Ecofriend

Based on a network of floating barges is the Roosevelt Island Universal Arts Center. These barges gather together to form a Mobile Art Park, a site with a vibrant community of artists and art enthusiasts. This cultural and sports complex accommodates different events at the scale of the entire Southpoint site. Dispersed throughout the city, the barges bridge culturally disparate enclaves with the vibrant communities of artists already thriving in the city. This concept of Mobile Art Park addresses the issue of accessibility as cultural inclusion. It intends to bring the world of art closer into everyday life. Roll over for more self explanatory images....

Russ Roca cannot stop raving about his latest love, his Bilenky cargo bike! Looking for an ultimate green mode of conveyance, then settle for non other then Bilenky cargo bike. And the makers, Bilenky Cycle Works, not only create these bikes but also promote Bicycle riding by actually riding them. Most of them commute by bike everyday, all winter long. Building completely customized bicycles to your satisfaction, this company truly enjoy building bicycles. Russ has used one for more then 300miles and has come up with a detailed first hand review on his Bilenky. He asserts that it steers more like a Cadillac than a Porsche! Isn’t that pure biking passion?

While you and I are busy thinking that the only way to save the planet was to sell our cars and go electric, a village community in the South Korean island of Jeju-do, has already achieved what even the most eco-conscious nations in the developed or developing world have for long thought of as an ultra-futuristic energy-saving concept. Donggwang, as the village is called, lies at the feet of Halla Mountain, a volcano and the tallest mountain in South Korea and has achieved total energy independence with the help of solar panels. Each of the 40 houses in the semi-tropical community has a large bed of solar panels lining their roofs. Even the businesses and other buildings in the community like schools have their own photovoltaic panels installed on top that allow them to really save up on purchasing electricity from an outside source which was a really revolutionary thing because the electricity infrastructure in the country had kinda hit a roadblock with the kind of problems faced by the country’ power liberalization strategy. The solar panels were installed with a lot of help of help from the government who paid over 70% of the installation fees in the year 2004 to help this village realize its dream of energy independence. The community also has plans to harness the wind energy on the island though the details of the windmills’ installation haven’t been finalized yet. Kudos to this community for bearing the green torch so proudly.
Source: Eco Worldly

Paper is not just something you read out or write on, it is something you can showcase your books in or put them on. Shredded paper is apparently more tempting than shredded cheese for the environment lovers! And why not? When artist Jens Praet was double-minded about what he should do to recycle paper he designed a mini-desk and that fired a passion in him to keep doing it bigger and better!

Picture this: a machine which gives out money for every empty bottle it receives. Well, China is making news surely. Ahh, not just with the Tibet issue but also with innovative inventions. A drinking bottle recycling machine designed by a Beijing-based company for about 30,000 yuan (US$4,292) is what China boasts of at present. This machine accepts only plastic or aluminum containers by reading their bar code. Once the code matches, it gives out 0.10 yuan to the person who pops in the bottle. Well, this effort is sure proving its worth since a sum of 3,000 empty bottles was received in the first week. This responsible environment drive on China’s part is truly commendable. What is important to notice here is that most of the people throw in bottles, not for money but for the sake of environment. Also, the Chinese government has hit correctly on waste collectors. The image of China is being spoiled by these waste collectors, said a Chinese official. Thus, the effort is actually a two-way effective drive. Well, as long as mother nature is being safe guarded, I do not mind politics or imagery getting in between. What about you guys?

Source: ChinaDaily

Well guys, named as Chair and Toys, this product is crazy, and anything but ordinary. Let me describe the product first. It is a sort of a plate with sides rounded off. Mind you, this plate is with holes, sixteen holes. You just need to pop in standard sized bottles into these holes. Then you can have your own piece of furniture. What furniture you may ask. Well, make the plate stand on the bottles and you can have a small table. Rather, make the bottles stand on the plates and you can have a small stool to sit on.

Eric Johnston has crafted out beautiful pieces of design from reclaimed wood. Reclaimed wood is also known as rediscovered, recycled or salvaged wood. It usually comes from old buildings or other structures scheduled for demolition, or from felled trees removed from streets, yards and parks due to disease or damage. This wood has many qualities embedded in it. Apart from enhancing and protecting ecosystems and biodiversity, it actually cleanses the air and water. Well, when recycled products like these are presented so beautifully, one cannot help but embrace them with perfect ease. Artists like Eric Johnston sure prove that art is all about nature a la Romantics. This kind of art piece is actually perfect for modern households. The choice of color and hues is brilliant and it will enhance any sort of home decor. Well, the artist sure has combined recycling with his aesthetic abilities.

Source: Alternativeconsumer

One cannot help but appreciate works which shine with creative brilliance. Lisa Kokin’s button art seems so beautiful that one cannot help but admire her aesthetic sense. Look at these three sculptures from her button collection. They are entwined with buttons of various shapes, sizes and colors, along with imitation sinew, waxed linen, chicken wire.

Upcycling is just a fancy new word used by modern designers to describe eh process of using waste materials to make something of superior value. It’s basically recycling but only with better results. LA-based furniture designer Michael Yonke has made extensive use of reclaimed materials in his new line of eco-friendly and very fashionable benches and chairs that can very easily be a hallmark for any modern setup. By pairing materials reclaimed from old consumer furnitures, Yonke turns them into high-grade tables of all purposes that incorporate within them philosophies pertaining to the most intense metaphysics as well as reflections of man’s baser instincts. Available in a range of finishes and colors, the functional eco-art-designs of the collection make a remarkable statement about the fusion of the past with the present that can potentially lead to a greener and more prosperous future for all generations to come. The trendy upcycled creations of the designer can be purchased online here.

Even as more and more people are beginning to use electronic gadgets like computers, E-waste is becoming a massive problem that needs to be urgently confronted. Google has got into the act of reducing the e-Waste by recycling plastic into funky wireless mice. This Mini Wireless Mouse which has the Google insignia on it is made completely out of recycled plastic and a nice little bit is the WiFi dongle that is tucked in nicely into it. The Google Wireless Mouse has a 800DPI resolution for fast interface and runs on two AAA batteries. These Wireless Mice come in blue and red and cost just $19.20. Why can’t we have one in green, Google? Now that Google has gone out and made a eco-friendly product, we need to wait and watch what Microsoft will have up it’s sleeve as it has a pretty big consumer electronics operation.

Via: redferret

Wind power though renewable, has always been unpredictable due to the widely fluctuating wind. To get around this very contentious issue, a team of students from RIT have got together to build a WiFi repeater that operates even in intermittent wind. This innovation will definitely make wind power much more reliable as it pretty much solves the biggest problem of unpredictability that has been plaguing wind energy.

Australian design firm Buro North has teamed up with Victorian Eco Innovation Lab to come up with this smart looking solar shelter called the VEIL Solar Shade. The VEIL is one big solar panel which looks like a king cobra’s hood and is made up of organic materials. This little measure will definitely keep the green brigade happy. That apart, the VEIL can be easily adjusted to maximise it’s solar energy tapping ability simply because of it’s very light construction.

The amount of environmental degradation that the world has incurred over years can hardly be compensated unless the world comes together in a sort of international amity and joins hands for this onerous task of environmental upliftment. Thankfully, the indications of such prospects are visible!

Joining the save-the-earth bandwagon are these enthusiastic students from National University of Singapore(NUS) who have, over a period of 10 months, put together a one-seater car, NUS-ECO1, for the Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2008 competition in France from May 22 to 24. This car employs Gas-to-Liquids(GTL) fuel which is better than the conventional fuels. They will be the first ones to use this fuel ever in an international competition.

The idea of ‘Best out of waste’ generates abundance of inventions, concepts, projects and practical solutions. Right from the kindergarten level, we are provoked to recycle the waste around us into something more constructive and functional. On the same line, folks at Make World Better have come up with a brilliant idea to recycle the most abundant pollutant factor on highways. Their main principle is to recycle otherwise wasted energy in to electrical power. It is not unknown that high velocity vehicles use and emit a lot of energy while zooming on the highways. And how is it possible to utilize this windpower into most sought after energy? Well, a series of vertical axle, bi-directional wind turbines sit at core of highway that is able to recycle wind draft energy from both way of traffic. These wind turbines have wind tunnels on both side of their housing to collect wind energy from both side of traffic.

Fancy electronic gadgets are often humbled by mother nature’s elements in the rugged outdoors. The English inventor Trevor Bayliss understood this long ago and pioneered good old muscle power to power gadgets. Continuing in this vein, we have a sturdy little lantern that will light up your campsite. This well designed glope shaped lantern sits on a flat base and will illuminate your campsite with an array of five LED’s. These LED’s which sip very less power are also responsible for the lantern’s excellent four hour illumination time. Standby time also is pretty impressive at three full days and like all of Trevor Bayliss’s products, the Globe Lantern too uses wind up power to get juiced up. A notable feature of this lantern is that it can take all the ravages that mother nature can throw at it as it is weather proof. You can buy this Globe Lantern for £24.95.

Via: Hippy Shopper