Totally comfy, fun and sexy shoes — at the right price – how cool is that?

Designed by women, for women, Jambu shoes have a distinctive look and can transform even the most mundane outfit into something hip.  These above feature synthetic leather uppers & soft lining, contoured memory foam footbeds; and non-marking, durable outsoles made with partially recycled compressed leather.  They arrive in 100 percent recycled, recyclable and re-usable packaging.

Find the Touring Vegan ($113) and red carpet ready, Oscar (top photo; $123) @ zappos.com

I’m terribly careless with my sunglasses, sitting on them, losing them, tossing them casually in my purse…but if I owned a pair of these high end shades which retail for $370, I’d like to think that I’d be more careful with them.

iwood shades are surprisingly lightweight, and provide 100 percent UVA/UVB protection. They’re handmade in the midwest, and created from 10 layers of teak, reclaimed from industrial veneer manufacturers, and coated with an eco friendly sealant to prevent warping.  Especially designed to keep their shape, even under very humid conditions.

Find yours @ iwoodecodesign.com

UPDATE:  Congratulations to our winner, Shellie (of Maryland)!  Thanks to everyone for participating, and 8Bottles for sponsoring.  If you didn’t win this one, never fear – a new Great Green Giveaway is around the corner…so stay tuned.

Rock your recycled world with a finely crafted unisex polo shirt made from 8 recycled plastic bottles.  Absolutely no dyes are used to create the green color of the shirts, the color is derived from the bottles themselves.  Totally cool in more ways than one — since it has moisture wicking properties, it’s perfect for the links, or just sporting around town.

Thanks to the folks at 8bottles.com, one lucky winner will receive a complimentary polo shirt in his or her choice of size. (Shirts retail for $40 and prize includes free delivery to residents in the USA or Canada.)

Our lucky winner will be selected in our Random Drawing, and notified by email. Contest ends Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 11:59p (EST). Winner has 24 hours to claim their prize, or that offer is null and void. Winner’s name will be included on this post. (more…)

Home Depot is providing consumers a wide array of LED lighting choices – and the most affordable.  The Company now offers a proprietary brand of LEDs under the EcoSmart name, including a bulb that retails for $19.97 and is a 40W equivalent, offering 429 lumen with a 50,000 hour expected lifetime, making it the most affordable bulb of its kind in the market to date.  In comparison, just two years ago, a 60-watt equivalent cost $90 and a 100-watt dimmable bulb went for $360.  In addition, the Company will offer LED bulbs that support many different types of fixtures including: accent lighting, track lighting, room lighting, outdoor spotlights and all are fully dimmable.  Home Depot also offers LED lighting choices from many of the leading LED manufacturers including: Philips, Lighting Science Group and Cree.

LEDs are innovative technology that help save energy because they use up to 85 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and up to 50 percent less energy than CFL bulbs without sacrificing light quality. In addition to being extremely energy-efficient, their life is exceptionally long, cutting down both operating costs and inconvenience of maintenance.

Note: By 2014 the manufacture of most incandescent bulbs will be discontinued by federal mandate.

source: prnewswire and Home Depot

• Kinda looks like Joaquin Phoenix on a bad hair day…Mysterious ‘Bearded’ Antelope Photgraphed – msnbc
• Solar panels in a desert can get pretty dusty…Self-Cleaning Technology From Mars Rover Can Keep Earth-Bound Solar Panels Dirt Free – sciencedaily
• ‘No Sue’ rule is certainly going to tick-off lawyers…Oil Spill Compensation Czar Takes Charge of $20 Billion BP Fund – yahoo! news
• I think I saw this movie…a few times…Alien Hunters ‘Should Look for Artificial Intelligence’ – bbc
• I hope they don’t screw this up too…BP Told to Submit Blowout Preventer Removal Plan – reuters
• I’m speechless…Pig Wresting Canceled After Porkers Elude Capture – myway
• Solar Energy Brings Power to Rural Africa – cnn

I don’t know how I missed this one. — the Nokera solar-powered light bulb.  Designed to replace kerosene and other fuel-powered lanterns in developing countries that don’t have a power grid and electricity.  A day’s-worth of charging in the sun will produce 2 to 4 hours of light from the bulb’s 5 LED’s.

Purported to be durable, rainproof and shatter-resistant.  Many of its parts are replaceable.  Bummers: price and battery life.  A single bulb costs $15 and the replaceable NiMH battery has about a 2 year life span with daily use.  Marketed primarily to large, aid organizations.

When my grandmother passed on not too long ago, my family set to the task of cleaning and clearing out the home she and my grandfather had built 50 years before.  Her backyard greenhouse, half-acre garden and jar-filled canning room felt like relics of a bygone era.  Around the long kitchen table, my family reminisced… homemade wines and sauerkraut, handmade clothing, a 1960’s rooftop solar installation—homemade by my grandfather—and a geothermal heating and cooling system he’d crafted himself too.  They, although they’d never have considered themselves as such, were quintessential DIYers.

The DIY lifestyle, having gained slow steam in the down economy, is long forgotten to the majority of Americans.  Today, we’re living a predominantly “throwaway” existence, according to Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of Make magazine and author of “Made by Hand” (Portfolio, 2010), released earlier this year.  In his new book, Frauenfelder chronicles his own do-it-yourself escapades, including beekeeping, cigar-box-guitar crafting, home tutoring, and even a rendezvous with a backyard chicken coop.

A few days into the engaging hardcover, I found myself nostalgic for my grandparents’ home.  The processes that Frauenfelder describes in great detail had made me hungry to craft.  The book, chock full of his (often frustrating) experiences, provided a buzz to the brain—a reminder of the fulfillment that creating something from scratch brings.  Despite the lengthy process of learning a trade, coupled with the trial-and-error phase of re-dos, the truth remains that building our own “stuff” is what we humans were made to do. To create.  To perfect. To try, try again.

While it’s absolutely guaranteed to NEVER be the easiest approach, tackling a project on your own is often an environmentally considerate, mind-sharpening, and cost-effective option.  If anything, Frauenfelder reminds us of just that.  And sometimes, a simple reminder is all that we need to shift gears.

(Full disclosure: Portfolio provided us with a review copy of “Made by Hand,” which retails online and in national bookstores for $25.95.)

It’s hard to hear “power plant” and “thriving ecosystem” together in the same sentence, but it’s been done!  The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in North County, owned by San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and Riverside recently spent $46 million to build the nation’s largest artificial reef off the coast of San Clemente to mitigate the nuclear plant’s ecologic damage.  I have always been a bit suspicious as to how successful these mitigation measures really are, but this scenario does make me more optimistic.

The artificial reef is part of the Wheeler North Reef, a huge artificial reef started by ocean advocates to boost the habitat and marine life.  According to UC Santa Barbara scientists that have been monitoring the kelp forest since its conception, the 174-acre reef is doing better than expected with a higher yield of marine life in the densely growing undersea “rainforest.”  David Kay, the head of the environmental projects of Edison, was excited and eager to share the success of the company in its efforts to stay an environmentally friendly nuclear power plant (oxymoron?)  (more…)

Have a ‘bad wall’ in your home or apartment?  Just moved into your new pad and the pre- (Civil War) war paint job is getting you down?  Maybe you should consider covering that environmental eyesore with one of these wall flat designs.

These Embossed Wall Flats are designed to expand in any direction with an automatic pattern repeat.  They can cover an existing wall, help disguise a not-so-smooth wall, or add a modern pattern to a tired old setting.  These wall coverings are moulded from 100% bamboo pulp, an eco-friendly renewable resource.   To get a new look – alternate patterns,  or paint them (tiles shown have been primed and painted white).  This product contains no chemical fillers or additives and no trees were harmed in the making of it.   @ re-modern