Synthetic cleaners scare me. A lot. I really don’t like the idea of using bizarre chemicals to ‘clean’ things. In some cases cleaning products use poisons which leaves me wondering how poisons can make a place sanitary.
Clean your house the environmentally friendly way! This video can get you started:
Mombassa is going to be home to Kenya’s first eco-city. The spread of the eco-cities is fantastic news because urban living is fun and is becoming more environmentally awesome!
Construction of Kenya’s first eco-city — a residential settlement that is environmentally, socially, economically and culturally self-sustaining — has commenced on the outskirts of Mombasa, with the first phase expected to be ready for occupation by the third quarter of this year.
The whole project will take four to five years to complete.
Going by the name Hacienda, the development, located in the Mwakirunge area of the North Coast, off the Mombas-Malindi highway, will have 6,250 housing units — of two- and three-bedroom flats, and three- and four bedroom bungalows — to be developed in 10 phases.
The plan also includes a hospital, school, playgrounds and recreation facilities, a police station, commercial centres and office blocks, among other vital amenities.
According to Urban Ecology Australia, a non-profit organisation promoting people- and nature-friendly urban settlements, an eco-city is a human settlement that enables its residents to live a quality life while using minimal natural resource
I’ve always found it fascinating that in Canada we don’t have a system in our houses that use the naturally cold air outside (during the winter of course) to cool our fridges. I’m not the only one who has wondered this.
World Changing has wondered this as well:
“…designed to provide such free cooling for walk-in coolers, freezers and cold storage warehouses. The system utilizes an electronic controller to finely tune the operation of standard refrigeration equipment, and this controller simply monitors the outdoor temperature and desired temperature settings and stops refrigerator evaporator fans when not needed, which also reduces the compressor’s refrigeration load. Proper airflow is maintained when the evaporator fans switch off by operating one or more energy-efficient circulating fans.”
A study has been released (2mb PDF) by Commission for Environmental Cooperation; and Celsias has put up a nice summery for us. They note that a simple way for us to lower our impact on the environment is to change how we construct buildings in North America.
Existing building techniques can be used to improve efficiency of our buildings.
In Canada, buildings are responsible for:
- 33 % of all energy used;
- 50 % of natural resources consumed;
- 12 % of non-industrial water used;
- 25 % of landfill waste generated;
- 10 % of airborne particulates produced; and
- 35 % of greenhouse gases emitted.
In Mexico, buildings are responsible for:
- 17 % of all energy used;
- 25 % of all electricity used;
- 20 % of all carbon dioxide emissions;
- 5 % of potable water consumption; and
- 20 % of the waste generated.
This is a neat idea that may or may not go with your aesthetic tastes, but should go with your green tastes. Inhabitat says that solar leafs can hang off your house while providing you power. Like leaves on trees, these leafs use the sun to make energy, and unlike trees, these solar shingles also get power from the wind.
Using a series of flexible solar cells as leaves, GROW takes the shape of ivy growing on a building- the leaves are solar cells while the wind that causes them to flutter is harvested as viable energy. Teresita hopes that the modular system would be readily available via the Moma store or Design Within Reach, rather than a commercially out-of-reach system like many traditional solar components. GROW also integrates an energy monitoring system for users to visualize their consumption. The leaves are made of 100% recyclable polyethylene, and are available in a variety of colors and opacities.