Dr. John Warner, the visionary scientist and founder of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry in Woburn, MA, is quick to remind you that every product ever made involves chemistry of some kind. And if like virtually everything, it was made since the dawn of industrialization, then it probably wasn't designed with your health in mind. But Dr. Warner intends to change that. The doctor has invented the science of Green Chemistry, which at its core has basic concepts of toxicology that are often overlooked by industrial chemists. He created his new company specifically for the purpose of incorporating those principles in the design process, assuring that products are environmentally benign from the molecular level on up. In the process, the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry is helping to foster a burgeoning intellectual and industrial movement. Applications include:

• Toxicology Analysis: developing new chemical sensors that tests for toxins
• Pharmaceuticals: developing novel delivery technologies to improve bioavailability and efficacy
• Personal Care Products: developing new processes that avoid VOCs and other hazardous materials

Joseph Coughlin's AgeLab at MIT has managed to design something rare - empathy. That is the objective behind a suit named AGNES, an acronym for the Age Gain Now Empathy System which is designed to help young engineers wearing it understand the physical limitations of older people. Designed by exercise physiologist Rozanne Puleo and a team of mechanical engineers, the suit mimics:

• reduced hearing and vision
• limited joint mobility and extension of spine
• restricted mobility
• lowered tactile ability
• induced fatigue

Company representatives from Siemens, Daimler, and General Mills have visited the AgeLab, put on the AGNES suit and performed tasks to test their products. With the United Nations reporting that people above 60 are the fastest growing age group on earth, inducing such design constraints on engineers will improve a lot of lives as well as allow companies to cater to the market effectively.

A system that splits water into energy rich hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from photo voltaic cells mimics photosynthesis - one of nature's most elegant solar energy converting processes. The dream of tapping into this abundant resource for clean renewable energy is hampered by the classic cost vs. efficiency problem. The intermittent nature of the suns rays also forces one to couple usage with storage where excess energy is typically put into batteries or used to pump water uphill and both these methods are dreadfully inefficient. And electrolysis is too expensive to scale up.

Professor Nocera of MIT and his team have presented the missing piece of the puzzle in the form an inexpensive breakthrough catalyst. The catalyst is able to split the hydrogen and oxygen of a water atom at a more feasible cost.  Once split oxygen and hydrogen can be stored in tanks or "batteries" with a cost to power ratio second to none and can then combined using a fuel cell at home. This allows every house to become its own hydrogen generating facility by producing zero-emission fuel on site and is scalable. Nocera has started Sun Catalytix as a way to commercialize the technology with a $700,000 investment from Polaris Ventures.

Access to drinkable water is one of most basic human needs. As water tables sink and rainfall patterns becomes erratic, coastal communities are being forced to consider the expensive and cumbersome prospect of desalination. Fortunately, this option has the potential to become a whole lot cheaper. Oasys Water, a Yale University spinoff, is commercializing a technology it calls Engineered Osmosis (EO) that could halve the cost of desalination and make it viable for people in need around the world. Typically, the process takes advantage of reverse osmosis, which requires the use of high pressures. The EO system uses forward osmosis and low-grade excess heat from power plants to produce potable water with less energy. The Cambridge-based company has raised $10 million to pilot test a plant that it says could be implemented in water-scarce countries.

• It currently costs between $0.90 and $1 to turn one cubic meter (or 264 gallons) of seawater into potable drinking water.
• This approach is estimated to lower that cost to between $0.35 and $0.50.

Cabot Corporation's groundbreaking product for use in insulation and architectural lighting, NanoGel is a translucent form of silica modified to create a unique microstructure of nano-sized pores. Because of their design, these particles form the lightest and best-insulating solid material in the world which is also very strong. Products include translucent, insulating walls that act like opaque windows with superior heat retention. This technology offers exciting design possibilities for the construction industry by improving natural lighting as well as energy efficiency.

• Particles weigh only 90 grams per liter, making them the world's lightest solid material
• Particles are larger in surface area than most nanoscale products (10 microns or larger)
• NanoGel is produced under ambient conditions, saving energy during manufacture
• Recognized as most innovative energy-saving product at Bau 2005 (Germany's leading building and construction exhibition)

A major reason why solar power is so expensive is the high cost of manufacturing photovoltaic cells out of silicon. Konarka has eliminated that problem. Employing a nano-mixture of organic chemicals, they print photovoltaic film without silicon. Large sheets can be economically manufactured in a process similar to that used by photographic film manufacturers. The film is flexible enough to be woven into clothing or integrated into roofing material. Konarka has a multi-million dollar contract with the Pentagon for solar products, including a tent made of photovoltaic material. They are also bringing the solar technology to windows, maximizing the space available for solar energy generation. Konarka is featured as one of the "Ten to Watch" companies in a new book entitled, "The Clean Tech Revolution." Consumer products including battery and device chargers are available.

• Photovoltaic threads could revolutionize the clothing industry
• Company spun out of the University of Massachusetts

Receiving treatment for end stage kidney disease can be daunting - dialysis treatment is required three days a week and can take up to four hours a day. This can prevent patients from working, traveling, and living normal lives. Current treatment methods present a home based immobile system to which the patient is tethered and that requires external help for setup.

Singapore based AWAK technologies has designed a portable dialysis system which uses peritoneal dialysis, a gentler option compared to hemodialysis. In addition to being operable by the patient, the product boasts of a closed system which does not require replacing the dystilate after each run, rather toxins are extracted and nutrients are added through an ion exchanger, which is replaced during regular doctor visits. Currently in clinical trials, the system affords the patient mobility throughout the treatment and the can change the lives of the more than 300,000 patients receiving dialysis in the United States.

Collective knowledge is the powerful emergent property that uplifts societies and yet, intellectual property (IP) laws restrict access to new information.  But nine major businesses decided to change that in the name of the environment - they formed and participated in the Eco-Patent Commons, a first-of-its-kind not-for-profit organization which enables companies to pledge environmentally-beneficial patents to the public domain. The patents can then be used by anyone free of charge. The goal of the project is to establish a collection of environmentally protective patents which can be used to spread, develop, and improve methods for protecting the environment. This revolutionary idea does not aim to undermine business interests of its parent companies, but instead extracts greater value from something that could otherwise be only a marginal revenue source. Similar concepts have already proven successful in the case of the software industry.

• The project was launched by IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes, and Sony in partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in January 2008.
• Since then, Bosch, DuPont, Ricoh, Taisei, and Xerox have joined the initiative.

One of the most debilitating and frustrating modern diseases, Parkinson's disease, affects approximately one in every 100 people. Until 2002, there was little that doctors, medicine, or patients could do to relieve its symptoms, which include loss of coordination, shaking, impaired social skills, and decreased ability to communicate. An innovative brain surgery combines modern neurological knowledge with electrical technologies and is helping those affected by Parkinson's to alleviate its life-altering symptoms and reduce their reliance on medicines. The procedure, known as deep brain stimulation, implants a small electrical device--a brain pacemaker--into the brain. The electrical stimulation provided by the pacemaker helps block brain signals that cause the symptoms of Parkinson's. Although it does not cure the disease, it is helping more and more people live a more normal life.

• The first US "brain stimulation surgery" took place at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York
• The FDA approved the treatment for Parkinson's disease in 2002
• More than 35,000 patients around the world have had DBS electrodes implanted in their brain

The Electronic Government Coordination project started Telecentros in 2001 with the objective of providing low-cost access to computing technology in São Paulo's outlying areas classified as "Low Human Development" regions. Each community technology center, or Telecentros, has 10 - 20 computers with broadband Internet access. The Telecentros rely entirely on "open source" computing technology and thus have become one of the largest government-sponsored open source projects in the world.

• 118 Telecentros are operating around São Paulo
• Over 400,000 citizens are served
• Each Telecentro serves approximately 3,000 people

Mohamed Bah Abba of Mobah Rural Horizons, a rural development organization in Kano City, Nigeria, has invented a simple, cheap, and incredibly effective way to refrigerate food in desert climates without the use of electricity. As part of the appropriate technologies movement--which seeks to provide the poor with technologies that match their resources--Abba's food storage unit requires only two earthenware pots, a jute bag, sand, and water. Born into a family of pot makers, Abba recognized that by placing one pot inside another and utilizing the principles of evaporation, one can cool the inner pot and improve the ability of families to store produce. Wet sand is placed in between the two pots, which are covered with a jute bag. As the water in the sand evaporates, it causes a drop in temperature and cools the food in the inner pot. Food stays fresh for weeks at a time, helping farmers and other rural poor to decrease food waste, increase profits, and improve family and community diets and overall well being.

• Abba sells approximately 30,000 coolers a year
• The product is being marketed in Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan
• Eggplants last for 27 days, spinach for 12 days, and tomatoes for up to 3 weeks