Southwest builds first ‘green plane,’ Ma Earth shows her gratitude |
| Southwest Airlines may not own a plane with a headrest infotainment system, but it’s still far and away the most enjoyable commercial flight you’ll find in the US of A (save for Virgin America, naturally). Granted, we’d like to see in-flight WiFi offered on a few more of its flights (read: 100 percent of them), but hey, we’ll take free checked bags and friendly employees any day of the week. We’ll also take fuel savings and environment stewardship, both of which Southwest is aiming to give us by creating the planet’s first “green plane.” By utilizing recyclable InterfaceFLOR carpet, weight-saving seat covers and life vest pouches, a lighter foam fill in the seats and aluminum (as opposed to plastic) seat rub strips, the newfangled Boeing 737-700 ends up some 472 pounds lighter than a conventional one. The savings? 9,500 gallons of jet fuel per year.Read more at www.engadget.com |
An interesting statistic and an important reminder that it is not simply a measure of the consumption but also of what that consumption begets.
One watt in every 50 now goes to powering computers, and industry leaders are eager to keep that figure from growing. Big savings can still be made by using more-efficient power supplies and automatically putting idling computers into an energy-saving “sleep” mode. But although computers’ energy demand has increased, that expenditure must be weighed against the savings it brings to other machines such as cars and refrigerators.
Read more at www.sciencemag.org |
The ingenuity of a fourth-grader thinking about waste and the impact on our landfills, leads to winning a national contest.
| PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL — A fourth-grader here on the First Coast gave her lunch an extreme makeover and is now the winner of a national energy conservation challenge. |
Olivia Horne was curious how much trash the average child generated and began to investigate.
It led to a class assignment, Olivia called it “Extreme Lunch Makeover.” She focused on how much trash is wasted in one lunch bag. |
Olivia’s solution is simple, stop wasting plastic’s and start using reusable bags, containers and water bottles.
“Hopefully, it is going to reduce the amount of plastic bottles and bags in our land fills,” Olivia said. |
| Olivia’s idea apparently won over more than just friends and family. Olivia beat out over 1,400 other students in a national energy conservation contest.Read more at www.firstcoastnews.com |
Interesting site. Photos of chairs made from CDs and bicycle rims - Lamps made from old jewelry and found items - a wall hanging made from old gloves. Ingenious!
| From crushed cans to plastic shopping bags, deflated balloons and bike tires. We present a slew of resurrected wonders transformed from debris into fabulous furniture, home décor and fine jewelry.Read more at www.flipgloss.com |
This really is a brilliant solution! How better to work around the costs of land acquisition, wiring, and zoning issues than to build onto an existing system? This particular proposal is for France, but I’d love to see how much we could generate with a system like this in America, where these lines crisscross our entire nation. | The new additions would pump wind energy right into the grid without having to develop an extensive infrastructure. Read more at dvice.com |
Green technology in the 19th century. Nothing new in this world!
| U.S. Wind Engine & Pump Co. |
| Beautiful color sales catalog describing the Halladay mill and other items from the late 1800’s. Circa 1879. |
| 13 reasons why the Halladay is the best windmill, wind mills for domestic and ornamental uses, wind mills for irrigation and drainage, wind mills as used for water supply and fire protection, list of railroads using our water supply material |
This is an innovation used to it’s greatest advantage. This car can reach more fans to get the “green” word out than any commercial ever could!
Auto racing is going green as top teams and upstarts embrace a range of tech, from biodiesel to hybrids and even electric drivetrains. A British team is doing them one better, using recycled and natural materials in a Formula 3 car fueled by vegetable oil and waste chocolate. |
The WorldFirst Racing car features slick bodywork fashioned from recycled carbon fiber, old plastic bottles and organic materials. Its turbocharged engine runs on biodiesel and biodegradable lubricants, and smog-eating radiators keep it cool. |
I am not quite sure Apple is going to be too happy about the name ..
In any case, this place looks pretty damned cool. Totally efficient not bad looking either. Clayton Homes, a US-based company which makes and sells manufactured (prefab) homes, is getting in on the i-naming game with their latest bit of construction. The iHouse is a prefabricated, customizable house that is so energy efficient that Clayton estimates it costs about $1 per day to cover all of its electricity and heating needs. The house makes use of solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, thick walls, heavy insulation, a rainwater-catching system, a tankless water heater, and dual flush toilets to meet its eco-friendly goals. The company, which sold about 30,000 manufactured homes last year, thinks that the iHouse could quickly come to represent about 10 percent of its business. Prototypes of the house — which at around 1,000 square feet costs $140,000 completely furnished — are popping up all over the US, and as of last Saturday, are officially on sale nationwide. One more photo after the break. |
They’re reusing their waste products to make Ethanol for power, they’re using solar power to supplement that, and now they’ve added electric car chargers to their parking lots. Sierra Nevada is certainly making a major effort to have the smallest footprint possible… I don’t drink beer that often, but I might have to try theirs out next time I have one. 
Awesome, google has forgone lawnmowers with GOATS!
Even better is the fact that PETA has weighed in on it … | n what absolutely reads like an April Fools joke, Google has a post on its blog today explaining how it has rented a herd of goats to replace the lawnmowers that normally cut the grass in the fields around its headquarters. This is Google’s “low-carbon” approach to maintaining its property. |
Google is renting the goats from a company called California Grazing. Apparently, every so often a herder will bring about 200 of them to the campus and they’ll roam around for a week eating the grass. Not only that, these goats will fertilize the land at the same time — yes, that way. |
Google claims the goats will cost about the same as lawn mowers would. And a border collie named Jen will be brought onto Google’s payroll to help with the herding as well, apparently. No word on how the maintenance workers who previously had this job feel about losing work to goats. |
We’ve contacted PETA about the news (the first person I talked to initially chuckled), and they’re going to get back to us with an official comment today. |
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Southwest Airlines Delivers Its First Green 737
