Even though most of us are hearing a lot about 3D printing in the last year or so, it’s actually been around for much longer (albeit only available to large companies with huge machines capable of it); Dutch designer Dirk Vander Kooij is creating furniture inspired by the form that came from a three-decade-old 3D printer.

“Older machines were less precise, which means thicker lines but also very little waste of material,” Vander Kooij told Dwell magazine. The designer came up with the idea for the Endless chairs as part of his graduation project from the Design Academy in Eindhoven.

According to Vander Kooij’s site: “The title ‘Endless’ indicates an infinite loop of plastic and the endless possibilities. He has developed an old industrial robot reused and programmed so that furniture ‘print’ was possible. In a seemingly endless movement the robot extrudes recycled plastic into chairs or other furniture.”

We aren’t the only ones to take notice of this cool chair and process; last year the Museum of Modern Art bought Endless pieces for their collection.

Check out the supercool video of the robot making the chair below:

The post Dirk Vander Kooij: Groovy 3D Print-Inspired Recycled Plastic Chairs appeared first on Eco-Chick.

Dear EarthTalk: Now that hot weather is coming, I want to upgrade my home’s A/C. Which are the most energy-saving models and should I go central air or window units?
– Jackie Smith, Cary, NC

According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), energy consumption for home air conditioning units accounts for more than eight percent of all the electricity produced in the U.S., at a cost to homeowners of $15 billion annually. Besides the cost, all this cooling leads to annual emissions of about 195 million tons of CO2—or two tons per year for each American home with A/C.

Of course, foregoing A/C entirely is the most energy- and cost-efficient way to go, but some of us need a little cooling for comfort, especially in warmer climates. If A/C is a must, buying the most efficient model is the way to save money and pollute less. Fortunately, a new generation of much more efficient room and central A/C units means that upgrading will likely pay for itself in energy savings within just a few years.

The main factors to consider in choosing a new model are cooling capacity (measured in British Thermal Units, or BTUs) and Energy-Efficiency Ratio, or EER. To determine the correct BTU rating for a given space, multiply the square footage by 10 and then add 4,000. Meanwhile, a given unit’s EER is the ratio of cooling output divided by power consumption—the higher the EER, the more efficient the air conditioner.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, national appliance standards require room air conditioners to have an EER of 8.0 to 9.8 or more, depending on type and capacity. Units with an EER rating of 10 or above typically qualify for the federal government’s ENERGY STAR label, which appears on especially energy-efficient appliances. Check out the ENERGY STAR website for lists of qualifying A/C models.

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) says that the average EER of room A/C units rose 47 percent from 1972 to 1991. To wit, replacing an older room unit with an EER of five with a new model with an EER of 10) would result in a 50 percent energy cost savings associated with A/C.

As to whether room units or central A/C makes more sense, it depends. Room units, which only cost a few hundred dollars each, will suffice for renters or those who only need to keep one or two rooms cool at a time. Meanwhile, central A/C is more efficient overall at keeping a whole house cool, and will also do a better job at reducing household humidity than even several individual room units—and will save more money faster on electricity bills. But with a starting price of around $4,000 for the condenser and initial set-up (plus any duct work needed to distribute cool air around a home), central A/C isn’t for everyone.

ACEEE points out that there are ways to keep indoor space cooler without A/C: improving insulation, sealing air gaps, getting rid of old appliances and light bulbs that give off lots of heat, running fans, using cooler colors on exterior roofing and paint, and other strategies. Those in particularly arid climates might also consider installing a swamp cooler (which cools outside air by running it over cold water) as a
cheaper alternative to A/C. By following these suggestions and upgrading conscientiously, we can all stay a little more comfortable in our warming world without exacerbating the problem too much.

CONTACTS: ACEEE, www.aceee.org; ENERGY STAR, www.energystar.gov; AHAM, www.aham.org; Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, www.dsireusa.org.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to:earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue:www.emagazine.com/trial

Photo Credit: adonis hunter / ahptical

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Join Manufacture NY as it toasts it’s new factory space in style – with live music, ice-cold PBRs (FREE while they last!), cash bar, food truck and a photobooth. Hosted in their brand new, raw factory space at Industry City, this party promises a wild night of DJs and drinks. Revel with the MNY team and all of our designers + Indiegogo supporters in our new warehouse operation and experience the inception of the next wave of fashion.

Tweet us @manufactureny and follow along at #mnyfactorybash

WHEN:
Saturday, May 18, 2013
8:00pm until 12:00am

WHERE:
220 36th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232
Industry City, Brooklyn is located only 2 stops from Manhattan on the 36th Street N/D Express Lines!

BUY TICKETS HERE (and support Made in NYC)!

SPONSORED by

Pabst Blue Ribbon
Colson Patisserie (our neighbors in Industry City!)
Krrb.com

FOOD TRUCK by

KORILLA BBQ (seriously, just check out the menu…this is IT!)

LIVE PERFORMANCE by

No Way Josie

DJ SET by

Dirtyfinger (Conrad Carlson)

PHOTOBOOTH by

Bibi Booth

The post Party Time! Support Manufacture NY’s New Space and Made in NYC This Weekend appeared first on Eco-Chick.

The Green Touch of Spain, a pop-up shop featuring products from sustainable fashion brands, is open through Friday, May 10th. Featuring eco-friendly and sustainable products by five designers from Spain chosen to showcase their work and celebrate the rising movement of “slow fashion,” there are cute summer clothes, shoes, bags/purses and accessories for men and women from brands Ecoology, Efimero, Kameleonik and Le Konsphin.

Kameleonik shoes

I visited the cool boutique, GGripo, where the pop-up is being held, and there was plenty of great stuff for sale, all made ethically by up-and-coming designers that we haven’t seen much of in the states yet (so nobody will be wearing the same dress as you if you shop at the pop-up!). Bonus

Efimero

The Green Touch of Spain is open Monday through Friday 11am-8pm, and Saturday and Sunday from Noon – 8pm from May 2 – 10. The shop is located at GGrippo art + design at 174 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY.

Le Konsphin bags

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Manufacture New York founder Bob Bland tells CBS News that producing clothing in America is the answer to what happened in Bangladesh, and she makes an incredibly compelling argument for why a ‘good deal’ on a cheap clothing isn’t so great.

The post A Real Solution to Fast Fashion and the Horrors of Foreign Clothing Production is Here (Video) appeared first on Eco-Chick.

This article originally published on MNN.com

Organic food and non-toxic body care products have grown in popularity year after year and are booming businesses. But clothing that is less harmful to people and the planet has been a tougher sell, since it’s not something you ingest or put on the skin and gets absorbed. It’s a business that ultimately doesn’t affect the purchaser, but it does affect communities that are often on the other side of the Earth.

Case in point: Last week a Bangladeshi garment factory collapsed, killing (at most recent count) 382 people. Due to rising labor costs in China (garment workers there have been exploited over the last decades, and have been working together to demand better and fairer working conditions), Bangladesh is the latest country in which workers are underpaid and overworked to produce clothing cheaply. Making just $37-$90 a month, its those incredibly low wages that are part of the reason we can buy clothing more cheaply in 2013 than in 1995, despite all other costs (materials, transportation, rents) having risen. And low pay isn’t the only way these companies save money — slacking on health and safety requirements are another. And cutting corners when it comes to safety always ends in tragedy.

So far, there have been 382 confirmed deaths in the factory collapse that employed about 5,000 people in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city. While there are plenty more people buried under the rubble, the chances of survival at this point are extremely slim. This isn’t just “one of those tragedies” that happen sometimes even under the best of circumstances; it was entirely preventable. The day before the collapse, which happened last Wednesday, Rana Plaza had been found to have giant cracks in its walls. Shops and a bank on the lower floors closed and evacuated immediately, but the garment workers on the upper floors were ordered to work on that same day, the day of the collapse.

The owner of the factory, Sohel Rana, who fled the city and was found by police in hiding, was apprehended on Sunday near the border with India. This tragedy comes just months after fires in garment factories killed hundreds.

Dara O’Rourke, an expert on workplace monitoring at the University of California, Berkeley, told the New York Times that it’s the low prices Westerners expect that are at least partly responsible for these deaths. “Even in a situation of grave threat, when they saw cracks in the walls, factory managers thought it was too risky not to work because of pressure on them from U.S. and European retailers to deliver their goods on time. [Prices paid by Western companies] are so low that they are at the root of why these factories are cutting corners on fire safety and building safety.”

Of course local enforcement is to blame in this tragedy, but ultimately, American (and European) consumers, who have insisted on having five T-shirts at $5 each (at prices like that, you can bet it is made from shoddy materials by a woman or a child being paid less than they should be) have contributed to this problem. It’s the cycles of fast fashion, the new concept of disposable clothes (how well do you treat cheap stuff that’s always plentiful?) and our hunger for more, bigger, cheaper, that is part of the reason that these (mostly women) Bangladeshis died. These deaths and injuries are partially the responsibility of all of us who look for a “great deal” at the expense of American jobs or those who are paid fairly abroad.

When America exported its labor to other countries, we forgot to export workers’ rights.

Check out these amazing pictures of the rescue on the New York Times site; absolutely heartbreaking, I warn those who are sensitive that they very well may bring you to tears as they did me. How are cheap clothes worth this kind of suffering?

The solution? Buy products that are made in the USA, buy high-quality used clothing if you can’t afford the new, be willing to pay a little more for your clothes and buy fewer of them, and consider not purchasing at all from fast-fashion chains and stores that sell clothes extremely cheaply.

The post Bangladesh’s Awful Building Collapse: Almost 400 dead, Over a Thousand Injured: This is Fast Fashion appeared first on Eco-Chick.

I’ve written plenty about natural dyes, and count myself as a huge fan of the depth of color, and unique look they give to fabrics colored with them. Launched on Earth Day, Free People’s new line, Maheya (meaning ‘of the earth’), is colored with marigold flowers, rhubarb, lilac, natural indigo, pomegranate skin, and annatto seed.

Each piece comes with a seed paper hangtag printed on 100% recycled paper that when planted, will grow into wildflowers.

According to a release from Free People:

Maheya was formed when the Free People design team had the great fortune to meet Ruppa, a woman so inspirational, she would become the driving force behind the new label. Ruppa was running her own factory in the heart of Mumbai, India with a dedication to empowering her workers, sourcing her fabrics ethically, and hand dying all of her garments with natural materials. Recognizing her unique talents, a partnership was swiftly formed.

(Left) The Cold Shoulder Long Caftan is viscose fabric dyed with natural indigo.

The V-Neck Button-trim Caftan is dyed with lilac and pomegranate seeds.

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It was all about local, local, local at the first ever Eco-Chick Sustainable Spring Fashion Party at Green Spaces in Tribeca. We had a great time celebrating Earth Day a little early with local vegan food, organic libations, and a fun-loving and curious crowd who were there to see what eco fashions from seriously styling made-in-NYC designers, all of which are available in stores and online.

Eco-Chick managing editor Lindsay Brown, founder and editor Starre Vartan (in Feral Childe bookends dress) and intern Juliette Donatelli (in Feral Childe rake dress), who worked to put this event together!

Stories tell the best pictures, so follow along for what was a superfun evening sponsored by Neutrogena Naturals, Green Spaces NY, Veev, Treeline Nutcheese, and our beautiful models styled by Starre Vartan, with hair by Theadora Guzman at Yarok Hair and Kristen Arnett of the Green Beauty Team.

VeeV’s new organic VitaFrute cocktails-in-a-bottle were delicious and refreshing. Very green, very spring-y.

Eco-Chick managing editor Lindsay Brown put together the beautiful Treeline nutcheese plates with fruit.

Model K in makeup by Kristen Arnett’s Green Beauty Team.

Makeup artist Rebecca Casciano with the Green Beauty Team works her magic.

Guests began to arrive; that’s designer of ELSA AND ME, Maja Svensson on the right, and a beautifully spring-bedecked friend on the left.

Our goody bags were filled with soaps from Mrs. Meyers, delicious perfumes from Lurk, toothpaste from PROXI, skincare from Neutrogena Naturals, adorable socks from PACT, Yarok haircare products, info from Eileen Fisher, and gift cards from Tres Belle Petite Medi-Spa in Brooklyn and sustainable clothing company Sundippers.

Hair was put up in relaxed braids and soft waves.

Starre brought fresh forsythia and small daffodils from her garden in Connecticut to bedeck the models’ hair.

Theadora Guzman and her assistant from Yarok Organic Haircare.

And the models made their debut! (From L to R) K wears an Auralis convertible jumper (soy, organic cotton, made in NYC) with Eileen Fisher tank top and Natalie Frigo triple daggers necklace; Esosa Edsomwan in a Dogwood & Hastings tank top, StudyNY shorts (made in NYC from American-made cotton/recycled poly denim), and an elongated rectangle pearl necklace by Natalie Frigo; Marissa Feinburg wears a Carrie Parry sleeveless cupro shirt and printed silk pants.

Ariel Clay wears Natalie Frigo antler earrings and a Feral Childe Collard dress over a StudyNY blouse.

Marissa Feinburg wears a Carrie Parry sleeveless cupro shirt and printed silk pants; Maayan Laufer in a Sylvia Heisel Tyvek anorak and organic cotton shift dress.

Close on Esosa Edsomwan in a Dogwood & Hastings tank (digitally printed nature photography on silk, made in Connecticut) and an elongated rectangle pearl necklace by Natalie Frigo (made in NYC).

Adela Capova in ELSA AND ME organic cotton, made in NYC dress and a Dogwood & Hastings scarf; K wears an Auralis convertible jumper (soy, organic cotton, made in NYC) with Eileen Fisher tank top and Natalie Frigo triple daggers necklace

Brooklynski Hoodplate necklaces, worn as bracelets.

Ariel Clay wears Natalie Frigo antler earrings and a Feral Childe Collard dress over a StudyNY blouse.

Eco model, founder of Source4Style and author Summer Rayne Oakes.

Beth Fitini of Ecobeth and Allison Tray of Tres Belle Petite Medi-Spa in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Happy guests!

Allison Tray and Kate McGregor, owner of Kaight eco boutique in Brooklyn.

Michael Schwarz, founder of vegan Treeline nutcheese, made in Kingston, NY.

Valorie Luther and her daughter.

Everyone enjoyed delicious Madecasse chocolates, fair-trade and organic, supporting Madegascar.

Eco Fashion fans and friends.

Marissa Feinberg, Summer Rayne Oakes, Lindsay Brown, Starre Vartan, Juliette Donatelli, Emma Grady.

Celebrants.

Maayan Laufer exiting the presentation; Sylvia Heisel dress and jacket, Natalie Frigo dagger and icicles necklace.

Natalie Frigo jewelry, post-party.

All images by Kate Black.

The post Eco-Chick’s Sustainable Spring Fashion Party: Photos, Beauty, Love appeared first on Eco-Chick.

BeGood Clothing is a socially responsible and eco-friendly clothing store located online and on Union Street in San Francisco. The store is giving a new face to sustainable fashion by carrying 40 brands and designers that each give back to a different eco or humanitarian cause, while being on the forefront of today’s fashion trends. Inspired by the social impact of Toms Shoes and the environmental impact of Patagonia, the brands carried in BeGood Clothing all leave a positive impact on the world.

BeGood Clothing is trying to change the perception of eco-friendly clothing. Owners Dean Ramadan and Mark Spera want to show the world that going green can be fun, colorful, and flattering, by carefully curate the brands and designers they carry in the store to brighten the sustainable clothing image. Out with the Earthy colors, and in with the flashy ones! Below is a sample of the goods they carry and the good that happens from each purchase.

These PACT socks are made with organic cotton and each purchase helps build 100 urban gardens across the United States.

This Elroy Apparel maxi dress, also made with organic cotton, has been a hit this Spring. Elroy is a fair trade clothing company that works with communities in Indonesia to make the dresses. BeGood Clothing donates a meal to the San Francisco non-profit, Project Open Hand, which delivers meals to bedridden people in the Bay Area.

This PrAna top made with organic cotton is perfect for a nice Spring day. PrAna is Fair Trade certified and gives a portion of their sales to a number of environmental initiatives, including the Conservation Alliance, Textile Exchange, and many more.

This super soft Threads for Thought lace dress, made with Organic Cotton, looks great dressed down with sandals, or matched with your favorite boots. Threads for Thought gives financial support to the Internation Rescue Committee and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

This color-blocked FashionAble scarf is made for a nice Spring day out in the park. This scarf was made by women in Ethiopia that were saved from the sex trade. Each purchase helps provide more jobs to the women in their community.

This simple yet elegant color block top from Amour Vert is made in the U.S. with peace silk which doesn’t harm the silk worms. For each of these tops sold, BeGood Clothing will donate a meal to the San Francisco non-profit, Project Open Hand, which delivers meals to bedridden people in the Bay Area.

Check out more of what BeGood Clothing has to offer this Spring on their website, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Pinterest. Mark and Dean have been nice enough to offer all Eco-Chick readers free shipping, so when you get to check out, type in the code “ecochick” to redeem the discount.

The post BeGood Clothing’s Bright Colors for a Sustainable Spring appeared first on Eco-Chick.

A special installation of Asher Jay’s visually arresting campaign of hand-painted PET bottles titled SEA SPEAK SPHERE: MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE will be on display this Sunday at the American Museum of Natural History at “Island Life.”

Asher Jay’s Message in a Bottle showcase presently consists of a hanging display of 200 plastic bottles, each eloquently hand illustrated by Jay to represent a unique message from an illustrious conservation-aligned individual. The campaign now contains 200 messages by 200 prominent ocean voices.

“To me, Message in a Bottle is a growing participatory movement that involves people from all age groups and walks of life. It is both democratic and universal in its appeal; thus it serves as an effective visual petition and time capsule for the environmental concerns and conservation agendas of the Anthropocene. It offers a singular creative platform for the simultaneous address of diverse perspectives, so viewers can be engaged by a multitude of insights, ideas, and personal experiences. It is important we each find a way to connect with the world around us, and through this campaign I am able to facilitate the internalization of interdependence in every person that interfaces with it.

My passion for all things wild imbues me with the motivation to produce concise, relatable mixed media artworks that empower the people who encounter them. The images I have illustrated on each PET bottle that encompasses this showcase, portrays the message each individual has dropped into their respective synthetic vessels. This way I have metaphorically and literally fed every eco-conscious memo contributed to this undertaking through the neck of the plastic age.”

-Asher Jay, Artist, Designer, Writer, Film Maker and Conservationist.

Island Life (part of Milstein Science Series)
Sunday, April 14, 2013
11am 4pm
In the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life
Free with Museum admission

From the Cocos Island off of the coast of Costa Rica to the famed Galapagos, oceanic islands foster a vast array of cultures, wondrous biodiversity, and diverse environments. Their pristine waters are home to fascinating species ranging from sharks to corals, while the islands themselves feature a variety of plant and animal life, much of which is uniquely endemic to specific islands, and others of which have yet to be discovered. Join scientists Jenny Newell, Christopher Filardi and Chris Meyer as they explore what scientists have learned about island species with a focus on current island discovery, adventure, and cutting-edge science. Experience a live animal encounter with Zoologist and naturalist Jarod Miller.

The post Artist Asher Jay’s “Sea Speak Sphere: Message in a Bottle” at the American Museum of Natural History appeared first on Eco-Chick.