First, it promotes the USBCELL, an excellent rechargeable battery that basically takes the charger out of the equation. It'll charge itself in any USB port, including your ultra-efficient Wii. While this isn't as efficient as using a charger, it is easier, and so will increase use of re-usable batteries. These things work great, and I suggest you buy some for yourself.

Second, it puts alkalines in the correct light, and that is a negative light. They're a waste of money, resources, carbon, and they're almost always disposed of improperly. Alkalines suck and when I read "I'm Not An Alkaline," I hear "I Don't Suck Like Alkalines Do." And that's wonderful.

The best, easiest, and most effective way to decrease the amount of greenhouse gas your computer produces over its lifetime is to utilize built in power-save functions. It'll lower your electricity bills, extend the life of your computer, and decrease CO2 emission by as much as 10%.

It's a wonder, then, that hardly anyone does that. The truth is, it's a pain the butt. It's hard to figure out what exactly needs to be done, and even harder to recognize when the changes you've made actually make a difference.

Which is why CO₂Saver is so awesome. Just download (it's smaller than EcoGeek's homepage) and install on your Windows machine (sorry Mac and Linux users) and it immediately decreases your computers carbon footprint considerably. Plus, it analyzes your computer to determine exactly how much carbon you've saved and keeps you updated on your levels of progress. The program is tiny, extremely efficient, and doesn't make any drastic or horribly annoying changes. Best, when it's off, all your settings return to normal. No spyware, no adware, just a more efficient machine.

We've also profiled LocalCooling at EcoGeek, which serves the same carbon-reducing purpose. LocalCooling, however, is much bigger, much more processor intensive, and, frankly, its constant, forced hibernation can be really annoying. But, as the CEO of Snap, Tom McGovern reminded me "if someone reduces their carbon footprint by using either their app or ours that is a good thing!"

CO₂Saver is produced by Snap, a very cool search engine that shows previews of sites before you click to visit. That, in itself, is a power-saver, as it saves me tons of time when searching. But remarkably Snap has chosen to bow to Google's market share. The built-in search box in CO₂Saver defaults to Google.

OK, last awesome thing about CO2Saver? I emailed the CEO of Snap and said it'd be cool if it had browser integration. He agreed, and they'd add that in the next version. So, I kinda got to contribute to the product!

We love the concept designs over at Yanko, from Yo-Yo Power to two wheeled cars for China. But this one might be our new favorite.

Heading to the beach? Why not waste all that sunlight? And what if your boombox runs out of batteries? That's where the Sun~Brella comes in. It's just like any normal beach umbrella except it's coated with solar panels and has an electrical outlet on the stem. And, for those super-hot days, it's even got a built in fan just under the panels.

Screw it into the ground on a sunny day and you'll collect enough energy to power your iPod, your eBook, and keep your beers cool. Damn, there's nothing wrong with that. There's a more complete picture after the jump.

Via Yanko Design

I just got quite a cool tip from the proprietor of RideThisBike.com. Apparently they've received a couple of anonymous tips about a new bike that folds into a suitcase. While the first round just showed some simple 3D mockups, now they've received some photos from a factory in China (show above) that with actual working suitcase bikes!

After the jump, you can check out a super-duper fancy-pants 3D video of the new bike too. Larry at RideThisBike says that the MSRP will probably be around $400.

The ecogeeks at NearBio.com have created a cell phone widget that will provide live air quality reports that update automatically as the cell phone (and its breathing owner) moves about. Using data from Environmental Protection Agency air monitoring stations, the cell program will harness GPS technologies available through uLocate Communications' WHERE Platform. That means no more sending textys offering up your current city or zip code - your phone will know where it is - and it will know if you should be wearing a SARS mask.

The WHERE Platform uses the same GPS-based technology that MapQuest Find Me does with one important difference - it's open source. Anyone with enough spare time to learn WHERE mark-up language and scripting can get crakin' on their own mobile program. NearBio claims to have written their clean air program in under 24 hours, and they also recently belted out a cell phone app that locates biodiesel fueling stations nearby. So what say you EcoGeeks? Are you up to the challenge of programming your own planet friendly cell widget?

It's extremely important that electric cars don't look like electric cars. I mean, if people wanted to buy George Jetson's one-seater bubble car, GM would be selling one-seat bubble cars. People don't want bubble cars.

Which is why it's so great to hear that Hybrid Technologies is building an electric vehicle that will look and act just like a Mini Cooper. Well, maybe it won't act exactly the same. It'll take five hours to fill up it's lithium polymer batteries and it will only go 150 miles on a full charge.

But I guess the most important difference is the price. This attractive EV costs about three times the base price of the Mini Cooper, almost $60,000. And that, my friends, is Who Killed the Electric Car.

Via Autoblog

For the hardcore EcoGeek, who needs a rugged, zero-emissions method of charging a plethora of devices on long-term wilderness excursions...we have a the all-weather solar roll.

The solar rolls come with a plethora of plugs and can be linked for a power boost. It looks like, in full sun, you can charge a laptop off of one of these babies and it rolls up to considerably less than the size of a thermarest.

Of course, it'll also cost you considerably more, $399 at Amazon.

Via Metaefficient

The designers say that the house will finance itself through a horticulture business and educational facility.

The best part is that there's nothing holding anyone back from duplicating this project in any moderate climate in the world.

We EcoGeeks are always on the lookout for ways to economically and safely store carbon dioxide. We want to “put it in a lock box” and never let it out. One promising technology for doing just that, with useful side effects, has been developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

This new process transforms common concrete by treatment with carbon dioxide under high pressure, to make a very strong, nearly impermeable building material that is chemically similar to coral.

The CO2 is pressurized until it is pretty much half gas and half liquid. The process can also make inexpensive building products out of waste materials, including fly ash from coal-burning power plants, alum sludge from water treatment plants and blast furnace slag.

That's right, using trapped ash from coal plants, and the CO2 they emit, we can create an almost indestructible lightweight building material. Lordy that's cool.

The patented process may lead to new building materials, consumer goods, auto parts and other products. According to the website supramics.com, the process creates recyclable materials that will be competitive with metals, plastics and wood products.

Los Alamos demonstrated the effect of supercritical carbon dioxide with two chunks of bonded fly ash, a waste product from coal-burning power plants. Set in a pan of water, the untreated sample quickly crumbles and dissolves. The treated sample, however, remains impervious to the water. Treated fly ash could make a strong, lightweight and economically attractive material for wall board, flooring and other construction products.

The process also converts much of the CO2 into stable carbonate minerals. Each concrete block treated with supercritical C02 can permanently store over a pound of carbon dioxide.

Via: Los Alamos
Picture Via Flickr Commons

A new study has shown that joining the solar power club will soon be much cheaper. Costs to manufacture and install solar power are deterrents to its use today, but the report predicts solar power costs to drop to match the cost of getting electricity from a new coal power plant in the next Three Years!

The costs ranged from 10-12 cents per kilowatt-hour in Spain and all the way up to 18 cents in Southern Germany, with California in the middle at 13 cents. Although costs are dropping, increasing demand is keeping the cost of power high. While this might not be great for individual consumers, it keeps revenues high, allowing more expensive solar plants to be built.

With so much demand for clean energy, these sectors are bound to heat up with new business and investment. 

Source: edit news centre
Via MetaEfficient

Sludge, metal slag, glass and ash. The makings of a concrete replacement? Called the Bitublock, Dr. John Forth, from the University of Leeds, hopes it will become a sustainable substitute for concrete blocks.

The problem with concrete is the amount of energy required and new material needed to create it. The Bitublock solves these problems by using less energy and up to 100% post-consumer material. Up to 490,000 tons of glass and 551,000 tons of ash could be saved if Bitublocks were used instead of concrete in the UK. Not only eco-friendly, the Bitublocks are structurally sound too, being six times stronger than concrete.

The Bitublock has three to five years until it will be ready commercially and plans to use waste vegetable oil to create a "Vegeblock" are also in the works

Building materials are a great example of a resource that we can't just stop using. More innovations like these are needed not only to increase recycling, but to increase the quality and longevity of structures. A win, win for the environment and consumers.

Via ScienceDaily