This is a wonderful documentary series that not only every Ecopreneur should be aware of but also anyone interested in their future.
e2 is an ongoing PBS documentary series that chronicles efforts to solve the world’s most pressing ecological challenges. From energy consumption to design efficiency, policy to industry, the series documents the innovators whose work is reducing humans’ impact on the environment. Interviews with experts, policymakers and pioneers across a variety of disciplines offer a firsthand account of the complex environmental challenges that we face, as well as the possibility that pragmatic solutions are within reach. The series is narrated by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Each episode is supplemented by a video podcast featuring exclusive interviews and footage, taking viewers beyond the television broadcast and deeper into the issues of sustainability. Produced by kontentreal, new episodes of e2 release on PBS every Friday beginning October 19. Check your local listings. Major corporate support for e2 is provided by Autodesk.
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Paving the Way
Learn how ultra-lightweight materials are playing an increasingly crucial role in automobile design as manufacturers try to design more efficient vehicles. Jon Fox-Rubin, the president and C.E.O. of Fiberforge, demonstrates his company’s production process for lightweight carbon fiber composites that will be used by the automotive industry.
“a typical car today, uses every day about 100 times it’s weight in achient plants.”
“.03 percent of the fuel energy ends up moving the driver”
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Architecture 2030
See architect and activist Edward Mazria’s compelling presentation, which calls on buildings to be carbon neutral by the year 2030. Mazria has been speaking to leaders from the building industry and government on practical ways to reduce buildings’ carbon footprint.
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Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands
Dutch architect Frits van Dongen discusses his building, The Whale. The Whale is the centerpiece of Borneo Sporenburg, a high-density urban housing development situated on Amsterdam’s eastern docklands. Van Dongen describes how many units in the building do not share the same floor plan.
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Biophilia is a hypothesis that describes humans as emotionally connected to all other living systems. Jonathan Rose, a New York City-based real estate developer, describes how biophilia can guide building design in dense urban environments. In many instances, biophilia shares the same principles as sustainable building design.
“In the next 30 years, it is estimated the American population will grow by 94 million people.”
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Bogota: Building a Sustainable City
During his tenure as mayor of Bogota, Colombia, Enrique Penalosa was both revered and scorned for his urban planning and transportation policies. His public works projects, which largely favored the pedestrian experience, were unlike anything previously built in Bogota. Penalosa describes the environmental and social importance of minimizing automobile culture.
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Greening the Federal Government
Architect Thom Mayne describes his philosophy toward sustainability and design. Mayne, a Pritzker Prize-winner and the architect of the San Francisco Federal Building, is a maverick and a leader in his field. He believes that people will have to adapt to new, sustainable building designs now and into the future.
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The Druk White Lotus School – Ladakh
The Druk White Lotus School was constructed despite challenges ranging from financing, to Ladakh, India’s harsh climate and remote location. The school’s founder, His Holiness The Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa, describes how the school was built in stages, while architect Jonathan Rose discusses the plethora of fundraising sources used for expansion.
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Coal and Nuclear: Problem or Solution?
A process called “carbon sequestration” may one day allow the United States and other countries to burn abundant coal reserves without emitting greenhouse gases. But the technology is far from complete, and some skeptics question its ability to effectively capture carbon dioxide. Learn more about the carbon capture process from leading researchers in the field.
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Terry Tamminen, a policy advisor to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on energy and environmental issues, helped draft much of the state’s forward-thinking environmental policy. Tamminen discusses California’s achievements, and the imperative of new laws and policies that promote sustainabile practices.
“We did the million solar roof plan. Which is 3.2 billion dollars invested in solar.”
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The production of ethanol and other biofuels requires many of the same resources – such as arable land – as the production of food. As the biofuel industry expands in the United States and abroad, there is increasing question of how food production will be impacted. Experts discuss the tension between these two industries in Brazil and the United States, the world’s two largest ethanol producers.
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Muhammad Yunus – the founder of the Grameen Bank and a Nobel Peace Prize-winner – describes his philosophy toward poverty, and how energy access can play a major role in poverty alleviation.
“Business can be turned into something to unleash the energies in people, and the futures of people”
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Learn how wind turbines are manufactured at the Suzlon Rotor Corporation in Pipestone, Minnesota, which supplies turbines to the state’s rapidly expanding community-owned wind farms.
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Meet maverick designer Cameron Sinclair, whose “design like you give a damn” credo was an inspiration for the e2 series.
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Tad Fettig, the director of the e2 series, shares his perspectives on filming in China as this sleeping giant of industry, technology and consumer demand awakens in the 21st century.
“Two New York cities are being built every year for the next 20 years.”
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A closer look at how much energy is used and how much pollution is created by construction. The impact on our environment is staggering.
“Nearly one third of America’s green house gasses come from our buildings.” “25% of the world’s energy is being used by America… so that means 10% of the world’s energy is being used by American buildings.”
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Thirty years ago in Freiburg, Germany, the “Green Movement” was born. Today the city serves as a model of environmental consciousness for architects, planners, and even politicians.
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Learn more about the inspirational architect Sergio Palleroni, who is introducing sustainability to poor and underdeveloped communities around the world.
“An architect is to be inclusive… to include all things about this world and that means all communities.”
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David Owen, a writer for The New Yorker, discussues the complex issues of sustainability as they relate to urban and suburban life.
“Today there is so much more technology & mind power that could allow us, if we focus on it, to change to become much more concious about how we live on this planet.”
