Energy sources like the sun and wind have the capacity to provide endless amounts of clean energy if we could only figure a way to properly store them when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

A team of engineers from Cambridge University think they might have a solution: a giant battery that can store energy using gravel. Elevating the idiom "you've got rocks in your head" to a whole new level, these scientists hope to solve the sustainable issue plaguing renewables.

About his battery Jonathan Howe, founder of Isentropic states that: "If you bolt this to a wind farm, you could store the intermittent and relatively erratic energy and give it back in a reliable and controlled manner." Howe in order to prove his theories is designing and constructing a small pilot plant that could store 16MWh at full capacity, this could be enough energy to serve the electrical needs of thousands of homes. WorldChanging, in an article, describes how two properly outfitted silos of gravel 7 meters tall and 7 meters in diameter would be all that is needed for storage and retrieval of the renewable energy.

Surplus renewable energy storage is a looming issue requiring a sustainably elegant solution, Isentropic's battery may just prove to be one.

(Photo credit:Seldom Scene Photography (was Old Dog Photo) on flickr)

Still chilly in your neck of the woods? We just learned about a new company offering super-soft woolies that'll warm the cockles of your sustainable heart. Ramblers Way Farm, created by Tom's of Maine founders Kate and Tom Chappell, uses Rambouillet wool from sheep farms in Maine and ranches in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas and Utah. The standard? Superfine softness stemming from sustainable farming practices.
 
Sustainable American farms

• organic, no-till and best management practices
• protecting wildlife habitat and preserve critical ecosystems

Sustainable sheep

• breeding and lambing naturally
• rotational grazing practices
• shearing and sorting with gentle combs and humane handling systems
• protecting and moving flocks with trained animals

Sustainable manufacturing

• partnered with Rambouillet sheep farmers only in America
• environmentally-sensitive enzyme wash—a chlorine-free, patented treatment
• minimal packaging made from reclaimed materials that are compostable and recyclable
• generate their own solar and geothermal renewable energy
• use biofuels in their trucks and tractors

Sustainable community

• donate 10% of profits and 5% of paid time back to the community
• invigorate local economies by connecting connect American farms with American manufacturing
• preserve open space, farmland, and working landscapes
• web-based, connecting with customers with a small environmental footprint

Not convinced yet? We're always glad to turn readers on to a sustainable company, so feel for yourself: request a free sample to see how soft sustainable worsted wool can feel next to your skin.

(Photo credit:Ramblers Way Farms)

Here's a breath of fresh air: Wind energy is blowing up. Thanks to President Obama's commitment to clean energy and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) incentives, wind power breezed to the top of the list of new electrical energy sources in the United States last year. Wind energy and natural gas accounted for 80% of new generating capacity created in 2009, according to a fourth-quarter report from the American Wind Energy Association. The U.S. wind sector added nearly 10,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity, blowing up previous industry records.

Wind sector outlook isn't completely balmy. Business Wire reports, "Recovery Act incentives spurred the growth of construction, operations and maintenance, and management jobs, helping the industry to save and create jobs in those sectors and shine as a bright spot in the economy. At the same time, the continuing lack of a long-term policy and market signal allowed investment in the manufacturing sector to drop compared to 2008, with one-third fewer wind power manufacturing facilities online, announced and expanded in 2009."

While China remains the world leader in wind energy, U.S. trends paint a bright picture for renewable energy. We've got a long way to go to catch up to their more robust power production—but the winds of change are blowing in!

(Photo credit:bluegum, SXC)

We're sure you've all heard the news on the climate change accord at Copenhagen: a last-minute deal that falls far short of both global consensus and original goals, leaving smaller nations and many environmentalists feeling betrayed. Emotion is still running high, fingers are being pointed every which way, and nobody seems quite sure whether the whole thing is a conservative success, a decent first step, a neutral flop, an outright failure or a political travesty and environmental tragedy.

Let's look at some of the recent analyses:

• Is the weak agreement Obama's fault? The European reporters I met wanted Obama to lead their nations—lead the world—when in reality he leads a country whose progress on climate change is many steps behind the developed world. (Grist)
• Renewable energy outlook brightens The wind market is heating up in India and China, and some see China solidifying its position as the world's renewable energy trend leader if the United States does not come up with a green energy policy. (Seeking Alpha)
• An outright failure Low targets and dropped goals make Copenhagen's weak agreement an outright failure. (The Guardian)
• What's missing from the current agreement? The most important part of this deal is what's not in it. Crucial unresolved questions will continue to dog climate negotiators into 2010 and beyond. (Treehugger)
• Improved position for Obama at home President Obama may have improved his chances for passing global warming legislation in the Senate by forging an interim international agreement here that puts both rich and poor countries on a path to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. (The New York Times)

It's hard to end the year on such a limp note. We have to hope that individual nations will honor the pledges they've made. We have to hope that these lukewarm results don't have a chilling effect on our ability to affect real change to the conundrum of climate change.

(Photo credit:america.gov, flickr)

Mission accomplished. Space shuttle Atlantis has arrived at the International Space Station. Did you know that NASA's also launching a mission to trim its "big as the state of Connecticut" environmental footprint? They'd better be.

In fact, NASA recently announced that it will pump $30 million over the next five years into boosting energy efficiency and reducing its self-described Constitution State-sized ecological impact. However, neither can happen until NASA can make painstaking heads or tails of its complicated carbon footprint. When that's finally complete, they can start chipping away at bringing it down to size. But will it be enough to "offset the potentially giant impact of spaceflight"?

Enter International Trade Bridge. The Ohio firm is collecting big government bucks to improve NASA's water conservation efforts, expand its hydrogen fuel cell development program and beyond. Never mind the DOZENS of truly amazing green tech NASA R&D programs already underway.

Five years is a long time (will it take eons?) to accurately suss out NASA's possibly galactic-in-girth environmental impact, if the struggling agency can even hang on that long. I can't even begin to guesstimate how much CO2 a single shuttle blasts into our atmosphere, never mind what becomes of all those toxins floating in outer space. I'll leave that giant leap to the "Green Aviation" rocket scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, and to editors of Discover Magazine.

According to the publication's 2007 "Spaceport for Tree Huggers," a single shuttle launch spews 28 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere alone! But that's a mere burp compared to the glut of pollution that gets dumped on and near the Kennedy Space center post-blastoff.

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Here goes, thanks again to Discover Magazine: " ... 23 tons of harmful particulate matter settle around the launch area each liftoff, and nearly 13 tons of hydrochloric acid kill fish and plants within half a mile of the site ... the environmental cost per launch is the same as that of New York City over a weekend ..."

Does NASA have a replacement planet mission in the works, too?

(Photo credit:Flickr, p_a_h)

It's a week of provocative news, insightful opinion and fresh thought about the eco-sphere. Super Eco's Thinking Thursday post rounds up recent points worth pondering.

• Japan is aiming to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth using laser beams or microwaves.
• Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have been awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to create a whole new kind of robot—or rather, robots ... Lots of little robots that will collect lots of location-specific data that will help scientists learn more about marine ecosystems. 
• The 10th annual Global Green Sustainable Design Awards honor advancements in the fields of industry, building, media, nonprofit organizations and public policy that design a more sustainable future.
• In the wee hours of Sunday morning, Spain set quite a record: The country got more than half its electricity from wind farms, a first for a country long invested in renewable energy.
• This is the consequence of failure at Copenhagen: A marked shift in scientific effort from solving global warming to adapting to its consequences, a hodge-podge of uncoordinated local efforts to trim emissions—none of which deliver the necessary cuts—and an altered climate.
• What's it like to install a solar array at home?
• Climate scientists reporting more record highs, fewer lows.

(Photo credit:dimitri c, SXC)

It's getting harder and harder to resist the urge to call President Barack Obama "Daddy Greenbucks." Especially today, when he announced that he's shelling out $3.4 billion in grants to build a smart energy grid that would bring our nation's antiquated electrical system into the digital, green and clean age.

Obama's big cash-money, and I mean big in a "largest-award-made-in-a-single day-from-the-$787-billion-stimulus-package" way, will:

1. Give far more than a face lift to our aging "dilapidated" electricity grid with the addition of 18 million digital smart home meters and reams of energy powered by renewable sources, like solar and wind energy. (But how and how soon can I get a a smart meter?! )
2. Create historically more watts than ever before with less impact on the climate. (Speaking of, the climate bill battle kicks off in the Senate today.)
3. Energize business for 100 green companies in 49 states with deep-green grants ranging from $400,000 to $200 million.
4. Inject tens of thousands of new green-collar jobs into the already-exploding green industry. Hey, kids, it's not too late to change your major.
5. Significantly reduce rolling blackouts (which we deserve and suffer plenty of in power-hungry Southern California).
6. Save some decent utility bill cash for America's energy vampire consumers, that is if we're smart, like this grid. (How? Basically, with the digital smart grid, electricity prices will increase when demand increases and decrease when demand decreases, empowering us to make better, more energy- and cost-efficient choices.)

The President announced the historic $3.4 billion (!) greenbacks for green energy at a Florida solar plant just moments ago. He said the country's ailing electrical system "wastes too much energy, it costs too much money, and it's too susceptible to outages and blackouts."

Obama wasted no time moving on to an aggressive pitch for nationwide greenhouse gas cap legislation that he said will "finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America." Apparently a few Senators missed that memo.

(Photo credit:flickr, LanceCheungImages)

I couldn’t be bothered with nail polish remover as a tween in the 80s. Instead, I'd lazily nibble off my fluorescent glow-in-the-dark nail polish, then chase the flecks with a warm can of Jolt. Back then nobody seemed to care what we put into (or onto) our bodies. Mountain Dew and evergreen Manic Panic were just about the only “green living” I did.

It wasn’t until I checked in at Recess for Your Hands and Feet on swanky Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles--the country’s first (yes, first!) non-toxic, 100 percent eco-built nail salon--that I started to wonder if my kids’ jitterbug heartbeats and rippled toenails had anything to do with me swallowing a decade’s worth of Chernobyl chip cocktails filled with toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), the carcinogenic, birth defect wreaking triple-threat that still lurks in the majority of nail polishes today. 'Could’ve been the paraben … or was it the Jolt?

Nidhi Lal might blame the peel-and-eat polish. The jet-maned real estate broker from Orange County opened Recess nearly two years ago. She was obsessed, as she puts it, with barring anything toxic from the upscale, 2,000-square-foot spa. As a result, you could practically eat every inch and live to tell: from the rustic post-and-beam ceiling to the slick no-VOC emitting resin floor, to every last vegan paint drop that touches clients’ nails, right down to the oxygen they breathe. Yes, the air, which always reeks of acetone and acrylic at traditional (and highly toxic) nail salons, smells vanilla sweet and coconutty here, like warm macaroons. No surgical mask required.

How did Nidhi make the switch from selling homes to greening nails? Blame Al Gore. Nidhi credits an emotional screening of An Inconvenient Truth for inspiring her go green.

“It’s so cliché, but that movie changed everything," Nidhi tells SuperEco. "It moved me.”

She was determined to build Recess in painstaking accordance with the stringent Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification guidelines. And she did. ‘Girl went off: Every plank of white oak, including the timber used in the comfy custom-upholstered ottoman-chairs, is Forest Stewardship Council certified; the ginger antimicrobial hand towels are a smooth recycled cotton-bamboo blend; the sparkling overhead wallpaper accents are made from crushed reclaimed glass beads; skylights, elegant amber recycled glass chandeliers and nine-watt modern LED wands combine to give off a mellow glow; and unbleached recycled cotton drapes stylishly divide all 12 nail stations for privacy.

“It would be easier to talk about what isn’t green [here],” Nidhi jokes, “but then you wouldn’t have much to write.” No kidding. She left no stone un-greened, except for the almighty Autoclave. The sterilization machine doesn't come Energy Star equipped – yet.

Nidhi pours me a recycled glass tumbler of refreshing chilled cucumber-lemon water and asks me to choose a nail color. Recess offers two long-lasting eco-friendly nail lacquers, vegan SpaRitual and all-natural Zoya. Both are enriched with natural minerals and plant extracts and are free of synthetic dyes and, of course, the aforementioned Toxic Triple Threat.

I pick an earthy fall shade, SpaRitual’s new “Muse,” a metallic bronze made from recycled glass and wild-crafted organic essences. Manicurists Yayo and Alli make quiet, delicate work of prepping my hands and feet for a 50-minute, green-guilt free deluxe mani-pedi. They treat me to a vigorous exfoliating massage using a coarse but fast dissolving “sugar cookie” scented mix of sea salt and raw sugar from Recess’s signature skincare collection ($14.95 for an 8 oz. drum); moisturize my hands and feet with organic, fair-trade olive oil and lotion ($20.50 for 8 fl. oz. of the lotion); gently trim, file and buff my scraggly, neglected nails; nudge back my cuticles with orangewood sticks; hot paraffin dip my hands and feet (in individual clear baggies, not in the typical goopy, germ-incubating wax cesspool littered with stray hairs); and, finally, slick my nails with several brilliant, spotless coats. (I’m not positive I got the order right. I was too busy melting into my chair.)

Remember the sanitizing Autoclave? It’s killer on fungus, infections, viruses and Hepatitis C, all afflictions that commonly plague the industry. Nidhi enforces a strict no re-use policy for all porous, non-metal utensils. But what about the Tree Hugger Code of Honor: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? 'Last time I checked, there was only one r in biohazard, and it often doubles as reuse and recycle – as in stuff with other people’s dead skin still on it -- at quite a few of L.A.'s infamous “cash only” nail chop shops.

Positively not at Recess, so cut Nidhi some slack. Files, buffers and cuticle sticks from your service are cleaned and wrapped up neat and tidy for take-home. Safety tip: chuck them after a week or you’ll risk Athlete’s foot or some other, more dangerous shame spiral.

Recess is hardly pricier than your average (toxic!) nail salon (nail treatments range from $25 to $60, depending on their length), but their uncommonly soft touch, certified green credibility, and the ability to actually breathe during –and long after-- your treatment, are well worth the extra Alexander Hamilton.

Hmm… I wonder if vegan recycled glass has an aftertaste.

(Photo credit:flickr, GreenLAGirl)

The bad news about climate change: Let's be honest; It's an overwhelming, omnipresent (hot) cloud looming precariously over us all. To reverse it feels like an impossible goal at times, like achieving world peace or detoxing our beleaguered oceans. But that's no reason to give up.

The good news: It's not too late to make a real, quantifiable difference. Yes, it's easy to feel defeated about not doing enough of our own, individual part to help reverse the climate crisis, especially because we can't always see, touch and feel its effects on our own lives.

But today, Oct. 15, Change.org's official Blog Action Day '09, gives each and every one of us the nudge we need to personally start protecting our climate RIGHT NOW. Tell me, whose responsibility is it but our own?

So please pencil an easy climate-healing tasks into your schedule today in honor of Blog Action Day, starting with even one of these (EPA-approved!) simple, everyday green lifestyle retrofits: 

1.Change five lights. Switch out old-school incandescent bulbs with ENERGY STAR bulbs. You'll reduce greenhouse gases, pollution and your electric bill.
2. Be an ENERGY STAR when you shop products like lighting, home electronics, heating and cooling equipment and appliances.
3. Heat and cool smartly. Regularly "green clean" your air filters. Trust me, it's easier than it sounds.
4. Be green when you garden, even if you don't have a green thumb. Bring back the sweat-powered push mower and just say no to fossil-fueled gas and plug-in mowers. Or use a mulching mower and compost.
5. Don't be a water hog, especially when it comes to hot water, which sucks loads of energy to heat.

Finally, don't forget to spread the word about changing climate change today. Need a headstart? Change.org's got your back.

(Photo credit:flickr, Cherrylynx)

High-tech fitness isn't very sustainable. Treadmills, exercise bikes, brightly lit gyms with their air-conditioners blasting ... Surely someone's come up with a greener alternative? In fact, someone has—lots of someones. Eco-savvy companies and fitness fanatics alike are rigging up gear that's energizing their businesses and workouts with sweat equity, turning manpower into renewable energy.

Remember the guy I've mentioned in a fitness article here before who walked off 90 pounds on a treadmill while playing video games? A little ingenuity, and this dedicated dieter managed to have his game and play it, too. His setup wasn't that complicated—and eco-savvy types are catching on, creating treadmills and other exercise equipment that power themselves, mp3 players and portable fans, and even contribute to powering gyms themselves.

• HOGGAN's "human-powered" treadmill needs no power to run.
• The Human Dynamo harnesses your arm and leg energy to create power.
• The Green Microgym (Portland, Oregon) employs green tech to reduce its carbon emissions by 60%, employing everything from energy-producing cardio equipment to sustainable touches such as compact fluorescent lighting (CFLs) and a no-bottled-water policy.
• The whole family can get into the act at this green gym in Maine, where the focus is on sustainability, energy efficiency and family.
• ReRev retrofits exercise equipment to create alternative energy.
• The Green Revolution helps you make your local health club more eco-friendly.

Just how green is your gym, anyway? Ultimately, it's much more sustainable to simply step outside and walk the dog, take a jog or play a game. Still, we know there are plenty of reasons why that's not always possible. Here are our tips for losing the chubs, not the rubs.

(Photo credit:SashaW, flickr)