Watch Biomimicry 3.8 Co-Founder Janine Benyus discuss how biomimicry can help shape the 3D printing revolution.
The Circular Economy 100 Annual Summit took place on June 19, 2013, bringing together leading thought leaders, academics, companies and practitioners to provide a global wrap-up of the most up-to-date thinking on key circular economy topics.
by: TreeHugger Design, 2013-08-29 19:09:18 UTC
Who needs smart cars? Daan Roosegaard's smart highway does the work for everybody, winning the Sustainable Transportation category.
by: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, 2013-08-29 08:04:42 UTC
There are bikes of all shapes and sizes at Eurobike 2013, but the vast majority are variations on familiar designs. One notable exception is the Vagabond from Spanish company SmartBikes, which does double duty as a bicycle with integrated child seat and a stroller...
Continue Reading Vagabond flips from bicycle to stroller in under a minute
Charles Darwin was a man inordinately fond of beetles. He once caught a rare specimen in one hand, when another, even more remarkable, beetle showed up. He snatched that one up with his other hand. Suddenly, an extraordinary third species crawled past. Darwin, in despair over losing any of them, popped the first one in his mouth. With “unspeakable disgust and pain” he discovered it was a Bombardier Beetle—the only known creature to mix a boiling hot chemical explosion inside its own body. As it squirted livid acid down his throat, he spit the “little inconsiderate beast” out, and all three beetles made their getaway. The Bombardier is a six-legged tank, fitted with two little weapons of destruction: a pair of deadly, swiveling rocket launchers, firing high-pressure clouds of hot, acrid gas to injure shrews, birds, and frogs, and kill would-be invertebrate predators. So, what can we learn from this acerbic little bug? Read on to learn more in our latest installation of The Biomimicry Manual.
by: TreeHugger Design, 2013-08-28 17:43:00 UTC
Vanessa Rancaño's "back-of-the-envelope arithmetic" conservatively estimates that 966 million pounds of waste from coffee pods end up in landfills.
As part of Richard Rogers's Inside Out exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, his practice Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has designed an environmentally efficient, three-storey house to promote debate about cheaper mass housing.
More and more consumers want to buy from socially responsible companies. A big new survey from Nielsen finds that 50% of shoppers are now willing to spend more with brands "that have implemented programs to give back to society." That's a 5% increase from 2011, when Nielsen last carried out the survey.
Not all consumers are the same, though. Nielsen, which interviewed 29,000 people in 58 countries, finds big differences depending on age and where people live. For example, people under 29 are 20 points more likely to reward socially responsible brands than those who are over 65. Indians are almost three times more likely to pay a premium than Estonians (75% versus 27%).
Nielsen says that "citizen expectations of corporate social responsibly" could be a factor explaining the country differences. "In countries where skepticism toward corporate social responsibility runs high, cause–marketers face an uphill battle," said Nic Covey, vice president of corporate social responsibility. "In these markets, especially, social impact programs must be incontestably authentic to a company's business objectives, vision and values."
European consumers were generally less willing to pay more: Belgium, Russia, Croatia and Finland fill out the bottom five. Asian nations were more willing: Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia all scored highly.
Whether consumers actually follow through on what they tell interviewers isn't clear, however. As we've discussed before, there's evidence that people talk a better game than they play. Nielsen found several countries where the gap between professed willingness and spending was wide:
In Slovakia, for instance, 50 percent of respondents said they would be willing to spend more, but just 22 percent said they had actually done so (a 28–point gap). Similar spreads existed in Bulgaria (53 percent willing, but 31 percent who had), Peru (62 percent willing, and 42 percent who had), and Hong Kong (52 percent willing, but just 32 percent who had).
Ironically, this insight might invalidate the idea of corporate responsibility surveys in the first place. It at least stiffens the case for improved data: Better to know how people behave at the "moment of truth" than what they tell survey companies over the Internet.
Layer by layer, a Spanish artist uses paper and geometry to calm her inner chaos.
Elena Mir is a Spanish artist from Valencia. She describes herself as "loving the smell of wet soil at night," of having "eyes the color of honey and eucalyptus, and a lot of brown hair sprouting from her short head."
A dreamer, then. Yet with what mathematical exactitude her Geometric Spaces series arrays itself! A collection of intricately layered sculptures made out of paper, Mir’s work at first seems at odds with her fanciful way of describing herself. Every line is carved with stark Euclidean precision, yet the combined effect is somehow one of softness and comfort.
"I have always been passionate about geometry," Mir tells Co.Design. "Geometry is the pattern of creation, the essence of the world around us. Geometry helps me to investigate the possibilities of space."
Geometric Spaces takes the form of exacting patterns carved with meticulousness into hundreds of sheets of white paper, then layered on top of each other, like subtly differentiated dimensions in a multi-verse of Flatlands. Here is a time lapse video, showing off Mir’s process and the way in which each individual sheet of paper builds up into a sculpture, layer by layer.
If it seems strange that an artist who describes herself so whimsically works in a medium of monochrome, monotony, and measurement, Mir herself seems aware of the discrepancy. Her Geometric Spaces are very different in tone and technique to her other work in illustration.
"I consider myself a very chaotic person," she says. "Working on something so solid and stable helps me move my mind into a state of relaxation. I find myself to be very disciplined when I work using this technique. It transmits an inner strength, a balance, and a harmony to me."
For Mir, the soothing quality of her art comes from the deep relationship we all have with paper. "I’ve been very inspired by the role of paper in Oriental art and culture," says Mir. "Paper is like stone; you can sculpt it, and create depth where there was none." The words blank, stark, and white do not occur to Mir when she talks about paper. Reflecting her inner dreamer, she speaks of the grace and beauty with which "light and shadows slide across the surface."
"Paper is a beautiful material that has endless possibilities," says Mir. Her work can be seen in person at the Only Paper exhibition at Valencia’s Rambleta Espai d’Art i Experiències running from October 10 to November 13.
A fan isn’t a particularly useful object once it stops working, but Belgian product designer Sep Verboom came up with a clever way to reuse old fans, upcycling them into attractive lamps. Verboom partnered with Nida Cabrera, frm social environmentalist from Cebu City, Philippines, to form Fantasized, a company that produces both pendant lamps and floor lamps from fans that were purchased from local junkshops. Cebu is well known for its indigenous material weaving industry, and all of the lamps feature colorful woven material produced by local craftsmen. The lamps are currently for sale on the Fantasized online store.
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Ask economists what to do about climate change, and some will say a carbon tax is the best solution. But that doesn't mean there are carbon taxes everywhere. Just the opposite. Governments have tended to go with options that are easier politically, like subsidizing cleantech industries, if they've gone for anything at all.
British Columbia is an exception. In 2008, it introduced a tax on about three–quarters of the fossil fuels consumed in the province, gradually raising the level year–by–year. By mid–2012, it was charging $30 U.S. dollars per ton of carbon dioxide. That means drivers now pay about seven cents a liter more for gas than they did five years ago.
The result? Appreciably lower fossil fuel consumption. A study by Stewart Elgie, at the University of Ottawa, finds that fuel use per person dropped 17.4% by 2012, and 18.8% compared to the rest of Canada, where fuel consumption actually rose a bit. This reduction, in turn, has allowed B.C. to lower its emissions by 10% over the period––a pretty good dent in its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 33% (compared to 2007 levels) by 2020.
The really good news is that B.C. appears to have achieved this without hurting its economy. Economic output per person, while negative, was better than in other provinces. And taxes are now lower overall. B.C. reinvested the carbon tax income to reduce its personal and corporate tax rates (its income taxes are now the lowest in the country). In fact, it managed to give out more than it took in: about $500 million more, according to the study.
"B.C.'s experience shows that it is possible to have both a healthier environment and a strong economy––by taxing pollution and lowering income taxes," Elgie says, in a press release.
Elgie cautions that more work is needed to prove a link between the tax and the apparent outcome. But one point seems to suggest a positive relationship: B.C. exempted aviation fuel, and saw consumption continue at the same rate as other provinces. If the tax wasn't causing the drop in other fuel uses, you would expect airlines to have also used less fuel.
As an early carbon tax adopter, B.C. is an important case to follow. The U.S. has often discussed a similar policy but has shied away under pressure from the anti–tax lobby. B.C. proves that, while a carbon tax does raise fuel prices (a point that shouldn't be minimized) that burden can be offset in other ways. That it also seems to cut emissions is obviously an important bonus.
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-08-05 08:26:38 UTC
Electrolux introduced in all their washing machines a steam function, so effective that it produces some garments ready to wear straight from the drum ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-08-01 20:44:07 UTC
Fraunhofer institute did a research on the global warming impact of different computer styles. Conclusion is that laptops are more environmental friendly ...
Who needs smart cars? Daan Roosegaard's smart highway does the work for everybody, winning the Sustainable Transportation category.
Vanessa Rancaño's "back-of-the-envelope arithmetic" conservatively estimates that 966 million pounds of waste from coffee pods end up in landfills.
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