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And visit our survey and get the chance to win a $150 gift certificate. Only 4 days left!! ::TreeHugger Survey...
It has been a few years since the USEPA ground up a standard personal computer and ran it through their descriptively named Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP): the test designed to determine if a waste will result in hazardous chemicals leaking into the groundwater if disposed in a typical landfill environment. Sure enough, computers would be “hazardous waste” if they were industrial by-products rather than the useful, everyday tools we consumers like to upgrade every two to three years. As is commonly the case, efforts to redesign these critical components of modern life have been struggling against the market forces driving continually cheaper electronic goods and the scientific questions (is it really necessary to target electronics when batteries, bullets and even tire weights far exceed the paltry 0.5% contribution of lead from electronics?) But all this will soon change. Experts from around the globe have been meeting in Barcelona, Spain this week for the “International Conference on Lead Free Electronics”.
...
Harrison-Off Designs, located in the woodlands of Canada, designs and builds furniture using reclaimed timbers, beams, found deadfall and limbed trees. We like their Slash Pile Bench, which is constructed of deadfall. It's typically made of cedar to endure the outdoors. Each bench is unique — although it is reproduced, no two will be exactly the same. They also make tables which are quite elite, but you're going to have to click below to see one....
As John Laumer pointed out in
yesterday's post, Diesels produce a lot of Nitrous oxides. Mix ammonia with Nitrous Oxides and you get nitrogen and water. And, if you are in England, a good source of ammonia is urea from sheep pee.
A British bus company has fitted a bus with a tank containing urea made from locally collected farm waste, which is sprayed into the exhaust fumes. "It is a novel way of reducing pollution but we believe it will work. There is nothing to worry about - we won't be asking passengers to leave a sample and we won't be carrying a resident sheep at the back of the bus."
::The Guardian more on the chemistry
::RJM Aris thanks, tipster Bonnie...
My first encounter with Earthships was by accident. I was driving through the New Mexican desert, on my way to Taos. Off in the distance I could see some strange buildings and I said to the two ladies with me "What are those odd structures — those unusually shaped buildings — what could they possibly be?" Little did I know they were Earthships — houses designed to be self-sustaining as possible. They are usually made of concrete blocks, aluminum cans and used tires packed together with rammed earth. ...
The lives of residents on one of London's most notorious estates are being transformed with quality sustainable homes. Built in the 1970s, the
Angell Town estate in Brixton rapidly acquired a reputation as a dangerous and unsafe place to live, with murders, muggings and a widespread climate of fear. Now blind alleys and dangerous cul-de-sacs have been replaced with a remodelled environment of open, safe streets with overlooking front doors and windows at street level. The centerpiece of the redevelopment is 89 award-winning new sustainable homes....
"
Attack: an explosive, graphically violent work serving as an indictment of the oil and auto industries"- a blown-up SUV- was installed in Toronto this week, by
ATSA- Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable.
What we really like: Its in the City's
new public square, an art project supported by the
Canada Council for the Arts and the
Conseil des arts et des lettres Quebec. Strong stuff for three levels of government to support.
::ATSA via
::if
see the poster after the jump....
Go FedEx. Can-do investment like this makes real TreeHuggers think about who's going to be a preferred service provider. From the release: "The FedEx E700 hybrid electric vehicle decreases particulate emissions by 96% and travels 57% farther on a gallon of fuel than a conventional FedEx truck, reducing fuel costs by more than one third"..."Cleveland OH-based
Eaton Corp produced the hybrid electric powertrain for the vehicle".
...
A new book about cohousing and sustainable communities has been published by Graham Meltzer. It is based on a ten year study of cohousing — a popular new type of planned residential community that addresses environmental and social needs. The book contains many photographs and diagrams from twelve cohousing developments around the world — these are concrete examples of successful sustainable communities....
Just as everyone is pulling up their carpets and sanding back the exposed floorboards out comes new research to say “Whoa”. According to Dr Heike Neumeister-Kemp, from the School of Biological Science at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, all is not be as we first suspected. Her research has uncovered some myths about vacuuming and floor surfaces. Seems that “mould and bacteria spores, and fine particles, PM 10 and PM 2.5 - that's the little one that can go in your lungs” after falling on hard timber floor are being disturbed by air movement and sent back up into the air (and throats). Whereas vaccums with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters lift and clean carpet fibres, so they can hold such particles out of harms way. Now a HEPA vacuum costs about $800 AUD but the good doctor says you only need it once a month, so share it around. That sure sounds like a
Product Service System (PSS) to me. Via
::ABC News Online...
While not quite the one-stop-shop we thought it might be, the Ecotravel Center does at less provide some decent background to what is important in selecting tourism locations to visit. An initiative of Conservation International, who also are involved in the
World Legacy Awards for ecotourism. CI reckon that locals who earn a crust from eco-tourism are more likely to “protect their natural resources and support conservation efforts.” To this end they have identified what they term Biodiversity Hotspots, which are under threat and need all the help they can get, including that provided by eco-minded tourists. These Hotspots in Bolivia, Brazil, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico and Panama are given links on the website to benign tourist destinations. Descriptions, contact details and reasons why your visit will benefit the region are provided for each.
::The Ecotravel Center...
Never having lost her girlhood whimsy for Hollywood and sparkly things, Erin loves showing the world that window shopping and whale-saving are not mutually exclusive pursuits. After several years as a mildly-enthusiastic biologist she found the perfect fit for her interests in health, beauty and conservation in the spa and wellness industry. She currently works in the
spa community to help people make the connection between beautiful bodies and a beautiful planet....
The latest PC from
Alienware? No, these innovative speakers from Escalante show that speaker design can be eco-effective too. These speaker don't introduce unwanted chemicals into your listening environment. The speaker cabinets are made of 100% recycled wood board with a low-VOC glue, no formaldehyde and
AFM Safecoat finish (that non-toxic paint). The speaker grills are made with recycled paper and covered with organic cotton and recycled polyester fabrics from Patagonia. These are only for audiophiles at $3500-$6500. They received some good
reviews though.
Escalante Design via
Natural Home & Garden...
Awhile back we featured
Whit McLeod’s Prairie Seat for $6,320 but we’ve since found something a little more reasonable and a chair that’s completely practical. Some people might put this in the "Cool But Ugly" category but the concept is pretty neat. The Wine Barrel Folding Chair is 100% white oak, salvaged from wine barrels discarded from California wineries. The 70-gallon wine barrels used to construct the chairs are discarded from large wineries by the thousands each year. Even in our environmentally aware society, 20% of those barrels are actually land-filled, not resold to another winery or even cut up into planters. So check this cool feature - each chair that Whit McLeod makes is numbered on the underside of the seat and branded with the name of the winery where the barrel was used. They are designed and constructed to last a lifetime and are finished with natural linseed oil so that they will retain their original color when used indoors or while they age gracefully outdoors. ($125 each)
::Wine Barrel Folding Chair ...
Following last week’s post on
Design For The World we continue our search for social design activists this week by bringing you the wonder that is Demotech. I am sure there are many people out there who have great ideas about
how to improve daily life through design, using appropriate technologies and sustainable materials. ...
The inimitable Umbra Fisk
recently answered a letter about shaving from a
Grist reader to whom growing a beard isn't an option. She examines the different choices: disposable plastic razors get a definitive "no" with 2 billion of them ending up in U.S. landfills each year, electric razors don't quite cut it (pun intended) because of their electricity use ("Not much, to be sure, maybe 15 watts -- but if we're going to talk about the impact of shaving, we might as well split hairs.") and, I would add, the energy used in making them and their unnecessary complexity. Razors with disposable blades (you keep the handle, throw away the blade) are a bit better - less trash - but Umbra ends up favoring the zero trash option: The venerable, and virile,
straight razor! Be careful and learn how to use it first, though. We are not liable for anything!
::Ask Umbra: Stubble Trouble,
::A Cutthroat Business: How to Use a Straight Razor...
The Economist has just published a story on biomimetics. I have waxed poetically for some time now on biomimicry, and it is always nice to have my views supported in non-treehugger circles. The article points out some excellent examples of how Biology has found elegant solutions to engineering problems. Like the sea sponge whose skeleton is made up of silica, and part of it is surprisingly similar to optical fibers. What's not mentioned in the article is that these 'optics' may be used to channel light in the murky depths to symbiotic bacteria that live with the sponge- but that's beside the point...What really caught my attention was the existance of a biomimic
database....
Architectural idea competitions that are worth entering are rare. We raved about
C2C, where the winners are actually getting built. However the coolest one we have ever seen is the
1St Advanced Architecture Contest - They are looking for designs for Self-Sufficient Collective and Single Housing, and the prize: 3000 euros cash, a full scholarship for a Masters Degree at the
Institute of Advanced Architecture Catalonia, and in the Single Housing category, a chance to build your house. To top it all off, there is no entry fee. Sharpen the old Staedtlers and go to
::Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia...
Here is
the problem: "A former oil industry lobbyist edited the Bush administration's official policy papers on climate change to play down the link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming," and here is the solutio... the
damage control: "The White House said Wednesday that changes in government reports on global warming by a former oil industry lobbyist were part of a normal review and did not violate a pledge to rely on sound science." What's worse, I'm sure it's not even a complete lie – I bet having their papers reviewed by oil lobbyists is indeed "part of a normal review". I hope this story does not go under too soon, because despite that we all know what they are doing, it's still satisfying when they get caught red-handed.
::The Guardian,
::Washington Times,
::SFGate &
::Whitehouse Transcript (more damage control)...
The specs for this laptop case say it's constructed with "hemp cotton eco canvas reinforced with seagrass mesh ballistic nylon". Sounds good. The case is made by Livity in California, whose website is filled with juxtapositions of trees and DJs spinning tunes. I'd bet that, in a hundred years from now, hemp will still be best material for making laptop cases. Hemp will be still be around, but I don't know about laptops. Available for $51. ::
Livity (thanks to Anakela for the tip)...
Ekobo makes bamboo kitchen accessories like this bamboo cup or "Copo". All the items come in a range of glossy colors. The company is committed to supporting the Vietnamese artisans who work for Ekobo, and they describe their sustainable practices
here. The products are only available in European stores. ::
Ekobo...
TreeHuggers have shown some skepticism toward biodiesel, fed in part, we might suppose, by the anti-green spinmeisters of US media, but also by diesel's dirty history. In a mood for a vegetarian car or truck? Redemption is here and getting better all over the world. Earlier posts in TreeHugger did a great job of pulling
the facts and
how-
to's
together. That's why this post is circumspect....
Hot off the wire comes news that
Patagonia and Merrell have come together on a worldwide licensing agreement to produce environmentally friendly footwear, under the Patagonia label. Both have independently dabbled in this area before, so hopefully this agreement will see a extension of those earlier designs. Patagonia, who have long had a well deserved reputation for corporate
environment action once did a sneaker with organic cotton uppers and also sandals with low chromium tanned leathers. Merrell have run various styles with
hemp uppers (like the moc pictured) over the years and did a line with soles cut from car tyres. It will be curious to see what their combined minds can come up with this time around. Due out Spring 2007 in the US, Europe and Japan. Via
::Sports Textiles (subscription required)...
Import Substitution is a concept that was popular in South America after the depression, where nations used it to wean themselves from dependence on foreign finance and imports. (
read Wikipedia here) We were reminded of it reading
Worldchanging about how in Brazil, use of ethanol as fuel had declined significantly. Of course it has- The
Washington Consensus says that globalization is the key and import substitution is a drag on development.
In
The Long Emergency there is discussion about how import substitution will become a reality when we can no longer afford the fuel to bring things from distant sources. When reading our post on
community power,the big revelation was how much energy is saved by making it locally instead of suffering the transmission losses from distant generation. We read about
poo power which is discussed in community power as a real method of import substitution.
Whether or not you believe that James Howard Kunstler is an
Apocaphiliac or not, there are a thousand reasons why from a treehuggers point of view, import substitution makes sense. Globalism runs on cheap transport. The Shipping container revolution and cheap oil make it work. Take away the cheap oil and it falls apart.
When reading
John Laumer's post on Chinese apples, This treehugger started thinking about when Import Substitution came on to our radar- 10 years ago, at a cocktail party, listening to the former Mayor of Toronto, John Sewell. He is one of the smartest guys we ever met, and tried to start a business promoting import substitution at the corporate level- big hospitals.
Listening to him then, we started drinking local apple cider from Collingwood instead of orange juice squeezed in Florida by Tropicana from oranges grown in Brazil and started practicing our own personal form of import substitution- not for the fuel it saved but for the jobs it created. Although it is over 10 years old, his argument is stronger than ever. We asked him if we could post an article he wrote to reignite a discussion about import substitution and its increasing importance.
We republish John Sewell's 1994 Report on Business article here, where he talks about Jane Jacobs, misguided bureaucrats and more....
The
Swedish Association of Green Motorists voted the "Natural Power" version of the
Fiat Punto the Best Green Car of 2005. What makes that model greener than most cars is that it can operate on either
compressed natural gas or regular gasoline. "The vehicle starts on gasoline, then automatically switches to natural gas. The driver can change fuel manually at any time with the touch of a button." See the technical specifications of the car and more
here (I warn you: It's definitely not a racecar - but that's a good thing, right?).
::SAGM Award Page (in Swedish), via
::Green Car Congress...
We featured Anna Sova's
Tasty Paints previously on Treehugger. But her company also makes 100% organic cotton drapery -- which is normally difficult to find -- not many people make organic curtains. Anna says "this heavy theatre velvet is unlined, but still very opaque". Also available is some "eco-safe" silk-based drapery, and a host of appealing organic fiber bedding. ::
Anna Sova. Thanks to Anakela for the tip....
Who knows why this young woman has her head tilted at such an odd angle — it doesn't matter — she's dressing sustainably. Deity Aton is a small company in San Franciso that makes just a few fashion items out of organic cotton. They celebrate Cuban life and culture on their web site. This women's track suit is woven with 100% organic cotton, its embroidered with the Aton unity symbol. ::
Deity Aton...
It’s not easy being innovative and creative. Sometimes it takes a long time for people to catch onto your ingenuity. Such is the case with Radial Timber. Traditional timber sawing practices try to get square profiles out of round cross-sections of tree trunks. Such timber requires careful kiln drying to avoid the warping that often results from having cut across growth rings and stress lines. Radial sawn timber in direct constrast cuts into the trunk like you might slide a birthday cake or pizza - from the perimeter towards the centre. Timbers twist less and younger, narrower trees can be ulitised, maximising a harvest instead of burning the juveniles not normally used by a mill. Plus there is virtually no wastage. Used as cladding the sections create a lovely wave effect. A stunningly simple solution to an old problem.
::Radial Timber...
Although a world apart (geographically) these two businesses have amazingly similar missions. From the UK: “Sussed Design was formed in order to raise the profile of sustainable businesses and organisations. We do this by providing ethical clients with a creative, professional and, above all, approachable graphic design service.” And this from Australia: “The Digital Eskimo mission is to work with progressive organisations - developing innovative approaches and beautiful designs for projects that drive positive social/environmental outcomes.” Sussed Design reuse and recycle printing paper, while seeking out environmentally sound printers. Digital Eskimo are equally committed - a representative was recently observed at this writer’s
workplace, looking for old doors to be reused as desk tops in their new office. Maybe the two businesses should join forces and take on a global greening of the graphic communications industry.
::Sussed Design and
::Digital Eskimo ...
Obasan takes the notion of "organic" to heart with its designer beds or "sleep systems". They make beds using various combinations of organic cotton, wool and natural latex. The wool comes from the island of Texel in the Netherlands, where it shorn from a small flock of organically raised sheep. From the sound of it, the sheep lead lives of comfort that makes me almost jealous. They are carefully bred and live a stress-free life. ...
In the US they are planting 355,000 acres of canola to make ethanol. In Malaysia they are using palm oil. Brazil is exporting ethanol made from whatever they plant after they chop down the rainforest. In France and Austria they are making it from sugar. Even Saudi Arabia is building a biofuel plant using jatropha, a non-edible plant producing oil for blending with diesel. (growing it with what water?)...
Lets say you want to decrease the insect population around your house but don't want to touch any of the poisons that are sold for that purpose, not even with a ten foot pole. Here's a little "Nature vs. Nature" tip that was sent by one of our readers – did we mention how much we enjoy hearing from you? Keep 'em coming! What
Ryan Freebern suggests is to "convince
bats to do it for you." Simple, natural. We like it. "A single bat can eat thousands of insects in a night, so by installing a
bat house somewhere on your property (you can buy one pre-made or build your own), you can encourage a small colony of bats to take up residence and keep you mosquito-free." Any of our readers has experience dealing with bats for that purpose? Please let us know how it turned out. (
Post scriptum: the link below is just to show examples of what is available, but you could also build it yourself and get books from the library.)
::Bat Houses, Bat Boxes, Bat Condominums, Nursery Bat Houses...
If you have a dog and don’t have a yard, picking up poop is a necessity. Even for those of us that have yards we usually like to keep a clean walking space. The company Oops I Pooped makes biodegradable pet waste bags that are neither heat nor moisture sensitive. Now we’ve seen several companies that make these (and all the dog parks here in Newport have them) but one thing we like about Oops I Pooped is that they are dark black in color and have handles that tie at the top to contain the odor. You can order online and one package contains 88 bags for $8.00. Throw in an all-natural dog treat for $1.50. And if you really love them that much, well, then you can buy an Oops I Pooped cap if you’d like, too. Thanks for the tip, Kerry T.!
::Oops I Pooped...
Bamboo, Bamboo, Bamboo, how do we love you. Well, the answer is a lot. Quick to renew, strong, durable, and really great looking, this is a Treehugger's choice material. We covered Adapt Design's bamboo plywood
Spring chair and
Becca Stool earlier in the year, but they've got so much other great stuff, they're worth another look......
A joint venture between Shell, E.On UK and Core Limited has for goal to build an offshore wind farm off the South-East coast of England. The power generation potential would be of 1,000 megawatts, making it the biggest in the world and allowing it to power about 25% of London, which would cut emissions of carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) by 1.9 million tonnes a year. Currently, "the world's biggest offshore wind farm that's already in operation is Denmark's
Nysted windfarm, which can produce 165 megawatts." The
Alternative Energy Blog has details, and you can get a bit more info from the
official sources.
::London Array, UK’s flagship large offshore wind farm comes a step closer, via
::Alt-E Blog...
Networks are everywhere. My world is increasingly described by networks: my cell network, my blog network, my networks of friends, and job network. Even in my research I find networks in biology, (and spend a good deal of time trying to understand the relationships - I know...I'm a geek). Indeed, networks are a wonderful way to model the behavior of complex systems -for example an ecosystem. But it is not always easy to determine which part of that network is important to the structure or function of the system, or even what role any one part may play in the network- until now....
This won't save the world, but it's nice to see that some people are going a bit farther than they need to, giving visibility to cleaner ways of getting things done and certainly inspiring others to go ahead with their projects. Jorah Roussopoulos and his girlfriend/business partner, Andi Rubalcaba, own Mountain Feed and Farm Supply, a shop that sells biodiesel, among other things. "This is a fuel for everyone, not just the hippies," he says. But what's special about his biodiesel set up is that it's powered by the sun: He "restored a red, 1939 gas pump with new measuring equipment, solar panel, hand-painted sign and 1,000-gallon fuel tub that looks like a giant whiskey barrel [...] assembled it all himself, he said, for between $5,000 and $6,000 [...] his fuel is straight from soybeans. But he soon wants to tap nearby restaurants and county farmers, too." A small thing for sure, but the day when everybody starts doing small things like that we'll be better off.
::A dream pairing for environment: Solar-powered biodiesel pump, via
::Green Car Congress...
Long after green issues are old news to treehuggers, they get covered in the Wall Street Journal. This is a good thing- Dad no longer thinks you are completely nuts. Now they are looking at the business of solar and PV's, and of course the government subsidies available to install it. They do provide a valuable link to the
Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE), "a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy"
::Wall Street Journal Online...
Finally a beer that makes gas in the good way only. The Denver Post has a nice June 1 profile of the Fort Collins CO,
New Belgium Brewing Co style and products. Sounds sustainably delicious, with far fewer planetary burps on the side. According to the Post, "...employees with titles such as "vibe writer" and "sustainability goddess" are encouraged to ride bicycles to work". Such a shame to see beer drinking Hippies making more money than the competitors by cutting energy consumption. Makes a brewski loving TreeHugger wonder what else goes down with a New Belgium tapper? See below the fold for some one-liners. Mmmm....
We post a heap of new products on TreeHugger. Mainly because they show a different path we can take. Many people are said to be nervous about moving to a ‘greener’ future, fearing they’ll have to give up on the comfortable life, to which they have become accustomed and go live in cave. The bright, shiny new products we showcase indicate this is patently untrue. But an even truer story is that pre-loved goods often provide you with all those material benefits you crave, without the environmental impacts of extracting ever more depleted resources from our already damaged ecosystems. So before plunking down hard earned dough for some blister-packed, shrink-wrapped product, do consider quality second-hand goods. Your wallet/purse and the planet will welcome the favour. And you won’t be the only one doing it. The National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops (NARTS) note that just one US chain of ‘resale’ stores generated $1.2 billion in sales from their 1,900 not-for-profit thrift stores. Look on their website for a list of resale stores near you.
::NARTS...
Here’s a curious marketing move. Take out a car loan with Mecu and on your behalf they’ll pay
Greenfleet to plant and manage 17 native trees. These are calculated to absorb the 4.3 tonnes of CO2 your car will probably emit over a year. The plantings are also said to improve soil salinity and water quality issues. And should you select a car with a high
greenhouse rating for its fuel consumption your loan percentage will also be lowered. (A used car older than 5 years would attract a loan rate of 12.75% . While a new car or demonstrater under 1000 kms, with an 8+ rating could see you paying only 7.49%). Good to see an up-front hip pocket reward, for making the move to fuel efficiency.
::Mecu...
Since we
mentioned Blackspot last year, they have increased the range with an additional model. Not exactly a sneaker, more boot-cum-shoe. And to our aesthetic not overly attractive, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Still, they are made in Portugal, through a factory that supports union labour for workers who wish to join. With organic hemp uppers and vegetarian approved components, the V2 has another wrinkle to the story. Soles are made from reclaimed car tires. An initiative of Adbusters, who “hope this blackspot sneaker venture is the beginning of a new era in ethical, worker-friendly, environmentally friendly production in the shoe industry.”
::Blackspot Sneaker...
Skylights — it'd be great if there were just more of them. Nothing can really match that specific yellow illumination of the sun. The sky's changeable character of light is very appealing — it's great to know what is going on in the atmosphere above you. Right outside there — acres of free illumination to which our eyes and bodies are adapated — it behooves us to draw it in. Egad — I could ramify on skylights all day, but we must go on... Velux specializes in skylights — they make a wide range with configurations for each room in the house, and they have a
green building policy. ::
Velux...
What differenciates Sylvain Darnil & Mathieu Le Roux (23 and 26 years old) from thousand of high school management students around the world ? Well after their exam, they just forgot to start conventional work in conventional multinationals. Instead, they methodically prepared, found sponsors, and achieved a world tour of sustainable initiatives and positive businesses, proving that being a lucrative entrepeneur also allows to contribute to positive social and environmental impact....
No, it is not a soy smoothie! What were you thinking? This a serious product that was 6 years in the making. It’s a roof shingle from Ontario, Canada, with the look of cedar ‘shake’. And the Enviro bit? we’re told it is produced from a mixture of post industrial recycled plastics, recycled rubber elastomers and cellulosic fibres. The true ingredients are kept a bit fuzzy, like KFC’s “eleven secret herbs and spices”. but their website does inform us that manufacturing ‘waste’ is recycled for further production and the Shakes themselves can also be recycled. Low maintenance, a 50 year warranty and resistance to wind, hail, mould, mildew and insects are also offered as reasons for the environmental superiority of the shingle. If your roof needs a new coat give them the once over.
::Wellington Polymer Technology...
GreenFuel Technologies is a company that seems to have found a way to do a doubly-positive thing: First, to clean up power-plant emissions some, and then, to produce biofuels. What they do is set up one of their bioreactors - three meters tall glass tubes - so that the carbon-rich emissions from power plants can be fed to them, along with additional sun and water, and then they just watch the algae grow! Once they have enough, they harvest it and process it so that it becomes biofuel. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. They make money, power plants decrease their emissions, and we have biofuels. I guess this story has a happy ending....
Back in December '04 we ran a story on
AISO, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) who were 100% sun powered. At the time they appeared to be on their lonesome. Yet, now we seem to have a
post a
week on such things. Can only be all good. So, why not mention a couple more, to keep the ball rolling. There is SolarWebWorks, for example. With a name like that they certainly aren’t hiding their light under a bushel. They claim to be “one of the world's first and only web design companies that is powered by renewable energy.” And they market such eco advantage with this: “We provide internet services similar to those you receive from our competitors, but without the pollution and permanent damage to the environment.” Hard to argue really....
Inspired by the boxfish, DaimlerChrysler's new concept car is a super-aerodynamic (drag coefficient of 0.19, while the Toyota Prius is 0.26 and a model of the boxfish gets the high-score of 0.06) diesel 4-seater that gets 70 mpg (US) while exceeding the most stringent European emission regulations (now imagine a diesel-hybrid version!). The engine is a 2.0 liters 103 kW/140-hp diesel (
biodiesel anyone?). Even more impressive is how the concept car only used 2.8 liters per 100 kilomters during a test at a constant speed of 90kph (56mph), which translates to 84 mpg (US). More pictures below......
We know almost everyone has tried all-natural deodorant at some point and has had the same experience. If you gave up years ago, here’s a chance to give it another try. After four years of intensive research, FloralActive deodorants guarantee that you’ll get 12-hour protection and that it’s gentle enough for sensitive skin. The deodorant, which is available in six different scents (including unscented), is made from non-sticky all-natural ingredients and is free of harsh preservatives and fragrances. At $4.83, we’d say it’s worth slapping some on and trying the all-natural route once again. If you do, let us know what you think.
::A Natural Perspective...
In the discussion of
Solar Swadeshi we talked about generating electricity from our treadmills. Today we learn that it is also really good for our health. Dr,. James Levine, who just can't stop moving, has turned his treadmill into a desk and walks at a 1 mph pace while he works at his computer. "We're talking more than 50 pounds of weight loss a year, if I were to keep my diet the same," he said.
De. Levine's point is simple: we are designed to move, not to sit. Thats why
people who live in cities are thinner than those who live in suburbs- they walk rather than drive. Now, If we can get him to power his computer from a generator connected to the treadmill we will really have something.
::Mayo Clinic via
::We make money not art...
Less is more indeed! We knew that the Japanese were efficient – and that the US wasn't – but that's still a lot. 300% more energy per $1 of economic output in the US! And they are not resting on their laurels; they are working very hard to go even farther. This
NY Times article details how Japan is trying to get the most out of very costly fuel and to meet the greenhouse gas emission targets that it set for itself in the Kyoto Protocol. Easy to conceive that it would look quite bad if Japan did not do everything possible to meet the objectives from a treaty that bears the name of one of its cities... But unfortunately, "figures released last month show Japan was 8.3 percent over the 1990 level for the fiscal year ended March 2004."...
Seth Godin writes wonderful, funny little books on marketing. The message in his
latest hit: Marketing is about telling stories. "Make no mistake: This is not about tactics or hype or little things that might matter. This is a whole new way of doing business. It’s a fundamental shift in the paradigm of how ideas spread. Either you’re going to tell stories that spread, or you will become irrelevant." Those selling
the Green Brand should listen.
In one chapter he analyzes the success of
Avalon Organics, maker of safe, organic cosmetics. excerpted from
::Fortune...
Courtesy
BoingBoing, we have here, Ladies and Gentlemen, in Circus Ring I, the loath-relieving option of a
rechargeable electronic bug killer in the form of a tennis racket. Heaven forbid a yard-relaxing humanoid be required to actually slap an annoying bug with his/her hands. Frustration relieving: yes. A frivilous expense and needless consumption of materials: definitely. ...
We're a bit late with this one, but it's never too late to do a good deed. The
One-Tonne Challenge is the Canadian program that asks citizens to try to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by one metric ton (1000 kg), and part of that program is the
Commuter Challenge (what a cheesy logo!) that takes place from June 5 to 11 and aims to encourage the use of more sustainable modes of transportation (walk, cycle, carpool, etc) to the workplace by organizing a friendly competition (which
has been won by the David Suzuki Foundation for the past 5 years). You can go
here to register, but even if it's too late, we encourage you to try phasing in greener modes of transportation into your daily commute – no need for a competition, it's just common sense.
::Commuter Challenge 2005,
::Canadian One-Tonne Challenge &
::Results from 2004...
If you have been lying awake at night, wondering just what to do with unwanted aircraft windshields, relax, roll over and get a good night’s sleep. The problem has been solved. Terra Green make tiles with 58% recycled glass content, of which the bulk is those perplexing airborne windshelds. The remaining content is ceramics. Their tiles can be used in commercial and residential applications in 17 colours and variety of sizes. Custom colours also possible. Both stain and scratch resistant, the tiles are made in the USA.
::Terra Green...
Green Ground Zero is a non-profit in New York City promoting green building all around the world. The GZZ benefit show tonight will help support their efforts in making our world a better place by designing better buildings and cities. If you're in the NYC area, come listen to some good music and go home with a happy conscience.
::Green Ground Zero more info after the jump...
It's a bit of attractive simplicity and what's more this vase is all natural and is made from renewable materials. The wound bamboo comes from Cat Dang, Vietnam. The soaked bamboo is cut into very fine strips and pressed into a curve, and coated with a cashew oil-based glue. Each piece is cut, shaped and smoothed by hand, as many as four times, and then polished repeatedly. Made by the WorldStock group of villagers. They sell for about $30. ::
Overstock...
This polished metal item glows with a reasonable degree of sustainability. It’s a new curvaceous floor lamp from Adesso, partially made with post-consumer recycled steel. The weighted, satin steel base gives support to the lamp. It houses four (20 watt) halogen bulbs, which are not compact fluorescents, but more efficient than incandescent bulbs. Available for $44. ::
Gately's
...
You can get a taste of the high desert in your morning cup with this Piñon Coffee. The Piñon nut brings life to the New Mexico Piñon Coffee Company of Albuquerque. They use a roasting combination that includes a five-bean blend of high-altitude Arabica coffee along with bushels of Piñon nuts. Finding the nuts is unpredictable (piñon trees give good harvests only every 7 years or so), they are harvested each fall by hand (mostly by freelance Navajo pickers). ::
New Mexican Piñon Coffee (via
MetaEfficient)...
There is nothing sadder than seeing hundreds of well meaning treehuggers around the world going through all the trouble to knit, sew, or crochet a present for themselves or someone else, only to find that the yarn they used in it makes some of the worst pollution, or relies on nonrenewable petroleum to keep prices low. If you want to keep up with your local afghan knitting club, and still give Old Ma' Nature a hand, there are some choices available to you......
Having a table such as this, might make you inclined to boil some extremely hot coffee and speak of the
a priori impermanence of things over breakfast. That's because the timber that once made up antique barns, dairies or distilleries was refashioned into this dining table with matching bench. Alan Vogel makes this type of furniture out of old growth reclaimed fir and pine. He has a particular wood crafting style that accounts account for the slight irregularities and warps of the old lumber. It is priced around $1800. ::
Alan Vogel Furniture...
The
Environmental Integrity Project,
Sierra Club,
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the Association of Irritated Residents (great name, but I couldn't find a website) filed a lawsuit on May 26 and released a statement on June 1st to challenge a deal that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made with the livestock industry to allow
factory farms (two words that creep me out when put next to each other) across the US to continue polluting the air without threat of prosecution by the EPA, and in return "a commitment from a handful of
concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO, more or less a synonym of "factory farming") to study the problem for a number of years." This even undermines efforts by states like Iowa and California that have tried to address the CAFO air pollution problem on the state-level....
We know lots of folks who like and use a gas grill, but for the purists it’s like firing up a microwave right in your own backyard. Wicked Good Charcoal is super dense carbonized lump wood made from five different kinds of Brazilian timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. It is 100% natural, burns longer and cleaner and comes in over-sized bags making your purchase more efficient and economical. You can purchase the charcoal right from their Website and prices range from $7.25 - $39.75, depending on the charcoal blend and the size of the bag. Not only is it better for the environment but it makes your meats, veggies and fish taste wicked good.
::Wicked Good Charcoal...
Nissan is planning to sell 50,000 units per year of their upcoming
Altima hybrid. The newcomer to the hybrid world would like to "catch up" with other automakers, says
Tadao Takahashi, Nissan's executive vice president in charge of global manufacturing. That, and they need to sell 50,000 hybrids to meet
Corporate Average Fleet Economy (CAFE) standards in the US. If such sale figures were to materialize, and it's very probable since the Altima is a popular car and Toyota is selling all the hybrids it can make, Nissan would be competing against Honda for second place in term of hybrid sales, with Toyota far ahead.
::Nissan setting 50,000 U.S. sales goal for upcoming Altima hybrid, via
::Green Car Congress...
TreeHuggers meet the BISPVs (building integrated solar photovoltaics). "Beautifully complementing roof tiles of many shapes and sizes,
Sharp’s ND-60RU1 solar modules offer a clean integrated look that’s especially pleasing to homeowners". These solar roof shingles integrate into the roof in the same manner as common,flat concrete tiles, and can be easily replaced individually. They screw to the existing roof battens, so no additional framing materials or extra roof penetrations needed....
Argentina has become a very popular tourism destination since the devaluation of peso (three to one dollar), especially the northern and southern limits, north by its proximity with places like Bolivia and Brazil and south by Patagonia's mountains, lakes and green.
Well, now there's another reason to come to the end of the world: visiting the solar towns in the northern area of the country. In these villages, located to more than 4000 meters above the sea level, in deserts or hidden between the rocky landscapes, solar power was redirected to fulfill the small isolated towns' energetic demand. This might sound so simple to us, but it's a huge advance for this people, who live in a very dry region in high levels of unsatisfied needs, and can now enjoy, thanks to photo voltaic paques, the possibilities of almost endless source of energy at no price.
What's more appealing to this combination......
A short walk through Cane Garden Bay on the island of Tortola brings you to a 400 year old building, the sweet smell of rum, and the tastiest place I have been all year. The Callwood Distillery is the oldest running rum distillery in the British Virgin Islands (B.V.I). Using local sugar cane, water and wood, the distillery has remained a sustainable operation for at least 200 years, some say for all 400 years of the buildings history. Unfortunately, the tasty beverage is only sold locally. I guess a trip to the BVI is required, or a very nice friend who brings back a bottle. ::
British Virgin Islands ::
Sun Sea and Rum...
Ulula, which is the Latin word for "owl", is the name of a family-run business based in the UK that produces organic and "biodynamic" baby food. I'm not sure how much I care for the biodynamic part after
reading up a bit on it, but I'll let the reader decide for himself/herself about that. The organic part, though, seems fantastic! No chemicals and herbicides and a wide range of
products for all ages and even for infants with allergies. One of the couple who runs Ulula is a "qualified food technologist" who used to run an organic bakery, so we can guess that they know what they are doing.
::Ulula, via
::Hippy Shopper...
Canada's Clean Air Foundation is a non-profit group of "entrepreneurs to the core" ..." dedicated to developing, implementing and managing public engagement programs and strategic initiatives that lead to a measurable improvement in air quality."
They set up ventures like
keepcool.ca where one turns in old air conditioners in exchange for Home Depot gift certificates.
Car Heaven, "where old cars come to a good end" (with support from GM and Imperial Oil, the lovely anachronistic Canadian name for Exxon) and others. Is it real or is it
greenwashing? The prize in the Keep Cool contest is a ceiling fan, a tree, a programmable thermostat and a set of window shades, all good substitutes for an air conditioner. Sounds real to us.
::Clean Air Foundation...
Import Substitution is a concept that was popular in South America after the depression, where nations used it to wean themselves from dependence on foreign finance and imports. (read Wikipedia here) We were reminded of it reading Worldchanging about how in Brazil, use of ethanol as fuel had declined significantly. Of course it has- The Washington Consensus says that globalization is the key and import substitution is a drag on development.
In The Long Emergency there is discussion about how import substitution will become a reality when we can no longer afford the fuel to bring things from distant sources. When reading our post on community power,the big revelation was how much energy is saved by making it locally instead of suffering the transmission losses from distant generation. We read about poo power which is discussed in community power as a real method of import substitution.
Whether or not you believe that James Howard Kunstler is an Apocaphiliac or not, there are a thousand reasons why from a treehuggers point of view, import substitution makes sense. Globalism runs on cheap transport. The Shipping container revolution and cheap oil make it work. Take away the cheap oil and it falls apart.
When reading John Laumer's post on Chinese apples, This treehugger started thinking about when Import Substitution came on to our radar- 10 years ago, at a cocktail party, listening to the former Mayor of Toronto, John Sewell. He is one of the smartest guys we ever met, and tried to start a business promoting import substitution at the corporate level- big hospitals.
Listening to him then, we started drinking local apple cider from Collingwood instead of orange juice squeezed in Florida by Tropicana from oranges grown in Brazil and started practicing our own personal form of import substitution- not for the fuel it saved but for the jobs it created. Although it is over 10 years old, his argument is stronger than ever. We asked him if we could post an article he wrote to reignite a discussion about import substitution and its increasing importance.
We republish John Sewell's 1994 Report on Business article here, where he talks about Jane Jacobs, misguided bureaucrats and more....
Long after green issues are old news to treehuggers, they get covered in the Wall Street Journal. This is a good thing- Dad no longer thinks you are completely nuts. Now they are looking at the business of solar and PV's, and of course the government subsidies available to install it. They do provide a valuable link to the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE), "a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy" ::Wall Street Journal Online...
Green Ground Zero is a non-profit in New York City promoting green building all around the world. The GZZ benefit show tonight will help support their efforts in making our world a better place by designing better buildings and cities. If you're in the NYC area, come listen to some good music and go home with a happy conscience. ::Green Ground Zero more info after the jump...
Mayors from cities from around the world signed the "Urban Environmental Accords" on Sunday in San Francisco. The non-binding treaty tries to address 7 issues – energy, waste reduction, urban design, urban nature, transportation, environmental health & water - and lists 21 specific actions to make urban areas more green. They even have created a star-coded system to show which cities are doing well and which are falling behind on implementation. After signing the treaty, the mayors went outside to hear a 500-member gospel choir sing a song composed for the event called "Together We Can." I sure hope so.
::Text of the Treaty, ::Mayors Sign 'Urban Environmental Accords', ::Mayors from Around World Sign 'Urban Environmental Accords'...