"Every designer in design school wants to do these sorts of projects, and there's no benc... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Alternatives for Standing Desks
image courtesy of Anderlyn Desks After writing Are Standing Desks Healthier Than Sitting? I decided to try it, with a quick and dirty setup of an old draughting table. I am only four days into the experiment and consider it way to early to evaluate (some say that it takes two weeks to adjust) but discovered a few other quick (and not so dirty) ways to try it out if you don't happen to have an adjustable table around. One interesting solution is the Anderlyn Desk, a flatpack design invented by Wi... Read the full story on TreeHugger

The Perverse Hybrid Incentive
Image credit: Method The hybrid car has become the icon of eco; a status symbol of responsibility. Roll up in one and you have instant green cred. There is even a sub-culture of hybridism, talking up the benefits and doling out deals to hybrid owners. But what is the real intention of all these incentives? Did someone consider the effects of these perks when they were designed?... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Switch Me! And Feel The Pain Of Our Planet
images via Designboom That is what French designer Josselin Zaïgouche says about his novel, if unusual, way to reduce power consumption.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Chairs from the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Show
Images by B. Alter The Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Show, held in association with the Design Museum in London, is an exhibition of the best of international design. Nominated by a panel, there are more than 100 design items in seven different categories on display. There were a lot of interesting chairs this year. Before we start on them, here's the (non-chair) design that many are touting as this year's... Read the full story on TreeHugger

An iPhone App about Biomimetic Architecture: BioDesign #3 by Dennis Dollens
This seems to be the year for green iPhone apps, with already over 100 to choose from, including TreeHugger's own which was launched last month and the Green Map app launched recently. Now here is one for the biomimicry and architecture fans amongst you. Read the full story on TreeHugger

Should Terracycle Partner with Tobacco Butts?
TerraCycle's goal is singular: To solve the problem of waste. We have not taken positions on the products that we collect, similar to how recycling companies accept products of any brand that fit their capacity to recycle. But here's where it gets interesting—We've been approached by a tobacco company to collect and turn cigarette butts into new eco-friendly products. What do you think? Is doing business with a cigarette company any different than any of the other companies whose waste we collect? Or is this somehow different? If so, how? image credit: Read the full story on TreeHugger

Awesome Biomimicry: Leaf Veins Inspire New Model for Water and Electricity Distribution Networks
Lemon leaf with interconnected loops. Photo: RU A team of biophysicists at Rockefeller University recently published a paper in Physical Review Letters about a new way to design distribution networks based on the veins that carry water and nutrients in most tree leaves. This is a great example of biomimicry! Evolution by natural selection maybe be blind, but it has had billions of years of trial-and-error to figure out efficient and robust ways to do things. The interconnecting vein loops in leaves are a good example of that, and we can learn... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Modern Modular Done Right from Challenger Living
A lot of lessons have been learned over the last decade as architects and manufacturers try to make modern green prefab affordable and accessible to a wider audience. A new entry into the market is Challenger, a modern architect-designed line of houses from Manitoba, Canada's Conquest Manufacturing. They recently displayed a new model, the Cube, at the National Home Show in Toronto. By way of background, prior to coming to TreeHugger I spend a number of years trying to introduce modern modular to the Canadian marketplace, and did just about everything wrong. Looking at the Challenger line, I think that ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

High Demand for Better TVs Means Shortage of LEDs Likely To Hit This Year
Photo via Joe Seggiola Well, it's almost no surprise, considering how popular LEDs have become for everything from lighting up thousands of Starbucks shops to fashion-centric crafts. The popularity of LEDs - or light-emitting diodes - is likely to cause a shortage this year, and it could lead to even higher prices for the already expensive t... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Guy Builds Massive House with Recycled Glass Bottles, Teaches you How to Do It (Video)
Photo: Lauri TG. If you liked the house made with plastic bottles in Parque Iguazu, this one will blow you away. Tito Ingenieri, a character from a city called Quilmes, about an hour south from Buenos Aires, has built a massive home made entirely from beer bottles and trash. And by massive, we mean...... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Cutting-Edge Retrofit vs Simple Behavior Change: Green Strategies Go Head-to-Head
Image credit: Bioregional Development Group From the Clinton Foundation's Global Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program to a major prize for sustainably 'reskinning' old buildings, there's a lot to be said for improving the efficiency of our existing building stock. But upgrading old buildings can be an expensive business, and once you tackle the low hanging fruit, there is inevitably a law of dim... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Brit Insurance Designs Awards are the Oscars of the Design World
Images by B. Alter, from: Panda Eyes Now in their third year, the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Awards show the most innovative and forward thinking designs from around the world. The short list has just been announced and all the designs and models are on display at the Design Museum. Chosen by a jury and covering seven categories: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport, they ar... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Best Workplaces for Commuters
Image: Best Wokrplaces for Commuters Employers Should Make it Easy to Have a Green Commute Yesterday, I wrote about how we need to make our society less auto-centric. This can't be achieved without collaboration from employers, since most people's primary use for the automobile is commuting to work. That's why certification programs like "Best Workplaces for Commuters" are a good idea, though I wish this one was a bit more like the green... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Ecospace Workpod Is A Serious Garden Office
Garden sheds are great ways to get a bit of extra space without doing major renovations, and they are getting serious about work. Alex at a freshly redesigned Shedworking shows us the Ecospace Workpod, designed to be an efficient and practical home office that is comfortable too; it is made from SIPs (structural insulated panels, very efficient and strong) heated with a radiant floor... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Comparing Haiti and Chile: Did Building Codes Save Lives?
Images from The Big Picture The Libertarian point of view is that building codes are evil and an intrusion. They even say that "Building codes restrict innovation. If we didn't force everyone to comply with old technological standards in construction, we would likely have developed a system that is both cheaper than current systems and more resistant against natural disasters." Others say "Strict building codes makes it harder to build buildings. Prices of structures... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Recycled Juice Boxes Become Biomorphic Lamp
Images: Loxolop
Inspired by origami and biomorphism, Dutch artist Ebére Groenouwe created the Loxolop hanging lamp. Made of waste paper from a juice-carton factory (which means it's readily recyclable), the Loxolop ships in a tidy little package, its two pieces assembled by the user on arrival. We've seen other illuminative flatpack artifacts such as the laser-cut 3D lamp from Dror Benshetrit, the Read the full story on TreeHugger

Autocentric Development was a Mistake, Let's Fix It (Video)
Screen grab. Image: Streetfilms, CC "It was a wrong turn... we didn't have to turn over all of our public spaces to the motor vehicle." The man in the picture above is Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives. In the video below, the start of a great new series that will "examines what went wrong in the early part of the 20th Century, when our cities began catering to the automobile, and how those decisions continue to affect our lives today," Mr. White describes the transformation of NYC (he's sitting on all that is left of the "park"... Read the full story on TreeHugger

AirTap: A Heat Pump For Your Hot Water Heater: Hot or Not?
There are few appliances dumber than an electric hot water heater; it uses energy made from boiling water to run turbines to turn generators to be distributed over wires...to boil water again. The AirTap is a heat pump that improves the process somewhat, by taking energy from the air and using it to heat the water. Like most heat pumps, it is advertised as having a COP (coefficient of performance) of up to 3.5 times that of a straight electric element. It seems like a good idea, but is it?... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Floating Island With Living Walls Made From Old Clamshells and Coffee Cups
All illustrations courtesy of Studio Noach When we last met Michel Kreuger of Studio Noach, he was building a houseboat out of old coffee cupswith Architect Anne Holtrop and botanist Patrick Blanc. Now the team has grander ambitions, and are proposing an entire floating island. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger