Eco homesGarden Ark

The eco home like Garden Ark is to be made available in an easy to assemble kit form and is constructed from natural materials such as FSC-certified wood, soil and grass. The user of eco homes can plant his or her garden on top of the roof to match the surroundings.

Algae Life

Louisiana preps hurricane-resistant home

Green home runs on solar power.

After working for two years on a home that gets powered by solar energy, students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette have finally unveiled their solar-powered home designed for the Solar Decathlon competition to be held next month.

Dubbed BeauSoleil, the home will be one of the 20 homes that will be competing in the competition. More than 500 partners supported the projects through donations ranging from $4 to $100,000, along with tools and professional help.

The BeauSoleil home incorporates the outdoors to maximize the space. A wrap-around deck offers an additional 1,700 square feet. The hurricane-resistant dwelling uses hardwood harvested from a sustainable forest, out of which nothing was wasted.

Sunny Flower spreads its petals to harvest solar energy

Solar-powered portable electronics charger.

With the number of portable electronic devices an average human owns on a rise, inventors are looking for green ways to charge these devices. Solar energy seems the most promising way to charge our electronic gear and there has been no shortage of solar-powered gadgets on the market. Industrial designer Fandi Meng has designed the “Sunny Flower,” which promises to offer your gadgets a green charge every time.


The device works by spreading its petals onto glass or any other surface to absorb sunshine and recharge its built-in battery. When the device is fully charged its indicator light will shine to catch your attention. After a complete charge the petals of the flower can be brought together into a compact stick which can then charge various mobile devices.

Sustainable Living

Too much emphasis on green living and environment friendliness through Internet & media has created enough awareness among masses all over the world, that administrations are taking environment friendly decisions and we also see legislation being formed on national and international levels to protect environment.
But in this all going green phobia, a lot of confusion and misunderstanding is also developing, many of us now correlate use of green electricity to sustainability, in fact using energy efficiently is sustainability. Most of us think that using canvas bags instead of plastic is an eco friendly gesture, but caring a cloth bag every time we got to shop is being green.
It’s great that world wide huge cooperates are investing in renewable sources of energy, and production of eco friendly products. But sustainability can only be achieved if humans reduce there consumption level, and a line between needs and luxury will be drawn, when need for waste dumps and land fills wont be an issue. Sustainability is harvesting some amount of our food from our backyards, gardens and balconies, which was not irrigated with community water supply but the rain water we harvested. Sustainability is leaving our car at home and walking to the market, making sure suburbs are not turning into city centers and marine life is not contaminated just for a little luxury of no significance.
Giant steps taken by governments and Ngo’s can’t make much of a difference unless Little green steps are taken on individual level.

SOLAR ENERGY

Solar energy today means clean and green mean of energy, but solar energy is being harnessed by humans both intentionally and UN intentionally since the very solar day they came into existence. Simply sitting in sun means absorbing solar energy to aid our bodies with vitamin D, preserving food with the drying process using solar energy is another primitive but very effective mean of harvesting the solar energy.
Solar energy moved along with the development of human societies, Babylonians, Arab, Moorish, Mughal’s, and almost all Indian civilizations used solar energy as a natural lighting system, using reflective mirrors embedded into beautiful patterns in there buildings, along with the water and mercury pounds to reflect sunlight into desired directions. Solar energy took an absolute new meaning with the development of photovoltaic solar cells and very quickly became a popular idea of an alternative source of energy that could counter fossil fuel. But it was not until the last decade of the 20th century when solar energy became the ultimate symbol of self sufficiency triggered by general séance of chaos because of the war on terror.
Means of solar energy are evolving on daily bases, energy efficient and low cost means of solar energy are being explored to make solar energy a more viable source of power generation. Solar reflectors are being used to concentrate solar energy on one focal point in order to harvest the heat of the sun that is then used for running sterling engines and other types of turbines. Micro solar panels are being made for cost and energy efficient utilization of solar energy. Solar paints and ivy’s along with charges that use solar energy to power out gadgets and cell phones are becoming popular very quickly. Solar energy is free and you don’t need to kill innocent people to secure it for one nation only, every one in the world gets there fair and consistent share of solar energy every morning. It wont be wrong to state that solar energy will fuel our future beyond the boundaries of fossil fuel saga.

Sustainable living tip of the day

Sustainable living tip of the day is turn off your cars engine while waiting for the traffic signal to go green.

Sustainable living tip of the day

Sustianable living tip of the day is you're not really recycling unless you're buying recycled. The most important part of recycling is buying products that contain as much "post-consumer recycled content" as possible. Look for it and ask for it when you go shopping

Sustainable Living

Sustainable living refers to a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources. Sustainable living is an attempt to reduce carbon footprints by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet form furious consumptions to sensible choices. Sustainable and ecological living promotes living in manners that are consistent with sustainability, in natural balance and respect of humanity’s symbiotic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology and cycles. The practice and general philosophy of Sustainable living is highly interrelated with the overall principles of sustainable development. Sustainable living is all about minimizing our "ecological footprints to an extent that it dose not create an environmental impact. Proponents of Sustainable living hope to preserve the Earth for future generations of human beings and other life.
Sustainable living branches from the concepts of sustainability and self-sufficiency. Sustainability, in recent years, has been expressed as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Self-sufficiency is the core principle of Sustainable living in which individuals or societies consume only that which they have produced. It is generally a stricter ideology and practicing sustainable living in an urban world is becoming a global cause.
Sustainable living demands sustainable urban infrastructure is a form of sustainable design, which adheres to the principles of sustainable living. Its main principles are to achieve technological and governmental policies that enable urban planning for sustainable architecture and agriculture.
Sustainable living according to Lester R. Brown, a prominent environmentalist and founder of the World watch Institute and Earth Policy Institute, is “Sustainable living in the 21st century is "shifting to a renewable energy-based, reuse/recycle economy with a diversified transport system."
There a many movements that may appear similar to sustainable living, which oppose further mechanization of society vis-à-vis technological achievements. Sustainable living, however, adheres to the belief that technological progress can be effectively achieved through appropriate technology.

Sustainable living tip of the day

Sustainable living tip of the day is when your printer ink runs dry, think twice before just tossing the empty cartridge into the bin,get it recycled or reuse it.

Aeroturbine by Aerotecture

Aeroturbine was developed by Chicago-based Aerotecture International in 2007 and is a remarkable design in the field of renewable energy. Aeroturbine is known for its innovative design that is perfect for urban wind power generation. The turbines of Aeroturbine are designed for rooftop installation on either commercial or multi-family residences that have access to strong winds. Aerotecture started selling the commercial prototypes of Aeroturbine in late 2007.
Aeroturbine’s design has the interesting aspect of both a vertical prototype for multi-directional wind locations, and a horizontal version for locations with a steady primary wind direction. Aeroturbine has been designed to operate at slow speeds, with little noise and maintenance. The reflective finish and slow turning speed of Aeroturbine reduced the risk to birds and wildlife. A 510V Aeroturbine produces an estimated 1kW of power in 30 mph winds with the 520H produces an estimated 1.8kW from similar wind speeds. Each Aeroturbine is custom fitted to the architecture of the building with a ballpark cost for the 510V of $15,000 and the 520H of $21,000. As Aeroturbine is easy to move and install it can be easily considered as the next generation of wind energy, for our ever urbanizing world.
Potential installation locations for Aeroturbine needs to be 40 feet above ground, unobstructed by trees or other structures, with wind speeds averaging over 10mph. Many are arguing that the asking price is a too high for the Aeroturbine, but tend to forget that the payback time might be too long for Aeroturbine, but is still less then the cost we are and will be paying with our ever increasing carbon foot print.

Sustianable living tip of the day

Sustianable living tip of the day is to take your car to a car wash that recycles water. If you wash it yourself, use a bucket and sponge and rinse sparingly.

SAWT Vertical Axix Wind Turbine

SAWT is an innovative company engaged in vertical axis wind turbine technology. SAWT stand for Shanghi Aeolus Wind power Technology and SAWT entered Shanghai China in 2005. Research by SAWT’s focuses on vertical axis wind turbine generator including systematic study on aerodynamics & materials. SAWT made breakthroughs in commercializing vertical axis wind generator.

SAWT has been able to develop designs there large product range, i.e. 200-watt, 300-watt, 500-watt, 1000-watt, 3000-watt, vertical axis wind turbines. 10kw vertical axis wind turbines by SAWT are ready for marketing and sales, while two designs 200-watt, 300-watt of vertical axis wind turbines by SAWT have passed experimental phase successfully in wind tunnels. SWAT’S 300-watt vertical axis wind turbine has been installed on experimental grounds at the national highway monitoring system in northern China.

SAWT has obtained 8 international invention patents which is the threshold to enter the vertical axis wind turbine industry. SAWT hopes to replace the traditional horizontal axis wind turbines in the near future with there Vertical Axis Wind Turbine.

Empire Estate Building Going Green

Empire State Building, once the world’s tallest building, is now set for a $100 million ‘green renovation.’ Empire State Building the iconic symbol of NY, just underwent an eight month modeling and analysis program and will receive a massive Green overhaul.
The 102-story Empire State building was built during the Great Depression; now, during the current economic ’stumbles,’ Empire State building is poised to lead the way into a more efficient future. “We have a very deep commitment to sustainability,” Tony Malkin of the Empire State Building Company says. “Without applying sustainable practices in all aspects of our businesses and lives, we will greatly harm our future.”

Empire State building management has also decided not to apply for LEED certification, opting instead to making the building as efficient and healthy as possible without such guidelines. The partners involved in Empire State building goin green project are fully aware that this project will be serving as a template for the massive efficiency upgrades in store for many of the nation’s buildings in the not so distant future. Seventy-five percent of the 4.5 million buildings in the United States are more than 20 years old and need energy retrofits. While a 38% predicted reduction in energy use is an incredibly ambitious undertaking. Empire State Building’s renovation agenda include a total overhaul of the HVAC system, improvements to the Empire State building's envelope, triple-glazed windows, electronic readouts to make users aware of their personal energy consumption, maximized day lighting, tenant demand ventilation control, and occupant sensor controls.
This retrofit of Empire State building is just what New York needed. It does the job and does it well. If the parties involved in Empire State building goin green project are able to achieve the savings they anticipate, there will be no excuse not to look to the Empire State Building as the symbol of progress and American ingenuity that it was when it was built.

Natural Resources of renewable energy

The majority of renewable energy technologies are powered by the sun. Earth’s atmosphere system is in equilibrium such that heat radiation into space is equal to incoming solar radiation, the resulting level of energy within the Earth-Atmosphere system can roughly be described as the Earth's "climate. Energy is dissipated around the globe in the form of winds and ocean currents. Wave motion may play a role in the process of transferring mechanical energy between the atmosphere and the ocean through wind stress. Solar energy is also responsible for this distribution.
Renewable energy flows involve natural phenomena such as sunlight, wind, tides, geothermal heat all of these are producers of renewable energy.
"Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. Renewable energy in its various forms is derived directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Thus renewable energy is generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydro power, biomass, geothermal resources, and biofuels along hydrogen derived from renewable resources.

Water Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy in water can be harnessed and used as water is about 800 times denser than air. Even a slow flowing stream of water, or moderate sea swell, can yield considerable amounts of renewable energy.
There are many forms of water renewable energy:
• Hydroelectric renewable energy is a term usually reserved for large-scale hydroelectric dams. Examples are the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State and the Akosombo Dam in Ghana.
• Micro hydro renewable energy systems are hydroelectric power installations that typically produce up to 100 kW of power.
• Dam less hydro systems derive kinetic renewable energy from rivers and oceans without using a dam.
• Ocean renewable energy describes all the technologies to harness energy from the ocean and the sea.
o Renewable energy in marine current power, uses the kinetic renewable energy of marine currents.
o Tidal power captures renewable energy from the tides. Two different principles for generating renewable energy from the tides are used at the moment:
Tidal motion in the vertical direction: Tides come in, raise water levels in a basin, and tides roll out. Around low tide, the water in the basin is discharged through a turbine, exploiting the stored potential renewable energy.
Tidal motion in the horizontal direction: Uses tidal stream generators, like wind turbines but then in a tidal stream. Due to the high density of water, about eight-hundred times the density of air, tidal currents can have a lot of kinetic renewable energy.
o Renewable energy in wave power uses the energy in waves. Wave power machines usually take the form of floating or neutrally buoyant structures, which move relative to one another or to a fixed point. Renewable energy wave has now reached commercialization.
• Renewable energy in deep lake water cooling is an interesting phenomenon, although not technically an energy generation method, can save a lot of energy in summer. It uses submerged pipes as a heat sink for climate control systems. Lake-bottom water is a year-round local constant of about 4 °C.
Water has a lot of potential for producing green clean renewable energy, Dams and barrages all over the world are producing huge amount of Electricity and has hardly any carbon emissions.

Water Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy in water can be harnessed and used as water is about 800 times denser than air. Even a slow flowing stream of water, or moderate sea swell, can yield considerable amounts of renewable energy.
There are many forms of water renewable energy:
• Hydroelectric renewable energy is a term usually reserved for large-scale hydroelectric dams. Examples are the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State and the Akosombo Dam in Ghana.
• Micro hydro renewable energy systems are hydroelectric power installations that typically produce up to 100 kW of power.
• Dam less hydro systems derive kinetic renewable energy from rivers and oceans without using a dam.
• Ocean renewable energy describes all the technologies to harness energy from the ocean and the sea.
o Renewable energy in marine current power, uses the kinetic renewable energy of marine currents.
o Tidal power captures renewable energy from the tides. Two different principles for generating renewable energy from the tides are used at the moment:
Tidal motion in the vertical direction: Tides come in, raise water levels in a basin, and tides roll out. Around low tide, the water in the basin is discharged through a turbine, exploiting the stored potential renewable energy.
Tidal motion in the horizontal direction: Uses tidal stream generators, like wind turbines but then in a tidal stream. Due to the high density of water, about eight-hundred times the density of air, tidal currents can have a lot of kinetic renewable energy.
o Renewable energy in wave power uses the energy in waves. Wave power machines usually take the form of floating or neutrally buoyant structures, which move relative to one another or to a fixed point. Renewable energy wave has now reached commercialization.
• Renewable energy in deep lake water cooling is an interesting phenomenon, although not technically an energy generation method, can save a lot of energy in summer. It uses submerged pipes as a heat sink for climate control systems. Lake-bottom water is a year-round local constant of about 4 °C.
Water has a lot of potential for producing green clean renewable energy, Dams and barrages all over the world are producing huge amount of Electricity and has hardly any carbon emissions.

Window Farming

am big fan of having own farms but was lacking space in my backyard but this remarkable experiment of sustainability by Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray came with the soluition, during in an article posted on inhabitat by Olivia Chen tells the mystery

Gardening enthusiasts living in cities will certainly cheer for Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray’s Window Farms experiment. The artist-in-residence duo at Eyebeam have teamed up to develop a DIY system for creating sustainable gardens that will enable anyone to start their own window farms right in their very own window. Britta and Rebecca were showcasing their prototype at Eyebeam last week and have enlisted a dozen or so volunteers that are building their own farms — all to go on display in windows throughout NYC from May 31 to July 14.
The window farms that we saw at Eyebeam was composed of several vertical columns with re-purposed water bottles that each held a potted plant. The set-up of these window farms also included a tub of water elevated above the vertical farm garden that allowed water to drip through the columns a catch basin was also placed at the bottom to catch the water that was not absorbed by the plants. Britta and Rebecca also told us that at home, they use a pump to cycle the water back through the system.

Sustainable Design

Have you ever thought about what happens to the thousands of plastic water bottles that are used during a marathon event? They’re mostly trashed if green-minded artists like Ashley Phillips aren’t around. The artist has shown his skills in designing a sustainable shelter known as the “Igloo” from the plastic waste collected after the London Marathon.

The Igloo bottle shelter was created to make use of plastic bottle waste that has started to blight the environment and also inspire others about circular metabolism. The igloo shelter has been created from over 4,000 plastic bottles that are held together by only one piece of wire and 40,000 rubber bands that are sourced from sustainable plantations. The plastic bottle shelter can easily be disassembled and can be mounted on a small trolley to ease its transportation.

So start doing something sustainable with your palstic bottles today and make world a green place to live.

Energy Starved New york

High-flying kites could generate enough wind energy to power New York.

The energy starved world of today is looking for possible ways using which the maximum amount of renewable energy could be generated that could not just power a city block or a small town but the largest cities in the world and probably the entire world as well. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution and California State University have identified New York as one of the prime locations where high-flying kites can be used to convert high-altitude winds into energy.

Unlike winds close to the surface of earth, winds in the upper regions of the atmosphere preferably those which make the jet streams can be harnessed to produce tens of times of output than conventional wind turbines that are used on the surface. Ideally, the turbines, which would be high-altitude flying kites tethered to the surface, would have be placed at a height of around 30,000 feet.

Jet stream winds are generally 10 times faster than winds near the ground and most importantly they’re steady as well. More wind speed means more energy, which made scientists at these universities believe that they can power entire cities by flying these kites, a process which looks simple on paper but might get complicated if actually planned. These scientists predict up to 40MW of electricity can be generated by the current designs and transmitted to the ground via the tether, which is about four times the output of current designs used on the surface.