Experts Talk Eco Initiatives

Harvard students and planet-saving enthusiasts gathered yesterday evening at the Graduate School of Design to hear three environmental experts discuss eco-friendly design initiatives and innovative recycling projects as part of a four-part series on resource efficiency titled “Much, Much More, With Much Much Less.”

The speakers—who spelled out a number of everyday ways in which individuals can strive to help the planet—included environmental microbiology professor Colleen M. Hansel, artist and designer J. Manuel Mansylla, and researcher and waste management expert Pablo Rey.

The central topic of the evening’s lecture was that human creativity and imagination have no limits, especially in an age where “green development” problems need rapid solutions.

Hansel introduced the issue, referencing conundrums like the proliferation of waste from mine drainage.

Hansel said that past methods of dealing with this waste included building chemical reactors and flooding the mines, but the newest trend is to simply “help nature clean itself.”

She said that more than 700 coal mines worldwide could be targeted for remediation using less environmentally damaging methods, like exploiting genetically modified microbes to clean up waste products.

Mansylla dedicated his speech to the oft-overlooked damage caused by the production and usage of plastics. An artist in Guatemala City, Mansylla uses salvaged materials in the bulk of his work, reflecting a philosophy he referred to as “materiality.”

Mansylla also focused on raising awareness of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area in the Pacific Ocean afflicted with higher-than-average plastic contamination.

He provided a series of startling statistics regarding the volume of garbage in this area.

Mansylla returned several times to the importance of “visualization” as key to comprehending the gravity of current environmental degradation. According to Mansylla, art can be used in public spaces in order to confront people through visual representations of pollution.

Pablo Rey closed the presentation by providing examples of several initiatives, mostly based in Europe, that seek to repurpose waste products in order to improve public resource efficiency.

Rey showed an image of melted plastic and dirt and followed it with a slide depicting a young boy rolling in camera film, unaware that he is in fact playing with what is deemed to be “waste.”

The final two seminars in the lecture series will be held on April 5 and 6.