Magnets ARE cool.

Thanks to Brydon for this:

http://www.theneocube.com/

Green cellphone

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/green_cell_phone_biodegrades_after.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

And Another…

This from January 07/07:

Bad Design = Employment Insurance Canada
Good Design = Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Bad Design = new sink in old house
Bad Design = every government website
Bad Design = most auto-response phone systems
Good Design = Bullfrog Power
Good Design = LED crossing lights
Good Design – 1/3 of the movie “Babel”

From January 02/07

I found this scribbled on a piece of paper in my bedside table:

Good Design = Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”
Bad Design = Rear-view window washers
Good Design = shopping carts in the shape of cars for kids
Bad Design = iPod “categories”

Develop A Bottle To Feed The Earth

http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/405639

Innovative Pumpkin Design

This from my colleague, Sean Yo:

“geek + time + homemade CNC rig + pumpkin = pure awesome. http://is.gd/5dyk (via slashdot).”

novatrices de transport

http://bill-given.blogspot.com/2008/06/ecolobus-electric-transit-bus.html

Having An Environmental Movement

we use them and they’re great.
from the website…

gDiapers loves the Earth.

For the last 40 years there have been but two choices in diapers. Cloth or disposable. That’s it. Now gDiapers offers a third option. Flushable. gDiapers puts waste where it belongs, in the toilet. Not the landfill.

gDiapers have no elemental chlorine, no perfumes, no smell, no garbage and no guilt. In fact, flushables are so gentle on the Earth you can even garden compost the wet ones in one compost cycle, approximately 50 – 150 days. Just think of the standing ovation you’ll get from the planet.

Cradle to Cradle.

cradle to cradleWhy are gDiapers good for the planet? It is simple. Our flushables are designed using the Cradle to Cradle design principles of Bill McDonough and his firm MBDC. That means everything that goes into one of our flushables gets re-absorbed back into the eco-system in a neutral or beneficial way. So you are turning waste into a resource. At the same time, you are putting poop in the toilet, where it belongs, and avoiding the landfill issue all together.

We Can Do Better Than Zero

I applaud the zero footprint initiative. In many ways, it gives people real-life, measurable goals to achieve. I’m heartened by the fact that institutions and municipalities are joining in on the initiative. I wonder though, if it’s a bit short-sighted and even negative in it’s goals. Surely we can do better than “zero”. I think we definitely have to try to have a positive impact on the earth, rather than a “less-negative” one.

Striving for “zero” (and incidently likely never reaching it) simply means that we’re working within existing structures to drain our resources less quickly and poison our earth more slowly. If you read William McDonough & Michael Braungart’s 2002 book “Cradle to Cradle” (mentioned in a previous post), you might see what I’m trying to get at. As a race, we have to take positive action to do more than slow environmental degradation, and more than use more recycled products. We need to create a new way of thinking, living and creating. We need to make our environment better and healthier. To borrow an idea from the book, we need to be eco-effective, not just eco-efficient.

The zero footprint does a great job to measure how lightly we tread, but to be truly effective, it should also measure and promote how we can make the earth better.

Innovative Transportation, Closer To Home

I just wanted to give a local e-bike company a bit of a plug here.

http://www.e-rideguelph.ca/home.htm