We love it when companies invest time and money to coming up with concepts that shape a better future. But what’s more interesting, is that some of these concepts actually come to life.

Swiss tuning designer and car manufacturer, Rinspeed, just announced that they’ve been working to build a solar powered vehicle dubbed iChange. The concept is actually a lightweight electric vehicle (features solar panels on the roof and sides) that is capable to change shape according to the number of passengers on board.

With no doors and a teardrop-like silhouette, the new iChange brings in three powerful li-ion batteries that take three hours to fully charge and offer a 90km range. As for how powerful it is, the engine outputs 150 kW that helps it go naught to 100km/h in just 4.2 seconds and achieve a max speed of 220 km/h.

Expected to hit the floors next month at the 2009 Auto Show in Geneva, we’re pretty sure a bunch of “green eyes” will be on Rinspeed.

[Cnet & Green Car Congress]

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In case you liked the green wall in Madrid, here’s something that breaks the conventionality. Blending with the trees and the nearby green, here’s a creative design by Parisian-based architects from R&Sie Architects who turned a concrete house into a living home.

Dubbed the Lost in Paris House, here’s a 130 sqm structure has been covered with more than 1,200 ferns that draw all their needs from some 300 traditional glass-blown beakers filled with a chemical mixture of bacteria, nutrients, and rainwater. Nothing short of breathtaking, Lost in Paris had to deal with the French planning rules for five years before turning into the creepy city rain-forest you see in here.

It sure brings the concept of the vertical garden to a new height. [StyleCrave via Wallpaper]

Japanese stars are into the Green spirit.

Olympic marathon silver medalist Yuko Arimori is one.

Former major league baseball player Tsuyoshi Shinjo is another.

And, model Yuri Ebihara, also known as “Ebi-chan” is the third (left to right.)

The three posed for the press during a promotional event for a mobile phone carrier KDDI au.

KDDI in Tokyo launched its “Green Road Project.” au users can donate 1 yen for each 1 kilometer they walk or run AFTER downloading the company’s online service “au Smart Sports Run&Walk.”

The money raised will go towards buying seeds of bitter gourd and morning glory. Those seeds will be distributeed for free at au shops to promote KDDI’s greening project.

Ebi-chan gushed: “It is so cool and I like men who give it their all when they try something.”

Where do I sign up?

Oftentimes, here at Greenpacks we write about how our animal friends don’t get their due, or are just plain mistreated.

Well, that is not always the case.

Is there a thorn here somewhere?

Repeat after me, “I wish I were a lion…I wish I were a Lion…”

A British zookeeper, Alex Larenty, (no relation to our Alex here at GP, of course) is pictured giving Jamu the lion a relaxing massage.

I wish I were a lion. I wish I were a lion.

After the massage, Jamu had dinner.

If you were told that a recycled desk would cost you $5000, then you would obviously think we are crazy or kidding. But that’s no ordinary desk. The creative folks from Reestore have once again conjured up recycling innovation with aviation trash to create a desk out of an old airplane wing. Dubbed Deborah, it looks unusual for an office desk, but the appeal of setting your files on an old Boeing 747 wing is an alluring prospect indeed.

Initially crafted for business tycoon Theo Paphitis, Reestore is now going commercial with this expensive, yet exclusive desk. Supported by stainless steel legs and topped with toughened glass, the desk measures in at 2100mm x 1000mm x 900mm.

Recycle and reuse is a concept that is not very popular in the aviation industry and that is one of the reasons why it gets plenty of slack. I guess Reestore is giving them a whole new way of reducing waste and making some profits too! [via Inhabitat]

Solar energy is still running well despite the bad economic environment and while people are searching for green alternatives, designers are trying hard to come up with stylish and innovative options, that blend creativity with utility. Designed by Jongoh Lee, the beautiful, ergonomic and natural looking streetlights merge seamlessly into the natural canopy around to harness solar power effectively. The cute and leaf-like streetlights capture sun’s energy throughout the day and use it to power what looks like their LED lights during night.

Dubbed the ‘Invisible Streetlights’ they have a flexible body that allows to be part of any natural tree that lines up the streets of the big cities. However, the problem with the model is obvious: it needs a clear top above the light to tap into the sun’s rays and clear space beneath, to emit light at night.

Of course, it works great as even interior lighting option if you could modify it to suit your needs!

[via Ecofriend]

One of three finalists in this year’s Evolo Skyscraper Competition, Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm project is a spiraling biomorphic structure. A building that floors you with its structural integrity and the used methods that combine green solutions with modern urban life.

Using the concept of vertical farming and blending with the vibrant design patterns, the blueprint provided by Eric is a future vision of how the food production sector will look like. With cities expanding outwards, agricultural land shrinking and the number of mouths required to feed – growing geometrically, it is high time such solutions are tried out.

Designed for the Hudson Yard area of Manhattan, the dynamic social space conjured up by Eric is a hub which houses farms, residential areas, and markets. By using revolutionary systems – the airoponic watering technology, nutrient technology, controlled lighting and CO2 levels, the structure will both produce food for thousands and will house a self-sustained ecosystem inside it. This will obviously also clean up the pollution in urban areas to a certain degree and will add to the green factor in general.

While the design and the technology it employs looks way ahead of its time, it may not be far till we actually start using similar vertical farms in the heart of major cities.

What do you think?

If you really want to get rid of plastic from your kitchen and your home, then there are quite a few modern alternatives available that will help you get started on your green path. The fact that many stylish modern utensils or cookware lying around your home are full of BPA, phthalates, PVC, lead and melamine which means that you are far away from going the eco-friendly way. But here is a simple and stylish alternative, especially for those dealing with kids around the home.

If you cannot switch over to porcelain or glass because the little devils would wreck them in no time, then the BPA Free Fedding Set from Thinkbaby is a very viable alternative. This complete set includes a cup, two bowls, a bento box and utensils and all that for $39.99. Yes, you will get cheaper deals, but the quality of those plastic replicas will be cheap as well. Made out of stainless steel on the interior and polypropylene heat resistant coating on the exterior, this is a fine balance between durability and green kitchenware.

Hitachi Lighting Ltd. in April has plans to mass produce high-efficiency fluorescent lights which use up to 50% less power than present fluorescent bulbs.

The Hitachi Ltd. group company has invested Y 1 billion ($10 million) to install production equipment at its plant in Ome, Tokyo. The company has plans to release some 10 models this fiscal year.

Hitachi’s high-efficiency lights will last 20,000 hours, almost two times that of existing products.

Hitachi will target convenience stores, factories and large commercial facilities.

It’s always about the money.

The company expects the market for environmentally friendly lighting to grow because of fiscal 2009 revisions to the energy conservation laws.

Hitachi Lighting with its high-efficiency lighting business is going head-to-head against many companies in the lighting industry that are putting therir efforts into LED lighting. Hitachi thinks its option is the more practical one.

Tokyo plans to begin a large-scale trial program to capture and store carbon dioxide this year. The goal -reduce emissions of global warming gases.

The technology can capture CO2 emitted from coal power stations and other such facilities, then store the greenhouse gas under the sea or ground.

After that – sell the technology by 2020.

Guidelines on capture and store will be drawn up by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry by April guidelines. After that rules on:

1.  the transportation of captured CO2,

2.  geographical formations that are suitable for CO2 storage,

(more…)