[ Tiles May Help Shrink Carbon Footprint by Harnessing Pedestrian Power ]

In areas with high foot traffic, installations of special flooring may prove that the answer to meeting energy demand lies right beneath our feet.

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[ Coming Together on Energy Efficiency ]

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Many wild places The Wilderness Society is working the hardest to protect are areas near towns and cities that are ahead of the curve on the energy efficiency front. Take Pitkin, Gunnison and Eagle counties near the Mount Massive Wilderness Area in Colorado. By working with organizations like the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE), thousands of businesses and residents in these counties have taken action to reduce energy use through innovative programs implemented at a local scale.…

[ Oxford: Improvising and Building Experience ]

Nicole Miranda, a first-year doctoral student at the University of Oxford, practices her vehicle exit technique and timing at Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2012 in Rotterdam. She is assisted by fellow student and driver, Lucy Mahoney. (Often female students serve as drivers in the fuel efficiency competition because they weigh less than the men on the team.)

This is the first year of competition for the United Kingdom’s storied school, and the team has had to improvise, says manager Justin Bishop. They used the shell of a vehicle that already had been built by another student team in 2006, modifying it and including the needed safety equipment.…

[ Polytechnique: Aiming for Lighter Weight ]

Romain Lejas, of Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France, works on InfinitiX, the team’s entry in Shell Eco-marathon 2012 this week in Rotterdam. Last year, the team achieved 454 kilometers per liter (1,067 miles per gallon), and this year sought to reduce weight more.

The car is entered in the “prototype” category—these don’t have to be street-legal. Typically the students seek extremes in aerodynamics and light weight to reduce mileage in the race for the most fuel-efficient vehicle.

Lejas is in one of the student team “paddocks” at the huge Ahoy convention center.…

[ Torino: Proving New Concepts for Cars ]

The drive for a new and better way of doing things is built into the car designed by students from Italy’s Italy’s Politecnico di Torino, and entered in Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2012 this week in Rotterdam.

Most students in the fuel efficiency competition choose ultra-lightweight material like carbon fiber to shave mileage. But for their urban concept vehicle, XAM, the Torino students chose a soft natural fiber, covered with a resin to make it hard enough to serve as a chassis.…