The Green Life

A Big, Bike-Parking Robot? Only in Japan.

Rows and rows of bikes parked on the sidewalk can make any greenie's heart swell with pride. But what happens when there are too many bikes and not enough parking spots? A Japanese company has come up with a phenomenal solution: the robotic bike tree.

The bike tree is a mechanical system that stores bikes in a large shed. Commuters place a tag on their bike and the machine sucks it into the storage system. When the person returns, the machine retrieves the bike. All bicyclists have to do is pay the monthly fee. The company has installed several storage systems throughout Japan that hold anywhere from 600 to 6,000 bikes.

The bike tree has prevented bicycle theft, diminished clutter in the street, and protected bikes from weather. However, it can be costly to rent a space each month and it requires a bit of infrastructure because the facility is underground.

--Julie Littman

How to Get the Call of the Wild

A recent study found that people feel more relaxed and generous after viewing nature scenes. We're not sure if listening to birdcalls on a cell phone has a similar calming effect, but it probably doesn't hurt--especially if the purchase of the birdcall helps a conservation organization. Ringtone providers Wildtones and Conservation Calling offer a variety of animal sounds, ranging from howler monkeys to hungry lions, and both companies donate a portion of their proceeds to environmental nonprofits. The Smithsonian National Zoological Park sells ringtones created from recordings of the zoo's inhabitants, and a portion of the profits benefits these animals. Choice Accessories donates proceeds from certain ringtones to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, but readers should be aware that this site also sells hunting equipment. So now that you know where to find distinctive sounds for your phone, it's time for the fun part: matching up the folks in your contact list with representative chirps, croaks, and roars.

--Della Watson

Daily Roundup: November 3, 2009

A Bug's Life: British conservationists will use GPS technology to locate the nests of hairy northern wood ants before the Forestry Commission removes non-native conifers from a Northumberland forest. Because the rare ants rely on conifer needles to build their nests, selected trees will be left standing. BBC and Treehugger

Fishy Business: An analysis of the environmental impact of salmon farming in Norway, Chile, Canada, and the UK found that Norway's farms were the most efficient. New Scientist

The Danger Zone: The EPA added three hazardous waste sites to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. New Jersey's Raritan Bay Slag, Utah's U.S. Magnesium, and Virginia's Peck Iron and Metal were all deemed to pose risks to human health and the environment. EPA

Free Pass? The European Union's environment committee approved a list 164 industrial sectors including coal mining, oil and gas drilling, and aluminum production that could potentially receive free five-year carbon emissions permits. AFP

For Peat's Sake: A recent study found that 5.5 percent of global carbon emissions are the result of the draining and burning of peat bogs. Reuters 

--Della Watson

Green Your TV: Recycle It

It's fall and that means new TV shows and nonstop sports action. But while you watch, your carbon footprint continues to grow. This week's tips are about how to green your TV habits.

Tip #3: Proper Disposal

When it comes time to part ways with your TV (whether for moral or mechanical reasons), avoid contributing to the ever-growing pile of e-waste by finding a local recycler. E-cycling can prevent toxic substances like lead from polluting landfills and allows for the reuse of materials (also check out Sony's Take Back Recycling Program). If your TV still functions, you can sell, trade, or donate it.

Tell us: Have you recycled a TV? If so, how?

Green Your TV: Power Strips

It's fall and that means new TV shows and nonstop sports action. But while you watch, your carbon footprint continues to grow. This week's tips are about how to green your TV habits.

Tip #2: Stem the Energy Tide

If you have a beefed-up entertainment system, you probably also have a plethora of cords intertwining around the TV. Even in "off" mode, plugged-in electronics still suck energy. In the U.S. alone, turned-off TVs drain more than $750 million per year in electricity costs. By using a power strip, and unplugging it at night (or whenever none of the appliances that depend on it are in use), you can easily stop the leakage.

Tell us: How do you slay energy vampires?

Green Your TV: Energy-Efficient TVs

It's fall and that means new TV shows and nonstop sports action. But while you watch, your carbon footprint continues to grow. This week's tips are about how to green your TV habits.

Tip #1: Buy Energy Star TVs

The greenest choice is to stick with that old black box until its end, but when it's time to switch, opt for Energy Star-labeled TVs. New or used, they save energy in both standby and active modes, consuming about 30 percent less than standard units. If you're in the market for an HDTV, stick to the smaller screens and rear-projection types, which consume less energy than LCDs or plasmas.

Tip #2: Use Power Strips

Tip #3: Recycle It

Tip #4: Watch Less

Tell us: How is your TV green?

Hybrids Dominate Fuel-Efficiency Test

Definitely no surprises here: In EPA’s recently released 2010 fuel-efficiency test results, hybrids overwhelmed the list of the most efficient cars, including the Toyota Prius, the Ford Fusion Hybrid, and the Mercury Milan Hybrid.

Newcomers to the top-ten list include two Lexus hybrid models. The only non-hybrid car on the top-ten list is the Smart fortwo, a fact we hope will cure those with car envy for Bentleys or Lamborghinis; both landed in the bottom ten.

You might be wondering how electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids fared. Unfortunately, they weren’t even tested. The EPA hasn’t figured out reliable ways to so do quite yet.

For more information about  the test results, visit the EPA’s site.

--Julie Littman

Slay the Vampires!

Boo! In a couple of weeks, ghouls, ghosts, and goblins, among hundreds of candy-ravenous characters, will be haunting the streets. What will provide the biggest scare of all on Halloween, however, is not the costumed creatures. Lurking unnoticed in every house, sucking energy with their deadly fangs, are none other than plugged-in electronic appliances.

Though these devices may not be in use, vampire power – the energy they use while turned off or in stand-by mode – is drawn, wasting some $10 billion per year in the U.S. alone.

Supplying the stake and garlic to help combat the vampires is iGo, Inc., which makes chargers for mobile devices. Their site promoting Vampire Power Awareness Month offers tips and tricks about how to save energy and money, iGo Green “vampire-slaying” products, and a tool to calculate your home's vampire-energy loss. So stop bleeding and start saving.

--Michael Mullaley

Walking Hard for the Money

To the avid multitasker/workaholic who spends hours each day sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen (but who also likes to squeeze exercise into the day): Your life just got easier. You can now burn calories and lose weight without ever having to leave your desk. Check out the chuckle-worthy video above to see how.

The human body has evolved the ability to walk 30 miles per day, but the average American walks only two. TrekDesk has the good intentions of reducing obesity and cutting healthcare costs with its desktop work station that attaches to a treadmill. People can meet their walking, fitness, and health goals all while staying at their desk.

We know that walking improves health – studies by the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Diabetes Association prove that it reduces the rates of most cancers, the number of initial heart attacks, and the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes and strokes.

But what this treadmill-turned-desk offers in convenience, it lacks in satisfying another basic human need: to push away from that ever-alluring desk and to put one foot in front of the other in the places in which we evolved to do so. In nature.

--Michael Mullaley

A Crappy Idea

Add a new substance to the list of unlikely materials that can fuel cars: sewage.

Yes, poop is poised to join corn, algae, sugarcane, vegetable oil and all the rest as they jostle for a place in the biofuel market. 

Sludge-as-fuel doesn’t sound pretty, but it has some definite eco-benefits. More than half of the 15 trillion gallons of sewage produced annually in the U.S. gets turned into fertilizer for farms and gardens; some contend this poses risks to our health. 

A few poop-powered projects are turning up. Flint, Michigan plans to transform the city’s sludge into fuel for their buses. In ecologically advanced Sweden, cars that can run on sewage-based biogas have been on the market for years. More recently, an Israeli and an American company have partnered to create biofuel from the cellulose in processed sewage. They say a wastewater plant serving a population of about 2 million can produce enough cellulose to make ethanol.

No word on how it smells.

-- Année Tousseau