sundance

What can you do with an old gas station? How about live in it?

Neighborhood gas and service stations are largely a thing of the past: the large-scale convenience store located on main drags or interstate off-ramps seems to have replaced them. Just because the businesses are gone doesn’t mean the buildings are, though, and many of these older structures have unique architectural and design features. Might make for a good business location with some renovation, but a home? It would take an artist’s eye to transform such a structure into a place someone wanted to live.

Green tech finds: Architects to the rescue!

Can good design save the world? Well, maybe the Great Lakes, anyway. That, plus community-based solar, clothing recycling, and more: your green tech finds for the week.

The DIY bike seat: Ever wanted a second seat on your bicycle, without investing in a tandem? Or just carrying space without a trailer? Israeli designer Yael Livneh has you covered with his concept made from a used plastic milk crate. He’s entered the concept in Designboom’s Seoul Cycle Design competition. (via Unconsumption and @dothegreenthing)

Occupy the sun: We generally think of solar power as something that individual home and building owners do, but Francesca Rheannon at CSRWire takes a look at community-based efforts to adopt solar technology.

Green tech finds: Earthships and solar get affordable

Think “green tech” automatically means “expensive?” Nope: costs are dropping on everything from Earthships to solar power.

An affordable Earthship: I’ve been in love with the Earthship building concept for years, but no way I’d ever be able to afford one. That may be changing, though: the “Simple Survival” model Earthship is designed to provide the amenities of these self-sufficient structures without the “mortgage bondage.” Check it out above.

Green tech finds: Recycled guitars and impromptu speakers

Cool concept cars and planes, speakers that turn ordinary objects into amplifiers, and the potential environmental cost of washing your jacket: this week’s green tech finds.

Honda’s very cool, very light electric concept vehicle: Unfortunately, “concept” often means we’ll never see one on the road. Still, Honda’s EV-STER (which rolled out last week at the Tokyo Auto Show, and is pictured above) shows the company combining electric power with light weight (through lots of body elements made from carbon) and sweet styling; maybe they’ll keep thinking this way as they work towards new production vehicles. (via Earth Techling)

Green tech finds, 10/20/11

Underground skyscrapers, smart windows and more problems with natural gas drilling: Your green tech finds for the week.

Charge your car with your phone: Well, not exactly, but a new app developed by IBM and Swiss utility EKZ allows for better management of when your electric vehicle is charged and what sources of energy are used to charge it. Find out more in the video above. (via @greeneconpost)

The grain silo hotel: While not as green as it could be (because the structures used were built for the project), Silo Stay, a nine-unit New Zealand hotel built from grain silos…

Green tech finds, 9/29/11

Lots of green tech on wheels this week: Ford’s concept e-bike, Peugeot’s tiny electric car, and the Air Force’s big move towards EV adoption.

Ford getting into the bicycle business? Maybe: the company released an e-bike concept at the Frankfurt Auto Show. The frame weighs in at a very light 5.5 pounds, and the electric assist motor can run for 53 miles. (via Matter Network and Rodale)

The printed bicycle: The Aerospace Innovation Centre‘s bicycle concept on display at the London Design Festival is made from nylon and created by a process similar to 3D printing. The result: a lightweight frame that’s supposedly as strong as steel. (via Do the Green Thing)

New transformable home is like LEGOs for grown-ups

Architect Michael Jantzen is known for creating “transformable” structures: buildings that an inhabitant can change or interact with on a physical level. Think of them as the high-art equivalent to a snail shell. After all, why keep your house in one place when you can hit the road and bring it with you? His latest project, the “M” series, features relocatable buildings that can be slapped together in infinite combinations to a matrix of modular support frames, creating totally customizable spaces. If you were a Lego freak as a child, you should probably stop reading and splash cold water on your face, ’cause yeah, this is totally big kid LEGOs.

Green tech finds, 9/15/11

Pig poop, coconuts, and seaweed: all the stuff of good green tech finds this week.

An affordable, fast and tip-proof electric motorcycle: Lit Motors CEO Daniel Kim claims all of those qualities come together in the C-1 concept, which could be available as early as 2013. Check it out in the video above. (via GreenTech Pastures)

Green tech finds, 9/8/11

Harvesting runner power, turning plastic back into oil and becoming a (virtual) upcycling magnate: your green tech finds for the week.

Charge your phone with your shoes: If you run or walk regularly, you’re creating mechanical energy that’s going to waste. The Instep Nanopower concept offers a way to capture that power and transfer it to electronic devices via wi-fi. (via Inhabitat and @EcoverUS)

Become a Trash Tycoon on Facebook: Tired of Farmville? Guerillaapps new Facebook-based social game Trash Tycoon (which is sponsored by upcycling company Terracycle) gives you the opportunity to build a virtual recycling empire. (via Crisp Green)

Green tech finds, 9/1/11

Lots of building tech this week, from shipping container “farms” to a net-zero rehab to a “living building” in Seattle.

Shipping containers as mini farms?: Is there anything you can’t do with used shipping containers? Atlanta-based PodPonics turns them into small hydroponic “farms” for growing food near the point of sale. (via Triplepundit)

Solar collector by day, light display by night: Move over, Jumbotron! Industrial designer Meidad Marzan‘s Urban Tiles concept combines solar panels and OLED panels that can be installed on the outside of buildings in an array, and which “flip” to shift from solar collector to advertising display, big screen television, or even a massive artistic canvas. (via Inhabitat)

New Chicago green building brings lighter footprint to food distribution

While I don’t have numbers at my fingertips, I’d be willing to bet that most new LEED certified commercial buildings fall into the office space category: corporate headquarters or other buildings in which lots of people work behind desks. There’s nothing wrong with that; These structures certainly use plenty of energy and water, and elements of green building such as the focus on daylighting and air quality make for more pleasant and productive workplaces.

But what about those buildings where products are manufactured, processed and/or distributed? In many cases, these are the real resource hogs sorely in need of, at the very least, a good green retrofitting. And new structures built around resource efficiency can be real cost savers for their owners.

Green tech finds: 8/4/11

Would you live in an old Hummer? Could solar power be available even when the sun’s not shining? These and other questions answered in this week’s green tech finds.

Harvesting ambient energy with paper antennas: Researchers at Georgia Tech are experimenting with pulling electromagnetic energy from the air with “antennas” printed on paper with inkjet technology. (via Grist)

Biodegradable sneakers that sprout flowers: Amsterdam-based OAT Shoes creates sneakers that not only biodegrade in soil, they even have wildflower seeds embedded in the tongue, so you can add to your garden once the shoes are worn out. (via Yahoo! Green)

Green tech finds (7/21/11)

A 72,000 square foot tornado-proof (and kinda’ green) mansion, a sweet electric motorcycle, and a push for a redesigned toilet… this week’s green tech finds.

• The mobile waste-to-ethanol unit: Easy Energy Systems‘ MEPS unit is a modular system for converting organic wastes to ethanol. Find out more about the system and its application in an interview with EES’ founder at Cleantechies.
  
  
• Walkability as a marketing point for real estate? Apparently so… Walkscore now boasts a presence on over 10,ooo real estate websites that “are using its neighborhood mapping and data services to market their properties.”
  
  

Maryland nursery specializes in plants for green roofs

Green roofs are quickly becoming a standard for improving building energy efficiency and managing storm water run-off. Chicago became a green roofing hub during the Daley administration, and Toronto now mandates them for new buildings. But, unless a building owner has plans for a rooftop garden (and the care required for it), a green roof requires plants that can thrive under hot, dry, and sunny conditions. Farmer and management consultant Ed Snodgrass saw an opportunity here, and, in 2004, expanded his wholesale nursery into the green roof plants niche.

Green tech finds

eople-powered gyms, transmitting from turtles in Illinois, and combining flies and poop for good use… your green tech finds for the week.

• The open-source solar concentrator: Designer Eerik Wissenz claims that his Solar Fire open source solar concentrator concept can harvest power at ten times cheaper than photovoltaics. Check it out in the video above… (via Earth Techling)
• New university trend — the human-powered gym: Powering exercise and recreation facilities with energy harvested from workout equipment is catching on at universities… the Sustainable Cities Collective takes a closer look at Drexel University’s approach.
Read More »
Comments: Posted by: Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
Green
Share This! Tweet This! Email This!
Tags: climate change / endangered species / green building / human power / organic waste / shipping containers / solar / wind power / wineries

Green tech finds (6/9/11)

The original electric cars, a solar-powered train tunnel, and geothermal energy harvesting that also sequesters carbon… your green tech finds for the week.

• Big battery breakthrough?: Researchers at MIT are redesigning batteries as “semi-solid flow cells,” which could eliminate charging time issues for electric cars, as well as provide viable storage of energy generated from renewable sources. (via Grist)
  
  
• Solar-powered train tunnel opens in Belgium: A two-mile stretch of train tunnel near Antwerp is now covered with solar panels, and will provide electricity for both high-speed and inter-city rail links, as well as a train station. (via AOL Travel)
  
  

Passive House next addition to Greensburg’s Chain of Eco-Homes

With the recent spate of deadly tornadoes in Alabama and Missouri, Greensburg, Kansas, the town destroyed by an E5 tornado in May, 2007, has largely fallen out of public view. That’s too bad, as this small western Kansas town has made itself a model of resilience and adaptation… not to mention turning itself into a hub of sustainable development.

Using shipping containers to house prisoners: green or inhumane?

Shipping containers have become a hot form of prefabricated building material: they’re cheap, plentiful, and ready for retrofitting. Their modular nature provides lots of opportunities for creativity, and architects have used them for both homes and larger buildings.

All of these reasons have played into Adelaide, Australia’s decision to experiment with shipping containers as prison cells. But a number of state legislators and activists are crying foul, claiming that the plan is inhumane. Civil libertarian George Mancini told The Advertiser that he sees the plan as representative of short-term thinking on corrections: “I would have thought the future of prisons involves the rehabilitation of prisoners… There needs to be a focus on rehabilitation and reasonable conditions, not just cheap housing but effective housing.”

The $300 House: safe green housing for the world’s poor

The world’s poorest citizens often have to make do with shelter… and that often involves scrap or natural materials found near shantytowns. In one sense, this is green building at its simplest; on the other, such structures provide minimal protection, while often creating risks for fire, suffocation from cooking smoke, and other hazards.

Last Summer, Dartmouth business professor Vijay Govindarajan and marketing consultant Christian Sarkar tossed out an idea on the Harvard Business Review blog: the $300 house. The concept: create a safe, sustainably-built structure that provided shelter and even some utilities (solar power and water filtering) at a price that the world’s poorest people might be able to afford. To keep costs and environmental impact down, the house would use prefabricated materials. People would buy the houses on a microfinance model.

The carbon-neutral, ultra-modern tiny house: The Cube Project

A tour of the Cube from Mike Page on Vimeo.

Think you could live in 100 square feet? Certainly, you’d have to do without some basic amenities, right… because you couldn’t cram a kitchen, bath, bedroom, and living/dining area into that small a space?

Green tech finds (4/14/11)

Lots of solar news this week… from a new efficiency record, to solar company corporate responsibility rankings, to a DIY solar cooker.

• Solar powered washing machines: They’re just one part of a test to see if people are ready for the smart grid in Breda, The Netherlands. (via Crisp Green)
  
  
• ENERGY STAR certification for senior facilities: Living and care facilities for elders are now among new commercial building types eligible for ENERGY STAR certification (via Earth Techling)
  
  

Green tech finds (3/31/11)

LSA In Action from Sticky Advertising on Vimeo.

Plastic made from meat wastes, and “self-charging” cell phones… these and more in this week’s green tech finds.

• Floating solar panels: “Offshore renewables” has generally meant wind or wave power, but an Australian company has developed a prototype for floating solar panels… and Indian company Tata Power is going to give the concept a go. Check out the Liquid Solar Array in action above. (via Calfinder’s Residential Solar blog)
  
  
• Plastic bottle schools: Plastic bottles get recycled into all sorts of consumer products… but the Bottle Schools Project is turning them into literal building blocks for schools in the developing world. (via Springwise and @COSEnergy)
  
  

Green tech finds (3/17/11)

Raise a glass of Guinness to St. Paddy… and to a couple of Irish green tech finds this week.

• Social gaming app for saving energy: JouleBug, a social gaming iPhone app for saving energy, was released this week at SXSW.
  
  
• ENERGY STAR certified buildings increase by nearly 60%: That’s just one finding from this week’s release of its third annual report on the top 25 cities for ENERGY STAR certified buildings.
  
  

Green tech finds (2/24/11)

Going off-grid as economic necessity, quiet compostable chip bags, and green beer… your green tech finds for the week.

• Green beer in the Last Frontier: Juneau-based Alaskan Brewing Company faces some relatively unique challenges and costs in making its beer… and has implemented some relatively unique green technology (for a craft brewer, anyway) to keep a lid on both economic and environmental costs. (via Utne Reader)
  
  
• Adjust the thermostat with your phone: ecobee, the makers of the Smart Thermostat, now offer an Android app that allows you to remotely adjust your home’s temperature.
  
  

Green tech finds (2/3/11)

warning signs from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

T-shirts that detect pollution, wind power from transit tunnels, and solar power in coal’s heartland… your green tech finds for the week.

• The pollution-detecting t-shirt: NYU grad students Nien Lam and Sue Ngo’s Warning Signs t-shirts display either a heart or a pair of lungs that change color according to the levels of carbon monoxide in the air. Watch it work above… (via Green Energy News and @greeneconpost)
  
  
• All renewables by 2050? A brand new report from WWF claims we can get there, “…with only isolated residual uses of fossil and nuclear fuels.” (via Mail & Guardian Online)