Petica's posterous http://peticawatson.posterous.com a place to plonk stuff posterous.com Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:19:40 -0700 a font of entrepreneurial ideas: Springwise http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2010/03/23/a-font-of-entrepreneurial-ideas-springwise http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2010/03/23/a-font-of-entrepreneurial-ideas-springwise

This website is quite interesting, if you like ideas.

http://springwise.com/

People post ideas they've seen happening - you can't post if you haven't seen the idea implemented. You can also browse by industry, so here is Food and Beverage: http://springwise.com/food_beverage/index.php?page=10 and here is Eco stuff: http://springwise.com/eco_sustainability/ Three of my faves:
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Eco-minded bathroom fixtures are no longer hard to find, but they still tend to focus more on function than on form. One notable exception is W+W, a combined toilet and sink from Spanish brand Roca that combines compact style with green-minded thinking. Launched last fall, W+W is a single, L-shaped unit in which the sink and toilet are not only attached but also integrated internally. Specifically, wastewater from the sink is used to fill the toilet's cistern, thus saving as much as 25 percent of the water that would normally be used. An automatic cleaning system prevents bad odors and bacteria, while a specialized tap controls the water's temperature and flow for maximum energy savings, Plumbing Park reported. Developed by the Roca Innovation Lab and designed by Gabriele and Oscar Buratti, the prize-winning W+W is priced at EUR 2,731. An eco-iconic innovation to bring to the green but style-conscious masses near you...? Website: www.roca.com.es/w+w/w+w/en/index.html Contact: www.es.roca.com/en/contact
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If the energy people expend dancing and working out can power cellphones, lights and other electrical appliances, why not apply the same concept to all the energy spent by millions of people every day simply walking along city sidewalks? That's exactly the premise behind Pavegen slabs, which can be inserted among regular sidewalk sections to capture the kinetic energy people spend just walking. Each rubber slab from UK-based Pavegen Systems gets depressed by about 5 mm each time it gets stepped on. Using just that small movement, it can convert the kinetic energy used into electricity, which is then stored in the slab. Specifically, 5 percent of the energy harvested is used to make the slab's LED glow, making it clear to users that their energy has been captured. The rest can be used to power pedestrian lighting, information displays and many other applications. Pavegen's patent-protected technology has also been used to harvest energy from users' footsteps on stairs; custom branding is available. Following recent tests in East London, Pavegen is now seeking both investors and additional testing sites for its eco-iconic innovation. One to get in on early...? Website: www.pavegensystems.com Contact: hello@pavegen.co.uk Spotted by: James Graemer
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Games have long been used as an educational tool, and not just for kids. Canadian Akoha, for example, encourages players to be more kind. Now, along similar lines, Play Rethink invites users to redesign everyday objects to make them more sustainable. Play Rethink ("The Eco-Design Game") is an effort from London-based Rethink Games to help people think—or rethink—how to make everyday objects and services more socially and environmentally friendly. Each game includes a multicoloured wheel and 98 drawing cards along with an eco-strategies key card and an instruction sheet with activities. With each spin of the wheel, players get a card asking them to rethink a particular everyday object, such as a chair or a vacuum cleaner. They then describe their idea for a more sustainable approach by drawing it on the card. Ideas players are particularly proud of can be uploaded onto the Play Rethink website, where others can rate, comment and be inspired by them. What's more, each month Rethink Games selects one idea to serve as the project of the month, and it's currently working on setting up partnerships with organizations that can help develop those ideas further. Play Rethink is sold online and through select London retailers. Pricing is GBP 24.95, with refill card packs available for GBP 5.95 each. Corporate workshops to help promote innovation are also available. Facilitating the idea generation process is all very good and well, of course; what will make this really interesting, however, is a way to turn the best ideas into reality. RedesignMe found a way to do that through partnerships with manufacturers, and it also took the critical step of paying the Generation C(ash) consumers whose ideas got used. Play Rethink may be a game, but it's also another way to tap into the global brain. Who will help pave the way toward some real results? (Related: iPhone game gets kids into the (hidden) park.)

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Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:08:14 -0800 Food Waste http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2010/03/09/food-waste http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2010/03/09/food-waste Following on from my Bloody Well Smell It post, I want to investigate how food outlets and restaurants in my local area deal with their waste. Here's a professional service for food waste collection and composting, but it's based in Essex. I wonder if anything similar exists in Brent. I need to get a campaign going under the Transition umbrella... and then tie it to free compost for our gardens... Juniper Food Waste Run by a team of dedicated and experienced professionals, our sole purpose at Juniper is to provide a food waste collection service that is cost effective and efficient, that addresses corporate social responsibility and regulatory requirements, in a manner that is environmentally sound.

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Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:18:15 -0800 The Bloody Well Smell It Yourself campaign... http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2009/11/28/the-bloody-well-smell-it-yourself-campaign http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2009/11/28/the-bloody-well-smell-it-yourself-campaign Right, I'm launching some new campaigns. The first one will be called "The Bloody Well Smell It Yourself" awareness week. This means USE YOUR NOSE to test whether food is really off or whether you are just being ripped off by the manufacturer who are covering their backs by putting the Use By or Best Before date a week before it really needs to be there. OR the opposite problem is of course having loads of rotting stuff in the fridge. Particularly single people who are sharing domestic quarters do this, I find. They buy in bulk once a week or less, when hungry, and don't get around to planning or eating up leftovers. Either way, it's all WASTE. And that means methane emissions from landfill 23 times worse than Co2. So the answer - buy less more often, locally not at the supermarket, plan better, and don't believe the hype about dates. Here's someone who's started a charity to redistribute surplus food to the needy : http://www.fareshare.org.uk/

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Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:56:13 -0700 Getting the Plot...allotment plans! http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2009/08/06/allotment-plans-gaining-the-plot http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2009/08/06/allotment-plans-gaining-the-plot My name is down for 2 allotments (greedy!) which should be coming up in the next year. Because I am unlikely to be able to tend to them all by myself, let alone eat the produce, I'm planning to turn them into permacultured forest gardens in which my local community can learn to grow  and share food by close observance of nature and how it behaves in order to get the best fruit and veg. Seeing as I only took up gardening in September 08, I've gotta lot to learn! So in fact, I'll be looking for teachers and gardeners ready to come along and show groups what to do and why. I attended a short permaculture course at Naturewise in the Lea Valley in July '09 and there's certainly a lot of fascinating theory to learn about too. Wish I had time to attend the longer courses. http://www.naturewise.org.uk/page.cfm. There is even a Permaculture Picture House in east London devoted to showing films on this topic. The best known is Rebecca Hoskings BBC documentary "A Farm for the Future", which you can probably find a copy of somewhere. I'll be returning to this post to write more about permaculture and to start mapping out how we might plan the plots and if you have any suggestions as to planting combinations you have found successful, I'd love to hear. EG - maize supports the climbing runner beans and squash plants used as ground cover beneath them prevents weeds. On the other hand, I need to get the community involved so I'll leave a lot till then. I'd also like to get a local artist on board to document our plots development.  Also, I'd like to see bikes with trailers selling the produce door to door, all over the community. As always, how to fund it?

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