Posts Tagged ‘eco decor’

Eco your Diwali

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

 

The festive season’s here and with it comes joy, celebration and inherent cheer in the atmosphere. We like our festivals as it is on those days we spend time and meet up with close friends and family. A break from the routine, a chance to indulge into tasties and there’s lights, grandiose and colour. Add to that the gifts exchanged and the joy of giving and getting.

This year how about we make the planet an essential member of our celebrations? The Euphoria of festivity tends to make us consume excessively. We mall hop & make a plastic mount!  This festive season let us make ‘sustainability’ the buzz word and source of  joy & creativity.

We can make our time, happiness and the feeling of being together sustain by taking a few thoughtful steps:

1) Strengthen nostalgia; it’s always bound people together and broken ice. Make your gifts instead of buying them and explore the artist in you. Scrap-books, hand painted photo frames, bio-degradable lamps, cards are a few thought starters

2) Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Festivals call for the annual house clean up session which might bring out all those old books, clothes, stationery and what not. Do give some of those to someone who really needs it

3) Get creative with your gift wrapping. There’s always so much stuff lying around in the house like old newspaper and magazines. Who knows you could even learn some new Origami

4)  There’s always the option of the perfect gift being sharing your joy and spreading your light by just being together and perhaps playing a board game, carom or some fun outdoor games

5) Be rational with your lights, sound speakers and air conditioners.  Turn it down when not needed. Cameras will be clicking moments to be remembered. Do use rechargeable batteries for all battery operated devices

6) Plan your shopping and carry a reusable bag on you. You could set a trend and example to fellow shoppers #sustainability

‘No one can do everything, but everyone can do a LOT!’ With sustainable consumption we could make our festivals more fun and joy evergreen! Go on have a very happy Diwali.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create joy with the 'Bag of the Year'

Monday, January 17th, 2011

A cool way to use your ‘Bag of the Year’ .

Hang in your cupboard or room to store all the happy memories of 2011..letters from loved ones , birthday cards, your accomplishments etc. Dive into the bag at any time of the year and fish out a happy memory. The joy it brings will send out vibrations to attract even more joy !:)

Hmmm….maybe we should call this ‘Bag of 2011 Joy’ !:)

Bag of the Year..

Saturday, January 15th, 2011


Bamboo grandeur

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Bamboo is the stuff of green dreams these days. Not only is it a winning combination of strong, lightweight and flexible; it also scores highly in the sustainable stakes, being super fast growing and easy to harvest locally in many parts of the world. What’s more, it is increasingly being lauded for its aesthetic qualities. None of this is news to any architect worth their salt – but one in particular, Vietnamese virtuoso Vo Trong Nghia, stands out for his exceptional bamboo designs.

The cafe’s frame measures 30 feet high and features an opening at the very top of the dome that allows daylight to stream inside. Like many other Vietnamese structures, it is covered in a local bush plant, which evokes an African-esque aesthetic. And contrary to what you might think about building with natural, local materials, the end result is not “homemade” looking at all and is actually rather streamlined and majestic.

This is a trail blazer in several ways-

- It’s possible to design large structures with natural , renewable , biodegradable materials

- It is possible to design something this huge without a nail

- The structure built can look awesome and inspiring

- The wisdom of a culture can find new and beautiful expression while creating a sustainable world

Each industry is plagued with self and world limiting beliefs . Creations such as these jolt , delight , inspire us to look afresh and create anew.

Gift Green

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

GIFTS now have a new color – GREEN !

At Clean Planet we are committed to creative solutions for a joyous , sustainable world. A step in that direction is GIFT GREEN - fun , green gifting ideas. A space where you can get inspired and inspire others with your ideas for cool , green gifts.

The joy of creating something yourself is indescribable. In that sense a green gift is first and foremost a gift you give to yourself. To the recipient it’s an honor that you took the time and effort to create something. Besides the joy it brings – a green gift is planet friendly.

Welcome to Gift Green.

Past and future of a product

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Interesting chair by Scott Garcia that serves as a reminder of the origin of the chair.

Awareness of the origin and the future of a product may enable more thought in purchases ? More thoughtful

purchases ?

Cool Chair hangers

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

Cool hangers from chairs . Currently on sale at Resign .

Stuff like this sparks off ideas for recycling objects creatively .

Share your ideas with us.

Stylishly green restaurant

Friday, July 16th, 2010

“A kitchen surrounded  by fertile soil where vegetables and herbs thrive … Where daylight shines in from all sides and where the chefs are free to express their creativity daily using the best the season has to offer. It seems an obvious concept, but I spent twenty years surrounded by white tiles under fluorescent lighting before I came up with it.” – chef Gert Jan Hageman

Restaurant De Kas has its own greenhouse and garden near the restaurant, where they grow Mediterranean vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. They also have a large field about  10 kilometres from Amsterdam in the Purmer Polder, where they  grow seasonal vegetables.

In the world teeming with McDonalds , Pizza Hut and other industrial food serving outlets it’s wonderful to see a restaurant that is built around fresh food grown and harvested by the restaurant team.

De Kas is more an exception because of the sheer space needed for such an initiative . Yet , that are restaurants with the luxury of space who choose to adopt the beaten bath. Increasingly hotels are beginning to grow some herbs / vegetables in their gardens (hotels tend to have more space than a restaurant ).

What’s striking about De Kas is the combination of eco friendliness and style that makes it so distinctive.

Stylishly green hotel

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

An Indonesian businessman contributes to environmental wellness on a bike connected to a generator inside the “100 percent green” Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen. The energy produced by pedaling guests is stocked in a battery before being injected into the hotel’s power supply.

The Crowne Plaza’s concrete and steel tower is covered in some 1,500 that produce 170,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is enough to power 55 households. In the basement of the 86-meter (232-feet) skyscraper there is a geothermal well which covers the hotel’s heating and needs, slashing its energy bill by about 90 percent.

And in each of the 366 rooms, personal care accessories are biodegradable, taps are equipped with water-saving devices and all light bulbs are low-energy.

But that doesn’t mean the Intercontinental chain’s first “all-eco” hotel has clients roughing it.

“Everything was thought out with technologies respectful of the environment, without sacrificing quality, comfort, and the feeling of being at a four-star hotel,” spokeswoman Toemmergaard insists.

Wall coverings, carpeting, and even the feet on the design furniture are made from recycled materials and are guaranteed not to contain chemical products, while the computers have power-saving screens.

And the guests who redeem their electricity-production vouchers dine on organic food, and the high-tech kitchen grinds all its garbage and sends it to a local  biogass central to be transformed into fuel.

Brilliant idea .  It would taken the hotel meticulous effort to plan , create and source all the materials. The end result is an eco-hotel that’s an inspiring example to all businesses to think non-linearly and holistically about sustainability.

The eco-paradise wasn’t an easy sell to the slightly sceptical Intercontinental chain, Toemmergaard concedes.

“Often, when people think environmentally friendly, they think of smaller organic products that are less appealing than traditional offerings,” she says, adding that there had been a real fight “to convince the chain we had made the right choice.”

In the end, the franchises’s owners agreed to carry the project through because they believed Copenhagen needed a hotel that reflected its green ambitions, Toemmergaard says.

The bicycle-filled capital, which is “one of the world’s showcases for the environment and quality of life, which wants to become the first emission-free capital in 2025, should have a hotel that fits that image,” she says.

The carbon-dioxide neutral hotel cost some 125 million euros (156 million dollars) to build and is about five percent more expensive to run than a normal hotel, but the owners expect to make up the difference.

“In five or six years we will have a return on our investment that shows that it pays to make an effort for the environment,” Toemmergaard says.

( via physorg.com )

Decoupage eco creations

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Water plants in decoupage recycled cans

Love for plants and zeal to recycle coupled with creativity can result in delightful outcomes  . Creative , earth friendly objects made by Malini using cans , bottles.

Featured here are decoupage recycled cans to house water plants . Each of them has a distinctive look. They can be customized too !

Malini’s earth friendly range is available at Bliss – a charming store in Versova, Mumbai that stocks unusual clothing and accessories.