In a move to make Los Angeles coal-free by 2020, Mayor Antonio Villariagosa just announced a proposal for a monthly carbon surcharge on water and power bills. The funds will be used to transition the city towards renewable energy sources, and although no set amount was announced, it is expected that the smallest increase seen by 55% of the LA Department of Water and Power (DWP) consumers will be an additional $2.00 a month.
Author, furniture designer and hand tool enthusiast Tom Fidgen designed and built this side table using salvaged Ash collected from the shores of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. The drawer fronts are made of reclaimed Angelique wood that sat on a barge in Martha’s Vineyard for the better part of 100 years, and the table is finished with a food safe oil blend. It was built using only hand tools – no electricity! For more custom designs and to see inside a ‘hand tool only’ workshop visit the Unplugged Woodshop.
While most of the United States’ focus on Afghanistan has been on the ongoing war, other lessons from this land have come to North America in the form of green building techniques. As it turns out, efficiency, affordability, or mobility are often good catalysts to try something new. From sturdy local building materials like adobe bricks to advanced structural insulated panels informed by traditional designs, read on for several great examples.
French architect Jean Nouvel recently unveiled a shining new LEED Certified skyscraper on 11th avenue in New York City. The building features a stunning facade composed of 1,700 different panes of glass and is described by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect as a “vision machine”. With apartments reaching from $1.6 million to $22 million, one wonders if New York really needs another green luxury building when there’s so much need for affordable housing. But nonetheless, 100 Eleventh Avenue is a stunning portrayal of what modern design can accomplish in a city like the Big Apple.
The Method Laundry Room Sweepstakes is currently in effect, so enter today for a shot at winning a stunning green laundry room renovation worth $8,500! Inhabitat has teamed up with Method to stock your laundry room chock full of a year’s worth of laundry supplies, a new energy efficient washer and dryer, and a set of eco-friendly laundry room furnishings. The competition ends on April 16th, so if you haven’t applied yet it’s time to get cracking!
Once a veteran marathoner, 74 year old Bruce Maynard now battles major knee problems — but his age and physical setbacks are not thwarting him from planning his upcoming journey across America in a solar powered jogging stroller named ‘Sam.’ Outfitted with a foldable solar panel (which powers the device in tandem with a battery), ‘Sam’ is Maynard’s mobile office — complete with a computer stand and work table — as well as his campsite via boat-hook poles that will be used to construct a trusty tent. Maynard will be ready to roll on his six month trek in April, after undergoing trick knee surgery. Visit Inhabitots to read more about his inspirational plans for this journey.
How do you create effective lighting when there’s no way to get to the grid? Leave it to a couple of ingenious designers to come up with a beautiful and self-sufficient bamboo lighting system! Designed by Ingendesign, the ‘Flow’ light is powered by constant prevailing coastal winds and is built to be almost completely biodegradable.
Solar charging stations for cars? Been there, done that. Now Sanyo has completed two solar parking lot charging stations in Japan for its “Eneloop” hybrid electric bikes–and the company is offering 80 bikes for community use at the two spots. Each station can charge 40 bikes, with power left to light up LEDs at night in the parking lots.
If you’ve been reading Inhabitat lately, you know that we had a blast liveblogging last month’s Greener Gadgets conference, which showcased the hottest new developments in green tech. While we worked diligently to comprehensively cover all the best bits of the conference in our liveblog, sometimes the best moments are ones that can’t be captured in writing — so we’re hooking you up with an exclusive video of the Greener Gadgets Conference! For those of you who couldn’t make (and even those who did), check out our fabulous Greener Gadgets video above for the latest and greatest in green consumer tech.
Keep your eyes peeled for this police car in your rear view mirror – the Ford Interceptor, which is a completely badass upgrade from the out-of-date Crown Victoria. Ford debuted its new model last Friday and will soon be rolling these babies off the line and into the hands of police officers all over the country. The Interceptor is based on the Ford Taurus, but designed especially for cops with new safety features and is 25% more fuel efficient.
If there were one good thing to come out of the economic recession, you would think it would be a decrease in carbon emissions from industrial slowdowns. Unfortunately, new research shows that’s not the case. Data measured by Norway’s Zeppelin station on the Arctic Svalbard showed that carbon dioxide levels were actually higher this year than during the same period in 2009. The research indicates that despite the recession, carbon emissions continue to rise.
Scientists recently determined the planet has an unlikely ally in the battle against climate change–undersea volcanoes. A group of Australian and French scientists found that a vast network of underwater volcanoes in the Southern Ocean pump out nutrient-rich water, promoting phytoplankton growth. That phytoplankton plays a crucial role in sucking carbon dioxide out of the air.
Gadget geeks, prepare to get wired in a whole new way — researchers at Korea University in Seoul recently discovered a way to transmit data directly through the human body at broadband speeds by using the arm as a conduit. The researchers placed two electrodes 12 inches apart on a subject’s skin and were able to clock data transmission rates of 10 megabits per second. The technology may pave the way for ultra-efficient implantable body monitors that cut energy needs by 90%.
During the 14th century the city of Antwerp commissioned the construction of a new cathedral. Due to a failing budget, the city ran out of money and construction was brought to a halt. While the structure did meet functionality, it unfortunately lost one of the towers planned in its original design. This absence has left an overhanging sense of incompleteness to the building, but a competition called “Designing the Absent” is challenging designers to generate a new idea to fill this void. One entry that caught our attention is this beautiful design by Tim Hobbelman and Chris Idema that forgoes overwhelming Ghery curves and Meier starkness for an organic and self-sufficient solar powered eco tower.
Bamboo forests are beautiful things — especially when they are cleaning urban air, soil, and water AND shielding communities from industry and heavily trafficked areas. Urban Biofilter creates bamboo forests on brownfields that are fed with wastewater. The harvested Bamboo then creates income in areas that are otherwise neglected through sustainable bamboo harvesting and timber production.
Inhabitat reader Raven tells us about the Solar Plant – a flowerpot-shaped charger that uses the sun’s rays to charge all of your portable electronic gadgets. This clever design from Ku Bon-Seop of South Korea features a set of solar panels that are mounted on the top of the charger. Just like real plants these panels convert light into renewable energy by utilizing the mighty power of the sun. The design is clean and simple, and …
The world is currently experiencing an economic downturn or recession, but by examining The Great Depression in the 1920-30’s, one may find clues as to what lies ahead for the future of design. Like The Great Depression, this recession began with a market crash, affected almost every country, caused personal income and interest rates to drop and unemployment rates to soar. However the past is filled with examples of successful, efficient designs that flourished during trying times.
Font junkies haven’t had reason to get this excited since the release of Helvetica. Designers at SanSanserif Creatius have just premiered their Bold Chair, a funky new seating module constructed from 100% biodegradable corrugated cardboard. Each chair is completely screw-free and is formed via stacked 5mm thick sheets. But don’t be …
The 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is set to kick off in May and construction is nearly completed on the water-harvesting wood-clad Canada Pavilion. The famous acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil had a part in the design of the pavilion and will also be performing throughout the Expo. Many interesting pavilions have been designed for the expo around the theme of “Better Life, Better City” and Canada’s contribution includes a great set of sustainable design elements to compliment that.
Without a standardized system of electric vehicle charging stations, automakers will be hard-pressed to get most people to splurge for EVs. That’s why a coalition of Japanese automakers and engineering giants including Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Fuji Heavy Industries have teamed up with the Tokyo Electric Power Company to form CHAdeMO (Charge de Move), a group set on standardizing EV charging stations to work for all vehicles–a daunting task, to say the least.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are the light source of choice for budget-minded greenies everywhere, but they come with one big drawback: a potentially dangerous mercury-filled center. If you accidentally drop a bulb, beware; you could be exposed to the toxic stuff. But now, finally, a company has come up with a CFL option sans the risks of mercury — the ArmorLite bulb.
Photo by Benjamin Lowy
China already has the most advanced and extensive high speed rail line in the world, and soon that network will be connected all the way to Europe and the UK! With initial negotiations and surveys already complete, China is now making plans to connect its high speed rail line through 17 other countries in Asia and Eastern Europe in order to connect to the existing infrastructure in the EU. Additional rail lines will also be built into South East Asia as well as Russia, in what will likely become the largest infrastructure project in history.
Researchers at MIT have discovered that it’s possible that a large scale installation of wind turbines can actually raise temperatures. Looking forward to the US goal of creating 20% of our power from wind by 2030, the researchers studied what would happen to the climate in the immediate area of the wind farm. They found that temperatures on land go up about 1 degree Celsius when wind power is used to generate just 10% of global demand.
Thanks to firm Oppenheim Architecture + Design, Miami Dade College is getting an eye-popping new campus center poised for LEED certification. To be located on Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami, the building is an extruded quadrangle shape that, along with a striking glass and steel exoskeleton, maximizes natural ventilation and public spaces for the students to enjoy. In terms of clean energy generation, the center will have its own wind turbines and solar hot water collectors right on its roof!
We’re sorry to start the week with some dismal news, but here goes: A report released today by Australian scientists shows the continent experienced unprecedented warming over the past 50 years. Not only has Australia’s mean temperature increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius since 1960, the continent is experiencing sea level rise and higher sea surface temperatures.
Prepare to be blown away: the latest addition to London’s skyline is a striking modern skyscraper that is heralded as the world’s first building with wind turbines built in! Nicknamed “The Razor”, the 148 meter-tall Strata tower is topped with a trio of turbines that will produce enough power to meet 8% of its energy needs.
Photo by Wallpaper
We’ve heard about designers doing some crazy things, but this one may just take the prize. For Chanel’s Fall/Winter 2010 show Karl Lagerfeld imported a massive 265-ton glacier from northern Sweden, where over the course of six days 35 sculptors (flown in from around the world) whittled the icy block down to a 28-foot tall frozen landscape. For this brief one-time show, the …
St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect day to get in the green spirit! Apart from cladding your kids in green garb so they won’t receive any of those pesky pinches, why not give them a little something extra to pump up the festive cheer? From wooden shamrock teethers to glitter shamrock crayons, we’ve got five etsy …
Men’s underwear… oblong fruits… all the puns we could insert here just seem too easy, so we’ll keep it simple and introduce you to AussieBum – the world’s first men’s unmentionables made from bananas! These eco-friendly briefs from down undah (how apropos) also contain organic cotton and lycra. We venture making them simply out of banana …
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