Archive for eco ideas
Eco-ideas to brighten your day, eco-boots, eco-lawn and an algae lamp
Posted by: | CommentsWelcome back to the blog! I feel I’ve been writing a great deal recently about fairly weighty topics, but with the current crisis in The Gulf of Mexico it has been difficult for me to research other issues. For a change of pace today I’d thought we would take a look at some of the more innovative and creative green inventions that I have come across recently. These might not be the breakthrough inventions for this century but every little bit helps!
Hiking gets greener with these boots
Do you like hiking? Is throwing on a pair of boots and climbing hills and traversing trails your idea of a good day out? If so then you may be interested in these rather fetching orange (yet green) boots. All the energy you expend shuffling up and down rock trails and riverbanks generates a lot of energy and heat down in your boots, now at last you can out that energy to good use. These boots designed by Gotwind store energy in batteries located in the soles of the boot (the warmest area) and the energy stored can be used to charge your phone! Really! After you have a good charge built up you can plug your phone into the heel and walk while you talk, all without the use of any electricity. According to the maker a 12 hour ramble equates to an hour of power, so boot up and learn more via their official site.
If hiking is not really your cup of tea but you still like to enjoy some green grass under 
your feet on your own property you might take a lot of pride in your lawn? I’m always amazed by the time, money and chemicals people spend to have the greenest lawn on the block. Unfortunately maintaining a pristine patch of grass often means the use of gas or electricity to constantly trim the grass, excesses of wasted water and fertilizer use. In fact keeping a nice lawn maintained is a fairly eco-unfriendly practice. It doesn’t have to be that way though, via Wildflower Farm its now possible to install an eco-lawn. According to the company it can make a huge difference to a traditional lawn, the seed blend results in grass that will grow more consistently regardless of sun or shade and require much less watering. They also claim that it requires substantially less fertilizer and treatment to achieve a healthy green and finally it grows in a way that results in shorter blades so that what they call ‘the carpet effect’ and doesn’t need cutting if you choose to do so. I love a beautiful lawn too and this looks like a greener way to have one. For more information visit the Wildflower Farm website.
Algae lamp is amazing
Science was never my strength and thankfully there are many people who offset this weakness of mine. I don’t truly understand how our final invention works but that doesn’t detract from how remarkable it is. What would you think of a lamp that consumes no electricity or batteries and relies on algae to create the current to power the lamp. Here is the part when I get confused…it seems professors at Stamford came upon the discovery that living algae during the process of photosynthesis create a current of energy. This lamp creates that living phenomena and can be used as a household lamp, apparently all the owner needs to do is breathe into the chamber, the combination of CO2 and sunlight will do the rest as the algae then create the energy the energy current! If I didn’t visit the website of the designer I wouldn’t believe it was even possible. The designer is based in the Netherlands and you can learn more here.
Three amazing innovations – I feel humbled.
Tags: algae lamp, boots that charge cell phones, eco ideas, eco lawn, fertilizer, gotwind, green inventions, green lawn, low water lawn, non electric lamp, plant food, rechargeable boots, special grass blendWaste Paper? Meet your destiny….”White Goat”
Posted by: | CommentsThis has to be seen to be believed and fortunately I have a video to include so that you know it’s not just a fanciful idea. I used to work at an 
office where over 600 employees occupied 3 buildings on a corporate campus, regrettably (and as recently as 2006) it was an environment that created an obscene amount of waste paper. We used to have training classes with 60 page staff manuals on paper, I’d attend meetings where in addition to the powerpoint presentation 15 or 20 of us might be watching we would each be handed a twenty page ‘deck’ so we could follow through the presentation from paper on our laps simultaneously! Sadly there were a high number of employees who were very ‘old school’ and emails containing policy or updates just didn’t exist to them unless the clicked their print button, hiked over to the printer and grabbed a paper copy to hide within a draw at their desk. It’s not real unless I can touch it seemed to the mentality.
Within the office they gradually moved to a situation where every 50 feet or so a giant blue paper recycling bin for paper would stand sentinel hoping that a small percentage of the forests destroyed in the name of profit might find their way back to paper mill for reproduction. To be fair some people even asked what these five foot tall plastic receptacles were for, as the months rolled on some people even started adding paper into them. Unfortunately just as many people filled their desk side trash cans on a daily basis with scraps and memos that never needed to be printed in the first place.
I won’t name the company for fear of causing outrage, let’s just say it’s a large and well known company who really should have enforced stricter recycling policy. By the time I left the company, when used to worked later in the evening I would see the cleaning crew come in and empty those recycling bins and would be pleased to see that ‘participation’ rates were beginning to improve. I wish that this product existed 5 years ago as I would have written to our executive board insisting it was considered for our office as well as the dozens of other equally large facilities throughout the world. It’s called White Goat and is named very appropriately.
In short it is a paper shredder designed specifically for large offices that create a significant amount of waste paper. That with water will pulp all waste paper and remarkably turn it into toilet paper. All of this from the same unit! It only takes 40 sheets of A4 paper to make one roll of toilet paper. The manufacturer estimates that ‘running costs’ will equate to about $0.10 per roll of paper. I believe that the company are only accepting pre-orders presently as the product was only recently unveiled at a Japanese ‘eco-trade’ fair late last year.
Watch out for staples!!!
Green Gazette (Issue 10) Rocking Chairs, Cascadia and Kia
Posted by: | CommentsHello again and welcome to the weekend. Autumn has finally arrived here, well…it had for about ten days and then straight back into summer (101 Fahrenheit today). Air Conditioning on (boo energy use) warm water from the cold tap for showers (yaay no hot water needed) so I guess we have an Indian Summer. I’ve never been terribly keen on that phrase as I assumed some negative connotation, but there doesn’t seem to be an official origin. Here are the best guesses of the origin:
- When European settlers first came across the phenomenon in America it became known as the Indian’s Summer.
- The haziness of the Indian Summer weather was caused by prairie fires deliberately set by Native American tribes.
- It was the period when First Nations/Native American peoples harvested their crops.
- The phenomenon was more common in what were then North American Indian territories.
- It relates to the marine shipping trade in the Indian Ocean (this is highly dubious as it is entirely remote from the early US citations).
- It originated from raids on European settlements by Indian war parties, which usually ended in autumn.
- In a parallel with other ‘Indian’ terms it implied a belief in Indian falsity and untrustworthiness and that an Indian summer was an ersatz copy of the real thing.
I think I’ll play it safe and call it a late Summer. I know this much, I wish it were Autumn. So on to the Green Gazette….
Sometimes the most obvious of green inventions are the most endearing. This one could have been handy as can be when the Rocking Chair was at the peak of it’s popularity a century ago. Benjamin Franklin (one of the most fascinating persons ever) is credited by many as the inventor of the rocking chair (what didn’t he do?) but he never saw it as a source of electricity did he? That day has arrived and this chair generates power from your rocking. I find one small issue with the idea, have you ever tried reading whilst sitting on a rocking chair? It’s an instant source of nausea, perhaps it’s just me? Still a great invention as the kinetic energy is stored in a battery so you can use it at your convenience, perhaps in an adjoining chair?
Vancouver, capital of Cascadia?
This is a great story and one that makes me add something for my next trip to the library. I really enjoy history books but I’d never read (not in my rocking chair) about the concept of a republic named Cascadia. I’ll encourage you to read this article in full to learn more but the short version is the idea was a utopian 19th century idea for an independent republic along the coast of the Pacific Northwest from BC down to Northern California. So why am I writing about this? As you may be aware Portland and Vancouver are two of the most progressive green cities on the planet. The mayors of the respective cities are consulting with each other in creating an unofficial green alliance. It’s basically friendly competition as both cities are making huge strides in continuing an inherited tradition of being very close to nature. I find it a fascinating story and if Cascadia ever becomes it’s own nation please sign me up!
I wanted to close with my favourite story of the last few days, it’s innovation impressed me and the concept reinforces the green concerns we share in a very powerful way. I always remember visiting a church in Birmingham, England as a teenager, It’s in the heart of the city and left an impression on me (and most who know it’s history). When the centuries old stonework was cleaned and maintained the actual spire was left the colour it was, black as soot. This was a testament to the dreadful air quality during the industrial revolution and beyond. In the mid 1800′s Birmingham had more factories than any city on the planet and was deemed ‘the workshop of the world’.
KIA cleaning up
KIA motor cars have seemingly been inspired by this idea. Their current advertising campaign in the UK involves spray cleaning their latest messages onto filthy pavements (sidewalks) throughout 750 locations in Britain. They were simply cleaned using only highly pressure cleaned rainwater in a stencil method. What a brilliant idea – they are of course promoting their most eco-friendly vehicles. The clean pavement image last for about a month. I like this! That’s all for now….Tim
Tags: air quality, Benjamin Franklin inventions, Birmingham england, cascadia, eco ideas, green inventions, green rocking chair, indian summer, industrial revolution, KIA, kinetic energy, origin of indian summer, pacific northwest, planet forward, portland oregon, rocking chair electric, rocking chair inventor, urban eco planning, vancouver
