Green West Magazine » products

From Clean Technica: Eco-Faucet saves Energy with Every Use

gardengrrrl — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:08:35 +0000

Carol over at CleanTechnica found this amazing automatic faucet that recharges itself via a tiny turbine. Check out her description and the diagram: “EcoPower Faucet Saves Energy by Recharging with Each Use”. I’m not a big fan of automatic faucets. They make me feel like the faucet gods are laughing at me as I wave my hands under the tap and fail to illicit any watery response, but I know they save water and help slow the spread of germs in public facilities. On the down side, automatic faucets usually need an electrical outlet, so this recharging variety could help public facilities save energy. I wonder how the turbine deals with things other than water going down the drain?

(Photo by rajuvaidyazuiq. Used under creative commons licensing.)

New site provides green wedding registration

gardengrrrl — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:29:00 +0000

When I was married four years ago, I registered with a few well known retailers. I wanted my wedding to be fun and easy, not a hassle for my guests. I wish All Green Wedding had been around then. We tried to make our wedding low impact, but green gifts would have been fabulous

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Water, water everywhere

gardengrrrl — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:15:00 +0000

In the last year water has been in the news quite a bit. Green Living Online provides us a review of “Thirst: Fighting the Corporate THEFT of Our Water.” As detailed in “Thirst,” water in many parts of the U.S. is being privatized, limiting access to clean water to those who can pay. At the same time, these corporations are dominating the market for bottled water.

Meanwhile, eco-conscious consumers are concerned by the waste and health issues that go along with our addiction to bottled water. Even fancy restaurants in the Bay Area are replacing their bottled water with carbon filtered tap water. Ask Umbra answers a concerned consumer’s question about the safety of Nalgene. She recommends going with glass bottles, like those from Aquasana

Biota provides another option, disposable water bottles made from biodegradable corn plastic. While using these bottles wouldn’t reduce the carbon footprint caused by transportation, they might be an important alternative for those times when disposable water bottles are needed.

Around Northern California, stainless steel bottles from Kleen Kanteen seem to be popular. I haven’t tried one though, because I can’t help but think that water sitting around hot weather would get warm and metallic tasting rather quickly.

Lately I have been reusing my glass Pellegrino bottle. Maybe not the best solution, but it works until I find the ultimate safe, environmentally friendly water bottle.

Plastic Bag Alternatives

gardengrrrl — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:04:00 +0000

I admit it, I haven’t given up plastic bags. Last year when San Francisco Banned Plastic Grocery Bags I was thrilled, but I haven’t eliminated them from my life, yet. Do try to stash reusable bags in my car in case I need them, but often I’m biking around town and haven’t remembered to bring any reusable bags. There has been an explosion of reusable bags being marketed lately.

I haven’t tried any of these alternatives yet, since every time I go to a conference they hand out yet another reusable cloth bag. My real problem is the clear plastic bags that I put my produce in. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out a good alternative. Some produce does fine in small paper bags, but that hardly seemed better. I wash out the bags after I use them and reuse them around the house, but they rarely make it back to the grocery store. Then, on Etsy, I saw these bags, and these, and these.

gardengrrrl — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 05:28:00 +0000

Crunchy Chicken has declared June 1-7 Low Impact Week. You can head on over to her blog to hear about her progress or participate yourself. If you need more goals or inspiration check out No Impact Man. Let us know how it goes.

Seville builds awesome solar tower

Leslie M-B — Wed, 23 May 2007 03:18:00 +0000

And by awesome, I mean awe-inspiring. Check out this BBC video.

(as seen at Inhabitat)