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High-tech inventions of motors and computers that are of benefit to the environment can be really impressive.
But what may be even more impressive are inventions like these.
They are low tech
- inventions without a lot of circuit boards and wires but that may have just as much and sometimes more environmental benefits
- both in places where water purifier needed here -
and where these environmentally friendly waste bags can be used.
The Swedish company Snowpower makes energy saving cooling systems, for example the one at the Sundsvall hospital
that cools the building with the help of piles of snow and sawdust.
We have developed a system to take advantage of the cold in the snow and use it in the summer.
It's really the same thing as they did 100 years ago, when they had ice cellars and iceboxes.
What are the biggest advantages compared to other systems?
The biggest advantages are that you can save a lot of electricity, like 90-95% compared to a conventional cooling solution.
In a municipality, you can save money and the environmental costs of shorter journeys if you organize the snow in the right way.
If you replace chillers, you can get away from refrigerants that are harmful to the ozone layer and the climate.
And you can of course take care of the snow and clean it from contaminants that might be in it.
Another example is the garbage bag system Longopac from the Swedish company Paxxo
that only emits one-third of carbon dioxide compared to a traditional garbage bag because the bags are always full.
Abroad, the environmental benefits make an even greater effort.
The Swedish company Solvatten makes an environmentally beneficial product that helps the third world to have clean water
but also prevents pollution and deforestation.
This is how it looks. An eleven-litre water container that you open up in this way.
A container with a filter uses UV rays and the heat from the sun cleans the water.
It pulls down emissions while saving money when families do not have to get coal or wood and it improves health.
It is a simple product that can make a big difference.
In many parts of the world the forest is used for fire, to warm water to make it clean.
And the amount of forest can be replaced with Solvatten.
When not using trees, then these trees are left and the compensation that Solvatten stands for is up 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
The life of seven years anyway so there is considerable quantities of carbon dioxide that can be saved in this way.
There is a red and sad smiley here. At 55 degrees it will turn green.
To use less trees means that there is less soil erosion and it is also something that is an environmental problem in many parts of the world.
When you cut down trees that are not replanted or grow back so it finally becomes a desertification and a country that is much drier
and there will be a major impact environmentally.
How important do you think it is with these kinds of low-tech solutions?
We believe that it is always going to be better with technical solutions and so on but in fact,
I think much of the future also lies in the low-tech, because it is simpler and it is in many cases cheaper and safer.