As an ISO 14001 registered company and certified San Francisco Green Business, we here at ARTÉMIA always put an emphasis on sustainable practices and green initiatives, whether in our daily operations or when offering solutions to customers. We know that a more sustainable future can be achieved through innovation and that is why we are strongly committed to help spread the best ideas and practices.

Here are a couple stories about sustainable transportation from around the world that we think can make us all a bit more environmentally minded.

A team of physics students and teachers from Kalindi College at Delhi University in India have come up with an ingenious idea to generate green and sustainable electricity. After thorough research, they have proposed to strategically install a number of small wind turbines on the Delhi metro network in order to produce power. According to the team, the best locations to harness wind energy on the metro network are the tunnel entrances and the places where the train moves from an underground line to an elevated line.

With a network of approximately 196 kilometers of track and 142 stations, Delhi Metro carries about 2 million people every day and thanks to these small turbines, could soon generate up to 500 watts per hour (or 12 kW in a day). Although this innovation is far from making the Delhi’s metro self-sufficient in terms of energy, it is still a great step toward a greener and more sustainable urban development, especially for such an enormous megalopolis as Delhi.

An Australian pilot will soon be flying from Sydney to London in a plane powered by converted plastic waste. Wanting to raise awareness of the “consume and throw away” public mentality, Jeremy Roswell will be piloting the “Wing of Waste” Cessna halfway across the globe. The flight connecting Sydney to London will make stops in Asia and the Middle East before reaching Europe and will be fueled solely by plastic waste.

Thanks to a chemical process called pyrolysis where the fuel is created by carefully heating plastic waste in the absence of oxygen, this plane may open the gate to a litter-free society. Though the fuel still produces some emissions when consumed (though slightly cleaner than more traditional fuels), it allows products such as bottles and bags to be recycled while paving the way for cleaner oceans and protected ecosystems.