greenUPGRADER » Concept+Design

Window Farms and the Power of Crowd Sourcing

Becky Striepe — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:00:57 +0000

What began as an experiment in window farming became a crowd-sourced answer to our industrialized food system.

When Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food, she didn't let her tiny New York apartment stop her. Rather than grow her herbs and veggies in messy dirt, she decided to create a hydroponics system for growing food indoors made out of reclaimed plastic bottles.

She also decided not to create a product but crowdsource with co-developers. The garden started out growing a salad a week in her New York apartment window. Now, there are window farms all over the world building and testing - basically doing Research and Development (R&D), just like a corporation. The difference is that the window farms testers are doing this as a passion project. She calls the process R&DIY - Research and Develop it Yourself.

The community holds a patent on the project. That means they're beating companies like Monsanto to the punch, keeping this food technology out of their hands and in the hands of the people.

Want to get in on some R&DIY action? You can check out Riley's website for deets on what they're up to and how to get involved!

Spotted: Green…Billboards?

Becky Striepe — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:00:46 +0000

October is a pretty intense month for me. Between craft markets, conferences, weddings, and music, I've been on the road more than I've been at home. One of the ubiquitous things about a road trip is billboards. They pop up along every highway, but I don't think folks consider how much waste goes along with outdoor advertising.

The way that they get the art up onto billboards is basically by printing the artwork onto a giant piece of vinyl (plastic!) and stretching it over the huge frame. That means that every time a company changes or discontinues its outdoor ad campaign, they're sending all of that plastic to the landfill. There are some companies that are transforming that plastic into other products, like bike bags, but a lot of that plastic just ends up in a landfill. Boo!

While heading down I-95 towards Savannah, we spotted "green billboards," and it definitely gave me pause. We were going to fast for me to snap a photo, but the one above is similar to the one that we saw.

What makes a billboard "green?"

The first, most obvious change was that these billboards were electronic. That means no big sheets of vinyl. Instead, they just upload the artwork, and they're ready to sell you fast food, hotel stays, and cheap amusement park tickets without all of that waste. With anything electronic, though, you have to wonder about a few things:

How are they powering the screen? If it's from the grid, that means coal, and that is far from eco-frienly.
How did they produce the screen? Were the parts made in sweatshops? How green are the guts of this thing?
What happens when they break? Nothing lasts forever. Will these giant billboards end up in the landfill?

The first question varies depending on the company. Many electronic billboards are solar powered, which is pretty awesome.

Questions two and three are even tougher to answer. It is very hard to track supply chains for electronics, and it's difficult to produce a truly green monitor. While green monitors may be made with lower levels of toxins like cadmium and lead, they still contain these heavy metals, and something this size is bound to be somewhat toxic.

There's also the point that the folks at Ode Magazine make about the green billboards that went up in Times Square:

But aren’t billboards mainly irritating because they’re mental and visual pollution? After all, billboards are everywhere and they seem hard to avoid. Brands are infiltrating every aspect of our lives and polluting our mental environment, as the Canada-based culture jammers group Adbusters has been arguing for many years.

All that said, I'm happy to see any industry taking a look at the waste it's producing and looking for alternatives, but I do think that billboards have a long way to go if they're going to be truly green. What do you guys think?

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by normanack

Spotted: Mini Parks

Becky Striepe — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:00:38 +0000

Remember Park(ing) Day? Well, the city of San Francisco has turned the once a year event into something that businesses, and even private citizens, can celebrate every day!

Rather than transforming a parking space into a mini park for just one day, San Francisco businesses can get permits for permanent mini parks in front of their establishments. These "parklets" are springing up all over San Francisco and Oakland, turning asphalt into social green space. High five, Bay Area, for putting people before vehicles!

The pretty terrible photo above is the only one I managed to snap of the parklet we ran across in our travels. This is one of the the only (possibly the only) parklets owned by a private person, rather than a business. It's hard to tell here, but they turned a street parking space in front of their home into a little patio with plants, a spot for their trash, curbside recycling, and compost bins, and for seating.

Could you imagine how it would transform cities if more folks did this? Ready access to parking definitely encourages people from drive places. What if there were just nowhere to park?

Have you guys spotted any parklets in your travels? I'd love to hear all about them in the comments!

Plastic 2 Oil Turns Plastic into…Oil!

Becky Striepe — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:00:46 +0000

Remember that amazing machine that turned plastic into oil? Well, a new company called Plastic 2 Oil is taking that idea and running with it.

They're not using the exact same technology. JBI, the company behind Plastic 2 Oil, has developed a catalyst that speeds up the process and reduces the associated waste. The plan is to "mine" landfills for plastic and use their proprietary technology to turn it into usable oil. According to Jo Borras at Gas 2.0:

JBI’s proprietary catalyst and unique process engineering enables JBI to capture nearly 90% of the hydrocarbon content of plastic, with any remaining residue or non usable substances (about 2%) removed during the normal course of operations. The remaining gasses contain small amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel, which are then condensed into liquid form and separated before being routed into temporary fuel tanks. The remaining gaseous “light fractions” – which include methane, ethane, butane and propane – exit the temporary fuel storage tank and are, themselves, compressed and stored for later use.

It only takes an hour to convert 1800 pounds of plastic into usable fuel. The company website says they're producing a liter of fuel for each kilogram of plastic, so that 1800 pounds of plastic equals about 216 gallons of gas.

JBI is teaming up with RockTenn, a packaging company, and essentially mining their all plastic landfills for raw materials.

Here's a quick video that gives you a peek into the process:

Pretty crazy, right? Of course, the best solution to our plastic problem is to just use less plastic, but in the meantime, this program has the potential to do a lot of good!

PsPrint Online Printing

Old Windows Get a New Life as Sassy Glassware

Becky Striepe — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:00:48 +0000

Indie company Bread and Badger recently added a line of recycled glasses to their super adorable selection of recycled glass.

If you're not familiar with Bread and Badger, they're the masterminds behind the etched moustach glass, and now they're offering sweet tumblers made from 100% recycled single-pane windows. With more and more folks ditching inefficient single-pane windows in favor of the better insulated windows, I bet there's quite a glut of old windows to choose from!

Amanda Siska of Bread and Badger was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about this exciting turn their business is taking!

gU: What draws you to glass, and why was using recycled materials important to you?

Amanda: I love working with glass because it's a useful material that doesn't have the side effect of wearing out over time, and it never deteriorates as you're recycling it. It's crisp, clean, and can come in very organic shapes. Things made out of recycled glass have a lot of character and soul to them. They tend to have lots tiny bubbles, and a bluegreen cast. I find it fascinating that a material like glass can basically be melted down and reformed an infinite number of times. It's the ultimate recyclable material to me.

I've always wanted to keep my impact on the earth as minimal as possible, and glass is a perfect canvas for my artwork because it has a lot of impact without creating a lot of waste.

gU: Can you share a bit about where you source your materials?

Amanda: Our newest line of tumblers are manufactured out of old single-pane windows by a local glass foundry run by the St. Vincent de Paul society. I love supporting local talent, and the fact that they not only keep glass out of landfills, but also use proceeds to help low-income and homeless people with their charitable endeavors makes them a perfect fit for us to work with. We've gotten glassware from restaurant supply stores, and we've salvaged lots of plain things from thrift stores, but it's exciting to have a line of drinkware now that is 100% recycled, and isn't the same thing that you've seen in stores and restaurants everywhere before.

gU: Do you know around how much glass you reclaim each year?

Amanda: I don't, but I should find out. It's got to be quite a lot of old windows so far, and we're just getting started!

gU: Can you tell me a bit about your process? What's your favorite part of your process?

Amanda: The first step is creating a black and white illustration, which I sometimes do with calligraphy pens, Sharpie markers, or sometimes I work digitally the whole way. This is by far my favorite step of the process because it's the creative part. I love starting with an idea and turning it into a bold graphic that I know will adorn someone's housewares.

We make stencils from my printed artwork and apply them to each glass piece, which is definitely the boring step, but it's kind of fun because you get to play with stickers. My husband does all the sandblasting in our garage, which is a lot like spray painting inside a sealed cabinet, only with reusable grit. Then we wash everything and I put my initials on each piece as my seal of approval.

I also spend a lot of time photographing all the finished products, which I've learned to really enjoy. Photoshoots are sort of an unexpected perk of the job, and they often get overlooked as a step in the process for an online shop.

You can find Bread and Badger's new recycled glass tumblers in their online store!

3 Gorgeous Vertical Gardens

Becky Striepe — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:00:19 +0000

Growing food in small spaces can be tough, but it's by no means off the table. By making use of vertical space, you can maximize your garden's capacity, even if all that you have to work with is a balcony or windowsill.

I've run across a few beautiful examples of vertical gardening in action lately, and I thought you guys might dig them, too. Check these out!

Vertical Farm, South Korea

This vertical farm (photo at the top of this post) in South Korea is taking advantage of vertical space to showcase the benefits of vertical gardening. According to Chris Keenan at Planetsave:

The concept behind vertical farming is that it is possible to cultivate plant life on vertically inclined surfaces, and the plants produced in these surfaces would be organic and higher quality plants than through traditional farming methods. While this idea has been around for years, it’s finally come to fruition in Suwon, South Korea where they have been working and producing vegetables in a little three story demonstration project.

The angles allow excess water to run down to the lower levels of the garden. They were also able to grow this lettuce without any pesticides, thanks to this method of vertical farming.

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by beelaineo

2. IKEA-Hacked Vertical Garden

Antonion Scarponi of Conceptual Devices hacked together a few different IKEA pieces to create this awesome vertical garden. This sucker is more than pretty, it's self sustaining! Here's how it works:

3. Vertical Gardening for Apartment Dwellers

Another IKEA hack, Flickr user mannewaar is using a the KROKEN cutlery stand to grow a vertical garden in his apartment window. He's growing herbs and cherry tomatoes, and using what looks like less than a foot of horizontal space. I can't find the KROKEN on the Ikea-USA website, but you could easily rig up something similar with a vertical rack, some small tins (reused, large tin cans?), and steel wire to attach them.

Have you guys run across any cool vertical gardening solutions? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Grow Your Own…Bamboo Bicycle?

Becky Striepe — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:00:58 +0000

This bicycle is made from almost all bamboo and other biodegradable parts.

Alexander Vittouris created the "Ajiro" using bamboo, which he molded into shape. Bamboo is very strong, making this a durable bike as well as a beautiful one. According to our pals at Ecolocalizer:

The bamboo bike was derived from techniques used in arborsculpture, a more complex form of topiary, which utilizes specifically modified and grafted plants to create shaped structures which are very strong. The process is also known as “grown mobility”.

Unlike bamboo clothing, this bamboo bike doesn't rely on heavy processing and chemicals. It uses bamboo's natural properties to make something durable and practical.

How awesome would it be to grow fields of bamboo bicycles? Talk about sustainability!