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Fashion firm Marimekko turns to birch tree based alternative to water-intensive cotton

With demand for natural textiles spiking, sustainable companies need to look beyond pesticide- and water-intensive cotton




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Boerum Apparel sells classic sweatshirts with a fully transparent supply chain

When you buy a Boerum top, you'll know everything about where and how that item was produced.




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Meet Pact, maker of the greatest organic cotton basics

This is where your next pair of underwear needs to come from.




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Breathe easy with Knickey's fair-trade organic cotton underwear

It's a solid, sustainable choice all around.




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'Fashion's Dirty Secrets' is a film that will change your shopping habits

British journalist Stacey Dooley reveals what our fast fashion addiction is doing to the planet.




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Red Cross Uses Solar-Powered Pumps to Increase Water Access in Sudan

However the referendum in South Sudan turns out, one thing will not go away quickly: the lack of water in the region. The International Committee of the Red Cross, however, is at work on a project that will mitigate that




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Proto Home's Flexible Spaces and Efficient Core

In the "sleepy neighborhood" of Baldwin Hills in Los Angeles, a modern Proto Home sits among a mix of single-family dwellings from over the last few




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Milan Furniture Fair 2011 - Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen Restaurant by Martí Guixé

Once again Milan Design Week is here, and like most years, it is the small independent events that grab our attention. Like the Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen Restaurant, that




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Wood Design from Spain; Bicycles, Trees and Heritage - Part 1 (Photos)

After the beautiful Xylophone of the Forest I shared with you last month, I came across a selection of amazing wooden designs from Spain, both century-old and brand new ones. Confemadera put together an impressive selection




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The 2011 Spanish Revolution; How Protesters Organise Themselves to Be Green (Photos)

The Indignados (or "Outraged") have been camping in over 60 Spanish cities for almost 10 days now. What started on the 15th of May (hence the tag #15-M) via social networks has become some of the biggest and most peaceful




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Applications Open: Unreasonable Institute Looking For World-Saving Entrepreneurs

I wrote last year about the Boulder-based Unreasonable Institute's search for people who have great ideas, who think big, who want to change the world, and who seem like they can. Last year's fellowship was a great




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Furniture Companies See The Forest For The Trees (Photos)

Timeless responsible furniture design on show at Qubique Berlin this week




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What Happened to the Future?

A story from the turn of the millennium about tomorrow still remains relevant today in 2012




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Hot Sand and Skill Turns Plastic Bottles into Jewelry at Sahrawi Refugee Camp (Photos)

This technique transforms used plastic bottles into beautiful jewelry by burying them into hot desert sand -- and the project creates a sustainable business for Saharawi refugees.




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Wood & Technology Become the Axalko, a Unique Bicycle for Professional Cyclists And Nature Lovers (Video)

An amazing wooden bicycle, hand-made in Spain by two brothers for professional cyclists. The wooden frame is lightweight, resistant and beautiful!




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From A to Zierfische; Obsolete Signs are Being Saved from the Dump at the Buchstabenmuseum in Berlin (Photos)

The Buchstabenmuseum is an NGO dedicated to preserving, restoring and exhibiting old signs from Berlin and around the world. Its owners save obsolete letters from the dump and instead tell their stories. It is a museum like no other!




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Foroba Yelen, a Portable LED Street Light, Locally Made in Rural Mali (Photos)

FOROBA YELEN is the name given by villagers in Mali to the lighting prototype following an anthropologic study. A shared technology to improve work, education and rituals.




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Radio Nacional de España's Headquarters Are Solar Controlled (Photos)

Here's a building that saves up to 50% CO2 by controlling the sunlight with screens on its facade.




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Super fly hearing powers captured in miniature microphone

This biomimicry success promises advanced hearing aids as the headphone generation ages




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Repurposed parachutes become low-cost portable rainwater harvesters

Decommisioned parachutes are being transformed into lightweight rain harvesting systems to provide drinking water in semi-arid regions.




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10 low-tech tactics for living more sustainably

While advances in energy technology and smart home apps and devices have given us additional tools for living more sustainably, low-tech and simple solutions can make a difference too.




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Orkney Islands: From diesel power to 100% renewables

Huge wind turbines, solar, wave power, battery storage and a lot of electric cars—these remote Scottish islands may provide a glimpse of the future.




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9 tips to avoid illness from salad greens

In a cruel twist of irony, some of the world's healthiest food – leafy greens – have become some of the riskiest in terms of foodborne illness.




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Get ready for antibiotic-resistant strep throat

Scientists find signs that the germ causing strep throat and flesh-eating disease may be moving closer to resistance to penicillin and other related antibiotics.




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What's the best water filter for removing toxic PFAS?

Many in-home drinking water filters may not remove the most concerning contaminants.




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Here's what a year of Mediterranean Diet can do to the gut microbiome

The diet appears to act on gut bacteria in a way that helps hinder physical frailty and reduce cognitive decline in older age, researchers find.




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How to prepare for a quarantine

From what food to buy to how to access your medical records, here are the practical matters to consider before a pandemic strikes.




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If you have soap and water, don't fret about hand sanitizer

Coronavirus has led to a shortage of hand sanitizers, but worry not: The CDC generally recommends hand-washing over hand sanitizers.




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Gratitude exercises don't help with depression or anxiety

Telling people to be grateful for what they have doesn't help alleviate symptoms of depression or anxiety, according to new research.




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Will more cities ban gas hookups?

It's not likely to happen up north, especially while gas is so cheap.




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Russia launches floating nuclear reactor

What could possibly go wrong?




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Two Remaining Pieces To The Atlanta Drought Puzzle

Why a water crisis in Atlanta now? The cause is not climate alone, as Lloyd's post of today points out. Runaway growth - Georgia is the fastest growing US state east of the Rocky Mountains - and a seeming refusal to plan for the future seem to have




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Industries And Power Plants Downstream From Atlanta Also Need Water: Not Just For Endangered Species After All

When Governor Sonny Perdue of the US State of Georgia filed a legal complaint and then formally asked for the support of the Bush Administration to force the US Army Corps of Engineers to stop releasing water from Atlanta's Lake Lanier, perhaps he did




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US Department Of Interior Secretary Calls Atlanta Drought "No Longer A Theory"

US Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has reported on a compromise between three Southern US Governors who had been struggling over diminished access to shared surface waters. The language used to report this progress indicates a small




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Nature Conservancy Land Purchase Could Save Alabama's Red Hills Salamander

A little salamander that is found in only a




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Is The BP Spill Big Enough To Resuscitate The Environmental Movement?

Floating residues from the ongoing BP oil 'blowout' in the Gulf are expansive enough to be easily visible from space. Satellite photos of oil on salt water




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BP's Blowout Could Be 'The Three Mile Island of Offshore Drilling'

I'm a big fan of scenario thinking. Although no one can predict "the future," several plausible scenarios can be constructed, informing decisions made difficult by many unknowns. A good decision works in




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Southern US Apple Growers Lose 2010 Crop Due to High Temperatures

I'm not saying you can directly attribute this one to climate change, but coming on the heals of NOAA saying the past April was the warmest on record, it's likely at least a sign of things to come: The Alabama Cooperative




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Mississippi Governor Barbour Opposes Widespread Beach Berm Building In Louisiana

"People are visible Wednesday, June 6, 2007, on the beach in Dauphin Island, Ala., where a section of the $4 million protective sand berm was washed away by higher-than-usual tides over the weekend. An intact section of the berm can be seen in the




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Much Of US South Experiencing Extreme Drought - Let The Water Wars Begin

Large swaths of US southern states are experiencing severe drought




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100-1000 And Restore Coastal Alabama Partnership's Inaugural Massive Oyster Reef Restoration

Last weekend, January 22nd - 23rd , over 500 volunteers from Alabama and across the country came together in Mobile Bay to lay the beginnings of oyster reefs. The volunteers strapped on boots




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Survival Skills Are Still Sustainable, Even If You'll Never Need Them

A beautiful film celebrates doing things, like starting a fire entirely by hand, that are no longer necessary. There are lessons for us all.




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Matthew Mazzotta replaces blighted wreck with a theater in a box

In York, Alabama they now have public space where before they had a collapsing house.




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Broken iPhones recycled for stylish home decor

There is a new use for your smashed iPhone: a clock.




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Libraries as the Next Big Pop Culture Phenomenon

We just noted the rising popularity of e-books as Amazon announced sales of digital books have consistently surpassed sales of hardcover books. However, don't think libraries will turn to ancient ruins quite yet. Pop




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Forever Frugal? Survey Confirms Persistent Frugality

50% of Americans had reduced their electronics and apparel expenditures in the past 12 months, according to a survey conducted by management consulting firm, Booz & Company. They sum up their findings saying that "the impact




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<em>The Mesh</em> Explains Why the Present <em>and</em> Future of Business is Sharing (Book Review)

Lisa Gansky sees a new emerging business model emerging. One she has dubbed, The Mesh. "... one in which consumers have more choices, more tools, more information, and more power to guide those choices." A model




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This Black Friday, Occupy Main Street; Shop At A Local, Small Independent Merchant

Lets declare a day of non-action, of unoccupying the big box stores. Instead, let's support our local, green neighborhood shops that need our custom.




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Three Options For Black Friday

Not up for camping at the Best Buy? We have three less costly and more comfortable options.




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Woman Pepper-Sprays 20 In "Competitive Shopping" Spree on Black Friday

She claims it's not a problem, "It's just a food product, essentially."