Green police
Sometimes all it takes is a sense of humor. These seven ads come from agencies who put their top talent to work on encouraging environmentalism — promoting everything from energy-efficient light bulbs to preventing deforestation. Why do they stand out? Because they accomplished one very important goal: make ’em laugh.
Solarbike specialises in electric conversion kits for bicycles. But the business’s founders, both research scientists at the University of Western Australia, have been working on a way to easily have electric bikes powered by the sun. After some trial and error, which they transparently document, they’ve arrived at reasonably affordable photovoltaic systems that allow electric bike owners to ride like a solar wind…
Continue reading… “Pedal Power Meets Photovoltaics via Solarbike”
From German designer Jennifer Rieker comes a glue-free shoe that challenges mass consumption, via Ecouterre.
Called the “Creo Shoe Concept,” the flat-pack footwear is mailed to you in a vegetable-tanned calf leather envelope — which becomes the inner shoe — with adaptable rubber soles; a pair of footbeds, made out of cork, latex and jute; a pair of shoelaces, and directions for you to put it all together, along with the help of a local shoemaker.
Continue reading… “Glue-Free “Creo Shoe Concept” Supports Local Shoemaker”
The mediterranean cuisine is known to be one of the healthiest, and yet, Spaniards like their fried tapas or churros every now and then. In 2010 the recycling centers, called ‘Green Points’, collected 195.136 liters of used kitchen oil from households, which only counts for 2,5% of the total oil used in one year by Barcelonians. In order to make recycling oil easier, Barcelona City Council has launched the Olipot, an easy to use bottle that helps you bring your old oil to the recycling centers. That way it does not contaminate the water but instead can be turned into soap, biodiesel and paint.
Continue reading… “Barcelona Gives Away ‘Olipots’ To Promote Kitchen Oil Recycling”
Freeze drying is one of the greenest ways to go.
There are a lot of ways to deal with a person’s body after he or she is done using it. Their last remains can be buried, burned, put in trees, or donated to science. But one Swedish company has a different approach to sending people off to their final rewards. Freeze drying. Just like the liquid T-1000 in Terminator 2. It turns out to be one of the greenest ways to go.
Japan is notorious for its fascination with vending machines — as of 2008, there were 5.5 million of them across the nation. And these aren’t merely the candy bar and soda variety, either — Japan has vending machines that sell live crabs, grow lettuce, are covered in moss, and dispense smart cars. And by this time next year, it will have 10,000 vending machines that charge electric cars.
Continue reading… “Japan to Build 10,000 EV Charging Station/Vending Machine Hybrids by 2012”
There’s a lot that breweries can do—and are doing—to green their facilities. Some are easy, anyone-can-do-this steps like sending spent grains to local farmers. Others are innovative tricks that no one else has tried before. New Belgium probably gets the most attention (not unfairly—it’s truly a leader for sustainable beer) for identifying waste and turning it into a resource. But it’s not the only one. Magic Hat is now capturing wasted energy from the spent grains and turning it right back around to fuel the brewing process.
Continue reading… “Magic Hat Fuels Brewing Process With Beer Waste”
Might it be the United State’s fragile economy? Or maybe, just maybe, a slow awakening to the inherent fallacy in the myth that bright, shiny new products will make us happy? Whatever the root cause, Americans seem to be embracing pre-loved products over virginal, with a new fervour. At least, it seems so for the reuse businesses run by Winmark Corp. who recently announced that their profits had nearly doubled ($10.3 million for 2010), against the previous years trading…
Continue reading… “Profits Double For Business Selling Pre-Loved Products”
A quieter version of the biodegradable SunChips bag.
Frito-Lay hopes to make some big noise with a quieter version of its biodegradable SunChips bag. The company introduced a biodegradable bag for the snacks in April of 2009 with a big marketing effort to play up its environmentally friendly nature as it was made from plants and not plastic and could break down in compost.
If you can’t afford a Segway, what about half of one? While the two-wheeled personal transporter can set you back by $5,000 or more, a new one-wheel, Segway-inspired model called the Solowheel is due to go on sale for a mere $1,500 in the U.S., starting in March. Impress your friends, work on your balance, and most of all, watch out for bikes and people that still walk.
Continue reading… “Solowheel Reinvents the Wheel with Next-Gen Segway Unicycle”
Light makes might?
Last time we checked in on Thomas Mallouk’s work applying biomimicry to generate hydrogen, he was reporting about 0.3 percent efficiency. According to his projections, the proof-of-concept device for producing hydrogen using the same trick applied in plants for photosynthesis could eventually reach efficiencies of 10-15%, beating nature’s average of 1 to 3 percent. Mallouk is back at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). So what’s the news on one promising option for generating large quantities of clean fuel for combustion engines or fuel cells?
Continue reading… “Advances in Producing Hydrogen by Mimicry of Photosynthesis”
Perhaps inspired by the Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Newman try to set up a business using homeless men to pull rickshaws through New York, a Japanese firm has designed an electric rickshaw. Called the “Meguru,” it’s a spin on the traditionally man-powered vehicle that first appeared in Japan at the end of the 19th century and that has since spread around the world.