The National Theatre has been doing some very cool stuff with lighting in recent years, so I was thrilled to see that it has now ensured this very welcome addition to the London skyline is as green as it can be.
Teaming up with Philips, whose Simplicity ethos aims to reduce energy consumption in all its products, the NT is to replace its existing lighting with a state of the art, dynamic energy efficient design using LEDs.
The new lighting system (which will be used both outside and inside the theatre) will not only help to keep up the dramatic appearance of the iconic building at night; Executive Director Nick Starr also points out that the savings made in energy costs will allow the theatre to 'spend more on putting on plays and performances and less on electricity and maintenance'. It is hoped that other theatres and cinemas will see how effective the greener lights can be and follow suit.
Philips has already installed the new systems at several other worldwide landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, London’s O2 arena, the Acropolis in Athens and the Eiffel Tower.
This morning, en route to work, I overheard my first little old lady saying 'it's time to put on the thermals!' And people found this rather funny. But she wasn't wrong; it's getting pretty nippy out there.
But it occurred to me that it only ever is little old ladies that make this very obvious adjustment to their wardrobe each winter, while the rest of us freeze in our 'sexy' all-year-round lingerie. Why? Is there any reason that thermal underwear can't be designed to look attractive too? It would certainly cut down on our use of heating if we had an extra layer of padding under our clothes.
And happily, it seems at least one label has had this idea. Enamore, makers of scrummy ethical lingerie have brought a touch of glamour to cozy underwear, including their fabulous Juliet nightie (and, of course, there's always the self-heating bra). But I reckon there's a lot of scope for truly stylish warming underwear this winter.
Everyone loves the classic Roberts Radio design, but this is the all-British company's first specially-designed eco friendly model.
The Gemini 21 has 150 hours battery life, which is five times the usual playing time for similar radios (it's a DAB, which means no crackling or interference from annoying pirate stations, as well as features like 'pause' and 'rewind'). The main problem with DAB is its tendency to guzzle up a lot of power, but Roberts has cut back the power requirements on the Gemini 21 as much as possible. The radio costs £79.99 and is available from various stockists or Roberts' own website.
Today marks the beginning of Energy Saving Week, so brace yourself for a barrage of tips on how to curb your carbon footprint on TV and elsewhere over the next few days. Some will be useful, some obvious, some probably total hokum. So I've gathered all the need-to-know energy saving tips I can find in this post for easy reference. Remember you can always browse our energy saving section for further suggestions.
- Hippyshopper's guide to saying goodbye to standby
- Top 5 green ways to keep warm
- Online standby cost calculator
- Get eco light bulbs in all shapes and sizes
Related: 22nd - 28th October 2007 is Energy Saving Week
Want to make sure you don't get the requisite garish pair of socks and large box of non-vegan chocolates for Christmas this year? Fed up with people forgetting your birthday? You could do a lot worse than making your way to the award-winning Natural Collection website. Once you're there, you can browse the fabulous range of products and make yourself a Gift List filled with deeply desirable eco-friendly treats.
With goodies ranging from beautiful items of fairly traded jewellery to handy and affordable eco-gadgets, and from eco-friendly baby accessories to green accessories for the office or study, I defy anyone not to find something they want on this site. Start securing yourself a Cool Yule now, and ward off the mouldy old Quality Street and the nasty socks before they're even a twinkle in the mother-in-law's eye!
Susi Weaser writes...Sometimes you can be too good. Case in point: the HY Mini is a wind-powered charger for your gadgets, so that when you attach it to yourself when your running or your bike whilst you're riding it collects power. You can then connect it to your mobile, PDA or MP3 player and use the juice to eek out a little bit more talk or listening time.
Apparently, riding your bike for an hour gets you an extra 15 minutes on your mobile. Alternatively, attach it to your car window and drive for the same amount of time and you can get 40 minutes. But then that would kind of defeat the object.
Product page: $50 here
Post originally from Shiny Shiny
We tend to think of solar panels as being shiny, flat and all looking much the same, but a Japanese company called Kyosemi is working hard to change our preconceptions about solar panels. In fact, its new flexible, spherical panels could be a lot more efficient at trapping light than the conventional sort.
Apart from the fact that they look futuristic and cool, spherical panels are more effective than flat ones because they can absorb sunlight at any angle. They optimize the use of direct and indirect light and convert energy with nearly 20% accuracy, far ahead any flat photovoltaic technologies.
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