TreeHugger

Whole Foods a Loser in London

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:13:03 -0500

Whole Foods Market arrived in London last year with a bang. The Americans couldn't wait, the Brit's were curious and the press was out for blood. The place was huge with 500 employees and 3 floors of products and restaurants and crowds of people. Whole Foods predicted that they would be opening 40 stores around Britain. But one year later the store reported losses of 9.9M pounds ($18.4M) this year in the UK. It seems that the shoppers weren't buying--they were just looking. People went to see it once and then went back to their own supermarkets...

Urban Mining: The Hunt For Rare Metals

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:58:57 -0500

Urban mining is a new concept for getting more people to recycle their old electronic gadgets and other stuff that contains precious metals. These include gold, silver, platinum, iridium and a range of others, that make your cell phone go beep and blink. Without these rare metals, the Pantone colours on my Sharp 812SH display would look a lot less bright, and you can probably forget about your new iPhone display, as they become too expensive to mass-produce. In northern Japan, Takashi Nakamura, a professor at Tohoku University working on the urban mining project in Akita, notes that ...

Smart Cart Quiz Challenges Consumption

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:00:00 -0500

Image source: 2twentythree3.com So. You've been reading Treehugger for years. You know everything there is to know about green. You probably know what we're going to post even before we do. In that case, you're probably up for the Smart Cart Quiz Challenge. Brought to you by the new eBay Marketplace, World of Good, The Smart Cart Quiz shows consumers how they can "vote" with their almighty dollar. Each question asks what sounds like an outrageous statement, and then includes facts with the answer so the reader has a comparative figure for what that money could be use...

Coal's Toxic Legacy Revealed in Greenland Ice Core

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:45:00 -0500

Proving that Big Coal's nefarious influence knows no bounds, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has shown that pollution from coal burning has contaminated the Arctic for the last 100 years. Measurements taken from an ice core in Greenland, dating from 1772 to 2003, showed that the levels of the toxic heavy metals cadmium, thallium and lead were much higher than predicted -- which may have impa...

Obama Is The Man Organic Cotton Tees

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:30:39 -0500

Obama lovers can wear their presidential endorsement on their sleeves—literally—with pro-Barack T-shirts from Obama Is The Man, the brain child of Aron Kressner of Vivavi. Made from 100 percent organic cotton and printed with water-based inks, the shirts come in six different sizes, in both men's and women's styles. (How's that for democratic?) Better still, a buck from each sale goes to the Obama campaign. You can even view videos made by people who are promoting change in their own live...

How to Go Green: Back to School Guide, Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes and 5 Eco-Event Tips

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:52:00 -0500

:: Beat the back to school blues with a splash of green! Consult our How to Go Green: Back to School guide. :: Take comfort food to healthier heights with this fresh-from-the-farm Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes recipe. :: Follow these five uplifting and energizing tips to give green conferences, parties and gatherings more zest. ...

Middle School Student Invents Ingenious Water Saving Device

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:52:00 -0500

When By Kids For Kids (BKFK) and The Weather Channel launched the Going Green Challenge to inspire kids to come up with neat inventions to help make an eco-difference there’s little doubt that the field was an open one. With a myriad of issues in need of resolution, the grand prize winner, Elizabeth Rintels, 12, of Keswick, Virginia, came up with a “Water Watcher” invention that helps monitor water usage in an ingenious way....

Google Gets Behind Geothermal, Invests Over $10 Million in Research

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:52:34 -0500

Geothermal energy is probably the greatest potential renewable energy source with the least amount of public awareness. It certainly spends much less time in the public gaze than wind, solar or biofuels. Recently the US Department of Ene...

10 Steps Bill Clinton Believes the US Government Should Do for a Clean Energy Future

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:41:22 -0500

photo by Theirry via flickr I find it more than slightly ironic that the National Clean Energy Summit is being held in Las Vegas, a city that on environmental grounds and water usage alone probably should not exist, but nonetheless it’s happening. Yesterday evening Bill Clinton opened the event will a speech which, among other things, outlined what he believes the US government should do to support renewable energy. At the Federal level these are his recommendations: And my comments, where warranted, in italics. ...

"Watch for Bikes" Sign Not So Helpful

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:49:30 -0500

Via PhotoBasement Bike Paths World's 10 Best Biking Trails That's the Bike Path? Good Luck! Mexico City to Build 186 Miles of Bike Paths by 2012...

75 Grams: The Carbon Footprint of One Bag of Potato Crisps

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:35:13 -0500

photo by tokyofortwo via flickr In an effort to raise awareness of global warming, Japan is planning to label a range of consumer goods to show the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted in their manufacture, delivery and disposal. The project, the exact scope of which has yet to be finalized, is expected to begin in April 2009, AFP reports. Labeling products with their carbon footprint could be a good way to make people more aware of the environmental impact of things...

Gold, Silver And Green?

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:33:19 -0500

The Summer Olympic Games in Beijing kicked off on August 8 amidst competition, national pride and a Blue Sky day. Well, a ŒBlue Sky day‚ according to Beijing standards. The Detroit Free Press reports that only one percent of China‚s urban dwellers breathe air that is safe according to European norms. Accordingly, many athletes are training outside Beijing, and some have caused a stir by

Bioplastics Recycling Consortium Wants to Reuse Every Last Bit of Plastic

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:17:00 -0500

Image source: WildGreenYonder With "need" (how to ensure all of those alternative plastics - corn, soy, sugarcane- are reused, now that regular plastic is poo-poo'd), comes a "market." The Bioplastics Recycling Consortium was created to "develop an effective, efficient and economical recovery system and end markets for post-consumer bioplastic material." Bioplastics are the alternatives to petroleum-based plastics, and are commonly made from corn, soy, sugar cane, or maize, and are thought to be a better source than petroleum-based plastic because they biodegrade - or at least can break down within a year under the right c...

FUEL to Open Georgia’s First Corn Ethanol Plant in October

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:40:23 -0500

photo: FUEL Given that there are much better feedstocks for biofuels than corn, it never ceases to amaze me when I hear about another corn ethanol biorefinery opening. Oh wait, I forgot, the United States is addicted to corn and corn subsidies and then dumping it in foreign markets or producing a biofuel from that very nearly requires more energy to make it than it provides...forgive me, that’s another post entirely. This one’s just about telling you about a new corn ethanol plant opening. 100 Million Gallons of Corn Ethanol Produced Annually In a bit over two-months’ time the state of Georgia will have its first corn-based ethanol...

FDA Says BPA Is Safe For Babies

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:37:03 -0500

The ~~Federal~~ Food and Drug Administration, responsible for determining the safety of what Americans put in their bodies, has looked at the dangers of Bisphenol A and concluded that "adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses.” Their study acknowledges that the stuff gets into our bodies: "FDA estimates that BPA exposure from use in food contact materials in infants and adults is 2.42 µg/kg bw/day and 0.185 µg/kg bw/day, respectively." but also states that the "FDA has determined the appropriate no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) for its assessment of BPA to be the NOAEL for systemic toxicity of 5 mg/kg bw/da...

O'Burger Offers First Organic Fast Food in Los Angeles

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:24:00 -0500

O'burger, the first organic fast food joint in Los Angeles, where the burgers and everything else are all organic. What does that mean exactly? Well, "the buns, the sauce, the vegetables, meat, ketchup, mustard, fries and salad dressing" - it's all organic. Yum! What about the burgers? Well the beef comes from grass-fed cows, the turkey burgers all come from free-range, grass fed turkeys and the veggie patties are vegan-friendly and made in-house from corn, oats and vegetables. According to O'burger, "if its edible, its organic."...

Climate Change College Graduates: From Green DIY to Watering-Down the Food Chain(s)

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:00:35 -0500

This year, Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry's sponsored a student/green entrepreneur from each of eight European countries in its three-year-old mentoring program called Climate Change College. CO2 reductions plus behavior change The sponsorship chose the eight students for their innovative business ideas on climate change reductions - the winning solutions had to not only reduce CO2 but also change behavior. For nine months, students received mentoring on their business plans (worth about $30,000), and in addition, a scientific field trip to the Arctic and approximately $10,000 to launch their selected idea. Ben & Jerry's considers its graduat...

TreeHugger Tip: Little Bits' Monica Rodgers on Making Recycled Paper

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:30:28 -0500

LittleBits CEO Monica Rodgers has contributed yet another great green tip for our eco-tips project! Monica's video shows how children can enjoy reusing old paper, cardboard and

Solar Power Financing Program For Commercial and Public Sector Announced by Helio mU

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:19:16 -0500

We’ve written before about the Helio Green Energy program wherein homeowners can take advantage of solar power without having to worry about installing the panels themselves, doing maintenance or otherwise worrying about their renewable electric system. Now comes word that Helio mU (that’s Micro Utility, not the mythical civilzation in the Pacific...) is partnering with Citi Community Capital to make financing solar power installations for the commercial and public...

Born in September? Here's A Charity Just For You

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:54:14 -0500

We are, all of us, surrounded by a cloud of new technologies, from GPS to Google Earth to streaming video. We also have known since Mathew Brady and the birth of photojournalism, the power of the photograph to move and inform. Scott Harrison had a foot in each world, working in communications and then as a volunteer photojournalist. In 2006 he founded Charity: Water to promote "simple things that work. Things like freshwater wells, rainwater catchments and sand filters. For about $20 a person (the price of a bottle of the Charity's water) , we know how to help millions of people." Now he has started a new campaign, to bring clean, safe water to the people of Ethiopia. It...

Solar-Grade Silicon Prices Could Drop 43% Next Year: New Report Claims

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:19:40 -0500

photo: Solar Freaks There’s been a bunch of news lately pointing to solar power costs falling in the near future. A new non-petroleum backing material and a new panel from Day4 Energy being the most recent examples of developments driving down the cost of solar power. Here’s another indication that solar prices will be falling: Contract Prices for Silicon Will Drop A new rep...

A View With A Room: The Kielder Observatory

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:30:02 -0500

This looker is for looking- a new observatory built in Northumberland, the darkest place in England. Even though the computer has made images of the heavens accessible to everyone without all of the cold, tired and dark stuff that goes with amateur astronomy, there is still something romantic and absolutely wonderful about looking through the eyepiece of a telescope, knowing that the photon that just hit your retina travelled millions of miles for thousands of years. ...

Sprinkle Water To Reduce City Heat

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:21:31 -0500

When it gets really hot in Tokyo, the locals like to sprinkle water on the street in front of the house or shop. It's an old tradition that has become popular again here, called uchimizu. In the heat, water on the streets evaporates naturally and during this process, a small amount of energy (0.58kcal/1g water) is absorbed from the surrounding air. When many people perform uchimizu the difference can be quite noticeable. Rainwater is generally used, not drinking water, and the city of Nagoya lists the following beneficial effects of uchimizu: 1) ...

Design with Waste from Print Industry, by Onceneto in Chile

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:15:49 -0500

(Pictures: Courtesy of designers.) Chilean design studio Onceneto teamed up with La Tercera newspaper and has been doing an interesting job recovering waste material from the paper's print process. We've briefly showed you one of their products before at the Design Connection exhibit held in Buenos Aires last year, and now we bring you two more of them: the Conolounge chair and the eco+ line of wallets. The first is produced with cardboard tubes from the newspaper printer paper rolls, conn...

Classic Furniture Designs From Cheap Sustainable Materials

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:00:51 -0500

Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is the stuff of building today, replacing plywood as sheathing and in floors. From an environmental point of view, it can be a mixed bag; there is little waste and smaller, fast-growing species can be used. In the UK you can get it from sustainably harvested sources. The stuff is cheap. Graduate designer Adam Rowe uses it "to challenge the misconceptions of material aesthetics and the value placed on materials, combining traditional craftsmanship and high quality leather with a modern cheap sustainable material."...

Chicken Poop Lip Balm - Mmmmm

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:47:15 -0500

All-Natural Lip Balm Even Has Us Worried Treehugger likes poop – from chicken-poop power stations to worm poop fertilizer, there are lots of ecological uses for what others see as waste. But even I must admit to being a little concerned when I came across this “Chicken Poop Lip Balm”. We knew it contained lots of yummy goodness, like beeswax and orange oil, but what about the less than appetizing name? ...

New Definition of the School Portable by Gollifer Langston Architects

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:41:45 -0500

The old school portable doesn't get any more portable than this, a "Classroom of the Future" designed by Gollifer Langston Architects for the London borough of Camden. It breaks out of the standard 40' container box, but uses standard container dimensions and corner castings so that it can be easily transported on a standard container chassis. Hydraulic legs lift the unit off the chassis, which can then drive away;...

AIA Introductions To The Issues of Green Building

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:30:39 -0500

The American Institute of Architects is putting together a series of videos on the issues of green building, called Greenstep. Subjects covered so far are water conservation, smart controls, radiant heating and cooling, and vegetation for sun control. I don't understand why having a video of a talking head doing a powerpoint show is more effective than just putting the information into a website, but if you can get past that there is a lot of good information to be gleaned from the Greenstep videos. More on TreeHugger about Trees and Buildings

Quote of the Day: Bill McDonough on Green Renovation

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:00:50 -0500

The Samuel Trask Dana Building was renovated by William McDonough and Partners Bill McDonough is interviewed in Newsweek Magazine. His comments on old buildings going green: "I got a call from a college president who was saying they were going to renovate a building which he thought was very beautiful. It had high ceilings and tall windows, and they were going to put in aluminum fixed windows, drop the ceilings down to 10 feet from 15 to put in AC. It was going to cost $5 million to make the building energy-efficient. My response to him was...

Gingrich Says Obama is Pandering to Big Air

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:49:10 -0500

It would be nice to think that politics was about honest people putting forth honest positions for citizens to chose among, but instead we have Newt Gingrich telling Fox viewers that gas stations make higher profits selling air than gas, so "Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas." Extraordinary. via ::Think Progress

Hanging Out in the Mall- The Sequel

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:30:02 -0500

Last December TreeHugger covered artist Michael Townsend and his four year long secret occupation of the Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island. Now Salon picks up the story: Four years after the mall opened, Yoto, Townsend and six friends in their art collective, called Trummerkind ("children of the ruins" in German), vowed to spend a full week at the mall that had transformed their city, to use the mall as an actual public space while surviving sans commerce. "The mall has something really positive to offer, something that has nothing to do with shopping," Townsend told me. "What is it?" I asked. "...

Australia To Get World's Largest Solar Thermal Plant?

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:21:04 -0500

It’s like the Olympics around here. No sooner has a world record been broken then along comes an announcement of that same record being freshly eclipsed. Yet another project is claiming to be the world’s largest solar power plant, albeit solar thermal. This time it is the company, WorleyParsons, who strangely already knee deep in coal, nuclear and Canadian oil sands, are making the noise. Weird, huh? Maybe they see the writing on the wall, or least figure it is safe to have a bet each way. Anyhow, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) the firm plan on having a 250 Megawatt plant (usi...

Bilt Stainless Steel Water Bottles Avoid Toxic BPA

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:19:40 -0500

Most every time we do post on the chemical Bisphenol A and how its apparent toxicity has reshaped the polycarbonate (Lexan) water bottle market, a commenter chimes in saying how wonderful their stainless steel Kleen Kanteen bottles are. Well, the market abhors a vacuum, even a partial one, so you can bet Kleen Kanteen (and Guyot Designs) won’t have the sandpit to play in all by themselves. Bilt is one of the latest to join the game. This Vancouver, Canada based company have a wide range of stainless steel bot...

Tire Pressure And Personal Responsibility: Get A Pump

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:15:03 -0500

Check and fill your own tires. It's a personal responsibility. The places we buy fuel, a.k.a. "Service Stations," are nothing of the kind any more. Full service with a smile is a faded marketing myth. So, get an air pump or compressor and use it. You'll save money and live longer. Why "Do It Yourself" Is The Best Solution Ever notice how the air pump at a modern filling station is is located on the edge of the parking lot, instead of next to a building or service bay? As far from help as possible. If there even is a pump that works, odds are it's pole-mounted box on a greasy b...

Boulder, Colorado To Get 40-Acre Bike Park

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:00:00 -0500

Artist Rendering of the Park Boulder to Get a 40 Acre-Bike Park In addition to being one of America's most bike-friendly cities, Boulder, Colorado is also known for its progressive policies (such an enacting a carbon tax and creating a smart grid). Now, Boulder is getting a "a 40-acre bike park that will include a cyclocross c...