image courtesy treehugger.com

What's the best electric car, green cookbook, or nature app? Who's the best celebrity activist? Or the best-looking endangered species (spoiler alert: it’s the Black-Footed Albatross)? TreeHugger’s Best of Green 2012 will answer these questions and so many more.

This year’s list – with 120+ winners in more than 100 categories, including Readers’ Choice– provides plenty of inspiration in green design, science, technology, and living.

And just in time for Earth Day, the Best Green Message on a T-shirt: "Run, Forest Run”:

sheer awesomeness

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green building

An increasing number of individuals and businesses seem truly dedicated to lowering their impact on the environment. And this obviously translates directly to the buildings they occupy.

Science Alert recently reported strong demand for sustainable building:

• 64 percent of respondents believe that sustainability is a critical business issue.  (Jones Lang La Salle global corporate occupier survey)
• More than half of global construction firms expect to be fully committed to green building by 2013. (McGraw Hill Construction report)
• Sustainability was ranked the number one industry opportunity over the next five years, and one of the major risks included failing to adapt to a carbon-constrained future. (Davis Langdon 2011 Construction Sentiment survey)

And several industry experts make predictions on what green building trends just might help meet that demand. Find their predictions here, here, and here.

What green building trend would you most like see succeed?

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screenshot from "Garbage Dreams" at PBS.org

My smart phone is so bored; it might as well be a rotary for all of the complex tasks and forward-thinking I ask of it. And the only green action it gets is when a fellow 3former calls with a sustainability 9-1-1 (can Mardi Gras beads be recycled?). Enough said.

So it’s time I take the leap into the world of apps. And my first-ever app just has to be one that helps reduce my (or 3form’s) impact on the environment. Shouldn’t be too hard to pick one out of the 40,300,000 results I get when I search “sustainability apps.” Ugh.

Fortunately, a lot of other folks have done the heavy lifting for me. There are plenty of lists of must-have sustainability apps – here, here, and here. There are even apps that help sustainability professionals keep up on important trends. Nice.

And after I post this, I will be putting my recycling skills to the test with the eco-game Garbage Dreams. If you call and I don’t answer, please just leave a message. And use the comment section below to tell us about the sustainability apps you like best.

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then and now

NASA recently released "Blue Marble 2012," a series of images stitched together to create what they call the "most amazing high definition image of Earth."

The Suomi NPP satellite collected the data for this composite image from a number of swaths taken of the Earth on January 4, 2012. NASA says the satellite is the first of a new generation that will collect information to improve understanding of long-term climate change and short-term weather conditions.

Check out a behind-the-scenes look at how the image was created (the satellite is at an altitude of 512 miles but the image appears from a perspective of 7,918 miles) and a really cool slide show about the satellite launch.

If you really want to enjoy Blue Marble 2012, check out the original high-res image (it's huge). Can’t imagine we’d need any more inspiration than this to take better care of this beauty.

The image above compares the original Blue Marble image taken by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972 (left) and the new image taken 40 years later (right).

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via Cyclehoop

While I was searching for inspiration on how to encourage more 3formers to get out of their cars and hop on a bus or bike, I stumbled across these images. The photos are really effective at achieving their goal – simply to demonstrate the difference in amount of space required by buses, cars and bikes when used to tranpsort the same number of people.

Do you have any favorite images that help educate about sustainable behavior change? If so, send us the link!

empty that road!

London Transport Museum

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winner: Nicole Chang

3form recently partnered with Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles to introduce their students to an important credo around here: high design + low impact.

We sponsored a course, 3form Sustainable Materialization: Upcycling and Reimagining Waste, that challenged the students to use manufacturing waste that would have otherwise ended up in the garbage heap or recycling bin as an interlayer for a 3form Varia Ecoresin panel.

In this hands-on course, the students designed three 8-inch by 8-inch prototypes. The top prototype (as chosen by 3form’s design team) is now being considered for addition into the 3form product line.

The winning design was created by Nicole Chang and consisted of encapsulating cardboard ribbons into 3form’s popular Varia Ecoresin. This design was chosen because of its beautiful aesthetic and its use of a common waste stream – one that we have plenty of at our finger tips.

In fact, 3form recycles about 35 tons of cardboard each year, and the EPA estimates that 31.4 million tons of cardboard gets discarded annually in the U.S.

With any luck, this innovative course prepared the students to enter the workforce with an eye for lower-impact design. Hopefully they now realize that waste is a symptom of an inefficient process and working to reuse it makes terrific business sense. Reusing waste reduces the amount of materials destined for the waste stream; but it could also help avoid the use of virgin materials in the design process and increase the recycled content of the final product.

Reimagining waste as a 3form interlayer is a positive step, but it is not without its challenges. Some of the items that need to be considered:

• Does reusing this waste stream leave the environment as good as or better than before?
  
• How is the material currently being disposed of?
  
• Is there a steady supply?
  
• Is the supply consistent in terms of aesthetic attributes (e.g., color and gauge)?
  
• Are the materials generated nearby?
  
• What resources/processes (energy, water, chemicals) are required to ready the material for use?
  
• Does the material affect recyclability of the product at end of use?
  

But the most important consideration of all, how can this waste be prevented in the first place?

the class and their creations

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season's sparrings

Is your eco trainer taking vacation days this holiday season? Don’t worry, you can keep fighting the good fight on your own. If you need help going fifteen rounds, check out the Sierra Club’s Holiday Survival Guide. This isn’t the guide to help if you get caught in an avalanche. But it might help if you get caught in a climate change spar with your sweet but confused Cousin Mervin.

Favorite take-away message: “There are a lot of different people open to green ideas if you frame it right and talk to them with respect.”

Not ready to go toe to toe because you haven’t kept up with the green headlines? Never fear, Grist’s Top Green and Gristy Stories of 2011, The NY Times Green Blog, and the various green posts available at Alltop will have you in peak condition in no time.

Classic line from Grist: “More horrifying [than screwed up weather] is climate's ruination of all that is good and holy: chocolate, peanut butter, bacon, oysters, wine, beer, bourbon, even coffee.”

Thank goodness humor doesn’t release any greenhouse gas emissions or contribute to landfill waste. We need a lot more of it as we take off our gloves and work together to affect positive change in the new year.

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3form's Waste Stream Team conducts a surprise waste audit - a lot of work goes into being this trash savvy

How do we celebrate America Recycles Day at 3form? By taking home the trophy for Utah Recycler of the Year and a Utah Zero Waste Award, that’s how! We’re thrilled that the Recycling Coalition of Utah and Utah Recycling Alliance have recently recognized our efforts in increased recycling and diverting materials from the landfill.

This recognition means a lot to us and gives us extra energy to keep working hard to become a zero waste to landfill company.

But enough about us. Today is America Recycles Day. Organizers say it’s one day to educate. One day to motivate. One day to make recycling bigger and better 365 days a year. Sign the pledge and let the whole world know that you’re pledging to make a difference this year.

P.S. - Happy ONE YEAR anniversary to translucent today!

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working in the veggie bed

3form is delighted to be a sponsor of the youth gardening programs at Wasatch Community Gardens in Salt Lake City. Through after-school sessions and field trips, these programs teach young students how to grow and prepare their own food.

Students gain a connection to nature and get their hands dirty planting and harvesting a variety of veggies. They also learn to prepare their bounty and enjoy snacks like refrigerator pickles, kale pesto, solar-oven pizza, and garden fresh salsa.

This year, the Gardens partnered with Utahns Against Hunger, which helped enhance the nutrition components of the gardening curriculum and taught children to make connections between the food they eat and their health.

In 2011, 525 youth participated in the City Roots program and harvested almost 3,500 pounds of produce – a portion of which students donated to local food banks (an important lesson in compassion, too).

There is something special about seeing children enjoy veggies they helped grow and just months before swore they’d never eat. One young man summed it up best, “The ones at the garden just taste different!”

loading up the wheel barrow

harvesting carrots

shoveling soil

sifting soil

time to eat

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Jean Hansen of HDR and I are happily discussing green design

As part of 3form’s Greenweek festivities this year, I was fortunate enough to travel the west coast and meet with members of the architecture and design (A + D) community who have set themselves apart as leaders in sustainable design. It was inspiring to hear what motivates them, what green design concepts they’re most passionate about, and how they ended up being so involved with this important effort.

To see for yourself, check out our brand new Green Leaders video. You’ll be glad you did. I definitely walked away from these discussions extra motivated to find ways to further reduce our environmental impact. Our hope is to continue the conversation and find additional inspiration by visiting other regions – so please let us know about firms and individuals in your local A + D crowd who are leaders and innovators in sustainable design.

Thank you to the following firms who helped make this video possible: HDR, Perkins + Will, SERA, ZGF Architects, Leddy Maytum Stacy, Anshen + Allen – part of Stantec Architecture, Zagrodnik + Thomas, Streamline Development, KW Designs, Martinez + Cutri, and Bainbridge Design.

"Action!" Paul Spadone of Streamline Development is ready for his close up

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