Comments on: BACK TO SCHOOL: TOP 5 Eco Book Bags

By: Inhabitat » SUSTAINABLE STYLE: New Noon Solar Bags

Inhabitat » SUSTAINABLE STYLE: New Noon Solar Bags — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:17:15 +0000

[...] you could pony up for a geeky/techy solar powered backpack, but does solar power get more stylish than these solar bags from Noon Solar?! The Chicago [...]

By: MaLóL

MaLóL — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:13:33 +0000

Yeah!!!, where are those pretencious Freitag bags, started in 93? every pretencious architecture student wears one.

When will we have a pretencious moleskine made with recycled marihuana paper?

green, green, green, green. This minimalist avant garde clothing is ridiculous most times…

By: Sustainable Fashion Design &#8211 Architettura e Design

Sustainable Fashion Design &#8211 Architettura e Design — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:08:26 +0000

[...] (Via) [...]

By: Moom

Moom — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:31:03 +0000

This is wrong on so many levels. At the most superficial, the research seems pretty shoddy: For my money, Juice do better (and more ecofriendly) solar powered messenger bags and backpacks than the Voltaic ones. And where is Freitag in your list, hey? Definitely scoring over those dreadful ex-sail bags, is where it should be.

At a deeper level, how long do you have to own a solar-powered bag for until it repays the amount of energy that was used up in its production? Given the pathetic output of most solar panels, the answer will be measured in decades. And a beach tote?! Come on! What beach gadgets do you own that need recharging over the course of the average beach trip? It’s worse than greenwash, it’s green conspicuous consumption. It’s loopy.

Finally, as so many have pointed out, if you need a bag there are so many cheap, practical and stylish versions which use far fewer resources and sit more lightly on the planet. Solar panels are hopelessly inefficient, and these ones will never pay for themselves in eco terms.

I sympathise with this website’s philosophy that we can still be consumers and be green, but some consumption is overconsumption, and boy, this is it.

By: aaron

aaron — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:34:58 +0000

Thank you, Anne, for pointing out that most sustainable consumer products are the ones you DON’T buy. The bike I own may be a tanker, the car I own may be falling apart, and the clothes I own may be rags… but all of these things are more environmentally friendly than buying new things (an amazing amount of energy goes into manufacturing new products).

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:03:38 +0000

I think the eco-friendliest bookbag is … the one you already have. I’d like to see an idea of “enough” incorporated into product reviews like these, which are otherwise conforming to the consumer culture involved in many of our environmental problems.

By: mike

mike — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:32:36 +0000

There are some others on reuseablebags.com. I have a few from there that i use. You can see the review on my site, Leafygreen.info also

By: e

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:02:38 +0000

This website sometimes seems elitist. “No, the Not-a-Plastic-Bag” doesn’t count” comment, even though your tote bag does count, seems unfair. I’m not a fan of the bag and the people who buy it are more interested in blindly following trends than eco-friendly products. Nevertheless, the bag does get the word out there about reducing platic bag consumption, which is laudable and should be celebrated as a victory for all of us. While not strictly ‘eco-friendly,’ it does spread awareness and eco-consciousness. One could argue inhabitat is not strictly eco-friendly as it consumes power. Yet we all know that’s ridiculous because inhabitat keeps us aware of all of these new developments.