Greening You » Products

Green plugs to the rescue

Editor — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:01:04 +0000

That AC adapter hanging off most of your electric toys could be sucking your wallet dry. Never fear though, Green Plug, if the company gets it’s way, is going to change all that.
The good news- GreenPlug power systems stop charging products when the batteries in their associated products reach full charge and includes a glowing status indicator like those in Apple’s laptops. The solution relies on a chip and firmware called GreenTalk embedded into the device that communicates with the power supply.

The bad news -For most electronics manufacturers is the cost of adding a new chip to their products can be prohibitively expensive.

The good news. Green Plug gets that if they want to succeed they’ll have to make some happy converts (pardon the pun) fast, so they are offering electronics component manufacturers chips to get started with. See a demo and learn more at demo.com

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Is spending big bucks for a water bottle the next green trend?

Editor — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:45:08 +0000

Of course by now everybody knows that drinking water from Bisphenol-A containing plastic is bad and we are looking for alternatives. There’s no question that we should all be looking for better solutions to the habit of carrying water, and several companies have responded. We did a quick survey of our contacts to see what they were doing.
Some use aluminum , many rely on their trusty Nalgene (Now BPA free),recycled glass bottles or the Camelback and all have their virtues. But where’s the marketing sex appeal?

it’s right here. Designed by design firm RKS Design, KOR ONE hydration vessels will be on sale at their website shortly.

What interested me about this particular company is how well they have marketed the product. It’s on blogs everywhere, links are popping up in Twitter touting the design, the KOR Stone (TM) (A disc shaped slip of paper that inserts into the lid with a mantra printed on it to inspire you each time you open the lid.) People relate the design to Apple. I certainly think they’ve modeled their marketing after Apple’s as well. The bottles aren’t even on the market yet, but here we are, wishing we had one!

Like SIGG, KOR donates 1% of sales to non-profits focusing on water related issues, and the company mission states “we need to be sustainable, ethical and transparent throughout all our business practices”.
Good for them.

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Organic Design

Editor — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:32:55 +0000

Ross Lovegrove talks about designing using organic shapes. He blends his love of technology with a belief that the natural world had the right idea all along: Many of his pieces are inspired by principles of evolution and microbiology.

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Sustainable Wine

Editor — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:38:48 +0000

As we move towards a more sustainable lifestyle we look not only at the product itself and it’s content, we look to see if the product is manufactured in a way that is sustainable as well. If not totally organic, is it made of materials that are renewable? Does it contain pesticides or harmful chemicals (sometimes under the guise of protecting us) and are the people who work for the company that makes it fairly treated?

When it comes to wine, there are quite a few options. Some less drinkable than others however as our “research” quickly showed us. We’ll share the cream of the crop of sustainably grown wines. Not all are certified organic, but they all practice sustainable viticulture practices.

Shafer Vineyards

Shafer practices low impact sustainable practices including planting cover crops to control weeds and erosion, return nitrogen to the soil and provide habitat for “good” insects that feed on leafhoppers and other vineyard pests. To control the rodents that like to live in the cover crop, they installed barn owl nesting boxes. Shafer uses natural fertilizers and minimal use of sulfur to control mildew on the vines.

Winemaker notes

Shafer’s 2005 Merlot has won several awards, including Food and Wine’s “Merlot of the Year” award in 2007
Winemaker’s notes
“This Merlot comes with big scoops of red and black fruit aromas and flavors. I get fresh plums, sweet black cherries, currants, red licorice, a little pepper, and pleasing doses of fragrant earth, smoke, and minerality.” – Elias Fernandez

“… possesses crisp acidity as well as an elegant bouquet of berry fruit, menthol, sweet cherries, and spice. The tremendous aromatics are followed by abundant fruit.”

Willakenzie Estates

The philosophy at Willakenzie Estates is simple: “Healthy Soil, Healthy Vines, Healthy People”. They practice sustainable viticulture in every aspect of the company’s operation from planting cover crops and protecting wildlife habitat to taking care of their employees year round.

Winemaker notes

Willakenzie Estates creates a variety of wines from their single vineyard –each with it’s own distinct character– and have won acclaim across the board from the luscious Pinot Gris to the formidable Terres Basses.

“Producing Pinots with intense flavors, robust structures, round and supple tannins is our passion and raison d’être. ”

“Terres Basses–The beautiful, dark ruby color of this wine immediately suggests its depth. Rich aromas of cranberry, cassis, and plum are followed by hints of earthiness, tobacco, and subtle tangerine peel. The flavors offer both red and black fruit; black cherry, blackberry, and blueberry combining with rhubarb and pomegranate for a complex, satisfying palate impression and a long finish. This is a big wine, whose intense fruit is well balanced by bright acidity and supple tannins.”

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Solar Powered iPhone?

Editor — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:06:31 +0000

Apple has filed a patent for solar technology that can fit under a touch-screen similar to those on iPhones and iPod touch. In general, the problem with solar charging portable items with solar cells is the amount of surface area, but on the iPhone there’s a large screen area that could come in pretty handy when the rumored 3G phones come out.

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Outdoor lighting

Editor — Sat, 24 May 2008 16:38:16 +0000

Recently, we upgraded our landscaping to more drought resistant plants. We did a lot of research online on Xeriscaping and intend to expand that to the rest of our yard over the next couple of years. To show off our lovely plants we wanted to install lighting, but not to lay conduit or to waste electricity. We found these
solar flood lights made by Malibu to be just what we needed. These particular lights can be wall or fence mounted, so you can get several angles, but there are also stake mounted options that we used around the base of the native grasses that really highlight them well.
Installation took minutes, a little bit of fiddling with them at night to get the angles just right, and we never have to worry about ‘em again. I have to mention that we bought the first set at a local hardware store, then went online and found the best deals at Amazon. Even with shipping we saved quite a bit.

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Swat Down Vampire Power

Editor — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:54:48 +0000

Vampire power is the power that your electronics use when they are in standby mode. You know, things like the microwave, DVD players and yes, definitely your printer. Department of Energy, national residential electricity consumption in 2004 was 1.29 billion megawatt hours (MWh)—5% of which is 64m MWh. The wasted energy, in other words, is equivalent to the output of 18 typical power stations.
There is a movement afoot to encourage manufacturers to either remove or diminish the wattage of standby power, and Britain is moving fast to ban them altogether.

What can you do?
The first one is easy. If you only use your DVD once a week, un-plug it. If you don’t want to have to manage this yourself all over the house, and easier answwer is to get a Smart Power Strip. These turn off the power to the device when it senses you’re not using it.
Want to see how much power your devides are using when you’re not looking? Get a Watt Meter, you may be surprised at how much you could save by turning some things off.

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What the heck’s a Zombu?

Editor — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:16:37 +0000

It’s a super green friendly computer, that’s what.
The Zombu comes as a desktop or laptop device and runs on only 15 watts of power (about 10% of what the average computer uses). Not only that, it’s certified by a slew of green rating boards, and they even offer free recycling to eliminate e-waste.

Here’s the specs on the laptop.

Processor: 1.5GHz, VIA C7-M Intel-compatible, low energy use
Display: 15.4″ WXGA Widescreen (1440 x 900) and VGA output
Memory: 512MB
Hard Disk local storage: 60GB (58GB for your data)
Optical Drive: DVD-ROM/CD-RW
Graphics: VIA Chrome9 HC IGP (64MB shared memory, 128MB maximum)
Audio: built-in speaker, microphone and headphone ports
3 USB 2.0 ports
Ethernet: 10/100 Mbps built-in - broadband ready
Wifi: Built-in 802.11b/g
Power Supply: 65 Watt AC-DC Adapter
Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-Ion, 2h30 to 3h, depending on usage
Measurements: 14.1″ x 10.7″ x 1.5″ (35.8cm x 27.2cm x 3.8cm)
Weight: 5.3lbs (2.4kg)
Keyboard: American QWERTY

On top of that the computer is low cost, starting at $99 and $14.95/month.
Find out more, and give some thought to going a little greener with your next computer purchase.

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Natural cleaning products from New Zealand

Editor — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:07:54 +0000

Beauty Engineered forEver (BEE) products are created with keeping your home and your planet spiffy clean. B_E_E is the only range of cleaning products in New Zealand to have achieved Environmental Choice accreditation and are endorsed by New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment.

Ingredients include essential oils and natural ingredients and their marketing’s not half bad either.

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Composting in your kitchen

Editor — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:02:22 +0000

Composting your home waste takes dedication. Whether you’re worm composting or using a bin in the backyard, the compost needs constant attention to work properly. Often people start out with good intentions but just don’t keep it up. The compost doesn’t get turned, it rots or draws pests etc, etc.

This seems like a pretty good alternative to the usual compost bin. The compost is heated so it degrades faster and the bin turns itself so there is no handling necessary. when the compost is ready it drops into a receptacle in the bottom, ready to add to your garden.

The best part for me is that you can keep it right in the kitchen, where it’s easy to toss in the trimmings and dinner leftovers as they occur instead of trudging out to the compost bin and mixing it in.

Take a look at Nature Mill.

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