Every Israeli knows what the Sea of Galilee’s (a main source of Israel’s drinking water) red line means. It’s bad. It means Israel is running out of water and we’re all in trouble. So when the Israel Water Authority came out with a campaign about two weeks ago saying that Israel’s water levels were deteriorating […]
Now that we’ve toured Lebanon, Jordan, and even Iran, let’s make an online eco-visit to Syria. Since Syria has not yet experienced a wave of mass tourism, its sites are still well preserved and relatively undisturbed. That, combined with the fact that Syria has a wide variety of landscapes ranging from forests to beaches to […]
Tel Aviv, for those who haven’t had the pleasure of visiting the city, is a city of coffee drinkers and cafes. (Some would say bums and people who don’t work in the middle of the day… but we say coffee drinkers and cafes.) It is not unusual to step out in the middle of a […]
For whatever reason, the Ipod and its classic white earphones have become a symbol of music and street cool. People use them on the street, on the bus, on the train, in a plane… they’re everywhere. But Ipods just aren’t Israeli designer Inbal Dayagi‘s style. Nope. She’s too funky and too green for that. Guided […]
At 70 hectares big, the Hiria garbage dump is pretty hard to miss.It’s literally a mountain of garbage. Located off of the road connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Hiria is a cautionary tale of consumerism, excess waste, and what happens when you don’t reduce, reuse and recycle. An ecological disaster since 1952 when it first became […]
As part of our ongoing virtual eco-tour of the Middle East, this week’s cyber journey is to Iran. Iran is a little further off than Jordan and Lebanon, but it is also an intriguing spot. And thanks to some information provided by Mohammad Memarian as a response to a Green Prophet post on MidEast Youth […]
In the spirit of using every possible material available and avoiding waste, Israeli designer Zohar Yarom has found a creative and functional purpose for furniture fabric samples. She makes handbags out of them. After receiving degrees in design from the Bezalel school in Jerusalem and Parson’s in New York, Zohar founded her own ZY design […]
Environmental and social change don’t always go together in green organizations, but the truth is that you can’t really make green changes without effecting society. Alternatively, some socio-economic groups just don’t have the resources to make costly (yet positive) environmental changes. As Jeff recently pointed out in his reaction to Tel Aviv’s farmers market, it […]
My parents are not your typical candidates for owning a hybrid car. They’ve been loyal owners of gas-guzzling Volvos for at least 20 years, replacing one trusty, sensible Volvo with another about once a decade. So it was quite a pleasant surprise when they announced 8 months ago that they were going to turn in […]
All of us green folk know that trash is a serious thing. It takes up space, pollutes our waterways, doesn’t decompose, and produces harmful gases. But there ain’t nothing serious about Merav Feiglin‘s Trashlights. Nope, not even close. Merav, who also creates other environmentally friendly art such as mosaics, altered books, and collages, collects found […]
There are lots of green businesses out there – cleantech businesses, organic farmers, environmentally conscious designers, and plenty more. But what about businesses with no clear environmental agenda? What’s a software company or a furniture manufacturer that wants to go green supposed to do? Hire a greener. A business greener, that is. Erez Steinberg, an […]
Summer has, without a doubt, arrived in Israel. School is about to end, summer vegetables and fruits are in season, and there’s a greater desire to be outdoors. Enter the Adam and Eve farm (or, in Hebrew, Hava & Adam) in Modiin, which offers lots of great ways to celebrate summer. This educational-ecological center integrates […]
Baladi, a word that Israelis adopted from Arabic, means “national” or “of the country”. It is also the name that French-born Israeli designer, Brigitte Cartier, decided to give her design studio. Her Baladi Company for Ecological Progress takes our national garbage and transforms it into beautiful designs that we can all be proud of. After […]
Now that we’ve eco-toured Israel and Jordan, let’s move right along to another green tourism spot in the Middle East. Lebanon. And it’s no surprise that a country that places a regional cedar tree in the center of its flag (colored in green) has lots and lots of eco tourism options. Here are some of […]
According to that old expression, beggars can’t be choosers. But Israeli designer Amit Brilliant proves that saying wrong with her line of recycled wallets, bags, notebook covers, and hats – BEGGARS. She chooses not to dump what would normally end up in the trash and turn it into something useful and aesthetic instead. In other […]
Between all of the eco guesthouses popping up and the Israeli Tourism Ministry trying to go green by 2009, there’s no absence of environmentally friendly vacation options in Israel (hint hint, to all those out-of-towners planning their summer vacations in Israel). But what’s a green tourist in the Middle East to do outside of Israel? […]
Last week we wrote about an environmentally conscious window display in Tel Aviv designed by Shulayim Studio, but the store that the window belonged to – Cotton – is news worthy as well. Cotton started making a limited line of clothes in 1992 with the goal of creating pieces that are unique, comfortable, woman-friendly, environmentally-friendly, […]
Are you tired of seeing all the waste at work? The unnecessary printing, photocopying, computers left on all night, styrofoam cups, wasted electricity? Oh, the horrors! Ready to work in a greener environment? Well, if you’re based in Tel Aviv or Istanbul, Greenpeace is hiring. And they want you. Greenpeace is looking for a Regional […]
It’s one thing when designers take brand new ready-made materials and transform them into something else. It’s another thing entirely when designers take old ready-mades and reincarnate them in order to avoid waste. Reincarnation is what Israeli designer Doron Sar-Shalom is all about. His designs, which consist mainly of lamps, are constructed out of unlikely […]
Strolling down the glitzy northern part of Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street this week, something strange caught my eye among all the designer gowns and stiletto pumps. Garbage. Literally, garbage. No, not on the street. In the window display. The garbage – which included aluminum cans and newspapers – was in the window display of Cotton, […]
As part of our mission to foresee a green, environmentally-sound future for Israel, its neighbors and the world, we’ll be occasionally featuring blogs from the regional blogosphere that also care about all things green, especially those in Arab countries where green issues are relatively undeveloped. Last week we featured environmental blogs from Lebanon and Jordan, […]
For those of you following our Great Green Prophet Giveaway with Yoav Kotik, we are proud to announce our two winners – Rebecca Markowitz and Herman Gregorian! Both of them came up with very creative ideas for reusing things that would otherwise end up in the garbage bin, and we are going to reward them […]
There are lots of great environmentally friendly outdoor activities to do during Shavuot, but if you don’t feel like going outdoors (or if you’re in a cheese coma) then the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership is hosting an online seminar about Shavuot and the environment. We applaud the Heschel Center for this creative […]
You wouldn’t generally think of Tel Aviv as a green oasis. A nightlife oasis, yes. A beachy oasis, yes. A trendy oasis, yeah, you could call it that too. But when you’re walking on busy Allenby Street or Dizengoff – the natural environment is probably the furthest thing from your urban experience. But tucked away […]
I hate to admit it (especially since I’m a vegetarian and like to think of Shavuot as my holiday), but sooner or later the cheese thing is gonna get old. And not in a French, moldy blue cheese kind of way. More of in a self-induced lactose intolerance kind of way. Which is why it […]