January 21st, 2008 categories: Design, For Fun, Green Living
Back in December, we talked about a few companies that sell eco starter kits: (gift) boxes containing products like aluminium water bottles, energy-efficient light bulbs and low-flow shower heads, all aimed at helping jump-start a more environment-friendly lifestyle.
Now, Springwise has alerted us to Eco-Me, which took the concept a step further by developing kits that help consumers create their own cleaning products. Whether for health or environmental reasons, more people are switching to ‘natural’ cleaning products from brands like Ecover and Seventh Generation. Eco-Me’s founder—Robin Levine—was concerned about the (small) amounts of synthetic chemicals that are still present in most eco-cleaners, and decided to go back to basics, mixing her own products using simple recipes and ingredients that have been used for hundreds of years.
Making it easier for other consumers to follow her lead, Levine created kits that contain the necessary tools: spray bottles for mixing spray cleaner and polish, mixing jar, natural bristle scrub brush, mixer, microfibre cleaning cloth, and a bottle of Eco-Me’s Home Cleaning Essential Oil. Plus, of course, instructions on how to make various products by adding oil, vinegar, water and baking soda.
Besides kits for home cleaning, Eco-Me also sells kits for making natural body, baby and pet products—currently only in the United States and Canada. While true eco warriors get their instructions online or from friends and track down ingredients from local sources, other consumers need help taking steps to greener living. Story
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January 16th, 2008 categories: Design, Green Living, Home Ownership
Finding sustainable and affordable ways to power the world is clearly a substantial and increasingly urgent challenge. And according to Springwise, Dutch startup Qurrent is taking the notion a step further with technology to enable neighborhood-wide energy networks.
Because of fluctuating patterns of consumption, homes with wind and solar energy generators can find themselves with surplus energy at some times of the day but not enough at others. Surplus energy typically gets sold back to the main grid, but as much as 30 percent of it gets lost along the way, according to EcoGeek. When a group of homes work together to manage their collective energy generation and use, on the other hand, higher levels of demand in one home can be matched with surpluses in others, thus evening out the group’s overall consumption and minimizing the amount that must be drawn from the main grid. Participating homes essentially form a “mini-grid” that shares energy internally before exchanging any with the main grid, thereby minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency.
To make it all happen, Qurrent provides a device for each participating house known as a Qbox. Each linked to a central Qserver, the Qboxes in the network monitor energy flows in each home and optimize them for maximum network-wide efficiency. They share capacities as needed among neighbours, and can also autonomously turn on devices such as washing machines and dryers so that they are run at the optimal time. A consumer could tell their Qbox that they want their laundry done by 6 p.m. and that it will take roughly 1.5 hours, for example. They can then go to work and the Qbox will decide when is the best time to run it, taking into account their production profiles and energy rates as well as those of their neighbors.
Qurrent won the 2007 Picnic Green Challenge for the best marketable green idea that could be developed and sold to consumers within two years. Along with the award came a EUR 500,000 prize, which reportedly will be used to pilot-test the concept in a Netherlands neighborhood.
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January 8th, 2008 categories: Design, For Fun, Green Living
According to the folks over at Springwise, one day, many new full-sized homes may resemble the Power House. The $149.95 miniature model from science-kit distributor Thames & Kosmos comes with a working green house, solar panels, a wind mill and a desalinization system. The kit’s aim: teach children what it’s like to live off the grid, and get them (and their parents) to “consider a life without fossil fuel.” To make the experience more realistic, the user manual incorporates a storyline about high-tech pioneers inhabiting a small island who must make use of limited resources to survive. The 70 experiments and 20 building projects that form part of the kit mimic the tasks the kit’s fictional pioneers must perform.
As environmental awareness becomes a dominant theme, it’s no surprise that green-tech learning toys such as the Power House are emerging. One popular example: in 2006, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, a Singapore-based maker of hydrogen fuel cells for consumer products, debuted the $115 H-racer, a fuel-cell powered toy car that comes with a solar-powered hydrogen generating station and needs only water to run. The H-racer won kudos from Time and BusinessWeek, and spawned a number of competitors. Full Story
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