#31 No need to fly exotic fruits halfway around the world anymore!
We have visited and interviewed Yassine Louchi, the Co-founder of Grow2Cook, and Yusuf Kilic developing engineer. We recorded this interview in Bottrop, on the 24th of June during the Climate Pioneer World Tour.
Grow2Cook is an automated hydroponics greenhouse in which plants grow 2 times faster, that saves up to 90% water and that has an improved CO2 balance. It is fully automatic, allows season-independent harvesting and has a space-saving design.
To know more about Grow2Cook: https://grow2cook.de/#/
#13 Eating Meat Has a Bigger Carbon Footprint
Watch our interview with Bettina Willner, member of the Climate Advisory Board in Bielefeld. The interview was recorded on the 23rd of June during the Climate Pioneer World Tour, in Bielefeld.
She is a consultant at the Bielefeld Consumer Protection Association and she talks about how what we eat has a big impact on climate. She showed us how eating more vegetables can help us to save the climate.
#30 Solar for everyone - on your balcony!
Interview with Andreas Weischer and Gerd Voss about balcony solar systems, recorded on the 22nd of June in Emsdetten during the SolarButterfly Climate Pioneer World Tour.
Balcony solar systems or PlugIn-PV-Systems are small systems that everybody can install by themselves at home. Easy and cheap to build your own solar system without technical help and bureaucracy.
Learn more by listening to the interview! Andreas Weischer also offers online courses on how to install a balcony solar system in Germany.
Partner Feature: OPES Solutions - solar modules from recycled ocean PET
In this series, we are introducing all of our partners. Companies that not only have great innovations to combat climate change but also believe in our project and help us in our mission to travel around the world in the search of climate pioneers and to spread the word about their solutions. Read about OPES Solutions, in our fifth Partner Feature.
“We have to decarbonize the transport sector as fast as possible” – urges Robert Händel CEO and founder. “And we already produced hundreds of thousands of solar modules for the share-bike and caravan market. We want to enable applications to use free and clean energy. Solar becomes an integral part of the vehicle, like an energy-producing material property. This is what is demonstrated in the Solar Butterfly in a beautiful way, and many people will be surprised that it´s possible to travel around the world powered only by the sun.”
The leading off-grid-module manufacturer entered a very new era in solar vehicle integration with successfully developing Larso’s solar modules! The company has developed an innovative manufacturing process, the wafer-based crystalline solar cells are combined with structured sandwich panels made out of recycled ocean PET, by 3A Composites Mobility. And they are ultralight too, which is crucial in the automotive industry – and also for SolarButterfly. It is 55 percent lighter than conventional solar modules. The efficiency of the LONGi solar cells used is 24 percent.
“Using recycled material is a big deal – said Robert Händel, CEO and founder of OPES Solutions – and a major step towards circular economy. We produce already a similar product with structured foam called SolShell. That’s why we were able to make this type of panel, which is both very light and robust. Solar in vehicles has specific requirements, which makes us do thorough testing in our factory, for example regarding vibrations. Solar becomes an integral part of the vehicle, like an energy-producing material property. This is what is demonstrated in the Solar Butterfly in a beautiful way, and many people will be surprised that it´s possible to travel around the world powered only by the sun.”
The Climate Pioneer World Tour will also visit OPES in Berlin, Germany and Robert Händel is also looking forward to this. “The tour shows that technology is already there, cost and reliability is right. We just need to use it. So, the tour should be really a positive wake-up call, and we look forward when the tour passes us here in Berlin.”
And what is coming in the future for OPES? “We´ll continue with our technology roadmap for solar mobility – says Mr Händel, – and plan to launch different products for different vehicle types for the years to come. We will showcase our latest innovations at IAA Transport in September in Hannover, which we are looking forward to.”
Follow the adventures of the SolarButterfly on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Check out our other Partner Features too: LONGi, HSLU, myclimate, BRUGG
Learn more about OPES Solutions on their website: www.opes-solutions.com
#12 Stopping packaging waste for take-away food
Interview with Leonard Krause, Naemi Reymann and Ewa Westermann-Schutzki from the 20th of June, recorded in Düsseldorf during the Climate Pioneer World Tour. The topic is solutions for reducing the amount of trash.
There is a new law in Düsseldorf that will require restaurants to offer the customers multi-use containers too apart from single use ones for takeaway food, Leonard Krause tells more about this. He is the Zero Waste Manager for the Ministry for Environment and Consumer Protection LH Düsseldorf.
We can see in the video a new takeaway container system: these multi-use alternatives for single use items can be taken for free, and they automatically only charge you if you don’t bring it back within a given timeframe.
Naemi Reymann works as a consultant for a local waste management company (AWISTA gmbh), teaching the community how to deal with and work with waste. She talks about a great initiative Mehrweg to Go, there is an interactive map online to find sustainable places that offer multi-use solutions, so you can support them if you want.
Ewa Westermann-Schutzki, environment consultant at Verbraucherzentrale NRW helps the research part, collects information from restaurants to help the development of the multi-use containers, so that they can best meet the needs.
#29 Cleaning up a dirty industry - tire recycling
Interview with Norbert Tschirpke, the CEO of rCB Soest GmbH, recorded on the 17th of June 2022 in Warstein, during the first month of the Climate Pioneer World Tour. rCB (recycled carbon black) produces carbon black for the tire and rubber industry.
Recycled Carbon Black is a valuable raw material – produced from the decomposition of waste tires. In Germany alone, they “deplore” approx. 80 million pieces of tires p.a. The tire and rubber industry uses this material for the production of new tires, rubber goods such as paint.
To know more about rCB: https://www.rcb-carbon.de
#28 Leading edge technology inside every solar system and windmill
A little video the crew made in English at Infineon Technologies, a world leader in semiconductor solutions. Stefan Kratz interviewed Dr Arne Kohring, the Vice President of Infineon.
#11 Paying government employees to ride their bicycle to work
Dr Stefan Belz, the Lord Mayor of Böblingen talked about what steps the city makes to combat climate change. Electric mobility, and biking, walking is very important for the city. In the town hall people get 25 cents per km extra for taking a sustainable way to get to work. What an incentive! Learn more about the solutions Böblingen has by watching the video in German.
#10 Electric car usage in the heart of Mercedes country
Christian Gangl, mayor of Sindelfingen, Germany talked about how they are moving the automobile factory in their town to 75% carbon neutral by 2025, and 100% by 2030. Very interesting interview for those who are interested in how politics can drive change to stop climate change.