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Hotel
offers free meal to guests who are willing to generate
electricity
The
Crown Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen , Denmark , is
offering a free meal to any guest who is able to produce
electricity for the hotel on an exercise bike attached to a
generator. Guests will have to produce at least 10 watt hours
of electricity - roughly 15 minutes of cycling for someone of
average fitness. They will then be given meal vouchers worth
$36 (26 euros).
 Disco
pub gets electricity produced by people dancing at specially
modified dance floor
All
the flashing strobes and pounding speakers at the dance club
are massive consumers of electrical power. So Bar Surya, in
London, re-outfitted its floor with springs that, when
compressed by dancers, could produce electrical current that
would be stored in batteries and used to offset some of the
club's electrical burden. The club's owner, Andrew
Charalambous, said the dance floor can now power 60 percent of
the club's energy needs.
 Company
creates a desktop printer that doesn't use ink nor
paper
Who
says printers only use paper to print documents? It's time for
you to meet the PrePeat Printer then. Different from
conventional printers, PrePeat adopts a thermal head to print
on specially-made plastic sheets. These plastic sheets are not
merely water-proof, but could be easily erased, just feed the
sheets through the printer again, and a different temperature
will erase everything or just write over it. Also claimed by
the manufacturer, such one sheet could be used up to 1,000
times so that you'll reduce your expenses on paper for sure.
 University
constructs a green roof as a gathering
place
Green
design is an enormously popular trend in modern architecture,
just take a look at this amazing green roof at the
School of
Art , Design and
Media at Nanyang
Technological
University in
Singapore . This
5-story facility sweeps a wooded corner of the campus with an
organic, vegetated form that blends landscape and structure,
nature and high-tech and symbolizes the creativity it houses.
The roofs serve as informal gathering spaces challenging
linear ideas and stirring perception. The roofs create open
space, insulate the building, cool the surrounding air and
harvest rainwater for landscaping irrigation. Planted grasses
mix with native greenery to colonize the building and bond it
to the setting. (Link)
 Designer
creates a sink that uses wasted water to grow a
plant
Made
of polished stained concrete, the Zen Garden Sink has a
channel that allows the water used while washing your hands to
water a plant. Created by young Montreal designer Jean-Michel
Gauvreau the sink comes in single or double basin model. The
sink is designed in a way you won't get your plants all soapy.
There is a main drain at the bottom of the basin for soapy
grime. Your little plant friend just gets whatever you choose
to dole out. (Link)
 Designer
creates a shower that forces you to leave when you've wasted
too much water
20% of
our total domestic energy usage is from hot water for
showering and bathing. That's over 6 times the energy usage of
domestic lighting. So designer Tommaso Colia came up with his
eco-friendly shower design that will force you to get out when
you take too long and waste much water. The eco_drop shower
features beautiful concentric circles that will rise to force
you to stop showering when you take too long, and accordingly
save water. (Link)
 Designer
creates light-switch that changes colors to teach children how
to save energy
Teaching
the importance of energy conservation is the goal of this
design from Tim Holley. He calls it Tio, and it's a
ghost-shaped light switch that gives kids a visual reminder of
how much energy they've used by leaving lights on. Tio starts
out green and smiling. If the light is left on for more than
four hours, he turns yellow and looks shocked. And if you dare
to leave that light on for more than eight hours, sweet little
Tio turns into a raging red hulk, complete with frowny mouth
and angry eyes. But he won't just visually remind your kids
about their energy habits; information from the light switch
is sent to Tio's computer program so the entire family can see
how they're doing. In a brilliant piece of visual positive
reinforcement, Holley's program lets kids grow a “virtual
tree†which gets bigger and healthier the more energy they
save. (Link)
 Environmental
company creates a staple-free stapler to avoid staple
pollution
Staples
are supposed to be so bad to the environment that a company
decided to create a staple-free stapler. This product promises
to make collation eco-friendly. Instead of using those thin
metal planet-killers, the staple-free stapler "cuts out tiny
strips of paper and uses the strips to stitch up to five
pieces of paper together." You can even order them customized
with your corporate logo so you can, you know, brag about what
your company is doing to stop the staple epidemic.
(Link)
 Designer
creates an iPhone charger powered by a hand
grip
A
green idea that gives you a great hand workout as well. Charge
your iPhone by a hand grip! This concept is called You can
work it out, designed by Mac
Funamizu.
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