This Billboard Does More To Clean The Environment Than 1,200 Trees

As a developing country, Peru is struggling with the pollution that has come with a rapid wave of new construction work.

UTEC, an engineering college in Lima, is currently rebuilding its campus. But instead of adding to the pollution, which scientists say puts construction workers and local residents at risk of life-threatening diseases, UTEC decided to make a billboard that actually makes the air cleaner.

The billboard uses thermodynamic processes to trap pollutants in a water filter, leaving only the clean air to come out the other end. The billboard produces more clean air than 1,200 trees and its effects reach people within a five-block radius.

UTEC made the billboard in collaboration with the advertising agency FCB Mayo to promote its admissions test, which was held March 9. Here's a short video showing how it works:

Pretty cool, huh?

The project follows a 2013 collaboration between UTEC and FCB Mayo that yielded a billboard that created drinkable water out of thin air. Here's how that one worked: