The Nissan Leaf – a compact, five-door hatchback electric car – has been around since 2010, at least in the States. Once its lithium-ion batteries need replacement, the used battery packs have slowly filtered out into the Japanese marketplace as alternative energy sources such as back-up home generators. Now they’re venturing out into the world as battery packs for stationary energy storage. Partnering with commercial energy storage company Green Charge Network, who will provide the power management software, Nissan designed…

Wood-based furniture is usually made with timber, nails or metal fittings and glue. Over time, inherent weak points cause joints to fail, requiring us to repair or replace our favorite easy chair or dining room set. That’s the way it’s always been. Until now. Lampshades “growing” around formers, photo by Full Grown For the past nine years, Gavin Munro and his UK-based company Full Grown has worked with trees to nurture them, shaping them into one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture that…

You have to be some special kind of crazy to try and create your own electric car. Lots of people have tried, and lots have come unstuck, because at the end of the day there’s an awful lot that can go wrong with your design and plans. For example almost all the electric cars featured on this page are no longer in existence. It’s a tough world out there. Especially with the major manufacturers like Nissan and BMW engaged in…

Back in the day everyone who was anyone knew that the best way to store your food, especially the stuff that you grew yourself, was deep in the ground. In Sweden they called these places Jordkällare, or earth cellars, and they were very useful. Now a new instant fit version has been produced by the Dutch, which looks rather interesting.

There’s way too much plastic in the world and the lion’s share of that is used for plastic water bottles. Too often, those bottles are getting tossed rather than recycled. Thankfully, the W Hotel chain is doing something about that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Kz-8LasKo&feature=youtu.be W Hotels now feature Ekocycle sheets, a brand of sheet developed by Coca Cola in partnership with rapper will. i. am. First introduced in North America on April 13th, these eco-friendly sheets are made from 30 percent rPet polyester,…

Warming temperatures are being felt in many areas around the world as drought conditions continue. The answer to how to keep buildings cool while keeping energy costs down may lie in utilizing older technology in a new, innovative way. California-based design studio Emerging Objects has developed 3D-printed porous bricks called Cool Bricks that can be filled with water to lower room temperatures. Utilizing evaporative cooling, an old technology where dry warm air is cool through the use of water evaporation…