Eco-BridgesCambrian EcoVolt

Greening the MilitaryIsrael’s Prawer Plan

N°10 | WINTER 2013/14

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Alexandra, Egypt, 2012. Source: Revolve

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Economic and social development over the last century was achieved through intensive, inefficient and unsustainable use of our planet’s finite resources. These challenges are mounting as the world population is forecast to reach 9 billion by 2050, of which 70-80% will live in resource-intensive urban areas. Resource exploitation already exceeds the Earth’s biological capacity. The environment, the economy and humanity ultimately depend on the responsible management of natural resources.

Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) is at the core of sustainable development: Chapter 4 of Agenda 21 recognized in 1992 that “the major cause of the continued deterio-ration of the global environment is unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries.” The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and The Future We Want of the Rio+20

Conference in 2012, both recognized that “changing unsustain-able patterns of production and consumption” is one of three “overarching objectives of, and essential requirements for, sus-tainable development.”

Promoting SCP turned out to be “easy to say but very difficult to implement”. First, it has not been easy to promote as it means different things to differ-ent people, depending on their level of development and lifestyles, and depending on the social, economic and political organization of countries and societies. Second, it is a com-plex approach as it touches on everyone’s values, cultures, behaviour and daily life. Third, it affects differently developed and developing countries that share the same planet in a system of common but differentiated responsibility.

All stakeholders, including governments, international organizations, business, civil society, are giving increasing attention to SCP, since it is now understood that to seriously deal with poverty alleviation and eradication, to efficiently tackle climate change challenges and to move towards a green economy, it is necessary to change as quickly as possible our unsus-tainable consumption and production patterns, by mainly increasing efficiency in resource use and by decoupling economic growth from resource use and environmental impacts.

A global platform for action via multi-stakeholder partnerships – the 10 Year Framework of Programs on SCP (known as 10YFP) – could become a key instrument of international coop-eration and capacity-building to guide and support the achievement of a post 2015 develop-ment agenda, which will have to deliver sustainable development. The 10YFP could also guide our collective efforts to enhance resource efficiency, decouple economic growth from envi-ronmental degradation, and thus sustain the growing needs of the world’s human population.

Special Guest Editorial

Arab HoballahChief Sustainable Consumption and Production United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

On Sustainable Consumption and Production

N°10 | WINTER 2013/14

Sustainable consumption and production is the core of sustainable development.

“true sustainability – the ability to continue one’s business operations indefinitely in a way that doesn’t create limits for

future generations – is out of reach for most companies.”Joel Makower, Strategies for the Green Economy, McGraw Hill, 2009, p.12.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Ayscha HamdaniJoss TantramKabir MokamelLeif Zapf-GiljeMarcello CappellazziMatthew Silver Ophelie MartinPatrick MaioPeter Easton Stuart Reigeluth

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Andy WrightAyscha HamdaniDavid ShankboneEeliuthEndre SebokGayle Von EckartsbergInes Hegedus-GarciaJames CridlandJulia HydeKabir MokamelLeif Zapf-GiljeMarc van der ChijsPaul GreenbergRomayanRose BrasilRoshan RajShai Kessel

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Filipa Rosa

ENERGY ASSISTANT

Edoardo De Silva

ASSISTANT | RESEARCHER

Marcello Cappellazzi

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Bostjan Videmsek

MANAGING CONSULTANT

Joelle Rizk

REGIONAL MANAGER

Rajnish Ahuja (India | Asia)

FOUNDING EDITOR

Stuart Reigeluth

REVOLVE MAGAZINE (ISSN 2033-2912) is registered in Belgium, BE 0828.676.740.

Printed with vegetable-based ink on chlorine-free paper, REVOLVE uses FSC approved paper (for more on how REVOLVE is a sustainable magazine see p.83).

www.revolve-magazine.com

Cover image: The Sonian Forest, 2013. Source: Julia Hyde.

SUSTAINABILITY

10 | Towards 9 Billion Joss Tantram envisions a world free of poverty with sustainable

ecosystems in the best of all possible worlds by 2050.

BUSINESS

16 | Hydrogen: Too Big to Miss! According to Patrick Maio, CEO of HINICIO, the future of

clean transport and energy storage is hydrogen.

INNOVATION

18 | Cambrian’s EcoVolt An exciting new sustainable wastewater treatment

technology by MIT spinoff Cambrian Innovation.

FOCUS

26 | Eco-Bridges Brussels is building bridges across highways and railways to

reconnect the natural habitat of the famous Sonian Forest.

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“Under capitalism, uncertainty is generated by the system itself, because it is an engine for accumulating capital

goods whose rewards come not now but later. The engine of wealth creation is at the same time a source of

economic and social instability.”Robert Skidelsky, Keynes, The Return of the Master, Penguin, 2010, p. 83.

VIEWS

35 | Magical Mushrooms Hungarian photographer Endre Sebok captures the essence

of the mushroom in its element – the forest.

ENVIRONMENT

52 | Illegal Logging in Mexico Leif Zapf-Gilje travels to the mountainous Michoacan region

where the locals are fighting to preserve their trees.

GEOPOLITICS

60 | Israel’s Prawer Plan The displacement of some 40,000 Bedouins is the latest

repercussion of Israel’s ‘greening’ the desert.

MILITARY

68 | The New Camouflage European crisis management and the defence industry in

general are starting to reduce their carbon and water footprints.

CULTURE

76 | Peace Street How young artist/activists are calling for a more sustainable

solution to the quagmire in Afghanistan.

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Towards 9 Billion provides a vision for a sus-tainable and equitable future. We believe that some simple yet radical changes to the pur-pose and processes of modern international capitalism could produce innately sustainable outcomes.

The human population is set to grow to more than 9 billion people by 2050. What sort of world do we want them to arrive into? One of scarce resources and extreme competition for the basic elements of survival, or one in which they are able to build stable and meaningful lives for themselves and their children?

Rather than seeing a growing population as a fundamental threat, might we rather see it as a global opportunity of epic proportions?

Writer: Joss Tantram is a founding partner at Terrafiniti LLP, a pioneering sustainability and systems consultancy. Terrafiniti’s Towards 9 Billion thought leadership and R&D initiative develops big, playful and hopeful ideas for a sustainable future.

Towards 9 Billion

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Images (from top left to bottom right):

(1) VIII Gay Pride in São Paulo, Brazil, 2004. [Nearly 2 million people in 2004; 4 million in 2011.] Source: Rose Brasil/ABr.

(2) Maha Kumbh Mela, 2013. [Est. 12 million people]. Source: Roshan Raj /Flickr.

(3) Large crowd after a Muse concert, Parc des Princes, Paris, 2007. [± 60,000 people]. Source: James Cridland /Flickr.

(4) Mexico City, 2011. [According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the Greater Mexico City population in the 2010 is 20.1 million people]. Source: Eeliuth/Flickr.

(5) Metro station during rush hour, Shanghai, China, 2005. [Shanghai is the largest most populous city in the world with 23,7 million people in 2012]. Source: Marc van der Chijs/Flickr.

(6) Glastonbury Festival, Somerset, England, 2003. [The largest greenfield festival in the world, now attended by around 175,000 people]. Source: Andy Wright/Flickr.

(7) Tokyo, 2012. [The greater Tokyo metropolitan area, which spreads over 3 prefectures, has an estimated population close to 35 million. That means the greater Tokyo area is home to 25% of Japan's population, and it's the most populous metropolitan area in the world]. Source: Nacho/Flickr.

(8) Costco on a Saturday, 2011. [Costco Wholesale Corporation is the second largest retailer in the United States with a net income of US$1.709 billion and employing 174,000 people (2012)]. Source: Ines Hegedus-Garcia/Flickr.

(9) Al-Haram Mosque at the start of Hajj, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 2008. [The total number of pilgrims to the Hajj in 2012 was estimated at 3 million according to Saudi Foreign Embassy]. Source: Al Jazeera/Flickr.

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Today even the world’s largest companies only supply goods and services to a pro-portion of the planet’s population. Increas-ing the total number of economically active people would be in the interests of busi-nesses, citizens and society as a whole – driving greater productivity, long-term value creation and providing an in-built incentive for social and market stability.

Perhaps the most significant challenge to achieving this future lies in the ability of the market to act in a strategic and coordinated manner and to value activities and behavior which pay off over the long-term. Meeting this challenge would require an evolution of some of the fundamental mechanisms of market economics and capitalism so that sustainable decisions and behaviors can be innately valued and prioritized rather than considered as an afterthought.

A Larger Piece of a Larger Pie?

Left (top+bottom): Darfuri refugees in Eastern Chad. Farchana Camp (22,887

refugees, UNHCR figures, 30 September 2011). The camp is located 56 km from the

Sudanese border, and was opened in January 2004. A young refugee contemplates the

southern part of Farchana's Camp from a hill that cut the refugee's site in two.]

Source: European Commission DG ECHO/Flickr.

Right (top): Zaatari refugee camp, August 2013, Jordan. [Zaatari refugee camp

was first opened on July 28, 2012 to host Syrians fleeing the violence in the ongoing

Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011. On July 4, 2013, the camp population was

estimated at 144,000 refugees, making it Jordan's fourth largest city.]

Source: Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Flickr.

Right (bottom): View of the Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees as seen on July 18, 2013,

from a helicopter carrying U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Jordanian Foreign

Minister Nasser Judeh.Source: U.S. Department of State/Public Domain.

We Need New Concepts of Economic and Social SuccessOur current economic models, with con-ceptual roots dating back centuries, were not designed to deal with the universal challenges presented by resource scarcity, population growth, globalization and the decline of natural systems.

Dominant global approaches to assessing and pricing what is valuable are no lon-ger fit for purpose. The scale of economic externalities which have arisen represent an existential threat to the continuing function

of our economic system, our social stability and the health of our planetary home.

In light of such threats, current industrial pro-cesses are increasingly recognized as unfit for meeting the demands of the majority of the Earth’s current 7 billion people, let alone the expected rise in population numbers.

If we are to sustain and thrive together as a species we need to imagine and deliver new ways of meeting our needs and desires.

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The route to a sustainable future lies in reco-gnizing and valuing the dimensions of inter-dependence we have with each other and with the natural world:

Ecological interdependence – the natural environment is the foundation of human existence, the bedrock of social stability and the basis of all financial value. Humans are fundamentally dependent upon the Earth as our only home for now.

Financial interdependence – our markets are massively complex and interdependent.

Resource and logistics systems are global and the rise and fall of market actors can mean success, failure, feast or famine across the world. The narrow financial suc-cess of one party must not continue to come at the common expense of many.

Social interdependence – nothing happens in our modern world without the involve-ment of others. We need to recognize and re-balan ce this interdependence so that our quality of life is not bought at the expense of others and is not at risk if those we depend upon decide to withdraw their subsidy.

Valuing Inter dependence

The vision is simple. To build by 2050:

A world of 9 billion capable citizens living in healthy, thriving ecosystems.

Such a world would represent a market for business unparalleled through human history. It would align the interests of indi-viduals, societies and businesses organi-cally, through “common-self-interest”.

Two key changes....

A. Subscribe to a Common Intent

Markets lack common strategic intent beyond the generation of short-term profit. Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” is more a post-hoc rationalization of the sum of a multitude of individually-motivated market actions than any strategy.

This lack of common intent makes the delivery of strategic outcomes difficult and the likelihood of systemic risk and unin-tended consequences more likely.

Towards 9 Billion is designed to address this issue by introducing a clear and eco-nomically meaningful purpose to market and business activity; the achievement of a vastly larger and more sustainable market.

Over the next 40 years to 2050, markets should seek to deliver:

• A global human population of 9 billion capable citizens.

• Healthy and thriving ecosystems.

B. “Hack the Price Function” – Economic Price Should Equal Sustainable Value

Economic behavior flows principally from the price function, the ability to generate a price for a good or service which allows it to be bought, sold and traded.

Towards 9 Billion The Vision

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"...reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."

– Richard P. Feynman

Prioritizing the vision for a world of 9 billion capable citizens would be a major step towards the integration of environmental and social value with economic opportunity and cost. It would provide a significant drive towards a sustainable world and inherently deliver reduc-tions in systemic risk and market failure.

In addition, the motivation for businesses would move towards a positive sum (win-win) view. It would become an economic benefit to design industrial production activities around resources which are more likely to have lon-gevity of supply and which enhance, work alongside, utilize or borrow from naturally productive processes and capacity.

In the social dimension, valuing and bal-ancing interdependence would result in increasing global equity and help ensure a more even spread of economic develop-ment and increased quality of life.

Companies and markets would, as a natural aspect of market capitalism:

• consider the longevity and safety of sup-ply of the resources they depend upon;

• act to value and enhance the quality and diversity of the natural capital upon which human life depends, and:

• prioritize mutual equity in relationships with suppliers, customers and other stakeholders.

It makes sense to connect the capability of our social, economic and industrial models to the viability of our home planet.

To quote Arthur C. Clarke: “Over suffi-ciently large periods of time, private inter-est should be indistinguishable from the common interest”.

Towards 9 Billion Bridging Price and Value

What is a healthy, thriving ecosystem?Ecosystems provide raw materi-als and ‘services’ (such as food production and clean water) vital to our existence. Healthy ecosys-tems are able to maintain their structure and provide these func-tions over time while bearing the demands of sustainable harvest-ing and other stresses.

What is a capable citizen ? Capable citizens are those who have the opportunities and abilities to make sovereign social, eco-nomic and personal choices, for themselves and their families. They have access to advanced educa-tion, are equitably rewarded for the use of their lives in other people’s employ and are able to raise chil-dren without fearing for their future. Capable of contributing to and accessing commercial and public services, they make conscious and informed decisions about the goods and services they buy.

Three principles for putting sus-tainable value at the heart of eco-nomic price:

Subtle but radical changes in the gen-eration of price would allow ecological and social sustainability to become a natural outcome of economic behavior. Price should not simply be based upon supply and demand but also upon:

• Abundance rather than scarcity – scarce things are only of marginal utility in a world of 9 billion capable citizens – either natural (biologically-based) or managed (through closed loop steward-

The present price function fails to reflect, value and therefore sustain the funda-mental ecological and social interdepen-dencies that our way of life is built upon. It reduces the physical reality and mind boggling complexity of ecological systems to the simplistic binary metrics of supply and demand, profit and loss. This fails to adequately reflect or consider long-term human or ecological value and represents an existential threat to the continuation of our current model of capitalism.

ship) abundance is inherently more valu-able in this context.

• Natural vitality – making use of the plan-et’s natural rejuvenative and productive abilities, learning from and utilizing natu-ral production techniques as the basis for our technological and industrial models.

• Balancing interdependence – nothing happens in our modern world without the social and economic involvement of others. We need to recognize and bal-ance these dependencies to maximize economic and human potential and remove imbalances and subsidies.

AGRION DISRUPT 100+

AGRION MEE T S T HE EU

AGRION’S 2 ND ANNUAL EUROPE AN SUMMIT

Angela.Keller@agrion.orgwww.agrion.org/Paris2014

Visit www. agrion.org

In partnership with:the Life Programme

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What is hydrogen used for? Hydrogen has been in use for decades all around the word in several key industry sec-tors such as oil refining, food processing, glass manufacturing, electronics or metal production. Because of its high energy content by unit of mass, hydrogen has also been used since the mid-60s in the aero-space industry to fuel rockets and trans-ports satellites. Since the mid-90s hydrogen has been pursued as a possible alternative to gasoline and diesel to power passenger cars, especially in the context of constantly growing environmental pressures, climate change and increasing fossil fuel prices. Since a couple of years, hydrogen has also emerged as a possible vector to store large quantities of renewable electricity, which by nature is often intermittent and difficult to store, thereby giving birth to the emerging concept of “power-to-gas” on which many energy utilities are now working.

Why is hydrogen a clean fuel? In the energy and transport field, hydrogen is often associated to fuel cells, which are

electrochemical devices able to convert the hydrogen into electricity. In fact they work like batteries, but unlike batteries they don’t discharge and continue working as far as fuel is supplied. Fuel cells offer very high levels of efficiency compared to tra-ditional combustion engines used in

cars, and when fuelled with hydrogen they emit zero emission from the tank

to the wheel, and simply produce pure water. In this respect indeed hydrogen is a clean transport fuel. However hydrogen can be produced from a variety of sources and processes. Today most hydrogen is produce through steam methane reforming (“SMR”), which is a very mature production process and certainly the most economic. The draw-back is that it emits important quantities of CO2. All-in-all our studies show that a fuel cell vehicle fuelled with hydrogen produced from SMR would still emit about 30 to 40% less CO2 than a comparable gasoline car from well-to-wheel. The good news is that when hydrogen is produced from renew-able electricity (for example overnight when electricity demand is lower than supply) through a process called “water electroly-sis” then you end up with a zero emission transportation fuel from well-to-wheel and a completely clean fuel. This is a Saint-Grail that automakers have been going after many decades and this is the reason why all of them work on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

What are the key advantages of hydrogen mobility versus electric mobility? First of all one must say that a hydrogen car is an electric car. Indeed once the hydrogen is converted into electricity via a fuel cell

Hydrogen Too Big to Miss!

ProfilePatrick Maio is the CEO of HINICIO a Brussels-based strategy consulting firm specialized in renewable energies with a competence center on hydro-gen and fuel cells.

Over his 15+ years career Maio de-livered more than 100 consulting assignments in 15 countries in Eu-rope, USA, Asia, North Africa and Latin America. Maio has been ad-vising leading energy utilities, gas companies, industries, as well as a wide range of start-ups companies, cleantech investors, governments and public authorities in both devel-oped and developing economies.

Maio leads an international team of engineers, economists and policy specialists advising customers on strategic issues ranging from de-ployment and financing of renewable energy projects, innovation manage-ment and technology transfer, as well as public policies. Maio currently serves as non-executive director to several renewable energy start-ups. Among his responsibilities, Maio is a referenced expert on energy and cli-mate change for the European Com-mission and the European Parliament. Maio is a Member of the Society of Industry Leaders and the Institute of Directors. Before setting up Hinicio, Patrick used to be a manager at Ernst & Young. Maio is an electrical engi-neer graduate and a MBA graduate from Solvay Business School.

www.hinicio.com

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in the vehicle; it powers an electric engine comparable to the one contained in all elec-tric battery cars. In a way these vehicles are very similar and embed many common com-ponents. What is special about the hydrogen vehicle and constitutes the real value propo-sition for the driver is twofold: First the refu-elling of a hydrogen car takes between 3 à 5 minutes, which is pretty much the same as refuelling a normal car. Compared to electric battery cars which require between 20 mn for fast charges and 8 hours for normal charges, this certainly provides much more flexibility and user friendliness. Second, and most importantly hydrogen fuel cell cars offer already today a range going beyond 500 km. Compared to electric battery cars, this offers a totally different perspective in the use of the vehicle, and its associated value. If one comes back to the routes of automobile 150 years ago, automobile is about freedom of move: it is about going everywhere you like whenever you like it, with your family and no constraints. It is one of the most flexible

and versatile modes of transport invented up to day, and in this respect although we see other transport modes emerging, we certainly see hydrogen as the ultimate fuel for automobiles.

How big is hydrogen?As a matter of fact, the size of the global market for hydrogen already outpasses 50 million metric tons and represents more than ! 60 billion in annual turnover globally. So in a way hydrogen is already big today. But as discussed earlier, in order to become a real alternative to fossil fuels, hydro-gen needs to address two big challenges: Firstly production processes need to evolve towards massive production of very low to zero emission hydrogen at an acceptable market price. Secondly hydrogen refuelling stations need to be installed step-by-step around key urban and peri-urban areas. Only then will hydrogen become a commer-cially available clean transport fuel acces-sible to the masses.

When will we actually be able to buy hydrogen cars in Europe?Fuel cell hydrogen cars are actually already available and they are techni-cally fully mature. I have personally tried a few of them from different brands over the last few months, and in general they really offer amazing customer experience, power, range and comfort with absolutely no engine noise. The remaining challenges are now the cost, since these vehicles still need to go through important cost reduction programs, and the availability of hydrogen refuelling stations. In the end the time required by energy companies and automakers to overcome these chal-lenges will heavily depend on environmen-tal pressures they face and public policies set up to incentivise customers to access the next generation of electro-mobility. In a sense the question is not so much when will these hydrogen fuel cell cars reach European consumers, but where will they come from…

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Cambrian Innovation

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“I am convinced that with the way water is being managed, we will run out of water long before we run out of fuel.” – Peter Brabeck Letmathe, Chairman of Nestle

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Water management represents one of the greatest environmental challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. Everything that we as humans consume or use has a water footprint – from daily living to agriculture, manufacturing, and energy production. Even something as mundane as the foods and beverages we eat and drink are often some of most water and energy intense. The average winery, for example, produces 12 - 23 gallons of wastewater per single case of wine. This wastewater must be treated in energy intensive aerated ponds or sent to the sewer at a cost. Wastewater until now, however contains valuable energy sources that have gone unclaimed.

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Over 40 billion gallons of wastewater are produced every day by municipal and industrial sources such as wineries, breweries, dairies, and bottling plants. In a perfect world, this water would be treated, but, unfortunately, much of it makes its way to our rivers, lakes and oceans where it is consumed by microorganisms, drain-ing the oxygen from these bodies of water in the process. As a result, large anoxic dead-zones have appeared in even our

In 1999, researchers made a remarkable discovery: certain microbes have the capa-bility to generate electricity via direct con-tact with electrodes in their environment. Dubbed “exo-electrogens” these microbes were quickly identified as a path towards the creation of a suit of technologies developed to capture energy and infor-mation while simultaneously treating and managing water.

Since this discovery, academic institutions have conducted extensive research and piloting efforts to demonstrate the poten-tial of microbial fuel cells (MFC), a type of BES. Scientists globally have tested novel materials and design concepts to prove

largest water bodies such as the Chesa-peake Bay and the Mississippi River Delta.

One of the challenges with wastewater treatment is that existing technologies are expensive and energy intensive. Aerobic wastewater treatment in particular – the dominant approach worldwide – costs over $30 billion annually and consumes over 3% of the electricity in the United States alone.

Cambrian’s innovative product lines reverse the economics of the wastewater treatment process. Rather than consume power, Cambrian systems leverage BES technology to generate electricity and other value-added products while treating organic pollutants in wastewater. The net result is a radical reduction in energy use, and substantial savings in the operations and maintenance costs per unit of pollu-tion removed.

the diverse capabilities of MFCs in the field; notable examples include a 2007 prototype developed by the University of Queensland, Australia, in partnership with Foster’s Brewery (Australian for Sci-ence) and the use of BES technology by Penn State University demonstrating the concept of a microbial electrolysis cell, a related BES technology used to make hydrogen in 2010.

In early October 2013, Cambrian Innova-tion achieved a milestone in the bioelectro-chemical industry, launching EcoVolt, the first ever industrial-scale, bioelectrically enhanced wastewater treatment system. Developed with funding from the National

Science Foundation, EcoVolt’s bioelectric innovation uses electrogenic organisms to generate clean energy from wastewa-ter. These recently discovered electricity-generating organisms convert wastewater pollutants into electricity. This electricity is funneled to a circuit, and back into an electrode, where a different set of micro-organisms convert electricity and carbon dioxide into methane fuel – forming a complete treatment process. The methane can be used on-site for clean power and heat production. The EcoVolt system forms the basis for varying degrees of water reuse and allows industrial partners to use the treated water for irrigation, tank wash-ing, or production.

The Water Energy Nexus

Bioelectrochemical Systems as a Path to Sustainable Water Infrastructure

Cambrian Innovation, a globally recognized leader in the commercialization of bioelec-trochemical systems (BES), is using innova-tive new technology to capture energy from wastewater. By harnessing microbes that both generate electricity and treat wastewa-ter, Cambrian Innovation is poised to vastly reduce the energy requirements of water treatment systems. This technology enables the efficient treatment of industrial and municipal effluent by capturing the potential energy inherent in these waste streams, thereby reducing the cost and carbon foot-print of our global water infrastructure.

Over 40 billion gallons of wastewater are produced every day by municipal and industrial sources

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Cambrian’s flagship product, EcoVolt Bio-electric Wastewater Treatment, leverages a particular kind of bioelectricity in a process called “electromethanogenesis”. During this process, electrically active organisms convert carbon dioxide and electricity into methane fuel. Biologically coated elec-trodes in the reactor rapidly convert organic pollutants into electricity and subsequently convert electricity into methane fuel.

The methane produced by EcoVolt is both high quality (near pipeline quality) and renewable, and can be used in a combined heat and power system to provide sustain-able energy to the facility.

The process of electromethanogenesis was discovered in 2008 and subsequently commercialized by Cambrian Innovation Inc. It has a wide range of applications, including wastewater treatment and nutri-ent management.

EcoVolt Technology

The standard EcoVolt is a highly-modular, road-shippable system for renew-able heat and electricity generation from wastewater flows of 10,000 – 300,000 GPD. The wastewater then enters the headworks, where it is conditioned, split into sub-streams and sent to EcoVolt treatment units.

EcoVolt: Heat, electricity and clean water from wastewater

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Cambrian EcoVolt, empowers food and beverage companies, including wineries, breweries, and dairy operations, to cut operating costs and monetize their process and wastewater streams while significantly increasing plant sustainability.

“Industrial food and beverage producers typically use large amounts of electrical energy to treat their wastewater. Ironically, the wastewater itself contains energy,” com-mented Dr. Silver, Cambrian Innovation’s Co-Founder and CEO. “EcoVolt uses natu-

rally occurring organisms with unique prop-erties to extract this energy, which can offset overall operation costs. We view this as the future of water management, globally.”

EcoVolt can save a winery or a brewery any-where from $100,000 to more than $1 mil-lion a year, by eliminating aeration energy requirements and sludge hauling, minimizing sewer fees, and generating heat and power. An average EcoVolt system can also cut a facility’s carbon footprint substantially, facili-tating its certification as a green producer.

Well-known for its focus on sustainability, Clos du Bois Winery, located in California’s Wine Country, field tested Cambrian’s new wastewater treatment system at an industrial scale. For the last 15 months, the EcoVolt demonstration treated up to 10% of Clos du Bois’ total wastewa-ter flow totaling 4,000 gallons of winery wastewater per day. The treatment system removed 80-90% of the wastewater’s bio-logical oxygen demand (BOD), meeting the stringent environmental discharge permit requirements and bolstering Clos du Bois’

The Path Towards Sustainable Water Management

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sustainability initiatives. The winery addi-tionally experienced a reduction in aera-tion pump electricity costs and a surplus of reusable energy.

“The EcoVolt unit was commissioned quickly, and it came up to speed and oper-ated better in some areas than competing technology,” said Brian Hemphill, opera-tions manager at Clos du Bois. “This unit can be managed remotely by Cambrian without requiring our time, which makes more sense for us, because we’re in the

business of making wine, we’re not in the wastewater business.”

The EcoVolt demonstration validated that the system could operate across a range of BOD loadings and wastewater volumes, a concern faced by many food and beverage facilities. Unlike EcoVolt, traditional anaer-obic systems use complex communities of interacting bacteria, and changes to the influent water quality, whether volume or concentration, can cause cascading fail-ures within the reactor. EcoVolt’s bioelec-

tric capabilities enable it to accommodate fluctuations in wastewater quantity and composition common in beer, wine, and other food and beverage production cycles. The systems modular design and bioelec-tric capability allow for rapid commission-ing and continuous, remote monitoring and control. These attributes minimize instal-lation and operation hassles. Because EcoVolt is prefabricated and provides for turnkey installation, the system can easily accommodate facility expansion, as well as new system installations.

Image (left): Demonstration at Clos du Bois after installation. Image (right/top): Shipment arriving in Napa Valley, CA.

Image (right/bottom): Demonstration being installed at Clos du Bois.

Source: Cambrian Innovation.

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Did you know?How does an anaerobic system compare to an aerobic one? Anaerobic digestion occurs naturally, in the absence of oxygen, as bacteria break down organic materials and produce biogas. The most useful component pro-duced is methane, which EcoVolt™ har-nesses for an energy-positive wastewater treatment system. Most other anaerobic systems cannot adapt to drastic changes that usually disrupt the system. EcoVolt, however, can accommodate fluctuations common in beer and wine production cycles and therefore offers robust, flexible wastewater treatment.

Aerobic digestion is a bacterial process occurring in the presence of oxygen. Under aerobic conditions, bacteria rapidly consume organic matter and convert it into carbon dioxide. The operating costs of aerobic processes are generally much

greater because of the energy used by the blowers, pumps and motors that add oxygen to the process. A large downside of aerobic wastewater treatment systems is that they are generally large and take up a lot of valuable land that is often times needed for production.

Why is wastewater treatment an issue for the food and beverage industry? In general, demand for water treatment equipment in the United States is forecast to grow 5.9% per year to $13.0 billion in 2017. On average, a winery uses five to seven gallons of water to produce one gal-lon of wine. Similarly, a brewery uses an estimated six gallons of water to produce one gallon of beer.

Effectively treating wastewater demands as much attention, resources, and exper-tise as the primary business processes

of a company’s operation. Meeting the demands of proper wastewater treatment as well as those of a company’s operations is often a hard balance to achieve.

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About Cambrian Innovation

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Reconectingthe ForestWriter: Stuart Reigeluth is founding editor of Revolve.Photographer: Julia Hyde is a MFA candidate at TransArt Institute.

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Urbanization usually causes some form of deforestation. This holds true for the “green lung” of the capital of Europe: the Sonian Forest has been divided by major highways and smaller roads to connect peripheral neighborhoods with the city center. More roads and more people mean more cars and more cars mean more animals are killed. Common road-kill includes squir-rels, hedgehogs, and the fabulous red fox that comes increasingly into urban areas in search of food. But more cars also mean that fewer animals will try crossing the roads mainly due to the noise. Ani-mals have been forming what Stéphane

Vanwijnsberghe, Head of the Forest and Nature Division at Brussels Environment, calls “islands of species”, rather than pro-tecting the species this isolation has led to inbreeding which weakens their genes. Due to the roads and railways that divide the forest, there is less cross-breeding which strengthens species.

The idea to reconnect the Sonian Forest has been germinating for over 15 years, around the time when the European Com-mission launched its LIFE program in 1992. In Belgium, 160 projects have been funded since then, representing a total

investment of ! 396 million, of which ! 170 came from the EU. For Euro-sceptics, the LIFE program is a particularly positive tool that brings real results to reducing emis-sions, improving the environment, and bettering the livelihoods of human and animal species. On October 11, 2013, the LIFE+ OZON project was launched in the presence of Herman Van Rompuy, Presi-dent of the European Council, to counter the fragmentation of the Sonian Forest by reconnecting the different segments of the woods for animals to move around more freely and more safely within their natural environment.

Eco-Bridges & Regional Cooperation

“If you look up at the tops of the trees, you can tell which ones are dying,” says Stéphane Vanwijnsberghe on the corner of Drève du Haras and Drève Saint Hubert, one of the entrances to the famous Sonian Forest – one of the last woods of Belgium and symbolically the only remaining forest that connects the three Belgian regions of Flanders in the North, Wallonia in the South, and Brussels Capital Region in the middle. Having endured without an acting government for over a year, the federal system is often quite literally at loggerheads about how to manage the little kingdom, but the Belgians do know how to manage the forest. Despite the evident effects of climate change on the cathedral beech trees, a new fungus devastating the ash trees, and the division of the woods by roads and highways, the Sonian Forest is now being reconnected.

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To address the problem of forest frag-mentation, the EU has contributed half of the ! 6,716,040; the rest is covered by the nature and environment agencies of the different regions along with the respective communes also involved. In this sense, the project is truly symbolic of coexistence at many different levels:

from the salamander going in mini gul-lies under the train tracks, to squirrels using rope bridges to cross signs over highways, to eco-bridges connecting the different woods again, to regional coop-eration and European involvement in local affairs. According to the Minister of Envi-ronment, Energy and Urban Renovation

of the Brussels-Capital Region, Evelyne Huytebroeck, there should be no linguis-tic fault-lines just as there should be no borders for trees and biodiversity to flour-ish. Despite federal political difficulties, the three regions of Belgium have been cooperating increasingly in forest man-agement since 2008.

“OZON builds bridges for the flora and fauna to grow more in the Sonian Forest as well as bridges between the regions, the political administrations,

between the levels of power, between the authorities and the citizens. I consider OZON as a symbolic European dossier.”

– Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council.

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Belgian railway developer, INFRABEL, had to address environmental concerns dur-ing the ‘doubling’ exercise of expanding the RER tracks. An invasive plant species known as Japanese tangleweed ( fallopian Japonica ) has been invading the shrubbery along the tracks for years. This plant grows very quickly and absorbs the nutrients in the ground, smothering the growth of other plants. While digging the earth to lay the new railway track cement bedding, INFRABEL made sure to dispose of the ‘contaminated’ tangleweed soil by transporting and destroy-ing the rampant roots in large depositories, thus helping to avoid the propagation of the invasive plant species in the Sonian Forest. INFRABEL and the implementing agent, TUC RAIL, also took measures to elevate tracks to avoid noise pollution. The devastation of trees along the tracks remains impressive and no official statistics exist to measure the environmental impact of expanding rail-way train transport.

The next two OZON projects for eco-bridges to reconnect the Sonian Forest around Brussels include a 50-75 meter-wide eco-bridge over the Chaussée de la Hulpe on the southern side of the forest, and another worth ! 2 million over the E411/RO (Ring around Brussels) on the eastern side of the city, thus building more inter-regional bridges for better co-existence for animals in urban areas as well as between people separated by language. Brussels is by no means the only city to encourage greater environmental awareness. Other examples of facilitating paths for animals include eco-bridges for wolves in Croatia, for crabs in Australia, and for elephants in Africa. In Switzerland, building eco-bridges has entered national legislation for the con-struction of railways and highways.

The Brussels Environment Agency of the Brussels-Capital Region also demands high standards to be met for construction. The

The hallmark project completed by the Belgians is the first eco-bridge started in November 2012 and finished in early 2013. The eco-bridge traverses the Brussels-Luxembourg L161 railway line. On either side of the tracks, fences have been erected to protect larger animals from crossing. The felled trees for the expansion of the new RER train were used as barricades on the edge of the forest to create mini ecosystems. The debris of logs is already becoming overgrown and on the eco-bridge itself they form a pile that is inhabited by bugs and insects. Like widening a highway, the train tracks are being doubled on either side of the older tracks to connect further peripheral neigh-borhoods to the city center, to make the commute into town a little faster without a car. The barren gray cement bed is waiting for the high speed train tracks to be laid – a stark and barren reminder of our ever-pressing need for speed and progress.

Source: INFRABEL.

10 RER lines + 130 renovated stations

4 trainsin each direction per hour

88,000 users between 7:00-9:00 a.m.

35% of the public transport market shares

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Wood ProductionEvery year, more than 20,000 m" of wood is felled in the Sonian Forest. The beech, in particular, is known for its excellent quality, as one of the most productive in Belgium, even in Europe. ‘Sonian Beech’ commands the highest prices in Belgium every year: approximately 100 euro/m" of timber in 2012. There are different reasons for cutting down trees. The removal of some trees – the ‘thinning’ process – clears space to allow their neighbors to thrive. Other trees, if they further deteriorate, can pose a danger to the roads and pathways next to which they stand. In that case, the tree is felled for safety considerations.

Older trees can also be felled to make room for a new generation of trees – to ‘rejuvenate’ the forest. In a forest with only old trees with heavy crowns, the herbs and shrubs below do not receive enough light to grow. Felling a few mastodons opens the space for sunlight to reach the undergrowth again, which is good news for birds, insects, and smaller animals that find food and protection there. While older trees are beautiful and a valuable part of the collective cultural heritage of the Sonian Forest, the rejuvenation of the forest is part of the management strategy for the woods to thrive sustainably.

Napoleon’s Nerves

In his ambition to invade and conquer England, Napoleon Bonaparte had some 22,000 oaks cut down in the Sonian Forest to build the “Boulogne” flotilla. The military preparations and operations of 1803-1805 were funded by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 when France sold its territories to the United States for over $11 million. The French naval invasion of England, however, never took place.

Image (page 29): The first eco-bridge completed in 2013 over the Brussels-

Luxembourg L161 railway line.

This page (top): Wood cutting is a strictly regulated business in the Sonian Forest.

(below): Barrier from trees cut for the new tracks.

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total annual mean average of beech tree growth

total aggregrate rise and decline of beech tree growth

The Sonian Forest was certified by the For-est Stewardship Council (FSC) in 2004, but like other natural habitats is confronted with the realities of climate change. Despite the high levels of precipitation in the little green kingdom of Belgium, the beeches do not get as much water as they used to; and with decreasing precipitation in recent years coupled with rising temperatures and incre-mental levels of carbon emissions, beech tree growth has been declining. Not only has growth been declining on aggregate, it’s been more erratic, depicting quite clearly the fluctuating effects of ‘global weirding’, after steady growth at the end of the 20th century. In addition, there is a new fungus called Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus or chalara fraxinea that has been ravaging the ash trees since 2010. The fungus causes severe

lesions on the bark and grows on the dead leaves. Other European countries affected include Ireland, Poland and the Baltic States, and Denmark, where over 50% of ash trees are infected and may disappear.

Image (top): Symptoms of Chalara ash dieback. A fungal disease affecting the ash trees of Europe. Picture shows how the wood within a branch turns a brownish-grey color, which often extends longitudinally down the stem or branch.

Source : The Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera), Crown Copyright.

Image (right): Undergrowth of the Sonian Forest.

Approximately 70% of the Sonian Forest con-sists of ‘beech cathedral’ trees with towering smooth gray trunks that ascend into vibrant greens in the summer sunlight and that shed their yellow leaves in the fall to form a car-pet of copper covering the undergrowth of the forest. These beeches are native to the Sonian Forest but their expanded growth was encouraged by humans – more so than natural regeneration would have permitted. Of the near 5,000 hectares of forest, about 85-90% is managed by the forestry service, and 10-15% is left as natural reserves. Every year there is a wood sale in the fall to parcel off the forest for low-scale logging and to make room for new growth; the proceeds of half a million euros raised in 2013, for exam-ple, go to improving forest management and expanding green spaces.

The Forest & Climate Change

The Rise and Decline of the Beech Tree in Belgium (1900-2010)This diagram shows the sharp increase of beech tree growth followed by an expected levelling out as the forest confronted urban growth. The effects of urbanization and climate change or "global weirding" (higher temperatures and less water) is indicated by the sudden drop of growth around 1980, followed by intense fluctuations in the annual growth, that overall is seen to be declining.

Source : IBGE

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Despite these difficulties, Belgium is renowned for its forest management. One example of the attention to the detail of maintaining ecosystems for species to thrive is the habitat management for the “pic noir”. Marked by a red dash on its head, the black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) lives in the beech trees, but it needs larva and insects to eat and to nourish its offspring. Part of the sustain-able management efforts of the forestry service include planting young pine trees that, when they die and are left to rot, make a natural habitat for the black wood-pecker to find the bugs it needs to survive. In other parts of the Sonian Forest, pine trees are grown for Christmas time and

some forest managers have bee-hives in meadows where they can create different flavors of honey depending what flowers the bees are fed – a jar of lavender honey goes for 5 euros outside a forester’s house on the southern fringe of the forest on the border between Flanders and Wallonia.

The contours of the forest are defined now – Napoleon and others decimated the majestic woods – but the Sonian Forest remains an integral part of the Brussels-Capital Region and symbolically connects the divided regions of Belgium, literally providing oxygen to an oftentimes asphyx-iating political climate. The eco-bridges may not alleviate the incremental traffic

around and in Brussels but they will help reestablish, with time, a more balanced natural environment for species to cross and live amongst the trees. Somewhere in the “green lung” of Europe’s capital there is an old cathedral beech tree that is 295-years-old (that’s older than Belgium, older than many countries). You may not find the ancient tree, but if you look up, on a good day you will see the dappled sunlight reflecting brightly on leaves, and later you will hear the soft patter of rain on the forest floor, and you will wonder what magic still inhabits these woods.

For more information, please visit: www.sonianforest.be

Beech Cathedral

The prominence of the ‘beech cathedral’ is due to the Austrian landscape architect, Joachim Zinner, who organized planting beech trees on a massive scale during the time of the Austrian Hapsburgs (1714-1795). Beeches older than 200 years are not common but they are not an exception either. Once used for charcoal, now the beech is also suitable for furniture because it the wood is hard and does not splinter easily. Source : www.sonianforest.be

Phot

o: J

imm

y K

ets

@ArtBrussels

artbrussels

Fri 25 – Sun 27 April 2014Brussels Expo www.artbrussels.com

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VI WS

Photographer: Endre Sebok

The Magic of Mushrooms

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Fungi are part of the natural cycle of life, often associated with decay. However, amongst the many varieties, includingmush-rooms and toadstools, they can display a variety of bright and subtle colours and a fascinating range of shapes and sizes. Visit a temperate forest in the damp autumn months and, with a little bit of careful hunting and observation, you can find some stunning examples. Brussels-based amateur photographer Endre Sebok has done that, providing an impressive collection of examples shown here, mostly from Sonian Forest of Brussels. Also known as Foret

de Soignes (French), Zoniënwoud (Flemish), it is a 4,400 hectare forest on the city’s south eastern flank, being literally the green lung of Europe’s capital.

These beautiful fungi are an appropriate metaphor for our move towards a more sustainable planet. Waste and decay have nega-tive associations, but provide the food and energy to help the fungi generate something beautiful, but also essential to the cycle of nature. They can be disappointingly ephemeral, with spectacular

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examples lasting just a few days, but perpetual in their ability to return year after year to play their critical role. As they break down the ‘old’ in quietly spectacular fashion, they provide the nourish-ment for the next cycle of renewal and regeneration. The managers of the Sonian Forest recognise this in their policy to leave many dead trees in situ to provide the sustenance for the fungi, moss, insects and other wildlife contributing to this cycle of sustainable biodiversity. The forest is beautiful in any season, but the fascinat-ing fungi combined with seasonal colour makes autumn particu-larly attractive.

Endre Sebok was born in Hungary, and grew up in Canada. With degrees in international relations and constitutional law, he cur-rently works for a large international organisation in Brussels. An avid amateur photographer, he has focused on macro photography for the past three years.

Writer: Peter Easton is an international water consultant and an independent contributor to Revolve.

You can contact Endre at endresebok@gmail.com.To learn more, visit: www.revolve-magazine.com

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As we walk through the forest, we are being watched by three men, each from a different vantage-point. They are wearing masks, and are armed with automatic assault rifles. Without them there, you would not feel safe. “Coyote” is our guide. This is not his real name; all members of the Ronda Comunitaria use code-names. They fear that they and their families will be targets of retribution if their identities become known to the wrong people: the Ronda have taken on drug cartels in a fight to save their forest.

Writer/Photographer: Leif Zapf-Gilje (b. 1978) is a journalism Masters student at the University of British Columbia. He covers sports, social politics and environmental issues among others. He visited the town of Cheran in southern Mexico in April 2013 and witnessed the festivities celebrating peace and control over the lands of the Purepecha.

Mexico Illegal Logging

Though they are called “drug cartels”, organized crime syndicates in Michoacán, Mexico will often venture into other prof-itable activities. In the forested hills sur-rounding the small indigenous community of Cheran, the cartels have expanded into illegal logging. Villagers report having seen hundreds of logging trucks pass through town every day. Of the 50,000 acres of forest that sits behind Cheran, over half has been affected by illegal logging. The

targeted tree is the Mexican Pine, which is in demand for making traditional furniture. Most of the furniture produced in Micho-acán is sold domestically, but Mexico is also one of the world’s leading exporters of handcrafted wood furniture.

Coyote used to make his living from these pine trees, by collecting sap in a traditional and sustainable way – the same way his father and his father’s father had. He esti-

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mates that about one in twenty people from Cheran made a living collecting and selling pine resin, which is used in making paint, turpentine, and chewing gum. It’s a big business in Michoacán, which produces the majority of Mexico’s resin.

Coyote sometimes ran into the illegal log-gers when he was collecting sap in the forest. They would make him sit and watch while they worked, chain-sawing down his people’s trees. When he tried to run away they shot at him. If he sat still, they let him walk home at the end, frustrated and feeling helpless.

In Michoacán, the police are not always effective at fighting crime. There is a saying, that they have a choice between silver or lead – a bribe or a bullet. In a nearby town, the entire police force resigned on the same day, stating that they did not feel that they had the resources to do their jobs honestly and safely. Politicians are typically under the same pressure. In Cheran, the cartels were getting free reign to decimate the forests.

Some of the villagers who stood up, disap-peared or were found murdered. People in town describe feeling terrorized. And it was getting worse. The illegal logging was being done closer and closer to the village. In the spring of 2011, the town’s water source, a spring at the edge of the forest, was cov-ered by a mudslide. The slope above it had recently been logged.

That was the last straw for a group of women. On the morning of April 15, 2011, they stood in the middle of the road and blocked the logging trucks. The loggers responded with gunfire. People screamed. Someone started ringing the church bells. And the town rose up. The first hours were chaotic. The log-ging trucks were torched. The loggers were nearly hung from a tree. The police tried to

storm in and free the criminals. There was no plan for what to do next.

That night people lit fires in the streets so the community could congregate and decide what to do. The entrances to town were blocked and people armed themselves with whatever they could find, mostly just metal tools, machine parts, and sticks with nails protruding from the end.

In that firelight, the Ronda Comunitaria first formed, vowing to protect the town and its forests. Coyote was among the first to volunteer. He says his family is proud but worried, and that for him, it did not feel like a choice. It was just what he had to do: “Traditionally our community had volunteer Rondas. Now they are needed again, and

Image (previous page): “Number One” walks out of the brush. Image (this page): “Chiva” checks a fire-wood collecting

permit. Only dead wood lying on the ground can be harvested. Image (next page): “Chiva” is on guard in the distance.

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someone has to take the risk. We have a responsibility to pass this forest on to our children, like our parents did for us.”

A few days later, a large mob formed outside the police headquarters, demanding that all weapons be handed over to the Ronda. The police were enormously outnumbered. They gave up their guns and eventually the keys to their vehicles as well. Some officers offered to join the Ronda, but were not allowed. Only members of the community can volunteer; they need to be sure of who they can trust.

Then the mayor left. A 12-person council was formed to manage Cheran’s affairs. The voting is held in the main square and people cast their vote by standing behind the candi-date they support. The first elected council requested the help of lawyer David Peña to negotiate with the government. He was able to legally establish Cheran’s right to self-governance under Mexican laws of “usos y costumbres” whereby indigenous commu-nities in some states can choose to govern themselves as they had done before. This

was the first time this right had been granted based on a need for resource protection and the first time it was recognized for a com-munity in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

Peña says that other towns in the state have tried to follow Cheran’s example, but that the government labeled them vigilante militias and sent in extra police, and some-times even the army, to arrest the towns-people. He thinks the government is doing this because they are worried about losing state control of lucrative natural resources.

James Barsimantov is a professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. He has studied deforestation in Michoacán and says that the turning point was a 1992 change to the Mexican Constitution, which allows individuals and groups to apply for private farming rights on communal forest land. The avocado growers association of Michoacán insists that they only award new tenures on degraded land, but this only provides further incentive to engage in illegal logging.

Avocados have the nickname green gold in Michoacán. The state produces roughly 90% of Mexico’s avocados and exported over half a billion kilograms last year. Michoacán is also the only Mexican state certified by the U.S. foreign agricultural service to export avocados to the United States where over 35 million kilograms are consumed on Super Bowl Sunday alone.

The associated press reported earlier this year that the “Knights Templar” – cur-rently the dominant cartel in Michoacán – is charging avocado farmers for every hectare of land they use. The more farms there are the more money the cartel makes; and the more illegal logging there is, the more avocado farms there will be. The cartel protects, and profits from, all stages of this cycle.

Coyote acknowledges that growing avoca-dos is a more lucrative use of the terrain. “And they are sweet and delicious,” he says, “but avocado trees dry out the land. We would rather keep our forest.”

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The day before the second anniversary of the revolution, Coyote agreed to take us along on a patrol of the forest. We are in Cheran with our local guide, Isabel Carde-nas Rodriguez, and we’ve just been intro-duced to the tall, broad-shouldered Purepe-cha man dressed in head-to-toe green camouflage. He wears a bullet-proof vest and, on the wrist of the hand that holds his gun, he wears a pink bracelet given to him by his daughter.

As we drive out of town, I ride in the back of the former police truck with two of the Ronda, code-named “Chiva” and “Number One”. They are both carrying AR-15 assault rifles. Number One’s toothy smile is reas-suring through the camouflage bandana that covers his face. As we pass a school, I ask him if it’s running the same as before.

“Yes,” he says, “except the children aren’t playing cops and robbers at lunch anymore. It’s Ronda and loggers now.”

When the truck pulls to a stop, Chiva, Num-ber One, and a third member of the Ronda head out in different directions. Coyote periodically checks in with them on the radio until they are in position, and have seen that the section of forest we are about to walk through is clear. As we pass a pretty vista, he laments that he has not been able to take his children on many walks like this, just like the ones his father took him on, teaching him about the forest. By the time

that the cartels burn the land so that the forest will not grow back and the terrain can then only be used for growing avocados and other cash-crops.

We walk through an area of the forest where Coyote and his patrol unit came across some illegal loggers last year. They heard chainsaws, and as they walked up they found themselves under fire. They dove for any cover they could find, and shot back. The loggers quickly gave up, running off into the forest. Coyote admits they were in an angry mood, after having been shot at, and perhaps it was a bit hot-headed of them to torch the logging trucks.

Coyote was 13 or 14 he was working in the forest collecting resin.

Coyote’s eldest son does not have that option: the risk of being killed by the cartels is not worth the reward of a few pesos. His son is planning on joining the tree-planting effort however, and that is risky too. Coy-ote’s voice lowers as he recalls an image he will never forget: Two of his friends lay dead at the bottom of a dry creek bed and he was one of the first called to the scene. The two had been out tree-planting and had stopped for lunch. When Coyote got there, he saw bullet holes everywhere – in the trees, and ground, and covering his friends bodies. He says that the Ronda are better armed now, and they work more closely with the tree-planters, but he’s worried about his son.

We walk to a grave on a ridge where a vil-lager from Cheran was found half-naked and dead. The grave-site is in a patch of unaffected trees. Sunbeams stretching through the leaves backlight the decorated, straw wreath leaning against a skinny pine tree. Mexico is home to more species of pine than any other country in the world. There are sixteen different types in Micho-acán alone. Some reach higher than forty meters into the sky, but in this forest few of those are still standing.

We pass into an area that has been clear-cut and burnt. The stumps are reminiscent of blackened tombstones. Coyote explains

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Several days later they heard the chainsaws again. The Ronda drove in the direction of the sounds but it was just a diversion. No wood was being cut. When they got back they found the resin collecting station was on fire, huge flames bursting through the roof. Coyote watched silently as the center of his livelihood burned down. No one was working at the sap-collecting station anymore, and so no one was hurt, but it hurt to helplessly watch the building burn. When we get to the remains, Coyote pokes his toe around the ashes and tells us about the little details of working there before, such as where they got paid, where they ate and socialized.

“Traditionally our community had volunteer Rondas. Now they are needed

again […] We have a responsibility to pass this forest on to our children, like

our parents did for us.”

Image (left): Children learn about tree planting efforts. Image (right): Cheran residents walk through the streets and call out the names of those who have died in the conflict. Image (page 58): A woman from the community throws

confetti on the volunteers in the Ronda Comunitaria.

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There’s only the charred skeleton of a build-ing now. The cartel left another reminder a few weeks before our visit: a note nailed to a tree beside the road into town. The note had a drawing of a skull and the words: “we’ll be coming back for what’s ours.”

After hearing these stories I am on high alert. I feel less safe than when I set out into the woods with Coyote, despite there still being three snipers watching over us. And suddenly another police truck comes roaring around the corner. They skid to a stop and several heavily armed Ronda jump out of the back. I am looking for cover in case I need to dive to the ground – Coyote smiles and asks if I like tacos. The other unit on patrol brought a picnic. I am handed a large hunting knife to cut the

jalapeños, and the delicious, fresh, crum-bly, soft cheese.

When we get back to town it is dark. Isabel and I decide to go to one of the community fires before checking in to the hotel. I want to meet up with some of the women who first blocked the logging trucks. We are welcomed and given a seat by the fire. Traditional drinks made from stewed rice are poured for us. They are hot and comforting. We are asked where we are staying. When I answer, smiles drop. We are told that the hotel that we were planning on staying at is on the other side of the checkpoints that circle town and that it is not safe out there and that two students were abducted from that very hotel last year. The woman across from me smiles again. She offers that we stay in the spare bedroom at

her parents place. I thank her profusely and relax by the fire, listening to stories about the start of the local revolt.

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the day the women first blocked the logging trucks. People will march through town calling out the names of those who lost their lives in the struggle. The Ronda will be honored at the center square, and be showered with confetti. But Coyote is not sure that he will be able to attend all of the day’s events. There is a fire raging in one corner of the forest. He thinks the cartel most likely started it, but that regardless, it needs to be put out. Many other volun-teers will be joining him and cramming into trucks, coming back covered in soot and sweat. The community of Cheran has come together to protect their forest. It’s the way it was traditionally, and Coyote says it will stay that way now:

“Even if the political parties and the police are allowed back, we will still have a Ronda and take care of our forest for our children.”

Of the 50,000 acres of forest that sits behind Cheran, over half has been affected by illegal logging.

Writers: Marcello Capellazzi is assistant researcher at Revolve.

BLUEPRINT NEGEV and the Prawer Plan

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Ecological concerns are becoming a major issue everywhere. In Israel, environmentalists have been confronted with the detrimental effects of the Israeli military on nature, fueling further criticism about the occupation of Palestinian land and the militarization of the State of Israel. Now, Israel’s military and environmental agendas are becoming increasingly intertwined, making a clear distinction between military, economic and environmental objectives more difficult. This is especially true in the southern district of Israel called the Negev in Hebrew or as the Arabs call this desert: al-Naqab.

The Negev comprises 55% of the country's landmass, but only 8.2% of Israel's population lives in the desert.

The dry climate of the desert have inspired the develop-ment of new technologies and practices for sustaining agricultural production. The first to develop these tech-nologies have been the Bedouins that cultivated season-ally the most fertile lands, especially to produce fodder for their livestock. Other pioneers in more recent times have been the farmers living in Kibbutz communities. In 1959 Simcha Blass, considered the father of modern drip irriga-tion, developed the first drip irrigation system to irrigate Kibbutz Hatzerim, eight kilometers from Be’er Sheva. He was also the person most responsible for drawing up ini-tial plans to convey waters to the Negev from 1939. The Negev relies to a large extent on recycled water piped in from Tel Aviv. This is used mainly for agriculture and irriga-tion. Saline water from underground reservoirs is used for certain crops and plants. The Negev Foundation, through its for-profit affiliate, Desert Sweet Technologies, Inc., successfully solicited the interest of several major U.S. vegetable and fruit growers and linked U.S. agribusiness with Negev research facilities. One of the first major proj-ects that was supported by The Negev Foundation was research on growing orchard crops that could be nour-ished with brackish (salty) water. Experimentation found that many orchard crops could thrive when irrigated with brackish water, and that among the most promising of these were olives. Out of this discovery, the Halutza olive oil company was born, and today is the largest olive oil company in southern Israel.

Agriculture is however not the most important asset in the desert.

Other important developments regard the energy sec-tor. It is supposed that solar energy from the Negev can meet the energetic needs of the State of Israel. The Negev Desert and the surrounding area, including the Arava Valley, are the sunniest parts of Israel and little of this land is arable, which is why it has become the center of the Israeli solar industry.

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connect Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; in order to allow the free movement of animals in the area, an ecological bridge will be con-structed. This example illustrates how con-tradictory Israel’s environmental agenda can be. The environment both in Israel and Palestine is directly threatened by IDF military activities. IDF sewage accounts for Israel's 50% of untreated sewage that contaminates natural resources in the region. Leakages of fuel and oil are also responsible for severe damages to the soil and ground water around many military bases both in the West Bank and Israel. Two of the most polluting military bases

as the construction of a “Security Barrier” to surround the Palestinian administered Areas of the West Bank, are a clear example of the inherent contradiction of Israeli policies. The Wall is in fact not only affecting Palestinian lives and their econ-omy, but has also interrupted “ecological corridors” necessary for animals to move freely in their environment.

This may seem irrelevant in the context of the ongoing occupation of Palestine, but it is a priority when it comes to the ter-ritories in the State of Israel. The govern-ment is planning to build a new highway to

Decades of political instability in the Middle East and the series of violent conflicts afflicting the region brought a tremendous human cost in terms of casualties and displacements of people. Wars and military interventions have also become a major obstacle to environmen-tal protection, and in general, security priorities have often overcome ecologi-cal concerns. In Israel, efforts to promote sustainability are often confronted with the detrimental effect that the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military enterprise have on nature. Military operations, such

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on Israeli territory are Ovida and Julis, in the Negev Desert. This region represents “one of the Jewish Nation’s safe havens”, as referred to by Israel’s first Prime Min-ister, David Ben-Gurion. The Negev has always represented the internal frontier of Israel and many interests are at stake in the area, competing for limited natural resources. Military expansion, economic development and demographic strate-gies represent the potential use that Israel could make of this desert land, most of the time to the disadvantage of the local Bedouin communities.

Image (pp. 60-61): A camel with Rahat on the background.Source: Romayan/Wikimedia.

Image (left): Modern dryland agriculture in the Negev. Source: Shai Kessel/Flickr.

Image (top): The separation wall at Qalandia checkpoint, West Bank. Source: Revolve.

Image (bottom): Rahat in the background. Source: Wilson44691/Wikimedia.

The Prawer-Begin plan will displace 40,000 Bedouin Arabs

from their homes.

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aim to bring more people (and soldiers) to southern Israel. New industrial and energy plants have been developed throughout the years to exploit the potential of the Negev and support the economic growth of the region. Economic development plans in the Negev have been accompanied by the construction of many hazardous infra-structures that include a nuclear reactor, 22 agro and petrochemical factories, an oil terminal, closed military zones, quarries, a toxic waste incinerator Ramat Hovav, cell towers, a power plant, several airports, a prison, and 2 rivers of open sewage. Most infrastructure projects have nega-tive impacts on the people living in the surrounding area, especially the Ramat incinerator that leaked hazardous mate-

entire ecosystem. The desert environment is also threatened by Israeli military pro-grams, such as the controversial nuclear facility in Dimona, or by the development of more military infrastructure.

An enormous military base is being planned in the desert. The facility will be an IDF training base for 10,000 army personnel and 2,500 civilian staff and, as Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Alfassy says: “it will make the third-largest city in the Negev after Be'er Sheva and Dimona”. This base is part of a plan to move much of the IDF’s operations from Tel Aviv and central Israel, and bring jobs and investment to the south. Today the Negev is already home to many of the IDF’s major bases and plans

The Negev, meaning “South” in bibli-cal Hebrew, extends from Be’er Sheva in the north to the port of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba in the south, with Jordan on its eastern border and Egypt on its southern border. 50% of this desert is firing zones, with the IDF practicing occasionally in an additional 20% overlap area in the Negev. Military activities have already disrupted the fragile desert ecosystem by compro-mising the top ground layer, a crust a few millimeters deep. This layer is made of a small part of fine soil and around 70% microscopic, photosynthesizing algae that regulates the water run offs, feeding the

The Negev

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rial into the ground. Miscarriages, cancer and other pollution-induced diseases are severely affecting the Jewish and Bedouin population living near the incinerator.

Despite the fact that mining operations, waste disposal and the army occupies more than half of the Negev, its value for Israelis seeking to expand within Israel’s borders is still unsurpassed. “The Negev is a mas-sive land reserve waiting to be developed,” states the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Ignoring the heavy usage of the land by the IDF and the large population of Bedouin in the northern Negev, JNF claims that the desert is “almost untouched.” Several non-governmental organizations that support this claim: Ayalim, which means "Gazelles",

Al-'Araqib is one of the many “unrec-ognized” Bedouin villages that has been destroyed several times in order to proceed with Israel’s developmental and expansion-ist plans in the desert. Between the 1950s and 1970s, the Israeli government dis-placed the Bedouin of the Naqab (Negev) Desert into a sliver of land less than 2% the size of their former range. The government built seven townships for the Bedouin, and simultaneously declared all existing Negev Bedouin villages to be illegal. Today, 70,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel born in one of these 45 “unrecognized” villages are threat-ened with further displacement.

From its inception in 1948, Israel classified all lands lacking a legal title, as “wastelands” or mawat, an Arabic term according to which the Ottomans classified “wastelands” as state property. Israel appropriated this clas-

sification, aware that hardly a single Bed-ouin village had legally registered its lands under the Ottomans. Thereafter, hardly any indigenous Bedouins received government approval to initiate significant agricultural activity. The Negev was declared state land in 1954 “as part of extensive expropriations that were implemented for development, settlement and security purposes.” As Bed-ouin agricultural lands were retroactively deemed illegal, successful Jewish home-steads were actively recognized. For the past six decades, the Israeli authorities have forcibly displaced or otherwise encouraged Arab Bedouin citizens to leave their historic villages to government-planned townships by withholding the basic services and rights guaranteed to all citizens. Consequently, their socio-economic and health indicators are the lowest in Israel. This strategy is con-tinuing today as part of the plans to popu-late the Negev. Human rights groups have been especially critical of the Prawer-Begin plan, which will forcibly uproot up to 40,000 Bedouin Arabs from their homes.

is one of a number of movements formed in recent years which aim to recapture what they see as the ideals and pioneering spirit of early Zionism. Dany Gliksberg of Ayalim says a Jewish majority in the Negev is essential to preserve the democratic nature of the state. Otherwise, he says, “we will be a minority ruling a majority of non-Jews.” Ben Gurion’s dream was to have 5 million Jews living and working in the Negev. But today they are still only about half a million, and the relative lack of jobs and services makes it hard to persuade more to move to the barren region. There have been several attempts to accommodate and promote new Jewish immigration in the Negev already during the 1980s, when “Operation Promised Land” was launched to accom-modate waves of Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union and Ethiopia.

The JNF Blueprint Negev campaign aims to bring half a million people to 25 new settle-

ments in the Negev, costing $600 million. Introduced in 2005, around the time of the Jewish settler evacuation and Israeli mili-tary withdrawal from Gaza, Blueprint Negev aims to establish a beachhead of 25 towns in southern Israel to become a symbol of national renewal, under the slogan: “It’s not a mirage; it’s a dream becoming a reality.” The JNF has put much effort into ‘green-ing’ the image of the Negev to encourage more Jewish immigration. One of the most controversial projects is the “Ambassador’s Forest” – a forest to be planted on the new ruins of al-‘Araqib Bedouin village. The Ambassador's Forest is just one of the tree plantation campaigns that Israel has car-ried out, but in this case the line between demolition, and greening, is blurred. Because the JNF is not the institution that directly slates Bedouin villages for demo-lition and because of the JNF's historical image as tree-planting organization, it has managed to evade concerted scrutiny.

The Naqab

Image: JNF trees in the Negev.

Source: David Shankbone/Wikimedia.

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and cultivated”. Land already expropriated is also not eligible for compensation. The Prawer Plan is intended to put an end, within five years, to “all of the activity surrounding the issue of the lands and to most of the efforts involved in the planning of settlement solutions, and even to a significant part of their implementation.”

Compensation in the form of land will not be granted, and no settlement will be planned west of Route 40, other than in the area of the northern Rahat triangle and the area of Bir Hadaj. The establishment of new settlements is contingent upon the “criteria of population density and continuity.”

In March 2012, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called on Israel to withdraw the proposed Prawer Plan law because it is discriminatory and would legalize the ongoing policy of house demolitions and the forced displacement of the indigenous Bedouin communities. Dr. Thabet Abu Ras, Director of Adalah’s Naqab Project, has been committed to the halt the Prawer Plan, given the negative impact on the Bedouin community and the fact that no Arab citizen of Israel has been consulted while preparing this policy. However, during the last discussion in the Knesset before the approval

On 11 September 2011, the Government of Israel approved a plan for the regulation of settlement of Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel in the “unrecognized villages” in the south-ern Naqab. The plan was prepared by a Committee headed by Mr. Ehud Prawer, for-mer deputy chairman of the National Secu-rity Council. The subsequent Prawer Plan is based on the still-pending master plan for Metropolitan Be’er Sheva (TMM 23/14/4) and is divided into two main components:

I. Resolving ownership claims and compen-sation for these claims with strict enforce-ment mechanisms and a 5-year timeline.

II. Planning arrangements for perma-nent Arab Bedouin settlement within a clearly demarcated region in the Naqab, based on the master plan for Metropolitan Be’er Sheva. The settle-ment plan will result in the displace-ment of 40,000 Arab Bedouin from their homes and villages.

The right to receive compensation will be based on ownership claims that were filed by Arab Bedouin in 1971. The proposed arrangement will not enable compensation for claims of ownership of grazing lands but will only apply to property the claimant “held

The Prawer Plan

of the plan, the Prawer Committee endorsed the proposed Prawer-Begin Law:

i ) To identify and limit the areas in the Naqab (Negev) to be used in the land compensation scheme with a clear and detailed map;

ii ) To reduce the timeframe for implemen-tation of the law from five to three years;

iii ) To appoint a government committee, likely chaired by Minister of Housing and Building Uri Ariel, to oversee the plan’s implementation.

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Sources:

Adalah, Adalah opposes Committee approval of Prawer-Begin Bill.Dr. Daniel Orenstein, JNF's Blueprint Negev: Paving Israel's Last Great Places.EU Parliament’s Middle East Working Group, Briefing Paper: Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel: An indigenous population in danger of forced displacement and dispossession of their ancestral lands.IRIN, Israeli Army Contamining Water.Israel Land Fund, the Negev.Jewish National Fund, Blueprint Negev.John Reed , Israel looks to fulfill desert dream with Negev military base.Nathan Jeffay, A JNF Drive To Make the Desert Bloom Means Destruction for a Bedouin Village.Rachel Bergstein, Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection: IDF bases pollute land and water.Rebecca Manski, An expose of JNF's role in the displacement of the Negev Bedouin.Tim Whewell BBC , Israeli push to fulfill desert dream unsettles Negev Bedouin.Vanessa O'Brie, Israeli army opens West Bank Barrier for animals.Zach Pontz, Israel Begins to Build Military Oasis in the Negev Desert.

On 24 June 2013, the Israeli Knesset approved the Prawer-Begin Bill, with 43 votes for and 40 votes against. Dr. Thabet Abu Ras and the tens of thousands of Bed-ouin will continue their struggle to oppose the implementation of this discriminatory policy. The only positive aspect in this pro-cess has been the solidarity of all Palestin-ians and Arab Israeli citizens in protesting against what appears to be the continuation of Israel’s policy of evicting Arabs to expro-priate what remains of Palestine.

Go to www.revolve-magazine.com to download our infographic.

Image (left+right): Agricultural fields in northern West Bank, Palestine, divided by the Israeli sepration fence.

Source: Revolve.

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THE NEW CAMOUFLAGEGreening the Military in Europe and Beyond

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Politicians, national governments, armies and their related industries are all playing a crucial role in greening the military at European and international levels. The negative impact of interventions on climate, the growing dependence on oil and gas, the high price of raw materials and the quest for secure energy supplies are good reasons to make the case for the military to go green.

Writer: Ophelie Martin is an independent contributor to Revolve.

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The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has 680 renewable

energy projects underway, encompass-ing all five branches of the U.S. Armed

Forces as part of President Barack Obama’s continuing effort to create a “green” military

sustainable by alternative energy sources. The projects include 357 solar, 289 solar thermal energy, 29 wind and five other undisclosed projects regarding “electricity generation,”

according to a DoD document. Source: The Blaze

As the energy transition gains momentum, the military needs to reduce its massive carbon and water footprints, particularly in relation to transport and consumption. The military in general needs to become more environmentally aware. Energy costs repre-sent a significant burden for defence bud-gets, and the international military industry must adopt a long-term vision for environ-mental protection. Both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-tion (NATO) seek to develop concrete plans to make the development and deployment of their defence apparatuses more sustainable.

In 2012 and 2013, on the initiative of the European Defence Agency (EDA), the EU’s military staff and other concerned Euro-pean and national agencies met to discuss the precise background of a roadmap for a more sustainable defence industry. The EDA came up with a vision for “greener”

European militaries called “Military Go Green” that builds on EU directives and legislation. The project is still in its early stage, and it will mainly depend on European Member States’ will-ingness to adopt a long-term and sustainable vision for their defence industries. The main objectives of a greener military involve new busi-ness models that make it attractive for all stakehold-ers such as suppli-ers and buyers to reduce their carbon and water footprints by introducing alternative fuels and integrating inno-vative technologies and renew-able energies for land installations.

Military Green

Aims

Material and Operations Life-Cycle Approach

Environmental Protection Concept

Legislation and EU Directives

SUSTAINABLE DEFENCE AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT THROUGH INCREASED ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSABILITY

Increase Safety & Survivability

Increase Operational Effectiveness

Optimise Through-Life Management

Transversal Focal Areas

Climate & Ecology

Education & Training

Policy & Strategy

Instruments

High Level Push Incentives Mechanisms Systems & Technology

Functional Focal Areas

Energy Water Waste

Materials Munitions

Reduce Through-Life Environmental Impact

Reduce Non-European Dependencies

Increasing Awareness

Reducing energy and water footprints

is imperative for armies to become more sustainable

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AIM Group International (Brussels Office)Tel.: +32 2 722 82 30Fax: +32 2 722 82 40E-mail: he2014@aimgroup.eu

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On a larger scale, NATO announced that making armies more energy smart was now a top priority. In May 2012, NATO launched the “Smart Energy Team”, whose purpose is to initiate multinational projects under NATO’s Smart Defence initiative. Comprising of Canada, Germany, Lithuania, the Nether-lands, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as Australia and Sweden, its objective is to raise awareness about the energy challenge, notably by identifying best practices among national projects “for the smart use of energy.”

Incentives for greening the military can be found at environmental, financial and politi-cal levels. In 2012, $1.75 trillion was spent on the world’s military, according to figures published by the Stockholm International

Peace Institute (SIPRI). Energy consump-tion’s costs are high, and the use of fossil fuels needs to be addressed as its negative impact on the environment is now widely recognized by the military. Greening proj-ects need to keep developing around the world at national levels, as is the case for some NATO countries. In Europe, the Italian Defence Forces are financing a project to certify the use of biofuel for the Navy which is compatible with their current equipment in order to reduce its dependence on oil. More precisely, the Italian Navy is currently testing new-generation biofuels made from non-food biomass such as algae, agricultural residues and general wastes. It is designed to be compatible with existing NATO naval fuel to avoid costly work to modify equip-ment and systems. Ultimately, the objective

is to develop a single fuel for use by all the armed forces. This is one example among others, as more and more countries are testing environmental-friendly technolo-gies. Such projects are multiplying across the globe, and that is why it is important for European Member States as well as NATO countries to share best practices in the field of sustainable defence. Another initiative launched by the National Research Coun-cil of Canada on fuel for the aviation sec-tor resulted in a major success: in October 2012, the world’s first flight by a civilian jet powered 100% by pure undiluted biofuels was accomplished. Across the Atlantic, the “European Advanced Biofuels Flight Path Initiative” aims to achieve an annual produc-tion of 2 million tons of sustainably produced biofuels for aviation by 2020.

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SPIDERS The January 2013 launch of the Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstra-tion for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS) was hailed as a mile-stone for the U.S. military-energy nexus when Hickam Air Force Base carried out the world’s first-ever test of a circuit-level micro-grid handling an input of 90% renewable energy. SPIDERS comprises smart, secure and resilient micro-grids designed to handle renewable energy input and to dramatically improve system efficiency. These grids are critical infra-structure for the U.S. military to “island” and thus protect its bases from cyber-attacks. SPIDERS is also crucial for civilian economies seeking the technological tools to go green. SPIDERS is just one element of the developing U.S. energy-military “greening” policy.

the more attractive the defence and crisis management

market becomes, the more projects will develop across the EU and beyond

Images (pp.68-69): Tidal turbine.Source : DCNS.

Image (left): TAN TAN, Morocco - Major Sean M. Sadlier (left) of the U.S. Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office explains the solar power element of the Expeditionary Forward Operating Base concept to Col. Anthony Fernandez during the testing phase of this sustainable energy initiative here May 19, 2013. The ExFOB is designed primarily for use by small Marine Corps units at forward operating bases in Afghanistan.Source : U.S. DoD / Paul Greenberg.

Image (below): Patrol Base Boldak, Helmand province, Afghanistan - Marines at Patrol Base Boldak, Helmand Province, Afghanistan install solar panels which help them reduce the number of fuel resupply convoys required to support the base.Source : U.S. DoD / Gayle Von Eckartsberg.

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voice regarding foreign policy and military matters. Thus, to establish an environment and energy strategy at the European level tailored for the defence and crisis manage-ment community might face various bar-riers, even though the European defence industry has much to gain from greening the military in Europe. The “Military Go Green” initiative may be a first step to a comprehensive approach for a closely inter-twined environment and defence strategy. Increasingly, armed forces around Europe and beyond will have to do their job while thinking of the environment. A comprehen-sive approach would therefore consider that

war zones and what they involve (transpor-tations, energy consumption) are subject to extreme conditions in terms of locations and dangers. The promotion of new tech-nologies enabling better optimization and management of energy, water and waste, and the development of new eco-friendly materials is the cornerstone of a sustainable strategy for European defence.

For more details on European ‘green’ defence efforts: www.eda.europa.eu

There is still an underlying question to be answered regarding the harmonization of a greener military at the European level: is the Common Foreign Security Policy (CSFP) for the European Union able to carry out and promote the greening of the military, at national and European levels? The CSFP aims to strengthen the EU’s external ability to act through the development of civilian and military capabilities for conflict pre-vention and crisis management, while the EDA assists Member States in their efforts to improve European defence capabilities in support of the CSFP. Member States encounter difficulties to speak with one

Towards Sustainable Defence

“The defense industry also is focusing on energy. Boeing supplies concentrator solar cell assemblies to an Australian

solar company. (After all, it has been powering satellites by solar for decades.) Lockheed Martin, which gets almost $3 billion in annual revenue from managing military nuclear programs,

provides engineering for solar power plants and has taken over administrative functions for utilities.”

– Joel Makower, Strategies for a Green Economy, McGraw Hill, 2009, p.156.

tive regarding the industry, thus promoting innovative products and services that will allow investors to take advantage of emerg-ing markets. Energy and the environment have obviously not been the core business of the defence industry, and stakeholders need the right incentives to get involved in the ‘greening’ process to be able to capture the business opportunities from the growing green market.

Indeed, the defence industry has much to gain by becoming more sustainable, includ-ing funding allocations for new projects, since defence’s eligibility to access struc-tural funds is unlikely to be successful in many cases, for example: Cohesion Policy

Funds (2007-2013) were !5,4 billion for energy efficiency; the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme (2007- 2013) allocated !735 million for soft energy efficiency and renewable projects, and the European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEE-F) allocated !265 million for investments into efficiency projects and !20 million for technical assis-tance. Those priorities are good reasons to think about the subsequent opportunities for reducing energy and water footprints at home and abroad: the more attractive the defence and crisis management market becomes, the more projects will develop across the EU and beyond.

The main objectives of the European “Mili-tary Green” roadmap are the optimization of energy, water and waste management as well as catalyzing developments for more eco-friendly materials and munitions. The strategy includes transversal issues such as the understanding of the impact on climate and ecology, notably by increasing aware-ness among stakeholders of the industry and to propose “tailored green policies and strategies.” As part of the EU Climate & Energy Package and the 2020 Strategy, the EU introduced the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) (Directive 2012/27/EU) that aims to promote measures for increasing energy efficiency. More broadly, the pack-age encompasses an important perspec-

Boosting incentives to go green

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76

Peace StreetA photo essay by Kabir Mokamel & Ayscha Hamdani.

Imagine a society that in a few decades only moved from Bauhaus to Baroque, or from a functioning society to an ornate construct, where functionality had to trade its place with complication and confusion – a clutter of imagery and messages. Imagine a naive society thrown into a post-modernist or dadaesque context, where meaning has long ceased to exist, and where anything can oppose everything. Imagine a place where people no longer believe in the power of dreams. If you understand this, then you are one step closer to understanding the current setting in which Afghanistan and many other conflict-affected societies exist today.

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number. The impact of this undertaking was instantaneous and the response overwhelming. Endless phone calls came in on a daily basis and led to the develop-ment of the “Make Art Not War” campaign that in turn led to the establishment of Peace Street.

During the rather short time frame that the billboards were on display people from all different backgrounds called, mainly to express support of the initiative and appre-ciation for the impact and benefit they received through the experience. People found it hard to believe that this work was

done by a committed group for the public. The billboards were up for 1 month show-ing 5 works of art in 10 different locations. During this time, Kabul Street received at least 300 phone calls, 10% from women.

Today, Peace Street has developed into an independent platform that mobilizes soci-eties to work towards positive social trans-formation. Through its work, Peace Street seeks to empower people to demand for their civil rights and to exercise their responsibilities towards the state, the society and the environment. Art has been identified as the agent of change for this

The idea for Peace Street was created in an environment dominated by fear and uncer-tainty as to what the future holds. A collec-tive of free-thinkers came together in late 2011 to define an alternative, non-violent and non-linear approach that would bring about peace and a culture of acceptance and coexistence to the violent and war-torn reality of societies across the world.

It all began with a simple trial when Peace Street (then called Kabul Street) placed images symbolizing transformation and positive thinking on billboards around the city of Kabul together with a contact

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initiative, given that it can be considered one of the most powerful tools in reaching into and opening up a person's imagina-tion and thereby transitioning a society from conflict to peace.

Created by people for people and with the ultimate aim of becoming a vehicle for change for people across the globe, Peace Street is currently engaging in a range of activities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Lebanon. As a consultative process set out to identify the most pressing issues that affect people within these respective societies is underway; simultaneously, and

in a very non-linear spirit, work is ongo-ing to establish a network, both within the region and on a global scale to synergize artistic and peace-building efforts. Peace Street believes that it is through the use of simple imagery derived from the universal language of symbols familiar to most soci-eties that people can connect emotionally in just a moment’s reflection and thereby transform their thinking towards what will establish a more peaceful society.

When people dream, imagine and believe that barriers will be torn down, social dis-crimination and division will be laid bare

and when instead, a culture of inclusion through which people come to under-stand that they are all equal. Peace Street, through unconventional ways such as art seeks to enable individual and collective participation in peace and the making of a better future.

For more information on how to participate:

E: energy@revolve-magazine.com T: +32 2 353 05 84

www.revolve-magazine.com

Brussels - Summer 2014

Following the success of the Visualizing Energy photo exhibition launched during the 2013 EU Sustainable Energy Week and seen by over 120,000 people throughout the summer in Brussels,

Revolve is proud to present the 2014 sequel: The Rise of Renewables.

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industries, companies and people that are shaping a more sustainable future.

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53520-1312-1007

Eco-BridgesCambrian EcoVolt

Greening the MilitaryIsrael’s Prawer Plan

N°10 | WINTER 2013/14

! 8 / £ 6,5