Solofill reusable filter cup slips into the Keurig machine
Last year, over 3 billion K-Cups were sold for Green Mountain Coffee's Keurig system and it's pretty reasonable to assume that the majority of these plastic and tinfoil single-use coffee pods have ended up in a landfill. It's clear that the ease of use and convenience of these single-use systems has created a booming industry—in fact, at this week's International Home + Housewares Show we counted at least four systems that were dishing up single-serving caffinated treats for bleary-eyed attendees. So what's a single-serve, coffee-loving person to do?
Although Keurig has created a similar product for their brewers called the My K-Cup, two new solutions for this coffee conundrum were presented by independent companies at this year's Home + Housewares Show. These reusable filters for the Keurig brewers both function in a similar way—fill your choice of coffee into the self-tamping pods, insert them into your Keurig machine and throw them into the dishwasher when you're done. Users are estimated to save over 50% on their coffee pod costs by filling their own pods.
Ekobrew, was recognized as part of the Going Green Display, and the founders proudly shared that their current batch of pods are made in the USA. The cone-shaped water disperser in the cap allows for a more even water flow throughout the pod. Ekobrew claims that the deep chamber provides 17% more volume for your coffee grounds. An innovation that the company introduced is the flat-bottom design for easy fill.
Offline learning is the latest tool for the unorthodox education organization. Here's how that and other new features will power Khan Academy's new app.
Khan Academy, the wildly popular YouTube lecture series, has launched its free, new iPad app in Apple's store. The enhanced version of Khan Academy includes time-syncing between devices--no Internet connection required--an interactive transcript of the lectures for easy searching, and a handy scrubber for moving between parts of the lectures. Perhaps more importantly, now that more schools have begun adopting Khan's lectures for their own classrooms, the iPad app could possibly replace or supplement textbooks, saving cash-strapped schools and students a lot of money.
The major benefit of the app is offline learning. "If you're going on a road trip or if you're taking mass transit and you don't have cell service, or whatever, you can get the content," says Khan Academy Lead Designer Jason Rosoff. The iPad frees Khan Academy from the constraints of a laptop and Internet connection. Rosoff says the app will remember where users left off viewing and sync progress between devices (though, for the initial version, both devices will need to connect to the Internet before going offline to sync).
Second, with inspiration from TED, Khan lectures will now have an interactive time-stamped transcript, which is a convenient search function, considering some of the lectures can be quite long.
Last, just like a textbook, users flip back and forth between different parts of the content. "People scrub a lot in our videos," says Rosoff. The app will have an enhanced version video scrubber (the scroll bar at the bottom of a video) that makes repeating areas less painful.
For the growing number of schools that are adopting iPads, the most impactful potential for the app is for Khan Academy's "flipped classroom," in which lectures are watched at home by students, and then assignments are completed collaboratively in class, where a teacher is present. "The teacher is free to do a lot more of the human interaction," says Shantanu Sinha, President and COO of Khan Academy.
Intrigued by the idea of the flipped classroom, a pilot program in the Los Altos school district in California has started using Khan's online lectures for a substantial portion of the learning. Teachers use visualization software that could track student progress in the lectures, and they've discovered that some students were often mislabeled as "at-risk."
"Very often, students who thought they were horrible in math, who were labeled bad in math by schools ... in many cases, they were just struggling with a very specific topic," Sinha says. "Without the ability to explore lectures at home, struggling students were left behind as teachers progressed through the lesson plan. But, when students could focus on problem areas at their own pace, they could overcome weaknesses and catch back up with the class.
The initial version of the iPad app doesn't include the visualization tools and exercises necessary for a Khan Academy classroom, Rosoff says, but once the tools are part of the app, schools may adopt the Khan lecture series as a electronic textbook replacement. That'll also give Khan more time to address early feedback about the tools in later app updates.
by: Environmental Leader, 2012-03-12 14:30:27 UTC The Sustainable 16, a group of sixteen colleges and universities that demonstrate excellence in environmental academics, has been named in the first-ever Enviance, Inc. and Environmental Leader March Madness tournament for Environmental Studies. The Sustainable 16 are (alphabetically): • Baylor University • Colby College • Colorado State University • Cornell University • Duke University • [...]
by: Ecofriend, 2012-03-12 11:28:51 UTC
Dattatreya Mandal:
One innovative facet of our modern day science deals with the conception of metamaterials. Fundamentally, defined as artificial materials that are created to exhibit some unique property that doesn’t occur naturally, their functionality is based on their intrinsic structure, rather than composition. In fact, many of the researches related to them entail wondrous stuff ranging from invisibility cloaks to super sensitive detectors. However, this time around, scientists from MIT have something more practical yet sustainable in store for us. Their project deals with a specific kind of metamaterial that can absorb a wide range of light, thus leading to a new generation of highly efficient solar cells.
Solar Panel
According to the project researchers, conventionally thin solar set ups respond to a limited range of wavelengths, along with a lower ambit of angle of incidences. However, in this case, the design of the metamaterial is structurally evolved to form a wedge shaped pattern, composed from alternating layers of metal and an insulating material called a dielectric. The widths found between these ‘undulations’ are touted to effectively slow down and catch a more varied amplitude of wavelength.
Adequate lab testing has shown that the design has enormous capacity for light absorption. In fact, the design can account for around a whopping 95 percent efficiency, which was previously only possible with a limited range of colors. More importantly, the advanced thin material can be quite easily manufactured in a cost effective manner, from the ‘traditionally’ available solar cell fabrication equipment.
Finally, beyond its theoretical advantages, the new invention also has slew of potentially practical applications. The major one is obviously its improved solar energy harnessing capability. However, on other power related fronts, the new technology can be used for infrared detectors and even infrared light emitting applications. The second function entails progressive devices utilizing heat for electricity generation.
by: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, 2012-03-08 20:49:20 UTC
There are a number of reasons that some people choose not to eat meat – for instance, they may not want to support the slaughter of animals, they may wish to avoid the health risks associated with consuming too much animal protein, or perhaps they’re not big fans of the environmental impact of raising livestock on a commercial scale. Unfortunately, if these people still want to eat meat-like foods, a lot of the meat alternatives currently available are kind of ... yucky. Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, however, is working on a device nicknamed the “vegetarian cutlet factory.” It produces continuous slabs of veggie-based mock meat, which is reportedly quite similar to the real thing...
Continue Reading "Vegetarian cutlet factory" produces endless slabs of fake meat
by: mocoloco, 2012-03-09 22:11:36 UTC
Early in 2011 Spalvieri / Del Ciotto studio were invited by Lexon to create a new family of ecological items for the design brand. The result was a collection of electronics made of corn plastic (PLA).
“Picked because in nearly all types of consumer electronics energy consumption makes 80% -90% of the LCA and material likely 10%. So whether PLA or ABS or PC doesn't make a lot of difference. Look at the example http://www.design-4-sustainability.com/case_”
by: Ecofriend, 2012-03-12 05:42:43 UTC
Dattatreya Mandal:
Paper has certainly alluded to a comprehensive medium through which much of humanity’s ideas, cultures, religions, laws and even businesses have been propagated. However, the anachronistic technology fueling paper making has always remained pollution intensive. In this regard, Toshiba Tec has embarked on an ardently sustainable endeavor, where printed paper can be reused for further printing. How so? Well, their fascinating technology entails the complete erasing of existing printed text on a paper, thus making the paper ‘brand new’ for future usage.
Toshiba demonstrates revolutionary Copier
Their intriguing system is to be infused within modified copier machines for collective convenience of the office users. In fact, the special contraption in this case would utilize an advanced color erasable toner. So, when the printed paper passes through this modified device, the printing completely disappears, thus making the page fully blank to be reused time and again.
According to the scientists, their unique technology is based on the same principle as the FriXion Ball line of erasable ball point pens and highlighters from Pilot. Moreover, the color erasing mechanism can also scan, thus helping in the saving of soft copies of the previously printed data. In fact, for efficiently improving upon the expansive scope of things, the progressive system would automatically sort out the pages that can be effectively ‘cleaned’.
However, beyond the entire hullabaloo over saving and recycling paper, it should be duly noted that the technology is still in development. The scientists are actually looking forth to release its viable, commercial form in the winter of this year. And, in a related project, Toshiba Tec can certainly ‘wipe the slate clean’ by creating a color version of this modified copier machine, in the near future.
Toshiba demonstrates revolutionary CopierToshiba demonstrates revolutionary Copier that prints using erasable toners.
So, what do you get when you sandwich a plywood bamboo material called PlyBoo with two sheets of a paper-composite called Richlite? Stratum, a new countertop material made through a venture between Smith & Fong and Richlite Company. The material was inspired by nature and the majestic basalt cliffs of Palouse Canyon in eastern Washington.
I first noticed the material when the Chad Ludeman mentioned that he was chomping at the bit to put Stratum in play as an upgrade for a new project called reNEWBOLD.
Stratum combines the green benefits of PlyBoo and Richlite so it’s FSC-certified and may contribute towards LEED points. Richlite is made with FSC-certified fibers, while PlyBoo is made with rapidly renewable bamboo and soy adhesives. Stratum contains no added urea-formaldehyde.
The material can be used as a countertop, does not off-gass, and is heat, scratch, and stain resistant, according to Richlite. Stratum is available in a 1″ thickness and 48″ x 96″ sheet sizes with any of the ten available Richlite Northwest colors.
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2012-03-20 12:22:50 UTC
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by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2012-03-16 18:40:35 UTC
h1. Winning the EISA green tv award
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Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled -- compared to almost 90% of metals -- because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting ...
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Since a year or so Laundry driers are available more energy-efficient. Of course the most energy efficient is to dry the laundry outside on the line ...
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Taking a shower is in the western world not done once a week anymore like our grandparents did, in most cases it is at least once a day now. And 6 ...
Solofill reusable filter cup slips into the Keurig machine
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