Airfree P1000

For the respiratory puritan in each of us, air purification hits high on the list of home and office necessities when smoggy clutter riddles your breathing space. Since fighting the smokestack and tailpipe grime in the air is just one of the ways we like to perpetuate green-living, this week’s gander in the GreenerReview takes a look at what Airfree Air Purifiers does to make your breathing environment that much cleaner.

Removing spores and microorganisms from the air is one thing, but doing it in an environmentally savvy way is another. In contrast to conventional air filters, Airfree air purifiers subvert the need for replaceable filters by sterilizing air that passes through its patented heat modules (as a clarification: where air filters remove particulates, purifiers such as Airfree sterilize the air with heat, without increasing the room temperature). Airfree’s air purifier designs do away with replaceable filters, thereby eliminating excessive replacement waste. Since the components of Airfree air purifiers are recyclable, further waste potential is cut in half if the need to toss your purifier arises. While each purifier’s components are recyclable, the actual purification process reduces potentially harmful purification byproducts such as Ozone. Airfree air purifiers use a ceramic heating element which sterilizes the air that’s passed through it with temperatures of 400°F.

Studies conducted by the accredited EMSL laboratory show that Airfree purifiers can reduce up to 85% of airborne bacteria and 70% of airborne mold spores in a room. Several other studies conducted in real working conditions show an average reduction of airborne microorganisms of 85-95%. Free of cadmium, mercury and lead, Airfree constructs its purifiers with an energy efficient thermodynamic sterilization system which emits zero V.O.C.s (Volatile Organic Compounds), and is the only purification system which actually reduces indoor Ozone up to 26%.

As dapper as their air purifiers may be, we spoke to the folks at Airfree just to see if their greenery stops at air purification … and it doesn’t. Operating out of offices in Portugal and Brazil, Airfree not only takes pride in purifying air, but its environmental footprint as well. While employees in Brazil commute using ethanol fueled vehicles, bikes or public transport, their entire Portugal-based staff commute using public transport. Over the past 5 years, Airfree has actively reduced its gross paper waste production by 70% as a result of keeping 90% of yearly sales and marketing meetings paperless. And, despite the staggering leap across the Atlantic from one office to the other, video conferencing and online calls have greatly reduced the travel footprint made by the company each quarter. Working for the environment in-house and one breath at a time, Airfree gets our Green Thumbs way up.

Sources:

http://www.airfree.com/

http://www.greencupboards.com/airfree/c/

Images:

http://www.airfree.com/

 

Wormalicious

They’re below your feet, in your compost, and on the end of your fishing line. These little earth pals may not be as simple as you thought. Here are ten fun facts about the not so ordinary earthworm!

1. The longest recorded earthworm was found in Africa. It measured 22 feet in length.

2. Worm Charming, the practice of coaxing worms from the earth using vibrations, has become an annual competition in the U.K. The world record for worm charming is held by Sophie Smith who charmed 567 worms out of the ground during the World Worm Charming Championships in 2009.

3. Wormsbreed every 7 to 10 days. Newborns hatch from buried cocoons! See it live.

4. There are 2,700 various types of earthworms. Of these, earthworms in Africa are generally 6 feet long while earthworms in Australia grow up to 12 feet long.

5. A single worm can process 10 pounds of organic material a year and are useful for aerating soil. Used for composting purposes, worm farms have recently become a hit among kids.

6. Worms are sold by many companies for fishing, composting, and pet feeding purposes. Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm is a major provider for composting worms.

7. Worms have five hearts!

8. Earthworms have existed on earth since the dinosaurs roamed, and were likely a food source for many of the great reptiles.

9. The lifespan of an earthworm can be as long as 15 years.

10. Worms breathe through their skin. If the mucus covering their bodies dries up they will suffocate.

Sources:

http://www.ogpaper.com/news/news-02140.html

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1/most-worms-charmed/

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/worms/facts/index.html

http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/worm/pg000102.html

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/05/10-facts-about-worms/

Images:

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=holding+earthworms&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=659&tbm=isch&tbnid=CJbClJYAbwQyBM:&imgrefurl=http://www.howstuffworks.com/vermicomposting.htm&docid=mSbHk3Rc4vbJHM&w=400&h=319&ei=RAmCTuSBEOLjiALmnK2rDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1074&vpy=341&dur=597&hovh=200&hovw=251&tx=148&ty=118&page=2&tbnh=139&tbnw=165&start=20&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:20

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=worm+charming&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=659&tbm=isch&tbnid=gMNwWKifpff88M:&imgrefurl=http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/10/cultural_evolution_from_mosqui.php&docid=R_QHAU06SY5FQM&w=300&h=382&ei=lAmCTobLJ8PmiALG2YGLDQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=425&page=1&tbnh=149&tbnw=116&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0&tx=55&ty=84

 

Energy Transfer

What do you think about a world where cords and batteries are a thing of the past?  Energy continues to be mastered in order to simplify the transfer of electricity.  Over 100 years ago physicists began to consider ways to transfer power over distances wirelessly.  MIT theoretical physicists recently came up with a way to do this called WiTricity.  In their experiment they were able to use resonant energy to power a light bulb.  In a world tripping over rats nests of computer and appliance cords, where 40 billion disposable batteries are made every year, this may be a solution to a part of our waste problem.  The majority of disposable batteries end up in landfills, disintegrating and leaking acid into the earth.  This new technology known as TESLA is completely safe and would decrease waste from the human race.  Check out the TED video for more details.

Sources:

http://blog.ted.com/2009/08/25/wireless_electr/

http://www.cheapway-energy.com/tesla-power/nikola-tesla-free-energy-invention-was-suppressed-by-the-government-for-over-90-years-but-is-now-available-to-the-public/

Images:

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=WiTricity+lightbulb&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=LION0boAtQWvVM:&imgrefurl=http://business.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml%3Fstory_id%3D020001YSTWX8&docid=eInPWDQbAh6A1M&w=172&h=124&ei=8ct4Tvv7JsyEsgLm55CwDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=436&vpy=141&dur=1548&hovh=99&hovw=137&tx=91&ty=64&page=2&tbnh=99&tbnw=137&start=18&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:18

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=landfill&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=V8cGbVvqgWOKIM:&imgrefurl=http://www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/resource-centre/image-gallery/landfill-and-litter&docid=Bq0SpgIZvLirqM&w=752&h=500&ei=ksx4ToOJJO-ksQKF8ZW0DQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=367&vpy=198&dur=501&hovh=169&hovw=253&tx=118&ty=81&page=4&tbnh=117&tbnw=176&start=54&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:54

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=TESLA+WiTricity&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=-mQuk4SbVyMGTM:&imgrefurl=http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/no_more_power_c.php&docid=D06aKZ5kf_N18M&w=429&h=307&ei=u8x4TriMD4KnsQLSgfHLDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=493&vpy=100&dur=5&hovh=190&hovw=265&tx=151&ty=129&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=197&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=pile+of+batteries&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=ulBZjntJL162yM:&imgrefurl=http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/tighter-regulations-setting-battery-recycling-back-a-decade.php&docid=CF4BvrQnywR3wM&w=468&h=351&ei=3cx4TobsIaLCsQKnvYCuDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=418&vpy=95&dur=771&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=114&ty=116&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=210&start=0&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0

 

Soji Modern Solar Lantern

Now that leaves are on the fall, we’ve turned our green gaze to Allsop Home and Garden for this week’s GreenerReview. With a line of solar powered garden lighting and uniquely crafted recycled glass garden posts, Allsop actively works to prevent landfill excess by recycling glass into garden products such as the Recycled Glass Solar Art. By keeping their overhead low and using soda-based cleaning products in their office space, Allsop can adheres to an operational green rule-of-thumb that drastically lessens their chemical environmental footprint. In-office recycling and a minimalist impact on the environment? Sounds like a GreenerReview thumbs up from us! Check out more of Allsop’s lines here.

Sources:

http://www.greencupboards.com/

http://www.allsopgarden.com/

Images:

http://www.thisnext.com/tag/garden-lanterns/

 

Green Technology

Something green is growing in the desert. A city in New Mexico is being built with no intention to hold people. A ghost town will soon be set up in the desert of New Mexico for the purpose of evolving environmental technologies. The city will be a center for testing, evaluating, and innovating new green inventions, without disrupting the daily flow of an actual city.

The city known as The Centre will have roads, houses, buildings and service stations complete with power, water, and telecommunication methods. The Centre, will mimic a city built for 35,000 people and will take up 20 square miles of desert land.

Pegasus Global Holdings, a communication, technology and defense company from Washington D.C. is funding The Centre with $200 million. According to Robert Brumley, Pegasus CEO: “The Center will allow private companies, not for profits, educational institutions and government agencies to test in a unique facility with real world infrastructure, allowing them to better understand the cost and potential limitations of new technologies prior to introduction,” Pegasus is hoping to draw in more investors to the project. The Centre will be the world’s largest testing ground set up by a private investor.

The Centre will be a boost for the New Mexico economy, providing around 350 new jobs and approximately 3,500 contracting and construction jobs. Governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, supports the project and is eager to make New Mexico a green leader for environmental technologies.

This exciting project should help to inspire inventors and investors alike to put more effort into environmental technology research. Furthermore, everyone will be able to benefit from greener innovations, which are sure to emerge from the New Mexico desert.

What Makes It Green:

What could be “greener” than a city void of people used only evolving current environmental technologies and creating new ones? As long as everybody remembers to turn the lights off, the Centre could be the “greenest” city in America. THEcommunity is looking forward to seeing what “green” things come out of the New Mexico desert.

Sources:

http://inhabitat.com/newest-us-city-to-be-built-just-for-testing-green-technologies/

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/09/science-ghost-town-to-test-out.html

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ghost-City-to-Be-Built-in-New-Mexico-Just-for-Testing-Green-Tech-221658.shtml

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/15/ghost-town-as-green-tech-test-bed/

Images:

http://www.impactlab.net/2009/08/11/green-revolution-gets-a-thumbs-down/

http://webpub.allegheny.edu/dept/bio/bio220/Milt_lectures/220Biomes.htm

 

The Manduka eKO Line

Sharing the gratitude one yogi-powered forward fold at a time, Manduka gets this week’s GreenerReview Green Thumbs-Up. Setting off on its entrepreneurial maiden voyage only a decade ago, Manduka (taking its namesake from the Mandukasana or Frog pose) entered the high tide of the yogic sea with a revolutionary mat material known amongst yogis today as The Black Mat. Think of what Audrey Hepburn did for ballet flats, now multiply that by 5,000 plus years of yogic tradition, sprinkling a little innovation and infinite passion, and your remainder may well bring you to Manduka’s yurtsteps.

Founded by engineer, Peter Sterios, Manduka’s lines aren’t only made with the precision and design knacks inherent to Sterios’ profession. Manduka products are made with a planetary conscience for the sake of reducing yoga’s environmental impact to the greatest extent possible. While completely eliminating an industrial footprint is practically implausible for any company, Manduka goes to great lengths to minimize the environmental shock of producing its pro-yogic-quality mats, blocks, bolsters and carrying cases. Here’s a rundown of some of the novel practices employed by the company to help mother Earth and ease practitioners’ green anxieties:

From the start, Manduka uses toxin-free emissions facilities to produce their goods, so there’s a green check for promoting air quality right off the bat. Much of the beauty behind the Manduka line rests in the fact that their products can be produced from recycled materials. For instance, carrying cases such as the MatSleeve are woven from recycled polyester fabric. With zippers molded from salvaged plastic bottles and mats bound with non-toxic adhesives, practitioners can rest assured that their practice needs directly reduce what might otherwise end up in landfills. The eKO line is perhaps the most striking part of Manduka’s inventive eco-friendly production strategy.

Using biodegradable rubber, this mat line makes the shift to eco-conscious purchasing a gesture of activism in an of itself. Tack-on raw unbleached cotton and recycled wool fibers into a mix, and you get some of the planet’s most environmentally savvy yoga products to date. Going green and in a rush to do it? No worries on the yogic front. Manduka’s got you covered.

Sources:

http://www.manduka.com/us/

http://www.greencupboards.com/manduka/c/

Images:

http://www.greencupboards.com/manduka/c/

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2008/08/the-best-mat/

http://www.allergyliberation.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=243

 

Fashion Ride

As New York Fashion week bustles, so does the foot traffic from runway to runway. This year’s fashion week has a green buzz to it that screams chic-recycle. The Tour De Fashion offered at the NYC Fashion Week is supplying 30 customized bikes to Fashion District goers in need of an hour’s worth of wheel time. Yep, that’s right. You can borrow the bike for an hour for free … under the penalty of a $1000 fine if you fail to return these pavement plowing bike of high design. If you can pedal as well as you can walk in high heels, then your two wheeled stallion awaits, to fleece you to every corner of fashion central in New York City.

Sources:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/08/ap/extras/main20103428.shtml

http://www.mbfashionweek.com/scene

http://www.ecouterre.com/category/new-york-fashion-week-fashion-shows

Images:

http://www.ecouterre.com/borrow-a-designer-customized-bike-during-new-york-fashion-week/tour-de-fashion-gretchen-jones/?extend=1

 

A Tissue Box for Plastic Bags

No, it’s not time for spring cleaning yet, but don’t waste these upcoming cold months surrounded by clutter.  At GreenCupboards.com we believe the age old saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  Check out our Top Ten resourceful tips to transform clutter into creative design.

1. Peppermint Tin

Need a tissue?  How about a Q-Tip?  Peppermint tins are the perfect purse accessory for those little day to day essentials.

2. Oven Mit

Missing an oven mit?  Instead of tossing the spare, move it to the bathroom.  These mits are perfect for protecting your counters from all hot items including hair crimpers, curlers, and straighteners.

3. Plastic Easter Eggs

Before you make a trip to the grocery store for more Tupperware or plastic bags, take a moment to dig into your Easter stash.  Those colorful pastel eggs are good for more than Easter candy.  Pack your grade-schooler’s cheesy goldfish in these eggs for an easily hatched snack at school.

4. Shoeboxes

Are empty shoeboxes taking up your closet space?  Pair them up with the papers spilling off your desk.  These boxes are the perfect for extra files, recipes, or business cards.

5. Tissue Box

Are wasted tissue boxes affecting your carbon footprint?  Don’t let that empty box  go to waste.  Use it for extra plastic bags.  Use the tissue box to stuff those extra plastic bags from under the sink.  It’s an easy way to organize and to recycle!

6. Shower Rings

Have a few extra?  These convenient rings are fantastic hangings for more than curtains. Use them in your closet to hang scarves, or take them to the kitchen for a hand towel hanger.

7. Step Stool

Have your tykes sprouted into teens?  Now that they no longer need a step stool to reach the sink, it’s your turn to find a use for it.  Try your closet! These stools fit in to optimize closet space as a shoe rack.

8. Wine Cork
Don’t want to toss another cork?  Use it as an accessory in your jewelry box to hold earrings.  Not into jewelry? These corks are good for holding sewing needles, pins, and extra tacks.

9. Linen bag
Have an extra linen bag?  This zippered plastic may seem like a waste of space, but it can serve as the perfect supply bag.  Put your art supplies or extra school supplies here for space optimization and organization!

10.  Button Bag

Surrounded by tiny plastic button bags?  Well they’re good for more than just buttons.  Button bags fit perfectly into your purse as pill carriers.

Images:

http://bloomingdesign.wordpress.com/page/19/?pages-list

http://www.mops.org/page.php?pageid=1792

http://www.yemmhart.com/news+/winecorkrecycling.htm

 

Before High Line Park

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- the three big “R”’s have been ingrained in our minds since childhood.  Could these three simple ideas be applied to more than milk cartons and pop cans?  New York City entrepreneur, Robert Hammond sure thinks so.

When the abandoned raised Manhattan railroad, the High Line, was scheduled for destruction Hammond and travel writer, Joshua David, concocted a plan to save it.  They created a group called “Friends of the High Line” and decided to take the 1.5 miles of track, overgrown with wildflowers, and transform it into a city park.  From this oasis you can see breathtaking views of the Empire State Building, the Hudson River, and the Statue of Liberty.

Fighting multiple lawsuits and the opinion of then Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Hammond and David persevered and the park opened in 2009.

This isn’t New Yorks first experience with revamping industrial areas into eco-friendly playgrounds- check out the Floyd Bennett campground in upstate New York. http://www.greencupboards.com/blog/2011/06/15/floyd-bennett-campground/

What Makes It Green:

Let’s bring some more green into the city! GreenCupboards.com supports an effort that allows for children and inner city inhabitants to spend some time in nature.  An appreciation for the outdoors is at the heart of every sustainable guru.  Our love of the earth comes from an exposure to the beauty and glory of all that is wild whether it stands of two, four, or six feet, or sprouts from the dark soil.  We’d like to applaud Robert Hammond and Joshua David for their creativity.  With the extraordinary task of turning an industrial relic into a city park, they’ve shown us that sustainability can be a leap of faith but that it can exceed all expectations.

Sources:

http://www.thehighline.org/about/friends-of-the-high-line/staff/robert-hammond

http://www.greencupboards.com/blog/2011/06/15/floyd-bennett-campground/

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/robert_hammond_building_a_park_in_the_sky.html

Images:

http://joonbug.com/newyork/firstcourse/High-Line-Park-The-Citys-First-Elevated-Park/BQywIQxYz1y

http://gliving.com/nyc-highline-park/

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/sour-grapes-griping-about-the-high-line-already-starting.php