via Co.Exist:
 
Managing water resources in a rapidly-growing city can be problematic. Floods give much-needed water, but too much rain at one time can overwhelm a system. Meanwhile, droughts leave people with no water at all, and keeping water clean is always an issue. In Mexico City, poor management threatens to leave 22 million people without water in the near future. Leaky pipes alone account for a 40% loss of water that is pumped from nearby mountains. Already, more than a third of households lack adequate access to water.

 Isla Urbana is trying to change this with inexpensive, sustainable rainwater harvesting systems. The project was conceived while two Mexican-American students, Enrique Lomnitz and Renata Fenton, were studying industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design. “We repeatedly encountered the subject of water scarcity and became inspired to design rainwater harvesting systems for these communities,” says Lomnitz.

 They began physically installing systems in 2009, in the Ajusco Medio region of Mexico City, “because we met people there who were very interested in the system, and because the region combines extraordinary rainfall with chronic and widespread water shortages, making it ideal for rainwater harvesting,” says Lomnitz. Rainwater harvesting is pretty simple: the system captures water off the roof of a building. Then the water passes through a bypass that diverts the first rains of the season through a large first flush that separates the first 100 to 200 liters of rain from each storm. Only the later, cleaner waters of a rain event go into the cistern, says Lomnitz. The water generally gets stored in the building’s existing cistern, though sometimes a plastic tank is installed when a cistern is not available. The water is chlorinated, and goes through a sediments filter and an active carbon filter.

 Isla Urbana uses materials from local stores and trains local personnel to construct and install the systems--giving work as well as a way to gather and store water. The cost for each system is only about $350. Isla Urbana is a joint project between an NGO, theInternational Renewable Resources Institute and a small business called Solución Pluvial. Development and sale of rainwater harvesting systems is done by the business, and education, training, and subsidy models are done by the NGO. Isla Urbana’s rainwater harvesting is meant to complement the conventional water supply, not replace it “The water is then clean enough for all domestic uses, though we generally do not recommend it for direct drinking, unless additional filters are installed,” says Lomnitz.

In a drought, families can rely more on the conventional system, while during a wet year, the rain will displace more conventional water, he says. If rainwater harvesting were properly implemented throughout the city, Isla Urbana says that it could provide 50% of the city’s water supply. So far, the organization has harvested 29,300,000 liters of rainwater and installed 725 systems. In the future it hopes to develop better and more accessible systems that provide increasingly high quality and low maintenance water, something that will help everyone have a better life.

Intel and adidas Team Up For The Virtual Shoe Wall

It's an athlete's, techy's, sneakerhead's, brand whore's, gadget geek's, digi freak's MOST AMAZING DREAM COME TRUE!! This baby was unveiled at the 2011 National Retail Federation conference in NYC on Jan 11. The wall renders products in 3-D, and allows a shopper to spin and zoom in on the shoes, and call up specs from a touch-screen display. Particularly hot models, like adidas' F50 soccer shoe, have accompanying video and relevant information (like the fact that F50-clad feet scored 44 goals in last year's World Cup).



The wall was designed by Start Creative in the UK. "We've leveled the playing field for small retailers," says Chris Aubrey, VP, Global Retail Marketing for Germany-based Adidas. "They can now act like a big flagship store in a town like New York." Not to mention the fact that the installation turns flat walls into prime selling space.

Aubrey says a prototype store will likely roll out in about a year in the U.K. -- a country that's nearly as enthusiastic about e-commerce as the U.S., but close enough for executives from the company's European headquarters to keep a close eye on how the wall is working out. "Germany itself still lags a bit," in its appetite for online shopping, Aubrey says.

Footwear sales in general are bouncing back, he says, after taking a hit during the global melt-down of 2008. "We had a very good 2010," he says. "I think consumer confidence is back."

First Offshore Wind Farm in the U.S. Approved

courtesy Fast Company...

Wind energy advocates scored a huge victory today with the announcement from U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that the country's first offshore wind farm, dubbed Cape Wind, will be built in the Nantucket Sound. The 130-turbine development could provide up to 75% of all electricity for Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket.

Land turbines abound in the U.S., but the $1 billion Cape Wind offshore project has been mired in controversy for the better part of the past decade. Opponents of the project argue that it will stand on sacred Indian ancestral grounds, mar the local landscape (potentially blocking the Kennedy compound's view of Nantucket sound!), hurt prospects for local fishermen who rely on areas that will disappear when the development is built, and interfere with airplane radar. The project could also raise electricity prices for local residents--electrical grid and transmission line improvements for Cape Wind may cost up to $10 billion.

Supporters argue, on the other hand, that Cape Wind will open up the U.S. to much-needed offshore projects. And if that comes at the comparatively small expense of the local landscape, so be it. "The U.S. offshore wind industry will build on the success and the lessons learned from the nearly 20 years of experience in Europe to provide clean, pollution-free, electricity along the coasts and in the Great Lakes. In fact, American manufacturers have announced plans to build factories in Europe to service the robust offshore wind industry there. With policy support in the America we can incent that new manufacturing sector to build here", said Denise Bode, the CEO of the American Wind Energy Association. Our recent polling shows that wind works for America--it means new manufacturing jobs, less dependence on imported energy, and more pure, clean, affordable energy for our country."

In addition to providing jobs and opening up the U.S to more offshore developments (Salazar says that Cape Wind is the first of many projects along the coast), Cape Wind will also cut CO2 emissions by almost 1 million tons per year, or approximately 1% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts.

There are still plenty of hurdles to cross before Cape Wind can be built--nine permits are in the midst of being appealed, and nearly a dozen groups have threatened to sue--but ultimately, the project's green light is a good sign for our clean energy future. If we really want to wean ourselves off coal and stall climate change, we have to be willing to make some political sacrifices. This proves that the U.S. is ready to do just that.

The Green Guide to Obama's State of the Union Address

President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address on Wednesday covered a lot of ground, but a significant portion of the speech was dedicated to the all-important topic of energy security. Below, some choice quotes from the speech.

* "From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains or the new factories that manufacture clean-energy products. Tomorrow, I'll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act." As we suspected, Florida will be the first to reap the benefits of Obama's $8 billion in spending on high-speed rail. Clearly, Obama believes that we will lag behind as a nation without a high-speed rail infrastructure.

* "These nations, they're not standing still. These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They're making serious investments in clean energy, because they want those jobs. Well, I do not accept second place for the United States of America." And that, we presume, is why the White House recently invested millions in math and science funding.

* "Next, we need to encourage American innovation. Last year, we made the largest investment in basic research funding in history, an investment that could lead to the world's cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched. And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy." Innovation is important, but the most important kind of innovation right now is in the energy sector. And that means we can expect to see a lot more of it under this administration--with the ARPA-E program, for example.

* "But to create more of these clean-energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives, and that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development." This part is a little contentious. Many green energy advocates think nuclear power is far too unsafe to be able in the long term. And what does opening up offshore areas for oil and gas have to do with clean energy? We're guessing Obama is advocating it as a means to secure American-made energy, albeit in a not-so-sustainable way.

* "I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy. I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But--but here's the thing. Even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future, because the nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy, and America must be that nation." Bingo. It doesn't matter what side of the climate change debate you fall on. The fact is, clean energy is only going to become more important as oil supplies dwindle and coal continues to be vilified. Again, Obama equates dominance in clean energy as the key to our economic future--sounds reasonable.

The Seven Most Expensive iPhone Apps; Starting at $1,000!

Courtesy of Fast Company...

According to recent calculations, Apple sewed up around 98% of all mobile app downloads in 2009. The App Store is evidently a soaring success, serving up apps for everything. Literally everything. All this demand seems to have resulted in a reverse price war--check out the high-dollar Apps we found:

BarMax | $1,000

This is the news that started us wondering about the most expensive iPhone apps: BarMax, an app designed to help students studying for their bar exams. According to the site's blurb it's a "complete solution and the most thorough yet flexible way to study for the bar exam. Listen to audio lectures on your iPhone wherever you are. Practice MBE questions or review flashcards on the go."

It's over 1GB in size, has thousands of digitized pages of information (an the company will send you more on request) and it would seem to be an ideal prep companion thanks to its portability, particularly if the other option is to haul around a huge pile of books. Expensive? Yes indeed, but for this price the makers BarMax LLc will sell you an iPod Touch with it pre-installed. And though it is expensive, we're pretty sure legal types will, somehow, be able to afford it.

iRa Pro | $900

One for the Big Brother in you: iRa Pro is a professional-grade app that lets you view security camera feeds. According to makers Lextech Labs, the app delivers "a video command center to the palm of your hand" and effectively lets you manage some aspects of your site security without requiring you to sit in an office. It shows six thumbnail views at a time from whatever array of IP-connected surveillance cameras you own, and lets you have full pan/tilt/zoom control of compatible cams and even offers a still image capture facility in case you see something of interest going on.

For the huge price you get an app that's capable of accessing a wide range of connected cameras and their data/control servers.

MATG SAP | $450

This app is more properly called "My Accounts to Go" and it's designed to be a fully integrated part of the SAP BusinessOne financial management system, connected wirelessly but still capable of displaying full financial data, transaction history and warehousing information.

It's specifically designed for finance, sales and marketing execs who find themselves out in the field often, and if your company already uses SAP's accounting system it'll likely prove invaluable, even at nearly $500.

Mobile Cam Viewer Enterprise Basic Version | $350

Like iRa, MCV is designed to be a security office camera control room on the go--it basically lets you securely monitor all of your net-connected security cameras or Webcams on your iPhone. It too supports a wide range of camera protocols, but it doesn't seem to allow you to interact with the cameras like iRa does. Perhaps that's why it's $550 cheaper.

Tunelab, Color Extractor | $300

Tunelab is an app based on the already successful Tunelab implementations for other smartphones, laptops and PDAs--it comes with a warning that it's only for professionals. And to that end it delivers a full tuning analysis capability, with the ability to store custom tuning profiles for all the pianos tuners may encounter on their rounds.

Color Extractor is a tool designed for post-production photography enthusiasts, and it does pretty much exactly what its name suggests: It gives you precise control over the color parameters of an image, such that you can remove a particular color from an image. In all honesty, this app might be a joke, or one bearing a mistaken price label--it seems to be incredibly simple, and the capability it offers is certainly replicated elsewhere in the App Store at a significantly lower price.

Lexidental Complete | $300

Lexidental is a full drug/image/medical database app for dental practitioners, with photographs, charts, and encyclopedic information that's designed to help dentists with their work. It's also going to be useful for dental students.

There's a host of other apps that come with a price tag of between $100 and $300 too--apps like Navigon's Mobile Navigator (Europe) edition. And taken as a whole, particularly with the massive price of BarMax, it would seem to indicate one thing: The App Store, though it contains much that is frivolous, is growing up and serving software that's extremely useful to professionals of all sorts of different genres.

Google China To Be Shutdown?

The story of Google choosing to un-censor it's service in China is of course a day old (those late on the news click here). This of course ruffles the feathers of the ancient Chinese government who is still certain their inhabitants are not wise enough to make choices on their own. Apparently in the falling of censhorship, "Tianamen" was a popular search term. I could spend some time going into the things wrong with the Chinese govt on this idea, but I wont. I'm going to take the business route here....

If the reports across the Web today are true that Google.cn may in turn be shutdown due to the egregious offense to not censor their search results, would mean the door swings wide open for a variety of players. The obvious players of Yahoo and MSN are salivating, but what about the upstart community of burgeoning search leaders? I'm hearing quite a bit about Baidu.cn which attracts almost 58% of all searches from China. But thats within it's walls. Googles ability to allow outside access means communication with what is most likely the world's next powerhouse (open that for argument).

Plenty to shake out, but Apple is thrilled according to Fast Company:
Meanwhile there may be one very unexpected techno casualty of a Google China shut down: Android OS. Android has seemed to be making headway in the country, with devices like Lenovo's OPhone, the HTC Magic, and Dell's Mini 3 device on sale. But if Google pulls out, it might hurt how well future Android devices do: Though the OS is effectively an open and free platform, Google's support is essential to pushing its development in the future--and why would Google push next-gen high-tech Android phones like the Nexus One in China if it's so opposed to the way China's government forces it to run its business? The move could even result in a further splintering of Android into China and everywhere-else versions. Would this move then shine more of a spotlight on Apple...which recently introduced a special China-friendly version of the iPhone a, is happy to comply with Chinese restrictions, and has numerous business interests in the country? It's extremely difficult to tell, but it would seem more likely than not.

San Francisco Is The Least Wasteful City!

I love calling this place home....

Do you spend your days traipsing around San Francisco? Then congratulations, you live in America's least wasteful city according to a study conducted by Nalgene. The water bottle company questioned 3,750 people in America's 25 largest cities about their transportation use, waste, sustainability efforts, shopping habits, and reuse of items. Nalgene weighted the results to give preference to behaviors with an immediate and significant impact like driving less, recycling more, and reducing trash. The survey's index is based on a scoring system with a potential individual high score of 1930 and a low individual score of 193.

San Franciscans topped Nalgene's list thanks to widespread habits of recycling, turning off the water while brushing teeth, and only using cars for short trips. 86% of San Franciscans also reported that they live an "extremely" or "somewhat" eco-friendly lifestyle, though the definition of an eco-friendly lifestyle is not made clear in the study.

Atlanta came in at the other end of the spectrum, with residents ranking the worst at recycling, throwing out less than two bags of trash a week, using reusable containers, participating in sustainability programs, using energy-efficient lightbulbs, and borrowing books from the library.

Nalgene, of course, had its own motivation for conducting the study. The company recently came under fire for using Bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogen-like chemical, in its water bottles. Nalgene did eventually pull BPA-filled water bottles from the shelves, but the wastefulness study could be the company's attempt to get back in the good graces of eco-minded consumers.

The full list of America's least wasteful cities is below:
Rank City Weighted Score
1 San Francisco, CA 1025.45
2 New York City, NY 1004.01
3 Portland, OR 1001.66
4 Seattle, WA 985.03
5 Los Angeles, CA 960.46
6 Denver, CO 943.77
7 Minneapolis, MN 943.17
8 Washington, D.C. 941.81
9 Boston, MA 941.29
10 Philadelphia, PA 932.59
11 Chicago, IL 931.03
12 Baltimore, MD 927.26
13 Detroit, MI 911.59
14 Pittsburgh, PA 909.42
15 Orlando, FL 901.71
16 Cleveland, OH 900.77
17 Sacramento, CA 899.78
18 Miami, FL 898.49
19 Tampa, FL 896.01
20 Phoenix, AZ 887.48
21 St. Louis, MO 883.38
22 Houston, TX 879.16
23 Indianapolis, IN 872.75
24 Dallas, TX 860.60
25 Atlanta, GA 857.51

courtesy FastCompany