State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Cool tech: The ‘Savior Bud’ collects clean drinking water from trees

saviorbud01
Photo by Yanko Design

In dry areas of the world where access to clean drinking water is a matter of life and death, this novel design lets people get a little help from their plant friends. Yanko Design has developed the ‘Savior Bud’, which collects moisture directly from tree leaves during the natural transpiration cycle.

The process is simple.  They say:

“1. Find a broadleaf tree with lots of leaves.

2. Opening the Savior Bud like a giant clamp, surround a few leaves, and release. The Savior Bud should now be containing the leaves like you see in the picture above, sort of like a greenhouse.

3. In about four hours, the leaves will have produced about one cup of water. Turning the bottom of the bud like a faucet will release the water to be put into a separate container for drinking.”

In no way a large scale water solution, but in an emergency situation, you might be very glad to have one.

Savior Bud by Kim Hyo Jin and Seol Ah Sun » Yanko Design

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