,000 live births, there were 529 maternal deaths related to pregnancy. The high maternal and infant mortality rates in the country led engineer Alain Nteff to develop GiftedMom, an app that delivers medical information to mothers before and after their baby is born! Users will first message how long they’ve been pregnant. Every week after, they’ll receive texts that provide information on topics like breastfeeding, vaccines, and booking doctor appointments, which builds public awareness around pregnancy. Users can also submit their questions, to which they’ll get a response from doctors. This is extremely helpful for women living in rural and isolated areas!

3D Printing a Human Heart

https://nypost.com/2019/04/15/scientists-create-entire-human-heart-with-3-d-printer-for-the-first-time/

3D printing is a super cool process that allows you to turn a digital file into a real object — but have you ever imagined this could be used for human organs? At Tel Aviv University, researchers were able to successfully print a human heart. While people have printed the structure of hearts before, this is the first time it has been done using human cells and biological materials. This is a major breakthrough! Around 5,000 heart transplants occur around the world every year, but it is believed up to 50,000 people are in need of them. With such an unmet demand for a life-changing surgery, being able to print hearts to transplant would save countless lives. The technology has a long way to go, as the hearts are currently small and need training to perform like human hearts, but this breakthrough is huge!

Health and wellbeing is something that every single person across the globe is impacted by. Using engineering to come up with solutions to complex problems like these, is a powerful tool that can and will change lives!