With rising grocery prices and a desire to be self-reliant, eating locally produced fresh food is the latest trend in sustainability. This urban agriculture movement has grown vigorously. Hundreds of farmers are at work in Detroit, Milwaukee, Oakland and other areas that, like East New York. Local officials and nonprofit groups have been providing land, training and financial encouragement. Living in the city, your thoughts may turn to daydreaming about having your own produce... Read Full Story
Citizens have a right to know what toxic chemicals are being released into their communities. Luckily for US citizens, there's an internet database where you can find precise information about pollution problems and toxic chemicals. It allows you to view your neighborhood by zip code, and to view the types of hazards you're constantly exposed to, as well as a map of pollution and of course the culprits.. Scorecard provides detailed information on more than 11,000 chemicals, including all... Read Full Story
Carbon credits are a component of trading schemes implemented to mitigate global warming. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse effect emissions by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading in similar way as the market values stocks of publicly trading companies. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold at the prevailing market price. They can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between... Read Full Story
A French company has developed a pollution-free car which runs on compressed air and India's Tata Motors has the car under production and it may be on sale in Europe and India by the end of the year. The "air car", also known as the Mini-CAT (Compressed Air Technology ) or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a fill-up and the top speed will be almost 70 mph. The car features a fiber glass body and a... Read Full Story
Product designer Ryan Frank is a perfect example of creating furniture from junk. Working out of his studio in east London, he salvages wasted surfaces such as old wood, industrial hooks, burlap bags and even tagged surfaces and morphs them into stunning home products and furniture. Ryan Frank is a South African born furniture designer living and working in East London. His eco-sensitive collection, which makes frequent use of sustainable materials, draws inspiration from the natural... Read Full Story
Many sources of energy are being wasted. This can be in the form of building air conditioners or refrigeration units that vent heat to the atmosphere, or even the heat given off automobile engines. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that the available seven quadrillion Btu of waste heat sources exceeds the current production of all other U.S. renewable power sources combined. This includes hydroelectric, wood, biofuels, geothermal, wind and solar photovoltaic. A way to efficiently... Read Full Story
Q: How many people does it take to screw in a light bulb at a Sierra Club meeting? A: Five to talk about in committee, one to argue that we shouldn't be wasting the electricity, and one to screw the damn thing in! ‘Inconvenient Truth’ was successful in capturing people’s imaginations and instilling enough fear in them, that they had to stop and listen. It worked and convinced many of the urgency of the crisis, and of the need of becoming personally involved. Now, other words must take... Read Full Story
What do you do with used hubcaps (aka Wheel Covers)? Some of us might hang them on walls or use them to serve food, but English artist Ptolemy Elrington has created sculptures with them for six years. Originally, he set out to fashion a suit of armor, but got sidetracked making marine and creatures. As you can imagine, these pieces are large: Sizes are mostly 1'-6', but may range from 6" for a shark and 25 feet for a dragon. This is probably one of the coolest recycling art styles I’ve... Read Full Story
Promotional items are products that normally have an organization's logo imprinted on them, and usually handed out to customers, employees, vendors and other recipients with the intention of promoting the enterprise and enhance brand equity. The business of promotional products is mind-boggling – over 3,000 manufacturers supply their products to about 20,000 distributors across the US alone, and the resultant annual sales are worth a whopping $17 billion USD! Nearly every type of industry... Read Full Story
If you live in a major metropolitan city, you've perhaps noticed that the sidewalks are covered with black dots the size of quarters. It takes some time to figure out that they are chewing gum waste. North American kids alone spend approximately half a billion dollars on bubble gum every year. Chewing gum crisis has grown dramatically in recent years. It is now one of the world's most popular forms of confectionery and consumption has jumped in the past years. As a result, a rash of gum... Read Full Story
