Eco Friendly Product Guide

The tricky thing about this product is that it has not been fully developed, it has no price tag (though you can expect a big one when finally one day in the far distant future, if ever, these cars roll off the production line) and you cannot even order one.

The best you can do is go to the Fly the Road website, choose your model (see above) and “pre-register”. By choosing the model, exterior and interior colors and saying what you will be using it for, you are sort of telling the developers (who are heavily funded by venture capital and partnered with businesses of similar ilk) what the market wants. If the market is comprised of people who fill in online forms for cookie California startups, that is.

If you are interested in looking at a vehicle that combines all the disadvantages of motor cycles, small cars and fighter jets with a notion of saving the planet, then the Venture One (prototype under construction is your dream vehicle.

My only question is, does it fly by night?

Cell phones, Mp3 players, digital cameras…all of these have become pieces of everyday life that we are now used to. They are convenient, and many of us cannot picture life without them. Good for convenience’s sake, but bad when it comes to using energy.

No need to fear, with these advances in technology comes advances in saving energy. Now there’s the Hymini, a charger that stores energy collected from wall plugs, renewable DC inputs, wind, and sun. As a result, you can use this energy to recharge an array of electronic devices, from your Mp3 player, to PDA, to cell phone…any 5V device.

That’s right, you can now rock out to (insert hipster band name here), while knowing that your battery was charged in a green, eco-friendly manner.

The price of the Hymini ranges, typically $59.99 for a solar powered device, or $49.99 for a hand held device.

Either way or, it’s a great way to do something positive for the environment while enjoying the convenience of modern life.

Have you ever looked around at your house and said to yourself, “gee whiz, everything here is plugged into an outlet. Do I even need all of this stuff to be plugged in? In addition, what stuff is taking up the most energy?” Well, the good news is, you are asking all of the right questions. If you answered yourself back, there may be a little bit of a problem, but if you are looking for a solution, the staff over at P3 international has the answer you are looking for.

P3 International has manufactured the Kill A Watt, which monitors how efficient your electronic devices really are. All you have to do is plug your household device in question into the Kill A Watt, and the LCD display measures how much energy is being used by the Killowatt-hour. From there, you can try and figure out how much energy each device uses per day, month, year…you get the idea.

You can purchase this innovative device from Clean Air Gardening for $39.99, a small price to pay for figuring out how much money, energy, and resources you could save with your home energy consumption

Here’s a neat idea: how about a Solar Powered Laptop Bag? Available through ETS ENERGY, the Voltaic Generator is the first solar bag on the market with enough power to charge your laptop!

The solar panel on the bag generates up to 17 watts of power, and comes with a battery pack. In addition, other devices can connect to the bag via USB or car chargers. In keeping with the eco-friendly nature of the bag, the fabrics are all made from recycled soda bottles…so not only are you saving batteries and power, but you are keeping those plastic bottles out of landfills, where they take close to 1000 years to decompose!

Keep in mind the bag isn’t cheap, it will set you back $599. However, when you think of it, it’s really a small price to pay in the long run. You will be cutting your energy costs in half and doing something really good for the environment.

Your computer, scanner, copier, printer, telephone…you have seen them before, all plugged into the power strip underneath the desk. It’s not uncommon to see a half dozen things plugged into one power strip. While some may not think twice about this sort of thing, the eco-freindly consumer sees it as an enormous waste of energy and resources.

However, there is an answer to the power strip problem. BITS Limited has created a wide variety of Power Strips that are energy saving, and really a cool idea. The strips range in price, from $18-$50, depending on your power needs.

The idea is this: the strip takes energy from one device and stores it, to power your other devices as well. Thus, it’s able to conserve more energy and make it an excellent choice for the energy-concious consumer who is also busy with work and is on the computer frequently. It’s perfect for the busy telecommuter or office woker who spends a lot of time at his/her desk.

You’re going to be working anyway. Might as well save some energy while you’re doing it.

The SideWinder Cell Phone Charger is an excellent way to ensure that you will always have power for your phone no matter what. The nice thing about this charger is that it’s friendly to the environment. Instead of wasting energy charging the phone, the energy used is spent by turning a hand crank. Therefore, you are doing the environment a service, and cutting down on your energy costs.

Not to mention, it would particularly come in handy if you are out camping in the woods and something goes wrong. No need to worry about an outlet or a dead cell phone wherever you are, just make sure you have the Sidewinder with you, and you are in business.

Be advised…if you are using a Motorola Razr or a Motorola Q, the adaptor will not work with your phone. Consider going phone shopping before going on that weekend trip to a cabin in the woods if you have one of these phones and are not very MacGuyver-ish when it comes to camping.

The Sidewinder Cell Phone Charger is available through GreenFeet.com and costs $29.95. It typically ships the next business day, and works with the majority of phones out there.

Gas prices are on the rise. Sometimes, you don’t want to spend the money on gas, other times you are just looking for a more eco-friendly way to get around town. Some people buy a scooter, which will conserve gasoline usage, but eGO Cycles has come up with an even more environmentally friendly, green solution to getting around the city.

A 10 year warranty is available, and the cycles are an excellent way to conserve energy usage. If you want a little bling to your sweet ride, the SE model even comes with some 5 spoke alloy rims. There is a model available for everyone’s unique lifestyle needs.

Introducing the eGO Cycle 2. Electronically powered, rechargeable, and gasoline free, these different models of scooter range from $1549-$2149 and can travel up to 25 mph…perfect for getting around town, around the city, and running those errands day to day.

Of all the crazy “eco-friendly” products available now, these cute little solar lights are certainly among the least offensive.

It is a bit hard to see just what those little lampshades are made of (I am afraid they are constructed of some unnamed recycled garbage) and yet these lights have a certain whimsical charm about them. Each of your five lights has a differently shaped lampshade – hummingbird, dolphin, star, dragonfly and butterfly. The one featured here is the hummingbird, I think.

You should consider buying a set of these if you want to introduce your children to sustainable energy (these lights are solar-powered and turn on automatically when the light levels drop) and want them to think you are in touch with your inner child. The nice part is that the lights are so small they will fit even in a container garden. Each Solar Animal Light is only 33 in. high.

You can say that again

The blurb says “You will surprise your friends when they suddenly light up in your flowerbed”. There is no cause for concern: it is not your friends who will light up in your flowerbed but the little solar power animal lights themselves.

Buy a Five Pack of Solar Animal Lights from RecycleWorks for £37.10

Just what the world was short of — until now –a tote bag with a built-in solar panel so your phone, iPod and camera “stay totally charged while you are on the beach”.

As the manufacturers say with a breathtaking lack of self-consciousness: “We have built the world’s first heavy-duty solar beach tote that incorporates our high-tech flexible solar panel. With the Juice Bag Beach Tote, your phone is good to go, and your camera is always ready for that one great shot — no matter how far you are from a power outlet.”

Obviously, you’re a deeply environmentally aware person, which makes you intelligent and sensitive, not to mention clued-up and sensible. I therefore ask you to consider whether a Reware price tag of $249.99 for this piece of insane vanity can be justified in any way.

Funny that the Finnish have made such an uninspiring little environmentally friendly cell phone. Obviously Finland is not as green as all that — not the Nokia folk in Finland anyway.

They have taken the standard Nokia 3110 phone and grudgingly, it seems, added a couple of recycled doodats to the pack. Pity they did not green up one of their leading edge models such as the N95 8GB.

Clearly the leading edge market could not give a hoot for global warming.

So what you get with this so-called Nokia 311 Evolve is a very limited sense of helping the environment. Forget about having a fully biodegradable handset. It does not exist.

This mediocre little mobile has covers made from “over 50 per cent renewable organic unpainted material”. Wow. This apparently “reduces the carbon footprint incurred by its manufacture”.

Which does not say much for the manufacture of the other 48 billion Nokia cell phones. No wonder Nokia has entered the world of politically-correct cell phone manufacture with such obvious reluctance; it calls attention to stuff.

If you really want a plain little cell phone with no frills and links to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in its browser bookmarks (yes, it comes standard folks!) then the Nokia 3110 Evolve is for you.

Order one from Reghardware for £149 and save the earth one SMS at a time.