Articles posted below is dedicated to our continual effort in sharing the awareness of new and notable ideas on environmental and sustainable issues. All around we are becoming more exposed to this notion, however thin this thread ties to our everyday lives we as designers should acknowledge the issues that lies ahead and the challenges that it will bring into our profession along with the education that this entails to us all.
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ReCellular
The nation’s largest cell-phone recycling facility, this is where you hope your old cellphone will go and die in peace. See the full article at technologyreview.com if you just want to see the pretty pics look below.
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Is MPG a good way to measure fuel efficiency?
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Ecofriendly Lotus
Parts of the interior is hemp, uses water-based paint that can be applied by hand, reduced the Eco Elise’s footprint throughout its lifecycle, limit the amount of energy used during production and simultaneously slashes 70 pounds of its curb weight. With a solar panels on the hard top to help power electrical systems, it reduces drain on the engine improving efficiency. Find out more at tranism.com
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500 Electric Minis Coming To California
Rumors are flying that BMW will introduce a few electric Minis in California maybe to compete with the runmors of an electric smart car…??? Posting via autobloggreen.com
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Bioplastic Samsung Phones
Samsung unveiled some environmentally friendly cell phones in Seoul, Korea. The Samsung W510 is the company’s first mobile to be made of bioplastic, produced with natural material extracted from corn. The W510 uses a water-soluble coating with no heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Snippet from smartplanet.com
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Personal Carbon Trading Experiment
“1,000 volunteers in the UK started a five-month trial to see how willing they, and in turn we, are to the concept of personal carbon credits. Every time one of the volunteers goes to a BP petrol station and swipes their Nectar loyalty card, a certain number of carbon credits will automatically be deducted. People will be able to view their credits online and make lifestyle adjustments to make sure they don’t use up their credits — or trade with others to get more of them.” Snippet from smartplanet.com
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Sainsbury’s Milk-in-a-bag
Sainsbury’s announcement that it’s going to start selling milk in bags from tomorrow. 100,000-tonnes-less-of-plastic-packaging-each-year. Using about 75 per cent less packaging. A bag with two pints of milk will retail at 80p — the same as two pints of Sainsbury’s milk in a polybottle. The jug will set you back £2.49.
Snippet from smartplanet.com
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HP’s Recycled Printer
New green-focussed HP, one of the first items is the D2545 printer, made from 83 per cent recycled plastic. Even the ink cartridges it uses are made of recycled plastic resins. Read more at www.smartplanet.com
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Not a Rosey Picture In The Renewable Effort
Have a read of a CNET articule ‘Can renewable energy make a dent in fossil fuels?’ The numbers don’t add up and the rate of change is slow enough not to make a meaningful impact but then again its a good start. Click here to read the article
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100% biodegradable umbrella
Made of bamboo and the canopy is a biodegradable plastic (degrades in less than 5 years in any landfill). The Brelli is the developed by Pam Zonsius. Posting from neublack.com
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Take Advantage Of Runoff Water
Clever and useful idea. Posting from gizmodo.com
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Eco-minded Nokia 3110 Evolve
Read the run down from smart planet on the eco targeted Nokia phone. Check here for more
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Reducing Mercury Content In Compact Fluorescents
Lighting company Sylvania’s micro-mini-energy-saver compact fluorescent bulbs hold far less mercury than most CFLs. Containing only 1.5 milligrams of mercury. It’s still a pain to get rid of a CFL, but less mercury means fewer toxins. Read more at smartplanet.com
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Chair Made From Plastic Bags
By RYAN FRANK. Posting from inhabitat.com
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Re-light
Luminair’s new lamp made from recycled plastic bottles collected from various towns across the UK. Posting from smartplanet.com
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High Minded Goals by IBM
It must be a lot of heat!. Posting from ubergizmo.com
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Sustainable Skateboard
EVO and materials developer Fibra Sustainable Design have joined forces to create a sustainable skateboard. Extract from treehugger.com
“The cover layers are from Papunha Veneer, produced from the waste of the sustainable palm-heart industry. The second layer is a composite formed by 70% natural fibers (jute, malva and curaua) and 30% post-production recycled polypropylene. The natural fibers of this material are also produced on a fair trade model. Finally, the heart of the board is from 3-ply Organic Mosso Bamboo, grown without chemicals and in a sustainable model.”
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Nokia Remade
A clean cell phone made from recycled materials. Check it out on engadget.com, ubergizmo.com and pressbulletinboard.nokia.com
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Paper or Plastic (You might be suprised)
Check out the recent article from the washington post. Click here to read the article.
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Old Suitcases Get a New Lease On Life
Called Sit Bag designed by Turkish firm MayBeDesign.
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RIP PLASTIC BAGS
In Ireland the use of plastic bags was dramatically reduced when the Irish government imposed a tax on the use of plastic bags in supermarkets, etc. Plastic bag use has dropped 94% in first several weeks. Amazing! Ireland is setting a great example for the rest of the developed world. Posting from inhabitat.com
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Strap-Ya
Strange name for a dongle style solar recharge plugin for your cellphone. Forgive the strangle name its Japanese. Posting from tokyomango.com
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Solar Panels Working At Night?
Researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory are close to a new manufacturing process that will allow new solar panels to work at night absorbing the infrared energy radiated out at night. Click here to read more because the potential is huge. Posting from inhabitat.com
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The Story Of Stuff
Fantastic and to the point on how our current system of consumption won’t work. Thanks Michelle for this link. Visit thestoryofstuff.com for more info. The video is in seven parts (sorry) or you can go straight to their site to see the full flash video.
Continue reading ‘The Story Of Stuff’
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Lamp Shade Made Out of Receipts?
Re-use in items is certainly a trend that is becoming more pervasive in our society. Approaprate re-use is essential. I question the application of this design, although it is intriguing visually. Posting from mocoloco.com
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Peg Pencil
By yuta watanabe, clever approach in holding a peice of lead. Posting from designboom.com
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Handheld Gamer with Builtin Solar Panel
Clever idea since this device is always on the go. By Chinavasion this console allows you to play NES and game boy games through an emulator. Posting from engadget.com
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Air Purifiers Bad for your Health?
An article in the WSJ suggest that certain types of air purifiers emit ozone that breaks up air pollen can pose health risk. Must read article at the WSJ
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Great Game to learn about the eco impact of building a house
I played this game with my 4 year old son Felix. You can built a eco friendly house and learn about alternate heating and electric sources. Felix wants to start a compost in our backyard now. You gotta start them young 
Enjoy
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How Toyota makes you believe they care about the environment
So, I am reading Dwell last weekend and they finally cut down on the 45 pages of luxury SUV ads (still GM seems to fund their entire editorial staff), but I run across a 2 pager for the next in “Luxury Sustainablitity”. Almost 500 Horsepower in a Hybrid. This is disgusting considering that most Diesel vehicles in Europe might have 40 HP tops.As I learned from Alex T last week almost 30% of the energy consumption of a vehicle is during it’s manufacturing run. This puppy with all its luxury nav and leather crap more like 50%.
I guess the 20 Miles per gallons it uses is a minor selling point vs. all the ecological impact this monster has otherwise.
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The Secret Life of Cellphones
Visit www.secret-life.org for more info or at www.greenergadgets.com
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Dining Ink
Dining in 2015, what does this say about us! Posting from treehugger.com
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Sanyo’s Solar Ark
An educations facility of sort, a building full of solar cells. Pretty sweet. www.solar-ark.com
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China Bans Free Plastic Bags
To slow down the proliferations in the use of plastic bags, yes you know what i mean. You go to a store and the clerk backs one item per bag, a big waste and landfill issue. Well beginning in July, all plastic shopping bags in the entire country of China will no longer be free. This is part of China’s attempts to reduce their extreme pollution problem, the policy will call for a small charge for plastic bags in China that must be shown clearly in all supermarket receipts. Step in the right direction. Read more at www.iht.com. Posting from inhabitat.com
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You can find more environmental and sustainable posting if you search in our category section of the dustbowl. I hope you find the information shown enlighting.
this is really cool!!!
Hi,
I am an organizer of World Usability Day in Boston, MA – an event that last year took place in over 40 countries. I am interested in finding out if the makers of Altitude’s Light Lane product would be willing to man a table at our event in Boston. This year’s theme is “Sustainable Design”.
Please contact me!
Laura
Thanks for share