Engineering faculty from four departments were funded, including the departments of Biological Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.
The seven newly funded projects bring the total number of seed research projects supported by J-WAFS to 24 since 2015.
Through the innovative technologies and collaborations we are supporting with these new research projects, J-WAFS is working to secure the future of our communities, the sustainability of our cities, and the prosperity of our economies in the face of rising population, greater urbanization, and changing climate.” Project highlights appear below, followed by a full listing of 2017 J-WAFS Seed Grant-funded projects.
Enhancing crop production with an eye toward sustainability Enhancing crop production while supporting environmentally sustainable farming practices in developing countries was a theme of several funded projects this year.
Two projects are addressing challenges around nitrogen fertilizer.
Harvesting water from air Securing clean drinking water in environments that are water-scarce or polluted is a challenge in many regions of the world.
Mircea Dinca, associate professor of chemistry, and Evelyn Wang, the Gail E. Kendall Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, are teaming up to develop a new technology that can be used to harvest water in even the most arid regions of the globe.
PIs: Mircea Dinca, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry; and Evelyn Wang, the Gail E. Kendall Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering "Electrochemical Nitrogen Fixation for Distributed Fertilizer Production."
PIs: Xuanhe Zhao, the Noyce Career Development Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; and John H. Lienhard, V, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water and Food in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and J-WAFS "Multifunctional Light-Diffusing Fibers for Simultaneous Light Management and Fluid Transport in Microalgae Bioreactors."
PI: Mathias Kolle, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering

Atlas Copco USA’s Water for All Program Helps Navajo Special Education School Access Clean Water.
ROCK HILL, S.C., May 5, 2017 /3BL Media/ — Atlas Copco USA’s Water for All organization recently donated to human rights non-profit DigDeep to support St. Michaels Association for Special Education (SMASE) in Window Rock, A.Z., the only special needs school on the Navajo Reservation.
The school needs potable water to clean sensitive medical equipment, such as tracheotomy and gastrostomy tubes, but the water contains high amounts of lead and arsenic, ranges from yellow to brown in color, and leaves behind a white, grainy film.
“When I run out of bottled water in my classroom, I’m frantically running from building to building trying to get enough water to give a student her medicine.
It’s very stressful.” SMASE is partnering with DigDeep, a human rights non-profit working to ensure that every American has clean, running water, to build a water treatment system that will supply safe water to sinks, toilets and showers in the school.
Atlas Copco is a world-leading provider of sustainable productivity solutions.
Atlas Copco Compressors LLC is part of the Compressor Technique Business Area, and its headquarters are located in Rock Hill, S.C.
The company manufactures, markets, and services oil-free and oil-injected stationary air compressors, air treatment equipment, and air management systems, including local manufacturing of select products.
DIGDEEP’s focus on both water access and conservation is unique, and DIGDEEP is the only global water non-profit building water projects with marginalized communities here in the U.S. — where more than 1.7 million people still don’t have it.
DIGDEEP is committed to changing the way people think about water, and 100% of all donations support projects in the field.

From the Department of Water Resources, Sustainable Groundwater Management Program: Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) Formation As of May 2, 2017: 188 local agencies (including coordinated efforts by a combination of local agencies) have submitted GSA formation notifications.
Of the 301 separate areas: 127 are exclusive GSA areas; 71 have a non-overlapped notification within a 90-day period; and 103 have overlap to resolve.
All GSA notifications can be submitted, viewed, and managed within the SGMA Portal: http://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/#gsa Contact: Mark Nordberg: Mark.Nordberg@water.ca.gov or (916) 651-9673 Facilitation Support Service DWR provided facilitation support services through professional facilitators to help local agencies address pivotal issues in GSA formation.
DWR is seeking input on facilitation support service for better understanding of the local needs as the GSAs progress towards Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) development.
To find out about facilitation service opportunities that may be available, Contact: SGMP_RC@water.ca.gov A Newsletter about Funding and Technical Assistance In line with DWR’s commitment to support Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) and stakeholders throughout SGMA implementation, DWR will be providing periodic SGMA Implementation Assistance Updates.
Contact: Hong Lin, Hong.Lin@water.ca.gov or (916) 653-6353 Technical Assistance Providing technical assistance to GSAs will be crucial to enabling their success in sustainably managing their groundwater basins.
Contact: Steven Springhorn Steven.Springhorn@water.ca.gov or (916) 651-9273 Basin Reprioritization SGMA requires DWR to reassess the priority of the state’s groundwater basins when the basin boundaries defined in Bulletin 118 are modified.
DWR is in the process of updating the basin priorities.
January 1, 2018 – Submission Period opens o During this 3 month window, GSAs and local agencies can submit the required information to support a Basin Boundary Modification in the BBMRS on the SGMA Portal http://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/#intro.
March 31, 2018 – Submission Period Closes and 30-day Public Comment Period opens o All information to support a boundary modification should be submitted to the BBMRS April 1, 2018 – Public Comment Period Closes o DWR begins boundary modification requests and public comments Approximately July 2018 – Draft Basin Boundary Modifications released Approximately August 2018 – Final Basin Boundary Modifications released Contact: Tim Godwin Timothy.Godwin@water.ca.gov or (916) 651-9223 SGMA Definitions and Groundwater Glossary SGMA provided California with a roadmap for sustainably managing our groundwater, and it also came with its own lexicon.

But with rising water scarcity in many regions, this is changing, and the importance of wastewater collection, treatment and reuse is steadily being recognised as a crucial piece in the jigsaw when it comes to sustainable textile manufacture.
Four breakout sessions at the upcoming Planet Textiles in Bangalore, India on 24 May will refer to this important issue and how this wastewater can be reclaimed and reused under circular business model principles.
A recent UNESCO report estimated that well over 80 per cent of wastewater worldwide (over 95 per cent in some developing countries) is released into the environment without treatment.
Sajid Hussaid, COO, Tamilnadu Water Investment Co, who was instrumental in the Zero Liquid Discharge Project in Tirupur will lead a session on textile wastewater and speak about some of the challenges he faced implementing this initiative in Tirupur dyehouses.
Other panel members on this session include: Stefan Siedel, head of sustainability, Puma; Flaviano Bianchini, founder & director, Source International; Jayakumar Gopalakrishnan, head of sustainability, Pratibha Syntex and Rainer Zah, managing director at Quantis International which has developed and operates the Quantis Water Database – said to be the first database generating the water footprint of any product, service, company or organisation throughout its entire life cycle.
Oeko-Tex will moderate and run a special breakout session that aims to be a guide to the changing landscape of chemical management.
"The reduction of chemicals of concern requires globally harmonised strategies to proactively ensure a sustainable chemical management.
Swiss textile chemicals specialist Archroma will run a special textile wet processing session which will feature Elaine Gardiner, sustainability manager at Pentland Brands who will represent the AFIRM Group and Mohan Seneviratne, program manager at PaCT, International Finance Corporation.
Cost will also be an issue.
To book your delegate place, visit: www.mclnews.com/events/planet-textiles-2017

Shelf Life: Water for Africa with new Chivas venture.
Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of all things new — product, packaging, design, insight, food, décor and more!
I-Drop Water in Chivas Venture Gaia gets Inhouse overhaul Woolworths — a decade of doing good Water from whisky South Africa has experienced severe water shortages, with almost 2m people having no access to a reliable water supply between 2011 and 2015.
Social entrepreneur, James Steere, has created I-Drop Water, a for-profit social enterprise that designs, builds and installs drinking-water purification and dispensing machines in grocery stores at no cost, sharing income generated from water sales with store owners.
i-Drop Water has installed purification and dispensing units in over 55 locations in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, helping shop owners save almost 995 000l of water and over 1 300kg of plastic waste — an achievement that saw the company announced as the winner of the South African version of Chivas Regal’s The Venture III.
Says Steere: “Everywhere I have travelled in Africa, there is bottled water for sale in grocery stores at an exorbitant price.
And yet, in many of these grocery stores, there is a water supply; what is missing is a way of purifying water on site.
“We are extremely proud that our business is born in Africa and has potential to impact millions of people around the world as water shortage is a fast growing global crisis.” Inhouse inside Gaia Infrastructure investment company, Gaia, recently commissioned interior design firm, Inhouse Brand Architects, to create its new Cape Town office space, resulting in a design that is meant to perfectly complement the challenging and unusual architectural space.
Winning with Woolworths Woolworths’ flagship South African sustainability programme, the Good Business Journey (GBJ), turns 10 this year, celebrating its achievements in transformation, social development, health and wellness, ethical sourcing, sustainable farming, waste, water and energy.
Notify us of yours at shelflife at marklives dot com.

This year, Mutya Laxa-Buensuceso, country manager for Luxasia, the parent company of Aveda, wanted to focus on fashion and wearable art in a hair and fashion show, accentuated by Aveda’s signature Eclipting technique.
In a desire to address the worsening state of the Philippine environment, air and water pollution, denudation of our forests, irresponsible waste disposal, and its life-threatening effects, Aveda has celebrated Earth Month 2017 with a different kind of hair and fashion show.
This year, Mutya Laxa-Buensuceso, country manager for Luxasia, the parent company of Aveda, wanted to focus on fashion and wearable art in a hair and fashion show, accentuated by Aveda’s signature Eclipting technique.
Aveda tapped jewelry designer and local artistry jewelry traditions advocate Natalya Lagdameo, designer of authentic hand fans Monchet Diokno Olives, and maker of wearable art Jun Jun Ablaza to create pieces for the eco-friendly hair and fashion show.
Half of the proceeds will go to Bantay Kalikasan.
She explains that it helps for a global brand to partner with them, even as Bantay Kalikasan has already established credibility for 20 years.
Even though he envisioned seven pieces, he showed five pieces instead.
Basement Salon’s Fendi-Dudi George Rohan says the eclipting technique, developed by Aveda, “works best with Asian or even Filipino hair.” While the idea came from Aveda hairstylists in the United States, at Basement Salon, he explains that they mixed the technique with Balayage, so the combination is soft, nice, highlights with a touch of blonde or reds at the ends.
Eclipting works with any kind or any color.
The change is people are daring, more edgy, more trendy, and it makes me happy.” Haruka Takayama, style director of Sora Salon, says, “I love that Aveda is natural, and for the show, I just imagine the hair and color if it will work.” Her colors were more subtle.

Would you eat your water bottle if that would save the planet?.
With an edible water bottler, for instance, consumers can experience the immediate satisfaction of doing their part to reduce waste – a step beyond tossing recyclables into a bin and hoping they end up where they are supposed to.
“If you buy a plastic bottle that is made of 30 percent less plastic, you really don’t experience your contribution to a greener society, whereas if you ‘eat’ your water bottle, you’re actually reminding yourself and consciously thinking of this step that you’re taking to be sustainable, to be greener, and that could have a more positive impact on the consumer.” And without the need to open something or throw the container away after consumption edible packaging also gains another advantage: convenience.
In some cases, edible food wrappings have been so accepted by mainstream consumers no one ever gives them a second thought, such as the ubiquitous ice cream cone or a popular Japanese candy that comes wrapped in edible rice paper.
“I mean there has always been this notion of … something around the [food] product that is edible,” says Bernd Schmitt, a marketing professor at Columbia Business School in New York City.
However, Elizabeth Minton, an expert in pro-social marketing from the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyo., says sustainable innovations like edible water bottles could easily build up following – if consumers are given a chance to try it out at events like athletic events or summer concerts.
“With a lot of these really new products, if you can get it involved in some kind of event-based marketing that is already using your product, you can get it to big audience,” says Ms. Minton.
Follow Stories Like This Sign Up Considering the mental barriers to accepting a new product like Ooho, Coary says these products with edible food packaging will probably only appeal to a small fragment of consumers who are "trying to lessen their impact on the earth when it comes to waste."
"I do see growing steam in these companies increasing in revenue and having growth in the next few years," he says.
"But would I see this is kind of overtaking our traditional water bottle in the next 10 years?

by Thomas Harter, Vicki Kretsinger Grabert, Reid Bryson, and Tim Parker On May 26, 2016, eight days after the California Water Commission voted to approve emergency regulations for Groundwater Sustainability Plans, the Groundwater Resources Association (GRA) held the sixth annual workshop of the Contemporary Groundwater Issues Council (CGIC) to address a closely related component of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) implementation: best management practices (BMPs).
With input from CGIC and other groups, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has since published its first round of BMPs and Guidelines on some core activities within Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs): monitoring protocols, monitoring networks, development of hydrogeologic conceptual models, water budgets, and modeling.
Additional BMPs and guidelines as well as statewide data support will be forthcoming as Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) prepare their GSPs.
Suggestions for short-term actions included: building trust amongst local agencies, stakeholders, and the public through clear communication about the goals of sustainable groundwater management and governance options; targeted capacity-building to encourage participation by all stakeholders; and coordination of current monitoring and modeling efforts within a basin or subbasin.
One area of particular concern included activities around the management of groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) and surface water flows impacted by groundwater management.
Many GSAs and local agencies will face challenges managing this important aspect of sustainability.
Several participants noted that GSAs will need clear communication from DWR and the State Water Board as to the various datasets that the state will provide to GSAs versus those datasets that GSAs should anticipate developing at the local level.
Participants also noted that local agencies will need guidance from the state regarding its interpretation of requirements under SGMA for local agencies to: (1) identify and map GDEs, and (2) avoid impacts to GDEs, relative to efforts associated with other interactions of surface water and groundwater, including non-ecosystem-related beneficial uses.
CA Department of Water Resources Groundwater Sustainability Plan Emergency Regulations (GSP Regulations).
CA Department of Water Resources BMP 2: Monitoring Networks and Identification of Data Gaps.

Saturday, April 22 marks Earth Day which is a national day to focus on the environment, climate change, and sustainability.
I’m proud to say that I hail from the state where this was founded – Wisconsin.
Gaylord Nelson, formerly a U.S.
Earth Day in 1970 achieved a rare political achievement, gaining support from Democrats and Republicans as well as people from all walks of life.
The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts to preserve our environment in a massive way.
Forty seven years ago, partisanship was put aside with the understanding that our environment was a precious resource for all people, not just something to be exploited for financial gain.
Earth Day has become a global event, mobilizing people in numerous countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage giving a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide.
Green technologies are not only good for the environment, they lead to high tech, better paying jobs.
Climate change deniers, fossil fuel lobbyists, and reticent politicians are all fighting environmental consciousness and denying the scientific evidence that humans are changing our environment and that our climate is warming.
Locally there are numerous events: one major one is the March for Science which will take place at the University of Maine.

It’s not all about toilets: Debunking 7 myths about urban sanitation on World Water Day.
[1] Myth #2: Poor people are not willing to pay for sanitation services In fact: Poor people are willing to pay for sanitation services, and they do, even when they receive sub-standard services.
Investments needs are huge — 40% of estimated funds needed to extend universal access to safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene are needed for urban sanitation.
Myth #4: Investing in urban sanitation is not productive In fact: Sanitation investments provide demonstrated health, economic, social and environmental benefits that are essential to turn cities into vibrant economic centers.
Myth #6: Solving urban sanitation is all about toilets In fact: Providing access to a toilet, a latrine or a sewer connection is only part of the solution.
The full sanitation service chain needs to be sustainably managed.
Myth #7: Sanitation produces waste that is a nuisance to be eliminated In fact: Human waste contains valuable nutrients.
We must develop locally relevant and innovative solutions along the sanitation service chain that put customers first and focus as much on service management as on technology.
City planners and other sector decision makers should consider the tradeoffs along the service chain between, for example, providing basic access to a toilet to all versus providing sewers and advanced wastewater treatment to the few.
Debunking these myths is part of our effort to help sanitation sector professionals in transforming their thinking and practices to deploy both old and new solutions in smarter ways to achieve sustainable, equitable and safe management of excreta for a whole city.