Thinking about taking the LEED exam but discouraged by the compounding cost of all the study materials required to take the test? While studying for the LEED AP for New Construction exam a few months ago, I discovered a bunch of free resources of LEED study materials. Read more…
The Kor One Hydration Vessel is the slickest reusable water bottle on the market. Despite the pretentious name, Kor One scores high points for an inspiring design and environmental responsibility. Read more…
The “Think” trainer is a running shoe composed of modular parts assembled with mechanical locks instead of adhesives or cements, meaning each part of this intelligent design can be removed, recovered and recycled. This also means that you could buy extra parts in different colors and change the look of your shoe any time you want! Read more…
ReProduct’s Zero Waste Greeting Cards are 100% reusable. This is how it works: you send a greeting card to your loved one in a two-way envelope. Similar to Netflix, once your loved one is done enjoying the card, they just place it in the postage paid self-addressed return portion of the envelope and drop it in the mail. The card ends up at Shaw Industries, where 100% of the card is reused in the manufacturing of Shaw carpet tiles. Read more…
Eager to know what products are currently incorporating C2C strategies after reading Cradle to Cradle, I set out to do a bit of internet research, expecting to be blown away by numerous innovative products. Instead I found a lot of criticism directed towards William McDonough for thwarting the many designers eager to implement their C2C designs because of his legal ownership of the term. Read more…
Unlike the previous generation of sustainability manifestos that pit the economy against equity & ecology, Cradle to Cradle “sees commerce as the engine of change” and allows one to embrace their inner capitalist by proposing a sustainable world of guilt-free growth, prosperity and abundance. Instead of viewing consumer waste through the austere lens of the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle a.k.a. downcycle), McDonough and Braungart, inspired by the abundance of nature, propose the visionary idea of designing consumer products as either biological nutrients or technical nutrients. Read more…
Last week I took a tour of the micro-turbines at Astor Wines & Spirits in Greenwich Village, New York. Astor Wines & Spirits generates its own electricity using two natural gas powered Capstone Micro-Turbines to offset the intense energy consumption required for chilling sake and wine, resulting in lower emissions, reduced natural resource depletion and lower energy costs. Read more…
Read about how becoming an Amazon bookseller is helping me REDUCE and REUSE.
Diana Leafe Christian, author and activist, gave an enlightening presentation about ecovillages at the Brecht Forum early this month. She explained what an ecovillage consisted of and described the lifestyle and principals of various ecovillages around the world, including the one in which she currently resides, Earth Haven in North Carolina.
The Story of Stuff, an animation that depicts the lifecycle of “stuff”, cleared up a lot of questions I had about what environmental responsibility and sustainability really means. This simple and concise animation explains how stuff travels through a linear system from EXTRACTION to PRODUCTION to DISTRIBUTION to CONSUMPTION to DISPOSAL and the problems inherent in this system at every step of the way. It makes suggestions on how to protest this materials economy and calls for the adoption of a new, sustainable and just way of living.