There is a lot of paper in the world. A lot! A ton!! It is almost unfathomable!!! In fact, according to paperonweb.com, about 300 Million Metric Tons of paper is produced and consumed per year. That’s a lot of paper and a whole lot less trees. 

This is why Xerox has come up with a way to create a new form of printing technology. This new development uses a new form of reusable paper. The paper can be used and erased many times over before it is no longer re-usable… & it doesn’t use ink! This allows for an instant application for on-site recycling. 

Though a technology such as this possesses the power to revolutionize the printing industry all together, I am still waiting for a printer which never runs out of ink and does taxes! 

This new paper could cut printing costs and dramatically reduce the usage of office paper. 

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paperonweb.com 
Xerox 
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Yeah, you read that right. And no, that isn’t a typo. One hundred and fifty seven miles per gallon. To put it in terms easier to understand, imagine having only about a 5 gallon tank and being able to drive 800 miles on it. I have quite a drive to work every day, and for me, that means driving for over 2 weeks on a little over $15 (with current gas prices). Seems impossible, I know, but German company Loremo is promising just that. The Loremo LS is an ultra-efficient, ultra-lightweight, aerodynamic car that the company also claims is very fun to drive. The company’s principles: “Simple, Clever, Fun”, definitely show through when you see the vehicle and read about how they came up with and designed their dream car. They developed the car to be as light as possible and with the least amount of drag, giving it the ability to be much more efficient than other vehicles. The only downside of the LS version is the acceleration, 0 to 60mph in 20 seconds is not exactly going to blow anyone away, to say the least. However, there is also a GT version that gets a much better 0 to 60 in 9 seconds, but also gets closer to 90 mpg instead of 157, but that is still exceptional by normal vehicle standards. TheLoremo cars will begin to be mass-produced for commercial sales in 2009 and prices for the LS and GT are $15,000 and $20,000 respectively. Unfortunately, so far they have not announced plans to sell the vehicles in the United States right away, but they say that if demand is high enough, they will release it here. Hopefully, enough people over here will want the vehicle and they will soon begin production of a U.S version. I know I’m interested in checking it out. 

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Loremo 
Loremo cars

About 4,000,000! That’s how many miles of road run back and fourth through the countryside of the United States! It’s a pretty impressive number, not to mention that with human population growth this number will only grow higher. The only other species who almost came this close were the Doozers as far as I know. 

After much research, scientists conclude that roadways and the vehicles which travel on them are ultimately a direct loss of habitat for the wildlife which live near them. They claim it to be a (in some areas ), severe degradation of habitat quality. The way roads separate plants and pretty much all naturally occurring life is called habitat fragmentation. 

In recent years, many state and government programs have funded various bridges and paths which are designed to be nature friendly. Green bridges seem to be the term most applied and they are beginning to be used more and more frequently. However, many researchers are still studying them to decide weather or not they are actually used by local wildlife. One major contributing factor to this may be the density and area of the bridge itself. Personally, if I were a rabbit, or deer, or anything without wings, I would most likely opt for the bridge… unless I just didn’t care anymore. 
…about leaving my side of the forrest.  

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      Recently, Pepsico has joined a group of other large companies in an effort to go green. They are doing this by spending on energy credits. When a credit is purchased it is essentially a donation toward renewable energy. Two million dollars will purchase one billion kilowatt-hours worth of energy. Pepsi hopes to both reduce their impact on the earth as well as improve their image to the public. 

However, some believe that buying the credits is just a way for Pepsi to claim to be a “green” company. Rather than improving a process within their own factories and making some serious changes, they purchase credits and remain unchanged. However, though the renewable energy may not be completely documented or credible, it can supposedly be utilized in any location around the world. I suppose this is still helping the planet as a whole though. I wonder if any of the credits would go to modernizing the methane factories of Border Town; which are of course run by Master Blaster. 

Here is a clip with some debate over weather Pepsi took the right road toward becoming “green”. 

After purchasing this larger amount of energy credits, Pepsico is now on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of the 25 greenest companies. Ironically, I ponder how much carbon dioxide is packed into Pepsi drinks world-wide, each year… ??! 

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Ever been out and have your cell phone or iPod go dead when you’re nowhere near a place to plug it in? Of course you have… everyone has. Well, Zegna Sport andInteractive Wear AG want to make that a thing of the past, like the Megalodon. Designer Ermenegildo Zegna recently showed off the Solar JKT at a Florence fashion show. The jacket, using solar cells and a battery will allow you to charge many different personal electronic devices. What’s really cool as well is that since there is a built-in battery, it can store the charge when you are in the sun and then save it so you don’t necessarily have to be in the sunlight when you charge the device. You can look for the Solar JKT in Zegna Sport’s 2008 collection. 

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Zegna Sport 
Interactive Wear AG 
Megalodon 
Ermenegildo Zegna

      Enjoy travel? Ever stay at a hotel? Ever heard of a eco-Hotels? For those of you interested in vacationing or even those who have some say in where business trips are set to stay, the eco-Hotel is the right choice if you care to improve the environment. 

There are quite a few categories of such areas of the hospitality industry… these being hotels and resorts that conserve ecologically significant habitats, green hotels that reduce, recycle, minimize waste, and conserve water, sustainable hotels that harvest food from gardens on the hotel property or obtain part or all of their power from renewable energy, hotels that encourage community involvement such as guests participating in trail clearing, and hotels that offer some form of environmental education to their guests. 

Each type of eco-Hotel is far from a stay with Tarzan’s house . With modern amenities, and some receiving high guest ratings, there really is no reason to not book a room. Hotels realize that the public wants to see an awareness of environment in today’s commercial industries. Hotels going green is just another step in that awareness. Whether the hotel industry really cares about going green is another concept all together… but one they never forget, is going green… financially! Either way, it is a win win situation on the whole. 

For more information on a couple of these types eco-hotels, search the net or check out: http://www.yourhomeplanet.com/Case_Studies/EcoHotels/ 

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http://www.yourhomeplanet.com/Case_Studies/EcoHotels/

How do we go about eliminating the problem of having an over-abundance of garbage in landfills all over the country, while at the same time, filling demand for an ever-increasing need for energy? Geoplasma, an Atlanta based company that describes itself as a “waste destruction and energy company”, uses a process called plasma arc to heat garbage to extremely high temperatures (approximately as hot as the surface of the sun) and separate the different components of the waste and use what is known as syngas to produce electricity. The other byproducts can be used for a variety of different things from brick pavers to scrap metal. 

Waste disposal is a huge problem in the world and here in the U.S. especially, so any environmentally friendly solution is a good one. But, one where it gets rid of the trash, while creating relatively clean energy sounds too good to be true! Geoplasma is currently building a new plant in Saint Lucie County, Florida that will destroy 3000 tons of waste, while producing 160 megawatts of electricity every day. If successful, these types of plants should become increasingly common and hopefully soon could not only make a big impact on the world’s waste disposal problem, but reduce our dependency on non-renewable energies. 

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Geoplasma 
Discover Magazine