This is Nissan’s latest electric prototype, dubbed “Mixim”. This vehicle is fully electric, with lithium-ion batteries, and two sets of “supermotors”, giving the Mixim four-wheel drive.

The Mixim is among many electric cars we’ve seen recently, most notably the Tesla Roadster features in this year’s INDEX awards. All these eco-friendly cars seems to point to a growing green trend in the automobile sector, and could clear the way for alternative-energy cars to become mainstream in the near future.

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An effective and easy method to improve mileage in your car is to ensure your tires are properly inflated. This will increase the performance of your tires as well. Unfortunately, it’s something not a lot of people do very regularly

Between 1994 and 1998, the number of respondents who had checked the tire pressure of their most frequently used vehicle in the month preceding the survey dropped by six percent. In 1998, 67 percent of respondents checked their tire pressure six or fewer times each year. Of these, 35 percent checked tire pressure three or fewer times, and less than a third of the respondents checked their tire pressure 10 or more times in the year preceding the survey. -Natural Resources Canada

Luckily all US 2008 cars will be equipped with a tire pressure monitoring system, or TPMS to make it sound cool.

This is great news however, as the system will tell drivers when they need to inflate their tires via a small warning light. It’s great for us lazy drivers who don’t particularly want to check tire pressure every week.

“Starting in all 2008 models, autos sold in the U.S. will be equipped with a TPMS, or tire pressure monitoring system. When your tire pressure is low, your car will automatically warn you by lighting up a signal on your console.” - Treehugger

via Green Family & Treehugger

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When you’re not using your monitor, it goes to sleep. When your digital camera’s battery is charged, it goes into standby. Sleep, standby-low-power, whatever the mode is called, almost all of today’s electronics have a lower-power mode which cuts down on electricity, but leaves it in a ready-to-use state.

These modes, while they use less power than leaving something on, still use power. In fact, many electronics will still use electricity even when not turned on. The result? A whole lot of wasted electricity.

Well, here comes the super-intelligent, power saving, crime fighting, Smart Power Bar. The smart power can detect the difference between a device in use, and one that’s in standby mode. It stops standby devices from getting power, unplugging them, in essence.

This can save you tons on your electricity bill, and can help reduce emissions from power plants. Even if you’re not super-eco-friendly and keep your electronics to a minimum, there’s no sense in wasting electricity.

One Click Power - Smart Power Bar: £29.99 (about $63 Canadian) from Nigel’s Eco Store

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If you think solar power is all about powering traditional lights with renewable energy, have I got a surprise for you. Scientists have just perfected a way to store light in bottles! Now you can carry around a light with you just like you would a jar of say, sugar. As long as there’s daylight, you can keep re-filling this magical jar.

Okay, so its not magic, and it’s not a new scientific breakthrough, it’s just solar power with a little human touch. The Sun Jar Solar Light has solar cells in the jar which suck in solar energy and charge the batteries. Then the batteries power some orangey-yellow LED lights in the dark. With a little frosting on the jar to hide all the circuitry, you get a jar that just glows at night.

Very inviting, and one of the best and simplest green designs I’ve seen yet.

via Nigel’s Eco-Store

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Are you a fully-obsessed eco-nut? Are you 100% off the grid? Do you only eat local, organic, vegan food?

Well there’s a lot of products on the market to feed the need for green, and make your life eco-friendly…. but what about your afterlife? Surely you can’t green death…

But you can!

Enter the ecopod, a revolution in coffins (an area that had been somewhat stagnant for the past hundred years).

The ecopod is a coffin make from 100% naturally hardened, recycled paper. Now you can go as green as you lived, perfect for the ultimate return to the planet.

ecopod: £769.00 (about $1623 Canadian) from Nigel’s Eco Store

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How many gadgets are plugged in around you right now? Chances are, there’s an iPod, Digital Camera, Cell Phone, Video Camera, Battery Charger, and a whole bunch of other devices and chargers. It’s okay, I do too, but these gadgets do take up a lot of electricity.

The Solio Mobile Phone & iPod Solar Charger is a compact solar panel array that you can use to charge your devices. That’s right! Completely green electricity for a techno-gadget world.

I did find it rather odd that a product called an iPod charger would need a separate kit to charge a modern iPod, but it’s still a pretty cool product.

Other than simply charging your iPod at home however, there’s a great use for this product on the road (car or bike) to keep these devices charged when you can’t plug in. Ever run out of juice halfway through or drive? Just use the sun!

It is also rather expensive, at £49.95 (about $105 Canadian) from Ethical Superstore but that’s what you’ll be paying for many alternative-power gadgets until the technology improves. Solar is still in it’s infancy remember!

While the price-tag makes it a bit impractical, it’s great to see more eco-friendly products, and this shows these types of products are becoming mainstream.

via Ethical Superstore

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Well in a move I would not really expect from Sony, they seem to be embracing green technology. Sony announced on Friday that they have developed asugar-based battery. Not only is this battery eco-friendly, but it can generate enough power to power an mp3 player and portable speakers. Watch your AA do that!

“Sugar is a naturally occurring energy source produced by plants through photosynthesis,” Sony said in a statement.

“It is therefore regenerative, and can be found in most areas of the earth, underlining the potential for sugar-based batteries as an ecologically-friendly energy device of the future.”

-Reuters

It’s great to see a huge company like Sony embracing green technology, and hopefully this will be the start of a trend among big business. Until then, good job Sony!

via Keetsa! Blog

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Well it was a great day, and we’ve seen some really incredible green designs from the INDEX Awards. From the solar-powered streetlights, to the life-saving solar bottle, to the oh-so-sexy Tesla roadster, this year’s awards had many impressive designs, many more than we could show here. Check out all the nominees at http://www.indexaward.dk

Here’s the whole list for reference:

10. Human Powered LED Lamp.

9. Dongtan Eco-City

8. Trackless Sustainable Watershoes

7. Airwash: Waterless Washing Machine

6. BCK Solar Cooker

5. Disease Fighting Solar Bottle

4. Green Home Cleaning Products

3. Solar Powered Streetlights

2. Waterless Urinal

1. Tesla Roadster

That’s all folks! We’ll be doing this for next year’s INDEX Awards as well, I can’t believe it’s only a year away!

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Excuse me while I drool over this eco-wonder…

The Tesla Roadster is an ultra-sexy, ultra-green ELECTRIC car. Yes, this thing is 100% electric. No more golf-carts or toy cars, electric cars have joined the ranks of their gas-guzzling brothers and sisters.

Just take a look at some of these stats:

• 0-60mph in 4 seconds
• An equivalent cost of 135mpg
• Over 200 miles before recharging
• 248hp peak
• Top Speed: Over 130mph
• Battery Lifespan: in excess of 100,000 miles
• Charge Time 3.5 hours

A Peaceful Solution to Oil Wars: You need only open the morning paper to understand the importance — and urgency — of America‘s reduced reliance on foreign oil. The instability of the Middle East makes our 58% dependence on foreign oil a dangerous and costly proposition. Look even closer and you’ll see that the lion’s share of American oil use (nearly two-thirds of our consumption) is tied directly to transportation. The time for a gasoline-free car is now. Electricity may be just one answer, but it’s an especially desirable one. As the universal currency of energy, it can be generated from coal, solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear sources — or a combination of all of them. No matter how or when the world changes, electricity can adapt, easily and safely. See www.teslamotors.com web site for more environmental benefits. The Tesla Roadster is a major breakthrough in the technology, energy efficiency, driving performance and customer appeal of an electric vehicle.

Check out the Tesla Motors website for more information
via INDEX Awards

Continue: View the Whole Top 10 List >>

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Just think of how much water is being wasted just to flush a urinal. You’re getting rid of what is basically water anyway, why use billions of litres of water a year to do it?

This ingenious design, the H2Zero, uses a special cartridge that is less-dense than urine. It thus allows the waste to pass through it, thus getting rid of it and any smell. The most important thing? It uses absolutely no water to do so. This has the potential to save billions of litres of water from being wasted, although it would need a retrofit of the world’s men’s rooms.

Now if we could only get the water-less toilet perfected and in every washroom we’d be set.

The H2Zero™ has the potential to save billions of litres of fresh water in the Australian and global environments. The vitreous china urinal incorporates unique cartridge technology that operates with zero water for optimum performance and water conservation, thus improving life anywhere it is used.

via INDEX Awards

Continue: Number 1: Tesla Roadster >>

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