Sustain By Design

Upcycled lighting design

Liza — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:54:21 +0000

I grew up buying cds, but have since turned to my i-devices to listen to music. So what to do with all those cds? The German design team Yea Yea have found a way to upcycle unwanted discs and turn them into a pendant light.

Here is another cool light designed by Pani Jurek that incorporates test tubes. The design was inspired by Polish scientist Maria Skłodowska-Curie who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Very cool.

Trek to Rome Point, Rhode Island

Liza — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:05:57 +0000

This weekend I joined up with a local ocean ecology group and headed south to Rhode Island to visit the seals that gather in Narragansett bay. The best time to visit is mid-winter, in February or March, but don’t let that deter you, it’s actually a pretty quick and nice walk through the woods of the John Chafee nature preserve.

After a quick walk through the woods, you reach the water.

The contrast of the snow and the shells on the beach was really quite beautiful.

When we got to the tip of rome point, you could see the seals out on rocks in the distance but they were slightly difficult to make out. Luckily, an ecologist with the nature preserve was there with an incredible telescope and binoculars so we could watch them haul out on the rocks.

Some of them were playful, some just lounged, some were booted off the rocks by the more assertive and older of the bunch.

If you live in the Boston or Providence area, I highly recommend going out to rome point to see the seals this winter. The ecologist we met said there can be up to 100+ seals hauled out on the rocks at one time. Amazing!

Cuppow!

Liza — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:03:01 +0000

The newest product to come out of Fringe, a collaborate workspace in Somerville, is the cuppow. For those of you that may already drink from canning jars, you know that it can sometimes be tricky to drink from the ridged glass edge if you’re on the go. The cuppow is a fitting solution.

The product is a plastic lid designed specifically for mason jars, which sandwiches between the glass rim and screw on cap to provide a leak proof and travel ready drinking jar.

via prolly is not probably

The design, developed by Aaron Panone and Joshua Resnikoff, grew out of a collaboration of creatives and designers who all work at Fringe. Housed under one roof are 13 small businesses and art studios that produce letterpress printing, web design and branding, custom bicycle design and manufacturing, photography, video, architecture, industrial design and product development, electrical and mechanical engineering, and green roofing. So when Panone and Resnikoff were looking for Cuppow packaging, and website design, they didn’t have to look very far.

I love the cuppow idea and am excited what other products can come out of creative collaborations at Fringe!

img via aarn_wrks_dsn

Our environmental future in the hands of… Rick Santorum

Liza — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 02:10:03 +0000

I’ve been trying to avoid the news lately but sometimes Republicans say the funniest (and, considering they may one day run this country, scariest) things. This is a good one from Rick Santorum on climate change. Here’s the transcript from a c-span video (via New Hampshire Primary):

Voter: I was wondering how you’ve integrated your financial policies with the findings of current climate change science.

Rick Santorum: The question is on how do I get my policies with climate change science.

I get asked this question a lot, and you look at the data and you can see some change in the climate.

But then again, pick a point in history where you haven’t seen a change in the climate.

The climate does change.

The question is, what is causing the climate to change.

And I think most scientists, in fact, I assume all scientists would agree there are a variety of factors that cause the climate change.

I don’t think any scientist in the world would suggest there isn’t a variety of factors, and I think the vast majority of scientists would say there’s probably a hundred factors that cause the climate to change.

And so why have we decided that this one particular factor, carbon dioxide, is in fact that tip of the tail that wags the entire dog.

Why from a scientific point of view do we make the assertion that this is in fact what is the case when there is a whole lot of other factors out there that could be affecting it?

So, that’s the question.

Some people have very strong feelings that it is that.

There are a lot of other people who don’t.

Here’s the question.

Let’s even assume, for purposes of argument, not that I agree with it, but for purposes of argument, that they are right.

Then what would be a rational response?

(and this is where he really shines):

Well, if you have a problem and you want to craft something, what should that thing that you’re crafting do?

Solve the problem.

Do any of the proposed solutions put forward by Al Gore and his friends do anything to solve the problem?

Even the scientists who support the theory will admit to you that it doesn’t do anything to solve the problem.

So query, why support the solution, other than you may have some other agenda that may be in place here.

Right?

And let’s go back to what that agenda is.

There’s a common theme that you should be hearing here.

They don’t trust you to allocate resources in a way that they believe is best, and so they want to have a system that forces you to do what they think you should do in running your business and your lives.

. . . . . . . . . .

Oy. Just, oy.

Billion dollar weather events

Liza — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:25:56 +0000

Hello and a happy new year!

As we head into 2012, it seems like a good time to look back at trends, and the infographics below display an interesting, albeit alarming, trend in our weather patterns. Here is a map showing the number of weather events that have caused at least $1 billion in damage between 1980 and 2011.

And this is what those disasters look like geographically (via livescience):

Palau Leads with Solar Array

Liza — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:33:16 +0000

Some of the smallest island nations are taking the biggest steps in sustainability. The Maldives has taken many actions to draw global attention to climate change including underwater meetings, protecting the surrounding waters for shark habitat and committing to carbon neutrality in the near future.

Now Palau, another small island nation that lies east of the Philippines is leading the way with solar power. The Palau International Airport has just installed a solar array (226.8kW) on top of shading structures in the parking lot.

photo via Kyocera

The cells, designed and implemented by Kyocera and Wakachiku Construction, have been reinforced for wind resistance due to the large number of typhoons that hit the islands every year. The system is expected to produce an annual power output of 250MWh, which is equivalent to off-setting about 80 tons of CO₂ per year.

Even though this isn’t a huge solar array in the global context, it is a big statement and here’s hoping that other nations will follow suit with renewables.

Have a happy and creative holiday!

Liza — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:27:45 +0000

One of my favorite things about Christmas is all the creativity it inspires. Look at these amazing examples:

Anthropologie window display

another Anthropologie display made of plastic water and soda bottles

A 42-foot tall Christmas tree made of 32,000 plastic bottles in Lithuania. By artist Jolanta Smidtiene.

Image source unknown.

“Ice Tree” sculpture. By studio Paprika.

Made entirely of used cds. By artist Tom Deininger.

86 shopping carts make up The Shopping Cart Tree

Made from 5-gallon water bottles and PVC pipe

Made of sushi. Ok, maybe not that sustainable but still amazing!

via Basic Label Sweden

Farm-to-Table Gone Literal

Liza — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:21:41 +0000

Picnics are fun, but the picNYC Table designed by Haiko Cornelissen Architecten may be taking the urban trend of farm-to-table to an extreme. Imagine your picnic brought inside to your table. This is what it would look like:

The picNYC Table is made from an aluminum frame which supports the stone, soil and sod layers that make up the table top. It would definitely make for a fun dinner party, say in the middle of winter when nostalgia for the greens of spring and summer set in, but the upkeep would quickly overcome any culinary pleasures; the sod has to be watered and trimmed with scissors by hand. For those that have suburban lawn mowing envy this would be enticing, but I think in my apartment I’d end up dining on a field of overgrown grass, probably with a few dandelions sprouting up. Although customization is one of the things the designers had in mind as they explain,

Based on the number of cuts, maintenance, usage, sunlight and season, the PicNYC table responds with a variety of colors to the conditions set by the owner. However, the color can always be reset to bright green since fresh sod is available year round.

Interesting. Well hey, if your glass of water seems a little unstable on the sod top, don’t worry about it spilling, you’re just helping the cause.

Photos: Iwan Baan & Alan Tansey

The portable, pop-up Muvbox

Liza — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:37:57 +0000

Shipping containers have been used as architecture for awhile, and the pop-up restaurant / retail / event space idea is pretty well accepted in many cities. But the concept seems to be evolving into movable, completely self-sufficient spaces, as is the case with the Muvbox.

The original Muvbox, created by Daniel Noiseux is a portable shipping container based in the Old Port of Montreal that serves bistro style food and specializes in lobster. Other versions of the Muvbox have since been popping up in places like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Times Square.

So what’s so unique about it? One cool feature are the rooftop solar panels that provide power for the lighting and opening and closing procedures (they are currently developing model that will be able to run entirely off the grid). The Muvbox that popped up in New York, called SnackBox, has fresh and grey water supply tanks, and heat recovery from the generator to warm the interior space. The other interesting feature is the automated opening and closing of the unit. Watch this video to see how it goes from a closed shipping container to a working restaurant within minutes:

Pretty cool. I like the fact that it’s designed for things to tuck away or fold up/down easily to be as customizable and flexible as possible.

A roundup

Liza — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:11:33 +0000

Happy December!

Here are some interesting bits, news, and ideas I’ve come across lately:

A cool idea for making wintery scenes using canning jars (seen at Anthropologie).

NASA finds another habitable planet much like Earth (average climate is a balmy 72 degrees.)

Which is greener: a real or fake Christmas tree?

I like Frank Lloyd Wright’s advice for his apprentices: “study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

Beautiful photos of a tragic natural disaster in Thailand.

Watch: Life in a Day.

Occupy Rooftops to fund solar projects.

Take a 5 minute roadtrip across the country.

Birdhouses for the High Line.

Paris is on the green roof bandwagon.

DIY gift wrap.

Born electric. The BMWi concept car makes an appearance in Miami.

I saw this documentary on the Galapagos this weekend and highly recommend it.