Modern Sprout: A Decorative Hydroponic Planter for Your Windowsill
Modern Sprout has created a windowsill planter box that’s simple, self-sustaining and naturally stylish. Its hidden hydroponics system automatically waters and feeds your plants for you, making it perfect for space-conscious city dwellers, absent-minded gardeners and armchair agrarians. Enjoy the luxury of growing a variety of herbs, produce and flowers year round. Four finish options are available in addition to a solar-powered model. You can pre-order one now on Kickstarter ! + Modern Sprout on Kickstarter The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat ? Send us a tip by following this link . Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing! Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: gardening products , green gardening , Hydroponic Planter , hydroponic windowsill planter , Modern Sprout , urban gardening , Windowsill planter
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Modern Sprout: A Decorative Hydroponic Planter for Your Windowsill
Europe’s TyGRe Project Turns Old Tires Into Energy and Valuable Materials
Photo via Shutterstock When tires reach the end of the road, they often wind polluting the environment in landfills. In Europe alone, 3 million tons of tires are produced each year – and 60-70% of them are dumpstered. To take advantage of this untapped resource the EU has created the TyGRe Project , which is researching ways that old tires can be turned into new sources of synthetic fuel and precursors to electronic components. Read the rest of Europe’s TyGRe Project Turns Old Tires Into Energy and Valuable Materials Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: Ceramics , electronics , enea , EU , fuel , italy , portici , Recycle , silicon carbide , syngas , tire , trisaia , tygre project
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Europe’s TyGRe Project Turns Old Tires Into Energy and Valuable Materials
Atlas Recycled: Tom Tsuchiya’s Eco Sculpture Encourages Recycling in Cities Around the Globe
“ Atlas Recycled ” is a sculpture of the mythical Greek titan bearing the earth on his shoulders that doubles as a recycling receptacle for aluminum cans, plastic bottles and paper. In addition to serving as a recycling aid, the sculpture itself is made primarily from reused materials including over 30 pieces of maps and atlases. Artist Tom Tsuchiya (soo-chee-ya) constructed the sculpture’s internal structure from wood, foam, and steel scraps from his studio. He installed a hidden door on the globe portion of the sculpture to allow the recyclable contents to be removed. “Atlas Recycled” exhibits in various cities to promote the improvement of our environment through art. The sculpture has previously celebrated Earth Day on Cincinnati’s Fountain Square (2010), New York City’s Grand Central Terminal (2011) and Washington D.C.’s National Mall (2012). Though Tsuchiya is best known for creating bronze sculptures for the NFL and Major League Baseball, he has a passion for improving our environment through creative ways. + Atlas Recycled + Tom Tsuchiya The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat ? Send us a tip by following this link . Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing! Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: atlas , Atlas Recycled , eco-art , green art , green design , Recycled Materials , recycled sculpture , recycling , Recycling initiatives , sustainable design , Tom Tsuchiya , urban art
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Atlas Recycled: Tom Tsuchiya’s Eco Sculpture Encourages Recycling in Cities Around the Globe
EXCLUSIVE New Photos: Plus-Energy Masdar City in Abu Dhabi
Read the rest of EXCLUSIVE New Photos: Plus-Energy Masdar City in Abu Dhabi Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: “energy efficiency” , “solar energy” , abu dhabi , clean tech , clean tech hub , csp , Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber , eco design , green design , greywater recycling , masdar city , Masdar Institute of Science and Technology , MIST , MIT , photovoltaic panels , Recycling initiatives , shams 1 , sustainable design , united arab emirates , World Future Energy Summit
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EXCLUSIVE New Photos: Plus-Energy Masdar City in Abu Dhabi
1.9 Million Worms Chomp Down Airport Waste in North Carolina
The Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina has deployed 1.9 million worms to turn a boatload of organic waste into fertilizer . Every day the airport housekeeping department headed by Bob Lucas processes 2.5 tons of waste, including plastic, clothing, aluminum and food tossed out by rushed passengers, NPR reports. The recyclables are pulled out from the pile and sold and the organic waste is transferred to a giant composting bin where the army of red wigglers go to work. Read the rest of 1.9 Million Worms Chomp Down Airport Waste in North Carolina Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: Charlotte Douglas International Airport , composting , divert waste from the landfill , Environment , fertilizer , food waste , News , north carolina , recyclables , recycling , Recycling initiatives , red wigglers , usa
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1.9 Million Worms Chomp Down Airport Waste in North Carolina
EcoBot III is a Human Waste-Powered Robot that Cleans Wastewater!
EcoBot III is a lightweight self-sustaining robot designed to clean wastewater ! Powered by Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), the robot runs off human waste, using it to produce electricity necessary for performing its cleaning task. The project was funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and developed in collaboration between Wessex Water and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in England. Read the rest of EcoBot III is a Human Waste-Powered Robot that Cleans Wastewater! Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: “energy efficiency” , biomass energy , bristol robotics laboratory , eco-friendly robots , ecobot III , EPSRC , lightweight robot , microbial fuel cells , wastewater cleaning robot
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EcoBot III is a Human Waste-Powered Robot that Cleans Wastewater!
UN Offers Prize to Help Bring Power to 3,000 Bosnian Homes Using Renewable Energy
November 30, 2012 by
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Photo by Shutterstock To help deliver power to the more than 3,000 families living far from Bosnia’s power grid, the United Nations is offering a $20,000 prize to whoever invents a relatively cheap renewable energy solution. The winning solution should cost less than $6,500, and it should be easily able to supply an average household with hot water and electricity. Read the rest of UN Offers Prize to Help Bring Power to 3,000 Bosnian Homes Using Renewable Energy Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: “energy efficiency” , cheap electricity , green design , humanitarian action , low energy lighting , renewable energy solutions , sustainable competition , UN initiative , United Nations , united nations bosnia
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UN Offers Prize to Help Bring Power to 3,000 Bosnian Homes Using Renewable Energy
Sweden Plans to Import 800,000 Tons of Garbage Each Year
Garbage photo from Shutterstock We’ve heard of importing goods and raw materials, but importing trash ? That’s exactly what Sweden intends to do in order to compensate for its trash shortfall. Sweden burns trash to create about 20 percent of its heat, but the Swedes are so diligent about recycling that the country simply isn’t generating enough waste to create the heat they need. Sweden only sends about 4 percent of its waste to landfills. To put that into perspective, the United States landfills about 67 percent of its waste. While that is great for Sweden’s environment, it isn’t so good for their Waste-to-Energy program, which is capable of treating up to two million tons of household waste, which is converted into heat and electricity. The solution is to import waste from Sweden’s neighbor, Norway . Not only is Sweden taking trash off of their hands, Norway will pay them to do so. All told, Sweden plans to import about 800,000 tons each year, most of which will be used in the Waste-to-Energy program. Any toxic waste resulting from the burning will be returned to Norway. But in case you are thinking that Norway is getting the short end of the stick, don’t worry – they are happy with the agreement because exporting the trash is more economical than dealing with it. In the future, Sweden hopes to be able to import from other countries that landfill a higher percentage of waste than Norway. “I hope that we instead will get the waste from Italy or from Romania or Bulgaria or the Baltic countries because they landfill a lot in these countries. They don’t have any incineration plants or recycling plants, so they need to find a solution for their waste,” says Catarina Ostlund, Senior Advisor for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency . Via Treehugger images © Vincent Jones and Mike Pennington
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Sweden Plans to Import 800,000 Tons of Garbage Each Year
Send The Pen Guy Your Dead Pens To Help With New Reclaimed Art Projects
Read the rest of Send The Pen Guy Your Dead Pens To Help With New Reclaimed Art Projects Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: Art , art car , dead pens , eco design , eco-art , green art , green design , mercedes pens , Mercedes-Benz , old pens , pen guy , Reclaimed Materials , reclaimed pens , Recycled Materials , recycled pens , Recycling initiatives , sustainable design , the pen guy , upcycled materials
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Send The Pen Guy Your Dead Pens To Help With New Reclaimed Art Projects
Employees Work Harder When The Company Goes Green, New Study Reports
Photo via Shutterstock What motivates you to give 150 percent at your job? Is it a friendly boss? Tasks that you really care about? Awesome clients? According to new research led by UCLA, employees of companies that adopt green practices are 16 times more productive than their counterparts in not-so-green companies. Researchers say this news refutes claims that international “green” practices and standards inhibit corporate profitability. Photo via Shutterstock The study was led by Professor Magali Delmas, an environmental economist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability , and Sanja Pekovic from France’s University Paris–Dauphine. The results were published recently in The Journal of Organizational Behavior, and marks the first major study of how a firm’s environmental commitment affects its productivity. In order to determine differences between worker productivity in green and not-green companies, the team collected data from a survey of employees at 5,220 French companies, randomly selecting two employees from each company for a pool of more than 10,000 people. Companies that had voluntarily adopted international standards and eco-labels such as “ fair trade ” and “ organic ” or the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 14001 certification were identified as green. Productivity was described as “revenue minus cost”. When divided by the number of employees in each firm, the researchers discovered a difference of one standard deviation, which corresponded to 16 percent higher-than-average labor productivity, in firms that voluntarily adopted environmental standards. Why such a big difference? Delmas and Pekovic say it all comes down to a better overall employment experience. “Employees in such green firms are more motivated, receive more training, and benefit from better interpersonal relationships, explained Delmas. “The employees at green companies are therefore more productive than employees in more conventional firms.” The researchers also say that this phenomenon echos changes in the workforce that have been noted in recent years. More young professionals want more than a paycheck–they want to use their talents to make a difference in the world, even on a small scale. Companies that demonstrate their shared concern for this mission are more likely to extract the best from their employees. + UCLA via Huffington Post
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Employees Work Harder When The Company Goes Green, New Study Reports
