We have shown this smug, self-satisfied face before, in our own posts on
greenwashed lumber. Now the Tyee offers a special report on
The War over Eco-Certified Wood.
At stake is a multi-billion dollar international market for eco-certified wood products, which rewards environmentally-responsible forestry companies with improved access to retail and business-to-business customers.
...
Images via Contemporist
Have I mentioned that I love wood as a building material? If sustainably harvested it provides a strong, beautiful material that can last for centuries and sequester CO2 the whole time. People have built bridges from it forever, but in such exposed circumstances they don't last forever.
But now there are better wood preservation techniques, and Kris De Decker of
No Tech Magazine points us to a lovely new bridge in the Netherlands, purported to be the first wooden bridge in the world that can support the heaviest load class of 60 tons.
...
Periodic table entry for dysprosium. Image credit:
Wikimedia.
China produces 95% of the worlds supply of the rare earth metal, dysprosium, a key metal in magnets used in the drive motors for hybrid electric vehicles - up to 100 grams of dysprosium per hybrid car produced, according to a
Wikipedia reference. Dysprosium's magnetic properties also make it an important metal for wind turbines and electric vehicles. Could be vital for MagLev trains, too.
Scarcity of the metal is a sustainability and a political issue, according to a recent article in the
TimesOnline,
Crunch looms for green technology as China tightens grip on rare-earth metals. This does not look good....
Lulan is another favorite of TreeHugger; Eve Blossom employs over six hundred weavers in a business model that "has evolved to embrace "sustainability" in a dynamic and profound sense of the word."
And now everyone can get involved; Lulan is running a design competition to look for "bold, sophisticated and fresh deisgns that shine when expressed through traditional weaving techniques."
It will all be open source, sponsored by Creative Commons, and anyone can submit and download the designs. Eve explains in our video:...
Vintage Car Window-Mounted Evaporative Air Cooler. Image credit:
ClassicAire, via
62-77ChevyTrucks.com
Refrigerant gases are back in the news - "HFC's" especially - now, because of their extended climate forcing potential. Remember the
Montreal Protocol, that successful, 1989 global treaty to protect the earth's ozone layer? The Protocol still has an important role to play, in encouraging development of refrigerant gases that have reduced impacts on both the ozone layer
and climate. TreeHugger interviewed Mack McFarland, Environmental Fellow with DuPont, Inc., and an active participant in both the Protocol and IPCC, to get his insights into what the refrigerant choices of the future will be, and how we'll get them. Stay cool, read on....
Your next refrigerator might be sheathed in renewable rice, if a team of students from the University of Michigan have anything to do with it. With just 12.5mm (half inch of rice husk ash they reckon they can achieve the equivalent of over 100mm (4 inches) of conventional petroleum-based insulation.
With claims that the 11 million fridges sold annually in the US could be made 50% more efficient, the judges of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Clean Energy Prize obviously saw the potential in such technology. Such that they awarded the students first prize, which came with a cheque for $200,000 USD. That will now no doubt help them as they launch a start-up company, Husk Insulation, to commercialise their product. ...
Images by
Jessica Rosenkrantz
One of the oldest building materials known to humankind, bricks have great thermal mass and last almost forever. But laying them takes skill, and complex forms and shapes are hard to design and build.
Now Professor Ingeborg Rocker and students at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard have taught a computer to do it....
Remember the British technical surfwear company, Finisterre, whom we found were making some really cool gear with innovative knits of
merino wool from New Zealand? We alluded then to some ultra-fine wool that they were exploring much closer home. In North Devon, Just a couple of hours up the coast from their base in Cornwall, as it turns out. Well, some more of the story has recently been revealed. And it involves a rare breed of sheep that has almost been lost....
Image via: Victory Painting & Roofing
My grandmother has lived in the same house for as long as I have known her. We use to rollerskate on her backpatio in the hot, Texas summer heat and watch the purple martens in her birdhouse each spring. This year something was different. As we drove up to her house my mom slyly says “look what’s on grandmas roof. I’m not going to tell you; see for yourself.” It was late and dark, and at first I didn’t notice anything different. ...
That is the provocative title in
Fast Company, about
EcoFaeBrick, made from cow dung. It is 20% lighter and 20% stronger than clay brick, it prevents the environmental damaged caused by digging up clay, reduces carbon emissions and increases the income of local farmers.
But did they have to give it such a, well, crappy name? ...
Image via: Flickr.com
These days everything says eco-friendly, natural,
biodegradable, and
compostable (not to mention a myriad of other mysterious environmental words. Sounds good, right? But is it worth spending the extra couple of bucks if the item won't actually make it to its
eco-grave? I've often wondered that as I wander the supermarket - big deal if this corn-container is compostable, its still going in the garbage can. Then when it makes it to the landfill, it won't break down any better than the plastic clam-shell sitting right next to it. So, is it still worth purchasing the compostable item in hopes that somehow, someway it will breathe its last breath in a compost bin instead of a landfill? ...
Images from ECObyCosentino
Cosentino, one of the world’s largest natural stone importers, announces the launch of
ECO™, a new line of
countertops. The material is composed of 75% recycled-content including mirrors
salvaged from
houses, building and factories;
glass from windows and bottles; granulated
glass from consumer recycling practices; porcelain from china, tiles, sinks, toilets and decorative elements; and industrial furnace residuals from factories in the form of crystallized ashes.
...
Construmat, one of the biggest construction trade fairs in Europe, held this week in Barcelona, Spain, has chosen sustainable construction as one of the main remedies to successfully tackle the crisis in the sector this year, as well as other challenges of the future....
Gore Residence, insulated with AirKrete
When it comes right down to it, most insulation is simply some form of entrapped air, whether in foam or in fiberglass or in cellulose. The greenest one is going to have the fewest chemicals that can outgas, the lowest impact during manufacture, good stability so that it doesn't settle and good fire resistance. I was really surprised to find that it might also be made from cement.
Cement is not one of TreeHugger's favourite materials, given that a ton of CO2 is emitted for every ton of cement produced. But materials made with it have some great attributes, including longevity and fire resistance. If you mix it with air and foam it up with special equipment, you get AirKrete, a foam-in-place insulation that looks like shaving cream and has an R value of 3.9 per inch, which is pretty good.
I had never heard of it but Al Gore had- He insulated his house with it. ...
I can admit now that for a period in my childhood I was really obsessed with wombats... photo: Phil Whitehouse
Here's an alternative paper source you probably haven't considered: Wombat poo. Entrepreneurs in Wales have been turning
sheep droppings into paper, and now some ingenious antipodeans in Tasmania have started turning out handmade paper from one of Australia's iconic marsupials:...
Recently I penned a scathing post about a move by the USDA to designate PVC as “
organic vinyl”. However, I didn’t publish the post. Because, on double checking my sources, I discovered it was an April Fools joke. I’m therefore very pleased to have a positive (and factual) story in the same realm. Mountain Equipment Cooperative (MEC) in Canada have released a line of new transparent PVC-free drybags....
You probably came across some of
Ekobo's elegant and colourful kitchen accessories made from bamboo. If you like their work, which incorporates ethical production and eco-friendly materials, check out the MELLO stools. Glossy, minimalist and funky looking, the bamboo poufs are stackable, come in two sizes and the many bright colours that are typical for
Ekobo products.
...
Solana Generating Station, Gila Bend Arizona USA. Image credit:Business Wire.
Power Engineering reports progress on the Arizona Public Service (APS) concentrating solar power (CSP) plant to be built and operated by
Abengoa, 70 miles southwest of Phoenix Arizona. The 280 MW Solana Generating Station will use a 60/40 alloy of molten Sodium and Potassium Nitrate salts to store the sun's concentrated heat energy, buffering solar input changes to meet 24/7 power demand. Read on for details of how the molten salt storage will affect capacity....
Ever wonder why IKEA furniture is so light? Want to know what’s inside a hollow core door you might find at Lowe’s or Home Depot? In the production process, many manufacturers of inexpensive furniture will add a structural core of paper or fiberboard support. X-Board is a material which is comes in sheet form employing this construction method. It’s composed of recycled honeycomb material which is sandwiched between two layers of thick paper. When the seemingly flexible and flimsy core material is adhered to the paper surfaces, it gives the material structure and incredible rigidity....
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 07. 9.09
Waste-to-energy facility in Broward County, Florida, situated at the Central landfill that also has a landfill gas to energy facility. 
Image: 
