and then there was one...

In a move reflecting the global nature of the problem, a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the UK Green Building Council, BRE, the US Green Building Council (LEED) and the Green Building Council Australia to standardize the measure of carbon emissions from new buildings.

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on the boards: Integrated Resource Centre

Architects Schacht | Aslani have recently published images of their proposal for a 45,000 sq ft Integrated Resource Centre to be located at the North Seattle Community College. The project is targeting LEED Silver certification when complete in 2010, providing office accomodation for staff as well as additional classrooms. Read More..

Color Changing Recycled Glass Tile - Moving Color

Temperature sensitive glass tiles that change color with water temperature or body heat? How cool! Moving Color has created a variety of sizes of tiles for all applications, from bath to kitchen to flooring. The tiles can be used for safety purposes, such as indicating unsafe water temperatures. Or the tiles can be used to create an ambient light show chosen to react at temperatures and colors chosen by the designer. The base color of the tile can match almost any color and the color changing properties can be activated at a specified temperature and will shimmer through three color phases. And, with 80% recycled glass content, the tiles are green too! via: Freshome Read More..

The Taliesin Prototype

The Mod.FabTM, although designed by Taliesin, the desert based studio started by Frank Lloyd Wright, the prefabricated units don't bear the typical warmth of material choice typically associated with the master architect. Added the use of colour and minimal interiors reflect a more Bauhaus aesthetic. Nonetheless the 600 sq ft prototype, built at Taliesin West is another intelligent and welcome addition to the host of modern prefabricated structures now available. The prefab structure when built is meant to be "unplugged," relying on low-consumption fixtures, rainwater harvesting, greywater re-use, natural ventilation, solar orientation, and photovoltaics.

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100% Recyclable Kitchen - Invitrum by Valcucine

We're always on the lookout for great kitchen design and when we find great design that happens to be green, we're even more excited. The new Invitrum line, by the Italian company, Valcucine, is made of 100% recyclable aluminum and glass. Valcucine labels each component of the cabinetry with a recycling icon, so the consumer should have no problem deciphering where each piece of the kitchen should go when it reaches the end of it's lifecycle. Very sleek, very stylish, very sustainable! (See large image below for recycling icon) Via: JetsonGreen See more Invitrum images via: Valcucine Flickr Set


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Seeing Green - Ambiente 2009

We've got a team in Frankfurt (again!) and we're bringing you highlights from Ambiente. Bright and fresh greens seem to be on the horizon for 2009 and here is a collection of images that remind us spring is right around the corner:

ASA:Fink:Kitchenaid:

Kozoil:Leonardo:LOB Design:Unitable: Read More..

The Beauty of Natural Wood - River Mirrors

The beauty of natural wood with it's intricate grains and knots and waved edges forming a one-of-a-kind framing for these mirrors is innovative. Both artwork and functional decor, the River Mirrors by Caryn Moberly make a dramatic statement - especially when reflecting the greenery of nature right outside.

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Reinventing the Basics: Setting Up Your Home Office

In this day in age when we are sticking to our budget and only buying the necessities, that doesn't mean forgoing design and beauty. We're seeing more design on basic necessities making functional products fun and beautiful to satisfy our desire for purchases that brighten our day. Today's post is a round up of inexpensive products to make your home office a little more beautiful, a little greener and a little more fun - on a budget!

These file folders from M by Staples are sitting on our desks here at Sphere Trending and we love them, they're artwork for your briefcase!

Inmodern creates eco-friendly tables, bookshelves, entertainment units and magazine racks that are affordable, earth conscious and look great. Their real wood modern furniture and products are made in the USA from 100% renewable FSC Certified Smart Wood®, and are available in a variety of eco-friendly, UV finishes.

Who doesn't love sticky notes that make a statement? And, we all need the little tabs of paper to mark those important pages. These, from Bob's Your Uncle, are surely good for a giggle!

Made of recycled glass, these vases from Crate and Barrel are affordable and would make unique and stylish desktop organization when used to hold writing utensils, supplies or maybe even the rare bouquet of flowers.

If you happen to be sharing your home office space with one or more of your kids, this desk from DucDuc NYC is not only made in the USA, it's built with consideration for minimal waste, low energy manufacturing and sustainable woods.

To brighten your day, Remarkable Pencils has turned trash into treasure by recycling plastic cups and CD cases to turn them into bold and colorful pencils. The company also offers other recycled material office supplies such as file folders, notebooks, ring binders and rulers.

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IMM Cologne: Sustainability the Mega Trend

Sustainability has become a boundless mega trend, this is a fact that many manufacturers, designers and vendors have realized is key for their product categories. At just about every trade show we've attended so far in 2009 the wood is reclaimed, sustainable or FSC certified. Fabrics are organic, vegetable dyed and handcrafted. Even metals are recycled, repurposed or raw and untreated. That leads us to the design...

Sustainable or not in construction, designers have capitalized on the "sustainable look". Natural looking materials, soft earthy colors, loose knits, hand weaves, raw woods and untreated metals are now a decor "must have". You need them to coordinate with your flea market finds, your handmade treasures and your organic, green and sustainable products. At IMM Cologne we found Furninova doing a wonderful job of creating upholstered furnishings with just the right look to blend with your sustainable design decor direction.

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Renovation Nation: Levine Residence

Television broadcast of Renovation Nation (Discovery channel) featuring the renovation of a traditional LA bungalow into a environmentally sensitive and sustainable home for and by Jeremy Levine Design

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Model Home Monday: The 747 Wing House

The architect and owner of design firm SEA (Studio for Environmental Architecture) David Hertz is building a much-discussed 747 Wing House, which is still under construction in the Santa Monica mountains. The home appropriates parts of a retired jet for a multi-structured residence that embodies the idea of reuse into home design.

“I drew a section that was curved like the hull of a ship” for the 55-acre site, he recalls, “and when I completed hat ellipse, I realized it looked like an airplane wing.” Knowing that he was looking at an expensive roof, Hertz opted instead to “repurpose a real one.” An airplane wing, he found, already offered the means “to achieve the highest strength and the lightest weight.” Even better? “This is a 100 percent post-consumer product, and it’s a $200 million airplane that we bought for $30,000—the price of its primary raw material, aluminum.”

To see more of David Hertz and his firm's other completed works, visit their website.

via: Plenty Magazine

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Costco Goes Green, Saves Money

Yesterday's Sphere Trending Newsletter was all about ways to go green and save money. (If you don't receive this twice-monthly newsletter and would like to receive your free subscription - email us using the link in the right hand column.)

To keep with the topic of yesterday's publication, today's post is about the retailer Costco making strides to make their company more efficient and environmentally friendly. Here are some excerpts from the article that we enjoyed, or you can read the whole piece here.

"We have been doing these things because they were efficient and bring cost reductions," says Karen Raines, Costco's director of corporate sustainability. "And now we're finding out they're also green."

Energy savings: a top priority:

Operating nearly 400 warehouses in the United States requires a tremendous amount of energy1.9 billion kilowatts last year, to be exact. Several programs reduce energy requirements in the warehouses.

One such small change is producing big results - All new refrigeration, air-conditioning and lighting systems in the buildings are high-efficiency units that minimize energy usage. Older buildings are being upgraded with more efficient equipment. A recent tune-up of lighting and air-conditioning control systems in 350 warehouses reduced energy consumption by about 5 percent.

Reducing waste in the buildings:

Another big source of waste is produce - as much as 1.5 tons a week per warehouse. Costco is testing programs in several buildings to keep this produce out of landfills by paying composting companies to pick it up, for a rate lower than what garbage companies charge. For example, in Palm Springs, California, two warehouses are sending the waste produce to a worm farm, where it is composted into mulch. The trimmings from meat and grease from Costco's rotisserie chickens are also reusable. These wastes have traditionally gone to rendering companies, which make them into animal feed and other products. But now, biofuel producers in some regions have started buying the meat trimmings and chicken grease.

Smart advances in packaging

In many cases, products and their packages can be designed to be greener. For example, by making square plastic milk bottles, 224 gallon-size bottles can now fit on a pallet, compared to 210 round bottles. It doesn't sound like a lot, but spread out to all warehouses, the larger pallet count saves 521 truck trips to the warehouses per year, eliminating fuel usage and exhaust emissions. The same approach is being applied to dozens of products, from laundry detergent to nuts.

To read the rest of this article, visit SEED. Read More..

Buffalo Exchange - Hip and Thrifty Retail

Many consumers note price as a consideration when choosing between a green product or a traditional item. Buying second hand is one way to keep green ideals without breaking the bank. However, the words "thrift shop" don’t always conjure images of couture and the idea of sifting though musty racks keeps many people away. Retailer Buffalo Exchange is breaking the barriers between thrift store and hip retail.

A sustainable company that works to protect the environment by reusing and recycling clothing, it is a choosy shopper’s source for fashionable clothing and accessories. Items are bought, sold and traded directly with store customers, and used garments can be traded for any item in the store, including jewelry and brand-new clothing. The ever-changing inventory includes designer wear, vintage clothing, jeans, leather and one-of-a-kind items. The chain now offers gift cards as a great solution for greener holiday gift giving.

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Model Home Monday: Live The Box

A combination of various groups, including AIA Newark, Skanska, and Young Architects Forum, put together the Live The BOX competition to find innovative, visionary, and compelling proposals for container constructed, multifamily, mixed- use projects. The competition received tons of interesting container design entries, but only three won (with three more Honorable Mentions). Designs had to use standard shipping containers of 8'-6" height and either 20' or 40' length as main building blocks for the structure. via: Jetson Green

Winners:

New Park Station - Felix Heidgen & Thomas Nagy - a new type of community planning that aims to bring together diverse neighborhoods of Newark, New Jersey. The volumes of stacked containers are elevated on pilotis and the ground level is kept open as a stage for social and commercial interaction for the residents and the city at large. The ground level urban park, combined with the rooftop garden serve as a melting pot for residents of the complex and the city.

Modulaire - Hugo Mijares, Tulio Lopez & Ricardo Hernandez - a design in which systems have been kept simple - direct and largely passive. The life of the building is interactive with the energy it demands and with the inception on the site and it’s surroundings. Their strategy consists of dignifying high-density housing with open, community spaces, energy efficient design and will engage it's residents.

Lego + Farm - Tang & Yang Architects, LLC: Ming Tang & Dihua Yang - The central feature of this project is the development of a modular structure that exhibits characteristics of cellular organizations, with the potential of arranging a large quantity of shipping containers into a complex system in a manner similar to the Lego game. Named as Lego Farm, the development includes a mixed-use complex, as well as an urban farm, which include many sustainable elements such as roof garden, solar panel, wind turban, rainwater harvesting and compost chamber, can produce a healthy urban agricultural farm.

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Eco-friendly Building Blocks

Looking for eco-friendly furniture you can customize? An innovative company, Way Basics, created brightly colored furniture blocks called zBoards. zBoards are made from post-consumer recycled paper and can be recycled with no waste when their use is over. Their website markets the zBoards with one, main, simple statement: No Waste. No Rules. No Tools. zBoards and blocks are put together using a super-strong adhesive tape and come in a variety of colors and light and dark wood grains. The products are even 62% lighter than particle board, so they are easy to carry, stack or move. There are tons of combinations, shapes and variations you can create with these products and, knowing the products can be recycled when you change your mind, the possibilities are endless! via: Jetson Green

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Ecological Design In The Tropics (EDITT) is a proposal by TR Hamzah & Yeang for a 26-story high-rise constructed of recycled and recyclable materials featuring photovoltaic panels, natural ventilation, and a biogas generation plant all wrapped within an insulating living wall that covers half of its surface area. The eco-tower is designed to collect rainwater and re-distribute its grey-water for both irrigation and toilet flushing with an estimated 55% self-sufficiency and a photovoltaic system that can supply 40% of its energy needs.

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Philips Green Cuisine

This kitchen is certainly futuristic but it's the best green concept kitchen to date and Philips feels confident that the concept can be brought to fruition in the next 3 to 5 years. The kitchen design is based around a table that lets you cook or heat anywhere using the integrated sensors which detect your pan or pot and apply heat directly underneath. You can control the settings through touch-sensitive LED panels. The table even has an under-the-table composter that will compact all your peelings and left-overs and enable you to grow herbs on the table. The Green Cuisine kitchen concept illustrates a responsible use of resources, helping people become more conscious in their domestic consumption of water, electricity, gas and even food.

via: BornRich

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Retail Innovation: Holy Cow

The Holy Cow Company is based in St. Louis Park, MN and has made it their mission to design and produce the best clothing on earth. Their clothing is made with certified 100% organic cotton, hand screen printed with water based ink and created in healthy working conditions that enhance the lives of individuals producing their products. A unique feature of their products is the 9-digit tracking number that comes with each garment. This number allows the customer to track their garment back to it's field of origin. Check out Holy Cow's Flickr page for more behind-the-scenes photos of their farms, their people and their products.

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Packaging Reuse

Famed designer, Yves Behar, ventured into the bottled water arena with an interesting approach. His new Y Water beverage is an organic, low calorie, vitamin packed drink for children in a uniquely shaped package. Once the beverage has been consumed, the Y Water bottle becomes a building block for the child's imagination. The beverages are targeted to increase awareness in health and obesity concerns in children while reducing packaging waste in an innovative way.
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