Sustainable Minds has created a piece of software that can help asses life cycle impact of potential products based on factors such as materials used.

The Ceres Enviromental Park is a community-driven project dedicated to sustainable design and living.

We noticed these interesting eco-friendly sponges at a local market the other day.

A new site hopes to convince skeptical fashionistas that there is more to ‘eco-fashion’ than organic T-shirts while simultaneously trying to convince hardcore environmentalists that they need to focus their eco attention on the clothes they wear on their back.

Cubis is a packaging concept design which is claimed to be the world’s first stackable, fliptop plastic beverage container. Because of it’s cube shape, the Cubis takes up less space on store shelves, and transportation becomes more efficient (and therefore eco-friendly) as well.  The Cubis is also made out of recycled materials and can be used with one hand.  It’s scheduled to be released for use next month.
[via Lovely Package]
Related on PSFK

Nike’s Recycled Cardboard Packaging Design
Amazon Offers Simpler, Eco-Friendler Packaging
Pangea Organics’ Natural Bodycare, Plantable Packaging

This is an extract from the draft of John Grant’s new book Co-opportunity, contracted for publication with John Wiley & Sons Limited, January 2010. This extract is the introduction to the book.
My new book, Co-opportunity is based on the growing realization that sustainability is going to require nothing less than a wholesale shift to more co-operative social systems. It’s not just about shaving off energy, waste or carbon emissions – nor about ‘band aid’ approaches to poverty. It’s about a new way of organizing society for the common good. Many people have described this shift. Prince Charles in a recent [...]

We were recently invited to a roundtable discussion with David Schembri, President of Smart USA.  The event marked Smart’s first attempt at engaging bloggers as part of their marketing outreach.  While there wasn’t any car being launched, it was a nice opportunity to hear about how the company is fairing and what they have in the pipeline.
Smart has been selling cars in the U.S. for just under two years, and in that time has sold in excess of 30,000 units.  They are in the process of bracing for some new competition, expected to pop up in the next two years [...]

Frito-Lay has announced one of their snacks is becoming just a bit more sustainable. Starting in 2010, all of the SunChips multigrain chips will come in fully compostable bags made out of plant-based materials. They claim the packaging will completely decompose in about 14 weeks. Let’s hope they begin using this type of bag for all their snacks.
Frito-Lay Press Release

The newest mainstream company to put on its green thumb is Payless, which has just brought organic shoe line zoe&zac to shelves. Following its string of extremely successful designer collaborations over the past few years, hopefully this will be one more step toward mainstreaming ethically sound consumerism.
[via Racked via Fashion Herald]

For a good primer about  the state of sustainable innovations and practices, check out this recently posted presentation by World Changing founder Alex Steffen. It’s 90 minutes of content rich video filmed at his October 2008 talk in Copenhagen at the Danish Architecture Centre.
Alex Steffen Talk at Danish Architecture Centre from Sustainable Cities™ on Vimeo

Ecofriend points us to an interesting invention that recaptures wasted heat energy from a shower’s waste water. The EcoDrain will grab heated water before it goes down the drain and uses it’s heat to help wram incoming shower water. The Ecodrain’s creators believe that it could potentially save millions of dollars a year in energy costs.
[via Ecofriend]

Swedish outdoor clothing and equipment company Klättermusen is embarking on a new eco-initiative for 2009 and beyond called rECOver that will keep their old products useful into the future. New Klättermusen products will have a small deposit labels (like a returnable soda can) in denominations of 1, 5, 10 or 20 euros. Customers who return their used gear will get a refund depending on the condition. Old bags and clothing will either be repaired and donated to charity, or broken down and recycled into new products. The company has also won awards for their 100% recycled nylon pack, and donate [...]

Is Detroit the next Berlin? For the past several years, artists, musicians and others seeking time and space to work, and an inexpensive place to live have flocked to the German city. Now it seems that Detriot may be headed towards a similar influx of like-minded people.
Detroit has been in economic decline for some time now, and the current recession has made things even worse – or into an opportunity, depending how you look at it. At this point in Detriot, you can purchase a house for as low as $100. Urban pioneers are beginning to move in to take [...]

Tuvie points us to an potentially useful concept design by Julien Bergiginat. His Eol’eau tower is a duel purpose resource collector. The unit captures up to 600 liters of rainwater and can create electricity via a wind-powered generator. A wind powered light may also be attached to the Eol’eau, adding a third function to this eco-friendly tool.
[via Tuvie]

While recycled denim creations may not be a particularly new concept, CScout Japan points us to a nice example of recycling jeans into a hand-made piece of furniture.  You send in three pairs of jeans (or other pant material) to the furniture manufacturer, NOyes, and they turn them into a custom stool.  The NOyes website has a video and step-by-step guide on how the stool is made by hand.
A custom denim stool takes three weeks to make and costs ¥36,720 ($400).
[via CScout Japan]