SMITs GROW: Solar and Wind Photovoltaic ‘Leaves'
Our friends at Ecolect, the go-to sustainable design and materials community, have launched a monthly spotlight on sustainable design called Limelight - and the first feature is tough act to follow. Teresita Cochran's sustainable design group, SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology) has a compelling new project called GROW that's an innovative and aesthetically arresting solar and wind power solution. Combining the best of green tech and ecology, GROW draws inspiration from ivy growing on the side of a building - resulting in a hybrid energy delivery device of flexible, ivy-like fluttering solar leaves that provide power via both sun and wind. Source: Inhabitat, Posted March 5th 2008
Green Sports Car Set for launch
A "zero-emission" sports car with a top speed of nearly 100mph is set to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. Source: BBC News, Posted March 5th 2008
Whale of an idea has lots of fans
The humpback whale flipper, nature's aerodynamic masterpiece, is proving an ideal model for designing better turbine and fan blades.
WhalePower Corp. of Toronto has spent the past year gathering data on how its new bumpy-edged blade design, which mimics the way tubercle-lined humpback flippers move through water, can improve wind turbines and fans. Source: The Star, Posted March 5th 2008
Waste Not, Want Not
(Fortune Magazine) -- Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India's major needs: energy and sanitation. Source: CNN.com, Posted March 4th 2008
Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn
A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said.
Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol. Source: Wired, Posted February 28th 2008
Running Dry
Climate research says Lake Mead, in the Southwest, could be gone by 2021. How millions in southern California and neighboring states would be affected. Source: Newsweek, Posted February 21st 2008
Presidential Campaigns have Climate Change on the Agenda
Now that Sen. John McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee, all three of the leading presidential candidates seem likely to tackle climate change in a way that clearly will distinguish the next president from the George W. Bush administration. Source: csmonitor, Posted February 21st 2008
ScientistsWould Turn Greenhouse Gas into Gasoline
If two scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are correct, people will still be driving gasoline-powered cars 50 years from now, churning out heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - and yet that carbon dioxide will not contribute to global warming. Source: NY Times.com, Posted February 21st 2008
BP goes back to petroleum
The Armani-style beige suits worn by security staff at BP headquarters in London and introduced under the reign of former boss, Lord (John) Browne, are to be quietly dropped in favour of more traditional grey ones. It is a small change but one dripping with symbolism that the flamboyant days of the "sun king" are definitely over and the company is going back to basics and a bit of no-nonsense austerity. Source: Guardian, Posted February 21st 2008
Eco-Chic: How Green is "Green?"
From organic food to carbon offsets environmentally friendly products are all the rage - but what do "green" labels really mean? Guests discuss how to determine whether a "green" product is truly eco-friendly, and whether the current trend of eco-marketing will ultimately pay off for the environment. Source: NPR.com, Posted February 21st 2008
