All Questions

so I am starting a small business that sells packaged food and coffee beans. Sustainability is an important issue for me, so I'm trying for my packaging to negatively impact the environment as small ...

I want to have a recycling bin at home in addition to a trash bin. Should I line my recycling bin with a trash bag and bag it up when it's full to toss in the dumpster's recycling bin? Or should I ...

Perhaps a Q&A website like Sustainable Living?

Nowadays, everyone talks about it: climate change, and more importantly, how to stop it from happening. Although there's a lot of debate around the topic, the consensus is that by inventing a way of ...

I understand that much of the low CO2 emissions for ethanol as vehicle fuel are related to its entire lifecycle (CO2 is sequestrated when the crop is grown and released when it combusts so it is ...

I own a home in southern Wisconsin, USA, where we have a humid continental climate (emphasis on humid!). There is no central air conditioning. This summer we are experimenting with cooling strategies ...

In the summer, we use a window air conditioner in our bedroom to be able to sleep comfortably at night. It takes a while to cool, and I know it uses quite a bit of energy. Here are a few steps we take ...

I want to find non-plastic straws. Are there are any in Germany, that you can physically buy? I live in Bavaria. I have a big Edeka, Rewe, Lidl and Rossmann nearby, but I am ready to travel "great" ...

I teach in a kindergarten classroom. I would like to know what is the most sustainable out of: paper (starting new, and then as the year goes on, reclaimed/reused as possible paper inside of either ...

Can metal drink cans be melted at home and reused, remoulded into something?

This idea is motivated by the readings of this Hungarian weather station: It sits within a ponor/doline which is basically a hole in the ground that allows the collection of the dense cold air. It ...

Methanol is probably the easiest burnable fuel to produce that is also sustainable. I'd like to produce electricity from methanol, using a device I'd call a 'Methanol Generator' - but I am struggling ...

So, here's a breakdown of the question. Situation: In the next month or two I will be moving house to a new-build detached house in the UK, which is on an estate of around 100 similar such properties....

Both my wife and I avoid eating yolk (as much as possible). I know I can find some uses for raw yolk but I am not sure if the yolk from boiled eggs can be put to good use, other than forms that ...

A large nuclear power plant has a capacity of 4GW and a capacity factor of about 90%. How much installed capacity of wind turbines with a capacity factor of 40% would be required to match that output?...

None of my farmer friends who grow corn for a living seem to have an answer for this. After an event that wipes out all/most human life, how long would fields planted with food corn be expected to ...

The headline says it all, I'm looking for a standard way of assessing a lifestyle against environmental criteria. I'm thinking of some sort of lifestyle questionnaire that will produce a score from 0 ...

U.S. annual installations have been declining since 2012. Essentially everywhere else, besides China's low quality wind, there's only a handful of new farms being built. Is wind pretty much dead?

Why do some people say that biofuels are renewable energy source if producing biofuels requires nitrogen fertilizers that are produced from natural gas (and energy output of biofuels is less than that ...

I have a solar array with 8 panels. There is a slight gap between each panel. At 2 locations string MC4 connectors are placed between the gaps. My question is if water gets on this connector (and not ...

I'm interested in knowing the typical energy pay-back time of a solar photovoltaic panel, in terms of hours operating under an ideal scenario. Energy pay-back time (EPBT) is usually quoted in terms ...

What is the typical embodied energy of a solar photovoltaic panel, in terms of nominal power output or panel area? The ideal answer would be in kWh/WP, but kWh/m2 would also be acceptable. I ...

CO2 concentration is linked to health risks and even our ability to think well. Meanwhile, houseplants decrease CO2 concentration when they receive enough sunlight. However, both houseplant studies ...

In order to make a solar panel or a wind turbine, a few basic inputs are required: labor energy water raw materials Given the current abundance of renewable resources, I assume that the first three ...

Supposing I can focus only on one type of material to recycle, choosing from paper (card board etc), aluminum (can etc) or plastic (water bottle etc), then which choice of material will help the ...

Can someone point me to a resource that would detail what is palm oil being used for, preferably with some % indicators? A staunch meat eater has been boldly proclaiming that being vegetarian or ...

I'm looking to try using more natural products/solutions in our day to day life and some things that I am considering are fragrances, soaps and essences (food). I have read that Sage plants are edible ...

I'm struggling to explain the most important aspects of air pollution in a concise way. I understand CO2 is the biggest issue and long-term driver of global warming, but beyond that I'm lost. News ...

I often hear arguments from people around me, about the environmental impact of certain consumer behaviours like: eating meat using plastic bags travelling via car instead of plane and many others. ...

Firstly, let me say, I am not pro-either. I just hear about people trying to save the environment (and putting an end to bad municipal 'dump site' behaviour) by rather burning their trash. This is ...

If my employer pays me £80 per day, and I can estimate the CO2 footprint of doing my job, compared not working, is around 15Kg CO2e. So my earnings have a footprint equivalent to 180g CO2e per £. (...

I find that we are having more and more things delivered as opposed to buying in stores. This winter a few cardboard boxes with 10kg of oranges, several books, and just this week a fridge. I was ...

I would like to purchase a shredding machine in order to shred plastic myself, I was wondering if there were any standards I'd need to watch out for and where I could find businesses willing to ...

I live near a number of parks which have very large Sycamore trees. In winter these trees naturally shed their bark. The bark tends to pile up at the bottom of the tree until, I assume, the park ...

Scientists frequently speak out about the dangers of climate change, and I'm sure there are many scientists who make concious choices for their own lives with a view towards sustainability. But are ...

I've often wondered whether it's more environmentally friendly to use a desktop or a laptop. To compare purely the electricity usage, I can of course calculate how long I leave my computer turned on, ...

I recently picked up a few cheap, mini photovoltaics. I'm planning to wire three in parallel for a 2V, 900mA max output. I'm not well versed in battery mechanisms, and I was wondering if I would ...

We have put a fair amount of effort into reducing the impact of our staff canteen in our office. One part of this is introducing separate food waste and recyclables bins. However many canteen users ...

Do the CO2 emissions from petrol / gas vehicles vary depending on driving style? Are emissions a function of the engine type or the fuel efficiency? If a motor car is rated at 105 g/km, but it is ...

According to this article from Reuters, it takes up to eight hours for a coal plant to reach maximum generation. This means that four up to eight hours after it starts up, the plant is burning coal at ...

I just got a load of LED grow light tubes - they have mains connectors that use clover shaped plugs -- very much like a lot of laptop chargers use, but just a bit smaller. There is no label on the ...

Charge controller (Renogy Wanderer 10A PWM) can handle the combined voltage when wired in series. From the spec sheet, it has a max PV input voltage of 50VDC. Panels connect to a charge controller ...

I'm looking for some kind of paint to make markings on the pavement and on a grassy area, so that the markings are well visible for a day or so. Spray paint would do the trick but is not very ...

The UK has a target to be carbon-neutral by 2050: As we can see in the image large cuts across all type of CO2 emissions are required. This article by the BBC suggests a number of ways in which ...

I have now seen a few DIY tutorial videos (not in english) which suggest that one should use DC cable for connecting Solar Panels to the Inverter. They claim that AC cable causes a greater voltage ...

I assume that it makes sense to ask for the energy costs of transportation of different goods per weight and volumetric mass density, depending on the means of transportation (truck, train, ship, etc.)...

I live in the UK and do most of my groceries shopping online. At the same time I collect my order I can also hand back to the driver all carrier bags from my previous order (which is great). Some ...

Like many people, we eat some meat, and the resulting bones need to be dealt with after the hens have finished cleaning them or they have been used for stock. I have been burying some bones but am ...

I'm looking for something a little bit better than your average bike in terms of transportation potential, but cannot be a license-required vehicle as I cannot get a driver's license. I also don't ...

My kids like seaweed snacks but there’s so much packaging. Alternatively I can buy crackers or raisins in large packages, reducing both the cost and packaging (plus if the package is cardboard it’s ...