Weekly Archive for June 17, 2007 : TreeHugger

A tour of the accomodations at the Skotel, the "School Hotel" of the Hotel School, the Hague is a low-CO2 method to see a sampling of the best accomodations available at hotels around the world. Each guest room has been donated by a leading hotel company, which is credited on a plaque at the door. It is a gallery of the all-too-familiar recipe for bed, bath and furnishings differentiated mainly by color, pattern and choice of wall hanging. But one room stands out. An exception that should be the rule. Looking like a set from Peter Pan, the furnishings evoke nature in a manner which makes the guest hesitant to flip on even the low emissions which might be caused by the bedside CFL-lamp which is conspicuous by the lack of electronic gadgets occupying the space. The name on the plaque outside this room: Center Parcs. Follow your curiosity, this one room in the hotel room hall of fame is the introduction to a company which is a leader in the eco-travel and recreation field....

A business model that emerged out of necessity has now become the basis for a growing industry in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The booming growth in the county's mushroom industry that started almost a decade ago forced growers to confront the increasingly difficult task of disposing of the compost used to grow the mushrooms. Two companies started around that time, Laurel Valley Soils Inc. and Skyland USA L.L.C., found an ingenious way of dealing with this problem: recycle the mushroom compost. Their growing revenues and expanding project portfolios have encouraged others to get into the business, a welcome relief for the many landscape architects and botanists having trouble getting their hands on healthy, fertile dirt. ...

Last Wednesday, Friends of the High Line threw their 7th annual summer benefit, and were able to celebrate actual construction for the first time. The project basically involves turning 1.5 miles of abandoned elevated railway on Manhattan's West Side into a floating public park. The High Line project, which has been going on for some time, has always been exciting to me because it invites people to consider obsolete city infrastructure as a natural landscape, one that should inform the architecture that's built in its place, instead of be demolished to make room for something generic. In the words of co-founder Joshua David, the High Line “made you think of the kind of New York you envisioned before you moved here”. ...

Scientists have discovered that the recent surge in the number of Antarctic icebergs, prompted by rising temperatures, has resulted in the creation of vast new ecosystems of plankton, seabirds and krill. They believe they could play a key role in absorbing the excess carbon dioxide emissions driving global warming. By using photosynthesis, the species in these ecosystems are able to take carbon from the atmosphere and convert it into carbohydrates and, thus, new life. "I think it can be a substantial contribution" to reducing carbon dioxide levels, Kenneth Smith Jr. of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the project's leader, said. "These things have been ignored forever." The icebergs form when glaciers moving across Antarctica are broken up through the accumulation of dust and nutrient-rich dirt. This nutrient-rich dirt provides a key source of nutrients to support the proliferation of plankton and algae. Krill feed on the plankton and seabirds, such as Cape petrels and Antarctic fulmars, in turn feed on the krill....

Because we still know relatively little about the deep oceans, it has often been suggested that we should switch our focus from exploring outer space and other planets to exploring these mysterious landscapes in our own backyard. Many researchers have postulated that we may eventually find the solutions to some of our most vexing problems, including human disease and fossil fuel dependence, within those dark recesses. An international team of scientists, armed with an advanced set of robotic instruments, is heading to the Arctic Ocean to hunt for life along the little-explored Gakkel Ridge on the ocean floor. It won't be easy. "This is a very risky venture," said Hanumant Singh, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who created the unmanned robotic vehicles that will navigate the icy waters around the Gakkel Ridge. "I'm prepared to lose a vehicle. ... But when you do a risk-versus-benefit analysis, it's absolutely worth it."...

As covered in the New York Times and elsewhere, the US National Academy of Sciences has challenged thirty year old estimates of the sustainability of coal as a US energy resource. Maybe not the talking point "250 years" left after all. Maybe more like 100 years, or less. Depends on who you ask, and assumptions on consumption rate or prospective carbon tax levies. But definitely not 250. The NAS report, titled - Coal: Research and Development to Support National Energy Policy is available for purchase by download here. TreeHugger is not going to be doing anything to improve the precision of the coal reserve estimates. But, we do have a point about coal politics over the next two years....

It's so retro looking, two tones of wood, and made by hand by carpenters in an Indonesian village with high unemployment. The designer Singgih Kartono wants to "redefine the relationship of the user between the product" and revitalize craft industries and local skills, while using local sustainable materials. Even the packaging is designed to be simple, minimal and reuseable for transporting the radio. AM, FM, uses 4 AA batteries, ¥17,640. ::Assiston via ::NotCot...

Prefab may not take long to build once on site, but it takes a lot of time, money and perseverance to get a concept into the market and then into production. We first looked at Andrew Maynard's prefabs a while back, and now learn that his prefab company, Quon Modular, is in production and manufacturing. His site says "We are about to begin manufacturing our first housing modules for the Borogrove house and we have numerous other exciting projects underway." Shown is the Weary Bay House in Far North Queensland. "The site is in an isolated area of the North Queensland coast, 200km South of Cairns along bumpy dirt tracks. The client could not get builders and trades people to travel to the remote site. They were also were reluctant to have a typical on-site construction as, similarly to the Borogrove house, it would damage the site." ::Quon Modular thanks for the reminder at ::Materialicious...

Mayor Newsom tours the Hetch Hetchy reservoir--a major source of water for the Bay Area First plastic bags, now bottled water; San Francisco is certainly setting an example. Mayor Gavin Newsom signed an order this week banning the use of City funds to purchase single-serving bottled water. The Mayor told Newsweek:

The transportation and distribution, developing the plastic for the water bottles, the cost of the water, has a huge environmental and economic impact....the difference between bottled water and Diet Coke is that you can’t get Diet Coke from the tap. It’s not like any other bottled liquids. These people are making huge amounts of money selling God’s natural resources. Sorry, we’re not going to be part of it. Our water in San Francisco comes from the Hetch Hetchy [reservoir] and is some of the most pristine water on the planet. Our water is arguably cleaner than a vast majority of the bottled water sold as "pure."

::Newsweek...

As John noted earlier, President Bush has suggested that ""Nuclear power helps us protect the environment" and wants to build new plants. However, there is a problem that John posted about last year and that raised its head again: water, and the huge amounts needed to keep reactors operating at safe temperatures. David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, told the International Herald Tribune:

"We're going to have to solve the climate-change problem if we're going to have nuclear power, not the other way around. As the climate warms up, nuclear power plants are less able to deliver."

In the French 2003 killer heat wave, 17 reactors had to be cut back or turned off because of the rapid rise in river temperatures. In Germany and Spain, reactors were dialled back as temperatures rose. In the US, the group Public Citizen reported a shutdown last year at a plant in Michigan, and slowdowns at plants in Minnesota, Illinois and Pennsylvania, because of hot conditions. So build them on the coasts and cool them with seawater or don't expect much out of them when you need them most- when it is hot outside. ::International Herald Tribune ...

A few weeks ago we reported on a new book by Alan Shepherd, the gardening guru at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales. Now we hear that Mr Shepherd is launching the Dyfi Valley Podcast. Aimed primarily at gardeners wanting to practice a more environmentally friendly form of gardening, the podcast will apparently be filled with useful hints and tips on how to garden and live sustainably. Each show will take on a different topic, and will be made up of interviews with experts from CAT and the surrounding Dyfi Valley, which has become famous for environmental stewardship. Sophie Holdstock, Alan’s colleague at CAT, explained the thinking behind the project:

“It’s an informative well put together podcast made on a low budget. All we’ve got is an ipod and a microphone. But there’s so much going on in the Dyfi Valley we just wanted to get out there and record it all. We wanted to show how important it is to build strong low carbon communities wherever you live.”

The podcast can be downloaded from Alan Shepherd’s homepage here. :: Alan Shepherd :: Centre for Alternative Technology :: ...

"The City of Victorville, California has ordered ten Ice Bear(R) units to provide clean, efficient cooling for the new clubhouse at the city's Green Tree Golf Course. See background on Ice Bear energy shifting here. "The Ice Bear units will provide 69 tons of cooling and slash the air conditioning peak demand by more than 95% at the 14,000 square foot event facility. The order is part of Victorville's city-wide program to install Ice Bear units at every public building in order to dramatically reduce peak energy consumption, an effort that won the city a prestigious Flex Your Power award earlier this year. The clubhouse is scheduled for completion in June 2008, in time for the high desert region's most extreme summer heat." Via: PR Newswire Image credit:: S. Sandlin, Webshots...

In free-market obsessed UK, "The Labour government sees nuclear power as one of the most effective weapons in the fight against climate change and in efforts to reduce the country's growing dependence on imported fossil fuels. But that does not mean it will pay for or build nuclear plants. "The government is not going to build a single nuclear power station," Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling told a committee of members of parliament. "If the energy generators don't want to build them, then there won't be any," he said. All of Britain's existing nuclear power plants were paid for and built by the state, but none has been built since Britain privatized its power sector in the 1990s." Meanwhile, back in socialist USA, where tax money has traditionally been appropriated to make an inefficient energy technology profitable, "President Bush promoted nuclear power Wednesday as part of his answer to energy and environmental problems as more companies consider taking advantage of government incentives to build the nation's first new nuclear plant in decades. In the shadow of twin giant cooling towers, Bush said that his plan to expand nuclear power would curb emissions contributing to global warming [we thought that was caused by solar cycles?] and would provide an "abundant and plentiful" alternative to limited energy sources. Bush called the nuclear sector an "over-regulated industry" and pledged to work to make it more feasible to build reactors."...

The myth that the Great Wall of China is visible from the moon was disproved long ago, but the country's Three Gorges Dam -- sometimes called the next Great Wall -- is one of the few man-made structures actually visible to the naked eye from space. Even clearer will be the dramatic transformation the world's largest hydroelectric power generator will have on the Yangtze River and the surrounding landscape. Now NASA, which has been following the development of the socially and environmentally controversial dam via satellite since 1987, gives us an idea of what those changes are looking like with this new animation. Most interestingly, the larger mass of water created by the dam beginning in June 2003 -- the river was one-third of a mile in width before becoming a 401-square-mile reservoir -- has led to a particularly strong "lake effect." That means cooler temperatures and increased rainfall between nearby mountains, but less rainfall in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir.

...researchers were surprised to see that the dam affected rainfall over such a large area - a 62-square-mile region - rather than just 6 miles projected in previous studies.

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Knitter Ingrid Wagner is breaking the world record for big knitting, she is using knitting needles bigger than broomsticks and knits with recycled materials to make a rug in a day. The current world champion for knitting with the biggest needles is Julia Hopson of Cornwell (see image). But this begs the question why? Not why bother breaking a world record? (that is question for a psychologist), rather why knitting? This example of extreme knitting is just one episode in an international knitting epidemic, famous people, children and hipsters are all taking up the needles. Some say it is due to the meditative qualities of knitting, for others it is a response to how we feel about the environment and mass consumerism, it is part of a broader collective urge to simplify our lives. We at TreeHugger are having our own love affair with knitting, check out stories on World wide knit in public day organic wool sweaters, green yarns, and other eco friendly yarns, book reviews: No sheep for you, and the natural knitter, and for more extreme knitting check out these: knitted houses, a knitted river, knitted graffiti, and knitted tree sweaters. ...

If your cat's aesthetic is more Frank Gehry than, well, Petco, then Snookums is going to dig designer Susan Kralovec's cat trees. Handcrafted in San Francisco and made from 100 percent corrugated cardboard (with 35 percent minimum recycled content), these scratchable structures will blend right in with your mid-century modern digs. Non-toxic adhesives and non-toxic, zero-VOC paint hold it all together, while the heavy-duty double-walled corrugated cardboard is built to withstand regular feline abuse with minimum wear and tear. More claw-friendly goodness below the fold. :: Branch Home [via Great Green Pet]...

This week, photographer Chris Jordan speaks with Simran about his art of scale, adventure ecologist David de Rothschild talks about turning the lens on an Ecuadorian oil scandal, and we get a glimpse into the world of the Bonnaroo music festival. Our soundtrack this week comes form DJ Dolores, courtesy of Calabash Music. 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 green roof will be the largest in Canada when complete. It's the roof of the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. The whole Centre is being built with high environmental standards. Besides the multi-hectare intensive green roof, it will have energy efficient lighting and electrical systems, an on-site desalinization system, and a greywater treatment that will provide irrigation for the green roof. ...

That '57 Plymouth they dug up in Tulsa will get close to 25 miles per gallon, not much less than the current average. Yet the "compromise" reached in the so-called energy bill that the automakers were running over themselves to stop specifies an average fleet mileage of 35 MPG in 2020. It doesn't take sixty-three years to figure out how to get a 10 MPG improvement. The Times put it nicely:

"The combination of breakthroughs and setbacks highlighted the blocking power of the entrenched industry groups, from oil companies and electric utilities to car manufacturers, that had blanketed Congress in recent days to defend their interests.

No money for renewables, a requirement for 36 billion gallons of ethanol, no pressure on utilities to use renewables, no cutting of incentives to oil companies that might, horror of horrors, "lead to higher gas prices." Nothing but 12 years to reach a fuel efficiency standard that the market will demand a lot sooner. In 2020 three dollar gas is going to be a very distant memory and 35 MPG better be too; what a waste of time. ::New York Times...

The Science Channel is looking for green inventors. They asked us to publish this: Are you a grassroots green inventor who wants to be featured on a new national television series? Do you take it upon yourself to create your own ingenious solutions to environmental conundrums? We’re looking to feature inventions and inventors from all walks of life that will inspire a greener globe! Send us a brief description of you, your savvy invention, what inspired it and why you feel it is deserving of national attention. Photos of you and your invention would be helpful but aren’t necessary. Please send submissions to: greeninventors@peacepoint.tv...

A number of years ago I released a study on soil erosion. A morning network news program asked me to come in for an interview. In the lead up to the interview that morning, the anchor would announce this forthcoming interview, saying I would be talking about soil erosion. “That’s right … soil erosion!” the anchor said. Perhaps an unusual topic, and yet so vital to our very survival and health. (For a more detailed explanation, see Chapters 5 and 8 in Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble available for free downloading.) In 1938, Walter Lowdermilk, a senior official in the Soil Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), traveled abroad to look at lands that had been cultivated for thousands of years, seeking to learn how these older civilizations had coped with soil erosion. He found that some had managed their land well, maintaining its fertility over long stretches of history, and were thriving. Others had failed to do so and left only remnants of their illustrious pasts....

Photo credit: Manuel Bartual New Jersey lawmakers launched one of nation's most aggressive attacks on global warming yesterday by approving a measure to cut the state's heat-trapping emissions to 15 to 25 percent below current levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050—a target equaled by only one other state so far: Minnesota. (A California law approved last year, by contrast, mandates only a cut in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions by 25 percent by 2020. Take that, you California hippies!) The Assembly and state Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure 72-8 and 36-1, respectively. Governor John Corzine has said he will sign the bill. "In the absence of leadership on the federal level, the burden of reducing greenhouse gases has now fallen upon the states," said Lilo Stainton, a spokeswoman for Corzine. "This legislation ... will make New Jersey a national leader in combating global warming."...

According to an article recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, the last fall/winter season was Europe's warmest in 700 years. In fact, the last time Europeans witnessed such unusually high temperatures was in 1289. Jürg Luterbacher of the University of Bern, Switzerland, the study's lead investigator, mined temperature and climate records from across Europe that went back several hundred years to draw this conclusion. "People in churches, or doctors, wrote diaries, and usually they also included information about weather and climate. Climate historians can use and interpret this information and translate it into a temperature value," explained Luterbacher, who used these records to compare past and recent temperatures....

We Treehuggers know there’s something big going down. Every week there’s more and more clean technology news and we’re happy to report it. Bigger wind farms, better solar panels, alternative fuels, and ultra efficient architecture are all part of a trend that is making the world a better place. But while we often focus on how much good these technologies are doing for the world, some folks are focusing on how much money there is to be made. Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder’s new book “The Clean Tech Revolution” is subtitled “The next big growth and investment opportunity,” and they are very probably right about that. Ten percent of U.S. venture capital money is now going to “clean technology” investments. Everything from solar power, to efficient air conditioners; all signs point to an economic boom on the horizon. Good for the planet and for the economy? Absolutely....

Now that summer is officially here (and with it, the summer driving season), we wanted to peek at a few summer sights, suggest a green summer activity or two and try not to lose the sounds of summer. Here are five quick picks for some green fun in the summertime.

	1) It's barbeque season, so it's time for many of us to fire up the grill, but which fuel to use? Some charcoal produces 105 times more carbon monoxide than burning propane, plus lots of harmful VOC's, but propane is a fossil fuel and net contributor to atmospheric CO2. Greener charcoals like Wicked Good Charcoal might be tipping the scales.
	2) A Cool summer drink or two might help you not have to crank on the A/C quite so much, and drinks like Adez's blend of fruit juices, soya protein and essential nutrients or Cricket Cola's fizzy drink made from real kola nuts, green tea and pure cane sugar that purports to reduce heart disease, strokes, prevent cancer, and generally make you calm might go awfully nice with that barbeque...
	3) If outdoor barbeque and cool drinks aren't enough to keep the heat down, we have some tips for staying cool without running up the energy bill, including "be a fan-atic", "turn off the hot stuff" and "stay out of the kitchen". The remaining two picks are after the jump...

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This wonderful nutcracker is probably the simplest design I've ever seen. Ok, breaking a nut open isn't brain surgery, but this is a graceful solution. Made from two small blocks of Beech wood, one has different size holes on each surface so that nuts of all sizes can be cracked. Place a nut in a hole, bang the blocks together, eat nut and repeat. It’s a simple, efficient design which uses far less energy and materials to produce than any metal contraption. It’s $35 dollar price tag is a little high, but the finish looks great. If you’re handy with wood then you could knock one up yourself, and if not then you can grab one from the Museum of Modern Art's online store. ::MoMA See also ::Tough Nut to Crack: But Macadamia Yields To Husque ::MoMA's Fake Garden, designed by Ken Smith...

Ladies, are you looking to connect with other eco-minded women on the web? Maybe you’re looking to get some simple, green ideas tailored specifically towards your lifestyle. It sounds like you need to visit iVillage’s new iGo Green site. With the largest community of women online (over 15 million monthly visits) the women’s lifestyle site launched a few weeks ago to show women “just how easy it is to go green.” Encompassing organic food, recycled fashion and eco-friendly décor, iGo Green is another example of how green is penetrating the mainstream. We’ve seen many new sites pop up these days that are focusing on the green lifestyle but, according to iVillage, what differentiates them from the group is that they have a broad scope of content that’s updated daily and their focus is entirely on women. According to a company spokesperson, “What was supposed to be a 3-month experiment is now a permanent fixture for our site.” When you visit the site, make sure to plant a seed. ::iVillage's iGo Green (Owned by NBC Universal)...

The first thing that a traveller to India learns is not to drink the tap water. And with good reason: millions of tonnes of sewage are dumped daily into India’s rivers – and some of them, such as the holy Yamuna and Ganges rivers – are slowly choking to death, jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. "We talk a lot about industrial pollution of our rivers, but sewage pollution is a big problem," said Sunita Narain, the director of the Centre for Science and Environment on Thursday. "What is happening to the Yamuna is reflective of what is happening in almost every river in India. The Yamuna is dead, we just haven't officially cremated it yet."...

It looks as though global warming has been doing much more than just alter climate regimes and physical environments: it's actually been shifting seasons forward as well. A new report in Current Biology has shown that spring in Greenland now starts much earlier than it did even a decade ago, with some plant, bird and insect species appearing up to 30 days prematurely as a result. Biologists from Denmark's National Environmental Research Institute led by Toke Hoye spent the past 10 years monitoring the ecosystem near the Zackenberg Research Station above the Arctic Circle in northeastern Greenland, a region particularly hard hit by global warming with temperatures rising at twice the global rate. They were stunned by what they saw in some of the species present in the area....

We've all heard that the oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface area. But have you ever wondered how much water there really is on Earth? While you'd be hard-pressed to find anything beyond some vague estimates (about 321 million cubic miles in ocean water only according to the U.S. Geological Survey), a team of scientists is aiming to change all that by building a satellite that will be able to accurately assess all of Earth's water resources from space in a few years. The KA band, as the satellite is known, will collect data at least 1,000 times more detailed than what is currently available and will improve scientists' understanding of the planet's water cycle which, in turn, should lead to the creation of more precise global-warming models. Cliff Yamamoto, a radar expert with the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is one of several scientists around the country test-driving an early prototype of the device to ensure that it is able to capture and interpret signals from a variety of water bodies. "Climate-change models are really good at temperature (prediction), but not so good at precipitation," said Doug Alsdorf, an Ohio State geophysicist and one of the lead investigators on the project. ...

Burning things produces emissions, so it is easy to dismiss it as a poor source of energy. However, in certain situations it can be a sensible option. There are plenty of sources of combustible material that are very sustainable, and burn relatively cleanly. If conversion to energy can be done near to the source of the material, then there are benefits in that there is very little energy loss in transportation. When power is transferred from a central power station to various sources of use then there is a large amount of waste. A company called AgriPower is to begin production of a small, mobile power generator that can run on a wide range of biomass material; almost anything that can be burned can be used. The machine uses a high-temperature sand bed to vaporise material within a few seconds, and can produce up to 300 kilowatts of power, or simply provide heat for heating systems. CEO, Barry Berman, said, "If you are producing any waste stream and you are paying someone to bring it to a landfill, you gotta be nuts. It can be brought to remote areas and be brought to where the fuel is located. A rather significant problem in biomass is gathering it and bringing it to a furnace to burn it." The unit has been tested in various US states, as well as in Sqitzerland, where it passed all pollution tests. ::News.com See also ::Energy Plant to Use Poultry Biomass for Fuel ::Hybrid Grass Could Become Biomass Fuel...

It looks a bit like a Japanese shoji screen; shoji literally means "everything and nothing," a definition that could also apply to this translucent panel. Kalwall is a sandwich of fiberglass-reinforced polyester with a filling of filled with Nanogel, Cabot's brand of " a hydrophobic aerogel consisting of approximately 95% air, in nano-sized pores that inhibit heat transfer through the aerogel material." It has a terrific insulation value of R20 (better than most codes require for a solid wall) wall while allowing 20% of the light through. Kalwall has been making translucent walls and skylight systems since 1955 but the nanogel system is more attractive because of its higher R value. Says Bruce Keller, Kalwall's marketing vice president: "Nanogel is a giant step in technology for us. It's the magic insulation material." As we move towards net zero energy building, perhaps we will see more of this. ::Kalwall via ::Materialicious ...

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times We've seen a Murphy bed that folds up into a table and a house in a suitcase before, but this bed/fold-down desk/closet is a pretty neat combo platter of functionality, too. Custom-built by homeowner Ben Schneider's architect friends at NRML (aka Normal Projects), it's a great way to get some storage, sleeping arrangements and workspace crammed into Schneider's 450 square-foot Upper West Side studio apartment. Without much work, the space transforms from living room to bedroom to home office; by leaving the door to his Murphy bed open, rather than sliding it into its pocket, it becomes a wall, allowing Schneider to offer privacy to overnight guests. We're always glad to see folks doing more with less, and it's a great example of how to create maximum functionality with a minimum of space, resources and cash. Hit the jump to see the studio in its different incarnations. ::Normal Projects via ::NY Times and ::MoCo Loco...

A UK firm has developed a bulb that is more than 3 times as efficient as CFL bulbs and will burn brightly for decades. They claim that it will burn for so long that the building or appliance that contains it will wear out before the bulb does. The traditional light bulb remained the way it is for so long because there wasn’t enough of an incentive to change. No one bothered to develop newer, more efficient designs because they were so cheap to produce. They waste 95% of energy and don’t last long. That is changing now with CFL bulbs, because the green movement is providing an incentive to change. Now they are becoming even more advanced. The Economist is reporting that a team of researchers has developed a bulb that lasts, for all intents and purposes, forever. It’s also far more efficient, converting more energy to light rather than heat....

I was excited to snap up the first Ontario strawberries in the farmer's market last week. I just cleaned them and left them in a bowl so that anyone walking by could pop one or two into their mouth. That's great when the berries are perfectly ripe and sweet, but I brought some home from my local grocery store the other day which were a little harder and a little more tart than I like. I decided to give this recipe for Strawberry and Spinach Salad a try. The salad dressing softened the strawberries a bit and it turned out to be a tasty dish and quite refreshing after a hot day. I didn't have any spinach on hand so I used baby greens, which worked perfectly. I also used fresh raspberries in the dressing rather than frozen raspberry concentrate and toasted pine nuts rather than the almonds that the recipe calls for. I don't worry about substitutions; sometimes you just want to get on with it rather than running out to the market for that one ingredient that isn't in your pantry. This recipe is taken from Ultimate Foods for Ultimate Health by Liz Pearson and Mairlyn Smith....

Many people now are obsessed with cleanliness, possibly to a fault; some use antibiotic cleansers full of gender bender chemicals John discussed earlier; others agree with commenter Rob on our post on Triclosan:

Too much of a sterile environment is a bad thing. People need background innoculation from natural sources, and they get that from ordinary, unnoticed background dirt.

View MicroPollWeb SurveyFree Web Polls

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After becoming frustrated with the expense and poor design of store bought doll house kits, Julie Morringello began designing and building furniture at age 11. Since then, she has studied both Industrial and Furniture Design at the Rhode Island School of Design and started a design studio an island on the Maine coast, where she designs furniture, lighting and accessories. One of her designs that we like a lot is NuNu (pictured above), a table lamp that features interchangeable printed lampshades. Says Moringello, "NuNu’s design represents an across the board attempt to do the most with the least. Its interchangeable diffusers are a simple yet fun way of increasing value for the consumer. The diffuser material itself creates a warm, rich, and surprisingly bright light which is enhanced by the hand-printed pattern. From a production viewpoint, the overall design offers an opportunity to incorporate standardization and customization within the same product." Made from leftover scrap wood and recycled PET plastic sheets, we really like how its simple structure and minimal use of materials makes it easy and inexpensive to manufacture (or even DIY) while allowing for significant levels of customization and multiple looks from the same piece -- just don't forget to drop a CFL in there. Hit the jump to see some of the alternate shades that Morringello has designed. ::Julie Morringello ...

great licence plate seen in Toronto last night They have changed the smart car for the American market and not everyone is thrilled, since that will be the standard in Canada as well. A commenter in a recent post wondered about the fuel efficiency of the new version so we had a look to see what the changes were. -it is going to be a bit heavier; the original had plastic body panels around the safety cell; the new version will have steel doors. -it is over seven inches longer and almost two inches wider. One reviewer said that the extra width and wheelbase improve the handling significantly, and the "cabin is now more roomy, even for two six-footers. Indeed, the cabin has improved greatly." - the 45 HP 800cc three cylinder diesel is being replaced with a 61 HP to 84 HP turbocharged gasoline engine, which does not make biodiesel fans happy. However it does still get over sixty miles to the gallon. -the instrumentation is being changed for greater crash safety. ...

With talk of a 40% drop in costs for solar power, we can all expect a huge upsurge in interest in companies developing or installing solar energy systems. One of these will no doubt be SolarCity. We’ve mentioned SolarCity before regarding their collaboration with Tesla Motors (Elon Musk, the chairman of Tesla, is also the chairman and pirincipal financer of SolarCity), but we are yet to do a specific post on this innovative company. Based in California, the company describes itself as “the leading provider of solar energy systems that deliver reliable power to homes and businesses.” Aside from the company’s work in installing solar power for commercial, residential and government clients, they have also developed a forward-thinking program of community-wide solar installations. Under the Collective Power Program, SolarCity encourages residents to come together to collectively purchase installations, so they can benefit from special pricing while SolarCity can take advantage of a high density of installations in one area. Of course, the environment also benefits, because home owners who may not otherwise consider solar are encouraged by their neighbors to take the plunge, often with dramatic results: ...

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We've taken note of Wal-Mart's plan to sell 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs by the end of this year, and its partnership with manufacturers to lower the mercury content in the energy-efficient bulbs. This week, the company announced yet another initiative related to the swirly bulbs: tomorrow, Wal-Mart stores, Supercenters and Sam's Clubs in California, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Tulsa, Oklahoma will hold a fluorescent light bulb recycling day. Consumers can drop off either CFLs or fluorescent tube bulbs from 8 to 4 at kiosks outside the stores. Wal-Mart is hosting the free bulb take-back with Waste Management’s WM LampTracker, Inc. This event, and Wal-Mart's other sustainability initiatives, continue to win praise from sustainable business advocates (though, in fairness, groups like Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up, Wal-Mart have labeled them distractions). In response to the announcement of the take-back event, friend of Treehugger Joel Makower told the Twin Cities' Pioneer Press "This is one part of a larger effort Wal-Mart's been undertaking to show some green leadership, and they have an uncanny knack for green initiatives that really help build sales where they can really combine doing well with doing good."...

San Francisco artist Marque Cornblatt and his jumpsuit-clad co-conspirators have created a Youtubular version of your typical HGTV decorating makeover show called Gomi Style, the name he gives to "a growing do-it-yourself movement in this country where people are taking found and discarded items and re-imagining their uses in new and interesting ways." Attributing it to William Gibson, he says "Gomi is a Japanese word meaning dust or garbage but is has become a popular slang word for anything that we throw away" and "its so much more than dumpster diving." It is the perfect takeoff of the typical show, doing a Gomi-style makeover, "San Francisco artists working outside the box." Ten minutes of great fun, give these guys a contract. :: Marque Cornblatt via ::cribcandy...

Television producers are always trying to tap the mood of their audience. More viewers means more revenue, whether as a commercial advertising driven medium, or a public broadcaster competing for tax payer dollars. So it is pleasing to see TV is reading the tea leaves and seeing a green future. In the past we noted such so called reality television shows as Ecotopia, Easy Being Green, ‘The Green Apprentice’, and even Wife Swap! Australia has, this year, entered the fray in a big way. In the state of Queensland, the building housing Big Brother inmates had a green makeover from photovoltaic, herb gardens, grey water, right down to recycled content furniture. Then we had the SBS EcoHouse Challenge, which pitted two West Australian families against the issues of energy, waste, water and transport. This TreeHugger found the format bit jumpy due to the volume of information they tried to impart is such a short timeframe. But must be an old fuddy duddy, because it had a friend’s eight and eleven year daughters glued to the tube, turning to their father, exclaiming, “That was cool. Can we do that, too, Dad? Seems to have been a ratings success too, as a second season is in the planning, with willing families invited to express their interest. Next cab off the ranks is our ABC’s Carbon Cops, coming Tuesday 26 June 07. The format of the six part series seems strikingly similar to EcoHouse: “Each episode will feature one household that will have their home's structure, appliances, vehicles and habits assessed for energy efficiency. They will then be challenged to make physical and lifestyle changes to significantly reduce their energy use.” Apparently in the first episode, the daughter of the family (Mmmm, do we detect a theme? Could women be the planet’s secret solution?) wants to take her kin from a 60 tonne family to a zero carbon one!::Carbon Cops....

In the USA, 80% of the federal government's transportation budget is spent on roads. In Seattle, where the once thriving streetcar system was paved over, the current transit system is mediocre. "It's the single biggest problem we face," said Steve Nicholas, the city's director of sustainability. "We can implement all these punitive measures to discourage people from driving to work, but unless we offer them reasonable alternatives to get there, it's not going to work" ::Globe and Mail In Ontario, Canada, the provincial government has realized that if it is going to meet its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and close its coal fired power plants, it has to get cars off the road and ensure that the ones remaining are more efficient. It has just promised a whopping 17 billion dollars for transit, and is funding the entire Toronto streetcar plan, formerly an unfunded pie in the sky. Premier McGuinty is shutting up the automakers by tossing them $650 million to invest in technologies to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions. Cities like Seattle and Toronto can't do it on their own, the higher levels of government have all the money and make the rules. As Toronto Mayor Miller said about McGuinty's new commitment to transit: "It's extraordinary.I can't think of any better news for Torontonians." ::Globe and Mail...

Bonnie overviewed the RCA final projects earlier; here is one that caught our eye. Michiko Nitta's graduation project at the Royal College of Art asks "What is eco-friendly living? When we live in a period where the worst climate disaster is about to happen, how can we live the ultimate green lifestyle?" She proposes "a community of people called “Extreme Green Guerillas” (E.G.G.). Whilst going to extreme lengths to protect the environment, they try to enjoy a decadent quality of life by utilizing urban waste and biosystem. This consists of embracing emerging technology to develop the ultimate green solution." With three main parts. ...

Traditionally, art colleges have shows for graduate students to display final year projects. Often these are wild and wacky, and a chance to see the seeds of ideas that may grow into something big later on. The Royal College of Art is the pre-eminent art school and this year they had a huge tent full of visionary thinking. We start with a bona fide treehugger (pictured) whose aim is to encourage people to engage with trees. His project stems from this fascination with them and the fact that one can hear the sound of water inside the trunk, as it is being pulled up from the roots to the leaves. He invented a tree listening device, based on the same principle as the stethoscope, and has projected the sound through headphones. FYI, it sounds like a gentle rumble. Inside the tent we discovered a bicycle with folding handlebars--fabulous for storing bicycles in hallways. Another creation was the collapsible bike wheel--also great for storage. Furniture included the weave stool, a stool made out of a single laminated element, and strong enough to sit on. This one could easily make it to the design stores. A bracket chair is simple and minimalist, focusing on its components. And then there is the stitched chair, made of Kevlar, cut out of a pattern, stitched and inflated. ...

People everywhere can agree that trees in a city are a good thing. They up real estate value, create a green lung, provide shade and beauty. But, as we learn today, not all trees are created equal. A recent project on the heavily urbanized Ibn Gvirol street in Tel Aviv has neighbours and store owners in an uproar: The $25 million upgrading project along the strip planned for palm trees and not leafy greens as residents had hoped. According to a story in yesterday’s Haaretz, when the people complained the city told them that palms were chosen because they required little maintenance – they won’t need much pruning and won’t “dirty” the street below with falling foliage. The story reports that the palms had replaced an island that contained flowering bushes. A resident who had lived on the street for 30 years said:

“Israel is a hot country, and its residents need shady, cool green areas. What are those palms going to contribute?"

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Sometime ago we pondered whether Crocs with their simple construction and lightweight might be the Birkys of a new century. Lots of folk were horrified at the notion. A commentor recently let a note saying they had found an alternative, Flat Tire Footwear. While Crocs don’t make any overt claims about being green, these guys do. Their line of shoes, sandals and so on employ crumb rubber salvaged from discarded car and truck tyres. Flat Tire reckon the US generated some 290 million scrap tyres during 2003 and turning them into rubber crumb, such as they use in their footwear, can help reduce this volume by 75 to 90%. As best we can make out the sole itself is not made from the recycled rubber but that it is inserted into the midsole to provide shock absorption. This process is claimed as an industry first, and is said to make the shoes more comfy. We’re not sure how ecologically or socially benign the rest of their production is, but, hey its great that they are doing this much. The longest journey begins with the first step. ::Flat Tire Footwear. ...

The makers of Green Babies, the world's largest selection of certified organic cotton clothes for babies and kids, today announced the launch of their new, made in US wooden toy collection, Earth to Kid. While recent studies have suggested that plastic toys may leech a number of potentially dangerous chemicals including phthalates, which are endocrine disruptors and possible human carcinogens, these wooden toys will be made in the U.S. from non-threatened hardwoods instead. And that means that while your toddler is busy putting them in their mouth for an exploratory taste you won't have to worry about any of these toxins potentially leaching into their developing bodies to undo all the good from that organic baby food you've been feeding them. So far they’ve come out with heirloom quality baby rattles, building blocks, a school bus with removable people, and a train whistle, and there are more toys planned for holiday release. If you’d like to give them a shot while their new website is nearing completion the toys can currently be found at most Whole Foods Markets in Southern California, as well as several others in Austin, Houston, and NYC as well. ...

Modern sheds have become popular in North America as a cheap and legal way to get into modern prefab; most zoning bylaws exempt buildings under a hundred square feet and designers rushed into this void with the likes of ::Modernshed, ::Edward Blazona's designs, ::Deck House and many others. They are great demonstrations of the efficient use of small spaces. Over in the UK they have been building garden sheds for years, have a fabulous blog by Alex Johnson called ::Shedworking that we have been brazenly milking, and a website called ::Readersheds, a National Shed Week starting Monday, June 25 and a Shed of the year competition with nearly seven hundred entries.There are Tardises, modern sheds, a few American entries and a lot of very English traditional ones, but who knew there were so many shedheads. Vote for your favourite shed at ::We Heart Sheds...

Dropping water level is one thing. But when a 100 foot-deep lake (30 metres) with a surface area of 332,000 square feet (101,200 square metres) just up and disappears, park rangers take note. Even if it is in such a remote area it has never been named. The lake, according to The Guardian, was last seen three months ago: Now, dust bunnies are flying around a huge, dry, empty crater (this image is an actual crater - not the former lake).

"In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal. We went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared," Juan José Romero, regional director of Chile's National Forestry Corporation, said this week. "The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure."

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An interesting quote from the Association of British Drivers appears to compare climate change education to, well, something they shouldn't have done. It doesn't seem like a good move; we were under the impression that if you prove Godwin's Law, you instantly lose the argument. ::Auto Blog Green...

The Oil Drum has a thoughtful article on whether energy use makes you happy. There are 6.5 billion people on this planet, and not enough energy to go around. When people discuss peak oil, and the changes that will ensue, it’s assumed that we will need to find new energy sources to replace it. However, the article looks at peak oil ‘from a broader context: the necessity and purpose of continued increases in demand for energy. What is it all for, if not to make us happy?’ The article contains quite a lot of interesting statistics, including a study that compares GNP to the average happiness of countries’ occupants. The basic result is that money, and therefore consumption and products, makes you happier to a point, but after that point does very little. It’s summed up nicely by this quote, “When you buy your 5th car, does that make you anything close to as happy than when you bought your first? (does it really make you happy at all, or is it like opening the fridge at midnight?). Is the 10 million dollar in the bank 10 times better than the first? Do we buy the 50th pair of shoes because we need them, or we need the feeling we get from buying them?”...

Rating electronic vendors on how well they are doing environmentally, their green-wise-ness as it were, is a popular phenom these days. Currently there have been three attempts of note; the EPA took a crack at it with the EPEAT standard, Greenpeace gave a go with their Green Electronics Guide, and now we have yet another, the Climate Counts scorecard which rates vendors (not just electronic vendors, but they are included) on their climate change efforts. A quick site perusal reveals that the scales are not comparable; Samsung rates poorly on the Climate Counts page, yet does well on the EPEAT page, and is somewhere in the middle on the Greenpeace page. One (not just me) might wonder how to interpret the results; here is a short guide on inspecting the inspectors. First, is the rating system inclusive or exclusive? An inclusive system allows every potential vendor to be rated, an exclusive system concentrates on a select set of vendors. Inclusive systems (such as EPEAT) are better because every manufacturer can get rated; if someone starts making LCD monitors in their garage tomorrow they can run through the scorecard and see how they stack up. Exclusive systems (Greenpeace, Climate Counts) focus on just a few companies, usually from a list they create themselves. This brings into question why that particular subset of the industry was chosen, and it is also difficult to change the group as time goes on - what would be the rationale? ...

Who in the name of all that is good and holy are Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey? Well, by all documented accounts they are a "team" (can two people be a team?) of highly energized and deeply focused scientists with more than 67 combined years of experience, including the six months they spent lifting awkwardly sized boxes. Their book, Animals of the Ocean, In Particular the Giant Squid, provides spectacular and innovative insights into the enigmatic creatures of the deep. What exactly are a squid's dating dos and don'ts? Why can't squid watch black-and-white television? And don't tell us that the long-term effects of salt water on musical theater have never haunted your thoughts as you lie awake in your bed at night waiting for the Ambien to kick in? You can discover the answers to these and other delightful morsels of wisdom such as "How Recycling Works in Utah," "The Mid-Atlantic Grey Shark's Guide to Installing Floor Tile," and "What Kind of Music Do Giant Squids Listen to While Traveling by Train." Let's toast these magnificent animals that inhabit our oceans and our imagination. Humans, by contrast, are so tiresome. :: The McSweeney's Store ...

The beat rolls on over at the TreeHugger Forums, with more and more problem solving and green thinking about greening your home, finding the future of personal transportation and much more. To speak out on these and other green topics, get registered (remember, it's free!), log in and start conversing with your fellow greens; read on for some of the highlights...

	1) BobTrips finds this news: "General Motors is determined to 'remove the car from the environment and energy debate' in the next 10 years by doing away with the internal combustion engine altogether", and adds, "Personally I'm questioning the hydrogen/fuel cell approach." Is it the future of green transportation?
	2) Forum user JB starts up where another thread left off, crunching some numbers and doing some math to figure out who wins the battle between heat pump and furnace in terms of cost, energy used and carbon footprint. There's also an interesting mini-thread about power grid dynamics and how different energy sources and different climates affect the math in this heat-source smackdown.
	3) BobTrips is back (he's a busy guy over there!) with a handy discovery: compact fluorescent lightbulbs are available for 36 cents a pop at a retailer near him (and maybe near you, too). Plus, for any CFL shoppers out there, the thread delves in to watts, light color, lumens, and even back to the mercury vapor issue. More good discussion after the jump...

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“Hip to be square” is the tagline that these four-sided, “on the verge of fashion stardom” tees are now known for. At first, we were curious how these fascinating pieces would fit but then decided that they were definitely wearable because of their uniqueness. Designed by SANS, an award-winning young label from New York, it seems all of their clothes are made in an environmentally conscientious manner. What we like is that all of their designs are very basic, yet have a different concept to them as well. These square tees are unisex and limited editions, made especially for Hint Fashion Magazine. They are made from a cotton-soy blend, have a slight stretch, come in three colors and feature little pop-up corners at the shoulders. Looks like we found our perfect tee to throw on for a bike ride or wear to the office on a hot summer day. Via ::Hint Fashion Magazine ::SANS...

It's not uncommon to hear of children or young adults aspiring to become lawyers, doctors or successful entrepreneurs. But "professional sniffers"? A dozen individuals with so-called "professional noses" will be assisting local authorities in South China in their fight against pollution by sniffing out noxious chemicals in the air. The China Daily reported on Wednesday that a team employed by an environmental monitoring station in Guangzhou city will be using its own "scent-based" approach to detect gases released by chemical and rubber factories, rubbish dumps and sewers in the region. In fact, the team is set to receive official certificates that will allow them to do the job for three years. Why such a short duration? Apparently their sense of smell will have diminished sufficiently by then to invalidate their contributions. ...

A team of scientists led by James Dumesic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has discovered a way (subscription needed) to turn the sugar commonly found in fruits like apples and oranges into a biofuel with 40% greater energy density than ethanol. This two-stage process, which essentially converts the sugars (fructose and sucrose) into 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), consists of a series of steps involving acid and copper catalysts, salt and butanol as a solvent. We have already discussed the merits and downsides to using ethanol, particularly corn-based ethanol, as a viable source of renewable energy at length several times in the past (most recently here). The low cost efficiency and very real possibility of precipitating unwanted secondary effects make the reliable, long-term use of ethanol more suspect at this point. But can using biomass-derived sugars solve our current and future energy needs more effectively? ...

By some estimates, between 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed world-wide every year; Americans are responsible for around 100 billion of those -- that's a lot. Towns like Modbury in the UK, cities like San Francisco in the US and stores like IKEA are all trying to do something about it, by banning them. We've also caught wind of the possibility of things like "Pay as You Throw" schemes, that charge people for garbage service based on how much they throw away. In Seoul, South Korea, such a scheme is already in place; upon arrival there, designer Emil Goh decided to come up with a scheme to reduce waste and plastic bags on his own. According to Goh, the "local council issued garbage bags of varying sizes are available from convenience stores everywhere. In Seoul, you have to pay for your plastic grocery bags at the supermarket and some corner shops, so thought I might suggest that instead of getting one of those...buy a garbage bag and use it as a grocery bag temporarily." The bags even come with instructions, which hopefully encourages consumers to not only use each bag for both purposes, but to think about all the stuff they bring home and all the stuff they throw out with each bag. The bag was designed as a limited edition print for SSamzie Gallery’s Think Green (site in Korean) exhibition, but the idea is good enough that we hope it catches on; make it from bioplastic and you've got yourself a green revolution in the making. ::Theme Magazine via ::MoCo Loco...

John previously noted that the triclosan in antibacterial soaps and cleaners was a gender bender that was disrupting the natural grown of frogs and was found in 55% of the rivers and streams in America, and provided a long and surprising list of products that included triclosan. (Its in toothpaste!) Now we learn from Scientific American that it does more harm than good. It appears that after, say, spraying a counter with an antibiotic cleaner, some chemicals linger and continue to kill bacteria but don't get all of them. The ones that survive develop a tolerance: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" Soon we have populations of antibiotic resistant bacteria. "What is this stuff doing in households when we have soaps?" asks molecular biologist John Gustafson of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. These substances really belong in hospitals and clinics, not in the homes of healthy people." ::Scientific American We reprint John's partial list of products to avoid below the fold. ...

We love the idea mobile housing, if not the execution; here is one that presses almost all our green buttons. It's a straw bale double-wide mobile home, built by Richard and Carol Atkinson of East Yorkshire in the UK. Like most mobile homes, it's not going anywhere; they couldn't get planning permission to build permanently so they put it on a double chassis. With the exception of the steel chassis, everything is renewable or recyclable, (list below the fold) including sheeps wool insulation, hemp and marmoleum. The builders note that "The construction of the average UK home produces 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide but the construction of a straw house produces only a fraction of that. Transportation over long distances increases carbon dioxide emissions. During the construction of the Straw Bale Cabin we tried to use local materials and services as much as possible. " It is also off grid with wind turbine, photovolataics and solar hot water. And you can stay in it- " the perfect escape to the countryside; peaceful, relaxing and environmentally friendly." (only 150 pounds for the entire weekend); they will pick you up at the nearby train station. ...

Hey green fingers, how green does your garden really grow? If you suspect that your pastoral idyll is breeding more toxic chemicals than prize hybrid-tea-rose bushes, then read on, my earth-moving friend. We'll have you footloose and pesticide-free yet, whether you're an intrepid landscape designer earnestly shaping topiaries to reenact the Fall of Troy or an apartment dweller content with a couple of potted begonias. The only question you need to ask yourself: Can you dig it?

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TreeHugger is always saying how green it is to reuse something to give it a second life, or reclaim a material previously used for one purpose, and use it for another. Brooklyn designer Eric Manigian thinks the same way; combining modern, minimalist design and heirloom-quality hand craftsmanship with wood sourced by reclamation or other recycled method. Built with longevity in mind, according to Manigian, his "furniture is made from hand-selected wood from small millers who receive fallen, diseased, or discarded trees. In this way, we can give new life and meaning to the tree in the form of furniture." His work includes just about everything TreeHugger likes to see in furniture: sustainably-sourced wood; versatile, clean shapes; and craftsmanship that might allow the wood to last longer as a table than it did in its previous life as a tree. More examples of his thoughtful work, which consists mostly of tables, is after the jump; he's also happy to chat about custom work. ::Eric Manigian...

Time does fly, and if you've put off thinking about making a video for MSN and Treehugger's "Green Theatre" contest, it's time to stop procrastinating: the entry deadline is this Saturday! Don't let the chance to win tickets, travel, lodging and spending money for July 7's Live Earth concerts pass you by -- it's really easy to make a 1-2 minute video portraying the actions you're taking to reduce your own greenhouse gas emissions. And if the pressure of a deadline gives you videographer's block, just take a look at the entries from our Convenient Truths contest... they're sure to get the ideas flowing again. Got a bit of a self-reliant streak in you? Love to experiment in the workshop? Perhaps a do-it-yourself project aimed at reducing your energy use and carbon footprint is the thing for you. If that's the case, we've got you covered....

There is a prize for everything, so we should not be surprised that all the ad execs get to toodle off to Cannes for the Cannes Lions Outdoor Grand Prix, to chose the world's best billboard. First prize went to this solar powered billboard for NedBank in South Africa- The "power to the people" campaign literally does just that. According to AdAge, What ultimately swayed the jury in the favor of the NedBank "Power to the People" work was that the solar power being collected by the billboard was helping to power several community buildings, including a schoolhouse. That the work made a difference in the community made all the difference to the jury. At a time when it is so common to have short-term promotions, that the "work that continues to work and continues providing" was key, said jury chair Jean-Remy Von Matt, founder-chairman, Jung Von Matt, Hamburg. ::Adme.ru...

Plastic shopping bags are a scourge on the environment. What to do with all those plastic bags that seem to be just hanging around everywhere. One idea that seems to be a hit amongst the DIY and creative arty crowd is to fuse various plastic bags together and make fabric out of them. The basic process is to iron the plastic bags, with a sheet of baking paper between iron and plastic, until two or more sheets fuse together. Sound easy - well in theory it is, but it takes a little practice to get the timing and heat just right. Once you have it down, you can start experimenting with colours and patterns, using the plastic bag labels as decoration. And then you cut, sew, glue or whatever the plastic fabric together to make all manner of things. Such as this plastic bag wallet at Vestal Design, and Karin Carter's SLiK Nonwovens: Textiles made from recycled plastic bags. We at TreeHugger love to see new uses for all this rubbish, check out previous posts on making cool things from plastic bags such as Anna Roebuck's designs, plastic bags into chairs, plastic jewellery, or try crocheting plastic bags....

Working under the label of Electronic Crafts, designer Mouna Andraos has been hard at work researching alternative, novel and sustainable ways to design electronic artifacts. This is no small task, as we've seen just a few of the implications and examples of lead-laden, toxic-heavy electronics and the nasty waste they create (along with a few green electronics ideas to help combat this). One result of her work is "Bright Nights", night lights that are a funky mix of electronics nerdery and DIY ingenuity, with a little solar and LED fun thrown in for good measure. Andraos recognizes that the electronic manufacturing process is currently a highly polluting process and, although there are some large scale efforts to address this issue (with things like new RoHS legislations), she thinks lots of work still needs to be done to improve this. As such, Night Brights are translucent light boxes where the electronic components are fully visible and part of the aesthetic of the pieces: instead of hiding the electronics behind a black box, they become an inherent part of the object in a hope to familiarize the end consumer with how these objects are made and what goes into them. After the jump: another pic of the project lighting up the night, along with where solar and LEDs fit in....

Fathom Five National Park in Tobermory, Ontario is under water and accessible only to glass bottomed boats and scuba divers with very thick neoprene suits- this ain't Ras Mohammed., so a very small proportion of visitors actually see the park. However it is a beautiful spot and the start of the Bruce Trail and a big tourist attraction. The new Fathom Five Visitor Centre provides an overview of the park's natural history but also is a "showcase of sustainable design strategies and environmental stewardship." ...

A year ago we reported on Fair Deal sports balls, available in the UK, that were made under a Fair Trade scheme from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified latex rubber bladders. Maybe you missed the later comments that pointed to Fair Trade Sports who sold such goods in the US and Etiko in Australia and New Zealand. So if you’ve ever wrinkled a brow, wondering if your purchase of a sports ball was depriving a child of their education, now you know where to head next time a ball fetish comes over you. Soccer, Rugby, Australian Rules, Netball, Volleyball and Futsal are all available. No mention of Gridiron (as we know it outside of North America) though. Workers share in the 20% premium paid for their handmade sports balls. This is dispensed via community clinics, healthcare insurance and micro-credit loans. The Fair Trade Sports site has stories of workers getting access to funds that provided for thyroid operations, the start-up of a tea shop, purchase of a cow, and of crop irrigation systems. Wages are generally 50% higher under the Fair Trade conditions, allowing for adult workers to support their families, without resorting to sending their kids off to work, allowing them time to attend school instead. Thus it is befitting that Fair Trade Sports’ tagline is simply: ‘Respect.' Plus they forward after tax profits to children's charities. Etiko also have downloadable education kits for helping western schoolkids understand where their recreation goods come from. ::Fair Trade Sports and ::Etiko Sports. ...

TreeHugger is a huge fan of Paul Hawken. We’ve interviewed him on TreeHugger Radio here, we’ve been honored to have him as a judge on our Convenient Truths video contest, and we’ve been gushing in our praise of his book Natural Capitalism. This TreeHugger has just finished reading Hawken’s latest offering, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being, and How No One Saw it Coming. A full review will have to wait till a later date, but suffice to say, the book is awesome. Hawken thoughtfully and meticulously describes the origins of the environmental and social justice movements, arguing that they are converging into one, global, leaderless movement that looks set to transform the way we do business, the way we treat each other and the planet, and, ultimately, our entire values system. Hawken argues that there are so many non-profits, foundations, individuals and businesses that are working on separate, but related, aspects of environmental and social sustainability that combined, they make up the largest social movement in history. Hawken is no naïve dreamer though. He recognizes the huge challenges facing us, the vast array of ideological and tactical differences within the movement, and the fact that, ultimately, its disparate nature may make it ineffectual in influencing the centralized powerful forces of big business and government. The solution, however, is not necessarily a more uniform movement, or stronger leader. Hawken argues that the most powerful way to increase these groups’ effectiveness is to improve and increase their networking capabilities. To this end, he and his colleagues at the Natural Capital Institute have created WISER Earth, an “open source, community-editable international directory and networking forum that maps, links and empowers the largest movement in the world – the hundreds of thousands of organizations within civil society that address social justice, poverty, and the environment.” It’s essentially a kind of Wikipedia of green and social justice groups: ...

Talk about food miles; in Iqaluit, everything is flown in or canned. The town runs on diesel fuel and Nunavut is the largest emmitter of greenhouse gases per capita in Canada, possibly the world. The vegetables are old and tired by the time they get there. Now the town of 7,000 has a community greenhouse and citizens are setting up boxes to grow vegetables. "It's kind of hard to imagine right now," says Mr. Lamb, the group's president, "but we hope by the end of the season, and our first harvest party, people will think it's kind of a neat thing." It sounds like a greenhouse on Mars. According to Sara Minogue in the Globe and Mail, The biggest challenge is moderating Iqaluit's extremes of hot and cold, and light and dark. To keep his plants alive during the brief but cold summer nights, he's set up a passive solar system. That is, about 20 plastic garbage cans filled with water. In the daytime, the water heats up, and in the evening, the heat dissipates to warm nearby plants. Later on, he hopes to install a curtain system, to block out sunlight for part of the day. ::Globe and Mail...

One in the morning and two at night--those are the free newspapers that Londoner's get handed every day on the streets and en route to the Tube. And then there are the ones that people buy. You can just imagine what the trains look like by 7 p.m. It's a nightmare for environmentalists or anyone who has to sit amongst them for the rest of the evening. Project Freesheet is a web-based campaign about the waste and the need for recycling. It's a visual petition: they are encouraging the public to send in photos of the abandoned newspapers and hope to hit 1.5 M images. They want to see the producers pay for the clean-up because an extra four tons of waste is being generated every week day by the free papers. To publicise their cause, Project Freesheet enthusiasts collected 1,500 papers left by London Underground passengers on one day. They displayed their mountain of papers in Trafalgar Square before sending them off for recycling. They have some good ideas: "why not rent the vans and drivers used for newspaper delivery to Project Freesheet over night to do collections from strategically located disposal points e.g. tube stations and bus terminals, plus other recycling bins on key streets? If we establish an agreement with a recycling plant to take the papers we collect, we will be able to sell the paper back to the reclaimed paper purchasers." It is this kind of thinking out of the box that is going to solve problems by changing the way people act. :: project freesheet...

Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times The day after the students move out, the Freegan hordes descend on the dumpsters of NYU to pick up free loot: televisions, paintings, half-fulled jars of detergent, even a working iPod. According to the New York Times: "Freegans are scavengers of the developed world, living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from what they see as out-of-control consumerism. They forage through supermarket trash and eat the slightly bruised produce or just-expired canned goods that are routinely thrown out, and negotiate gifts of surplus food from sympathetic stores and restaurants." ...

I must confess that I am more than a tiny bit skeptical, but schools in Lodi, California have decided to embrace the concept beginning in August. It's part of a plan to get kids thinking about healthier, natural choices, and actually getting them to make those choices when it comes to lunchtime. I certainly don't mind admitting that the snack line in my district is quite well attended, and that I'm not quite sure how my 8th graders would receive a salad bar at lunch either. But what if it included some of the ingredients grown in the schools own garden? I’ve read about plenty of schools that have their own organic, community gardens, and I'd be willing to bet that students who grew the stuff would be more willing to try it for lunch than if it just showed up at the salad bar on a Tuesday afternoon. Of course, the real elephant in the room on this issue is the level of hygiene both in and around the salad bar itself. I’ll give you an example that I think illustrates just how big an issue this really works out to be in schools… I recently gave an assignment to my 8th graders that asked them to read a brief article about how seals choose their mates, and then asked them to compare that process with how humans choose theirs in a one-page essay. What I expected was an analysis of how both groups went about the process, including things like flirting, dating, etc… But what I got, however, was an extensive list of the things my 8th graders considered to be most important in a potential mate. And while I instinctually expected that they would put physical appearance, social status, personality, and financial resources at the top of their lists, I was stunned to see that the number one issue for both males and females across every class I have was, in fact, good hygiene. It seems to me that if middle school students put good hygiene before everything else at a time when they are obsessed with the opposite sex, the actual level of hygiene is probably far more of a problem than even I might now expect. Hopefully the sneeze-guards in Lodi will be augmented with constant and vigilant adult supervision, enabling students to benefit from an otherwise terrific idea that could, in fact, gently nudge them to make healthier choices for both themselves and the environment. via:: Lodi News-Sentinel...

It's like the Veggiemobile, only instead of delivering to people living far from fresh vegetables, the Treats Truck delivers mini Caramel Creme Sandwich cookies, chocolate chip brownies, oatmeal jammies and classic crispy squares to the benighted citizens of Manhattan and Brooklyn who don't have access to a first class patisserie, horror of horrors. Kim Ima and her team have a fixed bakery in Red Hook and then travel about in their CNG (compressed natural gas) powered truck named Sugar. CNG "is one of the most environmentally friendly fuels available" although still a big source of CO2, it is a lot cleaner than gas or diesel. It is an interesting concept. In a city like New York, most people can walk to a bakery. But if you are a baker and don't want to just serve a local market, you need expensive real estate, a number of stores and lots of capital. Does making it mobile use less fuel and fewer resources than being fixed? Is it better or worse for cities and the environment? ::The Treats Truck via ::trendcentral...

Okay, so billboards are often first grade visual pollution. But they aren’t going away tomorrow. And some bright sparks have taken to towing them around town on the back of trucks or on trailers behind extra polluting two stroke engine motorbikes. No only are these versions both visually and olfactorally stinky, but the mobile ones contribute a whole heap more CO2 emissions than an advert sitting quietly still on a highway or railway verge. If we are going to have billboards galavanting around our cities shouldn’t they be emission-free? Team Cycad believe so. They arrange to have teams of four athletic cyclists towing little billboard trailers, complete with the latest in “anti-cross wind technology’ ! Additionally they figure the sight of pedal bikers helps promoting city cycling and general health, not to mention ad campaigns can also traverse bike paths, as well as parks and gardens. An Australian inspired idea, but as the New York based campaign in the lower pic indicates, one with global reach. ::Team Cycad, via tip from Marcus B. ...

When looking for signs of the end of the world as we know it, one indicator might be the proliferation of useless devices that consume resources and energy for no apparent purpose. Perhaps the most egregious is this automatic paper towel dispenser: take a marginally useful product like paper towels (what's wrong with reusable towels?) and stick it in a battery powered machine that, when you wave your hand in front, rotates so that you can rip off a paper towel with one hand. The power of technology boggles the mind, as does the 41 second video....

The Wired Livinghome by Ray Kappe

I'm not really sure what Green architecture would look like, but every fibre of me rejects the cool, antiseptic style of so much Modernist "eco architecture". A true Green building, to me, is gentle, soft, traditional, rich in decoration and personality, joyously ad hoc and improvised, skilfully built, embodying the wisdom of the ages."

so said commenter Pete about a recent post on modern design. Do you agree?

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Many design variations are possible for the solar-LED lighting of transit signs and shelters. Pictured above is a London transit station sign. Below the fold is a preliminary design for a solar-LED illuminated Seattle WA, USA bus stop and also an implementation of a similar bus stop design in London. All are from Carmanah. But we digress from the larger point, which is where we got wind of Carmanah. Check out this huge Directory of Renewable and Alternative Energy stocks. Amazing that so very many publicly traded firms are considered in that category. Several of those listed will be familiar to regular TreeHugger readers; but, there are hundreds more we've never heard of. We could post on one a day and not hit bottom for months. Question is, would our readers be interested?...

'Carbohydrates not hydrocarbons' is the secret nature quietly whispers in our ears when we look around and find all of life uses carbohydrates, starting with plants turning sunlight into sugar. Diversa and Celunol have heard the whispers, and yesterday announced the completion of their merger forming the new company Verenium. Verenium has tasked itself with bringing life's solutions to human industry. Their portfolio of enzyme, protein, and genetic sciences place this company firmly in the field of biology, while their potential products of fuels, plastics, and industrial goods points out the future of human technology - looking to nature for sustainable solutions.

Verenium’s mission is to apply these technological capabilities to achieve industrial sustainability -- meeting the common needs of modern life from carbohydrates (the energy flows that are produced and stored in living biomass) rather than hydrocarbons (fossilized energy stocks that have been stored for countless millennia in the earth’s crust). Verenium’s innovative approach promises dramatic reductions in the carbon footprint of fuels production and other common industrial processes.

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Scotts Miracle-Gro, the stodgy, 139-year old lawn chemicals company that has annual revenues of $2.7 billion and an approximate 59% share in the plant food market, has decided it needs to place a lawsuit against TerraCycle, a three-year old, $1.5-million start-up that is not even profitable. Cited reasons include that TerraCycle's packaging is too similar and that TerraCycle is falsely claiming that its products are superior to its competitors, including Scotts. Congress is considering moving funding from Big Oil to alternative energy. Right now, one of the ways Big Oil builds on its record profits is to enjoy billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies from the U.S. government. However, with gas prices rising, and the summer rally finally underway with crude oil prices, some on Capitol Hill feel that the free ride for Big Oil has gone on long enough. Unilever, the Dutch conglomerate owner of Ben and Jerry's, has been a value (and disappointing stock) lately. Recently the stock has been moving up with the rest of Europe, causing us to revisit the exit points for our positions. With Unilever, this means a price above a p/e of 22 and where the Euro is about as high as it will probably go for the next year or so. We feel comfortable profiting from this stock because, even though Ben and Jerry is now owned by a big European Corporation instead of furry Vermonters, the company hasn't lost touch with their peacenik roots....

While granting constitutional rights to trees, rivers and mountains may seem like a strange proposition to some, it makes perfect sense to Thomas Linzey, the executive director of the Community Environmental Defense Fund based in Chambersburg, PA. Linzey and his organization are working with municipalities across the country to gain legal standing for ecosystems by helping them draft ordinances to enforce their own regulations. Since beginning his foray into Pennsylvania, he has already managed to help four towns enact legislation granting rights to the environment. This task may become more difficult in the face of federal and state authorities who argue that townships do not have the authority to wrest enforcement control....

Tanzania will soon become the first African member of the Global Bio-Energy Partnership (GBEP), a partnership of nations whose purpose it is to promote the use and production of bioenergy, with a particular emphasis on underdeveloped countries. The organization currently includes 10 member-states, including Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United States, and several international institutions, such as the U.N. Foundation, FAO, UNEP and the World Council for Renewable Energy. Some of GBEP's specific aims include facilitating an international policy dialogue on biofuels, helping to integrate bioenergy into domestic markets by tackling supply chain problems and prompting the exchange of knowledge and skills between member-states through multilateral collaborations....

There are hundreds of footprint calculators online, and that means that one can calculate hundreds of different totals. The UK Government has unveiled the calculator to rule them all, which makes use of their recognised data. It’s designed to cut through the confusion often caused when trying to discover a person’s footprint. The site calculates a persons energy use and emissions, but also provides a kind of action plan, a set of ideas on how to reduce that figure. The Environment Secretary, David Miliband, rather cheesily launched the site at an Internet café in London, "there is a lot of confusion about what people can do and how effective those changes actually are," he said, "This carbon calculator will help people decide what they can do, and be sure it will make a difference." Miliband appeared on television in the UK, and claimed that he had used the site to calculate his own footprint, at a rather low 2.76 tonnes. The average figure in the UK is 4 tonnes, so I find this rather hard to believe. "This calculator is a real innovation, using up-to-date, authoritative data and recognised calculation methods. As the calculator improves and develops I want it to become the gold standard for calculating CO2 emissions from individuals and families." ::The Guardian See also ::BP's Carbon Footprint Calculator ::Convenient Truth Contest: Carbon Calculator, ::Slate Green Challenge...

For companies trying to be sustainable and carbon neutral, warehousing and distribution can be difficult. It's fine to make green products, but it is more difficult to find a green way to get them into stores. If you are serious about reducing emissions, and your product doesn't weigh too much, then this human-powered forklift may be a good option. You can move and lift pallets entirely with human power, and get that gas or diesel forklift out of your warehouse. Although, it will only lift 30kg so it clearly isn't a replacement option for all companies. You raise the bed by turning a crank with your hand, and you transport the goods by pedalling with your feet. Quite a lot of forklifts are electric anyway though, so are fairly green to start with. ::Gizmodo See also ::Pedal Power Lights LED Billboard ::Pedal & Power...

Photo credit: Benjamin Chan Oh George, George, George, whatever are we to do with you? The Bush administration wants to cut 1.5 million acres from Northwest forests, previously protected under 1994's Northwest Forest Plan, considered critical to the survival of the northern spotted owl. This will effectively reduce the owl's habitat by 22 percent. The proposal by our old pals the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could reopen the 1990s debate over timber production on federal lands; logging companies had argued that efforts to save the owl—declared a threatened species in 1990—contributed to the Northwest timber industry's decline. If you're wondering why all this fuss now, the proposal is a result of a settlement in a lawsuit brought on by the timber industry. A decision is expected to be made by June 1, 2008. ...

If this latest survey is any indication, corporate executives and policymakers alike have a long way to go before they can convince consumers to jump on their 'green' bandwagons. A staggering 9 out of 10 consumers are skeptical about information propagated by companies and, to a lesser extent, governments concerning new, more environmentally friendly initiatives. Whereas 40% of consumers distrust companies' global warming talk and a further 50% express doubts about their 'green' claims, a strong majority (60%) trust scientists and almost 50% also trust environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. Close to 70% of respondents also said they wanted to see action on climate change though an equal number wanted claims to be scrutinized by independent panels....

Carbon dioxide emissions in China last year was just reported to have surpassed those of the US by 8%. Data released by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency indicate that emissions from China were still 2% below those of the US two years ago, in 2005. In the year 2006 however, China's CO2 emissions from fossil fuels increased by 9%. During the same period in the US, "fossil fuel CO2 emissions decreased by 1.4% compared with 2005 levels. There is no telling what portion of the decrease was due to the transfer of emissions from industrial activities moved to China by US corporations. (The assessment does not cover the global warming potential of other greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide. Also, due to uncertainties the report excludes CO2 from deforestation and the decay of biomass, and flaring of gas and underground coal fires.) Of all industrial processes, cement clinker production [pictured] is the largest source of CO2, the Dutch report says. It contributes about 4% to the world‚s total from fossil fuel use and industrial activity. China has a large share of the global cement production ˜ about 44% in 2006. Nationally cement's share in CO2 emissions is almost 9% of the Chinese total (550 megatons out of a total of about 6,200 megatons of CO2)."...

As Google throws the switch on the country’s largest corporate solar array, the web master is on its way to carbon neutrality by 2008… Greenpeace erects guerrilla ticketing booths at the airport to give away train tickets… Peak oil is just four short years away, warns the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre… Cameron Diaz, William McDonough, and other odd bedfellows can be found in the pages of The Green Book… Wired magazine wires up the mower and tests ten electric rigs for the lawn… 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? ...

Photo credit: Tamra Hays It began as a contest to reduce trash among sixth-grade classrooms in Boston's Mill Pond School, but now kids, parents, and teachers alike are rethinking the role of waste in their lives. In late April, 200 sixth-graders from six classes signed up to compete to produce the least amount of garbage. The winners managed to throw out a mere one-third of what their class previously discarded by recycling and composting the rest. "My hope is a lot of these habits will stick and hopefully last forever," says Brooke Hauser, the science and world geography teacher who came up with "Trim Your Trash" in the first place. "We can all take action and we can all make a difference even if we start small."...

Last week, Sami took a close look at the airline industry and wrote about how they are aiming for zero emissions. In May, Warren covered Nature Air, a little fleet of seven planes that were working on alternative aviation fuels. We of course think this is great news here at TreeHugger but a recent blurb came out in Body + Soul magazine that we found to be, well, interesting. “Did you know? A new study from the Natural Resources Defense Council reports that the United States airline industry throws away enough aluminum cans each year to build 58 new 747s.” So let us get this straight…the airline industry is taking steps to cut their emissions yet at the same time can’t recycle? We've seen them toss our cans in a trash bag as they collected our empty pretzel bags, but thought they'd maybe sort them at the end of the flight. Photo above (Boeing 747) courtesy of ::Boeing Study via ::Body + Soul...

It was intended as an art project by Studio HiMom in the new neighbourhood of Ypenburg in the Netherlands;

Eight products will be placed in front of eight houses. The goal of the project is to stimulate an interaction between neighbours, while pumping up the tyres of their bicycles. The hurdle is made out of polished stainless steel. Because of this, it shines like a jewel on the grey pavement.

Beautiful and functional, it would make a statement where I live and have to carry fifty cents around for the air pumps at gas stations: Air is free. ...

TreeHugger has a pretty soft spot in its modernist, hippie heart for flat-packing furniture; show us something that can be shipped in an (occasionally very large) envelope or slipped under a (really big) door and we start to salivate. Berlin-based Fuchs + Funke have hopped on the bandwagon with their Papton chair that goes from flat panels to functional chair in a couple quick fold & fit moves. The structural, geometric result is a real lightweight, weighing it at just two kilograms (~~a whopping half-pound~~ d'oh! closer to four and a half pounds); hit the jump to see how the chair goes from flat to folded to functional in a flash. ::Fuchs + Funke's Papton chair via ::Core77...

For those looking for symbols of environmental change in China today, there is sadly no shortage. To the top of the pile we can now add a particularly vivid one: a highway to be paved at the top of the world. As Xinhua reported yesterday, China will build a 67-mile "paved highway fenced with undulating guardrails" up to the Mt. Everest base camp, partly in order to accommodate the "green" Olympics' monumental torch run, which China says will reach the 29,035-foot summit of Everest. It's the world's highest mountain in what was until recently one of the world's most remote areas. The 150 million yuan (£10m) project, set to start next week and take about four months to complete, will eventually become part of the new Tibetan tourist experience. The highway is only the latest symbol of China's fast-expanding highway network and an unsustainable (and politically charged) development that is tarnishing some of the country's most valuable cultural and natural sites. For instance, the Qinghai-Tibet railway, completed last summer, has been blamed for threatening both the culture and nature of the Tibetan landscape and for strengthening China's grip over a province that some insist should be independent. "On completion, the highway will become the major route for tourists and mountaineers who are crowding onto Mount Qomolangma, known in the west as Mount Everest, in ever larger numbers," Xinhua wrote. Paved roads, and their construction, is of course harmful to local organic life, air quality, and soil, all of which are especially sensitive in Tibet's fragile environment. And aside from the obvious threats to Tibet's cultural and natural heritage from increasing crowds of tourists (Japanese climber Ken Noguchi has recently returned from his latest clean-up trip on Everest, hauling off 1,100 pounds of trash), climate changes have led to a dramatic melting of the Tibetan glaciers, which feeds the vital Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. Via Xinhua. See also Treehugger's "asphalt" archives, China's Automotive Era Kicked Into High Gear and Responsible Tourism Awards 2007. ...

Farming's a tough gig, even in the best of circumstances. Yesterday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch took a look at the New Roots Urban Farm, a collective organic venture that is tackling not only the challenges of raising organic crops every year, but doing so in an urban neighborhood with higher-than-average rates of poverty and crime. Despite these potential obstacles, Farm founders Trish Grim, Joseph Black and Amy Gerth, along with their collective partners, are finding success in not just raising fruits and vegetables, but also bringing fresh food and educational experiences to a part of the city in need of both. North city's St. Louis Place neighborhood provided fertile soil for the threesome's plan. According to the P-D article,

The neighborhood they chose has little access to fresh fruits and vegetables. On Sunday, Bob's Quality Market on North Florissant Avenue had crates of soda sitting on the produce shelves. Salama Supermarket at 14th Street and Cass Avenue had wrinkled green peppers and wilted iceberg lettuce among handfuls of citrus fruits in an old drink cooler. Two fried-chicken restaurants and a hamburger outlet are the only eateries along North Florissant, the main thoroughfare.

Not exactly the terrain most entrepreneurs would venture into willingly, but with the help of some state grants, Grim, Black and Gerth purchased six city lots and started farming....

BSI, the British Standards Institute, gave first prize in its Sustainability Awards 2007 to Ben Storan for his "afforable personal wind turbine suited to the urban environment." According to the BSI, The result is a unique design which uses vertical, rather than traditional horizontal, rotation. This feature gives a slower rotational speed, which allows the turbine to capture more energy from turbulent air flow, common to urban environments. It also means quieter operation. Speaking of winning the award and £3,000 first prize, Ben says “I’m delighted to win such a prestigious award. Growing up in the windy west of Ireland I’ve always been acutely aware of the huge potential in harnessing such a free, clean and renewable source of energy which, along with a spinning clothes line, gave me the idea in the first place.” ...

Combining our old favorite "less is more" ideal with watching the miracle of photosynthesis from the comfort of your patio, clercdesign's "Graine de pot" goes from carrying a disk home from the store (above at left) to growing pumpkins and other large gourds (or any number of annuals, like at right) in a few quick steps. The pot, which is made of compostable bioplastic, is filled with "compressed and dried soil" and wrapped up in a handy little package. Take it home, give it some water and love, and, before planting, the soil "grows" and expands into a more traditional, pot-like form. Add a seed, give it some sun and maybe talk to it a bit, and out sprouts whatever you've planted. When the annual's term is up, the pot can be added to your compost and you can look forward to doing it again next year. While a biodegradable planter might seem a bit odd, we've seen this kind of thing before; "Graine de pot" is designed to last for nine months (plant in the spring, grow it all summer, enjoy into the fall) before being cycled into the compost bin. Check out clercdesign's site to see the full cycle in 14 quick frames of animation. Happy potting! ::clercdesign's Graine de pot...

Kinda weird, but so is life. We were prepping the post on ‘open source' bike trailers when, from an entirely different source, we happened upon Worldbike, who work in open source bikes for people is developing countries. This international amalgam of bicycle designers and bike industry types has teamed with international development folk, to conjure up “transportation solutions and create income-generating opportunities for the world’s poor.” As they say, “all across the developing world, people use bicycles the way we use pickup trucks and school busses. However, the bicycles sold in developing countries are those designed for recreation and are ill-suited to carrying loads.” Enter stage right the open source gurus. They make available bicycle and accessory blueprints, plus construction photos. See for example the Big Boda pictured above. It’s a bike extension that takes the developing world’s cheapest bicycle, and fashions from it 20-40% more carrying capacity, which helps decrease costs and increase the riders income. The trial production for Kenya found favour “in the transportation of certain goods such as bread and cut flowers, in the transport of school children and in medical field work.” ::Worldbike, via Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum ...

Dilbert is running a clever series this week with Dogbert the Green Consultant dispensing his usual wisdom to Dilbert and the pointy-haired boss. The first in the series is at ::Dilbert.com. Meanwhile the Onion informs us of President Bush's latest announcement: In a nationally televised address reminiscent of President Kennedy's historic 1961 speech pledging to put a man on the moon, President Bush responded to the global warming crisis Monday by calling for the construction of a giant national air conditioner by the year 2015. "The challenge of building an air conditioner for all Americans will be the greatest we have ever faced," Bush said. "But we must face it. We must act now to ensure that our children and our children's children can live in a world where they don't get sweaty and have to change their shirts all the time." ::The Onion ...

The Mongolians had it figured out- take a frame and cover it with an insulated blanket of a skin, and you have maximum enclosure with minimum weight in a comfortable yurt. FAT (Fashion, Architecture, Taste, a London design firm) modernized the idea for accommodation for artists at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, An exposed steel frame is the infrastructure; then "Wrapping around the frame like a winter coat, a soft, quilted sleeve insulates and waterproofs the unit. Like clothing, the pattern and tailoring of the sleeve characterises each unit. Interior tailoring includes pocket-shelves – panels which books/objects can be stored. The construction of the fabric skin and the frame is intended to be ‘loose’, accentuating the feeling of the unit as shelter."...

We love products that support or revive traditional crafts. Check out, for ex ample, the work of Kallari, fair trade suppliers of traditional Amazonian baskets, which we reported on here. Now we’ve come across another cool basket supplier, this time from Cambodia. Saraye sells traditional tatami purses that are crafted from the grasses that grow along the Mekong River Delta. The stalks are selectively cut, hand-dyed and woven into beautiful patterns, before being shaped into purses and rucksacks with a signature curve that is designed to ergonomically fit the shape of your body. Saraye was founded by its parent company Baskets of Cambodia, an organization with a very TreeHugger friendly mission statement:

“Since 1996 we have worked to utilize the enormous talents and dedication of the Cambodian people by introducing new ideas and positive business practices to create exciting new products – traditional and modern. Our goal is to be a positive and dynamic force in the development of Cambodia as well as an innovator of stylish environmentally friendly products worldwide.”

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It is a depressing litany on TreeHugger, the stunning house by Paul Rudolph or another great modernist torn down because the kitchen wasn't big enough or the windows were crappy or it just wasn't big enough to satisfy the need for a closet as big as a bedroom and a bedroom as big as a living room. Our needs have changed but our wants have changed more. So it was wonderful to see at the Twenty+Change exhibition a classic house by a great Toronto modernist renovated and extended rather than the usual blow-it-away and do a monstrous faux chateau. It was originally designed by John B. Parkin, architect of modernist icons like the fabulous Toronto airport (just demolished after forty years of incremental picking away) and Bata Shoe Headquarters (on its way out as the Aga Kahn moves in), working with Mies Van der Rohe on the Toronto Dominion Centre and other great buildings, including a number of terrific houses. ...

If one needs yet another excuse why the oil companies are fighting controls and supporting deniers, here it is: the warmer it gets, the less gas they sell you in a gallon. It seems that in the States a gallon of gas is measured at sixty degrees farenheit; when it is warmer out the gas expands but you still are just buying volume, not energy content, so you are getting less. The warmer it gets, the more you are overcharged, by as much as US$ 1.5 billion per year. “People are paying for gasoline they’re not getting,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich. The industry says it would be too expensive to change all the pumps, yet in Canada, where the average temperature is colder and the customer benefits from getting more gas per unit volume, somehow the oil companies found the money to change to pumps that automatically adjust volumes based on temperature. Funny how that works. ::MSNBC via ::the Oil Drum ...

These British guys make cute bike trailers and I’d thought we’d covered them before but alas No. they do a snappy little fold up trailer perfect for folding bike enthusiasts. But what we’d like to mention as way of introduction to Carry Freedom is their open source bamboo trailer design. Story goes that one their commercial trailers was left in a Himalayan village for a few weeks while its western owner went off jaunting for a few weeks. The villagers loved it but struggled to replicate the design to have something useful for their own needs. Aaron Wieler, a teacher in class on Appropriate Technology Design at Hampshire College joined the party and eventually they arrived at this simple design that be reckon can be crafted with simple tools from locally sourced materials be they titanium (!) or bamboo. Apparently it requires no welding or pipe bending to make but once constructed according to the freely available plans will tow a load up to 250 kg (550 lbs). The design uses a centrally braced hub to tension the frame and is conceived around two salvaged bicycle wheels. To their great credit Carry Freedom also list an array of other DIY bike trailers in case theirs doesn’t suit. This is what Design for the Other 90%, (or as it used to be called: design for the real world), is all about. ::Carry Freedom. via Used HQ....

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There is an interesting discussion in the forum regarding the statement from a post saying many people equate carpooling and mass transit with "a decline in their personal standard of living. The freedom of mobility that comes with the use of a personal automobile is something we are very, very reluctant to give up as individuals.

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Last fall we featured The Learning Barge, a good old-fashioned barge that had gotten a really wild renovation to turn it into an eco-friendly classroom that enables teachers and students to more easily study sections of the Elizabeth River in Virginia. That was due to the fact that the rivers edge had become so crowded by industrial development that it had become virtually impossible for them to even reach it for study, but now it appears that a similar idea is catching on in NYC with a twist... A non-profit group called New York Sun Works has come up with The Science Barge. It’s essentially a floating, traveling, sustainable, urban farm. And that may be a mouthful, but it’s also powered by solar, wind, and biofuels; using both rain and purified riverwater as sources of irrigation for the hydroponically grown crops. The result is crops grown right in the city with no carbon emissions, no water use, and no waste stream at all. The ultimate goal, of course, is to educate the public about the benefits of long-term sustainability, and so far they’re really experiencing success as school groups from all 5 boroughs are coming to visit during the week, and even members of the general public touring on weekends. Quite obviously, giving students the opportunity to get a personal look at some great eco-friendly practices farming practices right in the middle of NYC is a terrific way to help properly educate them for the future... But maybe you’d like to stop by and check it out too? via::PlantTherapy...

Born on June 17, 1907, Charles Eames and partner Ray Eames built their own house as part of the Case Study house program. The house was constructed with "off the shelf" industrial components, using materials and techniques derived from the experiences of the second world war and and best suited to express man's life in the modern world. It and the case study houses were all to be models of the new, modern way to build and way to live. ...

The Eco-Design Fair is a good place to see the latest in local, recycled, and sustainable design. Many of the participants are very small businesses, making the products out of their homes and selling them on a local scale at markets. Bea's Beastlies are soft, hand made eccentric toys for adults, made out of old woolens and cashmere odds and ends. Then they have eyes, buttons and fringes sewn on to give them personality. Summer jewelery is made from recycled chair parts--the bottoms, upholstery and vinyl. The designer cuts them into interesting shapes, digitally prints designs on them and ends up with some very contemporary looking necklaces. Some great looking tee-shirts, of course. For women: new tee-shirts with vintage ties stitched on the shoulders and down the front. And the skirt to complete the look: made of recycled vintage fabrics; short and girlie. For men: organic tee's with "never give up" on the front. Nigel's eco store was there, with Nigel himself doing the sales. He had one sun jar left (got it!) and the world's smallest wind turbine. And for something cozy: a hand-knit alpaca scarf, made with "Farm Yarn" that comes direct from British farms and is spun in a British mill into yarn. :: Eco Design Fair...

They look quite cute, zipping around town, as long as you are not on the receiving end of a parking ticket from the driver. Toronto has been testing two smart cars and two Civic Hybrids, and may adopt them on a large scale. They are already common as police cars in London, where the are ideal for patrolling congested streets. "So far, the response has been very positive," said Mark Pugash, the director of public information for the Toronto Police. "There are jobs we have that officers don't need to go from A to B very quickly." Although Smart Cars are quite common on the streets of Toronto, it is still unusual to see a big policeman climb out of one. The Star describes one officer's driving position: "At 6-foot-4, things get a bit squishy for parking officer Otimoi Oyemu in his division's new Smart car. His knees protrude eight centimetres above the bottom of the steering wheel. He can easily place one hand on the windshield and the other on the back window. And to reach the police radio, Oyemu has to twist his chest into the passenger seat to get around his own leg." The current Smart for Two sold in Canada is being replaced with the new gasoline fuelled, larger and more powerful Americanized model, so perhaps next year he will have a bit more room. ::The Star ...

Boy, howdy, Google’s Greening is sure getting up a head of steam. Their endeavours are coming thick and fast these days. In just the past few weeks alone, we’ve reported on CAD, servers and cars. Now we learn they’ve teamed up with the °Climate Group to help the company reach its target of being carbon neutral by 2008. “Innovation goes to the heart of what Google does,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and Chief Executive of Google. “By investing in new technologies and by working in partnership with others, we can make a meaningful contribution to the environment. This is just a start. We are actively looking for more opportunities to help tackle climate change.” Beyond that sound bite thingy that is obligatory in any self respecting press release, it seems that the Climate Group will find credible carbon offset schemes for Google to invest in, to cover any shortfall that their internal energy efficiency and 50 MWs of renewable energy programs don’t mitigate against. See the media releases from both ::The °Climate Group. and ::Google. Via Red Herring. ...

Ben Jandrell of Gotwind.org recently gave the TreeHugger forums a sneak peak at his newest wind-powered invention, a tent-mounted cell phone charger prototype for the Glastonbury Festival. Commissioned by the UK-based communications company Orange, hence its color, the charger sits atop any dome-based tent providing a 1/2 watt trickle charge to a rechargeable battery (situated inside the tent) all day long. According to Ben, at wind speeds of approximately 12mph for 24 hours, the wind charger could store enough energy to take an average cell phone from empty to fully charged. This makes the charger much more practical than some of the wind-powered chargers we have featured before. Ben's charger should be a huge hit for music festivals like Glastonbury and for anyone who likes to go off-grid with their tech goodies - as it weighs in at just 150 grams sans mounting brackets. Although this was just a prototype for Orange, Ben is hoping to bring a commercial version of his invention at some point, so be on the lookout wind power fans. ::Gotwind.org ...

Southern Australia has been in the grip of serious drought; reservoirs are drying out, and water restrictions are in place. The government has planned a $4 billion project to provide more drinking water, including a huge desalination plant that is expected to be one of the worlds largest. The project is planned to be sited in Wonthaggi, south-east of Melbourne, and the government expect that water bills could double to fund it. This, combined with news from the WWF warning that removing salt from sea water could worsen the problem, makes it a less than popular plan. Desalination is energy intensive and emits a lot of greenhouse gases. The WWF said that Australia, Spain and Saudi Arabia have made significant progress by limiting water use and recycling supplies. However, the water must come from somewhere, and desalination is a convenient solution. Although the energy use if a problematic side effect, one imagines that it would be entirely feasible to power the plant using solar cells. It would raise the cost of an already expensive project, but money must be spent in order to create a sustainable and appropriate infrastructure. ::ENN See also ::Desalination: Now with Half the Energy ::Low Temp Desalination Technology From New Mexico Water Resources ......

What last week was a drag race between Tesla Motors and Lightening Car Company, is now turing into an all out speedway rally with Google getting into the show. We've been covering Google's susty movements for a while with Eric putting their efforts under the green microscope and Jason telling us about Google.org's efforts to cross-polinate ethanol with electric. Today the internet giant announced it is getting in on the development of electric vehicles. RechargeIT is Google's initiative that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology. To further the development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles - cars or trucks that have both a gasoline engine and advanced batteries that recharge by plugging into the nation's electric grid -- Google is awarding $1 million in grants and inviting applicants to bid for another $10 million in funding to develop plug-in hybrid electric vehicles capable of getting 70 to 100 miles per gallon. The project also aims to develop vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, allowing cars to sell their stored power back to the nation's electricity grid during times of peak demand. Video of the Google initiative and more after the jump....

A blend of bio-fuel and traditional jet fuel has been tested in an aircraft engine which is a common model used by Boeing. This is an exciting move because the engine required no modification to use the fuel, and because of the popularity of the model. Over 500 airlines use the CFM56-7B engines, and together they have racked up a total flight time of 50 million hours. If this fuel was to be used across all those aircraft, with the expected reduction in CO2 emissions of 20%, it’s easy to see how enormous the effect would be. The test was performed by CFM International, using 30% vegetable oil methyl ester, and 70% Jet-A1 fuel, the current standard fuel for airliners. “Our goal is to support the industry in identifying replacements for traditional hydrocarbon-based fuels, including synthetic fuels that use a mixture of bio-fuels and jet fuel,” said Pierre Thouraud, vice president of engineering at CFM....

It's no secret that ink printer manufacturers try and make most of their money off the consumables associated with printing. Unlike laser printers, they essentially give away the printer, but then charge a lot of money for the the inkjet cartridges and, to a lesser extent, the paper. Fine, but apparently there is a bit more to the story, as a new study found that more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. This is because most users huck them when their printers tells them they're out of ink. Turns out the infernal gadget is lying - they may still be over half full! The findings come from a study, conducted by TÜV Rheinland and commissioned by Epson, that studied the efficiency of both single and multi-ink cartridges from various vendors. Surprise, surprise - Epson's own R360 posted the best numbers, with only 9 percent of the ink wasted. Kodak's, with its EasyShare 5300 came in as the straggler, wasting over 64 percent of its ink in tests. According to the study, some printers have hundreds of pages worth of ink left when they beep that they are 'dry'. And there's another wrinkle as well. ...

Taking the "less is more" ethos to a bit of an extreme, Thai designer Wiwat Pitakpongsanit's "Dy-rection Line" kitchen is a place to cook, serve, meet, party, eat, and work. The range, oven, sink, table, three stools and extendo-countertop are all encompassed in the smart, space-saving design, which can be neatly "put away" when not in use. Aside from having perhaps the coolest name of any designer we've seen, Pitakpongsanit seems to have a knack for creating remarkable utility and a functional room using precious little space. Hit the jump to see what the kitchen can do, and where everything goes when it's time to clean up; bonus points if you can guess where the stools go before seeing the picture below. via ::Yanko Design ...

The AP lets us in on a few tidbits that Al Gore's PowerPoint presentation apparently failed to include:

Northern homes could save on heating fuel. Rust Belt cities might stop losing snowbirds to the South. Canadian farmers could harvest bumper crops. Greenland may become awash in cod and oil riches. Shippers could count on an Arctic shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific. Forests may expand. Mongolia could see a go-go economy. This is all speculative, even a little facetious, and any gains are not likely to make up for predicted frightening upheavals elsewhere. But still ... might there be a silver lining for the frigid regions of Canada and Russia

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Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and world-renowned anti-poverty crusader, has turned his prodigious attention to an issue dear to many of us in the TreeHugger community: environmental sustainability. Citing figures that project the world's population to reach a staggering nine billion by 2050, with an average output of $20,000 or more, Sachs argues that new technologies are needed to raise living standards while also softening the human impact on the environment That silver bullet: aquaculture, which he claims could support rising consumption of seafood while reducing anthropogenic pressures on oceanic ecosystems. This "Blue Revolution" has come at a critical time because, as he put it:...

It is such a contradiction that individual or States' Rights, so dear to Americans, mean so little when it comes to the environment. First, in the energy bill, certain coal state Reps tried to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from granting the states waivers to put their climate change rules into effect, a challenge to California's more stringent standards for emissions. (they lost that one). Meanwhile, the big farm bill is going through Congress and supporters of genetically modified foods have slipped in a provision that bars state or local governments from banning anything the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already approved. Again it is an attack on California, where, for example, worries over genetically modified rice have caused the California Rice Commission to ban it, largely because export markets in Asia refuse to buy it. So, if you live in parts of California or sixteen other states that have imposed controls on GM foods and are encouraging organic farming, you will be out of luck; Washington says its OK and you and your State won't be able to do anything about it. ::Recordnet...

The TreeHugger Forums are really rolling, with some excellent discussions on topics from energy and policy to transportation and lifestyle. Here's a sampling of some of the most popular, controversial and interesting forums topics; if you haven't already, get registered (it's free!), login and spend your two cents.

	1) User BobTrips discovers and shares some new developments in air-powered cars, including an innovative process of heating the air as it leaves the tank which increased the range from 60 miles to 500 miles, which equates to roughly 150 miles per gallon...wow!
	2) User Snowman77 wonders: "How many people would need to change their power utility company to green power in order to create an over demand for renewable service provided by these companies?" The answers range from "zero" to "Until the costs come down for green power, or the costs go up for conventional power most people aren't going to switch." What do you think?
	3) Forum user youragentsteph puts the forum's polling functionality to work, wonders "Do you think the terms green or sustainable tend to put blinders on consumers?" in reference to her perception that LEED-certified and otherwise "green" homes don't seem to be catching on, and then asks you why you'd consider going green: for the environment, for health reasons or to save money? More good discussion after the jump...

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The best way to deal with unwanted solar gain is to keep it out in the first place. One can do that with properly designed overhangs or bris soleil, which keep out the sun in summer but are designed to let it in during winter. However this is not very flexible. Another option is the exterior blind, quite common in Europe or Australia but expensive and hard to find in North America, where upfront cost always loses out to operating cost. According to manufacturer Faber, external blinds "are the most practical method of controlling solar heat gain. The problem of solar heat build-up is combated before it becomes a problem by mounting the blinds externally, where they intercept and defuse the suns rays. When Exterior Blinds are used in conjunction with air-conditioning, the air-conditioning units can be smaller, cost significantly less, and operate more economically because of the reduced demand on the air-condition system." ::Savannah Trims via ::Materialicious and the ::LEED Pro...

It's no big secret that a lot of food gets wasted every year. Millions of tons of food (if not more), not only from leftovers but also from food products that go unsold or suffer weather-related casualties, are unceremoniously dumped into huge landfills where they are left to rot. Ever wondered what could be done with this excess food? Ruihong Zhang, a bioengineer from UC Davis, may have just found a possible solution to this vexing problem: a bioreactor filled with microbes that feast on solids, including foods and yard waste, and convert them into biogas, principally methane and hydrogen. This natural gas can then be burned to produce electricity or compressed into a fuel to power vehicles. ...

E. ON, one of the U.K.'s largest generators of electricity, is set to begin operations at its Lockerbie biomass station by the end of the year after an initial trial period. Company officials hope that it will be able to generate enough electricity to power 70,000 homes, provide over 300 new jobs in the forestry and energy farming sector and reduce yearly greenhouse gas emissions by 140,000 tons once it is fully functional. The company, which already manages three coal and biomass fired power stations in the country, again plans on using cereal pellets, olive cakes and wood. Michael Russell, Scotland's Minister for the Environment, praised the new facility during a speech unveiling the formation of a task force aimed at increasing the supply of wood used for renewable energy:...

The biggest crop in the Southwestern US is houses, as the suburbs and exurbs expand, and we often wonder what will power their necessary air conditioners. Now we learn that the power plants that make the electricity are huge consumers of water, used for cooling and scrubbing pollution. By 2030 power plants could be consuming up to 60% of non-farm water. According to the Christian Science Monitor: The potential collision of water, energy, and climate is not limited to the US. "This is a big issue in other arid and semi-arid parts of the world," says Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, a nonprofit environmental think tank in Washington. The challenge is especially acute in China and India. India already faces serious water shortages around the country, he says. And in China, he says, the central government is losing control over energy planning as local governments drive the push for more power plants. In the future, if climate forecasts are correct, the demand for thermoelectric power could continue to grow as mountain glaciers melt, reducing the amount of electricity hydroelectric dams downstream can generate. So who gets it? The people who live there? The farmers? Or the power plants? ::Christian Science Monitor via ::Climate Progress ...

Low-cost airline EasyJet is calling for European governments to remove approximately 700 of the “oldest, dirtiest aircraft,” by implementing an age maximum effective January 2012, according to the carrier's June inflight magazine. With the youngest major airline fleet in Europe and an average age of 2.2, EasyJet already meets these restrictions.

“Our aircraft are the most environmentally-friendly in the world,” says EasyJet chief executive Andy Harrison.

Under the proposed policy, aircraft must be 22 years old or younger. ...

It's easy to see the motivations of a few high profile corporations that, for years, backed the argument that climate science was 'highly uncertain.' Some of these same companies are now acting as if the significance of the human contribution to climate forcing is 'uncertain' (the highly modifier seems to have dropped off). Or that financial burdens of a government-led program will be "onerous". These few advocacy 'signalers' distract us from the fact that the majority of companies have no public climate position whatsoever. Plenty of execs haven't given it a thought. Now that the USA seems prospectively open to serious climate policy discussions for the future, it's important to seriously contemplate the motivations of "no opinion" elected officials, corporations, and citizen groups. Yes, some of the goings-on are still laughable, like the famously climate science obfuscating company Exxon-Mobile, indicating they've 'been with the program' all along, to grab a seat at the public policy planning table. Change is coming, however; and patriotism, populism, and emotion will increasingly matter when Climate is on the docket. Auditions taken below....

I had the pleasure of meeting David Gibbs at the Harlem House about a month ago. Collective 4, a design group that he founded with other friends from Pratt, was tapped to design the house's office space. What really caught my attention was David's bench, made from reclaimed water tower wood, but with the look of ancient bamboo. In a later email conversation, David told me about his more ambitious plans for the water towers of New York, part of a project called NYCWTF (New York City Water Tower Furniture). The project would begin with public seating that strongly references the shape and feel of a traditional water tower, and would be the perfect places to view solar-powered LED light shows that would highlight existing water towers. I caught up with David and asked him about his design philosophy, commitment to sustainability, and his fascination with these urban icons....

In an editorial published this Saturday in The Washington Post, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon laid the blame for the carnage and anarchy that have been roiling Darfur for the past few years squarely at the feet of climate change. Stating that the "Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change," he warned that more such conflicts may be looming on the horizon.

"Two decades ago, the rains in southern Sudan began to fail. According to U.N. statistics, average precipitation has declined some 40 percent since the early 1980s. Scientists at first considered this to be an unfortunate quirk of nature," said Ban. "But subsequent investigation found that it coincided with a rise in temperatures of the Indian Ocean, disrupting seasonal monsoons. This suggests that the drying of sub-Saharan Africa derives, to some degree, from man-made global warming."

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Starting with the idea to make a contemporary, sustainable alternative to traditional upholstered furniture, Lars Urheim and Norwegian firm Trøkk16 (mostly) succeeded with the design and creation of "Emir". Designed as a "sofa for one", Emir is created from natural latex foam, sustainable wood, wool fabric and woolen felt, and the classic, Scandanavian-inspired chair just begs to be sat in. We noted late last year that Norwegian design is beginning to emerge from the shadows of its older, more well-known Scandinavian neighbors to establish its own aesthetic, and we're liking what we see. ...

We've been tracking UK eco-fashion brand Enamore ever since they started back in 2004, and have liked what we've seen as they've continued to grow and expand their chic apparel and accessories. They caused a bit of a stir here at TreeHugger with the launch of a line of hemp/silk lingerie last year, but it has apparently been very well received, because they've designed several new camisoles to compliment all of their current lingerie ranges (Peek a Boo, pictured, along with Mon Bijou, Sensibella and Jezebelle). Made from 60% hemp and 40% silk, the camisole is available from Enamore for £58; we're glad to see that green continues to get more chic and sexy, and won't have to wait too long to see what's next, as they'll be adding some new designs in October. There are more new designs, including a pretty extensive array of earrings, bracelets and necklaces, at Enamore's website. ::Enamore...

Actually having nothing at all to do with tin, these early prefabs became possible when Henry Robinson Palmer invented the "Corrugation and Galvanisation" of sheet iron in 1828. The California gold rush of 1849 and an Australian gold rush of 1851 sparked a boom in corrugated prefab buildings. "Manufacturers mass-produced structures, from as small as a pigsty to the magnitude of a cathedral, deliverable to anywhere accessible on the planet. In 1854 alone, it is estimated that some 30,000 buildings were shipped to Australia." The industrial revolution and colonial expansion created a need for churches, chapels and schools all over the Empire. But as Neil Young put it, rust never sleeps, and most of these buildings have disappeared. Photograper Alasdair Ogilvie has toured the world for twenty-five years, documenting " buildings existing and now vanished - churches and chapels, missions and homes, schools and smoke houses.This is the vanishing world of Tin Tabernacles & Others." View (and purchase) at ::Tin Tabernacles via ::Shedworking...

Some time back we reported on the rather radical idea of chainsaw lubricants infused with spores from gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. The product is still being sold by Fungi Perfecti, the company of mushroom guru Paul Stamets. Apparently, the idea behind the oils is that the mushrooms help speed up the decomposition of the wood, preventing forest fires, adding to the carbon storage of soils AND producing food at the same time:

“The spore-mass infused oil disperses mushroom spores into the cut faces of wood and, upon germination of spores, accelerate the decomposition of stumps and brush. Stamets says, "Here is an alternative for reducing fuel load in the forest to prevent forest fires—don't rob the carbon bank by removing litter—saprophytize with gourmet and medicinal fungi!"

Stamet’s company doesn’t just limit itself to chainsaw lubricants though. Fungi Perfecti also sell medicinal mushroom capsules and tinctures, mushroom growing kits, preserved truffles, and even pet foods! The company also sells a wealth of mushroom-related books, including Stamets’ much talked about Mycelium Running – a book with the rather grand sub-title of “How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World”: ...

A hundred years ago, there was a real question of whether plastics would be made from fossil fuels or plants. “There was intense competition between agricultural and petrochemical industries to win the market on polymers,” said Bernard Tao, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue.“In those days you had a lot more oil around, and you could dig it up all year round,” Dr. Tao said. “You didn’t have to wait until the growing season.” Now the situation has changed and scientists are looking again at getting away from fossil fuels and are looking at garbage. (like the circuit board shown made partly from chicken feathers) One waste material that we have way too much of is Carbon Dioxide; Geoff Coates of Cornell is making plastic that is almost 50% CO2 by weight. “It’s highly abundant and really cheap. We picked it for environmental and economic reasons." Other garbage plastics being developed are a styrofoam from orange peels and a composite made from soybeans and chicken feathers, a rubber from olive oil and a plastic from potato waste. Further proof that there really is no such thing as garbage. ::New York Times...

After working together in the early stages of the rediscovered wood movement, master craftsman Seth Meyer and acclaimed designer John Wells joined forces to launch Meyer Wells in 2006 (you may remember Wells from the work he did for Urban Hardwoods, featured here in TreeHugger. Continuing in a similar vein, the duo works to salvage and reclaim urban trees that are removed after storm damage, for development, or would otherwise be burned or discarded. Sourced from the Northwest region and mainly from Seattle parks and neighborhoods, the pair work to highlight the unique story recorded in an urban trees' life; "inspired by the innate character and flaws imparted through time, (they) carefully select, mill and dry the lumber from local trees to highlight the features that only nature can create." The resulting furniture combines the striking, unique beauty of the natural wood with modern forms to create really functional art; the wide variety of materials they source allows each piece to be really thoughtful, inspired by whatever new material they're using. They retail a line of furniture, but also do custom residential and commercial work -- contact them through their website for more info. The "Nara" coffee table is pictured above; after the jump: more pictures of their beautiful work, along with some "action photos" of how and where they get their wood. ::Meyer|Wells via ::NotCot.org...

This trash can from Whole Foods here in Manhattan comes labeled with a good reminder that the resources it swallows up are gone for the long haul. We might as well consider it to be "forever." Perhaps not forever in the string-theory sense, but within the extended temporal dimension we humans find ourselves living, it's apparent enough that there is no reversing the tide of time. So if we want the benefit of the energy inputs which have already gone into making that non-recyclable plastic bag from your organic chips, too bad, it's back to square one harvesting more raw materials and using more energy to make another bag from scratch. More to the point, there's no turning the clock back on designing a better product in the first place once your hand glibly, guiltily or guilessly feeds it to this trash can. TreeHugger reader Peggy asks:

How can anything that is used once and tossed be considered a 'great product'?

The elegant answer after the jump to hyperspace......

Well, we had bake sales to save them awhile back, but now they're holding Save the Whale Week in the UK . It's happening all this week, and being sponsored by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. They're asking kids and adults to get involved to raise funds using their own ideas, and they've come up with some intriguing tactics too... One of my personal favorites is where members of the Dorchester Prep School have enlisted other students to help "sponsor" the school manager for 3 hours of silence! Let's face it, that's tough to do for anyone... But the manager of a school? And if indeed she fails to pull it off she winds up forfeiting the 20 pounds that could go to save the whales. Other fundraising events happening include a local cafe that's sponsoring reggae night for a 5 pound donation, and a fancy-dress walk with a marine-themed twist to it... I admit to confusion at first, as fine clothing and long walks don't often go well together, but it turns out the sponsor of the event will be making the journey in a wetsuit, snorkel, diving mask and boots. That should be fun to watch, but in the event that you can't make it or just don't live in the UK, feel free to head on over and make a donation anyway. It's a great way to help save a great part of the world's oceans....

Building out of timber can store a lot of carbon, keeping it nicely sequestered for the life of the building. Thats why we liked Finland's Tapiola building. Now Waugh Thistleton, TreeHugger faves for their windpowered affordable housing, have proposed a timber apartment building for Murray Grove in Hackney, London. They say it will be the tallest timber building in the world at nine stories, and will save 125 tonnes of carbon emissions compared to a concrete structure. It will be built of prefabrcated panels made by KLH of Austria, similar to RIKO used in prefab single houses here. This will be the first building in the world of this height to construct not only load-bearing walls and floor slabs but also stair and lift cores entirely from timber....

TreeHugger loves green roofs; they can be beautiful architectural elements or "a rooftop food production system that meshes the technologies of aquaponics, vermiculture, rooftop water harvesting, and solar-powered air moisture harvesting." Green Roofs For Healthy Australian Cities has posted a photo gallery of buildings all over the world with green roofs. We have seen some of them on TreeHugger before but many are eye openers. See them all at ::Green Roofs For Healthy Australian Cities via ::Metaefficient...

There's good news for Londoners this week as another hybrid taxi fleet launches its services. Climatecars is welcome competition for other green cabs firms we have mentioned such as the hybrid fleet of Green Tomato Cars and Radio Taxis which is on it's way to being carbon neutral. As with most new services Climatecars are aiming for the top of the market with a luxury service, providing cold bottled water, magazines and newspapers on your journey. Bottled water you say? Arghghhhh! But Climatecars have been smart enough to choose Belu Water, which just about excuses them as the bottles are made from corn starch and the profits go to water aid projects in Africa. We also like the added detail of a bike rack on every car so that if you ever find yourself unable to peddle they can take you and your bike home. Climatecar founder Nicko Williamson (pictured above) has obviously thought in great detail about how provide a 1st class car service and has even undercut other normal cab companies with his prices - that's why competition is healthy! With the additional, and these days somewhat obligatory, carbon offsetting scheme Climatecars looks like it will be driving towards a green future. :: Climatecars UPDATE: Climatecars will be offsetting with the Carbon Neutral Company. ...

Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland have already butted out and England is next. As of July 1, the United Kingdom will become the largest country in the world to be non-smoking. A huge campaign is underway to alert citizens that smoking will be illegal in all workplaces, restaurants and enclosed public spaces. Of course the hysteria is focused on pubs, with publicans fearing for their livelihood. The Republic of Ireland went smoke free in 2004, and despite claims that the law would have a negative economic impact, there has been no decline in business at pubs and restaurants, in fact business has improved. It's hardly rocket science but a recent study has found that the smoking ban in Ireland has cut air pollution in pubs and improved bar-workers' health. Scotland banned smoking last year and it is estimated that more than 46,000 people quit as a result of the ban. Publicans there claim that drink sales have gone down 11 per cent as the locals have stayed away and 35 per cent of pubs have laid off staff. David Hockney, the artist, is a one-man band, railing against the smoking ban and "dreary people" telling him what to do. He points out that "Monet smoked, and he died at 86. Picasso and Matisse smoked, and lived to a ripe old age." In England about 27% of British adults still smoke and the government expects that approximately 600,000 people will quit as a direct result of the ban. :: Smokefree England ...

South of the tracks in midtown Toronto, three new restaurants have opened that demonstrate the trend: Local and organic is in. Ezra's Pound sells fabulous fair trade coffee, and a limited menu of great organic sandwiches with full disclosure: if an ingredient is not organic it is noted with an asterisk *the capers in this sandwich are not organic. According to Nathalie Atkinson at the Post, "fresh-baked goods and coffee -- fair trade and pesticide-free -- for early birds and commuters walking to Dupont station. It's all served in non-toxic, biodegradable Green Shift cups and packaging. And the light fare served at the bistro tables (homemade organic granola, bocconcini and roasted pepper sandwiches drizzled with herbed olive oil) is always accompanied by bottled water: Toronto's finest, served in retro reclaimed green bottles" ...

It was late last year when we brought bark cloth to your attention. Now the stuff has gone an won yet another award. Yep, one those ISPO sports awards we noted last week for the Waldmeister laminated timber bicycle. The fleece garments look like highly texturised versions of the same thing that is normally made from petroleum. But the bark in the cosy garments by Losgeloest of Frieburg, Germany, comes from forests in the Uganda, Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. How a tree renders up a textile is not dissimilar to how cork is repeatedly harvested from the same tree. In this case it’s the wild Mutuba fig (Ficus natalensis). Once the bark layer is removed in a centuries old process, the 50 to 150 year old trees are protected from drying out by being wrapped in banana leaves, so that within a couple of years new bark is growing. Meanwhile the stripped bark is pounded with wooden pestles of varying coarseness until the desired thickness is obtained. “This labour-intensive process produces an ever-larger, softer, thinner and darker cloth.” Apparently the yearly yield from these trees is about 20,000 square metres (~24,000 square yards.) ::Losgeloest...

Elvis Costello said it best: Radio is a sound salvation Radio is cleaning up the nation They say you better listen to the voice of reason But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason. So you had better do as you are told. You better listen to the radio. So inquiring minds want to know:

View MicroPollWeb SurveyFree Web Polls

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The United States Postal Service delivers 212 billion pieces of mail annually. Jay Bolus, is helping the USPS reduce their’ environmental footprint by eliminating toxic inks, adhesives, and coatings from their packaging, as well as introducing soy-based envelopes. Each year Americans throw away 25,000 million styrofoam cups every year. Cereplast is hoping to move them to biodegradable utensils of plastic produced from corn and potato starch. The Ford Model U designed by Dr. Gerhard Schmidt from Ford, in conjunction with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry of “cradle to cradle” fame is almost CO2 free, 25% more fuel efficient than a gasoline vehicle and 100% recyclable or biodegradable. See these inspiring stories tonight on Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet . As you’ll observe when you click through that link (or the one below), this is just one of myriad happenings, as part of Sundance’s The Green website. Sneak peek clips. podcasts, green living guides, blogs, Simran Sethi’s Second Life virtual seminars, an ‘eco-mmunity help round out this significant offering. And there is bucketloads more too. Be sure to visit — ::Big Ideas for a Small Planet....

What happens when a product designer/carpenter gets together with a forester? –Sustainable furniture. Since 2003 René Müller and Nina Griesshammer work under their company's name Woodloops based in Germany and Spain. Beautifully sculpted wooden shapes form everyday objects such as chunky stools and tables, elegant beds and also more abstract forms such as the Forest Beads to sit on. But the team doesn’t stop here and also designs booths for trade fairs and my favourite piece from their collection: the folding ruler called wood_stock. Each piece of this traditional folding ruler is made from a different timber. On one side it shows the scale, and on the other side it tells you from which tree the wood comes from with beautiful graphics of its fruits and leaves. Different series of woods from different temperate zone are available. Each ruler is a ‘small pocket dictionary’ of 10 different woods. Of course the ruler as well as all their other products are made from FSC-certified wood. For prices, please contact Woodloops directly. ::Woodloops ...

Full disclosure: Method is a TreeHugger sponsor (or "was", if you are reading this post a long time after it was published). We want to be transparent about it. The Los Angeles Chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is presenting “Being Green and Being Profitable: An Evening with Method”. It's a roundtable with the senior creative team of Method including both cofounders: Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry; Joshua Handy, the Director of Industrial Design; Stefanie Hermsdorf, the Director of Graphic Design; Nate Pence, Director of Brand Development, and will be moderated by Dr. Jon P. Goodman, the President of Town Hall Los Angeles, a prestigious civic organization that partnered with IDSA-LA. They will discuss how they used Design and Sustainability to Re-invigorate the Cleaning Industry and capture phenomenal market success (Method was recently named the 7th fastest growing private company in the US). It's on June 28th, 2007, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. More info here. See also: ::Microfiber Towels from Method, ::Method Home Cleaning Products ...

This week is Carnival of the Green # 82 and it's being hosted by Enviroblog. 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....

US Senate Democrats have decided to take President Bush at his word and help implement ways to combat climate change. Their first act may well be to reverse energy tax policies that currently benefit major oil companies and shift them to renewable energies and biofuels. By doing this, Democrats hope to shift America’s focus from expanding domestic oil production to reducing global warming This is an admirable and laudable step, one that could put the US on the path to energy self-sufficiency. The bill that is headed to the Senate Finance Committee on June 19th would move some US$ 14 billion from oil companies over the next 10 years to new incentives for solar power, wind power, ethanol and other renewable energy sources. It also aims to collect US$ 10 billion from oil companies that drill for oil and gas offshore in federal waters but do not pay royalties to the US government. ...

Biomimicry gets a lot of play here at TreeHugger, and for good reason: it's a jungle out there, and we as humans can learn a lot from the smart, efficient way things are designed for survival and procreation. Combine the efficiency of biomimicry with an energy-saving appliance, like a ceiling fan (one of TreeHugger's 25 Ways to Save the Planet), and a groundbreaking product design may not be far behind. Modeled on the wing-like shape of a seed pod from a Sycamore tree, the Sycamore Ceiling Fan could be such a design. Their innovative, airfoil-like blade design allows them to create the same airflow as a conventional flat-winged fan, but at much lower speeds; this results in lower energy consumption, less noise, and great modern looks to boot. Designed to spin at 70-130 revolutions per minute (rpm), the blade can nearly cut in half the normal operating speed of a conventional ceiling fan, which rotates around 140-200 times per minute -- yep, twice as efficient, and all with just a single blade instead of three, four or five. TreeHuggers in Australia can pick one up at Beacon Lighting. Learn more about this innovative, smart design here and hit the jump for more pics. Imagine how cool this would be (yup, pun intended) with a solar-powered air-conditioner...::Sycamore Ceiling Fan via ::Future House Now...

Green design is more difficult that conventional design: The considerations within the design process has to go far beyond a gut-feeling about performance or the application of popular components such as green roofs or bamboo flooring. Energy performance is a dynamic relationship between interior and exterior factors that influence the systems within a building. Green buildings are best known for the things they do less (use less energy, use less water…have less particles/pollution within the indoor air). The building science behind green building isn’t easy to understand. Architecture is, in the end, the act of making building science real…or at least it should be. The way a design team calculates how much fuel is needed to heat, ventilate, light and cool occupiable space determines the actual efficiency of a building post-construction. Issues such as the length of day, location of the site relative to the equator, building type, wind current, solar exposure, sun azimuth , total heat degree days, total cooling degree days and topography are just a few of the factors needing to be considered. Most design teams, and more importantly – many developers, decide performance levels of the mechanical systems based on a “rule of thumb”. ...

Eye candy, sweet sweet eye candy. Yenna Chan's Contemporary Design in Detail - Sustainable Environments is filled with the stuff. Page after page of lustworthy (and no doubt incredibly pricey) sustainable homes make you wonder why you weren't smart enough to invent Google. This isn't to say that the book lacks substance under all those pretty pictures. Chan gets to the nitty gritty of each home, pointing out one particularly strong method of construction in each example and explaining how these techniques make the home particularly sustainable. Examples in each of the book's four sections (Response to Place, Connection to Habitat, Conservation of Resources and Use of Building Materials) show how green building techniques can go beyond simply the LEED standards that Chan describes as "a checklist for design" and into thoughtful design that heeds to the natural landscape and uses the green technology and methods to drive design. ...

James Lear has some serious design pedigree. Before enrolling full-time as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design’s Furniture Design Department, he cut his teeth as a fabricator for both Bettencourt Woodworking and Scrapile (both TH faves, who can also be seen in living color on TreeHuggerTV here). Though he's still on board with Bart and company at Bettencourt Green Building Supplies, James has begun designing and prototyping his own designs, with a strong focus on sustainability and smart, green design. "Trace," the chair pictured above, is a "practically and aesthetically light-weight dining chair constructed with low-impact and reclaimed materials", according to Mr. Lear, and we like the looks of it. He continues, "The piece takes conscious note of sustainability while avoiding it as an aesthetic consideration...(its) intention was to derive iconic images of the chair and 'trace' it in space with bent rod, creating a fundamentally minimal, but entirely identifiable, form." The simple design is created from simple (for the most part) sustainable materials: a stainless steel rod, hemp/organic cotton quilted seating surface, reclaimed/recycled carpet pad (used as batting). After the jump: another of James's prototypes and more pics. ::James Lear Design...

It is probably as TreeHugger incorrect as it gets; There is no insulation, it is 100% glass. There is no solar control other than the trees around it. It probably isn't very comfortable to live in, even its owner and architect, Philip Johnson, said

"...Comfort is not a function of beauty... purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful...sooner or later we will fit our buildings so that they can be used...where form comes from I don't know, but it has nothing at all to do with the funcitional or sociological aspects of our architecture."

And it is stunningly beautiful, on 47 acres with a 13 other buildings, and as of June 23 it is open to the public, thanks to Johnson, who willed it to the National Trust. The likes of this will not be built again. ::The Glass House by Philip Johnson...

Beer is culture. Green Options looks at brews, bioregionalism, and more… Anna Shepard of the Times says metrosexuality is dead and the eco-hunks need to toughen up… General Motors claims it wants to put the ICE to bed, but can it “remove the car from the environment and energy debate”? Romania implores you: “Planet it’s depending on you not to meltdown. Don’t just sit there, help it! Let you children know how snow looks like.” China is poised to be not only a world-class polluter, but a green energy hub, as well. A new wind-power IPO is just another sign of change… 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?...

Sometimes you really have to hit people over the head to get a message through, and it can take an artist to convey the message. For instance, everybody knows that water levels will rise if we don't stop temperatures from rising, but what does that mean to us personally? Artist Eve Mosher is making it perfectly clear to people in Brooklyn. She is drawing the line where the shore would be if the water rose 10 feet. According to the New York Times, Over the next several months, Ms. Mosher, 38, will extend her line through the coastal neighborhoods of southernmost Brooklyn and then move on to Manhattan to draw a line that begins at East 14th Street and loops around the bottom of the island, back up to West 14th Street.Next she will return to Brooklyn and work her way from the Verrazano Bridge to the Battery Tunnel to Newtown Creek in Greenpoint, whose sludgy industrial topography could serve as a wanted poster for the kind of environmental damage that her project, called “High Water Line,” is warning against. ...

Better Thinking, the ethical branding company’s second issue is all about Transparency (see the first issue here). ‘When businesses talk about the need to be transparent, it is generally assumed that this is for the benefit of investors and the financial media. That assumption is now being challenged, as individual customers are becoming more interested in what goes on behind the scenes.’ Read some very interesting articles on why more and more businesses become transparent, and how their transparency makes them successful. The companies American Apparel (ethical fashion), Clarence Court’s (egg industry... very special hens!), M&S with their Plan A and Worn Again (recycled shoes) have been picked by Better Thinking to see what we can learn from transparency within companies. Regarding this subject, I also suggest reading David Bergman’s article ‘Transparent Green’. He believes ‘it's time to get rid of the concept of green design’... ::Better Thinking Magazine ...

When the press coverage is completely off the mark. There's an article in the Pittsburgh-based Post-Gazette about an attempt to organise a green prom at the City Charter High School. At first glance it appears that all the students took the bus to the event, which would indeed be a good move, even if it alone doesn’t necessarily warrant the prom being called green. However, read on and you will find that only 13 of the 136 students took the bus, and most others went for the more traditional, and gas-guzzling, Hummers and limos. There is even a quote which reveals that they were going to take the bus anyway and only retro-actively decided that it was for an environmental cause. "We take the bus everywhere, so we were just going to do that anyway. But we had done a global warming symposium at school, so it became more about that,” said senior, Macy Lucas. Although we don’t want to be negative about any action taken to make an events impact on the environment lower, it has to be said that less than ten percent of the attendees taking the bus doesn’t exactly warrant a news story. If you want to green your prom, then taking the bus is a great move. Limos aren’t actually that bad either, as long as they are full up with passengers. Wearing a dress that you plan on wearing again, or that is created from sustainable materials is also a good move....

The Yangtze river dolphin has been declared ‘functionally extinct’, which means that although there may be some of them left, there aren’t enough to breed and procreate; not enough to repopulate the species. The reason behind this tragedy is a combination of heavy water pollution and hydro-electric dam projects. Hydro-electric dams are harmful because they isolate groups of dolphins, effectively creating two smaller populations. This means that numbers are lower, and breeding is less likely. Now there are fears for the future of another rare breed of dolphin, the Amazonian pink river dolphin. The government in Brazil are planning a hydro-electric plant in the middle of their habitat, and hunting also threatens the animals. Their flesh is often used as bait, and only fins are used. Many dead and mutilated bodies are found, often with the hunters name carved in the animals back. ...

In 2001 Toronto began a $73 million plan to create bike lanes, but the plan has gone awry. Two years behind schedule, the project has only used 50% of the budget it was promised. The cities cyclists are angry, and some have decided to do something about it. "The city is taking way too long. There is no need for this. Why don't they just paint the bike lanes? People are dying." That quote comes from a member of the Urban Repair Squad, a group of activists who choose to remain anonymous because of their illegal actions in the city. The group have been sneaking through the city, painting cycle lane logos down lanes of traffic. They started in late May, and because they are using the official city logos their work often goes unnoticed for some time according to The Star's coverage, "The lines may have been sloppy, but that didn't stop cyclists from using the lane for two weeks until the city cleaned it up last Monday." The city is reacting by cleaning up the paint, even when it is in areas that are due to get bike lanes anyway. Despite being behind schedule and out of cash, the city is paying $1973.74 to clean each section of road. The clean road then sits there, unpainted, waiting for the money to paint it. It's a complicated situation, and the city does at least agree that more needs to be done to protect cyclists, but that isn't stopping unnecessary deaths whilst this work is waiting to be done. ::The Star See also :: What is Bike Friendly? :: How a Toronto Hotel Welcomes Bicycling Guests...

The Audubon Society reports that spreading suburbs and industrialized agriculture are contributing to a precipitous decline in meadow birds like the Northern Bobwhite and Eastern Meadowlark. "The song of the eastern meadowlark used to be the soundtrack of summer” said Scott Weidensaul, a naturalist and author to the New York Times. “Now it’s a rare thing. The landscape is changing. Farming is much more industrialized. Development is sprawling across these valleys.” Twenty common birds have lost more than half their populations in 40 years. The population of the bobwhite, a rotund robin-size bird that lives in meadows from the mid-Atlantic to the Plains, has dropped more than 80 percent, to 5.5 million from more than 31 million. Causes are a combination of climate change and development along lakes and rivers. ::New York Times...

Poop control-based carbon offsetting is going to be keeping the planet's climate regular...we can just tell. American Electric Power Co. Inc., for example, will buy 4.6 million carbon credits between 2010 and 2017 to support the first large-scale livestock methane offset program in the United States. "The project will capture and destroy methane from approximately 400,000 head of livestock on as many as 200 farms. Columbus-based AEP annually will purchase up to 600,000 carbon credits, with each credit equal to 1 ton of carbon dioxide reduction, between 2010 and 2017 at a fixed price from Environmental Credit Corp., a State College, Pa.-based environmental credit supplier and project developer. Methane from livestock manure accounts for 6.6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. ECC will install covers on manure storage lagoons to capture and flare off methane, which will convert it to carbon dioxide. The process will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and odors the livestock farms emit." Note: the full AEP press release at the above link is a worthy read. Also: More breaking news from AEP below the fold....

Is some vast left-wing conspiracy sticking it to the liberals where it knows it'll hurt them most—their organic-chow-loving bellies? Slate certainly seems to think so. Let's back up a little, first. Whole Foods, which needs no introduction, is planning to merge with Wild Oats Market's natural foods chain, creating a company worth $6.8 billion a year. But the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department's antitrust division—the watchdogs which ensure that mergers don't harm consumers by reducing competition—are wagging their fingers, warning that the merger would "tend to create a monopoly in the operation of premium natural and organic supermarkets." How does a retailer that controls an estimated 10 percent of a market and is competing with much larger players, such as Wal-mart and Costco, which are also entering the organics biz, become a monopolistic threat? queries the Los Angeles Times...

Appliance salesman: this baby will cook an ox in 40 seconds. Homer Simpson: 40 seconds? I want it now! Appliance manufacturers are busy working on new appliances that cook more quickly. We thought the trend was in the other direction with the slow food movement, but GE is introducing a fridge with an “express chill” drawer that will cool drinks in minutes, not hours. (part of it's new Cafe line of "restaurant inspired" appliances.)" GE notes that "from 1950–2004 the average size of the kitchen increased 216%, while the home itself increased by only 72% in size" so they are pumping up the appliances accordingly. Thermador has developed “lightening fast pre-heat” that takes half the time to preheat the oven. Kenmore has introduced a toaster that cuts 60 seconds out of the process of browning bread. Viking is offering an oven that uses air travelling at 44 miles per hour to cook food five times as fast. Turbo-Chef has an oven with 85 “tornadoes” to cook and brown the food and can do a rack of lamb in four minutes. ...

Rolling Stone magazine has devoted a sizable portion of their latest issue (on newsstands until June 28) to talking about the dangers we face relating to global warming. They've enlisted help from some heavy hitters, including media juggernaut and "environmentalist-in-chief" Al Gore, who's been making the rounds lately. In an interview with the mag (read it here, listen to it here), Al talks about the rising tide of support for the climate crisis, whether or not we've reached a tipping point, and how events like Live Earth can help his cause. One thing he said really resonated with TreeHugger; when asked if he believes we can be saved by Priuses and new lightbulbs, Gore said, "I agree that we're not going to solve this problem by buying Priuses and changing our light bulbs. But driving hybrids and choosing better technology is still important in two respects. First, it makes a small contribution to reducing CO2. And second, when people make changes in their own lives, they are much more likely to become part of a critical mass of public opinion and to support the bigger policy changes that are going to be needed to really solve the problem." ...

Last summer it was the Ditty Bops peddling across the states; This summer Musicians Johnny Eden and Derek Olive are pedalling across Canada from Powell River BC to Petite Riviere, Nova Scotia, a distance of 6,500 kilometres. (4000 miles), performing over sixty shows across the country. So far they have made it over the Rockies and according to their blog, are in Alberta, "struggling against the wind and some more strange weather that wouldn't settle in to hot or cold, rain or shine." Unlike the Ditty Bops who had a support vehicle following, Johnny and Derek carry everything on their bikes and are camping along the way. ...

Jonathan Shopley, Chief Executive of CarbonNuetral, has warned that the already controversial carbon offset industry is at risk of being discredited by ‘cowboy’ operators. He went on to say that standards need to be drawn up, so that customers can trust providers. "There are credibility issues and there are cowboys around. It is probably to be expected for an industry at this stage but we need a set of standards and outside verification so that self-regulation can engender trust and integrity in the market," said Shopley. Shopley’s worry is obvious; if corrupt companies undermine the respect and reputation of offsetting then his company loses out too. It’s quite common for large companies to offset their operations, and that large, blue-chip money is a large amount of the business for offset companies. CarbonNeutral has already developed its own set of standards, and by highlighting other companies lack of them is perhaps a wise marketing move as much as it is a call for industry regulation. CarbonNuetral is one of the larger offsetting companies in the UK, "We have doubled our revenues over the last financial year and whereas two years ago we would get one inbound call a week about offsetting, it is now over 100.” ::The Guardian See also :: The Great Canadian Carbon Offset :: CO2nned? Carbon offsets under the spotlight...

Although they may sound alike, the Encyclopedia of Earth is a completely different beast than the Encyclopedia of Life, a species database launched by Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson (which we mentioned earlier here). This Encyclopedia aims to become the definitive one stop destination for all things environment, climate change and sustainable development. What was the primary motivation behind the creation of this database? According to its originators (which include officials from the Environmental Information Coalition and several Boston University faculty), it was the dearth of reliable, accurate information about environmental issues, or, as they put it, "there are many resources for environmental content, but there is no central repository of authoritative information that meets the needs of diverse user communities." They certainly have their work cut out for them. Via ::The Encyclopedia of Earth See also: ::Most Huggable: The Encyclopedia of Life, Denmark’s Windy Plan, and Carbon Neutral Clothing ...

"Dallas oilman and investor Boone Pickens wants to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, a project that would put as many as 2,000 turbines on nearly 200,000 acres in four counties. Pickens' Mesa Power presented its plans to about 250 landowners and their representatives Tuesday in Pampa, about 50 miles northeast of Amarillo [Texas, USA]." A project spokesman indicated they were looking at generation capacity in the 2,000 to 4,000 MW range, costing as much as $6 billion. Most important, the project will include "transmission lines to carry the power to the state's main power grid...Mesa is offering landowners $4,500 per turbine upfront and payments for the electricity produced, starting at 4 percent and rising to 5 percent after eight years,...According to the State Energy Conservation Office, Texas has more than 30 wind farms operating or under construction. FPL Energy's 735.5-megawatt Horse Hollow project 20 miles southwest of Abilene is the world's largest." Via::Red Orbit Image credit:: Road To Pampa, Texas Scapes ...

Too often corporations disappoint us with their lack of environmental concern or disingenuous green washing. In my recent research, however, I have found one global retailer standing tall above the corporate crowd. For the record, I’m not trying to sell you anything . . . simply, I like this company’s look, discovered they are environmentally conscious, and think you should know about it. ...

Short Review: Great book, worth reading, deserves a spot on the shelf between Flannery and Monbiot. After our recent discussion about George Monbiot I bought Joseph Romm's Hell and High water and read it cover to cover. (noted earlier here with Tyler Hamilton's Review) That is an easy thing to do; it is well written and very informative, a window on America for those of us who cannot quite figure out what goes on down there. While the rest of the world wrestles with solutions to the climate crisis, just this week the biggest church in America, the Southern Baptist Convention, announced that global warming is not a problem. Where does this disconnect come from? Romm explains. The first half of the book lays out the science of global warming and the dangers that await if we do not deal with it, an explanation that is both comprehensive and comprehensible. Few will be doubters after reading that. ...

(Continued from Day in the Life of a Solar Installer, June 17, 2007). This is the tale of a new solar installer and her adventures in renewable energy. Day Three: If the project is a smaller project, or just relatively straight-forward, then by day three this should be the final touches of the project. Oftentimes, projects take a few more days, but for this example we’re using three days. So, with all of the panels up and the conduit run, it is time to pull wires from the panels down to the inverters. Assuming the entire conduit is in the correct direction and there are not too many bends, or too many wires going to the panels, then the pull should be fairly simple. ...

Next Saturday, June 23, will be the deadline to enter MSN and Treehugger's "Green Theatre" video contest. Yep, that's right -- you've got five days to create your masterpiece and win a trip, complete with tickets, travel, accommodations and spending money, to Live Earth. At this time next week, you'll have the chance to vote on the videos you like the best, and the top 10 vote recipients will go to our panel of judges for the final selection of the five winning entries. Last week, we began our introductions of the distinguished individuals evaluating the contest's finalists. Here are a few more of the fine folks contributing their time to judging contest entries: Actor and environmentalist Josh Lucas: In the past fifteen years, Josh Lucas has become a familiar face on the big and small screens, as well as on stage. He's a versatile actor equally at home in Hollywood movies such as Sweet Home Alabama and Poseidon, as well as independent films such as Around the Bend. Josh is currently at work, as both actor and producer, on a biopic about Esquire magazine founder David Smart....

It should be obvious by now that TreeHugger loves bikes. We just can’t get enough of them. We love the fact that they are the most energy efficient vehicle in the world. We love the fact that, thanks to some clever designers, they can now be folded up, or even turned into suitcases. We love the fact that they can be electrified, possibly even solar powered, and we love the fact that reliable cargo bikes are now becoming more widely available. However, despite all the innovation, there is no doubt that biking can still be an intimidating business. Cyclists are forever demanding more rights, and the debate about wearing helmets is likely to go on for centuries. We are grateful, then, that organizations such as Lifecycle UK exist, a charity aimed at promoting cycling through education and hands-on training. The charity works with employers, local authorities, schools and individuals to empower people to take up cycling in a responsible and safe manner: ...

Like most things in fashion – Crocs, reality shows, bad rap music - give it a few months and you will find it in Israel. Is the bee colony hype reported here on TreeHugger, just that? According the Jerusalem Post, Israeli beekeepers and the Agriculture Ministry's Beekeeping Division are making plans and provisions for an outbreak of Colony Collapse Disorder - that they report, has resulted in the mysterious deaths of 2.4 billion bee colonies and 10 billion bees in the US.

Citing Albert Einstein's saying to the effect that mankind would become extinct four years after honey bees disappeared from the face of the earth, Haim Efrat, head of the Beekeeping Division, said he'd rather sound the alarm than be complacent. "I don't mind if I turn out to be wrong and I say it clearly: We have Colony Collapse Disorder here in Israel. Though we are not even close to the problem they face in the US and Canada, tomorrow morning we could wake up to a severe case of the phenomenon."

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Chook is Australian slang for a chicken. Chook tractors have long been a part of permaculture lore. Basically they are portable chook pens with open bases. Chickens scratch away at the ground (like a mini tractor), munching on grubs, bugs, seeds, and weeds. Or even your kitchen scraps. And they poop out a rich fertiliser, which adds often much needed nutrients to the soil. Because a chook tractor is mobile it can be moved to a new location once the chickens have worked over an area of the garden. While they don’t get complete free range of the yard, the chickens are protected from the greedy jaws of predators. The tractors usually have a sheltered nest, and an egg laying section, in addition to the airy pen. The homemade version on the left shows the three stages of chook tractoring. 1. chooks preparing the soil, 2. straw mulch, and 3. Vegies growing in the prepped and mulched soil. As with all permaculture design one strives for the greatest productivity with the least effort, by harnessing natural processes. In about two weeks you can turn a patch of weeds into well fertilised growing soil. Don’t have time or inclination to make your own? Consider something like the snazzy commercial model, in the other pic, from McCallums. It’s suitable for up to 6 laying hens. McCallum Chicken Tractors. ...

They've done it already in Sydney, Paris and Hong Kong--now it's London's turn. On June 21 between 9 and 10 p.m. the lights will be turned off to raise awareness of global warming. Many of London's most famous landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Canary Wharf, the BT Tower, Harrods, the Savoy, the Ritz, the National Theatre and some government ministries will be black. Maybe even 10 Downing Street, residence of the Prime Minister. The organizers, a radio station, have planned it for the longest day of the year so it won't be quite as effective. But since it is London, B and C-list celebrities have also pledged their support, including singers Sophie Ellis Bextor, Kim Wilde and Jamelia, and Capital Radio DJ Johnny Vaughan. There had been great hopes that a black-out could be arranged for the night of the Live Earth concert on July 7, but this idea was nixed because of fears of a disaster when the power surge afterwards took place. However local events seem to be safe enough, and organizers are hoping that there will be candle-lit picnics and dinners across town. Teaming up on the same day is Carbon Free Day, a day not to use fossil fuels. Suggested actions include: turning off the lights, walking or biking, eating local food and using very little water. :: Lights Out London...

It is a big claim. But they do qualify themselves, saying “as far as we know.” And because we all know that carbon offsetting of itself is not enough to make the world a better joint to be hanging out in, Loose Fit, a surf shop and cafe in Braunton, United Kingdom, also run to a few other eco-initiatives. They are a member of 1% For The Planet, giving one percent of their net sales to enviro orgs. They plant a tree for every surfboard sold and have signed onto a GreenPower scheme with their electricity utility. Plus they now sell a line of organic T-shirts printed with what they believe is the first certified organic textile printing inks, which is kinda impressive. Oh, and there is vague talk about eco-surfboards too. But all up they appear to making more effort than many surf retailers so brownie points to ::Loose Fit....

In a report released just in time for Father’s Day, the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment urged both parents to be aware of the increased risks from environmental pollutants to boys so they can take precautions to help prevent health problems. As Dr. Lynn Marshall of the Ontario College of Family Physicians put it, “All children are at risk from exposure to environmental hazards, but boys appear to be at greater risk.” The study indicates that brain development is of particular concern, citing the fact that boys are 4 times more likely to suffer from autism or ADHD; but it goes on to point out that boys are still faring worse than girls when it comes to health issues such as asthma, cancer, learning and behavioural problems and birth defects, and that seems to be the case even while they are both still in the womb. That’s because "Boys are affected differently by various hormones, and therefore may be affected differently by various hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment," according to Dr. Marshall, who also pointed out that some environmental toxins may be more harmful in small concentrations than had been previously thought. Of particular concern are endocrine disrupting properties of plastics; pthalates which are used in softening them; antiseptics used in food can liners; bisphenol-a, an industrial chemical used primarily to make plastic and the usual heavy metals like lead and mercury. The report urged both parents and the rest of society to take precautions ensuring that these aren’t inadvertently brought home from the workplace on clothing, etc, where they can then have damaging long-term implications for both sons and daughters. After all, another relative who works with these types of chemicals but lives with the family can have just as much impact on what comes into the household as the parents themselves… via:: People's Daily ...

Hot off our coverage of the latest in advanced optical sorting technologies now being incorporated into recycling facilities, we bring you news of a new eco-friendly auto scrap recycling machine that turns car waste into fuel. The HAWK 10, invented by the Global Resource Corporation and recently put to use by Gershow Recycling, is 100% emission- and pollutant-free and can reduce landfill waste by close to 65%. In addition, it recycles excess metal that businesses can then reuse and uses a system of high microwave frequencies to convert "autofluff" (i.e. textiles, foams, plastics, etc) into oil and gas. While most companies tend to dispose of the residue (dubbed automobile shredder residue, or ASR) produced from the recovered steel by dumping it into a landfill, polluting the surroundings and wasting valuable components in the process, the HAWK 10 gasifies the different materials and turns them into 80% light combustible gases and 20% oil. The machine fuels its next round by cycling the gas through a closed-loop system to use it, thus avoiding the production of emissions....

In a major boost to the ethanol industry, the California Air Resources Board has decided to adopt a resolution stating that all refineries producing gas sold in the state will have to blend 10% ethanol into their gas. This is to coincide with the new fuel standards set by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that will take effect in late 2009, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).

"Today's decision by the Air Resources Board is an important step toward diversifying California's fuel supply with alternative and, in this instance, renewable fuels. While many alternative fuels exist in the market, ethanol is one that can be blended into today's gasoline with no change to our current cars. This action allows fuel providers to blend up to 10 percent ethanol into gasoline, while still ensuring we're meeting California's tough air quality standards," said Schwarzenegger.

The goal of Schwarzenegger's plan is to lower greenhouse gas emissions by shifting energy consumption from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like ethanol. By 2020, policymakers expect at least a 10% reduction in the carbon content of fuels, the replacement of 20% of fossil fuels with lower carbon alternatives and a tripling in the size of the state's renewable energy market....

Louis Palmer wants to be the first man to drive around the world in a solar-powered car. He has started a project, SolarTaxi, which aims to circumvent the globe in the green car, meeting politicians and policy makers as they go. "With the power of the sun around the world - stop global warming! 40.000 km... 40 countries... 14 months..." The Swiss team will head of on the 3rd of July from Lucerne in Switzerland. Palmer has previously tested the car out on a relatively short dash to Spain and back, a round-trip of 3,000 km. If this sounds interesting, then get in touch with the group, they're currently looking to arrange visits on their way around the world. "Organise our visit in your town! We are looking for organisors and people who help us when we arrive. Give us a place to stay, organise the media, organise a school in your neighbourhood that we can visit or come to one of our events! Send us your idea before you start doing anything. We are looking forward to hearing from you!" ::SolarTaxi, via SustainaBee See also ::Using Solar Roofs To Power Hybrids :: Video: The Built-from-Scratch Solar Car...

File this under the "yeah, right" category: according to a recent news report, the oil company Exxon Mobil apparently never doubted the risk from climate change: no, as its global spokesman Kenneth Cohen would have it, it has simply "evolved" its understanding of the problem over the past few years. Having finally bowed to reality and accepted that some form of US climate policy was now inescapable, the world's most profitable company has decided to take a seat at the table and help shape future legislation. "We're very much not a denier, very much at the table with our sleeves rolled up," Cohen told reporters. It has come out in favor of a so-called "upstream cap and trade" carbon market that would cap emissions at the level of fossil fuel suppliers instead of energy consumers like utilities. In a move to soften its stance on climate change, Exxon withdrew funding from the global warming denying Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2005, a year before it ran its laughable ad campaign promoting carbon dioxide, "We Call it Life" (see here and here for all the gory details), and, alleging that it has been "misunderstood," pledged this past January that it would "not be providing any further funding" to similar organizations....

I was asked to write about my job, or in other words, a day in the life of a solar-installer. I’ll try and keep this as non-cheesy as possible – its hard writing about yourself without sounding dorky. To begin, I’m an average-sized girl – 5’7”, 1-cough, ahem, sputter-rty something. Everyone else I work with is at least 5’11” and, for lack of a better word, “has a pair.” This means that there are some things that I just can’t do, where the guys, simply because they are taller and stronger, can. For example, standing on tip-toes and pulling a 28 foot ladder overhead off the truck, or hanging a 170 pound inverter. So I’ve learned that I’m going to have to work smarter at this job because I clearly can’t do the work with brute force. So a typical day, hmmm, well I get up before the sun is up (about 5 am) and head out to the warehouse where everyone meets up to load trucks and compare who had the better weekend. ...

While we tend to think of buoys as devices that float on the water and serve primarily as ship markers, over the past few years a number of different countries and business have been attempting to develop models that can harness the power of waves (see here and here for two recent examples). AWS Ocean Energy, a British company, has now brought a twist to the formula by building an underwater buoy that can harness wave energy from 50 meters below the surface. The buoybu is able to harness wave energy at a distance through the changes in pressure produced by waves increasing and decreasing the water column. This occurs when a wave passes over a buoy at the surface, causing the local water pressure to rise and the upper half of the device to sink. In between waves, the water column decreases, returning the water pressure to its normal level and causing the upper half to go up again. This pressure change is converted into electricity which can be fed into a power grid....

Remember when your mother used to tell you to just put on an extra layer when you pleaded to have the heater raised? It seems as though China’s government has decided to adopt a similar logic to encourage lower power consumption: it has called for an easing of dress codes to minimize the use of air conditioning in its public buildings. According to China Daily, the government hopes to make this one of the key steps in its broader “26°C” campaign to keep buildings no cooler than 26°C (79°F) during the summer. The campaign, which was started in 2005, applies to schools, office buildings, supermarkets, restaurants, government agencies and various other public structures. Implementing this plan would result in energy savings of approximately 300 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to People’s Daily Online....

Nothing makes us happier here at TreeHugger than reading about innovative devices that perfectly marry the concepts of design and science. Case in point is The Living’s River Glow project, the brainchild of architects Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin (who we’ve previously mentioned here): an elegant floating LED light system that monitors water pollution. What started out as a basic flash research project quickly turned into something much bigger when Yang and Benjamin, operating on a shoe-string budget of $1,000, won the runner-up spot in Metropolis’ 2006 Next Generation Design Competition. ...

When your family has an eco-rep (utation), your friends know to not only make it green but in terms of aesthetics to make it good too. So when my wife's friend threw her a baby shower, she ordered Bambu Veneerware from Greenfeet .com to enhance the tasteful and tasty nature of the experience. The plates are as lovely in person as they are in their picture, however they come wrapped in a petroleum-based plastic shrink wrap proclaiming the ubiquitous free-trade factoid "Made in China." We can speculate that the products may even have been shipped on vessels that typically burn bunker fuel, a form of low-grade diesel left over from the refining of gasoline and other diesels -- literally the bottom of the barrel, with sulfur content 3,000 times higher than the fuel used in new diesel trucks. But large-scale commercial bamboo farming in the United States failed to take root even after the years between 1890 and 1960 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recognizing the potential particularly of Asian bamboos, paid plant explorers to find, select and import farmable bamboos. ...

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Wind is often characterized as an unreliable power source because 'when the wind dies, so goes the power.' This is easily countered by explaining that wind does not blow uniformly across a geographic region in which multiple wind farms are connected to the same grid, and by the corollary thought - the height at which wind velocity has historically been recorded does not always represent the heights at which wind turbines do their work. However, scientific investigation, not logical debate, is needed if renewable power is to become a common source of electricity. Good thing, then, that the parallel issue for regionally dispersed solar photo voltaic power systems is examined with some rigor in The Character of Power Output from Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Systems, a study conducted by Aimee E. Curtright and Jay Apt, published as Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center Working Paper CEIC-07-05 Available for download, with advance password authorization, here. Following is a brief excerpt from the Discussion section of the paper. ...

When it comes to choosing green services, the provider of your phone line is not perhaps the highest of your concerns. However, if you are in the UK, you could do a lot worse than choose the Phone Co-op. The organization, based in Oxfordshire, offers cheap phone calls to both business and residential customers, as well as broadband internet and web hosting. It has been voted Ethical Consumer best buy for both line rental and broadband services, and has an extensive ethical and environmental policy including carbon offsets, green energy purchases, investment in wind power and extensive office sustainability initiatives. The Phone Coop also has partnerships with affiliate organizations such as the Centre for Alternative Technology, who we reported on here and here, and Permaculture Magazine, also reported on here, allowing these groups to raise money through encouraging their members to sign up as Phone Co-op customers. ::The Phone Co-op:: ...

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