World water day events at TAMK 22.3.

World Water day was held on 22nd March and TAMK also traditionally participated to it by arranging activities at Kuntokatu premises in Tampere. Theme for the World Water day in year 2011 was "Water for the cities".

Offically, the event was launched at noon when vice principle, Dr. Marja Sutela, gave a speech and opened the day by proposing a toast for water. Audience got to see Capoeira show which was full of life and music.


During the Water day school children visited TAMK and programme related to water was arranged for them by 1st year's Environmental Engineering students. Events and scientific experiments as well as lottery were also arranged to attract people along with informative broschures in the main lobby.

In the afternoon, people got to listen water related lectures given by international speakers who are visiting TAMK and being part of the international week of technology at TAMK. As a whole, event was a success and reminded once again TAMK staff and students of one of the essentials of life - water.



text: Juha Le Tortorec, Aino-Maija Kyykoski
pictures: Nicolas Bonensea

TAMK's environmental engineering students exploring Azerbaijan

In the picture from right to left: WECF's Anna Samwel, EKOT NGO's director Aytan Poladova, TAMK's students Maria Moradi and Johanna Koskenranta, Bistra Mihaylova WECF, Ulla-Maija Koivula from TAMK and a local woman who wanted to join the picture with the project team.

"We have now almost completed our practical training in Azerbaijan. In the beginning of the training period we concentrated on water quality issues in the laboratory and tested for example the amount of coliforms and E-coli in waste water and surface waters. We also measured the amount of ammonium in surface waters. We participated into the process of particle size analysis from an offshore location.

On week 24 we participated at the United Nation's (UN) trainings on Strategical Environmental Assessment for representatives from different Azerbaijani ministries.

Our participation to the water safety plan-trainings started from Shemakha area where we had the first training for teachers from Ismayilli and Shemakha area combined. There WECFs representatives gave presentation about the water safety issues and all the problems in the areas were discussed about. Also the nitrates were measured from the local drinking water in order to see some indication of the waters quality. The second training took place in Sabirabad area in Azerbaijan. At the time they had problems with floods in that area which affected the amount of participators in the training.

Our task was to conduct a baseline study of two of the 6 villages involved with the whole project. Our villages to be studied were Talistan in Ismayilli region and Suqovsan in Sabirabad region. We spent a few days in both of the villages and interviewed people about issues related to water, sanitation and energy. Finally we write a report about the findings and will give the report to WECF.

We will go to Sabirabad again next week together with Anna Sanwell and her expert team from Georgia to build solar panels and fruit driers."

Above text is written by third year environmental engineering students Johanna Koskenranta and Maria Moradi who have spent 3 months in practical training in Azerbaijan in TAMK's and Kestävä tulevaisuus ry's common project for improvement of the sanitation and water problems. Local partner from Azerbaijan side in the project is Ekoloji Tarazlig (EKOT)


picture above: In countryside in Sabirabad where we spent one week to construct a fruit dryer, solar collector and water distillator with WECF.

Hands-On practical training in Ethiopia

We had a chance to do our practical training in a country known for its long history, great coffee and 13 months of sunshine. An NGO called Sustainable Future (Kestävä tulevaisuus ry., KeTu ) in co-operation with TAMK’s R&D gave us opportunity to visit Ethiopia.

Project partners work in co-operation with a local partner NGO, Lem Ethiopia, enabling sustainable energy solutions and improving waste & sanitation as well as self-sufficiency in the city of Bahir Dar.

Bahir Dar is a city by Lake Tana, largest lake in Ethiopia and also the source of the Blue Nile. Ethiopia is located in the African horn and is a home for over 80 million people. About 80 % of the people in Ethiopia live in the rural areas and get their living from agriculture. At the same time only about 18 %of the households have access to proper sanitation facilities and about 31 % have access to safe water.

Our mission was to teach about hygiene and sanitation in local schools in Bahir Dar. We visited five schools and did a few hour training about personal hygiene and motivated students with awakening pictures and examples. It was a great experience and we had an amazing time teaching those eager and respecting students about hygiene. There are a lot of cultural challenges to be won, but one step at a time they can maintain a better health and demand better sanitation facilities.

At the same time we implemented a study about using urine as a fertilizer when growing cabbage. The plan was to implement a demonstration field and show the benefits of using urine in order to get a bigger yield. Unfortunately the land needed was provided by the government, but still faced challenges in order to be able to start up the real work. Therefore we implemented the study in a rather small-scale and in private in our own front yard. Did not quite serve as a demonstration, but we left some evidence to our local partners that urine is worth promoting as a free, safe and natural fertilizer.

The 2-month training taught us a lot. We were happy that we could exchange knowledge with the locals. All in all this was an once-in-a-lifetime possibility which will stay with us for the rests of our lives.

Text & photos: TAMK’s environmental engineering students Suvi Pielismaa and Salla Jokela

More about the project, project manager at TAMK's R&D: aino-maija.kyykoski(AT)tamk.fi
More about Sustainable Future NGO/ Kestävä Tulevaisuus ry: www.ketury.org
More about Lem Ethiopia : www.lem.org.et

UNIPOLI Aasia trip to Bangalore India

Experimental field in Doddaballapur near Bangalore

TAMK representatives, Director of education Ms. Riitta Hanhijärvi and Senior Lecturer Eeva-Liisa Viskari, spent one week in Bangalore India on a UNIPOLI Asia –network trip in late February 2010. The network is formed by the universities of Tampere under the theme “Enhancing well-being through biotechnology and environmental technology - cooperation with higher education institutions in Tampere, China, India and Korea”. The network is financed by CIMO Finland.

During the trip we visited two universities. First target was University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore and especially the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, and Department of Biotechnology, which were of special interest of the project. We were introduced the research of the departments. In the department of Agricultural Sciences the research is focused on the use of anthropogenic waste as a fertilizer as well as maintaining the soil fertility, which is also one focus in TAMK R&D activities at present. The field studies were quite impressive. At the campus there is quite a wide land area reserved for experiments using cow and human urine, among other organic substances, as fertilizers and studying the crop and soil quality. The annual open-day for introducing this research to local farmers, accumulated about 100 000 interested farmers to visit the experimental sites of the UAS Bangalore. This kind of activity is in fact an excellent way of university serving the community.

We also visited Doddaballapur, about 40 km from Bangalore, to see an experimental site, where one farmer is cultivating his crops, in this case millet, with anthropogenic fertilizers. This kind of implementation is also a good way to take the scientific research into practice in a very demonstrative way. In addition to these agricultural research activities the university has also Departments of Forestry and Department of Biotechnology which both might be interesting as cooperation partners also from TAMK point of view.

The second institution in our programme was a private university in Bangalore, Dayananda Sagar Institutions (DSI). All Finnish universities of applied sciences have undersigned a MOU with DSI, thus allowing also us a good start in the bilateral cooperation between TAMK and DSI. DSI is a multidisciplinary university. The fields of education include for example: Technology and architecture (civil, mechanical, electrical, computer and chemical engineering, IT, dental sciences, pharmacy, nursing, biotechnology, business, education, natural sciences and arts. Thus there are many similarities between DSI and TAMK. There are about 12 thousand students at DSI. During our visit at DSI we had very fruitful discussion with the Senior Executive Vice President, Mr. Janardhan. We also met the representatives of the Department of Biotechnology.

We invited representatives from both universities to visit TAMK. Hopefully after these visit we can get into action of student and teacher’s exchange between our institutions and you would hear more about this cooperation with Indian universities a lot more in the future.

For more information please see:
http://www.dayanandasagar.edu/
http://www.uasbangalore.edu.in/

Text and photo: Senior lecturer Eeva-Liisa Viskari, Environmental Engineering

Visitors from Hokkaido University

Professor Naoyuki Funamizu is giving a lecture at TAMK about composting toilet studies.

On March 15 TAMK got special visitors from Hokkaido University. Professor Naoyuki Funamizu representing the School of Engineering, Division of Build Environment and there Water System Research Group and Professor Kozo Yoshikawa, who is responsible of the International Affairs in the School of Engineering and especially developing international engineering education.

The day started with a guest lecture by Professor Funamizu. His research group is focusing on sanitation issues. The audience consisted mostly on Environmental Engineering students and staff heard most interesting lecture about Composting toilets and sanitation research in Hokkaido University.

Hokkaido University is located in Sapporo, a city known to us Finns from the Winter Olympics. The university was founded in 1876 and at that time it was called Sapporo Agricultural College. It was Japan’s first university to award bachelor's degrees. Today the university is one of the leading academic centers in Japan. The visit was not the first one for either of the guests. Professor Naoyuki Funamizu has visited Tampere several times and participating all three Dry Toilet conferences. Professor Yoshikawa in turn has been at TAMK two years ago discussing TAMK-Hokkaido University cooperation.

In the afternoon we had discussions about cooperation between TAMK and Hokkaido University. Vice President Marja Sutela considered the work in developing the internship program of the university most interesting. Based on the afternoon discussions it was obvious that the cooperation between TAMK and Hokkaido University will be expanded from Environmental Engineering to all fields of Engineering. The idea is to start both student exchange for studying and doing practical training periods. So hopefully there will be new exchange opportunities for our students in the future.

For more information about Hokkaido University please see: http://www.hokudai.ac.jp/en

Text and photo: Senior lecturer Eeva-Liisa Viskari, Environmental Engineering

Bus laboratory: forerunner in energy efficiency, kilometres without emissions

TAMK has commissioned Tampere Electric Wheel Center to launch a project to produce a bus laboratory, in collaboration with the research, technology and educational partners of the field. In practice, the laboratory will be a bus, which has operated in fixed-route transportation, and will be converted to use electricity. The conversion includes removing the combustion engine, and installing electric motor, batteries and new driving control systems.

Technical innovations

The technical structure will be implemented modularly. This structure enables the testing of various electric motor uses, as well as comparing batteries and hybrid systems. The bus will be used to study mains charging, and the functionality of driving control systems and software. The bus will become a platform where the parties involved with electric transportation can test their systems. The bus will also be used to evaluate the functionality of driving an electric vehicle in traffic.

The driving control system enables versatile energy measurements while driving. Through this, and other computerised systems, various energy efficient driving methods can be studied. The information systems can also be used to examine and implement fully new cabin services.

Aim to create emission free kilometres

The converted bus will operate in normal city traffic. Due to its electricity, the bus will not produce particulate nor exhaust gas emissions. Energy created while driving can be recycled through an electric system. The braking energy can be used to recharge the battery, which in turn reduces the total consumption of energy. The technology will be displayed prominently, so the citizens may also get to know the new technology through the bus.

New cabin innovations

The interior tests a modification structure, where the number of seats can flexible be adjusted to suit the current requirements. The bus may be transformed into a more tram-like vehicle by reducing the number of seats and adding standing room. This makes the bus more suitable for rush-hour traffic or event transportations. Some of the space may be used for entirely other purposes, such as presentation, meeting or laboratory spaces, which makes the bus even more versatile for research projects.

Future

In the future, the bus laboratory will support and enable the electric car business to develop itself and to organise training in Tampere. The bus laboratory will be the first bus converted by the Electric Wheel Centre. The know-how acquired in the project may lead to serial conversion production in the Electric Wheel Centre. A concurrent operations model for the future is launching the production of new cars in collaboration with a suitable chassis and body producer.

Emissions free traffic and giving up oil-based energy sources are the future. Tampere and Tampere University of Applied Sciences want to show the way and be the forerunners of the field, both nationally and internationally.

For more information, please contact

Lauri Hietalahti
Senior lecturer
Electrical power engineering

firstname.lastname@tamk.fi
050-3286131

Guest lecturer to share newest research information on climate impact of aerosols

Researcher Eija Asmi from the Finnish Meteorological Institute will be lecturing in TAMK about aerosols and their impact on climate systems and their connection to current climate change.

The visit will be part of a free-choice Climate change -course (Global Climate Change - Sources and solutions) arranged for the first time in TAMK by the degree programme of Environmental Engineering.

Aerosols (fine, airborne particles) play an important role in the global climate balance and can therefore be important to climate change. Climate forcings due to aerosols are not well known yet, especially the indirect radiative forcing they can cause. Aerosols are one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in interpretation of climate change in projection of future climate change.

Everyone is welcomed to join and listen the guest lecturer's speech on Friday 29.1.2010, 1 pm at auditorium A3-27 in TAMK.

TAMK R&D visits Uppsala

TAMK Tampere University of Applied Sciences is very active nationally and internationally in research & development, especially in the field of environmental and sustainable development. TAMK was planning to join the Baltic University Programme (BUP) and therefore the R&D group lead by Dr. Perttu Heino (Research director) visited Uppsala University located at Villavägen 16, 75236 Uppsala on 9th of January 2008.

The R&D group was welcomed by the BUP Director, Christine Jakobsson who introduced during her presentation the Baltic University Programme and the project Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Development. This was followed by two interesting presentations: the first one was made by the former Director of BUP Professor Emeritus Lars Rydén who introduced Sustainable Community Development. The second presentation was about The Centre of Sustainable Development in Uppsala by Director Eva Friman.

After lunch the visit continued at the Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (JTI) located on Ultuna. Mr. Ulf Nordberg introduced some research findings:

• Only organic wastes with very low metal content should be digested
• Digestion of source separated organic wastes will give a digestate accepted by
farmers
• Transparency in what a plant is treating is very important for confidence
• A certification system is necessary for acceptance from food industry
• A dialog with food industry, farmers and other stakeholders is necessary for understanding each others' perspective

The trip to Uppsala ended by visiting the Eco-Village Hågaby, where Professor Per G. Berg, from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, told about the history of the village, schools, composting room.

On our trip back to Finland, me and my colleagues felt ourselves more than welcome to join the network, thanks to the warm reception during our visit to Uppsala.

Mina Bouhlal

Welcome to the 1st meeting for TAMK's own ecological school garden -project

The day is set, the time is set, now it is time for you to set your minds for a

FIRST MEETING FOR OUR OWN ECOLOGICAL SCHOOL GARDEN,

Wednesday, 25th of November, at 17.00 in TAMK at B6-33


Absolutely everyone is welcome, you can also bring friends with you if you want, this is going to be fun!

What we are going to do is to plan a school garden where we students, especially the ENVEs but I don't see a reason why others cannot join, will have the chance to grow our very own, ecologically correct food, where we can spend some time outside, where we can try out everything we want (first ideas are rainwater harvesting system, own ecological fertilizer, permaculture, garden on the roof...), where we can relax and follow our roots and dig in the mud.

The end of the ready packed carrots and salads has come! No imported food anymore, no unknown chemicals in our meals!

This first meeting will be for gathering ideas, sharing knowledge, and setting up a first timeplan and a strategy. I am more than willing to put lots of energy into this project, but I cannot do this by myself, so I need every single one of you!

The planning period will be during the winter so that we can start in springtime to get into action.

So put your rubberboots on and get ready for next Wednesday!

I cannot wait to hear what ideas you all have!

post by Magdalena, student at TAMK, IENVE08

pictures: Aino-Maija Kyykoski
picture above from organic apple farm Hostetin, Czech
picture below from permaculture and organic farm, Taranaki Environment centre, New Zealand

Nordic Climate Day at TAMK November 11

Wednesday November 11, TAMK’s Environmental Engineering students are hosting a Nordic Climate Day to precurse the UN’s Copenhagen Climate Summit in December.

With a guest speaker, environmental films and students presentations, the day events are intended to create greater knowledge and awareness about climate change.

So if this gets you hot and heavy, in the spirit of global warming join us. You never know – it might be fun.

Sidney Kitchen

More detailed info on Globe's blog
Nordic Climate Day

Ecoday arranged by students of Environmental Engineering

With the fund received from the city of Tampere's climate campaign "ILMANKOS", TAMK's Environmental Engineering students' Association G.L.O.B.E. arranged an “Ecoday in Ritakatu”. The day and event was aimed especially at foreign students studying in TAMK and PIRAMK and living in the IOT student housing in Ritakatu, Ruotula.

The idea for the Ecoday came from the fact that some environmental students concerned about waste management and other environmental issues were especially concerned of the situation in IOT buildings in Ritakatu. Lot of information that existed on the site about waste management was in Finnish only and most foreign students, especially exchange students, are only capable of understanding English.

So us Env.Eng. students, in G.L.O.B.E., felt that we could do something. The project arranged aimed towards protecting the environment, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for a saving in the general costs of waste management for all parties involved.

Students who participated in the planning and executing the Ecoday event were altogether 11 and from all over the world, such places as Tanzania, Vietnam, China, UK, Algeria, South-Africa...


Few of the participants comments captured to describe the event better:

“We walked toward the buildings where we were going from a door to another, introducing briefly ourselves to the inhabitants, why we are here and what we were expecting from them. We distributed the material that we had such as: Brochures, Biodegradable waste bags for biowaste sorting, energy-saving lamps, and giving them an opportunity to get rid of hazardous waste if they had any and then disposed it properly to one of the waste handling sites in Tampere.”


“Indeed, separating waste is simple and important but not all the people know how to do it correctly. So I hope more similar activities will be organized in the coming future.”

"Information sharing and little help of material to get started with and students were one step more motivated to recycle more and think about their energy consumption".

Mid Term Summary - Practical Training Vol. 3

After 3 months i could make a short summary on my experiences here. Today i participated in a meeting together with all grouper growers in Israel.

during 2008 and 2009 young groupers which developed in NCM has been part of some experiments in few different conditions of water qualities around Israel by private companies and by national institutes as NCM. My experiment was to check the ability to reduce the amount of sea water intake and the ability to recirculated the water in the system and by that have control about different nutrients (mostly different Nitrate compounds) which flow back to the sea.

The other experiments held by other companies tested the ability to grow the grouper in low salinity (5ppt compared to 40 ppt of sea water) some in recirculated systems and others in flow through systems.

During May the experiment had to stop due to a terrible unknown illness which caused more than 50% mortality in 3 weeks and continued to this day. The main catalyst was a pathogene called Mycobacterium, a type of fish Tuberculosis and dangerous also to humans. The mycobacterium doesnt have any known treatment and the only way to fight it is by providing the fish the best water quality conditions.

The illness is still officialy announced unknown since it has been detected through all different groupers and other fish departments. Another reason was that the mycobaterium causing a chronic harm and it is not accute as it is weaken the fish immune system and exposing it to other pathgenes.


The grouper growth is on the starting stages of studying and during next few years a lot more will be known about the white grouper behavior, limits and social paterns which will provide the ground for an environmental type of aquaculture which is also extreme financial worth and therefore worth to be held by all companies.

Internship at the PRI in Australia

Before leaving it was a tough job to briefly explain the nature of my internship to those asking what I was going to do in Australia. Well, I'm going to work for the Permaculture Research Institute. Hmm. The blank look in many people's eyes implied a further explanation could be in place. Permaculture comes from words 'permanent agriculture' and it could be classified in many ways. Quoting the PRI website Permaculture "is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way". The concept was formulated by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the late 1970s and is now hitting the mainstream all over the world.

I came across the term for the first time when somewhere in Youtube I bumped into maybe the most famous five minutes of permaculture, "Greening the Desert" video clip, where a badly salted desert was brought back to life, growing fruit trees and even mushrooms only with the rainfall that landed on the area naturally. It was in the same time when we had an ongoing course at TAMK about water and environmental issues in developing countries. The video was almost too good to be true, and I decided if that's possible by using permaculture, I want to learn permaculture too!

PRI is an educational center and a demonstration site for sustainable ways to provide for our living. It's a farm like setup with teaching facilities, own solar power and drinking water systems, reed bed for gray water treatment, composting toilet, vegetable garden, cows, ducks, chicken and food forests all cycling together supporting the functions of each other as well as the needs of the staff and interns on site.

What I've learned here puts my environmental engineering degree into a whole new context. Hearing people talk about sustainable use of natural resources these days usually makes it sound like the glass will be half empty in any case, that the consumers now have less at their disposal. That doesn't sound too appealing to many people, and often I've heard someone say "we can't go backwards". However the truth is if we don't change directions now, we will soon end up where we're going. The evidence is out there, these days it's in the news every day. We don't need any more of it do we, it's time to move on and switch on the repair mode. And it is possible, to take a new approach, a new direction and overcome the challenges that careless exploitation of resources has caused. Australia is a good example of this, having suffered from drought for ten years now. The permaculture projects that I have visited or worked for are now moving towards repairing the dry and exhausted country, bringing flowing water back to the creeks, planting trees and building soil meanwhile the neighboring farmers continue spraying, plowing and grazing their land and getting less and less returns for more and more inputs every year.

In my opinion the difference and excellence of permaculture is that instead of going to a battle against the problem, whether it is the so called weeds, lack of water, erosion or running out of oil, we can start living the solution by designing our lives according to principles and patterns of nature. This way we can create the systems that provide for our needs (for example food production or drinking water) and in the same time contribute to the well-being of the system itself (building soil instead of eroding it, recharging creeks and aquifers) and thereby make them become better and more abundant for the next generation.

In more practical terms permaculture just arranges what was always there in a different way, so that it works to conserve energy (or water, or soil) or produces more than it consumes. The main framework for permaculture is operating within the three main ethics; care for the earth, care for the people, share fairly and return the surplus to the system.

To learn more, there's an interesting documentary "Farm for the future" by BBC was recently released and can be found online at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2750012006939737230


Mari, Environmental Engineering student at TAMK


picture by Tashi

TAMK goes green

TAMK goes Green this spring! Are you?

x

We warmly welcomed hundreds of visitors to our Go Green event which was held on the 23^rd of April at the Teiskontie campus. Our exhibition was filled with fifteen tables in which numerous sponsors came to talk to student, display their products and participate in our event.

The participating companies were; UPM, Pirkanmaan Porakaivo, Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto, Suntrica, Vegaaniliitto and Runsaudensarvi, DODO, the Green Party and the Ikimono Creative Agency. The areas of expertise were; organic goods, recycled fashion, solar energy and thermal heating and much more.

We had three lecture hours, the first was ‘Material and Energy saving through Engineering Mechanics’ presented by Gerd Mühlenbeck from Germany, Sanna Huikuri of DODO, Helsinki and a series of mini-lectures; ‘Aspects of Change’ focusing on and presented by, the Green Party, the Carrot Mob, Solar Technology and Ethical Business/Customer Decisions.

We had two documentaries shown; one being ‘Garbage: the Revolution Begins at Home’ and ‘Recipes for Disaster’. Both documentary screenings were accompanied by free popcorn and soda.

Our fair item was an organic cotton shopping bag which we sold for one euro at the event. TAMK was very satisfied with the success of this environmental fair and we are looking forward to doing it again next year.

TAMK Goes Green on Thursday

Students, teachers and staff are warmly welcomed to discover ways to work and live green.

'Go Green' examines the future of green business and research; in addition to introducing ways to get involved in green actions both locally and globally. 'Go Green' presents lectures and challenging films to spark dialog.

Schedule on Thursday April 23

09.30 Material and energy saving through Engineering Mechanics, Dr. Gerd Mühlenbeck (Room D1-02)
10.30 Aspects of Change, mini-lecture series (Room D1-02)
11.30 Lunch break
12.00 Garbage: The Revolution Begins At Home, Documentary Film (Auditorium D1-04)
13.30 Green in Everyday, Sanna Huikuri (Room D1-02)
14.30 Recipes for Disaster, Documentary Film (Auditorium D1-04)

10.00-15.30 Exhibition area open for all

All lectures and films will be presented in English.
Free popcorn for movie-goers!

Lectures

Material and energy saving through Engineering Mechanics, Gerd Mühlenbeck (45 min)

Dr. Mühlenbeck demonstrates what we can achieve by using engineering mechanics to save material and energy in addition to explosion protection in accordance with European Standards such as ATEX.

Being Green Everyday, Sanna Huikuri (45 min)

Sanna Huikuri (Dodo ry) is an Environmental Engineer (Tamk '03), Master's student in Environmental Sciences/Renewable energy and active in environmental organizations. Huikuri will discuss daily green questions and decisions affecting us all. Huikuri emphasizes how meaningful everyday decisions are to the big picture of environmental issues. Choosing green is a modern responsible lifestyle for everyone, not the marginal actions of environmental groups. Huikuri brings new points of views to what changes in our environment affects, not only climate change but it also causes other issues such as poverty.

Aspects of Change, mini-lecture series (50 min)

• The Green Party (Tampereen Vihreät nuoret- Virnu ry) will discuss how environmental issues can be approached and affected from a political point of view.
• The Carrot Mob (Porkkanamafia) will introduce the activities of The Carrot Mob and the successes they have achieved in environmental areas.
• Elle Yli-Ojanperä, Creative Producer - Ethical business and customer decisions.
• Suntrica - Solar charging goes personal. Suntrica will spark a conversation about utilizing green technology and business practices.

Films

Go Green will be presenting two must-see feature length documentary films which will challenge the viewer to rethink the disposable lifestyle that is draining our environment.

Recipes for Disaster (FIN, 85 min)
This is a film about climate change. About catastrophe. And it's funny, painfully funny. We love to blame the corporations and industries for what's going wrong with the planet, but we are mistaken. It's us, baby. You and me. We're the real bad guys.

This film shows that at the core of the impending climate catastrophe are those little failures that we as individuals make every day, and which are so much a part of human nature. All the everyday stuff that we don't do, or that we can't help doing, that eventually lead to destruction. The film shows thirteen of these little recipes for disaster.
A documentary film, a comedy of errors, about a subject too serious to ignore.
-John Webster, Director and Writer

Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home (CAN, 76 min)
Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home is a feature documentary about how the family household has become one of the most ferocious environmental predators of our time.

Concerned for the future of his new baby boy Sebastian, writer and director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. He then takes them on a journey to find out where it all goes and what it's doing to the world. The McDonalds discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet.

Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionize your lifestyle for the sake of future generations.

Exhibition

The Exhibition area will be open 10-15.30, with a selection of green companies, projects and organizations. A variety of tables will be set up around the info café lobby, presenting a variety of goods, ranging from; organic, recycled, fashion, solar energy, thermal heating, etc. Tampere local brand Trad. will be presenting the idea of social design and recycled materials with a gallery of fashion pieces.

Go Green is organized by TAMK Consulting Academy with the support of the Research & Development Department and International Business Programme of TAMK. TAMK Consulting Academy is a group of International Business students working on a variety of projects throughout Finland as well as internationally. The event is produced in cooperation with students from the Finnish Media Degree Programme of TAMK.

Go Green

National Center for Mariculture - Practical Training - Vol.2

After writing about my training work in my first few weeks i can write some more about things i learn during the first month, just before we are starting passover holiday here (8 days!).

During my first month i focused mostly about the groupers tanks and the nitrification process and as i tried to explaine, it is a very early research and many datas are being made by guesses and assumptions and mostly based on growth of a different type of fish, in this case the Gilt-head Bream.

During last two weeks i have started to be more involved with another research which also being made with cooperation with Aqaba, Jordan.
This research is much more advanced one and already used in Commercial methods in different companies in Israel. This current stage of the research is about making all the sludge and sediments which obtain Nitrate (NO3-) and Nitrite (NO2-) and Denitrificate them, meaning, Taking them out from the Solids to the air as gases and by that stop their flushing back to the sea and damaging the coral reefs.

The process might sound easy and simple and it is! but when you try to make it financial worth it is becoming tricky, for example, Picking a fish type which its market price is high, such as groupers or tuna and developing them to commercial production.

the financial problems of money flow between depertmants and offices in Israel made the grouper research to focus also about growth of fish without need for oxigen addition. Lack of funding lead to a situation which there is not enough money to even keep reserve and emergency oxigen tank. Air difusion is the solution which is being researched and should provide enough oxigen to the water, at least till the fish gets to marketing size (between 500-600 g) though this requires more tanks to be monitored.



Another problem we start facing with is the raising of temperatures here in Eilat, which today raise up to 35°c. This Helps for the Nitrification process though cause for lower oxigen levels and higher pH levels which follows to Higher CO2 levels too. CO2 levels, pH and Ammounium are the 3 main varients of the water condition and balance.

during the last month, the groupers grow from 118g to around 160g in avarage. The grouper is estimated to be the next main fish type used in aquaculture. For one thing it worth it - It is DELICIOUS!

Magen Yoav.
3rd Year Student - Environmental Engineering.

Environmental Engineering students’ Association receives funding from Tampere city

The climate campaign ILMANKOS hosted by the City of Tampere has distributed a small amount of funding to associations in Tampere to encourage climate friendly actions within, and by, these societies. Some good examples of cases are "action to prevent climate change" planned by, or within, even the smallest of societies and associations were taken into special consideration when deciding who to award funding to.

TAMK’s Environmental Engineering students’ Association, G.L.O.B.E., was considered to be very sufficient and thus received funding to fulfil their plans to create an action day aimed towards foreign and exchange students studying in Tampere and in TAMK. "Ecoday by G.L.O.B.E." is being arranged now and will include Environmental Engineering students going from door to door in a local student apartment block and distributing information and leaflets about sorting out household waste and energy saving. Students will also give to tenants energy saving lamps, change them and share biobags and teaching how to "build your own biobag from newspapers!" They will also be arranging to collect, and dispose of correctly, any unwanted electrical or otherwise hazardous waste!

ILMANKOS campaign arranges workshop open for all on Thursday 16.4.2009 at 3.30 pm in vanha kirjastotalo, 1st floor at keskustori in Tampere where one of the speakers is the chairman of G.L.O.B.E., presenting the project plan.

Transition towns and peak oil to Enve students

The Environmental Engineering student Association G.L.O.B.E. arranged an event for students to hear more about PEAK OIL and TRANSITION TOWNS. The speaker we had an opportunity to hear was Jupiter Cormier, the founder of Transition Network branch in Finland.

What was all this about then? Well, to quote the transition towns’ webpage:

“It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?”

Jupiter, a graduate with a masters degree in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London explains to us: “we will never run out of oil, but the time of cheap and plentiful oil is over”. “Oil is everywhere, usually we do not even understand in how many things in our lives it plays such a big role” he continues.


According to Jupiter there is a need for huge socio-economic restructuring. Today’s global economic system is not working for the majority of people in world, including most people in developed countries as can be seen in the current collapse of the global financial markets. This combined with climate change and soon to rise energy prices creates a necessity to decentralize and localize. Jupiter also said that we can talk about nuclear and hydrogen as resources and alternatives to oil, but in reality, we can measure and estimate that they are not even close in meeting the current demands of energy and cannot help us to carry on the lifestyle we are living at the moment in western countries.

“We have to realize that we are consuming more than the Earth has to offer and at the moment 2/3 of natural resources are depleted already” Jupiter explains. The triple challenge of climate change, peak oil and an economic recession, according to him, offers the possibility for change. It is therefore a challenge that can be turned into an opportunity. As we might have learned from research results, the happiness in many western countries has not increased since the 1980’s which means that more consumerism and economic growth does not necessarily bring more happiness. Jupiter’s solution to create sustainability, resilience and happiness is to use the transition town model with the idea of local production, permaculture and sustainable living to transcend our oil dependent society into a more sane and fulfilling way of living.

Jupiter will continue to open up minds in Finland and to speak about peak oil and the transition that is needed now. He offers practical steps to people and has started his transition town in his hometown Hämeenkyrö already. Jupiter offered the students also a possibility to join and the interested audience seemed to grab the opportunity and joined first of all to the mailing list in Finland.

To learn more about transition towns visit at the website: www.transitiontowns.org or contact Jupiter: Jupiter.cormier AT gmail.com.

Work opportunities seminar for Environmental Engineering a success

The students of Environmental Engineering had an excellent opportunity to hear experiences and tips from former TAMK students on a sunny afternoon in TAMK. The seminar was continuance for a similar event arranged last year.

Speakers in the seminar were Sari Lappi from Finnish Meteorological Institute, Badal Ahmed Hassan from University of Helsinki and Henna Tanskanen from Niras Finland Oy. They proved with their experiences to students that hard work, ambition and strong will can take anywhere after graduating from Environmental Engineering program in TAMK. The speakers emphasized to students such issues as the importance of practical training in studies as a guide and pacemaker to future working life and that it would be good for the students to determine and define their goals and interests and understand to aim towards them with ambition.

All three agreed that the Environmental Engineering program had given them excellent tools for further studying and work. The unique holistic perspective and versatile study program were in their opinion worth a lot in life and in finding a suitable career; their success and careers after 6-8 years from graduation definitely proved that right and gave lot to think for the current Enves.

The multitude of questions and the motivation shining from students’ faces at the end of the seminar showed that the Student Association G.L.O.B.E. had, in co-operation with the Environmental Engineering department, succeeded in its mission to be there for the students of Environmental Engineering and for enabling more green jobs pathways and insights of them to students.

Aino-Maija, IENVE-3

Practical training and sunshine

I work in the National Center for Mari culture which operates under the Ministry of National Infrastructure and during the following year (2009) will go under the Ministry of Agriculture and under the national Agriculture Research Organization (ARO) - The volcanic center. The Mari culture National center is located between the city of Eilat and the city of Aqaba, right next to the border.

The project I work on now is a test of aquaculture growth of Groupers, a red sea fish type. The grouper fish is a coral reef predator fish, and can grow up to 12 kg (Red sea species) and up to 100 cm long.

My research handles the growth of the grouper in Recirculating aquaculture Systems (RAS) which provide less "fresh" (red sea) water. The system takes advantage mainly of nitrification process and uses biofilters. The biofilters using macaroni shaped plastics are a base for aerobic bacteria for the nitrification process: they break the ammonia to nitrate since high percentage of ammonia is too acidic and will kill the fish.


Other research I might be part of is growth of the Gilt-head Bream, another red sea fish and the main fish being researched. The research is about the usage of a denitrifying reactor which uses anaerobic bacteria to break the nitrate back to pure nitrogen and by that prevents it from going back to the sea.


I could write so much more, especially after I will learn more when my practical training goes further on. To me this is all really great and I enjoy every second of it :)

Regards to Finland and will send some warmth and sun there too!

Yoav
a 3rd year Environmental Engineering student doing his practical training in Eilat, Israel.