Photo: merci Superfoods can be a super waste as I’ve said before on TreeHugger. From goji berries to acai, chia, and maca, Americans spend $10 billion on superfoods each year and for the majority of us, they have to be flown in from upwards of 5,000 miles away. But now Natural News may have a solution. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Goji Berries in Your Backyard Garden?

Businesses can play a key role in driving government policy action on climate change. It’s clear that carbon is increasingly becoming a strategic management priority, and governments across the globe now need to support industry in realizing these carbon-related economic opportunities.

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COP16: Why Business Should Spur Government to Act on Climate Policy

[ By Steph in Art & Design , Geography & Travel . ] The earth is pocked with giant pits like scars, left behind by mining operations that take what they seek from the land and then leave the site in ruin. But what if we could use those gaping holes as the basis of new underground cities ? ‘Above Below’, a proposal for the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition , gives one such mining pit a new life with a bustling underground skyscraper where a self-sufficient community can live, farm, work and play. This unusual inverted skyscraper design, by Matthew Fromboluti of Washington University in St. Louis, was created specifically for the massive Lavender Pit Mine outside of Bisbee, Arizona, which measures an astonishing 900 feet deep and 300 acres wide. Built around a ‘solar chimney’ that provides light and ventilation to the deepest reaches of the structure, ‘Above Below’ would be virtually undetectable on the surface, with a dome roof covered in native vegetation. The underground tower is entirely self-sustaining, with its own source of electricity and a water recycling system. Below, in the steppes of the mining crater, tiered platforms planted with crops benefit from sunlight that streams in through skylights in the roof. A light rail system would even provide an easy means for residents to reach the nearby town of Bisbee. While such underground structures wouldn’t be a viable solution to reclaiming all of the mining pits that dot formerly pristine landscapes in such places as the Appalachian Mountains, especially because such sites tend to be isolated, ‘Above Below’ is an intriguing idea for Bisbee in particular. Not only does the design completely turn the concept of a skyscraper on its head, it could be an interesting solution for habitable communities in harsh desert environments like that of Arizona. Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebEcoist: Going Green Underground: 16 Subterranean Eco-Buildings While green walls and roofs are becoming ever-more-popular ways to reduce energy costs and decrease the visual impact of buildings, there’s a step beyond that: subterranean and earth-… Click Here to Read More »» Thinking Outside the Lot: 3 Futuristic Parking Lot Designs City parking lots can be eyesores, and a lot of people look at them as wasted urban space. But what if they did more than just provide a place to put your car temporarily? Designboom and Nissan paire… Click Here to Read More »» [ WebEcoist - By Steph in Art & Design , Geography & Travel . ]

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Healing Mining Pits with Self-Sustaining Underground Skyscrapers

Despite low expectations across the board for next week’s UN Climate Summit, the countries most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions aren’t sitting on the sidelines waiting for a final agreement. Here’s how they’re taking action.

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How Countries are Taking Early Action on Climate Before COP16

 Farmers are willing and able to grow more switchgrass and other crops that will be used solely to produce energy and biofuels.

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Growers Eye Energy Crops to Diversify Land Use

Eco Factor: Sustainable university campus aims to achieve Singapore’s highest Green Mark rating. Architects at UNStudio and DP Architects have been selected to develop Plot A of the Singapore University of Technology and Design campus, which will be located on a site of 76,846sqm close to the Changi airport and Changi Business Park. The new campus has been designed to act as a catalyst and conveyor for advancement and bringing together people, ideas and innovation. The main aim of the design for SUTD was to create a campus that promotes teaching and learning in an open and transparent way. The design of the campus will facilitate cross-disciplinary interaction with the orientation of the campus designed through two main axes – the living and the learning spines which overlap to create a central point and binding together all corners of the campus. The sustainably built campus will aim to reduce energy consumption and achieve the highest Green Mark rating that is available in Singapore. Primary considerations in the design include energy efficient building orientation, in depth relation of sun and wind for maximum natural lighting and ventilation. Via: Evolo

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UNStudio’s SUTD campus proposal will promote green learning

Eco Factor: Sustainable tower generates about 8MW of wind power. An entry at the Taiwan Tower Competition, the Tower of Power by NL Architects is a 300-meter high freestanding tower with sightseeing and recreational functions. The tower incorporates 2000 flower-shaped wind turbines that generate about 8MW of renewable electric power. The striking tower hides wind turbines neatly within it to investigate how power plants of the future can be converted into objects of beauty. The tower features an exoskeleton with a structural net wrapped around the building that together with the building’s core supports the required programmatic elements. The empty spaces in between the exoskeleton are occupied by the vertical-axis wind turbines. The wind turbines used in the tower will be strong, affordable and silent and can produce energy with wind coming in from any direction. Via: Designboom

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NL Architects propose an energy generating freestanding tower for Taiwan

Eco Factor: Low-cost fuel cells developed by replacing platinum with cheaper materials. Researchers at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have created all-ceramic thin-film solid-oxide fuel cells that don’t contain any platinum. If the development could make its way into production, the world could be seeing fuel cells that use more abundant and less expensive fuels and materials. Traditionally SOFCs need platinum-coated electrodes, which can be both expensive and unreliable. The all-ceramic fuel cells are most cost effective and can be used as a reliable power source. The Harvard team has also created a micro-SOFC that draws its power from methane rather than hydrogen. Traditionally, hydrogen has been the medium of choice for SOFCs, but methane is more abundant, cheaper and needs less processing. The micro-SOFC developed by the team has an operating temperature of less than 500 degrees Celsius, which conventionally is about 800 degrees Celsius. The research team wants to even reduce the operating temperature to about 300C, at which the cells can be used in transportation vehicles. Via: Gizmag

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Harvard researchers create platinum-free fuel cells

Eco Factor: PV power plant to generate about 70MW of renewable electric power. SunEdison announced plans to build Europe’s largest photovoltaic power plant in Italy in March this year. Just nine short months after being given the green light, the company has inaugurated the plant, which has been built in a city between Bologna and Venice. The clean energy power plant will generate about 70MW of power, which is enough to power 17,000 homes. According to the company, the new plant at Rovigo is the largest single solar farm in Europe and will help in reducing carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 40,000 tons – the equivalent of taking 8000 cars off the road. Via: Treehugger

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SunEdison inaugurates Europe’s largest photovoltaic power plant

Photo via Barto MAKE is one of my absolute favorite resources for inspiration and clever ideas for projects. They’ve looked through their archives and made a list of some of the best green projects they’ve seen, and we love their list. Check out these green projects by Marc de Vinck…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Awesome Green DIY Projects from MAKE