St. Petersburg will be the site of the tallest and one of the most ecofriendly buildings in Europe. The Okhta Tower, coming in at almost 400m, is commissioned by Gazprom (Think Russia’s ExxonMobil) and promises to be “one of the most environmentally sustainable high rise buildings in the world,” according to to the architect, RMJM.

The spire, similar to the Bank of America greenscraper in NYC, is a twisted glass needle that reaches for the sky. I can’t tell if there is an equivalent of the LEED certification in Russia, but the Okhta looks to be very green:

• the building will have inner and outer glazed glass walls that will insulate nicely
• glass exoskeleton will create an atrium ‘greenhouse’ effect, protecting from the -30 degree winters
• social spaces and green ‘breakout’ zones which will reduce mass exodus at lunch time
• specialized plumbing, heating and ventilation systems

Via Pure Comtemporary

I don’t know why I found this product so assuming but it’s clever in it’s simplicity. As evidenced by the photo, there are two flush levels on this thing. The lower volume flush, shown as one green water drop, is meant for “light” flushes while the higher volume flush, shown with three water drops, is meant for “heavy” flushes.

Seeing how this is an automatic flushometer and no one touches those buttons, you have to ask the obvious question: How does it know if it needs to flush light or heavy? Well according to Sloan, once you are in front of the infrared sensor, a timer starts. If you are there for 65 seconds or less, it uses the “light” flush and if you are there for… err…. longer, it uses the “heavy” flush.

I could just imagine a Sloan engineer spending weeks timing people going to the bathroom to find the optimal time to differentiate light from heavy use.

Sadly, after reviewing the specs, the lower volume flush is 1.1 gallon per flush (gpf) and the higher volume flush is 1.6gpf. This isn’t Sloan’s fault - plumbing codes and congress set those values.

Still so amusing to me, I’m such a child. Maybe I should get those pajamas.

Sloan Ecos

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:

New Yorkers Mark ‘Earth Day 2008′ with Clean and Renewable ‘Green Power’
(Forbes, New York, Green?  This could be a good sign…)

SeaWorld, Busch Gardens start using biodegradable food containers
(Biodegradation in 100 days vs never?  I’d guess they probably wouldn’t want to let people know how much waste this will really be saving)

Top 10 music acts going green with compost and biodiesel
(Jack Johnson still sucks)

On Earth Day, USDA aids farmland preservation
(More cows, less condos)

Earth Day tips: How to go green without going broke
(Lowering water heater temp will never work in my house )

It’s Earth Day - Whole Foods dumps plastic bags
(Coincidentally, I used reusable bags for my grocery shopping too this week!)

Fuel Efficiency Plan Proposed On Earth Day
(At $4 a gallon here in California, this is not sounding so bad at all…)

If you’ve heard of anything (else?) interesting, let us know in the comments!

You’re looking at a concept drawing from Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture of possibly the worlds first mixed-use positive energy building. It is to be the first building built in the zero-waste, zero-carbon-emissions, and fully-renewable-energy-powered city of Masdar in the United Arab Emirates.

What this means is that it’s a building, not a powerplant, that’s going to produce more energy than it consumes. Here’s some snippets from the press release:

• Be the lowest energy consumer per square meter for a modern class A office building in an extremely hot and humid climate
• Be the first building in history to generate power for its own assembly, through development of its solar roof pier before the underlying complex
• Employ the largest solar thermal driven cooling and dehumidification system
• Feature one of the world’s largest building-integrated photovoltaic arrays

That last one’s a goodie…It’s going to have the solar panel roof built first, in order to provide electricity for the construction of the rest of the building. I realize it’s probably not that huge of an energy-saving feature, but, it certainly does keep with the spirit of Masdar, which seems to be the epitome of green cities in the making…

Thanks DVICE | More pics and info at AS+GG

Hard to believe, but this thing is real. This is the World Trade Center in Bahrain, where they’ve just turned on the three 95ft-diameter wind turbines. They’ll only be responsible for providing 15% of the power required to keep the lights on in this giant building, but that’s sure to account for a fortune (and a few [mega?]tons of CO2) in savings.

It kind of begs the question as to why more tall buildings haven’t been built to harness the wind power that they stand in the middle of. I’m sure a big ass turbine up there is much more effective than ones within a stones throw of sea level…

Via the Giz

Honestly, one of the most frustrating pieces of at-home technology has to be the traditional incandescdent bulb. They’re wasteful (how hot do those things get!), delicate, and just always going out at the wrong time.

Enter the LED light bulb…these have been around for a bit, but one company (EarthLED) is really taking things to the next level, and making products that are meant as everyday replacements, that perform better and more efficiently than current technology.

The CL-5 is a standard bulb replacement that consumes just 5w with a 75w output equivalent. It’s more durable and more efficient. The step up in technology comes at a price, as these are around $50 a piece. Even with the steep price, I can see some great applications for a bulb like this, most of which are in the garage, where durability would be key…shop light, garage door opener, open fixtures…etc.

“One - 5 Watt EarthLED CL-5 costs approximately $2.20 to run per year at 12 hours per day. Since it was on for approximately 4000 hours it still has nearly 10 years of life! Throughout its entire 11 year life an CL-5 will cost approximately $75, including the cost of the CL-5, while a traditional fixture using an incandescent bulb will cost nearly $450!”

Even the materials in this thing are environmentally friendly…can’t really go wrong…

<insert greenwix lighting hierarchy to pound point home>

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.

Wal*Mart comes to mind as a good example. They have been greenwashing their corporate image for some time now. Their green marketing campaign uses some fuzzy logic: ‘If every Wal*Mart shopper, all 250 million of us, gets these great organic pajamas, we will prevent hundreds of thousands pounds of pesticides from polluting our waters’.

Well that is assuming, Wal*Mart, that you stop selling the NON-organic pajamas and everyone who was in the market for pajamas buys your organic pajamas. I don’t need pajamas, I’m not a kid nor an octogenarian. I am not going to buy something because it’s green, I’m going to buy something because it’s green and I need it. <end rant>

But check out The Greenwash Brigade by American Public Media. It’s chock full of goodness.

The EcoSmart Fire, by EcoGreen Fire, hails from the land down under. The EcoSmart Fire is an environmentally friendly fireplace. It is fueled by Ethanol, which is a clean burning fuel. It’s essentially a form of grain alcohol and if like me, you hazily remember college weekends full of flaming dr peppers and everclear, you’ll know that alcohol burns very clean.

Because of the clean burn, the EcoSmart Fire does not need a flute, does not need a gas connection and will reduce the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. The flexibility and ease of installation makes this a great addition to any house. The magic of a clean burning fireplace is that you can set your thermostat at 65 degrees and just hang out in the living room. It is much more efficient to heat a room with a central heat source than your whole house and it’s many empty rooms.

EcoGreen

It’s simple. When you use your bathroom sink, that water disappears down the rabbit hole and into your sewer system. If you are one of the millions of people who brush their teeth with the water running, then you waste water and $$. Imagine if there is a water fairy under your sink collecting that water and using it to flush your toilet?

You’d save money, be doing a solid for mother earth, and have something something to talk about with that hot treehugger you met last week. Simple to install, the AQUS fits under the vanity and can reduce your water consumption by 10-20 gallons a day or around 5,000 gallons a year!

Some water companies and towns are offering up grants (read: FREE MONEY) to implement these systems, called greywater systems. I think it needs a better term - some marketing genius needs to get on that.

WaterSavers Technologies

Candela, the sister product to the Candeloo, graduates to adult audiences. You can set the mood on fire, not the house.

According to Candela, these portable lights provide a warm, ambient glow that won’t blow out in the wind, or set the house afire if left unattended. They’re equally useful on the dinner table or bedside. Patented, intelligent circuitry makes them illuminate automatically when lifted from the charging platter, and start to recharge as soon as they’re put back. They also turn on automatically during power failures so you always have an emergency light source within easy reach.

A set of four rechargeable lights replaces hundreds of dollars worth of wax candles and they’re cleaner, more durable, and easier to use. Vessel’s SafeCharge induction system eliminates exposed electrical contacts, and each light is made of impact-resistant plastic. Long-life warm-white LEDs provide the light source. When the batteries eventually start to lose their charge memory, they’re easily replaced to ensure years and years of light.

OXO Candela Glow