Nest – the Learning Thermostat

Visionary Tony Fadell who, back in the day, was in charge of the iPod at Apple *just* launched a brand new product called Nest, the world’s first Learning Thermostat.

Nest learns from your temperature adjustments, programs itself to keep you comfortable, and guides you to energy savings. You can control the thermostat from anywhere using a smartphone, tablet or laptop, and Nest never stops learning, even as your life and the seasons change.

 

Learn more at http://www.nest.com.

Mf, studio, dbda

The Worldwide Campaign To Knit Sweaters For Penguins

Many blue penguins were caught in a recent oil spill off the coast of New Zealand and a yarn store called Skeinz has come to their rescue. They came up with the idea to knit sweaters for the affected penguins who are waiting to be scrubbed clean, this way they won’t injest the oil when they preen themselves. Sweaters have been pouring in from all over! What a wonderfully creative way to help!

As it stands right now they may have more than enough sweaters but you can keep tabs on the situation via the link below!

Skeinz blog: http://theyarnkitchen.blogspot.com/

(via BOOOOOOOM!)

MF, studio, dbda

 

 

 

 

 

Functioning Lego greenhouse

“This fantastic greenhouse made entirely of Lego bricks was just unveiled at the 2011 London Design Festival. Designed by Sebastian Bergne, it is made up of around 100,000 Lego bricks. All parts of the greenhouse are made from Lego elements, including, reportedly, the “earth,” which would seem to imply that the very real vegetables growing inside are sustained hydroponically.”

(via MAKE)

How cool is this! Real stuff made of toys

MF, studio, dbda

Film Biz Recycling

Film Biz Recycling a fantastic Brooklyn-based non-profit keeping furniture and props from film sets out of the trash, creating socially responsible and sustainable solutions from media industry waste.

Shame there is no way to buy from them!

(via swissmiss)

MF, studio, dbda

Drivers to blame?

In a poll by the IAM, 58% of respondents said that drivers should be held legally responsible for accidents between cars and more vulnerable road users in pedestrian-priority zones.

The most sophisticated pedestrian zones, known as Woonerfs, originate from the Netherlands. The concept is designed without pavements and gives cars, pedestrians and cyclists equal use of the same road space. This was considered a good idea by 48% of the 4,000 respondents; with 27% giving it the thumbs down.

Neil Greig, IAM director of policy and research, said: “Our poll reveals a surprisingly positive attitude towards better protection of cyclists and pedestrians, both in road layout and legal responsibility. On the continent, attractive street design is used to make it clear where pedestrians have priority but this approach is in its infancy in the UK.

“The IAM supports any move to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, but research is needed into the best way to inform drivers about changes in legal responsibility, and also on the effect a Woonerf might have on the road sense of children brought up in such a zone, when later exposed to less protected areas.”

Act Bolder

Act Bolder is a site that helps people to trigger and discover experiences that make the world a little better, one action at a time. You can start a challenge yourself or browse through the challenge catalogue and do positive actions to earn rewards. Anyone can respond to a challenge and earn a reward. Every challenge is a unique creation started by businesses or people. Challenges pose a request for users to take action, have a little fun, and be part of something that drives positive change.

Here are some examples:

Go completely waste-free for a day
Say no to disposable bag at check-out
Make a regular work meeting a walk meeting

If enough people meet the challenge, the person posing it has to do something in return. For example: Eric A claims that if 25 people go waste-free for a day he’ll go waste-free for a week! But the site goes beyond the personal challenges, it invites companies to pose challenges..

(via swissmiss)

MF, studio, dbda

Volunteer vacation.

Brown bears in Romania

At the foot of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, there’s much more to do for tourists than climbing, hiking, and vampire hunting.

Animal-loving travellers can spend two weeks to two months volunteering in the recently opened Liberty Sanctuary, home to 55 European brown bears rescued from captivity in restaurants, hotels, factories, or circuses.

Volunteers will help the sanctuary’s staff to feed and monitor the bears, to maintain fences and facilities, to give tours for visitors or to help out in the bear hospital. And besides helping the bears, the volunteers also support the local tourism economy. (Source: Reuters)

Dealing with e-waste.

Dealing with the real world waste of the digital age has become a serious pollution problem.

Consumer electronics are clogging landfills around the world as once state-of-the-art devices rapidly become obsolete. 

In developed countries, the average lifespan of a personal computer dropped from six years in 1997 to just two in 2005.

An armada of flat-screen, high-definition TVs has replaced still-functioning CRT models simply because watching movies in HD is so much more fun.

Computer waste are left along a river bank at Yaocuowei village, China. Electonic waste contains 1,000 different substances such as lead, cadmium, chromium, and mercury—heavy metals which are highly toxic

dbda re-brands BMW Education to become BMW Group Education

The Education Programme, which has a long-established commitment to supporting education across the UK, was launched over 17 years ago as part of BMW’s corporate responsibility commitment providing schools with free, curricular-linked and award-winning educational resources covering the themes of Science and Technology (Young Academy), Energy and the Environment (Energised and Clean Energy) and road safety (Safe on the Street).

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Use of plastic bags up 5% in 2010 compared to previous years

The Guardian have published an article about the increase in use of plastic carrier bags in 2010 compared to the years 2006-2009.

In 2006, UK consumers were using 11bn plastic carrier bags, a figure reduced by 40% to 6bn in 2009. But now these figures have seen an increase around 5% in 2010 according to the government’s Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP). The reason? Well, the economy has been one supposed factor with people making more regular short trips to local stores rather than a big weekly shop.