Carbon Neutral Island
Check out the Danish island of Samso. This island of roughly 4,000 residents has completely wiped away its carbon footprint by using a combination of wind & solar power and biofuel. This all started back in 1998 when the island set out on a project to produce 100% of their energy from renewable energy sources. That’s a big undertaking that some scoffed would take much longer than 10 years, yet they were able to achieve this 10 year goal in 5 years.
Read the entire article HERE.
Via > Greenupgrader
The Power of Green Housing
At the last months (likemind) Detroit,.. I invited Leslie C Horn, CEO and co-founder of The Power of Green HousingTM out to tell to us about her 17 unit Container/Condo project being built in Detroit this fall, as well as what we can expect to see in the future.
First off who are you and what do you do?
Leslie Horn, CEO & President and Patric Horn, COO & Project Manager of The Power of Green HousingSM … we are a brother and sister team. Leslie lives in Detroit full time and brother Patric resides in San Diego commuting to Detroit approximately 2 weeks a month. We have rehabbed over 20 houses in the city of Detroit over last 2 year. The Power of Green HousingSM is dedicated to building affordable houses with a savings of 60% energy costs to the end user. We are currently developing Exceptional Green Living on Rosa Parks, a 17 unit condo complex consisting of 1, 2 & 3 bedroom units near Wayne State University and able to build for less than $100/sq foot. After this “prototype” we will take our building into a warehouse and manufacture this type of building lowering our costs by an additional 20-25%.
In addition to the two of us, we continue to build our team of architects, builders, media and marketing professionals, attorneys and associates to promote and propel this company in becoming the leader in green, sustainable and energy efficient housing.
Continue to —- >
Bamboo Chute Phone
Check out Michael Laut’s Chute Phone >
One of the most eco-friendly materials on the market right now is bamboo which comes from shoots and is the fastest growing wood known. Laut used the sustainable plant to create the cell phone he called Chute, aptly named after shoots of the plant.
In the age of “Disposable Technology” where new mobile phone models come out every couple of months,.. it’s nice to see a model not made out of cheap plastic. I hope we’ll see more phones like the Chute in the future.
Via > trendhunter
Another pic after the jump > Read more
Detroit Electric
Detroit Electric was an American icon in the early part of the 1900s. The brand represented the most popular electric car in history and the longest running electric car company, which operated between 1907 and 1939 by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit Michigan. At the time, the car was very popular, with customers like Thomas Edison, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Henry Ford’s Wife Clara, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
One hundred years ago Detroit Electric had a car that could go 211 miles on a charge. With today’s technology we should be able to go far beyond that.
The Story of Stuff
A friend of mine told me about this great video he saw the other day. It’s called the Story of Stuff. So what is the Story of Stuff all about?… >
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
The good folks over at FreeRange Studios put together the video.
Here is a quick teaser >
To watch the entire story visit StoryOfStuff. Actually I’m urging you to watch it,.. it will really open up your eyes to the Consumer Society we are currently living in and how destructive and mindless it can be.
Business Sustainability
Here is a great post I read awhile back on PSFK entitled > Why Build Sustainability Into Your Business? Written by Piers Fawkes >
The only reason to really motivate a business to go green is for competitive advantage. Sustainability must be part of your core business strategy. We have to remember that businesses are designed to make profit not save the planet. We have to appeal to their greed. Greed got us in this mess and greed will fix it. Being green means making more profit.
Why create a sustainable business?
- Your competitors aren’t doing it
- Your customers want it
- It improves your product, your efficiencies and your bottom line
Realize that sustainability is part of the mainstream. You, as businesses, are playing catch up even though you as consumers are already in the mindset. Be careful about making a statement about being green though – it comes across as cliché. Build it into your story so that it enhances your brand.
To read the entire post go here.
And read the great follow up by Clownfish Marketing > discussing how hopefully greed isn’t and shouldn’t be our last hope >
What this all points to is that, although an understanding of how going green can benefit companies economically is undoubtedly a catalyst for improvement, they’ll enjoy it more and have a much greater chance of success if their efforts are not driven by greed, but by a genuine and holistic desire to change, stemming from a shift in corporate values in response to global social and environmental agendas. This requires companies to look beyond cost structures and profit margins, and like Ray Anderson (who Piers credits for pointing out that sustainability is not the holy grail), to really think about how to profoundly re-engineer their operations into formats that are more compatible with nature, building on their ability to make a positive impact on individuals, communities and the environment.
Via > PSFK
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