Systems Thinking
Fall 2021
Final Project Objective: The final project focused on three super systems inside the performance art theater super-system: Paper Usage, Electric Usage, and Plastic Waste. For each of these elements, the final project presented sustainable alternatives.
Paper Usage
Sustainable Issue: Paper alone accounts for 40% of all waste in the United States. That adds up to about 71.6 million tons per year. What many hope to reduce, reuse, and recycle, unfortunately, ends up being dumped into a landfill. The paper also has a devasting impact on the world. Deforesta_on has increased at an alarming rate. Paper manufacturing uses up to 40% of all global wood. The process of manufacturing paper releases nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide into the air, contributing to pollution such as acid rain and greenhouse gases. Furthermore, the US consumes more than 30% of all paper products globally, despite being only 5% of the world’s population. Theaters have a complex paper usage system. This system includes but is not limited to paper tickets, toilet paper, paper towels, paper signage, safety signage, advertisements for upcoming shows, the paper used in the theater’s administrative office, show program/Playbill, and concessions napkins and paper packaging.
Sustainable Solution: In regions where trees are scarce, using precious wood to make paper isn’t exactly the priority. Researchers from the University of Vienna, Austria have discovered an easier, more sustainable way to make paper in these areas – especially if they were home to a lot of elephants or cattle. Both elephant and cow manure can be used as a great source of cellulose for paper manufacturing. The animals break down the cellulose in their stomachs, and fewer chemical treatments and much less energy would be needed to turn the partially digested material into cellulose nanofibers when compared to making paper from raw wood. The manure is treated with sodium hydroxide solution, which partially removes lignin – which can be used as a fuel or fertilizer – as well as other impurities. The material is then bleached with sodium hypochlorite to fully remove lignin and produce pulp for making paper. The purified cellulose needs little to no grinding to break it down into the nanofibers required to make paper.
The proposed new concept is to have a network of theaters and entertainment venues connected to a regenerative sewage manufacturing and paper plant that can use the human feces from the venues to make the paper used in their venues.
Electric Energy Usage
Sustainable Issue: Today’s electricity system are a complex network of power plants, transmission and distribution wires, and end-users of electricity. Nearly all parts of a theater’s electricity system can affect the environment. In general, the environmental effects can include Emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, especially when a fuel is burned; Use of water resources to produce steam, provide cooling, and serve other functions; Generation of solid waste, which may include hazardous waste; Effects on plants, animals, and ecosystems that result from the air, water, waste, and land impacts above.
Sustainable Solution: London’s Arcola Theatre, one of the UK’s leading independent venues, aims to become the world’s first carbon-neutral theatre. Arcola has already installed a hydrogen fuel cell to power caf / bar lighting and selected main house shows. The fuel cell operates almost silently, producing nothing but electricity and clean water. The 5kW fuel cell system takes pride of place in the foyer of the theatre and provides a spur for discussion about the benefits and challenges of this groundbreaking technology. Arcola also installed a low-energy LED lighting system in the cafe/bar area supplied by PixelRange. It is estimated that the new lighting system has reduced energy costs in the bar by 60% and motivates lighting designers to reduce main house lighting energy consumption by 60%.
The proposal is to lobby the Federal government to mandate that all entertainment venues that receive federal funding become carbon-neutral by the year 2028.
Theaters Plastic Waste
Sustainable Issue: Plastic can greatly harm the ecosystems with aquatic ecosystems being the most impacted. Here are some other environmental impacts of plastic bottles:
• It takes 3 times the amount of water in a bolle of water to make it as it does to fill it.
• The production of bolled water uses 17 million barrels of oil a year. That’s slightly more than it would take to fill one million cars a year with fuel.
• Each day, people in the U.S. throw away more than 60 million plastic water bolles, most of which end up in landfills or as litter in America’s streets, parks, and waterways.
• Americans throw away 35 billion empty water bolles a year. Of those, only 12 percent are recycled.
• Although the U.S. comprises less than 5% of the world’s population, we consume more than 25% of natural resources and produce 30% of the trash and pollutants. Plastic constitutes 90% of all of the trash floating on the ocean’s surface – approximately 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.
• Americans drink more bolled water than milk or beer a year, and bolled water consumption increases by 10 percent each year.
Sustainable Solution: Creating a system that offers theater season subscribers a reusable bottle made from bio-plasic instead of offering them coupons to redeem single-use plastic water bottles.