Topic: Energy Efficiency

Sorry, Prius: A new report argues that hybrids aren’t the most efficient cars. (via Translogic)

Royalty Gone Green: Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Potentially Eco-Friendly Palace

Now that our bids for future Queen of England are officially over, we can start focusing on Prince William and Kate Middleton’s eventual marriage — where they’ll live, for example. Back in 2006, there was a rumor that Prince Charles was busy building an eco-palace for the pair, on the grounds of the Duchy of Cornwall’s Harewood Park Estate.
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Green Halloween: 10 Eco-Friendly (and Hilarious) Costumes You Already Own

Halloween has to be one of the least eco-friendly holidays of the year. There’s all the plastic packaging from costumes and candy that heads to landfills; shipping costs and materials for said costumes and candy; and, of course, the savage tradition of pumpkin smashing. But does that mean you must abandon your eco-friendly ways on October 31? We don’t think so. We found ten cheeky Halloween costumes you can make from all the crap you’ve already got at home (no purchases necessary), which means you won’t create any trash or perpetuate our reliance on petroleum based products (like all of those packaged costumes at the drugstore). An added perk? Now you have more room in your budget for that super-deluxe composting system — or a few cases of pumpkin ale. More »

Fast Food for the Eco-Friendly: Are “Green” Locations Enough?

Fast food and eco-friendliness don’t easily co-exist. There’s too much packaging; the products usually aren’t grown or raised sustainably; and some chains still use Styrofoam. But a few companies are making efforts to get LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, which would mean that the restaurant location upholds high standards for energy savings, water conservation, reducing emissions, and other environmentally responsible practices. More »

Infographic: How Much Does the World Really Care About Being Eco-Friendly?

How do the residents of nations around the world (including the U.S., China, India, France, and the U.K.) really feel about the importance of corporate environmental responsibility and consuming eco-friendly brands such as Google, Dove, IKEA, Nivea, and Apple? GOOD created this infographic that shows what considerations consumers actually take before they do some serious shopping. More »

Be Honest: Do you turn off your work or home computer at night? This illuminating short video by designer Nigel Upchurch should convince you to do just that. (via GOOD)

Green Roof Technology? Norway’s Got Us Beat

Norwegians are smart. They live in a super-wealthy kingdom. It’s sparsely populated (fewer than five million people). Their country has one of the highest standards of living on earth. They have universal health care, free higher education, and social security. It’s clean. They have fjords. (Only problem I see is that sometimes it stays dark all day.)

Another thing Norway has on everybody else, particularly the U.S.? They’ve been using environtmentally-conscious “green” roofs for a really long time. Damn, those Scandinavians are good. More »

Guilt Trip Alert: Check out these 50 smart ways to never waste food again. (via Planet Green)

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Buick Goes Green-ish In 1980: Flashback Friday

Magic Johnson and a horse jockey walk into a Buick dealership in 1980. There’s a big Buick and a small Buick. (Get it?) Hilarity ensues in this vintage TV commercial, but mostly because the “efficient” Electra Limited gets a whopping 18 miles per gallon: More »

Eco-Friendly Accessories: Wind Your Wooden Watch and WeWood Plants a Tree

We’ve always liked the idea of watches, but we haven’t worn one in a long time, because our cell phones tell time and wake us up every morning. But these environmentally-conscious watches from an Italian company called WeWood changed all that in a nanosecond. The company, now based in L.A., transforms disused wooden flooring (maple, ebony, and other types) into the coolest, most beautiful watches we’ve seen in a long time. State-of-the-art movements, yes, but nothing artificial or toxic here. (Have you ever really considered how environmentally unfriendly leather, plastic, and metal watches are? Neither have we, until now.) And the good deed gets better: More »

Really Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Check out this hanging sculpture made of underwear by contemporary Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. (via The Frisky)

Our Dream Invention: A Robot That Washes Hair

We need this gadget — it’s a robot that washes your hair. Of course, we’d prefer it to be energy efficient and conserve water, but think of the extra beauty sleep we could get lying in this chair while a robot washes our hair for us. Maybe we could even install it in our bathtubs. That way, we could take a shower lying down. More »

GE’s Ecomagination Contest: Think Green and Win

Think you’ve got a great green idea that could improve the way we use power? GE wants to know about it. They’re holding the Ecomagination Challenge. Normal people can submit ideas on improving energy efficiency, and GE will award $200 million dollars in prizes. You can vote and comment on ideas you like or hate, too. More »

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