ITech Solar Charger

It would be awesome if all of us already had mobile phones that would be charged automatically every time you step out in the sunshine, but until that happy day, we have solar chargers to work with, like this one from i.Tech. The Solar Charger 906 features a monocrystalline solar panel and also comes with 10 different adapter plugs to suit phones made by various manufacturers. It soaks up enough solar power to juice up your phone, but you can hook it up to a USB port to power up its rechargeable battery, too.

Southwest Airlines debuts green plane

If you want to know more about how Southwest Airlines has been doing all it can to be green, you only have to take a look at Nuts About Southwest's environment-related posts to see what they've been up to. Just a couple of months ago, the company was recognized by the EPA as a Green Power Leader, and this month, Southwest Airlines is launching its green plane. The aircraft makes use of lighter materials that will translate to lesser weight for the plane, resulting in greater fuel efficiency.

Kind Toys

Parents these days are more concerned about the type of products and food they're getting their kids. These must be wholesome, healthful, and should pose no risk to their children. Toys in particular are undergoing scrutiny, with parents rejecting them if they're not 100% kid- and environment-friendly. But not every toy manufacturer is jumping on board the green bandwagon yet, so sometimes, a parent takes it upon his or herself to find, produce, or sell green toys and games for children.

Kind Toys, for example, was started by a parent who experienced

"frustration at trying to find eco friendly toys and green games for my son. I wanted green gifts that looked good, felt good and had no batteries... but were still fun to play with."

And so Kind Toys was born, and is currently an online store carrying green toys from different brands, such as Solar Science, Green Lullaby, and Bioviva.

It would be nice to get a closer look at the people behind the company, so it's best to keep an eye on how Kind Toys will develop in the future.

Running for Conservation

One of my favorite actors, Edward Norton, is running the New York Marathon on 01 November to support the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. 30 runners will be joining him, including 3 Maasai warriors. Good luck!

Click here to sponsor a runner.

(photo from Broadwayworld)

Oh gods, I want this

Well, you know, not desperately, because I still have a perfectly functioning phone. But let's just say I didn't have one, then I would definitely go for Sony Ericsson's C901 GreenHeart. Like I mentioned before, the GreenHeart line was launched last year, with the C901 being its first pioneer product; another SE phone, the Naite, is also positioned as a green, energy-saving phone. Sony Ericsson has added more to its goals for the GreenHeart line, making use of water-borne paints and aggressively pursuing its global TakeBack program.

All keyed up

This lamp wouldn't look out of place hanging from the ceiling of your apartment, a boutique, or a restaurant, which is a pretty good sign for something that was made entirely out of computer keyboard keys. It was designed by Nolan Herbut, who's currently taking up Industrial Design at the University of Alberta. This is just one of his two keyboard-made projects so far; the other one is the Wolfgang Keyboard Bench.

Nolan hasn't called himself a green designer, but from these two samples, it looks like an option he should be considering.

Travel green with Evergreen Ever-Lite

Haven't you ever just wanted to take off in an RV and go on a road trip all over the country? I have. Well, the RV part isn't really necessary, but it's a fun idea nevertheless. One shudders to think of the costs it will entail though, fuel included, and a vehicle that size must surely eat through the fuel. It can't exactly be the greenest way to travel, can it?

Evergreen Recreational Vehicles thinks RVs CAN be green. The company has been devoted to giving the RV industry a brand-new face with the way it does business, and even has a Green Team dedicated to finding leaner, cleaner ways to handle operations and manufacturing. It focuses on creating innovative, sustainable, and eco-friendly travel trailers, the latest of which is the Ever-Lite, dubbed "The World's First Eco-Friendly Composite Travel Trailer." The Ever-Lite is wood-free, with most of its materials being recyclable, and because it's lightweight, that makes it easier to be towed by your vehicle, reportedly resulting in a more fuel-efficient performance due to lesser wind resistance.

This is an encouraging move by an RV company and we certainly hope even more RV manufacturers go down the same route, too.

SoleRebels

It's no secret that many major sporting goods companies are guilty of taking advantage of the skills and sweat of third world laborers. It's not the most inspiring state of affairs, people working to manufacture top-quality products and making only a pittance for their hard work, even as the products go on to sell for millions around the world. In Ethiopia, the idea to create great footwear which will directly benefit the communities that make them took hold--and SoleRebels was born.

Founded by Ethiopian shoemaker Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, SoleRebels was launched in 2005 and carries footwear such as sandals, trainers, and open shoes, all of them handmade and being churned out by the hundreds--500 pairs of sandals or 200 pairs of shoes, to be exact--daily. The company's workshop is found in Addis Ababa.

Apart from providing livelihood, SoleRebels is also known as an eco-friendly brand, with the shoes being crafted out of recycled tires and woven fabrics. The shoes' popularity is on the rise and is being positioned as Africa's answer to Nike or Adidas. We have yet to spot SoleRebels in stores, but you can get them online from sites such as The Child Health Site store and even Amazon.

Just discovered: Human Nature

I usually don't open e-mails about store or restaurant promos, but it's lucky that I did today, because it led me to a local website on bargains, which in turn led me to Human Nature. I thought they were distributors of organic products from abroad, but to my surprise, their products are locally sourced and made! I'm getting in touch with them soon to get more information and possibly even check out their office myself.

Green Dog Wash

Grooming is a major part of keeping your dogs clean and healthy, but if you've never felt entirely comfortable leaving your precious pooch in the hands of groomers, you're not alone. Brian Corby thought it would be a great idea to have a self-service dog wash, and made his idea come to life last month, when Green Dog Wash opened in SoHo, Tampa, Florida. Green Dog Wash lets you wash your dog in a relaxed environment and even pick up some tips on eco-friendly pet care, as your pet spends time getting clean then getting to know other dogs in the dog wash, too. Green cleansers, cleverly named ShamPooch, have been developed by Green Dog Wash and eco-friendly toys and treats are available too.

Green Dog Wash, already known for its earth-friendly products and its use of all-recycled items, is working hard to be even greener and has recently joined San Francisco-based group The Matter of Trust, an organization that weaves mats out of hair gathered from salons and sends them off to be used to clean up oil spills. Green Dog Wash contributes a significant amount of dog hair and sends the lot to California.

It's definitely a clever idea that can only have come from someone who's truly dedicated to his pet, and luckily, Green Dog Wash is something that can do good for everyone else's dogs, too.

Staycation

Apparently, there is now a term for the type of vacation where you don't actually go very far, and might even just be spending it around town, going to the nearest city, or exploring attractions in other towns (where have I been?): staycation. It's an interesting idea, and it definitely gives you the opportunity to see what your town has to offer, plus you'll get to use your imagination in planning activities and making the trip more exciting, too.

The Lovat: A green Loch Ness hotel

One of my more ambitious travel plans in life is to go to the United Kingdom, ambitious mainly because doing so would sap me of all the financial resources I have and ones that I don't even have yet. Still, it can't hurt to dream and work for that dream. In the meantime, I keep my eye on things to do and see in the U.K., and where to eat and stay, too.

I just found out about The Lovat by the famous Loch Ness, and apart from giving people a great view of the loch and the nearby village, it also has its eco-friendliness going for it! The hotel makes use of eco-friendly cleaning products as well as fabrics, and energy efficiency efforts and recycling are regularly done. A locally made and designed eco-bag, recycled notepaper, and 100% recycled facial and toilet tissues are available in every room, too. The hotel's structure itself makes sure to stay in harmony with the area's natural ecosystem. Here's another interesting feature of the hotel:

The urinals have no flushing water & each have an eco-cube that contain millions of naturally occurring friendly microbes that eliminate any odour-producing bacteria.

The Lovat also encourages guests to participate in monitoring the amount of carbon emissions they produce as they travel to the hotel.

Now some people would say that to be truly green, don't travel too far at all, but really now, with so many incredible places around the world, it would be a shame to miss out on seeing them. Just make sure to travel in as eco-friendly a way as you can.

Green Broadway

The Broadway Green Alliance (formerly Broadway goes Green) is acting to help Mother Earth. According to this article, the theatre industry have taken the following steps:

Playbill Magazine is working with NRDC to enhance their environmental practices, which are already extensive, and will be supporting the initiative by periodically reporting on the "Broadway Goes Green" efforts and regularly printing theatre related eco-tips in Playbill Magazine throughout the year.

Wicked has reviewed and revised its behind-the-scenes production activity to adopt greener practices.

Out of 39 Broadway theatres, ten have already replaced their marquee lights with more efficient lighting and an additional 14 conversions are underway. To date, over 10,000 exterior and interior bulbs have already been changed.

Production shops are offering environmentally preferable materials and are developing plans to recycle or reuse scenery.

Costumes are being washed in cold water whenever feasible.

Re-chargeable batteries are used in sound equipment whenever possible.

Many touring shows are offsetting the carbon emissions from transporting their equipment through investments in renewal energy and have purchased nearly 1,900 tons of offsets through the Touring Green program.

It's not easy being green, but the first step is the most important step.

Putting up a green parking lot

Parking lots weren't exactly a symbol of eco-friendly living, since they signaled the tearing down of large green spaces to make room for smoke-belching vehicles. Today however, they're getting quite an interesting makeover.

"Green" is the new black in planning, design and construction philosophy, and it's no different for the parking industry. Parking designers are embracing practices such as using recycled materials, solar panels and energy-saving lighting and turning concrete rooftops into green surfaces to reduce storm-water runoff.

And apart from all the green features being installed in parking garages, parking garages today are being seen as way to actually encourage people to take public transportation. With their more strategic locations, people can simply drive to parking garages where they can leave their cars, hop on trains or buses in nearby stations, and be on their way to their destinations. It's an interesting change, really, because without any other way of getting to transit stops, cities can't hope to get more people interested in taking public transportation because there are no fast and easy ways to access them.

Blog Action Day 09: Climate Change

Today's Blog Action Day 2009!

Thank goodness for efforts like Blog Action Day to keep spreading the word about important issues like climate change!

Now, what can we say about climate change? For starters, it is obvious to us that climate change is happening as we speak. We can choose to do nothing, or we can choose to do something. We can sit back, relax and think that climate change is some vague, abstract concept that will not affect us. But that's not really the case.

Recently in the Philippines, it was hit by two...TWO!...storms that left most of Luzon underwater, all within a span of one week. It was threatened by another one, which thankfully, stayed away and spared the country more grief. Add to that the tsunami in the South Pacific + Typhoons in Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan + Earthquake in Indonesia.

The thing with climate change is, its effects are fairly obvious. The Center for American Progress posted a comprehensive list Top 100 Effects of Global Warming. Read this list. Seriously. If you never thought it will affect you, then think again.

There is a world out there that needs our help. The first step we can take is to acknowledge that action is required from all of us. Starting now.

No Impact Project

Colin Beavan and his family went a whole year living the "No Impact" way. He wrote a book about it and there's even a movie coming out. If you want to try a "carbon cleanse" for a week, click here to join. The experiment starts 18 October.

Mitsubishi joins MRM's recycling effort

Green electronics are gaining quite a following and people are growing more interested in how electronics companies are making sure that they are taking an active role in the protection of the environment. One of the things that people are concerned about is recycling their old electronics; indeed, where should you take your old, unfixable TVs, for example?

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America has the answer to that. The company just joined the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company's recycling initiative. This means that consumers all over the U.S. can now leave their old Mitsubishi TVs at any MRM recycling drop-off points. This marks yet another step made by Mitsubishi towards going green, with one of their first steps having been to manufacture energy-efficient televisions.

Another green phone: Samsung Blue Earth

More and more cellphone manufacturers these days are coming out with eco-friendly phones; I just wish I can see some of them over here! It would be great to actually hold one, try it out, and see if its looks, features, and capabilities are up to snuff, and that its eco-friendliness isn't its only virtue, because face it, an eco-friendly phone that has technical specifications more suited to a year 2000 phone just won't get any attention.

Happily, Samsung's latest green brainchild, Blue Earth, looks like a pretty awesome phone. It was actually announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, and has just been released recently. The body is made from PCM, or recycled water bottles, and the phone even has a solar panel in the back. It also boasts features such as a touchscreen, 3G capabilities, Bluetooth, and a 3.2 MP camera. To save energy, you can switch to Eco Mode, which dials down the phone's brightness level and backlight duration. And if you want to know how much CO2 you're not releasing every time you walk, take a look at its pedometer called Eco Walk.

Now I don't really need a new phone, but it won't hurt to hang out in Samsung shops the coming months and see if this little blue cutie will show up in local Samsung displays.

Copenhagen 2009

From Environment New York:

On Dec. 7, President Obama is going to Copenhagen to try to get world leaders to agree on an international plan to reduce global warming pollution.

To convince the world to join us in tackling global warming, we need to lead by example and make sure the United States is putting its money where its mouth is.

You can help the president strengthen his position before historic international negotiations begin on a new treaty to curb global warming.

Click here to send an email urging Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to support the passage of a strong clean energy and climate change bill, so we can show the rest of the world America means business.

The clock is ticking. If Obama succeeds in Copenhagen, America will help speed the transformation to a world powered by clean energy -- the key to meeting the challenge of global warming.

Yet, as we know all too well by now, more than a few powerful people and corporations want the president to fail, including:

* Don Blankenship, the president of Massey Coal, the fourth largest coal company in the country, who urges Americans to "Turn on more lights, burn more coal." [1]

* Sen. James Inhofe, the man who has called man-made global warming "probably the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people" and who plans to travel to Copenhagen as "a one-man truth squad." [2]

* The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which, flying in the face of a broad scientific consensus, called this summer to put climate science itself on trial -- in what they hoped would be "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century." [3]

Enough.

We've wasted precious time as the United States has shirked our responsibilities on energy and global warming. It's time to reclaim our future, and now we have a president willing to fight for real solutions. Yet for President Obama to succeed, he needs to show the world that America is willing to lead with more than just words.

That's where you come in. Last week, Sens. John Kerry and Barbara Boxer introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. We need Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand to stand with the president and support this bill before he leaves for Copenhagen. It will make America more energy independent, put thousands of New York residents to work in jobs that can't be shipped overseas, and protect our planet's future.

The bill is only one step in the right direction, but it's a big step and it's an improvement on the House bill that passed with our support in June. It includes deeper cuts in carbon pollution and no strings to tie the EPA's hand in cleaning up old, dirty power plants and other big carbon polluters.

Don Blankenship, James Inhofe, the Chamber of Commerce, Big Oil and others are desperate to stop us. They know how important this vote is. As the European Commission's ambassador to the United States put it: "Is the U.S. Senate really expecting all the other countries to make a serious effort on climate change . . . in the absence of a clear commitment from the United States?" [4]

If you're not in the Empire State, click here for a list of senators and how to contact them. Read this to see where you senators stand in the climate change debate.

Soup for the Soul

Support Campbell's Help Grow Your Soup campaign. They've teamed up with the National FFA (Future Farmers of America) to restore five barns. You can choose from 10 barns and vote for your favorite here. For every vote cast, Campbell's is donating $1 (up to $250,000) to the FFA from 01 October 2009 to 05 January 2010.

(photo from Warholprints.com)

Put a Lid on it

Help Stonyfield Farm direct $100,000 to 3 organizations dedicated to helping Mother Earth. Go to Stonyfield Rewards to support any of these worthy causes:

1. The Organic Center
2. Energy Action Coalition
3. Center for Biological Diversity

You can cast votes as many times as you want. You can also earn rewards by collecting and entering reward codes printed on the back of the yogurt lids. Voting ends 15 December 2009.

A Small Dream

This was 16 years ago, @ the UN Conference on Environment and Development. I wish we could say the adults heeded her call.