Push Reel Lawn Mower – The New Generation
Yea! Some exercise!
Push Reel Lawn Mower – The New Generation
No fossil fuels mean you can smell better. Let’s leave some trees and dinosaurs where they lay. How do we Make a Choice to get a good return on investment for the good of all including ourselves? When we consider the health benefits of food and exercise, and clean air and water versus disease and death, it becomes obvious. Polyface Farms knows where it’s at.
Reverse Graffiti
Planet Magazine. Moose teaches us how to make art using dirt that is already there…
Recycling Plastic
PLASTICS RECYCLING: NOW MORE THAN EVER
Could recycled plastics be mixed with bioplastics in forming new products. Transition Vancouver is looking for ways to veer towards a carbon neutral earth.
Here is the way the town of Curitiba recycles in Brazil. More about the green city of Curitiba, Brazil. In this picture, the categories are paper, plastic, metal, glass and organics. Jamie Lerner initiated a sorting program over 10 years ago where people went through the waste to sort garbage, but here we are seeing the way they have evolved their waste system. Notice there is no trash can. Everything sorts into these 5 categories. Jaime Lerner sings of the city on TED.
Totem Salmon, Life Lessons from Another Species
Book: Totem Salmon by Freeman House, Life Lessons from another Species. Great read.
Poetic writing, beautifully describes the salmon lifecycle. Awakened in me a love of ancient wild salmon.
Book Review: House found himself banding with other like-minded citizens in an
effort to bring the once-prolific runs back.
Their organization fought for curbs on logging in the watershed and more restrictions for the way timber can be harvested (buffer zones along streams, for example). They planted vegetation on the banks to provide shade and added structure to the river for protection.
Totem Salmon is House’s memoir of
river stewardship. It’s also a blueprint for grassroots environmental
action. And finally, it is a well-crafted and lyrical piece of writing
that treats a regional problem with personal perspective and candor. –Langdon Cook
Amazon: Look Inside
See also Watershed Watch video.
Decentralization Design
We need to get down to get up.
Permaculture on a larger scale, smaller scale. We have big problems. Only by letting them go, can we dream of repairing our psyche, regenerating ourselves and our lives. Reduce consumption. Human have needed to so, maybe it is time that we have enough now to give back. It might not look like it, but having a garage full of ‘useless things”, piles of ‘junk” can still be seen as surplus and we can give all of these abundances away, not to the dump, but to reuse centers, and repair centers, through trade and barter. We can use online free sites to offer our unwanted goods, or excess building material to others nearby who might need it through sites such as freecycle. We can take advantage of local reuse centers such as those run by habitat for humanity, and get stagnant resources back into circulation. The world is abundant, if only we did not want so much.
A new flower is unfolding, and it is hiding everywhere. This week we are presenting about the Principle of Cooperation where cooperation not competition is the very basis of existing life systems and of future survival.
What does that look like?
Personal independence depends on co-operative human society….
only what we share gives us access to all necessary possessions.
~Bill Mollison
Permaculture is the use of ecology as the
basis for designing integrated systems of food production, housing
appropriate technology and community development. It offers a practical,
creative approach to the problems of diminishing resources and threatened
life support systems now facing the world.
~Simon Henderson
The alternative is a design science revolution…
Design science produces so much performance
per unit of resource invested as to take care of all
human needs.
~Buckminster Fuller
The Permaculture Flower, designed by David Holmgren, reprinted from “Permaculture: Pathways and Principles” by David Holmgren.
Earth Ships & Green Building
Garbage Warrior movie about Earthships in the New Mexico desert and after 2004 Sumatra Tsunami.
Green Roofs in Ontario: Natvik Design
Natvik Ecological provides professional services for southern Ontario clients in the fields of ecological restoration, landscape design, and green roofs.
Arcosanti the city of the future.
Sugar Ethanol
Brazil Stays a Step Ahead on Sugar Ethanol
By Sam Hopkins | Thursday, March 12th, 2009
Brazil’s national oil company is sitting on an energy bonanza…
But while Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) has gotten tons of press for its deepwater offshore discoveries in the past two years, 80 billion barrels of undersea hydrocarbon potential doesn’t impress the Green Chip Stocks team.
Instead, this spring’s 87% investment increase in Petrobras’s sugar ethanol operations has us rapt.
Petroleo Brasileiro, as the company is officially named, has played a key role in the country’s Pro-Alcohol biofuel promotion program ever since the oil-shocked 70s. With skyrocketing prices and total reliance on foreign supply, the military government decided to develop domestic fuel alternatives.
A generation of dithering in “developed” countries has made Brazil, now a thriving democracy with the world’s 10th largest national economy, the envy of economic pacesetters like the U.S. and Japan.
Brazilian government officials and Petrobras execs now have the ears of Department of Energy officials in deciding what it takes to integrate biofuel throughout the energy economy.
And Petrobras is putting its money where its mouth is with a new business plan, spending 2.4 billion dollars to advance production both at home and abroad.
In fact, out of 3.6 billion liters of its output goal for 2013, 1.9 billion will go to foreign markets. That’s more than half of the target.
To achieve that by 2013, Petrobras will either build, enhance, or buy 7 ethanol and biodiesel plants.
A note from Shinymarble:
Sugar beets are the most fruitful for this purpose, and will support surrounding ecosystems best with Polyculture.
Shinymarble and Planet 108
Planet 108 is Shinymarble’s sister site. Take a look.
arcosanti's workshop coordinator '98-99
Shinymarble has a new home. Come visit.
the Vaults
Green Design
Urban Design: Green Dimensions (links may not be working)
Berkeley’s Environmental Design Library Biliography
Green Buildings don’t have to be New
Popular Mechanics the Best of Green Design: Overview
GreenWorks building supply.
Gaviotas
Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World
Gaviotas is a project that Paolo Lugari started in the middle of the wet Colombia desert, knowing that someday people would have to expand to the Eastern part of the country.
Gaviotas Mural
Paolo Lugari and John Todd
Colleagues in the Green Design movement
from:
Todd Ecological Design, Inc. Todd Ecological Design, Inc. is an award-winning water and natural resources planning firm.
The Jerde Partnership
The Jon Jerde Partnership builds Arcologies (architecture + ecology) worldwide. He works with an international team of people, creating high density, multi-use buildings. He credits (at least some of his) inspiration to Paolo Soleri.
Taiwan
Canal City Hakata in Fukuoka, Japan.
Plastics vs. Bioplastics
Why? because the sea is full of plastic and Nurdles
Video: Algalita: Plastic Debris
Nerdles are tiny plastic pellets a few milimeters wide, which are the raw material for plastics manufacture. The pellets are melted and then formed into plastic products. While being shipped, some of them manage to escape into ocean water before the ships make it to port. They eventually wash up on beaches everywhere but, during their time out at sea, they absorb an assortment of chemical pollutants in ocean water.
Video: Plastic in the Oceans
NY Times Ice Update and Unfiltered U.S. Climate Report
Lost Valley Sustainable Education Center
Since 1989, Lost Valley Educational Center has been a place for learning, exploration, experimentation, and growth, through our educational programs, and also within our residential intentional community. Our programs include: the Ecovillage and Permaculture Institute, the retreat and conference facility with 120 beds plus camping, the Nature Center, the intern program, and various publications, including back issue sets of the journal Talking Leaves. Our residential community averages around 25 adult and child members, ages 6 to 65 (plus interns and others). LVEC uses a permaculture approach of ecological design and restoration to care-take our 87 beautiful acres of gardens, meadows, forests, pond, creek and trails. We are located 18 miles southeast of Eugene, Oregon, 20 minutes off of I-5 via Route 58 on 87 beautiful acres of gardens, meadows, forests, pond, creek, and trails.
We are taking applications for our fall Permaculture Certification Program Sept. 29-Oct. 24.
Aprovecho, Education for Sustainable Living
Aprovecho, Cottage Grove, OR
Fall Internship
Building local food networks, and the 100 Mile Diet
Sept. 1 – October 13
Learn to create a local food economy through the gathering and cultivation of food, forest, and fuel crops produced within 100 miles of the Aprovecho campus.
All of our programs combine lecture and discussion formats with practical, hands-on activities. We encourage a holistic understanding of each subject area that is grounded in specific experiences and enhanced by the broader intellectual perspectives available in our diverse learning environment.
from : the Aprovecho Media Page:
Watch
Video: Building a Rocket Stove
Video: How to Build an Insitutional Barrel Stove
Video: Shell Foundation- Breathing Space India
Video: “Rocket Science”
Video: Charcoal burning Rocket stove
Instructional Video: Building a VITA Stove
Listen
Ann Dornfeld’s (KLCC/NPR) report on
Cleaner Burning Cook Stoves
Download Publications
Design Principles for Wood Burning Cook Stoves
This manual covers the principles of Heat Transfer and Combustion Efficiency
Link: Cookstoves in Uttaranchal
Re-Use
Seattle and Bellingham’s Reuse Store
Re-Store
Industrial Materials Exchange
IMEX in North America
SFs’ Center For Reusable Art Parts
SCRAP
San Mateo’s County’s RecycleWorks
Recycle Works
California’s Integrated Waste Management
California’s ReUse Stores
Habitat for Humanity
Re-Store
MN, USA The ReUse Center Retail Stores
Quality Reclaimed Building Materials
Europe’s Re-Use A Shoe
Let Me Play
M&S and Oxfam Ireland Clothes Exchange
Oxfam Ireland needs UR gear
The Reuse People of America
WA CA CO
links
Planet Re-Use
providing the global design and construction community the best in reused and recycled materials
Ecology Center: Berkeley
Directory
Earthships
Earthship Biotecture, the official site, offering how-to books, demos, community, rentals, and a coffee table book to boot.
Nautilus
Rainwater Catchment
This part of Permaculture is about the water. Keeping the rain that falls on the land, keep things alive during the summer, keep it all wet, dank, moist, alive. Some of the most beautiful cisterns are made by techniques put out by earthships, using bottles and cans. In their part of the world the earth is reddish, adding color to the already colorful glass.
Permaculture Techniques
Permaculture is permanent agriculture and permanent culture.
The following include some techniques which help to keep Sun, Wind, and Water within a system, feeding it in a natural way, creating richness of land and soil.
From K.E.A.G.
Bill Mollison Interview Bill coined the term Permaculture in the 70s, working with David Holmgren as his research assistant. He wrote the book, though others are now experimenting on their own, and doing wonderful new things.
Sustainable Landscape, includes good bibliography.
Leed and the Green Building Councils
Leed is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Living Machines. Found through the above sites.
Green Products
Bonded Logic uses recycled jeans to create insulation.
Eco Rock is cleaner, greener drywall.
Organic Lifestyle‘s bamboo floors.
Euroslate is made from recycled tires!
EuroSlate/EuroShake’s™rubber roof system is designed to be walked on without any restrictions, and its advanced cubical structure enhances insulation performance.
* Maintenance free
* Impact resistant
* Will never rust, split, crack or show other surface wear
* Lightweight (under 4 lbs. per sq. ft.)
* Energy Efficient
* Indestructible – there is no other product that will take wear and tear like Euroslate™
GreenSpace Homes and Cottages: Canadian building supplies.
Top 10 Natural Building Materials
First Ecological “All-in-One” Desktop
First Ecological “All-in-One” Desktop
The beginning of the end of the toxic computer industry. Give thanks!
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge
Wow. . . . .
BFI Programs: THE BUCKMINSTER FULLER CHALLENGE
Catalyzing the vanguard of a design science revolution
Each year, BFI will offer a single $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of a solution with significant potential to solve the world’s most pressing problems in the shortest possible time while enhancing the Earth’s ecological integrity.
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge seeks submissions of design science solutions within a broad range of human endeavor that exemplify the trimtab principle. Trimtabs demonstrate how small amounts of energy and resources precisely applied at the right time and place can produce maximum advantageous change.
For more information, visit the Challenge website at http://challenge.bfi.org
Everything I know Video series
Sustainable City – Dongtan, China
Dongtan, a city near Shanghai is on the way to being green. .
come, explore. . .
What else is there besides a Strip mall?
Is anything else possible?
Do we have to live and work within ugly architecture? Let’s not
We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.
R. Buckminster Fuller
It is possible to build in such a way that the sun comes in a lot during the winter and not during the summer. It is called Passive Solar Building and what you need is to face your building toward the south. The way Soleri does it is he builds an apse which is a quarter sphere. The lower winter sun shines right in and the high summer sun stays out, the shade a cool place to be.
There are many techniques:
Green Building
Makes a great home or office:
Earthships
Earthships is an amazing place to visit and do an apprenticeship, internship or get a job. There is a small community of people building. They do some prefab, so construction at the site is faster.
These places use and reuse all of their water. It is categorized into gray water and black water. They grow a garden inside and outside the house, and make cisterns re-using bottles.
A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic,
objective economist and evolutionary strategist.
R. Buckminster Fuller
When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
R. Buckminster Fuller
Let architects sing of aesthetics that bring Rich clients in hordes to their knees; Just give me a home, in a great circle dome Where stresses and strains are at ease.
R. Buckminster Fuller
The Myth of Arcosanti
The Myth of Arcosanti: Arcosanti in the News
A Green Utopia Grows in the Arizona Desert
The Washington Post
By Andrea Sachs
(don’t forget to read the part about the Rubix cube party)
12 Sustainable Design Ideas from Nature – Janine Benyus
With 3.8 billion years of research and development on its side, nature has already solved problems that human designers and engineers still struggle with. In this inspiring talk, Janine Benyus provides fascinating examples of biomimicry — the way humans mimic nature in the products we build and the systems we implement. And because the champion adapters in the natural world are, by definition, those that can survive without destroying the environment that sustains them, biomimicry can contribute to the long-term health of our planet. –TED
Solar and Wind Power
Green Energy Resources:
Green Mountain
Be Green
Green Mountain Energy
Sustainable Waves
Sustainable Waves
specializes in sustainable energy solutions for the entertainment industry.
Are Cars Sustainable?
How can we wean ourselves into a better way to move?
Brazil had a federal mandate: We are going to make the switch. They went into a 5 year recession.
sugar ethanol
Zenn Car Zero emmission no noise:
Zenn
Xtracycle
SUB
for families
Peapod
for those of you with $$$bank
Tesla
Motorcycle engine with a roof for two
Smart
Honda
Civic
Insight
Honda FCX Clarity
Toyata
Hybrids
Watercar
Daniel Dingle’s Project
Here are Ford’s latest designs.
What do you think?
Ford’s Fuel Cells
Solutions?
Pacifica Radio
Dynamic Architecture
This building will have giant wind turbines between the floors.
Dynamic Architecture
(pause the video to let it load)
This building is scheduled to be built in Moscow, the biggest building in the world:Crystal Island
Australia’s Green Plans
What a beautiful building. Talk about green design.
Sustainable Development
Australia is going green: Sydney 2030
Gaviotas – Colombian Sustainable Village
The Gaviotas Project in Columbia was started by Paolo Lugari because he knew that one day the population would rise so high that People would have live in the eastern wet desert region. He found was to sustain this community. He went to the University in Bogota to ask the students there to help him with his research. He found a tree which would grow there and has since planted 6 Million of these pine trees. The trees have brought birds which in turn have brought the rest of the forest within the seeds in their feces. Lugari and the people of Gaviotas have found that tapping the trees also bring resource to the community, something to sell in the marketplace. “Tapped like maple syrup, the natural resin is used in paints, cosmetics, perfumes, and medicines in lieu of petroleum-based substances. When distilled in Gaviotas’ pollution-free factory, its byproduct is marketable turpentine.” from Mother Jones
Flying Green – Jet Style
If you have to airplane fly, use this to offset your carbon:
offset carbon
At Arcosanti, they say: If we all took an airplane trip, the Ozone Layer would be gone.
How can we continue to fly, sustainably?
1. fly less
2. fly green:
Offset my flight:
Uniglobe
Offset and Calculate your Carbon:
Flight Center
Article
Travelocity
Clean Travel
Green Transportation
Green Design in the World and in the Future
Ken Yeang is a new visionary on the forefront:
Wow. What a difference. Is it earth day or is green design really starting take take a hold?
The time is now.
China is addressing the subject and building green.
The roof has solar panels and rainwater collection tanks. But it’s a serene spot, with seating areas in a garden of grass, trees and shrubs — grown on a shallow bed of volcanic ash that is lighter and less water-dependent than traditional soil.
“When this building went up, the neighborhood lost green space. So we’re returning that bit of green with this roof garden. Moreover, the garden helps insulate the building,” Yang says.
Yang is proud that the entire structure cost less than the average government building in Beijing.
Architecture Lab
A Lab’s Sustainable Design
Shinymarble 
