A Greener Webcam? You betcha!

jplatt — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:12:22 -0400

With a device as small as a webcam, do you really need to be green?

Well, why not? You're going to eventually replace or throw out any device you buy, so why not think of it in a way that puts the cradle-to-the-grave life cycle in mind?

United Pepper certainly does that with its new Lili Webcam ($44.90 plus $6 shipping from Belgium). As you can see from the photo here, United Pepper has taken a unique and fun approach to designing their device. The starfish-like exterior is made from cotton, and it's packed with sand and kapok. It therefore uses less plastic than similar devices, and according to the company 70% of the materials are Fair Trade. It's also packaged in recycled materials.

Life Goggles gave the Lili Webcam a good review, saying it "does the job as a webcam but don’t expect to be producing quality recordings with it."

This isn't United Pepper's only green computing device. They also offer a similarly made USB hub, called the Oscar, for $29.90.

Three cheers for a company thinking outside the box!

Can Products Be More Green?

jchatraw — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:15:57 -0400

In their book Cradle to Cradle, authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart succinctly explain why we need to rethink the way we're making things, putting environmental concerns ahead of cost point or ease of production. With an architect and a chemist serving as your guides throughout the book, McDonough and Braungart don't go brow beating as much as they go about asking the pertinent and relevant questions.

While not everyone may be on board with some of the questions they raised, what they said made sense. It left me asking questions, too.

Here's a green nugget from Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things:

"The design intention behind the current industrial infrastructure is to make an attractive product that is affordable, meets regulations, performs well enough, and last long enough to meet market expectations. Such a product fulfills the manufacturer's desires and some of the customers' expectations as well. But from our perspective, products that are not designed particularly for human and ecological health are unintelligent and inelegant—what we call crude products.

For example, the average mass-produced piece of polyester clothing and typical water bottle both contain antimony, a toxic heavy metal known to cause cancer under certain circumstances. Let's put aside for the moment the issues of whether this substance represents a specific danger to the user. The question we would pose as designers is: Why is it here? Is it necessary? Actually, it is not necessary: antimony is a current catalyst in the polymerization process and is not necessary for polyester production. What happens when this discarded product is 'recycled' (that is, downcycled) and mixed with other materials?"

sustainable products

A Greener Webcam? You betcha!

Can Products Be More Green?