Cool Green Gadgets

I came across some really weird but cool green gadgets. These might not be available locally, but I think it is quite fun to know that these kind of stuff do exist.

Now That's Lawn Furniture!Where better to focus your Earth-friendly efforts than in your yard? Just assemble this eco-friendly chair's skeleton, cover it with soil and seed, add water, and wait for it to transform into a chair.

The FlowerPod Concept designed by Designnord of Denmark, presents you with a full-grown digital flower (right) if your energy use is moderate. If your eco-consciousness lags, so does the flower. The idea is that the reward of a healthy-looking blossom will encourage everyone in your family to do their part to shrink the home's carbon footprint. The FlowerPod also hooks up to an Information Portal, which displays your usage of electricity, heating, cooling and water.

These weird, spaceship-looking, green balls are billed as detergent substitutes. Put them into your washing machine with your dirty clothes, and they supposedly produce ionized oxygen, naturally activating nearby water molecules. This, according to their maker, enables the balls, priced at approximately $70 for a set of three, to penetrate deep into clothing fibers and lift dirt away. Eco balls promise to be chemical-free and environmentally friendly, and the maker says that one set will last for 1,000 washes, which would make them less expensive per use than regular detergent.

In this concept design for the Core77 contest, Jim Mielke of the United States really pushed the boundaries of his imagination. When the cell phone rings, you push a small dot on your arm. A 2-by-4-inch tattoo with the image of the cell phone's digital display then appears. Answer the call by pushing one of the tattoo's buttons. When you're done, the tattoo disappears. And best of all, you'd never leave this phone in your jeans in the washer. The HYmini is a baby wind turbine that can produce sufficient electricity to charge most gadgets, including MP3 players, digital cameras and cell phones. Attach it to your bike handlebars or to your arm as you move about. Just 20 minutes of wind exposure will give the device's internal battery enough juice to support 30 minutes of iPod time. The $49.99 HYmini comes with mini solar panels and extra batteries, too, so you can switch elements to store power. And in a pinch, you can charge it in a regular wall outlet.

Source : http://tech.msn.com/guides/green/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=6998573

EcoGreen

During the previous movie night, we ordered food from the EcoGreen café in TTDI. Everyone enjoyed the food very much. Therefore, I decided to interview the owner. Mr. Wong, the owner, was very nice when we asked him for an interview; he did not hesitate at all. They have 2 branches, both in TTDI, one is solely a café and the other is a café and “market place” where you can purchase organic products. There is even a place on the 1st floor for small scale events or networking session.

A little background on Mr. Wong, he is a chemical engineer by profession. He started with engineering business connected to the environment like air pollution and waste water. Then he had an organic farm of his own and that leads to his business today.

EcoGreen‘s core business is selling and serving organic food and promoting sustainable living. They want people to see the connection between the food on their plate and the state of the planet. The definition of organic by EcoGreen is different from some people. This café does not serve vegetables only, they serve meat as well. According to Mr. Wong, we need animal for sustainable living, it is a cycle. EcoGreen promote food at a few levels. First is local food first to minimize carbon food print and post harvest pesticides. Second, is eating organic which also reduces pesticides and promoting recycling (composition of waste).

During the interview, Mr. Wong shared a lot with us from the environmental related books that he read, history of pesticides to the current issues of environment in Malaysia. Nature operates in a cycle and industrialization and human act has broken the cycle. For example, in a jungle, trees and animals used to live independently, trees grow, animals eat its fruit, animal leave waste, trees uses animal waste as fertilizer and this cycle has been going on for thousands of years. Nothing was transported far away and will always be within the same area. When industrialization comes in, thing are being exported to everywhere in the world and that leaves major carbon footprints. And things that are taken from the earth were not returned to where it belongs and we are taking away from the earth much faster that it produces.

For those of you who would like to try the food in the café and to shop for organic products, you may want to pay a visit to EcoGreen. Here is their website address www.ecogreen.com.my

Living Green

I had an interview with Callie who owns Justlife group. Justlife is an organic shop. They not only sell organic food, you will be surprised at the range of things that they sell. Apparently they have organic handkerchief, sanitary care, cosmetic and organic clothes. I have yet to check out their store, but I will probably drop by to take some pictures next week.

The concept of organic according to Justlife is everything that is good for the earth is good for us. This concept actually runs thru as their business concept as well. Callie herself preaches earth saving diet, meaning to go vegetarian. She herself is a vegan.

I was asking her how all these started and I was a little shocked when she told me that she herself is an accountant by profession. She actually started eating organic even before she started her business. She got introduced by a friend to eat organic. From there, she started the business with her siblings.

When I went into the office, I notice that all her staffs are very young, between 20+ to 30+ and I find it weird, maybe because it’s kind of like a stereotype that people who are into organic are mostly uncles and aunties in their late 40s. She was telling me, in this business, they need passionate people who truly believe in what they do. Therefore, that explains why the staffs are so young. According to Callie, they want to break the stereotype that organic is only for uncles and aunties. Organic is for everyone. Every single one in the team will have to go through a 2-3 months of shop assistance position (regardless of what your position is) when they first joined to see if they are really passionate about what they do. Some stayed back and some didn’t. For Callie it is alright because to her, education about organic to people is much more important. Most of the people that decided that this is not what they want to do will already have an understanding about organic and they do shop in Justlife for organic products.

The business of Justlife is not only in selling organic, but also to educate people. Aside from their core business, they also organized events; go to schools, colleges, kindergartens to educate the younger generation. The Climate change even was organized by them. At present, they are running a contest, The Most Natural. This contest is for youth and the grand prize is a Mini Cooper! Check it out at www.themostnatural.com.my

Stay tune to this site as I will be visiting the shop and will be posting some pictures of the shop here soon!

Climate Change Initiation Day 2008

I was at the climate change initiation day in Putra Stadium Bukit Jalil last Saturday. It was a real eye opener as I was exposed to things that I never knew. The event started with video snippets from the Inconvenient Truth, Six Degrees Could Change The World and The 11th Hour. In between the snippets they played music video from Linkin Park and Melissa Entheridge .

The talk started with Earth Saving Diet by the funky Dr. Lim. He talks about how we can we help mother earth by having more vegetables (as in green leafy vegetables and not the fake meats that are made from flour) and cut down on meat. I was thinking how by eating vegetables can help save mother earth directly? Apparently, waste from poultry and garbage release a type of gas call methane, and this gas traps 21 times more heat compare to carbon dioxide and it directly contributes to global warming. Next was a talk by Mr. Yahqappu who is an organic farmer.

After the talk we break for lunch. There were people selling organic stuff, recycles bags, environmental DVDs and garbage enzymes. Some might ask what are garbage enzymes. Enzymes - any of numerous proteins or conjugated proteins produced by living organisms and functioning as biochemical catalysts*. In layman’s term, garbage enzyme is basically fermenting kitchen waste to re-use them. And you can make your own garbage enzyme at home by using water, brown sugar and kitchen waste, put all “ingredients” into a bottle/drum, close it, wait for 3 months and taaadaaa…. You will have your very own garbage enzymes! You can use it as household cleaner, use it to wash vegetables, use it as fertilizer and also for body care. It might be gross to a lot of people, but trust me, the people that attended this event are serious about using this enzymes to help reducing global warming. These enzymes have some properties that helps reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. During the break we spoke to some of the participants and here is what they say.

Mr. and Mrs Chan (banker and housewife), came purposely to learn how to make garbage enzymes. They are environmental conscious since a couple of years back. Mrs Chan had been making her own garbage enzymes and they are both here today to see if they are making garbage enzymes the correct way. And apparently, the method she is currently using is the Chinese way and the one that they have at the event is the Western way. I think no matter it’s a Chinese or western way, as long as it helps mother earth it’s a good way!

Mr Prasad and family are from Ceylon. They were born vegetarian and he thinks that the event is very interesting .They are consciously conserving energy to help the environment. They have this practice of minimizing electric and water usage and not using plastic bags. According to Mr. Prasad, he will not drive if there is no need to and would rather walk if the place he wants to go is a short distance away. Whilst Louise and Penny who recently just graduated and working on her first job, were around the area and decided to check out what's the fuss all about.

After going around, we went and surveyed what’s for lunch in the organic food kiosk. I had an organic mushroom burger while Sue-Anne had organic lotus rice. We were required to bring our own utensils and water bottle. Here’s what our food looked like. AND the spoon is made out of recycled paper material.

Well, I don’t think organic is really my type of food, but anyhow, we did not waste food and we finished everything for the love of mother earth!

After the break we went into the stadium again and there was a performance and followed by the talk on garbage enzymes by Dr. Joean Onn.

I see a lot of people who were very gung ho toward the quest to save the environment. But not everyone can turn into a vegetarian overnight. Some are born with it, some wants to do it for their future generation and some might just wake up one day and want to pursue in a mission for saving the earth. For people like me, who was not born a vegan, who does not have the urge for the future generation YET and my mission for waking up in the morning is just to go to WORK, the least I can do is just to take baby steps like, not wasting food , trying to REDUCE plastic bags usage and recycling as much as I can and maybe even being a vegan once a week!