• Question: Is your work sustainable?

    Asked by rebekahhoffman to Alex, Chris, Harriet, Jed, Ken on 16 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by sammeeey, pine11, carrietrewern, chloestark.
    • Photo: Ken Gibbs

      Ken Gibbs answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      I believe it is. Not only do handpumps take very small quantities of water from the ground (as compared to irrigated farming which can take huge amounts of water) but the materials we use to make the pump can be recycled. We don’t use any oil of other fuel to power the pumps because they are “human-operated”.

      What I would call a really green technology !

    • Photo: Alexander Zacheshigriva

      Alexander Zacheshigriva answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      I would not call the ships green technology. But some of the stuff that we work on is. And even the normal work on vessels is sustainable in my eyes. Most of the international trade is done by sea and it is the most efficient way of moving things around (by water). We do also work on designs that are specific to wind farms. In general our work very often is about making ships more efficient and environmentally friendly. We can not stop using ships or internal combustion engines all of a sudden, but we can make them better.

    • Photo: Jed Ramsay

      Jed Ramsay answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      This is a question I have to ask on every project I do. Some elements are not so green – like using big machinery like diggers, cranes, barges and so on – neither are some of the materials I uses, like concrete and steel. So I try to use as little of these as possible and look for alternatives like using local stone, or local timber. This is harder than it seems as concrete and steel are very good materials!

      I also have to look at how the river will change in the future. The current predictions are that we will have drier summers and more storms in the winter. This could mean more droughts and more flooding – so I have to try to consider this as well.

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