Good evening everyone and welcome back to the greenest bulletins around. The green gazette is our twice per week posting to highlight some of the more intriguing, inspiring or incredible pieces of eco news. Inventions, ideas and issues will be tackled as we seek the online newswire for stories or blogs that are worth a quick read. So let’s get started…

A lot of people get excited about auto racing, really excited (too excited?). I’m not one of them but as with all things sports related - to each his own. Seeing vehicles race round a track (you end where you begin…hmmm) at insane speeds draws huge crowds and even bigger revenues to the sport. By definition it’s an extreme waste of fuel, nothing is delivered anywhere, nobody is commuting and each vehicle has but the single occupant. So how can auto racing green up? Natural gas vehicles is an intriguing answer and Volkswagen are leading the way. A recent entry into a 24 hour race VW won the ‘alt-fuel’ class in the contest. These aren’t a poor relation to traditional racing either, the vehicle offers 220hp and 202 foot pounds of torque.  Bio-CNG is made from renewable resources such as grass or refined biological waste. VW claims the fuel is CO2-neutral, generating only the amount of carbon dioxide already absorbed by the source feedstock. The energy produced from a ton of organic residues equates to 60 liters (about 15 gallons) of fuel oil, or 200 kilowatt-hours of electrical power. Using this production process the yield from one hectare (2.4 acres) of cultivated land allows a vehicle to cover a distance of 67,600 kilometers (about 42,000 miles). Amazing stats from an amazing vehicle and you still get to see a car go round and round and round. If you have to race then why not do so with the 80% reduction in CO2 emissions that this vehicle delivers?

Nothing is greener than gardening you’d tend to assume and of course if you can grow your own fruit or vegetables what better way to cut down on food transportation? Besides which, nothing tastes like a strawberry, onion or an orange from your own back garden. As a result I wanted to add a link to these seven great tips for eco-friendly garden. Worth a look and really easy to implement!

As I’ve warned you before, here comes a weird story. Albania hardly ever makes the news, the small nation on the Adriatic is perhaps most famous for being the most Southwestern extremity of the former Soviet Eastern Bloc. Despite bordering Greece and being less than 100 miles off the coast of Southern Italy Albania was governed from the USSR from 1946-1992.  The landscape (due to a combination of history, location and paranoia) is littered with concrete pillboxes or bunkers. Small concrete domes throughout the land that could be used strategically in case of invasion, and when I say scattered that’s not accurate there are over 700,000 dotting the land. The goal is to transform them into eco-friendly hostels, they are already built and the environment is not damaged further (many are in beautiful scenic locations). You can learn more about the designers and their vision and even download a huge pdf of the proposal by visiting their website. Taking something as stark as this and trying to create something positive is rather bold and creative. If you have time I’ve also included a preview video of the documentary being made about the concept. Time for me to visit Albania, I went to the former Yugoslavia to the North and it looks equally beautiful.

http://www.vimeo.com/6710102

Finally tonight a little ghost from England especially for Halloween. Kaspa is a glow in the dark EcoGlo-Ghost that will glow for an extended period of time after switching the internal light bulb off. It’s a sweet little design and the extended glow (perfect for a ghost friendly kid) is due to the product containing phosphor. The product is winning awards for innovation and design and I must confess I’d have loved one when I was a lad. Read and view more about Kaspa here and there’s also a video of the ‘glowing’ - erm….ghost.

Happy Halloween!!

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Tags: Albania, alt fuel, auto racing, bio-cng, bunkers, CO2, co2 emissions, concrete bunkers, eco ghost, eco glow, eco hostels, emissions, fuel consumption, glow in the dark, green gardening, green gardening tips, halloween, kaspa, natural gas cars, natural gas racing car, phosphor, planet forward, Soviet eastern bloc, USSR, Volkswagen

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