Vermont Environmental Consortium

March 6, 2007
Environmental Technology Show an Eye Opener
by
Daniel Hecht

Thirty bucks is cheap for a whole day of revelations. That’s the price of admission to the Americana Environmental Technology Trade Show, coming up March 20 – 22 in Montreal. Don’t miss it.

For a glimpse of the future, it’s got to be one of the best shows on the planet and well worth taking a day off to attend.

At Montreal Convention Center, you’ll join 10,000 others, including 2,000 delegates from Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. It’s a terrific opportunity to get an international perspective on environmentalism, environmental technology, and the social initiatives that are changing the way the world lives.

Representing Vermont’s green enterprises, VEC exhibited at Americana two years ago and at its West Coast equivalent, Globe, last year. The experiences changed my outlook entirely. Though supposedly knowledgeable about environmental enterprise and technology, I had absolutely no idea of the scope and variety of global developments.

The exhibits feature much more than technology, but the gadgets are the most eye-catching. Though I can’t predict what will be displayed this year, I can mention a few of the miracles of rare device at the prior show.

The hydrogen cars were impressive, of course. Honda’s exhibit featured a sporty model that was cut in half lengthwise, revealing inner workings reminiscent of a spacecraft’s guts. Outside, a dozen hydrogen-powered and electric cars were available for test drives, surrounded by eager paparazzi.

I developed a special affection for The Titan, a tremendous machine that blasts hot water deep into soil and sucks it back out again to rinse pollutants away. It’s the size of a fire truck, with massive bolts and fittings and a green enamel finish polished to a mirror shine.

On the biomass energy side, several companies promoted machines that grind, mix, dewater, and otherwise render whole logs, sewer sludge, trash, grass, or agricultural slash. Only the smaller versions of these were on display; the larger ones, big as barns, were to be seen only in brochures. GE and other firms are marketing huge biogas engines and generators the size of a city bus.

The point I took away from these exhibits: The world is hungry for renewable energy, and heavy manufacturing industries are investing steeply in meeting that demand.

Not all the innovations are outwardly glamorous. For example, attendees are given plastic bags to carry the brochures and CDs they’ll pick up. In 2005, the bags won the Best New Technology award at the show because they’re biodegradable.

That’s not a new concept, but these bags have unique characteristics. I stored my stack of Americana materials in my bag for eight months, testing it at intervals, always finding it quite durable and wondering if its properties had been oversold. Then one day, as I moved the stack, the bag literally dissolved into a pile of tiny, brittle flakes. Future generations won’t inherit these bags in their landfills and waterways.

Many technologies demonstrate the “leapfrog effect.” That is, most Third World countries have never broadly implemented major infrastructure such as telephone lines or electrical grids. But now they’re moving directly to cheaper and more environmentally-friendly alternatives. Instead of building a massive electrical infrastructure, for example, they’re jumping straight to renewable, distributed, smaller-scale power sources like wind, water, and biomass. Remote villages in Africa can now enjoy light bulbs and computers powered by local solar arrays or hydro systems.

Microturbine generators, LED lighting, solar photovoltaics, corn-derived plastic housewares, geographic information systems (GIS) applications, microorganisms that devour pollutants, green building materials: Think of it as an essential curriculum in environmental technology literacy.

On the cultural side, I was delighted by an exhibit of fine craft items made from recycled materials and with environmentally-responsible processes: stylish furniture from waste-wood composites, truly lovely, rubbed to a silky shine with varnish made from milk by-products; toys made from reused tin cans, sculptures made from corn polymers or recycled plastics, lamps made from machine parts. Recycled, reused, and bio-based materials needn’t produce only utilitarian products; they can create every hip and high-style aesthetic effect imaginable.

Equally inspiring were the exhibits by organizations working in the social arena.

Due largely to the Kyoto Accord, carbon-reduction initiatives are funded at a significant scale in many countries. Organizations and public agencies are developing regional sustainability plans; groups of cities are banding together for ambitious programs to develop renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gases, construct mass transit systems, and build green low-income housing. Financial institutions offer socially responsible lending programs and manage investments in environmental technologies, and carbon credit exchanges daily market billions of dollars’ worth of GGH-reduction value. Dramatic societal changes will follow.

If you’re like me, you’ll come away from Americana inspired and relieved -- and frustrated. These wonders serve to sooth, somewhat, those nagging worries about the future. At the same time, it would be good to see more of this happening here.

Let’s get to work.

For more information, visit www.americana.org. And come by the Vermont Environmental Consortium booth to say hello.

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