A solar bag I wanted to finish on Feb 13th for my girlfriend’s birthday. I finally finished it about a month ago, based on the following how-to, found on her blog. The how-to was for the electronic part so it was fun to build a bag to support this solar system. This bag is not quite appropriate to summer temperatures because of its warm materials but it works and charge her mp3.

80% sewed by hands. 20% thanks to my magic sewing machine.

Her and the bag in Spanish Harlem, Manhattan.

My father had told me about him now only playing with biodegradable tees. Having stopped golfing for a couple of years, I really was far away in regards to new technology or the eco world and golf.

I bought him a box for Christmas, and bought one for myself recently. I have always been a big fan of the wooden tees, white. But I was ready to change my old habits and enter the world of biodegradable tees!

So I tried the Zero Friction performance tees (Me trying the tees in the video above!), 2 3/4 inches, white. And let me tell you all about it. Except for the fact that they are biodegradable and allow nearly no friction with the ball, I only have negative comments about them:

- too flexible, very hard to keep in shape and to insert in the ground
- the top where you put your ball in is not soft at all and I was almost cutting my finger every time I was trying to tee my ball
- did not see any improved distance

Overall, it was taking me too long to tee my balls, once done, my fingers were hurting and I could see my ball was not stable at all.

So let’s look for smaller, stronger and softer biodegradable tees. It must exist! As soon as I get to try them, I will update this post.

The Fertile Tees

“The worlds first biodegradable and organic golf tee made from fertilizer.” It’s good for the golf courses, good for the earth and great to play, as it is super light according to their website. And it’s cheap too and can be bought in bulk. I absolutely cannot wait to try this one. Per their website, they also say that this tee will disintegrate within way less time than other biodegradable tees (for which it usually take about 9 months).

Bamboo Golf Tees

“Fibers run vertically from head to toe making bamboo tees much more robust and tougher when whacked, offering the player greater consistency and reliability.” They will last longer than wooden tees and they are made of bamboos which as you know grow so fast and so easily, not a problem. And of course they are also biodegradable.

UPDATE: I tried them on this Monday, May 19th and I must say I was a little disappointed. Every two holes they would break, while I was playing with a driver, not even an iron. And it had rained a lot the day before so the ground was not dry at all. If I have to change my tees every two holes, this to me is a waste of money and most importantly an environmental waste. Nevertheless I would like to thank the company who graciously sent me this bag of tees for me to review and I hope my feedback can help them improve their product.

Evolve Golf

They make the epoch™ tee similar to the Zero Friction ones, but they seem way less hurtful for the fingers. Now the question is do they bend or not. I will try them and let you know.

UPDATE: So I tried them early this morning and they are great. They are soft, strong and super stable.

They are also launching a new tee this year, vireo™ made from recycled material. Still biodegradable. Love it. Looks so smoooooth.

Ecoty

I got these this morning at the Golf du Medoc (my Club from when I lived in France) and I will try them shortly and update with my feedback. It is a FRENCH brand and the tees are made in the USA. They seem pretty solid and they disintegrate within 8 to 10 months. I also shot them an email to see where you can find them on-line. They look like this below (beige color, not white):

Stinger

More biodegradable tees allowing less friction with the ball, as all the ones presented above.

Apiona®

“Apiona® EnviroTee™ is mainly made from natural renewable polymers and based on aliphatic polyesters such as corn starch and Poly Lactic Acid, which are fully biodegradable, environmentally safe and one of the most abundant resources of the world. [...] Apiona® EnviroTee™ disintegrates into carbon dioxide and water according to the composting conditions. “

That’s all!

This post follows a previous post I Want a Solar Watch. After some disappointing research, I had promised I would come back with more… so here we go.

In the beginning, I wanted a good looking fierce watch that runs on solar power. After having seen what is being proposed to me, I now have to extend my research to all watches that do not run on batteries.

Note that I will not mention brands such as Seiko, Swatch or Orient, and others which are great but not what I am esthetically looking for.

Runs on Air

The UR-202 by Urwerk is the world’s first watch featuring a winding system regulated by compressing air utilizing miniature turbines. Its predecessor can be found around $40,000 so I am afraid to guess how much this one costs.

Kinetic or Automatic

I found one to my taste: the Bell & Ross 01-92. Still too expensive for me, between $3,000 and $8,000.

Ventura has nice Automatic watches. I could not find their official website, only a reseller. Their prices are way too high.

I also liked the Ceramic Player shown below from Nixon at $1,400, automatic and has a self-winding mechanism. In the same collection, Elite, note the Capital Automatic and Zillamatic.

Vestal and its Fathom watch are closer to my budget at $336. Although it does look a little too classic.

Water powered

While there are many water powered clocks, I could not find one water powered watch… If you know about one, even still in prototype mode, feel free to share.

It seems it might have been more popular about 20 years ago. I found in fact people who bought it from Edmund Scientific’s for instance, but could not find it on their new website. Here more people talk about their knowledge of water powered watches. But nothing for today. Ebay also does not return any results.

Good news is Samsung is working on water-powered cell phones which might come out by 2010. So the water-powered technology for watches might come back soon on the market.

USB powered

I found a couple of brands and models (edge, xonix, Mr. Gadget, ) up to 4GB, but my favorite stays this one… but wait, it’s not out yet and might never be… There are in fact a couple of USB watch prototypes or concepts and so my winer is the iRiver, photo below. It also does MP3.

That’s all. Still unsure what I will get for myself. I might go towards one of the Nixon Automatics.

]]> http://marineboudeau.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/i-want-a-solar-watch-or-any-watch-that-does-not-run-on-batteries/feed/ Marine http://marineboudeau.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/playing-golf-in-new-york-city/ http://marineboudeau.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/playing-golf-in-new-york-city/#comments Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:24:26 +0000 Marine Boudeau http://marineboudeau.wordpress.com/?p=92

So one of my other projects for 2008 is to start playing golf again. I used to play when I was younger, roughly from 10 yo to around 17 yo, that’s when I went to college. I had reached a 12 handicap, mostly from 10 to 16, after that I am not sure but I think I was not really motivated anymore.

After I entered college, I played a couple of times a year and until I got in the States, where I play about 1 time per year. Since golf is about training and confidence… Well anyway. I have now decided I will go down to a 5 handicap by the end of the year. I am playing the qualifying round of a national women amateur competition in May in NJ so I need to practice, hence this post and what I’ve found.

I actually cannot believe I have been living in NYC for about 3 years and the only place I had played was the Dyker Beach golf course located in south Brooklyn, not too far from Brighton beach.

Below, I will review what can be accessed by subway. We all can rent a car but if you are looking to play a couple of times per week, it can get expensive.

One thing you should know is you can get a New York resident ID that will allow you to play cheaper in most golfs of NY State. The card costs $6 and you can get it at any golf (bring a proof of address and an ID/or picture).

Manhattan (driving ranges)

I often wish I am given the project to dedicate and develop a part Central Park to a golf eden.

Chelsea Piers:

PROS:

• You can get good deals on the balls if you come off-peak hours. Good if you are a student or like to get up early.
• You can buy $ cards for balls and use them whenever you want (for instance: $50 for 323 off-peak balls and 197 peak time balls).
• Hours: open from 6:30 AM till 12 AM

CONS:

• Quite annoying to get there: located on the Piers (West manhattan), between 18th and 19th Streets.
• It gets busy and you usually have to wait to play, even if you come at 11pm (they give you a number and you wait till it’s you turn).
• The driving cages are on 3 different floors so don’t be scared of heights…

Randall’s Island: Currently closed, management has changed and they are waiting for the City’s green light. Will update when open.

So for Randall’s, it is hard to give a judgment as we only went there once and the place was closed. Actually we went twice and the first time we could sneak in when the second time, they had closed the open gate. Once this opens, I will go and update the below pros and cons.

PROS:

• Awesome view of the Triboro bridge, try to go when the sun is going down
• Although it was free for us, it seems the prices were cheap (from the board we could see)
• easy to get there from the Upper East Side / East Harlem neighborhoods

CONS:

• TBD

Bronx

Mosholu Golf Course

They only have a nine hole, which is very small (par 34). There is no par 5 throughout the course. The greens are very slow and easy to deal with. The course us pretty flat. The green fee is quite cheap, $15 for 9 holes (with the NY resident card) and the carts are also $15 (per person). But the course us is so small that you really don’t need a cart. Most golfers carry their bag. It is also easy to get there. Take the 6 train to the last stop, then there is a short 5 min walk to the golf. Ask directions at the MTA station if you are not sure once you get there.

Below, me at Mosholu! :)

Brooklyn

Dyker Beach Golf Course

I played this one about 2/3 years ago, with some people I had met through work. I barely remember it. I will have to go there again to re-explore. The quality of the course might also have changed since then so I will not comment on it. To get there, take the R train to 86th street stop.

For more golf courses around the city, go here. I will add more to this post as I explore more.

To be continued… Feel free to share your experience on these courses or others.

A year ago, Cara had asked me to build a crazy website to display her photography. I finally recently put myself to it, one of my 2008 resolutions. Well she made it one of my 2008 projects :)

Her expectations were high and I had a lot of work ahead. Finally, after 512 reviews (!!) the version 1.0 launched a few hours ago and I am super happy. It just feels so great to finish a project. Of course there will be additions and changes to this version but come on, our windows in the apartment are wide open, I am wearing a long shorts and summer is right at the door. I am double super happy!

Go to carareynolds.com; you can use your keypad to move around, and there are many not obvious links. Actually all of the links to her photographs are not easy to find, so enjoy the hunt! Also, as a side note, the photo gallery is powered by Triworks.

If you have any comments, please share as this project will always improve.

Now I have all the time to finish my other projects: Art-Fag.org, the revamp of FrenchDontEatFrogs.com and a certain solar bag. :P

Stay tuned…

Ok so last week, I decided I want a solar watch. Since then, I have been dreaming about it. I want a modern, slick, minimalist and uncommon watch, powered by sunlight. You would think… well I was thinking it was going to be easy to find the product of my dreams.

First of all, how does a solar watch work?

According to different sources, Solar watches were also very popular in the 80s with models for kids. If you are interested in vintage solar powered watches, you can check this link here. And if you want to learn the history of the solar wristwatches since the 70s, click here.

From what I have seen every solar watch uses lithium batteries, rechargeable for life. “Because watch batteries contain a small amount of mercury, [...] solar watch[es] [are] a green and non-toxic choice.” (Source: CBS News)

There are two main players in the solar watches market: Citizen and Casio.

All the Citizen watches are solar powered (eco-drive program) and when fully charged, can last for 180 days without being re-charged. Not a fan of their design especially as I don’t want to spend $795. My top budget is $200 and what Citizen has to offer at this price does not fit my aesthetics.

Casio offers the Casio Shock in several designs; very sporty look, not what I am looking for either.

Back to my search. There are many different watches available on the market, which incorporate the functions of a MP3 or 4 player, or of a USB device; HP is also working on a super cool communication watch device. But I am only looking for a simple solar watch.

Here are my solar watches findings:

	1. Healthy Sky Limited sells solar powered watches. You should be able to purchase on their site by emailing them. I sent them an email to know how much was this watch but haven’t received any response yet. Will update this entry when I do.
	2. Timex, Oceanus, Pulsar and Junghans also make Casio and Citizen style like watches, but I am not looking for this style of watches.
	3. Here you can find more solar watches. You can get a great wholesale price: 20 for only $97!! ;)
	4. At Deal Extreme, I found this very inexpensive watch: $8.37. I cannot believe the price, mostly justified because it is not a metallic watch, but who cares. The design is still not what I am looking for. They also have other models around the same price.
	5. The National Geographic Aviator II Watch, priced at $160.
	6. The Prada, only available in Europe and not out yet will be sold at €1500
	8. I also found a Solar Powered Braille Watch (shown left) which looks really great and was designed by a certain Jeonjun Cho. Also, a Solar Spy Watch Camera but could not find any retailer for neither of them. So if you happen to know how much they cost and where to find them, please share the info!!

That’s it. Unfortunately, no real solar watch to my taste so if you know some, share it. The one I will probably go with for now is the #4 from Deal Extreme. I wish solar watches would be like this, this or this. But it is not reality yet… :(

On this note, I will do a new search on other eco green watches, non solar powered.

Good night!

Last night, I was picking up a few groceries at the Fine Fair supermarket at 106th and 3rd: cheese, organic milk, and some beers. Cara and I are not a big beer drinkers so my plan was to get a pack of Mike’s Lemonade and some Coronas…

Before heading to the register, I noticed some organic beers: Peak Organic. We know that “by 2009, the European and US organic food and drinks market will be worth at least $49.2bn” (Source: Food Science Central). Organic alcohol, hum why not. Are alcohol companies also embracing the organic revolution? According to many sources, the Organic Beverages market has increased of 13% from 2006 to 2007.

Definition of “Organic”: Involving the use of fertilizers or pesticides that are strictly of animal or vegetable origin. Raised or conducted without the use of drugs, hormones, or synthetic chemicals.
Source: Answers.com

I am from France, and from 14 years old to my 18 years and a half birthday, I was living in Bordeaux; the best wine region in the whole world. Pardon my chauvinism… So what about these awesome wines I know? Are they organic, or grown with pesticides and other disgusting chemicals? Let’s look at Château Margaux, one of the finest wines in the world.

According to their website, until the 80s, they were in fact using chemicals, but starting from that time, they decided to change things around and to care about the environment.

“After a number of years of patient work and calculated risks, we have come back to a stable situation in which all these populations live together and self-regulate, without it almost ever being necessary for us to intervene, and if we do so, then an environmentally-friendly solution is used. Nature is indulgent, provided we show it a little respect …”
Source: Chateau-Margaux.com

When looking at organic viticulture, there are 3 ways of going about it. I am going to translate and paraphrase from a French website:

The Reasoned Viticulture
The Objective is to limit interventions by choosing the right time, limiting used molecules to the most ecologic ones and to reduce doses. Here, you can use any product available on the market.

The Organic Viticulture
No chemical molecule can be used. The objective is to push for a balance between the different diseases and insects from the vineyard.

The Biodynamic Viticulture
In addition to the notions related to organic viticulture, the idea is to boost the vineyard helping it to resist by itself to outside aggressions (diseases, insects, etc) through natural products used at homeopathic doses, such as nettle or horsetail, while choosing the right time for each action made on the vineyard.

For more information on organic wines, you can check The Organic Wine Journal.

I hope by now you are getting thirsty for some organic alcohols. So let’s go have a good time, drink healthy beverages and protect our little planet. Below, some ideas for you to get local organic beverages. Hum I said local? Chateau Margaux was an horrible example in regards to carbon footprint. We are very limited with alcohols: Beers, Spirit and especially Wines and Champagnes. I will never find a local Chateau Margaux like wine in New York… as it involves not only the making techniques, the age of the vineyard but also the ground and weather :(

Organic Beers

• Click here to find local beer makers.
• Learn how to brew your own beer at Brew Organic!
• Beer Brands: Anheuser Busch, Butte Creek Brewing Co., Goose Island Beer Co., Peak Organic, Wolavers.
• West Coast Beer Brands: Bison Brewing, Crannog Ales, Eel River, Fish Brewing Company, Hawk’s Brewery, Pacific Western Brewing.
• Midwest Beer Brands: Kraftbrau Brewery, Lakefront Brewery.

Organic Spirits / Liquors

• Cognac: Organic Spirit.
• Gin: CapRock, Juniper Green.
• Tequila: 4 Copas Tequila, Purus.
• Vodka: CapRock, Orange V, Rain Vodka, Square One Vodka.
• Whiskey: Benromach Organic.

And if you happen to be in the Bay Area, you can try Elixir, a green bar serving only organic cocktails.

Yesterday, Cara and I were shopping at Whole Foods Market (Union Square) and in the Yogurt section, Siggi’s Skyr neat packaging completely caught my attention. I aesthetically loved it and figured it had to be good… Looked at the characteristics, “All Natural, Milk from grass fed cows, No aspartame, No sucralose, No gelatin, No artificial colorings, No preservatives, No high fructose corn syrup, No rBGH, Milk produced without the use of recombinant bovine growth hormones”. Non only the packaging was neat, but the yogurt itself was too. Brought home two of them, blueberry flavored and we ate them tonight. One thing I had not noticed at the time of purchase is the very smart packaging.

Well let’s take a first step back. In order to optimize the recycling process, you should completely separate elements from each other. For instance, if you are recycling a pet food can, you want to separate the aluminum part from the paper part.

Now, let’s take a second step back. Yes I am moon-walking!! :P A couple of months ago, after we moved into this apartment, I became quickly frustrated with the recycling downstairs. There was 4 or 5 recycling bins but you could not know which was what. So we decided to make some small signs to differentiate them (see pic below), hoping our neighbors would follow our guidelines. They did and now, no more morning headaches such as “Ok i see more aluminum here, this must be the aluminum bin… uh wait, i see a plastic bottle and some newspapers… no!!”; and the recycling is just more efficient.

Let’s go back to Siggi’s Skyr. I was talking about smart packaging, in fact, when you look closer, there is a vertical sleeve on the paper packaging of the yogurt. You can pull this sleeve and HOP, the paper is disassembled from the plastic yogurt cup. Now you have the aluminum lid, the paper packaging and the plastic cup (see picture below). Easy to recycle! Love it.

Siggi’s is also made in the state of New York and uses local farms. Therefore, low carbon footprint for New Yorkers. That’s another positive thing about it.

Now at this time, I was still seeing Siggi’s as just another healthy yogurt. It is actually quite unique. Below the words of Siggi (the CEO of The Icelandic Milk and Skyr Corporation), taken from the inside part of the yogurt paper packaging:

Now that you know what it is all about, you must inquire about the taste. Well, our feelings were mixed. This is an heavy yogurt and you might want to eat it as a breakfast instead of just a yogurt in the flow of a complete meal. As we talk, Cara is making her first homemade yogurts with her new yogurt machine so we will probably not have any new opportunity for a taste of Siggi’s. I highly recommend it and I wish Yop, by Yoplait, my all times favorite yogurt, was as natural and as green as Siggi’s.

I was previously talking about Nokia’s environmental strategy. One of the aspects I over looked was their recycling program.

In 2006, the CTIA-The Wireless Association® created a national recycling campaign the Wireless…The New Recyclable^TM. In 2008, CTIA is now requesting the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and other agencies to partner and create a new movement: Recycle Your Cell Phone. It’s An Easy Call. Logically, the goal of this campaign is to “increase public awareness of cell phone recycling and donation opportunities, with the ultimate goal of increasing the nation’s cell phone recycling rate”.

What can we do with wireless recycling? Most manufacturers and carriers propose a recycling program thanks to the CTIA initiative (such as Nokia, as seen in my previous article).

The following websites propose recycling and charity donations programs: Collective Good, Charitable Recycling, or GRC Wireless Recycling. But my favorite one is ReCellular. It was founded in 1991 and has, since then, partnered with the CTIA and the largest industry players to create a multi-program: ReCellular allows you to buy, sell and donate used cell phones.

Their purchasing and reselling programs are available for businesses only. Their donation program allows you to either create a donation program within your company or simply donate your phone / company phones to one of their partners. Here is the process.

First, as they say, you need to prepare your phone for recycling. I know this sounds maybe obvious for some of you, but just in case:

Then just go here and look at the different charities ReCellular is partnering with. You can choose to donate your phone to the think-food organization, the Victory Junction Gang or many others. Once your choice is made (and again, there are other websites proposed above that will offer more organizations to donate to, so don’t feel restrained), just go to this page, enter your zip code, the program chosen and find the closest drop off location. If you don’t select any program, the search will just give you the 5 closest drop off programs.

Leaving the donation world, another national organization is RBRC and its Call2Recycle^TM program. They will take any battery or cellphone and make recycling easy if you’d rather have your phone completely de-constructed and reborn in… a pretty orange traffic cone.

Cara also talks about Call2Recycle^TM here in a more detailed manner ;)

I personally never had to recycle my phone. During my first year in New York, I lost my phone about 5 or 6 times. I had 1 Nokia 3220, 1 T-609 looking Samsung, followed by 4 T-809. My dad got me my first 809 so I just could not tell him I had lost it. I had to keep buying the same model… I still have it but now I am ready for a change. Can’t wait to recycle it!!

[This post was published this morning but tonight I come home and poof! Thank you WordPress, my post has disappeared... so it is not as complete as it used to be. Need to move on :) ]

Nokia has been focusing its research on green products, from handset development to shipping, use and End-Of-Life practices.

With almost 10 billion customers, Nokia certainly can help make a difference in educating their users, producing energy efficient products in many ways and more.

Educating customers and helping them do the right thing

Power Consumption

“Nokia has set the target to reduce the average no-load consumption of its chargers by 50%, and the no-load consumption of its best-in-class chargers to close to zero, by 2010″. No-load consumption is evidently when your charger is plugged in the power outlet with no phone on the other end. Nokia is also pushing its customers to think about un-plugging their chargers when not in use.

In fact, in 2007, Nokia has launched the first devices with “reminder alerts for consumers to unplug chargers once the battery is recharged”. Nokia has estimated this could save enough electricity to power 85,000 homes a year.

Recycling devices and packaging

Nokia is pushing its customers to recycle their old phones. If you are a Nokia user, click here to find the closest drop off location. Most likely if your phone is pretty new, you should have found a prepaid envelop inside the packaging of your phone. If so, use it to ship your device.

Look below to see how a recycled phone will be broken apart and all its pieces used towards:

Producing Energy Efficient Products

I love this graph below. Basically it shows each step, from the production of a mobile phone to its consumption bt the consumers and how much waste, non-eco substances, water, energy is used and could potentially be saved. We looked above at the Use and at the EOL (End-Of-Life) practices. We are now going to look at all what’s happening before the product gets into the customers’ hands.

The Making of

The first Nokia building to receive the LEED green certification was in White Plains, NY. For every new building, Nokia is seeking this level of sustainability. This can hopefully help in setting new standards for the industry.

“Management Systems (EMS) at Nokia production sites are ISO 14001 compliant”. Nokia works on the following factors: Energy consumption, Water Consumption, Air emissions, Non-Eco Substances, Waste management and Packaging. Nokia also requires its suppliers to respect a set of guidelines.
Nokia should reduce its overall energy consumption of 6% by 2012 and plans to increase its use of green electricity from 25% to 50% by 2010.

Clean and Recyclable Materials

Nokia has banned a list of substances that are not environmentally friendly and stopped using this list in the technology they produce. More info here.

Smaller products for smaller packaging, fewer shipping trucks

Nokia has considerably be reducing the amount of material used for their packagings. Smaller phones, smaller packagings, more packages on each truck and therefore less truck on the road.

More green stuff Nokia is working on

The Nokia Eco Sensor Concept. A personal assistant to “monitor your health, environment, and local weather”, powered in part by solar energy.

I want to see more companies that try not only to produce green goods, but also work on increasing the public awereness and its education about green matters.