Weekly Archive for December 16, 2007 : TreeHugger

Perfect for small spaces, or anywhere you want to add a little function to your wall-hangings, "Bildtisch" (or, literally, "picture table") is an interesting, innovative way to create more with less. Sort of a Murphy bed for tables, it combines a unique, stylish picture frame with some slick foldability to create a flat space where there was once just a picture (and vice versa). We could see this as a cool addition to cozy kitchens and as a great way to add seating in a tight cafe or coffee shop. Designed by Austrian designer Verena Lang, it appears to be a concept for now. See more at ::IVYDESIGN via ::Freshome...

One year ago in TreeHugger: 'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the site, we were celebrating TreeHugger 2.0 to everyone's delight. Though there was at least one lump of coal, fueling B-52 aircraft, but most everybody was in the holiday spirit. Thomas Friedman declared "green" to be the word of the year, so we got into the festive holiday spirit by reviewing TreeHuggerTV's eco-party tips, showcasing the efficiency of LEDs with a festive bike-powered reindeer billboard, found a last minute tree-replacement idea using recycled computer parts and reminded you to wrap your presents with care. We even had time to swing by Gorgeous & Green, Global Green USA's party for some eco-celeb watching. Whew! Wait, was that a solar-bikini sighting? Fast forward to this year: lumps of King Coal still power our transport, but there's plenty of good greenness to go around this Christmas. We've got tips on a green Christmas menu and found some green stocking stuffers for last-minute gifts. We've moved on from bicycle-powered LEDs to bicycle-powered supercomputers and, rather than recycled trees, we shone the spotlight on green-built gingerbread houses and merry flat-packed Christmas cards. And we even made it back to Gorgeous & Green for a second year. See everything on our radar last year in ::The Archives. ...

Not so long ago I had the chance to check out a couple of cool gifts for kids this holiday season, and the Hydrogen Car available through Discovery was definitely one of them. Similar to the H-Racer, it combines a cool, futuristic look with fuel cell technology to teach kids of all ages about the benefits of clean technology development. And while the car automatically avoids obstacles after bumping into them, the one real drawback is that it doesn’t go tremendously fast. So I suspect the eco-geek on your list may well enjoy it more than the kid who’s looking for the fastest machine in existence. ...

In a move reminiscent of celebrities turned politician like Reagan or Schwarzenegger, and building on his own growing celebrity as the world's most recognizable Humpback whale, Mr. Splashy Pants has stepped into the political arena by taking on the world of University politics. Of course he's not just your average whale... Or maybe he was until that whole naming contest held by Greenpeace launched him to superstardom. But as he puts it now "I just don't think the life of your average filter-feeder is for me anymore." So what's he set his sights on? For starters, it seems there's a wall out there at a college or university somewhere that needs to be torn down, and whaddya know but Splashy Pants himself has challenged the school's President to "Tear down this wall!" ...

:: Turn traffic stoplights and rush-hour jams into networking and socializing opportunities, while saving money, to boot. Learn how easy it is to find or start a carpool. :: We want to see your junk-mail creations! We'll feature our favorites in a future post. :: Make it easy for the laziest person in your office to recycle his or her electronic waste. :: Find out how to get audio books from every genre, for free. :: Lloyd rounds up some of the charitable giving sites we've featured in the past, as well as a few new ones you can check out. :: Americans throw away enough of this household staple every three months to rebuild our entire commercial fleet. Discover what it is and what you can do about it....

The American Happy Motoring way of life as we know it is safe; we have lots of coal, and can import a massive fleet of steam engine equipped, coal powered buses and transport trucks to achieve instant energy independence. They built them in the UK since Victorian times and kept it up until 1950. ...

We love transformer furniture that serves multiple functions or adapts, like the Stokke Tripp Trap Chair or the nest high chair. Back in 1957 Eddie Peyton figured out how to transform a stroller into a high chair. Just don't put your arm in the wrong place when it's being folded up, kid. ::Modern Mechanix...

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Looks like Missouri's Governor Matt Blunt needs someone to show him how to make renewable energy a positive economic development force, because he was the only Midwest Governor who did not sign any part of the Midwestern Governors Association's energy pact. The pact, distributed at the 12-state association's energy summit last month, included shared greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy goals (member state boundaries pictured on US map).

On Wednesday, after having reviewed the pact, he said that he would sign certain components, such as helping establish a regional fuels corridor and joining a discussion of new bio-energy projects. But he refused to sign the main parts of the pact that included specific goals such as producing 30 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and requiring coal-fired power plants to capture and store emissions by 2020.

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Yesterday we heard about a groundbreaking initiative for international environmental education via the Permaculture Association Britain newsletter. Later, flicking further through the pages, we also came across a cool new organic t-shirt company, Eko Noiz, who are donating £2 (US$4) to the Permaculture Association for every sale of their Grow Your Own t-shirt. All items are apparently hand-printed with water based inks, and are made from sustainable fibers such as organic cotton, bamboo, hemp and recycled plastic bottle fabric. Looking through their website, we're certainly impressed with their funky, upfront, hard hitting sustainability messaging. Anyone hungry for more environmental fashion should take a look at our guide on How to Green Your Wardrobe. ::Eko Noiz::via Permaculture Association Britain:: ...

"Every skier makes a difference." This is the reason that the Ski Area Citizens Coalition maintains an environmental scorecard on the major ski resorts in the USA. The rankings appear to be well-founded and comprehensive. Ratings have been expanded recently to include impacts of logging and to roadless areas as well as preferences for renewable energy sources. The scorecard includes many categories specific to ski resorts, such as conservation by avoiding snowmaking, as well as more traditional concerns such as protecting wetlands and old growth forests. In addition to a clear report on the points awarded in each category, the scorecards document the reasons points were deducted in a clear and transparent manner. Attachments further support the decisions....

Andrew Sullivan shows map where oil wealth is substituted for land area. He titles it "One Reason We're Not Leaving Iraq." Link to a larger version here...

Image courtesy of Dave Pierce/SIO Scientists have long shied away from attributing any one small-scale event - irrespective of its magnitude - to global warming, reasoning that the complexity and number of factors at play makes it extremely difficult, if not inadvisable, to do so. Yet, at least in the case of the American West's recent bout with several severe water shortages, some researchers have stepped forward and confidently asserted that there does indeed exist a link between anthropogenic global warming and the scarcity - the shrinking snowpacks. At the fall meeting of the AGU, Tim P. Barnett, a climatologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, explained that the West typically depends on a large, late-melting snowpack to replenish its reservoirs in late spring. However, due to global warming-induced effects, the snowpack has been shrinking earlier and at a faster pace, a trend that will worsen in coming years - depriving the West of a significant source of freshwater. This, he said, would result in a large-scale "water crisis in the West."...

One of the things that is so great about bikes is their simplicity. You don't need electricity and a lot of fancy stuff, a few lights for night and you are on your way. But then it is nice to see what is behind you... and a GPS unit would be helpful...oh, and what about a heart monitor? It is all here in this new Cerevellum rear view monitor for around $299, which is 50 bucks more than I paid for my bike. The inventor, Evan Solida, describes it's background: ...

A cross between a street party and a marathon, Bogota's Ciclovía manages to combine sport, recreation, health, commerce and culture in one free package. Every Sunday, some 70 miles of the city's roads are closed to vehicle traffic and turned over to its citizens, who come out in droves to walk, jog, skate and especially bike. In this excellent video, city employees and residents talk about their enthusiasm for the project, and its planners share some behind the scenes info about the process of setting up and running the Ciclovía and the thought behind it....

Parisians curious about the quality of the air they're breathing will soon be able to get their daily fill by looking to the sky. A balloon that's been floating above the city's André-Citroën park since 1999 will be modified by its creators, Aérophile, to monitor the level of air pollution on an hourly basis starting in early 2008. The colors will range from green - signifying an excellent air quality - to (you guessed it) red - signifying a very poor air quality (orange will represent a "mediocre" air quality). The balloon will be equipped with two light systems reflecting two different pollution indices: One, located within it (and visible by night), will measure the city's ambient air quality while another (powered by electroluminescent diodes), situated at the base of the balloon, will keep tabs on the air pollution produced by auto emissions - which will be visible both by day and night. Airparif, an organization in charge of monitoring the air quality in various French cities, will be recording the data on its website, alongside that of 30 other European cities. Via ::Le Monde: Un ballon mesurera la pollution de l'air de Paris (newspaper) See also: ::Paris Pledges Emissions Cuts by 2020, ::20000 Rental Bikes to be Unleashed in Paris ...

The dumbbell-shaped bottle of Suntory’s ‘LET’S’ diet-drink practically drags you to your workout. OK they have a high recycling rate in Japan; 65% of PET bottles are recycled. But they also used 515,414 tons of PET resin to make these bottles, so 180,314 tons of bottle waste is still going somewhere else. Perhaps some are going onto people's shelves, because the bottlers spend so much energy and time producing really distinctive disposables. ...

We do go on about efficiency being the best source of energy; that so much of the CO2 we are generating and the fossil fuels that we are burning is coming from waste and inefficiency, the leaky buildings, the overpowered and empty cars and the unnecessary lighting. But there are problems with this; the Economist notes that when you lower the operating cost of a car, either by lowering the price of fuel or making it more efficient, all other things being equal, people drive more. It is the "rebound effect": a reduction in cost leads to an increase in demand, first described in 1865 by William Stanley Jevons. An example might be: insulate your house that you used to keep at 60 degrees in the winter, and you will probably turn up the thermostat. Or you might buy a hybrid Lexus where you get more power without buying more gas. The Economist suggests that "that rebound is a big enough problem to make energy efficiency programmes almost useless" and concludes that " Environmentalists may wish to re-do their sums." Or should they? The key line above is "all other things being equal", which they are not. If fuel prices keep rising can there be a rebound effect? ::Economist UPDATE: TriplePundit covered this issue earlier in The Efficiency Conundrum. ...

Photo credit: Allison MacCullough The 3rd annual premier green soirée popped off earlier this week at San Francisco’s LEED certified Bently Reserve. The event focused on green design solutions to combat climate change. Proceeds from the evening benefited Global Green projects, including their Green Schools Initiative and the Holy Cross project, the first sustainable low-income housing community in New Orleans’s Lower 9th Ward. ...

Joseph Kahn and Mark Landler of the New York Times do a great job of reporting on the dirty little secret: the west is getting cleaner air and generating less greenhouse gas because we have outsourced it to China. They follow a major steel plant in Dortmund, where ThyssenKrupp sold it to the Chinese, who came over and dismantled it, and reassembled it in Handan. “They worked day and night,” said Erwin Schneider, a spokesman for ThyssenKrupp. “They could never have done it that fast if they were governed by German labor laws.”...

Image credit:roboppy With the dinners and parties we've been attending over the past week, there hasn't been an awful lot of cooking going on in our household and I just wasn't sure what I would write about this week. Last night we vacated our premises so our daughter could have her friends over for a Christmas party. After a movie we had a light dinner at a little Italian restaurant. I had a Caesar salad, and like most of these restaurant salads I've had it was alright, but not fabulous. Why can't restaurants make a really good Caesar? It's really not that hard. So I'm going to share my Caesar recipe with you and see how it stacks up against your local trattoria. ...

Next to nonstop nauseating Christmas carols in elevators and restaurants, the next seasonal biggest infestation is the ubiquitous list of almost anything anywhere. Some are more interesting and fun than others, such as Wired Magazine's 10 Craziest Ways to Hack the Earth, which includes all those fun geo-engineering ideas like solar shields in space, pumping clouds, seeding the ocean with nutrients to promote plankton growth and other wild and crazy ideas, some of which are not so wild and crazy. ::Wired ...

We've already seen some interesting entries as part of the Innovate or Die contest sponsored by Specialized and Google, the aim of which is to "invent and build machines that transform pedaling energy into new and useful purposes." Now, those clever folks at MIT have upped the ante by using bicycles to power a supercomputer for 20 minutes, setting "a new world record for human powered computing." A group of spandex-clad graduate students generated 1,200 watts, enough to allow the computer to run models as part of research into the possibility of "harnessing the energy creation processes of the sun. . .open[ing] the possibility of limitless energy." In the above video, a student points out that while nuclear fusion is a potential source of clean energy in the distant future, bicycles are "already a clean energy source that allows people transportation throughout cities and around the country." How about that? Using the world's most energy-efficient vehicle to power an efficient computer to do research on future sources of energy, all while recognizing that we already have the technology needed to solve climate change. Via: ::Nature.com See Also: ::Innovate or Die, ::Trek Lime: Juicy Green Bicycle, ::Wee Laddies Give Green Supercomputing a Go, and ::Computer System Runs on Just 8 Watts...

We’re pretty familiar with the One Planet Living (OPL) concept that was developed by a partnership between the Bioregional Development Group and WWF. We’ve heard from one of its leading proponents about how OPL is taking off in North America, seen how it could be used to redesign British suburbs according to the latest in sustainable thinking, and watched as plans for giant flagship OPL communities around the world take shape. Now, via the newsletter of the Permaculture Association Britain, we’ve heard that WWF are teaming up with Pestalozzi International Village to create an international education centre along permaculture and OPL principles [for those unfamiliar with permaculture, check out this mini-movie, and our interview with co-founder David Holmgren]. Pestalozzi is an organization that brings together young gifted students from around the world that would otherwise have little access to education, and offers them a two-year scholarship to eventually take the International Baccalaureate Diploma, a globally recognized qualification. Through the partnership with WWF, Pestalozzi will expose future leaders of the world to cutting-edge practices and concepts in sustainability. This from the newsletter:...

Earlier this season we suggested that you should "take a stand against cookie-cutter consumerism, sweatshop labor, and rampant environmental destruction by pledging to buy and receive handmade gifts." Others noted that most "crafty" things are completely unnecessary - jewelry, clothes, bags, home furnishings, etc., which people almost certainly have plenty of. Online Surveys | Free Poll | Email Marketing ...

Social housing can be pretty depressing in les banlieues around Paris, and since the 2005 riots architects and planners have been looking for ways to improve them. Edouard François, known for his living buildings with green façades (like the Sprout Building in Montpellier) is working on Eden Bio, featuring 100 terraced units set within dense organic gardens, with stairways enclosed in greenery. ...

Photo credit: Thornton/Adao/INF Brad Pitt takes a leisurely 44th birthday cruise through New Orleans on Tuesday with partner Angelina Jolie, as well as two of the photogenic twosome's children, Maddox, 6, and Zahara, 2. We're happy to see the kiddies kitted out with helmets, but Mom and Pops appear to have forgotten their protective gear, along with the youngest member of the Jolie-Pitt clan. Shiloh's publicist did not return our calls for comment. [Via ::People]...

Duke Energy Corp. is reportedly discussing with BMW Manufacturing Co. the potential for building a solar energy plant at the car company's Spartanburg South Carolina USA facility. Well, isn't that a German sort of response to US government pressure?

Duke and other utilities are facing government requirements to use less coal-fired power and more renewable energy, which is pushing them to find cost-effective ways to set up solar and other renewable energy systems.

That's one of the values of having a company ruled by European values located in the US. There's other evidence of BMW being renewables focused here....

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The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine! That's right folks, the college is so small you could drive by it a hundred times before you realized it exists, but the 300 students at the College of the Atlantic can proudly say that they attend the first carbon-neutral college campus in the U.S. Of course, with just 300 students they're not so big on academic diversity either. Featuring just one major, Human Ecology. But that doesn't mean they aren't setting the course and the standard for everyone else regardless of size. ...

271 km² is just a little over 100 square miles. It is also the area of Scotland's third largest local authority, Fife. Which makes it a prime candidate for a Scottish version of the now famous 100 Mile Diet from Vancouver. Inspired by James and Alisa’s story, Mike Small, his wife Catherine and their offspring are now over a month into The Fife Diet, which they figure on doing for the requisite 12 months. They’ve encouraged others to join them, so they might share the experience. As they say, “It’s no good just saying no. We can’t just oppose Tesco’s, rage against food-miles and rant against food packaging. In all aspects of socio-ecology we need to build alternative platforms and movements from within the shell of the old decaying society.” In an article on the endeavour, the Guardian took comment from Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association. "It can't be understated how important the carbon footprint of food is," he said. "Every major supermarket in the UK has a policy of sourcing local food, and they are all responding to something they see going on and to changes in the market. The local sales through farm shops, farmers' markets and cooperatives in the UK last year and the year before rose faster than sales of organic food in the supermarkets." Apparently Fife is a canny place to undertake such an experiment. It’s credited with some of Scotland's best farmland and fishing ports. “And even in February it should still be possible to eat fresh beetroot, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, leeks and mushrooms grown on Fife farms.” Mike Small is philosophical about the results he and fellow Fifians might obtain, "We're not saying we've got all the answers. We've got small children, we work, and we're crap at gardening. We are not The Good Life, but it will just be interesting to see if it can be done. It might be that we can't do it and it ends up that we just buy seasonally and more locally." Read about their adventures with local food on the project's blog. The Fife Diet...

That producers and moderators of US Presidential debates have thus far largely excluded climate change as a suitable topic seems to be a growing source of irritation. Check out this video from What Are They Waiting For? Questioners in the sanctioned debates seem to just ape each other's easy-shot questions, avoiding Climate policy like it were a really nasty taboo. Here's the stat from What Are They Waiting For.

The climate crisis will be the biggest challenge facing the next president. But the top Sunday hosts don’t seem to think so. In 2007, they have asked: 2275 Questions; 3 mentioned global warming

Also, we heard today about an organized effort by the group Draft Gore NH to write Al Gore's name on the primary ballot, primarily because he would help break the climate change "taboo." Via Encarta a Taboo is something:

1. socially or culturally prohibited: forbidden to be used, mentioned, or approached because of social or cultural rather than legal prohibitions

Via::What Are They Waiting For? Image credit::Monkeys As Critics, Gabriel von Max, Netslova ...

Pic courtesy of City of Sydney Sydney claims the largest and most technologically advanced annual fireworks display on the planet, attracting more than one million people to the harbour foreshore, more than turn out for the fireworks in New York, London, Paris or Berlin. And the stats (PDF) are impressive. 11,000 shells, 10,000 shooting comets, with a total of 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects, and 112 firing points on the Sydney Harbour Bridge itself. Plus seven barges and eight city rooftops. It requires 15 months of planning, a crew of 40 and 14 x 20 foot shipping containers to haul around the stuff that’s needed. Like the 60,000 metres of wires and cables required to interface with the 12 computers to launch the display. So, as you can imagine for a City Council, proud to present Earth Hour, where 2 million Sydneysiders, and 2,200 Sydney businesses symbolically turned off their lights for one hour, and reclaim the streets for pedestrians and cyclists, such an event presents as a double edged sword. People love it, but the environment really could do without it. A bit of a Public Relations conundrum really. The answer? (after the fold ... )...

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We promised a more depth interview with Israel’s carbon offset non-profit, Good Energy Initiative (GEI) and today we deliver. The group is the first body in Israel to utilize voluntary carbon offsetting through its own carbon offsetting projects. Founders Eyal Biger and Joshua Berman explain a little more about what they are doing for GEI, and offer us a taste of the carbon offset climate in Israel. Here is their story: Environmental consciousness is doubtlessly growing in Israel. The discussion regarding global warming is finally picking up pace, and both media and decision makers seem to be spending more time and attention on climate change and other environmental issues. ...

Tote bags are great stocking stuffers: they are convenient, useful, environmental, cheap and roll up tightly to fit into that (hand-knit?) stocking and purse. There are so many witty and catchy ones around that you could just keep on going with them. This one (pictured left) is part of a series in which designers created an image on the theme of sustainability and reusability. Other bags have pictures of ribbons, the quote "plastic is not fantastic", "I am nasty" and a picture of a handbag. The bag on the right is also made of fairtrade cotton, and is a reproduction of a design by Lucienne Day. She is a well known textile designer who has been working in the business since the 1950's. This bag is especially roomy, with long straps to swing over the shoulder. Also part of a series called Bags of Goodwill, other designers included Tom Dixon, Robin Day (her husband) and Naoto Fukasawa. All are in limited editions, so could even become a collector's item some day. Can't resist one last bag with an image of a tree being hugged, how could we not love it! Go for the tote. :: Blanka and :: twentytwentyone...

The Starter Kit for Change must be the prettiest way we've seen to get people on that 'green' path and surely it's the loveliest way to give that person you love a little nudge in the right direction without coming over all 'the end is nigh!' on them. Yes, I am sure we all know someone who yawns subtly, or maybe even openly, when we start banging our climate drum, but with the Starter Kit For Change they can have fun from the outset. Each pack includes: a Booklet, an Arbor Day plantable Seedling, Gratitude cards, Sudoku Booklet, Journal, Recycled pencil, Compact fluorescent light bulb, Fair trade hot chocolate, Tote bag, and Charity envelope. ...

Image courtesy of Vibragiel Going against the better judgment of his agency's legal and technical staffs, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson shot down California's proposed auto emissions waiver, arguing that the recently enacted energy bill would do more to combat global warming than "a confusing patchwork of state rules." That, of course, is blatantly wrong: yes, it does contain renewable energy requirements but, as California state officials have pointed out, the waiver would require a mileage average of 36 mpg by 2016 - as opposed to the energy bill's 35 mpg by 2020. What is most infuriating about Johnson's decision is that 16 other states, representing over half of the U.S. population, had either already adopted or pledged to adopt California's tailpipe emissions rules - flying in the face of his "patchwork of state rules" argument. This denial comes in the wake of decisions recently made by federal judges in Vermont and California to block carmakers' attempts to strike down state tailpipe regulations; no doubt the lobbying efforts of several major companies, including Ford and Chrysler, helped "influence" Johnson's decision....

Stuart Haygarth strikes again. After wowing us with his eyeglass lens chandelier at Trash Luxe and disposable wineglass chandelier, the London-based designer is back with more lighting from recycled materials. This time, his muse is bottled water, and "Drop" is the result, debuting the recent Design Miami show. Check out a video and interview featuring Haygarth, courtesy of dezeen, for more. The choice to use the ubiquitous bottled water (don't even get us started on the world of reasons to ditch it or it's true (enormous) cost) is a pretty interesting one. Haygarth's work is always about both making recycled materials beautiful and functional, but also about exposing our overuse of those materials; with his treatment of bottled water, he's taken something that's a real problem in the waste steam (we haven't railed against plastic wine glasses or eyeglass lenses much) and put his personal spin on it. Hit the jump to hear more about the project in his own words....

Transform your used cereal box into some grrrrreat gift packaging. Flushing your meds down the toilet can cause more than plumbing problems. Learn how to safely dispose of unpopped pills. One couple created a three-dimensional scrapbook of their life together by crafting tiny buildings from used business cards and packaging. Make a simple wallet out of the circuit sheet of a used PC keyboard, and impress the geek in your life. Learn how to pick the safest, nontoxic bottles for feeding your baby. This cranberry jam is a lot easier to make than it looks. Find free wrapping paper for your gifts anytime of the year. If you stop using your orphaned socks now, the laundry gremlins win. Collin shows us why cast-iron cookware is better for you, your wallet, and the environment. Don't have time for a drawn-out skincare regimen? Get supple, glowing skin with this quick fix. If your penmanship alone isn't going to cut it, we've rounded up some attractive gift tags you can download and print for free....

The weather outside may be frightful, but that doesn't mean your gingerbread architecture has to be. Just in time for prime gingerbread housebuilding season, here are our picks for the best in gingerbread green building (and remember, many come with downloadable PDFs so you can recreate them at home).

	1) Michelle Kaufmann isn't just an architect of one of the original modern prefabs, pushing the envelope into Google mashups, books and new models in all shapes and sizes. She is never one to miss a market, and has set her sights squarely on the booming prefab modern gingerbread scene. After all, as the mortgage crisis deepens, this may be the only modern prefab market left.
	2) Coming all the way from Berlin, Sauerbruch Hutton's design might be more reminiscent of Swiss cheese than traditional architecture, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to build and look at. Many of the German designs (there are four others in this post) push the envelope of traditional gingerbread making into fun and fabulous new realms. As Archinect cleverly put it, the German architects are going after seasonal work with their 5 different stunning modernist gingerbread houses.
	3) Since it is such an important indicator of the value of real estate, at $88 bucks we calculate this midcentury modern design to cost $176 per square foot, which is pretty cheap for good modern design. Like many prefabs, delivery is extra. Gingerbread as a structural and cladding material is completely biodegradeable for LEED points (as is the xeriscaped garden) and compostable for C2C certification. The remaining two picks are after the jump...

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If you’re wondering what an inspired 12 year-old can do to help stop global warming, look no further than a 7th grader named Hunter Gross from Long Island, NY. He’s launched a project with his mom and dad dubbed Project Kool, and it’s goal is to help get kids involved replacing the endless stream of paper and plastic bags they cart their lunch to school in each day by swapping ‘em for The Lunch Sak. What’s The Lunch Sak? Well, it’s a reusable lunch bag made of natural cotton that has a Velcro strip to make it resealable. For fun it comes with a pair of markers that wash out easily, making it possible for kids of all ages to redesign their Lunch Sak on a daily basis without harming the environment in the process. ...

When looking forward to Palm Foleo I said "Anyone who is interested in green computing is trying to get as much as they can out of as little as possible, the least power consumed, the least hardware on their desk, the most flexibility from their components." It never arrived, but the Asus eee has, and I am writing this post on it. ...

Rock 'n roll, or sit tight? The choice is yours with the dual-functioning Inverso chair by Portuguese designer Luís Porém. Set up one way, it's a gentle rocking chair; flip it over and you've got a sturdy side chair. It's a really sleek, smart design; in both "modes," it looks like the chair was designed for that singular purpose, and we can't decide which one looks better. Appreciably less wacky than the rocking wheel chair and arguably more functional than Peter Danko's Gotham chair (Inverso has got the two-chairs-in-one thing going for it. Which is nice.), we could see Inverso on a nice sunny outdoor patio or even gathered around a small kitchen table. The fabric and plastic versions (pictured after the jump) are decidedly more futuristic-looking; pick your favorite at ::Luís Porém via ::MoCo Loco...

Michael Townsend gives new meaning to the term Mall Rat when he and seven other artists moved into a 750 square foot space above a storage room in the Providence Place Mall in Providence, Rhode Island. They carried in two tons of construction material, a sectional sofa, a love seat, a coffee table, a breakfast table with four chairs, lamps, a throw rug, a hutch and paintings on the walls. Not having water or a bathroom, they snuck into the mall to use its facilities and the food court, although they did have a waffle iron and some video games. They kept this up for four years. ...

Celsias: African Organics by Jeremy Williams "Last week the UK’s Department for International Development announced a new fund to support ethical food production in Africa, for the UK market. The £2 million Food Retail Industry Challenge fund, or FRICH, will support trade networks between UK retailers and fair-trade and organic farmers in Africa." Earth2Tech: FAQ: Thin-Film Solar by Craig Rubens "Nanosolar started to roll the panels off its presses this week, prompting us to take a serious look at the thin-film market. So here are some basic pointers for one of the most promising areas in cleantech."...

Our friends over at Ethical Weddings have been making waves recently. Not only have they undergone a complete makeover, but they have just been short listed as one of the Yahoo! Search Finds of the Year for 2007. This is an announcement that bodes well for the continued growth of the ethical wedding sector, something we are delighted to see. Katie Fewings, Director of Ethical Weddings Ltd, reckons this should provide a significant boost, not just for the site itself, but for the countless independent suppliers featured on their pages:

It will mean so much for our ethical wedding suppliers to step into the limelight just when we're entering the traditional wedding planning season. Many of our suppliers are small scale, working really hard on tight budgets to provide a stylish but sustainable service for eco-friendly couples. If the Yahoo! Finds of the Year Campaign directs a few more ethical brides and green grooms their way, it will help them to keep up the great work they're doing.

The Ethical Weddings team are also hoping to scoop up the People’s Choice awards, and are encouraging any fans of their site to make their voice heard here. For anyone wanting more thoughts on holding a good green wedding, we would also humbly offer our guide on How to Green Your Wedding as a useful resource. Image Credit: Berry and Paul’s ethical wedding ::Ethical Weddings::via site visit:: ...

Image by Infonomía, illustration by Sergi Rucabado In his series 2020: Possible Futures, Alfons Cornella, founder and president of the Spanish innovation network Infonomía, says: "‘eco’ is ‘ego’, it is time we get out of prehistory". In his article, Cornella makes reference to James Burke’s documentary After the Warming (1990), that predicts what the world in 2050 will look like, so that when people in the future look back on the last 50 years, they could see how wrong we were about climate change and how little we did to solve it until the first obvious signs were visible in 2010. Cornella believes that we have already reached that stage with repetitive disasters due to hurricanes (like Katrina) or the rising of fuel prices, even if it’s just the beginning. The article continues remarking on the movie The 11thHour in which only the best minds and technologies can save the problem of global warming. Cornella agrees that the idea makes sense: “ The planetary transformation is a company of gigantic dimensions, that should mobilise the best resources and energies”. He continues that science can probably never assure 100% what the causes of the problem are, and hence, will always leave space for opinions. This leads the author on to analysing the debate between evolutionism (Darwin) and intelligent design, with reference to Edward Wilson’s text The Creation, where saving Paradise (our Planet Earth in this case) is always the common objective no matter how different the approaches of religion and science....

Today came the possibly "too little, too late" news that airlines are to be included in the EU's system of CO2 permits trading...but not until 2012. Waiting four more years to add airlines to a possibly-flawed Euro system is hard to see as brilliant news (Swedish greenies favor a simple CO2 tax), but we'll try anyway. Just the thought of impending trading may convince airlines to implement some of the engine-efficiency and fuel-changing measures that will bring down their CO2 emissions profiles. In the meantime, airlines seems are getting in on selling carbon offsets to customers faster than you can say "direct flight." Cathay Pacific, Continental, Delta Air Canada, British Airways and Scandinavian (SAS) all offer offsets through partners, as does easyJet. We're skeptical about offsets, as you can read here and here, but offer the basic primer on greening offsets here. The quality of what the airlines offer varies widely. Possibly a trip to any of three highly regarded offset providers - Sustainable Travel International, myclimate, or Atmosfair, might be the best course. Because in spite of the drawbacks, offsets are what we as consumers have got now. If you have to travel by plane, might as well try to find the best-quality offsets. Via ::Wall Street Journal...

What is the value of energy? So asks MAX 500W, a mindful idea of thehomeproject (we've featured them before; remember these crazy cork speakers?). By replacing power strip plugs with votive candles, it answers the above question with another: How many candles would you need? TreeHugger likes concepts and designs that make us all think about our energy and lighting use, and where it comes from -- like the combination coat hanger/light switch -- so just remember to hit up Bluewick, Dzign Life or Madisyn Taylor for soy candles to fill your strip. Close up pic after the jump. ::thehomeproject via ::NotCot.org...

The end of any year casts a shadow of reflection on accomplishments and importantly, on what could have been done in the last 12 months. However, this year, 2007, saw progress in addressing our generation’s most pressing challenges – how to slow and ultimately stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy efficiency and improve our nation’s energy security. It was a productive year and one that will hopefully be followed by a year filled with even more accomplishments.

What a year it was. People across the country began to see energy and the environment through a different lens, thanks in part to attention surrounding the following milestones:

Former Vice President Gore being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for work in climate change and his series of Live Earth concerts.

...

Pitney Bowes, the postage meter company, has published its Direct Mail Survey for 2007. One interesting conclusion of the 2007 survey, as reported in the Pitney Bowes "DMNews" is that:

...consumers greatly overestimate the environmental impact of direct mail, a fact that likely colors attitudes toward the medium. Nonetheless, the survey shows that people enjoy their mail and do not want to stop receiving it — even if doing so were to benefit the environment — and that they are open to industry efforts to police itself.

Do we really overestimate? Are we focused on trivial matters and thus overlooking the big factors? Hold that question for a bit. Based on the survey report, what advocacy strategy might direct mailers take to keep those voluntary actions in play? You guessed it. It's the "Big Actions" thing. ...

TreeHugger previously covered the competition to design a park on Governors Island in ::Fantasy Island: Imagining a Park in New York and noted at the time that we thought the funkiest and most interesting scheme was from the team of Diller Scofidio & Renfro, Rogers Marvel Architects, West 8, Quennell Rothschild & Partners and SMWM, with its climbing walls and "what TreeHugger could resist the promise that "Three thousand free wooden bikes would allow for rapid circumnavigation on looping, leafy paths. " We called it right; Yesterday it was announced that the design won, and Mayor Bloomberg said “It is one of the jewels of our city, We couldn’t have a better location. Now it’s up to us to do it.”...

Image courtesy of ah zut By supporting local eco-friendly activities, San Francisco's novel offsetting program, dubbed the San Francisco Carbon Fund, would seek to redress one of the most commonly criticized aspects of carbon offsets: namely, the oft inscrutable nature of the projects being funded. In his announcement, Mayor Gavin Newsom explained that the program would seek to offset the carbon cost of city officials' municipal air travel by making contributions to one of several participating city programs aimed at lowering emissions. Examples of the type of investments made under the city's offset program include converting restaurant grease into biodiesel or installing photovoltaic panels in low-income housing; the critical point, Newsom stressed, is that the offsets only fund local initiatives, not some that "promise action in distant lands." He said that the program wouldn't incur any additional costs, suggesting that the various city departments would need to reduce their travel time and pay for some trips with the offsets....

China’s air pollution is thought to kill 460,000 a year, the World Bank reported this year, and it’s no secret what the major cause is (it’s largely coal). But China’s environmental police face an uphill battle finding and fining factories and power plants for pollution. Fines are paid, or local officials are paid off. But a new map—yes, a map—is leveraging a potentially stronger disincentive: shame. The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, an NGO helmed by activist (and Ed Norton;s hero) Ma Jun, launched the handy China Air Pollution Map using public data found on the websites of environmental protection departments or in government news releases. Ma says it will be constantly updated. This is actually Ma’s second map; the first, released this year, targeted water pollution. His goal—and one backed by the state environmental protection agency, is to build a sense of public awareness around pollution while firming up China’s weak environmental surveillance. Outing offenders and relying on public participation are both crucial, say some officials. Others might be more reluctant. China recorded 51,000 pollution-related protests in 2005, and this past year, text messages brought together crowds that successfully blocked a chemical factory in the city of Xiamen. Such events are a reminder of the power of organized information. They're also a reminder that pollution isn't just unhealthy for the country's growth and its people, but for it's stability too. China Air Pollution Map via Xinhua See also Greening the Almighty Yuan...

It's the rock and roll establishment's gift of choice: a wicker Christmas hamper filled with products from Sting's personal organic farm in Wiltshire. There are only one hundred of them, with products lovingly chosen by his wife, Trudie Styler, and they are flying off the shelves. For £140 ($300US) each hamper contains organic christmas cake, blackcurrant jam, raspberry jam, gooseberry mint and sage jelly, beetroot chutney and a chocolate coin. There is also a bottle of champagne, cassis, and some candles. Styler has been running an organic farm for 15 years, and is delighted with the success of the venture. She says, "I've always been a big advocate of local shopping and what could be more local than your own backyard?" (read country estate with staff to match). Who wants them? Everyone--Sharon Osbourne took away "a number", and record executives have snapped them up to give as presents to Katie Melua, amongst others. Of course, this is small potatoes compared to the ultimate christmas hamper for $53,576 at Fortnum & Mason. It will be delivered by horse and cart and contains goodies including a tin of Beluga caviar, enough foie gras for 25 people, 3 precious bottles of wine and two pairs of cashmere socks in pink and grey. :: Evening Standard...

Wouldn't it be great if there were a technology or database in place to locate the world's sunniest spots? Not only could it help spur further investment in solar energy technologies by giving businesses or governments the best bang for their buck; it would also provide more cost-effective energy solutions for developing countries - particularly in Africa - which receive a lot of sunlight but lack a proper power grid infrastructure. NASA has been working on building just such a database, gathering and scrutinizing 22 years' worth of maps compiled by European and U.S. satellites to find Earth's sunniest places; it has so far determined that the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the Sahara Desert top the list of sunniest locations. The effort is being spearheaded by the Group on Earth Observations, a 72-nation coalition that seeks practical applications for scientific information to "benefit society." ...

Whilst Osprey have been bringing their recycled daypacks and messenger bags to market, Mountainsmith has been busy with their line of recycled lumbar pads (as noted in our Christmas Gift Guide for Outdoor Lovers) and seen above right. The exterior fabric of the lumbar pads is a 450 denier 100% recycled PET (polyester) fabric, while the interior is a bright coloured lining (so you can find stuff inside) of lighter weight 150 denier PET. Mountainsmith say that between 13 and 16 PET bottles and by the end of 2007 (which is not very far away) they estimate they’ll have saved 1.1 million bottles from landfill. Wow, by my shoddy maths, that’s almost 70,000 recycled lumbar pads being bought. For 2008 Mountainsmith plan to extend their recycled offerings to include a full 70 litre alpine rucksack, the Phoenix (seen on the left). The company suggest when the pack hits the trail in Spring next year it will be made of 85% recycled materials. It will join the the smaller 30 litre Spire (middle), in a line of, what Trailspace described as “19 backpacks and daypacks, seven lumbar packs, and four camera bags with recycled content.” ::Mountainsmith, via ::Kirou....

Be the first on your block to have a cutting-edge angel designed by a famous artist on the top of your tree, downloaded for free from the net. Treehugger loves downloading; it's free, democratic, environmental and fun. Now you can pick one of three designs created by contemporary British artists as a tree topper. Just cut and paste and you too can have the girl with a rose face (pictured) on yours. It is designed by a Manchester punk artist, Linder, who works in collages, mixing scenes from old shopping catalogues and women's magazines. Yinka Shonibare has lived in N

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Entries for December 16, 2007 - December 22, 2007

Total this week: 148

by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 12.22.07

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by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 12.21.07

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by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 12.20.07

by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 12.20.07

by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 12.20.07

by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 12.20.07

by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 12.20.07

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.20.07

by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 12.20.07

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by Bonnie Alter, London on 12.20.07