The innovative face mask for cows, designed to reduce methane emissions and control climate change, has won a prestigious design award. Business Insider.
The portable livestock kit, created by UK-based design group Zelp, was one of the four winners of the inaugural Terra Cart Design Lab competition.
Prince Charles, who launched the competition as part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, hailed the innovative design as “interesting” at the awards ceremony in London. The design, a smart seat belt for cows, converts methane into carbon dioxide and water vapor.
Cows emit large amounts of methane, an odorless greenhouse gas, which is more than 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
Achieving significant reductions in methane emissions will have a rapid effect on slowing climate change, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
A single dairy cow can produce up to 130 gallons of methane per day. And their saltpeter accounts for 95% of cows’ methane emissions. There are about one billion head of cattle in the world.
