Eco-News

In looking at sustainable design, its implications on the world beyond innovative architecture, aesthetically trendy products, and positive environmental influence carry with them the possibility to reduce and even eradicate poverty. Though poverty is present in every major city, every growing suburb, and even tiny towns, it primarily exists in some of the most remote areas of the world. In these places, systems, governments, and organizations may be unable to successfully act as a catalyst to a better life for the impoverished due to an infinite number of problems that arise when poverty is an inherent result of societal and political structures. 
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In an effort to further its mission against plastic bags and to promote the reuse of existing bags, Whole Foods has brought back its Wooden Nickel program, which donates five cents for every bag that you reuse to a local charity of your choice. Five cents may be a small number, but in large doses it can have an effect of duality on both the surrounding community and the environment itself. By reducing the consumption of paper bags (the company banned plastic bags earlier this year), Whole Foods hopes to serve as an example for other retailers by inspiring simple, yet powerful, change.
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Bottled water accounts for a tremendous percentage of the plastic bottles that are currently eating up the world’s valuable landfill real-estate. Despite living in a country where tap water is about as safe as it gets, it’s a lot easier to opt for prepackaged bottled water that’s ready to go wherever you are. Back To The Tap’s strategy? Provide that same convenience and taste in a reusable bottle that filters its water on its way to your lips.
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Ben & Jerry’s is, without a doubt, the most well-known ice cream shop in the country. From Cherry Garcia to Karamel Sutra, the company’s never-dull assortment of flavors has won the hearts of children and adults alike over the brand’s thirty-year rise to fame. Of course, as one of the most socially and environmentally conscious companies in the States, Ben & Jerry’s has inspired a wealth of change, evolution, and awareness for both great ice cream and contemporary social challenges alike.
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Sometimes, the greatest things in the world of design are those that may not ever exist. The Solar Tree, for example, is stunning. Dubbed “Photon Synthese” (French for Photosynthesis), the concept integrates an expandable structure of plugs and miniature solar panels to construct a tree that provides enough power for virtually any consumer device that fits in your pocket.
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Swedish energy design company Home Energy recently announced a new prototype that could potentially change the way the world looks at wind in the years to come. Using a unique, proprietary design, the Energy Ball utilizes the Venturi Effect in combination with a design that allows air to flow inside of the device itself, as opposed to simply going through it, to improve the look, efficiency, and simplicity of a tool that will be instrumental in the world’s shift to more sustainable and renewable forms of energy.
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Dublin based EcoCabs has given taxi-cabs a bit of a twist in a unique, entrepreneurial move that gives Dubliners a free ride in a zero-emissions vehicle using only ad-supported revenue to pick up the check.
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The Big Apple is on its way to getting a little bit greener. Mayor Bloomberg’s new renewable energy policy has the city on track to pioneer the nation’s big-city shift towards a greener future. With a current target date of September 19th (this year) for businesses to submit proposals for more efficient and environmentally friendly buildings, the city’s well on its way to a greener future.
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I spent the night browsing through entries and winners in 2008’s IDEA competition in search of a few green ideas from some of the brightest minds of our time. Here’s a look at three ideas that could change the way we look at the three R’s that have been engrained in our brains (and yet, so rarely used) since elementary school.
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Wine has always been a more sophisticated take on alcohol than its liquor and beer-based counterparts; perhaps that’s why it’s been so resistant to the convenience of the can - long a staple of the beer and soft drink world - in favor of the cumbersome, heavy, and expensive bottle that wine drinkers worldwide have grown to love so dearly. Thanks to the work of two Swedish designers, however, the world of wine could one day make the leap to a smaller, cheaper, and more convenient form that’s just as good for its users as it is for the environment.
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