(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Throughout the country, people are planting the seeds of innovation, harvesting a bounty of ideas to help care for the only home we have, planet Earth.

In the second season of My World Too, discover with our team ideas in sustainability both new and old, from high tech eco innovations to homegrown local solutions.

We'll learn about sustainable trends in transportation, housing, energy, food production, climate change, carbon reduction, resource management, and so much more.

Join our field reporters as they explore eco-friendly ideas and lifestyles that help to make our world a little bit better.

Welcome to My World Too, short stories of sustainable living and earthly innovations.

As the electric vehicle revolution grows in the US, there will be important changes along the highway corridors.

My World Too's Nick Schmitz learns what it will take to keep us all charged up and on the road.

- Chris, this is a really impressive facility.

Can you talk to me a little bit about this building and what goes on in here?

- So this is The Hill Engineering Research and Development Center, and the idea behind it is for students to work on innovative projects looking at sustainable future.

There are no offices for faculty in here.

It's purely for students to work on the next generation of technologies, everything from electric vehicles to biodiesel combustion, electric bikes, but really helping students perform and create these innovative projects that help us in the next generation of these sustainable technologies.

So we've had a number of different projects through the years looking at electric bikes to looking at electric vehicles.

Here was the first vehicle that we did, which was a plug-in series hybrid electric vehicle that ran on biodiesel and we created out of a 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle to kinda show the sustainability aspect.

The idea really revolves around people prosperity in the planet and the goal of students to get engaged in this type of activities so that they can go off in industry and help lead innovation in these areas.

- Now, I know you did a study on electric vehicles and charging anxiety.

Can you talk to me a little bit about that?

- Sure.

The funded study by the Kansas Department of Transportation was looking to see how electric vehicles actually work on the Kansas centric roads, so understanding rain, snow, wind, the wind direction on these roads, and how commercial EVs will actually work.

What we started with was essentially a model that matched the EPA predicted range of vehicles.

And then from that, we said, okay, how are they gonna perform in January if they're heading west on I-70?

How are they gonna perform north heading on I-35 in July?

So what is the impact on their range with respect to air conditioning, heating?

Is it raining outside?

How cold?

What's the wind blowing?

And really, we saw a dramatic difference depending on the time of year based on these vehicles and when they're traveling at these higher speeds on the interstates.

We saw up to a 40 or a 50% reduction in range of the electric vehicles on these highway roads.

You're driving around city and you're using EVs to their maximum capabilities with a stop and go driving and the regenerative braking, you can get very close to the EPA stated range.

But if you need to travel to the airport on highways and you're traveling at 75 miles per hour and you turn on the heating, you're gonna see a dramatically reduced range.

And that is something that I've experienced firsthand since I drive an electric vehicle.

And taking my dad to the airport over Thanksgiving, I saw a significant reduction.

- So it would seem to me the way that consumers think about electric vehicles has to be a little bit different than the way we think about gas-powered vehicles, the way we charge, the way we can travel in them.

Is that sort of what your study is showing?

- I think consumers are not used to a kind of different mentality, a different mindset when it comes to electric vehicles, just the difference between filling up at a gas station and putting gas in for five minutes versus essentially being able to charge at home overnight.

You might have to do a little bit more planning when it comes to trips and a little bit more planning when it comes to maybe your daily commute in regards to, hey, I just have to make sure that I plug in my vehicle at night, or maybe I need to find a fast charger midway through the week to make sure that the range actually reflects my actual driving profile.

- Several of the major auto manufacturers have announced that they have plans to stop selling internal combustion engine cars, gas-powered cars by I think it's 2040.

So as we're making this shift, as we're being told that we're gonna be making this shift to electric vehicles, what do we need to be doing, what do we need to be planning for in order to sort of make a smooth transition?

- Well, I think we really have to plan for more education of the consumers.

First adopters with regards to electric vehicles are going to just accept them as is.

They're the ones that are really interested in the technology, really wanna see it, and basically blossom in the world.

It's the typical consumer, that second generation that's going to purchase these EVs, have to be more well educated in regards to what their capabilities are.

- We've been driving electric vehicles now for two years.

- We have two electric cars in our family, and most of all, it just makes us feel really good that we're making the best choice for the environment, making the most sustainable choice.

And it just so happens that we're making the most fun driving choice, the most convenient choice for us.

- [Mike] The idea that you could get something that's good for the environment but also gonna be lower maintenance, fun to drive, things like that was very appealing.

- My wife and I bought a diesel back in the day, and diesel was not, is not readily available at every gas station.

So we had to plot and plan on our trips to basically figure out where we need to fill up the diesel vehicle.

So if you plot and plan, I think you can make the range of these EVs really work to your benefit when you're talking about this traveling aspect.

- Yeah, one of the things that strikes me is the difference in the efficiency.

With a gas car, you're used to getting less mileage in the city when start and stop traffic.

But when you get out on the highway, you're gonna get more bang for your buck, but it's the opposite it with an electric vehicle.

Is that correct?

That the start and stop, they're very, very efficient, but when you're going in a straight line at 80 miles an hour, you're really draining that battery.

- Exactly.

And so that's why many people has theorized the internal combustion engine isn't gonna go away.

The Department of Energy predicts by 2040, we're still gonna be driving a large percentage of our vehicles with combustion engines.

It's because of that efficiency.

Internal combustion engine is very efficient at higher speeds, higher loads.

Electric vehicles, more efficient at lower speeds, lower loads.

And so if you look towards the future, my prediction would see that we're gonna be driving a lot of hybrids.

Essentially, everyone will be driving at least a hybrid in the future, and electric vehicles will be part of that mix.

The combustion engine, unfortunately, we don't believe is gonna go away.

There's still a lot of innovation that can be done.

And what you talked about, that marriage between the efficiency of the engine and the efficiency of the electric vehicle and the battery pack and marrying that is where these hybrids, I think, we'll see a lot more in the future.

- So Chris, as we make this transition, what are some of the challenges that we're gonna face?

I immediately think of the lithium-ion batteries.

There's a lot that goes into creating just the batteries for these cars, let alone the cars themselves.

- Yeah, so the mining of lithium, the mining of the other metals involved, like cobalt and nickel, that are in these highly reactive batteries that we need for electric vehicles is going to be a significant environmental challenge in the future to make sure we do it cleanly.

There's actually something called embodied emissions, which are the emissions that are generated in, essentially, the construction of the vehicle.

And there's studies that have shown that when you construct this electric vehicle, it actually takes more energy and more emissions than a conventional internal combustion engine.

Now, you make up for that if you drive the vehicle for a long enough time, but if everyone went out and bought an electric vehicle today, then we might actually make the problem worse just from those embodied emissions perspective.

- Tami, where are we right now?

- We are at the 24/7 Travel Store in McPherson, Kansas.

They are one of the groups that we've worked with to expand alternative fuel adoption throughout the state of Kansas.

- And why is McPherson an important place to have a set of these chargers?

- We're located, we're right here on I-135.

We're right on the exit.

And this is a key corridor between Wichita, Kansas, which is the largest city in Kansas, and I-70.

So having this charging station here helps to connect that population, about half a million people in the Wichita Metro, up to I-70 and then points east and west from there.

- [Nick] And I-70 is a corridor straight across America, correct?

- [Tami] Right.

- [Nick] From Baltimore to, to the edge of Utah.

- [Tami] Right.

- [Nick] So if you've got an electric car in Wichita and you need to get to I-70, this is a key junction for you.

- We need that kind of connection for all the towns spread out, I mean, not just the major towns, all the little towns in Western Kansas, up in the mountain towns in the Northern US.

We've got to have this set up so that people can travel between those locations.

- Tami, how much does it cost to get one of these installed?

- It varies a lot depending on how close you are to the infrastructure.

You have to get a lot of power here.

It's not just like plugging in a regular appliance.

And so it's going to vary a lot with the installation, depending on how close you are to adequate power.

And if you have to install all of that, what we call behind the meter, that costs a lot more.

KDOT, in their recent Volkswagen funding opportunity, they're allowing 150,000 for a setup like this where there's two chargers.

- We're hearing a lot from the car manufacturers, that they're all making this push.

We're going electric vehicle.

So what's it gonna take for this country to be prepared for that so that we can fuel up these cars once everybody's driving these electric vehicles?

- It's gonna take a lot more locations like this.

It's gonna be a little bit different.

I mean, we're familiar with the paradigm of fueling with liquid fuels in gas stations everywhere.

We won't probably need quite as many chargers as we do, as we have gas stations because you can charge a vehicle at home.

And matter of fact, that's where most of the charging is done.

But in order to be able to travel long distances, we've got to have this charging equipment.

The Federal Highway Administration, they recommend you have it every 50 miles.

That's because you can't necessarily, even though a range might be 200 miles, you're not gonna get that when you're driving on the highway, so they want 'em closer together.

So we need to get that set up everywhere, and not just the interstates.

I mean, it needs to be on the state highways.

That way, it enables people to travel from city to city.

- The main thing that people are always asking us, "Well, where do you charge," thinking that they need to panic, but it's just changing your mindset.

Like, if you had your own gas station in your garage, would you ever choose to go out to a gas station in the middle of the freezing cold and get out there and pump gas?

No, you would just do it in the comfort of your own garage.

Chargers are popping up everywhere.

There's ChargePoint, the ChargePoint network, Electrify America.

Tesla has its own supercharger network that is adding new superchargers stations every minute.

- I drive a smaller electric SUV.

And with the range that we get, I only have to charge maybe twice a week depending on how far I'm going.

Just around Lee's Summit, I go maybe 30 miles a day and we get a 100, 150 miles range.

So it's really convenient.

When we do have to charge, we just pull right in our garage, plug it in, and it charges without us even knowing.

- Chris, what was the major catalyst for this shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles?

Is it primarily the emission standards?

Is it the environmental impact?

- Well, the environmental impact is definitely a factor, but I would say it was the quantum leap in battery technology.

Toyota Prius came out with their hybrid and used nickel-metal hydride batteries, and they worked well from a hybrid perspective.

But then when lithium-ion batteries really made that leap to the next generation of technology that people really started to see the capabilities of these batteries to handle a heavy vehicle and have it on the road.

So I'd say lithium-ion batteries, making that technological leap really was the impetus behind our growth in electric vehicles on the road today.

- [Nick] So you'd say that 10, 15 years ago, these vehicles wouldn't have even been possible 'cause we didn't have the technology?

- I would say that's pretty much true.

Lithium-ion batteries, just within the last couple years, not to mention the last 15 years, have grown by leaps and bounds and do make it capable that you can drive a 4,000, 5,000 vehicle around and get a good range out of it.

- Tami, it's really exciting to see these sort of things being built, to come to some place like McPherson, Kansas and see this, and see that I can bring my electric vehicle and charge it here.

It seems to me though that this is a big process and there's a lot of these that need to be out there in order to make this work.

What is it gonna take for us to have these everywhere that we need them?

- In order to facilitate travel across country, we're going to have a lot, need to have a lot more of these than we currently have, and it's gonna take a lot of work from a lot of people.

There's nonprofits like us who are working to give access to grant funding in order to be able to install these.

It's gonna take great corporate entities like 24/7 working with us to install these at their fueling locations.

We're gonna have to have input from the vehicle manufacturers.

A lot of them have already said by 2030, 2035, 2040, all their vehicles are going to be electric, and so a lot of them are putting some work into the infrastructure.

And quite frankly, I mean, it's gonna take some input from the government, the federal government.

If you kinda remember the rural electrification that went in the '40s to make sure that rural areas had just access to electricity, it's gonna take a similar push in order to get enough infrastructure out there for the vehicles to be able to fuel them and to be able to travel around the country.

Regardless of how you feel about electric vehicles, they're coming.

They're here for passenger vehicles.

The vehicles are very much great to be used and drive around.

We just need more infrastructure to be able to get them from city to city and to be able to make long distance travel a lot more convenient.

- [Narrator] In the heart of the America, there's a group on a mission to save excess produce from rotting in the field or spoiling in a landfill.

Instead, it feeds hungry people who really need it.

Our own Ashlee Skinner finds out what happens after the harvest.

- [Ashlee] It is so beautiful out here.

So where are we today?

- This is Cider Hills Orchard.

They're a real important partner for After the Harvest because we work together to fight hunger and food insecurity in our area.

We are a gleaning organization.

We have a three-tiered mission.

We work to fight food insecurity, improve nutrition, and reduce food waste.

- So what is the extent of the problem After the Harvest is looking to find a solution to?

- We have a serious food insecurity problem.

In our region, one in eight people in our community is food insecure.

And when you talk about children, it's even worse.

It's one in six.

- [Ashlee] Wow.

- Yes, one in six kids does not get enough food to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

So that's one problem we work on, and the other one is food waste.

And when we talk about food waste, 52% of produce grown in our country doesn't reach a human consumer.

- [Ashlee] That's unbelievable.

- It is.

It's staggering.

- So who are the individuals who receive this food?

- We work with agencies across Kansas City to get our produce out to food pantries and soup kitchens, and just agencies all around the metro area.

- Harvesters is a food bank that we serve the hungry in 26 county area, 16 counties in the state of Kansas, and 10 in the state of Missouri.

Harvesters has been in operation over 40 years.

We have over 216 square feet, and that's including our warehouse space and office space.

I always tell people, what would it be if we stopped getting donations coming in today.

This whole product that you see right now in our warehouse here in Kansas City and Topeka, we would deplete over 5.7 million pounds in three weeks with the product coming in today.

And the relationship with After the Harvest is very valuable to Harvesters.

They obviously help us to provide fresh produce to the people that we serve.

The fresh food is great for us to hand out to our agencies, for them to hand out to their clients.

The statistics show that children learn better when they have produce available in their diets.

- I know there's a lot of people who might not be familiar with what gleaning is.

(chuckles) - Yeah, really.

- Can you share with us what is gleaning?

- Yeah.

Gleaning, the term is an ancient term.

Actually, you'll see it in the Bible.

- [Ashlee] Oh, wow.

- It's actually the act of saving the corners of the field and not harvesting twice, but giving people who are food insecure the opportunity to get the gleaned produce and eat it for themselves.

- So if it wasn't for After the Harvest and other gleaning groups like this, a lot of this food would be-- - It'd be wasted, yes.

- Wasted, wow.

- But food is wasted for obscene reasons.

A bell pepper with four bumps on the bottom is graded out.

An apple is graded out because it's not big enough.

- Yeah, and there's so many homes that need this.

We've talked about like the statistics of all these different homes of people who are food insecure.

Let's talk about hidden hunger.

How is After the Harvest helping with that?

- Hidden hunger is a real problem in our community.

Sometimes it's easy to miss hunger because whenever people don't have enough money to buy the nutritious food they need, they end up getting filler food, a high calorie, no nutritional value, things that will fill the belly without nourishing the body.

We address that hidden problem by getting produce free to agencies.

We work with 620-plus agencies throughout the metro area, actually, in a 26-county area.

Hidden hunger is a really big problem because people don't see it.

They think of hunger as being a third world problem.

There's hunger right here in our community and in every county in our community as well.

- So we'll stop right here.

There's a lot of great apples on the ground.

- Oh, wow.

Yeah, these are beautiful.

- Yeah.

So this is a you pick orchard.

- Mm-hmm.

- And this orchard has customers out mostly on the weekend, and they come and pick the apples.

And then anything that is left behind, the tree drops perfectly good apples, as you can see.

- [Ashlee] Yeah.

- And we pick up the apples that are on the ground, check to see how they look.

That one's got a little bit of a spot.

- [Ashlee] Mm-hmm.

- It could go to a kitchen.

They could cut that piece off and make-- - [Ashlee] Apple sauce.

(laughs) - Apple sauce, apple pies.

The nice thing about apples that is a perfectly ripe one just drops right off the tree.

These are some great apples.

- [Ashlee] Wow.

- [Clay] And those are gonna feed a lot of hungry people.

- So who are the volunteers that help out with After the Harvest?

- We have volunteers of all kinds.

They're all ages.

Really, anyone can volunteer, and it's a lot of fun for everyone to be out on a farm or in the orchard or in the field, just being out in nature and able to see things growing.

We have a lot of kids that come out and some of them have no idea where that apple came from or where, oh, that grows on a tree, or that, how that grows, and it's really cool to experience.

- That's amazing.

It's great because this is like an ancient practice that has such current relevance.

- Yeah, exactly.

Gleaning goes way back.

It's happened, mentioned in the Bible.

It's happened in medieval times where the farmers would leave food in the field.

After they've harvested, they'd leave some behind for people who couldn't afford food to come and collect.

- [Ashlee] Wow.

- I retired.

And when I retired, I decided to give back.

And so I decided to start gleaning and helping out with After the Harvest.

I hate to think that a large segment of the produce that is grown goes to waste.

So if I can do a little bit to rescue part of that and get it back to people that are hungry, I'm more than happy to spend the time.

- So what happens next after you harvest all this fruit?

- So what happens next is our volunteers and staff take this to people that can eat it.

So we work with hundreds of different agencies in our area, food kitchens, food pantries, and our local food bank, Harvesters, to take this food out to people who can eat it.

So the next step in the process, we've gleaned this produce.

It comes here to Harvesters.

They're our largest distribution partner.

And we donate about 3.8 million pounds every year to Harvesters.

And they distribute that to all different agencies all around the area, and that helps feed a lot of people and ends up on a lot of hungry people's table.

So today, we do has brought a truckload of nutritious edible squash, pumpkins and squash.

So a lot of people like to use these as decorations for fall and winter, but they'll last all through the winter, and it's really nutritious food that lasts for many months, feed a lot of people.

- So we are in this beautiful orchard.

- Yeah, it's lovely.

- It's so lovely.

But what are some other crops that After the Harvest has been able to glean?

- Well, actually, we, in our gleaning program, gleaned 72 types of produce this year so far, 72 types.

And that is, we glean everything from apples to zucchini.

(Ashlee laughs) A to Z.

And we glean everything from blueberries to watermelon.

So it's, we're all over the place.

We work with more than a hundred local farms-- - Wow.

- To go into their orchards and fields after they've harvested and get what's left.

- [Ashlee] That's amazing.

- Yeah.

So it's wonderful, fresh, vine ripened, sun ripened food, and it's amazing to eat.

- So you guys have done such amazing work so far, but what are your plans for the future with After the Harvest?

- I see our organization growing.

We serve 26 counties right now.

We're the only gleaners in our community.

We're the only gleaners in our region.

- [Ashlee] Wow.

- [Lisa] So we perform an important service.

- And I love that this is, you're part of a national network.

- That's right.

Most of the gleaning organizations are located on the coasts, in places where a lot of produce is grown.

So we have gleaning organizations in Washington state, Oregon, California, all across the South and Southeast where produce is grown.

Hunger is not going away anytime soon and-- - [Ashlee] Neither is your work, right?

- [Lisa] Neither is our work.

We will be here to help glean farmers' fields and orchards.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Share your sustainability story or learn more about sustainability and earth-friendly innovations at myworldtoo.com.

- A fundamental science question that I would like to answer along with other scientists and other members of the team is how much fresh water is there in the Earth, and more importantly, where is it and at what point in time.

- Whenever I spill a bean, I think about my dad who always, every time we work with the beans together, he talks about his grandpa who would say (speaks in foreign language) which is you have to save every grain.

You can't let any grain go 'cause every grain touched a hand.