"Return Pot" - turning plastic bags into compose...
a plastic decomposer made from polyactic acid (PLA) and turns into compost for plants (Taiwan).

"e-Wash" - no more toxic chemical laundry detergents required...
a compact washing machine with a regular wash load capacity that uses soap nuts instead of regular detergents(Hungary).

"Pure Washer" - detergent-free dish washer...
a rotating dual kitchen sink and detergent-free compact dishwasher that reduces water consumption and uses degassed water to remove oily dirt from dishes (Germany).

"Nature Wind" - eco-solar air cleaner...
a solar-powered air cleaner mounted to a window that uses a series of filters to refresh and sanitize household air (South Korea).

"Fog Shower" - using only 2L of water for shower...
a super water-saving device uses a fog of microscopic water droplets, and only two liters of water for a five-minute shower, compared to 26 liters for today’s most efficient water-saving showerheads (Brazil).

plus many more...

http://www.videonewsmanager.com/default.aspx?i=2574&p=home


About Design Lab

Design Lab is an annual global design competition open to undergraduate and graduate industrial design students who are invited to present innovative ideas for household appliances of the future.

The first edition in 2003 was with direct cooperation with three design schools in Europe only. Since then Electrolux has developed the project to a global scale and opening it up to design students from schools around the world.

For more information, visit:

http://www.electrolux.com/press

Dutch company harnessing sun's rays to heat homes, offices...

SCHARWOUDE, NETHERLANDS — If you've ever blistered your bare feet on a hot road you know that asphalt absorbs the sun's energy. A Dutch company is now siphoning heat from roads and parking lots to heat homes and offices.

As climate change rises on the international agenda, the system built by the civil engineering firm, Ooms Avenhorn Holding, doesn't look as wacky as it might have 10 years ago when first conceived.

Solar energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building in the northern village of Avenhorn. An industrial park of some 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base in the south supply heat for its hangar.

And all that under normally cloudy Dutch skies, with only a few days a year of truly sweltering temperatures.

The Road Energy System is one of the more unusual ways scientists and engineers are trying to harness the power of the sun, the single most plentiful, reliable, accessible and inexhaustible source of renewable energy — radiating to Earth more watts in one hour than the world can use in a whole year.

But today, solar power provides just 0.04 percent of global energy, held back by high production costs and low efficiency rates.

Solar advocates say that will change within a few years.

Other renewable sources have drawbacks: Not every place is breezy enough for wind turbines; waves and tides are good only for coastal regions; hydroelectricity requires rivers and increasingly objectionable dams; biofuels take up land once used solely for food crops.

"But solar falls everywhere," says Patrick Mazza, of Climate Solutions, a consultancy group in Seattle, Wash.

Ooms' thermal energy system is actually a spin-off from attempts to reduce road maintenance and costs.

A latticework of flexible pipes, held in place by a grid, is covered over by asphalt, which magnifies the sun's thermal power. As water in the pipes is heated, it is pumped deep under the ground to natural aquifers where it maintains a fairly constant temperature of about 68 F. The heated water can be retrieved months later to keep the road surface ice-free in winter.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/5414719.html

Alternatives Journal is looking for articles that define the boundaries and test the soundness of sustainability in the 21st Century.

It’s been 20 years since Gro Harlem Brundtland coined the phrase “sustainable development.” Since then, the term has had amazing staying power. Although it has been co-opted to serve divergent interests and has taken on myriad meanings over the years, it is now part of our vernacular.

Skeptics believe the term has become a convenient instrument for industry and government to promote the status quo. But a number of recent project decisions may herald a new trend in how we measure the sustainability of a project or activity.

Canada has reached a pivotal point with initiatives in BC, Nova Scotia and the North West Territories (including Voisey’s Bay, Screech Lake, Kemess North, White’s Point Quarry and the Mackenzie Valley Natural Gas Project) being either rejected outright or approved with major conditions. Regulatory agencies found that these initiatives were not sustainable, and in some cases questioned how the proponents dealt with aboriginal interests.

We invite you to submit article ideas that will help environmental planners, corporate environmental officers, government reviewers and the Canadian public better understand the current trends in sustainability. Proposals may include ideas that:

• Get to the truth by describing how we can tell when sustainability reporting is real or just greenwash.
• Describe projects in Canada or internationally that illustrate this trend toward a new focus on sustainability
• Describe what a contemporary sustainable economy would look like
• Consider whether a sustainable energy project (e.g. wind, solar) is, by definition, sustainable
• Discuss what sustainable development means today and in the future
• Investigate why and how these trends are emerging.

Alternatives combines the learned rigour of an academic journal with the breezy style of a magazine. We aim to publish the best environmental writing in the country – writing that is engaging, thought-provoking and insightful.

Before responding to this call for submissions, please read several back issues of the magazine so that you understand the nature of our publication. We also suggest you go through the detailed submission procedures to understand the types and lengths of articles we accept.
 

Queries should explain, in less than 300 words, the content and scope of your article, and should convey your intended approach, tone and style. Please include a list of people you will interview, potential images or sources for images and the number of words you propose to write. We would also like to receive a very short bio. And if you have not written for Alternatives before, please include other examples of your writing. Articles range from about 500 to 2000 words in length.

Keep in mind that our lead time is several months. Articles should not be so time-bound that they will seem dated once published.
 

Alternatives has a limited budget of about 10 cents per word for several articles. This stipend is available to professional and amateur writers and students only. Please indicate your interest in this funding and email your submission to editor@alternativesjournal.ca, by February 4, 2008.