TH Exclusives

Embodying a variety of sustainability options -- "using environmentally safe and healthy materials; design for material reutilization, such as recycling or composting; the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency" and several more -- William McDonough and Michael Braungart offer Cradle to Cradle certification as a way to label some of the greenest products available today. Here are some of our picks for those who made the C2C cut.

	1) The first six Cradle to Cradle certifications were announced back in late 2005, with the Think Chair by Steelcase (pictured) on the list as an early adopter, along with the Zody Chair by Haworth, Hycrete Technologies' Hycrete concrete additive, Pendleton Woolen Mills, Classic Wool Flannel seating fabric, and Victor Innovatex's Eco Intelligent Polyester seating, and panel fabric.
	2) gDiapers earned the first -- and, so far, only -- certification for baby care products with their flushable/compostable diaper lining. gDiapers have no elemental chlorine, perfumes, smell or garbage, and the damp ones can even make good compost -- they recommend that the brown ones always get flushed down.
	3) Most recently, Surface iQ's commercial wallcoverings have earned Cradle to Cradle certification. The only printed commercial grade wallcovering to have earned this certification, Surface iQ's products have an impressive green résumé; non-PVC composition free of elemental chlorine, formaldehyde and halogenated fire-retardants top the list. The remaining two picks are after the jump...

TH Exclusives

As Mike mentioned earlier today, in the green smackdown between reading online vs. reading dead tree publications, the answer is: it depends, on a lot of things. Fair enough, but when it comes to bringing books and the like into the electronic world, what are some of our options?

	1) Amazon's Kindle is trying to do for e-books what the iPod/iTunes combo did for digital music; some publishing executives think Amazon’s entrance into the e-book world as a major test for the long-held notion that books and newspapers may one day be consumed on a digital device. You don't have to wait to read TreeHugger on Kindle, though.
	2) Before their was Kindle, there was the Sony Reader, an interesting device in its own right. It uses no power to hold its image so only changing pages consumes any juice; it is apparently very clear and easy to read, and you can adjust the font size to suit your aging eyes.about which David Pogue, of the New York Times, says,"The Sony Reader is an impressive achievement, and an important step toward a convenient alternative to bound books.
	3) TreeHugger Lloyd is a big fan of the New York Times slick online reader; he says it "is so good that I might just dispense with the Dead Tree Version. It looks good, is completely intuitive, updates itself and completely changes the experience of reading news on a computer. It may also be the first thing that Microsoft has done in years that is cooler than Apple." The remaining two picks are after the jump...

TH Exclusives

The "slow movement" may be gaining steam around the house, but it all started with Slow Food, in Italy. Here are some of our picks for enjoying food after taking the pedal off the metal.

	1) Sometimes it takes a slow cooker to get the most from slow food; take a peek under the lid of a ‘hay box,’ a cooking vessel lined with an insulative material that traps a lot of air. The heat contained in the food, especially water dense meals, continues to cook the food because the insulation reduces the ability of the contained heat to escape. The time it takes is offset by a very significant energy efficiency gain. Plus your stove/oven is freed up for other pots and pans, and you can't burn meals that are slow cooked!
	2) The New York City arm of the Slow Food movement has unleashed its own seal of approval, or rather, snail of approval, as those gastronomic gastropods would have it. Awarded to restaurants, bars, food and beverage artisans, and retailers -- who have rated exceptionally in three categories (Quality, Authenticity, and Sustainability) -- the emblem is the non-profit's way of recognizing an eatery's contribution to the city's food supply.
	3) Slow Food London's Christmas market, held on a frosty day, showcased what the movement is all about, featuring a wide and varied selection of producers and products described as "good and clean and fair." Local wild mushrooms, fried in olive oil, in a chunky roll, with grated parmesan on top provided the energy to check out the many vendors. Yum! Food, fashion and New Zealand, after the jump...

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TH Exclusives

Mashing up different function with Google's mapping feature can yield lots of cool, green results, like the year-to-year tracking of solar photovoltaic installations in California. Here are our picks for other suave mashups.

	1) When searching for directions, Google Transit makes it easy to find public transit alternatives; just click "Take Public Transit" and your route, directions and even cost (with a comparison versus driving) will pop right up. So easy, it's not even a mashup, technically; you can use it with regular Google maps in selected cities.
	2) Use Walk Score to determine how walkable your neighborhood is. Just type in your address and it scores it, with a map of everything that's around; 70 to 90 is very walkable; 90 to a hundred is a walker's paradise. What's the use? Remember, walkable communities promotes better health, reduction in greenhouse gases, more transportation options, increased social capital and stronger local businesses.
	3) Garage Sale Tips & Maps helps connects the people with the sales; all you do is type in your address, and the map does the rest. All registered garage sales happening around you pop up, and it'll help you get directions, add your own garage sale, and chat about your experience (and all the great stuff you saved from the landfill) in the forums. The original mashup and bowling with topography, after the jump...

TH Exclusives

TreeHugger has covered lots of ground when it comes to bottled water, from examples of better bottles to bottles that left us scratching our heads. Here are some of our picks for the wide world of bottled water.

	1) To calculate the true costs of bottled water, Sustainability Engineer and MBA Pablo Päster did a thorough and exhaustive study of the cost of bring a liter of Fiji Water to America. He starts with the production of the bottle in China, taking the bottle blanks to Fiji, and confirming that it takes more water to make the bottle than it actually holds. He then transports the bottle to the States by ship. Not even including the distribution in the States, the numbers are absolutely staggering.
	2) If that weren't enough, the Union of Concerned Scientists gave us a world of reasons to ditch bottled water, including the cost -- 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water -- and the oil required to make the bottles -- approximately 1.5 million barrels -- that barely scratch the surface of reasons why we should be enjoying water from the tap instead of the bottled variety.
	3) Artist Stuart Haygarth chose to let discarded water bottles make a statement with his chandelier series called "Drop." His 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. Boycotts and the industry fighting back, after the jump...

TH Exclusives

Often, we see poor examples of packaging design that lead to more junk for us to deal with and more waste in the landfill. In the spirit of taking your own bags to the grocery store, here are some picks for packaging that does a more than just wrap up your stuff.

	1) The television packaging designed by Tom Ballhatchet actually becomes the television stand. Putting wheels on it for easy transport home, Ballhatchet designed the areas that the screen occupied inside the package to be used as shelves for the TV stand (the wheels come off and go underneath), and the result is the first large appliance packaging we've seen that won't end up in the recycle bin or landfill when you get it unpacked.
	2) The San Francisco-based designers at knoend have devised a functional lighting system that uses the packaging as the product, practically eliminating any waste that would ordinarily come with unwrapping or opening the packaging. The outer shell of the package becomes the shade for the lamp, leaving just a cardboard band and some hemp twine, both of which are either easily recycled or composted.
	3) Dutch designer David Graas came up with a variety of cardboard furniture that uses its packaging as structure; he says, "You not only assemble this stool yourself, but, because product and packaging are both made from cardboard, also finish it yourself. Two parts of the stool are simply cut loose from the box where the remaining six parts are packaged in." Two more picks, beneath the fold...

TH Exclusives

2007 was a big year for local food -- big enough that we'll have another "Best of 2007" dedicated to a specific local food practice, the "100 Mile Diet" -- and on the tip of enough tongues that it was named the 2007 word of the year. Here are some of the stories eating local surfaced in in the past year.

	1) When it comes to learning more & doing more to make your life greener and getting ready for Earth Day, the choices you make in the food you eat every day can make a tremendous impact. There are lots of food choices that you can make that are better than pesticide-laden conventional, hormone-injected factory-farmed food; eating local is great way to practice Earth Day, every day, we found.
	2) The cover of Time's March 12 issue shows an apple with a yellow sticker and the words: "Forget organic. Eat Local." We wouldn't go that far, things aren't that simple in real life, but it's interesting to see that local food is getting more airtime after organic food has been dominating the "green" food market over the past couple years. And when Time picks it up, you know it's gone mainstream.
	3) Andrew Martin of the New York Times jumped into the fray, noting a California study (from the state that produces most of the food that gets shipped the farthest) suggesting that "the distance that food travels from farm to plate is certainly important, but so is how food is packaged, how it is grown, how it is processed and how it is transported to market." Bottom line: Don’t drive your sport utility vehicle to the farmers’ market, buy one food item and drive home again. Even if you are using reusable bags. Four more tales of local food, below the fold...