If you read my blog regularly you know that I love shipping container buildings and that I will one day build a home out of them.  I am very happy to report that Salt Lake City will be home to an amazing shipping container condo development!  You can read more about it in the Salt Lake Tribune Article Here.  This is exciting and wonderful news for Salt Lake City and a wonderful opportunity to show everyone that these buildings can and do work.  Another great feature of this project is that over 50% of the building will come from recycled materials.

You can learn more about the actual project here and see floor plans here.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune and City Center Lofts

My wonderful grandma used to annoy me to no end when she would say "oh, we used to do that. That's not new."  But you know, Grandma was right!  Almost always I might say!  Take a look at the car in the Cosmopolitan Magazine ad below.  Published in 1913. 

Now, the truly wonderful things is that you can own this car again, soon.  Brand new and straight out of the factory. 

From the companies websiteand press release:  "In a joint announcement, US electric car pioneer ZAP (OTC BB: ZAAP) and China Youngman Automotive Group announced today they are reviving the 100-year-old electric car brand Detroit Electric for their automotive joint venture. Detroit Electric officials look forward to bringing new vehicle technologies to market by 2009, and beyond that the possibility of bringing new manufacturing and green collar jobs to California."

They go on to say, "Detroit Electric was an early 20th Century electric car, perhaps the most popular in history. The Anderson Electric Car Company started building the cars under the Detroit Electric brand over 100 years ago. Anderson of Detroit, Michigan is the longest running electric car company in history, operating between 1907 and 1939. In its heyday, Detroit Electric was an American icon and the cars were very popular with customers like Thomas Edison, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Henry Ford's Wife Clara, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Detroit Electric plans to build a special edition electric vehicle based on the original Detroit Electric as a tribute for the new name of the joint venture. "

"Detroit Electric plans to introduce its first electric cars and buses in 2009. The ZAP Alias, which is under development for the joint venture, will be one of several vehicles being planned to carry the Detroit Electric brand. ZAP is planning a presentation on Detroit Electric for North American auto dealers at NADA 2008, the world's largest auto show for dealers. " 

So, there you go.  Everything old is new again and yes, Grandma was ALWAYS right! 

Source: Inhabitat and detroit electric

Everyday the field of Solar Energy is coming up a with a miraculous new way to generate power and this new way is pretty dang exciting in my book!  According to this Swansea university press releasea researcher by the name of Dr. Dave Worsley is developing a way to paint solar cells onto flexible steel surfaces used in building cladding.  This could be a very cheap way of generating solar power from the entire surface of a building without ever having to add actual solar panels.  Great for areas with tough HOA's. 

Another cool would you live in feature.  So how about it?  Would you live in a home made out of pictures frames, wine corks and relish trays?  This truly brings some truth to the old saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

You can learn more about Dan Phillips and the homes he is building at his blog here and at his website here.

The video below is awesome.  Enjoy!

It is funny how there are no new ideas. Just good old ideas that were left by the wayside.

In October of 1934 Popular Science published this article on Solar Energy and the future that it would hold for us. Why does it seem today that we are just getting to the level of information that they had in 1934? Coal and Oil were cheap and easy for so long we forgot the better way.

While you may sound like you heard it earlier today, this was written in 1934

"SUNSHINE, our greatest source of potential power, is now largely wasted. It is highly probable, however, that a few years hence science will find a way to harness the mighty energy of the sun's radiation. Solar engines and solar heating apparatus will then make it economically practicable for us to use at least a small portion of our now-wasted sunshine to run our factories, light our streets, cook our food, and warm our houses. In the United States we use, each year, something like a half billion tons of coal, a half billion barrels of oil, and fifty billion horsepower hours of water power for heat, light, and power."

Source: blog.modernmechanix.com

While Fall is the best time to plant trees, Spring comes in close as another good time.  Just don't plant in the middle of the summer. 

So if you are thinking of planting a tree this Spring, check out arborday.org for the 9 things you should know about planting trees or click on each link below to be directed to the area you want to learn more about. 

#1 - Don't Top Trees!
#2 - 1/3 and 1/4 Rules of Pruning
#3 - How to Make a Pruning Cut
#4 - The Value of Mulch
#5 - Where Roots Really Grow
#6 - Girdling Kills Trees
#7 - How to Plant a Containerized Tree
#8 - How to Plant a Bare-root Tree
#9 - Your Street Trees May Be City Trees

Watch the video below for just one more good reason to plant a tree this year.  Think of the squirrels.

I came upon this postover at Treehugger.com  today and it is absolutely worth a read by anyone shopping for a home and by agents who are working with clients in today's developing green marketplace.  Believe it or not, but it is happening and people are buying green, looking for green and need educated individuals to guide them through the greenwashed world.  This post at Treehugger can be your and their first steps to this green education, if you need it. 

#1 of the top ten tips in the post: 

"Get good help

Not long ago, if you'd have told your Realtor that you were looking for a green house, they'd have handed you a gallon or two of emerald-hued paint. Nowadays, with increased eco-awareness and energy prices going through the roof, it's not just us TreeHuggers that are worried about things like indoor air quality and energy efficiency.

When screening potential Realtors, ask them how much they know about home energy performance and other environmental issues that matter to you. Alternately, services like EcoBroker, Modern Green Living, and other green residential tipscan help you seek out a green real estate pro. Learn more about what to look for in a green Realtor in our post on Verdant Vocations: A Real Estate Agent?"

A house putting active solar to use. Photo credit: Getty Images

Source:Treehugger

The speed at which technology is changing everyday is amazing to me and what is coming about as a result of this change is even more amazing!

Can you imagine that your next light fixture will be printed on a sheet of plastic?  Get ready for it.  This article from CNETexplains GE's latest developments with flexible OLED lighting. 

When you finish with that article jump over to this article to learn how your next coke bottle may be flashing because the of the solar panels in it's bottle or how your clothes may be generating the electricity you need to charge your phone or how your windshield could power your radio and charge your battery or how.....................

Source: cnet

I posted on The Story of Stuff several months ago and after reading this quote on treehugger.com I felt compelled to go back and watch the story of stuff again and then I felt compelled to urge all of my readers to once again watch it if you haven't and watch it again if you have.  I realize that the video is 20 minutes and 40 seconds long, but it isn't a waste of your time.  I promise.  You can see it here.

I came across thison the web yesterday and I have fallen in love with it as a gardener, environmentalist and lover of the modern ascetic!  So I emailed them and asked if I could blog about it and they said yes! Read on to learn more and please visit their website. 

The product is GROW and has been developed by SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology).

GROW offers a new approach to solar and wind power that used small solar panels designed as leaves to both flutter in the wind to generate power and to garner power from the sun with solar panels placed on each leaf.  It is amazing and beautiful.  I see a ton of possibilities for the south wall of my detached alley garage. 

Left Photo:  GROW.1 on display at the Museum of Modern Art.  Currently in the concept stage. 

"GROW.1 is designed to utilize emerging technology of the photovoltaic and piezo industry. Based around a modular brick system, .1 is composed of a small number of different parts. Each brick has 5 solar leaves which have a very flexible piezo generator at their stem. The manufacturing of these bricks could happen in a roll to roll printing process where PV, conductive ink, and piezo generators can be layered quickly and efficiently. The rolls can then be stamped and formed to create leaves and connection points. Each brick is designed so that at the end of their life cycle the valuable components, i.e. photovoltaic and piezo, can be stamped out and up cycled while the reusable material, i.e plastic, can be up recycled back into the production stream."

Right Photo:  GROW.2 will be available soon and is a working model.

"GROW.2 is built on top of a stainless steel mesh system designed and manufactured by Carl Stahl Decorcable in Germany. Their system is designed to enable plants (such as ivy and other crawlers) to grow up the sides of buildings without causing damage to the buildings themselves, a typical problem of many vertical gardens.

Our leaves are made of 100% recyclable polyethylene, and are available in a variety of colors and opacities. The solar cells are thin film flexible photovoltaic modules encapsulated in Tefzel, and are manufactured by PowerFilm Solar. GROW.2 is a flexible system that can adapt to most building types, sizes, orientations and latitudes. We have the ability to provide varying degrees of opacity to modulate heat gain, light transmission and view. Because of our modular design, future iterations of GROW.2 will be able to include more efficient and less expensive PV modules once those products are both available and cost effective. This modularity also makes GROW.2 easy to support and update: if one leaf should fail, we can replace it very easily."

Source:  SMIT