You never know where a really good idea will come from. Take the innovative Deep Water Cooling system that has replaced air conditioning systems in many big Toronto buildings by using the very cold water at the bottom of Lake Ontario to cool buildings. It uses less than a tenth of the energy required by conventional air conditioning systems.

Robert Tamblyn, the Toronto engineer who dreamed up the system, got the idea when he worked at the downtown Eaton’s department store in the 1940s. He figured out that the store was cooling the women’s evening wear department by blowing air over pipes that carried the cold municipal water supply.