Manuel said:
"This is great news! I hope all cities pass this into law.The practice of using plastic bags just to quickly dispose of them has been going on far t..." [read]
Jay Knecht said:
"What are the performance stats for the Son of Max? ..." [read]
gazelle said:
"@ Dallas:
The book, and the supplementary videos in the "How It All Ends" youtube series, address this in detail, but I'll try to paraphrase:..." [read]
Barry said:
"Kofi Annan has about as much of a clue about electric cars and developing countries as Ann Ann the Panda.
He underestimates the ingenuity o..." [read]
JJ said:
"Very cool. I didn't thought that biodesel might be our future fuel...." [read]
Derek said:
""I guarantee you this will spark huge debates around the world," she said. "We have to delve into this in a way that hasn't been done in a long tim..." [read]
If you are able to look into the future at least 12 hours, and want to cut the electricity or natural gas out of your coffee-brewing workflow, then check out the Hourglass. We first saw this gadget over at Dvice. It doesn't take an hour and it isn't glass, but it does make coffee at room temperature "powered by cold water and time." It also uses non-disposable filters and is made from a special Eastman plastic that vouches to be free of BPA (a chemical that may be responsible for stupidity and depression)
How many billboards did you pass today? If you can even keep count, you're lucky. Most of those are made with vinyl. And most of them get thrown away. Over 3 million a year in the US alone. That's nearly 10,000 tons, or to give you a visual, about the weight of 2500 adult elephants. Once it makes it to the landfill, it's not going anywhere. Vinyl does not biodegrade. We thought something should be done about that. Starting this month, we are.
“This book charts the territory of the design activist – a person who uses the power of design for the greater good of humankind and nature. […] Most of all, this book is for everyone who believes that design (especially when we design together) is an essential human expression that will help us all to move towards more sustainable futures”, explains Alastair Fuad-Luke in the preface of his newly released book Design Activism, beautiful strangeness for a sustainable world. The author of the Eco-Design Handbook (2004) has yet again created a kind of bible for eco-designers. This book helps everyone to become a better (or good!) designer.
Now here’s something happy for rainy days: the Spud Raincoat, made from potatoes and designed by the guys from Good for Environment! Under the brand name Equilicuá, they make thought provoking products such as the Econo, a water saving device for potted plants. The Spud Raincoat is for times when plenty of water is falling from the sky, and will definitely cheer you up on a grey day. The coat educates every by-passer on bioplastics by telling them “I was a potato”. And indeed, this waterproof coat is made entirely of bioplastic derived from potato starch and other natural resources, which makes it a 100% biodegradable and compostable product. And to give it the final touch at the end of its product life, the coat has integrated seeds so that plants grow out of it once it is returned to the earth!
Continuing our series on green ideas found at the International Tourism Convention (ITB) in Berlin, here is a fantastic tip: instead of giving material gifts, give the gift of experience. The company Smartbox does the work for you, selecting good partners and putting together a set of travel coupons that can cover all expenses except the cost of getting to and from the destination. A wide list of geographic options and a handy search tool make it easy to select a get-away which is not too many carbon pounds distant from a lot of major population centers. The vacation offer which caught our eye at ITB is particularly green.
Designer Joan Nadal took on the challenge to re-design one of the most common everyday objects: the humble clothes hanger. A small object with a large environmental footprint if we consider that of the 8 billion polystyrene or polycarbonate hangers manufactured per year, only 15% are recycled. That is enough to fill the Empire State Building 4 times! The solution: make recyclable hanger from just one material, and if you can, recycle something along the way. BoB Hanger does exactly that: it’s made from recycled cardboard and needs two reused bottles to function.
The Home Project, a design studio based between Berlin and Portugal, have surprised us before with their curious choice for materials; egg cups made from salt, and speakers made from cork. Wonderfully simple, fully biodegradable and renewable is what we love about their products. Here is another one for you: a traditional terracotta flowerpot but made from cork called Vaso 2.0.
Are you fed up with having to waste tin foil or plastic food bags to wrap your sandwiches? Or you had enough of carrying bulky plastic containers to get your snacks to work? Well, BOC’N ROLL, a Spanish design by MarcaDiferencia, (VERY similar to Wrap-N-Mat...) seems to be the solution. It is a reusable food wrapper, meant to pack up snacks like sandwiches, fruit or biscuits and take them to work, school or on a trip without leaving any waste behind. See video and more information after the jump.
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This week’s TreeHugger Deals comes to you from The Groovy Mind, a company that’s known for their groooovy, gourmet gifts. Each is deliciously organic, fairly traded and seasonally harvested and includes coffee (one of our faves), tea, cookies and corn chips, to name a few. The Organic Meltdown chocolate is some of the best we’ve tasted (we love the “one bar saves one tree” campaign), while the Metro Sensual Spa Box…we’ll leave it at that. Even the most discriminating treehuggers will lose their collective groovy minds over these one-of-a-kind green gifts. They are delivered in a hip, sustainable gift box is wrapped in hand stamped paper and shipped in a groovy literary box—a perfect size for re-use to store small collectibles, magazines or manuscripts....
Here is a feel-good opportunity for Christmas. Tom's Shoes promises to donate 30,000 pairs of shoes to children in Ethiopia, one pair donated for each pair purchased. In case this has triggered fond reminisces about your carefree childhood running barefoot, you should know that shoelessness in Ethiopia can lead to Podoconiosis. So if you watch Tom's video, you will at least get a new word for your vocabulary, even if you are not inspired to order a pair of shoes.
But before you watch, you should know there is more to Tom's than a one-time gimmick to sell shoes at Christmas......
All Sarah and Rose from Greenknickers are waiting for these days is sunny weather as there is no more sore bottom excuses not to get on your bike! The girls have designed special padded boxers and knickers that look as sexy as the rest of their collection (see here, here and here) to encourage their customers to cycle more. (more about these and lucky wedding lingerie after the jump)
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The Finnish family business Lasistudio reclaims glass bottles and jars without crushing them in order to create new objects. All the products are hand-made in an old barn in Finland. By taking advantage of the original shapes of the waste packages, only 1/4 of the energy needed to shape new objects from melted glass is used, says Jan Torstensson Oy, glassworks specialized in manufacturing items from recycled packaging glass....
Swedish design company Hetta’s favourite materials are cork, leather and wool. We particularly like the corky underlays for pots; one has the shape of a Ladder, and another one is Long and flexible for you to decorate the table in countless ways.
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Today's the big day--a full 24-hours dedicated to wearing your heart on your sleeve, and eating chocolate with friends, S.O.'s, and even colleagues. But if you haven't put enough thought into what you should be doing for that one special person in your life, it's not too late. Our Valentine's Day Gift Guide is a green cheat sheet to the perfect last-minute memento or bouquet, and we also give you hour-by-hour ideas for keeping it sexy all day long. ::Valentine's Day Gift Guide: Giving Greener Love...
Images by H&M, Photographer: Daniel JacksonH&M, the Swedish high street store, has yet again made it into the TreeHugger news, just on time to spread some love for Valentine's day (check out Green Valentine for other great gifts). After applying the EU eco-label and the launch of their organic cotton collection last spring, H&M has launched Fashion Against Aids to spread awareness about HIV this month. Well-known artists such as Rihanna, Chicks on Speed, Good Charlotte, Henrik Vibskov, Jade Jagger, Justice, Katharine Hamnett, My Chemical Romance, Rufus Wainwright, Scissor Sisters, The Cardigans, Tiga, Timbaland and Ziggy Marley have each designed a 100% organic cotton T-shirts, tank tops or hooded sweater. Judging by the sold out racks of clothing the first days of the launch (at least here in Barcelona), the campaign is a great success....
Credit: Abbey Goes Design Scouting
Valentine's Day is almost here. What's that? You haven't picked out something perfect your sweetheart just yet? Never fear! Our Valentine's Day Gift Guide will save the day. Whether you're looking for something sexy (eco-lingerie, anyone?), standard (organic chocolate and flowers always do the trick), or dematerialized (giving to charity comes from the heart), we've got something for everyone for a full day of good green lovin'. ::Valentine's Day Gift Guide: Giving Greener Love...
Credit: ulterior epicure
It may be the thought that counts, but let's face it, if your intention doesn't come wrapped up with a big pink bow on Valentine's Day, you could be sleeping alone. Luckily, we've put on our thinking caps and come up with a plan so you won't get a figurative dagger through the heart (ouch!). From standards like chocolate and flowers to totally kissable coffee breath, we've got you covered morning, noon, and night. ::Valentine's Day Gift Guide: Giving Greener Love...
Simple Shoes, who we met at Bread & Butter recently, have just partnered up with StopGlobalWarming.org, a movement that has so far excited over 993,000 individuals to join the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, just like TreeHugger did (click here to join via the TreeHugger partner page).
Simple Shoes donates $5 from every pair of StopGlobalWarming edition products they sell. These include the Toepeeka flip-flop in two colors (launched in 2007) and the StopGlobalWarming ecoSNEAKS collection launched recently. Like all Simple Shoes, the ecoSNEAKS are made from sustainable materials: hemp uppers, recycled car tires bottoms, organic cotton linings, recycled plastic bottles (PET) shoe laces and foot beds, and water-based glues, and on top of that, they look great! ...
It may be the thought that counts, but let's face it, if your intention doesn't come wrapped up with a big pink bow on Valentine's Day, you could be sleeping alone. Luckily, we've put on our thinking caps and come up with a plan so you won't get a figurative dagger through the heart (ouch!). From standards like chocolate and flowers to totally kissable coffee breath, we've got you covered morning, noon, and night. ::Valentine's Day Gift Guide: Giving Greener Love...
Here’s a new shop paradigm for you: Shop according to the revealed ingredients of every object. Because those ingredients sure look yummy with a range of products made from sustainable wood, cork, bamboo, organic and recycled materials. Monica Potvin in Barcelona and Anu Suominen in Finland have joined forces and created ‘a new version shop presenting a collection of objects for living made as sustainable as possible’. Matteriashop is finally a shop that guarantees eco-smartness as well as fabulous design.
Through close collaboration with designers all over the globe, the Matteriashop offers a unique transparency and behind-the-scene information on each carefully selected product, taking into account its entire lifecycle. Monica Potvin explains:...
F*&king Recycle is the latest poster collection by graphic designer Becky Redman. Designed to increase awareness and promote action, the 50 colourful and provoking posters do exactly that. With encouraging messages to get people to recycle everything that can possibly be recycled (glass, aluminium, paper, cans, etc.) and notes such as ‘one recycled aluminium can will save enough energy to power a television for three hours’, 'every eight months the UK produces enough waste to fill Lake Windermere’ or ‘plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose’, this is a great collection of typographic exploration, using intense colours to spread alarming facts and get people to recycle. All posters have been screen printed on 100% recycled paper and posted in public. Click here to see the full collection. (more posters after the jump)...
How about planting some wildflowers every month of this New Year? Canadian based Botanical Paperworks’ Plantable Eco Calendar guides you through 2008 with its handmade monthly desk calendar that “creates beauty and leaves nothing behind but flowers”. Simply place the seed embedded paper into soil, add water and wait for Bird's Eye, Clarkia, Coreopsis, Poppy, Catchfly and Snap Dragon to come to life.
The handmade paper is acid and tree free, made from recycled bond paper, cotton remnants and abaca, a renewable leaf fibre. The plantable calendar is illustrated by Kal Barteski and available for $19.95 ::Botanical Paperworks
Also check out Blissen’s 2008 Hidden Habitats Calendar and our 2008 Diaries. ...
It is the first of January, which means it’s time to leave the worn-out diary behind and open up a new one. If you haven’t found the perfect agenda to start this New Year yet, here are a few fun and practical eco options. From recycled to social and paperless, there’s an even wider range of treehugger-style diaries this year than any of the previous years.
Starting with the recycled options, Kara suggested Scribesdelight journals that are made from recycled saddle leather. A recycled saddle leather agenda/address book is available for $79. If you got one last year, just order your re-fill now and reuse the sleeve. ::Scribesdelight
Another recycled option is the diary by Bandaderodadura, a Spanish company. The sturdy black sleeves of these diaries are made from recycled car tire inner tubes and are locally made in Barcelona. The sleeves come with a zip pocket for extra storage space and are guaranteed to last you through quite a few years. ::Bandaderodadura
More diaries after the jump....
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.
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This is a sneak preview of a gorgeous jewellery collection and bags named Jova Design. It’s a joined project between the Ducth fair trade organisation Tilingo Nepra, Dutch Design in Development (DDiD) and jewellery designer Joanne Zwart.
Working with local people in Nepal, designer Zwart decided to use natural and local materials like wood, hemp, cotton and bone. She also found inspiration in the symbolic Nepalese jewellery like the Buddhist and Hindu prayer beads, made from the dark rudraksha berries.
This project is one of many others set up by the DDiD, who specialise in linking Dutch designers and companies to businesses in developing countries. They create opportunities for companies in the developing world, to step into the European market under fair trade conditions. Via ::Design.nl
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Ring the bells! Pop the (organic) champagne! TreeHugger's 2007 Gift Guide is here!
We've made this guide the most comprehensive yet, with 180+ gift ideas in three shades of green, making it a perfect reference while shopping for everyone on your gift list. In addition, we'll be adding organizations to support and useful tips for making your holidays more efficient.
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 08. 7.09
Image via RT Sales, Inc.
“This book charts the territory of the design activist – a person who uses the power of design for the greater good of humankind and nature. […] Most of all, this book is for everyone who believes that design (especially when we design together) is an essential human expression that will help us all to move towards more sustainable futures”, explains 
Are you fed up with having to waste tin foil or plastic food bags to wrap your sandwiches? Or you had enough of carrying bulky plastic containers to get your snacks to work? Well, 
This week’s TreeHugger Deals comes to you from The Groovy Mind, a company that’s known for their 
All Sarah and Rose from 
The Finnish family business 
Swedish design company 
We featured 
Today's the big day--a full 24-hours dedicated to wearing your heart on your sleeve, and eating chocolate with friends, S.O.'s, and even colleagues. But if you haven't put enough thought into what you should be doing for that one special person in your life, it's not too late. Our Valentine's Day Gift Guide is a green cheat sheet to the perfect last-minute memento or bouquet, and we also give you hour-by-hour ideas for keeping it sexy all day long. 
Images by H&M, Photographer: Daniel Jackson
Credit: 
Credit: 
It may be the thought that counts, but let's face it, if your intention doesn't come wrapped up with a big pink bow on Valentine's Day, you could be sleeping alone. Luckily, we've put on our thinking caps and come up with a plan so you won't get a figurative dagger through the heart (ouch!). From standards like chocolate and flowers to totally kissable coffee breath, we've got you covered morning, noon, and night. ::
Here’s a new shop paradigm for you: Shop according to the revealed ingredients of every object. Because those ingredients sure look yummy with a range of products made from sustainable wood, cork, bamboo, organic and recycled materials. Monica Potvin in Barcelona and Anu Suominen in Finland have joined forces and created ‘a new version shop presenting a collection of objects for living made as sustainable as possible’. 
How about planting some wildflowers every month of this New Year? Canadian based 
It is the first of January, which means it’s time to leave the worn-out diary behind and open up a new one. If you haven’t found the perfect agenda to start this New Year yet, here are a few fun and practical eco options. From recycled to social and paperless, there’s an even wider range of treehugger-style diaries this year than any of the previous years.
Starting with the recycled options, 
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 
This is a sneak preview of a gorgeous jewellery collection and bags named Jova Design. It’s a joined project between the Ducth fair trade organisation 
