The diversity of natural resources
Insulators made of hemp and energy won from wood pellets: nature produces plenty of renewable resources. Crops are often planted with a specific use in mind, but the new trend in renewables has downsides for nature too.
Glorious and useful
While the world still produces a lot of its energy from fossil fuels, nature produces plenty of renewable resources constantly. Although plant lovers enjoy sunflowers for their splendour and chefs use the oil for cooking, industry uses the tall yellow flower to produce lubricants or in biodiesel. The sunflower is a renewable resource that is grown on about 400,000 hectares of farmland in Germany.
One of the oldest resources
Forests supply a resource mankind has been using for a very long time: wood. To whittle spears or to kindle a fire - wood was indispensable for our ancestors. It is still a popular building material: About 15 percent of new buildings in Germany are constructed out of wood.
Raw materials produce heat
Wood is a renewable resource that also supplies energy. Over the past decade, wood pellets have become increasingly popular to heat stoves - a good example for how renewables as an energy source can reduce mineral oil consumption.
A lubricant for steam engines
Rapeseed is a member of the cabbage family. Humans have been using the plant for many centuries. The seed has been a source for oil since the Middle Ages, used for instance in lamps. In the 19th century, rapeseed oil was used as a lubricant for steam engines.
The downside of the biogas boom
Using renewable resources as an energy supplier has given rise to quite some criticism. Huge fields of corn and rapeseed are planted to run biogas plants. As a result, the landscape in regions like northeastern Germany has radically changed, and many wild plants and animals have lost their habitat.
The all-rounder
Corn, originally from Latin America, is one of the most widely cultivated crops in the world. It is not just planted on vast fields for renewable energy purposes: its main use is animal feed and food for humans. Industry has also discovered corn as an ingredient for glue and adhesives.
Plant-based plastics
Plastic made of corn, potatoes or sugar cane: nowadays, many products are made of bioplastics, including garbage bags and joghurt containers, but also products such as disposable razors. Environmental activists support improving and consistently recycling bioplastics to ensure they are really environmentally friendly.
From biscuits to biodiesel
Palm fruit is pressed to win palm oil, an edible vegetable oil. It is an ingredient in many different types of food, including margarine, pizza and biscuits. Palm oil is used as a raw material in candles, cosmetics and washing powder. The product is also increasingly used for biodiesel production.
Palm trees replace rainforests
Palm oil is the one renewable resource that is most strongly criticized. Oil palms grow well in hot, humid climates, just like rainforests, rich in species and home to rare animals such as orangutans. Over the past years, rainforests have been felled extensively in Malaysia and Indonesia to make way for palm oil plantations.
Weaving, not smoking
Many people know hemp only as a recreational drug. But there is a form of hemp for industrial use that has no intoxicating effect. It is grown, for instance, in France, where the fibers are used to make special paper and clothing, like hemp jeans.
Keeping the heat in
Insulating material can also be made of hemp fiber. The blocks here can't be used on the outside of a house because they don't tolerate moisture, but the hemp is well-suited to insulate walls, ceilings or the roof of a house from the inside. Hemp fibers also help keep the house cool in the summer.