Ekoneko

Ronn Motor Company

panu — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:58:00 +0300

While I'm at the keyboard... I think it's very powerful to change the attitudes first: ecological cars don't need to be boring. See Scorpion, the opposite of boring, by Ronn Motor Company. Wow!

PLUP

panu — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:39:00 +0300

(Sorry - long break. That's what an interesting job does to you.)

A new Finnish company PLUP for bottled water has recently come out to the public. They have designed a new kind of water bottle (beauty is in the eye of beholder) and they will donate 10 euro cents of each bottle sold to preservation of the Baltic Sea.

I wrote earlier that Chicago has issued a tax on water bottles. Interestingly, PLUP is volunteering to pay a similar tax - naturally with the obvious aim of using this as a marketing means.

I think the cause is very good. The Baltic Sea is in an abysmal condition, especially in the north, where it is damaged by waste by agriculture and of course by the large cities, like St Petersburg. However, I'm wondering if the company would genuinely want to be environmentally friendly, could they simply promote drinking tap water instead...

This raises one interesting thought, however. If you have to buy bottled water, for example when you are travelling and forgot to bring your own water bottle, is it better to buy an expensive branded water bottle (Plup, Voss, pick your favorite) or something non-branded and bulk? Would you not pay for intangible goods like design and brand in the expensive waters?

Graphics update

admin — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:44:00 +0200

I have now updated the appearance of this blog. I hope you like it!

All the credits go to my colleague and friend Felice Mancino, the greatest graphic designer I have ever known. Thank you, Felice!

My html+css skills don't really do justice to his original designs, though.

Laptop vs PC energy consumption

panu — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:56:00 +0200

I just saw today a nice demo of the power consumption of laptop, desktop PC and a mobile device. Of course I knew that laptop beats PC hands down, but this made it really concrete.

Additionally, the comparison to a mobile device gets one thinking how we could drive this even much, much further!

Eco-tax on water bottles

panu — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:39:00 +0200

Starting 1st January this year, Chicago has added a 5 cent tax on every water bottle sold. The Daily Green reminds about the seven deadly sins of water bottles.

Good idea for any area where drinking good quality water from the tap is an option! I don't mind paying a bit extra on the occasion I need something to drink. I have to confess that I quite often go for a (diet) soda, but I don't think the price has much to do with the choice, as some skeptics say in Chicago tribune.

CheatNeutral offsetting

admin — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:12:00 +0200

Just for fun this time:

Cheatneutral is a tongue-in-cheek website that makes fun of carbon offsetting by comparing it to offsetting the cheating in a relationship.

Seriously, the point that these guys make is very good.

Ozocar

admin — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:03:00 +0200

I was earlier reporting of an environmentally friendly taxi service in London. Thanks to Harri K, I have now a pointer to a similar one in US New York area, Ozocar. "Service, style, and sustainability" - very similar lingo to Climatecars in London.

Good to have such a choice!

Both Treehugger and NYT report that hybrid taxis are on the way.

Save your trash

panu — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:47:00 +0200

Local newspaper today reported of a guy called Ari Derfel from Berkeley, California, who has saved all his trash for one full year. He is telling about his experiences in his blog. He has a full set of pictures of the piles as well.

I like his message a lot. There's no such thing as 'away'. A bit similar thought than the Blue Man Group video some time ago, where the message was that there are no emergency exits on earth.

PS. Some of the pictures look like my garage when I haven't done the recycling for some time. I'm glad that I don't need to store those in the living room, though.

Recycling mathematics

admin — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:15:00 +0200

I have the luxury of having a garage where I can store stuff. Car is not one of them - there's never enough room for it.

Garage is my temporary storage for all recyclable materials. I try to recycle all paper, cardboard, metal, glass, garden waste and wood. I also try to recycle any larger burnable material, e.g. styrofoam or other packaging e.g. after a larger purchase. (Shamefully, I don't recycle biowaste, yet.) Today it was the time to take the recyclables to recycling containers around in the neighborhood. We needed to drive with a full car twice.

Where I live, I can recycle paper, cardboard, metal and glass for free. If I would put the same as mixed waste in black plastic bags and let the garbage guys take them, it would cost me 2.27 € per bag. Two car fulls of junk is maybe some 15 bags. I just saved close to 34 €!

For garden waste, burnables and wood I can drive to the nearest recycling center. With sorted waste, that costs 5 € for a regular car (trailers or vans will be more expensive). For each load of about 8 bags, I'll save again some 13 euros. For non-sorted junk they'll charge 11 €. By the way, I find the recycling centers one of the best services by the local authorities. The centers are super clean and easy to use, and on top of that, the personnel is very friendly. They also rent big trailers for 5 € for transporting junk back to the recycling center.

The most tangible way of seeing the savings is of course when taking the bottles back to the supermarket. Today, I returned 98 bottles and 19 cans, and I got 20 € in return. I bought a very nice bottle of red wine (Italian Barolo) with that. That'll compensate nicely for the half an hour of extra trouble!

Live like you teach

admin — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:04:00 +0200

In our neighboring country, Sweden, king Carl Gustav has publicly been a proponent of sustainable living. Aftonbladet has earlier reported that the king is recycling and offers rather tap water than bottled water. As he likes his cars, so far he has had 9 gas-guzzlers in his garage. However, today Aftonbladet reported that the king has been seen driving a Volvo S30, a compact car with fairly good exhaust values. I'm happy to see that people don't just talk anymore, but also act. Especially it's important that public figures show a good example in this.

By the way, if you are interested in the exhaust values of cars, have a look at the Ekoake search service by Finnish authorities. You can search for cars with the max CO2 emissions or gas consumption. If you see such services in English, please let me know!