I know it’s taboo to talk about winter in the middle of a Chicago summer, but I am going to break my own rule and do it. Last year my husband and I bought a quaint 1920’s tutor style house in Elgin, an older suburb of Chicago. We were first time home buyers, which meant not only did we have a new mortgage to pay every month, but we also had to purchase some bigger ticket items to help maintain our small slice of Americana. We went ahead and got the lawnmower (great deal off Craigslist) and several other items, but we decided to hold out on the snow blower. Needless to say 3 shovels and seemingly 1,000 snow days later, we caved and got our little 5.5 horse power Honda.
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One of our current interns, Dawn Bjork, is a lover of all things green and fashion related. We wanted her to write about her recent experience designing ecofashion clothing for the ReVamped show in Chicago. We think her work and ideas are quite amazing; please read about her participation and insight below!

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Just recently I was involved in a green fashion show called ReVamped. EarthShare of Illinois sponsored the event, and it was an amazing night! For those of you that do not know about EarthShare of Illinois, it is a non-profit organization that participates in public and private sector workplace giving campaigns on behalf of its member organizations. I was pretty amazed that I had never known until a few months ago about ESIL, seeing that they contribute to places that I visit and read about all the time, like Shedd Aquarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, National Wildlife Association, and more than 60 other organizations….they are pretty amazing.

The night was about celebrating and promoting the beauty of eco-conscious lifestyle practices. What was super amazing about the event was that it didn’t only promote some really cool fashion designers, it also awakened the guests to all sorts of green “things.” Read the rest of the entry >

Don’t get us wrong. This is a tragedy. Oil has now washed ashore in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, and residents in Florida have complained of the smell from the burns that took place. An estimated 20+ million gallons of crude have leaked thus far, and it’s showing no signs of stopping any time soon. Every effort to stop the leak so far has failed, including a 4-story dome/cap and the Top Kill procedure (for a recap of April’s events, check out our previous post). Two relief wells are being drilled, which are supposed to be the magic bullet. However, until they are done in a few months, there are few options left to stop the leak. (The latest effort is known as the “Lower Marine Riser Cap,” and it involves cutting and removing part of the well in order to install a cap on it. We’re all crossing our fingers that it will work, but not necessarily holding our breath as it’s just been delayed by a stuck blade.)

But we’ve all heard the bad news, and everyone wants the oil to stop leaking. We could play the blame game all day long. Actually, that’s something that we’d like to toss around. Is BP really responsible for what happened? Here’s an analogy to think about, one from another recent debate:

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We like Salvage One. Located on 1840 W. Hubbard Street in Chicago the multilevel building is decorated with quirky chandeliers, strange odds and ends and things that you would definitely find in an old, abandon building garage sale. It is awesome. The strange items intermingle with beautifully restored furniture and stained glass makes the space sort of enchanting and wonderful. This environment does not come to being on its own, but through the tireless efforts of those with a mission to make this world a better, more beautiful place; a mission that resonates close to our hearts. It’s evident that they communicate this through the excellence in their work.
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At a design firm, paper plays an important part in our daily activities. We use it for sketches, notes, comps, and eventually beautiful printed pieces. We place a great value on the importance of paper and are very aware of the amount we use. Not to mention the importance of energy. Now imagine if paper had another use beyond being a scratch pad for our crazy doodles; imagine if it could fuel our computers, lights, and coffee machine as well!

Scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have successfully coated paper with a solar cell. It’s all part of a suite of research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs. Think of an inkjet printer spitting out a report and then a solar paper to charge up your iPhone. Ok, that might be stretching it a bit, but still it’s a promising idea that could lower the weight of solar panels.

Here’s the current solar panel scenario with some very rough math: if you had a 60 watt solar panel to light up a room, all you would get would be one 60 watt lightbulb lit for an hour. That one solar panel would weigh 30 pounds (your average box of copy paper weighs 20 pounds). Imagine if a single sheet of solar paper could eventually do the same thing.

Unfortunately, this technology is still in the research phase and is years from making it into our homes. But it will be a great day when it does. What would you do with a solar cell on paper?

For more information on solar paper check out the article on cnet.