In the South Park neighborhood of Los Angeles there is a development called Evo, and it is expected to get a LEED Silver certification. It will be a welcome addition to the Luma and Elleven developments which are California’s first LEED Gold certified condos. Newsday published the photos below of the model unit.

The units range in size from 730-3500 sf and priced from $450 - $3m. If you are a modern, forward-thinking, eco-friendly person with a lot of cash, and live in Los Angeles, this place is for you.

Countertops are a great way to make a kitchen or bathroom look incredible, and many go the way of granite, corian, or more recently concrete. How about paper! The recycled paper countertops you see in the images are nothing like the paper you see on your desk or in the recycle bin. They are more like corian countertops without the high energy it takes to make plastics.

From the region that brought us grunge rock, two paper countertop companies — PaperStone and Richlite — are rethinking and revitalizing the wood-based industry in Hoquiam and Tacoma, Washington. Both PaperStone and Richline countertops use recycled paper, and each has a product line certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) that uses 100% recycled paper in a resin base. Installing paper countertops can contribute up to nine points on a LEED 2.2 project.

Unlike many traditional countertops, eco-conscious paper countertops go the extra step and use nonpetroleum, formaldehyde-free resins. PaperStone employs oil extracted from cashew nut shells, a renewable resource.

Available in many colors, paper countertops are not just sprayed with a topcoat. The paper is dyed with organic pigments during the manufacturing process, so that the surface has a warm appearance and looks more like stone than plastic. Stain and heat resistent up to 350 degrees, paper countertops are available in thicknesses from 3/4 inch to 2 inches.

And like all good paper products, these countertops can be recycled when they’re at their end. The price of paper countertops is roughly equivalent to granite countertops, though as a result of the ease of workmanship and finish, the installed price is often lower.

via greenbydesign

The new Bank of America building located at One Bryant park in Midtown Manhattan, NY is the first LEED Platinum certified Skyscraper. The 54-story high rise implements numerous strategies to achieve this level of certification.

A soaring facade composed of floor-to-ceiling high-performance glass that insulates the structure while saturating its interiors with daylight. An under-floor air delivery system efficiently provides for natural ventilation, while an on-site co-generation plant provides the structure with power and heat. The high rise is also able to capture and reuse rain and waste water to fulfill nearly all of its needs, which will allow it to save 10.3 million gallons of water each year. Finally, the skyscraper is constructed through and through with low VOC, reclaimed, and recycled materials sourced within 500 miles of New York City.

via inhabitat

We have heard news about this for a while now, but this time we are seeing the first speculated images. from Road & Track.  I am not one that would buy a convertible for my daily driver. They are less efficient due to aerodynamics, heavier b/c of the reinforcement of the frame, and they cost more…which is why it never made sense to me that Tesla would build its first electric as a convertible. Now they have a car that is more viable for people other than those that live in sunny California.

This 4-door sports car will have room for 5 and get 240 miles on a charge. The acceleration is still very respectable at under 6 seconds, and for a base price of $60,000, it will be priced even better than the Fisker Karma. Electric never sounded so beautiful.

via engadet

BMW released the first images of the all electric Mini E. There has been buzz about it before and it was simply a matter of time before the public got to see it for the first time. It comes with a 204hp electric engine, regenerative braking, and an astounding range of 150 miles.

The Mini E will use lithium-ion battery technology. Unlike the new Honda Insight, the Mini E will not have a gas engine. The car will only use the batteries to power the car. The top speed will be limited to 95mph to further save energy.

The ALD Fleet World MPG Marathon is a 400-mile fuel efficiency challenge that takes place in the UK.  There were 39 entries, and the simple goal was to get the best fuel economy possible.  The overall winner was a Toyota Yaris 1.4 D-4D driven by Andrew Andersz and Gary Luton with a final MPG 70.49 MPG US (84.66 MPG UK).  They achieved this astonishing economy even with 2 people in the car!  We wonder what the mpg would have been if there was only one person.  When only looking at gasoline powered cars, another Toyota came out on top.  A Toyota Aygo 1.0-liter driven by James Sutherland and Richard Hill which got 68.6 MPG US (82.39 MPG UK).  The sad part is that neither of these cars are available in the US.  Toyota, please bring more of these kinds of cars over here.  We will buy them…I promise.

via autobloggreen

Dr. Sen Kim who is the Director of S&P Energy Research Institute (SPERI) has been working on ways to make hydrogen the fuel of the future, and he has discovered a way to produce hydrogen at an extremely low cost.  The problem with hydrogen power today is that it takes 4-4.5 kwh energy for getting 1 cubic meter of hydrogen.  The method they have come up with only requires .1 kwh making it significantly cheaper to produce.

via newswire, gizmodo

Ethiopia started building the right way.  They have in the past relied on hydroelectric dams for power, but with the severe drought they are facing, they have turned to another renewable resource for energy.  They have announced the building of the largest wind farm in Africa costing 220 million euros.  When it is finished, it will be able to produce 120 megawatts and will supply 15% of the nation’s energy.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation’s chairman Meheret Debebe has stated that the new wind power project “will help us to fill the gap of hydrological risks we are facing in Ethiopia with the droughts”.  This is a significant landmark for other developing countries to build renewable energy infrastructures.

via greenweb

Ohio State University Chemists have produced a breakthrough material that can absorb the full spectrum of sunlight and make the electrons generated easier to capture.

The material is an amalgamation of electrically conductive plastic and metals like molybdenum and titanium. It is the first such material able to capture the full solar spectrum. The solar panels in use today are only able to harness a small portion of the energy in sunlight.

The material is still in its infancy and is far from commercialization, but it is another example of the vast possibilities of capturing and using the sun’s energy. Even with the economic downturn, and the lack of extension of credit in many sectors, the arena of green energy continues to raise funding and attract solid investments.

If this new material can be coupled with cutting edge battery technology, it has the potential to change the way we produce and consume energy. Individual homes could be rigged with their own energy systems and virtually wipe out the need for grid power. With the potential of this technology coupled with nanotechnology in batteries the viability of an oil free nation is within reach in the next decade.

The material generates electricity just like other solar cell materials do: light energizes the atoms of the material, and some of the electrons in those atoms are knocked loose.

Ideally, the electrons flow out of the device as electrical current, but this is where most solar cells run into trouble. The electrons only stay loose for a tiny fraction of a second before they sink back into the atoms from which they came. The electrons must be captured during the short time they are free, and this task, called charge separation, is difficult.

In the new hybrid material, electrons remain free much longer than ever before.

To design the hybrid material, the chemists explored different molecular configurations on a computer at the Ohio Supercomputer Center. Then, with colleagues at National Taiwan University, they synthesized molecules of the new material in a liquid solution, measured the frequencies of light the molecules absorbed, and also measured the length of time that excited electrons remained free in the molecules.

They saw something very unusual. The molecules didn’t just fluoresce as some solar cell materials do. They phosphoresced as well. Both luminous effects are caused by a material absorbing and emitting energy, but phosphorescence lasts much longer.

To their surprise, the chemists found that the new material was emitting electrons in two different energy states — one called a singlet state, and the other a triplet state. Both energy states are useful for solar cell applications, and the triplet state lasts much longer than the singlet state.

Electrons in the singlet state stayed free for up to 12 picoseconds, or trillionths of a second — not unusual compared to some solar cell materials. But electrons in the triplet state stayed free 7 million times longer — up to 83 microseconds, or millionths of a second.

When they deposited the molecules in a thin film, similar to how they might be arranged in an actual solar cell, the triplet states lasted even longer: 200 microseconds.

via thedailygreen

Researchers in England have found “superworms” that feast on heavy metals like lead, zinc, arsenic, and copper. The worms digest the metals and then secrete a form of the metal that is easier for plants to absorb. Then the plants can be harvested leaving behind cleaner, more usable soil.

“These worms seem to be able to tolerate incredibly high concentrations of heavy metals, and the metals seem to be driving their evolution,” said lead researcher Mark Hodson of the University of Reading in England.

“If you took an earthworm from the back of your garden and put it in these soils, it would die,” Hodson said.

DNA analysis of lead-tolerant worms living at Cwmystwyth, Wales, show they belong to a newly evolved species that has yet to be named, he said.

Two other superworms, including an arsenic-munching population from southwest England, are also likely new to science, Hodson said.

“It’s a good bet they are also different species, but we haven’t categorically proved that,” he said.

The toxicity of the metal particles once they have passed through the worms isn’t yet known, since the protective protein wrappings will degrade over time, the study authors noted.

But experiments suggest the superworms make the metals easier for plants to extract from the soil, Hodson said.

“The earthworms don’t necessarily render the metals less toxic, but they do seem to make them available for plant uptake,” he said. This raises this possibility of using the earthworms as part of efforts to clean up land contaminated by mining and heavy industry.

via nationalgeographic

Two 30 foot statues looking like the international symbol for water have been erected on Minnesota’s I-35W bridge. Not only is it appropriate considering it’s on the Mississippi River, it’s made of a photocatalytic concrete…meaning it can use ultraviolet light and make the exhaust out of your car less damaging to the environment. Gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, and sulfur dioxides will be put into a higher oxidized state causing less damage. It basically works like an outdoor catalytic converter. Aesthetically, it will never look old and will always keep that white finish.

via autoblog

According to a new study done by Viridis Waste Control LLC, dumping sewage into a landfill can accelerate the biodegradation of the trash. Faster biodegradation of garbage means that landfills will have a longer lifetime and more land will not have to be used for a landfill.

Both sewage and the organic matter in garbage decompose and produce methane on their own, resources that are both already tapped for their energy potential at many waste facilities. This occurs because anaerobic microorganisms in the waste process the organic matter and produce methane as a by-product. The greater the amount of bacteria and organic matter, the faster the decomposition.

Landfill garbage breaks down relatively slowly due to the small amounts of bacteria and the separation of the organic matter by plastic bags and other non-degradable materials. While landfills do promote decomposition and the production of methane, this process is quite slow. With the Septage Bioreactor Landfill technology, septage is blended with ground garbage, allowing the organic matter to decompose much faster than it otherwise would. This creates large quantities of methane in a short period of time, which can be tapped for fuel. The other advantage of this technology as a fuel source, is it produces methane constantly as long as there is organic material fed into it. We have no shortage of garbage or sewage, so this will create a very plentiful and reliable source of energy.

The accelerated decomposition also results in less space being used in the landfill, extending its lifespan, as well as reducing groundwater leaching or runoff. On a similar note, separating septage from the rest of the sewage flow would allow for much smaller, decentralized wastewater treatment facilities since only greywater would be left; a substance that can be easily and quite effectively treated with natural systems.

via greengeek

(A) Heating one side of a conductive rod causes heated electrons to move to the other end, creating a voltage. (B) Heating one side of a magnetized nickel-iron rod creates a “spin voltage,” with spin-up and spin-down electrons on opposite ends. Image credit: (c)2008 Nature.

Eiji Saitoh a physicist at Keio University in Yokohama, Japan, and his colleagues have published their results in a recent issue of Nature. As they explain, the term “spin Seebeck effect” comes from the original Seebeck effect, which is a thermoelectric phenomenon discovered by Thomas Johann Seebeck in the 1800s. The Seebeck effect states that, heating one side of a conducting rod causes electrons at that end to heat up and move toward the cooler side, creating a voltage.

The spin Seebeck effect is similar, but affects electron spin, which is the quantum physics equivalent of north-south magnetic alignment. When heating a magnetized metal, such as the nickel-iron rod, the researchers found that electrons with up spins (aligned with the rod´s magnetic field) congregated on the warmer side, while electrons with down spins (unaligned) preferred the cooler side.

Essentially, this spin-segregated rod now has two electrodes and serves as the basis for a new kind of battery that produces “spin voltage,” or magnetic currents, which have been difficult to produce. With this tool, physicists can work toward developing more kinds of spintronics devices that store information magnetically.

Magnetic information storage is inherently more efficient than storing information electronically because there is no waste heat. Unlike electrons that constantly bump into each other, flipping electron spins doesn´t generate heat. Reducing waste heat could lead to computer chip miniaturization, and would also mean lower power consumption and faster operational speeds.

“The spin Seebeck effect allows us to pass a pure spin current, a flow of electron spins without electric currents, over a long distance,” the authors wrote in their study. “These innovative capabilities will invigorate spintronics research.”

via sciencenews, physorg

Dell has teamed up with Goodwill to help recycle unused computers. The details are as follows…

• Reconnect offers consumers free recycling for any brand of computer equipment in any condition. Consumers can find a drop-off location at www.reconnectpartnership.com.
• Each of the seven members of the Virginia Goodwill Network is participating, with the combined territories covering Virginia and the Washington, D.C. metro area.
• Program goals are to divert over 2.7 million pounds of used computers and computer equipment from area landfills over the next year; and provide consumer education on the importance of environmentally-responsible computer disposal. Reconnect can also help create job opportunities for individuals who have barriers to employment or independence.
• Consumers can drop off used computers at any of 134 Goodwill donation centers across the region. Goodwill will accept and sort the donated computer equipment and Dell’s product recovery partner will recycle and remarket the recycled materials. Consumers are

LED technology is on the rise because of its economy, but there might be an additional reason to further the technology in the future. Boston University researchers are working on a cutting edge wireless technology that uses LEDs instead of radio frequencies in what is called a Smart Lighting system.

“Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires,” said BU Engineering Professor Thomas Little. “This could be done with an LED-based communications network that also provides light - all over existing power lines with low power consumption, high reliability and no electromagnetic interference. Ultimately, the system is expected to be applicable from