One of the challenges with solar power is keeping the panels clean, since dust and dirt drastically reduce the efficiency of photovoltaics. That’s particularly challenging for large solar parks, and especially ones that are located in the desert, where there is little water. Israeli company Eccopia has addressed that challenge with a clever robot that cleans the solar panels every day, increasing efficiency by up to 35 percent. This week the Kibbutz Ketura solar park installed Eccopia’s robots, making it the world’s first self-cleaning photovoltaic array.

A Giant Basket That Uses Condensation to Gather Drinking Water

Around the world, 768 million people don’t have access to safe water, and every day 1,400 children under the age of five die from water-based diseases. Designer Arturo Vittori believes the solution to this catastrophe lies not in high technology, but in sculptures that look like giant-sized objects from the pages of a Pier 1 catalog.

His stunning water towers stand nearly 30 feet tall and can collect over 25 gallons of potable water per day by harvesting atmospheric water vapor. Called WarkaWater towers, each pillar is comprised of two sections: a semi-rigid exoskeleton built by tying stalks of juncus or bamboo together and an internal plastic mesh, reminiscent of the bags oranges come in. The nylon and polypropylene fibers act as a scaffold for condensation, and as the droplets of dew form, they follow the mesh into a basin at the base of the structure.

Instead of looking to Western technology for a solution, Vittori was inspired by the Warka tree, a giant, gravity-defying domed tree native to Ethiopia that sprouts figs and is used as a community gathering space. “To make people independent, especially in such a rural context it’s synonymous of a sustainable project and guaranties the longevity,” says Vittori. “Using natural fibers helps the tower to be integrated with the landscape both visually with the natural context as well as with local traditional techniques.”

The design has been two years in the making and though the final product is handcrafted, Vittori has used the same parametric modeling skills honed working on aircraft interiors and solar powered cars to create a solution that is safe and stunning. The 88-pound sculpture is 26-feet wide at its broadest point but swoops dramatically to just a few feet across at its smallest point. Vittori and his team have tested the design in multiple locations and worked in improvements that increase the frame’s stability while simultaneously making it easy for villagers to clean the internal mesh.

Vittori hopes to have two WarkaTowers erected in Ethiopia by 2015 and is looking for financial rainmakers who’d like to seed these tree-inspired structures across the country.

"Ooho"Edible Water Bottle

Touted by some as an “edible water bottle,” Ooho is actually more of a blob. The three London-based design students who developed the technology wanted to make something cheap, sustainable, and durable, so they improved upon a decades-old culinary technique called “spherification.” Made popular by the molecular gastronomy nuts at El Bulli, spherification is exactly what it sounds like. Put simply, you turn liquid into spheres held together with a gelatinous membrane.

Ooho is actually not one but two membranes, for durability’s sake. The double layer also makes it possible to sandwich a label in between the membranes, though Ooho’s not quite ready for the supermarket. The real fun, of course, is trying to drink from Ooho. Since the container is edible, you could just pop the whole thing in your mouth, but that doesn’t seem particularly sanitary. Instead, you can just poke a hole in the membrane with your teeth and suck the water out.

Woven disaster shelters are powered with sun-absorbing fabric

Utilizing the structural principles of tensegrity and biomimicking the blooming action of a flower, the structure can open and close from its center point. Probably one of the most elegant disaster shelters we’ve ever come across — check out many more images and drawings over at Designboom and Abeer Seikaly.

Streetlamps Go Green

A group of researchers at FermentAlg, led by Pierre Calleja, have invented a street lamp that is powered by algae. Yes, algae; those tiny microorganisms responsible for that green sludge you might find on your pond. This streetlamp exploits the process of photosynthesis that these algae carry out. Photosynthesis is the system used by certain organisms to convert light energy (from the sun) into chemical energy (sugars) that can be used as fuel, using carbon dioxide amongst other things. These lamps can store the energy produced by these algae during the hours in which the sun shines, generating a super green and environmentally friendly lamp.

WaterWheel Rolls Out Solution to Ease Heavy Load

A U.S. based group called Wello has reinvented the wheel to help families in the developing world who don’t have easy access to water.

Many people, including children, are spending a quarter to half of every day, hauling water on their heads. But, instead of carrying the heavy load, the Wello water wheel provides a way for anyone to easily transport 50 liters by rolling it.

Wello in 2011 worked in close collaboration with village residents in Rajasthan, India, to develop the concept, which won a $100,000 prize from Grand Challenges Canada.

Odyssey's Two in One Water Bottle Flashlight

The Odyssey has what ÖKO calls Level 1 and Level 2 filters. The first is just like your Brita carbon filter, designed for everyday use with tap water. It removes chlorine taste and odor, providing cleaner tasting water on the go. The Level 2 version is a more serious filter that can rip bacteria, cysts and other contaminants out of the water. ÖKO says that the Level 2 filter is designed to travel and clean water in more than 140 countries around the world, where water conditions are not as clean and reliable as they are in the first world.

The filters reside in the top of the Odyssey, and at the other end lies the bottle’s additional functions. The bottom section unscrews, serving as an 8-oz (237 ml) cup and/or a small storage container for pills, snacks, keys and other small personal items.

The cup can also be replaced with the double-sided light adapter. When the light is pointed outward, the Odyssey works as a flashlight, casting light into the distance. When it’s pointed inward, the device becomes a lantern, using the bottle as a shade to provide a diffuse area light. The bottle’s handle doubles as a hanger, allowing it to hang from a tree, tent hanger, etc. Finally, the light includes a strobe function, creating an emergency signal light.

Solar Powered Sol-Char Toilet Zaps Poop into Fertilizer Bricks

Researchers at the University of Colorado designed a new toilet called the Sol-Char that zaps poop into biochar using nothing but the sun. Led by Karl Linden, the team installed fiber-optic cables that scorch waste deposited in the toilet to yield dainty briquettes of biochar. These bricks of sanitized human waste are then used as fertilizer, which will hopefully give farmers in developing countries a much-needed boost. The Sol-Char toilet is outfitted with eight parabolic mirrors that reflect the sun’s rays and divert it to a postage stamp-sized point. Up to 700 watts of solar energy collected at this point is then directed to cables in the reaction chamber system, which helps to burn the poop inside with temperatures reaching a whopping 600 degrees Fahrenheit. The burned-up poop then has a charcoal-like quality, making it easy to transport, distribute, and use in soil.

Solar-powered 'Energy Bucket' collects sunshine

In a surprising merging of products, the Solar Energy Bucket serves as a multifunctional tool for anyone who likes to rough it. At first glance it appears to be a simple water bucket, but turn it upside down and you’ll see a small solar panel which harnesses the sun’s energy during the day. The stored energy can then be used to power the built-in light or even gently heat the water.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could store just a little bit of sunlight for a rainy day? That’s what designer Stefano Merlo thougt, and while actually storing sunlight might just be a bit too difficult, his solar-powered Energy Bucket, might just be the next best thing.

Merlo’s inspiration was simple: saving energy is a problem, and the solutions offered are too far removed from what people actually do in real life. He was inspired by the age-old practice of collecting water from the river in buckets. Thus, the Energy Bucket is simply just a plastic bucket that houses 1kw LED lights which are powered by the photovoltaic solar panels installed on the lid of the bucket. Needless to say, he took something as mundane as a bucket and turned it into an opportunity for people to realize that there are simple solutions to big problems.

Read more original article Inhabitat

Field Trips

We are offering FREE field trips to Bay Area schools, day care centers, youth-based organizations, and homeschoolers. We offer a curriculum with engaging, hands-on activities that promote environmentally conscientious solutions.

We are also happy to develop a custom field trip with you that suits your specific curricular needs.

Email team@matteroftrust.org or stop by our Eco-Center to talk with our staff about scheduling your class’s visit today!

Don't toss it, fix it—with Pop-up Repair shop

Pop Up Repair is an intervention in the cycle of use-and-discard consumerism. For four weeks in June 2013, a group of theater artists activated a storefront repair shop, fixing household objects brought in by members of the community. The pop-up shop is the experimental first step in a larger research project investigating our relationships with the objects we use every day: what they mean, what they’re worth, and why we repair and reuse instead of buying new.

Not only does repair keep stuff out of landfills and save us money, it makes repairers and repairees feel good; there’s such a feeling of accomplishment in taking something from ‘broken’ to ‘fixed.’

UK Student Designs a Brilliant Bicycle-Powered Lampshade System

Nottingham Trent University student Mark Colliass has taken multi-tasking transport to a whole new level with a new lampshade-producing bicycle. For those who would like to bike their way to design, one simple resin-based lampshade can be produced with just a 40 minute ride. According to Mark, his revamped bicycle invention is not only a new mobile method of product design, but also a critique of today’s wasteful throwaway culture.

Mark’s bicycle uses a specially-designed rotational moulding rig that connects to the handlebars. Once the required Jesmonite bio-resin is poured into the mould, cyclists need only take a mere 40 minute jaunt around the neighborhood while centrifugal force pushes the resin to the sides of the mould, creating a hollow cylinder and resulting in a “pedal-made” lampshade.

Mark explains that the idea behind the innovative project is to connect people with the manufacturing process so that the items made by the owners are more meaningful. “The feeling of taking the lampshade out of the mould is the best experience, when you realize it has worked,” said Mark. “You definitely have this kind of personal attachment to it which you don’t get with other objects.

How to attract hummingbirds to your yard

A hummingbird habitat consists of flowers, shrubs and trees that produce nectar and, ideally, a mist-type water feature. Nectar is a liquid rich in sugar that attracts various pollinators, such as bees, moths and hummingbirds. A hummingbird habitat is different from a garden because a habitat provides a place for the tiny birds to feed, hide from predators, nest and raise their young, according to Bill Hilton Jr.

Hilton says he has banded about 4,500 hummingbirds in York, S.C., since he started Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project in 1984. This nonprofit venture promotes study of the ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) throughout the species’ summer breeding range in North America. That range includes 38 states east of the Great Plains and extends into Canada across the southern provinces from Alberta to British Columbia and as far north as Nova Scotia.

Summer Camps at Matter of Trust

Dear Parents and Friends of Matter of Trust,We are excited to bring you another fun filled Summer at the Eco-center with our camps, LEAF Academy for grades 6th-8th and Sprouts for grades 2nd-5th. A fabulous team of educators, environmentalists and scientists from the Presidio Hill School, Matter of Trust Eco-center, Thomas Edison school, and School House are leading six weeks of hands on adventures to visit natural spaces and many of our eco-partners around the bay.

The Green Loop

New York City produces over 14 Million tons of trash every year with most of it trucked long-haul to out-of-state landfills. In a typical year, it spends more than $300 million dollars on trash transport while incurring a hefty environmental bill along the way.

The Green Loop is a composting hub and park, and part of a larger proposal for a network of ten waterfront composting hubs in New York City. country skiing in the winter. New York City has less open space per person than almost every major city in the country, and the Green Loop alleviates two major urban problems at once.

This proposal will create a network of composting parks processing our organic waste (30% of our residential waste stream), while adding 125 acres of public park land. This means drastically reduced truck miles to landfills, decreased traffic, noise, and pollution, with the added benefits of safer streets, cleaner air, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Plus a new type of public park and a product for market – nutrient rich compost made in NYC.

Bicycle roundabout in the sky in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is known for its bicycle-friendly streets and bike paths, so you’d probably think that bicycle infrastructure in the sky would be completely unnecessary there. But even this bike leader has intersections that are excessively large and centered too much around cars. In the case of one such intersection between Eindhoven and Veldhoven, planners and designers created the Hovenring, a beautiful bicycle and pedestrian roundabout elevated above the roadway.

This elevated bicycle roundabout was actually opened back in June 2012. It is apparently a tourist attraction for those who visit the aread more original article Treehugger

Public PPlanter Urinal Doubles as a Bamboo Garden in San Francisco

California-based Hyphae Design Laboratory has developed a eco-friendly solution to public bathrooms known as the PPlanter. It’s a self-contained modular system, that uses bamboo to process the pee.

A user steps up and pees into the actual urinal itself, with their mid-section hidden by a privacy panel (disposable funnels are provided for women, so they can do their business standing up). When they’re done, they use a foot pump to draw water from an attached reservoir through the faucet of a built-in sink, allowing them to wash their hands.

Once it’s gone down the drain, the used wash water rinses out the urinal, with the urine and water then carried into an airtight tank. From there, the mixed liquid is pumped into the planter/biofilter, where bamboo plants are growing in a mixture of rocks, wood chips and styrofoam. The water, nitrogen and phosphorous are used by the bamboo, while bacteria living in the growing medium break down carbohydrates and protein. There is reportedly little if any smell.

According to a report in New Scientist, a prototype has been tested in a crowded San Francisco neighborhood, where it stood up to use by over 300 people within an 8-hour period. The city has now ordered a permanent PPlanter. Hyphae hopes to rent the urinals out for use at special events, along with getting them to developing nations that lack proper sewers, and putting more of them on the streets.

66 Bottles of Beer on a Roof

Ma Yanjun, a farmer in China’s Shaanxi province, reportedly built a DIY solar water heater out of 66 beer bottles, water flowing through the bottles is heated by the sun and then routed into the bathroom for showers. Apparently, ten other families in his village. Qiqiao, have since built similar systems.“I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower comfortably,” says Ma Yanjun, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province…
Ma says it provides enough hot water for all three members of his family to have a shower every day.
read more original article Ecogeek

New Recyclable Fiberboard to Cut Landfill Waste

Professor Andrew Abbott of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom recently developed a way to make a recyclable wood product similar to MDF that doesn’t use typical resins. Instead, the boards are held together using starch from sources like potatoes. For his work, Professor Abbott won the Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation to help turn his findings into a marketable product.

MDF is frequently used in the retail sector in display units and other items made for short-term use. If MDF were manufactured using safe, natural resins, this material could be recycled or composted, according to a statement from the University of Leicester. The U.K. alone produces almost 1 million tons of this material annually, so these innovations could help keep a significant amount of waste out of landfills.

The next step for Professor Abbott’s team is to develop a system for producing this new MDF on a larger scale so industries that regularly use the material can have more eco-friendly options.

Air Purifier Uses a Plant to Clean the Air in Your Home

Andrea is a revolutionary new air purifier engineered to significantly improve the air filtration capacity of natural plants. This living filter accelerates the removal of harmful VOC’s and toxins through the active infrastructure system of a plant to continuously clean and oxygenate the rooms ion your home or foccie. Andrea naturally purifies air by drawing it in with a whisper quiet fan to propel it through the leaves and root system of a plant, then out through the water and soil filtration and back into the room . Works with any household plant.

The Andrea Air Purifier is a brilliant partnership between man and plant that accelerates nature’s natural ability to clean air in order to detoxify the atmosphere inside your home.

Andrea was invented by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur and Harvard professor David Edwards as a part of a artistic science experiment in 2007. The purifier, which hit the shelves of stores in North America in January of 2010, is able to amplify the air cleaning ability of a plant with the help of a mechanical fan that moves air past the plant’s leaves, through the soil and roots and out through a water tray that collects toxins.

Andrea can work with many a species of house plants and combines stylish design with proven functionality to not only take away toxins from your home but to also add a sense of style. Andrea’s unique multi-stage, all-natural cleaning system ensures a safe and healthy home for your family.

The urban beehive is a concept for keeping bees at home

Philips’ beehive concept was unveiled as a part of their Microbial Home Design unveiled at Dutch Design Week. The Microbial Home is an adventure in rethinking domestic life, with the centerpiece being a digester kitchen that turns waste into methane to provide power for the house. The urban beehive was one of many designs included in the showpiece home.

The beehive comes complete with an array of frames textured to make it easy for bees to build on them. It also comes equipped with a hole to blow smoke into — the traditional way of calming bees — in case the hive needs to be opened from the inside to be inspected. We’re sure there would be more to the keeping of these bees if the hive actually were to hit the market but so far it seems like a simple, elegant way to lend a helping hand to the bee crisis and get some sweetness in return.

The urban beehive is part of the Microbial Home Probe, a far-future design concept.

Could Sun-Reflecting Mirrors Replace The Light Bulb?

Lucy Norman knows how much we need natural sunlight, so she set out to get more of it into our lives. “I did a lot of research into optical physics, hanging out at Imperial College London and being a pain speaking with physicists,” the 29-year-old founder of design studio Lula Dot says. It turned out the best way to move light about is also the simplest: by using a mirror.

Dot’s Sun Sill comprises five mirrors mounted on to Arduino-controlled motors, screwed on to a windowsill. These move with the position of the Sun, bouncing light on to a bigger mirror inside the room. It’s controlled by a smartphone app: users enter the height of the room’s ceiling and the distance between mirrors; the app then uses GPS to determine where the Sun should be. The first Sun Sill is proof of concept, but Norman is now working on mark two, which will have waterproof motors running off a solar panel and use light-dependent resistors to track the brightest part of the sky. Hello, sunshine.

Hydraulic seafloor carpet could harness the energy of ocean waves

In the quest for another renewable energy source that can potentially provide a constant source of carbon-free power, researchers at UC Berkeley are working on extracting the energy of ocean waves, and looking to use a hydraulic seafloor ‘carpet’ to harvest and convert it to usable energy. After all, the sun goes down, and the winds die, but the waves just keep coming, so ocean energy could be a feasible option for clean renewable energy in areas near the coast.

Reza Alam, an assistant professor at UC Berkely and an expert in wave mechanics, is working on a wave-to-energy ‘carpet’ that uses a thin sheet of rubber on the seafloor, sitting on top of a system of hydraulic actuators, which are then pumped by using the motion of the carpet in the waves. The resulting hydraulic pressure is piped to shore for conversion to usable energy, allowing for the harvesting of power from the ocean with minimal visual and physical impact on both sea life and boats on the surface.

Pharrell Williams announces denim line made from recycled ocean plastic

Singer-songwriter, in collaboration with G-Star Raw, will create jeans made from plastic-based ‘bionic yarn’

Fashion designer, singer, and Grammy-winning artist Pharrell Williams debuted his latest project, “RAW for the Oceans,” during a high-profile event last weekend in the midst of New York City’s Fashion Week.

Hybrid solar oven can cook on cloudy days or at night

It’s totally possible to build your own solar oven, but many people choose to buy a readymade version, which might be more efficient than a DIY version. And there’s a new type of solar oven on the market, which combines the best features of a high-performance solar oven with the reliability of an electric oven, that may make for wider adoption of sun-powered cooking.

The SunFocus solar electric oven is being billed as a “next generation” solar oven, as it is claimed to be able to cook efficiently, even on cloudy days or at night, because of its hybrid solar/electric system. When the sun is shining, it uses just the heat from the sun, and no external power, but if the temperature drops below a certain point because of cloudiness or sunset, the built-in thermostat kicks on a low-wattage (465 watt) electric heating element to keep the food cooking.

Indian scientists in US convert discarded plastic into petroleum products

In a major breakthrough Indian-origin scientists based in US have successfully converted plastic shopping bags into diesel, natural gas and other useful petroleum products.

The conversion produces significantly more energy than it requires and results in transportation fuels like diesel. Other products such as natural gas, naphtha (a solvent), gasoline, waxes and lubricating oils such as engine oil and hydraulic oil also can be obtained from shopping bags.

Brajendra Kumar Sharma, a senior research scientist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center led the research. He said it involved a process called pyrolysis which is essentially heating the bags in an oxygen-free chamber.

Sharma said, “Plastic bags make up a sizeable portion of the plastic debris in giant ocean garbage patches that are killing wildlife and littering beaches. Plastic bags have been detected as far north and south as the poles. Over a period of time, this material starts breaking into tiny pieces and is ingested along with plankton by aquatic animals. Fish, birds, ocean mammals and other creatures have been found with a lot of plastic particles in their guts,” Sharma said.

“Turtles, for example, think that the plastic grocery bags are jellyfish and they try to eat them,” he added.

“You can get only 50 to 55% fuel from the distillation of petroleum crude oil,” Sharma said. “But since this plastic is made from petroleum in the first place we can recover almost 80% fuel from it through distillate ion”.

Eco Stroller

Environmentally conscious parents don’t have to compromise on quality or design when taking little ones on an adventure in the Bumbleride Indie 4 stroller. A new addition to its popular line of high-end stroller collections, the four-wheel, all-terrain Indie 4 boasts bright hues and sustainable fabric made from 50 percent recycled PET and 50 percent bamboo charcoal. Available for purchase in April, the Indie 4 folds into a space-saving frame lock, accommodates children from infancy through toddlerhood, and offers all-wheel suspension for trips on the subway or bumpy rides along a hiking trail. Bumbleride commits to producing sustainable products. It takes roughly 14 water bottles to fashion one set of Indie fabric. The charcoal bamboo fabric naturally absorbs moisture, prohibits bacterial growth and remains durable for years to come.

How to make seed paper for valentine cards

When is a recycled product better than the original? When it’s paper that turns into flowers.

Here is a good way to recycle used paper and make a beautiful greeting card for someone special.

Make your own artsy paper that has wildflower seeds in it! Use colored markers to paint a design or message on it. Give it to someone special to plant in a pot or in the ground. Keep it wet and warm, and it will “recycle” into something far better than old, used paper.

What you need:
•Used printer paper, cross-cut into tiny pieces by a paper shredder. Use 1-1/2 cups for each card.
•Large bowl of warm water
•Window screen material
•Small embroidery hoop
• Food coloring (optional)
•Blender
•9 x 13-inch baking pan
•Packet of wildflower or other seeds
•Bath towels or several layers of felt squares
•Waxed paper
•Colored markers

2.Put the soaked paper into the blender, then fill the blender halfway with fresh water.

5.Fill the baking pan one-quarter full of water, then pour in the blended paper mixture—or pulp.

6.Slip the embroidery hoop with screen in from the side so that it slides beneath the pulp and seeds. If necessary, spoon some of the pulp over the screen.

7.Lift the screen gently, catching the pulp mixture evenly on top and letting the water drain off.

9.Sprinkle some seeds on top of the wet pulp, and gently pat them into the surface of the pulp.

10.When the bath towel or felt has soaked up as much water as it can, pick up the hoop and turn it over onto a sheet of waxed paper to dry. (Seeds will be on the bottom.)

You may have to gently hit the hoop on the table or counter surface to loosen the pulp from the screen. If the pulp does not stick together, try putting more pulp on the screen next time.

12.If the paper does not lie flat, place a heavy object (like a book) on it for a few hours to flatten it.

When you plant the paper, lay it on the surface of the soil and sprinkle about one-quarter-inch thick layer of soil on top. Water the soil lightly and keep the seeds wet until they sprout and have a few days to grow roots.
instructions climate kids

iPod-powered scarecrows could help subsistence farmers protect crops

A group of scientists from Western Kentucky University, along with collaborators in Africa, are working on a potential solution for keeping wild animals from wreaking havoc on crops and fields by combining the age-old remedy of using a scarecrow to warn off wildlife with a bit of a high-tech component – an iPod.

According to Txchnologist, upon being activated by nearby motion, the iPod-powered scarecrows broadcast sounds and stimuli that can deter wildlife, including the roar of lions and animal distress calls accompanied by a flashing strobe light, as well as releasing scents that are alarming to other animals, such as urine from predators.

This “High-tech Scarecrows for Low-tech Farms” project doesn’t pretend to aim for complete crop protection from animal foragers, but to instead reduce the amount lost to wildlife, as Stokes states, “If we can reduce crop damage by 10 percent as crops are coming to ripeness, we have been successful.”

Oxgut products are made from genuine retired fire hose

Exclusive Designs with a heroic past. Oxgut Hose Co. offers high-end indoor & outdoor furniture inspired by retired fire hose, salvaged from departments throughout the U.S. Portion of profits go directly to The Children’s Burn Foundation.

What happens to fire hoses when they are retired? Surprisingly, this was not the question on the mind of LauraLe Wunsch when she first stumbled upon a new use for the unique material: handcrafted high-end indoor-outdoor furniture and accessories.

“I was working with a craftsman on a side project creating a piece of furniture, and we were looking for something to complement the reclaimed wood we were using,” said Wunsch, founder and owner of Emeryville’s Oxgut Hose Co.

When the idea of a fire hose came up, a friend of the former advertising professional connected her to the captain of a local fire station, who wanted to send her home with about 2,500 feet of hose that was decommissioned because of safety and other issues.

Most of the hoses it uses now are from the Bay Area, Tahoe and Santa Cruz, but the company is quickly expanding its reach to stations in Colorado, Houston, Oregon, Washington, Chicago, New York and Rhode Island, helping to divert tons of waste from landfills across the country.

Recycled flipflops turned into playful animal toys

Abandoned flipflops are an environmental disaster. Thousands upon thousands of them are washed up onto the beaches and coast of Kenya.

They destroy the natural beauty of the beaches, clog waterways and threaten the eco-system of the area. Fish swallow them and suffocate. Baby turtles can’t make it back into the sea.

Ocean Sole is a small foundation that works on marine conservation with local communities.

There are lots of flipflops to be found: Ocean Sole’s goal is to recycle 400,000 flipflops a year.

The initiative was founded in 1997 by a Kenyan marine conservationist who was working on a development project in the area and was horrified at the waste and damage. She saw children collecting flipflops and making them into toys and had the idea to go one step further. She encouraged the local mothers to make them into sculptures.

From that start Ocean Sole is now recycling about 220 pounds of shoes a week. They are selling these animal sculptures to zoos and museums across the world.

London's subterranean farm

Two entrepreneurs Richard Ballard and Steven Dring have set up a 2.5 acre crop farm below the Northern Line, near Clapham North in London.

The “farm” itself consists of table-height beds of hemp in which salads and herbs are being grown hydroponically. That means nutrient-rich water floods the beds once a day before being slowly drained away, with no soil involved in the process. Above each bed are strips of special low energy LED lights.

Cheap, Biodegradable Sugar Batteries

Environmentally friendly, energy-dense sugar battery developed by a Virginia Tech research team, a development that could replace conventional batteries with ones that are cheaper.

The new battery that runs on sugar and has an unmatched energy density, as soon as three years, could be powering cell phones, tablets and other electronics.

The findings from Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering, were published yesterday in the journal Nature Communications.

Zeoform: Turns Hemp Into Almost Anything

What if today’s plastics could be made from materials that were not only sustainable but non toxic? Today, our plastics are made from oil which means not only are we putting toxic chemicals into our atmosphere, but we are also filling our environment with products that cannot bio-degrade.

A new company out of Australia has created a promising new product called Zeoform and it is made only from water and cellulose take from hemp plants. This means their plastic is not only eco-friendly in production but is also biodegradable!

According to Zeoform, their product is very durable and relies only on the natural process of hydrogen bonding that takes place when cellulose fibres are mixed with water. No glue or bonding material is necessary because the bond created is already so strong. The final material can be formed into almost anything and can be cut, routed, machined, drilled, screwed, nailed and glued in the same way wood and wood composites can be. It can also be coloured/dyed, and finished in any way creators like.

The material is water and fire resistant inherently and can be enforced further in both categories with some small adjustments to ingredients. The product can be made into anything from car parts to paper, moulds, furniture, and even musical instruments – the possibilities are endless.

World's largest solar-powered bridge

After nearly five years in the making, Network Rail has cut the ribbon on the world’s largest solar-powered bridge at Blackfriars Bridge across the River Thames.

As part of a project with solar installation firm Solarcentury, the roof of the bridge has been covered with 4,400 photovoltaic panels, providing up to half of the energy for London Blackfriars station.

First Capital Connect, which runs Blackfriars, expects the panels to cut the stations’ carbon emissions by an estimated 511 tonnes a year, further reducing the carbon footprint of its train routes to the south east of England.

Incredible Edible Todmorden

Todmorden in Yorkshire’s Calder Valley has been transformed by free food growing on its streets, parks and even its rooftops.

The Incredible Edible Todmorden project is an urban gardening project started in 2008 by Pamela Warhurst, Mary Clear and a group of like minded people in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, England.^[1]^[2] The project aims bring people together and through actions around local food, help change behaviour toward the environment and build a kinder and more resilient world.

Since its conception, the Incredible Edible ethos has been taken up by communities all over the world where local people are coming together in their own time to turn unloved pieces of land into community gardens growing food to share, and there are now more than twenty other ‘Incredible Edible’ towns following the lead of Yorkshire’s Todmorden

The value of Incredible Edible Todmorden and similar projects lies not only in building our ability to cope when the chickens of unconstrained consumption come home to roost. They also create the opportunity to manage and enjoy life now. That in turn reduces our vulnerability to shocks and challenges.

In the long run, there can be much more. Alternative terms of trade and exchange, from local currencies to time banks, can support local food networks and generate more equitable ways of doing business.

By preserving and propagating traditional and rare seeds and plant species, growers can decrease the risks of disease and reduce reliance on the few large companies that dominate the market.

By planting for biodiversity, it is possible to mitigate some of the effects of urban development and large-scale farming.

Smart Go Bins make it easy to donate textiles

Goodwill of San Francisco wants to make donating textiles as convenient as possible and they’re debuting a new high-tech solution to get more people donating their used textiles.

The goBIN is a smart donation bin that has sensors that ping Goodwill when its full and time for pick-up, making sure the bin is always ready to accept clothing drop-offs. The bin also has a QR code that when scanned will send donors to an online donation tax form. Once they’ve filled it out, they’re emailed a receipt.

The bins will be installed in apartment buildings around the city so that people won’t have to go far to give their textiles new life.

Through a partnership with the city’s rental property management trade association, Goodwill is starting to place them in buildings with 100 units or more this year.

“We’ll target putting a Goodwill goBINTM in every big apartment and condo building in the city within 5 years to make donating textiles an everyday convenience. Every shirt, shoe and purse slipped into a goBINTM will help us create job opportunities for the chronically unemployed,” said SFGoodwill CEO Maureen Sedonaen.

Goodwill plans on manufacturing the bins using as many local and recycled materials as possible. After the pilot phase in San Francisco, the goBINs may be manufactured for other areas around the country.

GoSun Solar Cooker Heats up to a Sizzling 550° F in Minutes

Its easy set up that doesn’t require hours of positioning differentiates the GoSun from other solar cookers. The design of the fold out anodized aluminum envelope attracts the sun at any angle, honing its power and transferring it to the evacuated glass tube, where sunlight is absorbed and amplified. The interior of the GoSun can heat up to 550°F in mere minutes.

The quick heating means that cooking possibilities are endless. Baking bread, boiling pasta, sizzling meats, simmering stew and frying mozzarella sticks are all yummy variations that can be done off the grid in winter or summer. Because the glass tube heats to such a high temperature, food can be kept warm for hours, offering your family and friends a hot meal long after the sun has gone down.

The GoSun retains 80-90 percent of the sunlight it catches, amplifying its power with parabolic reflection that bounces the heat back and forth inside the tube without any thermal loss.

The GoSun is currently available through the group’s Kickstarter page, although they’ve already met their goal. For just $179, solar fans can get a regular sized solar cooker, with mini and deluxe sizes also available.

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20,000 discarded cups to be zip-tied into serpentine pavilion

Used cups are the material of choice for this summer’s City of Dreams pavilion at the Figment art festival in New York City. The design by CDR Studio is called “Governor’s Cup,” and will be made from an estimated 20,000 discarded cups, which will be collected from around the city.

Inspired by tape-lace crochet, the cups will be bound tightly together with zip-ties to form a serpentine structure resembling an other-worldly plant. The pavilion will serve as a meeting place at the festival.

Figment is a free non-profit art festival held in cities throughout the U.S. The City of Dreams Pavilion is a feature of the New York event, held annually on Governor’s Island. The dates for this year’s event have not yet been announced, but the pavilion will be on display for much of the summer.

Mobile device charger that generates renewable energy from movements

The nPower PEG is the world’s first mobile device charger that generates renewable energy from movements like walking, running, and biking. Keep the PEG in your briefcase, backpack, or purse and go about your daily activities. As you move, the PEG continually recharges its internal battery with your kinetic energy. The PEG can also be conveniently used as a traditional rechargeable external battery.

Repair Café Toronto aims for less disposable society

For the past six months or so, Repair Café Toronto has been offering free volunteer-driven gatherings where others can bring in broken goods and have them fixed for free.

The idea was spawned out of a similar movement in Amsterdam, with Toronto residents Paul Magder and Wai Chu Cheng looking to rid their fellow Torontonians of the urge to just get rid of anything and everything once it breaks.

“We’re trying to change the mindset of the throwaway society and helping people become fixers,” Magder said.

Repair Café Toronto includes a number of volunteer “fixers” who specialize in fixing various types of items. The repairs are free, though the Repair Café does ask for donations to help cover the costs of promoting their services.

Zero Carbon Hemcrete Home Delivers Outstanding Perfomance

When a Hampshire couple decided to downsize from their 16thC listed thatched cottage – the family home for 25 years – building a new house that would impact on the environment as little as possible both in construction and running costs was their number one priority.

They instructed AECB members, Inspiration Architects of Newbury, to design a smaller house utilising one of the most environmentally friendly materials available – Tradical® Hemcrete®. This bio-composite building material made from hemp shiv (the woody core of industrial hemp) and a lime-based binder delivers a negative carbon footprint. Supplied by Oxford-based Hemcrete Projects – part of the Lime Technology Groupit also offers a unique combination of insulation and thermal inertia, properties that combine to create buildings with very stable internal environments that require very little heating or cooling.

Three years on and the happy owners remain very pleased that they chose Tradical® Hemcrete®. “We have a delightful contemporary home that has been zero carbon from day one, and which has performed better than we expected. Its inherent qualities mean we have a very comfortable and practical house, which never feels stuffy. The walls not only breathe, they allow water vapour to pass through which helps passively regulate humidity and temperature. Not surprisingly, the house remains cool in the summer and warm in the winter.”

WakaWaka Provides Portable Solar Power to Syrian Refugees

An estimated 6.8 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes due to the ongoing civil war. With many refugees struggling to find access to adequate shelter, power, safe light sources and clean water, Solar start-up WakaWaka, in collaboration from Solease, are working to provide portable solar power devices to help Syrians in need.

Throughout the world refugees are usually equipped with poorly insulated tents, which typically last about six months, while kerosene lamps are used for light. These highly flammable lamps require expensive fuel and give off toxic fumes that are the equivalent of smoking “up to two cigarette packs per day.” Additionally, with lack of power and a rapidly dispersed population, it has become difficult for many to remain in contact with loved ones during the humanitarian crisis.

Which is where the portable solar-powered devices come in. Much as Olafur Eliasson’s Little Sun lamps provide safe, solar-powered lighting to those in developing countries, and devices such as Nokero’s Sun Ray solar charger allowed some to remain in cell phone contact after Hurricane Sandy, WakaWaka’s Solar Power Station can charge phones or tablets, or provide up to 40 hours of light in one day of charging.

WakaWaka has provided 25,000 of the devices to Syrian refugees, and have launched a “buy one, give one” campaign to further support those living in refugee camps. Start-up Solease has purchased an additional 50 units for displaced persons in Syria, with each unit expected to benefit an average of five people.

Conservation Group Turns Christmas Trees Into Salmon Habitat

Before you kick your dying Christmas tree to the curb, consider this: Members of the conservation group Trout Unlimited would love to turn that tree into fish habitat.

On three Saturdays in January, the Tualatin Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited will be collecting Christmas tree donations at two locations in the Portland metropolitan area. Later, they’ll place the trees into a side channel of the Necanicum River near Seaside, where they will provide predator protection and food sources for baby coho salmon.

The group is entering the third year of a program called Christmas for Coho. It’s is one of many groups across the country turning old Christmas trees into fish habitat.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/earth/conservationists-turn-2013-xmas-trees-into-salmon-habitat.html

Times Square ball drop to be powered by Citi Bike this New Year's Eve

“After propelling themselves more than 11 million miles over the last seven months, Citi Bike riders will now have a chance to help propel New York City and the world into the New Year,” said Citi EVP of Global Public Affairs Edward Skyler. “The Citi Bike Pedal Power Station will highlight the sustainability of the program and give riders a chance to power one of New York City’s oldest icons with one of its newest.”

The stationary bike generator will be pedaled by party goers at Times Square. It can accommodate six riders, with expected to produce 75 watts per hour. The Times Square ball is lit up by 30,000 LEDs and weighs 11,875 pounds.

The “Pedal Power” station is located at the Southeast corner of 7th Avenue and 42nd Street. It is scheduled to be open to the public December 28 and December 29 from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM and on December 30 from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.

read more original article Treehugger – http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/times-square-ball-drop-be-powered-citi-bike-riders-new-years-eve.html

Grass Could Become the World's Next Big Biofuel Source

Scientists have figured out how to make biofuels with everything from algae to bacteria poop, and now they are turning to grass. A new European research project called GrassMargins seeks to discover a new perennial grass that can grow year round for use as biofuel. If successful, the project could offer a renewable source of energy that grows virtually everywhere, which would increase the availability of clean fuels while lowering their price. But first, they have to figure out which grass grows best.

Read more original article Inhabitat – http://inhabitat.com/grass-could-become-the-worlds-next-big-biofuel-source/

Giant Marble Harvests Energy from Sun and Moon

It looks like a giant, glass marble. But this globe is no game. It’s a sun-tracking, solar energy concentrator created by Barcelona-based architects and, according to the designers, is able to collect not just sunlight but moonlight as well.

The Rawlemon project revolves around a weatherproof sphere that’s designed to rotate and follow the sun across the sky. It’s so sensitive to light that at night, it can even harvest moonlight and convert it into electricity.

Andre Broessel, the architect and designer, says his spherical, sun-tracking glass globe is able to concentrate sunlight and moonlight up to 10,000 times and that the system is 35 percent more efficient than photovoltaic designs that track the sun. One of Rawlemon’s idea is to build these globes into the exterior walls of buildings and use them to generate electricity.

read more original article News Discovery – http://news.discovery.com/tech/alternative-power-sources/rawlemon-globe-harvests-energy-sun-moon-120918.htm

Algae converted to crude oil in less than an hour

The day when planes, trucks and cars are commonly revved up on pond scum may be on the near horizon thanks to a technological advance that continuously turns a stream of concentrated algae into bio-crude oil. From green goo to crude takes less than an hour.

The goo contains about 10 percent to 20 percent algae by weight. The rest is water. This mixture is piped into a high-tech pressure cooker where temperatures hover around 660 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures of 3,000 pounds per square inch in order to keep the mixture in a liquid phase.

Inside the cooker are “some technology tricks that other people don’t have” that help separate the plant oils and other minerals such as phosphorous from the water, Douglas Elliott, a fellow at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., explained to NBC News.

An hour after being poured into the cooker, gravity separates the crude oil from the water as it flows out the other end. “We can clean up that bio-crude and make it into liquid hydrocarbons that could well serve to displace the gas, diesel, and jet (fuel) that we make from petroleum now,” he added.

What’s more, a further water-processing step recovers methane — essentially natural gas — from the leftover plant material. The remaining nitrogen-rich water and recovered phosphorous can be recycled to grow more algae.

read more original article http://www.nbcnews.com/science/algae-converted-crude-oil-less-hour-energy-department-says-2D11762083

Jump rope charges devices with kinetic energy

The PULSE jump rope from Uncharted Play, which is currently in a limited beta release of 100 of the devices, uses the spinning rope to generate an electrical charge in the handle. This power is then stored for later use, in order to charge lights, cell phones, or other small devices.

“The PULSE harnesses kinetic energy from play and converts it into electrical energy that can be used to power small appliances. Using the adaptor that comes with each PULSE, minutes of play can provide hours of power, and even charge your cell phone!”

These first 100 PULSE jump ropes are available from Uncharted Play for $129, and each purchase supports the mission of the organization by helping to expand the reach of their renewable power initiatives and STEM education curriculum. The company hopes to be able to bring down the cost of these power producing jump ropes so that they are more affordable for people in the developing world.

Read more original article http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/jump-rope-charges-devices-kinetic-energy.html

Israel Debuts the World's First Self-Cleaning Solar Farm