Will Electric Cars Be The Next Red/Blue Divide?
by: fast company, 2011-04-14 22:41:36 UTC
Ford--which is about to release an all-electric version of the Focus--just put out the above map of the United States with the cities it feels are best suited to electric car ownership. And with a few exceptions, it looks like the flyover states aren't making preparations for the messianic arrival of the electric car. What do you want to bet that in the next presidential election, we'll add "electric-car" to the litany of liberal-associative words like arugula, lattes, and sushi.
Mike Tinskey, manager of vehicle electrification and infrastructure at Ford, says the main thing that ties the cities together is that they have formed EV advisory panels (made up of including city and utility officials as well as manufacturers like Ford). And cities that are doing that seem to sit squarely in the blue states, and the cities that are the exceptions are the blue dots in otherwise red states.
Tinskey says that cities that ranked high on their list did so by making it easier to obtain permits for home charging stations, working with utility companies to set up cheaper rates during the night (when people will charge), and using an "urban planning approach to public charge station locations--meaning that they look at traffic flows and where people spend their parked time to determine charging locations." All of which means that the government needs to interfere in our lives a little more to make electric cars a feasible reality.
If the innovations that Ford has pinpointed in these cities actually result in widespread adoption in these cities, expect to hear Michele Bachmann talking soon about how she drives a good, old-fashioned gas burning car.
[Home page photo from Flickr user Markn3tel]
Follow Fast Company on Twitter. Morgan Clendaniel can be reached by email or on Twitter.
SAE World Congress Goes Green: Alternative Fuels, EV Tech, and Award for Chevy Volt
by: Inhabitat , 2011-04-14 16:54:36 UTC
This year’s SAE World Congress in Detroit has gone green, honoring the design of electric vehicles such as the Chevy Volt and focusing on technologies that bring better efficiencies to new and existing vehicles. Everything was on the table this year, from alternative fuel advances to Ford’s EcoBoost down-sized, turbocharged, direct-injected engines, to lightweight and ultra-strong chassis designs, to new EV technologies and new transmissions to make better use of vehicles’ available power.
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Post tags: 2011 SAE, alternative fuels, Automotive Engineering International, chevy volt, clean tech, electric vehicles, green automotive design, green tech, plug-in EV, SAE World Congress
New Hybrid Land Rover Will Hits Streets In 2013
by: Inhabitat , 2011-04-14 20:40:16 UTC
Land Rovers are famously known as un-environmentally friendly vehicles, but they are great at going off-road and protecting their occupants from collisions. Taking their safety street cred to the green realm, news just broke that Land Rover has made plans to release a hybrid version of their vehicle in two years, with a full-on plug-in hybrid version to follow a year later.
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Post tags: hybrid cars, hybrid SUV, hybrid vehicles, Land Rover hybrid technology, Land Rover plug-in hybrid, Land Rover’s first hybrid
PEGA’s Revolutionary Paper Alloy Can be Used to Create Consumer Electronics
by: Inhabitat , 2011-04-14 22:09:54 UTC
On show this week at the Milan Furniture Fair are PEGA consulting group’s remarkable prototypes made with their new and revolutionary biodegradable, recyclable and reusable material. Able to be injection molded just like standard ABS plastics, the new material is a recycled paper and polypropylene alloy that has been engineered for use in creating even the most intricate parts for consumer electronics.
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Post tags: Asus, computer, Design, Eco, gadget, green, injection molded, laptop, Paper, PEGA, polyproylene alloy, recyclable, shanghai, Sustainable, taipei, Technology
Piet Hein Eek Unveils Steel Tube Furniture Salvaged from Studio Renovation
by: Inhabitat , 2011-04-14 22:11:31 UTC
Debuting at this year’s Milan Design Week, Dutch designer piet hein eek‘s reclaimed steel tube furniture is a simple design that activates negative space by joining hollow tubes. The old pipes used to construct these pieces were salvaged by the designer last year while he was renovating an older building into his new studio. Prior to the renovation, the building housed an overwhelming amount of this tubing, and although the team had to discard many of the tubes, they were able to salvage a great deal of the material to be used to create a range of furniture objects.
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Post tags: "green furniture", dutch design, eco furniture, green design, Milan Design Week, Milan Design Week 2011, Piet Hein Eek, Reclaimed Materials, upcycled steel tubes
Tactile Green Heater
by: Yanko Design, 2011-04-13 07:01:58 UTC
This design by Younes Duret takes inspiration from Eastern oriental graphics and the traditional Moroccan hearth to create a transportable and calming space heater. Canoon relieves tension by heating compact cherry pit-filled pillows that can be applied to any part of the body to ease pain and provide comfort. The unit is composed entirely of recycled plastic, uses less energy than the average space heater, and is easily controlled by a simple stroke of the hand on it’s top or lower components which vary in color between turquoise and red to indicate the units temperature.
Designer: Younes Duret
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Rotation Water Therapy
by: Yanko Design, 2011-04-13 15:16:32 UTC
The first thing that comes to my mind when I see the Disambigua – Unambiguous, is roast meat! The reason behind it is simple, the way you need to keep rotating the meat on a skewer for uniform cooking, likewise rotate this concept for uniform cleansing. One turn it’s a bathtub, another turn and it’s a washbasin. Now this is what I call a complete wash!
Designer: DiciannoveDieciDesign
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A Flip Flop Story by Diederik Schneemann
by: Dezeen, 2011-04-13 10:06:07 UTC
Milan 2011: Rotterdam designer Diederik Schneemann presents a series of vases and lamps made from recycled flip-flops found washed up on Kenyan beaches at Ventura Lambrate in Milan this week. (more…)
Bjarke Ingels talks Hedonism Sustainability
by: TreeHugger Design, 2011-04-13 13:42:53 UTC
Photo Credit: Neil Chambers
Bjarke
Ingels is a refreshing and new voice on the international stage of architecture. He has completed projects throughout Europe and recently opened an
office in New York City. Along with his design work, Ingels has a continuing presence at conference and events
Read the full story on TreeHugger
Precious Waste: Plastic Shopping Bags Recycled Into a New Durable Textile
by: Inhabitat , 2011-04-13 19:50:53 UTC
Even if you bring your own fabric bag when picking up your weekly groceries, plastic shopping bags are difficult to avoid and are a huge environmental problem. They could be recycled to avoid using natural resources, but the process is not as environmentally friendly as it sounds — it involves a lot of energy, emissions, heat, and chemicals, and the end product is always of poorer quality than the original material. With this in mind, Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Michelle Baggerman discovered a way to transform plastic shopping bags into a “Precious Waste” textile that extends the bags lifecycle while remaining recyclable (as it’s not a mixed material).
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Post tags: Design Academy in Eindhoven, eco textiles, Green Design Events, Michelle Baggerman, Milan Design Week 2011, milan furniture fair 2011, New Materials, plastic bags, plastic textile, precious waste, Recycled Materials, Sustainable Materials
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