Going green is getting easier, thanks to new innovations in green tech revealed at CES 2018, the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world, taking over a large portion of Las Vegas with more than 4,000 exhibitors, 2.6 million net square feet in show floor and over 180,000 attendees.
The four-day event happens in early January every year.
Here’s a roundup of a few green tech products that caught my attention and those of photographer John Ivanko.
In future posts, I’ll reveal some promising super-rugged tech that might deployed on the homestead or some innovations worth considering if you want to step up your emergency or disaster preparedness.
Zero Mass Water’s SOURCE Hydropanel can Take Your Drinking Water Off-the-Grid Water is vital to life, yet according to The Water Project, as many as 1 in 9 people worldwide lack access to clean and safe drinking water.
It transforms water vapor from the air into clean drinking water using photovoltaics and proprietary vapor collection panels.
The SOURCE is able to produce 4 to 10 liters of water on a sunny day, or the equivalent of 8 to 20 standard 16.9 oz.
“The water then comes from the [SOURCE located on the] roof or the yard to your kitchen or anywhere you’d like a dispenser, via a very small 3/8” tube.” -Advertisement- From Zero Mass Water’s headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona to India or Mexico, the SOURCE can operate in a variety of climates and conditions using only water vapor in the air and solar energy.
The SOURCE features a battery for production on cloudy days and a 30-liter reservoir to keep you hydrated.
If the air temperature nears freezing, the SOURCE will automatically enter ‘Hibernation Mode,’ protecting itself until the temperature rises.

The Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education gave a favorable report to S.251, “An Act relative to water bottle filling stations in schools,” which would promote healthy hydration in children while reducing plastic waste by creating a grant program to help fund the installation of water bottle filling stations in public schools.
“I filed this bill in order to ensure that children not only have access to safe drinking water in their schools, but that the water comes from a sustainable source.
Water bottle filling stations are an inexpensive way to engage children in issues of healthy hydration and environmental consciousness while helping them create healthful habits that last a lifetime.” The bill, inspired by the efforts of Concord resident Janet Rothrock, will allow public schools to apply for grants to install bottle filling stations in their buildings, athletic facilities and playgrounds through the “Safe drinking water for healthy students grant program” within the Department of Public Health.
Grants would be prioritized for school districts serving low-income communities, which may have less access to safe drinking water.
“All students of the commonwealth deserve access to healthy tap water at their schools,” said Rothrock.
“It is better for the kids and our environment not to get used to drinking out of disposable bottles and instead develop the habit of using a drinking fountain or carrying reusable water bottle and filling it at bottle filler.
These students can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.” Children who have access to drinking water can make healthy hydration choices by avoiding sugary beverages, which can cause tooth decay, obesity, and other health issues.
Plastic bottles are made from fossil fuels and can hurt or kill wildlife if not properly recycled.
Drinking tap water can help prevent health problems while simultaneously cutting down on plastic waste.
The bill now goes to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for consideration.

Political leaders in Cape Town, South Africa, realized that climate change was a threat years ago.
The reservoirs are down to just 26 percent capacity.
The crisis in South Africa could foreshadow future events that may cripple urban centers by depriving residents of water access.
"There is no contingency plan for what happens when we run out of water."
Some of them are political; others are related to engineering.
In that way, Cape Town underscores how climate change can expose political passivity, observers say.
At the same time, its water capacity has grown by just 15 percent.
However, when natural drought cycles are intensified by rising temperatures and increased dryness of the soil, it could lead to water shortages, he said.
"We have seen increases in climate variation, with an increased frequency of droughts and floods, in many countries.
"Water out West is going to be an issue," Zinke said.

There are alternatives to gas and oil, but there is no alternative to water.” This statement should motivate urgent action to address our country’s water crisis.
Crisis, because 70 people die every day from water-related diseases.
Sixteen million Filipinos have no access to safe drinking water.
Our rain harvesting rate is only 4 percent compared to India’s 60 percent in certain areas.
Some 5.7 million hectares of denuded forest lands and 300,000 hectares of lost mangroves cause massive flooding.
After action was taken with some water-related agencies, an organizational water meeting was held in Malacañang on June 20, 2017.
Participants were the government’s executive branch (Neda, DENR, DA, DILG, and the Office of the Cabinet Secretary), the legislature (Senate and the House of Representatives), and the private sector (AFA and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry).
On Nov. 24, Convenor Chair Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia called a meeting of the seven management teams which would be responsible for each sector’s progress in 2018.
Each team is composed of a government official assigned from an identified government department, a UPLB dean who is the main author of a sector study with recommendations, and a private sector leader.
With the three-person management team from the government, the academe, and the private sector, our water crisis will now be effectively addressed.

There are alternatives to gas and oil, but there is no alternative to water.” This statement should motivate urgent action to address our country’s water crisis.
Crisis, because 70 people die every day from water-related diseases.
Sixteen million Filipinos have no access to safe drinking water.
Our rain harvesting rate is only 4 percent compared to India’s 60 percent in certain areas.
Some 5.7 million hectares of denuded forest lands and 300,000 hectares of lost mangroves cause massive flooding.
After action was taken with some water-related agencies, an organizational water meeting was held in Malacañang on June 20, 2017.
Participants were the government’s executive branch (Neda, DENR, DA, DILG, and the Office of the Cabinet Secretary), the legislature (Senate and the House of Representatives), and the private sector (AFA and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry).
On Nov. 24, Convenor Chair Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia called a meeting of the seven management teams which would be responsible for each sector’s progress in 2018.
Each team is composed of a government official assigned from an identified government department, a UPLB dean who is the main author of a sector study with recommendations, and a private sector leader.
With the three-person management team from the government, the academe, and the private sector, our water crisis will now be effectively addressed.

The tendering process is already underway.
This project will allow for a direct connection from the water treatment plant to I.L.
Thomas School, which treats well water on site, and O.M.
Smith School, which receives trucked water.
The project will also provide an opportunity for future connections to the water distribution system to more 400 homes currently on wells.
Our government is proud to work with Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation and to support their efforts to expand their water distribution system.
I commend Chief Hill and council for their efforts in improving water distribution and the future vision for their community."
Thankfully we were able to construct the new Water Treatment Plant and upgrade a critical piece of infrastructure over the past four years, to put us in the position where we can begin to extend the water main.
A new water treatment plant was opened in 2014.
SOURCE Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada For further information: Media may contact: Andrew MacKendrick, Office of the Honourable Jane Philpott, 819-956-5372; Media Relations, Department of Indigenous Services Canada, 819-953-1160

It was a strenuous work for the women of the village to provide clean drinking water to their families.
Still, the villagers, especially the women, who are responsible for collecting water, were dependent on these two sources to meet the family’s needs for drinking, cooking and other household purposes.
Almost all the villages in Kanas block were severely affected by water from Chilika and floodwater from the rivers.
Every day the women spent hours to make polluted river water potable.
The tube well water that gets filtered through the iron removal plants is free of bad smell and taste.
Pond to potability In Suhagpur, the villagers were dependent on the pond water for drinking and cooking.
“The pond water caters to the 1,000-odd population of the entire village,” Pradhan said.
Villagers draw the filtered water from the last chamber.
There are five iron removal plants and two pond sand filtration units set up in different villages in Kanas block.
With setting up of iron removal plants and the pond sand filtration units, the women of these villages are relieved from the strenuous labor of purifying the water to make it fit for drinking.

Access to clean drinking water remains a luxury for many people living in the Eastern Cape.
“All sorts of diseases and germs live in this water we drink, but we’re desperate.
We’ve been living like this for years.
We keep hearing about this listeria, but we don’t know how else to survive.” Ndeleni and other community members took the Saturday Dispatch to the stream they draw their water from.
It appears to be run-off that flows from a train goods shed a short distance away.
Buyisile Kosani said he drinks the dirty water, because walking to town to access taps from a garage was too much for him.
“I didn’t know about this, and now we’re worried because the water we drink comes from a river we rely on.
“Cows, donkeys and horses also graze there.
“Before this tank, we didn’t have water for years.
We’re trying to survive”, she said.

For Palestinian communities that suffer water shortages and require Israeli approval to increase pumping of shared natural water resources, an agreement to increase water sales from Israel to the Palestinian Authority by 50 percent annually will dramatically improve lives and livelihoods without creating water shortages on the Israeli side.
This work to mediate peace through Israeli-Palestinian water sharing should be commended and continued.
The United States clearly recognizes the importance of international water security, having recently released its Global Water Strategy, which coordinates the work of 16 U.S. government agencies and private partners.
A logical next step, beyond water sales, would be to negotiate a fair allocation of the natural water resources that Israelis and Palestinians share, thus solving one of the core issues plaguing the peace process.
However, both sides have shortsightedly refused to negotiate over natural water reallocation, wanting any water deal to remain part of a negotiation on other final-status issues, like borders and refugees.
Israeli politicians insist that a better water deal for the Palestinians must be matched by Palestinian compromises on refugees.
In the West Bank, some 60 million cubic meters of untreated sewage pollute the Mountain and Coastal Aquifers, streams and the Mediterranean Sea annually.
In Gaza, the flood of untreated sewage is so great that groundwater is no longer potable, and most beaches in Gaza and some in neighboring Israel have been forced to close.
Advancing regional water projects such as a master plan for the development of water and sanitation in the Jordan Valley, and an increased water trade that does not sacrifice water rights, present more opportunities to help stabilize the situation.
Conversely, the sustainability of any Middle East peace agreement will be compromised if water resources are not allocated fairly and managed efficiently.

The study by University of Otago, Wellington public health researchers published in the New Zealand Medical Journal found only 20 per cent of playgrounds surveyed had a functioning water fountain.
Study authors Nick Wilson and George Thomson randomly selected 54 playgrounds from 17 local government areas in the lower North Island and found just 11 had working fountains within 100 metres of the playground equipment.
*Christchurch drinking water to be chlorinated for a year as councillors approve plan to keep it safe *Bid to ban sugary drinks from schools hits hurdles An earlier study by Wilson and Thomson of playgrounds in Wellington found only 6 per cent had a functioning water fountain.
Over one third of children (2 – 14 years old) were obese or overweight according to the most recent New Zealand Health Survey.
While there was no scientific evidence water fountains could reduce obesity, anecdotally people used fountains when they were available and noticed if they were not, he said.
The authors called on the government to impose minimum mandatory requirements for drinking fountains and extend access to malls, beaches and public parks.
Maintenance, including ensuring drinking fountains appeared clean, was important to increase public confidence in the supply of safe drinking water, particularly in light of the recent contamination crisis in Havelock North.
Some fountains in the study had grass growing out of them or green "sludgy" build up around the nozzle.
Publicly available drinking water, though free, had to compete with a huge increase of sugary drinks for sale.
– Stuff