Piano staircase

Volkswagen, as part of its “The Fun Theory” campaign, rigged stair steps with touch-sensitive musical pads and found that more people used the stairs as a result.

[Via BuzzFeed]

Innovative wind turbine designs

The coolest windmills you’ve seen all day.

Next year, give green gift wrap

Christmas is over, and that means piles of leftover gift wrap, much of which is difficult to reuse no matter how carefully you remove it.  Besides, how fun is that?   These wrapping scarves from BOBO are just the thing for next Christmas or any gift-giving occasion.  They make for an attractive package and can be used again and again — with no tape required.  The use of scarves or other textiles to wrap presents is not new, but I think its time has come again.

Living roofs

The green or “living” roof is not a new concept.  Europe has embraced the idea for decades, and several U.S. companies and municipalities have begun to understand how growing grass and other plants on a rooftop can make sense from both an economic and aesthetic perspective in addition to the demonstrated environmental benefits.  This post from the The Conservation Report shows living roofs from around the world.

M Cube: translucent eco-prefab home

Green architecture is often impractical, too expensive, or just plain horrid to look at.  Not so the M Cube, a prefab modular dwelling made up of translucent fiberglass in a steel frame.  At first the structure looks monotone, but the pics and video of the interior show the potential of M Cube’s spaces.  The infusion of natural light throughout is inviting, practically begging for an indoor garden, and the solar heated floors are a nice touch, too.  Designer Mark Baez is definitely onto something here.

Eco-label primer

Do you ever wonder what some of those eco-labels actually mean?  Wonder no more.  This site gives a short synopsis of a few of the major labels certifying products as environmentally more friendly than their competitors.

What would Mother Nature do?

The Biomimicry Institute has developed an online database of design ideas inspired by nature called Ask Nature.  The concept behind the database is that many modern design problems have precedent in biology, and that Mother Nature’s solutions, crafted and honed over millions of years, are often the best inspiration for architects and engineers to tackle those problems.  The site defines biomimicry as

a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.  The core idea is that Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, non-toxic chemistry, transportation, packaging, and a whole lot more.

Man has spent thousands of years trying to tame and tackle nature, but biomimicry may be the more effective approach, and ultimately more sustainable.

[Via Inhabitat]

Times Square goes green

Well, it’s a start, at least. This billboard will be powered by the wind and sun.  It looks a little clunky, but we’re talking Times Square here, not a pastoral scene.

Eat global

Ronald Bailey challenges the conventional wisdom about consuming locally grown foods and minimizing “food miles” to improve the environment.  He presents arguments that the transportation costs of food production are just one factor to consider, along with the suitability of a given crop to being cultivated in a particular location.  For instance, growing a warm-weather crop in a heated greenhouse may negate the reduced carbon footprint of eating local:

Other researchers have determined that Kenyan cut rose growers emit 6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per 12,000 roses compared to the 35 tons of carbon dioxide emitted by their Dutch competitors. Kenyan roses grow in sunny fields whereas Dutch roses grow in heated greenhouses.

Nevertheless, organic food activists in Britain’s Soil Association argued for lifting the organic certification from Kenyan food exports because they are brought into Britain on airplanes. Some high-end British retailers have begun slapping a label featuring an airplane on various food products to indicate that they have been air freighted. Kenyan growers cannily responded by launching their own “Grown Under the Sun” label, pointing out that their agricultural production methods emit far less greenhouse gases than many crops grown in Britain do.

Of course there are other factors to consider: labor issues, political structures, trade impacts, etc.  I’m an avid fan of eating local, but as with so many public policy prescriptions, dogmatic adherence to a course of action does not make it the only correct one.

Piaggio MP3 Hybrid in 2009

I showed off the MP3 last month, but it looks like Piaggio will move to the next level and mass produce the first plug-in hybrid scooter in 2009.  It is being touted as capable of getting 140 mpg.  Not too shabby!  This might be just the nudge I need to purchase one of these 3-wheeled scooters, especially if gas prices go up again (which they almost surely will).

[Via Ecofriend]