Kayakas!

After cork fabric, bamboo textiles and corn-based fabric we’d like to introduce BARK CLOTH, which, like its name suggests is made from the bark of Mutuba trees from eco-certified farms in Uganda.

The nomadic Snail Shell System is rolling, floating, home thingy with its own ambient soundtrack…

The chorus of hydrogen fuel-cell dissenters may be growing, is it really “insane”…

The market for organic and fair trade foods in the UK is booming and showing no signs of slowing down…

Chicago’s Morton Arboretum exhibits sustainable design that the trees can be proud of…

Venice recently welcomed a new solar-powered vaporetto to the Grand Canal.

Among the places in the world that will experience a major impact from global warming, Venice may be the leading candidate for most threatened.

Thanks to Hugg”s most prodigious poster linton for tipping us off to the Plantwall, a “new way of integrating greenery in public spaces.” “Urban cultivators” Green Fortune created the Plantwall as a means of bringing “the outside inside,” and providing greenery without sacrificing floor space.

The German Environmental Ministry has announced an agreement to install offshore wind generation capacity in the North Sea off the coast of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony).

Much encouraging news came out of the conference, but as today”s St. Louis Post-Dispatch points out in an editorial, so far the US federal government has been long on talk promoting renewables and other alternative sources of energy, but short on funding to support further commercial development of these technologies.

“This is the single greatest achievement in clean fuel since lead was removed from gasoline a generation ago,” says EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. Starting Sunday, 80 percent of diesel fuel sold in the U.S. will be a cleaner, ultra low-sulfur emitting (ULSD) version that, while costing about 5 cents per gallon more, will dramatically reduce nasty particulate emissions. It”s due to those biproducts — and the tough emissions standards of California and the northeast states — that diesel hasn”t been as popular in the U.S. as it has in, say, Europe. Only 3.6 percent of cars in the U.S. are diesel-powered, while across the Atlantic, the number is almost 50 percent. The new fuel comes just in time for the delivery of Mercedes” diesel E320 sedan next week in 45 states; the company plans on releasing diesel cars that meet all states” standards by 2008. And Honda is preparing to enter the 50-state market in 2009, with its own innovative cleaner diesel engine (pictured), to be followed by Chrysler, GM, and VW and others.

Let the diesel invasion of the U.S. begin.

Regular readers will be familiar with BedZED, the innovative London housing project pioneered by the Bioregional Development Group which we have covered here and here. Many will also be familiar with the concept of permaculture, which we posted on here. Now there is an opportunity to learn more about both, as BedZED will be playing host to an Introduction to Permaculture weekend course this autumn. Led by permaculture teacher and activist Sarah Pugh, the course will run on the 11th and 12th of November and will feature talks, walks, workshops, slide shows and practical activities. There will be a particular focus on

A new hand dryer, the Airblade by Dyson, is said to use 83% less energy than similar dryers. It”s rated at 4.4Whr. The dryer forces air at over 400 mph through a 0.3 mm gap, which Dyson claims, works just like a blade that wipes the water of your hands.

Scientists in Japan have invented the first motor to be powered by bacteria.