Image Credit Loading Dock 5 Really, one could go on for hours explaining the benefits of Passivhaus design , but it is all right here in this thermogram (thermograph?) of Loadingdock5 ‘s 174 Grand Street in New York City. It’s neighbours just glow with red, representing lost heat; the building in the middle barely registers. In fact the high performance windows are even darker than the building itself…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Today is human trafficking awareness day—and although for many that conjures up images of people trafficked for sex, most people forced into slavery today (which does exist ) are trafficked for purposes that have nothing to do with sex. They’re working in agricultural fields to harvest the fruits and vegetables we eat, they’re laboring in the
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Image credit: Lindsay Dee Bunny , used under Creative Commons license. I’ve been reading a lot about compost recently and one thing keeps bothering me. Almost every article refers to this magical substance as a “natural fertilizer”, and on one level it is true. Yet it is so much more than just a drop in replacement for chemical feeds. I’ve already noted that composting is really a form of animal husbandry , but the implicati… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image credit Johnston Architects What’s not to love about wood? It sucks in carbon dioxide and when you put it in buildings, sequesters the carbon for years. It’s a renewable resource when properly managed and harvested. It is often local. But it has not been commonly used as the exterior of larger buildings; it is combustible and it is not low maintenance. So it was interesting to see two projects show up on Arch Daily in as many days that are clad in wood in such simila… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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photo: US Army Environmental Command / Creative Commons I could get behind the buy US provision if it was something more holistic, talking about rebuilding American manufacturing, rebuilding more local and regional economies, but this is just rank protectionism and economic nationalism: As the New York Times and others have reported, lurking in the recent military aut… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Images credit Andy at Etsy We keep looking for great ideas for Graham Hill’s LifeEdited project, for different ways to live and work in small spaces. Andy’s oven lounge might be the perfect thing; Graham doesn’t cook a lot, so why take up so much space with a stove, when he could have a comfy chair as well…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Toyota The Prius Goes Plural It’s now officially official, the Prius is now a family of cars and not a single model. We had already seen some concept cars with the Prius badge, but the new Prius V is a production model that should be available next summer. It’s very similar to the 2010 Prius , but it trades some fuel efficiency for room: It’s a bit bigger, but combined MPG is 40 instead of 50 (which is a bit disappointing). More info and photos below…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image: Google Maps Just a few weeks into 2011, and it’s already a tough year for the animal kingdom: Mass deaths of blackbirds, spot fish, sardines, croakers, doves, and other creatures are going mostly unexplained in regions all over the world (as this helpful Google Map points out). But these population injuries aren’t entirely uncommon: From beached whales and dead penguins to massive fish kills and threatened manatees, 2010 had its share of bad news, too. Often these events are blamed on temperature change, human activity, or natural causes, but in many of the cases we’ve included here, we may never know exactly what c… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Michael Graham Richard No Relations With a Certain Hedgehog Chevrolet unveiled today a new small car that will be available in North-America under the ‘Sonic’ badge. It’s a welcome addition to the truck-heavy GM lineup and an all-new version of a car that is sold as the Aveo in some places, but Chevrolet is trying to rebrand it completely as the Sonic, so don’t mention the Aveo in their presence. The Av… Sonic will be available as a 2012 model in two different body configurations: a 4-door sedan and a 5-door hatch (see photo below)…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Images via Wastewater Compliance Systems Inc Poo-gloos is the, um, affectionate nickname given to Bio-Bomes, the igloo-shaped pollution-eating devices that could mean miracles for waste water treatment in areas that can’t afford multimillion dollar installations. They’re cheap, easy to install, and a new study shows that for areas with existing lagoon systems to clean up, retrofitting with poo-gloos could mean saving millions of dollars. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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