Samsung E1107 Solar Cell Powered Cell Phone

You’ve seen Green Roof, you’ve seen Electric Drive Transportation, you’ve seen solar panels, and you’ve seen wind energy already.

However 1000 Green Steps was wondering if you’ve heard about SOLAR-POWERED CELL PHONE? This is the latest innovation released by Samsung Mobile starting from June 2009 at India, Europe, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America. This dual band phone has its own solar panel at the back just like at the picture.

It has many usual features such as FM Radio, MP3 Player and Games. What makes it special is that this Samsung Crest E1107 Solar-Powered Cellphone contains some unusual features such as a powerful torch light, mobile tracker (sends out an SOS in an emergency, and notifies you when the SIM card is changed), and a fake call feature so you can quickly get away from people you don’t like.

This phone is available in your local gadget stores starting from $59!

Happy Green Living!

Switzerland

In case you wonder what the greenest country in the world is, you don’t have to worry now. 1000 Green Steps is here to tell you the top 3 greenest countries.  This list is generated through Environment Performance Index (EPI) calculation.

1. Switzerland
Switzerland is a country synonymous with scenic Alps, posh pocketknives, fine chocolate, world-class watches, and of course, a clean environment. The country’s achievements and measures in environmental protection can be seen in people’s daily lives.

2. Norway
Through the action plan, the Government wishes to ensure that sustainable development is given a permanent place on the political agenda. The Government considers it important to link the sustainable development effort to central political processes and economic policy documents.

3. Sweden
Finnish national sustainable development policy is a wide-reaching participation of various societal actors both in the definition of the contents and implementation of the measures. The approach is already referred to as the “Finnish model”, in which broad-based, multi-stakeholder participation is combined with high-level political leadership.

Happy Green Living!

This is a new destination option for those who consider travelling and having fun as an eco action. The world’s first eco theme park, Environmentaland, has opened its doors in Hollywood. The park is run by Global Inheritance, an activist group with nearly two dozen eco-programs to their name (and a really nice looking website to boot).

According to their site, “Global Inheritence is an organization working to reinvent activism for today’s young generations. Our initiatives focus on the power of creativity to comunicate and push for progressive social change while rejecting conflict.”

Well, let’s just keep our eyes open for how green (or not green) they are, of course with an expectation of it being the most suitable place for us to introduce our kids to green steps.

Happy Green Living!

Congratulation USA! Maybe some of you have already heard the green achievement of your country. This time 1000 Green Steps don’t hear city or county but really COUNTRY! America converts their vehicles into electric drive transportations.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) already loan $1.6 million for Nissan to modify its Smyrna, Tennessee plant to build battery electric vehicles as well as the batteries to power them. The loan came from DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVMLP), a $25 billion program authorized by Congress in 2007. Nissan has to be able to produce about 150,000 electric vehicles a year and 200,000 battery packs. Those vehicles will be ready at 2012!

Not just that, that same DOE ATVMLP loan had approved 8 other companies to do the conversion of USA vehicles into electric drive transportations. Those companies mentioned above are Tesla Motors, Maryland Science Center, Altcar, Maya Electric, Electrovaya, Exxon Mobil, IBM’s Big Green Innovations and IBM Almaden Institute.

Congratulation and Happy Green Driving!

In this high-technology era, almost everyone has their own air conditioning (AC) in their house. It is already well-known for its useful benefits which could increase or decrease a room temperature with the help of electricity. However, AC is also known as one of the major causes of Global Warming.

Luckily for those who have been addicted to AC ad can’t survive a day without it, 1000 Green Steps have the good news (as always!). 1000 Green Steps found an AC pre-cooling system which is able to blow your guilty feeling away.

This Cool-N-Save product is said to be able to save up until 30% of your electric bill compared to your ordinary AC. It also only uses less than 6 cents of water each day. Amazing goods do exist, don’t they? Find this AC online at Go Green Items at only $95.99!

Happy Green Living!

Green Birthday Party

Gifts

1000 Green Steps think that it’s nice to apply gift exchange in a birthday party. That is even better if every child brings a ‘green’ friend of them (plants, soil, or even animals!) and in the end they will go home with their own new ‘green’ friend.

Garnish

For the party supplies, try IKEA dinnerwares which are recycled plastics. If your child demands characters decorations such as Spiderman or Princesses, try drawing (or tracing) favourite characters or items on kraft paper to make a tablecloth. Even better, let the kids do it at the party. As for balloons, it might be easiest to go cold turkey. That may sound outrageous, but there are plenty of reasons. Fancy mylar balloons are not biodegradable. Even normal latex balloons, which do eventually break down, can cause problems.

Goodies

While kids are thrilled to rip open these sacks of treasure, the pleasure is usually short-lived. There is a reason that these items were inexpensive – they are poorly made, mass-produced, and definitely not sustainable. Use a small cloth bag or a recycled cardboard instead, or if you are on a budget, you can go back to number 1 where goodies bags are no longer needed to be provided by the host.

Happy Green Living (or Partying)!

Looking for the perfect Valentine’s present for the eco-friendly man in your life?

If so, check out these unique gift ideas from WhoIsYourMan.com.

The company offers an “Eco-Man” gift case that includes:

• cutting-edge C-IN2 designer underwear woven from bamboo, the Earth’s most plentiful grass, and

• designer men’s skin care products by the equally organic and sophisticated Bullie.

Sounds like the perfect combination for the environmentalist in my life.

But, here’s the real question: How well do you know your Valentine? Are you certain that he truly is an Eco-Man? Tell him to do green steps starting from here.

I suggest taking the WhoIsYourMan Personality Test just to be sure…

…and I’m happily adding this post to my “Environmentalists Can Have Fun” and green steps category.

Green news to you guys! For this year’s show, American Idol had decided to take their green steps through their behind-the-show utilities. This year’s American Idol finale show was powered by green power, including wind and solar energy from LADWP and biodiesel powered production generators. The American Idol 2008 finale was also powered by green power.

American Idol makes extensive use of LED lights on its set. LED lights consume less energy, run cooler and last longer than traditional lights. Plus, over 1/3 of the lighting instruments on American Idol are LED, more than any other series on television today.

For the 2009 American Idol finale party they were placing an emphasis on sustainability. Most of the lighting used during the party was LED lights, which consume significantly less energy than traditional lighting. They are re-using items from the American Idol Top 13 party, including turning the step and repeat banner into pillows. In addition, the party caterers were serving locally grown and organic food.

Happy Green Living!

Ecotourism

Have you ever heard the term ‘ecotourism’? In case you’re not used to that term, the definition of ecotourism according to Wikipedia is travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and (often) small scale.

1000 Green Steps will recommend this to you because it has some positive benefits compared to ordinary travel journey.

Firstly, this kind of travel will allow tourists to enjoy and discover our nature and those travel agencies were still able to gain profit for that, but it will not let our environment left unprotected.

Another benefit of ecotourism is that this kind of travel will educate tourists about nature in its own unique, unexplainable, and active way. That will awake city people that everything is not always the same as what it says in the picture.

1000 Green Steps say: Make them feel it, and they will never forget it.

Happy Green Living!

Habitat Suites

When you are thinking about having an eco-tourism journey, be ready to rest your body inside an eco-friendly hotel. 1000 Green Steps recommend Habitat Suites Hotel as the most eco-friendly hotel in Texas considering ‘green’ features they offer to their customers. Those features include:

• They are solar-powered
• Grounds maintained with the use of natural, nontoxic fertilizers and pesticides
• Nontoxic, phosphate-free, natural cleansers used in cleaning
• Air ozonators/ionizers used for clean air quality in suites
• Biodegradable, recycled, unbleached paper products/recycling program
• Ladybugs populate our grounds, fostering healthy plants, the natural, chemical-free way
• About 20% of our energy needs are satisfied by our on-site 18 Kilowatt 108 solar panel PV (photo-voltaic) system

By those features 1000 Green Steps believe that they have good reasons to make Habitat Suites win awards and the latest was in 2006 they received the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce first ever environmental award, the “Greenbelt Award” and 2007 got us another “Greenbelt Award“

Room Rate starting from $137/night

Happy Green Living!