Woven Fiberoptic Chandeliers

At Inhabitat they are devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.. This beautiful light fixture is designed by Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe. Currently hanging in the atrium at Amsterdam’s SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space), the three fiberoptic “Lace Bobbin Lamps” provide stunning light without the use of lightbulbs. Their light is delivered via a remote power box.  Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe have been collaborating since 1997, and are part of the Dutch design force Droog.

Anyone can be a Zapatista - Indigenous Corn alive and well in Sonoma County, California

Benjamin Fahrer, a Sonoma County Permaculturist living at Oceansong, commits to the Mayan People of Mexico to preserve their traditions and the integrity of indigenous corn.

read more | digg story

You Can Solve All Your Problems in a Garden

That's what Geoff Lawton says.  He may be on to something.  People laughed at him, and said the 10 acre plot of desert where nothing grew was a salt laden dustbowl.  In four months, Lawton had figs growing.  Check out this video via the Urban Permaculture Guild.

Greening of the United Kingdom from Current TV

Via Influx comes a video on the greening of the UK from CurrentTV.  Notes on climate change as a public priority, and a green recording studio in London fill out the report.

Google has "Big Goals and Directions"

From Treehugger comes a post about an internal memo from Google entitled "Big Goals and Directions " that was recently leaked to the public. Amongst promises to expand advertising revenue another billion dollars, and to control spam in 20 different languages, Google also expounded on plans to increase its green power consumption to ten megawatts in the short term, and sees that as a step toward complete carbon neutrality.

Google searches stored copies of the entire internet millions of times daily, the hardware required to perform that amazing feat is not trivial. Google operates some 50,000 servers, each one consuming a good deal of power. Google has recently warned that the power consumed by servers is soon going to cost more than the machines themselves.

Estimates of Google's power consumption lie in the 20 to 30 megawatt range, so 10 megawatts of green energy is not an insignificant step toward carbon neutrality. Already, Google has 2 megawatts of solar online to help power its Mountain Valley complex, the Googleplex.

Where will the other eight megawatts come from? We're still waiting to see.

Use Only What You Need - Denver Water

Spotted this on ThreeMinds, Denver-based ad agency Sukle Advertising +Design created this campaign for water conservation in Denver.  Clever, simple, mindful.

Computer Recycling Center

From Daily Candy comes another of their great reminders.  The Computer Recycling Center (CRC) takes all computers and electronics - working and nonworking - and warehouse overstocks of parts and equipment: Computers, Network, Telephone, Cellphone, Office Electronics, Industrial Electronics. (Recycling for Computers, Laptops, Electronics, eWaste, and eRecycling) Scrap computers and parts are reduced to recyclable metal, plastic, P.C.Board, and cable.  Drop off centers in the San Francisco Bay Area are listed on their site, and pick ups are available for qualifying businesses with multiple donations. 

Founded in 1991, it is the largest and oldest continuously operating full-service collection, reuse, and refurbishment program in the USA. Working with businesses and municipalities, CRC's participation in collection and drop-off programs diverted over 6 million pounds of computer equipment from landfills last year. Reuse of entire units is given highest priority, followed by disassembly for reuse of parts, and finally recycling for the elements of unusable remaining items.

CRC's mission is to promote the highest and best re-use of computer and electronic equipment, and recycle unusable items to keep them out of landfills.

If you have equipment gathering dust, or plan to replace in the coming gifting season, please remember to keep electronics out of landfills and utilize this exceptional service.

RootCast 3 Green Blast from the Green Festival

Root's Dominique Pacheco speaks with Denise Hamler of Co-op America and the Green Fest.

Green Fest - Root Recommendations

Root spent Friday walking the Green Festival catching up with friends and meeting new ones.  Because it was the first day of the three-day event, there was less foot traffic, and we got a chance to chat with a few favorites, as well as meeting some great new (to us) companies and learning about their products and services.  A Rootcast will follow soon, but in the meantime, we wanted to give a shout out for this short list of companies to watch:

gDiapers - Imagine taking your baby's soiled diaper and simply flushing it down the toilet. No more smell, no more diaper, no more diaper pail. Putting waste right where it belongs - in the toilet, not in a landfill. That’s exactly how gDiapers work.  The wet ones can also be composted - eliminating the 500 years that conventional disposables take to break down.  Husband and wife team, Jason and Kim Graham-Nye brought gDiapers from Australia, where the product has been available since 1991.  Located in Portland, a model city of sustainability, seems a good fit for such a fine idea.  Root loves the idea of a product everyone needs at one time in their lives, being so well-disposed.

Pangea - Not only are they the fastest growing organic skincare line in the world, Pangea's packaging is truly notable - all the product boxes are made using a new Zero Waste process with 100% post-consumer paper (newspaper) and organic seeds like sweet basil and amaranth.  Soak the box in water for a minute and plant it in the earth...fundamental and brilliant!  Oh, and Root bought their GreenFest special:  cleanser, toner, moisturizer and mask - love these products!

Christopher Peck & Holistic Solutions - Root works with Christopher to advise and manage investments.  Coming from a permaculture background, and providing holistic financial planning and socially responsible investment advice, Christopher aims to build wealth by aligning your decisions with your deepest values and highest aspirations. Holistic Solutions offers financial services focused on life planning, natural, ethical investing and the path to financial independence and sustainability. Christopher was at the GreenFest in association with his partners at Natural Investment Services, Inc.

Sambazon - Six years ago, nobody in the US had heard of acai, a dark purple fruit the size of a blueberry that comes from the Amazonian rain forest.  Take a walk through Whole Foods today, and get an idea of how successful this young company has been at introducing the antioxidant-rich superfood to the world.  It's everywhere!  But that's only half the story.  The Sambazon Team's commitment to  create positive socioeconomic change and promote rainforest conservation and biodiversity are evidenced in the behind the scenes projects they are stewarding.

IdealBite.com - Biters Heather Stephenson and Jennifer Boulden have the right idea - make lifestyle changes digestible and playful in order to get the mainstream over in the green lane.  Their posts arrive daily, and they offer well-researched and thoughtful suggestions in various shades of green.

Alcoa, Morgan Stanley, Walmart in the Sustainable Equation

GreenBiz.com posts on three corporate players making big moves on the sustainability front.

Alcoa says it is actively developing, evaluating, and implementing natural sustainable technologies to reduce the environmental footprint at its aluminum smelting, refining, and production facilities.

The innovative technologies, called Engineered Natural Systems, use a variety of plants, soils, and microbes to reduce the volume of discharged stormwater and process water as well as the concentrations of pollutants in the discharged water. These passive "green" technologies are helping Alcoa to achieve environmental goals stated in its "2020 Strategic Framework for Sustainability," which calls for the company to reduce process water usage by 70% from 2000 to 2010 and achieve zero water discharge by 2020. 

Morgan Stanley says it plans to invest in approximately $3 billion of carbon/emissions credits, projects and other initiatives related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction over the next five years.

The majority of this investment will represent increased commitments to purchase carbon credits from projects as the Firm's Commodities Trading Department expands its existing Carbon and Emissions platform. The remainder will constitute investments in projects and initiatives related to emissions reduction, such as those certified under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) initiatives. These projects allow developed countries to transfer and fund emissions-reducing technology in other signatory nations. The United Nations oversees the project registration and approval process.

Wal-Mart Stores says it plans to begin implementing its "Preferred Chemical Principles" to establish a clear set of preferred chemical characteristics for product ingredients.

The purpose is to drive the development of more sustainable products for "mother, child, and the environment," according to the company. The first three of these priority chemicals are being announced at the Molecule-to-Molecule meeting, a two-day event hosted by the Chemical Intensive Product Network (CIP), a group designed to engage suppliers, NGO's, government, academics and other subject matter experts on issues and opportunities around product sustainability.

With so far to go on our path to reducing the human footprint on the planet, real time corporate responsibility by such key players is not only overdue, but essential to catching up with good will among the educated consumers who utilize their products and services.