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A Bright Idea: Energy-Efficient Incandescents

Greenincandescent The incandescent light bulb is in some ways the SUV of light sources: an energy-guzzler that's being phased out by more energy-efficient options. 

Congress passed a law two years ago to phase out incandescents by 2012, when stricter efficiency standards are set to be enforced. In March, the E.U. passed similar legislation.

But according to this New York Times article, incandescent bulb-makers, including Philips, General Electric and Osram Sylvania, aren't ready to throw in the towel. These companies are responding to the legislation with a wave of research and innovation that's yielding more efficient lighting products.

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Recycled Shipping Containers: the New Building Blocks


Homes made from shipping containers may be a far cry from the boxcar children's basic shelter, but you still have to wonder if Warner's novel helped inspire the latest recycled building material. Many of the once unsightly steel boxes now have basements, balconies, and spiral staircases.

Shipping-container homes range from the simple but sustainable one-container Ecopod to the luxurious two-story Redondo Beach Container House, which won an award from the American Institute of Architects for its innovative design.

It’s not just the idea of recycling some of the 18 million cargo containers in use worldwide that has architects excited. In many ways, the containers make ideal building material. Their building-block structure makes construction quick, they’re cheap, and they're built to withstand incredible weight—as much as 15 tons, according to SF Blocks, which sells the containers. That strength helps the boxes protect cargo as they get carted all over the world, but it can also help a home survive a tornado or hurricane.

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A Building Brick That Held Beer

Green beer bottles You've heard of Heineken beer (the company claims to have the world's largest brewery, after all.) Some of you may have visited the flagship brewery in Amsterdam, and most of you have probably quaffed a few. But how many of you knew that former company president Alfred "Freddy" Heineken, who died in 2002 at age 79, was a sustainable-building visionary?

In the early 1960s, on a world tour of the company's breweries, Heineken visited the Dutch island of Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles, off the coast of Venezuela. Taken aback by the substandard dwellings of the island's impoverished residents, he took note as well of the number of beer bottles littering the beaches and the lack of affordable building materials on the island.

In an epiphany that was nearly half a century ahead of the curve, Heineken decided to design a beer bottle that could be used to construct the walls of homesafter the contents of the bottle had been consumed, of course. Back in Holland, he hired noted Dutch architect John Habraken to design "a brick that holds beer." The result was the so-called WOBO, or World Bottle, which could interlock with other bottles. Bonded with cement, a 10-foot-by-10-foot dwelling could be constructed using about 1,000 bottles.

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How to Be a Guerilla Gardener

Planterbox It's difficult enough weaving through the sidewalk line-up of undesired fliers people are handing out on the street -- who really thinks pedestrians will stop and take them on their own accord from the flier boxes that pockmark city corners? Most often, these boxes end up empty and abandoned with no greater occupation than a bin for garbage or post for graffiti and stickers.

Street artist Posterchild had a different view: He saw these empty boxes as a great platform for a public installation and guerrilla-gardened his way through the streets of Toronto, leaving a trail of flowers and inspiration in his wake. 

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Green Your Spiritual Life: Places of Worship

Green your place of worship Most people who consider themselves at least somewhat spiritual, regardless of their religion or set of beliefs, have realized that caring for the earth is imperative to their spirituality. This week we’re sharing tips about how to align your inner life with your green life.

Tip #1: Green Your Place of Worship

The places where people pray, meditate, or simply stop to have moments of peace vary vastly – but you can make sure that your place of worship isn’t causing environmental damage. If you go to a church, temple, mosque, or other organized place, ask your congregation’s leaders to emplace green measures like reducing energy use, water use, and waste. You can even volunteer to head recycling efforts or organize carpools. If a corner of your home is your place, make sure that room is as planet-preserving as possible. If where you connect to the spiritual realm is outdoors, remember the “leave no trace” commandments.

Share your tips: How do you green your place of worship?

Tip #2: Green Your Holidays

Tip #3: Read What's Written

Tip #4: Be an Evangelist

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Painting the Town White

Other white houseThe newest revolution in the fight against global warming could be as simple as a brush and a bucket of paint. Energy Secretary and Nobel laureate Steven Chu  recommends painting flat roofs of homes and corporate buildings a heat-reflecting white. Making roads and roofs a paler color could have the equivalent effect of taking every car in the world off the road for 11 years, Chu said.

The light color favored by villages in southern Europe and northern Africa would enable buildings to stay cooler, use less energy for air-conditioning, and reflect enough sunlight to delay some of the effects of global warming.

Not a huge fan of white? Scientists have developed other colors that contain pigments that reflect the invisible, near-infrared radiation responsible for more than half of sunlight's energy.

--Jordana Fyne

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Daily Roundup: May 27, 2009

Green for Green Jobs: Joe Biden and two members of the Middle Class Task Force announced funding for a new program that will train workers to improve the energy efficiency of public housing. Associated Press

Housing Crisis: Another victim of the recession, renowned green architect Michelle Kaufmann is closing her firm. Los Angeles Times

Cat Fight: A lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and a coalition of environmental groups challenges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's designation of critical habitat for the endangered Canada lynx. Environmentalists say the designation fails to account for the impacts of climate change and is insufficient to protect the lynx. New York Times and Sierra Club

Sunken Treasure: A World War II military vessel was intentionally sunk near Key West, Florida, to create an artificial reef that residents hope will attract both marine life and tourists. Reuters

Call It a Comeback: Most damaged ecosystems can recover if the source of pollution or disturbance is removed, confirmed an analysis of scientific studies conducted by Yale researchers. Science Daily

--Della Watson

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Creative Water Rationing

Drought Faced with the worst drought they'd ever seen, the Northern California coastal town of Bolinas quickly realized that praying for rain wasn't going to cut it. Their only water source was bone-dry and the next big rains were 300 days away.

The city took the number of gallons in reserves, divided it by the number of homes in the community, and strictly allotted each family 150 gallons per day -- the same amount of water used in one trip through the car wash.

The biggest change most families made was to actually step outside and check their water meter each day, something that doesn't even occur to most people. "It's embarrassing," said resident Bob Demmerle during an NPR interview. "Mostly our family was letting water run down the drain."

Continue reading "Creative Water Rationing" »

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Green Your Garbage: Renew and Reuse

Reuse those chairs Let's talk trash: Americans generate around 250 million tons of it annually. This week, we'll provide tips for reducing, reusing, and recycling your garbage.

Tip #4: Give Old Things New Life

Dumpster divers can attest that a lot of perfectly usable stuff gets thrown away. Sometimes a simple fix-up job is in order: A fresh coat of low-VOC paint can make tired furniture look new; creative stitching can give clothes a fashion fix. But when your possessions truly wear out their welcome, consider donating or trading them. Find new homes for castoffs on Freecycle, organize a clothing swap with friends, or give to your local Goodwill and Salvation Army stores.

Share your tips: What are your favorite resources for trading in or donating household items?

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Daily Roundup: May 20, 2009

Recession Payoff: Carbon dioxide emissions in the United States dropped a record 2.8 percent in 2008 as a result of high fuel costs and restricted consumer budgets. Reuters

Pitt Power: Brad Pitt and his brother Doug donated $600,000 to help their hometown university build a new sporting arena with LEED Gold certification. Ecorazzi

Knutty: Two German zoos are feuding over the profits generated by Knut, the world-famous polar bear. BBC

No Scuba Suit Required: An underwater museum was constructed 40 meters below the surface of the Yangtze River in China to display cultural relics submerged as a result of the Three Gorges Dam project. People's Daily Online and Wanderlust

The Air Adds 10 Years: Scientists discovered that the telomeres (located on the ends of chromosomes) of subjects with long-term exposure to traffic exhaust appeared 10 years older than those of people with minimal exposure to air pollution. Science News

--Della Watson

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