Environminimalist

Harvard’s New Guide to Healthy Eating “The Healthy...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:56:44 -0500

Harvard’s New Guide to Healthy Eating

“The Healthy Eating Plate can be your blueprint for planning a healthy balanced meal, and it fixes key flaws in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate.”

via yankodesign “Quantum Tap gives you a good reality...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:06:15 -0500

via yankodesign

“Quantum Tap gives you a good reality check on how much water you ‘think’ you use and the actual. Working on the lines of how syringe works, the tap activates by pulling up a pump action-handle. Scaled markings on the stem of the handle indicate the amount of water that will be released by pulling the handle to a specific correlating height. You can choose how much water you want to use and pull up the handle accordingly. The faucet looks neat and the idea pretty simple; my only concern is soapy hands and a messy tap.”

Quantum Tap is a 2011 red dot design concept winner.
Designers: Dennis Kulage & Michael Scherger

Yet another thing to add to the list of the things that would make the “Quantified Lifestyle” a realistic contribution to more sustainable consumption. I want everything in my household (especially things that use utilities) to tell me how much and how fast I’m consuming resources. Imagine setting goals for consumption as you do a financial budgets! (If you do that sort of thing). What if an entire city could set goals and meet them as a community?

Photo

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:52:25 -0500

Patagonia – The Cleanest Line: Don't Buy This Jacket, Black Friday and the New York Times

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:06:06 -0500

Patagonia – The Cleanest Line: Don't Buy This Jacket, Black Friday and the New York Times:

minimalmac:

Nothing about the Mac. Everything about what we believe in.

Like usual, another great brand choice.

Black Friday

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:41:26 -0500

I made no purchases, and I’m fine.

curiositycounts: After The Story of Stuff and The Story of Cap...

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:26:20 -0500

curiositycounts:

After The Story of Stuff and The Story of Cap and Trade, cultural myth-buster Annie Leonard goes after the brokenness of America’s “dinosaur economy” with The Story of Broke

This fills me with equal parts hope and cynicism. Let’s hope the future of government transparency includes a web/iPhone app that lets me sort/filter politicians by “supports dinosaur economy subsidies” and has my best interest in mind. I wish I was kidding…

bauldoff: I really like the concept and the sentiment behind...

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:37:11 -0400

bauldoff:

I really like the concept and the sentiment behind Nathalie Stämpfli’s Soap Flakes, a bath device that easily dispenses shavings from soap bars. Stämpfli developed a wall-mounted version (pictured), as well as a pepper-grater-esque hand-held version.

I always love to hear the designer’s individual stories and rationale behind interesting inventions like this. Among her motives for creating Soap Flakes, Stämpfli has a personal dislike for the “weird slippery” sensory experience of handling bar soap, yet she prefers the ecological efficiency of it to liquid soap. She explains further on the project page.

I also recommend browsing through Nathalie Stämpfli’s other design explorations.

This is how the world changes for the better: individuals taking experimental steps to extinguish their own personal annoyances and sharing their results. Mankind ends up reaping the benefits.

via Designspiration

via jxnblk: Holy crap I want one of these. More support to the...

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:32:09 -0400

via jxnblk:

Holy crap I want one of these.

More support to the idea that simple, intelligent monitoring is the future of conservation at the personal level.

pieratt: zachklein: The Empathic Civilization This fills me...

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 01:45:22 -0400

pieratt:

zachklein:

The Empathic Civilization

This fills me with pride and hope for the era we live in and the generation we’re a part of.

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your..."

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:57:06 -0400

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to
getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into
small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one.”

- Mark Twain

Malthus, by Conceptual Devices via lifeattractslife: A...

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:05:29 -0400

Malthus, by Conceptual Devices via lifeattractslife:

A synopsis:

“As designers we give ideas a form and we transform them into things. We can’t certainly solve the world’s challenges, but what we can do is to create a concrete storytelling about them. A narrative.

Malthus is one of these tales. It is an in-home aquaponics unit designed for the next generation kitchen or living room. It grows one meal a day: a portion of fish and a side salad. Aquaponics farming is a technique that combines the cultivation of fish with the growing of vegetables. The fish provides rich fertilizer for the plants and in return, the plants clean the water from the tank. The fish and the plants co-exist in a symbiotic relationship.”

A link to learn more: http://bit.ly/lI45av

Take away:

Emulating nature’s perfect recycling (making no true waste) needs to be our aim.

"Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap."

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:03:27 -0400

“Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.”

- Ira Glass

(via Dave Caolo)

via curiositycounts: The Mountain – certifiably the most...

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:07:44 -0400

via curiositycounts:

The Mountain – certifiably the most spellbinding timelapse yet, of (mostly) the Milky Way from El Teide, Spain

There’s certainly something instantly gratifying about time-lapse videos that we miss in viewing our surroundings in real time. It pulls hours and hours of moments and forces you see the big picture; colors shifting from day to night, the sway of trees, the way the wind moves across everything. Unachievable with the naked eye? Nah. Spend more time doing nothing but observing the smaller details and you’ll find each single frame more interesting as a whole. Be concerned how each moment moves to the next, how real time lapses. Meditation has many forms…

Take your time.

zenhabits: Fantastic short film: (notes on) biology (by ornana...

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:15:24 -0400

zenhabits:

Fantastic short film: (notes on) biology (by ornana films)

Haha, this is fantastic! This about sums up my educational career. Studied Biology, doodled while I took notes… and now i’m a graphic designer/illustrator for an a startup that I’m very proud of.

As Pablo Picasso once said “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

I saw the picture of your backpack, and I'd like to recommend using Eagle Creek's Pack-It System (http://www.eaglecreek.com/packing_solutions/). I'm fairly certain it will change your life!

I fell in love with the Pack-It cubes and Pack-It sacks during my recent around-the-world trip, and I refuse to travel without them now, even on short trips.

Separation, compartmentalization, organization! You'll never again have to rip your bag apart looking for the one item that's slipped to the bottom.

P.S. - Your blog rocks!

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:25:00 -0400

Thanks for tip!

I think the picture you’re referring to is actually an Eagle Creek pack (mesh compartment)… right before I put into my backpack. They seemed to have revamped their look as well diversify utility and sizes of what they offer nowadays.

My Eagle Creek’s products have held up wonderfully. I seemed have inadvertently collected enough of their packs to the point where I’ve put together my own “pack-it” solution that works well for me. One or two for base-layer clothing, one for miscellaneous gear or objects that typically get lost, and a smaller Sea To Summit toiletries bag.

I do highly recommend utilizing a packing solution much like what Eagle creek has put together for you here. Like alternativeoperations said “ I’m fairly certain it will change your life!”.

P.S. - Right back at you. Your blog rolls! Seriously, keep it going.

This is exhilarating just to look at.

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:16:13 -0400

This is exhilarating just to look at.

thedailywhat: Green Initiative of the Day: It was announced...

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:37:38 -0400

thedailywhat:

Green Initiative of the Day: It was announced yesterday that PepsiCo will soon begin manufacturing a biodegradable bottle composed entirely of plant material — this despite Coca-Cola Co.’s recent assertion that it would be years before a 100% plant-based bottle could be produced.

Materials used include switch grass, pine bark, and corn husks. PepsiCo plans to eventually begin incorporating organic leftovers from its food business.

According to PepsiCo senior VP of advanced research Rocco Papalia, the way the new PET bottles feel and protect their contents is indistinguishable from their plastic siblings. “We’ve cracked the code,” he is quoted as saying. “It’s a beautiful thing to behold.”

[ap via csm.]

This is a huge deal. While it’s still a mass produced bottle, it’s evidence that a large corporation can innovate towards a direction where the product can have a complete life cycle that includes a natural degradation process. As most of what we produce, plastics take an un-natural lifespan to decay… and even then, what was decaying wasn’t anything the Earth’s natural biosystems could collect and re-use on it’s own (at least within a reasonable time frame). And if it’s true, that they’ve created something biodegradable, we are another small step towards becoming as efficient as our nature counterparts, a system that produces no un-usable waste.

Now, my less optimistic nit-picky qualms:

While named third in the list of the bottle’s manufactured contents, I predict that a large portion of the bottle’s contents is corn husks. Farm production of corn is amassing it’s own set of environmental problems… mostly to maintain our culture’s fast food bingeing. Perhaps, Pepsi’s next step could be lessening it’s use of corn in it’s product altogether, bottle and soda contents.

And now the thing I’m stuck with is why isn’t all of the soda’s contents, the thing we ingest, as natural it’s container?

A picture I took a week-ago while packing base-layers for a...

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:41:03 -0500

A picture I took a week-ago while packing base-layers for a light hike and overnight camping. I like to section off things in my backpack by utility and usage.

Patagonia Footprints - Product Manufacturing Maps

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:57:00 -0500

Patagonia Footprints - Product Manufacturing Maps:

alternativeoperations:

Visually explains Patagonia’s supply chain, sourcing strategy, and considerations of sustainability for a number of its products. I think this is way cool, and I wish more companies from all industries would follow Patagonia’s lead.

I’m a fan.

My Sunday morning in San Falasco Hammock Preserve. Perfect for...

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:48:50 -0500

My Sunday morning in San Falasco Hammock Preserve.

Perfect for trail running. Broke in my new Patagonia Specter shoes. I’m very pleased.