Ecoscraps

In the second annual Radical Innovation in Hospitality Awards competition, sponsored by the John Hardy Group and Hospitality Design (HD) magazine, an oil rig hotel & spa took top honors (and the $10,000 prize).

The winning design came from the Houston office of Morris Architects.

“The Rig is much like the ICEHOTEL. It’s that kind of unique experience. We were trying to create a hospitality experience that is unique and fully rounded, and interesting enough that people are interested in doing it. The work with the Rig is not to make it a one-liner, but to prove it as a serious proposition—really investigating it,” Douglas Oliver, the firm’s director of design, says.

Morris Architects estimates 4,000 oil rigs will be abandoned in the Gulf of Mexico within the century.

Source: Jetson Green and Hospitality Design

A company in London has struck a deal with the London Fire Brigade, scoring a win-win. EaKo takes old hoses off the fire department’s hands, turns them into products — bags, wallets, place mats, belts and more — and then sells them, splitting the proceeds with the Fire Fighters Charity.

EaKo’s Web site says:

EaKo is constantly thinking about waste. The instant we met the London Fire Brigade we fell in love with their old hose. Although we started in London, EaKo now collects hose across the UK and in order to thank Britain’s Brigades, 50% of our profits go back to the Fire Fighters Charity. We scrub away all the soot, grease, and everything else that builds up after 25 years of active duty, and in the process reveal a truly remarkable, truly green textile.

The company also reclaims waste coffee sacks, scrap sail cloth, used air-traffic control flight strips, repurposed sunglasses and optician’s boxes, pewter for our belt buckles, and decommissioned office furniture textiles.

Photo: EaKo

Gerd Niemoeller, inventor and the owner of Swiss-based The Wall AG, has devised a relatively inexpensive and lightweight paper home (approximately 36 square meters/400 square feet) for the poor and otherwise in need. The London Times reports:

Retailing for about $5,000 (£3,375), the house is supposed to brighten up Third World shantytowns and provide quick shelter for long-term refugees. The Universal World House can be used almost anywhere: light, easily assembled, environmentally friendly, earthquake-proof and, crucially in the age of recession, a bit of a bargain.

Sources: TimesOnline and gizmodo.com

Natural Beeswax product manufacturer Burt’s Bees recently gave their employees hazmat suits and had them jump into two weeks’ worth of company trash. What some people will do to keep their job…

Actually, what they found was surprising. When the clouds of dirt and dust cleared, they had found recyclables that will total $25,000 in annual savings for the company. Burt’s Bee has “zero waste to landfills” by 2020 goal, and over the last several months they’ve gone from 40 tons of waste per month down to just 10 tons per month, according to president and CEO John Replogle.

And what better way to get closer to that goal than dumping the garbage from the past two weeks into the company’s parking lot and having employees sort through it? Actually, this exercise has helped employees be more accountable for the things they’re throwing away, something that a memo couldn’t possibly achieve. They’ve also done other green-related activities to drive the message home, and employees who are repeat recycling offenders face disciplinary action.

Ode Magazine tells it like this:

ZenBiz Radio with Allan Holender is a new kind of talk radio for good! ZenBiz Radio is a media project about making a difference : Inspiring interviews with “zentrepreneurs” who are creating a new world of business for good!

The radio show joins efforts of zentrepreneurism.com and sedonatalkradio.com to cybercast globally from Sedona, Ariz., and Vancouver, CAN.

All timber harvest plans (THP) in California must comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); however, logging companies and the state have largely ignored the enormous increase in global warming emissions caused by clear-cut logging practices.

CEQA requires greenhouse gas emissions resulting from a project to be quantified, as well as, THPs must identify ways to avoid or mitigate the emissions. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the conservation group calling for the greenhouse gas requirements of CEQA to be followed:

Requests to clear-cut thousands of acres of California’s forests are currently before the state Department of Forestry . For example, the Swamped Timber Harvest Plan would alone clear-cut 424 acres. None of the requests address carbon emissions, however, as required by CEQA. This is an especially serious problem given that the published science shows that clear-cutting can remove more carbon from the forest than any other disturbance, including fire.

Ikea is going plastic bagless. Last year the Swedish king of oh-so-cool home economy — by various definitions — committed to cut from 70 million bags to 35 million. It passed its goal, reaching a current 92 percent reduction. Now the goal is to use no plastic bags.

Source: Greenbang

Wal-Mart claims its Love, Earth jewelry line is eco-friendly because consumers can trace the mine origins to the “Jewelry Sustainable Value Network”.  Pam Mortensen, vice president and divisional merchandise manager for Wal-Mart, said:

Wal-Mart recognizes that our customers care about the quality of their jewelry and its potential impact on the world. With Love, Earth, customers are getting an affordable and beautiful piece of jewelry that also helps sustain resources and strengthen communities.

Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, the Center for Biological Diversity disagrees the mines are sustainable and busts the company for greenwashing:

“The mines in Utah and Nevada and the factories in Peru and Bolivia where Wal-Mart claims its gold for Love, Earth is ’sustainably mined and manufactured’ are not monitored or certified by any credible independent agent,” says a Sept. 11 statement from Global Response, which is based in Boulder. The retail giant is “taking advantage of people’s genuine concern for the planet and luring them into purchasing a product that … is extracted at great cost to the earth and to human communities.”

Image:  Daylife

Apple finally listens to Greenpeace. The iPhone maker is rumored to release their next-gen MacBook with eco-friendly aluminum.

AppleInsider claims that the next version of Apple’s MacBook is ready to start production stateside, and that the iPhone maker has upgraded the laptop eco wise. The notebook’s plastic parts have been replaced by more eco-friendly aluminum. This news comes on the heels of announcing a greener iPod Nano last month -  which also comes in green! This is a nice step forward considering the bad marks Apple has gotten in the past by Greenpeace.

Image source: Brianfit from Flickr

For the second quarter of 2008, Exxon Mobil reported a record-breaking profit of $11.68 billion, the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history! That is $1,485.55 a second!

Via: CNN Money

Image:  Greenpeace