urban taster

This is a brilliant brilliant idea! Soap Flakes by Nathalie Stämpfli gives you the hygienic plus side of liquid soap, where you don’t have to be touching the wet bar soap of the previous user, and the plus side of bar soaps, which are great at saving space in shipping containers instead of moving water all around the globe.

Today, most of the soap we use is liquid soap, which contains a lot of water. Block soap instead is more concentrated and therefore has some ecological benefits: You don’t transport unnecessary water around. In place of plastic bottles you can simply use paper for packaging. The solid blocks can easily be piled and allow a greater space efficiency in a truck.

How a plain box makes a difference.

This box never has to deal with a store shelf. It doesn’t require layers of plastic – so you can open it easily. It can use fewer materials than our retail package – which can make recycling simpler. And it would love to be recycled (where facilities exist).

It’s just one small thing we’re doing to make your experience, and the planet, a little better. your choice to buy online helps make it possible.

A brown box may not be pretty, but we think the results are beautiful.

I think so too. Thank Logitech.

A beautiful end to an inspiring idea. Electrolux decided to clean-up the ocean in a literal way, but using materials from the ocean, and combining them into one-off pieces of beautiful, brightly coloured art pieces. Each of the five pieces represents the five oceans, but sadly, these will not be available from any store.

Don’t expect to find these one-off vacuums in stores–an Electrolux press release claims that “the quality and the logistics needed for cleaning and sorting ocean plastic makes it difficult to use in mass production.” The vacuums are intended to raise awareness of the amount of trash scattered throughout the ocean–and of Electrolux’s new range of UltraOne Green vacuum cleaners.

via Fast Company

What do you get when you put 1000 paper cranes made of old newspaper in the hands of Krypo? A beautiful peacock inspired gown, now on display at London’s Science Museum. via ecouterre

Godoylab has a nice piece of sustainable furniture up at their site.

“Camouflage is a low armchair made in Oriented Strand Board (OSB). The material is surfaced with a stained-black veneer, and has oversized lateral panels that partly hide the user. These panels feature a carved camouflage pattern that emphasizes the trench-like character of the piece, but at the same time expose the OSB beneath.

Many board materials, such as particleboard, OSB and plywood, are commonly used for tabletops, back panels and other furniture components. They are however, rarely left visible, as manufacturers cover every exposed edge or face with wood veneer, plastic laminates or paint. This is one of many techniques used to hide the fact that cheaper or less traditional materials are used, pretending that the piece is something more expensive or refined. However, engineered wood boards are generally a better choice in environmental terms because a larger proportion of the tree wood ends up in the finished product and they’re made from fast-growing, harvested softwood forests. OSB is particularly good in these terms, as it can be made with certified wood and low-VOC adhesives. “Camouflage” values these materials for their environmental and aesthetic particularities. As a window of truth, the carved texture denounces the misguiding veneering of particleboards with seemingly elegant wood textures, and open the discussion for the birth of new aesthetics using new materials.”

Nice!

Puma spent some time, looked inwards, and found that the perfect solution to the shoe box problem is to not have a box at all. Designed by Yves Behar of Fuseproject, the solution is a simple piece of folded cupboard in a cloth bag. Easy to use, and easier to reuse.

Beautiful cupboard by Robi Renzi, who salvaged old used cupboards and re-made them into beautiful works of art. via Inhabit

Go to the Big Picture, and click on the images to see the before – after shots of cityscapes in darkness. A sobering view of how much we rely on this resource that we think so little about. Time for an Earth Hour every month? Perhaps… Below, the Singapore CBD before, and after.

Earth hour is this year is set on the 27 March. For one hour, between the hours of 8.30 – 9.30pm local time, everyone is encouraged to switch off all electric devices and enjoy the dark, and proper conversations. Read more at Earth Hour 2010 for the local time in your area.

How cute a bone is this for a tree hugging dog! Made from discarded runoffs from making other pet toys, get it at Paw Luxury.

If only I skipped the lasik operation, I would be getting me one of this! Beautiful ming furniture inspired bamboo spectacles by yii collection.

The greatest ideas are often the simplest. Case in point, Unpackaged. A newly opened grocery shop in London that decided to go to the source of most rubbish, food packaging, and presented Londoners an anti-packaging marketing alternative. Much like the ‘wet markets’ in Singapore. Brilliant! I say. via Inhabitat

I am in love with the love pot! A great design idea paired with an even better social idea. I am ordering mine right now!

Anke Weiss takes old juice packaging, punches holes in them and brings out the beautiful craft lamp that they all know they’ll be one day.

Beautiful paper ware from recycled natural pulp by Japanese company Wasara. Simple, natural and just works. Will someone please start selling them here now? Did I mention that they are beautiful? Stunning really. I cannot stop gushing…

Yes! You heard me. Dung Batteries. I was watching the History Channel on All About Dung and apparently some Indian dude has found a way – and incidentally a never ending supply – to turn dung into a battery. Power up your mobile phone?

Niruttam Kumar Singh and Harvansh Yadav, a student-teacher duo from Gangagarh village in Bulandshaher, Uttar Pradesh, have made a cow dung battery that lights up electric bulbs, charges mobile phones and brings alive radios!

Read more here.

Now this is perfect for my Christmas! Buy it here!

Putting eggs in individual cups. Good idea or complete and utter waste of resources?

The London olympics is shaping up to be quite the event, if not in the sporting world, then in the new green-savvy crowd. Since the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, there has been rumblings that there just has been too much waste, both in the organisation of the games, as well as the architecture of the iconic arenas. What is for sure is that what London lacks in numbers (do not expect to see 2008 Londoners drumming led-lit drums in unity!), they more than make up in ingenuity.

Case in point is the Raise The Cloud project. Proposed as a counterpoint to the extravagance, the structure is meant as a “build by the people for the people” project, funded by micro-payments, projected by the collective thoughts of the masses, and shaped by the hands of all involved in the games. Best of all, striving to be carbon neutral.

Although still in its very initial stages of proposal, I have to say, my interest is piqued! Read more about it at raisethecloud.

Plants have been filtering our air for as long as there is air, so it makes simple sense when Andrea uses plants to filter our air, abeit in small beautiful pods. via Inhabitots.

That’s one up for the design magazine!

Newsstand copies of the November issue of CR come in a revolutionary new bag that simply dissolves in hot water. No waste. No landfill.

Anyone buying their copy of CR on the newsstand this month will find that the issue comes in a transparent bag bearing the words ‘This bag dissolves in water’. And it does.

A new packaging material called harmless-dissolve which was created in the UK by Cyberpac.

The Google homepage is prime estate in the internet world, so whenever they decide to theme their logo, the world follows. I can only imagine that a spot on the Goggle homepage gives you immediate stardom. Just like the recent cropcircles outing. Treehugger has a great slideshow of cropcircle art that is amazing and beautiful to just ponder.

100 tonnes of PET bottles pressed into a temple of doom! How better to convey the seriousness of the plastic addiction that we all suffer from. via Inhabit.

Melt a thousand miniature ice people in protest of the melting ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica! How’s that for attention. See more here.

Artist Nele Azevedo, together with the World Wildlife Fund, staged the installation by carving a thousand ice men and leaving them to melt in a Berlin square.

The amazing works of Chris Jordan.

“This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a collective that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.”

Barbie Dolls

Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006.

Gyre

Depicts 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world’s oceans every hour. All of the plastic in this image was collected from the Pacific Ocean.

A stark reminder of pollution and how close we are to the tipping point. Alex Hofford made an important and powerful point. Now all we need is for someone to do the same for Singapore.

“20070917AHKG02 HONG KONG CHINA : (COMPOSITE) A composite photo showing two views of the Hong Kong skyline taken from the same viewpoint in Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon; the top image taken at 6pm on 20 June 2007, when Hong Kong`s `Air Pollution Index` reading was `Low`; the lower image taken at 6pm on 17 September 2007 when Hong Kong`s `Air Pollution Index` reached `High to Very High`, 17 September 2007, Hong Kong, China. A new study released Monday by Hong Kong think tank `Civic Exchange` stated that drastic action needs to be taken to reduce air pollution in the city to attract and retain foreign investment, as well as protect public health.”

” You can save one flush a day by urinating in the shower—two if you shower more than once a day. Sure it’s gross, but unless you have an infection, your urine is sterile and nontoxic, and it washes down with your shampoo and soap anyway. An unscientific poll by Glamour magazine recently found that 75 percent of respondents do pee in the shower.

Savings Up to 6 gallons of water a day”

read more environmentally friendly water tips here at GOOD.

Woodnotes makes the most incredible look, out of paper fabric products that are to die for. yes you read right! Paper spun into yarn, weaved into fabrics and made into bags, furniture, and carpets and all sorts! I am seriously considering a dark brown tote that looks just right for all kinds of city things a city guy like me would be up to.

See more products at Woodnotes.

I am a gigantic proponent of solar power just cause I live in the sunny island of Singapore where sunlight is ample, and exlectricity usage is immense. We have thousands of tall buildings yet only a small percentage of them even attempts to harness this polution-free energy source. Thats where Photovoltaic Leaves come into the picture! Now all buildings can have beautiful yet highly efficient “Solar Ivy“. So now you can be a friend of Gaia and look great at the same time!

Not only is this Leather ‘Paper’ Bag earth friendly, it also promotes fair trade! What an excellent way to do your shopping.