A week ago England’s Department of Health published practical recommendations to prepare for a potential heatwave which is also the central theme of their 2009 Heatwave Plan.

The Heatwave Plan for 2009 has been updated with extra guidance that outlines the benefits of insulating houses to keep them cool during summer months, and warm during the winter, while also reducing fuel costs and carbon emissions. More cool in the summer, translates to less use of the aircon, and more warm in the winter, means less use of the furnace. 

One of the recommendations for home owners, which is designed to counter the effects of climate change, is to paint buildings and surrounding walls white and to replace metal blinds with curtains with white linings to reflect heat outwards where possible. (They could also buy the window fixtures of Alubin for a better effect). 

This specific eco-building and eco-design tip has been a common way of keeping homes cool in Mediterranean countries. Urban heat islands are not inevitable, and many times it’s the product of dark roofs, black pavement, and loss of vegetation.

Some have stated that contrary to popular opinion, heat islands do not arise mainly from heat leaking out of cars, buildings, and factories. In summertime, such anthropogenic heat gain accounts for a mere 1 percent of the heat island’s excess temperature.

Still, many are skeptic that this specific recommendation is going to change the face of urban design in the England in the near future. At the very least it might make the grey and drab surroundings of some English neighborhoods, a little more bright.

The post England Authorities Look to Mediterranean White Buildings To Help Keep Cool appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Israeli Forum For Ecological Art is an active (non-profit) body, which voices its views regarding environmental issues and acts toward promoting individual and group projects of artists and scientists while drawing the attention to any issue pertaining to ecology and the environment. Eco-design which is still a trend in 2009 includes both art and consumer products.

The forum will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on July 23, 2009 in Tel-Aviv. The event will include lectures, workshops, Arts & Crafts fair for artists and companies showing their Eco-friendly products.

Previous projects promoted by this forum are the Concrete creek [Stream reclamation as an artwork], Forest tunes [An international traveling exhibition and a book daylighting the processes set in motion by human beings every day, for the most part hidden, related to the most burning ecological issues in the world, such as the loss of biodiversity, the deforestation, and global warming] and other bonding with nature gatherings if you’re not the type to plan a trip to the Tel-Aviv’s garbage mountain…

The forum offers an Eco-art year course, photography workshops and collaborative projects promoting social change through art.

The post The Israeli Forum For Ecological Art celebrates ten years activity appeared first on Green Prophet.

There are new and innovative ways to promote brands and ideas in more sustainable ways that don’t generate waste or pollution. One way is to spread your ads on the dirty pavement by “cleaning it.” That’s right, water and pressure clean the dirt and leave a promotional ad.

The Curb uses this method to promote many brands (check out their photo gallery):

The company uses other methods like snow tagging, low grow of grass, solar art on wood, and snow models (not just castles…). And a couple weeks ago an Israel company, named Spotless (how appropriate) started a street campaign across Tel-Aviv to help support the cause of releasing the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit by “printing” this on the pavement:

“With each passing moment Gilad disappears,” having double meaning with the natural ads that fades away as it gets dirty again.

Next time you are planning a campaign be sure to think of the alternative methods for advertising.

The post Israeli Company Spotless Creates Sustainable Advertising For Roads appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s one thing to buy a hybrid car, but another to understand and know how to use it wisely. Ford has a solution: Ford Motor Company’s Smart Gauge with EcoGuide educates drivers to maximize fuel efficiency on the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrids.

The technology uses two digital dashboard LCD screens on either side of the analog speedometer to inform drivers about fuel usage, battery levels and more.

These screens can be tailored to provide four different levels of information for the driver:

• Inform: Fuel level and battery charge status
• Enlighten: Adds electric vehicle mode indicator and tachometer
• Engage: Adds engine output power and battery output power
• Empower: Adds power to wheels, engine pull-up threshold and accessory power consumption/

SmartGauge gives all the basic info like instant fuel economy, fuel economy history, odometer, engine coolant temperature, what gear the car is in and trip data, but it also goes several steps further.

Become a good green driver

There’s a graphic of growing vines and leaves (efficiency leaves) on the right side to prompt drivers for good driving habits by displaying a heavily stylized greenery for good behavior. If you drive efficiently, the vines and leaves will grow lush. When you reach a destination, a shut-down screen will also give you stats on your latest trip, and you can call up historical fuel efficiency data via a chart.

A tutorial mode built into the display that helps the driver learn about the instrument cluster and the hybrid.

Extensive customer research was completed to ensure the instrument cluster is as driver-friendly as possible. Prototype testing was done in Ford’s Virtual simulator, the industry’s largest driver distraction laboratory operated by an automaker.

Fuel efficiency of the auto hasn’t really changed since 1963 but maybe driver habits will. And who knows, it may be an Israeli company that offers a real change to the automotive industry.

More on hybrid transport:
Hybrid Cab Fleet Taking Over Tel Aviv
A Mercedes Luxury Hybrid to Hit the Middle East
My Parents And The Pleasure of Owning A Prius

The post Ford Designs New EcoGuide to Maximize Fuel Efficiency appeared first on Green Prophet.

Some say that Eco-Design and other green initiatives are just a trend and it’ll go away like many other buzzwords. According to Trendwatching.com this is not the case.

It looks like Simplexity is going to rule 2009. We’ll see more designed products that carry a simple design, maintaining ease of use while not giving up on complex features. Some say it’s because the Baby Boomers are growing up wanting comfortable products but still technologically innovative.

The economic crisis requires designers to be more creative in their designs using smaller budgets. We might see bolder designs than what we’re used to.

Among the leading trend in 2009 are:

• Retro design
• Simplexity
• Minimalism
• Bold designs
•  Designs clashing clean designs together with prominent colors
•  Eco-Design
•  Personalized designs.

Eco-Design will be mentioned more as Sustainable design. We’ll see more companies like Nike that design entire collections from sustainably-sourced fabrics, and footware from sustainable materials. 

The economic crisis has also affected our consuming habits and people are looking for more products that will last longer. Advocates will say that we need products to have a short life-cycle so it will keep the market alive and will require companies to innovate and progress. But that seems to clash with our wish to help the environment.

There is a way to enjoy both worlds. We can design products that their core shape/design doesn’t change but consumers will be able to upgrade and change different parts of the products to give it a new look and feel. Similar to building houses that last while re-designing the interior every now and then. It might not suit the gadget lovers who get a new model every season but it will support those who like good products and don’t care much for frequently upgrades.

The post "Eco-Design" Still A Trend To Follow In 2009 appeared first on Green Prophet.

Two of the most basic terms in the ecological and sustainable design and architecture fields are Cradle to Grave and Cradle to Cradle. They relate to the product life cycle from the raw materials (Cradle) to disposal (Grave). If you are in design school or architecture college or are thinking about an MBA in a sustainable field, you should know the book Cradle to Cradle. It’s a primer for sustainabilists. Well, for anyone in the design or product business.

What is Cradle to Grave

Cradle to Grave is a term used in life-cycle analysis to describe the entire life of a material or product up to the point of disposal. In other words, cradle-to-grave is a take, make, waste system. Making a plastic bottle by Coca Cola that has no intention of being recycled or which physically cannot be recycled or used is a product that goes from the cradle to the grave. Flip-flips that wash up onshore. Cradle to the grave. It gets more complex when we talk about cars, electronics, and large building projects. But architects today, especially in forward-thinking sustainable cities like Rotterdam are thinking about building materials that can see a new life after the current structure is demolished.

What is Cradle to Cradle

Cradle-to-cradle is the creation and qualification of a circular economy. It’s a way of designing and producing that honors all future generations by designing and manufacturing for next use, instead of end of life.

A model of industrial systems in which material flows cyclically in appropriate, continuous biological or technical nutrient cycles. All waste materials are productively re-incorporated into new production and use phases, such as “waste equals food,” according to William McDonough, the architect who conceived the concept.

The famous three Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle—are steadily gaining popularity in the home as well as the workplace. Reduction, reuse, and recycling slow down the rates of contamination and depletion but do not stop these processes.

Watch a TED video of William McDonough below

Recycling is more expensive than it needs to be, partly because traditional recycling tries to force materials into more lifetimes than they were designed for. Very few objects were designed with recycling in mind. If the process is truly to save money and materials, products must be designed from the very beginning to be recycled or even “upcycled”—a term we use to describe the return to industrial systems of materials with improved, rather than degraded, quality.

Why Cradle to Cradle is more important

The notion of Cradle to Cradle conveys a message of “Do good” instead of “Do less bad.”

Here’s an experiment. Choose any of your favorite blogs/websites and skim their latest articles. How many of them are all about how to do less so it will have less of an effect on the environment?

The environmental message that consumers take from all of this can be strident and depressing: stop being so bad, so materialistic, so greedy. Do whatever you can, no matter how inconvenient, to limit your consumption. Buy less, spend less, drive less, have fewer children — or none.

About the technical metabolism

Aren’t the major environmental problems today — global warming, deforestation, pollution, waste — products of our decadent Western way of life? If you are going to help save the planet, you will have to make some sacrifices, share some resources, perhaps you can go without.

With a Cradle to Cradle mindset you don’t try to design a bottle from less plastic but rather design a bottle from materials that can fully enter a new life cycle either back to nature or back into the design process as a new product.

Biological nutrients will be designed to return to the organic cycle—to be literally consumed by microorganisms and other creatures in the soil. Products composed of materials that do not biodegrade should be designed as technical nutrients that continually circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles—the technical metabolism.

The post Cradle to Cradle or Cradle to Grave? appeared first on Green Prophet.

The organization behind GreenChange is the “Heschel Center for Environmental learning and leadership“, which celebrates it’s 10th anniversary today.

Its goal is to create an online environment where environmentalists can meet, share ideas and information as well as promote aspects of a sustainable society.

Like other networks, Greenchange offers groups, forums, blogs, applications, video/images sharing, events, news, green tips, and much more.

Among the different groups you can find: Eco-design, Eco-tourism, Environment and Judaism, Consuming culture, Local economy and many more.

If you’re looking for a Face-to-Face network you might want to check out the Green Drinks get together meetings.

Please feel free to contact me for more information.

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