As a software engineer and Innovation Group facilitator at CradlePoint, I am always interested in stories about innovation. I found this story of two young men turning some ugly, unwanted shipping pallets into green shelters, and hope for homeless and refugees an excellent example of the importance of innovation.
The young men are architects Gregor Pils and Andreas Claus Schnetzer of Austria. When the ugly but practical pallets came together with Gregor and Andreas on a family building site, a surprising innovation came about. The two, after some brainstorming with other members of their families, decided that the pallets, which were used to ship materials to their site, could also be used to create homes.
The two men have created a pallet home with all the utilities. Well-designed and insulated versions of a pallet home need as little as a small, 2000-watt heater to keep it warm during winters. The pallets are used as floors, walls, and ceilings. Support beams, piping, wiring, and insulation fit into the spaces between the surface of the pallet and the base. Other accouterments can be added, and the construction can be extended to create additional rooms and floors.
Another use of their innovation is long-term emergency shelters for people in refugee camps around the world. Pallet homes are constructed quickly, are very durable, provide a more comfortable and practical living environment than tents, and cost a very small fraction of what typical construction would using more expensive materials. By providing refugees living spaces made from pallets and inexpensive insulation materials like straw, they can have a more comfortable, healthier lifestyle than they could in a typical shanty-town camp.
Gregor and Andreas want their pallet home designs to be used to provide permanent homes in poor nations where materials and resources are scarce. A more complete version of the emergency shelter can provide a safe and comfortable home to people who may not otherwise be able to have a permanent place to live.
Giving people permanent homes in poor areas of the world and building more durable and comfortable housing in refugee camps helps the shelter's occupants feel more comfortable and secure. The beneficial lift in spirits gives hope to people who may otherwise be living in a muddy tent city or shantytown. Hopeful, happier people can more easily fight off disease and infection, are less likely to commit crimes, and bolstered with a sense of pride are more willing to help themselves to improve their situation.
Reusing pallets as building material reduces the world's carbon footprint since people aren't burning the pallets that are used. Burning broken or discarded pallets can create significant amounts of CO2 and can release noxious chemicals from some of the chemicals used to weatherproof and treat the pallets.
Using the pallet as the principal building material reduces waste and recycles otherwise worthless wood into something very useful. Through the innovation of Gregor and Andreas there are people in the world today who now have homes, shelters, and hope for a better life.