GoGreenNation news

Ultra-fast fashion is a disturbing trend undermining efforts to make the whole industry more sustainable

News Feed

Friday, March 15, 2024

New Africa, ShutterstockSince the 1990s, fast fashion has enabled everyday people to buy the latest catwalk trends. But the sheer volume of garments being whipped up, sold and soon discarded is contributing to a global sustainability crisis. Now, just when the fashion industry should be waking up and breaking free of this vicious cycle, it’s heading in the opposite direction. We’re on a downward spiral, from fast fashion to ultra-fast fashion. The amount of natural resources consumed and waste produced is snowballing. Ultra-fast fashion is marked by even faster production cycles, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it trends, and poor labour practices. Brands like Shein, Boohoo and Cider are liberated from the concept of seasonal collections. Instead they are producing garments at breakneck speeds and self-generating microtrends such as balletcore, Barbiecore and even mermaidcore. At the same time there is limited transparency or accountability around clothing supply chains. The overproduction and consumption of clothing cannot be allowed to continue. Without change, the industry will account for 26% of the world’s carbon budget for limiting global warming to 2°C by 2050. The fashion industry must take responsibility for its actions. Policymakers also have an important role to play in enabling the necessary shift towards a more responsible and circular fashion economy. And let’s not forget the power of consumers. The dark side of Shein’s success (China Tonight, ABC News) Read more: To make our wardrobes sustainable, we must cut how many new clothes we buy by 75% Cheap clothing at what cost? It was once thought the pandemic would trigger a transition to a more sustainable fashion industry. Unfortunately in reality the industry is getting worse, not better. Most ultra-fast fashion brands emerged in the late 2010s following the most well known, Shein, founded in 2008. These online, direct-to-consumer brands exploded in popularity during lockdowns, with Shein holding the title of the world’s most popular brand in 2020. Established brands such as Gap introduce 12,000 new items a year and H&M 25,000. But Shein leaves them in the dust, listing 1.3 million items in the same amount of time. How is this even possible? The ultra-fast fashion model thrives on data and addictive social media marketing to create insatiable consumer demand. But Shein’s incredibly low prices (its website has thousands of items under A$5) come at a human cost. The company’s own 2021 Sustainability and Social Impact Report (later removed from the site) found only 2% of its factories and warehouses met its own worker safety standards, with the rest requiring corrective action. The brand has also forgone in-house designers. Instead it works with independent suppliers who can design and manufacture a garment in two weeks. The result is an incredibly profitable business model. Shein filed for an initial public offering (IPO) last year to value the brand at US$136 billion, up from US$2.5 billion in 2018. How Shein Built a $66B Fast-Fashion Empire (WSJ) Shifting from fast to ultra-fast fashion has serious environmental and social consequences. This includes even more exploitative labour practices. Shein garment workers reportedly work 75-hour weeks and warehouses operate 24/7. Ignoring this shift isn’t just a fashion faux pas. Doing so jeopardises national efforts for a more sustainable fashion industry. Read more: Fast Fashion: Why garment workers' lives are still in danger 10 years after Rana Plaza — Podcast A seamless transition to sustainability The Australian Fashion Council is leading a national product stewardship scheme called Seamless that promises to transform the fashion industry by 2030. The idea is to bring fashion into the circular economy. Ultimately that means zero waste, but in the meantime raw materials would be kept in the supply chain for as long as possible by designing out and minimising waste. Members will contribute a four-cent levy for every clothing item they produce or import. These funds go into clothing collection, research, recycling projects and education campaigns. BIG W, David Jones, Lorna Jane, Rip Curl, R.M. Williams, THE ICONIC, Sussan Group and Cotton On are Seamless Foundation Members. Each has contributed A$100,000 to the development of the scheme. As one of the world’s first industry-led collective product stewardship initiatives for clothing textiles, Seamless presents a unique opportunity to drive change towards a more sustainable and circular fashion industry. But there is a risk ultra-fast fashion brands may act as freeriders in Seamless, benefiting from the investment and initiatives without making meaningful contributions. Shein and others will continue putting more and more product on the market, which will need to be dealt with at the end of its short life. But if they fail to commit to the scheme, they won’t be the ones paying for that. The government-funded consortium must also recognise ultra-fast fashion in tackling the industry’s environmental and social sustainability challenges. At the moment they’re only talking about fast fashion and ignoring the rise of ultra-fast fashion. Their global scan, for example, includes a discussion of fast fashion and no mention of ultra-fast fashion. This also points to a lack of data more broadly in the industry but in the case of Seamless, it could have a big impact if this growing market segment is ignored. Shein and Temu are estimated to earn a combined $2 billion in sales in 2024, with customers from all walks of life. Read more: Fast fashion's waste problem could be solved by recycled textiles but brands need to help boost production The critical crackdown Some brands are actively engaged and working towards a more sustainable future. But others such as Temu are learning from Shein and looking to emulate their business model. The transition to a more sustainable and responsible fashion industry requires a greater understanding of ultra-fast fashion, urgent systemic changes and collective efforts. The Institute for Sustainable Futures, where I work, is a founding member of an international academic research network aimed at tackling the complexities of ultra-fast fashion. That includes how ultra-fast fashion is affecting the livelihoods of garment workers, how it’s fuelling textile waste and underscoring the industry’s struggle to embrace circular economy principles. We’re also investigating how to reshape consumer behaviour, away from social media-fuelled hauls towards more sustainable consumption particularly among Gen-Z consumers. Last month, Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced a potential intervention, perhaps by introducing minimum environmental standards or a clothing levy by July. The clock is ticking. It is time to lay the foundation for a more sustainable and just fashion industry. Australia has a rich fashion history and is home to many leading local brands – many of whom have gone global. These brands show us what is possible when good design, sustainability and innovation drive an industry. Ultimately, our collective choices wield immense power. By understanding the consequences of our fashion habits and advocating for change, we can all be catalysts for a more sustainable and just fashion industry. Taylor Brydges is an Advisor to the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence, which has provided mentorship to Seamless.

We know fast fashion is bad for the environment. Ultra-fast fashion makes matters worse. This disturbing trend towards disposable clothing is the opposite of sustainable. Here’s what must be done.

Since the 1990s, fast fashion has enabled everyday people to buy the latest catwalk trends. But the sheer volume of garments being whipped up, sold and soon discarded is contributing to a global sustainability crisis.

Now, just when the fashion industry should be waking up and breaking free of this vicious cycle, it’s heading in the opposite direction. We’re on a downward spiral, from fast fashion to ultra-fast fashion. The amount of natural resources consumed and waste produced is snowballing.

Ultra-fast fashion is marked by even faster production cycles, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it trends, and poor labour practices. Brands like Shein, Boohoo and Cider are liberated from the concept of seasonal collections. Instead they are producing garments at breakneck speeds and self-generating microtrends such as balletcore, Barbiecore and even mermaidcore. At the same time there is limited transparency or accountability around clothing supply chains.

The overproduction and consumption of clothing cannot be allowed to continue. Without change, the industry will account for 26% of the world’s carbon budget for limiting global warming to 2°C by 2050. The fashion industry must take responsibility for its actions. Policymakers also have an important role to play in enabling the necessary shift towards a more responsible and circular fashion economy. And let’s not forget the power of consumers.

The dark side of Shein’s success (China Tonight, ABC News)

Cheap clothing at what cost?

It was once thought the pandemic would trigger a transition to a more sustainable fashion industry. Unfortunately in reality the industry is getting worse, not better.

Most ultra-fast fashion brands emerged in the late 2010s following the most well known, Shein, founded in 2008. These online, direct-to-consumer brands exploded in popularity during lockdowns, with Shein holding the title of the world’s most popular brand in 2020.

Established brands such as Gap introduce 12,000 new items a year and H&M 25,000. But Shein leaves them in the dust, listing 1.3 million items in the same amount of time. How is this even possible?

The ultra-fast fashion model thrives on data and addictive social media marketing to create insatiable consumer demand.

But Shein’s incredibly low prices (its website has thousands of items under A$5) come at a human cost. The company’s own 2021 Sustainability and Social Impact Report (later removed from the site) found only 2% of its factories and warehouses met its own worker safety standards, with the rest requiring corrective action.

The brand has also forgone in-house designers. Instead it works with independent suppliers who can design and manufacture a garment in two weeks.

The result is an incredibly profitable business model. Shein filed for an initial public offering (IPO) last year to value the brand at US$136 billion, up from US$2.5 billion in 2018.

How Shein Built a $66B Fast-Fashion Empire (WSJ)

Shifting from fast to ultra-fast fashion has serious environmental and social consequences. This includes even more exploitative labour practices. Shein garment workers reportedly work 75-hour weeks and warehouses operate 24/7.

Ignoring this shift isn’t just a fashion faux pas. Doing so jeopardises national efforts for a more sustainable fashion industry.

A seamless transition to sustainability

The Australian Fashion Council is leading a national product stewardship scheme called Seamless that promises to transform the fashion industry by 2030.

The idea is to bring fashion into the circular economy. Ultimately that means zero waste, but in the meantime raw materials would be kept in the supply chain for as long as possible by designing out and minimising waste.

Members will contribute a four-cent levy for every clothing item they produce or import.

These funds go into clothing collection, research, recycling projects and education campaigns.

BIG W, David Jones, Lorna Jane, Rip Curl, R.M. Williams, THE ICONIC, Sussan Group and Cotton On are Seamless Foundation Members. Each has contributed A$100,000 to the development of the scheme.

As one of the world’s first industry-led collective product stewardship initiatives for clothing textiles, Seamless presents a unique opportunity to drive change towards a more sustainable and circular fashion industry.

But there is a risk ultra-fast fashion brands may act as freeriders in Seamless, benefiting from the investment and initiatives without making meaningful contributions. Shein and others will continue putting more and more product on the market, which will need to be dealt with at the end of its short life. But if they fail to commit to the scheme, they won’t be the ones paying for that.

The government-funded consortium must also recognise ultra-fast fashion in tackling the industry’s environmental and social sustainability challenges. At the moment they’re only talking about fast fashion and ignoring the rise of ultra-fast fashion. Their global scan, for example, includes a discussion of fast fashion and no mention of ultra-fast fashion.

This also points to a lack of data more broadly in the industry but in the case of Seamless, it could have a big impact if this growing market segment is ignored.

Shein and Temu are estimated to earn a combined $2 billion in sales in 2024, with customers from all walks of life.

The critical crackdown

Some brands are actively engaged and working towards a more sustainable future. But others such as Temu are learning from Shein and looking to emulate their business model.

The transition to a more sustainable and responsible fashion industry requires a greater understanding of ultra-fast fashion, urgent systemic changes and collective efforts.

The Institute for Sustainable Futures, where I work, is a founding member of an international academic research network aimed at tackling the complexities of ultra-fast fashion. That includes how ultra-fast fashion is affecting the livelihoods of garment workers, how it’s fuelling textile waste and underscoring the industry’s struggle to embrace circular economy principles. We’re also investigating how to reshape consumer behaviour, away from social media-fuelled hauls towards more sustainable consumption particularly among Gen-Z consumers.

Last month, Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced a potential intervention, perhaps by introducing minimum environmental standards or a clothing levy by July.

The clock is ticking. It is time to lay the foundation for a more sustainable and just fashion industry. Australia has a rich fashion history and is home to many leading local brands – many of whom have gone global. These brands show us what is possible when good design, sustainability and innovation drive an industry.

Ultimately, our collective choices wield immense power. By understanding the consequences of our fashion habits and advocating for change, we can all be catalysts for a more sustainable and just fashion industry.

Taylor Brydges is an Advisor to the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence, which has provided mentorship to Seamless.

Read the full story here.

Photos courtesy of

Related News

Barclays accused of greenwashing over financing for Italian oil company

Exclusive: Environmental groups say bank is misleading public over ‘sustainable’ financing for Eni as company vastly expands fossil fuel productionBarclays is being accused by environmental groups of greenwashing after helping to arrange €4bn (£3.4bn) in financing for the Italian oil company Eni in a way that allows them to qualify towards its $1tn sustainable financing goal.Environmental groups have said the London-based bank is deliberately misleading the public by labelling the financial instruments as “sustainable” at the same time that Eni is in the midst of a multibillion-pound fossil fuel expansion drive designed to increase production. Continue reading...

Barclays is being accused by environmental groups of greenwashing after helping to arrange €4bn (£3.4bn) in financing for the Italian oil company Eni in a way that allows them to qualify towards its $1tn sustainable financing goal.Environmental groups have said the London-based bank is deliberately misleading the public by labelling the financial instruments as “sustainable” at the same time that Eni is in the midst of a multibillion-pound fossil fuel expansion drive designed to increase production.An investigation by the journalism organisation Point Source has revealed that the deals for a revolving credit line were completed last year, months after the Milan-based company announced it intended to increase its spending on the production of oil and gas by at least a third over four years, investing between €24bn and €26bn.In February 2023, Eni said it was aiming to increase its production of oil and gas by between 12.6% and 17% over the four-year period to the end of 2026.Eni’s oil and gas expansion plans include a project to develop the Verus gas field, which could emit 7.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and has been described as a “carbon bomb” by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.Owing to its expansion plans, Eni’s production in 2030 is projected to be 35% higher than that required to align with the International Energy Agency’s net zero emissions by 2050 scenario, according to the campaign group Reclaim Finance. Eni says it still aims to achieve net zero by 2050.The financing Barclays helped Eni raise includes a sustainability-linked bond (SLB) worth €1bn and a revolving sustainability-linked loan (SLL) worth €3bn.While there is nothing in the terms of these financial instruments to prevent Eni from using the funds raised to develop oil and gas projects, including the Verus gas field, Barclays says the financing qualifies to be counted towards its 2030 sustainability target because the interest rates have been linked to emissions goals.However, environmental groups and financial experts say the goals in the contracts, which exclude scope 3 emissions, are unambitious and incompatible with the internationally agreed target to limit any rise in global temperature to 1.5C above preindustrial levels.Scope 1 emissions come from sources that an organisation owns or controls directly, while scope 2 emissions are caused indirectly and come from where the energy it uses is produced. Scope 3 emissions include all other indirect sources in the value chain of an organisation that are not within scope 1 and 2.The exclusion of scope 3 emissions in the targets has been criticised because the majority of Eni’s emissions, such as those from burning the oil and gas it produces, are considered scope 3.Jo Richardson, the head of research at the non-profit research organisation Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute, said: “There are a lot of sustainability-linked financial products that are not effective – and these are two classic examples.“To see a really effective sustainability structure in the oil and gas sector you would need to see a company with a clear and committed plan to reducing scope 3 emissions.”Lucie Pinson, the founder and director of Reclaim Finance, said: “Issuing an SLL like this is an easy way for Eni to raise money without having to make a significant climate effort or change anything about its business. It also allows banks who have pledged net zero to keep financing the worst climate offenders while pretending to support their transition.”In June last year, the Financial Conduct Authority sent a letter to financial institutions warning of “the possibility of potential risks to market integrity and suspicion of greenwashing in the context of SLLs”.It said it was concerned about “weak incentives, potential conflicts of interest, and suggestions of low ambition and poor design”.In February this year, Barclays announced that it would no longer provide direct funding for new oil and gas projects. However, financing in the form of SLBs and SLLs could continue for companies that are developing new oil and gas fields because the bank does not consider this to be “direct” project financing.Huw Davies, senior finance adviser at the campaign group Make My Money Matter, said: “Not only are the UK’s largest banks [continuing to help] finance companies that are expanding oil and gas production, but this shows they’re doing so under the pretence of so-called ‘sustainable’ finance.“Barclays’ decision to provide billions in corporate finance to Eni – a company which continues to develop new oil and gas – is enabling fossil fuel expansion, and contradicting their claims to be serious about sustainability.”When contacted by the Guardian, Barclays declined to comment.In a statement, Eni said it chose the targets in its sustainability-linked financial instruments “tailored to their maturity range” and because of this “it was not possible to use a scope 3 target”.It added: “Eni has built a business model that puts sustainability at the centre of every business activity, including financial strategy.“The development of the Verus project is consistent with Eni’s objective of achieving scope 1 and 2 carbon neutrality in all its businesses by 2035 … In particular, the development of Verus would include the use of capture and storage of CO2 to supply decarbonised energy in line with Eni’s objectives.”Barclays was a lead arranger in the $3bn sustainability-linked revolving credit facility that was provided to Eni by 26 global financial institutions including Italy-based Mediobanca Group, New York-based Citi, and France’s Natixis.The SLL has a time period of five years and its sustainability targets relate to the installed capacity for the production of electricity from renewable sources as well as emissions goals.Barclays was one of three banks that structured the $1bn SLB for Eni. The other banks involved were Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. All banks declined to comment.

Sustainable

Business

CO2

How a New 3D Printer Automatically Masters Diverse Sustainable Materials

The advance could help make 3D printing more sustainable, enabling printing with renewable or recyclable materials that are difficult to characterize. While 3D printing has...

Researchers developed a 3D printer that can automatically identify the parameters of an unknown material on its own. The advance could help make 3D printing more sustainable, enabling printing with renewable or recyclable materials that are difficult to characterize. Credit: Courtesy of the researchersThe advance could help make 3D printing more sustainable, enabling printing with renewable or recyclable materials that are difficult to characterize.While 3D printing has exploded in popularity, many of the plastic materials these printers use to create objects cannot be easily recycled. While new sustainable materials are emerging for use in 3D printing, they remain difficult to adopt because 3D printer settings need to be adjusted for each material, a process generally done by hand.To print a new material from scratch, one must typically set up to 100 parameters in software that controls how the printer will extrude the material as it fabricates an object. Commonly used materials, like mass-manufactured polymers, have established sets of parameters that were perfected through tedious, trial-and-error processes. But the properties of renewable and recyclable materials can fluctuate widely based on their composition, so fixed parameter sets are nearly impossible to create. In this case, users must come up with all these parameters by hand.This diagram shows the components of the instrumented extruder the researchers designed and built for a fused-filament fabrication 3D printer. The instruments they added to the extruder, including a feed rate sensor and load cell, take measurements which are used to calculate the parameters of a material. Credit: Courtesy of the researchersInnovative Solutions in 3D Printing TechnologyResearchers tackled this problem by developing a 3D printer that can automatically identify the parameters of an unknown material on its own.A collaborative team from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Center for Scientific Research in Greece (Demokritos) modified the extruder, the “heart” of a 3D printer, so it can measure the forces and flow of a material.These data, gathered through a 20-minute test, are fed into a mathematical function that is used to automatically generate printing parameters. These parameters can be entered into off-the-shelf 3D printing software and used to print with a never-before-seen material.The researchers demonstrated their process by producing print parameters for six unique machine and material configurations, and then printing the different models shown here. Credit: Courtesy of the researchersAutomating Parameter SettingsThe automatically generated parameters can replace about half of the parameters that typically must be tuned by hand. In a series of test prints with unique materials, including several renewable materials, the researchers showed that their method can consistently produce viable parameters.This research could help to reduce the environmental impact of additive manufacturing, which typically relies on nonrecyclable polymers and resins derived from fossil fuels.“In this paper, we demonstrate a method that can take all these interesting materials that are bio-based and made from various sustainable sources and show that the printer can figure out by itself how to print those materials. The goal is to make 3D printing more sustainable,” says senior author Neil Gershenfeld, who leads CBA.His co-authors include first author Jake Read a graduate student in the CBA who led the printer development; Jonathan Seppala, a chemical engineer in the Materials Science and Engineering Division of NIST; Filippos Tourlomousis, a former CBA postdoc who now heads the Autonomous Science Lab at Demokritos; James Warren, who leads the Materials Genome Program at NIST; and Nicole Bakker, a research assistant at CBA. The research is published in the journal Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation.Shifting Material PropertiesIn fused filament fabrication (FFF), which is often used in rapid prototyping, molten polymers are extruded through a heated nozzle layer-by-layer to build a part. Software, called a slicer, provides instructions to the machine, but the slicer must be configured to work with a particular material.Using renewable or recycled materials in an FFF 3D printer is especially challenging because there are so many variables that affect the material properties.For instance, a bio-based polymer or resin might be composed of different mixes of plants based on the season. The properties of recycled materials also vary widely based on what is available to recycle.“In ‘Back to the Future,’ there is a ‘Mr. Fusion’ blender where Doc just throws whatever he has into the blender and it works [as a power source for the DeLorean time machine]. That is the same idea here. Ideally, with plastics recycling, you could just shred what you have and print with it. But, with current feed-forward systems, that won’t work because if your filament changes significantly during the print, everything would break,” Read says.To overcome these challenges, the researchers developed a 3D printer and workflow to automatically identify viable process parameters for any unknown material.They started with a 3D printer their lab had previously developed that can capture data and provide feedback as it operates. The researchers added three instruments to the machine’s extruder that take measurements which are used to calculate parameters.A load cell measures the pressure being exerted on the printing filament, while a feed rate sensor measures the thickness of the filament and the actual rate at which it is being fed through the printer.“This fusion of measurement, modeling, and manufacturing is at the heart of the collaboration between NIST and CBA, as we work develop what we’ve termed ‘computational metrology,’” says Warren.These measurements can be used to calculate the two most important, yet difficult to determine, printing parameters: flow rate and temperature. Nearly half of all print settings in standard software are related to these two parameters.Deriving a DatasetOnce they had the new instruments in place, the researchers developed a 20-minute test that generates a series of temperature and pressure readings at different flow rates. Essentially, the test involves setting the print nozzle at its hottest temperature, flowing the material through at a fixed rate, and then turning the heater off.“It was really difficult to figure out how to make that test work. Trying to find the limits of the extruder means that you are going to break the extruder pretty often while you are testing it. The notion of turning the heater off and just passively taking measurements was the ‘aha’ moment,” says Read.These data are entered into a function that automatically generates real parameters for the material and machine configuration, based on relative temperature and pressure inputs. The user can then enter those parameters into 3D printing software and generate instructions for the printer.In experiments with six different materials, several of which were bio-based, the method automatically generated viable parameters that consistently led to successful prints of a complex object.Moving forward, the researchers plan to integrate this process with 3D printing software so parameters don’t need to be entered manually. In addition, they want to enhance their workflow by incorporating a thermodynamic model of the hot end, which is the part of the printer that melts the filament.This collaboration is now more broadly developing computational metrology, in which the output of a measurement is a predictive model rather than just a parameter. The researchers will be applying this in other areas of advanced manufacturing, as well as in expanding access to metrology.“By developing a new method for the automatic generation of process parameters for fused filament fabrication, this study opens the door to the use of recycled and bio-based filaments that have variable and unknown behaviors. Importantly, this enhances the potential for digital manufacturing technology to utilize locally sourced sustainable materials,” says Alysia Garmulewicz, an associate professor in the Faculty of Administration and Economics at the University of Santiago in Chile who was not involved with this work.Reference: “Online Measurement for Parameter Discovery in Fused Filament Fabrication” by Jake Robert Read, Jonathan E. Seppala, Filippos Tourlomousis, James A. Warren, Nicole Bakker and Neil Gershenfeld, 3 April 2024, Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation.DOI: 10.1007/s40192-024-00350-wThis research is supported, in part, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Center for Bits and Atoms Consortia.

Sustainable

Chemicals

Technology

AI Transforms Oil Field Operations With Predictive Analytics

Amplified Industries, founded by Sebastien Mannai, helps oil field operators eliminate spills and stop methane leaks. There is a staggeringly long list of things that...

Amplified Industries’ sensors and analytics give oil well operators real-time alerts when things go wrong, allowing them to respond to issues before they become disasters. Credit: MIT News, iStockAmplified Industries, founded by Sebastien Mannai, helps oil field operators eliminate spills and stop methane leaks.There is a staggeringly long list of things that can go wrong during the complex operation of an oil field.One of the most common problems is spills of the salty brine which is a toxic byproduct of pumping oil. Another is over- or under-pumping which can lead to machine failure and methane leaks. (The oil and gas industry is the largest industrial emitter of methane in the U.S.) Then there are extreme weather events, which range from winter frosts to blazing heat, that can put equipment out of commission for months. One of the wildest problems Sebastien Mannai SM ’14, PhD ’18 has encountered are hogs that pop open oil tanks with their snouts to enjoy on-demand oil baths. Innovations by Amplified IndustriesMannai helps oil field owners detect and respond to these problems while optimizing the operation of their machinery to prevent the issues from occurring in the first place. He is the founder and CEO of Amplified Industries, a company selling oil field monitoring and control tools that help make the industry more efficient and sustainable.Amplified Industries’ sensors and analytics give oil well operators real-time alerts when things go wrong, allowing them to respond to issues before they become disasters.“We’re able to find 99 percent of the issues affecting these machines, from mechanical failures to human errors, including issues happening thousands of feet underground,” Mannai explains. “With our AI solution, operators can put the wells on autopilot, and the system automatically adjusts or shuts the well down as soon as there’s an issue.”Addressing Regulatory ChallengesAmplified currently works with private companies in states spanning from Texas to Wyoming, that own and operate as many as 3,000 wells. Such companies make up the majority of oil well operators in the U.S. and operate both new and older, more failure-prone equipment that has been in the field for decades.Such operators also have a harder time responding to environmental regulations like the Environmental Protection Agency’s new methane guidelines, which seek to dramatically reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas in the industry over the next few years.“These operators don’t want to be releasing methane,” Mannai explains. “Additionally, when gas gets into the pumping equipment, it leads to premature failures. We can detect gas and slow the pump down to prevent it. It’s the best of both worlds: The operators benefit because their machines are working better, saving them money while also giving them a smaller environmental footprint with fewer spills and methane leaks.”Leveraging “Every MIT Resource I Possibly Could”Mannai learned about the cutting-edge technology used in the space and aviation industries as he pursued his master’s degree at the Gas Turbine Laboratory in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Then, during his PhD at MIT, he worked with an oil services company and discovered the oil and gas industry was still relying on decades-old technologies and equipment.“When I first traveled to the field, I could not believe how old-school the actual operations were,” says Mannai, who has previously worked in rocket engine and turbine factories. “A lot of oil wells have to be adjusted by feel and rules of thumb. The operators have been let down by industrial automation and data companies.”Monitoring oil wells for problems typically requires someone in a pickup truck to drive hundreds of miles between wells looking for obvious issues, Mannai says. The sensors that are deployed are expensive and difficult to replace. Over time, they’re also often damaged in the field to the point of being unusable, forcing technicians to make educated guesses about the status of each well.“We often see that equipment unplugged or programmed incorrectly because it is incredibly over-complicated and ill-designed for the reality of the field,” Mannai says. “Workers on the ground often have to rip it out and bypass the control system to pump by hand. That’s how you end up with so many spills and wells pumping at suboptimal levels.”To build a better oil field monitoring system, Mannai received support from the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund and the Venture Mentoring Service (VMS). He also participated in the delta V summer accelerator at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, the fuse program during IAP, and the MIT I-Corps program, and took a number of classes at the MIT Sloan School of Management. In 2019, Amplified Industries — which operated under the name Acoustic Wells until recently — won the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship competition.“My approach was to sign up to every possible entrepreneurship-related program and to leverage every MIT resource I possibly could,” Mannai says. “MIT was amazing for us.”Mannai officially launched the company after his postdoc at MIT, and Amplified raised its first round of funding in early 2020. That year, Amplified’s small team moved into the Greentown Labs startup incubator in Somerville.Mannai says building the company’s battery-powered, low-cost sensors was a huge challenge. The sensors run machine-learning inference models and their batteries last for 10 years. They also had to be able to handle extreme conditions, from the scorching hot New Mexico desert to the swamps of Louisiana and the freezing cold winters in North Dakota.“We build very rugged, resilient hardware; it’s a must in those environments,” Mannai says. “But it’s also very simple to deploy, so if a device does break, it’s like changing a lightbulb: We ship them a new one and it takes them a couple of minutes to swap it out.”Customers equip each well with four or five of Amplified’s sensors, which attach to the well’s cables and pipes to measure variables like tension, pressure, and amps. Vast amounts of data are then sent to Amplified’s cloud and processed by their analytics engine. Signal processing methods and AI models are used to diagnose problems and control the equipment in real-time, while generating notifications for the operators when something goes wrong. Operators can then remotely adjust the well or shut it down.“That’s where AI is important, because if you just record everything and put it in a giant dashboard, you create way more work for people,” Mannai says. “The critical part is the ability to process and understand this newly recorded data and make it readily usable in the real world.”Amplified’s dashboard is customized for different people in the company, so field technicians can quickly respond to problems and managers or owners can get a high-level view of how everything is running.Mannai says often when Amplified’s sensors are installed, they’ll immediately start detecting problems that were unknown to engineers and technicians in the field. To date, Amplified has prevented hundreds of thousands of gallons worth of brine water spills, which are particularly damaging to surrounding vegetation because of their high salt and sulfur content.Preventing those spills is only part of Amplified’s positive environmental impact; the company is now turning its attention toward the detection of methane leaks.Helping a Changing IndustryThe EPA’s proposed new Waste Emissions Charge for oil and gas companies would start at $900 per metric ton of reported methane emissions in 2024 and increase to $1,500 per metric ton in 2026 and beyond.Mannai says Amplified is well-positioned to help companies comply with the new rules. Its equipment has already showed it can detect various kinds of leaks across the field, purely based on analytics of existing data.“Detecting methane leaks typically requires someone to walk around every valve and piece of piping with a thermal camera or sniffer, but these operators often have thousands of valves and hundreds of miles of pipes,” Mannai says. “What we see in the field is that a lot of times people don’t know where the pipes are because oil wells change owners so frequently, or they will miss an intermittent leak.”Ultimately Mannai believes a strong data backend and modernized sensing equipment will become the backbone of the industry, and is a necessary prerequisite to both improving efficiency and cleaning up the industry.“We’re selling a service that ensures your equipment is working optimally all the time,” Mannai says. “That means a lot fewer fines from the EPA, but it also means better-performing equipment. There’s a mindset change happening across the industry, and we’re helping make that transition as easy and affordable as possible.”

Sustainable

Technology

Waste

This 3D printer can figure out how to print with an unknown material

The advance could help make 3D printing more sustainable, enabling printing with renewable or recyclable materials that are difficult to characterize.

While 3D printing has exploded in popularity, many of the plastic materials these printers use to create objects cannot be easily recycled. While new sustainable materials are emerging for use in 3D printing, they remain difficult to adopt because 3D printer settings need to be adjusted for each material, a process generally done by hand. To print a new material from scratch, one must typically set up to 100 parameters in software that controls how the printer will extrude the material as it fabricates an object. Commonly used materials, like mass-manufactured polymers, have established sets of parameters that were perfected through tedious, trial-and-error processes. But the properties of renewable and recyclable materials can fluctuate widely based on their composition, so fixed parameter sets are nearly impossible to create. In this case, users must come up with all these parameters by hand. Researchers tackled this problem by developing a 3D printer that can automatically identify the parameters of an unknown material on its own. A collaborative team from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Center for Scientific Research in Greece (Demokritos) modified the extruder, the “heart” of a 3D printer, so it can measure the forces and flow of a material. These data, gathered through a 20-minute test, are fed into a mathematical function that is used to automatically generate printing parameters. These parameters can be entered into off-the-shelf 3D printing software and used to print with a never-before-seen material. The automatically generated parameters can replace about half of the parameters that typically must be tuned by hand. In a series of test prints with unique materials, including several renewable materials, the researchers showed that their method can consistently produce viable parameters. This research could help to reduce the environmental impact of additive manufacturing, which typically relies on nonrecyclable polymers and resins derived from fossil fuels. “In this paper, we demonstrate a method that can take all these interesting materials that are bio-based and made from various sustainable sources and show that the printer can figure out by itself how to print those materials. The goal is to make 3D printing more sustainable,” says senior author Neil Gershenfeld, who leads CBA. His co-authors include first author Jake Read a graduate student in the CBA who led the printer development; Jonathan Seppala, a chemical engineer in the Materials Science and Engineering Division of NIST; Filippos Tourlomousis, a former CBA postdoc who now heads the Autonomous Science Lab at Demokritos; James Warren, who leads the Materials Genome Program at NIST; and Nicole Bakker, a research assistant at CBA. The research is published in the journal Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation. Shifting material properties In fused filament fabrication (FFF), which is often used in rapid prototyping, molten polymers are extruded through a heated nozzle layer-by-layer to build a part. Software, called a slicer, provides instructions to the machine, but the slicer must be configured to work with a particular material. Using renewable or recycled materials in an FFF 3D printer is especially challenging because there are so many variables that affect the material properties. For instance, a bio-based polymer or resin might be composed of different mixes of plants based on the season. The properties of recycled materials also vary widely based on what is available to recycle. “In ‘Back to the Future,’ there is a ‘Mr. Fusion’ blender where Doc just throws whatever he has into the blender and it works [as a power source for the DeLorean time machine]. That is the same idea here. Ideally, with plastics recycling, you could just shred what you have and print with it. But, with current feed-forward systems, that won’t work because if your filament changes significantly during the print, everything would break,” Read says. To overcome these challenges, the researchers developed a 3D printer and workflow to automatically identify viable process parameters for any unknown material. They started with a 3D printer their lab had previously developed that can capture data and provide feedback as it operates. The researchers added three instruments to the machine’s extruder that take measurements which are used to calculate parameters. A load cell measures the pressure being exerted on the printing filament, while a feed rate sensor measures the thickness of the filament and the actual rate at which it is being fed through the printer. “This fusion of measurement, modeling, and manufacturing is at the heart of the collaboration between NIST and CBA, as we work develop what we’ve termed ‘computational metrology,’” says Warren. These measurements can be used to calculate the two most important, yet difficult to determine, printing parameters: flow rate and temperature. Nearly half of all print settings in standard software are related to these two parameters. Deriving a dataset Once they had the new instruments in place, the researchers developed a 20-minute test that generates a series of temperature and pressure readings at different flow rates. Essentially, the test involves setting the print nozzle at its hottest temperature, flowing the material through at a fixed rate, and then turning the heater off. “It was really difficult to figure out how to make that test work. Trying to find the limits of the extruder means that you are going to break the extruder pretty often while you are testing it. The notion of turning the heater off and just passively taking measurements was the ‘aha’ moment,” says Read. These data are entered into a function that automatically generates real parameters for the material and machine configuration, based on relative temperature and pressure inputs. The user can then enter those parameters into 3D printing software and generate instructions for the printer. In experiments with six different materials, several of which were bio-based, the method automatically generated viable parameters that consistently led to successful prints of a complex object. Moving forward, the researchers plan to integrate this process with 3D printing software so parameters don’t need to be entered manually. In addition, they want to enhance their workflow by incorporating a thermodynamic model of the hot end, which is the part of the printer that melts the filament. This collaboration is now more broadly developing computational metrology, in which the output of a measurement is a predictive model rather than just a parameter. The researchers will be applying this in other areas of advanced manufacturing, as well as in expanding access to metrology. “By developing a new method for the automatic generation of process parameters for fused filament fabrication, this study opens the door to the use of recycled and bio-based filaments that have variable and unknown behaviors. Importantly, this enhances the potential for digital manufacturing technology to utilize locally sourced sustainable materials,” says Alysia Garmulewicz, an associate professor in the Faculty of Administration and Economics at the University of Santiago in Chile who was not involved with this work. This research is supported, in part, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Center for Bits and Atoms Consortia.

Sustainable

Chemicals

Technology

Monteverde Leads the Way in Sustainable Waste Management

Monteverde ranks among the most popular destinations in the country, attracting over 200,000 tourists annually due to its robust conservation efforts. In response to the large number of people who visit, Monteverde is starting a project aimed at gathering and processing organic waste, particularly leftover food from restaurants, with the aim of utilizing it to enhance the local ecosystem. The project involves the Association for the Administration of Community Water and Sewage Systems (ASADA) of Santa Elena, Monteverde, which collects more than six tons of waste per week from 100 businesses and transports it to a processing plant to produce organic fertilizer. In this region, 450 tons of organic waste are produced annually, of which 333 tons are composted and returned to the environment. According to the Directorate of Radiological Protection and Environmental Health of the Ministry of Health, composting organic waste in the country increased as a method for recycling organic waste, going from 4,700 tons of waste in 2018 to 42,580 in 2020. The compost is sold in sacks to businesses and individuals for the maintenance of their gardens and green spaces, and as a complement, native trees from the area are given as gifts for the conservation of the forest. This also ensures the project is self-sufficient and provides income to families. At the same time it addresses an initial problem that was the contamination of Monteverde’s watersheds, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint, maintaining a cleaner Monteverde. The ASADA in the area incorporates the businesses that participate in the waste collection program into the water bill, thus simplifying the project’s contribution procedures. There is currently a large waiting list of businesses looking to join this project that positively impacts social and environmental wellbeing, and which is gradually growing to meet the needs of the entire community. ASADA and the Monteverde Municipal Council are leading a macro-project called the Monteverde Environmental Technology Park (PTAM), which will include a Wastewater Treatment Plant, a Solid Waste Transfer Center, and a Productive Treatment Plant to transform various organic wastes into value-added products. “Composting on a large scale generates benefits for an entire community. However, people can also implement it at home to responsibly dispose of their organic waste and in this way we all contribute to the environment,” said Aura Sandí, administrator of ASADA Santa Elena, Monteverde. The post Monteverde Leads the Way in Sustainable Waste Management appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Sustainable

Waste

Food

Suggested Viewing

Sashiko as Cultural Sustainability

When we talk about Sustainability, we tend to focus on the sustainable solutions based on physical resources. However, very frequently we overlook a key part for creating a successful sustainable society: Cultural Sustainability.

Culture

Sustainable

Solutions

Wake Up People!

Environmental activists have been camping in Sodros for more than four months with the purpose of stopping the trees from being cut down. In the past few days Chinese company CRBC workers have been showing up at the site accompanied by the police and gendarmerie forces. The activists have been requesting to see the permits and the documentation for the work they are planning to conduct from the CRBC workers. The CRBC workers haven’t shown any of the permits. Also, the work has begun without a construction board being clearly visible, which is mandatory by law.

Sustainable

Social Justice

Nature

LEAVES

An academic woman in Texas becomes concerned when a massive red oak in her backyard seems to be ailing, though she isn’t sure why it bothers her so much. At the same time, in her small cottage, her attention to her work is distracted by news reports she sees and hears. They tell in graphic terms of the out-of-control forest fires up and down the West Coast. Her attention is further pulled in the direction of other stories about the worsening conditions of the world’s rainforests which she discovers are disappearing at the astounding rate of 200,000 acres a day. Suddenly such stories are all she seems to hear and see on the radio or television or on her computer. But when she hears/sees a science report about how trees actually communicate with each other, she begins to realize there may be a connection between her tree and what she is learning from the news. She begins to recall a strong connection she herself has with that tree and allows that connection to regrow…..

Pollution

Forests

Inspirational

Inside The Grand Canyon

This guerrilla style documentary film captures a Colorado River rafting expedition through the Grand Canyon. Exhilarating and sometimes dangerous expeditions like this are not often considered when discussing global climate change but could be helpful to enlighten more folks about the changes to our planet. This rafting trip will soon be a thing of the past with record draughts continuing due to ongoing global climate change caused largely by humans. This is just a tiny slice of natures many warning signs of things to come. We find ourselves in a world of ongoing disbelief and hesitation in lieu of planning for the clear and present dangers from climate change. The Colorado River has already reached devastating levels for communities that depend on the water and electrical power resource. Government study in 2022 showed that Lake Powell could reach ""dead pool"" by 2023. There is no plan to mitigate the catastrophe that will leave over a million and a half people with no electricity.

Water

Climate

Sustainable

Alegria - A Humanitarian Expedition

Alegria - A Humanitarian Expedition tells the story of an epic solo expedition across the Himalaya that changed the life of thousands of people in need. Supporting leprosy patients and mentally destitute women in India, Christoph von Toggenburg cycled 3200km on the world’s highest tracks pulling a 40kg trailer packed with survival gear. With little air to breathe and facing temperatures between -15°C to +45°C he crossed mountain passes higher than 5500m mastering a total of 50’000m, Christoph fell altitude sick and was hit by rock fall. Crossing Nepal during the Maoist unrests, conflict stricken Kashmir, Christoph encountered wonderful hospitality, found new friends, and saw some of the world’s most spectacular landscapes. He became film-maker, actor, fund-and awareness-raiser in one person capturing this epic adventure entirely by himself.

Social Justice

Mountains

Sustainable

Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

GoGreenNation news

Ultra-fast fashion is a disturbing trend undermining efforts to make the whole industry more sustainable

Cheap clothing at what cost?

A seamless transition to sustainability

The critical crackdown

Related News

Barclays accused of greenwashing over financing for Italian oil company

How a New 3D Printer Automatically Masters Diverse Sustainable Materials

AI Transforms Oil Field Operations With Predictive Analytics

This 3D printer can figure out how to print with an unknown material

Monteverde Leads the Way in Sustainable Waste Management

Suggested Viewing

Sashiko as Cultural Sustainability

Wake Up People!

LEAVES

Inside The Grand Canyon

Alegria - A Humanitarian Expedition

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

Ultra-fast fashion is a disturbing trend undermining efforts to make the whole industry more sustainable

Cheap clothing at what cost?

A seamless transition to sustainability

The critical crackdown

Related News

Barclays accused of greenwashing over financing for Italian oil company

How a New 3D Printer Automatically Masters Diverse Sustainable Materials

AI Transforms Oil Field Operations With Predictive Analytics

This 3D printer can figure out how to print with an unknown material

Monteverde Leads the Way in Sustainable Waste Management

Suggested Viewing

Sashiko as Cultural Sustainability

Wake Up People!

LEAVES

Inside The Grand Canyon

Alegria - A Humanitarian Expedition

Join us to forgea sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Join us to forge
a sustainable future