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After chatting with staff about the spa’s commitment to the environment, I took the opportunity to check out what the facility had to offer first hand. Sorry, I’ve got no pictures for you as (I should have known, of course) the spa has strict rules against phones and cameras on site.

I was quite impressed! While the spa lost a few points for handing out bottled water to guests and two clean towels each, I was very impressed by their floor to ceiling windows for all natural lighting during the day and their dim indoor lighting and bright outdoor solar lighting at night.

Their brochures were all packed to the brim with informatiton on recycled paper, the toilets were all low flush and used greywater, and all of the steam rooms and saunas were run on timers as to not unnecessarily waste energy and electricity.

Everywhere you looked their were bins seperated into waste, paper, plastic, and food (for composting) — all done in very tasteful ways to incorporate it into the theme of the spa.

A lot of the spa was outdoors using nature instead of building facilites — like the hammocks and chair swings — all of which were tethered to trees instead of having a separate building for those who wish to lounge.

An outdoor fireplace stood in the middle of the outdoor pool area instead of a wasteful electric fireplace like I’ve seen in so many other public buildings.

And to top off everything, there were rainwater collection barrels scattered throughout the lot — a great use of all that space! They use the rainwater that’s collected to water the plants. Perfect.

Before this experiment I would have never noticed any of these things, I’m sure — but I’m glad I did. I’m definitely becoming more eco-concious and am certainly aware now that in a facility like that, if there’s no attempt at sustainable development and operation, it could easily be a hugely wasteful place! I was glad to see Le Nordik make such a great effort to not only be as eco-friendly as possible, but to make sure that their clients aware of these efforts, too.

Kudos, Le Nordik!

On a personal note, I highly recommend spending a day at this place — it’s beautiful! And there’s nothing like a steam bath and then a jump in a 4 degree (celcius) water fall to make you feel… alive (and so, socold)!

How fun would it have been to design these?

These cool apartments are called “The Interlace” and they’re built taking into account the surrounding micro-climate, wind and solar resources, and – of course – privacy for its residents. And what’s better? Rooftop gardens and balconies with flower beds. Built efficiently with plenty of green space. Kudos!

And hey, when trying to give directions to your place, you can proudly explain that you live in the Jenga building!

If Singapore sounds good to you, I suggest you hurry — I bet these will go fast.

What a great idea! I hope it’s as structurally sound as it looks. Well, as long as no one pulls out the wrong apartment block, I suppose…

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Thanks to nanoparticle “inks” you’ll soon be able to print off solar panels just like you would newspaper. And if that’s not futuristic enough for you, why not paint your roof in nanoparticle paint?

These products will apparently work as well as any other kind of solar cell to absorb electricity-producing sunlight and will cost only a tenth of what current solar panels cost.

Shown recently in an issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society, the inks must be printed on plastic substrate or stainless steel.

“You’d have to paint the light-absorbing material and a few other layers as well,” Korgel said. “This is one step in the direction towards paintable solar cells.”

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Sure, I don’t know how practical it is to live in such a teeny tiny cramped space — but it’s awfully neat!

This man pulls his home behind his bicycle. Might I add that this home is not only portable, it’s powered by solar and wind energy and can stand winds of 60mph and temperatures as high as 100 degrees farenheit!

I personally love the nomadic lifestyle — and with your house attached to the back of your bicycle, you could live anywhere that your bicycle can take you! And all without emitting a single gram of carbon into the atmosphere. Fantastic.

Check out TinyHouseDesign for some cool pictures of this cool mobile home!

Remember my gripe with batteries? Well this is the kind of thing that I was talking about exactly — solar powered Bluetooth headphones!

Now, I realize that I’d have a really hard time harnessing the power of the sun… in my living room… to help me spend some time playing Mario Kart, but I could definitely see the benefits of having solar powered Bluetooth technology right away!

For one thing, they’re wireless! You’d have no cords to untangle, and for someone like me that lives out of a laptop bag most days, that’s definitely a bonus. Another cool bonus? You’d have to work outside!

“Sorry, boss, can’t sit in my cubicle today — there’s not enough sunshine!”

See? All kinds of benefits. Plus, hey, no useless, heavy, landfill-populating, that’s-so-1748 batteries. I can definitely get behind that.

Alright, so when can I get some?

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While learning to be more eco-friendly, I run into things daily that I don’t quite understand. Some of it, honestly, takes me by surprise. Solar power is a perfect example. I’d love to say that I completely understand solar power, but I really don’t. Sure, I know it’s energy from the sun… I’ve seen solar panels, certainly. But do they… collect the suns rays? How do they turn the sunlight into energy?

Here’s a 7 minute video made by PG&E, a giant utility company in California, that exlains solar power and how it’s converted into electricity.

There’s also a video on PG&E’s website that’s definitely more detailed and informative. And if you’ve got the time — 1h47m, that is — I highly recommend it!

“We will have solar energy as soon as the utility companies solve one technical problem — how to run a sunbeam through a meter.” — anonymous

Made with a traditional Mason jar and high tech energy efficient lighting! Captured inside the jar are a highly efficient solar cell, rechargeable battery and low energy LED lamps.

When the jar is placed in sunlight the solar cell creates an electrical current that charges the battery over a few hours. This energy is then used at night to power the three LED lamps inside the jar.

Get yours here!

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I could have guessed that this cool solar lawnmowing robot would have been the most popular post this week! Who doesn’t love robots?

Joanne writes:

This is awesome! Kinda like a roomba for your lawn! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba

Thanks for the comment Joanne!

So, my question is: How soon do you think we’ll see this things? I mean, plenty of people have Roombas now — I want a robot lawnmower!