SalvaEco

Waterless urinals have been mentioned on Green Options before (here and here) but a recent innovation has earned them a brand new entry. As those who've used one can attest to, they usually aren't pleasant to the nose, but now Carome has brought out a new odorless model: the H2Zero. Waterless urinals save the average office 2.3 million litres of water a year, and now people might not get nauseous using them!

The H2Zero™ Cube waterless urinal operates utilising unique patented cartridge technology that doesn't use an oil-based seal as used in traditional waterless urinals. Housed within the cartridge the Bio Fresh deodorising block is activated during use, while the Bio Seal™ allows urine to pass through the seal freely. The Bio Seal™ acts as a one-way air-tight valve to seal the cartridge from the drainage system and against back-pressure situations. This operation guarantees consistently superior performance and hygiene compared to other waterless urinals.

via

Random Good Stuff

Filed under: Etc., Ethanol, Solar

Another school is jumping on the bandwagon to educate people in renewable energy. Once they get the go ahead from the Board of Higher Education Approval, Illinois State University will start offering a bachelor’s degree program focused on renewable energy. The school’s Department of Technology will run the multi-disciplinary program that will also include major components in economics and public policy. Students in the program can also choose to concentrate in wind or ethanol.

ISU is not the first to offer such a program, as it follows Arizona State and Canton College. The idea of providing training in both the technology including agriculture, chemistry, and math in addition to the economics, geography, government, and politics could be very promising. Hopefully it will produce some graduates that understand all the realities of renewable energy and can make better informed decisions.

[Source: Illinois State University via TreeHugger]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: EV/Plug-in

The team at Hybrid Technologies has struck again this time with a motorcycle converted to run on lithium ion batteries. The Stealth, as they call it, is a cruiser style and has a top speed of 50 mph. Performance is apparently comparable to a 500cc bike but with no noise. The bike isn’t specifically on Hybrid Technologies’ site although it looks similar to their Jin so it probably has a range of 40 miles. Popular Mechanics has a video with HT founder Richard Griffiths showing off and demonstrating the bike.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

This is a really simple recipe with a boring name that I considered jazzing up, but couldn’t think of anything more creative. The ingredients are common garden vegetables and so you may have all the ingredients needed right in your backyard. If not, a quick trip to the farmers’ market will take care of it. This dish is simple, flavorful, and just a really good way to taste the food without a whole lot of added seasonings, oil, etc.

Green beans with onion, garlic, and tomato

• 1½ pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

• 2 medium onions, peeled and cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into fine slices

• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced very fine

• 1 pound red-ripe tomatoes

• 4 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil (either works fine)

• ½ cup water

• 1½ – 2 teaspoons salt

• Pepper to taste

1. Drop tomatoes into boiling water for 15 seconds. Remove with slotted spoon, rinse in cold water, and peel. Chop tomatoes into ½ inch dice.

2. Heat oil in large, 8 or 9-inch wide pot over medium low heat. When hot, put in garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add onions; stir fry for 2-3 minutes more until onions begin to turn translucent.

3. Now put in the tomatoes, beans, salt, pepper, and water. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat and simmer for 20-40 minutes until beans are cooked through.

Serves up to 10 people.

Editor's note: Green Brews is a new biweekly series in which Green Options writer Clayton Bodie Cornell explores a passion unrelated to biofuels: organic beers and green nightlife. Enjoy!

Have you ever felt guilty after a night at the bar? Not the guilt associated with spending all your hard-earned cash on overpriced drinks, or wasting a day of your life nursing a hangover — that happens. What I'm asking is whether or not your green conscience extends into the realm of alcohol…

I won't be surprised if you answer 'no' — I did too (generally speaking). But a completely new trend could be on the horizon: the 'eco-nightlcub':

…Mark Klemen['s]…new venture, Butterfly Social Club,…makes eco-consciousness and healthful living as easy as ordering a drink. Located next door to Klemen's diverse, socially conscious nightlife mainstay Funky Buddha Lounge [in Chicago], Butterfly offers an array of alcohol, juices and tonics that are either certified organic or grown and produced in an eco-friendly environment."

Consistent with the general trend in organic food and drink, Klemen claims organic alcohols taste better and are healthier. This is an attractive concept; whenever I consume something to excess I like to make it as healthy as possible. But he's probably right. Just like a top-shelf liquor, organic products tend to be more refined and contain fewer byproducts and pesticide residues. Anyone that's had a 'cheap-wine hangover' knows what I'm talking about.

Ingesting fewer pesticide residues is never a bad idea, though I'm sure someone out there is thinking 'healthy alcohol' is a pretty stupid concept. In terms of personal well-being, this may be true (drinking too much by any other name is still, well, you know…), but don't forget the term 'organic' involves a whole set of farming practices that are healthier for farmers and their land. It's not just about your brain cells.

Besides organic spirits, the Butterfly Social Club has a lot more eco-savviness to offer. The whole club is designed around green concepts:

Everything about Butterfly exudes an organic quality–even the artistic facade looks like a living thing, a hobbit hole growing out of the urban landscape. Inside, natural builder Miguel Elliott used a mixture of sand, clay and straw to hand sculpt curving walls and trees that double as seating nooks. Klemen calls the space comforting and cave-like, adding that the mud mixture helps keep temperatures cool.

Klemen says he's trying to offer customers "an opportunity to have a better tasting and better feeling experience."

Atmosphere, they say, is everything. At least that's what we tell ourselves when we pay $8 for a martini. But like the best of green innovation, Butterfly takes takes something most of us do anyway, makes it eco-friendly, and increases the quality and enjoyment of the experience:

What about drinkers loyal to not-exactly-beneficial brands? "I'm not asking anybody to give anything up," he says. "I'm asking somebody to get something better."

Klemen also says he's not asking you to save the world–just to spend your hard-earned cash on something more environmentally friendly. If there's some aspect of what he's doing at Butterfly that "makes people a little more aware," he says, it's a step in the right direction."

Hell, I'd drink there.

If you're off to the bar this weekend, Klemen offered some eco-conscious drinking tips to keep in mind:

Ditch: vodka and Red Bull
Do: Rain vodka, made from organic Midwestern grains, and Steaz certified organic energy drink; or Chopin vodka, from organic Polish potatoes, and Butterfly's housemade energy drink, made with spring water, and rainforest-sustaining roots, herbs and teas

Ditch: draft cider
Do: certified organic, unpasteurized Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouche Brut de Normandie (Klemen says he carries this cider to support the family that's been producing it for hundreds of years)

Ditch: Captain and Coke
Do: Navan cognac, which features natural black vanilla from Madagascar, and Steaz organic root beer

Ditch: Bud
Do: Wild Hop Lager and Stone Mill, Anheuser-Busch's beers made with certified organic barley malt; for a more enzymatic, organic option, try Wiesen Edel-Weisse, which ferments in the bottle up until you crack it open

Ditch: supermarket chardonnay
Do: organic and biodynamic wine from Frey vineyards (Klemen says the grapes are grown in "awesome soil")

 

Originally reported by Karen Budell:
Eco-lixirs: Can cocktails have a conscience? Butterfly Social Club thinks so. (May 9th, 2007).

Karma Capitalism

Editor's note: We're pleased to welcome Hemal Vasavada Gill to the writing team. Hemal is founder and editor-in-chief at The Eightfold, and also works as a freelance trend and marketing strategist. We've invited her on board to take a look at how companies are positioning themselves as green and sustainable, and to help you separate the hype from the real deal.

So you’ve changed your light bulbs, recycle, started buying local organic produce and are considering a hybrid. Now what? There are a million different other things you can be doing to reduce your carbon footprint, but how do you know your efforts are enough? How do you know this push to be green isn’t a phase?

Trend experts believe we are at the inception of a completely new economic system. Dubbed Karma Capitalism, this system ties economic progress to social and environmental progress so “doing good” is not just about looking green or sounding green or even acting green. It’s about companies living and breathing sustainability and working with every day people to make progress possible.

The theory is nice, but what does it look like? To answer this question, I flew to the day-long Trend Buero Karma Capitalism Trend Day in Germany last week to cover what leading Trend thinkers in Europe were saying for my blog: theeightfold.com. Here's a bit of what I learned to help you understand how you can shape the future of sustainability.

People are Key – We Have the Potential to Shape Progress

Karma Capitalism begins with the belief that we as humans are not only creative but also filled with limitless potential. In the current system, all the philanthropy and aid in the world hasn’t been able to solve problems of poverty, disease or global warming. Karma Capitalism involves businesses working with us as consumers and NGOs to design market solutions that will empower those in need.

This is possible because each one of us has the capacity to care and the potential to make a difference. We also have tools today to meet other like-minded people, create our own products and content and market our own ideas through digital media. But will we want to do this?

Trend experts believe we are at a critical turning point. We are tired of being treated like just consumers. Although economic figures like GDP continue to go up, our level of happiness has gone down. As we wake up to a world with increasing economic polarization, terrorism and natural disasters, we are looking for meaning, we are looking for hope, and we are looking for change. People are already doing this.

Take Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize Laureate and founder of the Grameen bank. Yunus created a system of micro lending in the seventies and eighties. He challenged the traditional institutions of lending by providing affordable loans to Bangladesh’s poorest, even if they didn’t have collateral. Today he’s helped lift millions of people around the world out of poverty and is starting to work with major businesses like Nestle to create a new system of social businesses.

 

Companies Need Us to Develop Creative Solutions

The amazing thing about Yunus is that he started as an economics professor with a simple idea. He wasn’t necessarily special; he just started asking the right questions and little by little experimenting with solutions. Even more assuring is that today we have an additional advantage that Yunus didn’t have. Companies are getting involved. While traditional banks scoffed at Yunus, pioneering companies are looking for visionary people willing to experiment.

This might seem odd, but it’s because being sustainable and being “good” is incredibly difficult. Companies know something has been done, but they don’t have the traditional benchmarks, guides or even regulations to necessarily get them there. Like Yunus, they are learning by doing, but they are also learning they can’t change the system alone.

At the same time, companies learned from sites like YouTube and MySpace that they are no longer setting our social and cultural agenda. People have reclaimed their values and are determining what’s important in the world. Smart companies not only see this but also are learning. P&G for example has a consumer-lead innovation network called Vocalpoint, which moves outside of traditional focus group settings to engage real women to deliver better solutions for their lives. Why can’t it apply this strategy to doing good?

In a Karma Capitalist system, it will. The result will be a revolution in the way we consume products and the way we see the world. No longer will we simply buy products for products sake. The things we consume will have purpose – they will be “products as substance”. It could be as simple as being locally grown or as profound as Product Red has tried to do in helping solve the AIDs crisis in Africa.

 

Change is Real, Change is Here

The key to this future is in being active today. We need to continue using our creativity and potential to not only demand transparency and accountability from the brands we consume. We also need to start asking questions and sharing creative solutions with earnest companies who are trying to make a difference. While at one point this might have been seen as radical, today experts believe it is an expected reality. Why not then take the opportunity to help engineer a better economy and ecology through Karma Capitalism?

Links:

Trendbuero — Trendtag (in German)

MuhammedYunus.org

VocalPoint.com

Myth: SUVs are the biggest gas guzzlers around.

Fact: Minivans, pick-up trucks and regular ol' four door sedans get the same, if not worse, miles per gallon (MPG.)

Check out these ratings from the Consumer Reports Guide to Fuel Efficient Vehicles. Of the highest ranked vehicles of their class, these are the top performers in the MPG category:

• Midsized & large SUV: Honda Pilot EX (overall mpg 19, city 13, highway 27)
• Minivan: Chevrolet Venture LS (overall mpg 19, city 12, hwy 27)
• Compact pickup: Toyota Tacoma TRD (overall mpg 16, city 12, hwy 22)
• Small SUV: Toyota Matrix SR AWD (overall mpg 24, city 17, hwy 33)
• Wagons/hatchbacks: Pontiac Vibe FWD (overall mpg 26, 18 city, 36 hwy
• Nearly all of the sedan categories: family, luxury, upscale, and large (with the exception of the small sedan) were similar, averaging an overall mpg of 22.

Small sedan drivers are really the only people who can do the finger pointing as that category ranks best overall for mpg:

• Honday Insight (overall mpg 51, city 36, hwy 66),
• Volkswagon Golf GLS TDI (overall mpg 41, city 29, hwy 54)
• Toyota Prius (overall mpg 41, city 30, hwy 49)

What about hybrid SUVs? Not as good as the small sedans, but a little better than their all-gas counterparts:

• Ford Escape Hybrid 4WD (city mpg 33, hwy 29)
• Mercury Mariner Hybrid 4WD (city mpg 33, hwy 29)
• Lexus RX 400h 2WD (city mpg 33, hwy 28)
• Toyota Highlander Hybrid 2WD (city mpg 33, hwy 28)

Fact: MPG estimates vary. The way you drive and what conditions you are driving in will affect the MPG you'll get from your vehicle. Quick accelleration and heavy breaking, driving at higher speeds, AC use, and idling all can decrease how far your gas goes.

Fact: Federal fuel economy standards in the United States are 27.5 miles per gallon for passenger cars and 24 miles per gallon for light trucks.

Fact: Large vehicles weighing over 8,500 are exempt from fuel economy standards. This includes big SUVs such as the Chevrolet Suburban, Ford Excursion, as well as the Dodge Ram pick-up and most passenger and cargo vans.

Very few automakers are going above and beyond federal regulations and policy to change fuel economy standards and even fewer politicians are able to get any additional regulations in place. A few U.S. senators have proposed increasing CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards to 35 mpg by 2020, which will likely hit the senate floor next month. And democratic presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, announced last week in Detroit the need to increase vehicle fuel efficiency (his plan calls for an average of 40 mpg by 2022.)

However, proposals such as these are often fought strongly by the big auto manufacturers, which makes it difficult for all drivers to get better mileage from the gas pump – whether or not you're driving an SUV.

Filed under: MPG, Legislation and Policy

US Senator Carl Levin, D- the State of Cars, will be offering an amendment to the proposed new fuel economy regulations next month that would provide a way out for carmakers. Under the new proposal, carmakers that commit to power using alternative fuels or new powertrains on all their cars by 2020 would be exempted from the new rules.

In principle it’s an interesting idea but as always the devil is in the details. Rather than leaving the car companies completely free of the new requirements perhaps they should have a slightly lower requirement. The other big question is what happens if the companies make the commitment and then don’t follow through? What kind of penalties will be put in place? We’ll have to wait and see the actual proposals when they’re released.

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. req’d]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Like all industries, the design and visual communications industries are changing. The recent wave of green consciousness sweeping the world has rubbed off on everyone from designers to CEOs. This is an exciting time to be a designer in a changing industry and a changing world. And of course, I have high hopes for the future of my chosen field.

The design industry has come a long way. There are now many sustainable options for printing and paper, and even web hosting. With more sustainable materials and tools at hand, designers are able to explore greener options and lower the environmental impact of their work. And since graphic designers work hand in hand with the paper industry, which is the largest industrial consumer of water and the third greatest industrial greenhouse gas emitter, it's about time that sustainability became a bigger part of the industry. There is much room for improvement in design, and many changes are on the horizon.

When I was studying design in college, I became interested in socially and environmentally conscious design (it was even the subject of my thesis). It seemed that this consciousness was just beginning to take hold in an industry that had been mostly focused on commercial interests since the dawn of the advertising age. The fresh ideas coming from the industry excited me, and I predicted a future in which the role of the designer was that of a problem solver, applying the design process to more than just visual media, but to solutions that would have a positive impact on the world. I imagined that designers would begin going deeper, thinking more critically about each thing we create, and learning from the ultimate designer: nature. Slowly but surely, my dreams of a green design industry are becoming a reality.

Fast forward a few years, and I'm seeing even more exciting ideas propelling the design industry forward. I'm hoping it won't be long before green design is synonymous with good design, and designers are as concerned about the sustainability of their projects as the aesthetics. Design firms focused on environmentally conscious design are becoming quite common, and independent designers are beginning to realize that having knowledge of green design solutions is an asset to their businesses as well as to their clients. There is a hopeful air in the industry today and a call for change from designers themselves.

Visual design is one of the most powerful forms of communication. Designers have the ability to open minds to new ideas, explain complex issues, educate the public, persuade people to take action, and give ideas wings. As an image-driven culture, the ability to create and manipulate the images people are exposed to is an immense power. As designers realize this power and harness it, I am hoping that change on a massive scale will occur. I dream of a day when every step of the design process is accompanied by critical thought about environmental impact, when there is no trash because everything has been designed to be reused or recycled, when there's no such thing as virgin paper. I dream of all design taking a cradle to cradle approach, analyzing the consequences of every part of a product's life cycle. I dream of a redesign of our world to mimic the resourceful, beautiful, wasteless designs of nature. And I believe the design industry plays a big role in making these dreams come true.

We have a long way to go before design becomes a sustainable industry. But progress is being made, and minds are shifting in the right direction. As more and more designers realize the power they have to not only produce sustainable designs, but to change the world through their work, a greener future will be realized.

Links: Design Will Change on Business of Design Online, Cradle to Cradle, Design Can Change, my paper on The Future of Design

So many times once our concern about the environment is peaked, we become aware of so much more – our connection with the earth as well as what we put into our bodies. So how do we know "what's in" the stuff that we wash, slather, and spray our bodies with everyday? Cosmetics are not regulated by the FDA, so how do we know what's really in these things?

Well you check them on Skin Deep, the cosmetics database, of course! This database created by the Environmental Working Group claims to hold information of 1/4 of all cosmetics – over 22,000 items across almost 1,000 companies. They rank each product from 0 – 10, the higher numbers meaning more "concern" you should have about using the product.

They'll also tell you each ingredient in the item, which of those are on the sketchy side, and why (linked to cancer, reproductive issues, etc). Additionally, they let you know if that manufacturer has signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and if they conduct animal testing.

So, for example, we'll look at white Dove bar soap. It's got a score of 5 (so, middle ground). Unilever has not signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and DO test on animals. The fragrance seems to be the scariest ingredient of the bunch with an individual score of 8. And apparently, 67% of bar soaps are of "less concern". Four bar soaps wound up with a score of 0 – meaning whew! very little concern. They include Kiss My Face's Pure Olive Oil Bar Soap ($3.50), Lilie De Vallee Castile Unscented ($3.99), and two soaps from NeemAura.

Take a look through your bathroom and see how your products rate. You just might decide to make a change!

Rebecca says: This is something I've had growing concern about and will definitely be looking into our products at home. I'm a little nervous to find out the answers, but I guess ignorance is not bliss…