More and more big box companies are riding the green wave – case in point, the world’s biggest box, Target. Personally, I’m not a steady frequenter of big box stores but I recently had occasion to bop in there and I have to say, it’s pretty cool — wide aisles, well lit, friendly service and a nice selection of reasonably priced, quality merch.

Here’s what really impressed me: there was a decent selection of organic foods on the shelves; a sprinkling of organic produce; eco-friendly cleaning products like Seventh Generation; Burt’s Bees and other body-friendly health & beauty products; sheets made of organic cotton and towels made of bamboo (although I’m not a fan of bamboo towels, those I’ve tried didn’t seem to absorb water as effectively as organic cotton). I noticed they even have their own line of furniture derived from sustainably forested wood, called, Room Essentials. (more…)

NL Architects is attempting to domesticate, or urbanize, wind energy design by creating aesthetically pleasing wind turbines. These small generators can be integrated into urban landscapes, and provide clean, renewable energy without creating any disturbing noise.

The quiet ‘Power Flowers’ are designed to look like trees and capture renewable wind energy. The basic concept relies on Urban Green Energy’s ‘Eddy’ turbine. The Eddy turbine is a small turbine that is designed for residential use. Power Flowers use either 3 or 12 Eddy’s on their wind tree to capture as much emission-free energy as possible. (more…)

Our ever-growing population creates million of tons of landfill-clogging organic waste everyday. Nevada-based Ecologico-Logic has created a device they call ‘The Muncher‘ to quickly transform that waste into nutrient rich compost. The Muncher is an aerobic digester that uses mechanical, chemical and biological processes to convert solid waste into revenue-generating compost in less than an hour. The machine aerobically breaks down green waste, rotten food, meats, most organic, some inorganic compounds and derived municipal solid waste, in a fraction of the time it takes to traditionally compost similar material. (more…)