Adventure Traveler Garry Sowerby in his own words:

Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Toronto, Ontario

Environmental Initiative #30
Better Transportation Expo, City of Toronto

I’ve been a ‘lifer’ at my fair share of auto shows, stationed in a manufacturer’s display. A ‘lifer’ means I can’t leave, unless some kind soul comes to let me visit the facilities. I’m stuck there with my vehicle, motor-mouthing for 12 hours a day, twelve days straight to passersby about the strange, oddball feat the vehicle and I have just accomplished.

I’ve answered questions about my adventures like: “What was it like driving the perimeter of Iceland in the middle of winter?” and “What were you thinking when the bandits shot your truck in Kenya?” or “Did Tim Cahill really punch you out in Alaska at the end of your Pan-American drive?”

But now, this show felt different.

The Mission Green Tour has been in a holding pattern in the City of Toronto for the past couple of days to take part in a different kind of auto show. The Better Transportation Expo, or BTE, is a multi-venue exhibition of clean, sustainable transportation alternatives.

Mission Green’s Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid Pickup Truck and GMC Yukon, powered by Iogen Corporation’s cellulose ethanol, were on display along with more of the latest in clean transportation that meet low to zero emission standards.

The Better Transportation Expo is organized and implemented by The Energy Efficiency Office, Works and Emergency Services of the City of Toronto . The City of Toronto has an official goal to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2005.

The Better Transportation Partnership (BTP) is one of the major initiatives of the City of Toronto that supports this goal. New and emerging transportation technologies that meet Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV), Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) or Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) standards are being actively promoted by the BTP. Other commercially viable technologies such as electric, fuel cell, hybrid or other technologies are included.

The show aims to promote low emissions transportation/mobility, Alternate Fuel Vehicles and other innovative transportation through exhibits and information seminars.

The Mission Green team wandered around the Expo and motor-mouthed to the ‘lifers’ in their displays. It felt good to be a part of something that would ultimately contribute to a healthier City while helping to alleviate global climate change.

Mission Green salutes the City of Toronto and the Better Transportation Partnership for bringing this display of forward-thinking transportation technology to the people.

http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/energy/btp_expo/index.htm
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Environmental Initiative #31
Hydrogen Village

When it comes to hydrogen fuel cell technology, I always feel a bit confused. Yes, I know fuel cells can replace batteries as a way of powering things that traditionally require battery power. I know that fuel cells can be used to run vehicles and that some day cars may all run on fuel cells.

I’ve never delved into it more than that and I’ve never considered hydrogen powering something other than transportation. Fuel cell technology, to me, is fuzzy.

I realized today that If you just stick to the basics, it becomes less confusing. And here we were, Mission Green at the base of the most highly visible windmill in Canada at the Canadian National Exhibition, becoming less confused about the benefits of hydrogen fuel cell technology.

Ry Smith, the Manager of Hydrogen Village, Fuel Cells Canada’s demonstration project at the CNE, was helping us dispel the confusion.

First of all, the Village is not bricks and mortar with quaint shops where everybody knows everybody’s business. It is a virtual village consisting of a hydrogen filling pump. Its intention is to create public awareness of fuel cell technology and become part of a growing hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. The fact that the Village is located along the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, probably one of the most travelled highways in the country is a plus when it comes to exposure.

The windmill towers over us with obvious purpose. It creates the electricity that is required to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in plain old water. The hydrogen is the gold here. Once it’s separated from the oxygen, it is purified, compressed, purified again and stored in storage cylinders.

This electrolitic cell stack that does the separating is capable of producing 65 kg of hydrogen per day. After the 65 kg of hydrogen fuel is made, the windmill continues to create electricity that is diverted back to the main power grid.

Some numbers we could relate to:

• 1 kg of hydrogen converts to 33 kilowatt hours of electricity with 100% efficiency
• 1 kg of hydrogen = 3.8 litres of gasoline (1 US gallon)
• Price per kg of hydrogen is roughly the same as price of gasoline
• 65 kg of hydrogen can fuel up to 20 vehicles per day

After listening to Ry Smith, we realized that hydrogen fuel cells can power anything. Usage of electricity and batteries can be replaced by fuel cells. Another interesting note: the windmill can be anywhere… the Arctic, a desert, a remote cape on an island.

As long as there is water and wind (or even sunlight and water with solar panels), hydrogen fuel can be manufactured.

We asked Ry where fuel cells can be used. He told us that there are limitless possibilities for using fuel cells. We referred to the website of Fuel Cells Canada and found a wealth of easy-to-understand answers to our questions (http://www.fuelcellscanada.ca/faq.html): a fuel cell is simply a device that takes a fuel and, in combining it with oxygen (air), produces electricity. Therefore it can be used in virtually any application requiring electrical power. Fuel cells can be used instead of internal combustion engines or batteries to power vehicles ranging in size from small mopeds to large transit buses and transport vehicles, or in small consumer devices such as laptops and wireless phones.

Large fuel cells can replace existing power plants to provide electricity for a great number of users, or in smaller, distributed power generation plants to supply the electrical needs of a factory, a neighbourhood, or an individual home.

Basically, a fuel cell can supply clean (low or no emissions), quiet, vibration-free electricity without the need to frequently dispose of the cell when its fuel is spent or wait long periods of time for recharging.

Okay, so we were still a bit fuzzy on the technology but, with the inevitable march toward fuel cells as a way of life on our planet and with the Hydrogen Village, with its display boards explaining the fuel cell, only a quick detour off the Gardiner Expressway, we knew that our fuzziness and that of likely countless others can’t help but be cleared in the not-too-distant future.

Mission Green sends an environmental nod to Fuel Cells Canada and the Hydrogen Village on the CNE grounds.

http://www.fuelcellscanada.ca
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Environmental Initiative #32
Cherry Beach

The first time I was in this area was in 1979. I had been driving around, trying to get the low-down on Toronto, practicing for when I would be driving my cab for the first time the following day. I cruised the industrial lakefront, trying to familiarize myself with every nook of the city.

I stumbled upon an open space right at the water and, getting out of my car, I felt like I had made a discovery that was really quite something. I had discovered Cherry Beach. No one else could possibly know about this. Would anyone actually come here to lay on the questionable sand? It didn’t seem anything like the beaches I was used to at home on the Atlantic Ocean.

This beach was something you’d see in a third-world country. This industrial waterfront with smokestacks, chain-link fences and train tracks was not where I’d expect to find a beach. Grubby and a tad seedy, but so unexpected, Cherry Beach stuck with me.

I’d hear about Cherry Beach later from time to time and this is the image that would always come to mind.

Twenty-five years later and again Cherry Beach strikes me with surprise. It still had an exotic feel, like we’ve been transported to Karachi, Pakistan. An urban beach with no litter, no cigarette butts, no beer caps. Families were playing together. People were laying in the September sunshine. Mission Green felt like hanging out, maybe building a sand castle.

Obviously, the community had been hard at work.

We were on what is now, thanks to the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation, the cleanest beach in Toronto. And the coveted Blue Flag will soon be fluttering in the breeze coming in off Lake Ontario.

The Blue Flag program started in France 15 years ago and is administered by the Foundation for Environmental Education in Denmark. About 3,000 blue flags have been awarded around the world for beaches that set international standards.

More than 2800 beaches and marinas participate in the Blue Flag Campaign, which operates in 24 countries.

The campaign unites tourism and environment sectors at local and national levels and aims to promote clean and safe beaches and marinas, educate the community on protecting coastal ecosystems and encourage voluntary involvment in environmental activities.

The Blue Flag itself, a respected eco-label, is awarded to beaches and marinas with good environmental management. To gain a Blue Flag, beaches have to meet 27 criteria, including: water quality, beach/marina management, safety, services and facilities, environmental education and information.

Cherry Beach has passed the test and here in the golden, sigh-inducing light of evening, with the Toronto skyline as a backdrop, we sense the pride of the community in their beach, one of the most beautiful spots in the city. The Great Escape. The bike trail is busy with walkers, joggers and cyclists, out for their evening constitution. The people are friendly. They want to be filled in on why we are all dressed alike in our Mission Green gear.

There is a sense here of back-to-the-basics. After the concrete and steel of downtown Toronto, the innovative gardens on the roofs, the techie Hydrogen Village, the industriousness of the TTC’s maintenance yard and the futuristic Better Transportation Expo, the Mission Green team was just as happy to have a few minutes to laze around on a simple, old-fashioned, clean, clean beach.

http://www.torontobeach.ca/blueflag.htm
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