GreenPacks.org

Detroit is no more the industrial city it once was, and there can be no better proof than thousands of empty houses that litter the city. The city has over 33,000 empty houses and 90,000 vacant residential lots. As is clearly visible, those are huge numbers, and the city now plans to use such abandoned properties to create an urban farmland that would cover nearly a quarter of the city.

The Fiat 500 is one of the most popular cars in Fiat’s stable. Though the small car isn’t a huge polluter, it still runs on fossil fuels, and Fiat have as of yet not displayed any interest in putting out an electric version of the 500. It appears though that there is a market for a cleaner 500, and since Fiat won’t go there itself, Atomik Cars have created an electric version for the popular car.

The European Union has more or less assumed the role of a leader in green energy generation. With ongoing multiple projects for clean energy generation, it does look possible that the 27 nation block will beat its green energy generation targets for 2020, and do that by a comfortable 20% margin.

The San Juan island is all surrounded by water, but that obviously isn’t potable. Water coming from energy hungry desalination plants of course isn’t a very elegant solution, but a necessity for supply nevertheless. The Natural Balance House designed by Core Design Inc. intends to change this by harvesting water from the plentiful rainfall that the island is blessed with.

Reduced business travel can have a marked effect on the environment, and all the technologies at our disposal today would mean that businesses wouldn’t suffer for lack of such travel. Probably with this in mind, Arkadin Global Conferencing has announced the launch of Climate Care day, a day when businesses large and small, are urged to replace business travel with remote meetings, for one day.

Design firm H3AR have come up with a “skyscraper” water tower for Darfur, Sudan as their entry for the 2010 Skyscraper Competition organized by Evolo Magazine. The tower would provide surrounding areas with one of the most important assets for humanity – water. The tower will pump water from an underground lake, and supply it to people living nearby. It isn’t just a water pump and tower though, the designers have made the structure a lot more useful.

With the UK government moving to cut £500m across education, many schools may be left short of cash. It is with a view to provide funds for schools, that the Support Your School fundraising initiative is moving. And it has rather green ways to approach the issue. The initiative intends to raise £5 million through the recycling and reuse of inkjet cartridges and mobile phones.

The image you see above, is the not-too-good-looking pest, Gribble. The marine pest that troubled seafarers by chomping on ships and wooden piers may soon become valued because of its wood-eating capabilities. Researchers from Britain believe that the enzymes produced by the Gribbles and the energy rich sugars that are then produced may lead to the path of energy, with these pests converting wood and straw into biofuels.

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is making use of a new form of road, and public transport to travel. Such roads and vehicles have shown up in a number of designs and concepts, but this appears to be the largest application of the technology. Basically, roads are paved with recharging strips that transfer electric energy to the vehicles passing over them.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a tiny solar power system, that could ostensibly keep itself powered for a long time. Theoretically, this could go on forever, but the batteries have to be replaced after a few years. The tiny system measures 2.5mm x 3.5mm x 1mm, with a volume of just 9 cubic mm, making it a lot smaller than conventional solar powered systems. The solar panel and battery are accompanied by an ARM processor that could actually get a few things done by the tiny system.