We create energy in our everyday lives, which when unharnessed goes unused.   I’ve been seeing many designers coming up with ingenious ways to capture this energy and use it for the purpose of powering something which conventionally required electric or battery power.  Designer, Deco Goodman, is no exception.  Goodman created a headlight and tail light for a bicycle that is powered by the energy created when you pedal your bicycle.  The lights get their power from the energy collected by spring movements in the seats and a wheel mounted generator system.  There is an additional battery being charged which can be later used to power your cell phone or iPod.  Check out Deco Goodman’s website for more product info.

Human Powered Bike Lights

Ecocho.com is a new eco friendly search engine which plants five trees for every 1000 searches made on its website.  Ecocho uses Yahoo’s search technology to power searches made on their site and the resulting trees are purchased from advertising revenue generated on the site.  Searches lead to trees being planted which results in slowing climate change.  A big thanks to Yahoo for contributing the search technology to get ecocho.com running.

I used to work in a building where the heater didn’t work.  This was obviously fine during the summer but during the winters it was excrutiatingly painful.  My whole body was cold but the one thing I noticed was it was difficult for me to type and therefore work because my hands were ice cold.  Well, there is now a solution.  You can buy heated gloves powered by your computer’s USB port.  The gloves cover most of your hand, but keep your fingers exposed so you can still be Speedy Gonzales on the keyboard.  The gloves have two warming pads and warming levels built in to make sure your hands stay crispy.  These are great because you can turn off the heater and save energy.   Put these on, plug them in, and save the planet.  You can buy them here.

Don’t worry about changing another light bulb again!  Frog Design, a renowned global design firm, has created a environmentally friendly light bulb which can last up to 30 years.    The light bulb fits into a standard light bulb socket so you won’t need to retrofit all your lamps and lighting fixtures.  They offer better energy efficiency than compact fluorescent lights and unlike fluorescent lights you don’t have to worry about toxic mercury when you dispose of your them.   During the design phase, the designers took 3 things into consideration: environmental aspects, durability, and aesthetics.   Imagine the positive impact to the environment if everyone in the world changed their light bulbs once every 30 years.  Brilliant.

Charlie Trafford, a 69 year old Australian, has been making Biodiesel from oil for many years.  He would often go down to his local fish and chips shop, get their used oil, and make biodiesel.  Charlie wanted to expand his homemade biodiesel project and take it nationwide.  One problem though.  There isn’t enough used cooking oil in Australia to power all of the Aussie’s cars.  Charlie found a better, more ecofriendly way to make biodiesel.  Charlie recruited a biochemist and got to work to create a quality biodiesel from algae.  He said algae can come from the CO2 from the smokestacks of coal or natural gas-fired power stations.  Another source is from nutrients soften found in sewage treatment works.  The technology Charlie and his team have developed will create algae in a bolt on black box.  Once the technology is installed, it will cost almost nothing to create an endless supply of algae.

I’m sure everyone who is reading this has moved at some point in their life.   Its often a hassle that involves moving things you haven’t moved in years, finding things you thought you lost years ago, and packing it all up to take to the next place.  Most people go down to their local moving company store, buy overpriced cardboard boxes, and then throw them away after the move is complete.   A new San Francisco based company has sprung up to recycle your cardboard boxes.  Boxcycle.com has created a website that allows you to post your location, the number of cardboard boxes you have, and your selling price.  Locals looking for cardboard boxes simply enter their zip code to find the closest sellers of cardboard and complete the transaction on boxcycle.com.  Boxcycle handles the transaction, and the buyer uses a printed ticket to pickup from the seller.  If enough people use this service imagine how much cardboard will be saved each year.

The technology to recharge batteries has been around a long time, but people continue to buy expensive non-rechargeable batteries.  Well, if you can’t beat em, then join em.  Sort of.  Designer Sun Woo Park has created a street light that will accept batteries to power it.  The concept is simple.  There are holes in a canister attached to the base of the light where people can deposit their used batteries.  Whatever charge is left on the battery will then be used to power the street light.  When the power is fully used, the light will turn off.  The goal will be to get people of the community to constantly deposit their used batteries to maintain continuous power for the streetlight.  One drawback of this type of public light is that people may start depositing other items into the holes meant for batteries (gum, trash, etc).   However, I think this concept of reusing batteries can be applied to other areas such as powering items in homes and offices.   Share your thoughts on possible applications in the comments section.  (Courtesy of Dvice.com)

I thought this was an absolutely amazing story.  Yves Rossy (AKA The Jetman) flew across the English Channel from France to England using only a jet pack attached to his back.  The 22 mile record breaking flight was made using 4 kerosene burning jet turbines attached to a wing.  Rossy flew at an average of 8,800 feet wearing a helmet and flame proof suit at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour.   The jet pack has no steering controls so Rossy used his body to control the flight direction.  Total time for the trip was thirteen minutes.  Upon reaching England, Rossy released a parachute and arrived to mobs of people and reporters.  The jet wing has been in development for 6 years, and Rossy practiced flying with the jet wing inside of  wind tunnel.  An excitement announcement for all you big kids out there: Rossy plans to improve the design and market it to the general public!

I'm Superman!

You know those leaves you rake up and throw away?  Would you be impressed if I told you could make cool products including furniture from those leaves?  I know you would!  Naturecast is doing just that.  They are gathering dry leaves, barks, and dead twigs from the city of Compostela in the Phillipines, shredding them through a special machine and then using a natural process to bond them together to form functional art and beautiful furniture.  Pete and Catherine Delantar, the founders of Naturecast, are not only cleaning up the forest litter to prevent forest fires in Compostela, they are also helping the people of this poor community by providing jobs and giving back a share of their sales to help the local area.

A couple of weeks ago we reported on companies using recycled shipping containers to develop homes.  Travelodge has taken it a step further by building an entire hotel in Uxbridge, England out of recycled shipping containers.  Not only is Travelodge doing the environment a favor by reducing their material usage by 70%, but they are reducing their construction costs by almost 20 million dollars per hotel.  The hotel construction time is reduced by 40-60% and the construction crew doesn’t require nearly as much specialized skilled labor which greatly reduces overall construction costs. Verbus Sytems is the construction company behind Travelodge’s environmentaly friendly new concept.  The amazing part is that the interior and exterior of the hotel look identical to other conventional Travelodge hotels.