Environmental ship design  I've supported the Rocky Mountain Institute for some time. They facilitate good environmental design, often working with large corporations. They believe in working within the system, making sometimes small incremental progress. They support use of the Hypercar concept,

...designed to capture the synergies of: ultralight construction; low-drag design; hybrid-electric drive; and, efficient accessories to achieve 3 to 5-fold improvement in fuel economy, equal or better performance, safety, amenity and affordability, compared to today's vehicles.

They recently started work on The Good Ship Ethereal, a yacht being commissioned by Sun founder Bill Joy. Using an integrated team of designers and scientists they are taking a very wholistic approach to enviornmental ship design that could produce some breakthrough technologies for the future.

Replacing standard incandescent lights (mainly tungsten-halogen) with the latest natural-color light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and other advanced technologies would save enough energy to pay for the LEDs quickly. However, some of the biggest benefits of this change are indirect. LEDs last ten to twenty times longer than their conventional equivalents, saving crew time spent on replacing bulbs. More efficient lights also release less heat into the boat's living spaces, meaning less air conditioning would be needed. This in turn would not only save energy in the air conditioner, but would also allow a smaller air conditioning system to be installed, again saving cost and space.

posted by Bruce Wright at 4:41 PM #