It can be a struggle to find an uplifting story in the aftermath of tragedy. But tipster Wade M. has alerted us to news that central London has suddenly undergone a surge in cycle patronage, following the bombing of its public transport system. According to bulletins
here and
here, cycle stores had doubled and tripled their sales of bicycles, in some cases even selling out of bikes. “Seasoned cyclists told of weary walkers offering them up to 300 pounds ($500) for their bikes as they headed home on Thursday, and of giving impromptu lessons to shaky beginners.” Or this: "We had people who hadn't ridden for over 10 years asking for refresher lessons -- we even had a judge." And “others, who had walked home, dug long-forgotten bikes from sheds and garages for Friday morning's commute. Fernando Gandioli said he noticed "a lot of rusty bikes and squeaky chains" as he cycled in to work at accountancy firm KPMG.” It was also reported that “quick-thinking commuters saved themselves some cash by visiting bicycle hire shops, though by Thursday afternoon they were out of luck.” As Wade suggested ‘every cloud has a sliver lining’. We just wish there were far less traumatic ways, in which people could be reminded of the benefits of
bicycles, as were certainly understood by long-time London rider
William Wagstaff. ...
Webcasting images with the power of the sun — oh yeah. The Vancouver Renewable Energy Cooperative (VREC) will be doing a Solar Powered Webcast tomorrow. The video cameras and computer at the broadcast site will be solar powered. They will be webcasting live the official launch of their first project. This project is also one of the first grid-tie solar photovoltaic systems in the city of Vancouver. It will be directly connected to BC Hydro´s grid. This means that customer will be paid for the excess power they generate and if they need more power they can still purchase it from the grid. The SPEC system is a 1.4 kilowatt (kW) system, and it will produce approximately 1.5 megawatt hours (MWh) annually. ::
Vancouver Renewable Energy Cooperative...
One of the best blogs of the online eco-community,
Sustainablog, will celebrate its second anniversary with a Blog-O-Thon to raise money for Missouri's Botanical Garden
Earthways Center. Jeff, sustainablog's daddy, and a few guest writers (from
Grist,
Worldchanging,
Greenbiz, etc) will write around the clock on
July 11-12. People are encouraged to pledge a certain amount per post to Jeff by email (say, 25 or 50 cents per post). After the Blog-O-Thon is over, the money – the amount depending on how many posts were written during the 24 hours period - is sent to the
Earthways Center, plus 50% of the money made from "affiliate commissions from any purchases made from sustainablog Bazaar merchants". Read on for Sustainablog's
press release with more details, and don't forget to
bookmark the blog....
Did you ever wonder what happens to a passenger plane when it can't fly anymore? Excluding cases such as the Concorde, which will be retained in museums for posterity, today they mostly sit around in plane graveyards, such as in the Western deserts of the United States of America. But what is crowded Europe to do with the increasing number of aircraft which are ready for retirement? To meet this need, the first ever aircraft recycling center has been opened at the Châteauroux-Déols airport in central France on the 6th of June 2005.
So just how do you recycle an airplane?...
We're on a festival roll, so why stop now? After commenting on the
Live 8 and the
Roskilde Festival litter problems, here's a very sad and ironic photograph that was brought to our attention by Treehugger reader Arseny in the comments of "
UK Live 8 Location Buried in Trash". It's a mountain of bread (one of many such food piles?) that apparently went to waste. At a festival that is supposed to be about poverty and, yes,
lack of food in Africa, this is a bit too much. I understand that logistics for such a festival are tough, but they could at least have given the food away at the end.
::Larger version of the photo...
There's enough good design news in this story to overcome even a hopeless G8 meeting. A group of investors in Goodland Kansas (where
sunflowers are big), has decided to bundle three energy efficient technologies, linking mass and energy flows from a co-generation plant for electricity, an ethanol fermentation/distillation plant, and a biodiesel plant, all on a single site. Making electricity co-gen is the X2 gain. Using the co-gen plant's waste heat (steam) as an input for making ethanol makes it X3. Using the ethanol plant waste sludge as an input to the biodiesel plant makes it X4. Now all they have to do to achieve X5 status is adopt some of the new cellulosic enzymes,
recently reported in TreeHugger, to up their ethanol prouction efficiency. The upshot is an environmental footprint far and away better than previously reported life cycle studies have indicated for biodiesel. TreeHuggers can certainly forgive the use of coal if mercury emissions curbed with best available technology(fingers crossed for X6)....
I'm so glad someone makes these: low-impact, modular walkways made out of sustainable timber. The company,
Mister Boardwalk, even makes "roll out" walkways that simply roll out on top of grass, wood chips, sand, gravel or old concrete. The company specifies that their pressure treated southern pine does not contain arsenic, and their cypress and teak are certified as responsibly harvested and are chemical free. They also offer
Trex, which is a recycled composite combining hardwood sawdust and recycled plastic shopping bags. They have a page with much more
details on their materials. They also offer shower mats, doormats, decks and various other things. ::
Mister Boardwalk
...
In the past few years, the cellphone has blossomed from being a phone/address book device to a full fledged video camera, audio player, cinema, notepad, and even television. Of course, with all this added kit comes a hefty electric bill, and Li-ion batteries are being stretched to their limits to pay it. But NTT DoCoMo and Fujitsu Labs are coming closer and closer to a fuel cell alternative that could find its way into your next-gen phone......
We saw this blurb in the New York Times and thought it was such a great idea that we had to check it out ourselves. Free Trees and Plants, based in Nebraska, salvages unsold, high-quality nursery and garden center plants, shrubs, bulbs and saplings that are destroyed by the millions each year. The company sells them online or by phone for $6.95 which covers the shipping costs and the processing by workers with disabilities, who Free Trees employs. The inventory changes regularly (at this time they are sold out of trees and shrubs until this Fall) and a wide selection is offered. As the website states: “You get free plants. You help stop a huge waste. Disabled people get meaningful work and a paycheck. Everyone wins.” Via
::New York Times ::Free Trees and Plants...
Sorry for the bad cliché. Those who are planning to buy the new tome of the Harry Potter saga on July 16th should consider ordering the 100% recycled-paper Canadian version. The American version, printed by Scholastic, it said to contain "some recycled paper", but the company won't say how much and it certainly is not 100%. The Canadian version can be found online by people south of the border and should cost about $2 more in shipping. Read on for an excerpt from a
New York Times article about the campaign to get the publishing industry to start using more recycled paper....
Designtex have have received vast amount of media coverage for their Climatex-Lifeguard. A wool-ramie upholstery fabric developed by William McDonough and Michael Braungart of
Cradle to Cradle fame. Now comes LIFE Textiles by Instyle. It’s a certified Australian grown organic wool textile suited to upholstery and wall panelling. (Maybe some of the wool is from New Zealand too?) It is claimed that the natural fabric can improve indoor air quality, compared to synthetics, because they “have the ability to absorb sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde (and not re-emit)”. No heavy metal dyestuffs are used and the cloth is said to be readily biodegradable, at the end of its useful life. LIFE is an acronym for 'Low Impact for the Environment'. Seven colourways and available in Australia, NZ, Asia and USA. We like the humanised marketing effort too. Via
EcoSpecifier. More at
::Instyle ...
If you've ever found yourself suffering from respiratory symptoms -- asthma, chest congestion, or infections -- in your workplace or home, you may have a building with "Sick Building Syndrome". Sick buildings are those that encourage respiratory illness by concentrating Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and allergens like mold spores in poor ventilation areas. These VOCs come from adhesives, paints, cleaners, and building materials which off-gas long after the building is completed. Until recently, few remedies for this problem were available. But now, a promising low cost, and beautiful solution is available with "Biofilters"......
You ever found that you got too many drawers to know what to do with? Well actually me neither, but there are a few designers out there who are coming up with ways to recycle assorted draws into functional and beautiful furniture. We kind of liked their mix and match aesthetic. However we’re not recommending that you actually spend your hard earned cash on them since they are ridiculously expensive, but perhaps it might give you DIYers out there some inspiration....
Been a while since we had a cool bike post. This fits the bill perfectly. We are told the Swift has a standard geometry, so feels just like ‘normal’ bike, and is configured with industry standard componentry, that can be easily upgraded by aficionados. But that’s where the normal stuff finishes. As you’ve no doubt observed, it has the smaller wheels (20” or 406mm) favoured by the BMX fraternity. Not only does the shorter spoke length make such wheels more robust, it also improves the ability to fold. Not the wheels (!) but the whole bike. Yep, the Swift is a 'folder', via the
most elegant arrangement we have seen, to date. Pull the seat stem free of the down tube and the whole rear frame folds forward. 5 to 10 seconds later you can board a train or stow it in your office. Genius! ...
This is more or less a follow up to
our post about Live 8. We were surprised at the huge amount of trash left on site, but it seems that it was no extraordinary occurrence; In the comments of that post, reader Haakon Eriksen told us about the
Roskilde Festival in Denmark. There is no doubt that it's a good event (profits are donated to initiatives for children), but the audience was not on its best-behavior. "It's an 8-day event where people camp out before and during the days when there are concerts. On the last day, just before leaving I took a few pictures of the camp site. These are taken just by turning around on the spot, not by going out and looking for the worst areas. Note the geniuses in the first picture who set fire to their tents. A lot of people did this, and the stench of burnt plastic and garbage was horrible." More pictures in the extended view of the post....
Here is a study that hits all kinds of treehugger buttons: British physicist Alan Calvert calculates that animals we eat generate 21% of all the carbon dioxide that can be attributed to human activity. "We could therefore slash man-made emissions of carbon dioxide simply by abolishing all livestock." he continues: "Worldwide reduction of meat production in the pursuit of the targets set in the Kyoto treaty seems to carry fewer political unknowns than cutting our consumption of fossil fuels" They should be serving tofu tonite at Gleneagles.
::Physorg...
The fusion reactor holy grail is only 60 years old; yet it's prospective commercial value is every bit as obscure as DaVinci himself could have intended in his art. As reported in the London Observer last month:-- Stemming from the G8 summit "will be a much-awaited decision - the winner of the race to build the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor (Iter)",..."The pounds 3 billion project is intended to pool the world's best scientific resources to prove once and for all that electricity can be produced by nuclear fusion"..."Leading scientists, including the government's chief scientific adviser, David King, believe that within 30 or 40 years Iter could unlock a carbon-free energy future. If successful,it will deliver what could be the world's most important energy source over the next millennium...". [Credit for the image to
Aaron Gage, who's work may be found via this link.]
...
There have been over 3,600+ ‘comments’ posted to TH. Many very constructive and positive points have been raised. However what has struck us also, was the negative tone of a large number of ‘comments’. It can often seem like readers are actively seeking out the Achilles’ heel in a product or story. Seeing the small weakness, not the greater strength. Treehugger is about celebrating the journey towards a modern and green future. We focus on the light at the end of the tunnel, we leave others to write about the darkness. So, in this vein, we issue a challenge to our readership. Don’t whinge. Act. Positively. If you see something that needs fixing – go fix it! If you think a product we showcase is too expensive, don’t complain. Do something to change it. Go to their site, find the email link and tell the supplier you think their product is great and you’d love to buy it, but currently it’s out of your price range. Let them know you care, expand their horizons. Encourage them to do better. Support them with your enthusiasm. If you think they should use better materials, less packaging, offer the product locally, or ... whatever, tell ‘em. You are their potential customer. They’ll listen. And might just respond. ...
We recently
interviewed Seth Godin and continue to be impressed with his insights. He recently posted an interesting entry on his blog about whale oil- how the Netherlands economy ran on it, how they adapted to the decline in whale oil production and moved their intelligence, energy and capital elsewhere. "We're in the middle of the biggest shift(s) of the last century--whole industries are disappearing, worldviews are changing and the rules are being rewritten." We have to do as the Dutch did- get over it and adapt.
::Seth's Blog...
Readers of TreeHugger have been offered a month of free wind-powered web-hosting at
SustainableMarketing.com by Ivan Storck. If you are interested by the offer, all you have to do is use the coupon
LUVTREES on checkout. We must use the usual caveat, though: We are not affiliated with SustainableMarketing, have not tried the services that they offer or compared them with their competitors. We are not responsible for anything that happens if you decide to enter a business relationship with them. We are just passing along this offer that was made in the comments of
this post. Any other company that wants to offer goodies to our readers, let us know and we'll decide if its worth posting.
Update: Mr. Storck wrote in the comments of this post to tell us that instead of using the coupon, you can go to
this page to get the special, and that the offer ends on October 1st 2005.
::SustainableMarketing...
When a village has a name like "Dancing Rabbit" you just know its gonna be good. If I could split into two selves, and live another life simultaneously, I would pack my spartan belongings and head down to Missouri to live a life without care on the prairie, unafraid to wear vivid colors in the daylight. This is how I picture Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage — please do not disillusion me. Look at the welcome sign for goodness sakes! There's a dancing rabbit right on there — tell me good times are not just around the corner....
One of our tipsters, Catherine M., absolutely loves Esse. The organic skin care company is located in her country of South Africa and sells 100% natural products. Barley Grass and Mint Gel Cleanser, a Grapefruit and Green Tea Mask, Aloe and Rosemary Toner – feeling refreshed just reading about it? Check out this “cool” feature – all Esse moisturizers (available in Light, Rich or Deep) are sold in an aluminum cylinder which contains five pots of moisturizer. The pots that are not being used can be stored in the refrigerator which will help them to maintain their potency. The cylinder will last for at least a month and a half (if used twice a day, as advised) and refills are available. All of Esse’s packaging is recyclable and 5% of their net profit is donated to biodiversity preservation. We wish we could find Esse in the States because there are certainly a few products on their site that we wouldn’t mind indulging in. Thank Catherine!
::Esse...
Q. (A double whammy!) In the beginning was this:
Hi guys at treehugger! Congratulations for an excellent blog. It is one of my favorites, i check it mostly every day. I'm a designer living in Chile, South America, and i'm planning to take a MA degree next year. My interests are around eco-efficiency and eco-design, but I just can't find a place to study about that. Now, the question is: do you know any university to study eco-design? Any help is really appreciated. Any, really. Thanks again. Raimundo H. We were just getting started on the research when another arrived:
First and foremost, what an excellent site treehugger has become and continues to be. Congratulations on having built up some real steam. I've got a couple of suggestions that you've likely heard before .... highlighting green educational programs would be fantastic. Brian C....
Toyota plans to double its hybrid vehicle production to meet increasing demand around the world (especially in North-America). Production would jump to half a million in 2006 from 250,000 in 2005. Rising oil prices and the improved performance of hybrid cars are said to be contributing factors. All the good publicity they have been getting lately and the fact that people are starting to get used to the idea – it's not so new and "out there" anymore – certainly have something to do with it too....
It seems that organic clothing is becoming more popular since consumers are becoming aware of the pesticides and fertilizers used when farming conventional cotton. And because of this, more parents want to buy organic baby clothes for their little ones. All of the snuggly clothes at Green Babies are designed by a mom and are fit tested on kids so you can be sure you are getting the highest quality. All of the colors and pigments that are used are non-toxic and low-impact on the environment. One of our favorites is the “Give Peas a Chance” romper (shown left) from the “Wear Your Veggies” line. It is sold both as a lightweight romper and a fleece one. ($32) Thanks for the tip EGD!
::Green Babies ...
We were going to do a post on this but then thought “Nah”. Tipster Will K has covered all the salient points, let him tell the story. Take it away Will: -
“Just thought I'd share the warm treehugging experience I had last night when I got home to my little inner city pad and found a small folded re-useable bag in my mailbox! As it turns out my local council, in an effort to reduce the amount of plastic bags used in it's community are distributing a reusable bag to every household in its constituency :-) It comes folded up in a fairly small block (no packaging, it folds into itself and has a Velcro tab to keep it folded) so it's easy to throw in my backpack or carry around so when I can't fit any more into my backpack it's right there again and again! Why can't all local governments do something like this?” Why, indeed?
::City of Sydney on Plastic Bags...
The proposed H2-fired station will produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of a quarter of a million UK homes. Involved parties include BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Scottish and Southern Energy. The design plan is to place a natural gas reformer unit alongside the existing gas-fired Peterhead power plant, where it would convert natural gas to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen would fuel the turbines for electricity production, and the carbon dioxide would be pumped into the nearly-depleted offshore oil fields [shown in graphic]to extend oil production for several more years. News sources do not mention where the natural gas will originate from, something presumably known to the Lord....
“
Code-Green is a Berkeley-based non-profit that is studying the e-Waste problem and working to raise awareness of e-Waste and e-Recycling in the [San Francisco] Bay Area.” Last month they released a
report on their findings to date. In a study of 100 small-to-midsize businesses they discovered that roughly 30% did not fully engage in e-Recycling. One of the reasons deduced was that over 60% of businesses surveyed claimed managing their e-waste "takes more effort than it should". Meaning they had to work with more one a variety of different charities and recyclers to get their electronics disposed. With e-waste accounting for up to 5% of the US municipal solid waste stream and over 315 million US computers becoming obsolete in the past 7 years this is a real issue. Especially as those same computers contain 1.2 billion pounds (0.5 billion kg) of lead, just waiting to contaminate waterways. It’s a good thing that ... ...
After
British Petroleum, who decided to remake its image into "Beyond Petroleum" with lots of green marketing and some investment into clean technologies, it is now Chevron-Texaco's turn to decide that "the era of easy oil is over" (actual quote) and that something must be done about it.
This website, called
Will You Join Us, contains articles and explanations about the peak-oil issues we face (as Chevron sees them, anyway – but they mostly do a good job explaining things) and why we face them. They write about supply & demand, population, geopolitics and the environment. They also have ads and a discussion section. To their credit, they are not hiding the problems in the back row while only spotlighting how good a company they are for working on solutions. See some excerpts from the website below....
We love the Voltaic Backpack and we love blogging. Here is a hack that converts your pack into a mobile hotspot so that you "could use any Wi-Fi-enabled gadget anywhere you’ve got a cell signal. Play multiplayer games with friends in the park, or blog an event in real-time." OK treehuggers, everyone to the park for a group blog.
::Popular Science via
::Lifehacker...
Treehugger covered Willie Nelson's BioWillie fuel months ago
(read here); The Wall Street Journal wrote about it today, and for a change you can read it online.
::Wall Street Journal ...
Kirk and Jade Giudici started their company, Rising Moon Organics, by rolling out organic ravioli dough through the night and delivering it on their bicycles during the day. To keep themselves in business they started a ravioli subscription service, by bicycle, and included foccaccia breads and sauces for their customers. Now Rising Moon sells over 500,000 pounds of ravioli and sauce each year making them the #1 selling ravioli on the West Coast. They’ve added organic tortellini and gnocchi to the pasta mix and they also sell several different pastas and pestos. Look for Rising Moon in the freezer section of your favorite health food store – from the info on their website, they seem to be pretty widely distributed.
::Rising Moon Organics...
A while back, tipster Christian G, let us know that Seattle was hoping to get some new mass transit in the form of a monorail. From his blog
Obvious Diversion he provided the following details: There will be about 16 stations throughout Seattle with trains arriving every eight minutes and apparently if all goes to plan and the populace embrace it, this could increase to one every three minutes. “The trains will have regenerative braking to recycle the energy lost in slowing down a train.” Fingers are crossed that the project can hit the ground (or the sky) running on about 1 December 2010. If you want all the lowdown then point your mouse over to the Seattle Monorail Project, who go by the URL of
::elevated.org
...
The NewHope Electric Vehicle Co of ShenZhen, China thought we might interested in their Electric Bike Conversion Kit. And given that we have had a few requests for information on cheaper products and DIY gear, we though why not? Seems the conversion kit, once installed, could propel your bicycle along at over 25km/h for somewhere between 25 to 50 km. That’s on a 10 hour charge of the 2 x12v 18Ah battery. They reckon the motor gets about 86% efficiency, with a total weight for whole assembly being about 13.5 kg. There is a catch, of course. They only supply bulk purchasers, with the minimum order being around 300 kits! But maybe your friendly chain of bike stores could be interested.
::New Hope...
Treehugger loves our tipsters. They’ve led us to some really cool products. Hey, we even reward them with
prizes. And we admit that with over 2,000 posts, it can be downright tricky to know if we’ve covered something or not. However use of our powerful search field can ease this conundrum. Give it a whirl. Want to find ‘hemp’ products? Just type the word, click and watch the entries appear. (Warning: type ‘bamboo’ and you’ll need to set aside the rest of the day!) Or you could click on the Category Headings, underneath the search box, to get a broader selection of related posts. The following tipsters were keen for us to do stories on their fav topics. To our delight and amazement we had already referenced them. Erin R wanted know about
Birchwood Toddler Bikes, Yauny W was interested in the
Treasure America project, while Paul L thought readers should read about the
Waterwall. Maureen M reckoned
Bamboosa did great stuff and Stephen B felt likewise about
Looloola. But keep those tips coming and we’ll try to do the same with the prizes.
::Treehugger Tipping (NB: use the real search field, at the top of middle column, not this dummy one.)...
We spent the long weekend by the lake, reading
Fueling the Future from House of Anansi, edited by Andrew Heintzman (co-founder of the late lamented Shift Magazine) and author and TV host Evan Solomon. A host of Canadian and international contributors are here: ...
'You don't miss your water 'til the well runs dry'. Some of us may miss our locally-grown produce this year, and for several summers to come, as a severe drought plays out in parts of the US midwest and west. The
NOAA drought index map shown here depicts cumulative severity in terms of agricultural impact. Much more is at stake now for fisherman, floaters and boaters, and, ultimately, for water-crazed boom cities like Las Vegas. Add to these issues the increased risk of wild fire and TreeHuggers are likely to become bit players in the rising resource management disputes. Or will they? How about helping local government to promote some water saving ideas? In some cases, drought is so severe that picking the right technology is needed for survival. The Australians in particular have shared some new water saving ideas on TreeHugger. Spain also has severe drought, although not much has yet appeared from there . Anywhere you live, fighting over water loses its appeal when you're thirsty. If you're on the map and you have a
'survival' solution, lets hear about it!...
Energy Innovations is introducing an innovative solar generator called the
Sunflower. Their generator is a "concentrator" which uses mirrors to focus direct sunlight onto a stationary photovoltaic cell (PVC). Since the PVC is the most expensive component of a solar generator, this makes good economic sense if the mirror array is cheap and robust. Energy Innovations claims to have solved this problem, using cheap microprocessors and a custom bearing array with only two motors. The sunflowers are built in China and are designed to fit in a shipping container. The company claims that businesses with flat roofs in states like AZ or CA can pay for the machines in only 3-5 years from electricity savings. The company recently received $16.5 million in venture financing this week. ::
Energy Innovations Thanks to Austin for the tip....
An eco-car that can travel the world using a fraction of the electricity it takes to power a light bulb has been unveiled by its British creators. The hydrogen-powered Ech2o needs just 25 Watts — the equivalent of less than two gallons of petrol — to complete the 25,000-mile global trip, while emitting nothing more hazardous than water, the UK's Press Association reported. But with a top speed of 30mph, the journey would take more than a month to complete, even if the car was driven flat out with no pit-stops. ::
CNN Story...
Apparently wind turbines are not all that complicated to put together, as this little experiment shows. There are many situations where you might need a small amount of electricity, for instance running gate openers, safety lights and other low-power devices. If you don't want to opt for solar panel, you might give this turbine a try. This site shows how to make a simple savonius wind turbine to power a gate opener. ::
Savonius Wind Turbine via
Mad Experiment...
Treehuggers don't like plastic. Is this because we instinctly feel plastic has a high environmental cost (who ignores that it's made primarily from that non renewable black stuff). Well what about recycling it ? That's a good point after all. Plastic recycling is actually one of the big issues of the years to come : The world's annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today (source :
wasteonline). Cascade Replast (Montréal, Québec), with its product Permadeck, is one of those companies that thake advantage from this largely available waste to process what they call 'plastic lumber'....
HybridBlog recently
wrote about an idea that I had a while ago: Putting a mpg-meter, fuel economy gauge, fuel consumption feedback – call it what you want – in all cars. It's a small thing, but I think it could make a huge difference cumulatively. An excellent quote by
Jamais Cascio of
WorldChanging summarizes the situation: "One important reason why hybrid cars result in better mileage is that drivers suddenly have an indication of how various aspects of their driving habits shape mileage. Hybrid mailing lists are filled with people taking about "driver break-in periods" as new drivers, given immediate feedback from the car, learn how to drive in a mileage-optimal fashion. Most hybrid drivers see a steady improvement in mileage over the first year because of this."...
Bleach Design have a Flash heavy style website to showcase work from European designers. Amongst the intriguing goodies on offer we discovered this. A product that serves its function while paying homage to the original inspiration, for which the material is so well known. A cork stool that imitates a cork champagne stopper. Called the Rolha, this stool was created by designer Jorge Luis. Bleach showcase it because it uses a material indigenous to Portugal, where the product was conceived.Cork is only found in Mediterranean climes, as bark of the tree,
Quercus suber, It can be harvested every nine years from the same tree, Look
here for the other cork products we’ve mentioned.
::Bleach Design...
Wow were we surprised when we got this tip! Ragú, one of the largest pasta sauce producers, is now selling organic sauce on the shelves of supermarkets everywhere. Three flavors are currently available: Traditional, Cheese and Garden Veggie. Even on the Ragú website the company has information posted about organic foods and educational pieces. It’s nice to see that these big companies are finally starting to catch on, our only question is (not being huge Ragú fans) what does it taste like? Have any of our TreeHuggers tasted it? Let us know what you think. Thanks for the tip, “Lot’s Wife!”
::Ragú...
These unusual collaspible seats are made from silk-screened cardboard in Lithuanian. Designed as a substitute for folding chairs, they can turned upside-down for storage. The chairs weigh about 2 pounds are priced at $18.50. They are available from Ona, a retailer of contemporary Lithuanian art and goods. Their online store is full of interesting furniture and household items, mostly environmentally friendly and handmade. ::
Mutabor Op Chair by Ona
...
Many think that ‘recycled’ automatically means ugly. Here be proof it simply ain’t so. Bedrock make some stunning looking tiles, which are made completely of recycled glass. No pigment is added to get their lovely rich hues and shades, just tons of glass that was headed for the landfill. Whilst a for-profit business they do operate a host of community programs, including a bottle drive with a local school that returns funds for student field trips. Their Blazestone Tile collection has nearly 30 colours and almost 40 shapes. Also on offer is a wide range of homewares, like candle holders, platters and coasters made from recycled glass. Wilma and Betty would love them. Thanks to Michelle W, a previous
winning tipster, for this one too.
::Bedrock Industries...
It would appear that Tipster Kent R is an accountant. Which might just explain how he was the one that spotted these white business shirts before us. We’re pleased he did. If all the ‘suits’ out there in the corporate world bought their shirts from Boll Organic. the world’s agricultural lands would breathe a hearty sigh of relief. According to Boll, in the US alone, “over 50 million pounds (22.7 million kg) of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other chemicals were applied to cotton crops” during 2001. The company also points out that although it costs 30% more to make a dress shirt from organic cotton, they are not passing this cost onto their customers, choosing to sell the shirts for $55 USD. In addition they donate 1% of of total revenue to “organizations working toward a healthier environment.”
::Boll Organic...
Shanghai Maple Automobile Co., part of
Geely Automobile, is working in collaboration with Shanghai's
Tongji University on the development of a hybrid automobile for the Chinese market. They will use Chinese parts and technology and the cars will be built in China so that they are affordable to the local market. They plan to sell a small number, between 5,000 and 10,000, the first year, but eventually hybrids could make up half of the company's sales. Could Chinese-made, low-cost hybrids flood the international market and put pressure on other automakers in the future? It is doubtful that cars from China will cause much trouble to other automakers in the short term, but things could be quite different in a decade or two....
This headline indicates much more than a political dream of uncertain outcome; rather, it's a predetermined future in which corporate biotechnology interests may collide with those of the oil companies. TreeHugging power comes when corn growers join hands with wheat, beet, and sugar farmers as well as the budding biotech industry. This will give lobbying a whole new flavor and identfies new interests for TreeHuggers to get aquainted with. Here are a few key excerpts on the coverage by "
Bioworld Today". ...
As children we often drove through Buffalo (one never drove
to buffalo, just through) and it was always dire- jets of fire rising from the steelmills , old and tired and dirty. Thus we were impressed to see that Buffalo landed in third place, behind Portland and San Jose, among the cleanest cities in America in a recent study. Depopulation and industrial flight had something to do with it, but so did Superfund dollars, environmental bonds and a lot of hard work.
Its time to go back and take another look.
::Readers Digest
More on the environment from
Readers Digest here...
We at TreeHugger like good news. Here's one: Mitsubishi Paper Mills (MPM), a part of the Mitsubishi group (independently operated companies that share a brand), has announced that it will stop using wood chips that come from old-growth forests. This will help protect Tasmania's ancient forests, a major source of wood for Mitsubishi until now. MPM has informed Greenpeace that its new policy is to buy only woodchips "sourced from plantations or second growth forests of environmentally benign, and reclaimed wood."
Forests.org and
Greenpeace have been very active in the battle against the destruction of the Tasmanian old-growth forests. Congratulations to them, and thanks to MPM for doing the right thing, if a bit late.
::Mitsubishi Paper Mills rejects Tasmanian forest destruction,
::VICTORY: Mitsubishi to Stop Buying Old Growth, via
::The Earth Blog...
For all you
Sideways lovers and wine freaks, we bring Uruguayan De La Cruz wines, made from organic grapes cultivated without the use of fertilizers, but with natural products such as sulphate of copper and sulfur. This process guarantees the conservation of the earth's fertility, and has given the company the first Certification of Ecological Warehouse in South America.
More yet, De La Cruz claims to be the first manufacturer to make wine apt for diabetics: after a a series of tests in people with this condition, they say they verified that the wines did not detect sugar, had a low carbohydrate tenor, low glycemia index, and normal levels in the rest of the values.
The company exports its variétés to the United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. All contact information for each location can be found at the website (in Spanish).
::De La Cruz Wines....
The British Guardian newspaper asked four ad agencies to spread the message of global warming out to the populace at large, instead of ‘buy more, buy more’. From
Soul, an advert “inspired by the government's chief scientist Professor Sir David King's claim that the threat to the planet from global warming is greater than that posed by terrorism.” "Our main idea was that people - ourselves included - don't take global warming seriously,"
Saatchi & Saatchi Creative director, Paul Domenet, said they were “looking for the kind of "iconic image" that a flower in the barrel of a gun gave to the anti-Vietnam war campaigners. We deliberately went for visual exaggeration."
Strawberry Frog’s creative partner, Scott Goodson, says the aim was to get people talking about global warming: "You're not going to get through to the average man in the street by using threats." says art director Olly Farrington. "I'm unashamed about using shock tactics because the time has come for people to be shocked." And then "We wanted to come up with a positive message," [says
TBWA\London strategic planner Jeremy Simon.] "It has become a convention to see the Houses of Parliament underwater. That approach makes people think it is inevitable, and sort of shocks them into apathy. You have to present the solution as something that's manageable." More ads below. Via
O2 Network Read Claire Cozen’s article in
::The Guardian ...
Wanna to go solar but can’t justify the up front cost? Has SunEdison got a deal for you! They pay for, install, own and operate solar panels and systems. They even handle the insurances. What they want from you, is just your roof space and your agreement to buy the generated electricity, at or below current grid pricing. Sounds like a no-brainer. Even if you don’t own any roofspace they are happy to negotiate with your landlord to install on their roof. From what we’ve read, this seems like a true
Product Service System (PSS). Get to run your business or organisation on renewable energy, without having to own the technology that makes it happen. A Whole Foods shop tried it and they generated about 20% of the stores’ needs over the first summer of operation. As the company notes, it does seem like “a bright idea.”
::SunEdison...
Our friends are
WorldChanging link to very interesting posts from the
Timbuktu Chronicles. Emeka Okafor wrote about an excellent example of how to use biogas: The
Kigali Institute of Science and Technology's Center for Innovations and Technology Transfer (Kigali is the capital of Rwanda) designed and built a 150 cubic meters fixed dome digester in Cyangugu prison. The digester is fed human waste generated by 1500 prisoners and it produces 50% of the energy needed to cook for the 6000 to 10,000 inmates (the number vary depending on the source), cutting in half the £25,000 ($44,000) yearly firewood bill - a lot of money in Rwanda. I'm not sure why the digester doesn't get the waste from all prisoners, but the simple answer probably is that it's simply too small for that, which would mean that with expansion the firewood bill could be eliminated....
OK, we are not going to get into an episode of Bar Wars. But a reader did mention these, so we went and had a peek. And liked what we saw. No added sugars or sweeteners, non-GMO, no sulfites, no preservatives, no colorings, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, vegan and kosher. And remarkably ... no cooking ! That’s a big energy plus. Maybe not the breadth of company wide eco-endeavours of some other bar businesses we’ve mentioned, but with only 3-6 ingredients per bar they are certainly doing some very impressive stuff. The bar highlighted here does use organic bananas and they are investigating using more organics but feel customers might baulk at the higher price of a 100% organic bar. Maybe TH readers can assist in their transition to such a product.
::Larabar by Humm Foods...
Who is Burt? And what is he up to with his bees and how does this relate to natural beauty products? It’s a strange name no doubt to use for selling lotions and potions, and the logo of an old bearded man is definitely an unconventional marketing image for the beauty industry, but this is all just part of the good ol’ American charm that goes into making Burt’s Bee products....
The batteries of a hybrid are not only a source of electricity, they also can produce a lot of heat - between 270º and 340º for the Zebra battery by Zytek Electric Vehicles. That firm is currently working on a heat exchanger system that would use that waste heat to keep the car's cabin warm in winter and cool in the summer. The advantage that such a system would bring is obvious: Climate-control in the car could be operated without drawing any extra power (or less power, in any case), making hybrid cars even more efficient. Along with other systems such as using the exhaust to power the air conditioner (we wrote about it
here), this falls into the "turn a problem into a solution" category. Not a major breakthrough, but every little bit helps.
::UK Team Developing Hybrid Vehicle Waste Heat Heating System...
In other news, the 205,000 people who attended the
Live 8 show in the UK left behind them what is estimated to be between 150 and 650 tonnes of assorted trash (at 3 kilos (6.6 pounds) per person )! "The litter levels are set to beat the previous record, set by the May Day demonstrations in 2000." I sure hope they had an impact on poverty in Africa, because they sure didn't help the environment much on that day. The costs of cleanup are unknown because the company that did the job has a set price contract and isn't charging extra.
::Massive clean-up following Live 8...
Canada’s most famous environmentalist David Suzuki has issued the Nature Challenge, in response to the question he gets all the time- What can I do? It is a deceptively innocuous and simple 10 step program, but in fact is pretty sophisiticated and more importantly, is achievable by almost anyone without making major lifestyle changes. ...
Here are some more alternatives to cooking with the sun's heat featured by Solar Cookers International, which complement our
Cook With The Sun post from a few weeks ago. First, the CooKit is a panel-style solar cooker convenient for home and camping. It's made of cardboard and foil and it folds flat. You can get up to 200ºFs with it.
The Global Sun Oven is a solar box cooker made of molded plastic which weighs 21 pounds and comes with a carrying handle. It can heat up to 300ºFs.
And then there's the SOS Sport, a two-pot box cooker. The great thing about this one is that it's
made from recycled soda bottles. It weighs 11 pounds and reaches 200ºFs. All prices and ordering instructions are on the website.
::Solar Cookers International.
Through
Kitchen Contraptions...
Would you need more than heat during cold winter nights when your ultra efficient woodstove (
Rais,
Topolino, etc...) is running at full capacity ? Well ecofan won't require more wood but will add efficiency to the heating process as a whole by distributing hot air faster, without asking for plug, batteries or any kind of outsider's energy : Ecofan runs silently by itself when left at the top of the stove, wings powered by a side effect of the heat known as the Peltier effect. The hotter your stove, the faster it spins....
We rather liked Daniel Libeskind's notion of wind turbines in the upper floors of the World Trade Center. He knew there were not enough people to fill it, so why not fill it with turbines? Then the police moved in (rather late in the game, we think) and suddenly the windmill space is moved to the bottom and made into a concrete bunker to enclose mechanical equipment. What a bore. What a failure of vision.
::Life without buildings....
The city of Linkoeping in Sweden (south of Stockholm) will be linked to the city of Västervik 80 kilometers away (50 miles) by the first train to run entirely on biogas that comes from organic waste. A small one-carriage train that can carry 54 passengers has been converted: its diesel engines have been replaced by two Volvo gas engines. "The train is equipped with eleven canisters containing enough gas to run for 600 kilometers (375 miles) before needing a refill, and can reach a maximum speed of 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour"....
If you don't live within a stone's throw of one of the cities hosting the Live8 today, you may be succoring yourself with the philosophy of David Stubbs (of Wired Magazine). To paraphrase, and probably invite a lawsuit: Musicians today are merely Corporate Stooges, being flouted by Whiskey or Water company executives who don't know art but do know how to turn a profit on plastic disks. Music has lost its power of philosophical leadership, of rebellion, of commitment, of casting the spotlight in the corners where shame lurks. OK. Those are mostly my words. Sorry, David. For a well-reasoned argument along these lines, you can look at Davids Stubb's own words at
BBC.
But for those of you with open minds who want another viewpoint and for those who love being part of it, who will watch it on TV or follow the livecasts and blogs if they can't be there, read on......
Here is a study that hits all kinds of treehugger buttons: British physicist Alan Calvert calculates that animals we eat generate 21% of all the carbon dioxide that can be attributed to human activity. "We could therefore slash man-made emissions of carbon dioxide simply by abolishing all livestock." he continues: "Worldwide reduction of meat production in the pursuit of the targets set in the Kyoto treaty seems to carry fewer political unknowns than cutting our consumption of fossil fuels" They should be serving tofu tonite at Gleneagles. ::Physorg...
We recently interviewed Seth Godin and continue to be impressed with his insights. He recently posted an interesting entry on his blog about whale oil- how the Netherlands economy ran on it, how they adapted to the decline in whale oil production and moved their intelligence, energy and capital elsewhere. "We're in the middle of the biggest shift(s) of the last century--whole industries are disappearing, worldviews are changing and the rules are being rewritten." We have to do as the Dutch did- get over it and adapt. ::Seth's Blog...
We love the Voltaic Backpack and we love blogging. Here is a hack that converts your pack into a mobile hotspot so that you "could use any Wi-Fi-enabled gadget anywhere you’ve got a cell signal. Play multiplayer games with friends in the park, or blog an event in real-time." OK treehuggers, everyone to the park for a group blog. ::Popular Science via ::Lifehacker...
Treehugger covered Willie Nelson's BioWillie fuel months ago (read here); The Wall Street Journal wrote about it today, and for a change you can read it online. ::Wall Street Journal ...
We spent the long weekend by the lake, reading Fueling the Future from House of Anansi, edited by Andrew Heintzman (co-founder of the late lamented Shift Magazine) and author and TV host Evan Solomon. A host of Canadian and international contributors are here: ...
As children we often drove through Buffalo (one never drove to buffalo, just through) and it was always dire- jets of fire rising from the steelmills , old and tired and dirty. Thus we were impressed to see that Buffalo landed in third place, behind Portland and San Jose, among the cleanest cities in America in a recent study. Depopulation and industrial flight had something to do with it, but so did Superfund dollars, environmental bonds and a lot of hard work.
Its time to go back and take another look. ::Readers Digest
More on the environment from Readers Digest here...
