When architect Ed Mazria announced that buildings account for nearly 50% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, the building industry was taken aback. After a long career in passive solar architecture, he has taken on the goal of steeply reducing the carbon footprint of architecture – most notably with his 2030 Challenge, which aims to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in new construction, and to cut the use of fossil fuels in existing buildings by 50% by 2030. To help hit those targets, Mazria is launching a new initiative called the 2030 Palette—a robust, visually oriented online design tool which strives to help produce low-impact, people friendly projects. We recently visited Mazria’s offices in Santa Fe, where we spoke to the architect in-depth about his work and how sustainable development can save us from the worst climate change has to offer.

Read the rest of INTERVIEW: Ed Mazria, Founder of Architecture 2030 Introduces the 2030 Palette

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Post tags: 2030 Palette, Architecture 2030, carbon neutral architecture, Ed Mazria, global warming, green architecture, green construction, Sustainable Building

What has nearly 100,000 LEGO pieces, spans nearly 2.5 miles and can be used to transport a Lilliputian army? The world’s longest LEGO railway, of course! On May 10th and 11th, Lego enthusiast Henrik Ludvigsen and 80 friends got together in Denmark to assemble the longest LEGO track in the world, and for their troubles (which sound like a lot of fun), they received the Guinness World Record.

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Post tags: Guinness World Record railway, Guinness World Record train, Guinness World Record train track, Lego bricks, lego building, LEGO railroad, LEGO railway, LEGO records, lego world record, world's longest LEGO railway, world's longest LEGO train track

A brand new car that gets 84 MPG and costs less than $7,000 sounds too good to be true, but Elio Motors just unveiled a new three-wheeled vehicle that hits all those marks. The affordable two-seater Elio gets amazing mileage, and it’s small enough for a congested urban environment.

Read the rest of Elio Motors Unveils Three-Wheeled 84 MPG Car That Costs Only $6,800

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Post tags: Elio, Elio car, Elio green car, Elio Motors, green car, green transportation, personal transportation, three-wheeled car

As if worrying about rising sea levels isn’t enough, the evils of climate change are also affecting our food supply. A mix of increased temperatures, changes in rain, and bacterial and fungi outbreaks have hit American farmers hard, causing harvests to fall behind schedule or find complete ruin. With dramatic shifts in weather becoming increasingly common, a number of foods we’re used to eating could be in danger of extinction.

Read the rest of Climate Change Could Render Our Favorite Foods Extinct

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Post tags: Climate Change, eco design, food extinction, food shortage, green design, ruined crops, sustainable design, world food supply

Read the rest of Atelier Oslo’s Lanternen Pavilion is Made From Sustainable Norwegian Wood

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Post tags: Architecture, Atelier Oslo, Daylighting, glazed shelter, Lanternen, norway, Norwegian Wood, stilts, Sustainable Materials, sustainable wood

After three decades of hard work, Amtrak trains in the Northeast Corridor and Pennsylvania get to retire. They will be replaced by 70 high-efficiency electric Amtrak Cities Sprinters (ACS-64) built by Siemens in Sacramento, California. The ACS-64 units are based on the company’s EuroSprinter, and the trains will take over for the Electro-Motive diesel locomotives made back in 1978 and 1988.

Read the rest of Amtrak Unveils New High-Efficiency Electric Trains for Northeast Corridor

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Post tags: acs-64, amtrak, amtrak cities sprinter, boston, California, electric, electro-motive diesel, eurosprinter, harrisburg, joseph boardman, keystone corridor, northeast corridor, pennsylvania, philadelphia, rail, Sacramento, washington d.c.

Read the rest of No, Sweat! Furniture Doubles as Stylish Home Gym Equipment

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Post tags: Darryl Agawin, eco design, exercise desk, green design, home gym, No! Sweat, sustainable design

The Window Socket is an idea so fabulously simple, it’s slightly amazing that we haven’t seen one before. Designed by Kyuho Song & Boa Oh, the charger sticks to a window and draws solar power to an internal battery, which enables one to either plug in small devices to the outlet right there and then, or save the stored power for use during night time hours.

Read the rest of Window Socket: Portable Solar-Powered Outlet Sticks to Windows, Charges Small Electronics

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Post tags: Boa Oh, green energy, Kyuho Song, off grid charger, off grid living, portable outlet, portable socket, portable solar, solar battery, solar charger, solar devices, window socket

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", 2013 Aga Khan Award, Aga Khan Award, agha khan award 2013, Berber, global development, granary renvoation, green architecture, green design, green renovation, historic preservation, morocco, sacred sites, Salima Naji, sustainable design

With tomatoes from Chile, salmon from Norway, chocolate from Africa, and coffee from Indonesia, a trip to the local grocery store can seem like a journey around the world. But food security is a serious issue in the 21st century, as countries around the world struggle to produce enough food to feed their growing populations. A new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany that was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters suggests that over half of the world’s population could depend on imported foods by 2050.

Read the rest of Study Projects Over Half of World’s Population Could Rely on Food Imports by 2050

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Post tags: central america, Climate Change, diet, food security, germany, imported food, marianela fader, Middle East, North Africa, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, self sufficiency

Charging time and cost are two of the biggest obstacles facing electric vehicle battery technology today. Fortunately, researchers at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden just developed an integrated motor drive and battery charger that can shorten charging time from eight hours to two while reducing overall cost by $2,000.

Read the rest of Cheaper EV Charging System Can Charge Electric Cars 4 Times Faster

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Post tags: chalmers university of technology, cost, electric vehicle, ev, fossil fuel, integrated charger, saeid haghbin, Sweden, time, volvo ab

The term ‘building science’ is used quite often now in sustainable building circles, but much of what we understand of it can be traced back to the work of Dr. Joe Lstiburek, founder of Building Science Corporation. He is anything but your typical engineer or scientist who spends time crunching numbers or hiding away in a lab. Lstiburek has spent most of his career out in the field, testing and examining what works and what doesn’t. Many of the building standards today — from building codes to ASHRE to testing methodology — have his finger prints all over them, and his tough love criticism of building design is undercut with his wry humor and, of course, an encyclopedic knowledge of building construction. Read on to learn where buildings go wrong and what we can do about it.

Read the rest of INTERVIEW: Building Science Pioneer Dr. Joe Lstiburek on the Good, Bad and Ugly Side of Buildings

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Post tags: "leed", ASHRE, Building failures, Building Science, Green Building, green building expert, Joe Lstiburek, problems with LEED, Sustainable Building

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Post tags: "natural materials", 11 eco-tastic gifts for mother's day, Airplane Wrap, Buddha Belly Tea Kettle, Chrysocolla Cocktail "Hug" Ring, Diamond Hobo Bag, eco jewelry, eco-gifts, fair trade gifts, Forest Pool Necklace, green gift guide, green gifts, green holidays, green office, Indigenous, lotions, mother's day, novica, Orchid-infused lotion, Organic Aromatherapy Body Soap, organic ingredients, organic lotions, Organic soap, Piper Tate, recycled gifts, Recycled Glass Balloon Vase, Recycled Materials, Redwood Forest bonsai kit, south america, Succulent Wall Planter Kit, sustainable gifts, Trinity Wooden Cuff, upcycled gifts, VivaTerra

Designed by architect Michael Strain and his team, Levitation is a concept bike designed to power your smart phone that also acts as a mobile hot-spot with unlimited Wi-Fi access. It has an on-board generator, high-capacity batteries which can store energy produced while cycling, and a “drain plug” system that allows the user to plug that energy back into the grid.

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Post tags: bicycle design, bicycle phone charger, bicycle power, cycling, digital fabrication, eco-friendly Hi-Macs, energy generating bike, green materials, green transportation, Hi-Macs material, high tech bike, Levitation Bike, magnetic levitation bike, Rapid Prototyping, zero carbon transportation

Andrew Mowbray has developed a new kind of natural modular building unit. For the past two years, the artist has been growing Lagenaria gourds in reusable acrylic forms, creating square blocks that can be stacked and locked together. The gourd is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants; it is easily dried and made into functional vessels such as bottles, instruments, and birdhouses. In a time of immense resource scarcity, Mowbray has created a new and sustainable use for gourds. By training them to grow in a square shape, Mowbray is able to produce inexpensive, organic building blocks.

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Post tags: adaptive produce, adaptive reuse, Andrew Mowbray, Architecture, eco design, gourds, Green Building, green materials, Lagenaria gourds, modular architecture, modular building, Organic, sustainable design

Read the rest of Studio Fuksas Unveils High Line-Style Elevated Park for Rail Station in Bari, Italy

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Post tags: Baricentrale redesign, eco design, elevated park Bari, green design, Jordi Henrich, Studio Fuksas, sustainable design

As the policy director of the ocean conservation nonprofit 5Gyres.org, I can tell you that the problem of ocean plastic pollution is massive. In case you didn’t know, an ocean gyre is a rotating current that circulates within one of the world’s oceans – and recent research has found that these massive systems are filled with plastic waste. There are no great estimates (at least scientific) on how much plastic is in the ocean, but I can say from firsthand knowledge (after sailing to four of the world’s five gyres) that it’s so pervasive it confounds the senses. Gyre cleanup has often been floated as a solution in the past, and recently Boyan Slat’s proposed ‘Ocean Cleanup Array’ went viral in a big way. The nineteen-year-old claims that the system can clean a gyre in 5 years with ‘unprecedented efficiency’ and then recycle the trash collected. The problem is that the barriers to gyre cleanup are so massive that the vast majority of the scientific and advocacy community believe it’s a fool’s errand – the ocean is big, the plastic harvested is near worthless, and sea life would be harmed. The solutions starts on land.

Read the rest of The Fallacy of Cleaning the Gyres of Plastic With a Floating “Ocean Cleanup Array”

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Post tags: 5 gyres, Boyan Slat, green design, Ocean Cleanup Array, ocean garbage patch, ocean pollution, pacific garbage patch, plastic pollution, Stiv J. Wilson, sustainable design, The 5 Gyres Institute, water pollution

Toyota just unveiled the new ME.WE electric concept, which is a pick-up, convertible, off-roader and small city car in one. Toyota says that the ME.WE is simpler, more appropriate and more realistic than many of today’s cars that are about “passion and status.”

Read the rest of Toyota’s ME.WE Concept is an Electric Vehicle Without Any Excess

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Post tags: electric motor, electric vehicle, green city car, green convertible, green pickup, in-wheel electric motor, Toyota, toyota electric vehicle, Toyota green car, Toyota i-ROAD concept, Toyota ME.WE concept

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