The UK’s first eco community has been granted permission to start building a mini eco village. The community will consist of nine families who are going to build their houses from straw bale, mud and timber in the Welsh village of Glandwr.
The community is called the Lammas and the members will build four detached dwellings and a row of five attached houses on a plot of 76 acres. They’re going to live off-grid and collect their water from a spring that’s existing on site as well as from rain water captured on the turf-made roofs of their houses.
Got an great idea for an eco-solution? Submit a short film or photo essay to the Sundance Channel. The TV station kicks off season two of “What’s The Big Idea” next month on “The Green,” Sundance Channel’s weekly environmental show.
Contestants participate in “Big Ideas For A Small Planet,” which is presented by Lexus Hybrid Living. What do you have to do to participate? Submit a one-minute short film or photo essay featuring your “Big Idea” to [...]
The Open Skies agreement which deregulates the aviation industries of the US and Europe will come into effect March 30th. But the treaty is undermined by a row over offsetting pollution.
Theoretically the agreement whereby airlines from the US and Europe are allowed to land in any airport on the two continents, should lower flight costs, open up airlines to foreign ownership and the create new flight routes between Europe and the US. But it ain’t happening. All of these targets are obscured in heavy clouds.
Virgin Atlantic, which inaugurated the world’s first biofuel flight a few weeks back, told a recent New York news conference that it doesn’t foresee any progress on Open Skies in the near future. The company hasn’t even chosen any destinations for new flight routes and says this is not in the cards for at least another two years.
Peace in the Middle East might be a near impossible dream but on-the-ground-efforts are all the more impressive for it. Take the initiative by Adam Neiman, a Boston-based Jewish entrepreneur partnering with a Palestinian clothing factory. Neiman’s NoSweatApparel.com makes a ton of difference for dozens of Palestinians working the looms of an organic clothing factory in Bethlehem on the West Bank.
An important part of the Palestinian economy consists of organic cotton manufacturing but the conflict in the Middle East has badly impacted the industry. Neiman signed a deal with the organic cotton manufacturing company in Bethlehem after it had been forced to ax 30% of its workers. Many of the laid off workers returned to the Bethlehem factory after he stepped in. The deal included the creation of a trade union.
“We’ve found a rare piece of common ground — more good jobs for Palestinians on the West Bank will help,” the Boston entrepreneur was quoted as saying in a recent interview. “Economic development is no substitute for a diplomatic settlement but no settlement can survive without a sustainable Palestinian economy,” Neiman added.
New solar technology based on organic photoelectrochemical, dye-sensitized cells, is being implemented in hundreds of every day use consumer products ranging from clothing, smart cards, gadgets, lighting to windows and building facades.
Konarka, a Lowell, MS, company pioneering the technology, says it’s ready to market the products in which the solar dye has been implemented after the summer. The technology has a light to energy conversion rate of of 7.2 percent. This compares to 16 to 20 percent of regular, photovoltaic, solar technology.
The advantages of dye solar technology include flexible implementation options. Dye-based solar technology also converts low light and light rays at obscure angles. Plus the electricity generated can be applied to specific current wavelengths.
Despite all the talk of the fight against global warming, the major driving factor behind US consumers’ appetite for green products is health, according to research published by Mintel.
The report, entitled Green Living, researches the factors involved in environmentally friendly purchasing decisions and establishes a firm connection between health concerns and green food products. Green food sales are experiencing massive growth, Mintel says. The research house predicts the natural food and drink products market to be worth $19.6 billion this year, compared to $11.9 billion last year.
One factor in the growth is the ever increasing sophistication by producers who go to great lengths to innovate product development procedures. In the next few years, the alcoholic beverages branch might be one to watch. Mintel singles this area out as a new growth sector. A clear example of an alcohol company “going green” is McCormick Distillery’s recent launch of a new luxurious brand called 360 Vodka.
