These plastic window shutters by Kulla Industrial Design can still be used to sit on. Finding new uses for old wooden window shutters has been a standard upcycling move among sustainable designers for years (check out the wooden shutter chairs made by Tel Aviv’s Junktion Studio). Wooden shutters have been turned into tables, doors, and […]
In honor of the last day of Hannukah, the Yesh Meain permaculture farm will be hosting an all-day permaculture celebration. Links are often found between Jewish holidays and the environment, and environmentally-minded organizations in Israel try to find eco-friendly ways to celebrate them. We’ve seen these eco Jewish celebrations center around Sukkot, a holiday that […]
Orange peels are already the perfect shape for a mug or small bowl, so Israeli designer Ori Sonnenschein helped them transform. Oranges are in season during the winter months, and so they may have graced many people’s tables recently. But oranges don’t have to disappear from your diet or your table once spring arrives. Israeli […]
Bamboo is universally praised as a sustainable material, but when used in its rawest form is it comfortable? Beauty has been said to increase sustainability, but what about ease of use? We’ve seen a few sustainable bench designs out there already, from Yoav Avinoam’s sawdust bench to Green Lullaby’s cardboard work bench – but never […]
The packaging from Gugu Design’s games is not merely protective, but actually another game. Two games for the price of one package! We’ve seen sustainable designers upcycle the packaging from other products to make something new (such as the Ecoist clutch purses made from candy and potato chip bag wrappers), and we’ve even seen them […]
Hila Rawet Karni’s jewelry items look so luxurious, you’d never guess they’re made of paper. As an accessory that often falls victim to changing fads and trends and which is usually made of precious stones and metals, jewelry is potentially one of the more energy intensive (and polluting) of accessories. But it doesn’t have to […]
Thanks to a recent feature in Sadiyaty Magazine, residents of the UAE may soon be interested in recycled cardboard furniture. The latest issue of Sadiyaty Magazine, an Arabic publication on design trends and fashion, featured design team Sanserif Creatius’s cardboard Valentina throne chair – and no wonder. The Spanish designers at Sanserif Creatius are enamored […]
Just because incandescent light bulbs are less energy efficient than CFLs doesn’t mean you need to toss them. Upcycle them! IKEA Israel won’t even sell incandescent light bulbs any more, and people are gradually switching to more energy efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). No need to toss the baby out with the bathwater, though – […]
Before grabbing another polluting plastic bag, learn how to easily make a cloth bag out of items you already have lying around. Sustainable Israeli designer Aya Tager will be giving upcycling workshops in Tel Aviv in a couple weeks, but for those who can’t make it she is giving an online workshop right here on […]
Dr. Jane Goodall, Bill Clinton and Philippe Cousteau are all speaking in Abu Dhabi this week as part of the “Eye on Earth” Summit. Environmental issues effect us all, but this week’s “Eye on Earth” Summit in Abu Dhabi is attempting to ensure that environmental data is also available to us all. The summit hopes […]
Paper pulp furniture is stronger than it looks. Bamboo has been praised for several years as the most sustainable material for furniture (due to its quickly renewable nature), with cardboard coming a close second due to its recycled and recyclable form. At first thought cardboard may not sound very strong, but when you think about […]
Sustainable designer Aya Tager will teach upcycling workshops this month so that the lighting miracle of Hannukah can continue beyond the holiday’s 8 days. The Jewish holiday of Hannukah celebrates the miracle of a single day’s supply of oil lasting for eight days of lighting, and is beloved by environmentalists who appreciate the energy efficiency […]
After years of planning, a Bedouin eco-farm in the Negev will finally get under way next week. For years the Sustainability Laboratories (a New York-based organization) and the mayor of Hura in the Negev, Dr. Muhammad El-Nabari, have been planning an eco-farm for the Bedouin community. The farm, Project Wadi Attir, would aim to create […]
Made by artisans who receive fair wages while upcycling metal products, this bike chain menorah is sustainable for people and the environment. In our recent survey of sustainably designed Hannukah menorahs, we featured menorahs (and other light fixtures) made locally in Israel. Not all Jews have the luxury of being in an area where Judaica […]
Ronen Spector has designed a bike lock so integral to the bike’s actual structure that ruining the lock would ruin the bike. With so many cool bicycle designs out there though, you may still want to sport a rocking bike without worrying about theft. Ronen Spector, a recent industrial design graduate from Shenkar in Israel, […]
In an attempt to maintain Israel’s forests and prevent forest fires in the future, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and the Jewish National Fund enlist tourists to become “Foresters for a Day.” About a year ago, the Carmel forest in northern Israel suffered the worst fire in the nation’s modern history and 5,000 hectares of forest land […]
Cyprus may have a long way to go in terms of being eco-friendly, but GreenGraffiti has brought it a little closer. Graffiti may conjure up images and smells of atmospherically harmful spray paints and underground punk rock enthusiasts, but it doesn’t have to. Well, the punk rockers can stay, but graffiti can be green without […]
Shoppers at Zerim-Liftan’s specialty store will never know what layout design to expect, as it is modular and ever-changing. The modular design concept – which is sustainable as it saves the resources that would otherwise be used to create multiple objects from scratch – has been applied to all kinds of designs. It has been […]
Can’t find your old Hannukah menorah? Israeli designers come up with clever alternatives. With the Jewish Hannukah holiday only a few weeks away, many Jews in the Middle East and elsewhere are anxiously waiting to eat sufganiot (jelly doughnuts) and searching their closets and cupboards for their Hannukah menorahs. In case they can’t be found, […]
Jerusalem’s second annual Design Week will generate awareness of climate change through design and show off some local sustainable designers. Jerusalem will host the grand opening of its second annual Design Week on December 4th, with a week of design exhibitions, conferences, master classes, cinema events and workshops planned for a variety of audiences. The […]
What Adital Ela has to say about making light from wind, and other sustainable design ventures. We recently learned about Israeli sustainable designer Adital Ela’s work when we heard about her KickStart project to get WindyLights – a design that generates light from wind – on the ground. Since then, we’ve learned that Ela is […]
A team of two designers, Godspeed, will be creating furniture from raw and trashed materials in Jaffa within the framework of a single hour. Pop-up stores may not sound like the most sustainable ventures, but the pop-up shop that will open in Jaffa on December 1st and feature the work of the Godspeed design team […]
Made from sawdust and plastic bags alone, these adhesive-free lamps take leftover materials and make them shine again. Plastic bags are an (unfortunately) abundant material that have been used in many ways by designers, but sawdust – though abundant as well – has not been used as frequently by sustainable Middle Eastern designers. One other […]
Green Bar makes local, natural beauty products in an industry pumped with chemicals and toxic preservatives. It’s tough enough being a woman without having to worry about nasty preservatives in cosmetics, or the loads of other bad things pumped into beauty products. The natural world is filled with plants and flowers that have been used […]
One way to make musical performances more sustainable is to use renewable energy (such as human cyclists, for example) to power them, but what about making the music itself more sustainable? What is the carbon footprint for making a piano or a guitar?