This system will reduce SWG3's carbon footprint and allow SWG3 to operate more sustainably, reduce its carbon footprint and help in the fight against climate change.
SWG3's Operations Manager Bob Javaheri explained: "Heat is essentially thermal energy, and if you've ever found yourself in the middle of a packed out club night then you'll be well aware of just how much energy could be kicking around that room. [Traditionally, [w]hen you look to cool down those spaces using either air-conditioning or ventilation systems, you're pretty much pulling the heat out of a space and releasing it into the atmosphere."
With BODYHEAT, "[w]hat happens, in this case, is that instead of letting all that thermal energy just disappear into the night, it gets transferred to waters and piped deep underground into boreholes where that energy gets stored, much like a battery, to use at a later time," Javaheri explained to EcoWatch.
SWG3 is currently undergoing a radical green renovation in advance of COP26. Michael Hunter
BODYHEAT is being pioneered by TownRock Energy, a company specializing in heat pump technology that reached out to SWG3 when its founder David Townsend heard that Scotland's leading arts venue was considering a green energy retrofit, Fast Company reported.
"The story is that . . . I like clubbing," Townsend told the news report with a laugh. "I've done a lot of clubbing." He saw the opportunity as a chance to combine his passions and develop a club-specific heat pump project.
Heat pumps generally work by leveraging stable temperatures in underground rocks to balance out temperature fluctuations in buildings above the surface, Fast Company explained. Temperatures inside Earth's crust remain "relatively constant," so in the winter, colder air from a building gets pumped into the Earth to absorb heat from below. This then circulates back up to the building as warmer air. Once cooled, it continues back down to Earth in a cycle. In contrast, during summer, warmer air above ground pumps down to the cooler rocks below. The rocks absorb heat from the air, and cooler air returns back up to continue the cycle. The EPA shared a diagram of how this works.
SWG3 took this existing technology and added air collectors in its ceilings "to suck up the hot air put out by clubgoers on the floor," Fast Company reported. Other venues use these mechanisms to pipe hot air outside the building, but Townsend thought, "That wastes heat ... Why not capture it and use it? Otherwise, the heating is done by gas boilers."
BODYHEAT will send captured body heat up to 650 feet into the Earth, warming the surrounding rocks and cooling the club during parties. The rocks act like heat batteries, Fast Company explained, so during non-club times, when the building is used as an office or arts venue, that stored heat can be pumped back up from the rocks to warm the space.
These measures will allow for the club and music venue to operate more sustainably, and they're eliminating their traditional gas boilers completely, Townsend told Fast Company.
"This is the heating system for the venue," he said, noting that the body heat energy will be more than enough to warm the building during Glasgow's coldest months, which can average 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
The scheme is part of the UN-backed COP26 climate conference, which is slated to take place in Glasgow starting Oct. 31 of this year, Optimist Daily reported. As such, the Scottish city has been introducing a number of creative environmental initiatives and solutions to showcase what a more climate-friendly future might look like.
"The thing I love most about BODYHEAT is that it's all existing technology," Javaheri said. "Innovations aren't limited to inventing something new, and with so many conversations on a more sustainable future already happening in the city, I'm excited to see what else we'll be able to get off the ground by the end of it."
SWG3 is currently undergoing a radical green renovation in advance of COP26. Michael Hunter
The goal of the international summit will be to bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the COP26 website notes. As the host, the United Kingdom also shares its climate leadership actions on the page.
Currently finishing up their "radical [green] retrofit" to fully install BODYHEAT and sustainably-update other features, SWG3 will reopen on Nov. 7 during the climate change conference, TimeOut reported.
"BODYHEAT is our innovative contribution to a global issue, and will help us to dramatically decrease our energy consumption — bringing us one step closer to becoming a carbon neutral venue in the not so distant future," SWG3 Managing Director Andrew Fleming Brown said in a company statement.
Based on previous annual attendance figures, SWG3 estimates that the project could save 70 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, the statement said. This week, the club also announced its pledge to go Net Zero and to become carbon neutral by 2025 or sooner. According to its city council, Glasgow has city-wide aims of reaching Net Zero by 2030.
SWG3 hopes to "lead by example" to show other venues across the world to decarbonize. In its Net Zero pledge announcement, the venue offers to share its insights with all others looking to make similar sustainability shifts.
"We want to keep dancing, keep working, keep creating, keep inspiring ― but we also want to do this in a responsible, innovative way," the pledge said. "We know this won't be easy, but we know we have to try — and we're mad up for the challenge."
Tiffany Duong is a writer, explorer and motivational speaker. She holds degrees from UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. As a contributing reporter at EcoWatch, she gives voice to what's happening in the natural world. Her mission is to inspire meaningful action and lasting change. Follow her on Twitter/Instagram @tiffmakeswaves.
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To raise awareness about the hardships they experience, but also the amazing resilience they are capable of, an international team of collaborators has come together to make an award-winning animated short film called Footsteps on the Wind, which tells the story of a brother and sister forced to embark on a journey far from home.
"We are trying to raise a lot of awareness about climate change and about the home that we live in and how it can be shaken up and torn apart," director Maya Sanbar told EcoWatch.
An International Journey
Footsteps on the Wind tells the story of sister and brother Noor and Josef who lose their parents in a violent earthquake.
"The earthquake is a metaphor for anything that shakes your life up, so it could be a war, it could be anything," Sanbar said.
They are then swept away when the sea rushes in and takes them on a harrowing journey to a new home.
Completing the film was a border-crossing journey in its own right.
Sanbar first had the idea for the film three to four years ago when she heard Sting's song "Inshallah," which was inspired by the plight of refugees displaced by the Syrian civil war.
"I'd been wanting to make a film about refugees for quite a while, because I have a family history linked to that theme, and I wanted to do something that was original, not what you see on the evening news," Sanbar, whose father was pushed from his home in Palestine in 1948, told EcoWatch.
She asked Sting if he would donate the song as inspiration for a film, and he agreed, but it took until the coronavirus lockdown for the project to come together.
The completion of the film itself was an "international labor of love" between Sanbar and producer Kristin Olafsdottir in the UK; co-directors Gustavo Leal and Faga Melo, screenwriter Pedro Paulo de Andrade, and producer Ito Andery in Brazil; and producer Gillian Gordon in the U.S.
Sanbar said working on the film during lockdown could be frustrating sometimes because the team had to design and approve the film's animation without being able to stand in the same room together. However, she also said there was a lesson in how the team was able to complete the project virtually, crossing borders without spending money or burning greenhouse gas emissions on flights.
The film's creation, therefore, mirrors its themes. Sanbar emphasized the metaphor of the wind, which can travel anywhere.
"It's about how do we address our problems across borders, how do we address it as a human race and our relationship with the planet, our relationship with each other," Sanbar said.
Refugee Voices
The film comes as there is growing awareness about the relationship between the climate crisis and displacement. A recent study from the World Bank warned that as many as 216 million people could be forced to leave their homes because of climate change by 2050.
The climate crisis has already been linked to some notable causes of forced migration in recent years. Drought in Central America's dry corridor is one of the factors pushing people to leave Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and seek asylum in the U.S. Climate-change driven drought has also been suggested as one cause of Syria's civil war, according to JSTOR Daily. Overall, 23.1 million people have been displaced directly by extreme weather events every year for the past decade, according to the World Meteorological Organization, though most of these people did not cross an international border.
In this context, Sanbar hopes the film will encourage people to open their hearts to refugees, to perhaps volunteer to house a family or bring a meal to a refugee center. But she also hopes the film can be a comfort to refugees themselves.
"It's not just a film, it's a tool that we'll use for therapy for traumatized kids and adults and to be able to talk about their story but through the characters of the film," she said.
To that end, the team worked to make the characters and landscapes in the film representative of different races and all five continents, so they would be easy to identify with. They also worked to incorporate the perspectives and voices of refugees. Sanbar conducts workshops with refugee children through organizations like Young Roots and O's Refugee Aid Team. In one instance, she brought lots of pompoms and sparkles to work with 16 to 17 year old boys. She expected they wouldn't be interested, and was surprised when they "went full on with the color and the pompoms and the sparkles."
Film director Maya Sanbar holds a workshop with refugee children.
This experience influenced the visual language of the film.
"We decided to make it very beautiful and colorful because even though it's a dark story, it's about the interior color, and the color that we live within our own selves and the world around us," she said.
Refugee children in Calais and their friends also literally lent their voices to the film, recording the word, "Inshallah" over the end credits.
So far, the film's artistry and message seems to be resonating. It premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in March, where it won Best Animated Short Film and qualified for the 2022 Oscars. It has gone on to win several more awards since then.
"It's pushing people to action, to take care of our planet, to take care of our seas, to take care of our plastics... because anything can shake up our lives at any moment," Sanbar said.
Footsteps on the Wind is currently still running the festival circuit. You can watch it this weekend at the San Diego International Film Festival. To track its progress, you can follow the film itself, Maya Sanbar and her production company Chasing the Light Studio on Instagram- 10 Million Climate Refugees in Past Six Months: Red Cross Calls for ... ›
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1. Greener Candy
No one wants to be the dreaded house on the trick-or-treat route that hands out fruit or raisins, but luckily, there are plenty of delicious, sugary favors that are also environmentally conscious.
Most gummy candies contain gelatin, which is not vegetarian (or vegan). It's made from boiling animal by-products like bones and ligaments, and can be replaced by vegan alternatives, like agar agar. Search the grocery store aisles for animal- and gelatin-free gummy candies like Annie's Bunny Fruit Snacks, Swedish Fish, Dots, and Sour Patch Kids.
Many popular candy products contain synthetic preservatives, GMOs, palm oil, and other environmentally-harmful ingredients. Look instead for candy from reputable companies with sustainable practices, with the Fair Trade Certified and USDA Organic labels. A few environmentally-friendly candy options include:
- Alter Eco Truffles
- Clif Kids Fruit Ropes, Bars, or Brownies
- Equal Exchange Chocolate Bites
- Endangered Species Chocolate Bites
- Glee Gum
- Justin's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
- YumEarth Snack Packs and Lollipops
If buying eco-friendly candy is a little too pricey, choose treats with better packaging, if possible. Plastic packaging accounts for 30% of all solid waste generated in the U.S. every year, which includes all of those miniature candy bags and lollipop wrappers. Look for traditional candy with the least packaging or cardboard packaging, like Nerds, Milk Dudes, Junior Mints, and other candies that come in small boxes – or, opt for candies wrapped in foil, which can be recycled. Mints and other candies that come in tins, like Altoids, also entail less plastic waste.
If your grocery store stocks loose, individually-wrapped candies, scoop those into a reusable grocery bag instead of choosing a bulk bag of them off the shelf.
2. Try Other Treats
ALLEKO / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Candy doesn't have to be the only thing handed out on Halloween!
If you're a plant parent, tiny propagated plants – like pothos, aloe, or other plants easy to repot cuttings from – potted in recyclables (pasta sauce jars, parmesan cheese containers, milk cartons, etc.) also make great, exciting favors for kids.
Another waste-free option is making your own candy, cookies, or treats to package in paper bags and hand out to trick-or-treaters. Try this homemade rock candy, or your household's favorite cookie recipe. Be sure to include a label on homemade treats with a full list of ingredients so parents know what's in it. If you go the homemade route, note that not all parents will be comfortable with unwrapped treats for their children, so it might be a better option for those who live in a small neighborhood and know the folks coming through on trick-or-treat night.
3. Pick Your Own Pumpkins and Don't Toss the Guts
While festive, pumpkins are a significant source of waste around the fall holidays – especially when they're transported long distances to make it to your front stoop. Instead of buying supermarket pumpkins, which were probably grown far away, plan a time to visit a local pumpkin patch to pick your own. If you're short on time, many farms sell pumpkins at farmers markets or right out front on site, so you don't even have to traipse around the field to find the perfect one.
1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins are thrown out each year after Halloween, as estimated by the U.S. Department of Energy. Make sure your holiday pumpkin isn't included in the 40% of our national food supply that gets wasted every year.
Use the guts of the pumpkin – or, the whole pumpkin, as long as it hasn't started to visibly decay after carving – to make puree for recipes, like this pumpkin bread from NYT cooking, pumpkin pancakes, or a creamy pumpkin soup. Separate the seeds and toast them with oil and herbs for a party treat, snack, or topping for salads and fall soup.
Compost jack-o-lanterns after the holiday season, either in your own compost bin, or research facilities nearby that can take it. You can also bury them directly in your garden to compost and provide nutrients for next year's flowers. Or, break them into pieces and leave outdoors for furry friends to feast on (if they haven't helped themselves already).
4. Crafty Costumes
Jodie Griggs / The Image Bank / Getty Images
When brainstorming your perfect Halloween costume, consider characters that don't require buying pieces that'll just get tossed or donated after the holiday. Try to put a costume together with items from your wardrobe, and make props or accessories from recycled materials, like cat ears out of a headband and painted cardboard, or bat wings from a broken umbrella. Ask around to see if any friends, family, or roommates might have what you need before buying it new. It might be best to choose a costume that doesn't require wildly-specific pieces, unless you're able to borrow or buy it used.
If you find yourself still in need of accessories or staple clothing items for your costume, check out thrift stores or other second-hand avenues, like Facebook marketplace. Some used clothing stores – like Buffalo Exchange, for one – have costume sections already set up for you to browse. Otherwise, look into costume rental services nearby that can lend you a full, elaborate costume without the environmental cost.
Also, if your costume requires glitter – which is essentially a microplastic itself – make sure to use plastic-free, compostable glitter.
5. Waste-Free Decorations
Instead of loading your cart with heavily-packaged, heavily-plasticized Halloween decorations, get crafty and make your own.
Repurposed materials can be transformed into spooky, festive decorations; use cardboard boxes for tombstones, paper bags for lanterns, wine bottles for candle-holders, and yarn for spiderwebs. Better yet, bring the outside in with hay, pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks, pinecones, acorns, or a homemade wreaths of leaves to make your home festive. These eco-friendly decorations can be composted along with your other yard scraps at the end of the season.
Keep old decorations so they can be reused every year – besides the organic stuff, of course.
6. Party Sustainably
jin chu ferrer / Moment / Getty Images
If you're playing the part of Halloween-party-host this year, consider ways to make your celebration more sustainable.
Consider using TerraCycle to dispose of the wrappers from candy eaten at the party. This recycling company can recycle practically anything, and sells boxes that can be filled with waste and sent back, or you can utilize one of their drop-off locations. Have guests toss their wrappers in a bin that you can deal with later; or, buy unwrapped candy in bulk, and serve in a bowl with a ladle, so guests can scoop it out themselves and circumvent the waste entirely.
Instead of disposables, use normal dishware, silverware, napkins, and cups to wash after the guests leave; or, choose biodegradable alternatives if you have an avenue to compost them. It doesn't do much good to send compostable dishware to landfills, which are airtight and don't allow for them to aerobically break down, so send them to a commercial composting facility, if possible. Some compostable dishware can be placed in your own compost bin at home, but many require a commercial composting facility to break down. Look into the specifics for the product you buy.
Make your own snack trays, desserts, and mains for the party, instead of buying packaged, pre-made platters and meals at the grocery store. Better yet, make the event a potluck, and ask each guest to bring an item they've prepared so you don't have to do all the work.
Linnea graduated from Skidmore College in 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in English and Environmental Studies, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. Along with her most recent position at Hunger Free America, she has interned with the Sierra Club in Washington, DC., Saratoga Living Magazine, and Philadelphia's NPR Member Station, WHYY.
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