Originally published on EdenKeeper.org With a population of about 700 people, the village of Sone in West Timor, Indonesia is famous throughout the region for its production of beautiful, traditional fabrics. Located close to a mountain summit, Sone is completely off the electricity grid. With the hope of learning about the challenges of living in …
In Indonesia Panasonic CSR Helps Cut Out The Darkness Read More »
The average American cell phone is upgraded every 18 months, but less than 20 percent of the discarded phones are recycled annually. The other 80 percent ends up in desk drawers, or worse, in landfills. However, ecoATM is changing the wasteful lifecycle of cell phones and other electronic devices like tablets or MP3 players. Maria …
India’s government has lately set a 3-year target to rejuvenate the River Ganges, formulating an integrated plan for the use of new technologies to solve the water pollution crisis. Known as the “Namaami Gange” or “Clean Ganga” project, optimism is high for cleaning up the Holy River Ganga, as it is known and revered by …
India Uses Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) to Clean the Ganges River Read More »
On a mission to transform the globe “through ethical relationships with small-scale farmers, and an integral sustainability orientation at every point on the supply chain,” Alter Eco Foods has bitten off a big bite to chew on. But it sure looks delicious. Especially those chocolate truffles. Organic, fair trade truffles! In dark chocolate and dark …
The world’s oceans are vast, floating dumps for plastic pollution. Without a serious plan for cleaning up the world’s oceans, this situation is dire and becoming worse every day. With a goal of retrieving and recycling 400,000 flip flops a year from the coast of Kenya, one small start-up in Nairobi is making a big …
Recycling Flip Flops From the Ocean Shores of Kenya Read More »
Inspired by the ecological system of giant trees, the Urban Skyfarm is a prototype vertical urban farm project. Designed to support local food production and distribution, it also improves environmental quality through water and air filtration and renewable energy production. First Place Winner in the 2013 Green Dot Awards Concept category, The Urban Skyfarm is …
Across the globe, there is a bioeconomy beginning to mature. For example, approximately 15 million hectares of agricultural land are covered every year with horticultural plastics. Every year, in labor intensive and expensive efforts, all of these plastic covers must be removed after the growing season is over. The land must be cleaned, plowed and …
New Bioeconomy Market Grows From Biodegradable Paper Read More »
The inability of our society to take serious action on problems such as climate change is extremely frustrating to many people. After all we know what it is we have to do; why don’t we just get on and do it? It seems simple, but there are many obstacles to change. Most of these are …
It’s not always necessary to reinvent the wheel in order to build a better one, and while some challenges will need to have a whole new framework of innovation and technology to overcome, some of those challenges can be met by ideas that already exist. Acknowledging that solutions to many societal challenges already exist, but …
World Design Impact Prize 2013-2014 Shortlist Released Read More »
What do you get when you combine sports, community, education, and resource reclamation? If you’re PITCHAfrica, you get a combination soccer (football) field, school, and community center that also functions as a water harvesting and storage facility, otherwise known as a Waterbank school building. “Our design includes four classrooms with protected gardens for food cultivation, …
It’s a School, It’s a Soccer Field, It’s a Water Harvesting Community Center Read More »
With the increasing privatization and commodification of public spaces, how can groups and individuals reclaim pieces of it to disrupt the ‘business as usual’ trend, in order to bring about a better urban environment? In an inflatable space in a dumpster, of course. The Inflato Dumpster seeks to serve as a mobile space for large …
This Inflatable Space in a Dumpster Enables Urban Hacking Read More »
Often, it seems the news is full of companies doing bad things. Other times, it seems that their CSR efforts are largely just greenwashing (the act of advertising themselves as doing something good, when in reality, the big picture is still really pretty bad). But there are companies we love out there, and this series …
I can’t help myself! I review the shopping venues shelves, such as my local supermarket and Walmart, to investigate what manufacturers are doing to make the packaging of their products more sustainable. I have to admit that I focus on the negative. I really notice the packaging tragedies, and cringe to see just how bad …
The aerospace industry has made a major comeback in 2012, with more than 5,000 jobs added to aerospace companies across the country this year alone. President Marion Blakey of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) remarked that the increase was “surprising,” since the increased demand for civil aircraft came seemingly out of the blue. This surplus …
Growth in the Aerospace Industry Bodes Well for Economy and Jobs Read More »