Open Architecture Network

Video clip: Amory Lovins on climate change, geoengineering and unintended environmental consequences. In case you’re not a regular US News & World Report reader, we’d like to point out that Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute (which is a guest contributor to TreeHugger) has been just listed as one of

Electronics are often so ugly and inanimate; why not make them do multiple functions like this combination wireless router and vase? Finally, electronics you can really call green! No doubt the flowers will last so much longer in that energizing bath of EMF. The designers say that “The STC Router successfully bridges the gap between lifestyle and technology with it’s flower vase functionality.”...

Image source: Eco-Tools Now that you've slowly updated your makeup stock to include eco-friendly and lead-free makeup, why not also update your brushes with ones made from sustainable and recycled materials by Eco-Tools. We've railed against the untested and toxic chemicals found in common makeup, but the brushes used to apply the gunk are rarely discussed. The brushes by Eco-Tools are available in drugstores across the US and are priced to not break the bank. A great gift idea for...

With new technological innovations for humanitarian aid – like the solar powered ambulances in Mumbai, or SMS technologies spreading aid and awareness – it can be easy to lose sight of more basic initiatives to address the most basic human needs. An international conference on Ecological Safety, held earlier this month in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, called attention to a dangerous sanitation issue by offering an inspiring and feasible solution.

The problem: international donors are still promoting pit latrines, says Dr. Claudia Wendland of Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), but most families can't afford to pay for safe emptying of the pits. In humid climates like those found in Central Asia, Caucasus and Eastern Europe, the latrines can become dangerous as a result, often leaking and polluting puddles in nearby streets and gardens, leaking into streams or even leaching into groundwater. Contamination ruins an already-limited clean drinking water supply, and puts the local community, particularly children, at risk for bacterial disease.

A new and more sustainable sanitation system promises to change the game, if advocates can generate the resources and policy action necessary to support it. According to Sascha Gabizon, executive director of WCEF, dry or low-flush urine diverting toilets, combined with natural filtration ponds to purify grey water from sinks and showers, is a much safer sanitation system that can be implemented at a cost similar to that of the latrines.

One major aim of the conference was to demonstrate the feasibility of this system on a local level, and to push for legislation that supports leapfrogging to this and other sanitation systems that reuse nutrients and save water.

According to a release from the WECF:

The 200 participants of the conference were invited to visit 3 demonstration projects showing how wastewater from kitchens and bathrooms was efficiently cleaned using a "soil filter," a sealed pond in which sand and plants clean the wastewater to achieve the quality of bathing water, The participants also visited 2 different types of dry urine diverting toilets. The cost of the toilets vary between 200 and 450 Euro, including a wash facility and light, this is much cheaper than having to build a flush-toilet and connecting to a sewage system, which in most villages does not exist in any case. The cost of the soil filter for 5 people amounts to about 950 euro, also less expensive than connecting to a sewage system.

"In regions without central water supply ... they can be used without flushing water, are hygienic and safe and reuse the nutrients from urine and faeces in agriculture. Ponds and constructed wetlands are natural systems for treating wastewater in cases where flushing toilets exist," says Wendland.

Gabizon says the WCEF strategy is to first demonstrate the new sustainable sanitation systems "in a variety of small and large scale applications, from households to schools to entire villages." This phase will rely on aid funding. "However, once their efficiency and cost benefits demonstrated, we hope that all countries in the EECCA region will join the water and health protocol, and thus work under a common legally binding framework, where performance based targets will be set, which would mean that pit latrines would no longer be an acceptable solution but that a variety of other solutions would be available. Our aim is that each household and each school or other public building has access to a safe sanitation system."

Photos courtesy of WCEF.

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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Columns at 11:00 AM)

This week we're excited to launch the newest installment of our series Seattle to the World: 100 Best Innovations from the Emerald City. We've taken suggestions from readers, and searched on our own, to identify the most game-changing innovations from Seattle's arts community.

Seattle to the World: The Arts
Artists play a crucial role in the development of cities. In order to preserve their influence on the areas that are most special to our city and our unique Seattle culture, we must value the artists and the art that makes such magic happen.

Youngstown Cultural Arts Center: A Resource By the Community, For the Community
A historic Delridge schoolhouse has been revitalized as a resource offering arts education, performance, low-income artist housing, and more.

ArtsCorps: Treating Creativity as a Basic Right
“Education is a social justice issue. I’m always surprised when people don’t see it that way,” says Tina LaPadula, Arts Corps’ Education Director and co-founder.

Mini Mart City Park: Infusing an urban wasteland with hope and imagination
The Mini Mart park is exactly the kind of living, breathing, interactive teaching tool that will instill hope for cleaning up our past mistakes and embarking on a better future.

Intiman Theatre's American Cycle: Preserving cultural heritage, promoting community connection
With its launching of the American Cycle in 2004, the Intiman Theatre has secured its place as a leader in civic engagement.

Are you here in Seattle? We'd like to hear from you! Check out the local blog and leave comments, or contact editor[at]Worldchanging[dot]com if you have ideas or would like to write.

Top photo: A boy examines a street mural in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood.
Photo credit: flickr/slightlynorth, Creative Commons license.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in About Worldchanging at 10:26 AM)

photo: Mike Slichenmyer Not to belabor the point, but of all sources of renewable energy taking a beating in the current economic storm, biofuels seem to be getting hit full force. Recently the world’s largest ethanol producer, Verasun, filed for bankruptcy and predictions have it that as many as 40 more plants could be shuttered within the next few months. What this means for farmer’s i...

Sylvan housing reaches new heights with these wonderful dewdrop shaped Treetents by Dutch sculptor and designer Dré Wapenaar. Originally designed to ease the lives of tree-sitting activists, they also make excellent treetop retreats for campers, kids, and anyone soothed by an evening spent softly swaying among the branches. Each beautifully formed droplet attaches directly to a tree trunk and is roomy enough to sleep a family of four.

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Photo via Dave Hogg Being a Girl Scout has come a long way from making jewelry out of tree bark and safety pins and selling cookies. And it’s a good thing, too. Tomorrow, 25 Girl Scout Juniors and Cadettes will participate in a day-long camp focused on improving energy efficiency in buildings. They’ll learn the bulk of the lessons by performing an energy audit of the Math and Science Center and the Program Center at Camp Dellwood in Indianapolis, IN. How...

If it were in France, this solar power installation would be receiving more money for the electricity it generates. Photo: Chris Muezer Compared to its neighbors to the east, southeast and southwest, France has lagged behind in promoting solar power—though it has a backlog of some 400 MW of solar installations, it only has about 18 MW currently online. That’s all about to change with the introduction of a substantial feed-in-tariff for commercial solar installations. The hope is to make good on Minister for Energy and the Environment Jean-Louis Borloo’s promise to increase France’s supp...

In 1988, Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino bought a run-down house in the Millstone borough of New Jersey. A house that was designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. Turns out, that Wright had been thinking of the environment back then. The home, along with about 100 others, was designed in his “Usonian” style– a style that utilized admirable green building principles, including smaller footprints, lower cost, passive solar and radiant heating. The couple, principals of architecture and design firm, Tarantino Studio, renovated it, which won an award from the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architecture.

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Tags: frank, lloyd, wright, renovation, usonian, sustainable, building, green, merit, award, new, jersey, millstone

In 1988, Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino bought a run-down house in the Millstone borough of New Jersey. A house that was designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. Turns out, that Wright had been thinking of the environment back then. The home, along with about 100 others, was designed in his “Usonian” style– a style that utilized admirable green building principles, including smaller footprints, lower cost, passive solar and radiant heating. The couple, principals of architecture and design firm, Tarantino Studio, renovated it, which won an award from the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architecture.

(more…)

Getty Images While the Internet does a lot for improving the environment – from providing ways to reduce energy, reduce consumption of physical goods, telecommuting capabilities and so on – it also creates the ability to do incredible harm to ecosystems. With the ability to offer ways to quickly, conveniently and anonymously trade exotic animals and plants, the Internet is actually a source of harm. Thankfully, though, China recognizes the harm of wildlife trading, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare and

photo: Better Place Electric cars may not be commercially available yet in the US, and aren’t expected to be widely available much before 2012, but when they are the San Francisco Bay Area will be ready. Palo Alto-based Better Place has announced that it plans to begin setting up a network of electric car power stations in the Bay Area, to be ready by 2012. Coulomb Technologies has also announced that it will be building a network of 40 charging stations along California highways, beginning in 2009. But that’s not all:...

Photo credits: Kelly Rossiter Children can be pretty entrenched when it comes to eating habits. We've all known kids who don't like foods touching each other on the plate, who won't eat certain textures, or who like to eat the same foods over and over again. As children get older and start moving into the world more, they can occasionally surprise us by being willing to try things they had previously rejected. Being given snacks at school, dinner at a friend's house, going away to ...

Screenshot via Earth2Tech xChange Point is an energy efficiency tool offered by Eps Corp, an energy management company, which supposedly will offer an immediate return on investment to manufacturing companies, thanks to energy savings and zero upfront capital costs. The tool is a software interface and hardware that attaches to manufacturing systems and machinery. It will provide real-time monitoring of energy use – pretty much exactly how

A "blue cruise" near the Marmaris coast. Photo by Sarp Koknar via flickr. There's trouble in paradise, at least the part of it around the popular vacation town of Marmaris, on Turkey's western Mediterranean coast. Long struggling to keep development in check, residents have had up to here with new plans to expand the area's port and mining operations. A local environmental organization recently issued an SOS: "That’s enough. Do not let Marmaris fade away." ...

photo chaps1 at flickr The 'kycklingdebat' or chicken debate is hot in Swedes' minds since Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), on of the country's two main dailies, published a long report on the short lives of the 74 million chickens annually born and bred here. Swedes are eating more and more chicken meat and have been encouraged by both pundits and industry to do so, as chickens are supposedly more climate friendly than either pigs or beef cattle, notorious consumers of food and water. But SvD's report may chill some hearts, as the findings point to ...

Computer resellers are going to have an easier time marketing their green gear thanks to the Green Electronics Council. The council, which created EPEAT, has formed a partnership with resellers in order to get energy efficient and eco-friendly computer equipment out to more consumers. Read on to find out where you can get greener gear....

While the solar panel in this photo is pretty much a token renewable energy gesture, Wal-Mart’s wind power commitment is significantly more substantial. Photo: Wal-Mart Stores Say what you like about Wal-Mart (and I certainly have said some less than flattering things), but sometimes the world’s largest retailer does something undeniably positive: Like make its first major purchase of wind power in the United States. Announced yesterday, Wal-Mart Stores will be supplying 15% of the electricity in approximately 360 Texas stores and other facilities though wind power, purchased from Duke Energy. Wal-Mart says that the pu...

You gotta love it when your phone does work for you. Especially when that work it keeping your carbon footprint in check. Intel and the University of Washington are developing UbiGreen, which promises to be one of the easiest phone apps to use when it comes to greening how you get around town. All you have to do to know i...