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1. PREFAB FRIDAY: 'Puma City' Shipping Container Store
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2. Mapping the Global Ebb and Flow of Oil
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3. IS IT GREEN?: The Biodegradable Credit Card
PREFAB FRIDAY: 'Puma City' Shipping Container Store
Olivia Chen - Architecture
Refurbished shipping containers aren’t just useful for clever economical housing anymore. Like London subway car architecure and the Greentainer Design Project, this design concept makes public space more flexible and eco-friendly by re-using discarded material that is easily moved. This tri-level, 11,000-square-foot Puma store, known as Puma City, is made of 24 refurbished shipping containers and is fully dis-mountable so it can be packed up and shipped anywhere. Currently traveling around the world, the store was designed by our favorite shipping container architects LOT-EK and completed in September 2008.
Mapping the Global Ebb and Flow of Oil
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
The U.S. has imported millions of barrels of oil every day for more than three decades — but the flow of dollars and fuel has fluctuated over time. How to illustrate such a massive amount of trade over time? With a new map from the Rocky Mountain Institute and Google.org, which visually lays out all the data related to the oil imported into this country from 1973 onward. Admittedly, we always love a good map (101 Cleantech Startups, Biofuels Deathwatch or Coal Deathwatch, anyone?), but this one ranks among the infographic elite. Note, it’s only a screenshot that follows below (thicker lines mean more oil produced or imported).
The map highlights 5 eras of oil consumption, from the oil shocks of the 1970s to the price collapse in the 1980s to recent events including Hurricane Katrina and gas approaching $5 per gallon before retreating rapidly recently. (You can see these selections by clicking on the buttons below the map on the RMI website.) One interesting time period is from 1982 to 1985, when low prices caused oil imports from the Middle East to decline to very low levels. The map also looks at potential oil from offshore drilling and exploration of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
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IS IT GREEN?: The Biodegradable Credit Card
Adrianne Jeffries - Greenwashing
No question about it, Americans have an overconsumption problem. The total outstanding balance of bank-issued credit cards per consumer was $5,710 in December 2008, according to Transunion. Americans like to buy new things and throw out the old ones. We also like to own lots of stuff we don't need. Retailers profit from this, but so do money lenders. And many of these excessive retail purchases end up on credit cards. Discover has taken a step toward sustainability by introducing a new card made of biodegradable plastic, which it says is the first. But how green can a credit card really be if serves to encourage consumption?
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