When you first think of “eco-friendly building,” you think of recycled / recyclable building materials: recycled plastic pallets; recycled stageboard; recycled skate ramp materials etc. etc. etc. — everything you’d want to build a sustainable city infrastructure with, right?

But, beyond the eco-friendly building methodologies and sustainable design blueprints are the companies who pay to use these “Green buildings.”

Most likely, these eco-friendly buildings turn into offices; housing computers; thus, foreshadowing the rise of a future tech junk problem.

Tech junk. Where does it go? How much energy does it waste? How much energy could we save if we all shut down our computers rather than conveniently choosing, “sleep mode”?

According to iamgreen, today 1-billion computers are active. The accumulative energy wasted by these computers, which on average are left on between 9:00am – 5pm is equivalent to the amount of power it takes to light the entire New York Yankee stadium for every home game from today to the 2596-2597 season.

But, don’t get too excited. There’s more info below!

Scroll down, dive into the rest of the amazing Computing Vs. Environment infographic head first, and let us know what you think in the comments box or on our Facebook fan page.

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Source: iamgreen

The latest report from ecoAmerica is titled “up start with people.” The report states that the environmental community has not been successful at wining the hearts and minds because they have focused mostly on government regulation and intervention. The non-profit sees more success being had by those in the movement who are focused on social solutions that are built around people.

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Originally posted on Green Economy Post

Crowdfunded windmill will generate energy for members’ own use

We’ve seen numerous creative approaches to supplying sustainable energy for home users, but recently one caught our eye that seemed a little different. Targeting consumers unwilling or unable to outfit their own homes with wind or solar energy collectors, Dutch Windcentrale offers a chance to own a portion of a local windmill and enjoy a proportionate amount of the green energy it produces.

A brainchild of the Dutch Energy Cooperative with support from the Doen Foundation, Windcentrale gives Dutch households a way to secure their own energy supply for years to come. Toward that end, it has divided up a single windmill’s output into units with an expected wind output of 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) each per year. Interested parties can purchase one or more of those units so as to supply their own household consumption, which averages about 3500 kWh. Power is delivered through the local utility, and during wind-free days it’s supplemented with the utility’s own, traditional supply. When members move, meanwhile, they can simply take their shares with them.

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Originally posted on Springwise

5 Green Products Designed for Greener Highways

Sustainable technology development is the need of the hour. With fast depleting natural resources, threat to survival has become evident. The scientists and designers are on a constant look out for designs that solve survival needs of tomorrow. It is true that highways, with its ever growing vehicular traffic, has to be blamed for creating environmental pollution. But many modern industrial designers vouch to transform this traffic lifeline into green power generation hub for future. Highways extended on vast stretch of land, have potential for developing many sustainable means of generating power. Electric cars, e turbine, solar and wind energy lighting and solar powered air purifiers are few of the futuristic designs to curb the pollution levels and build self- reliant system through highways.

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Originally posted on Ecofriend

Vertical Farms For London Are Lovely Green Eye Candy

Vertical farms may be pie in the sky, but they are a lot of fun for architects with time on their hands. AWR recently organized a competition to design a vertical farm with a residential use called LOFT 2011.

I am particularly fond of the Second Honorable Mention, the Breathing Vertical Farm. There isn’t a lot of growing area, but it would make a beautiful place to live.

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Originally posted on Treehugger

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Eco-friendly Stageboard…Coming to a theatre Near You!

Mainstream pop music, movies, television, theatre; all of it can easily be judged from an armchair.

The entertainment industry — in the eyes of the environmentalist — exists for two reasons: 1) to entertain us while wasting materials 2) to try to “entertain” us even more by wasting even more materials. But, that’s just an opinion from an armchair.

Nonetheless, recent innovations in eco-friendly building have helped ease this age-old problem. More engineeers, tradesmen, artchitects and hobbyists are choosing to use “recycled materials” over natural wood.

Renew Resources has listed the top three reasons why businesses — including the entertainment industry — are investing in eco-friendly stageboard.

GOVERNMENT CERTIFIED

Eco-friendly stageboard is certified by the Canadian Government and U.S. Pentagon. Stageboard has also received the most-coveted “Eco-Mark” in the world by the Japanese Government EPA.

When businesses use government certified eco-friendly stageboard, businesses benefit from a new unique sales point (USP); carrying more market water and marketing themselves as an organization who uses the highest grade of eco-friendly material in the market today.

MAXIMIZED INCOME

Unlike real wood, eco-friendly stageboard doesn’t crack, splinter or break. It doesn’t require high-maintenance chemicals that damage the environment; renowned for lasting longer than regular wood. Ultimately, the more durable your building materials are the less materials you use.

BETTER THAN WOOD

Unlike real wood, stageboard is immune to weather damage. It doesn’t decay or warp or splinter. Stageboard is built from recycled materials as well; preventing abrasion while also serving you excellent acoustics and sound deadening. Builders have also found stageboard takes nails or screws equivalent to or better than real wood with zero pre-drilling required.

SUMMARY

With the green movement seeping more and more into the mainstream year after year, businesses are becoming more inclined to use eco-friendly building materials for its market appeal, sustainability and eco-mark.

In stageboard, users receive a government certified eco-mark and offer a unique sales point; staying above the competition while maximizing material minimization.

Companies like Renew Resources offer eco-friendly building materials all year around to help you save as many trees and money as possible.

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There’s no doubt wooden pallets have played an important role in shaping the world’s infrastructure: real estate; bridges; skyscrapers; transportation, to just name a few — all have used wooden pallets.

However in the recent rise of the green market, wooden pallets are becoming less favourable: they’re unsanitary; they’re high-maintenance; they have a short life span.

Many engineers, architects and tradesmen today are beginning to use more reliable and long-lasting alternatives such as, eco-friendly plastic pallets.

According to the Pallet & Container Research Lab, the plastic pallet market has doubled in the last ten years.

Eco-friendly plastic pallets are here to stay and Renew Resources has quickly highlighted its three major benefits.

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Environment Friendly

Renowned for its longevity and re-usability, eco-friendly plastic pallets simply last longer than wooden pallets, which reduces your wood consumption. When you choose wood; you choose a shorter-life span. Eco-friendly plastic pallets are also made from 100% recyclable materials and are 100% recyclable. When your eco-friendly plastic pallet break through wear-and-tear, it’s convenient to toss in your recycling pile; saving landfill space.

Long-lasting

Plastic Pallets are weather-resistant and save you from the high-maintenance troubles wooden pallets bring you. Plastic pallets won’t absorb moisture, won’t split, rot, mildew or become infested with insects. The longer your pallets last the more money you save.

Sanitary

Plastic pallets were first introduced to the market in the 1960s and were used in sanitary applications for raw foods. When you use plastic pallets you’ll free yourself from all the unsanitary qualities wood bring you; giving you a more versatile functionality: the cleaner; the better.

Summary

Three billion to six billion trees are cut down every year. When you move from wooden pallets to eco-friendly plastic pallets you’ll save trees, reduce resource consumption and own a longer-lasting product. Getting started is simple. All you have to do is research in your local area for companies like Renew Resources and look for affordable rates and experts who can advise you on how to get started.

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Rafael Ramírez should be ranked as one of the most powerful men in the world. As the Venezuelan minister for energy, he is also head of the country’s state oil company – and, therefore, now controls the world’s biggest proven oil reserves. In a little-reported development, Opec recently certified that the South American nation was number one in national reserves, after a vast field of what was previously classified as tar was redefined as extra heavy crude. La Faja, as the heavy oil belt along the Orinoco river is referred to, contains nearly 220bn barrels. That takes Venezuela’s reserves to 297bn – close to 20% of the world’s oil – and leapfrogs it over Saudi Arabia on 265bn.

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Originally posted on Guardian

Crack Planter Art by Sean Martindale

My concept for these Grass Spills was the original one which grew into the larger Outside the Planter Boxes project (please see ABOUT section for more information). In total, four spilling planters were created on the project launch day along the West side of University Avenue, just North of Queen Street West. Thank you again to James David Morgan and Holy Blue for their assistance in the early morning when I installed these interventions.

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Originally posted PlanterArt

Renewables Give Us More Power Than Nuclear

For the first time in a while, our portfolio of renewable power sources has surpassed power production from nuclear generation. According to the latest Monthly Energy Review from the Energy Information Administration, the most sustainable forms of energy now produce more for us than the most hazardous, largely due to rises in wind, solar and hydro production.

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Originally poster on Green Economy Post

10 Things That You Never Knew Were Recyclable

Nope, you didn’t read that wrong. Human hair is compostable and recyclable. Hair from your hairbrush or fur from your pet are full of useful nitrogen that can be thrown in the compost pile. Donating your hair could help clean up future oil spills. San Francisco nonprofit Matter of Trust collects human and pet hair to create booms that soak up oil. Currently, warehouses are full, but you can be placed on the email alert list when the need arrives again.

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Originally posted on earth911

Infographic: Backyard Vs. Food Supply

It’s time to get self-sufficient…

With food prices ranked at an all-time high and the consecutive bursts of social upheaval surfacing across the globe — all cancers formed by the same food Uncle Sam feeds you and I — relying on affordable and accessible food from your local supermarket in the future isn’t going to be as easy as it is today. Starting your own garden and growing your own food in your backyard is risk-free, inexpensive, and empowering; allowing you to save money and steer clear from the stresses of finding food for your family tomorrow or in case of emergency.

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Originally posted on Renew Resources

Solar Roadways Set to Build First Solar Parking Lot

Solar Roadways, the company behind a technology that could transform the nation’s roads into a network of shatter-proof, energy-generating solar panels, has just a received a new $750,000 grant from the federal government. With that money, the team will get to work at developing a prototype solar parking lot that will fully put their technology to the test.

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Originally posted on Ecofriend

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It’s time to get self-sufficient…

With food prices at an all-time high taking the time to learn how to serve you and your family with food grown from your own backyard may be more beneficial to you than learning the specials and deals at the local grocery mart down the street.

Starting your own garden and growing your own food in your backyard is risk-free, inexpensive, and most importantly empowering; saving you extra money, while providing you and your family with a safety net just in case something unpredictable should happen.

But how much acreage do you need to feed you and your family for an entire year? Does your property have enough room?

The good fellows at One Block Off the Grid answer those questions and more, showing you exactly how much land you need to sufficiently feed a family of four in the infographic below.

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Source: 1BOG

How weird? Well, scroll down below, watch all three thirty-second videos, and find out what I’m talking about.

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Wasting Water Is Weird: Dishwasher

Wasting Water Is Weird: Bathroom

Wasting Water Is Weird: Carwash

Summary

Cutting just one minute of your shower is equivalent to a whole week of drinking water for someone else. Learn from Rip and turn off your water while you brush your teeth to save 45 gallons of water a month; install a water-efficient shower head to save 750 gallons of water a month; fix a leaky toilet to save over 1000 gallons of water a month. When you discover how much water you waste; wasting water just gets plain weird!

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Called The Pearl of West Indies, Haiti was during a long time the most visited country of the Greater Antilles representing the occidental third of Hispaniola Island. Devastated in 2010 by an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, the country has now to be rebuilt from new innovative architectural and town-planning concepts.

The Coral Reef project plans a matrix to build a three dimensional and energy self-sufficient village from one and only standardised and prefabricated module in order to rehouse the refugees from such humanitarian catastrophes. This basic module is simply made of two passive houses (with metallic structure and tropical wood facades) interlocked in duplex around a transversal horizontal circulation linking every unit.

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Originally posted on Vincent Callebaut

Sustainable ‘Farm Tower’ in London Offers a Solution to Food Crisis

The “London Farm Tower” is an amazing concept by Brandon Martella and is situated on the southern bank of the river Thames, facing Potter’s Field. This sustainable building is a solution to the present day crisis where population is growing by millions, urbanization is eating up all the agricultural land and therefore the increasing demand for food cannot be met.

The Farm Tower is a compact skyscraper that contains all the main ingredients for a self-sufficient city, including agricultural space, albeit in a vertical format. This sustainable building is actually developed much like a tree that depends upon the sun and water for growth and survival.

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Originally posted on Design Buzz

Canadian Government Fires Environment Ministry Scientists and Meteorologists, Hires Oil Lobbyists

I just love the juxtaposition of these two stories in today’s newspapers; in The Star, we learn that the Environment Ministry is cutting 700 Meteorologists, scientists, chemists and engineers, or about 11% of the workforce. “I think it speaks volumes about this government’s priority as it relates to the environment,” says Bill Pynn of the Union of Environment Workers. According to the Star:

The job losses will badly hurt the ability of the science-based department to do its job on issues such as climate change, monitoring water and air quality and wildlife species. “. [says another union leader:] I just don’t think the department can continue to do its science with that magnitude of cuts.”

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Originally posted on Treehugger

Solar Powered Tour Buses With Bikes

This should be a green solution for promoting places and guiding people towards a more eco-friendly way of appreciating places they may end up visiting. Buses are the best way to aid tourists and travellers and since we are all lined up for a greener tomorrow, this Solar Powered Bus concept should be interesting.

That is not all. The bus also comes with bikes inside so that in case it makes a stop, tourists can use them to get go around the tour spot rather than walk. And after the bike ride is over, the bikes are simply returned and hooked up until a next stop (if any) for tours is reached.

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Originally posted on Keetsa

Global Warming Or Global Population Control

While its commendable and, I believe, the job of every person living on planet earth to take care of the common ground we all share; sadly, it appears that environmental conservation has become more of a radical religion than anything else. In reading posts on blogs and news organization sites, its obvious that folks are worried about literally every last ounce of carbon emissions that enter into the atmosphere.

But here is something most of you probably didn’t know: GASP! CO2 is actually GOOD for our environment. According to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, “carbon dioxide is essential to photosynthesis in plants and other photoautotrophs, and is also a prominent greenhouse gas.

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Originally posted on Renewable-Energy News

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Deforestation is climbing at an alarming rate.

Here’s a reminder: By the year 2030, only 10 per cent of what the Amazon Rain Forest is today will remain in tact.

Shocked? Yet, within this frightening forecast shines glimmers of hope. The “Green Movement” stands tall with forward-thinking tradesmen, architects, engineers, politicians and new green entrepreneurs, all playing a vital role in the green movement; trailblazing a healthier and sustainable lifestyle for a dying “blue society,” so to speak.

The once kooky green building ideology now has a mass production business model.

The growing popularity and production of recycled plastic lumber has already and will continue to play an important role in the future of sustainable building.

Recycled plastic lumber is equivalent to; or, better than real lumber; serving planet earth with many environmental benefits:

Recycled Plastic Lumber is…

Made From 100% Recycled Plastic and 100% Recyclable: With the world losing 7.3 million hectares of forest per year; adopting recycled plastic lumber instantly reduces the amount waste exhausted in any given construction site. Made from 100% industrial plastic waste and 100% recyclable, all breaks or mis-cuts can be recycled and used again; lasting a lifetime.

Aesthetically Pleasing and Heat Resistant: Equally pleasant to the human eye and just as sensual as real wood, recycled plastic lumber is heat-resistant; preventing dry wood and unattractive shrinkage. Its strong planks serve a cool surface allowing you to freely roam your deck on any given hot day. Your soles of your feet and exposed skin are safe when you lay there and soak in the warm sun.

Versatile: Infestation, warp, and splinter free recycled plastic lumber has proven to be applicable in many different building projects. Hailed in the green building community as the essential alternative to wood; its versatile properties can be used to build exterior moldings, window frames, door frames, decking to fences, vertical gardens and more.

Health Risk Free: Away and beyond the hazardous lather real wood needs to fight off insects and weather, recycled plastic lumber is chemical free: no additives or preservatives. It serves high performance without being high maintenance.

Summary: With the climbing rates of deforestation and illegal loggers continuing to pillage planet earth, recycled plastic lumber attempts to even the score.

Recycled plastic lumber is..

• Made From 100% Recycled Plastic and Recyclable
• Aesthetically Pleasing and Heat Resistant
• Versatile and equivalent if not better than real lumber
• Promotes a healthy and green environment

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I don’t know if you’ve noticed before.

But there has a been a trend that has always existed in the minds of Man where new ideas first seem impossible; then probable; then inevitable.

This trend rings true in what we’ve come to witness in the passed decade with the phenomena known as: Green / Sustainable Home Building.

And to pay homage to green living, Renew Resources  has posted a new infographic below highlighting the top Green Home Improvement trends of 2011 for you to adopt and discover.

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Source: Infographic Showcase