• Question: Do you work sustainably?

    Asked by izgrorl1 to Ant, Dan, Matt, Mike, Steph on 14 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Dan Veal

      Dan Veal answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      As in friendly to the environment, using renewable resources and such? Most things I design are from metal (aluminium, steel, some more exotic ones too…) so there isn’t much choice in material. One of the things my workmates work on are measurements for wind turbine blades. They’re some tens of meters in diameter and usually are installed on hillsides or in the sea, and create power just from spinning in the wind, so my company helps with that. We’ll need much more of that sort of thing in the future as we’re running out of oil….

    • Photo: Anthony Hollingsworth

      Anthony Hollingsworth answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      yes, as far as is possible. sometime i have to travel but i typically avoid flying if i can get a train

    • Photo: Mike Salter

      Mike Salter answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      I try to. I do simple things like turning my computer and monitors off at the end of the day and making sure the office lights are off. It’s amazing how many people don’t do these simple things!

    • Photo: Matt Maddock

      Matt Maddock answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Tricky question. The Diamond machine uses a LOT of electricity and it certainly doesn’t generate any. There are also components that are made of some very rare and exotic materials, so in that sense, it’s certainly not a sustainable endeavour.

      However, some of the research being done there will make batteries vastly more efficient, will help to make computers in the future use less power and might help to ease our reliance on oil.

      So you have to to make the decision, really – the machine isn’t very sustainable (we do what we can, but there are limits), but the work that gets done there will make many things in the future much more environmentally friendly. Personally, I think that – and the medicines and science and incredible technological breakthroughs that will come from it – off-set the electricity bill!

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