Sustainable Minds, Process-Oriented LCA Software

Sustainable Minds has developed a process-oriented software for Life Cycle Assessment.  Compared to other similar tools, this one is very suitable for designers and product developers to assess early concepts during the design process.

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Costa Rica, The Happiest And Greenest Country

Photograph: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters

Costa Rica was listed number one on the rank of the greenest and happiest countries in the world, according to an index that combines measures of countries ecological footprint and happiness of their citizens, the Happy Planet Index calculated by the New Economics Foundation.

It’s interesting how the happiness of a country’s population is not related to their ownership of material goods, and also how higher consumption of material goods, energy and resource depletion (resulting in a higher ecological footprint) does not result in a higher life expectancy.

Among other valuable things, Costa Rica is a country without an army.

Read more here.

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KeepCup, An Alternative To Disposable Cups

Designed and manufactured in Australia, KeepCup is an alternative to all those disposable coffee cups that result in an enormous amount of trash. Most disposable paper cups are plastic coated and often impregnated with toxic dyes, all this makes them not recyclable.

KeepCup is made out of recyclable Polypropylene #5 (the safest food grade plastic), and some of the environmental features include: a modular lid (that fits three different cup sizes), low embodied energy, reusable, practically unbreakable and durable (estimated life span of 4 years).

KeepCup was created by Abigail and Jaime Forsyth, owners of a coffee and catering outlet chain in Melbourne who decided to do something to reduce the waste problems associated with disposable coffee cups.

> Read more here.

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Nau’s First Annual Grant for Change!

This is exciting news! Nau just launched their first annual Grant for Change, supporting those who instigate lasting, positive change in their communities.

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN: CLICK HERE TO START

This year’s $10,000 grant will highlight the efforts of people who move in the spirit of the Nau Collective. The target audience is Athletes who are challenging assumptions about what it means to move through the world. Artists and designers or other creatives who are moved to design better solutions to the world’s greatest problems. Last but certainly not least, activists who are seeding positive change in their communities, and moving others to do the same.

Nau is receiving nominations from all corners of the Collective, but in the end, they can only give out one grant per year, and they’re relying on you, the environmental community, to find their first official Grantee via online voting. If you think this grant’s for you, you can nominate yourself. If it suits a colleague or a friend, you can nominate them, too (and nominate as many as you’d like). If you’d to simply vote, you can do so on their website while checking out other nominees. See what’s happening across the country, or in your own backyard. Rate the stories you like, and spread the word about the Grant to everyone you know. Nominations are open ’til August 17th, the voting ’til August 31st. Don’t hold back. The more nominees they get, the more stories of change they will get to tell!

*For more details on the grant, check out their sections on the website called “who it’s for”, “how it works”, “why Nau”, “g4c friends”, and of course “the legalese.”

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Address Sustainability, Especially In Tough Times

Have you been wondering about the progression of sustainability in our current economy? This new book which is hot off the press (literally being released today), Strategy for Sustainability: Building sustainable businesses in turbulent times, is a must-read. It highlights a comprehensive array of strategies and actions which companies can take to build triple bottom line businesses, especially in tough times. This book is truly remarkable, outlining an array of the best strategies for addressing unique environmental challenges at all types of companies. For many business owners, it will provide insight on how trends in society, technologies, and resources can affect their organization. It will also help readers to gain a better understanding of sustainability as a whole, and where they fall in the spectrum relative to other consumers and companies.

Adam Werbach is a premier thought leader on business initiatives around sustainability, Global CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi S, and the author of many influential writings on sustainability including the 1997 book Act Now, Apologize Later. In 1996, at age 23, Werbach was elected the youngest-ever President of the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the United States.

Read more about the book at strategyforsustainability.com

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Vauban, A Car-Free Town

And just when we’re talking about cars, this comes in real handy.

Few years back I had imagined having an event called ‘a day without cars’. One day where no one is allowed to drive and people can walk and ride their bikes freely in the streets.

Well, what would seem like a dream to some of us is now a reality in the southern Germany town Vauban, where its inhabitants and authorities have planned to have no cars inside the town. If people there want to own a car they have to pay a €20,000 fee to park it in the outskirts of the district.

This progressive decision is just one piece of a larger initiative, here is an excerpt of an article by Tony Paterson published at The Independent:

“Being virtually car-free is only the start of what has been hailed as one of Europe’s most successful experiments in green living and one which is viewed increasingly as a blueprint for a future and perhaps essential way of living in an age of climate change.”

Would love to see policies like this implemented in some other small towns and perhaps even in larger cities. Maybe the ‘a day without cars’ project is a way to start making people realize how enjoyable, clean and quiet this can be (provided loud motorcycles aren’t allowed as well).

Food for thought and a lesson to learn from Vauban’s population. It is worth reading the full feature at The Independent to know the rest of their green living plan.

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ATNMBL by Mike and Maaike

ATNMBL By Mike And Maaike

Image courtesy of Mike and Maaike

San Francisco-based design duo Mike and Maaike recently introduced the ATNMBL, a provocative vehicle design that proposes an interesting paradigm shift in terms of mobility: no driving.

The concept is the result of an experimental and thoughtful process where they have questioned the very needs of car users and explored the scenario of a computer-controlled system powered by solar panels and electric motors in each wheel.

They have taken a very interesting approach and the design is clearly a departure from traditional car design. Similar thoughts have been explored previously in academic contexts around urban mobility (i.e. Shaun Hutchinson at RCA in 2001) and also some technologies that started in laboratories few years ago are common place nowadays.

So, the technology is there, the infrastructure is there, now the car industry needs to start looking at putting all these pieces together. They are the ones with the power and resources to do it.

The industry that probably employs the largest amount of people in the world, one that has an incredible technological infrastructure and very well prepared human resources, should start working on alternative energies and understanding mobility holistically, looking at the problem of transportation entirely instead of making the same (100 years) old product that only about 12% of the population are able to enjoy. There is a huge opportunity to innovate here and the ATNMBL concept shows this in an elegant and poetic way.

It is nice to see optimistic concepts like Mike and Maaike’s, which bring a fresh approach to the table. And as they say: this is a time of economic challenges and therefore time to experiment.

Here’s an interesting article about their concept on Core77.

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