Swedish studio Design Stories and Returhuset have come together to produce Merry-Go-Round, a collection of tables and lights made from objects that are traditionally seen as waste materials. The shade on their Drawstring Lamp is a stiff waste fabric designed to filter sunlight. The stiffness of the fabric allows it to hold its organic form.

Read the rest of Merry-Go-Round: A Collection of Tables and Lights made from Trash by Design Stories and Returhuset

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Post tags: "green furniture", "sustainable furniture", Design, eco furniture, eco-friendly lighting, lamp, sustainable lighting, table

Developed by Nicholas Cadilhac, a computer scientist and enthusiastic gardener in Montreal, PlantCatching is a website that helps people share unwanted plants, seeds, bulbs and other garden supplies. Cadilhac created the site after he found that a lot of his plants and materials were going to waste—and that many of his neighbors had the same problem. His simple, social site features a map where gardeners can log the location and details of their unwanted plants so that others may come and find them.

Read the rest of Montreal-based PlantCatching Website Finds a Home for Unwanted Seeds, Bulbs and Plants

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Post tags: community gardening, garden, Gardening, herbs, plant pots, plants, Sustainable, swap

Located in South East Melbourne, Bentleigh Secondary College is leading by example in the fields of sustainability and education. Suters Architects designed the school’s facilities with green building strategies in mind, and the college’s curriculum teaches sustainability using the various case studies that are in action on the school’s grounds. The project has won an impressive list of awards, topped off last year with the 2012 International Green Award for “Most Sustainable Education Institution”.

Read the rest of Melbourne’s Bentleigh Secondary College Scores Straight A’s for Sustainable Education

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Architecture, australia, australia architecture, eco education, education, green architecture, Melbourne, Sustainable, sustainable school, Suters Architects

Read the rest of Heller Street Park & Residences: Award-Winning Sustainable Housing by Six Degrees Architects in Melbourne

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Architecture, australia, australia architecture, green architecture, Green Building, green building Melbourne, houses, low impact housing, Melbourne, Six Degrees Architects, Sustainable

Melbourne Water, a water supply company owned by the Victorian State Government, is encouraging Australian residents to create 10,000 rain gardens – and they’re already up to 7,804! A rain garden is a water-saving garden that is designed to capture stormwater from hard surfaces such as driveways, patios and roofs via downpipes after it rains. The water supply company has set up a website with information on designing, creating and caring for rain gardens – no previous experience necessary.

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Post tags: container gardening, eco gardening, Gardening, gardens, green garden, green gardening, landscape design, raingardens, rainwater collection system, rainwater runoff, water filtration, water issues, water saving, water use

Made of recycled crates and 25,000 edible plants, The Great Crate is a fully recyclable installation that was erected by Plus One at the Art & About Sydney event last month. The growing plants gave the project a life of its own over the weeks that the cube was in place, and the plants were given away to residents this week, making the fully recyclable artwork live on following its time as an installation.

Read the rest of The Great Crate is an LED-Illuminated Living Sculpture of 25,000 Edible Plants in Sydney

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Post tags: Architecture, contemporary design green, green architecture, Installation, plants, sydney, sydney australia, sydney green architecture, temporary garden, vegetables

Melbourne-based designer Ash Allen recently won the sustainable and waste-wise design award at Fringe Furniture (part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival) for his Sticks and Stones outdoor stool. Allen was inspired by two elements of a Japanese rock garden – a naturally worn “skipping” stone and bamboo stems. The stool sits on three lightweight Tasmanian Oak legs (sticks) with a heavy cast “stone” seat above that incorporates recycled rubber crumb for texture and toughness. The stool is designed to pack flat to ship and does not require glue or tools to be assembled. The stools come in red, blue, grey and white, with or without rubber, and there are also matching side and coffee tables.

+ Ash Allen

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Post tags: "green furniture", "sustainable furniture", Ash Allen, Australian, eco stool, furniture design, outdoor furniture, Seating, Sustainable Outdoor Furniture, timber

Designer Ryan Frank just debuted his first collection of office furniture at Barcelona Design Week 2012. Dubbed Glitch, the line is constructed without the use of glue or screws, allowing it to be easily disassembled so that the materials can be recycled or reused at the end of their life.

Read the rest of Ryan Frank Debuts No Screw, No Glue “Glitch” Bamboo Furniture at Barcelona Design Week

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Post tags: "green furniture", "sustainable furniture", Barcelona Design Week, bookshelf, Desk, furniture design, green design, green interiors, office furniture, Ryan Frank, sustainable furniture design

New York City is undergoing a cultural shift away from the automobile, and designers Lawrence Zeroth, Jack Phillips, Brian Schulman and Eugene Lubomir have come up with a clever proposal to transform car lifts into housing pods. Space is at a premium in NYC, and the UpLIFT proposal would ensure that empty parking spaces don’t go unused. The prefabricated panels are made from recycled materials and can be configured to take advantage of the site’s solar access, through drafts and opportunities for rainwater collection.

Read the rest of UpLIFT Transforms Elevated Parking Spaces into a Hive of Prefabricated Tiny Homes!

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Post tags: "prefabricated housing", apartment, Architecture, Competition, eco-friendly apartment building, low impact housing, New York., parking lot, social housing, uplift

Four Turkish university students have developed Washit, a shower unit that collects and filters used water for washing clothes or showering. Ahmet Burak Aktas, Adem Onalan, Salih Berk Ilhan and Burak Soylemez first started Washit as a university assignment, but they recently brought their project to a whole new level, winning the iF Concept Design Award 2012: Hansgrohe Special Award for their water-saving design.

Read the rest of Washit: A Washer That Washes Your Clothes While You Shower!

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Post tags: "grey water reuse", Eco-friendly Washing Machines, Green Appliances, shower water use, student design, sustainable appliances, turkey, washing machine, washit, water use, Winner iF Design Award

The China Environmental Protection Foundation (CEPF), in collaboration with DDB China Group, created an interactive poster to encourage people to walk rather than drive. With the piece, pedestrians became artists that produced footprint “leaves” on a giant canvas across a 12.6 x 7 meter canvas. The spectacular work was spread across a busy intersection in Shanghai.

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Post tags: advertising campaign, alternative transportation, Art, china, eco-art, eco-friendly transportation, green advertising campaign, green art, shanghai, transport

Millions of used bottles are discarded every year, but one Melbourne-based designer has found a way to make use of them. Sourcing bottles from local bars, restaurants, cafes and house parties, multi-media artist Ruth Allen washes, cuts and heats the reclaimed glass and morphs them into everything from drinking tumblers to vases to jugs. Her works make up a beautiful new glassware collection she calls Sustainable Stubbies.

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Post tags: beer bottles, flower vases, glass botles, glass sculptor, In The Spirit, Recycled Materials, Ruth Allen, sustainable stubbies, Wine Bottles