Wednesday, May 30

Wednesday we had lecture in the morning, then for lunch headed to downtown for food and a little bit of shopping. The city has a pedestrian-only zone, created by the one mayor in the 70's. Facing opposition from business owners in the area, he had a multiple block section of street changed from car to foot traffic in only 72 hours. Since then, the area has only grown and there were hundreds of people out and about when we visited. Goes to show that the popular opinion on something is not always the correct one.

25 gringos excited to take the bus one stop

I wasn't much in the mood for shopping, but when one girl decided to go to a fountain pen store, I tagged along. Not much of a pen user myself, I perused their limited mechanical pencil selection. I actually ended up getting a nice little Pentel drafting pencil, because I like mechanical pencils and I figured why the heck not. Then I headed to a vegan restaurant with some people. I got the 'Brazil vegano' plate, which had beans, a veggie burger, and roasted pumpkin. Pretty tasty.

This old guy approves of Curitiba's green spaces (I think...)

After lunch the group rendezvoused, then took the bus to visit the offices of a construction firm and solar startup. We heard a presentation about Renova Green, a company offering cheap solar alternatives to Brazilian homes. Clients pay a small installation fee, then rent a solar array for a certain amount of time. This removes the expensive capital costs required to purchase the systems, while still giving people independence from the grid. The company currently has about 160 customers, with over 4,000 on a waitlist.

Solar! Panels!

After the presentation from Renova, we heard from RAC Construction, a firm specializing in green building projects. They talked about some of their work on various projects. in Brazil, then about the office building we were in. Walking in, we had all noticed how nice and modern the building looked. A representative from the company told us that the year old building was LEED Platinum certified. We then got a tour of the building. Some highlights:

• A green roof to reduce cooling costs and provide rainwater management
• Solar panels on the roof that make the building net-zero consumer of electricity
• A living (green) wall to provide shade for the office and cooling during summer months
• Reflective audio panels only in necessary areas to reduce material usage
• An electric vehicle charging station
• A complete building control system to monitor lighting, cooling, and electricity use
• A graywater system that uses rainwater to go to wash hands, and water plants
• A blackwater system that treats and reuses all water in the toilet

I was geeking out about the blackwater system- essentially the building has its own wastewater treatment system. It is a process with three main components:

• Step 1- Tank to provide sedimentation and BOD removal with bacteria

Big old crock of sewage water

• Step 2- Anaerobic filter and constructed wetland- to filter out particles, provide nitrification, then nutrient removal with the use of aquatic plants

Filter (cinder blocks) with wetland surrounding it

• Step 3- disinfection- before the water is sent back to toilets it is treated 4 separate ways- with ozone, UV light, hydrogen peroxide, and an activated carbon filter

Zap those microbes!!

This whole system fits on their property, and can treat about 1 cubic meter per day. I was amazed at the system, and thought it was super cool. It makes their blackwater essentially a closed loop, so they require almost no water from the city supply. The final disinfection had me cracking up, as they triple disinfected water that was going right back into a toilet. Better safe than sorry though, I guess.

In the evening, I got Mexican food and then we all went to a bar to hang out, as the next day was a holiday.