Whole Travel Blog

In New Orleans, Louisiana, there will eventually be a 100% Cradle to Cradle Flow House. The design plans were unveiled by William McDonough & Partners last week, the first in a series of duplexes that hopefully revitalize the Lower 9th area of New Orleans that was devastated during Hurricane Katrina.

Cradle to Cradle Design: The Flow House in New Orleans

The entire philosophy behind Cradle to Cradle design is that the materials can be reused for other projects or recycled into the environment if and when the current structure completes its useful life. The local community in the Lower 9th provided substantial input during the duplex’s design to make sure it reflects the true need and desires of the local culture. There is ample daylighting and passive ventilation to keep energy needs low, and photovoltaic panels on the roof can hopefully completely power the structure and put power back into the grid.

Horses love the outdoors, so why not give them sustainable homes? That’s exactly what Blackburn Architects, a full-service architectural planning and design firm based in San Francisco and Washington DC, is doing. Their Greenbarns use passive lighting and ventilation, specify low-VOC materials for construction, and even offer additional solar panels and rainwater harvesting to take them almost competely off the grid.

Greenbarns - Let Your Horse Be Green

While the US Green Building Council (USGBC) does not yet have LEED certification for agricultural buildings, simply putting solar panels on the roofs of these barns could have a significant impact on the environmental footprint of ranches and farms around the world. A single barn roof of solar panels can often power an entire farm in the Midwest, and most farms have 2-3 barns.

Eat Green, Live Green?

Nephelios, a solar-powered blimp, is completing test flights over the next 2 weeks in preparation for a crossing of the English Channel by the end of the summer. This will mark the first manned solar airship ever, proving that carbon-free air travel is possible. Flexible solar panels on the top of the blimp will power a small motor, turning two propellers and moving the blimp forward. The flight across the Channel is expected to take less than an hour, and be an amazingly quiet and serene experience for those onboard. You can read more about it here.

Some people swim the Channel, these guys float across.

If you’re in Long Beach, California, check out the M/V Auriga Leader. It’s docked at the Port of Long Beach and hosts an amazing 328 solar panels that provide up to 10% of the ship’s power.

Auriga Leader: powered by the sun

The ship is part of a demonstration by Toyota and Japan’s NYK Line, and it directs solar power into the ship’s main electrical grid, helping to power the thrusters, hydraulics and steering, and provide 10% of the ship’s electricity. While 10% may seem nominal, supertankers can require enough energy to power 5,500 homes while at port, so even small percentage improvements are huge savings for the earth.

Instead of packing a battery-powered travel alarm clock for your next trip, consider investing in a clock that gets its power from only salt water. In its November 2008 issue, Travel and Leisure reviews 10 new gadgets meant for the eco-minded traveler.

Ranging in price from $16 for the water-powered clock to $2,000 for a biodegradable laptop partially made from bamboo, these gadgets are compact, economical, and easy to use, and are particularly useful if traveling somewhere remote where electricity isn’t a 24-hour commodity.

Some highlights include:

• a solar-powered battery that replaces phone, camera, ipod, and computer chargers
• USB-charged rechargeable AA batteries
• speakers partially made from recycled cardboard

Which gadgets do you plan to pack for your next adventure?