Lots of energy news and ideas this week, as well as another big green crowdsourcing project, and reviving wetlands with sewage… your green tech finds.
Another cell phone sustainability study: Market research firm IDC came up with quite different results on cell phone sustainability from O2… but focused on companies vs. phones themselves. Apple comes out on top in this one, followed by LG and Nokia. (via The Boston Globe)
Harnessing gravity power: Gravitational Energy Corporation claims its Feltenberger Pendulum works through hand-power and gravity. The company’s first product, a water pump, could prove indispensable for areas of the developing world, as well as post-disaster relief. See how it’s working in Haiti in the video above…
While teenagers are less likely than ever to get a drivers license, there are still millions of sixteen and seventeen-year-olds that want to get behind the wheel. When they do, issues like fuel efficiency generally aren’t always at the top of their priority list…
San Quentin probably brings to mind Johnny Cash’s legendary performance at the prison… or perhaps a particularly creepy episode of Lockdown. But green jobs? Yep… on Saturday, the Insight Garden Program (which attempts to rehabilitate prisoners through organic gardening) and the California Reentry Program hosted a green careers fair at the prison.
In April, I took note of James Cameron’s efforts to stop the building of the Belo Monte dam on Brazil’s Xingu River. Actress Sigourney Weaver (a co-star in Cameron’s AVATAR) joined Cameron on one of his trips to Brazil, and has now collaborated with Amazon Watch, Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre (Xingu River Forever Alive Movement), and International Rivers to produce a 10-minute video (above) showing the probably impact of the dam project on indigenous people in the region, biodiversity, health, and even climate change (which were outlined in the previous post).
DIY home sites are always dreaming up ways to reinvent that ubiquitous piece of seemingly un-reusable wood, the shipping pallet. There have been some nice efforts, like studiomama’s Shipping Pallet Chair, or vectroave’s more straightforward furniture applications, but none so big or beautiful as Matthias Loebermann’s Palettenpavillon.
Hemp cars, pedal-powered submarines, and lots of wave power… this week’s green tech finds.
Harnessing the surge: Finnish company AW-Energy is building a test plant in Portugal for its Waveroller concept, which “utilizes the so-called surge phenomenon found on ocean coasts.” (via Good News from Finland)
Today, British mobile network company O2 released its Eco Rating system, devised in conjunction with sustainable development organization Forum for the Future. The rating system is a laudable undertaking: cell phones use energy, can contain toxic materials, and provide yet another e-waste challenge… so having a “simple and transparent” system for sustainability information on phones can help consumers make smarter choices here.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to see how the O2 system really provides useful information in a transparent manner.
Spent much time at farms or ranches? For most of us, the answer is “no”… which may explain why films like Food Inc. have proven so shocking. Most of us could go a lifetime without actually seeing an animal that will end up on our plate.
British photographer and political activist Neil Young (no, not thatNeil Young) wants to change this… and his upcoming photography exhibit You, like me: intimate portraits of farmed animals is designed to get viewers looking directly into the eyes of farmed animals.
Making the shift to college life, whether as a resident or commuter student, is tough: from buying books to living with a roommate to optional class attendance, new students have a wealth of choices and responsibilities open to them (or thrust upon them). At many colleges and universities, another change may include sustainability policies and practices… and this may mean that a student’s navigating composting, organic food, and energy efficiency for the first time.
A zero-emissions race around the world, whiskey biofuel, and more… your green tech finds for the week.
Energy efficient motors mean green jobs in Arkansas: Electrocraft, Inc. has announced it will start producing energy efficient electric motors for heating and air conditioning units in its Searcy, Arkansas plant. This means 55 new green jobs for the small town.
Cell phone tech meets data centers: Data centers (aka server farms) suck up a lot of energy. Start-up Smooth-Stone thinks it can cut that power use by applying “low-power cell phone technology to servers…” A number of VCs think they can do it, and have provided $48 million in funding.
US presidents golfing on vacation is hardly news, but President Obama’s choice of a course for his ten days of family time in Martha’s Vineyard this month did make the New York Times… because the Vineyard Golf Club “is thought to be the only completely organic golf course in the United States…”
