This Plastic Bag Dissolves In Water

The November issue of CR (Creative Review) magazine will come in a revolutionary dissolvable bag. The packaging is made out of a water-soluble polymer which completely biodegrades in your sink, dishwasher or shower.



Source: PSFK

France to Create Network of Electric Car Charging Stations

The French government announced last week that they would dedicate $2,2 billion dollars towards creating a large network of charging stations for electric vehicles. This new initiative will also require all parking lots to contain battery charging stations by 2015, and all new apartment buildings with parking lots to have them by 2012.

Source: PSFK

The Honda Eco (and cheesy) Grand Prix

At first sight you would say it is just another racing game. Make sure not to skip the intro, and you will change your mind. Honda Formula E is an advergame launched in Japan to teach people how to drive with an eco-friendly attitude.

In the game you don't have to use the steering-wheel, but just the brake and accelerator to find the ideal speed to drive in the city, saving gasoline, and therefore saving the planet.

But as I said, the game is not the best part of the website. The intro video is simply fantastic, very funny, very cheesy... very Japanese. They re-created the energy and the experience of a Gran Prix in the bedroom of a man of the street taking the up the challenge on the Web. If you take a look at the screencaptures I pasted into this entry, you'll immediately understand what I mean :-)

Paris Planning An Electric Car Share System

The mayor of Paris recently announced plans to implement an electric car share system. While details are still sparse, it appears that they will be building an infrastructure to support 2,000 EV’s within Paris, and another 2,000 cars will be distributed amongst the surrounding cities. At an estimated price-tag of $14 million dollars to both build the infrastructure and purchase the vehicles, the system is not only affordable, but is yet another example of movement away from a product driven model towards a service-focused one. There are a wide variety of immediate implications to this program, ranging from reduced traffic to reduced carbon emissions. And some long range ones, including encouraging manufacturers to build vehicles that last longer (thus reducing the long-term cost of the vehicle fleet).

Source PSFK

Kit that Makes Recycling Easier

The “Emo” Recycle kit by Harac of Tokyo is comprised of three tools to help make the recycling process easier. It contains a “bottle cap ring remover” that cuts off plastic caps from glass bottles (i. e. vinegar and salad dressing or oil bottles which often have tight plastic caps) and carton scissors, to ease the flattening of milk or juice cartons. Aerosols can be punctured by the “Spray can gas remover” and afterwards discarded in the recycle bin. All of these functional and simple tools are made from stainless steel with resin handles.

Source PSFK

Solar Power From Solar Flowers

Toyota has planted several 18-foot high solar-powered daisies in front of the Prudential Mall in Boston as part of their launch for the 2010 3rd-generation Prius, which will utilize solar power for inner ventilation if parked in the sun. The flowers provide free Wi-Fi, cellphone and laptop charging, and seating for 10 people at a time. The installation also includes 5 bus shelters that use solar panels to operate fans for air circulation.

The exhibit leaves Boston July 19, and will be placed in other cities through the rest of the year.

Source: PSFK

10 Eco-Innovations From Around The World

Foot Pump Phone Chargers

Festival goers at Glastonbury, in the U.K., can charge their cell-phones through using a standard airbed foot pump, the type normally found all over festival sites. The Orange Gotwind power pump’s turbine is rotated at speeds of up to 2000 rpm from the air flow generated by the foot pump, this turbine then directly drives the small but powerful alternator. A 5 minute phone call will require approximately 1 minute of foot pumping.

Green Applications

T-Mobile introduces Green Perks, a free downloadable application that delivers exclusive discounts on green products and services directly to your phone. Just scroll through the offers on your phone, flash your Green Perks coupon when you check out, and you’re done. Featured offers include a 20% discount off Method home care and personal care products, as well as Jamba Juice, Quiksilver and Volcom.

Carbon Counters

In late June, Deutsche Bank place an 67-by-32-foot electronic billboard outside Madison Square Garden, where over 500,000 people see it daily. The Carbon Counter works as a meter on human-caused climate change, monitoring the real-time, cumulative pollution humans are emitting into atmosphere via data from MIT’s Global Climate Change Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Tracking progress through measurements and transparency.

Full version

Source: PSFK

Просто попробуйте сделать это :)

Чтобы повторить увиденное пройдите по этой ссылке.

60BAGS: Reusable Shopping Bags Decompose in 60 Days

60BAGS is a line of disposable bags that can decompose in about 2 months. They are sturdy enough to be used repeatedly, but are made out of a specially designed material that will break down quickly when disposed of.

60BAG explains:

60BAGs are the perfect natural answer to the environment’s needs. They are biodegradable carrier bags made our of flax-viscose non-woven fabric. Its material was scientifically developed and manufactured in Poland. The flax-Viscose fabric is produced with flax fiber industrial waste, which means it doesn’t exploit any natural resources and requires minimal energy during its production. This highly innovative technology enables the bags to naturally decompose approximately 60 days after being discarded, which means they don’t require expensive recycling or disposal in landfills.

60BAGs a breakthrough advance over the so-called “green bags” produced with polypropylene material, as well as the thick plastic bags given away by most clothing retailers. 60BAG is a great commercial opportunity for the companies committed to supporting an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Source PSFK vis 60BAG

Jared Diamond: Why societies collapse

Why do societies fail? With lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana, Jared Diamond talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how -- if we see it in time -- we can prevent it.

Source TED

Home Sweet Office: Telecommute Good for Business, Employees, and Planet

Ever since OPEC vexed Jimmy Carter into wearing a cardigan, telecommuting has been touted as a fix for what ails the US office worker — the agony and expense of commuting, the drudgery of cubicles, the shortage of family time.  Situation in Russia IQblog: Вне зоны офиса. 

Read more.

Source WIRED, Brendan I. Koerner (brendan_koerner@wired.com) is Wired's Mr. Know-It-All.

Nomadic Homes

Getting its inspiration from the nomadic Romani people, more commonly known as gypsies, the N55, or Walking House takes urban modular dwelling to a whole new

 level.

Now when you get tired of the neighbors, there will be no n

eed to pack up and move; you can simply walk your house away. We’re not talking a hasty getaway here, the speed of its six “legs” is comparable to that o

f a human walking.

Providing a “green” lifestyle, the N55 has minim

al environment impact as it relies on solar power, windmills, collection of rainwater, and solar power to heat water. I’m not so sure about the composting toilet walking around but hey, I’m sure they thought it through.

If you’re into growing your own green, there is an optional greenhouse addition.

Those in northern climes would most definitely want to opt to integrate the wood burning stove option.

The designers envision an entire walking villages, where the dwellers are not dependent on infrastructure such as roads and utilities. The N55 Walking Houses can travel just about anywhere, as the units move on all terrains.

Although each module is designated to accommodate four people, on a permanent basis, it might feel more like camping, than an actual house.

More photos here

Source Trendhunter

Cell Application to Track Your Carbon Footprint

Based start up company have developed a cell phone application which automatically calculates your carbon footprint. Frustrated by the impracticable and time-consuming nature of similar Eco-calculators, Carbon Diem collects speed and distance data via GPS, and identifies modes of transport using a motion-sensing algorithm. The application encourages users to reduce their energy usage, by setting personal energy targets and comparing their results with others. Carbon Diem developers believe their software will help businesses to reduce energy consumption by monitoring employees travel information. Privacy is obviously an issue, but inventor Andreas Zachariah assures the software only tracks carbon impact, not travel paths.
Source PSFK

Сколько занимает места на улице перемещение одинакового количества людей на машинах, автобусе и велосипедах?

Source Плакат на улицах Мюнхенa, 2001

"В этот день WWF призывает всех москвичей во имя заботы об окружающей среде и своем здоровье оставить машину дома и передвигаться по городу на общественном транспорте, велосипеде или пешком.

Вечером мы приглашаем всех желающих принять участие в велопробеге, который начнется в 20-00 от Тургеневской площади. Сбор участников с 19-00 на Тургеневской площади (м.Чистые пруды, Тургеневская). 

Просмотреть увеличенную карту

Source WWF

Greenpeace published updated Guide to Greener Electronics

We first released our 'Guide to Greener Electronics' in August 2006. The guide ranks the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TV's and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.

	7	Nokia – Clear leader after improving take-back in India. More
	5.7	Samsung – Good scores on chemicals and e-waste criteria. More
	5.5	Fujitsu Siemens- New dealine for removal of BFRs and PVC but still poor on recycling. More
	5.3	Sony Ericsson - Good on toxic chemicals and energy but very poor on recycling. More
	5.3	Sony - Good on toxic chemicals, room for improvement on energy. More
	4.9	LG - Improved score on recycling and energy. More
	4.7	Toshiba - Improved climate policy, but poor on recycling. More
	4.7	Dell - Dropping down with poor scores on climate policy. More
	4.7	HP - Slightly improved score but no products free of most toxic chemicals.More
	4.5	Acer - Good on chemicals policy but poor on energy policy. More
	4.5	Panasonic - Needs to improve recycling and amount of renewable energy. More
	4.3	Philips - worst company on recycling with additional penalty for negative lobbying in Europe. More
	4.1	Apple - progress on eliminating toxics from new products but needs to improve on recycling and energy.More
	4.1	Lenovo - New US tack back scheme, but still no products free of worst toxic chemicals. More
	3.7	Motorola - Only phone company not to set a timeline for eliminating worst toxic chemicals. More
	3.1	Sharp - Most points on toxic chemicals, poor on recycling and energy. More
	2.2	Microsoft - Very poor on recycling and energy. More
	0.8	Nintendo - Zero on most criteria except chemicals management and energy. More

 

Previous versions of the ranking in full:

Aug 06 | Dec 06 | Apr 07 | June 07 | Sept 07 | Dec 07 | March 08 | June 08

Ranking criteria explained

The ranking criteria reflect the demands of the Toxic Tech campaign to the electronics companies. Our three demands are that companies should:

• clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances;

• takeback and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.
• Reduce the climate impacts of their operations and products.

The use of harmful chemicals in electronics prevents their safe recycling when the products are discarded. Companies scored marks out of 51 this has then been calculated to a mark out of 10 for simplicity. Follow the more link beside each company for the full details of their score. The full criteria for scoring the companies is available. Download the full pdf of the scorecard. Each score is based solely on public information on the companies website. Companies found not to be following their published policies will be deducted penalty point in future versions of the guide. The guide is updated every 3 months. The current edition was published on the 16th September 2008. For more detailed explanation check our Q&A about the Guide to Greener Electronics. Disclaimer: Our 'Guide to Greener Electronics' aims to clean up the electronics sector and get manufacturers to take responsibility for the full life cycle of their products, including the electronic waste that their products generate. The guide does not rank companies on labour standards, mining, or any other issues, but recognises that these are important in the production and use of electronics products.

Source Greenpeace

Простые и веселые истории о том, что такое дизайн на самом деле

Подробнее смотрите здесь

Основатель Wikipedia, запустил Wikia Green

По словам Джимми Уэльса (Jimmy Wales), Wikia Green должен стать центральным ресурсом о защите окружающей среды в Сети. Как и в Wikipedia, пользователи могут добавлять собственные материалы на сайт и редактировать уже имеющиеся, сообщает Mashable. На сегодняшний день Wikia Green содержит уже более 600 статей.
Source CNews/Wikia Green

The future of cities

Although it relies far too much on cliched stock footage, the latest video from Arup that suggests how embedded networks of tags and sensors will allow cities to monitor themselves and improve efficiencies - particularly in the reduction of their environmental footprints. They say that urban design and communication technology can help us achieve gains and that tracking our energy consumption cities can inform and inspire consumer behavior. The film also looks at other issues including energy security, transportation, urban sprawl, consumption and waste.
the future of connected and sustainable cities from Duncan Wilson on Vimeo.
Source PSFK

Banksy Paints New Orleans as Katrina Memorial

More photos provided by Super Touch are here

We’re moved by this new work by Banksy spotted in New Orleans. The prolific street artist created these pieces to serve as bold reminders of the devastation Hurricane Katrina left in its wake, and to pay homage to the citizens of New Orleans who continue to endure it.

SuperTouch reports:

Said Banksy of the operation, “Three years after Katrina I wanted to make a statement about the state of the clean-up operation,” and attested that the city’s levee wall offered “the best painting surface in the state of Louisiana.” In the art world, timing is everything, and as the anonymous bomber wraps up his project, the city once again braces for the onslaught of an oncoming tropical storm…

Source PSFK