Green innovations are taking center stage at this year’s CES, with many big name companies embracing sustainable design. Motorola is doing their part to tackle the massive problem of consumer e-waste with the release of the world’s first carbon negative cellphone. The Renew W233 is the first certified Carbonfree cell phone on the market and features a 100% recyclable housing made from recycled water bottles.

(more…)

The world famous Consumer Electronics Show kicks off this week in Las Vegas, and this year the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) has joined forces with Greener Gadgets to produce the greenest CES ever! We’re thrilled to see the event getting greener and greener each year with new initiatives to reduce the event’s carbon footprint, energy use, and promote more sustainable electronics products. We’ll be reporting on all the latest and greatest green electronics news from CES, so stay tuned to Inhabitat for up-to-the-minute coverage.

(more…)

Tags: green, gadgets, clean, tech, technology, sustainable, design, ces, consumer, electronics, show

Most people want to ‘go green’ and do the right thing - however there is a persisting stereotype out there that ‘going green’ costs more money. Contrary to popular belief, living a sustainable lifestyle DOESN’T need to involve spending lots of green, if you are smart about what you do. To prove it, we’ve rounded up a great list of ten ways that going green can actually save you money…

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

If there’s one thing that we never expected to see, it’s the sight of an 8-wheeled electric vehicle attempting to break the land speed record. But that is exactly what the Eliica is attempting to do. Designed by a team at Keio University in Japan, this fully electric lithium-ion vehicle may be short on subtlety, but it has a range of 200 miles and can hit speeds of up to 230mph!

(more…)

From the Three Gorges Dam to the Great Wall, China is known for its monumental projects that count among the biggest and grandest in the world. Recently the nation announced its latest supermassive project: the construction of the world’s largest solar power plant. Planned by China Technology Development Group Corp and privately-held Qinghai New Energy Group, the project will begin with a 30 MW plant in the Qaidam Basin that will expand to produce 1 GW of solar energy.

(more…)

We’re excited to announce that Inhabitat has been nominated as a finalist in this year’s Weblog Awards! The world’s largest blog competition pools together over 500,000 entries in a wide range of categories, and Inhabitat has been nominated for the Best Blog Design. We’re honored to be nominated and would love to ring in the new year with a bang, so if you’re a fan of great green design cast your vote for Habby and Inhabitat today!

VOTE INHABITAT FOR A 2008 WEBLOG AWARD >

In Paraguay, forested areas have been reduced to less than 10% of the country, which means that wood is scarcely available as a building material. Additionally, 300,000 families do not have adequate housing. These two serious factors couple to form a sizable problem, which community activist Elsa Zaldívar is addressing with an innovative approach to sustainable building. Recognizing the waste being sent to the landfill and a need for housing, Elsa worked with an industrial engineer to develop a material made from recycled plastic and agricultural fibers, like loofah, corn husks and caranday palm trees. These panels now provide an inexpensive, lightweight, flexible building material that can help communities reduce their agricultural waste while generating income and providing sustainable housing to families.

(more…)

Architect Greg Lynn may be best know as the king of ‘Blobitecture’ - creating blobby biomorphic structures using computer-aided-design and mathematical equations. Now the blob-loving architect is taking a turn for the green with an interesting new project to turn recycled old toys into high-end, artistic pieces of furniture. Recently winning a Venice Biennale Golden Lion for this work, Lynn uses the same method of algorithmic design that punctuates all of his work to piece recycled toys together into works of art.

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

With the snow coming down fast this time of year, we can’t help but dream of laying on the beach listening to our iPod and relaxing. But how to keep it charged? If we had this handy pair of designer sunglasses, we could keep our iPod or other iDevice fully charged while basking in the sun or walking around town. Designed by Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong, these slick “Self-Energy Converting Sunglasses” feature dye solar cells that are integrated into their lenses. Although perhaps not as fun as using a yo-yo to charge your devices, this solar solution is probably a heck of a lot more practical and stylish to boot.

(more…)

Milano Santa Monica is a lush green super city that is scheduled to sprout up just outside of Milan. Envisioned as a stacked series of high-rises overflowing with flowering terraces, the self-contained development will employ principles of bio-architecture in addition to photovoltaic panels and solar-thermal water heaters to cut down on energy use.

(more…)

Flamingo Dress - $198 at the Inhabitat Shop

Using beautiful animal illustrations and sustainable textiles, Mika Machida’s eco-friendly fashions show that you don’t need to wear fur or skins to look wild. Each piece is an elegant, innovative take on the words “animal print” — celebrating the forms and patterns found in animals. Her elephant top, for example, features an elephant’s watchful eye on its front, and a carefully-located sleeve that drapes over the shoulder in such a way to mimic an elephant’s ear. And her innovative, ready-to-wear pieces, made of sustainably-sourced materials such as organic cotton, bamboo, and wool are now available for sale in the Inhabitat Shop!

(more…)

Tags: inhabitat, shop, mika, machida, sustainable, style, eko, lab, eco, chic, fashions, ekovaruhuset, new, york

The new year is the perfect time to reflect on some of the crazy and exciting accomplishments of the past year– and to think about the future. As you might have noticed this past week, we’ve been pondering our favorite stories we’ve run this year, how we could be more eco-conscious in 2009, and where 2009 might bring us in becoming a greener and cleaner planet. And in this contemplative spirit, we’d also like to share some of our favorite lists out there:

Archinect asked architects, bloggers, academics, Archinect editors, and others to share their predictions for 2009.

Jetson Green compiled a list of their favorite green homes of 2008.

Treehugger is looking forward to a year of clean technology and gathers a list of six tech start-ups to watch.

Cyclists are in for a wild ride! Designboom collected an assortment of the strangest bikes of 2008.

Design students Jeffrey Gerlach and Andrew Stanley have instituted an informal furniture catch-and-release program. With just a few steps, they have discovered a way to construct a clever and stylish Adirondack chair using Department of Public Works roadblocks that are simple, easy-to-assemble, and instantly returnable to the urban wild.

(more…)

Dear Inhabitat readers,

Whether you’ve been reading us for a day or for the last four years, we want to ask for your help right now in helping us to win a Homie. If you support what we do and want to help us get our name out there, please lend a hand and vote for Inhabitots and Inhabitat for a Homie award > The newest member of our family, our bouncing baby blog Inhabitots, could especially use the help in getting our name out there to parents everywhere.

SWEETENING THE DEAL
In fact, we want to win this contest so bad, that we are going to sweeten the deal (bribe?) to encourage you to vote for us: Any reader who votes for and submits a comment about Inhabitat/Inhabitots on Ohdeedoh or ReNest will be entered into a drawing to win a free Inhabitat T-shirt of your choice. Do it on both sites and your name will be entered twice into the hat. So what are you waiting for? Vote for us today:

VOTE FOR INHABITOTS >

VOTE FOR INHABITAT >

2009 is now upon us, and the start of the new year is a great time to engage in a little reflection and try to predict what the coming year might hold. You’ve heard some 2009 forecasts from the Inhabitat team, and now we’d like to bring you a different perspective, with some predictions for 2009 from our friends around the blogosphere:

(more…)

Tags: inhabitat, friends, green, design, sustainable, eco, new, year, projections, 2009, forecast, trends, environment