Best of the Web: Green News & Lifestyle Blogs

Doing a lot of carpentry projects this fall? Stock your busy workshop with Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue Max. Don't be afraid to stain, paint, or sand this tough extra-strength wood adhesive. It gets the job done on both indoor and...

Corporate sustainability makes a lot of sense.  Reduce your costs and risk, increase profit, strengthen reputation, protect and conserve natural resources and social value while enhancing share value…what’s not to love?  So why is it that so many internal sustainability champions struggle to move their initiatives forward?  Perhaps it’s not the proposition at all – [...]

Electronics giant Panasonic is using SAP’s Recycling Administration software to aid compliance with product end-of-life regulations. Panasonic uses the SAP product to classify recyclable materials by type, weight, usage, destination, brand and category. The software also offers a central data repository of different countries’ regulatory requirements. The firm is currently using the program for 50 [...]

Deloitte is helping to develop the Water Action Hub, a public online tool to help companies collaborate with governments, non-profits, communities and each other to improve sustainable water management. The consulting firm is teaming with the International Business Leaders Forum, the Pacific Institute and the German International Development Agency in developing the hub under the [...]

By converting cellulosic biomass (or wood chips), Renmatrix may have a timely solution to the growing issue of fuel and oil today. By turning these agricultural wastes into something useful, fuel for vehicles in this case. Aside from wood chips, other materials such as switchgrass, nonedible parts of crop are bound to offer better fuel [...]

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Energy Edge Technologies Corporation has reduced energy consumption at a Yuengling brewery in Tampa, Fla., by over 14 percent. The efficiency analysis and subsequent refit also improved light quality and increased transformer capacity by 13 percent. The project has an estimated 18-month return on investment, according to Energy Edge. The Tampa brewery (pictured) is one [...]

Boeing has delivered its first 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which the company says uses 20 percent less fuel than similarly sized planes. Boeing describes the Dreamliner, delivered to All-Nippon Airways yesterday, as a super-efficient airplane with unmatched fuel efficiency. The $200m plane arrived three years late, following delays that cost Boeing billions of dollars, the Guardian [...]

The famous black dog from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” is up for adoption and in need of a loving home. If you’re a huge “Harry Potter” fan you know this German Shepherd by Padfoot, his real name is Berry. He “played” the animagus, the animal form of Harry’s godfather Sirius Black, who [...]

Last Wednesday, the 6th Annual Andy Roddick Foundation Charity Gala was held in Austin, Texas where Andy Roddick and guests helped to raise more than $1 million for charity. The event, which benefitted children’s organizations, featured a cocktail reception, a dinner, a live auction and a performance by Sir Elton John, who sang several of [...]

The U.S. jewelry industry, still reeling from revelations that children’s products contained dangerous amounts of cadmium, is pushing back against strict limits passed by many states, The Associated Press reported.  The industry says that unless the its new voluntary standard is adopted as a national standard, the patchwork of state rules will cause chaos for [...]

Legal & General Property has amended its standard lease format to include ‘green’ clauses. The U.K.-based property fund manager has issued a memorandum of green lease principles – including clauses relating to the use of environmental contractors and upholding energy performance certificates – that will now be considered whenever it drafts a standard lease. Additional [...]

Nine out of ten CSOs are one or two steps removed from the CEO, according to a report by executive search and consulting firm Weinreb Group. Weinreb says the report, CSO Back Story, is the first to chart the evolution of the position by surveying every exec with that title among the country’s publicly traded [...]

Grammy-nominated Janelle Monáe is about to embark on an environmentally-themed campus tour, thanks to non-profit Reverb. Reverb has invited Ms. Monáe to join its latest Campus Conscious Tour (CCT). In addition to educating and mobilizing students, the tour includes many greening elements and is run to have a minimal environmental footprint. Artists of past CCTs have included, among others, [...]

Revisions Design Studio specializes in creating new products out of upcycled and recycled objects, like the silver cake server that was re-fashioned and transformed into this stylish ‘Tribal Statement’ necklace. The cutouts in the server create a ‘tribal’ feel. No one will ever guess that this necklace was originally a cake server, once used to [...]

The 2nd Annual Women In Green Forum was held at the Santa Monica Sheraton and attracted a global audience of sustainability professionals. This session, The Nexus of Design, Art, and Sustainability, was moderated by Evelyn Lee, Senior Editor & Writer, Inhabitat. Panelists: - Ann Hand, Chief Executive Officer, Project Frog, Inc. - Lori Dennis, ASID, [...]

The great tree-planter and feminist, Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize winner, died yesterday.

We were fortunate enough to see her speak a few years ago, and I was frankly awed by her ability to find simple, enduring truths in complicated, desperate situations. 

Even today, speaking about the unhappiness of development in Kenya, her words resonate with me: 

"Now the forests have come down, the land has been turned to commercial farming, the tea plantations keep everyone poor, and the economic system does not allow people to appreciate the beauty of where they live."

In these United States we need not fear tea farming, can still see forests, if we choose, and haven't seen our lives ruined by commercial farming. Yet so many of us -- myself included, at times -- have become wage slaves, gripped by fear, unable to see the beauty of this world all around us. 

Thank you for insisting on the goodness and power and beauty of trees, Ms. Maathai. 

Read the rest of Recycled Greenhouse Pavilion Pops Up in the Dutch Countryside

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", eco design, elmo vermijs, green architecture, Green Building, green design, greenhouse pavilion, landart 2011, pavilion, Recycled Materials, reused materials, studio elmo vermijs, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, temporary pavilion, temporary structure, the netherlands

While in London recently I happened upon a small design studio in the northwest village of Kilburn. Called The Water Monopoly, the firm deals in French and English restored antique bath fixtures, and also manufactures a line of reproduction fixtures, including some of the most beautiful tubs I've ever seen.

Just in time for back-to-school kids, here is an alternative sandwich bag that should point kids and parents to a more eco-friendly direction. These are the Lunchskins Reusable Sandwich Bags, durable and made of high quality European fabric. The sandwich bags are dishwasher and food safe and carry a modern design. The Lunchskins should be [...]

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For something refreshing and completely out of the ordinary, this guacamole and mango bagel recipe from Healthy Happy Life will do the trick. It’s original, fun and dare way say it – tasty. Guacamole and Mango Bagel Recipe 1 bagel, sliced and toasted (the more grains the better) 1/2 avocado, diced 1/2 lemon, squeezed 3-5 [...]

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