Welcome 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.