Instead of just burning calories, why not use all that energy from exercising to power your MP3 player? The Dancepants Kinetic Music Player, a shortlisted entry in Designboom’s Green Life competition, lets you do just that by converting kinetic energy from running, hopping, jumping, etc. into electricity to power an iPod or other music player. According to the Dancepants designers, the product is a “100 percent interactive way to feel the value of energy on your own.”
The beautiful thing about upcycled materials is that the end results often bear no resemblance to the original items. Such is the case with sculptor Kris Kuksi’s toy sculptures, which are constructed out of old toys, statues, and mechanical parts.
Imagine: a hurricane is barreling towards your house, but instead of hiding in the basement, you can stay safely and comfortably in your living room, all thanks to your X-Flex Blast Protection System wallpaper. It’s not a fantasy; the wallpaper, invented by Berry Plastics in a partnership with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, actually exists — and a single sheet is strong enough to stop a wrecking ball.
A person who drives 60 miles to work every day has different needs than someone who drives across town. So instead of designing electric cars to match the performance of petroleum-powered vehicles, researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s ChargeCar initiative think that EVs should be designed for individual commuting needs. To that end, ChargeCar hopes to create a so-called “commute ecology” based on crowdsourced data to develop EVs for different types of commutes.
Nearly 1.6 billion servings of Coca-Cola-branded beverages are served each day. Now some of them will be just a little bit greener now that Coke has announced the global rollout of its PlantBottle, a plastic bottle made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and 30% plant based materials (derived from sugar cane and molasses). The new bottles stand to cut down on carbon emissions by up to 25% compared to traditional PET bottles.
Think about how much trash goes into a bin in, say, New York City’s Times Square on a daily basis. What if all that garbage could be used to generate energy? That’s the thinking behind designer Haneum Lee’s Gaon Street Light – a lamppost powered by garbage!
Is there anything the iPhone can’t do? Researchers at NASA’s Homeland Security Cell-All program have brought the latest mind-boggling application to Apple’s phone in the form of a stamp-sized chemical sniffing device. The prototype chemical sensor can sniff small amounts of chemicals like methane, ammonia, and chlorine gas.
It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but architects at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have a plan to build a massive digital cloud above the London skyline. The Cloud, which has been shortlisted in a competition to build a tourist attraction in the Olympic Park with a lasting legacy, would feature 400 foot-tall mesh towers topped with solar powered plastic bubbles that show images and data — i.e. weather information, Olympic race results, and spectator numbers. If built, the cloud could also be used as an observation deck and a park.
What if you could drive onto the highway, take your hands off the wheel, and sit back and read a book? That might not be as far-fetched as you might think if an EU-financed research project is successful. The project, dubbed SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) wants to link vehicles together in eight-car “road trains” led by a professional driver. The project, which is aimed at commuters traveling long distances, could drastically cut travel time, congestion, and fuel consumption.
The Progressive Automotive X-Prize is heating up as the May 2010 start date approaches, and one of our favorite entrants is the eVARO, a three-wheeled plug-in hybrid from Future Vehicles Technology. The sleek electric vehicle can go from 0 to 60 MPH in 5 seconds and purportedly reaches 275 mpg under certain conditions. And for those times when there isn’t a gas station in site, the eVARO can cruise for up to 90 miles on pure battery power.
Instead of moving goods on resource-intensive trains, Spain-based technology company Novateq Guerrero SNL wants to build out a different kind of transportation network–one that uses super-powerful magnets to propel vehicles. Novateq has already developed a prototype of its system, which uses Neodymium magnets, or rare-earth magnets, as a driving force. The magnets are 9 times more powerful than conventional models.
How many times have you bit into a piece of fruit only to find that you’re also chomping on a sticker label? The small yet wasteful labels have long been the bane of waste-conscious fruit and vegetable eaters, but that might all change thanks to new technology that uses a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam to etch information directly onto produce. No more peeling those annoying labels!
Seoul, South Korea is filled with blinding light-up displays and headache-inducing neon screens. But residents of the city who want to see these displays put to good use need only take a trip to the World Cup Stadium’s Peace Park, which is where this beautiful Living Light sculpture blooms. The permanent outdoor pavilion and glass canopy projects up-to-the minnute information about local air quality, and locals can send it a text message to receive a report from anywhere.
Global warming has dramatically increased the unpredictability of weather patterns, but what if we could more accurately pinpoint the future location and intensity of floods and droughts? That might be possible if all goes as planned with the Soil Moisture and Salinity (SMOS) probe, launched today by the European Space Agency. The $460 million probe, launched on a Russian rocket launcher from the Plesestk cosmodrome, will measure soil moisture, plant growth, and ocean salt levels across the globe.
Earlier this week, Regen wowed us with their sleek, modular iPhone charger. Now the electronics company is back again with another impressive Apple-related product: the Reverb, an eye-catching 3-foot tall iPod dock that blasts out the equivalent of 60 watts of sound from a conventional speaker. And best of all, it’s solar-powered.
Drinking water is all around us — if we know where to look. The Giving Tree-inspired Savior Bud designed by Seol Ah Sun and Kim Hyo Jin is a portable device that attaches to tree leaves and slowly collects water. After four hours, a full cup of water is ready for drinking.
Toyota is leasing 500 prototype plug-in hybrid Prius’s to lucky recipients in the U.S, Europe, and Japan next year, but what about all the other Prius owners who want to provide some plug-in juice to their cars? Enter 3Prong Power, a Berkeley, California startup that offers plug-in hybrid conversions for first, second and third generation Prius’s as well as the Ford Escape Hybrid.
With so many slick electric motorcycles on the horizon, it’s getting increasingly difficult to justify the use of polluting, petroleum-powered older models. But instead of sending old Vespas to the trash pile, Spanish design studio Bel & Bel has a more creative solution: turn the stylish relics into snazzy pieces of furniture!
The problem with most built-in solar gadget chargers is that it just doesn’t make sense to stick your pricey phone in the sun for the whole day while you wait for it to charge. But the Regen ReNu modular solar panel takes care of that issue–the combination solar panel and battery pack attaches to the back of an iPod/iPhone dock or USB device for easy access to solar power. When you want to charge the panel, just remove it and place it near sunlight!
Rooftop solar panels are unlikely to elicit complaints from neighbors–they’re silent and relatively unobtrusive. But loud rooftop wind turbines? That’s where the virtually NIMBY-proof Ridgeblade turbine comes in. The turbine, designed by a former Rolls Royce turbine engineer at UK-based The Power Collective, boasts a sleek profile that is both powerful and visually pleasing.
San Francisco already diverts over 72% of its waste from landfills thanks to rigorous recycling efforts, and now the city is set to cut down on trash even more with the country’s first mandatory composting law, which took effect yesterday. Residents and businesses now have six weeks to start composting food waste, plant trimmings, and other items. Needless to say we’re thrilled by this initiative, and we invite everyone to join us as we chat with Mayor Gavin Newsom about it next Wednesday in our final Green Talks webcast!
We’ve see plenty of great green concept cars at this week’s Tokyo Motor Show, but Yamaha might take the prize for the best-looking two-wheeler with its new EC-f electric motorcycle. Designed to make motorcycling attractive to riders of all ages and experience levels, the vehicle features a lightweight aluminum frame, a long-lasting lithium ion battery, and a 0.6 kWh electric motor.
Iranian CG artist Mohammed Ghezel has conceived of a vehicle sure to give you the spins with this eRinGo concept, a drum/ring-shaped electric vehicle that features two steering wheels for double the fun. The tilting vehicle may look topsy-turvy at best, but it’s not the first ring spinning craft we’ve seen!
DIY graffiti doesn’t have to be ugly– it can be thought-provoking, challenging, and perhaps most importantly, temporary. Jesse Graves, an artist based in Milwaukee Wisconsin, has harnessed mud as an artistic medium to take his green graffiti to the streets, and he encourages others to do the same.
Traffic cones often signal some sort of disaster or messy construction zone, but NYC architecture firm EFGH has managed to upcycle the orange cones into something beautiful with this 15×15′ Hedgehog concert pavilion. The whole thing can be constructed in just six hours, and by using already-manufactured traffic cones the architecture firm saved considerable costs on materials.
The serene back-and-forth movement of a rocking chair is nothing if not relaxing. It can also be useful and productive, according to Rochus Jacob. The designer’s Murakami Chair, a winner in designboom’s Green Life competition, uses the kinetic energy produced by rocking to power an attached OLED lamp.
The problem with most electric vehicle charging stations is that you never know where your electricity is coming from–and unfortunately it’s often arriving courtesy of a dirty coal plant. Luckily, the prefab SunPods SP-300 EV Plug-N-Go solar charging station, installed this week in San Jose, CA, changes that by reassuring EV drivers that their power is coming straight from the sun.
Hydrogen peroxide is best known for its properties as a hair dye and disinfectant, but it might just power the next generation of drag racers as well. Unlike expensive hydrogen fuel cell and electric-powered cars, h202-powered vehicles are both cheap (hydrogen peroxide is just water with an extra oxygen molecule) and fast — drag racers powered by the stuff can quickly reach speeds of 450 mph!
It’s almost time again for the Tokyo Motor Show, Japan’s biennial auto show that is famous for showcasing the latest and greatest concept cars. This year’s show doesn’t take place until October 24, but we’ve caught a sneak peek at some of the incredible green rides that will be on display – read on for our favorite electric vehicles from this year’s show!
Forget decorative crystalline stadium skins; Gino Zavanella’s recently unveiled stadium is completely plastered in energy-generating photovoltaic panels. Stadium Franco Sensi, set to be built in Rome, Italy, will feature a museum of Rome’s football team, restaurants, lounges, and bars in addition to regular stadium seating.
Electric vehicles already attract attention on the street, but if you really want to get noticed, consider buying the Cupcake Car, a tasty-looking automobile designed by Bay Area artist Lisa Pongrace. It’s certainly one way to drive your efficient vehicle and eat it too (although it’s not actually edible, so you probably want to hold off on that).
For most sustainability-minded architects, a net zero energy building is the holy grail. But Elithis Tower, located in Dijon, France, has surpassed the net zero energy ideal to become the first energy positive office building, meaning it creates more power than it uses. The building, which was designed by Arte Charpentier Architects, also produces six times fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional office structures.
We’ve covered plenty of plug-in hybrid electric cars, and now Norfolk Southern Corp. is extending the same technology to locomotives with its prototype battery-powered train, the NS 999. The 1,500 horsepower switching train is powered exclusively by a series of 1,080 lead-acid 12-volt batteries. The best part – since the NS 999 doesn’t have a diesel engine, it releases zero emissions.
Grant Associates recently won an international design competition to plan the largest garden project ever to be constructed in Singapore, the Marina South Gardens. The structure, which is inspired by the shape of an orchid, features a group of cooled conservatories in its center as well as a series of enormous solar supertrees that provide the gardens with an abundant source of rain water and renewable energy.
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