As New Zealand scrambles to do its bit to cool the globe and give greenhouse gas the boot, there is a groundswell of enthusiasm for sustainable technologies ranging from the elegantly simple to the intriguingly complex. Organisations as varied as schools and state-owned enterprises, pulp mills and universities are working on technologies to save us from ourselves.

At the sharp end are ideas that make your fingertips tingle with excitement, like plans for a pyrolysis plant that burns wood in a controlled atmosphere to produce carbon monoxide, hydrogen, bio-oil and bio-char for digging into agricultural land to mimic the fertile black soils of the Amazon basin. Another is to harness the moon’s gravity by anchoring underwater turbines in Cook Strait to generate electricity from the tides.

Then there is the quieter revolution. Schools from Naseby to Rotorua have converted classroom heating from coal to sustainable wood, using wood chips, or pellets made out of sawdust from nearby sawmills, for burning in high-tech, low smoke and ash furnaces.

Industry is pulling its weight too. Winstone Pulp International’s mill at Karioi has installed a 12MW bark furnace and a heat exchanger to recover 3MW of heat from steam for drying pulp, drastically reducing electricity and LPG use. Excess heat is used to dry timber from the nearby Tangiwai sawmill. Genesis Energy has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions from Huntly Power Station by a million tonnes a year, and dairy companies are making biofuel from whey.

Many who seek funds to prove their smart new technologies are reluctant to divulge details, rightly fearing competitors will learn their secrets. Others don’t want to be told their brainchild is stillborn because it defies the laws of the universe or consumes more electricity and energy than it produces. For all the genuinely innovative ideas on how to save the planet there are as many charlatans, peddling projects that range from the equivalent of the perpetual motion machine to concepts so novel they make your eyes water with disbelief. In the rush to grab the next smart technology it’s also easy to forget the tried and tested, such as burning sustainable wood and generating hydro electricity.

Now that you have been warned, let’s have a look at a handful of clever ideas to deal with greenhouse gases and global warming.