Because of its recognized “sustainable” characteristics, bamboo has become very popular in recent years as the material of choice for the eco-product and high end furniture and flooring industries. The fact is that in the west, we are just beginning to uncover the world of possibilities that this almost miraculous plant has to offer. Bamboo is a highly renewable resource and when combined with innovative technologies and processes, it’s one of the most useful, versatile and probably the most sustainable building material available today. To top it all out, it’s beautifully!

In certain applications, bamboo provides structural characteristics that outperform even the most technologically advanced industrial building materials, it has greater compressive strength than concrete and about the same strength-to-weight ratio of steel in tension.

It takes an acre of trees to build the average American home but because of its dense and rapid growth, only the square footage of that same house to build it out of bamboo. It can be harvested every year after only 5-7 years of growth compared to 20-50 years for other woods. Bamboo’s rapid regeneration allows it to be cut without killing the plant. Read the rest of this entry »

With the mainstreaming of everything green lately, we have heard a lot of noise from PC makers as they unveil their latest environmental campaigns. Although Apple and Dell have gotten more exposure, HP and the other major players are also taking action. As we read through the fine print, we realize that these initiatives mainly consist of highly essential but somewhat boring stuff: (apple) finally phasing out the most toxic chemicals such as Brominated Fire Retardants and PVC, (Dell) finally launches a comprehensive recycling service, (HP) delivers their first gold rated EPEAT product (not very innovative as far as design). My point is that there isn’t really much to get excited about, most of these steps taken are expected and pretty basic, non of them really step out of the green box and delve into sustainability.

Recycling services and responsible materials should quickly become industry requirements, but who will be the first to actually gamble on a change of paradigm, who will take the first major plunge into redefining what a PC could be. Where can we look for a broader spectrum of creativity within the “transition towards sustainability” that the computer industry must undertake?

Enter the annual Microsoft/IDSA Next-Gen PC design Competition. I dug around the entries to filter out some more inspirational examples of what a sustainable personal computer alternative could be like in the near future.

The BulbPC sports a very interesting form factor and is designed to be a sustainable computing solution by encouraging enterprise on a local community and village scale. All the components can be made from readily-available materials like up-cycled aluminum. The minimalistic design makes it highly versatile and can be easily built or disassembled by hand and a standard soldering iron.

The hu-bi concept consists of re-using discarded PC components that may be obsolete in developed countries and reassembling them into modular PC’s for poorer developing countries. Even the casing can be made from recycled older PC’s. This concept would force a lot of e-waste back into an industrial cycle giving new life to otherwise discarded parts

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As the global warming phenomenon pours attention on the booming carbon trading market (over $30 billion in allowances last year), water has fallen to the curb. Clean water is by far the most basic requirement for sustaining human life and can actually be considered a prerequisite for peace especially in developing countries.

We are all aware of the giant business that is bottled water but how much is a pure source of natural water worth today in the open market? How much will it be worth fifty years from now, more than gold? The soon to begin construction Pascua Lama project at the foothills of the majestic Andean Mountains is evidence that when compared to gold, the value of water even an almost eternal source of the purest in the world is almost negligible.

The Pascua Lama project by the Barrick Corporation consists of literally moving glaciers around to get to the gold and silver underneath and then supposedly putting them back. I say supposedly because it has never been done before and it’s a daunting undertaking to say the least. These glaciers make up the Cuenca Hidrografica de Huasco, a source of pure glacial water in the northern border of Chile (my beloved country of origin) and Argentina which feeds more than 20 rivers that lead to the agricultural region below.

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