The Heineken World Bottle was designed with multiple functions. Image courtesy of hyperexperience.comIf we really want to be sustainable when it comes to our brew, we will consider the package. …

With all the media attention on "blood diamonds" and unsustainable metals, a more natural option has become necessary. Wood jewelry has been popular for many years, but as clear-cutting…

Getting misunderstood by the New York Times is a strange experience: it’s a bit frustrating, but you have to still be kind of flattered that it happened at all. So I certainly have a mixed emotions about the Times’ story today, Buying Into the Green Movement: HERE’S one popular vision for saving the planet: Roll out from under the sumptuous hemp-fiber sheets on your bed in the morning and pull on a pair of $245 organic cotton Levi’s and an Armani biodegradable knit shirt. Stroll from the bedroom in your eco-McMansion, with its photovoltaic solar panels, into the kitchen remodeled with reclaimed lumber. Enter the three-car garage lighted by energy-sipping fluorescent bulbs and slip behind the wheel of your $104,000 Lexus hybrid. Drive to the airport, where you settle in for an 8,000-mile flight— careful to buy carbon offsets beforehand — and spend a week driving golf balls made from compacted fish food at an eco-resort in the Maldives. That vision of an eco-sensitive life as a series of choices about what to buy appeals to millions of consumers and arguably defines the current environmental movement as equal parts concern for the earth and for making a stylish statement… (more)

(Posted by Alex Steffen in Media at 12:44 AM)

It's the logical next step. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Redesign! Green Options is redesigning our site and the design is launching next week.

But, we're not just putting a pretty face on GO….

by Chicago local blogger team, the FB crew: On the rare occasion I find myself channel surfing the 400 networks RCN provides, I inevitably click by ESPN Classic. Now I’m not much of a sports fan but I always stop to watch a few minutes of the old NBA footage from the 70s if nothing else but for the complete lack of advertising anywhere on the screen. There are no logos on the hardwoods, no courtside ad panels turning over and over and no jumbotron commercials. Just old school hoops and knee high socks. When you watch a basketball game now, marketers even put websites on the top edge of the backboards for when the cameras give viewers the bird’s eye view of 3-seconds worth of dunk replay. Advertisers have found their way onto every square inch of available blank space. Fed up with the rampant advertising smothering his city, São Paulo’s mayor, Gilberto Kassab, passed legislature last year effectively banning all outdoor advertising in Brazil’s largest metro. (With more than 11 million people, São Paulo is about five times the size of Chicago). Six months later, the removal of all the advertising is nearly complete and the city… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Urban Design and Planning at 12:26 PM)

I’m wary of the “50 simple things you can do to save the earth” approach to environmentalism and economic justice. Some things just aren’t that easy to do at the scale we need to do them. And this focus on tiny individual changes distracts us from demanding better environmental or economic decisions and actions from our elected and corporate leaders. The first wave of this easy steps and shopping for a better world movement was in full swing about 20 years ago. It bottomed out in an overload of hype. Like the miraculous health-saving elixirs once touted in newspaper ads, the claims made for these products — both in how good they were for you and how much they’d change the world — were too good to be true. Face it: there is just so much turing an old spaghetti sauce jar into a vase does for saving endangered species or ending poverty. But there are cheering developments in the current wave of consumer interest in things green. For every weird and disheartening instance of hype — as covered recently in The New York Times, Home Depot’s Eco Choices marketing campaign encompasses everything from energy-efficient lightbulbs to electric chainsaws… (more)

(Posted by Emily Gertz in Purchasing Green at 12:19 PM)

by Worldchanging Canada local blogger, Mark Tovey: The Rideau Canal, iconic emblem of Ottawa’s beauty, is, as of today, a UNESCO world heritage site, joining twelve other Canadian sites. It was chosen not for its natural charm, but because “it bears witness to the fight for control of the north of the American continent.” However, there is probably another way the Rideau canal should be recognized — as an emblem not of beauty or war, but of sustainable, person-powered commuting. As I noted in a previous Worldchanging post, Ottawa is already one of the bicycling capitals of the continent, in large part due to its 170 km of bicycle paths, of which the Rideau canal is one of the most important backbones. You can cycle almost the entire length of the Rideau bicycle path without ever having to cross a road. On Sundays, during the summer, Ottawa closes the road that runs beside the canal as an impetus to recreational cycling, walking, and in-line skating. People cycle both sides of the canal to get to work in both summer and winter, in one of the coldest capitals in the world. It’s not unusual for Ottawans who live near the canal… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Transportation at 12:10 PM)

When the thermostat starts to creep up, there's no reason to give up your morning coffee: just cool it down for a refreshing treat!

 
Honey Iced Espresso

 
Ingredients:

 

Two…

Paper, paper, paper. It's everywhere. Even though it is easily recycled, a lot of paper evades the recycling bin and winds up in the landfills.

Everyday items — toilet paper, facial tissue,…

I have yet to find any trace of ungainliness in The Institute for Applied Autonomy. The anonymous activist group believes in the importance of disseminating knowledge, encouraging autonomy, and developing methods of self-determination through artistic expression and application of military-like technology to the topics of criminal mischief, decentralized systems and individual autonomy. You might have read or seen one of their pamphlets or spray painting robots, or participated to the protests during the 2004 US presidential campaign by using their TXTmob system. StreetWriter “The Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) was founded in 1998 as an anonymous collective of artists, activists, and engineers united by the cause of individual and collective self-determination.” Why did you decide to stay anonymous? How much does that anonymity serve your objectives? Is it part of a strategy? Initially, we embraced anonymity as a defensive tactic, as many of our projects exist in a legal grey area. Working collectively and anonymously seemed natural to those of us with backgrounds in direct-action politics and the hacker and cyberpunks communities. Groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and native Hawaiian activists Hui Malama gave us a model for action that was both publicly engaged and effectively anonymous… (more)

(Posted by Regine Debatty in Movement Building and Activism at 6:58 PM)