Once before we told you about how the London Eye was to get a $125 million-upgrade to be eco-friendly. It has already tackled its carbon emissions by introducing a brand new LED lighting system reducing power use by 69 per cent. Now the city’s top tourist spots are planning to follow suit. The Natural History Museum has led the way in the London Mayor’s Green500 carbon reduction scheme by investing in a new Combined Heat and Power system and also signed up to the ‘100 days of Carbon Saving’ initiative to help employees and the public make small changes to their habits, winning awards for its efforts. The Victoria and Albert Museum, has already decreased its energy carbon footprint by 20 per cent and has now joined with other London institutions to reduce it even further. This is progress and more cities around Europe and the world should follow suit, methinks.
[Dailymail]
Here’s an eco-friendly design. This is a CircleWall and is made of recycled, chemical free cardboards. It was made for Cardboardesign. No glues or tools were used to make this one. It was made by linking piece by piece to create this structure. It is interesting, but there seems to be no use for this one. Why would someone use these? Apparently, this design made in the USA, can be packed and kept back in the shelf or kept ‘neatly’ in the recycle bin after use. But what use?!
He donned the silver screens with great hits like Commando, Predator and you cannot forget the Terminator. Yup Arnold Schwarzenegger! I am a huge fan of him! And he is the Governor of California. California has a budget of $85 billion dollars but it is now deficit by $26 billion. He saves the planet from aliens and machines in his movies and now he is on to saving the state. He has put around 6000 items on sale in eBay and Craiglist websites with items ranging from cars to computers to binoculars for auction. California began selling unneeded or unclaimed items online last week and is holding a two-day auction of 6,000 more on Friday and Saturday. To entice buyers, the governor has autographed the sun visors of several of the vehicles up for sale in order to raise their value. This is a win-win for the state and for shoppers. He said that he will be elimination waste and providing great deals for the tough economy. How is he eliminating waste by the way?
Would you ever have thought that the one thing that brightens up life for human kind is the one thing that causes the main damage to the ozone level? A study has recently shown that nitrous oxide or what we call laughing gas is the most potent destroyer of the upper atmosphere of the ozone. It used to be the CFCs that are used a lot in refrigerators but that has been over the past 20 years been suppressed. The thinning of the ozone layer is a big threat to crops and aquatic life and can also expose human beings to a greater risk of skin cancer. Although there was a treaty under the 1987 Montreal Protocol action was only taken to phase out chemicals such as CFCs and not nitrous oxide. This is normally generated by fertilisers in the soil, livestock manure, sewage treatment, combustion and industry and also human activities. The gas is also produced naturally when bacteria in the soil and oceans break down nitrogen-containing compounds.
The best things about a spa is that the more natural it gets, the healthier the treatment and the more relaxing. The Float Luxury Spa is a new one that provides not just the type of relaxation you will want; it is also apparently eco-friendly. The spa co-owned by sisters Natalie Rowe and Stephanie Phelan, has an outdoor garden with a reflecting pool to sit by while enjoying a lunch. While pampering will be the highlight, it also reflects its environmentally friendly features like the floors which are made from recycled glass and plastic-based tiles and sustainable wood. The walls are painted with a
nontoxic paint and the products are eco-friendly too.
Trees are an essential part of the eco-system and play an important part in cleansing the air and saving our lungs from all the pollution in the air. Seung Jun Jeong has designed an artificial tree that includes a seating ring at the base and LED lights to warm up the ambiences too. The round base includes an electronic fan that sucks in the air around it and pumps it through the HEPA filters to remove all impurities. The fresh air is then released from the top of the structure that does a load of good for the environment. This artificial tree will certainly work wonders at crowded malls, where the percentage of oxygen keeps dropping with everybody indulging in retail therapy and while its not purifying air ,this tree can be a good place to rest your tired feet as well.
It has been found out that methane from cows account for the biggest proportion of greenhouse gases. So for the first time in UK, Tesco will display full carbon footprint of milk which is one of the top selling products in the supermarket. Tesco is going to do this labeling on all the 500 products it markets. But this new labeling will not apply to organic milk because it has less greenhouse effect than the conventional ones. This move has been taken after a research found out that 50% of customers surveyed have now understood what exactly carbon footprints stand for. Wow! Talk about consumer awareness! The research also found out that consumers want to become more and more green. Tesco is already working towards for the reduction of these emissions along with the dairy industry and farmers through the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group and also the Dairy Centre of Excellence at the University of Liverpool. The Carbon Trust is working with Dairy UK to help the milk industry understand more about its carbon footprints as a route to greater reductions in emissions.
[Guardian]
Vehicles, showers, bikes, home appliances, and cell-phones. The world is suddenly reverting to consider the Sun God for power. Softbank Mobile has released Sharp’s solar-powered 3G clamshell phone called 936 SH in Japan. It has a three inch LCD screen with decent resolutions and also features a 8M camera which is hand shake detection and auto-focus. It is also waterproof. It gives up to 230 minutes of talk time and 300 hours of stand by which is not too bad.
Imagine the innovation of Pawel Grunwert when he made this chair from just Pet bottles on a stainless steel frame. The bottles can also be changed if they show any signs of damage. Now this is what I call recycling! The seat is in the form of a flower. The rhythm in which the bottles have been arranged show an organic structure. Yup this is what the world needs, more innovative ideas of recycling what we use everyday instead of dumping it in the trash.
Looks like T-Mobile has also joined the eco-friendly bandwagon and taking the appropriate steps for the same. In a bid to conserve paper, T-Mobile has slapped an extra charge of $1.50 per month on its customers for the privilege of receiving a paper bill on top of an existing $2 charge for detailed paper billing. Seems like a great move as a lot of customers will choose to receive their bill via email and help save a lot of paper used for the actual bill and the envelope carrying it. Some people have slammed this move too saying T-Mobile is trying to cut the cost of printing and distributing the bill to its customers. Whatever the reason, as long as it is doing some good for the environment, we are happy.
[NetworkWorld]
