Here's €5 million - now go and save the planet

At the Green Machines exhibition in Dublin, you are given play money to invest in a range of environmentally friendly innovations. It’s up to you to spend it wisely

FANCY €5 MILLION? If your answer is “yes please”, you might want to make your way to the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin.

But, as with most offers of instant riches, there are a few catches: the loot, meted out in €500,000 coins, isn’t legal tender. Also, you can’t spend the fortune on anything your heart desires. You have to “invest” the money in environmentally friendly innovations such as a bamboo bike, house-warming fungi and energy-generating pavements – all being showcased at the Gallery’s new Green Machines exhibition, which launched on Thursday night.

The idea is to get people to think about green inventions and opportunities, according to the Science Gallery’s director, Dr Michael John Gorman.

“We wanted to do something connected with the theme of sustainability, but enough of the doom-and-gloom stuff; we are all tired of that,” he says. “So we thought about looking at the opportunity provided by the environmental challenge, the opportunity for people to engage creatively and come up with new ideas that are going to make a difference.”

The sweetener is to offer visitors a roll of coins minted by the gallery for the occasion.

“Our new strategy to beat the recession is to make our own money,” says Gorman. “So at the beginning of the exhibition you get €5 million.”

With the swag in your sticky paw, you attend investor bootcamp to learn what to look out for in green products. You sit at a "sushi table", as trays bearing eco-friendly and commercially available products trundle around, Generation Game-style (complete with cheesy backing music).

It’s a haul of cleverness that includes a toaster with a lid to reduce energy consumption, a kettle that boils just the right amount of water for your cuppa, a mouldable material called Sugru that can plug holes and fix broken items to prolong their life, an e-reader device to save on paper and shipping and an iron that doesn’t overdeliver steam.

Accompanying sheets offer ratings for the elements of “green-ness” such as materials used, transport involved and whether there’s a market for the product.

“At the investor bootcamp people look at these everyday objects and ask, is this invention going to be beneficial to the environment and [worth] the energy it took to create it? There can be a tension between things we perceive as being green, but maybe they are less green than we think,” explains Gorman. “They are learning not just about that, but what are the commercial opportunities, what is the market, the price point and is this a disruptive technology that’s going to shake up the market.”

After the crash course in green venture capitalism we head upstairs to examine the new technologies and spread the wealth. Science Gallery staff – and in some cases the inventors and designers themselves – are on hand to explain the innovations and field questions from the would-be investors.

Exhibits include rolls of flexible solar material, an energy-saving shower that could easily be mistaken for a piece of sculpture, a Wavebob device to harness ocean energy and a compact wind turbine that’s easy on the eye.

Some technologies target the developing world: the “hippo” roller bucket easily transports 90 litres of water, while correctable, fluid-filled spectacles (Adspecs) can help improve sight in the absence of optometry services.

And, as winter draws in, how about insulating buildings with plastic bottles, or using material generated from fungi acting on agricultural waste? Or maybe you would consider investing some of your millions in a pavement that harnesses the kinetic energy of footsteps. Michael Jackson may have had a notion of it in his Billie Jeanvideo more than 25 years ago, but a UK company, Pavegen, has now developed a slab that flexes when you step on it and can use the energy generated to power local lights and ad displays.

Each of the technologies has an accompanying slot for coins, and the invention that gets the most investment by the end of the exhibition will win an award.

And if you have a green flash of inspiration yourself, you could also be in with a chance by booking in to a workshop.

“We have a design studio where we will run workshops that pick a challenge and people come up with their own inventions,” explains Gorman, adding that cash prizes and a design internship are on offer.

Green Machines, supported by Glen Dimplex, Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland and the ESB, runs at the Science Gallery, Pearse Street, Dublin, until December 17th. Entrance is free, but there is a small charge for groups. Contact workshops@ sciencegallery.com for school groups. See sciencegallery.com or call 01-8964091 for opening times