Around the world, there are lots of rural households which do not have access to electricity and its implications are worrying. Upon nightfall, many families are forced to use kerosene lamps, spending approximately 25% of their weekly budgets to light them. Along with its cost, it also increases the risk of fire and causes harmful smoke. In this sense, infinite […]

Opened in December 2013, Community Shop is a British supermarket that sells discounted branded products to families receiving government welfare. The project is supported by high street chains and brands such as Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Asda and Tetley, who provide stock for the store from surplus products that don’t meet their standards. Typically this stock would end up in landfill or be […]

Looking for a productive and environmentally-friendly way to combine your love of recycling with gardening? A new product called Petomato allows aspiring gardeners to convert plastic bottles into hydroponic micro gardens by filling the bottle with water and replacing the old cap with the Petomato seed-filled alternative. Placed in a sunny location, Petomato seed-filled caps are a great alternative for […]

Eight years ago, Scott and Julie Brusaw had a vision of replacing the asphalt on American roadways and parking lots with energy-producing solar panels that are strong enough to withstand vehicular traffic. After a lot of experimentation and funding struggles, the couple and their company Solar Roadways just unveiled their first parking lot made of hexagonal panels! The road panels […]

It’s almost time for balcony gardening, and this compact solution can be a perfect contender for a limited outdoor space. UrbMat is a small-space garden idea that takes the guesswork out of growing your own herbs, vegetables, and flowers. All you need is a small area of dirt or a raised bed 3X2 feet in size to get started. The seeds come in […]

Clean energy got a big boost this week as Ivanpah, the world’s largest concentrating solar power plant, officially started generating energy for California’s electric grid. Located just southwest of Las Vegas, the massive solar facility can produce a whopping 392 megawatts of solar energy to power 140,000 California homes with clean energy–the equivalent of removing 400,000 metric tons of carbon […]

Boîtes d’Échange Entre Voisins — or Neighborhood Exchange Boxes — are a network of brightly-decorated repositories where residents can leave books, toys or other items they’d like to give to the community. The idea, which was conceived by public art organization Tako in collaboration with the City of Geneva, is a fairly simple one — boxes big enough to hold objects […]

South Africa’s Street Store doesn’t just help to clothe the homeless, but also gives them the retail experience of choosing their own wares. With the idea to give the homeless the same dignity as customers who can pay, The Street Store sets up their pop up cardboard shops around Cape Town, inviting customers in need to peruse at their will. […]

The ‘Woof to Wash’ enables specially trained dogs to unlock the machine with a bespoke footpad and start it with a simple woof. A doggy footpad and a microphone system have been added which recognise a dog’s bark. This means that dogs are able to unlock the machine by pressing the pad with their paw and pull a rope with their mouths […]

Hakken’s Precious Plastic recycling system consists of a plastic shredder, extruder, injection moulder and rotation moulder, which have been adapted from industrial models to be more user-friendly. Hakkens intends to make the design available online so that people can set up their own workshops, recycling and producing plastic products locally, while improving upon the design in a crowdsourced way.