The Contina line by Hape International is said to be the first range of 100% bamboo toys. They are colored with natural, water-based paints. The full range is available from Hape through Amazon. Found via: Eco Child’s Play

Russ Roca has posted a great review of the Bilenky cargo bike on his Bike Commuters site. After 300 miles of test riding, he says the Bilenky is better than the Xtracycle or LongJohn cargo bikes.

It’s called the GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, and with 2,292 individual color LEDs, comparable to a 24,000 sq. ft. monitor screen, it’s said to be the largest color LED display in the world. The wall is solar-powered too — photovoltaics are integrated into the wall’s glass curtain, and it harvests power during the day, to illuminate the display at night. Read more →

Magenn Power has been testing its airship-based wind turbines— the company hopes to prove that its “air rotor system” will work. The Canadian startup has named the system MARS. It consists of a blimp that is tethered to the ground, and rotates horizontally in the wind, generating electricity. According to Greentech Media, the blimp is designed to float between 600 and 1000 feet above the ground, and its intended to produce power capacities ranging from 10 kilowatts to several megawatts. Read more →

The most efficient land vehicle goes well with spring.

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The Proximity Hotel is proof that a hotel can be very green without sacrificing the comfort of its guests. The hotel is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and it achieved a Gold LEED certification this year from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Proximity uses 36.5% less energy and 30% less water than a conventional hotel. It gets 60% of its hot water from 100 solar thermal panels on the roof. The hotel also boasts the first regenerative drive elevator, which recaptures energy as the elevator moves down.

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I’ve been testing a surging-protecting power strip called the Smart Strip by BITS. The Smart Strip works like this: it has a “Control Outlet” which controls six other outlets on the power strip. If you plug a computer into the Control Outlet, and it turns off or goes into sleep mode, the other “switched” outlets on the strip will be turned off. Read more →

Train travel — it’s an efficient form of travel that really should revived in this country. Air travel, as we know it today, doesn’t make much sense, if closely examined (although I’d like to see zero-emission planes and airship-based travel). But I digress — Allison Rogers, an optimal living trailblazer, has been commuting up and down the East Coast by rail for a while now. On Earth Day she took the overnight Amtrak train from Boston to DC. At Union Station, she changed from pajamas to work clothes, and went straight into work at the Capitol! Read more →

Foot pedal faucet controllers allow you to control a faucet hands-free. These devices are efficient and hygienic — they are commonly found in commercial kitchens and hospitals. I’m not sure why we don’t see them in more homes. You can reduce water use by 50% using pedal controllers, and if it’s hot water, you’ll be saving power too.

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This 13 watt bulb, the Evolux by EarthLED, is said to be first LED light to be able to replace a 100 watt incandescent. The lifetime of this bulb is rated at over 50,000 hours — which is five times longer than a compact fluorescent bulb. Other advantages of LED bulbs is their ability to brighten instantly, and be switched off and on rapidly without problems. They also contain no mercury. LED-based bulbs do, however, require more energy to manufacture that CFL or incandescents.

The Evolux uses a CREE light engine, and it contains a small fan to cool the circuit board. EarthLED has a video of the bulb in action, and also some photos showing the type of the light it renders. The Evolux bulb sells about $90 right now. If you are serious about energy efficiency, or if you’re using solar power, this might be the bulb for you.

Via: EcoGeek

^{eSolar employees put the final touches on the mirrors used to focus sunlight.}

eSolar is a startup company which is in the process of building solar thermal power plants. It was one of the first startups to earn financial support from Google. This morning it received $130 millions dollars in funding from Google.Org, Bill Gross’ Idealab, Oak Investment Partners, and other smaller investors. The company says it will have a power plant up and running later this year in southern California. Read more →

Officials at Rock Port, Missouri, christened a four-turbine wind farm this week, making Rock Port the first U.S. city to get 100% of its electricity from wind power. Read more →

I’ve been doing a lot of work in the MetaEfficient lab. I thought I would post an update on my experiments and research:

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Icebreaker, a New Zealand company, is proving that wool can be worn in warm weather. They have released a new line of  “ultra-fine” merino wool T-shirts.  I’ve been testing their Tech T Lite while biking, it has performed quite admirably in the heat — it keeps you cool, and retains less odor than a cotton shirt. I am prone to be aggravated by materials that make you itch - but I didn’t find Icebreaker’s merino wool itchy. Icebreaker now has a entire range of men’s and women’s summer clothing. Read more →

This is a quick post to let you know that the Bahrain World Trade Center has turned on all three of its huge wind turbines simultaneously. For a glimpse of the turbines in action, check out the video over the fold: Read more →

This new building in Seattle by Weber + Thompson requires no air conditioning. To achieve this feat, the architects made use of numerous passive cooling elements throughout the building. Passive cooling means no electricity or other fuel is needed — instead strategic shading and orientation is used, rather than high-tech gadgetry. Read more →

Architecture firm Foster + Partners won an international competition to design a green complex that will fill an entire city block in downtown Singapore. This complex will be on the leading edge of green design. It will incorporate arrays of solar cells on the buildings’ facades. Ribbon-like canopies (also covered with thin-film solar cells) will start at the base of the complex, and rise up the exposed east and west elevations of the towers, where they form a series of vertical louvers. These will filter the sun and will transform the towers into a series of vertically linked green spaces. The buildings’ slanted facades are oriented to catch the prevailing winds and direct air flow down to cool the ground level spaces. Read more →

Costa Rica is a country rich with renewable energy. In fact, it gets about 99% of all its electrical energy from clean sources, and it’s aiming to be the first country to become carbon neutral (more about that below). Some of Costa Rica’s energy sources include geothermal energy, the burning of sugarcane waste and other biomass, solar and wind energy. However, the largest source of energy is hydroelectricity — its hydroelectric dams provide more than 82% of the country’s electricity. Read more →

The world’s largest tidal turbine, weighing 1000 tonnes, has been installed in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough. The tidal turbine is rated at 1.2 megawatts, which is enough to power a thousand local homes. It was built by Marine Current Turbines, and it will be the first commercial tidal turbine to produce energy, when it begins operation later this year. Read more →

Straight out of the heart of Copenhagen, comes the Triobike, an innovative cargo bike, that can transform itself into a regular bike and a stroller. It’s no surprise that this bike comes form Copenhagen — the city is filled with urban bikers. With the Triobike, you can transport your kids to school in the cargo bike, then, instead of riding the cargo bike around all day you just pull out a front wheel from under the cargo bay, put it on the front forks. You can then ride a regular bike or use the cargo section as a stroller. Read more →