Are you doing anything special? It seems to have been kicked off with a somewhat minimal amount of fanfare this year, considering it really seems to be a great year of “green”.
Here’s some notable news for today: This Post Continues »
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I just learned the term “greenwashing”. Jim Nicolow says it best:
Greenwashing is a symptom of the business community’s recognition that the public is demanding that they do better, and prepared to reward those that do. The quickest response is simply to re-brand / spin your company to make it look greener (greenwash). Lovins cites General Electric’s “ecomagination” ad campaign as an example of profound greenwashing, with GE basically taking their existing products and slapping an ‘eco’ label on them (remember the dancing elephant?).
There are tons of examples of greenwashing. I think every corporation is guilty of greenwashing, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with it if it can lead to actual sustainable practices.
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I always say that it’s a bit ridiculous that we have to have air conditioners blasting in the summer and heat blasting in the winter. When it’s winter in the US, it’s summer in Brazil. Why can’t we built some kind of superinsulated pipeline that pumps the “summer” from Brazil to our cold “winter” cities? If they can do it for gas, I’m sure they can do it for air.
To bring my stupid concept to reality on a micro scale is a new computer center in Switzerland. It is making novel use of the hot air thrown off by its servers and communications equipment: The heat is being funneled next door to warm the local swimming pool.
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Continuing our coverage of Nokia’s green phones is this Eco Sensor Concept. The Eco Sensor concept consists of two parts. On the left, we have the stylish phone and on the right, we have a wearable sensor unit - a high tech watch. According to Nokia, the wearable sensor unit, can sense and analyze your environment, health, and local weather conditions.
These two items will work in concert to provide you with a wealth of information along with an energy efficient design. Nokia is experimenting with integrated solar panels so the eventual goal is to have self powered phones and devices. The wearable sensor unit - or watch - will have solar circuits embedded in the banding material and the phone will also feature solar technology.
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This “Consumption Feedback” (is that an official term now?) switch gives a heavy-handed (in the form of a gentle spark) reminder that you’re using too much energy.
It seems pretty simple, really. Leave your light on for a few minutes, you’ll see a nice little glow. Put your air conditioner on that switch for a week, and be prepared to get sent back to the future.
These consumption feedback devices (remember the kick-you-out-of-the shower?) seem to be growing in popularity. Maybe they’re really onto something. I know it’s nice to have a reminder to do things, however subtle (or intrusive), and sometimes that’s all we really need to act.
Unfortunately, I can’t really see many new houses being built with a device like this. Think of the shame when your neighbors come over and all they see is sparking light switches. The thought, however, is in the right place…to get people conciously thinking towards living a more energy-efficient lifestyle.
No word yet on where I can get one…let me know if you find it!
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Luxim has developed a new lightbulb that’s about the size of a christmas light but heats to over 6000 degrees Kelvin (10,000 degrees Fahrenheit).
With great heat comes great responsibility - this little christmas light can generate more light than a streetlight. They have received over $400 million in venture capital funds which kind of proves that this green revolution is not a fad. So to revise the hierarchy:
For a cool video, check this out:
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Scientists at Swansea University in the UK have come up with a new way of capturing solar energy by applying photovoltaic “paint” to steel surfaces. Now, we’ve seen print-on solar, so let’s take it a step further and scale out a bit.
This paint-on solution is not quite as efficient (offering about 5% efficiency for the sun’s input energy), but it is certainly a bit easier to implement. Another “limitation” if you will, is the need for a steel surface, which is not a very common building material for single homes, but is used extensively in commercial buildings. Think giant warehouses, that are usually very expensive (monetarily and environmentally) to keep lit, climate controlled…etc.
“Corus Colours produces around 100 million square metres of steel building cladding a year. If this was treated with the photovoltaic material, and assuming a conservative 5% energy conversion rate, then we could be looking at generating 4,500 gigawatts of electricity through the solar cells annually. That’s the equivalent output of roughly 50 wind farms.” (Dr. Woolsey, the man in charge)
No word yet on cost of production, or what the actual manufacturing method (other than paint applied to rollers applied to steel) for this product will be, but it should be quite interesting in the future. What about charging up your Prius while it sits in the parking lot? Sports stadiums, cargo ships…lots of possibilities here.
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USBCells are revolutionary rechargeable batteries that don’t need the charger. From the picture it’s pretty easy to see that they are rechargable AA batteries with a built in USB port that charges the battery. Use them like regular batteries but when they are depleted, simply plug them into your computer or even your iPod USB charger and you should be good to go in about 5 hours.
The USBCells are NiMH which don’t suffer from memory effect - which means you should be able to get hundreds of charges out of them. You can also charge them with a standard NiMH charger if you are so inclined for those rare moments when you have access to a rechargeable batter charger and not a computer.
The USBCells are starting to come out in all battery sizes and configurations and because of the wide appeal, you should be able to see these popping up in Staples and Target soon enough.
Other uses for this technology? How come cell phones don’t have built in USB adapters like these simple AA batteries do? That means you wouldn’t have to ever worry about carrying a charger OR phantom energy drain cheaply made chargers are notorious for. I think the first cell phone with that will sell millions, are you listening Nokia, LG, Apple, and Motorola?
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The Nokia 3110 Evolve is an ecofriendly handset. It utilizes recycled and biomaterials to ‘evolve’ the original Nokia 3110. According to Nokia, this will be the first of many ecofriendly handsets they are coming out with. The best feature of this handset is probably its intelligent charging which only uses electricity when the Evolve is charging. Contrary to popular misconception, those appliances you leave plugged in but not turned on still drain energy. Intelligent charging technology is trying to put an end to that.
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One of the first items to get me excited about ecofriendly gadgets and stealing free energy from the sun is the Solio. It is one of the most popular solar powered gadgets to date. The Solio is a small device that can fit in your pocket but then “blossom” into a three pedaled solar flower.
It was named one of National Geographic’s Best of Gear and has been making its rounds on CNN and other news stations. The Solio is able to charge up your cell phone, mp3 player, gps device, and other small gadgets that don’t require too much power. Solio claims that with an hour of sunshine, you can have twenty minutes of talk time or 50 minutes of MP3 music.
Perhaps the most intriguing uses of the Solio lie in remote areas. With a donated Solio and cell phone, remote villages with no power, let alone phone lines, can connect with emergency services and doctors when the need arises.
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