Check out this computer from Asus using good old hardy bamboo! I’m not sure about the rest of the parts, but this bamboo shell is certainly a step in the right direction. Pointing the aesthetics of computer hardware in a sustainable direction is quite a break through. Although it does look a bit like a coffee table!

Apparently, 70% of my carbon footprint comes from the things I buy. So Adbusters have come up with their own way to combat this, a day free from consumerism. Buy Nothing Day. It can’t be that hard. Surely?

Produced by the Red Cross of Agentina to promote awareness of the perils of climate change, this piece of guerilla publicity in Buenos Aires features a half-melted young man handing out fliers encouraging readers to take public transport, conserve water, reduce and recycle, and such.
To read more see here

AIGA, the professional association for design, is the premier place for design—to discover it, discuss it, understand it, appreciate it, be inspired by it. It is the place designers turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis, and research and advance education and ethical practices. AIGA sets the national agenda for the role of design in its economic, social, political, cultural and creative contexts.

They have their own Centre For Sustainable Design which keeps you up to date with developments in sustainability within the design community and also keeps you informed of sustainable design events. Their latest event show cased new ways to approach branding and design in the Sustainability Age. Very handy!

Not only is it a handy little thing with tips on paper and print types, it’s also free to download so go get yours now!

Just because it’s funny

The UK’s carbon footprint is over 500* million tonnes of CO2 per year. Individuals account for 45% of this. Now, using iGoogle, you can measure your carbon footprint and find out practical ways to make it smaller. On a personalised page, you can track your progress, update your carbon-reducing actions and see a Google Map featuring the footprints and actions of everyone taking part.

As I have decided to look at ethicaI/sustainable design it would be a good idea if I were to find out how I was damaging the environment and to work on ways to lessen my negative impact.

My current carbon footprint is 0.59 tonnes. Using iGoogle I can now work on ways to lesson my impact.

Whats yours carbon foot print?

And what you gonna go about it?

The WWF’s One Planet Living Campaign. Your guide to saving the environment.

“One Planet Living means you can be green in the 21st century without having to be alternative.”

Kevin McCloud, WWF ambassador

Well what you waiting for? Go do your bit!

Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. It’s searches are powered by Google Custom Search.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. A given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

Although lacking in the quirky extra features available on Google, such as Maps, Images and Videos, Blackle does make you feel like your doing your bit for the environment, even if just only for a second. The main way it does this is showing you how much energy has been saved.

Google can be said to be just about everyone’s favourite search engine. Whether you need images, groups or products Google can search it for you. But is it about time Google became more environmentally friendly?

All white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. Google gets about 200 million queries a day. Assuming each query is displayed for about 10 seconds; that means Google is running for about 550,000 hours every day on some desktop. Assuming that users run Google in full screen mode, the shift to a black background [on a CRT monitor] will save a total of 15 (74-59) watts. That turns into a global savings of 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year.

So although Blackle isn’t close to taking the place of Google in our hearts quite yet, I do feel that bigger companies like Google should be thinking about their impact on the environment, especially since they can make such a large difference just by changing a few color codes.

Note. Blackle apparently uses MORE energy than a background Google on lcd monitors.

There is also a greenle to be taken into consideration.