Smart, that lovely micro car company that everyone adores, is currently working on an all-electric version of the Smart ForTwo called the Smart Ed in London. While that’s all fine and dandy, just wait till you get a load of some of these numbers that Smart has put out during testing.

An 8-hour charge gets up to 72 miles of travel at up to 60 mph, and the makers suggest a lunchtime top up to get 100 miles a day.

Not bad at all! To boot, Smart claims the car will get the equivalent of 300 mpg. All by plugging into your standard electrical socket. If the Smart Ed makes it to the US, I doubt Mercedes/Daimler will be able to meet the demand. Considering you could use anyone’s electric to recharge your vehicle, you’d essentially be driving for free.

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Tuesday night at the National Clean Energy Summit, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City expressed his vision of a cleaner more green New York. He urged the need for energy-efficient design and proposed alternative methods of obtaining power, whether it be by wind or solar means. He goes as far as suggesting to add wind turbines to both the Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building, a move that would dramatically change the NYC skyline.

But with good intentions, Bloomberg hopes to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the city by 30% before 2030 making New York the cleanest air of any large American city.  Our hats are off to you Mr. Bloomberg, we wish more leaders cared about our well-being as much as you do.

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It’s another exciting installment of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? except in this episode we’re going to get schooled by 12-year old Elizabeth Rintels on techniques for going green. The By Kids For Kids “Going Green Challenge” is a contest that enables the youth to showcase their concerns and awareness of our dieing planet. It also shows how not every eco-friendly idea has to be transportation related.

And Elizabeth did just that, displaying her idea of the “Water Watcher,” a device that you hook onto your shower faucet which signals a red light and sounds a beep every time a half-gallon of water is used. Want to play with water? Get the Waterboard. Other than that, be wary of the water you waste every time you flush. Elizabeth ended up winning the $10,000 dollar cash prize and quite possibly saved the planet from turning into a barren wasteland. Or at least prolonged the inevitable.

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The Dutch town of Hengelo is putting certain concrete paving stones to the test. These said stones contain a titanium dioxide-based additive that, when under the influence of sunlight, bind the nitrogen oxide particles emitted by car exhausts and turns them into harmless nitrates. They plan on measuring the air quality after paving one half of a road with the air-purifying concrete and the other half with the ordinary variety.

Air purification isn’t all this new concrete is capable of, however. It may look like the same old cement but it also repels dirt off the road, providing a smoother driving surface. If only this concrete could cure SARS. It’ll be another year before the tests become conclusive and with the way gas is these days, we’ll all be cutting our cars in half instead of driving on air-purifying concrete.

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First, D-Link put routers in your pocket. Now, they’re thinking about the environment. D-Link is proud to claim it’s the first manufacturer to produce green home network WiFi routers capable of saving up to 40% in power usage. These routers are like a thoughtful roommate who never leaves the TV on or forgets to put the toilet seat down. With the ability to detect cable length and link status, they’ll adjust power accordingly, so you’re not racking up that electric bill for nothing. Each router can also be programmed to turn the WiFi radio off in an effort to save power.

D-Link has equipped three of their routers with this new technology: D-Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router DIR-665, Xtreme N Duo Media Router DIR-855 and the Xtreme N Gaming Router DGL-4500. While the new green ethernet technology affects each router differently, you can be sure that surfing the web without ruining the planet has never been easier, so long as you’re not using that Buffalo Nfinity.

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Saying you’re into saving the Earth is the best way to score pussy nowadays. After all, after Al Gore’s movie and the Prius, every company is looking for a way to market something as “green.” A company called Fabrik will be releasing what is being dubbed the world’s most eco-friendly external hard drive, as if you cared.

The SimpleTech [re]drive uses Turbo USB 2.0, which is supposedly hella fast, for reading and writing. The casing is made from bamboo and aluminum and 100-percent recycled materials. At $160 for 500GB, it’s not the worst deal in the world and it might get you laid.

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Oliver Bishop-Young, a Goldsmiths University graduate, demonstrated projects regarding skips at the New Designers showcase in London earlier this month. For those not familiar with a skip or what it is, simply put: it’s a dumpster. With the massive amount of idle skips laying around the city and all the crap we throw into landfills, we might as well get something out of it.

So, Oliver set up a website that allows visitors to search for locations of skips throughout London, complete with pictures. Additionally, a group of folks have pitched in converting empty skips into public spaces such as lounge areas, swimming pools and gardens. Even a mini-ramp built in a skip for skateboarding was made from a collection of materials gathered from other skips. All that’s missing is the skip crapper.
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We’ve got a major energy crisis on our hands. We need as many alternatives to fossil-fuels as possible. It’s a good thing some artist spent countless hours on this life-sized inflatable Porsche Carrera. Simply unplug it, sit on the thing and the escaping air will propel you to your destination. So long as your destination is five feet in front of you.

In an effort to increase the cars capable distance, bring a can of Pepsi and a burrito from 7-11 with you while riding in the inflatable Porsche. As soon as you’re finished your “intake” and you’ve released the car’s air, release your own flatulence and the combined forces of your body’s gas and the car deflating will propel you across the state.
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Garden gnomes compliment the yard fervently, but do they provide any productivity other than looks? Why can’t they just come to life, water the plants, cut the grass, trim the hedges and then go back to looking innocently petrified beside your garden?

All you’ve known about the secretive lives of garden gnomes is about to change. Dutch Studio TX has upgraded seed bomb technology, a technique of introducing vegetation to lifeless soils, with eco-friendly balloons which are painted like garden gnomes. They don’t look like your average garden gnomes, but that’s because they actually do work in the garden unlike their dead beat terracotta clay brethren.

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The Lotus Elise is a car known for its light weight and unique design. Now, those are all preliminary factors with the Eco Elise.   Everything about this car circles around saving the world one step at a time. Water-based paint job? Check. Hemp, I repeat: Hemp interior? Check. Solar panels? Check. What the fuck does this car not have that’s thinking about the environment? I got it! An engine that doesn’t run on fossil fuel.

So, regardless of the gasoline powered engine (with or without a fuel efficiency button), this car is stacked  with planet saving gear. To top it all off, it’s 70 pounds lighter than the normal Lotus Elise.  Who cares? It has an interior made of hemp. I want one.

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