Hasta La Gadget!

Did you know that the process that gives jeans their nice blue look utilizes a great deal of water? Well, obviously the people at Levi’s do, so they’ve decided to make a change by introducing the new Water

According to the company, the traditional route of “finishing” jeans involves washing and drying them numerous times. This process can use anywhere up to 42 liters of water per pair. The new process will reduce this water usage by between 28 and 96 percent, saving an estimated 16 million liters of water per year.

“We challenged ourselves to operate at the intersection of style and sustainability. These Water Less jeans have great styles and finishes, but are made with a lot less water,” Erik Joule, Levi’s Senior VP of Merchandising and Design, said. “We’re excited about the results we’ve achieved so far, and we know we can make an even bigger impact by applying this innovative thinking to other aspects of our production process.”

The Water Less jeans will be making their debut this Fall.

Via Inhabitat

Facebook is good for a lot of things, whether you just want to play some FarmVille or you have a hard time remembering birthdays. But now the social network is looking to use its influence to help the environment with the new Green on Facebook initiative.

By partnering with groups including the Alliance to Save Energy, the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign, and The Green Grid, Facebook is hoping to spread awareness of environmental issues using its considerable reach. Not only that, but the social network is also making changes itself. This includes creating a new programming language that cuts down CPU use by around 50 percent. This process is in use at Facebook, but the company also released the software as an open source project so that other companies can do the same.

“One of our core values at Facebook is the responsibility to do everything we can to reduce our environmental impact on the planet,” reads the Green on Facebook page. “We are proud that Facebook plays a unique part in promoting efforts to achieve a clean energy future. By enabling millions of people from diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share, we believe we can help unleash innovative environmental initiatives across the globe.”

Honda has been rather late to the party when it comes to electric vehicles. While the company offers hybrid versions of several of its vehicles, it isn’t expected to release a fully electric car until 2012, several years after competitors like Nissan and GM. But this attitude seems to be shifting, as new CEO Takanobu Ito has said that Honda will be putting more focus on EVs in the future.

“We can’t keep shooting down [the EVs] potential, and we can’t say there’s no business case for it,” Ito said during a press conference in Japan. “The thing is, not everybody needs to drive 500 km a day…Plug-in hybrids are essentially for people who drive short distances, but it has the handicap of having an engine, a motor and a stack of batteries. Why wouldn’t you just drive an EV?”

Honda is expected to debut its new EV concept at the LA Auto Show later this month.

Via PluginCars.com

While wind turbines allow us to harness the power of the wind to create a renewable source of energy, their spinning blades can also serve as a potential danger to wildlife. But a group of researchers in the UK may have found a solution to keep birds and bats away from the blades: by painting them purple.

According to the report, the reason that so many birds and bats flock to the turbines is that they offer up a feast of bugs to feed on. But by painting the turbines a different color, as opposed to the standard white or light grey, it may deter insects from landing on them, which in turn would keep birds and bats safe from the blades.

“Our major conclusion from this work is that turbine paint colour could be having a significant impact on the attraction of insect species to the structure, both during the day and at night,” PhD student Chloe Long told the BBC. By testing various colors, the team determined that purple was the least attractive to insects and that white and grey where two of the most attractive colors.

“If the solution were as simple as painting turbine structures in a different colour this could provide a cost-effective mitigation strategy,” explained Long. However, there may be other factors that make the turbines attractive to insects, such as the heat they give off.

How much would you pay for an empty bottle?

Replenish is a new multi-surface cleaner that is asking consumers to “rethink the bottle.” Since most cleaners are made up of about 95 percent water, the company is only selling the other five percent: the chemicals that actually turn the water into a cleaner. So when you purchase Replenish you get a reusable plastic bottle and a replaceable concentrate pod full of those very chemicals. All you you have to do is add your own water and bingo: instant household cleaner. Each chemical pod makes four bottles’ worth of cleaner.

And Replenish isn’t just great for the environment, it’s also easy on the wallet. Each bottle costs just $8 with replacement pods running you $4. And shipping is completely free.

Via Wired.