If you’re a maker just starting out your journey in sustainability, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to get started. From understanding the types of materials to utilize, learning what steps will help reduce waste and emissions, and finding inspiring new ways to explore creativity that don’t have a negative environmental impact. The good news is there are plenty of resources available for DIYers looking for ways to make their projects more sustainable – from simple switches you can make today, big-picture ideas for longterm change, or exciting new ways makers are helping push sustainability into the future. In these blog posts we’ll look at tips tricks and ideas specifically tailored towards diyers and makers on the road to creating projects with greater eco consciousness so that not only will you create something beautiful but also respect its impact on our planet!
Yesterday I went to visit my wonderful mother-in-law. She is an herbalist, and literally every space of her land that can be a garden is a garden. Her name is DeAne Wilson, and she has taught me many of the things that I now know about plants. Several years ago she planted a veggie garden, […]
SOLO-TREC is outfitted with a series of tubes full of waxy phase-change materials. As the float encounters warm temperatures near the ocean’s surface, the materials expand; when it dives and the waters grow cooler, the materials contract. The expansion and contraction pressurizes oil, which drives a hydraulic motor. The motor generates electricity and recharges the batteries, which power a pump. The pump can change the float’s buoyancy, allowing it to move up and down the water column.
Tiffany Threadgould of RePlayGround reports in with photos from last night’s Green Up Scraptacular at Terracycle’s Port Authority Green Up shop in NYC. Above is tiffany wearing a a Target plastic bag dress with a workshop participant who made a party hat from a cereal box and refashioned her t-shirt with Megan Nicolay of Generation […]
How Porsches are made… via NOTCOT. Rolling off the assembly line and taking the world by storm in 1964, the Porsche 911 is now one of the world’s iconic sports cars. From the modest 911 Carerra with a top track speed of 185 mph to the 911 GT3, a street legal racecar that tops out […]
Clematis is just about my favorite plant. It is a flowering vine, with literally endless variations. It’s a vigorous grower, and can be easily trained to climb trees, trellises, or along a railing. The different types indicate their flowering tendencies and their pruning needs- for instance, some clematis are deciduous, and loose their leaves in […]
Glassblower Nick Paul of Chicago drinks beer. (Hopefully, he has some friends who help him out with it, from time to time.) Then he takes the empty bottles and blows out their necks to make flat-sided tumblers. Then, in a stroke of packaging/marketing/recycling genius, he puts them back in their original six-packaging and sells them through his online storefront, Windy City Glass. The tumblers have smooth, rounded rims and are annealed to relieve internal stresses. No part of the original bottle is wasted. I love the green-on-green simplicity of his Heineken glasses, above, but the gestalt awesomeness of his Arrogant Bastard Ale tumblers, pictured below, may prove irresistible to me. If I know me, you folks have about an hour after this post goes up before I cave in and buy them for myself.
GreenPost is selling a PDF tutorial sharing her method for making plantable gift tags. Tiny seeds are embedded into beautiful handmade paper. Instead of discarding them, literally plant them in the garden and watch the seeds sprout. I love this project, and I love that she is offering this tutorial for less than the price […]
