Glow Brick

Designers: Sam & Jude

The latest from always trendy, always controversial (some people love them, some hate them) design team Suck UK, this nightlight is the ultimate in simplicity: The encased bulb recharges from natural light during the day, and glows at night.

Totally environmental. Totally Cool.

Check the article HERE

Biofuels Compared

• “See how emerging biofuels compare and hear about the benefits and potential costs of alternative fuels.”

• I’ve read the article and the final conclusion is that our future fuel will be produced out of algae, but there is still a long way till we can put this research into practise in the real world, although we’re in the right way.

Check this article at www.NationalGeographic.com

Environmental limits for sustainable development

• “The difficulties of framing both research and policy agendas can be highlighted by reference to the conceptual model suggested by the IPCC for the coupled climate – ocean – land system (figure bellow). The key point this model illustrates is the fact that the time lags between mitigation actions and a system response in the biophysical systems are likely to be very long and varied. Even if the stabilisation of C02 concentrations in the atmosphere is achieved, this will only result in a gradual levelling off of the temperature increase (red curve), with a stabilisation after an additional time lag of 50 -100 years. The temperature increase before this levelling off will cause a rise of sea levels by thermal expansion of water that will continue for many centuries after the stabilisation of GHG and temperature (blue solid curve). If we also consider the effect on the polar ice caps of the temperature increase, the sea level risk is likely to continue over millennia (blue dashed curve)” – by DEFRA

  

Click picture to enlarge it

 

 

 

Prehistoric goo may speed warming

 

• Mammoth dung, prehistoric Goo may speed global warming! For millennia, animal waste, left behind by the creatures that used to roam the Arctic, have been sealed inside the permafrost. Now climate-change is thawing the permafrost and lifting this ooze from suspended animation. A scientist who studied climate change in the Arctic, believes that as the organic matter becomes exposed to the air it will accelerate global warming faster than even some of the most pessimistic forecasts. read more

Solar Lampion

 

• Damian O’Sullivan has created a solar lampion you use inside (or out). “Most solar lamps today are of the type that you ‘plant’ in your garden and then leave unattended. They store energy during the day and release it in the form of light at night, which is nice. But what if we could bring this light with us, into the home? The Solar Lampion is such a lamp. It is composed of an array of 36 ’standard size’ solar cells (held together by an open spaced frame), each of which is connected to an LED bulb, which is fed by one rechargeable battery. The solar cells store the sun’s energy during the day and release it at nightfall wherever you need it.”. Thanks Damian!

Click thumbnails to enlarge pictures:

50 Ways to Green Your Business

• “Imagine asking today how the Internet affects business. It’s an absurd question, like asking how electricity changed business. Asking the same about sustainability, it turns out, is equally absurd. Like the Internet, sustainability spurs innovation in everything, from how you see your business model to whether you see your employees (why not let them work at home more?). Here are our favorite ways companies today are greening up–and saving money and making better widgets in the process.”

See the 50 advices HERE

Sustainable Packaging Coalition

 

• The Sustainable Packaging Coalition is an industry working group inspired by cradle to cradle principles and dedicated to transforming packaging into a system that encourages economic prosperity and a sustainable flow of materials.

Visit them at www.sustainablepackaging.org

cool NRG: combating climate change

cool nrg International Pty Ltd (cool nrg) is a purpose driven, for profit enterprise that cuts residential CO2 emissions through rapid, large scale energy efficiency programs.

The company is the new venture of Nic Frances, founder and former Executive Chairman of Australian company Easy Being Green. Nic is a Fellow of the Schwab Foundation on Social Entrepreneurship and holds an MBE from the British Government and an Australian Centenary Medal.

Paul Ostling joined cool nrg as a director in July 2007. Paul was until recently a global executive at Ernst & Young and is a recognised leader in professional and business services.

cool nrg has offices in Melbourne, San Francisco and London.

• In 2006 the cool nrg team was involved in an Australian campaign that delivered
  a free pack of six energy-saving light bulbs to 500,000 householders free of charge in the state of New South Wales (NSW) Australia. More than half of those customer transactions occurred in the month of September alone.
  The NSW campaign:
  ➜ Distributed 3 million energy-saving light bulbs and 340,000 water-saving shower heads to 500,000 households (20% of homes)
  ➜ Cut pollution by 3.2 million tonnes (Mt) of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) over the life
  of the products
  ➜ Saved its customers a total of US $59 million p.a. off their utility bills
  ➜ Reduced water consumption by 6 gigalitres p.a.
  ➜ Undertook a major energy efficiency promotional campaign with one
  of Australia’s most read newspapers (The Daily Telegraph).

Visit them at www.coolnrg.com

Organic alternatives for packaging?

• “Foam plastic is a very useful packaging material, yet profoundly damaging to the environment. After it has been discarded, it is doubtful whether it is possible to re-use it, and it continues to be an environmental and toxic hazard in spite of the optimistic assurances of the manufacturers relayed to the public by their public relations people. The advantages of foam plastic are that it makes an extremely lightweight protection for precision parts, is easily formed around delicate optical instruments or electronic assemblies, and is quite inexpensive. But there are alternative and organic ways of packaging”

in The Green Imperative, by Victor Papanek

Eco-packaging

• “There are packaging items that are inherently impossible to recycle. Manufacturers can easily avoid using high-gliss papers, highly coated or plastic-coated papers, glues that are not water-soluble and plastic windows on envelopes. Instead designers could specify non-bleached papers or those whitened with new, bleach-free methods. More than three-quarters of all paper types can be recycled, but usually a percentage of new fibres are added. Recycling waste paper can be 50% more efficient than the use of virgin pulp. It is good practice to use paper with the highest percentage of recycled material.”

in The Green Imperative, by Victor Papanek