Weekly Archive for May 20, 2007 : TreeHugger

Good news for people who like "clean coal": a team of scientists from the Department of Colloid Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces has discovered a novel "low-tech" way of using biomass to clean up carbon dioxide emissions.They suggest using a cost-efficient process known as hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) to turn fast-growing energy crops into a form of "bio-coal" that would be stored into "carbon landfills" that could act as effective carbon sinks. Unlike other carbonization techniques, HTC is a "wet" process that eschews complex drying procedures and costly isolation schemes. Carbon structures produced through this process tend to retain most of the reactant's original carbon and are therefore the most carbon dioxide-efficient. Perhaps most significantly, the only by-product of the reaction is water. The process is itself fairly simple: biomass is placed into an autoclave (anything from leaves, organic waste to pine cones) with water and a citric acid catalyst, and the entire mixture is heated for approximately 12 hours at 180°C....

In a fascinating article published in the open access journal Environmental Research Letters, James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York argues that widespread "scientific reticence" poses a threat to the future well-being of the planet by hindering a necessary conversation between scientists and the public over potentially large sea level rises. He points out that any delay in the discussion carries tremendous risk as system inertias could precipitate a situation in which future sea level changes careen out of control. In laying out his case against scientific reticence, Hansen cites numerous studies that sought to examine this "resistance to scientists to scientific discovery" and this tendency to "delay discount" out of concern for being the one to erroneously "cry wolf." In essence, as do most individuals, scientists prefer immediate over delayed gratification, a practice that Hansen believes "may contribute to irrational reticence even among rational scientists" (for full list of cited references, see original article here)....

New research has shown that saving trees could slow the onset of climate change. According to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), nearly 33 million acres of forestland is felled around the world each year, accounting for approximately 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere, or 20 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. If the number of trees cut down were halved, experts estimate that it could save close to 500 million metric tons of carbon annually and contribute to the 12 percent of greenhouse gas emission reductions needed to prevent the pernicious effects of global warming. Werner Kurz, a forest ecologist with Natural Resources Canada, believes that the impact of forest depletion on global warming is more harmful than the combined effects of all vehicle emissions. "What we are doing in these tropical forests is really a massive problem," said Kurz....

[Author’s Note: Readers will have to forgive me if I drop the usual TH style of writing in the third person. This post is of a rather personal nature. I want to tell you about my wedding.] Some time ago I was responsible for putting together the TreeHugger guide on How To Green Your Wedding. I was in the process of planning my own wedding celebration at the time. Now the happy day is over, and I have tied the knot with my beautiful, fantastic, tree-hugging, good lady wife, I thought it might be of interest to go over some lessons learned from planning a green, or at least greener, wedding. The event was held at Celebrity Dairy Goat Farm, a local cheese producer here in North Carolina that also runs a bed and breakfast, and offers event catering. Because the main caterers were local farmers themselves, and the rehersal dinner caterer was also deeply passionate about local food, incorporating our green values into the menu was easy. Over the course of the weekend guests were served NC shrimp biryani, fresh local strawberries, vegetarian ‘meat balls’, and local, sustainably-reared pork. One guest was even convinced she’d met the pigs in question at her friend’s farm. Obviously there was plenty of goats cheese too! The cake was baked by our local co-op, and put together by a friend who just happens to have been a pastry chef (we choose our friends well!). We made a point of celebrating local food on the menus, and in the programs, and many guests commented on how nice it was to hear the story behind their food – quite a few left with packets of the farm’s cheese too at the end of the evening. And being a farm, all food waste was either fed to the chickens or composted at the end of the day. ...

USG Corporation (NYSE:USG) announced that it has registered its new headquarters, 550 W. Adams St., Chicago, Illinois, USA, as LEED for Commercials Interiors (CI) registered space, the U.S. Green Building Council’s voluntary rating standard for green design and construction of tenant improvements. USG is seeking LEED-CI Gold certification, joining a select group of environmentally-friendly buildings in Chicago. Of the 250 registered LEED-CI spaces in Chicago, only 16 are certified as Gold. LEED ratings include Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum...Nearly 1000 employees occupy 11 floors totaling about 300,000 square feet in the new 18-story glass and steel building."...

The Orlando Florida, USA airport has a new hydrogen fueling station, installed to provision a new generation of clean shuttle buses. "Air Products' (NYSE:APD) hydrogen technology was officially put into operation this week in Orlando, Florida. Designed and constructed by Chevron Hydrogen Company, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., the hydrogen fueling station is located near the Orlando Airport and will fuel a fleet of shuttle buses powered by modified internal combustion engines." The thought of waiting for a shuttle at baggage claim - and not having to breath diesel fumes - is certainly attractive. We don't have to wait for fuel cell technology to become more cost effective to benefit from better air quality. Knowing that the hydrogen reformation equipment can be more conveniently equipped to control pollutants than can a bus, we expect to see more of this in the future....

how to green your kids toys banner image

What’s the Big Deal?

It’s a little cliché but true nonetheless, your children and your children's children will inherit the world that we create today. So, the stuff we give them shouldn't make life any harder on them in the future. If that alone isn't enough, how about the fact that your child will, more likely than not, chew everything edible and non-edible in his/her sight. Now there's motivation to make sure your child's playthings are green and healthy! Here we’ll give you the scoop on how to find more sustainable and less toxic toys for your little TreeHugger so you can do good for your child and the environment.

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There are no downtown supermarkets in worn-out cities like Troy, Schenectady and Albany, so the poor living in these areas don't get fresh vegetables. This year, the Capital District Community Gardens, a nonprofit agency, started showing up in the Veggie Mobile, which according to the New York Times, cruises the streets on a rotating schedule three days a week, selling freshly grown local produce. On one additional day, it offers samples and gives away fresh fruit and vegetables, hoping to get people to expand their food choices. “We’re trying to give people in inner-city neighborhoods access to affordable fresh produce,” said Amy Klein, executive director of the community gardens. But they are being careful about their carbon footprint while they do it- "Our UPS- style step van that will be retrofit with refrigeration and shelving units to store produce being sold. The refrigeration units will be powered by photovoltaic cells and the truck itself will run on biodiesel, making it a truly green machine. To make the Veggie mobile charmingly conspicuous it will be colorfully painted and outfitted with a sound system that will announce our presence before we arrive. " ::Capital District Community Gardens via ::New York Times ...

Spring is in the air and the long daylight hours are bringing Berliners out of hibernation and back to activity. Activity as in Activism. Green entries in the calendar range from the small and provincial to events of international impact. Anchoring the local end of the spectrum are items such as the call for entries to the competition for the Berlin Mitte Environment Prize. Of somewhere between local and global interest, depending on your point of view, is the much-discussed issue of Knut, the first polar bear born for over thirty years at the Berlin zoo. Where do you weigh in: should Knut be mascot for the fight against global warming? Or should the tiny bear, rejected by its mother and raised on a bottle by the zoo keeper, be humanely executed to spare him the indignity of being raised by humans and therefore not bear-like enough? In spite of the threats to polar bear biodiversity in the wild? At the clearly global end of the spectrum is the G8 conference on the sea shore north of Berlin. With the conference only weeks away, global citizens are converging by foot, bike and caravan to join the protests, exhibitions and general hub-bub that surrounds the meeting of global leaders. Dropping Knowlege will report the blow-by-blow from their G8 Summer Camp, and is a good place to find out how you can join a Bicycle Caravan or Euromarch on Rostock. These links are just examples, but there are routes from south, east, west and north. All roads lead to Rostock and events of cultural, social, environmental and artistic merit; so check it out: everyone can join from anywhere....

Sometimes an idea seems almost too good to be true. But this one is not. If there was a worldwide shift from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents, the drop in electricity use would permit us to close 270 coal-fired (500-megawatt) power plants that are contributing enormously to climate change. (See full report.) Some countries have already started “banning the bulb.” On February 20, 2007, Australia announced it would phase out the sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2010, replacing them with highly efficient compact fluorescent bulbs that use one fourth as much electricity. For the United States, this bulb switch would facilitate shutting down 80 coal-fired plants. Two months after Australia’s announcement, the Canadian government announced it would phase out sales of incandescents by 2012. In mid-March, a U.S. coalition of environmental groups—including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Alliance to Save Energy, the American Coalition for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and the Earth Day Network—along with Philips Lighting launched an initiative to shift to the more-efficient bulbs in all of the country’s estimated 4 billion sockets by 2016....

This week's article will once again address the construction of the main house (the past few articles focused on construction of the workshop). At this point in the construction process, framing of the house is complete and we can begin stacking the straw bales. For this task, I decided to enlist the help of some volunteer workers. Over the course of a weekend, I held a straw bale workshop. I had placed several fliers around town to announce this, and on the first day of the workshop, about twenty-five enthusiastic individuals showed up to lend a hand and to get some hands-on experience with these techniques. A workshop like this benefits everyone involved. The homeowner saves a great deal of time and money (in my case, eighty percent of the bales were placed during the workshop) because he or she is essentially getting free labor, and the volunteers receive free instruction on how to place the bales and other related skills. There is also a wonderful feeling of community when a group of people get together for a project such as this—the obvious comparison is that of an old-fashioned barn-raising. ...

While global warming naysayers seem content to continue flouting the overwhelming scientific consensus in favor of this anthropogenic phenomenon, they seem to have gotten one point largely right: hurricanes didn't suddenly begin massing over the past century as a result of warming sea temperatures. Indeed, a new study carried out by geologists Jeff Donnelly and Jonathan Woodruff from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has shown that the frequency of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean is closely related to long-term trends in the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the West African monsoon and that bursts of intense activity have occurred in cycles over the past 5,000 years. By examining sediment-core samples obtained from Laguna Playa Grande on Vieques, Puerto Rico, an island particularly vulnerable to strong hurricanes, they were able to piece together a 5,000-year chronology of land-falling hurricanes in that area that they then compared with existing paleoclimate data on ENSO, the West African monsoon and other climate influences. They concluded that the number of intense hurricanes (i.e. category 3, 4 and 5) tended to rise when the effect of El Niño was weak and that of the West African Monsoon strong. ...

For one week each year, Black Rock City becomes the tenth largest city in Nevada. The massive fully-interactive arts festival that is Burning Man attracts people from around the world to experience a temporary intentional community in the heat of the desert, and this year’s theme is eco-effectiveness. In this extended interview, Meaghan O’Neill talks with Burning Man’s Environmental Manager Tom Price about green tech on the playa, Burners Without Borders, and Black Rock City as a sustainable microcosm. Subscribe to TreeHugger Radio on iTunes or listen/right click to download. ::TreeHugger Radio (TreeHugger Radio is written by Simran Sethi and produced by Jacob Gordon. This week's interview conducted by Meaghan O’Neill.) ...

Mini takes the Cooper a step forward making its emissions as clean as the Prius… Bill Richardson says President Bush slept through the climate wakeup call… Exxon shareholders want to shake up the boardroom and oust a key figure… Massive Wal-Mart has plans to bring more sustainable practices to the sale of shrimp… As wetlands turn dry, diverse bird populations face extinction… Most Huggable is a daily roundup of some of the top stories from Hugg.com, TreeHugger’s user-generated green news site. Why not submit your own green news? ...

"On the eve of summer and as gasoline prices soar, the auto industry is launching a $1 million radio ad campaign that challenges the push for new vehicles to get about 35 miles per gallon. The ads, decrying "extreme fuel economy increases," are part of a brewing fight in Congress over legislation that will be considered next month and could lead to more fuel-efficient vehicles...The ads will starting running this weekend in states with a large concentration of pickup truck and sport utility vehicle owners, including Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The group also directs people to a web site that encourages residents to contact their members of Congress about the proposed bill." With gasoline bumping US$4/gallon ,the "extreme mileage" thing would sound pretty good to me. But I don't plan on buying a really big truck. If fuel stays that high, though, it seems reasonable to expect fewer "Sold" signs on those "normal mileage" vehicles. Via: Houston Chronicle Image credit: Neils Big Truck. ...

Just when you thought you have every add-on and doodad for your 18 wheeler, an Israeli professor in engineering has made a device that can help make your truck fleet go green. Highlighted at the World’s Best Technologies Showcase in Fort Worth Texas last week, Professor Avi Seifert has devised an anti-drag device that can increase fuel efficiency as much as 10%. Experts commercializing the technology at the University, say that the device could save Americans as much as $400 million dollars worth of fuel every year. Less fuel consumption, needless to say, goes hand in hand with reducing greenhouse gases and a happier planet. The device which is still in the prototype stage (and looking for an investor) is a small actuator that can be attached to a truck or its trailer. Using a combined action of suction and pulsed blowing of airflow, reports the University’s website, the device reduces drag in a controlled manner. At an expected end-user cost of $1000 to $2000 per unit, the device could pay for itself in a year. And if developed in time, it could be one of those blockbuster Christmas gifts like The Clapper, remote-controlled garage door openers and heated slippers. But don't stop at this post truckers. TreeHugger archives report on many ways to make your trucks go green. Here, here and here. ::TAU News ...

Sweden’s Scania has produced a standard-sized low-floor city bus that cuts CO2 emissions by up to 90 percent when fuelled with ethanol and saves at least 25 percent fuel, compared with a bus running on conventional petrol or diesel. Twelve of the hybrid-drive buses equipped to run purely on ethanol will start regular operation in Stockholm in 2008 and 2009 in cooperation with the city’s public transport operator, SL (Storstockholms lokaltrafik). Ten of these are partly financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. The new bus also meets some of the world’s toughest emission levels - Euro 5 and EEV - and it uses technology which is designed to last the life of the vehicle. For example, energy storage is by way of supercapacitors, which are much more robust than batteries, especially in heavy-duty applications such as trucks and buses (where there is also room for the capacitors’ bulk)....

Inspired by the Greek philosophy of "kalon," meaning to have beauty linked with moral worth and usefulness, Kalon Studios extends this ideal to their work, making products that aren’t only beautiful in form but beautiful in concept as well. They've created a small collection of beautiful, modern, sustainable furniture -- a crib and changing trunk for kids, plus a chair and set of nesting blocks -- that are "kalon" in every sense of the word. Our favorite is "Isometric Chair (pictured above), featured at HauteGREEN last week (check out our Sneak Peek series for more examples of what was at the show). Made from bamboo and created with the precision of CNC (computer numerical control) manufacturing, we really like the way the the clean lines work really nicely with the beautiful, intricate engravings in the back (which are optional, by the way, if you don't like them). Kalon is a German/American husband and wife team -- Johannes Pauwen and Michaele Simmering -- and so they're fond of saying their work was "inspired in Berlin, made in Los Angeles", where they follow a sustainable business model that includes the local production, 100% post-consumer recycled paper and vegetable inks for printed materials and non-toxic finishes for their furniture. There are more pics (and a cool quote from their site) after the jump. ::Kalon Studios ...

A man was found dead in a drainage canal, close to his home in Marshland St James in the UK. The quiet Norfolk town has been the centre of a controversial battle over proposed wind farms, to which many believe the death is linked. Richard Herbert was one of a local group in support of wind-power, who wanted to build 26 turbines on land belonging to the group. They claim that members were intimidated by those against the plans. In a statement made by his family it was made clear that they believe this animosity was a factor in his death, "In recent months Richard's health had created cause for concern, and he had commenced treatment at the Fermoy centre, King's Lynn [a mental health facility]. Anxieties relating to the decline of farming coupled with opposition to a wind turbine farm and personal matters are believed to be behind his recent out-of-character behaviour." The tension between pro and anti wind in the village had grown quite strong. An 85 metre-high anemometer was erected to test the suitability of the area for a wind plant, which was promptly destroyed by anti-wind protesters, causing £100,000 of damage. ...

British nuclear engineers are set to follow the path of all ancient architects. "All but one of Britain's nuclear power stations will be shut by 2023, and the government insists it must make a decision this year on whether to build new nuclear power plants...The complete Oldbury [plant] shutdown will cost around 1 billion pounds and could take 110 years, nearly three times longer than the plant has been in operation...Decommissioning [all the] aging nuclear plants, like 40-year-old Oldbury in western England, and storing their toxic waste will cost around 70 billion pounds ($138.3 billion), according to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority." In announcing the decision to indeed build more reactors this week, the government spokesman stated "it would make sense for any new nuclear plants to be built alongside existing ones, because all the necessary infrastructure and links to the National Grid were already there." Did they really mean they would bury the old plant's hot carcass aside a new one? If so, this could become common practice wherever aging nuclear plants must be decommissioned, including in North America - as long as no one can agree on a central repository for radiological waste. Once this prospect sinks in to the public consciousness, public licensing hearings will be, shall we say, "heated." Semantic aside: the namesake town is Oldbury - Old Bury, get it? Via:: Scientific American Image credit: Oldbury Plant NukeWorker...

DaimlerChrysler is developing a hybrid version of its Citaro bus, with pilot operation to begin next year and full-scale production planned for 2009. The Citaro hybrid uses a downsized diesel engine to provide power for a lithium-ion battery pack on the roof. When drawing into, standing at, or accelerating away from bus stops, the hybrid bus operates in electric-only mode. DaimlerChrysler says the hybrid will offer 20-30 percent lower fuel consumption than conventional diesel Citaros. The hybrid will use four electric wheel hub motors on the center and rear axles of the vehicle, with a total output of 320 kWs of power....

There's satellite imagery and then there's satellite imagery: as part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) GlobCover project, the most detailed pictures ever of the Earth's land surface (ten times sharper than similar previous efforts) have been created with the Envisat environmental satellite. These images, which are bimonthly global composites for the periods between May and June 2005 and March to April 2006, can be accessed through the ESA's GlobCover website's newly created map server tool. In all, around 40 terabytes of imagery were retrieved between December 2004 and June 2006 and processed to produce these composites, which will aid the international community in modeling the impacts of climate change and worldwide land-use trends and in studying ecosystems. Ron Witt of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) explained that the data sets obtained through the GlobCover project should "allow UNEP to do frequent monitoring of environmentally-critical sites and known 'hot spots' in areas we have under examination around the globe, and to update our knowledge of such changing environmental conditions."...

This isn't your hipper-than-thou teenager's knitting book. The Natural Knitter: How to Choose, Use, and Knit Natural Fibers from Alpaca to Yak ($32.50 cloth; 2007, Potter Craft) by Barbara Albright returns to the fiber art's all-natural roots, before acrylic/polyamide/polyester blends made their debut—before...praise the Lord and pass the Merino...fun fur. Albright adroitly covers much ground, from the plants and animals that produce the fibers to the artisans who coax them into luscious skeins of yarn. Alongside the vibrant, lavishly detailed photographs are knitting patterns to more than 20 classic designs, created from yarns spun from the fibers of sheep, llamas, angora bunnies, yak, and silkworms, as well as from organic cotton, hemp, linen, and even pineapple. (Look elsewhere for the eyelash-yarn bustiers.) You even get step-by-step instructions on how to dye yarn at home with naturally derived, eco-friendly dyes. A brilliant end to a fine career, The Natural Knitter is Albright's final publication; she passed away in 2006. We raise our needles and salute her. :: The Natural Knitter See also: ::No Sheep For You...

We're fans of this Lounge Chair made from sustainably-harvest teak by Maku Furnishings. Founded by two "Global Surfers, Travelers, Marketers and Lifestyle enthusiasts", Maku Furnishings offers "non traditional furnishings for a modern world." Their surf-inspired aesthetic is tempered by a distinctly modern feeling that yields a pretty unique set of products; Maku calls them "experiential, organic, and relevant to passionate lifestyle participants and design enthusiasts." ...

You wouldn’t know it by looking at it or by snapping photos with it, but Pentax’s *istDS digital SLR camera has the Japanese eco-label ECO-LEAF. Surprisingly when searching for consumer information about the camera there was no mention of the eco-label. The ECO-LEAF is an eco-label that is given based on the results of the life cycle assessment of the product. This program belongs to the Type III eco-label category of the ISO 14025 Standard. For this label quantitative environmental data is given for the life cycle of a product, from raw material extraction to production, distribution, use, disposal and recycling of the finished product. This is different from Type I which is given by a certifying body who judges a product based on a standard (i.e. Forest Stewardship Council) and Type II in which a company auto-declares that its product is “environmentally conscious”. Type III is quantitative and doesn’t provide a judgment on the environmental “friendliness” of the product. What it does mean is that the manufacturer has carried out an LCA and reported its finding to the ECO-LEAF people. The small amount of information available on the German Pentax website notes that “The *istDS was the world’s most compact, lightweight digital SLR camera at the time of its market launch in January 2005…” Minimizing materials and weight is one of many eco-design principles. Additionally, “the camera is free of hazardous substances such as hexavalent chromium and used no lead in the optical components, in order to minimize environmental impact.” Although we couldn't find the actual LCA report the good news here is that Pentax is minimizing hazardous materials, lowering weights and reducing materials in an attempt to make their digital SLR cameras greener. ...

After meeting in the Faroe Islands recently, 200 of the world's leading environmental scientists from five continents warned Thursday that exposure to common chemicals at normal levels makes infants and those in the womb more likely to develop a wide range of health problems in later life. Some of these include diabetes, attention deficit disorders, prostate cancer, fertility problems, thyroid disorders and obesity. And that’s because when fetuses and newborns encounter various toxic substances the growth of their critical organs and functions can be irreparably changed in a process called "fetal programming," which leaves the children susceptible to diseases later in life, and perhaps could even lead them to pass on those altered traits to their children and grandchildren. Indeed, the newest animal research suggests that some chemicals can alter gene expression by turning on or off genes that predispose people to diseases, and though the DNA itself is not changed genetic misfires in the womb like these may be permanent, and could be passed on to the next generation. ...

One doesn't have to dig deeply these days to see that green business is hot: from Fortune 500 companies to the smallest of start-ups, the business world increasingly recognizes that the urgent need to tackle climate change and other environmental challenges offers new opportunities for profitability. On Tuesday, the House of Representative's new select committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held hearings on employment in the green economy, as businesses ramping up their eco-friendly efforts are discovering that the pool of potential employees with the necessary training and skills is still fairly shallow. Titled “Economic Impacts of Global Warming: Green Collar Jobs,” the committee's members heard testimony on efforts to expand the number of workers trained to participate in the greening of the economy, and the importance of ensuring that people on various rungs of the socioeconomic ladder are included in this expansion. Committee chair Edward J. Markey and colleagues invited the following experts to address these issues:...

We mentioned Lord Rogers' prefab "flexi-houses" being built with Wimpey earlier; now we get to see the almost finished project. "The homes are constructed from sustainable materials and employ unique features including an ‘EcoHat’ – allowing hot air to be re-used to optimise energy consumption and provide passive solar water heating – as well as layouts which optimise space and light." ::Financial Times via ::Urbanity ...

TreeHugger tends to cover some pretty high-end, glamorous technologies, but we are constantly reminded that much of the technology (and the know-how) needed to get us out of our present crisis is already here. While we may gawp over space age electric cars such as the Tesla, or the latest in thin-film solar, ultimately, much of the work needing to be done is in arguably less ‘sexy’, but equally important, fields such as home insulation, energy efficiency advice, and simple, small scale power generation. We are delighted, then, to be once again covering the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy (see our previous posts on the 2005 and 2006 awards, or our coverage of specific previous finalists here, here and here). We have just heard that this years’ short list has been announced, and it looks as impressive as ever. Divided into a UK section, and an international section, this prestigious award sets out to be “an annual competition to identify and reward organizations which have carried out truly excellent, practical, yet innovative schemes, demonstrating sustainable energy in action at a local level.” And this years’ crop of nominees represent, without doubt, a perfect example of the broad spectrum of fronts on which the battle against climate change is currently being fought - while some nominees are purveyors of fancy solar panels, or the latest in wind-turbine technology, they stand alongside simple micro-hydro schemes, basic ram pump technology, efficient wood stoves, and basic energy efficiency advisors. All have their place in securing a brighter, more secure future for our planet. This year the prizes are to be presented at the Ashden Awards ceremony held at the Royal Geographical Society, London, on 21st June by none other than Al Gore, and the event will be attended by grassroots, public sector and business enterprises from around the world. In a statement of support, Mr Gore said:

“The Ashden Awards are a powerful reminder that well designed and managed local sustainable energy initiatives can tackle climate change while meeting the needs of local communities. Tackling these issues simultaneously - in both rich and poor countries - is critical to addressing the twin planetary challenges of climate change and sustainable development.”

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Adam Stein is vice-president of marketing and co-founder of TerraPass, one of the leading US providers of voluntary carbon offsets. He is also a regular contributor to the debate surrounding offsets in the comments boxes here on TreeHugger. We've previously interviewed Tom Arnold of TerraPass here, and we also interviewed a seller of carbon credits to TerraPass about the details of getting funding through offset sales here. Given the always controversial nature of carbon offsets, we thought it would be worth exploring TerraPass' activities in more detail. In particular, we wanted to hear Adam's views on what role offsets can play within the wider fight against climate change, whether there is a risk that they provide an excuse for inaction, and to ask how consumers can ensure that offsets really do live up to their full potential. TreeHugger: Carbon offsets are controversial. Some welcome them as a cost-effective way to reduce emissions, while others worry that by selling 'carbon neutrality' at the swipe of a credit card, they provide an excuse for 'business-as-usual'. What role do you see offsets playing in the wider move towards a sustainable economy? Adam Stein: We’re in a phase where people are waking up to the threat of climate change, but most of us haven’t yet considered very deeply what is going to be required to actually prevent the worst effects of global warming. This is true even in much of the environmental community, where many proposed fixes are too narrow to address the full scope of the problem. ...

The Worn Again brand have hit urban eco-design gold once again with a new range of bags using reclaimed materials. After the great success of their 99% recycled sneaker line the Worn Again design team have turned their talents to accessories. The over riding impression I get from Worn Again is the fun they have with finding new and unexpected ways of reusing all sorts of materials. On their shoes they've used leather car interiors, cotton t-shirts, jeans, coffee sacks, recycled rubber and even firemen's trousers! Now for their new bags they've found a surplus of seat belts, inner tubes and ex military capes to play with. Functional, stylish and hard wearing, with a donation from every Worn Again sale going towards offsetting with Climate Care - what more could a green urban warrior need? Worn Again Bags are available to buy online and at special stockists. :: Worn Again :: Terra Plana...

We have been following Vanessa Farquharson's journey to take a small green step every day and blog it, but unplugging the fridge seems at first like a very big one. It is true that if you are young in the city, where you can shop fresh for every meal, the fridge is less important than it is to families who shop at Wal-Mart for a week's food. I believe the definition of a "New York Fridge" is one with nothing but a bottle of champagne and a grapefruit in it; I also have noted that small fridges make good cities. However unplugging the whole thing isn't a baby step. Vanessa notes that "it’s been interesting learning about all the things that didn’t really need to be refrigerated — at least for very long — in the first place (margarine, jams, potatoes, ketchup, mustard and most other condiments, apples, almond butter, blueberries, etc)." and "if you live in a city, have some time to spare each day for a walk to the corner store, have only yourself (and your kitty) to feed, and are almost a little too concerned about the environment but still more or less in control of your mental faculties — it’s worth trying the no-fridge lifestyle."-at least until it is 40 degrees C inside your apartment. ::Green as a Thistle...

Green grass is growing all over London's landmarks--last month it was the National Theatre and this week it is Trafalgar Square. Wandering onto the green is a sweet, grassy-smelling delight, with red deck chairs, people lying down, eating lunch, reading the paper, a family playing baseball (they must have been American) and others just gawking at the sight. And not quite understanding what was going on. The answer is that the mayor, Ken Livingstone, is promoting London's "villages" and its reputation as one of the world's greener capital cities. But not that green--the sod will be gone by tonight; transferred to a park where it will be planted beneath a row of trees close to the Thames. It is all quite ecological: the 2,000 square metres of sod came from a sustainable turf farm in York and was harvested the day before yesterday with very little soil attached. A team of gardeners worked all night to lay it. Global Cool a celebrity-backed climate change group, was involved in making its journey carbon neutral. How sweet it was. ...

Ontario Asparagus has made an appearance in supermarkets and outdoor markets in the past week. This is one of those vegetables that is so delicate and delicious that I like to keep the preparation as simple as possible and just enjoy the flavour of the asparagus. Nigel Slater in his book The Kitchen Diaries says "I don't mess around with asparagus". He boils it is salted water until it bends and then dips the spears into softened (not melted) butter. I like to roast asparagus. It is quick and easy to make and the flavour is quite intense. I usually just place the spears on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 450 degrees for about 8 minutes, a little less if you have the skinny spears. Once out of the oven you can sprinkle it with a little sea salt or a little parmesan cheese and that's it. This recipe from Jamie Kennedy's book Seasons is a bit more elegant and you can serve it as part of a buffet or as an appetizer....

Canada has great plans for controlling greenhouse gases, except of course where it might hurt oil sands development in Alberta. And of course in Maritime Canada where jobs are scarce. And when the Irvings, who own the Province of New Brunswick are on the phone. And when six out of ten cars in Boston run on Irving oil. So when the Irvings propose a new seven billion dollar, 300,000 barrel per day refinery there is no real worry about it, even though the existing refinery pumps out 3.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year and is one of Canada's 25 biggest emitters. And we can't jave things like environmental assessments of the project slow it down, so Environment Minister John Baird just exempted it from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. After all he says the refinery "will provide great economic benefits for the province, a lot of jobs, a lot of hope, a lot of opportunity will be created with that. If we didn't have an intensity-based system (for regulating greenhouse gas emissions) that wouldn't be able to go ahead." Irvings say jump; Baird says "how high?" ::CBC...

What a pleasure to show a green residential project that is not an expensive condo in New York or Dubai. Instead it is a sixty-six unit building of affordable apartments in ratty Ramsgate Street in Dalston, London, designed by Waugh Thistleton. It is an airfoil shape to concentrate the greatest wind speed to the spline of the building, where four vertical axis turbines are mounted and will generate 15% of the buildings load, saving seven tonnes of CO2 each year. ...

Walking on Toronto's funky Queen Street, we noticed a sign for the Matchbox Garden & Seed Co. and walked down a back lane into what is normally a parking area behind retail stores, and found seedlings being sold by Hannah Jacobs from a lovely oasis of a garden, just beginning to sprout. It turns out that in an urban backyard one can make a business growing vegetables and herbs. Hannah says "Our focus is organically grown heirloom vegetables and herbs. Part of our purpose is to encourage visitors to our garden to start their own inner city organic experience. The month of May brings opportunity to plant your garden, enjoy the warmer weather and look forward to the colours and flavors of summer harvests." The catalogue is also a gem, a graphic wonder from another era. ...

The Japanese are famous for their paper crafts; we love them because they can so easily be downloadable designs, eliminating the cost and carbon of shipping. There is an exhibition in Harajuku a the AssistOn Gallery showing dozens of them, old and new. Above are "from left to right: the grey old-fashioned robot from the 50s, the “Space Patrol” robot in his car on a pedestal and the flying robot dog on a LEGO brick." And then they get much more complicated. There are ships, birds made out of tracing paper, and buildings like the Katsura Detached Villa and the Tokyo Train Station. All of the models in the exhibition are available from the Shubunsha Corporation; we hope soon for download. Open until May 31 at ::Assiston ...

In its most recent report released in April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) cautioned that rising temperatures would likely result in "the altered spatial distribution of some infectious disease vectors" and other "mixed effects, such as the decrease or increase of the range and transmission potential of malaria in Africa." Stephen Morse, a professor at Columbia University, noted at the 107th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology that "environmental changes have always been associated with the appearance of new diseases or the arrival of old diseases in new places." David Rogers of Oxford University, who also spoke at the meeting, explained that the diseases that are most likely to be affected by environmental changes are those carried by insects and ticks. What isn't clear, he added, is whether the diseases would increase or decrease, an uncertainty he ascribed to the lack of a thorough analysis of historical disease record and the need for present-day ground-based surveillance and good predictive models. Based on current and projected figures, Morse predicted that rising global temperatures would exert a profound impact on the spread of malaria by facilitating the migration of disease vectors, such as mosquitoes, to altitudes that had originally been too cold to support them. "One of the first indicators of rising global temperatures could be malaria climbing mountains," says Morse. ...

Gas prices are rising, and gas-guzzling cars are appearing less and less attractive. SF Gate are reporting that sales of "perhaps the most idiotic consumer vehicle ever produced in your lifetime", the Hummer H2, have fallen dramatically for the past two years, to the point where the model may be dropped, "It's heavily rumored that GM will soon kill the model entirely, which is already being supplanted by a slew of smaller, less disgusting H2 offspring like the H3." However, it's not a trend. SUV sales are climbing, despite the huge cost of filling their tank. Perhaps the H2 didn't sell because it was ugly, not because gas became too expensive. Perhaps people wanted an SUV, but didn't want to be seen as harming the environment - Hummers are an icon of irresponsible environmental choice, even amongst other SUVs. Perhaps when gas prices rise another dollar, we'll finally see less of these over the top cars on the road. :: SF Gate See also :: A Green Hummer? (It Runs On Biofuels) :: GM Kills the Hummer H1...

Question: A large apartment complex is going to be built in my neighborhood, starting next month and lasting through the year. There is already a lot more congestion and many more construction vehicles near my house. Is this construction dangerous? What can I do to minimize the impact of this construction? Response: As you are already witnessing, construction has many impacts on surrounding neighborhoods. Construction tends to be loud, dusty, and bothersome. If the construction includes demolition, some of the generated dust may contain pollutants, such as asbestos or metals, that are potentially harmful. Also, construction is likely to increase congestion in your neighborhood -- both from usual and rerouted traffic and from construction vehicles. This increased congestion generally means more pollution for your neighborhood. ...

Think water and global warming, and melting Arctic ice caps may come to mind. That may seem kind of far away, but the water you use at home does in fact have something to do with the melting poles. That’s because every time you heat up water for a bath or to wash the dishes, CO2 is released. So using less hot water means fewer CO2 emissions. Since the average American household expends about 14 percent of its energy usage on heating water, this week’s Slate Green Challenge with TreeHugger is designed to help you use hot water more efficiently, without asking you to resort to cold showers. (Though if you did do that, you’d save a bundle in carbon dioxide emissions.) Click on through to read this week's article and take the Green Challenge quiz. ::Green Challenge Water What the heck is the Green Challenge anyway? Click here to find out. Related in TreeHugger: Our guides for How to Go Green help you green up your act when it comes to your dishwasher and your water usage. ...

The updated 1991-2005 National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB) is now available from NREL and the National Climatic Data Center. The update (472 pp) includes solar and meteorological data from 1,454 sites in the U.S., as well as a 10-km resolution hourly solar data set for 1998-2005. In addition to the expanded station list, this update differs from the original NSRDB several ways. It contains: • New or modified solar models • New gridded data product • New station identification numbers • A new station classification scheme • New data formats • Different meteorological fields • Revised uncertainty estimates. ...

This coming weekend, the US celebrates Memorial Day; for many of us, that means a day off on Monday. With spring waning and summer almost here, it's a great time to get outdoors and prepare for a summer of fun, or catch up on some spring chores that you haven't gotten around to yet. Whatever your long weekend holds, we hope you make it green; here are some tips and ideas for your green weekend. 1) Start a garden; here are some ideas to get you started, and here are some tips for doing it with the planet in mind. 2) If spring cleaning is still on your list, be sure to use eco-friendly cleaners to help get the green job done; check out our How to Green Your Cleaning to really get down to the nitty-gritty. 3) If your spring cleaning extends to culling and organizing your stuff, here are some ways to get organized, and some inspiring words to help get rid of stuff you don't use -- remember, you don't have to throw it all away. 4) Starting a compost heap or picking up a compost bin is a great start to fertilizing that new garden (that you planted in tip 1), and you can get a container that even fits right in your kitchen and doesn't smell! 5) If a little outdoor time is on your schedule, hop on the world's most energy efficient vehicle: your bicycle; even the cool kids are doing it and you can charge your cell phone and get ready for the next World Naked Bike Ride event at the same time....

GE -"General Electric will today reveal that it has doubled sales from environmentally friendly products to $12bn over the past two years in the strongest sign yet that corporate America's drive to respond to climate change is beginning to pay off. At a Los Angeles event with Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's governor, Jeffrey Immelt, GE chief executive, will say the company has $50bn of projects in the pipeline and is on track to meet its target of $20bn in "green" sales by 2010." A most interesting article that ThreeHugger heartily recommends. Via:: Financial Times " JPMorgan, seeking to capitalise on the boom in environmentally friendly technologies, has established an alternative energy investment banking unit and hired a former executive from General Electric to run it." Catch-up time. Via:: Financial Times again. US Oil Industry (variously) "“If the national policy of the country is to push for dramatic increases in the biofuels industry, this is a disincentive for those making investment decisions on expanding capacity in oil products and refining,” said John D. Hofmeister, the president of the Shell Oil Company." More excuses are possible: if CAFE standards were raised significantly, they could close refineries. (joke) Via: New York Times...

First designed back in 1968 by renowned industrial designer Peter Raacke, and currently on display in design museums around the world, like MoMA in New York and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, "otto" is coming back to the consumer market. The corrugated cardboard chair, being re-issued by German design retailer pulpo, was designed to be light, durable, sustainable and stable; ideas that are as relevant today as they were almost 40 years ago. We've noted some of the ways that cardboard can be used aside from as packing materials, and this one ranks right up there; in addition to being built by recycled, recyclable materials, it's a blank slate, waiting to be painted, lacquered or otherwise altered to fit your style, decor or mood. For €69, you can join the otto club by visiting here. ::pulpo via ::Design Spotter Agency...

Hydrogen energy enthusiasts, rejoice: the recent revelation of a promising (and tasty) new technology that would convert sugars into hydrogen should breathe some much-needed air into the hydrogen fuel cell movement and partially rebuke those who've dismissed the notion of a viable hydrogen economy. Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), researchers led by Y.-H Percival Zhang, assistant professor of biological systems engineering, announced the discovery of a novel synthetic enzymatic pathway that would use a combination of 13 enzymes not normally found in nature to convert polysaccharides and water into hydrogen. In light of the U.S. Department of Energy's 2006 Advance Energy Initiative that called for the creation of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles by 2020, this technology would solve one of hydrogen's most vexing problems, the cost-efficient storage and transportation of the gas, by allowing future consumers to easily carry around the fuel in the form of starch and water. Adding enzymes to the mixture would cause them to "use the energy in the starch to break up water into only carbon dioxide and hydrogen," according to Zhang. He and his colleagues believe these ingredients could be mixed in the fuel tank of a car to provide a more potent alternative to gasoline. Assuming a car with a 12-gallon tank could hold 27 kg of starch (the equivalent of 4 kg of hydrogen), it could presumably run for more than 300 miles since Zhang estimates that one kg of starch produces approximately the same energy output as 1.12 kg of gasoline. ...

This coming Sunday would've been Silent Spring author and environmental hero Rachel Carson's 100th birthday. In recognition of Carson's contributions to the creation of the modern environmental movement, Sen. Benjanmin L. Cardin (D-MD) has announced his intentions to submit a resolution celebrating Carson's work. While most treehuggers would consider this a no-brainer, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has announced that if Cardin submits his proposal, he will block it. According to the Washington Post,...

Virtualization software allows you to run many different servers on a single piece of hardware; it's all the rage with IT departments because it drastically reduces the number of servers you need. This translates into reduced energy consumption (fewer machines to draw juice), less maintenance (fewer machines to fix), and more dollars in your pocket (fewer machines to buy). VMware, a commercial product with a good rep is the clear market leader. But now a worthy competitor - the Xen open source project - just got better. Xen just released a new version of its virtualization product this week, and apparently it boots gluteus maximus. From the article: "For server workloads, Xen's core hypervisor functionality now meets or beats VMware ESX in pretty much all areas, both features and performance," said Ian Pratt, leader of the Xen project and founder of XenSource. Hype? Probably not; the list of supporters (Intel, IBM, Novell, VA Linux (Japan), HP, Fujitsu, SGI, Red Hat, AMD, Sun, Unisys and the National Security Agency) is impressive. And the cost of the free software is zero; ironically, that always seems to be the hardest number for IT shops to swallow. But why buy? Put your saved cash into a green technology, say solar cells. Xen says the next stop is laptops and desktops; no idea what that means but I'm sure it will be exciting:: ServerWatch...

TreeHugger loves multi-functional designs, and furniture that transforms is no exception. Aside from saving space and making more efficient use of space, it's just cool to watch your transformer furniture actually do something. It's a concept we've hugged before, but we're always happy to add more to the flock. The newest entry is the "foureight table", designed by Alex Suvajac (whom we've featured before), who designed the hinging bamboo coffee/end table to work with and expand the notion of adaptable, eco-friendly furniture for small urban dwellings. About the design, Alex says, "Our goal in creating this piece was to make a solution for a small urban space that allows for a flexibility of uses. We are aware that now and in the future people who live in the urban centers of the world will have small quarters. We want to contribute to this new furnishing demand by designing environmentally responsible furniture that is both beautiful and purposeful." Hit the jump to see how the table transforms, and learn more about the design, including how it is created from start to finish, at the designer's website. ::Alex Suvajac...

Amazon.com Green Life: A Different Environmental Crisis: Questions for Al Gore by Tom. "Whether he's running in 2008 or not, Al Gore is busily staking his claim as the leading voice of the Democratic Party. With the success of his Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, marking the end of his time in the wilderness, the losing party in Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, has returned with The Assault on Reason." Everyday trash: Carnival of the Green # 78 by Leila Darabi "This week, everydaytrash is proud to host Carnival of the Green, a roving roundup of the very best in green blog posts designed to amaze, delight and drive Web traffic." ...

Photo credit: krish4u The buzz around organically maintained beehives seems to be "Epidemic? What epidemic?" (That and maybe "Someone should tell the Queen to start laying off the royal jelly, if you know what I mean.") While record numbers of bees in North America and Europe are vanishing en masse in a worrying trend experts have dubbed "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD), organic beekeepers are reporting no losses. Sharon Labchuk, a longtime environmental activist and part-time organic beekeeper, was quoted in a recent report at Red Ice Creations:

I'm on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies.

...

Walk to School Week in Brighton & Hove England took things over the edge as the road outside their Rudyard Kipling Primary School was closed to traffic and covered with plants, flowers and artificial grass so kids could walk on the roadway as though it were a path. The project itself just may be the first of its kind on the planet to be quite honest. I mean really, who ever heard of covering the road with fake grass just to prove a point about walking to school and sustainability? And from the looks of things it really had an impact on kids, the most important part of any project to get their attention about sustainability no matter how wacky it seems at first glance. How wacky was it? Well, not only was the road covered with fake grass and plants, but the kids were met with strange characters to greet them like singing cowboys and a fish on a bicycle too. So how did teachers and students feel about the whole crazy idea? Well, as Headteacher Barbara Shackell pointed out: “It was absolutely fantastic! There was a carnival atmosphere. The children were incredibly excited. They rounded the corner to come face to face with lots of weird characters and the road all turfed over and covered with magnificent plants. They loved it.” And this brings up a point that’s been running around in my head for the last year and a half. If we’re going to get the message of sustainability drilled home to kids we’re probably going to have to make it as wacky and fun as we possibly can. And that’s because it’s just too serious and potentially overwhelming a topic for many of them to digest in any other way. So here’s to many more wacky, creative projects that make a positive difference in great ways like this one. The world could use a lot more of them! ...

These garden chairs were discovered hanging from a cleanly designed modular structure at the Chelsea Flower Show; which was a perfect place for them, and us, because it was raining. The chairs are light, good looking and comfortable too. Perfect for daydreaming on a summer afternoon, flirting, or reading to a child… They are made from one sheet of sustainable plywood and the only waste is where they are cut. There are four different models, the ones pictured are the free standing circular (left) and the hive (right). Each of the hanging chairs collapses into a flatpack so that they can be easily transported to the cottage. The chairs are made in Kent, by a local manufacturer. The creator is an engineer, turned art college student, who has also built a coffee table made out of—recycled coffee grounds. :: raw studio via:: RHS Chelsea Flower Show...

We have shown quite a few slender buildings, but Klein Dytham's Billboard Building in Tokyo may be the smallest- eight feet at the big end, two feet at the narrowest, thirty-six feet long. It is also covered in an image of a bamboo grove that controls sunlight in the day, and "by night green light dapples over the intersection – a luminous bamboo plantation in the heart of the metropolis." ...

It seems like almost every company is trying to respond to climate change these days. From Wal-Mart, to Google, and even the formerly climate sceptic Fox News Network, corporations are falling overthemselves to appear to be doing something about the major crisis we are facing. Predictably, as the trend of corporate climate responsibility grows, so does the industry of providing solutions to the corporate world. This is where events like Corporate Climate Response, taking place in London from May 29th - 31st, come in. Billed as "an event that offers practical advice on cutting your companys carbon footprint... [and brings together] companies, public sector organizations and regulators to discuss solutions for reducing CO2 emissions." Event highlights are to include 21 Case studies from early adopters including: Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Wal-Mart, BT, Standard Chartered Bank, Asda, Whole Foods Market, John Lewis Waitrose, City of London, Boots, 02, Unilever, Manchester City Football Club, Allied Distillers, Lastminute.com and many more. The program also feature panel discussions with experts from Solarcentury, Ecotricity, The Climate Group, DEFRA and the Federation of Small Businesses. Interestingly, one whole day is dedicated to climate change and the food industry - perhaps delegates may want to take a look at our guide on How to Green Your Meals for inspiration on which issues to address. ...

Hard to believe, but its been 2.5 years since we first covered WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farm) on TreeHugger. And interest in growing organic food has sprouted beyond all expectation in the intervening time. Just have a peek at the gardening section of your fave bookshop. So we thought to replant the seed with this little nod to the US based Organic Volunteers. They see themselves as a “simple matchmaking service.” They’ll give you contact details of host farms whom you contact to see if they’d like a hand, in turn for your accommodation and food. No money normally changes hands. But you will get your hands dirty working in the gardens and learning firsthand about sustainable living. Conversely farms or projects needing willing workers can list with the organisation. Their site also has links to similar groups in other countries (as does our link in the earlier post, noted above.) ::Organic Volunteers....

In honor of what would have been Rachel Carson's 100th birthday, the U.S. Environmental Agency has an essay/poetry/photo contest for two-person teams. The famed writer and biologist once wrote about the need for children and adults to share the "joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in." Now let's try that once more with even greater feeling. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to thaw that frozen-over ticker in your chest and express the sense of wonder you feel for the sea, the night sky, forests, wildlife, and "all that is beautiful to your eyes." One catch: One team member must be over 50 and the other under 18. You only have till June 15, 2007 to submit your entry, so you better start emoting, stat. :: EPA via The Washington Post...

The internet has become our computer; I use Google for mail and word processing, Treehugger runs on Movable Type; except for a bit of Sketchup, processor speed is becoming irrelevant while computer noise, heat and power consumption have become bigger concerns. In such an environment longtime laggard Via Technologies comes into its own. Via already gets points for its carbon free computing program (TreeHugger here) but has just annouced a new motherboard/chip combo that combines CPU, HDTV capable video, audio, in fact an entire 1 gigahertz computer that runs under maximum multimedia load at only 13 watts. That is an entire mobo including video running at half the power of the best performing AMD CPU. (TreeHugger here) Size? A new format they call pico-ATX, 10 cm by 7.2 cm (4 inches by just under three inches). I could just tape that to the back of my monitor, get rid of everything else, and pretend I have an iMac. ::VIA EPIA PX via ::Ubergizmo...

Clement Eloy has designed special slippers with pockets to put the power brick for your notebook into, keeping your feet nice and toasty. We have heard too many stories of what happens to men who keep their notebooks where this one is shown; perhaps the foot location is a much better idea. A limitation in the design is that it only can heat one foot at a time, but one toasty foot is better than none. I also suspect that wrapping electronic components in insulating materials when they are supposed to be air cooled might not be good for their warranty. See all of Clement's funny and sometimes useful designs at ::feeladdicted via ::Ubergizmo...

The buckets-turned-seats filled up fast last Sunday as Inhabitat presented the Reclaiming Design panel at HauteGREEN. Jill Fehrenbacher and Emily Pilloton, along with Dwell editor-in-chief Sam Grawe, spoke with Carlos Salgado, Tejo Remy, and Matt Gagnon about how they each design with materials that would otherwise be discarded, and articulate re-use in more symbolic ways as well. ...

Holiday Houses in Jupilles Edouard François says 'Man can live solely within architecture. He needs a complex building which must be decorated. Only in this way can he be happy.' Indeed, in François' view, working with nature offers a welcome complexity: 'Watch a tree. It has a thousand branches, it moves, grows, changes colour!' (Cafebabel) He has decorated buildings with planters, vertical gardens and trees. Designboom says Edouard François has become one of the protagonists of green architecture on an international scene. his work focuses on matter, context, use, economy and ecology, following the preoccupations of sustainable development."...

Longer lasting tires, more miles per gallon—nitrogen in your pneumatics can go a long way… Nightline takes the devastatingly fast Tesla Roadster for a whip around the block… As summer weather gets people out on the water, here are some tips for better boating… Think you’re saving gas with all those fancy tricks? Well, you might just be making things worse… A new study from NASA finds arctic sea ice did little rebuilding in 2005… Most Huggable is a daily roundup of some of the top stories from Hugg.com, TreeHugger’s user-generated green news site. Why not submit your own green news?...

Are some of the computers in your school from a time when both they and Steve Jobs looked like this? Well, how about recycling them through Apple's new program running until July 31 where they’ll actually come pick them up for recycling at your accredited school or university. Nope, it doesn’t matter what brand they are just so long as you register for pick-up by June 30. Then all you have to do is shrink wrap ‘em on your own pallets and wait for the truck to come take them away… You’ll also have to make sure there are at least 25 computers for them to pick up, otherwise you’re on your own with them! They’re willing to accept monitors and peripherals unless they suspect that they’ve been contaminated by substances that weren't in the original equipment or aren't associated with normal household or office usage. The company also points out they will not pick up hazardous waste, separate batteries, UPS systems, or CRTs that have been removed, cracked, or broken. They will, however, remove all identifying information and grind your old hard drives into itty bitty pieces so small you’ll never know what they were, even back in 1984. So dig in those back offices and see if you’ve got some classic computers to get rid of this spring. It’s a great way to make a difference! via:: Information Week...

Intel Corp. has taken another step toward being greener by announcing that they will stop using lead in its new microprocessors. The company, featured on TreeHugger before for their green building initiatives, new, smaller chip and computer-imbedded surfboard (?!?), will start the lead-free process with the Penryn line of processors made using a 45-nanometer process. Intel has been working to eliminate lead from its chips for several years -- in 2002, when it started shipping flash memory that used lead-free solder made from tin, silver and copper. By 2004, the company managed to replace most of the lead solder (about 95%) used in its chip sets and processors with their new tin-silver-copper solder -- and development efforts have been costly. In 2005, an Intel executive revealed the company had spent $100 million to develop the alternative material to replace lead in solder used to package chips; the result was a "secret sauce"-type solder cocktail that uses a tin-silver-copper alloy. The shift in solder materials will not affect the performance of the chips, according to the company. While this particular announcement does nothing to further the fight against the e-waste explosion (which may be the larger problem with electronics), less toxins in electronics (and e-waste, if not properly disposed of) is certainly a good thing. Read more at ::Computer World, ::Ars Technica and ::PC World...

"High performance. Low emissions. Zero guilt." That was the claim made in a Lexus ad campaign. However, the Advertising Standards Authority didn't agree, and has banned the advert on the grounds of false claims. Although the ASA agreed that, for an SUV, the car had low emissions. However the headline was misleading because it implied, incorrectly, that the car caused little or no harm to the environment. There were only ten complaints about the Lexus RX 400h advert, but that was enough to provoke an investigation and have the advert banned entirely. Although I hate the idea of encouraging people to complain, and to fuel bureaucracy, it does seem like a very effective way of calling out green-washing advertising agencies. Next time you see an ad that claims revolutionary fuel efficiency or some other such nonsense, you may want to consider following the link below and making a complaint. :: The Guardian See also :: Make a complaint online in the UK...

Imagine a mobile phone that you never have to plug in, and always remains charged. A new patent from Motorola will bring that possibiility closer. They have developed a screen that allows more light to pass through it than previous designs. This means that a relatively large, but unobtrisive, solar cell could be placed behind the screen. Previous designs ave been proposed for this, but the reflective screen in normal LCDs meant that only 6% of light passed through to the solar cell. Motorola claim that their recent innovations can raise this up to 75%. The patent also applies to OLED screens, so it's compatible with these new screens that are becoming common on electrical goods. :: Ministry of Tech See also :: Patent page :: Organic LED Displays (OLEDs)...

Our pals at the Sundance Channel sure have been busy working on additions to The GREEN minisite that they launched a few months back. In addition to the family of blogs (one being the TreeHugger blog), the "What's the Big Idea?" video contest (for which the voting is open until the end of the month), and the green companions to the Big Ideas for a Small Planet television shows, they've just added Eco-mmunity, their "green forum for sharing ideas, debating issues and solving problems. Users (after registering for free) can connect with experts in "Green Consultations", bone up on green terms in the "Green Glossary", take a page from someone else's good work in "Green Inspirations" or take a side and engage in lively discourse in "Hot Debates". There's also the weekly "Greenzine", a paperless mag featuring environmental news and exclusive interviews and a green quiz designed to determine exactly how green your lifestyle is, from "The Champion" to "The Doomsayer". The best thing about Eco-mmunity is that it can be whatever you want: a source for further reading; a chance to vent in the forums; a fun, interactive way to get more green, so we recommend that you swing by and give it a look. Stay tuned for more new features, too; they promise an interactive green map, to help you search for all things green, coming in June. ::Sundance Channel's Eco-mmunity...

As hard as it may seem to utter "charcoal" and "green" in the same sentence (go on, give it a try), Johannes Lehmann and his colleagues would have you believe that charcoal, or as it's known by researchers in the field, "biochar," is the next big thing in the fight against global warming. In essence, Lehmann, an associate professor of crops and soil sciences at Cornell University, proposes that biochar, which is produced when biomass is baked in the absence of oxygen through a process called pyrolysis, be buried, or "sequestered," in the soil as an alternative approach to tackling climate change. ...

Not that we are particularly enamored with genetic engineering, but this was an interesting story that crossed our screen the other week. Looks like scientists in Japan are busily at work genetically modifying the pigment transport system of silkworms. In wild the wriggly guys can produce colours as varied as yellow, straw. salmon, pink through to green from their diet of mulberry leaves. It is silkworms with a mutated Y gene that produce the whitest silk. Engineering worms with pristine Y genes, and then crossbreeding them makes the yellowy colour more vivid. Now the boffins are working on controlling their flock (what do you call a herd of silkworms?) to yield a flesh and a red coloured silk. The only green (er, ... better make that eco) aspect of this is that the pigment of silk can be managed at the production stage and may negate the copious pollution and waste that normally results from traditional textile dyeing. NB: Colour grown cotton has been around for decades, but this was achieved through long years of crossbreeding. Via ::Physorg. See also Q&A Is Silk Green?...

Kids need toys, one or two anyway. Many studies show that when kids play, they are actually learning, we are not talking about 'educational toys', but soft cuddly toys too. Using dolls and monsters and other plush toys help children to use their imagination, role play various scenarios from real life and learn about their environment and their role in it. The plush monsters made by Cotton Monster, hold plenty of imaginative possibilities. These cotton monsters are all handmade from recycled materials, making them not only pretty cool and unusual but eco friendly too. ...

The Biblical Noah's Ark is making new waves—if you'd forgive the expression—but not as a refuge from the Almighty's torrential wrath. Subbing for God's faithful shipbuilder are some 20 Greenpeace volunteers from Germany and Turkey, who have already begun construction of a large-scale model of the Ark on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, where popular belief places the Ark's final resting place after flood waters receded. Its lofty goal : To raise public awareness over climate change. ...

how to green your community holding hands image

Sustainable living has certainly become a buzz phrase. More and more people are looking at ways to reduce their ecological footprint: driving less, eating less meat, wearing sustainable fashions. As individuals, we are increasingly aware of the impact we have on the planet and our fellow humans. But is greening our own lifestyle enough? By taking the concept of sustainable living beyond the narrow, individualistic approach, we can learn to see our interconnectedness to our environment and its inhabitants. By getting involved in our communities, by talking to our neighbors, by supporting local groups, and by re-imagining where we live, we can green not only our own lifestyles, but our streets, neighborhoods, towns, cities and, ultimately, our societies. Who knows, we may even make friends doing it.

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A few weeks ago, Jasmin took note of the National Wildlife Federation's new effort to battle nature deficit disorder in kids. Now, the US Forest Service is getting involved with the launch of its $1.5 million "Kids in the Woods" program. Yesterday, Forest Service administrators announced its first round of grant recipients. Twenty-four different programs around the country will receive funds from the Forest Service and partners, including:

Nature Field Work Partnership – Harlem Link: Project supplements the school’s science curriculum by exposing its students to surrounding forests, wetlands, and restoration sites throughout the New York City region. Partners include: Harlem Link Charter School, Meadowlands Environmental Center, NY Botanical Gardens, Forest Service Northern Research Station, NY.
Eco-Week: Project helps students experience the Rocky Mountains through a 3-day residential “Eco-week.” They learn ecology standards, teambuilding and develop a connection to the natural world. Partners include: YMCA of the Rockies, CO State University, Poudre School District, Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, CO.
Latino Legacy: The project will offer on-site conservation education activities and programs designed specifically for Latino youth and families. The project design includes working within the Latino community to develop culturally appropriate programming; training 16 bilingual high school students to help facilitate on-site programs; evaluating developed program models; and providing program templates for other national forests. Partners include: Stephen F Austin University, Conroe Hispanic Force, USFWS, National Forests of Texas.
Sci-Fun Project: The project teaches students about Forest Service outdoor recreation research and biological research issues and methods and requires them to conduct outdoor recreation research and biological research on public lands in the Detroit metropolitan. They will report electronically to other Detroit students about their experiences and help evaluate the effectiveness of the project. Partners include: Henry Ford Academy, Greenfield Village, MI Dept of Natural Resources, USFWS, Urban Connections, Forest Service Eastern Regional Office, WI

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New Jersey-based Terracycle, the worm poop fertilizer people, offer a website definition of eco-capitalism. (TreeHugger wrote extensively about the origins of TerraCycle here.) Unfortunately, the progress made by TerraCycle's eco-capitalism has been slowed a bit by a conflict with old-style capitalism. Seems there are some "labeling" issues between TerraCycle and a competitor. In defense of a lawsuit filed by the competitor, TerraCycle has established a "netroots" strategy - using Sued By Scotts as the tag line for their website - to draw market attention for the defense. From the Sued By Scotts site:- "The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, a $2.2 billion assets giant which has at least a 59% share of the relevant market, has sued tiny TerraCycle, Inc., an inner-city company founded by college students to create an eco-friendly business. TerraCycle manufactures all-natural garden products by feeding organic waste to worms and bottling the resulting worm poop compost tea as ready-to use plant food in soda bottles collected by schools and other charities across North America. TerraCycle is located in the Urban Enterprise Zone of Trenton, New Jersey. Scotts claims that the two companies' products look similar and will confuse customers because some TerraCycle plant foods have a green and yellow label with a circle and a picture of flowers and vegetables on it." The labeling thing, in general, looks to become a continuing battleground between green and non-green. We wrote about another analogous labeling conflict earlier in the week, for example. The Sued By Scotts website has some amusing comparisons between the excremental combatants that are worth a glance. Before you go there, however, look below to see if you can guess which CEO likes worm poop best....

According to a new survey of childhood lead poisoning in 15 Chinese cities, 7 percent of kids under the age of 6 living in Beijing have lead levels in their blood that exceed the national standard. That’s obviously not good, but also not too surprising given the fact that in China virtually anything goes environmentally as long as it adds to the economic growth that keeps the Communist Party in power. Of course, that’s unless there’s a major international convention going on, and then cars miraculously disappear from the roads. As you might expect the three-year study blames rising emission levels from cars for the trend, and notes that children who live near heavily trafficked roads or in lower-level apartments are much more likely to have high blood lead levels than those who do not. Of course lead poisoning can cause developmental problems for children in critical areas such as intelligence, speaking, learning, and memorization so the damage is very real to those affected most. ...

Cats More Lethal to Birds Than Wind Turbines

Photo credit: praatafrikaans Are wind turbines benign carbon-free power sources or avian death traps that blight the landscape? New numbers have been tossed into the fray, yet we're no closer to achieving common ground. (No surprise there.) It takes 30-plus turbines to reach a kill rate of one bird per year, according to a recent report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences on the environmental impacts of wind-energy projects, based on 14 studies they felt superlative. A number of caveats were attached to the figure, however, including the acknowledgment that rates can vary by site and that endangered species such as the bald eagle are particularly worth avoiding. However you look at it, though, birds in the United States seem to die in turbine blades at a rate no higher than 40,000 a year. Deaths by dastardly domestic felines, on the other hand, number in the "hundreds of millions."...

The Royal family has come and gone, and now the Chelsea Flower Show is in full swing. Arguably the most prestigious horticultural show in the world, the competition for awards for best gardens is brutal. Here are the newly announced treehugger medals, all in the sustainable gardens category. Most Overtly Political Garden: Amnesty International Garden for Human Rights, complete with protest signs (pictured). It is meant to be transported to the roof of their offices so there are drought-resistant olive and eucalyptus trees to provide shade and wind protection, sedums on the ground and a rusted steel lattice-carved oak tree sculpture of their symbol (a lit candle) surrounded by barbed wire. The Ferdinand the Bull Award, named after that sweet bull who just wanted to lie under the cork tree, goes to the Suber Garden which celebrates cork, a sustainable product that is harvested without cutting down the trees. The garden has a cork tree in the centre, a cork bench, plants attractive to wild life and an orange wall, the colour of the stripped trunk of the tree. Drunk On Life Award: the Fetzer Sustainable Winery Garden, a glorious excess of wildflowers of every colour and shape, with a backdrop of a windmill and wine shed, made out of recycled barn wood. ...

Kids everywhere need to be told to turn off the lights. So too, do businesses that leave the lights on all night for the sake of making the building look "cool." Thousands of Dallas' city lights "could fall dark four hours each night under an ordinance Dallas City Council members will consider Wednesday as part of a broader effort to conserve energy and reduce power plant emissions. According to an ordinance draft, businesses citywide would be required to switch off most of their exterior and signage lighting between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. That includes: --Decorative lighting, "such as lighting that illuminates or outlines a building's facades or elements"; --Lighting used to illuminate fountains, sculptures, flagpoles and other similar structures; --Landscape illumination lighting; --Lighting that illuminates premise signs, whether attached to or separate from a building. Violators could face fines of up to $2,000. Among the ordinance's exemptions are security, hospital, traffic control, residential and transportation lighting. State and federal government facilities, as well as businesses open and operating between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., would also be exempt, according to the ordinance." This is surely an idea deserving of consideration by every North American city. No point in quarreling over the need for more coal plants until we try the simple things first. Use the saved energy to run the Ice Bear and then the day time capacties will be freed up as well. Via:: Dallas Morning News and various complimentary sources. Image credit:: visit-Dallas.com For more simple things to try look here and here....

On yesterday’s “Today” show, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced a five-year plan to ‘green’ New York City’s yellow cab fleet. Although the fleet will retain its emblematic yellow color, the ubiquitous Ford Crown Victoria will be replaced by more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles. Under the proposed plan, the city would triple the number of hybrid cabs from its current count of 375 by October 2008. The number of hybrid vehicles would subsequently increase by 20 percent each year after that. ...

The Skin Deep project by the EWG has recently announced the addition of nearly 10000 more products to its database. This update brings the total number of personal care products with safety ratings up to 25000, nearly a quarter of all products on the market. TreeHugger has discussed the confusing issues surrounding the ingredients in lipsticks and shampoos, Neutrogena moisturiser and sunscreen. While we can list all the potentially harmful chemicals in our beauty products, as we have tried to in the How to Go Green: Women's Personal Care, the reality of identifying these on the store shelf can be daunting. The Skin Deep database provides an easy way of researching the safety levels of your favourite products and comparing them with others brands on the market. With the recent update and new design the database is more comprehensive and easier to use than before. You can search by brand, product or ingredient and if your chosen product comes up with a stinking report then safer suggestions are on hand. ...

Well we've had a green Oscars this year, but how about going green at graduation? Turns out showing eco-solidarity at graduation just may be a theme that catches on this season. As one example, more than 100 of the 560 graduates at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania signed sustainability pledges promising to recycle and conserve resources as part of graduation day. But they took it a step further by pinning green ribbons onto their black graduation gowns during the ceremony itself to show solidarity with one another in the fight for a sustainable future. As Ian Roderick, an English and history major from Moorestown, N.J. pointed out, "I think that our generation is the one that actually has to make the real critical choices about sustainability," and going on to add that, "Wearing this ribbon shows solidarity with others. If you show people you're thinking about it, then others might start thinking the same way." With certainly like-minded college and high school students across the nation set to graduate this spring I’m wondering how many might choose to get involved and make it a national form of action. It could be one way in which students can stand together and let the nation know that they certainly do care about the environment, and that they are willing to take action to protect it. via: The Patriot-News...

Europeans sure don't mince their words—or numbers, for that matter: One in six European land mammals faces the threat of extinction, mainly through habitat loss and deforestation, according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN), in a report for the European Union (EU). The number is higher for marine mammals—nearly one in four—but even this could be an underestimate because we don't know enough about 44 percent of European marine mammal species. According to the report, the Balkans, particularly Bulgaria and Romania, are most affected by a decline in land mammals, primarily because they also host the greatest number of species....

Perth, Western Australia, as we’ve noted before, is considered the most remote city on the planet. And one thing they are running out of, like much of drought declared Australia is fresh drinking water. Plans are in train to provide a chunk of this via a desalination plant, but such facilities do require a hefty amount of energy to run. Wind is being considered. But a new alternative hopes it might get a look in. Inventor Alan Burns has his idea with Seapower Pacific (Carnegie), who’ve invested $10 million AUD on R&D to bring the concept towards the market. In brief: hypalon bladders are affixed to a piston that moves inside a tube secured to the seabed. As the ocean swell ebbs and flows the bladders rise and fall providing momentum to the piston. It subsequently pumps high pressure sea water to an onshore desalination plant. Some of the pressurised water can be then used to spin a turbine, generating power for the the production of freshwater. The intention is to have a forest of these bladder thingees (called CETO) fill an area 2 km x 60m about 8km offshore. Unlike many other wave energy devices, everything is underwater and operates in a passive rather than resistive mode. Apparently the CETOs are relatively simple to manufacture and transport, and their component materials have a proven 20 year submerged life. An independent technology assessment says the concept has significant potential and more trials are now underway with commercial units planned for 2009. ::Seapower Pacific, via ABC....

E-Fabrics is a branch of E-Brigade, an environmental information and awareness organization that promotes actions to spread a culture of individual responsibility and sustainable development. This branch was founded by Brazilian designer Oskar Metsavaht, whose brand Osklen was considered by WGSN ‘one of the top ten most influential and inspiring brands in the world’, and aims to identify textile commodities that respect fair trade criteria and sustainable development. “E-Fabrics it’s not a certification, on the contrary. As an identification label, its philosophy even covers transition products”, they say on their website. This organization has already incorporated in its lines products from recycled PET, reused jeans, organic cotton, alternative leathers, natural fibers such as organic silk, manual knittings, and alternative materials such as ‘Natural Latex from Amazonia’. All of E-Fabrics developments can be seen on the organization website, and some were put to use in Osklen’s latest collection, Amazon Guardians (picture). This collection features a material from recycled PET, organic knittings, and accessories from recycled wood. ::E-Fabrics ::Osklen Via JC Report...

Australia was developing a regional carbon trading scheme, which would have included China and the US. It was to present it at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders' summit in Sydney in September. However, it now seems as though the plan has been dropped. Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said an agreement between all the nations was unlikely. "You need to understand that in terms of an emissions trading scheme, both China -- particularly China -- and the United States -- and I think .... there would be some smaller countries in the region which might share this view -- have been opposed to establishing an emissions trading scheme." Despite this apparent set-back, Prime Minister John Howard has recently gone on record as believing some type of scheme is inevitable. Indeed, he has commissioned an inquiry into the effects on the Australian economy of a carbon trading scheme in preperation. ::ENN See also ::Australia's Prime Minister on Bottled Water, ::Australia’s Green Vehicle Guide...

The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) launched a new initiative yesterday at the Chelsea Flower Show to save the falling bee population. It believes that city dwellers could start raising hives on rooftops, behind garden walls and on allotments. It created a 'bee friendly' garden, complete with plenty of fruit tress and flowers. There was one thing missing in the garden though – bees. The organisers of the show banned any actual insects from the garden. Bill Turnbull, from the BBC, said, "You don't need much space to keep bees and we need all the beekeepers we can get. It's a lovely thing to do." Tim Lovett from the BBKA believes that the plan could be beneficial for people, as well as bees, "Many new urban beekeepers see working with a colony of honeybees as a healthy change to the stress of office life. Tending bees is peaceful, keeps you in touch with nature - and bees only sting when provoked." ::The Guardian See also ::Who is Killing Nature's Precious Bees?, ::Where Did the Bees Go?, ::Tinfoil Hats for Bees!, ::No Tinfoil Hats for Bees, ::Honey Bees Have a Tough Union, ::Unexpected Haven for Bees...

Over at the David Report ("the intersection of design, culture and business life with a creative and humanistic approach"), proprietor David Carlson is engaging designer Satyendra Pakhalé in a series of discussions about design; in part two of five, they tackle sustainability in design, which results in a pretty interesting read. Many of Pakhalé's conceptions of sustainability align closely with what we try to promote here at TreeHugger, so we'll pick out a few key quotes that are worth repeating. On the topic of "what defines sustainable design", Pakhalé remarks that, "the best way to make sustainable design is to concentrate on quality, both concerning design and material. To produce better products. Mass consumption and sustainability doesn’t go very well together. I would love to see more 'design classics', the kind of products your children can inherit." When it comes to assigning "responsibility" in propagating sustainable design, Pakhalé says, "The trouble is that if sustainability becomes another buzzword, then we will loose the real meaning of it. I think that in every design project it should be somehow dealt with, without almost mentioning it."...

In a clear sign of the wider ramifications of climate change on some of the planet's wildlife, biologists in Britain have noted that at least 11 butterfly species made their earliest recorded appearances this year. Of the 59 resident and regular migrant species, 37 have already appeared and, besides for one species (the orange tip), have done so earlier than they would've a decade ago, according to Butterfly Conservation, a wildlife organization. Some species have broken all records in the extent to which they have pushed forward their normal appearance dates: the Lulworth skipper, which usually makes its first appearance in the third week of June, was seen as early as April 28 while the speckled wood, which typically appears at the end of March, was observed in its Cornwall habitat on January 16, a record seven weeks ahead of schedule. Overall, the Butterfly Conservation estimates that these butterfly species emerged more than four-and-a-half weeks earlier on average than they would've done ten years ago. The organization's officials are certain that climate change is linked to the early appearance of the majority of Britain's butterflies....

"Brent North Sea crude for July delivery rose 42 cents to 69.84 dollars in electronic trading...On Monday, New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, gained 21 cents to 65.15 dollars a barrel in electronic deals before the official open of the US market...Crude futures were a little firmer today, supported by further attacks and kidnappings in Nigeria," Sucden analyst Michael Davies said in London...[And,] US government data showed gasoline inventories are more than 7.0 percent below their five-year average for mid-May." We hear the Nigerian rebels have gotten hand-helds so they can download Brent North Sea crude oil futures in real-time, allowing for strategy re-adjustments in the field (joke). The $70 ceiling bump should nicely help demand soak up Toyota's recent Prius production capacity expansion. The payback period for the incremental investment will shrink shrink shrink as the gasoline price expands expands expands...'just so we can get to the shore and back on a tankful'. AFP Via::Yahoo News. Image credit: Car Buyers Notebook...

An experiment with cassette tape took Texas-based artist Alyce Santoro’s knitting in a new direction. The result? The Sonic Fabric, created from woven recycled audio tape--something we brought to your attention a while back. Well, now Santoro has teamed up with one of TreeHugger’s favorite sustainable designers, textile manufacturer Designtex, in collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, to launch the fabric at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. The multi-purpose textile, appropriately, has its own track. Draw a tape head from a revamped Walkman over its surface and you’ll hear a medley of sound Santoro recorded from musicians on subway platforms, conversations, and city streets. It's also amazingly durable, thanks to the tape, which is the thickest 100 percent polyester tape product on the market, and the best for recording. Applications range from upholstery, wallcovering, to drapery, in markets including hospitality, corporate, and residential, says Designtex. Thanks tipster Meg. ::Alyce Santoro ::Designtex...

Glen Davis was a quiet, private multimillionaire who gave millions of dollars to the World wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club. He spent most of his time trekking in the wilderness and supporting environmental causes. Elizabeth May of the Green Party says "He largely took his father's fortune and liquidated it in order to be a full-time philanthropist. He was an extraordinarily generous person," May said. "Everybody is just devastated. The entire conservation movement in this country is going to be just devastated." "I think it's fair comment to say he gives away millions of dollars a year," Stephen Hazell of the Sierra Club said. "He's been probably the greatest wilderness philanthropist in Canada over the past number of years, although not many people know about him." He was shot in the parking garage in WWF headquarters; police think it was a planned hit. The Canadian environmental movement has lost one of its biggest supporters. ::The Star...

One of China's most exciting new architectural designs isn't rising in Shenzhen, the country's southern megalopolis, so much as it's being floated there. Where Steven Holl Architects' Linked Hybrid in Beijing envisions a system of residential towers connected by bridges like a dance circle, their new Shenzhen project, set for completion next year, lingers above the ground like a cubist flying dragon. By turning tall into long and raising the snaking, aluminum-encased building on pillars, the Vanke Center encourages more communication within, offers better views of a nearby lake and mountains for inhabitants and provides welcome shade over an expanse of walkways and green space below. “We like to fuse the social with our approach to buildings,” says Li Hu, the Beijing-based architect leading the project. That the building is being made to house the country's biggest mega-developer Vanke helps dramatize the crucial role of large corporations at a time when private interests in China are dangerously competing with the social good. Fortunately, the building matches its striking, airy design with a light ecological footprint, with green on its roof, a clever sun-protected aluminum facade, a greywater recycling system and a set of geothermal wells to provide heating and cooling. But Li Hu sees the explicit environmental features as only a part of a building's ecological vision; it must also be useful and human, increasingly rare qualities in cities, especially booming Chinese ones where endless construction and traffic clog the streets and air. Keeping many functions within a connected complex (in this case, offices, shops, residences and a hotel in a building as long as the Empire State Building is tall) reduces the need for cars and helps to tighten the urban fabric. “If you create a space that works, there’s a potential for people to use it,” he says. And then the city, he says, "will not be doomed.” See also Steven Holl's Whitney Water Purification Facility...

We first encountered Acronym Designs' work last year, and were impressed with their commitment to using wood from sustainable sources, and their ability to combine the softer, organic feel of wood with more static materials (like steel and glass) to create sleek, modern furniture. They've been hard at work since then, adding two new lines to their collection and further upgrading their materials. Slack (chaise pictured above) is crafted from durable reclaimed Locust wood and is designed for stylish relaxation, indoors or out, and is offered in a variety of configurations for flexible seating arrangements. The Fundament collection (pics after the jump) uses oak recovered from the manufacturing of industrial products. The edge grain construction and pegged mortise and tenon joinery results in long-lasting quality and a level of detail that doesn't come with your standard patio table. The simple structural form and the traditional joinery combine, making these pieces both pastoral and modern. Hit the jump for more details on their new finishes, as well as pics of their new furniture. ::Acronym Designs...

When you are a big, you are a big target. So it has been with Microsoft and the green computing movement, with critics swiftly pointing out the error of their ways. Like the fact that Windows XP wasted maybe $25 billion in energy. Or the fact that some Vista capable really weren't. These are serious issues, and should be addressed. But today is different because there is some neat news to report; the William J Clinton Foundation and Microsoft have announced a partnership to develop new technology tools to help large cities create, track and share strategies to reduce carbon emissions. In particular, the software tools aim to create a standardized way for cities all around the world to measure their greenhouse gas emissions. It sounds like the former president thought of the idea, as it is "part of a broader set of programs being introduced by the foundation". Still, my sense is that MS has a few guys around who can build this thing right (it's going to be web-based and collaborative) and fast (expect a first release before the end of 2007). We eagerly await the results. :: ZdNet...

Beside the eco-house discussed earlier, there is lots to read in the New York Times Magazine on green design. Adam Goodheart describes how effective 18th century design was at coping with temperature ("Light, temperature and air circulation were regulated by an elaborate technology of window sashes, louvered or paneled shutters, flues, curtains and doors.") and then cops out by installing air conditioning. ::This old Organic House Nicolai Ouroussoff asks "why is Europe so much greener than we are?" It is an important question- In the US "Despite the media attention showered on “green” issues, the federal government has yet to establish universal efficiency standards for buildings. Yet, according to some estimates, buildings consume nearly as much energy as industry and transportation combined. And the average building in the U.S. uses roughly a third more energy than its German counterpart." A look at Brazils's Curitiba Glenn Murcutt, Shiguru Ban and much more at the ::New York Times ...

New York Starchitects Diller Scofidio + Renfro are everywhere these days doing real buildings, but are well known for their academic exercises that don't get built. Here, with environmental design firm Atelier Ten, they imagine a "guilt-free, sustainable luxury house which thrives on excess", which sounds to me like a contradiction in terms. On a "two acre lot overlooking a rapidly growing city in the southwest" it is designed to accommodate indoor and outdoor living by essentially building two of everything. ...

Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet motors on. This week the program examines the growing trend towards electric vehicles. Starting with a long time favourite on TreeHugger, the Tesla, an electric sports car that has it all—looks, performance (0 to 60 in 4 secs), with economy equivalent to 135 mpg! Also head turning is the somewhat more affordable Myer NmG (no more gas) electric commuter. And then the program speaks with students from the Automotive Academy at West Philadelphia High School, who built an equally fetching electric/biodiesel hybrid vehicle. (hey isn’t that the holy grail so often requested by TH readers?) If near soundless zoom-zoom is your thing you won’t want to miss tonight’s show. Not at home? Sundance’s The Green website has sneak peek clips. Or wait until it appears at the Apple iTunes Store, alongside past episodes ‘Fuel’, ‘Build’, ‘Cities’, ‘Wear’ and ‘Eat’. Link on the Big Ideas page. Or skoot over to the online Your Guide for Greener Living for other green driving tips. As usual Simran will be hosting a online green drive forum, via Second Life. Pull on your driving gloves as the virtual doors open at 10pm tonight EST and 7pm PST. And over at the Green Blogs is yet more discussion on putting the eco rubber to the road. ::Big Ideas for a Small Planet....

It's hard, this time of the year, not to have a garden, with everyone talking about what they are planting and how their roses are doing and their favourite nursery.... But here are a few mini-solutions for all of you with frustrated green thumbs. The Pocket Garden comes in a sealed leak-proof bag. Just cut it open, add water and put it on the window ledge. The bag (alas, not recycleable) contains specially formulated compost and seeds that grow into a sweet little plant and the soil is Soil Association approved. Choices include poppies, sunflowers, organic coriander, dill, basil and chives. If you would rather grow vegetables, also in a plastic bag, here is a magic hanging tomato bag kit that includes seeds, soil and fertilizer. And for the truly deprived or the office: the desktop garden. Grow a little grass in your old CD-ROM spindle and then "turn your pencil sharpener into a lawn mower." Just in from Inhabitat: a seeded business card from a landscape architecture firm--add water and you end up with a professional miniature garden. And how does your garden grow? ...

Anne-Marie Beneteau Joni Mitchell sang “they took all the trees and put'em in a tree museum.” and there it is, the Tree Museum, near Bracebridge Ontario. It is in fact a contemporary art outdoor gallery, with a mix of permanent pieces and annual exhibitions. As artist Johannes Zits says, it is about “looking for ways to relate to, and deal with the environment through art.” This year sixteen artists from Canada and Asia have been invited to create an exhibition called “what is place”. Lorna Mills is “going to reproduce Google Earth images in plaster and select the lichen and moss to plunk them down onto.” The artists will work all summer toward an opening on September 16th; visitors are welcome to watch them work and see the permanent collection. And, thanks to the Ontario Arts council and the Canada Council, unlike Joni's Tree Museum, its free. ::The Tree Museum via ::the Muskoka Sun ...

This sea urchin (Ctenocidaris species) belongs to a group of spiny organisms called echinoderms that includes sea cucumbers, sea stars and sand dollars. (Photo credit: Armin Rose/German Center for Marine Biodiversity) When I was a wee lassie, we had an animal encyclopedia bursting with lavish full-color illustrations of myriad habitats, such as the rainforest, desert, or seashore. But the section that never failed to draw out my goosebumps was the one that dealt with the Deep Sea; the pages were cloaked in inky darkness, illuminated only by the most bizarre and grotesque of nature's deformed and damned offspring. I'd be merrily flipping through the book—oh look, here's that cute arctic fox; hello, toucans and parakeets; then OMIGOD IT'S THE DEEP SEA TURN THE PAGE TURN THE PAGE. If I could travel back in time, I'd tilt my younger self's chin towards me, look her straight in the eyes, and say, "Self, you have EVERY REASON TO BE AFRAID." Recent expeditions to Antarctica's Southern Ocean have uncovered nearly 600 never-before-described organisms inhabiting that blackened abyss, including the carnivorous moonsnail. "Astonishingly high and unexpected" is how Angelika Brandt from the Zoological Museum Hamburg in Germany, describes the vast biodiversity she and colleagues have discovered in the depths of the Southern Ocean. Not quite the words I'd use, but then again, you'd have to stop me from screaming first....

Why? Because kids on The Green Team at Arcado Elementary School in Lilburn Georgia have been chosen as one of just 25 semi-finalists on Sundance Channel’s “The Big idea” contest. A parent took the time to shoot the one-minute video clip for the contest, and it turns out the kids have turned the whole recycling process into a lot of fun. They’ve even put together their own “Recycle Rap” to go along with the process of sweeping through classrooms to collect scrap paper, broken eyeglasses, cans, bottles, printer cartridges and the like on Friday mornings to keep them from landfills and pass them on to the recycler instead. There’s even reports of some 4th graders who can’t wait to get out of bed on Friday mornings because that’s their designated day for recycling at school. Hmmm…. 4th graders who can’t wait to get to school to recycle? Who’s even heard of such a thing before? ...

A hundred years ago, you could fish in the Great Lakes with a bucket; just drop it in and pick up fish. Then settlers introduced the European Carp which destroyed native fish habitats, and the lamprey eel destroyed the Lake Trout fishery. Now it looks more than likely that the Asian Carp will soon get into the Great Lakes via Chicago, with devastating results. It is an depressing story of environmental neglect told by Peter Gorrie of the Star....

Can people-power move the world’s automakers over to hybrid power? If the results of a campaign being run by the Hybrid Center.org are anything to go by, it looks like it just could. Just over a month ago, Hybrid Center (an off-shoot of the Union of Concerned Scientists launched their Earth Day Challenge ’07—a petition urging Toyota to focus on fuel-efficient use of hybrid technology in the US market, such as the Estima Hybrid minivan which Toyota sells in Japan (it’s sold in other markets as the Tarago or Previa) but which is not available in the world’s biggest auto market. ...

Organic Consumers Association has a newsletter out called Another Sneak Attack on Organic Standards: USDA to Allow More Conventional Ingredients in Organics in which they report that "The [US Department of Agriculture] has announced a controversial proposal, with absolutely no input from consumers, to allow 38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the "USDA Organic" seal." It seems a sausage company wants to stuff non-organic casings with organic meat; and a beer company wants to make "organic" beer with non-organic hops (pictured). The public comment period is just one week. In one sense this is a simple labeling issue. The sausage company could reasonably call their product "sausage made with organic meat" instead of the simpler "organic sausage." The beer company could declare their product "made with organic rice" instead of "organic beer" This is a common strategy when necessary organic ingredients are problematic. The store shelves already hold corn chips with a banner label "Made With Organic Corn," for example. But, the literal approach to labeling doesn't make for nice clean tag lines in the ad copy when multiple ingredients are involved. And, it might be a problem to squeeze in all the words with a small container like a beer can. ...

For over fifteen years Alex Wilson has been writing Environmental Building News for professionals interested in green building. With Your Green Home, Alex has distilled this wisdom into a useful and readable guide for the general public. This is not an easy task; there are so many choices and trade-offs to be made. The author knows that the greenest house is the renovation in a city or town, but that his audience is most probably building a new house on a greenfield site in the country. He then points out that building smaller is better, and that money is better spent on good finishes and detailing than on space one really doesn't need, and that hiring a good architect can lead to better design and space utilization, getting more from less. He suggests placing the house in the corners, or the worst part of a property, to preserve its best features, and hiring a landscape architect up front to help with the siting. After all these cries in the wilderness are out of his system, Alex gets down to the business of building the green home....

Image from Wikipedia. It seems sustainability and well-being have finally reached non-places such as airports and train stations. We wrote about Madrid’s T4 airport extension with its fabulous bamboo roof that lets natural daylight in. If you travel by train (the treehugger way to go), the Spanish capital doesn’t let you down either. They decided to grow a jungle in the main train station called Atocha, just down the road from el Prado Museum. The architect Rafael Moneo’s idea for the latest extension of the station was to make waiting more comfortable. So he decided to convert the old building into a moist and tropical greenhouse. Having been there myself I can only say it works; it's breathtakingly beautiful and leaves you all mellowed out. This covered jungle stretches out around 4.000 m2 and inhabits more than 500 species amongst which you can find carnivorous plants, goldfish and turtles. Just make sure you don’t miss the train once you venture into the jungle to enjoy the green and spot some birds. ::Atocha Train Station ...

“When green design is usually discussed, most people think of buildings, products or even cars, but what about packaging? Shouldn't magazines, business cards, brochures and websites be green?” Yes, indeedy, they should. And we are pleased to discover another resource available to communication designers attain these goals. Eric Benson, founder of Renourish, when he launched the site last year, wanted to “start the conversation on green graphic design by providing definitions, tips, and links to sustainable resources designers can use to make their work a little greener.” His useful guides and case studies sit well beside the ranks of the Society for Responsible Design, Design by Nature, the more recently mentioned Design Can Change, and, of course, the AIGA's (American Institute of Graphics Arts) very own Center for Sustainable Design. But Renourish is also a very worthy jumping off point if you want to know more about making greener choices in paper, ink, printing, packaging or design firms. ::Renourish....

As Bob Geldof and Bono well know, Africa is the forgotten continent. Grinding poverty, rampaging disease and continual exploitation of its resources by the developed world are the stories we mostly hear. But it is also a continent rich in culture and craftsmanship, with an indomitable spirit of making the most of very little. While researching the SCORE stove we happened upon a website celebrating the spirit of that creativity. Afrigadget chronciles the stuff that Africans conjure from the simplest of materials. Seen here is a motorized bicycle, made in Kisumu, Kenya, costing about 7,000 Kenyan shillings ($105 USD). Their little tanks hold about 2 litres of petrol, but this allows them to travel about 100 km with out a refill. “To start the bicycle you start pedaling manually, then you flip a switch on the left handle that starts the engine. Then you have a normal motorcycle throttle control on the right side.” Also noted this month is a post on four Kenyan brothers who, in solving the problem of their nearest water being 15 km away, created a booming little business. They now make windmill based water-pumps out of old bike parts and roofing iron. Much more on ::Afrigadget...

The space around our homes provides us with places to play and relax. To local wildlife, however, expanses of lush, green grass might as well be asphalt. Lawns provide animals with no shade, shelter, or food, and the runoff from fertilizers and pesticides applied to lawns can contaminate wildlife habitats. Instead of cultivating a sea of grass, consider incorporating some of the following elements around your home to create a landscape that is not only beautiful but also promotes a variety of animal and insect life. Go wild. Convert a section of your lawn to prairie or wildflower meadow. This not only reduces the amount of grass you have to maintain, but also creates more natural space in which local animals and insects may reside. ...

The effects of climate change on the world's oceans have not been kind to coral reefs. Facing a range of threats from multiple fronts, including a diverse array of predators, pathogens and people and, now, the looming specter of rising ocean acidity driven by higher carbon dioxide emissions, the future outlook of corals is looking rather grim: recent surveys suggest that almost 20 percent of the planet's reefs have been destroyed in the past few decades and that another 50 percent are teetering on the brink of collapse. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report last month forecasting "more frequent coral bleaching events and widespread mortality" with average global temperature rises of 1 to 3 degrees celsius. In an effort to counter this potential mass die-off, countries like Palau have started establishing the national networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) to protect their reefs from excessive predation and bleaching. Others have gone a step further by enlisting the help of one of the reefs' most ubiquitous denizens, the parrot fish. ...

Here's a new excuse for the next time you don't feel like getting out of bed. You can see the other half of the cartoon here. Credit: Nitrozac and Snaggy, Joy of Tech, GeekCulture....

Derek Chen's new design group – Council – launched their first collection at ICFF this year. While Council's furniture could be a lot more sustainable -powdercoating steel makes it harder to recycle; wood veneer can be replaced by bamboo- the meticulous build quality and trend-free style of the pieces means they might be the last that you (or your grandchildren) buy....

The Panelist is a socially conscious investing site that believes that investing and expressing one's personal values do not have to be mutually exclusive ideals. Here are some recent green highlights from the ethical investing world. The polysilicon shortage might impede the growth of the solar industry but could present an opportunity for solar companies . . . Validation for socially conscious parents: Cloth diapers really are better for the environment and your baby . . . A new comprehensive networking site aims to help the environmentally like-minded find each other . . . The volatility of the world oil supply creates uncertainty in the stock market, but there are alternatives to Big Oil . . . Jim Cramer is responsible for the correction in solar stock valuation . . . You’ve heard of the Triple Bottom Line, but companies like Pepsi (PEP), GE (GE) and 3M (MMM) have achieved the “sustainability sweet spot” . . . ...

Last year, we took a close look at both the summer and winter versions of ENERGY STAR's new ENERGY STAR@Home interactive tool, and liked what we saw. ES@Home provides users with an animated layout of a typical American home, and incorporates energy savings tips into various rooms and home features. Today, the government agency launches the latest version of this online tool, and has added elements that not only provide tips for saving energy and money while staying cool this summer, but also allow users who've implemented these ideas to share their stories. According to Denise Durrett, ENERGY STAR Communications Specialist,

We’ve given advice, and we know people are receptive to that advice. This year, we’ve added a component that allows people to come to us and tell us what they’ve done. So, we’re asking our users ‘Have you done these things in your home? What difference has it made? Come back and tell us how you’re saving money and energy.’

The site's new landing page features families that have made ENERGY STAR-recommended changes and improvements to their home, and tells of the savings they've gained. If you've also made changes in line with the program's suggestions, just click the "Tell Us How You Save Button" to send ES the results of these modifications. To reach even more people with its message of energy conservation, the site will publish these stories in both English and Spanish. Remember: the average American family spends $1900/year on energy. The simple changes ENERGY STAR recommends can save you hundreds of dollars while lightening your environmental impact. ::ENERGY STAR@Home...

When we interviewed David Filo, Co-founder and Chief Yahoo at Yahoo! Inc., we were interested to see how their plan for engaging Yahoo!'s visitors in environmental activism would work; today, there's a great example of what that sort of community-building and idea-sharing looks like. Marking the first time a member of Congress has engaged the public in a real-time dialogue about legislation currently being drafted in Congress, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has joined the Yahoo! Answers community to ask the question: "Congress is currently working on legislation to address global warming -- what would you like to see included?" Thus far, there are 5461 responses, including some from a few distinguished thinkers from the environmental community, including TreeHugger's own Simran Sethi and TreeHugger contributor Lester Brown, who may be better known by some as the Founder and President of the Earth Policy Institute and author of "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble." Also weighing in are Dan Esty, one of the leading experts on corporate environmental strategy and former senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Christopher Flavin, President, Worldwatch Institute; and Adam Lowry, the Co-Founder of method home cleaning products (also featured here on TreeHugger). Thus far, the answers range from thoughtful and pragmatic to denial and skepticism, but a wide variety of people are weighing in and have a chance to have a profound impact on the future of this country's governmental policy on global warming, which is great. The question will be active for another 23 days, and we recommend that you click on over, spend your two cents, and engage yourself in the democratic process. While you're at it, dig in to some of Yahoo!'s other new green initiatives, and remember that city that wins the "Be a Better Planet" campaign gets a fleet of hybrid taxis -- a little birdie told us that Roe, ~~Arizona~~ Arkansas is in the lead...(update: Roe is out and Pelzer, South Carolina has sprung into the lead!) ::Yahoo! Be a Better Planet, ::Yahoo! Green and ::Speaker of the House Pelosi on Yahoo! Answers...

The Guardian’s Larry Elliott has written on the state of the UK economy, and how its buoyancy is harming the environment. Four interest rate rises since last summer have attempted to curb the ‘spend, spend, spend’ culture, made possible by cheap borrowing and low unemployment. A Mintel survey shows that last year, UK spending exceeded £1 trillion as UK residents have the capability to buy all they need, and much more. Some analysts believe that interest rates need to be pushed all the way to 6% in order to level out the economy, but Elliott believes that, ‘any period of belt-tightening will be temporary, when what is needed is a prolonged period of restraint, moderation and thrift.’ He goes on to say that the current economic climate is mutually exclusive with a green culture, ‘The debate over climate change makes a revolution in attitudes less difficult than might appear, but only marginally. It is good news that the government has finally woken up to the risks of global warming; less encouraging that it persists in the fantasy that cutting emissions is consistent with a business-as-usual, go-for-growth economic strategy.’ :: The Guardian...

I watch Top Gear because, although I'm green at heart, I do love cars. Some primeval part of me wishes that a huge 4 litre V8 muscle car was environmentally friendly, but it's not, so I bike. Anyway, Top Gear has reported that the G-Wiz electric car has fared rather badly in recent crash tests. "In a crash test exclusively conducted for Top Gear to the EuroNCAP procedure, a G-Wiz electric vehicle - increasingly fashionable as a way of avoiding London's congestion charge - was crushed so badly that its driver's life would have been seriously endangered." ...

Three men looking at a test tube...but a very interesting test tube... Pellets made out of aluminum and gallium can produce pure hydrogen when water is poured on them, offering a possible alternative to petrol-powered engines, US scientists have discovered. Hydrogen is seen as the ultimate in clean fuels, especially for powering cars, because it emits only water when burned. The trouble is, so far no-one has found an efficient way to produce or store hydrogen. There are also questions about the infrastructure needed – think of a network similar to the petrol stations in your neighborhood – to transport and supply hydrogen to car owners. This development could change all that and make hydrogen both accessible and useable. Indeed, the metal compound pellets may offer a simple way to utilize hydrogen, says Jerry Woodall, an engineering professor at Purdue University in Indiana who invented the system. Purdue are no strangers to Treehugger - they have already come up with several innovative developments across the fuel spectrum which we've reported on earlier....

Today Staples launched its national "Computer and Office Technology Recycling Program." Thus becoming the first national store to offer everyday, in-store recycling of pretty much any sort of electronic equipment. Just bring in your computer, monitor, printer, fax machine, scanner, etc. and they'll recycle it "in accordance with environmental laws." Of course, we haven't yet hit the golden moment...when a big box store will recycle a computer for free (or better yet, pay you for all of those nice expensive materials inside your old equipment). Staples will gladly accept your equipment as long as you give them $10. They will, however, recycle mice and keyboards for free. Frankly, it's worth $10 to me. I've got two broken down printers sitting in my basement, but I'll be darned if they ever see the inside of a trash bin. We'd all be better off if the original manufacturer would take the equipment back, and a good number of them (Dell, Toshiba, Apple and others) do. But for equipment that has no other destiny besides leeching into our groundwater, Staples is the way to go. ...

Arctic explorer and man of steel Will Steger tells Green Options about his adventures and the plight of the Inuit… The city of Somerville, Massachusetts went on a diet to combat child obesity; and it worked, gosh darn it… Coca-Cola just might be ready to take the benzene out of its soda pops… Trend expert Hemal Vasavada Gill describes our arrival at a tipping point she calls Karma Capitalism… Allegations are flying that wind-power cartels are price-rigging and violating anti-trust… Most Huggable is a daily roundup of some of the top stories from Hugg.com, TreeHugger’s user-generated green news site. Why not submit your own green news? ...

This past weekend, we went to check out the Blue Man Group while here in Chicago. For those that haven't had a chance to catch the show yet, it's certainly something to see. With their colorful lights and fantastic music, our eyes were glued to the stage the entire time. One of you wrote in to tell us about the Blue Man Group's campaign to inform people about global warming when we asked "Who's Your Favorite Green Musician." But we have to say, they are definitely more blue than green (ha). Not only are their instruments made from PVC, but if any of you have seen the show, you know how it ends - paper is passed through the audience while their strobe lights are flashing. This TreeHugger couldn't help but cringe as the unbelievable amount of paper unrolled from more rolls than we could possibly count throughout the theater. And the pile at the top of the stage when the lights went on was certainly a site. Does anyone know if they recycle that paper since, according to their website, global warming is one of the most serious problems? ::Blue Man Group...

The notion of driving (or even riding a bus or train) to a gym so you can run around in a series of circles, bicycle in place or lift weights up and down to stay in shape may be a trifle odd to many TreeHuggers, despite being thoroughly embedded in mainstream culture. How do we put all that energy being expended to good use? Here are some of our picks for going to the gym, TreeHugger-style. 1) The Gimnasio Ecológico Lumen is an outdoor, hand-made gym built from natural products (like tree branches) and salvaged bicycle and boat parts. 2) Green Gyms allow TreeHuggers in the UK to get a good workout (some Green Gym activites burn a third more calories than doing a step aerobics class) while doing some good for the planet and your community by planting trees, laying hedges, building walls and the like. 3) Notions of Expenditure is a request "for speculative proposals to re-design exercise equipment to generate and store energy; and/or to retrofit gyms to function as local power sources linked to the grid." It envisions a "redesign of gyms into power hubs and a linking together of the power hubs into a massive power network". 4) Design that Matters proves that good design can be harnessed to improve the lives of all, not just the wealthy. Check out the LED-based projector whose batteries are recharged by bicycle power, used for community literacy programs. 5) Riding a bicycle can be used to power a great many things, as it turns out; the Cyclean pedal-powered washing machine and Bikeblender are just a few examples of putting crank power to good use....

This week is Carnival of the Green # 78 and it's being hosted Everyday Trash, a blog that examines the art and politics of the world through the lens of garbage. So, head on over to this week's Carnival to check out a round up of last week's green news and events, submitted by other bloggers and green sites. To learn more about Carnival of the Green, where it will be and how to host (hurry, we're now booking into 2008!), please click here to link to our previous post. ...

The child of the Industrial Woodworking Corporation (who make some excellent sustainable office, home office & health care-environment furniture of their own), Knú is a soon-to-be-launched online-only company committed to creating sustainable, modern, contemporary home and office furniture for retail sale. While the official launch isn't until September 2007, you can still check out their website to see what they've got up their sleeves; if you like what you see (and we do), you can preorder whatever catches your eye with a 10% discount on the sale price and 50% discount on shipping. "Knú Desk #4" (pictured above) might be our favorite; not only is it made with FSC-certified wood veneers, zero-VOC water-borne PVA adhesives and 40% recycled/100% recyclable steel (as are all of their pieces), it might be the first desk we've ever seen that looks like it might take flight if you don't hold it down. Hit the jump for more pics of their work, including a dining set, bookcase and more desks, and check out their website for more on their environmental commitment (they're also a 100% carbon-neutral company) and read their blog for more on their company and products. ::Knú and ::Industrial Woodworking Corporation via ::2modern Design Talk...

Photo credit: marmalade mel Slow Food NYC and the Chelsea CSA are throwing an evening party on May 30, so that New Yorkers can enjoy local food and drink, while learning about Community Supported Agriculture and the various CSAs around NYC. Meet farmer and Terra Madre delegate Deb Kavakos of Stoneledge Farm; Sherri Brooks Vinton, real-food advocate and author of The Real Food Revival; Just Food staff; and the Chelsea CSA....

The 25 finalists of Sundance Channel's "What's the Big Idea?" video contest are duking it out (something we first mentioned awhile back), and they want your votes to help determine who makes it into the final five. Through May 31, you can vote once per day on whichever video you find to be most compelling, most feasible idea. Will it be the more technical "Tactical Biorefinery" or immediately applicable "Remake Itsi Recycling Kits"? "The Recopack: Changing the Way America Packs" or maybe "Solar Bug"? Click on over to start watching and get voting; remember, one vote per day through May 31 (that's next Thursday) will determine the top 5, from which a panel of judges will choose the winner (though they're all winners for having the idea and choosing to submit it, right?). Don't forget to take a look at the The Green Guide and TreeHugger's blog while at the site. Happy voting! ::Sundance Channel's "What's the Big Idea?" Video Contest...

Want to be green but can’t resist wishing for a Louis Vuitton? Then why not pursuing a second hand one? As we mention in our How to Green Your Wardrobe, one of the easiest ways to go green is to buy used clothes. And if you are aiming for luxury brands, Club Nobili is the place for you. This Argentine based online store opened in 2006 and offers big brands mostly second hand but also new beverages, women and men clothes, house accessories, jewelry, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and pens and technology. The site assures its operations are ‘risk free’: specialists take care of going through every published item, and when an item is purchased, those specialists receive the item before it gets to the buyer in order to check the originality (if the item is fake, it is returned to seller). Club Nobili also serves companies and works with non-profit organizations to host Charity Sales of luxury products. Another good news: most of the items are in pesos (an US dollar is worth three pesos), so some products might seem cheap to foreigners. Though they offer deliveries worldwide, it’s probably not worth the airplane travel. But whenever you’re in town remember to step by. ::Club Nobili...

Recent and compelling evidence for the birthplace of American hurricanes has been reported in Nature News. Professor Colin Price, a lecturer on global warming and an expert on atmospheric science who we reported on here, has just published evidence that may make tracking and predicting devastating hurricanes much easier for meteorologists. Price studied lightning storms originating in the Ethiopian highlands and determined that in the years of 2005 and 2006, the severity of North American hurricanes could be correlated to the severity of the storms in Africa. Based on what Price has found, hurricanes can be predicted as much as 3 weeks in advance and their severity can be determined much more accurately. Factoring global warming into the mix, we can only imagine that things may look worse as time wears on. Price tells TreeHugger: “Other researchers claim that global warming will result in more intense hurricanes, but not necessarily a greater number of hurricanes.” ::TAU News...

In an effort to promote Iowa’s role in renewable energy, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation has launched a campaign called ‘Join the Ride Iowa’ . The campaign will tour the state throughout the summer and will support renewable energy resources such as wind, biomass, and biodiesel. 'Join the Ride Iowa’ will focus primarily on educating Iowans about the important role that agriculture plays in renewable energy. Launched last week at the opening of a new E85 pump at the Kum & Go in Grinnell, the campaign will also offer Iowans the opportunity to win a custom-made ‘Renewable Energy Chopper’. The Iowa Farm Bureau commissioned Orange County Choppers of ‘American Chopper’ fame to build the nation’s first motorcycle that will run on E85. Although only one lucky raffle ticket holder will win the yet to be unveiled chopper, others can rest assure that their ticket purchases will not be wasted. Proceeds from the sale of $10 raffle tickets will support the American Lung Association of Iowa’s ‘Clean Air Choice’ program. See also ::Man Creates Electric Motorcycle Using Simple Retrofits and ::Electric Motorcycle Breaks Speed Record...

I think that's a pretty relevant question to ask, especially when a new report indicates that the "TurboBooster SafeSeat" put out by Graco is one of the worst when it comes to chemical ingredients such as chlorine, bromine and lead. They've all been linked to things like cancer, liver, thyroid and developmental problems in children and lab animals and the study shows they could be leaching from your childs car seat and putting their health at risk. Not that every car seat has this issue either, in fact some of the 62 models tested had no chemical problems at all. But 30 percent had high levels of the chemicals. So which ones performed the best during this test? Well, Graco's SnugRide Emerson and EvenFlo Discovery Churchill were found to have none of the chemicals at all. And while these are clearly better choices, it's troubling to see that even some car seats have these chemical concerns at all. The reason given by manufacturers? Utilizing different ingredients that are safer costs more, and to keep prices down they go for the cheaper chemicals, albeit ones with serious potential consequences for the kids who use them. I'd like to propose a solution for Graco and the others whose car seats flunked the chemical test. How about removing the dangerous chemicals and replacing them with ones that won't cause problems while passing the relatively small price increase along to the consumer and letting them know why the increase is taking place. I highly doubt there is a parent out there who would mind paying the small increase to ensure the car seat you sell them is as safe as it needs to be on a day-to-day basis because our kids are that important. It's that simple. ...

We show a lot of proposals for buildings in Dubai, often draped in photovoltaics and covered in propellers, or twisting and turning, it is a Disneyland of architecture. Sometimes we think they are going a bit overboard, as they evolve from Disney to Lucas with buildings like OMA's Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre. We have used Picasso's bon mot, updated by Le Corbusier before: "Good architects borrow but great architects steal" but never was the homage so obvious. Architectspeak below the fold. ...

It's spring and time to think about all things flowering. Even if you only have a window sill you can still enjoy the wonder of watching your flowers grow. Where to start? First examine the way the sun hits the window sill: when is it there—all day, half the day, never? That determines the kind of plants that you can grow. Then check the window sill: make sure there is about an inch between the box and the ledge. If you have to use brackets to hold up the box and you are a tenant: ask first. As for the window box--visit the local hardware store or go to a nursery. What kind to buy? A problem for true treehuggers: there are some available good ones but not many. The fact is that wood is good but will rot, clay pots must be emptied in winter or they will crack. Plastic (gasp!) lasts forever and is lightweight and cheap. Here is the fun part: choosing the plants. Flowers or edibles? First-timers should really go for ready-grown plants. Although those little packets of seeds look enticing; they require more attention and less watering than one would think. Geraniums are hardy, always look wonderful and bloom all summer. An ivy, trailing over the side of the box, is nice, as are marigolds, and pansies. Lobelia ( the purple plant in the photo) is a guaranteed bloomer. If you are a bit of a foody, you could plant herbs: rosemary, sage, thyme, basil are all wonderful accents to recipes. Put mint in a separate pot. Don’t forget to check the amount of sun needed for the plants. There is a difference between those needing lots of sun and those needing not so much. If in doubt, just look at the little logo on the label: if it is a round circle it means it needs lots of sun. ...

We watch marketing website PSFK closely to monitor trends; they keep a close eye on the green scene. We missed their New York conference two months ago, but just found a video of "Eco-shift or greenwash?" with TreeHugger contributor Tamara Giltsoff of Live/work chairing a panel discussion with Hemal Vasavada-Gill of the eightfold, Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat and Marc Alt discussing "Brands and organizations seem to be taking up the call to ‘get green’ – but how much of this leads to misleading posturing?." PSFK takes the show on the road to London on June 1, with "The Marketing Gap in Green" with Chair: Karen Fraser (Ethical Index) Panel: John Grant (BrandTarot), Diana Verde Nieto (Clownfish), Tamara Giltsoff (OZObrand), Santiago Gowland (Unilever) discussing " Could marketing departments and their agencies get left behind by both the corporations they serve and the consumers they supply?" Other speakers include Regine Debatty and Hugh McLeod. Looks interesting at ::PSFK...

With the US market for solar photo-voltaic power burgeoning, people from every walk of life are accumulating first hand experience with 'keeping on the sunny side' of life. Professional photographer and videographer Rees Candee really likes his new roof-mounted solar system and wants to encourage the rest of the world to consider installing one. Result: the photos shown here and his preview promotional video called "Bright Alternative" was posted for the whole world to see. We asked Rees why he made the video, and included his explanation below. Beyond producing a film that offered a simple explanation of the the benefits of solar, there's a business context for himself and field installation companies. A small or mid-size solar installer might find the price of a custom promotional video daunting, with the possible result that what they it could afford would be comparable in quality to the typical late night car dealership infomercials - an approach out of synch with customers who might have something more elegant in mind....

We mentioned the Spanish company Tuka Bamboo before for their lush flooring and other delicious construction material but their latest project definitely deserves another mentioning. We visited them at Construmat and here's what they told us. Not less than 200.000 m2 of bamboo plywood for the roof turned Terminal 4 of Madrid’s Barajas airport into something more than a space before take-off. Tuka Bamboo, the provider of the material, explain that the bamboo had been chosen for its sustainable and ecological criteria. The 5-layered strips for this construction had been especially designed for this project and had undergone a particular fireproof as well as anti-humidity treatment. This multiple design award-winning airport, designed by none other than Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners (formerly known as Richard Rogers Partnership), has another innovative feature apart from the bamboo wave structure to improve well-being and eco-friendliness in this airport: an exemplary use of daylight! ...

Whoever said that too much sugar was a bad thing? The University of Queensland and the Korean Advanced Institute of Technology have just announced the formation of a partnership to develop and patent a technology to convert sugarcane into environmentally friendly plastics and chemicals. By leveraging Queensland's strength in sugarcane production with South Korea's expertise in chemicals manufacturing, the two institutions hope to blend biotechnology with nanotechnology to build hyper-efficient biorefineries with the capacity to convert sugarcane into a series of "green" products. Widely regarded as the "MIT of South Korea," KAIST is a world leader in the technology that enables the programming of microorganisms to create complex chemicals from feedstocks like sugar cane. UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) brings to the table its expertise in bioplastic production and characterization....

Were you here celebrating the fifth year of DesignMai bringing cutting edge design trends to Berlin? If not, it was your loss. Around the theme of "Digitalability", DesignMai sought to explore the interactions of design with the tools of the digital age as well as the possibilities for designing in the era of virtual reality. The interface of design with social action was pushed once again in the amnesty international competition in which designers were asked to submit designs supporting action on human rights campaigns for the "design on duty" competition. The best designs were shown in award ceremonies at the Kulturbrauerei (Q: just how cool is a city with a "Culture Brewery"?). ...

ICFF isn't just about furniture; some of my favorite (and most sustainable) products were far smaller than the typical chair. Nahoko of British design group Mixko showed me these “Heli” belts that she created from excess fabric used to make tatami mats. If you can believe it, these beautifully embroidered offcuts would otherwise be thrown away. She showed me how each strip is first reinforced with webbing material and then capped with the standard metal hardware. The gentle contrast between the traditional family crest patterns and the modern use to which they're put makes for one cute accessory, one that uses very little new material....

The National Climatic Data Center have released their summary of global climate findings, as of April. Worryingly, the global average surface temperature was the, 'warmest on record for January-April year-to-date'. Basically, this year has so far been the warmest ever. They go on to say that, 'anomalously warm temperatures have covered much of the globe throughout the year.' April taken as a single month was the warmest on record for surface temperature, and snow coverage was also unusual, 'April 2007 snow cover extent for the Northern Hemisphere was the third lowest extent on record, and it has been below average in 15 of the past 20 years.' :: NCDC...

Grist has an interesting article on what it means for a city to be bike-friendly. The addition of a few miles of bike lanes does not cut it - it takes a far more holistic approach. I personally spend half my time in London, and half in Amsterdam, and those two cities are about as far apart in their approach to cyclists as it's possible to be. Cycling in London is a risky, stressful, but actually quite exciting affair. In Amsterdam it's far different, as a cyclist you are in the majority by a large margin, and feel safe. Cars crawl along, because the streets are so small and there are always bikes and walkers clogging them. In London you park your bike where you can, but most fences and railings have warnings that any parked bikes will be confiscated. In Amsterdam bikes are chained three, four or five deep on any immovable object. They're also left unlocked, standing up in the middle of pavements and roads. Shops have their own bike racks, the new American Apparel store in Amsterdam has its own branded rack outside. So, to be bike-friendly takes more than painting a bike lane down the road and not even punishing drivers who plough through it. It takes lanes with physical barriers between it and the road, it takes shops who cater for, rather than punish, those who leave cycles outside. And it takes a government who protects cyclists, and punishes drivers who put them in jeopardy. :: Grist See also :: European Bike Paths Travel South to the Antipodes...

A student from Ontario has complained that he has been shown An Inconvenient Truth a total of four times as part of high-school classes. Understandably he was shown it in his environment class, and then his world issues class, but was also shown it in history, and economics. "I really don't understand why they keep showing it," says McKenzie, whose last name is withheld on his parent’s request. "I've spoken to the principal about it, and he said that teachers are instructed to present it as a debate. But every time we've seen it, well, one teacher said this is basically a two-sided debate, but this movie really gives you the best idea of what's going on." The practice is common in several countries now. Its part of the curriculum in England, Spain has bought copies for every school, and private donors have bought copies for schools in Australia. Although there are errors in the film, and it has been criticised for presenting a possible climate outcome as an almost inevitable disaster, it must be positive that people are being shown it. What is needed though, is context. It’s not enough for teachers to put on a DVD and get on with marking work while the children ‘learn’ about the environmental situation we face. It is a complex issue that needs explanation and investigation. I would rather that teachers create sceptical free-thinkers than green-automatons. In any case, the youth tend to be more aware of the environment anyway. Perhaps it should be a requirement for adults to watch the film, perhaps at airports, or Hummer dealerships? :: National Post See also :: An Inconvenient Truth out on DVD :: An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore Is A Hit With Enviro-Film At Sundance...

Klima Sucht Schutz. The Climate Seeks Protection. Thanks to the German Ship Museum, the 140-year-old sailing ship "Grönland" will bring the message from port to port this summer for the second summer running. Visitors to the ship can inform themselves about how they can get active in the fight to save our climate. The ship is a visible and vivid ambassador for the Klima-sucht-schutz campaign supported by the German Ministry for the Environment. Germans can find even more support for taking action at the project website:...

Amid all the recent hubbub surrounding advances made in ethanol-based renewable energy, it is sometimes easy to discount the staying power of photovoltaics as a source of sustainable energy. Despite the merits of biofuel technology, the reality is that current photovoltaic panels are capable of capturing substantially more energy per square meter than are biomass crops such as corn and sugarcane, which rely on photosynthesis to capture and store solar energy, that are being pushed for use as feedstock for ethanol. ...

We all know pedal power can make you fitter but if you opt for this hydrogen-powered bike you could also be making the planet a lot fitter too. Developed by UK-based Valeswood Environmental Technology Development (VETD), the Hydrocell Bike is on sale now, powered by a lightweight hydrogen fuel cell placed behind the seat and able to send you on your green way for 60 miles. The Hydrocell power unit is available in three different sizes, producing between 14 to 156 volts individually or up to 220 volts when used as part of a power pack. The Hydrocell holds 40 liters of hydrogen. Hydrocell is a lightweight, rechargeable hydrogen fuel cell with an internal metal hydride store. It's not as expensive as most other hydrogen systems because the battery pack is alkaline-based rather than based on the more normal - and expensive - platinum core. ...

Well, that’s the retort he gave when asked by a journalist if he flew on a gas guzzling jet to arrive at the premier screening of his new Eco-doco, The 11th Hour, in Cannes, France. He later noted that he tries to fly commercial flights as much as possible, and that the snarky remark about railing it ‘over the pond’ was an irritated reaction to the media focus on the supposed inconsistency in the private lives of so called eco-celebrities. "We're all trying the best we can, truly, we really are," he said. "Attacks on Al Gore for example I think are misdirected. Don't shoot the messenger, you know what I'm saying? If you're going to attack somebody on the way they conduct their life, let's talk about the big picture, let's see what big oil companies are doing.” And it is that bigger picture that his movie is apparently focussed on, "Certainly in the United States we are the ones that should set an example for the rest of the world. We are the most powerful democracy on the planet and we're also the largest polluters simultaneously," he said. DiCaprio said, despite the film's tone, he was optimistic about humanity's fate. "I'm happy to be a part of this generation that talks about an issue that affects so many generations after us like global warming does. It's probably the biggest movement in human history, if done right." ::The 11th Hour, via ABC. ...

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