Environment News Service article:
Solutions to Global Eco-Problems Online
NEW YORK, New York, July 28, 1999 (ENS) - An Internet site has been launched that will share new initiatives that incorporate successful approaches and technologies to address common world problems. The HORIZON Solutions Site is collaborating with four programs at the United Nations - Development, Environment, Population Fund, and UNICEF - as well as Harvard and Yale universities, and Canada's International Development Research Centre.
By discovering, documenting and sharing knowledge and techniques, HORIZON hopes to to alleviate environmental degradation and related health problems, and to address critical population and development concerns.
The interactive site publishes case studies that have been academically reviewed and which address problems in energy, as well as water, waste management, transportation, toxic chemicals, public health, population, industry, desertification, biodiversity, air pollution, and agriculture.
Gus Speth took over as Dean of the Yale University School of Forestry July 1. (Photo courtesy Yale University)
James Gustave Speth, then administrator for the United Nations Development Program, hosted a special launch of the site at the UN headquarters in New York, where he praised HORIZON's twenty years of work with case studies on solutions and emphasized the importance of using the information technologies especially for developing countries and to empower poor communities to identify and achieve development goals.
In his new position as Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environment, Speth will continue his work with the UNDP through the HORIZON website.
HORIZON is soliciting participation in the new site from institutions around the world, including students who are doing research in a relevant area, or faculty members who want to use the case studies for their students. Details on successful initiatives can be submitted directly on the Internet site.
HORIZON Communications is based at Harvard and Yale universities. It looks for initiatives from around the world, documents their feasibility through the use of an expert Scientific Review Board, and then spreads the information through its international television series, "One Second Before Sunrise," hosted by Lynn Redgrave and others.
One case study focuses on the Centro de Tecnología Agroindustrial (CTA) of the Universidad Mayor de San Simon in Bolivia which operates an applied research unit for agro-industrial development. It works with the plants of the Cochabamba region to obtain products with greater added value, directly benefiting rural small producers.
Pilot scale unit for extraction of essential oils from plants installed at CTA (Photo courtesy CTA/Horizon)
The site has four case studies on renewable energy: Development and Commercialization of Biomass Stoves in Africa; Rural Solar Energy Development in the Sudan; Photovoltaics for Household and Community Use in Zimbabwe; and Nepal: Rural Energy Development Programme.
Case studies include information on the background of the problem; how the solution was initiated; how long it has been underway and how well it is working; constraining factors such as cost or material limits; applicability and feasibility for replication elsewhere; evaluation results; photographs and contacts for further information.
The HORIZON site is online at: http://www.solutions-site.org/default.htm
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News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights Reserved. 
Published with permission from the Environment News Service (ENS) online at: http://ens.lycos.com