With a flight from New York to LA consuming about 5,000 gallons of jet fuel, it's safe to say there's not much sustainable about the act of flying. The new Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport attempts to offset this carbon-intensive eco-unfriendliness with some next-generation green design. The remodeled terminal, designed by architects from Gensler, opened in April of this year at......read more
The site of an abandoned tobacco plant in Louisville, Kentucky will be repurposed into an innovative 24-acre community farming hub by Rem Koolhaas's firm, OMA. Local farmers will be able to grow, sell, and distribute food at the $50M facility -- called "the Food Port" -- which is set to break ground in the summer. The masterplan for the site "reflects the full food chain," and includes spaces......read more
Using organic, kiln-dried wood from rubber trees that no longer produce latex, Plan Toys has been producing safe, environmentally-friendly toys for over thirty years. On the musical side of the company's offerings is this colorful xylophone that promotes children's natural sense of harmony and rhythm. The 5 bars, colored using water-based dyes, produce pleasant and melodious sounds that......read more
Light, durable, and sustainable, cork makes an excellent choice of material for all manner of consumer products. Even better is when the cork itself is recycled, as is the case with Besta Cork, a Scranton, PA.-based startup which partners with Cork Reharvest to create products from recycled wine corks. Among Besta's early offerings is Corkit, a cheap, non-toxic......read more
Texas indie-psych band Midlake recently dropped their new album, Antiphon, their first release with guitarist Eric Pulido on vocal duties since the departure of former singer Tim Smith. Now the band has shared a new video for "The Old & The Young," the album's second single, and it's a perfect match for their bucolic sound. UK director Ollie Murray filmed the clip on a sheep farm near his......read more
In an age when babies are using iPads, it's nice to have toys around that harken back to a simpler, less digital era. This timeless builder block set is a perfect example. Handmade by artisans in Middlebury, Vermont, the 78-piece set helps encourage budding imaginations with varied blocks all sized in multiples of 1". The wooden blocks are crafted from locally sourced, sustainably harvested......read more
Justin Gillis for The New York Times: HELIGOLAND, Germany — Of all the developed nations, few have pushed harder than Germany to find a solution to global warming. And towering symbols of that drive are appearing in the middle of the North Sea. They are wind turbines, standing as far as 60 miles from the mainland, stretching as high as 60-story buildings and costing up to $30 million......read more
Los Angeles-based sculptor and ceramicist Kelly Lamb pays homage to visionary architect Buckminster Fuller with these geodesic half-dome planters. To make each piece, Lamb and her team slip-cast clay in custom molds before firing them in the kiln. Whereas most ceramic pieces have a "foot" on which to stand, Lamb's Geo Planters can sit or hang any which way you please. The satin-glazed planters......read more
In 2010, entrepreneur John Edel bought a four-story, 94,000 square foot factory in a bankruptcy sale. The sprawling red brick warehouse, built in the 1920s next to Chicago’s Union Stockyards, used to process bacon and ham. Today it is home to The Plant Chicago, a vertical farm housing 11 small-scale food businesses, from bakers and kombucha brewers to aquaponic farms growing......read more
We're not into advocating for single-use anything around here, but there are some instances where disposable stuff is basically a must. And when it happens, you gotta do it right. Leafware brings sustainability, sturdiness, and leak resistance to the disposable dinnerware game, with a line of plates, bowls and platters made in India from fallen palm leaves. The leaves are pressed together using......read more