nguyen la chanh: moss bathmat

Just what I need, a moss bathmat! The moss housed in plastazote foam is watered after your showers as you step onto it drippy and clean.
Nguyen La Chanh, the Swiss designer of the moss mat sais, "The idea was to find a new way of having your plants inside." Her other imaginative designs include: 'Tasty Frame' and 'Kitchen Garden' Read More..

greenhouse house: hiroshi iguchi

Love this greenhouse I saw on Eco Friend by designer Hiroshi Iguchi. This house within a greenhouse has been designed as a part of the Fifth World project, which aims to promote ecofriendly and sustainable architecture.

Made from natural materials that include wood for floors and traditional Japanese panels for compartments, it integrates humans and plants together -- leaving open spaces in between the ceiling to let trees thrive in the open. Read More..

trad: ecological design for children

Träd, a childrens' piece from designers Josue Gamonal and Vicente Porres, have won the Third María Martínez Otero Industrially-Produced Designer Furniture Award for their design. The first instinct for me when I saw this piece was--MUST HAVE ONE!!! This design stops me in my tracks--truly a must have. Unfortunately, it is still in its development stages. Bravo to the duo!

"Trad is a shelter, a personal space where children carry out their fantasies and games. A place that allows them to feel safe, to learn and to imagine. That enchanted wood where one can dream of heroes and princesses, witches and dragons... and live a thousand and one adventures. The tree, as an icon for wisdom, shelter and playground, symbol of life and growth. Approach to an increasingly absent nature, as a comeback to traditional games, towards imagination development, with no artifices, as a basis for the growth of the child's personal world."

via Yanko Design
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haute living art: hedge sculpture

Hedge sculpture from around the web.
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recycled materials: eco greenhouse construction

This greenhouse looks like an easy enough build. Check your local recycled architectural materials yard.
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tatil brazil: design & branding sustainably

Tatil designed these printed leave invitations for the 55th Cannes Publicity Festival, and that succeeded in turning heads. The leaves are a disposable flyer that is actually supposed to be thrown away on the ground. Paint free, borrowed from nature for a purpose and them returned to it.

Steve Latham, contents coordinator of the 55th Cannes Publicity Festival, said:
“I must say that in my 3 years organizing the Cannes Lions Festival, the work put into the marketing for this workshop has actually been the best I’ve ever seen, in the seminar program and the workshop program. It was so creative and simple, environmentally friendly….it’s just been fantastic. I’ve seen people playing with these things, with the leaves, trying to understand what they are…and, of course, there’s a message in there inviting people to come to workshop. I found it just amazing and innovative. I would like to congratulate everyone envolved in the making of this project and it is something I would recommend as an idea for future seminar and workshop holders. So, congratulations!”

With offices both in Rio and São Paulo, Tatil provide services to clients that include Nokia, Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola and Philips.
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floracopeia: aromatic medicinals

Floracopeia's offers traditional medicinal plants and the highest quality essential oils while promoting ecologically sustainable projects. Founded by David Crow, the goals of Floracopeia include economically supporting and uplifting ecological farmers around the world by purchasing their high-quality aromatic products, to preserve rainforests by purchasing aromatic products from sustainable agroforestry projects and to promote the use of ethnobotanical medicines as solutions to the widespread ecological destruction taking place in the world.
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d.i.y.: herbal fire starters

For holiday fire starters:
wrap pinecones, sage, rosemary, cinnamon sticks, in newsprint and twist into aromatic igniters.

or:

Fill the small compartments of a fibrous egg carton half way with fragrant dried herbs (rosemary, lavender, mint). Make sure that the herbs are completely dry, and never use Styrofoam egg cartons. Once filled with herbs, push a pine cone firmly into in each compartment.

Then Melt paraffin wax using a double boiler. Pour the melted wax evenly over your pine cones, making sure to keep the wax inside of the egg carton compartments, gluing the herbs and pine cones in place. If the wax cools, simple heat it again slightly until it easy to pour.

Allow the wax to cool completely and then carefully cut the egg carton into individual fire starters. If you like, you can tie a raffia ribbon onto the top of each pine cone for added decoration.
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veja: ecological shoe manufacturer

Vejais a Paris-based company producing shoes in Brazil. Veja shoes are fair traded and organic, made from natural latex rubber, vegetable-tanned leather and organic cotton. They use wild rubber trees that are only found in the Amazon, by supporting wild latex production they help prevent deforestation in this region. Veja supports two cooperatives of small organic cotton producers.
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ask nature: biomimicry help site

The Biomimicry Institute has just made finding information linking design and biology simple by recently launching AskNature.org last week at Greenbuild.

The site is organized by function and currently has 738 design ideas inside thier database. The site offers alot of nature inspiration as well as research on all kinds subjects, like how would nature collect water? This is 3.8 billion years of biological evolution now available to any innovator or entrepreneur.
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co2 reduction ideas

Researchers at the Columbia University in Oman have discovered that Peridotite rocks found 20 kilometers under the surface of Earth can be tapped to capture and store vast amounts of CO2. This rock that makes up most of the Earth’s mantle is sometimes brought to the surface with tectonic movements then reacting with atmospheric gases to form calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate rocks. A possible solution may be to push CO2 underground and let the rock below the surface convert it. The rocks in Oman can capture 10,000 to 100,000 tons of carbon per year, and if better technology is brought to use, the same rocks would be able to capture 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year.
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fig toys: non toxic playthings

Fig Toys made with all natural rubber wood and natural dyes-also fair trade.
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five and a half: journals made from sugar cane fiber not trees

Five & A Half is a lovely company from Brooklyn making sustainable journals from the fibers of the sugar cane stalk. No trees were harmed to make these chic office accessories, that's haute! Read More..

norman earl's audubon bottle bird feeder adaptor

Back in 1984, Norman Earl thought twice before tossing out his plastic jug. Instead, he invented the Soda Bottle Bird Feeder, a sturdy cast zinc adaptor that converts any plastic two-liter bottle into an economical feeder. Hung from a tree or mounted to a pole, the squirrel-proof Bird Feeder will keep chickadees, robins and other feathered friends satiated all year. Made in U.S.A. Audubon Soda Bottle Bird Feeder
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algae jet fuel: haute biofuel

Jet fuels result in significant greenhouse gas emissions, and in such a situation the use of renewable fuel is a brilliant idea. Solazyme Inc, a renewable oil production company, is known to produce the world’s first microbial-derived jet fuel. The company implements a unique algal conversion process that allows algae to produce oil in large tanks efficiently without sunlight. This algae-derived aviation fuel has also passed various tests for density, thermal oxidative stability, flashpoint, freezing point distillation, et-high efficiency.

An acre of algae can produce 50 times more oil than an acre of soy, and this oil can be used to make bio-diesel or synthetic forms of petroleum or both.




via EcoFriend Read More..

robert quinn: mini terrariums

Fantastic tiny terrariums by Robert Quinn at the annual Abbot Kinney Festival.
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the guardian of eden - kate raudenbush

Love this! I want it. lovely lotus sculpture.....but an even more beautiful creation story--listen to her explantation!

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switzerland: large hadron collider

Read about the new Large Hadron Collider the most powerful atom smasher ever built. They might even create black holes with it! Read More..

tree of life: gustav klimt

Tree of life by Gustav Klimt Read More..

haute tree necklace

Tree necklace by Sparkling Lotus Design
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