Expression of the day: “cradle-to-grave” [1]

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have readily available drinking water during the entire year. Sub-Saharan Africa is one of those problem areas. Due to extreme droughts, wells sometimes completely empty in the dry season leaving the people in thirst. To be able to bridge these dry periods a solution has to be found to pump up water from humid soil by extracting it from the sand.This system should be built with readily available materials so that the local community can maintain it, and water can be provided in a cheap and sustainable way  –  that is the context of today’s Team Design category. What is very important – it has to be a cradle-to-grave project, which makes it even more difficult. The topic is a result of a cooperation between BEST and UNEP. It is by now the most important of the tasks and it is going to take 3 working days to finish. We hope that finalists will come up with some innovative solutions.

At the same time the Case Study “solvers” had to deal with a task provided by VESTAS. It was closely connected with the company’s area of expertise – wind turbines. The aim is to recycle a turbine blade in a clean and environmental way after it has completed its life cycle of 20 years. What is substantial, it is also a project embracing the cradle-to-grave issue.

The presentation of the outcomes is the next step in the direction of winning or losing the whole competition. We keep our fingers crossed for the results!

[1] cradle-to-grave - responsibility to monitor every aspect of a product or program through its entire life cycle