In today's class we talked about Integrated Community Sustainability Plans. During the course of the lecture, our prof started to describe some unique and interesting innovations that municipalities incorporated to reduce their impact and save money. That got me thinking about something I read on line (and watched on the Discovery Channel). It is about how a company decided to harness body heat generated in a subway. An engineering company will use this free body heat to heat a nearby building.
This is an example of sustainable infrastructure that involves sectors such as energy, transport and waste management. This plan demonstrates sustainability especially in the aspects of ecological, social and economic imperatives. By "recycling" this heat they are saving money in terms of heating costs and its it sustainable and environmentally friendly. Air in the subway needs to be refreshed as it is so removal of "used warm" air is replaced with fresh air.
Sustainable infrastructure eventually disseminates in a community but it needs an overarching plan in order to incorporate it into a community plan. This could be done using an integrated community sustainability plan, which brings together all aspects of a community in a way that they are communicating and working together for long term results. In the case of the subway body heat diversion plan, aspects of economic diversification and environmental stewardship are forming a partnership.
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