The Mazava Clean Commute Project
1. Solar Ship Inc.
2. Sustainable.TO
The Mazava Clean Commute (MCC) project aims to provide a solution for the city of Toronto’s commuting and transportation problems. According to a study by the Toronto Board of Trade, Toronto ranks last out of 21 worldwide metropolitan centres for its commuting time. A Torontonian travels an average of 80min/day to and from work, compared to a mere 69 min for Tokyo (the world’s largest metropolis with 6 times the population of Toronto). Los Angeles, with its notorious gridlock, and a population 3 times larger than Toronto, has an average of 56 min of daily commuting time. All major economic capitals of the world including New York, London, Paris, Milan, Berlin, Sydney and London all have smaller commuting times. Another independent survey by IBM also reports that Toronto belongs to the worst 20 cities in the world for commuting.
To the dismay of locals and visitors to Toronto, Toronto Pearson International Airport has been voted the worst airport in Canada according to a FlightNetwork.com poll. One important contributing factor to this ranking is the lack of direct access to the downtown core from the airport. This problem is not new, nor will it be resolved quickly as there are no immediate plans for an expansion of subway lines to service the airport.
The MCC project will help daily commuters with an air transport service using a solar-powered aircraft developed by Mazava’s partner Solar Ship Inc. that will have the ability to provide efficient transportation to and from the suburbs without carbon emissions. One of the unique characteristics of the solar-powered aircraft is its short take-off and landing capabilities, which allow for safe landing in very small areas, such as a 100m soccer field. The solarship does not require an airport or a runway, which means it can land in particular downtown parks and parking lots, designated as solarship stations.
The solarship stations will be located in 100m areas throughout the GTA and the downtown core. Stations in the GTA will be located near car-pooling parking lots to encourage sustainable transportation methods to and from the station. Stations in the downtown core will be strategically located to accommodate large passenger numbers during rush hours. Mazava will organize fundraising events within each targeted community in order to purchase solarships and pay for necessary solarship station fees, such as permits. Since this aircraft does not use fossil fuels, the operation costs are greatly reduced and will be covered by the combination of a small fee paid by commuters and advertising space on the solarships. It will also provide visitors to Toronto with a unique eco-tourism experience that will then be expanded to other nearby attractions such as Niagara Falls, the Muskoka region, Algonquin Park and others.
In displacing fuel-intensive modes of transportation, zero-emission solarships provide both Green House Gas (GHG) mitigation and reduction of pollutant emissions. Soil and water co-benefits occur in decreasing reliance on road transportation. This reduces the destruction of green spaces (demonstrated by Toronto's waterfront) for building new roads aimed at improving Toronto’s obsolete transportation infrastructures, and reduces toxic run-off from road-going vehicles and chemicals used to maintain roads. As a solar-powered electric aircraft, no harmful emissions are produced during its use. This makes it the only emission-free form of transportation for commuters, with the exception of biking and walking. By displacing alternate methods of transportation, the implementation of The Mazava Clean Commute Project will result in ongoing emissions reduction.
The attached table summarizes our GHG and other emission reduction projections.
Mazava:
CEO: Jay Godsall has over 20 years experience as an entrepreneur with a global network of contacts in strategic remote area markets and in branding, advertising and marketing. Jay engaged in technology development and market realization by co-founding the Fio Corporation, a biotech company specializing in barcoding infectious disease. Jay recruited the initial management team and together they raised $25M in start-up financing. The product is just now coming to market.
Solar Ship Inc.
Solar Ship Inc. uses Canada’s global leadership in bush plane innovation with its patented inflated wing design to create an aircraft able to operate in areas where planes, helicopters and trucks cannot move cargo effectively. The technology combines the lift properties of both airplanes and airships. This design enables the aircraft to operate without the need for airports – it can take-off and land from a soccer field.
Solar Ship Inc. is demonstrating its aircraft technology in the cargo transport industry, targeting vast remote areas with natural resources and little infrastructure. Commodity economies face increasing costs getting product to global markets from remote areas such as Canada’s north and Africa. Transporters’ needs for these remote areas are not being met by today's planes, helicopters and trucks. Today's high-volume global commodities market’s need for safe and efficient movement of product is critical to the global economy. The five largest commodity regions cover an area four times the size of Canada with transport costs up to 100 times higher than established transport arteries. Solar Ship’s solution helps transport customers access these areas safely and connect them with global markets without the costs and damages associated with roads and railroads at a fraction of the costs of current aviation. The goal is to overcome transportation’s dependence on fuel and ground infrastructure, which is currently a major cost to remote area transport operations.
Sustainable.TO:
Specializing in designing and adapting green technologies to the needs of modern infrastructures, Sustainable.TO will offer their knowledge and resources in architecture, building and self sustaining green technologies to create a minimal environmental impact when the solarship is on the ground. Sustainable.TO has two decades of experience with sustainable technologies in the architecture and building industries. They provide realistic, achievable and affordable resource and energy-efficient design/build solutions. Current residential, commercial and institutional projects range from consultation-only, to addition/renovation design/build, to LEED-certified design/build of new homes and cottages, locally and abroad. They recently won the top prize in an international competition to design a Passive House for New Orleans. Acclaimed as "an incredibly thoughtful and viable response to this challenge, achieving 80-90% energy savings over conventional construction." Sustainable.TO's "Low Cost, Low Energy House" was selected from 65 entries from around the world. The competition was launched by the ArchDaily website and DesignByMany, a challenge-based design technology community. (http://www.archdaily.com/134521/passive-house-for-new-orleans-competition-winner/
The MCC project will be self-supporting as it will be a community-based project where each community, with the help of Mazava, will fundraise for the purchase of a solarship. Operation costs will be covered by a pay-per-use fee service and advertising. Compared to other means of transportation that require roads, rails or gas, the solarship will not require any infrastructure and therefore maintenance costs will be minimal in comparison.
Additionally, profits generated from the eco-tourism industry will be reinvested into the purchase of additional solarships for Toronto communities.
Comments
save fuel and time both
Fuel consumption is increase day by day and the travel time is also increase for traveling as city grows. For this problem public transport is the best and government should worke out on this problem
Government plays major role in the public transport and road construction so government must step in for the success of this project.
Great idea, but how market ready is this?
I think there's some great potential for this type of transportation in the future, but wonder how close we are to actually integrating this into current transportation systems. What's your market readiness?
very resonating
i think everyone can associate with this as commuting long is a common feature for many people. So if the commuting is improved, it will save fuel costs and time for many people. this will suerly be benificial for the environment.
Colloborate with the provincial government to improve the infrastructure so that it improves the productivity.
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Fascinating
Fascinating, but can you show a working model?
It sounds like dreaming. if you can produce a proof with actual experience, it will be revolutionary. Love to see Toronto first. Toronto is blessed with such talents and vision.