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Xaquixe
Glass Innovation Studio
XAQUIXE, meaning "at the base of the mountain" in Zapotec, is a social enterprise specializing in blown glass, founded in 2002 in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The daily tasks in this glass studio and laboratory are similar to a performance, where the choreographic action between fire, blow pipes, movement of hands and breath, results in a translucent bubble. From this dance, a ball of fire is born which will become a glass, a bottle or a piece of blown glass.
MOBILIZING AN ECOSYSTEM OF SMALL INDUSTRIES AND COMMUNITIES IN MÉXICO TO ADAPT SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES.
Procesos Proambientales Xaquixe (PPX) is the non-profit education and laboratory arm of Xaquixe, established to research and adapt green technologies based on local systems and resources.
As a skills training center, consultancy and prototype lab supporting small, artisanal enterprises, the team at PPX has worked determinedly for 15 years to develop and test sustainable technologies to decrease environmental degradation, galvanize local participation in the innovation process, and improve socio-economic possibilities for rural communities.
LEVERAGING A SYSTEMS APPROACH ACROSS SECTORS FOR SOLUTIONS
PPX works across sectors using a whole systems approach to search for new solutions to entrenched local energy challenges.
The PPX team observes, analyzes and asks: “How can the waste from one process become a source of energy for another?”
PPX commits to working long term with local producers of mezcal, ceramics and glass in order to develop and implement technologies to improve production quality and reduce pollutants that negatively impact the producers' health and work environment as well as that of the communities they live in.
PPX is currently investigating the processes used in dyeing textiles with natural dyes to enable more responsible use of energy and water.
BUILDING COMMUNITY COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY
Support PPX
The PPX research and training center is co-located with Xaquixe in a regional industrial park in Oaxaca. The center includes:
• Mezcal distillation ovens with copper and clay stills • Ceramic oven • Solar concentration panel prototypes • Multi-union solar cell tower with heliostats for solar concentration • Anaerobic biodigesters • Biomass burners • Multi-combustion burners • Glass kilns • Glass annealers • Glass reheating furnaces • Lab equipment • Rain catchment system
