During Mitchell Heinrich’s artist residency in Vienna, he developed a new kind of “smell graffiti”.

It’s hard to tell from the outside, but this beautiful home in Quebec was built with seven recycled shipping containers.  This 3,000 square foot home cost just $175,000 to build and was designed by Bernard Morin and Joyce Labelle from Maison Idekit Homes.  They specialize in building homes from a shipping container base and claim that the building time can be reduced to as little as a week and save a significant amount of money.  A chalet built with just three shipping containers runs about $45,000 and can be customized to the home-owner’s specifications.

The building itself is covered with urethane [...]

While it’s hard not to ask “What’s the catch?” upon hearing news about big corporations adopting socially conscious policies, the fact remains that whatever the reasons are behind these changes, their footprints are often large enough to create a significant impact. To that end, fast food giant McDonald’s opened a prototype “green” restaurant on the south side of Chicago last year in an attempt to test out a number of environmentally friendly upgrades to their preexisting template. 
Though none of the features are particularly revolutionary – skylights to let in more natural light, recycling rainwater for use in plumbing and better [...]

Ikea, the home furnishing design powerhouse, has unleashed a new line of solar-powered lights in preparation for the summer.  The outdoor lights are simple LEDs that use 70% less energy and last longer than conventional bulbs.  With the price of solar panels dropping and the need for renewable energy sources skyrocketing, it’s nice to see a big design group like Ikea getting onboard.
A unique value of solar-powered outdoor lighting is that there is no need for underground wiring or permanent positioning.  The practical and reasonable devices are perfect for patios or camping trips, but we have yet to get our [...]

A new wave of clothing designers are turning to sustainable, healthy fabric alternatives like bamboo and organic cotton and organic wool. On the Lazy Environmentalist podcast, Josh Dorfman talks to…