Read the rest of 13 Things We Learned from Some of the World’s Smartest People at Fortune Brainstorm Green 2013

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Post tags: adam lashinsky, andy ruben, andy serwer, aron cramer, Bea Perez, Beyond Meat, brian dumaine, brightfarms, Clarence Otis, Coca Cola, coca cola Chief Sustainability Officer, Cynthia Warner, dan akerson, Darden Restaurants, dean kamen, ebay, Fortune, Fortune Brainstorm Green, fortune green, Fortune Magazine, General Mills, geoff colvin, GM, hannah jones, harrison ford conservation international, Harrison Ford harrison ford green, ikea, iPod inventor, jib ellison, Joe Taylor, John Donahoe, Ken Powell, leigh gallagher, linda greer, marc gunther, natalie allen, nest, Nike, NRG, panasonic north america, Patagonia, Peter Seligmann, pk clean, priyanka bakaya, Procter & Gamble, rick ridgeway, Robert McDonald, Rosalind Brewer, Sam's Club, Sapphire Energy, Steve Howard, surepure, teresa law, Tony Fadell, will sarni, Will.i.am, Yerdle

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Post tags: 2004 tsunami, 2013 Aga Khan Architecture Award, disaster houses, earth bricks, eco design, fishing village, green design, humanitarian design, indian ocean, local labor, local materials, micro homes, rubber tree wood, shigeru ban, sri lanka, sustainable design

Shipping containers have emerged as a popular material for building everything from backyard retreats to temporary shelters and coffee shops. Now DARPA has harnessed the giant metal boxes for use in defense and disaster relief. The Tactically Expandable Maritime Platform (TEMP) links the 20-40 ft containers together like giant LEGO bricks to form floating platforms and bridges.

Read the rest of DARPA to Use Shipping Containers to Create Floating Platforms for Disaster Relief

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Post tags: adjustable, caat, captive air amphibious transporters, cargo, darpa, distaster, gps, grasp lab, hook-and-tether, lego, military, modular, relief, shipping container, supplies, tactically expandable maritime platform, temp, University of Pennsylvania

Anyone who has ever struggled to pitch a tent can attest to how difficult it can be to assemble a temporary shelter. Add the stress of a natural calamity, and every second saved by quick and simple construction is a blessing aided by the genius of good design. Argentine architects Matias Alter and Matias Carrizo have created the Modularflex, a foldable disaster housing unit that packs flat and can be assembled in about half an hour.

Read the rest of Modularflex Disaster Shelters Pop Up Where They Are Needed Most

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Post tags: Argentina, Buenos Aires, emergency, expo logisti-k, flat-packed, foldable, LED lights, matias alter, matias carrizo, modular, modularflex, natural disaster, shelter, temporary shelter, TENT, thermal panels

Actor and co-founder of water.org Matt Damon won’t let a good opportunity to raise awareness of clean water down the tubes. To draw attention to the 2.5 billion people who do not have access to proper sanitation, Damon will boycott the toilet and embark on a YouTube campaign enlisting the help of other celebrities. Introducing his plan in a faux press conference yesterday, the activist hopes that his videos will go viral and inspire viewers to donate $25 to his cause.

Read the rest of Matt Damon Boycotts the Toilet to Raise Awareness For Clean Water

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Post tags: actor, bathroom, boycott, celebrity, clean water, donation, epic lloyd, john elerick, lisbug, live prude girls, Matt Damon, sanitation, shaycarl, smosh, stan lee, strike, toilet, water.org, wheezy waiter, world toilet day, world water day, YouTube

The Turkish Government recently voted on a ‘’disaster risk’’ law that will demolish and rebuild roughly 7,000,000 dwellings in Turkey over the next 20 years. Although the object of this law is to provide earthquake-proof buildings, the operational approach is different and leads to wild gentrification in socially fragile urban areas. These recent urban renewal operations resulted in lower income classes being ejected to the outskirts of the cities with poor indemnities for their expropriations, cutting them off from easy access to the city and increasing their difficulties. Drawing upon the design of Turkish Gecekondus (informal settlements), Sinan Logie has conceived of an emergency shelter that can be built with materials harvested by urban recyclers working in the streets of Istanbul. The resulting “Gecekondoos” seeks to offer quick and low-cost shelter for the victims of urban renewal operations by allowing them to plug into existing urban infrastructure while staying located within their neighborhoods.

+ Gecekondoo

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Disaster Relief, emergency shelter, Gecekondoo, green architecture, Green Building, green design, humanitarian design, istanbul, recycled building, Recycled Materials, Sinan Logie, sustainable design, turkey, urban intervention, urban operations

Read the rest of A Prototype of the AbleNook Rapidly Deployable Emergency Modular Living Unit is Now Complete

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", able nook, ablenook, Disaster-proof design, eco design, emergency shelter, green architecture, Green Building, green design, humanitarian design, kickstarter campaign, modular dwelling, Prefab, prefab home, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

Erik Abel recently released a fresh set of limited edition prints, and 15% of all sales will be donated to Waves for Water for their Hurricane Sandy relief initiative. Six illustrations are available, and they are printed on .75-inch-thick FSC-Certified birch plywood panels. There are only 25 of each print available and they come hand-signed and numbered with a certificate of authenticity.

+ Erik Abel

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Post tags: erik abel, fsc wood prints, Hurricane Sandy, hurricane sandy art, Hurricane Sandy donations, Hurricane Sandy Relief, sandy donations, wood printing, wood prints

Five days after Typhoon Bopha made landfall on the Philippines’ southern Mindanao Island, a weakened storm hit the northwestern Philippines’ on Sunday. With winds stronger than those seen from Hurricane Sandy, Bopha has left more than 180,000 people on the southern Mindanao Island without food, water and other basic supplies.

Read the rest of Philippines Hit by Second Storm Five Days After Typhoon Bopha

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Post tags: Disaster Relief, disaster relief shelters, humanitarian efforts, international aid, Mindanao Island, Philippines flooding, Philippines natural disasters, tropical storms, typhoon bopha

To help deliver power to the more than 3,000 families living far from Bosnia’s power grid, the United Nations is offering a $20,000 prize to whoever invents a relatively cheap renewable energy solution. The winning solution should cost less than $6,500, and it should be easily able to supply an average household with hot water and electricity.

Read the rest of UN Offers Prize to Help Bring Power to 3,000 Bosnian Homes Using Renewable Energy

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", cheap electricity, green design, humanitarian action, low energy lighting, renewable energy solutions, sustainable competition, UN initiative, United Nations, united nations bosnia

When Hurricane Sandy reached the eastern United States in late October, it wasn’t a surprise visit – meteorologists had issued warnings about the storm’s approach for almost a week. Although residents and businesses did their best to be ready, the superstorm caught many cities off guard as it attacked the American northeast with heavy flooding and powerful winds that destroyed homes and left millions without power. New York City and parts of New Jersey got the worst of it. Still, the Big Apple is one of the largest cities in the world – a metropolis of a similar size and sophistication as London, Tokyo and Paris. So why, weeks later, is New York City still a muddy mess? Why are there still scores of Americans without electricity, heat, and the ability to return to their homes? Many say that it’s a crumbling infrastructure brought on by years of under-funding and neglect that has been the biggest barrier to post-Sandy recovery. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

Read the rest of What Hurricane Sandy Taught Us About America’s Crumbling Infrastructure

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Post tags: energy security, government spending, Hurricane Sandy, infrastructure, politics, power plants, recovery, roads

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Post tags: Architecture for Humanity, Breezy Point, Charities, disaster recovery, Hurricane, hurricane recovery, Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Sandy donations, hurricane sandy recovery, mayor bloomberg, natural disasters, new jersey, new york city, NYC, occupy, Occupy Sandy, Red Cross, soup kitchens, Staten Island, The American Red Cross, volunteering

Read the rest of PLEASE HELP: Desperate Lower Manhattan Struggles For Water, Food, Communication

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Post tags: humanitarian aid, hurricane aid, hurricane rebuilding, hurricane relief, Hurricane Sandy, lower Manhattan, manhattan, natural disaster relief, new york city, social responsibility

Hurricane Sandy is barreling up the East Coast towards New York, and those in the path of the storm should brace for the worst. If you live in NYC you probably know that you need to stock up on food and water and that you should evacuate if you live in a low-lying area, but you may be missing some crucial facts. Check out our list of 6 things you should know to survive Hurricane Sandy to get the whole story – including what you should and should not do during the storm.

READ MORE >

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Post tags: 6 Must-Know Tips to Survive Hurricane Irene, 6 Smart Tips to Survive Hurricane Irene, emergency preparedness, Frankenstorm, How to prepare for Hurricane Irene, how to prepare for sandy, hurricane eat coast, hurricane in nyc, hurricane irene, hurricane new york, hurricane nyc, Hurricane Sandy, hurricane survival tips, irene, New York Hurricane, storm watch new york, survive hurricane, tropical storm

In Northern Japan, where the rugged coast meets pristine beaches, the town of Ishinomaki has long enjoyed the beauty and bounty of the surrounding sea. But benefit rarely comes without hazard and Ishinomaki was severely damaged by the 2011 tsunami. The foundation of the town’s rebuilding process will need to balance four primary goals: tsunami-resistance, sustainability, economic revitalization and social community. Fury and Fragility is a proposal for a tsunami-resistant regenerative design that will help rebuild this community while ensuring its sustainability.

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

Read the rest of Fury and Fragility: A Sustainable Rebuilding Plan for the Town of Ishinomaki, Japan After the Tsunami

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", disaster response, fury and fragility, green architecture, Green Building, green design, humanitarian design, Ishinomaki, Japan, japanese tsunami, post-disaster rebuilding, rebuilding, social design, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, tsunami

Nearly 40 years after the Vietnam War, the U.S. launched a project to clean up toxic residues of Agent Orange – one of the many herbicides used by the U.S. military during the war was proven to contain dioxin, a chemical linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities. The $43 million joint project with Vietnam will take four years and cover a large contaminated area, including a former U.S. air base in Da Nang, where Agent Orange was mixed, stored and loaded onto planes.


Read the rest of US Announces Agent Orange Clean-Up in Vietnam After 40 Years

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Post tags: Agent Orange removal, bio-weapons, chemical weapon, Da Nang military base, dioxins, food contamination, herbicides, international initiatives, South China Sea, U.S. Military, Vietnam War

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Post tags: cocoon, Design, Disaster Relief, eco design, flatpacked construction, green design, natural disasters, sustainable design, temporary design, timber, woods bagot

In just a few short days, a small group of entrepreneurial designers and engineers has raised over $50,000 to fund Who Gives a Crap, a business that will offer sustainable, comfortable toilet paper and give 50% of the profits to sanitation efforts in developing countries. The team launched their campaign through the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo with a pledge that co-founder Simon Griffiths could be viewed via live webcam sitting on a toilet until their goal amount was met. Lucky for him, his stay on the bowl didn’t last long—speaking through their open wallets, fans made it clear that they want to buy T.P. that supports some of the 2.4 billion people worldwide impacted by poor sanitation.

Read the rest of Who Gives A Crap: Crowdfunded Toilet Paper Company to Donate 50% of Profits to Improve Sanitation in Developing World

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Post tags: developing world, recycled, startup company, Sustainable, toilet paper, who gives a crap

In 2011 CO2 Bambu was awarded with a historic contract to build 82 bamboo-based homes in Rosita, Nicaragua as part of the Hurricane Felix reconstruction effort. Up until then, the options available to the municipality, regional government and funding NGO had been either concrete block homes or timber homes, however CO2 Bambu emerged with an innovative design that uses local, native Guadua bamboo as its core building material. Fast forward to early 2012, and not only did CO2 Bambu deliver all 82 houses, but it also built the largest bamboo processing factory in Central America, trained a cadre of builders, technical supervisors and civil engineers, and achieved formal recognition for Guadua bamboo construction from the Nicaraguan Government’s Ministry of Transport and Industry.

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

Read the rest of CO2 Bambu Brings Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Bamboo Housing to Nicaragua

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Post tags: bamboo architecture, bamboo houses, co2 bambu, green architecture, Green Building, green design, green materials, local materials, renewable Bamboo, renewable materials, Sustainable Building

Meet “Rosemary” – a new emergency response robot prototype developed by the Future Robotics Technology Center for work at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in northern Japan, which was ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami last year. After the disaster, foreign robots from the US were the first to explore the crippled nuclear facility. Now, Japanese researchers have stepped up and developed a cutting-edge robot of their own that will operate in areas that are contaminated by radiation.

Read the rest of Japanese Robotics Lab Launches New Robot for Crippled Fukushima Nuclear Plant

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Post tags: Crippled Nuclear Reactor, fukushima daiichi nuclear plant, Future Robotics Technology Center, Japan robot for nuclear plant, Japan Robotics, Rosemary