If we were stuck on a desert island with only one book, this recently unveiled solar e-book would be at the top of our list! Designed by LG Display, the sleek reader features a wafer-fin photovoltaic cell that provides it with a steady stream of solar energy. Whereas most e-books run the risk of losing juice mid-sentence through your next novel, this solar reader’s omnipresent energy source makes it a winning design in our book.
From time to time we come across some ideas that are so brilliant that it’s a no-brainer for them to be out there in the marketplace. This last year in particular we’ve seen a number of green gadgets that are so ingenious that we’re left scratching our heads and wondering why they haven’t been produced yet — especially because they are all powered by renewable energy sources. With this in mind, we present to you our top five green gadgets that we wish existed!
Next time you head to the park, consider bringing a Suntrica wearable solar charger. The Suntrica SolarBadge and SolarStrap are pocket-sized, durable, lightweight chargers covered in flexible thin film solar panels.
Last week’s Greener Gadgets Conference was a smashing success, and if you missed it, you missed out. Inventor Saul Griffith gave a provocative and rousing keynote presentation, with a call-to-action to consumers to start measuring their energy use and designers to start changing the way they make things. The panel discussions were lively and interesting, and as always, the Greener Gadgets Design Competition live-judging was the hit of the conference with spirited debate between audience and judges, and hilarious commentary by Core77’s Allan Chochinov. But if you weren’t able to be in attendance at our fabulous conference – fear not – you can catch up on all the important highlights here on Inhabitat. We live-blogged the whole thing on Friday, and we’ll be posting videos soon. The live-blog is pretty detailed, so if you are looking for a short synposis of the event, read on for highlights >
Apple recently rolled out its new family of Macbooks with a bold claim: The World’s Greenest Family of Notebooks. The new Macbooks are lighter, less toxic, and more energy efficient than previous generations, but are they really the greenest laptops in the world?
For those of you who enjoy a cup of joe with your morning paper, the RITI Coffee printer offers an ingenious way to green your morning ritual: by turning your old coffee grounds into a sustainable source of ink for your printer! One of fifty top entries in this year’s Greener Gadgets Competition, the RITI printer takes the leftover grounds from your morning roast and plugs them into an ink cartridge to create an eco-friendly source of ink. Who would have ever guessed coffee stains could be be so useful!
The world’s biggest trade show, the Consumer Electronics Show kicked off this week in Las Vegas, and this year the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) has joined forces with Greener Gadgets to produce the greenest CES ever! We’ve showcased some of the cutting-edge green electronics on the floor, and now we’re excited to announce that today CES will be hosting a Greener Gadgets Panel with our friend Marc Alt to explore the green future of consumer technology. It’s sure to be an incredible discussion and we hope to see you there!GREENER GADGETS PANEL AT CESWHEN:Saturday, Jan 10th – 1:30pm
WHERE: LVCC, North Hall, Room Number: N258
We always knew that cutting edge-technology integrated with OLEDs would provide some crazy gadgets in the future – we just had no idea we’d see them take on the form of a fashion accessory so soon. Our friends at Engadget recently got a first glance at this flexible OLED wristband prototype developed by Universal Display Corporation with support from the U.S. Department of Defense. Devices such as this may one day form the basis for a new generation of energy-efficient wearable communications devices.
Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Center and HP recently announced a prototype of a flexible lightweight computer screen that stands to revolutionize computers and electronic devices. Created in a similar roll-to-roll manufacturing process as thin-film pv, these new computer screens are printed onto plastic sheets that are virtually indestructible, use less energy and are less costly to produce than conventional screens. These new displays could potentially use up to 90% less materials by volume to produce as well.
The world famous Consumer Electronics Show kicks off this week in Las Vegas, and this year the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) has joined forces with Greener Gadgets to produce the greenest CES ever! We’re thrilled to see the event getting greener and greener each year with new initiatives to reduce the event’s carbon footprint, energy use, and promote more sustainable electronics products. We’ll be reporting on all the latest and greatest green electronics news from CES, so stay tuned to Inhabitat for up-to-the-minute coverage.
photo by Martin Lamonica/CNET News
Medis Technologies recently revealed working units of the 24-7 Power Pack, the world’s first portable fuel cell charger. The pint-sized powerhouse uses “liquid borohydride technology” to give an ipod an extra 60-80 hours of life. Best of all, the Power Pack is recyclable and contains no environmentally hazardous chemicals.
This weekend the streets of NYC will be teeming with ‘psycho-paths’ – no news to some, but certainly good news to those who are fans of psychogeography. From September 11 to 14, over one hundred local and international artists will transform NYC’s gritty, fodder-rich streets into a laboratory for exploring the urban environment – all thanks to Conflux 2008. The four-day event includes open-air art installations, interactive performances, street art interventions, DIY media workshops, artist-led walking tours, and some pretty fascinating panel discussions and gadgets.
Read on for a sampling of just how innovative and adventurous things are going to get!
Earlier this year we highlighted Idaho startup M2E Power’s push to develop motion-powered electronics for the military. Now M2E is emphasizing the commercial applications for their technology, with a specific goal: revolutionizing cell phone batteries. M2E will announce the development of an external charger later this month that will generate between 300 and 700 percent more energy than current kinetic energy technologies, and may eventually replace cell phone batteries altogether.
If last week’s Transportation Tuesday article on the world’s smallest solar vehicle wasn’t your cup of tea (after all solar is so last year), then hopefully this week’s entry will be more to your taste. The Hydrocar is a pint-sized vehicle that is powered entirely by a hydrogen fuel cell. It would make an excellent office racer or a fun educational vehicle for children – check out it’s kid-friendly angle over at inhabitots!
Smart Toy Hydrocar at Inhabitots >
One of the many barriers that impedes us from living a greener life at home is the lack of any simple and reliable way to gauge how much energy we are consuming. We can turn off our lights and computers, but we are still kept in the dark as to our true levels of our consumption. As price and demand for energy continue to climb, it becomes that much more important to have access to vital information about our energy use, which is exactly what the EnergyHub hopes to provide.
Solar power is taking the world by storm, and these days its easy to find solar powered chargers, solar powered lights and solar powered laptop bags. So you know it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a solar power work table. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense – what better place to charge your gadgets with renewable energy than the table you are working at. The SOLo Lounge Table, by Intelligent Forms, is a sleek, chic outdoor table that not only looks fantastic, but comes with a built-in solar panel surface in order to power all of your electronic gadgets!
There are some intriguing ideas with how to deal with the greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation – the most commonly heard being carbon sequestration. But what else could you do with those emissions? How else could you sequester them? Well, according to Thomas E. Müller, Ph.D., and Toshiyasu Sakakura, Ph.D. CO2 could be used to make polycarbonate plastics for use in products such as DVDs.
We have seen mobile media players go green by utilizing the wind, the sun and our own muscles, what about when we use those gadgets in our home? Vers Audio has taken on the task to provide our homes with a more sustainable sound, with a more sustainable design. Vers Audio’s Vers 2x uses a sustainably harvested cherry wood veneer, providing your mp3 players with a sleek green home.
It’s no secret that we’re fans of greener gadgets here at Inhabitat. When you want all the functionality of your favorite gadget and can enjoy it in a more environmentally-friendly manner, it’s the best of both worlds. And on that note, we are excited to announce that now there’s a new environmentally-friendly, solar-powered option for portable media players! The eMotion Solar PMP, a solar powered mp3 and video player, just hit the market for all your off-the-grid, green energy powered media needs.
We love our kinetic energy here at Inhabitat, and we are excited to announce inventive use of human kinetic power: The brandnew 2 GB Eco Media Player is hand-crank portable media player can play music, video, and even charge your cellphone, all from a few seconds of cranking! What’s more renewable than human power? We love that someone finally had the brilliant idea to mix renewable energy generation with music & video – all the best things in life in one cute little package.
Think printing solar panels is cool? Well, here’s something even cooler. General Electric has just successfully demonstrated a roll-to-roll printing (think newspaper style printing) process for OLEDs. It’s a state-of-the-art process for the production of Organic Light Emitting Diodes that’s high performance, energy efficient, and surprisingly inexpensive. The applications are endless for printing energy efficient light systems of all sizes. Just imagine the design possibilities!
If you thought rechargeable batteries were a good green idea, the USBCELL rechargeable battery will blow your mind- it plugs into any computer’s USB port to recharge. It’s a standard AA battery which will fit into all your every day uses. We’re not the only ones amped up about USBCELL- today at CEBIT, the green battery was awarded a Gold award at the IF Product Design ceremony. Produced by Moixa Energy, has a flip cap top that houses the USB port, and can be used like any regular AA battery. Not to mention, it cuts back on the nearly 15 billion Alkaline batteries made and thrown away each year.
Sometimes the best designs out there are not ‘products’ that can be purchased — but big ideas made accessible to all through the power of Do-It-Yourself design. The award-winning EnerJar takes the important concept of home energy monitoring, and brings it to the masses in a fun, interactive way through a handy, downloadable DIY design that can be put together using a jam jar and other household objects. By turning energy monitoring into an engaging DIY project the Enerjar took first prize in our recent Greener Gadgets Competition. Designed by Matt Meshulam and Zach Dwiel, this little downloadable DIY kit uses common household materials to monitor the energy output of a variety of everyday devices, allowing a user to take personal responsibility over energy use.
Just when we thought the idea of solar-powered backpacks couldn’t get any better, Voltaic goes and ups the ante with new recycled materials. The solar bag company showed their backpacks and laptop bags at Greener Gadgets, and have now announced they’re moving to use 100% post-consumer recycled PET plastic based fabrics.
While certain objects seem to be making big strides in sustainability, the humble cell phone is lagging a bit behind the curve – what with the lead, cadmium and other toxic chemicals, as well as the relentless consumption, upgrading and disposable on which the entire industry is based. But Nokia has recently launched a new, more environmentally friendly cellphone called the 3310 Evolve. The Evolve is a great example of a greener device, made from biomaterials and 60% recycled packaging. Right now these phones are only available in Europe (what Nokia – you don’t think there is a market for this in the US??), so if you want to check out this cute little eco phone in action, come by the Greener Gadgets Conference on February 1st! But don’t get too attached — we haven’t heard of any launch date set for the US yet.
We are thrilled to announce that Voltaic, our favorite solar bag company, has just debuted a sleek new laptop bag that actually charges laptops! Whereas Voltaic’s previous solar bags only generate enough power to charge smaller gadgets like phones, cameras and mp3 players, the new Generator, is a super-powered solar tote that will charge your laptop along with all of your other green gadgets. It uses a single solar panel (which you can order with different color trims) to produce up to 14.7 watts of power, enough to fully charge a typical laptop, along with your iPod and cell phone.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) starts today in Sin City, but despite the nickname, CES 2008 is supposedly greener than ever this year, showing a real environmental conscience touching on issues like material sustainability and energy efficiency. We’ll be on site to report on the latest technologies, particularly those that are pushing forward new design innovations in renewable energy generation. There will be a panel discussion about electronic recycling on Tuesday afternoon, Nicholas Negroponte of One Laptop Per Child will be speaking Wednesday, and we will be combing the showroom floor to bring you the latest greener gadgets highlights such as the Samsung OLED screen, Fujitsu Corn Laptop, and Greenplug. We’re particularly interested this year as CES pertains to our upcoming Greener Gadgets Conference on February 1st.
For the technologically-inclined greenies in your life, the best gadget gifts are those that are innovative and unique, energy efficiency, and smart. Stock up green gadget gifts this holiday season that are sure to please everyone in your family, including Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants.
Looking for an eco-friendly and convenient alternative to charging your cell phone, camera, or laptop? The Brunton SolarRoll beats out solar-powered bags and backpacks and, certainly, the hassle of trying to find an electrical outlet when you’re traveling with mobile devices in tow. All you need is a little sunlight, and you can easily charge laptops, cell phones, cameras, and even car batteries!
November 15th is America Recycles Day! Time for New Yorkers to celebrate by finding a home for that used cellphone collection you’re storing somewhere. Nokia recently announced a recycling campaign to collect 100,000 unwanted mobile devices between now and November 15th, and has made it even easier by allowing drop of at their flagship store in Manhattan at 5 East 57th Street.
Apple just launched their newest line of desktop iMacs – slim, graceful, and made from glass and aluminum. “Aluminum is durable and lightweight; recyclers love it,” said Steve Jobs. “Glass is elegant, very scratch resistant and very recyclable.” These are likely the first Apple products designed with ecology and environmental issues in mind, and while the eyecandy iMac may still be a long ways off from serious ecological sustainability, we appreciate the efforts being made by Apple to integrate stylish aesthetics with more thoughtful material choices.
This week, HP announced the greenest computer ever – the RP5700, and was awarded the first “gold” rating by EPEAT. How does HP make it to gold? First, by redesigning for end of life – 95% of components are recyclable, and the internal chassis can be taken apart by hand with no need for special tools for easy disassembly. Toxic and hazardous materials have been eliminated to meet the EU’s tight regulations, and both the plastic casing and external cardboard packaging source a percentage of post–consumer waste.
Take a poll on any city street, and you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t admire Apple’s clean, innovative product design. In the past 5 years, with the success of the iPod and power PCs, Mac has come to dominate the high-end consumer electronic space, with their clean, minimalist aesthetic. With such a prestigious design-driven brand, one would think that Apple would be leading the way in the green design revolution. Sadly, this is not the case – Apple is actually lagging behind companies like Dell and HP – and because of this, Greenpeace has spearheaded a creative campaign to green Apple.
Our first week’s ASK INHABITAT focuses on green electronics — and to deal with this often complex subject matter we’ve brought in Jennifer Van Der Meer, product designer, research consultant, chair of O2-NYC and sustainable electronics guru extraordinaire…
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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