The charming rural scene pictured above actually contains 50 tons of discarded water bottles and sandwich containers, which were blended up and refashioned into this 90-foot-long plastic bridge.

According to maker Vertech, which assembled the project with the help of teams from Rutgers university in the US and Cardiff uni, the bridge took a total of two weeks to put in place over the Tweed River in Peebleshire — including fabricating the thing off-site and the four days it took to lower the completed sections into place.

And it ought to be a winning water feature. It doesn't require painting, won't rust, plus if no one likes it or global warming dries up the river bed and renders it obsolete, it can be re-recycled into something else. Like plastic bottles.

Philips EnduraLEDs

A better way to look forward with a high-efficiency (and mercury-free) bulb that can screw into an incandescent socket.

Philips has been a pioneer in trimming down the wattage required to produce and scale 60-watt equivalent bulbs. The product is a 60-watt replacement that uses 12 watts–but next year another version of this bulb is the L-Prize-winning 10-watt version.

Lifeline PVC-free resilient flooring

Many people don’t realize that resilient vinyl flooring doesn’t have a built-in wear layer. Its durability relies on a constant cycle of waxing, stripping, and re-waxing: this process, which occurs quite frequently in hospitals and schools, pollutes the indoor air with a variety of toxic chemicals. Vinyl flooring also contains PVC, which has long-term impacts due to persistent, carcinogenic chemicals used in its manufacture that also can leach out after disposal.

Lifeline does have a tough, built-in wear layer and does not require this constant waxing and stripping. It also contains no PVC, an added bonus. So it helps protect kids and hospital patients from one of the most prevalent sources of potent indoor VOCs while also avoiding the introduction of persistent organic pollutants like dioxins to the environment.

CI-Girt Rainscreen System

Rainscreens are great at keeping moisture away from commercial buildings, but a typical rainscreen system comes with an energy penalty.

That’s because during installation the insulation must be hand-cut, an imperfect process that is quite expensive and also ends up allowing significant thermal bridging. The CI-Girt system is designed to allow continuous insulation, though, and they also contain an interchangeable cladding system that will allow a building to adapt to new owners and uses, without sacrificing performance.

EonCoat waterborne ceramic coating

All these years we’ve been using industrial and commercial coatings high in health-threatening and smog-producing VOCs when the ingredients we needed could have been found at any 1950s drug store.

This two-part, waterborne ceramic coating is made out of phosphoric acid and milk of magnesia. It’s a great solution to a problem that has been a problem for decades.  The performance is there: industrial facilities are starting to use it in highly corrosive environments and finding it VERY durable.

Aqua2use Graywater System

While many regions are dealing with way more water than they can handle as “global weirding” really starts to hit home, in other places clean water is becoming an ever-scarcer resource. A really effective system that allows us to reuse water is going to be a crucial part of facing climate change.

The Aqua2use system is kind of like a rain barrel, but instead of collecting rain it collects the water that goes down the drain from your sinks and washing machine. The water goes through several (cleanable) filters and can then be safely used for outdoor irrigation. In places where drought and wildfires are a problem, people are actually sometimes ordered to water lawns to help keep the fires from spreading. A system like this makes it possible to water lawns or keep backyard food crops going during a drought without requiring precious potable water.

Cypress Envirosystems’ analog-to-digital wireless thermostat

An innovative retrofit product. It replaces an analog pneumatic thermostat with wireless digital controls, allowing much more granular energy automation, management, and data tracking than you will ever get out of a manual system.

During a recession when hardly any new buildings are going up, people are instead looking for ways to upgrade older buildings to save money. This wireless retrofit can be set up in about 30 minutes without tearing out walls or replacing air-handling infrastructure.

Ritter XL solar thermal system

This solar thermal system is also offering a new twist on existing technologies, but in this case it’s combining several of them to achieve unprecedented levels of solar thermal efficiency that can be used in really high-demand applications like district heating and multifamily housing.

By combining evacuated tubes, compound parabolic reflectors, and water–which is a more efficient heat-transfer fluid than the usual glycol–these sophisticated modules can produce very hot water even in very cold climates. The advanced controls keep the heat-transfer fluid from freezing. As we look beyond buildings to larger-scale energy solutions, projects like renewable district heating are going to be key.

Mitsubishi ductless heat pumps and variable-refrigerant-flow systems

Ground-source heat pumps (which use water or glycol) provide energy-efficient heating and cooling–but they require deep wells or a nearby water source, and they are expensive. Ideally, air-to-air heat pumps (also known as “split” systems) can lower the initial cost while providing similar performance, but these systems often don’t operate well at very low temperatures.

The Mitsubishi ductless heat pumps are a leap forward in air-to-air efficiency, almost rivaling ground-source at a fraction of the cost. They can be used in multifamily and hotel applications, where custom setpoints and even submetering may be desirable, and they work well even at very low temperatures–a limitation on air-to-air heat pumps in the past.

AllSun Trackers

The AllSun Tracker is an innovative, climate-adaptive product with some really sophisticated controls that maximize efficiency while also protecting the equipment from severe weather.

The trackers use GPS to track the sun’s path across the sky from dawn to dark. In high winds, the module folds itself flat on the ground to help prevent damage from a hurricane or tornado. And what better self-sufficiency feature for northern climates could you ask for than a daily snow-dump feature? A product like this one will help those of us with less plentiful solar resources to harvest every photon we can get.

 

 

A rare Sumatran orang-utan born at Perth Zoo will be released into a protected rainforest in Indonesia as part of an international program to save the species from extinction.

The six-year-old male named Semeru will become the first zoo-born male orang-utan in the world to be released into the wild.

It follows the success of Temara, a female Sumatran orang-utan also born in Perth Zoo and released into Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Sumatra in November 2006.

Semeru – chosen for release based on his temperament and age – will be flown to Indonesia on October 16 and spend two weeks in quarantine before he is released into the same park.

Environment Minister Bill Marmion said the orang-utans were bred and released into the wild as part of an international program to re-establish a population of the red long-haired, tree-living ape, which is native to Borneo and Sumatra.

Adding Semeru to the population would allow genetic diversification.

Mr Marmion said a team of veterinarians, keepers and zoo officials had spent the past year meticulously planning and preparing Semeru for his transfer and release.

“Semeru will be closely monitored and supported on a daily basis with two dedicated trackers for two years and longer if necessary while he adjusts to life in the forest,” he said.

“Semeru’s pre-release preparation has included the introduction of Indonesian fruits, enrichment items to sharpen his foraging skills and access to a large fig tree to increase his fitness and hone his climbing and nest-making skills,” he said.

“Semeru has also been fitted with a radio transmitter implant which will help trackers monitor him in the dense terrain of Bukit Tigpauluh.”

The park is guarded by specially trained anti-logging and anti-poaching Wildlife Protection Units, which Perth Zoo helps to fund.

With the support of the Indonesian Government, the orangutan reintroduction program has released 139 former pet trade and orphaned orang-utans into the Bukit Tigapuluh area since December, 2002.

 

KEEP. THROW. STORE.        

When it comes to wardrobe cleanouts you need a total ‘take no prisoners’ attitude. Create three separate piles – Keep, Throw, Store – and then sort every item in your closet into one of these categories. Repeat after me: There is no such thing as a ‘Maybe’ pile.

KEEP -                                                                                                                                                                    Pieces that fit well, make you feel great and that you wear all the time. This does not include items that you love but are stained, pulled and ripped from over-wear.

STORE –                                                                                                                                                                      All the items that you won’t be needing/wearing for the next six months. Winter coats, gloves, beanies, ugg boots, scarves, ski gear – this will create the space you need for the new season. Also store pieces that are timeless but off trend because they’ll come back in a year or two. Also carefully pack away evening dresses that you wear every couple of years. Write a list of what’s in your archive so you can access it easily when you need to pull things out.

THROW –                                                                                                                                                                                                      Anything and everything that you haven’t worn in the last two years (classics aside), anything and everything that doesn’t fit you. Anything and everything that’s covered in Christmas embroidery or has “Frankie Says Relax” printed on it. Box up the clothes that are in good condition and donate to The Salvation Army, St Vincent’s De Paul or The Smith Family.  The rest goes in the bin.

BE HONEST (BRUTAL IF NECESSARY)                                                                                                                                          The above process is useless if you cannot be honest with yourself. Does something actually suit you? Or do you just love it because it reminds you of good times, a boyfriend, your youth? Clothes should suit on you four levels – colour, style, fit and condition – if the item you can’t bear to part with doesn’t check every box on that list it’s time to move on

MAKE A LIST                                                                                                                                                                                                 Write a list of the items you’ve thrown out. Often these will be pieces that you wear all the time but are stained, ripped etc. Making a list will help you when it comes to replenishing your classics like t-shirts, jeans and underwear. Another good list to make is on for the pieces you think your wardrobe needs. This is often only apparent once you’ve pulled your closet apart.

PHONE A FRIEND                                                                                                                                                                                             Do you really still wear your Year 10 formal dress? Really? If your KEEP pile is bigger than all the others then you’re most likely a fashion hoarder and you’re going to need back-up. Bribe your most honest friend to help you with the clean out. Remember the scene in Sex And The City when Carrie cleaned out the wardrobe in her old apartment? You need to do that. Make them a martini, give them some corny cardboard signs and then listen to their advice.

FLIP THE PSYCHOLOGY                                                                                                                                                                       Don’t knock this until you’ve tried it. If you’re genuinely stuck and can’t decide what to keep and what to throw, twist the thought process around in your head and ask yourself: “What would I choose if I wanted to feel really depressed, unattractive and overweight?” I guarantee you’ll find some stuff in your closet to fit the brief. These pieces have only one home and that’s the bin.

CLEAN vs ORGANISED                                                                                                                                                                                    There are two stages to a proper wardrobe purge and they shouldn’t be confused. You need to do a clean out before you organise what you own. Don’t try and do them together. They’re both huge jobs that should be tackled one at a time. Clean first. Organise later.

CFL light bulbs

Let’s first take a look at a typical home fixture for general lighting. Let’s say you currently have a 60-watt incandescent bulb and that you use it six hours a day. The average U.S. home electricity price is 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (If you live in a state with appreciably different electricity rates, you should adjust your own calculations accordingly.) So if you pay 12 cents per kWh, and that light bulb uses 60 watts x 6 hours x 365 = 131.4 kWh a year, that’s costing you $16 a year.

Of course, you’ll also have to buy the bulb itself, which isn’t the most expensive part of the equation when it comes to lighting. If you buy them in a six-pack, you can get an Energy Star-rated, major-brand CFL for $2 each, like the Philips CFLs pictured above. Get them in a two-pack from brands like GE for $3 each at your local big-box store. Regular old incandescents still go for around 75 cents each. But you’ll need a lot more of them, since they only last around 1,000 hours, as opposed to around 10,000 hours for most good CFLs. If the light is used six hours a day, you’d go through two incandescents in one year, or 10 in five years. In the latter period, you’d spend $7.50 for 10 incandescents, versus $3 for one CFL.

If you put a 13-watt CFL in the fixture, you’ll get the same amount of light, but use only 13 watts x 6 hours x 365 = 28.5 kWh a year, which costs nearly $3.40. So you save $12.60 a year versus having an incandescent. Divide that by 12 to get a monthly average of just over $1. That means the payback period for a light bulb that is between $2 and $3 more expensive than an incandescent upfront is somewhere between two and three months.

Multiply that result by how many general-use fixtures you have in your house to see the savings grow. Of course, not all fixtures are general. But there are now good CFL replacements for several key areas, including bathroom vanities, candelabra-style fixtures, outdoor floodlights, outdoor post lamps and even ceiling-fan fixtures (avoid putting a regular CFL in a fan, because the vibrations can shorten its life and increase risk of breakage).

Even so, there are still some places where CFLs aren’t the best. Rapid switching greatly reduces their life span, so you may not want to use them in areas where you frequently will be turning them off after short periods. For many people, this means they may not be the best choice for closets, halls and rooms we rarely use. Instead, you may want to rotate through old incandescents to “use them up,” or read about halogens in the next section.

If you can’t stand CFLs, even if you’ve given the newest generation an honest try, if you need something that offers very smooth dimming or that can tolerate rapid switching, or if you want to avoid any mercury, you may want to consider halogens. A halogen light bulb is an incandescent bulb with some added technology, namely the presence of halogen and a quartz envelope around the inner chamber to sustain the higher temperatures they operate through.

In past decades, halogens were available mostly for specialized uses, such as in car headlights and in track lights and torchieres, and they had dedicated pin bases. However, over the past few years, manufacturers have been churning out “hybrid” bulbs that use halogen technology in familiar bulb shapes that can be screwed in to standard sockets. Halogens are typically 10% to 40% more efficient than incandescents, they can be switched and dimmed as much as you want, and they give off the soft, yellow light we are used to.

A typical example is the Philips Halogena Energy-Saver 40-watt bulb (pictured above) for general home use. A two-pack costs as little as $10 at some big-box stores and is designed to replace a standard 60-watt incandescent. So if we use our formula from above, we see that using one for six hours a day would give us 40 watts x 6 hours x 365 = 87.6 kWh. At 12 cents, that’s $10.50 a year to use. That saves $5.50 a year versus an incandescent. At a retail price of $5 for the bulb, it’s going to take a little less than a year to pay back (because we have to subtract the $1.50 a year for the cost of two incandescent bulbs). Philips says the Halogena lasts for an average of 3,000 hours, which is roughly a year and a half for our use, or three times that of the regular incandescent

Dimmer switch

Another win-win when it comes to lighting is a dimmer, which gives more flexibility and control, can enhance mood and saves energy. Modern dimmers use simple electric circuitry to limit the amount of energy that is sent to a bulb. Most designs knock off 2% to 5% of the energy all the time they are installed, even if they are never turned down.

But let’s say for argument that you have your lights dimmed to 50% as an average over the year. So for that fixture with the incandescent bulb that you use six hours a day, you would be spending half as much for energy, or $8 a year instead of $16. And you will be doubling the life of your bulb, too, so you will go through one incandescent a year, instead of two.

So how much does the dimmer cost? They can get quite fancy, with remote controls, LED displays and other bells and whistles. But standard wall dimmers can be inexpensive. You can get a toggle-switch dimmer from Lutron, the biggest manufacturer, for $15 at Home Depot. The payback period for that would be less than two years, since you save $8.75 a year — $8 in energy plus 75 cents in light bulbs you didn’t need.

All food for thought!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exchange Indoor Air
Many modern homes are so tight there’s little new air coming in. Open the windows from time to time or run any installed exhaust fans. In cold weather, the most efficient way to exchange room air is to open the room wide – windows and doors, and let fresh air in quickly for about 5 minutes. The furnishings in the room, and the walls, act as ‘heat sinks’, and by exchanging air quickly, this heat is retained.
Minimize Dust
Remove clutter which collects dust, such as old newspapers and magazines. Try to initiate a ‘no-shoes-indoors’ policy. If you’re building or remodelling a home, consider a central vacuum system; this eliminates the fine dust which portable vacuum cleaners recirculate.
Use Cellulose Sponges
Most household sponges are made of polyester or plastic which are slow to break down in landfills, and many are treated with triclosan, a chemical that can produce chloroform (a suspected carcinogen) when it interacts with the chlorine found in tap water. Instead try cellulose sponges, available at natural foods stores, which are biodegradable and will soak up spills faster since they’re naturally more absorbent. For general household cleaning, try Skoy Eco-Cleaning Cloths. These cleaning cloths are non-toxic, extremely absorbent (15x paper towels), reusable, and biodegradable.
Keep Bedrooms Clean
Most time at home is spent in the bedrooms. Keep pets out of these rooms, especially if they spend time outdoors.
Use Gentle Cleaning Products
Of the various commercial home cleaning products, drain cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners and oven cleaners are the most toxic. Use the formulas described above or purchase ‘green’ commercial alternatives. Avoid products containing ammonia or chlorine, or petroleum-based chemicals; these contribute to respiratory irritation, headaches and other complaints.
Clean from the Top Down:
When house cleaning, save the floor or carpet for last. Allow time for the dust to settle before vacuuming.

ASPEN, Colo. — The Aspen City Council has voted to ban plastic bags from the Colorado mountain resort town’s two grocery stores and place a 20-cent fee on paper bags.

Other nearby towns also are considering the issue. Basalt has already approved a fee of 20 cents on plastic and paper bags, and Carbondale has been moving toward a ban on plastic bags.

The Boulder City Council is considering a fee on plastic bags.

Supporters say the goal of the ordinances is to reduce the amount of paper and plastic waste ending up in local landfills. They say research shows only a small percentage of consumers recycle their grocery bags.