Stackable Lego Takeout Containers by Takeshi Miyakawa

If you live in a city where plastic takeout containers are not recyclable, you may be feeling the same frustrations that we are. Those of us who can’t bear the thought of simply tossing the receptacles that hold our beloved chinese food, sushi, and wraps try to reuse them as many times as possible. But what could make people who don’t really care about the environment want to hold on to their food containers instead of trashing them? That is the question that designer Takeshi Miyakawa set out to answer. His solution? Shaping the containers to look like a childhood favorite that most adults find difficult to resist–legos!

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Woven Palm Leaf Vava Lamp from IKEA

Ikea showcased its brand new PS Collection at this weekend’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair, and one of our favorite designs on display was this beautiful pendant lamp made from carefully folded palm leaves. Designed by Wiebke Braasch, the Vava lamp is inspired by an image from her childhood of dried sea urchins. Braasch wanted the spiky weave of the palm leaves to create a contrast to the soft discus shape of the shade.

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Uhuru Scrap Metal Stoolen

The passionate Uhuru design team launched several new products at BKLYN Designs last week. It is hard to select a favorite from all of their sophisticated, yet quirky furniture designs, but we can say that their new stools made us do a double take. All of their work is produced from sustainable materials such as locally reclaimed wood and steel, but it is unexpected and inspiring to see scrap metal look so inviting to sit on. It is commendable that they have made such a mechanical material take on such natural form.

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Green Coup d’Grace Media Console by Object Interiors

Extraordinary green designers Object Interiors unveiled their new Live Earth collection at this year’s BKLYN Designs, and we were particularly struck by their Coup d’Grace Media Console (such a fitting name!). Made from a formaldehyde and VOC-free MDF shell, the console reflects the mission of the collection “to connect all the raw, natural elements that make up the construction of a finished piece” and provide “a sensory connection with live things reflected in the furniture around you.” Dried grasses are embedded into the console’s front sliding doors, which are translucent panels comprised of 3Form eco-resin. The patented material is constructed using 40 percent post-consumer recycled waste and is an increasingly popular, PVC-free alternative to plastic. Even better, eco-resin can be returned to 3Form for recycling at the end of its lifespan.

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BKYLN Sneak Peak: EcoSystems’ Snug-it! Desk

One of Inhabitat’s favorite eco-design posses, EcoSystems, will be unveiling its new line at next week’s BKLYN Designs showcase, but for you lucky readers we have an early offering: their new ‘snug-it!’ collection of affordable eco furniture, named after the brand’s innovative hardware connectors. One of our favorite pieces from the snug-it! collection is this desk, made from bamboo and FSC Appleply, both with natural oil finish.

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BKLYN Designs Sneak Peek: Uhuru Designs

Lots of up-and-coming and established designers will present new collections at BKLYN Designs this weekend, and we don’t want to miss a single, solitary piece of work—which is why we love getting an advanced look at what’s to come! Bill Higendorf, co-founder of Brooklyn–based furniture company Uhuru Design, sent us a sneak peak of the three new locally and sustainably produced designs he and partner Jason Horvath are debuting at BKLYN Designs this week. While they’re every bit as functional as Uhuru’s previous products, the limited edition Stitched Table, Standard Chair and Metal Stoolen have a little added oomph that sets them apart.

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POO BRICKS: Students Develop Cow Dung Building Bricks

A group of students from Prasetiya Mulya Business School in Indonesia recently won the 2009 Global Social Venture Competition with their “EcoFaeBrick“, a quality, easily manufactured, low-cost sustainable building material made from cow dung. The bricks are not only 20% lighter, but they have a compressive strength 20% stronger than clay bricks and their production doesn’t rely upon devastating quarry mining techniques.

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Tono 8 All-Natural Cork Building Blocks

We found these awesome cork building blocks at the Milan Furniture Fair this week and love their simple and beautiful look. Designed by Tetsuo Tonouchi with safety and fun in mind, these lightweight building blocks are made from natural cork and non-toxic paints, and have super-soft edges. While they are a perfect eco-friendly toy for children, we know …

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Paper Wood Stools Sit Lightly on the Earth

Drill Design is set to unveil these new Paper Wood Stools at this week’s Milan Furniture Fair with the tag line that “off the rack” just will not do. Composed of wood veneer and recycled paper, these stools break the mold by moving away from the one size fits all paradigm. Not only are they light of weight and sturdy in strength but they come in a variety of heights to seat everyone from tiny tots all the way up to the towering Shaquille O’Neals in the crowd.

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Bettencourt Green Building Supplies

Bart Bettencourt has been making beautiful repurposed wood furniture with Scrapile for years, but you may not know that he also owns Bettencourt Green Building Supplies, which is an excellent source for environmentally-sound building material solutions. Based in Brooklyn and with warehouses in Massachusetts and Virginia, they’re a great go-to source for the construction and design industries as well as sustainably-minded homeowners.

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ECO DECORATING: Mod Green Pod Wallpaper

Traditional wall coverings often use PVC, a harmful and toxic material that has been known to leech into the air, so buying toxin-free textiles is an important health consideration that can’t be ignored. Mod Green Pod was founded by Lisa and Nancy Mims as a means to offer safer —and more fashionable— alternatives to conventional textile prints. Their products not just graphically gorgeous, but green in their materiality, completely free of vinyl, and use water-based inks on 100% certified organic cotton-based fabric.

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Outdoor Ad Companies Debut Recyclable Eco Billboards

As of March 1, the three largest outdoor communications companies will no longer be using paper or PVC for their billboards, citing the need to transition to more environmentally friendly materials. As an alternative, Clear Channel Communications, CBS Outdoor, and Lamar Advertising will now be rolling out Eco Posters made from fully recyclable polyethylene (PE) substrate. These new posters take less time to install, don’t require any toxic glue to paste them up, don’t peel or wrinkle like paper, and can last up to 3 times as long.

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Student Designs Biodegradable Packaging for McDonald’s

Fast food packaging takes up a hefty chunk of our landfill space while effectively clear-cutting our forests. The golden arch proprietors dole out over 2 billion burgers a year, each individually wrapped in plastic coated paper and thrown into a paper bag with a few paper napkins–that’s about 75 per second, worldwide. Toss in a dozen other fast food conglomerates and we’re up to our ears in greasy garbage. What’s worse is that most of this paper makes its way into a trashcan after only about 5 minutes of use. Seeking to counter this consumptive cycle, University of the Arts grad student, Andrew Millar, designed biodegradable packaging for McDonald’s from grass paper, which has naturally grease-resistant properties.

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Houndstooth Dogtent: For The Most Discerning Pup

Most dogs feel slighted while camping. Humans get fancy, engineered tents to crawl inside and stay warm, cozy, and out of the elements. Some dogs get a bed roll and a toy, but lucky dogs get a luxurious Houndstooth Dogtent made by John Santos, founder of New York-based graphic design studio Common Space. This dogtent is collapsible, made from biodegradable plastic and will make your pup more stylish out-of-doors than you.

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GREEN DEPOT Opens on the Bowery!

Green Depot: How Do We See Green?

Last week the Inhabitat team was excited to attend The Green Depot opening party in New York City. The new flagship Green Depot retail store, located on the Bowery, is the Brooklyn-based company’s first foray into retail destination. As a supplier of eco-friendly building materials, the company has been operating since 2005 through its showrooms and warehouse in Brooklyn, and is somewhat like a green version of Home Depot. Open and airy, the new flagship store offers a variety of items from no-VOC paint to energy monitors, to cleaning supplies to kitchenware, making it a smart resource for any eco-conscious New Yorker. We found lots to love about Green Depot, from its handy and educational organization of building supplies, to it character as a fun shopping destination (complete with scrumptious organic chocolate!)

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GREEN RENOVATION: A Modern Extension for a London Home

Green renovations like this one in London are really exciting, because they show how much potential there is for taking something you already having and making it so much better, through the application of smart design. Crawford Partnership, a London based architecture firm, was responsible for this remodel and extension. They replaced a dilapidated lean-to shed with a modern and spacious extension that includes an open kitchen and dining room with an extra bedroom and office above it– all while staying within the confines of the existing home. And to top it off, the extension includes a green roof covered in sedum.

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Beautiful Dairy Barn Renovation in Somerset

This stunning home designed by Skene Catling De Le Peña was once a barn for a dairy farm. Now renovated into a 5-bedroom house with a small pool, the home re-used as much material from the original building as possible. Originally, the owner’s plan included tearing down much of the lean-to sheds to create a house with well-proportioned rooms, better circulation and more new construction. But as the design formed, the owner changed his vision and wished for a secluded retreat that would mold in with the original layout of the barn. Upon completion, the room layout and sizes may not be ideal, however the architects were able to preserve a sense of the old barn.

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IS IT GREEN?: Sherwin-Williams Paint

Even if you’ve taken the steps to weatherproof, insulate, and seal up all of your home’s energy-sapping drafty spaces, you may be alarmed to find that your home’s interior is far from eco-friendly. Studies done by the EPA have shown that indoor air quality can be just as bad, or worse, than outdoor air quality. One of the culprits is all over your walls – paint. Despite their awkwardly earth-unfriendly logo, Sherwin-Williams has launched several lines of paint that claim to offer eco-friendly alternatives to standard VOC-laden paints - read on for an in-depth look at the company’s efforts to go green.

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Wall House: Durable $5000 Home Made from Recycled Paper

The Wall AG recently unveiled a remarkable prefabricated house that is made from recycled paper and can be built for less than $5000. Constructed from an innovative cellulose-based material, the Universal World House is light, cheap, well-insulated, and remarkably strong, making it an incredible asset to developing countries, the homeless, and those displaced by disasters.

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POLLI Bricks: Build a House with Recycled Bottles

The creative minds at miniWIZ recently debuted the POLLI-Brick, a recycled polymer bottle that can be interlocked to build an incredible array of structures. Made from recycled PET bottles, the lightweight bricks offer excellent acoustic and thermal insulation and can build anything from fences and roofs to pots for plants, skylights and beautiful walls of light.

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The Biodegradable Grass Cell Phone

Hay may be for horses, but it makes a pretty great mobile phone material as well. Appearing for all the world like a brick of sod outfitted with a keypad, Je-Hyun Kim’s Natural Year Phone concept carefully considers the life cycle of cellular phones, which are all too frequently disposed of due to obsolescence and the constant cycling of two-year contracts. Designed to last only for the length of its functional life cycle, the grassy green phone biodegrades and pieces apart for easy recycling after two years are up.

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REVIEW: Ruff Wear’s Eco-Sensitive Gear for Dogs

Ruff Wear is known for their tough dog toys and gear: stuff that lasts and makes hikes and playtime a lot more fun. This past year, Ruff Wear came out with a line of eco-sensitive gear, made from recycled materials and natural non-toxic rubbers. Inhabitat Test Dog, Cooper, recently had the opportunity to play with Ruff Wear’s new eco-sensitive line. While we admit that the dog will play with anything, especially sticks, he has grown awfully fond of his new toys. And after 2 months of tossing, gnawing, and tugging on them, they still look brand new. So for all of you with dogs who can destroy a new toy in minutes, Ruff Wear’s line of eco gear is definitely worth checking out.

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IS IT GREEN?: The Biodegradable Credit Card

No question about it, Americans have an overconsumption problem. The total outstanding balance of bank-issued credit cards per consumer was $5,710 in December 2008, according to Transunion. Americans like to buy new things and throw out the old ones. We also like to own lots of stuff we don’t need. Retailers profit from this, but so do money lenders. And many of these excessive retail purchases end up on credit cards. Discover has taken a step toward sustainability by introducing a new card made of biodegradable plastic, which it says is the first. But how green can a credit card really be if serves to encourage consumption?

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Timbuk2’s Custom-Built Pro-Planet Bags

Timbuk2 built its base among the bike messenger set, where their bags are revered for their tough-as-nails construction, cycle-friendly ergonomics, and and on-the-go ease of use. We’re excited to announce that the San Francisco-based company recently updated their lineup with a variety of sustainable and eco-friendly fabrics, and we had a chance to try out their custom Bag Builder first hand! Read on for our first-hand impressions as we run a Lex Pack through the ringer.

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Protecting Storm Swept Coastlines With Oyster Shell Seawalls

Photo by Sean Powers, University of South Alabama

Coastal erosion is one of the most daunting problems that a seaside city or county can face. The loss of shorelines and coastal areas due to storm activity can be a devastating event, with damages ranging in the millions of dollars. There are a number of methods used to try and contain such erosion, but a new technique is seeking to establish a thriving underwater ecosystem in process. Marine scientists in Alabama are utilizing tons of oyster shells to create a barrier reef that will serve as a habitat for sea life, filter the water, and protect the coast.

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BambooSK8 Eco Friendly Skateboards

Note to skaters – according to the Science Channel, skateboards have replaced furniture as the leading contributor to maple deforestation. The Canadian maple takes 40 to 60 years to mature before it can be cut down to make your decks. The good news? BambooSK8 is a true-green company that makes first rate skateboards that are durable, sustainable, and even stronger than maple.

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SUSTAINABLE STYLE: Loyale Fall 2008 Collection

We have written before about Jenny Hwa’s work in eco fashion, both on her eco chic clothing collections as well as her recent work in home goods. Her new fall collection is inspired by conservationist and film maker Joan Root. While known for her collaborations with her husband in creating several nature documentaries, Root was also actively supportive in the preservation of the land of her childhood, Kenya. A life of purposeful artistic pursuit was fitting to inspire Jenny to create a collection that is utilitarian but feminine. The collection uses eco luxurious materials such as organic wool and cotton as well as hand-dyed eco silk and is proof that sustainable style can become part of any woman’s everyday personal style.

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Green Home 101: “Greenovating” Your Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of any home. The average American spends three to five hours a day in the kitchen – preparing food, eating, hanging out, entertaining, standing in front of the fridge (with the door closed, of course) trying to figure out what to make for dinner. For our readers who have been inspired by our Green Home 101 series and are interested in doing some serious “greenovating” starting in the kitchen, we’ve gathered a few useful tips to consider. Your goals should include extremely efficient appliances, low-VOC and healthy finishes, and surfaces that are durable, easy to clean, and of course, aesthetically pleasing.

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Bamboo-Veiled Dormitory by Architecture BRIO

On a slope near the village of Karjat, India, a team of architects have begun to envision a modern, 3-story building that will peer out into the valley through a veil of bamboo poles. Designed by Architecture Brio, the building will act as a staff dormitory for the NGO Magic Bus. The building’s structure is modern and rectangular, but softened by the more rustic feel of its bamboo exterior. By using bamboo, a rapidly renewable resource, as a primary supporting material, the building’s design is both sustainable and feels like an organic manifestation of the surrounding landscape.

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Woodloops’ Gorgeous FSC-Certified Furniture

These gorgeous pieces of FSC certified wooden furniture were created by German design company Woodloops. Founded in 2003 by product designer/carpenter René Mueller and forester Nina Griesshammer, Woodloops strives to “covey our original views to common behaviors, weaving known circumstances into new and curious concepts”. We love the way their furnishings celebrate the integrity of raw materials, showcasing the wood grain and unique features of each piece.

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JVC BONSAI SPEAKERS

JVC recently unveiled a beautiful line of bonsai-laden Kirikabu speakers at this year’s Tokyo Designer’s Week. Created out of eco-friendly plastic, the conceptual series of speakers can be assembled into different shapes, and each contains a small compartment perfect for planting a tiny bonsai tree!

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