The Green Microgym in Portland Oregon captures the energy produced from gym goers working off those holiday calories. The Human Dynamo spin bikes can generate 350 watts of continuous and useful energy. Perfect place to start the New Years resolution workout regime.

Some of the ways founder Adam Boesel has made the Green Microgym more eco friendly include:

• SportsArt EcoPowr Treadmills use 30% less electricity than others
• Solar panels generate an average of 8 Kilowatt Hours per day
• Recycled rubber, marmoleum, and eco-friendly cork flooring
• Conserve space to reduce energy requirements for the facility
• Personalize lighting and cooling for individual needs

They also use a retrofitted spin bike to produce energy from a generator hooked to the piece of equipment. The power is then stored in batteries for later use.

This concept is brilliant, attainable, and quickly effective. When taken into consideration, the wasteful societal behavior of over consumption and subsequent gym bouts is staggering. Consuming more food than necessary (which wastes water and energy to produce) to then work out in a gym, that runs on massive amounts of electricity, just to burn the calories and weight off your body to no useful end (other than your health of course) is incredibly wasteful and an inefficient use of resources. Ideally we would eat what we require and use physical activity to produce something of value. However, the Green Microgym is at least harnessing some of that lost energy to sustain itself.