Cool & Interesting

Photo: dalexeenco

School is a testing ground for the way we perform later in life. It can mold us into fine upstanding members of society, or not. While environmental responsibility isn’t something we have to learn early in life, it certainly makes things easier. College can provide just such an opportunity as highlighted in this month’s Sierra Club magazine. Read the full story on TreeHugger

Check out Double Impact, a site in beta that donates money to a charity you pick every time you take a small step to becoming more sustainable. Pretty cool idea and seems to be done really well – the site is actually fun to play around with.

Enjoy.

All images via Ryan Frank.

Ryan Frank may have moved his design studio to the sunnier climes of Barcelona, but he is still getting great commissions back in London, where he’s made a name for his funky ways with reclaimed materials. The latest project is a collection of outdoor furniture for the National Theatre‘s Terrace Bar & Food, which has …Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image credit Lumenhaus

We have shown so many different kinds of green buildings on TreeHugger, and many readers want to try them out, kick the tires and to see what the hype is about. Some owners have rented them out; One of the first to do so was the Lumenhaus (no relation to the Solar Decathlon winner), one of the first of Rocio Romero’s LV House designs, built in 2005. Visitors appear to love it, calling the modern prefab dropped in rural Virginia “the perfect mountain retreat.” More at Lu…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image credit: Tuvie/Eddie Gandelman

The idea of urine separation to ward off peak fertilizer is not exactly new. But while some of us get to pee on our garden mulch, or urinate on our compost heaps, infrastructure for large-scale urine collection in an urban environmen…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Lots of human waste stories today!

ReVision bar stool made with 200 plastic bags. Photo: courtesy Artists of Humanity

From Artists of Humanity comes an innovative design that turns more than 200 plastic shopping, dry-cleaning or newspaper bags into a colorful plastic bar stool, called “ReVision.”

Made by inner-city youth in Boston, Massachusetts, the stools received the Social Responsibility Award by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) at the 2011 Architectural Digest Home Design Show in New York City. Photos:…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo: Dano

I’m sure your gag reflexes are in full effect right now and they should be. This is a weird one. A Japanese researcher has come up with an artificial meat that’s made from human feces. According to Inhabitat, Japanese scientist Mitsuyuki Ikeda has come up with a burger made from soya, steak sauce essence, and protein extracted from human feces. …Read the full story on TreeHugger

I think we’ll just stick with worm poop feeding our gardens!

Patagonia Fall 2011. Photo: Patagonia

Patagonia continues to take a sustainable approach in their collection of outerwear for men, women, and children for fall 2011. All styles are recyclable through
their Common Threads Recycling Program, more than half of the collection
is made with environmentally conscious fabrics, and 36% is made with bluesign® -
approved fabrics.

The range of styles merge fashion with function and add a bright pop of color to ordinarily…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo credit Fisher Paykel.

Thus far, the search for energy-efficient, beautiful and small appliances for Graham Hill’s LifeEdited apartment has been, if nothing else, revealing. Manufacturers, while they generally make small models, don’t seem to be giving them the attention to eco-effiiency and maximum functionality that a small space deserves and demands. Fridges and freezers, for example are not generally designed with smart interiors cap…Read the full story on TreeHugger.

Image via YouTube video screengrab

The Plastiki has a new competitor — the Polli-Boat. A prototype of this concept boat set sail in Taiwan this week in celebration of World Oceans Day, and it’s eco-credentials are impressive. Made from plastic bottles, old advertising banners, and other “trash” (read: misplaced raw materials), it boasts six solar panels to power an electric motor wh…Read the full story on TreeHugger