CulturalCreative
Greenit! iPhone App By Fullcircle Innovations
May 13th, 2010
Posts Tagged ‘green IT’
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Previously here on we introduced 20 green iPhone apps. Now here is another great green app from Fullcircle Innovations the people behind greenITers.com.
Did you EVER wonder how your iPhone could make the WORLD a GREENER place? With the “Greenit!” iPhone app, you can do it! And empower yourself to make a Difference!
The old saying IS TRUE: “A PICTURE is worth a thousand words.” ECO-conscious individuals are already “Provingit!” by showing how the world CAN BE a better place through Greenit! customized design imaging on their iPhone. Add GREEN and CLEAN elements that will illustrate how exactly sustainable progress could be achieved! (more…)
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GreenAdvertizing.com just launched the worlds first carbon neutral ad network.
GreenAdvertizing.com is unusal as advertising businesses go as the company is not just about profit. GreenAdvertizing.com is an ethical company and invests in green entrepreneurs and social enterprise. (more…)
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Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by johann.aberkaneI imagine there must be a lot of greenz readers who are avid bloggers themselves. Green blogs often influence each other and grow with each connection made. If you’re going to the effort of making a blog with green content, why not go all the way, and have green design and management? The Livedoor ‘Get Eco with Green Blog Design’ campaign offers the opportunity to contribute easily to global environmental activities while writing your blog. Let’s see how they do this.
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Food and Farming Information Site VeGieeWe all want to eat good food.
And all farmers and restaurateurs want us to eat good food.
A new web community ‘VeGiee’ aims to bring these two ‘wants’ together. If you like eating, or are interested in food, then this is one site you’ve got to check out. So what exactly is it all about?
VeGiee is a web-based community bringing together people with an interest in food and farming. Anyone can become part of the community by signing up to be a member. The three types of membership are ‘regular’, ‘farmer’, and ‘food professional’ (those in the food and beverage industry, sales, research, or otherwise working or qualified to work in the food industry). These three groups share their unique views and information, creating an interactive community.
So what goes on at VeGiee?
If you want to find out what kind of people are taking part, check out the ‘farmer & food pro’ corner. You can access their profiles and blogs, which are all unique and interesting and give an insight into the love and passion they all pour into their farming and food.
Let’s take a look at the page of Terauchi Noen, a melon farmer from Furano in Hokkaido.
Below a simple profile and a few photos, you can find a blog that is updated regularly. Apart from feeling the love he pours into growing his melons, you get to meet his children and family, and get a peek into life on the farm. It’s exciting imagining the scenery in Hokkaido, and wondering how the melons are doing.
By getting to know the farmers, one also develops a fondness for their produce. I’m sure you’ll find a farmer that takes your fancy too.
If you’re more interested in eating than farming, you’d better visit the ‘fruit & vegetable dictionary’. Here you can find information on the history, nutrition, cooking and storing methods, along with a whole array of other useful information on all sorts of fruit and vegetables.
Being an avocado lover, I was surprised to find the following piece of information:
‘Avocados contain a toxic substance called persin, which is poisonous to some animals. Do not feed avocado to your pet.’
Phew! Lucky I don’t have a pet, otherwise I would likely have given it leftover avocado without a second thought. There is also other fun and interesting information that you wouldn’t find in an ordinary dictionary, for example ‘abogado’ (which sounds much like ‘avocado’) means ‘lawyer’ in Spanish…
However, most importantly there is information on the seasons for each vegetable, and the largest producing prefectures for fruit. Here one can gain important information to keep in mind when shopping.
I was under the impression that avocados weren’t grown in Japan, so it was to my surprise that I found an avocado farmer in Wakayama prefecture. While I always prefer to buy domestic produce where possible, I’d always bought Mexican avocados. Now I know that there are domestically grown ones, I’m going to try to track them down. Maybe there is some new information there for you too! Either way, it’s a great source of information on farming in Japan.
While VeGiee provides fun and useful information for the food novice like you and I, it is also an effective method of information exchange for farmers and food pros. I caught up with Takuya Kudo from Trace, inc. which manages VeGiee. He told me the idea for the website originally came from the desire to support farmers who were passionate about their work. Providing an opportunity for people from various backgrounds to come together and share information is a sure way to help farmers expand their sales. Realizing the potential for food professionals to find good ingredients, and for food lovers to get information, the community was set up in May this year.
So where to now for the fledgling VeGiee?
‘We plan to add a farmer supporter system where the public can support farmers, and receive their produce in return. Hopefully this will bring consumers and farmers together, and help the farmers.’
How wonderful to receive lovingly grown produce as payback! This is more than just a ‘virtual’ connection via the internet. I can’t wait to see this website really take off!This article is translated from the original Japanese post.
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Creative Commons, Some Rights Reserved, Photo by dsephotos2008
There are many of us who have suffered the inconvenience of our mobile phone running out of batteries when out and about. Some people get round this problem by carrying around a portable mobile phone charger, but this solution isn’t perfect either as they are often battery-operated and run out of juice.
Au has attempted to resolve this by developing a phone that can be charged by leaving it out in the sun. Made by Sharp, empty batteries can be charged up to 1 minute talk time or 2 hours standby time from just 10 minutes charging. Overseas, similar phones are already on the market from companies like Samsung but this is the first time in Japan, with a waterproof function as an added bonus.
While charging phones with solar energy is a fantastic concept, if we are going to meet the energy needs of our phones with re-useable energy, we may as well have some kind of electricity generating system set up in our homes, with which we could have as stable source or power generation to charge things up.
There are various types of solar phone charger on the market in the form of phone straps and other, but at present no company or manufacturer has created a solar recharging phone product in its own right. If they are serious about generating power for mobile phones through re-usable energy, rather than a concept model wouldn’t it be better to come up with some practical system?
There’s no doubt that Japanese consumers demand a catchy concept model rather than a full-blown practical system. However rather than bowing to the demands of consumers, in order to build a sustainable society we need companies to deliver essential products.
With the buoyancy of DoCoMo, NTT have avoided the economic downturn and recorded the highest operating income of any company in March 2009. If they are so well heeled, rather than pouring money into an image strategy, perhaps it would better if they invested in the development of products with real practical worth. Mobile phones are “daily goods” held by most of the Japanese population. From here, there is so much potential for building a sustainable society and educating consumers. Whether or not the solar mobile phone can become a corner stone on which to build a sustainable future very much depends on developments within the Industry.This article has been translated from the original Japanese post
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