Iconoculture: Brooklyn, New York’s Habana Outpost restaurant combines Latin American food, environmentally friendly operations and community activism.

One of a chain of three restaurants, Habana Outpost is an avant-garde eco-eatery and gathering place for neighbors, environmentalists and artists. The solar-powered restaurant has a courtyard with recycled plastic picnic benches and uses plates made of sugar cane and biodegradable cornstarch cups.

Experts on living a green lifestyle conduct workshops before audiences enjoying Cuban and Mexican dishes. Local filmmakers show their short movies every Sunday. A Kids Corner features coloring books. A flea market takes place every Saturday.

Combining the cachet of Latino tastes with the active awareness of sustainable causes attracts an educated, upscale crowd with disposable income. Some of the most innovative businesses incorporate Latino tastes as part of their business plan.

Going green at a NYC Latino eatery [Iconoculture]

cNet News: This summer, teams from 20 universities are busy building enough homes to make an entire "solar village." The off-grid, self-powering homes will be on display for 10 days in October on the National Mall in Washington D.C., competing in the Department of Energy's 2007 Solar Decathlon.

The point of the competition is not to create new building technologies. On the contrary, entrants have to use commercially available products to demonstrate that a sun-powered home can be commercially reproduced. For a university like MIT with access to high-efficiency, NASA-grade solar electric panels, that was an unwelcome constraint.

A group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has already begun construction of its off-grid solar-powered home, called MIT Solar 7 and drawing in students and advisers with expertise in everything from electrical storage to mechanical engineering. It's part of an MIT-wide commitment to energy-related research to address climate change.

As the student leader on the project, Fucetola, who spends four days a week at the site, has become something of an evangelist, recruiting volunteers by asking interested passersby to get involved. "I tell people in elevators about this," he said.

The team hopes to sell off its creation as a way to fund MIT's entry in the next Solar Decathlon competition in two years. (Realtors have expressed interest.)

Energy geeks compete for coolest solar home [cNet News]

Iconoculture: Our current alternative energy source of choice is "crowd farming." That practice — which turns the energy people create as they walk, run and otherwise go about their daily activities into electricity.

The system could be installed in areas of high pedestrian traffic, placing blocks below the normal flooring that bounce and rub up against each other as they're stepped on. This movement is then harnessed and turned into electricity.

America is on the search for alt-energy sources. From wind power to crowd farming, the need to wean ourselves from standard sources of juice and find greener alternatives is inspiring innovators who hope to embrace a savvier, more sustainable future.

Crowd farming is definitely not a residential innovation, but nightclubs, fitness centers and college campuses are popping up as possible venues to harness the power of the people and throw it back into the system.

MIT hopes to "crowd farm" power from campus walkers [Iconoculture]

Trendwatching: UK supermarket Tesco plans to introduce carbon footprint labels on all 70,000 products it sells to allow shoppers to compare carbon impacts. Implementation will take a while: the company is currently investigating how to develop a “universally accepted and commonly understood” measuring system.

What works for bananas, works for eggs. Aptly naming their site wheresyoursfrom, UK-based Chippindale Foods was the first company to offer customers full egg traceability. Also check out intermediary MyFreshEgg, which aims to be bringing the same services to a host of farms and egg producers.

Life Story Labels [Trendwatching]

MercuryNews.com: The 7-in-one planters' buddy is an ingenious, trowel-like garden tool that truly multi-tasks.

Why it's cool: You'll probably find way more than seven ways to use this slick new stainless steel tool (and the fact that it could double as a weapon of self-defense isn't even one of them). The serrated edge of the six-inch blade makes quick work of opening balky bags of soil and mulch. The blade tip reaches hard-to-get weed roots. The straight edge cuts sod and a sharpened notch nips twine. The blade is embossed with measurement markings for planting depth (one to six inches), and it's a guide for plant spacing (the tool is exactly one foot long). The plastic handle has a flat end that can be used to whomp in stakes or fertilizer spikes. And this baby makes quick work of planting bulbs and seedlings.

Stuff we dig: 10 cool new products for gardeners [MercuryNews.com]

Iconoculture: Architects Mitchell Joachim and Javier Arbona teamed up with environmental engineer Lara Greden to dream up the ultimate tree house — a two-story, water-recycling, solar-powered, living crib. They're testing techniques for growing a weave of vines and trees that will form a lattice-like outer structure. Inside walls will be packed with clay and plastered.

The team is experimenting with a soy-based film for the windows that would expand as the house grew.The trio say a house would take about five years to grow. They envision tree-house farms where growing houses are tended and homeowners can pick out a finished house for transport as far as 100 miles.

Fab Tree Hab isn't environmentally friendly — it is the environment [Iconoculture]

TriplePundit: NPR has a great little piece today about the destiny of the (cue Carl Sagan) billions and billions of plastic water bottles that we go though every year, the majority of which end up in a landfill.

About 23% however, do wind up being recycled into various uses, typically carpeting or other downcycled products. Interestingly the majority of this new-found raw material is shipped to China. Although it's very interesting that China has found a way to purchase and profit from our waste, what peaks my interest most is wondering about the remaining 77% of PET bottles that are being tossed in landfills. Sound's like a monumental business opportunity to me.

The PET Bottle Glut - Looking for Solutions [TriplePundit]

Trendwatching: UK supermarket Tesco plans to introduce carbon footprint labels on all 70,000 products it sells to allow shoppers to compare carbon impacts. Implementation will take a while: the company is currently investigating how to develop a “universally accepted and commonly understood” measuring system.

Last year, footwear manufacturer Timberland started placing a "nutritional label" on each shoe box, educating consumers about the product they are purchasing, including where it was manufactured, how it was produced and what effect it has on the environment. Nice touch: messaging inside the box asks customers "what kind of footprint will you leave?" and provides a call to action for them after purchase. Hey, it takes two to tango!

Environmental Concerns [Trendwatching]

Bigfork Eagle News: Julian Cunningham started Swallow Crest Farm in 1999, a few years after moving his family to this scenic area on LaBrant Road. He taught a preschool for three years before deciding his heart was in farming -- and he wanted to grow the healthiest food possible.

Local wildlife helps him control pests, for instance. He’s put up 40 “swallow houses” to attract swallows and bluebirds, which eat almost all the insect pests that might threaten the three gardens full of vegetables and berries. Hundreds of swallows swoop through the air overhead, fearless of the humans in their midst.

“We have no mosquitoes,” Cunningham said as the birds flitted around, catching insect prey.

The fertile Creston soil is “as good as it gets” for raising produce, he said. To lengthen the growing season, he starts his cool-season crops in greenhouses and “hoop houses” that look like mini-greenhouses made of white plastic sheets draped over half-circles of plastic piping anchored in the soil. Hoop houses allow Cunningham to plant directly in the soil while providing the protection of a greenhouse.

Indeed, the hoop houses are full of mature mixed lettuces, arugula and other salad greens by early May. These are the first crops that will be delivered to more than 100 families who subscribe to the bounty of Cunningham’s farm. He and Kip Drobisch of Raven Ridge Farm in Kalispell are partners in a “community-supported agriculture,” or CSA, enterprise.

In a CSA arrangement, families and individuals pay a fee at the beginning of the growing season. Each week they receive a box full of locally grown produce harvested within hours of delivery. Deliveries start in mid-May and continue through October. Cunningham delivers in Bigfork, Lakeside, Polson and Kalispell. Most customers come to a central location to pick up their “shares.”

A 'new' way to farm [Bigfork Eagle]

Springwise: 3.5 billion wire hangers are tossed into landfills every year, and that's just in the United States. While the hangers are light, inexpensive and sturdy, they're not exactly bio-degradable. Hanger Network has developed an alternative: a dry cleaner's hanger made entirely from recycled paper. EcoHangers are sturdy and cheap. And because they're paper, they can be completely covered in full-colour advertising.

Everybody wins: Hanger Network creates a media network of up to 3.5 billion in-home 'views', and advertisers gain valuable entry into consumers' bedrooms for less than the price of a stamp. Dry cleaners get free hangers (wire hangers are about USD 0.08 each), and consumers no longer have to struggle with awkward tangles of wires. And on top of it all, it's an earth-friendlier solution. What's not to love? ;-)

EcoHangers: in-home advertising [Springwise]

Popgadget: It's true, I don't host many brunches or entertain a lot from home, but if I did, I would definitely get these biodegradable dinnerware sets, not just because they are attractive (call me boring, but I hate paper plates with designs on them, especially seasonal and holiday themes), but because they are made of 100% biodegradable, compostable sugar cane fiber, and the utensils are made of 80% potato starch and 20% vegetable oil.

Sugar cane fiber is a renewable resource, and these pieces are much sturdier than paper; thus they're "microwavable, freezer safe, oil resistant, and capable of handling hot foods and beverages." Never mind that some people consider using disposable dinnerware tacky when entertaining (maybe it's a cultural thing, but I grew up using paper plates at every family gathering), but if you'd rather use your fine china when guests are over, consider these the next time you're planning a picnic.

Biodegradable dinnerware [Popgadget]

Reader Mark Nagurski alerted us to the Ebay of dumped and useless items, Useful Garbage. From the website:

"Recycle your unwanted clutter or anything you deem as being useless- excluding your Partner! Visitors can ‘Dump’ anything they want to get rid of - for someone else to ‘find’ and take off their hands. From antiques and art to cars, TV’s and furniture - anything goes for FREE!

Connect with Dumpers and Finders of useful items by logging into MY Account or Registering. When ‘Dumping’, simply post your photos or a video together with a description of the item. If you cannot do either, just post your description. When you ‘Find’ an item, ask the dumper further questions or make an offer to obtain the item.

In turn, we all contribute to minimising landfill disposals, street and neighbourhood waste and the item is in the possession of someone who can make the most of it and use it again and again and again!"

Useful Garbage

TrendCentral: While they might resemble luxe golf carts, this dealership’s LSVs (low speed vehicles) offer Austin area residents a new alternative to gas-fueled travel. At 50 cents per charge (power for approximately 40 miles), with a one charge per day frequency, owners spend around $180 dollars/year to run their cars with a clean, renewable energy source. While this is clearly not an option for many, particularly those who spend hours a day in their cars driving over 35 mph (many LSVs can only be driven on roads with a 35MPH sign posted), it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Enviro-friendly Autos [TrendCentral]

Daily Mail: For the first time since it started making trousers for cowboys more than 100 years ago, the famous clothing company is bringing out a pair of "sustainable" jeans to satisfy environmentalists.

The cotton is organic, the button on the waistband is made of coconut shell, there are no metal rivets, the dye is from natural compounds include indigo and the label is from recycled cardboard.

As the factory is in Hungary, the cotton will come from Turkey, the nearest available source, and other materials will come from Europe too, to cut down on long distant transport and associated fuel costs.

Not that it will stop the trendy trousers from having a hefty price tag, at least to start off with. According to reports the first pairs in the US will sell for 250 dollars each, around £140 here.

New 'green' jeans to hit the shelves [Daily Mail]

Wired: A Florida county has grand plans to ditch its dump, generate electricity and help build roads -- all by vaporizing garbage at temperatures hotter than parts of the sun.

The $425 million facility expected to be built in St. Lucie County will use lightning-like plasma arcs to turn trash into gas and rock-like material. It will be the first such plant in the nation operating on such a massive scale and the largest in the world.

Supporters say the process is cleaner than traditional trash incineration, though skeptics question whether the technology can meet the lofty expectations.

The 100,000-square-foot plant, slated to be operational in two years, is expected to vaporize 3,000 tons of garbage a day. County officials estimate their entire landfill -- 4.3 million tons of trash collected since 1978 -- will be gone in 18 years.

No byproduct will go unused, according to Geoplasma, the Atlanta-based company building and paying for the plant.

Synthetic, combustible gas produced in the process will be used to run turbines to create electricity -- about 120 megawatts a day -- that will be sold back to the grid. The facility will operate on about a third of the power it generates, free from outside electricity.

County to Vaporize Trash - Poof! [Wired]

BusinessWeek: Martin Hughes is not your typical hybrid-driving, clean-energy fanatic. Hughes and his wife, both longtime oil-industry veterans, zoom around Houston in no-compromise vehicles. His, a Nissan Xterra SUV. Hers, a zippy Volkswagen Passat.

Yet when Hughes heard last year about an environmental startup called TerraPass Inc., he was intrigued. The Menlo Park (Calif.) company sells "green tags," which cost up to $80 a year and which are designed to offset the emissions a car spews into the air during that period. After taking a small cut of each sale, TerraPass pools its members' fees and invests them in clean energy production, including wind power. Hughes checked out the service online last August and then forked over $129 for two TerraPass windshield decals. "I was impressed," he says. "It's a for-profit product that allows you to exercise your conscience."

TerraPass is channeling the good intentions of individual consumers concerned about carbon emissions, which are linked with global warming. U.S. companies are also adopting the certificates, in part because they wish to cater to this growing, green constituency. But the tags, which are now America's fastest-growing alternative-energy product, aren't simply a marketing vehicle. U.S. businesses have watched Europe and Japan adopt tough regulations on carbon emissions and say the tags could help them prepare for similar developments in the U.S.

It's A Little Easier Being Green [BusinessWeek]

TRENDWATCHING.COM: Continuing concerns about climate change and skyrocketing energy prices are fuelling interest in alternative sources of energy. One of consumers’ major complaints though is the lack of making a real impact: separating bottles and papers only goes so far. Sensing a real opportunity, British/Scottish Windsave launched the Windsave 1000 system, a three-bladed fan (1.75 m in diameter) that connects to a building's standard mains supply. The turbine is quiet, with noise levels comparable to the sound of a person talking at normal volume. It produces approximately 1kw of electricity, enough to run a TV, DVD player, computer, fridge/freezer and several lights.

Windsave is now partnering with British Gas to market and install roof-top turbines; trials will be carried out in Scotland and South-West England later this year. Engineers from British Gas will supply and install all equipment for GBP 1,500, and it's projected that the turbines will save households up to GBP 100 on their annual electricity bills. With government-funded rebates and subsidies, consumers could earn back their initial investment in less than 6 years.

Innovation Overload [TRENDWATCHING.COM]

Reuters: Dusty Dezhou was relegated to the footnotes of Chinese history for centuries, known mainly as the place where a Filipino king died.

Now, Huang Ming hopes hot water will help put it on the map.

His company has earned a fortune manufacturing solar heaters, relatively low-tech rooftop devices which capture the sun's energy to provide water for baths and washing and are at the forefront of a renewable energy drive.

At least 30 million Chinese households now have one and last year the country accounted for around 80 percent of the world market, said Eric Martinot, visiting scholar at Beijing's Tsinghua University. "We are at 15 to 20 percent annual growth and I don't see that slowing down."

Huang says his Dezhou-based firm, China Himin Solar Energy Group, is the largest in a fragmented and almost entirely Chinese market, with a share of around 14 percent.

And the mayor is using his heating success as the basis for a bid to follow British University town Oxford and Australia's Adelaide as host of an international solar congress.

Cheap and effective enough to make economic sense to middle-class urbanites, Huang's basic models start at around 1,500 yuan ($190), although for a luxury home this could rise to 18,000 yuan ($2,250).

With technology so efficient they can work at temperatures well below freezing and under cloudy or smog-choked skies, they soon pay for themselves, he says.

Energy-hungry China warms to solar water heaters [Reuters]

we make money not art: Hybrid Muscle was both a work and exhibition space, built in Chiang Maï in Thaïland, that would generate its own electricity and thus be "unplugged" from the power grid.

The engine was driven by the muscle power of an albino Buffalo. The buffalo worked a few hours a day to lift a steel counterweight. Once freed the buffalo would lounge around the rice field and the mechanical energy stored was turned into electrical energy to power ten light bulbs, laptops, mobile phones.

Hybrid Muscle [we make money not art]

Triple Pundit: Everyone loves Clif Bar, and recognizes them as one of the more admirable companies out there by just about any measure related to the integrated bottom line. But there's one problem that Clif bar has never been able to solve - packaging. In order to keep Clif Bars fresh, the packaging has to be made out of material that is generally not recyclable nor compostable.

A little start up called Matisse & Jack's seems to have an solution for those people seeking a better packaging solution for their energy bars: They sell the mix to bake them yourself at home. Not only is it better from a sustainability concept, but you can tailor the recipe to your taste, have a bunch of fun, and know exactly what you put into it.

Matisse & Jack's Energy Bar Mix Solves the Clif Bar Wrapper Problem [Triple Pundit]

Cool Hunting: About this time of year green thumb urbanites are struggling to find corners of land, or more realistically window sill space, to grow a few little herbs or vegetables. Garden in a Bag, available at Wishing Fish, makes the process a bit smoother by including all the necessary elements to grow various herbs and even some vegetables. For $8 per bag you can get organic Basil, Oregano, Italian Parsley, Chives, Lavender, Alpine Strawberry or Mini-Tomato.

Clean Gardening [Cool Hunting]

Iconoculture: Urban escapists looking for the perfect artisanal farm like the idea of raising animals for fun and profits that don’t involve slaughter.

They’re cute as heck and they can fetch big bucks: One alpaca stud recently sold for over half a million dollars. Small wonder alpaca farming is catching on with rurbanites, who love raising the gentle South American creatures and selling their soft, luxuriant fleece.

Handweavers and knitters pay several dollars an ounce for raw alpaca fiber, which is fine enough for wedding gowns and sturdy enough for rugs. To meet rising demand, more knotted-up city dwellers and retirees are joining the padded-foot stampede. The Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association now boasts 4,188 members, up from 626 in 1994, with many of them clustered in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle Times 4.6.05).

Seen and Herd [Iconoculture]

Haaretz: Tutlui, a strawberry that grows on a bed suspended in midair, is one of the most successful agricultural inventions of the past two years. The innovation is expected to change the way this veteran yet problematic crop - a vegetable that is actually a fruit - is grown.

Despite the huge investment necessary to convert the creeping strawberry to a hanging plant, growers who have made the change report business successes beyond all expectations. The good results stem firstly from an unbelievable increase in yield. A dunam of creeping strawberries yields six to seven tons of fruit, while the hanging version yields up to 12 tons.

Moreover, of the yield from creeping plants, only between 800 kilograms and one ton are export quality. In contrast, 3 to 3.5 tons of the hanging strawberries are export quality - and that is where the big money is!

New `hanging' strawberry plant wows Europeans [Haaretz]

Wired News: Hybrid cars, trucks and buses have already hit the road. Now, make way for the Green Goat, the world's biggest hybrid. It's a 2,000-horsepower locomotive that radically reduces fuel consumption and emissions of pollutants.

The Green Goat is a diesel-electric hybrid in which the normal massive diesel locomotive engine is replaced by a 290-horsepower inline 6-cylinder diesel truck engine and a 600-volt battery bank. The batteries supply the power needed to drive the electric traction motors on the wheels of this 280,000-pound "goat."

Goat is railroad lingo for the smaller locomotives used for moving rail cars around over short distances.

RailPower Technologies, developer of the Green Goat, believes the hybrid locomotive is an ideal way to reduce fuel costs and air pollution in switching yards, said Simon Clarke, executive vice president of the Canadian company. RailPower says the Green Goat uses 40 percent to 60 percent less fuel and emits 80 percent to 90 percent fewer pollutants than conventional train engines.

To build the hybrids, the company strips older locomotives of their engine and cab but keeps the same frame, fuel tank, brakes and electric traction motors. Then it slaps in the long-life lead-acid battery bank. RailPower Technologies says the added weight of the batteries actually helps improve the Green Goat's pulling power, which is rated at 2,000 horsepower -- enough to pull 88 rail cars.

Hybrid Locomotive Gains Traction