Renewable resources, Clean resources

Reinvention
Using clean, renewable alternatives

This means reinventing processes and technologies to create and make use of renewable resources.

There are many sustainable resources and uses available that are not generally implemented because of a number of reasons including cost, market resistance, lack of information and lack of support.

Alternative technologies
In nearly every area there are clean, renewable alternatives, some examples are:

Resources
Electricity: solar, biomass*, wind, marine, hydro, geothermal
Liquid and gas fuels: biomass*, recycling and waste streams
Heat: geothermal, solar, recycling and waste streams (heat recovery)

Uses
Transport: electric scooters, cars, buses and trains
Industry: electric motors
Water heating: solar, electric heat pump
Space heating: heat pumps, low emission wood burners*

* The burning of biomass is not clean although if the biomass is replanted and grown it is essentially carbon neutral.

Alternative processes and practices
There are a multitude of alternative, innovative processes and practices which are sustainable across the whole spectrum of human activities including such diverse things as passive solar design, rainwater collection, organic farming and using public transport.

Businesses
As well as using renewable resources there are many potential sustainable process innovations for businesses. Perhaps the most important being closed-loop resourcing – which is basically when material outputs (products and waste) later become the businesses' material inputs and effectively closing the resource loop. Associated to this is the concept of 'service products'. A simple example of this might be when a customer buys heat from a business – rather than a heater. The benefits are that the customer gets what he wants – heat – and the business can manage their products most effectively and efficiently.

Read more about Business transformed.