You wouldn’t go swimming in a cesspool and surfers don’t like surfing among trash. Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), located in the UK, decided to make the point during Christmas to venders who were leaving trash behind on beaches.  So they carefully constructed a couple of Christmas plans to get their point across.

Parisian firm Influx Studio is proposing a radical retrofit of the Marina City towers in Chicago.  The renovation of the buildings would result in a variety of green innovations and architectural features that would result in renewable energy, vertical agriculture and cleaner air.

After the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Wendy Schmidt, wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, decided to create a new X Prize challenge specifically for improving the cleanup of oil spills.  Earlier this month the winners of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge were announce and Elastec/American Marine won first place.

One of the ways that Google fulfills its goal to be carbon neutral is with the purchase of carbon offsets.  Duke Energy and Duke University collaborated with Loyd Ray Farms near Yadkin, North Carolina, to build a prototype waste-to-energy system.  Google has agreed to pay for part of the system operations and maintenance costs for the next five years in exchange for a portion of the carbon offsets.

Wildpoldsried, Germany is a little farming town that decided over a decade ago that they were going to move towards a green community without incurring debt.  Fourteen years later they have a diverse portfolio of renewable energy installations, new community buildings and more energy than the town needs.  By selling the excess energy, Wildpoldsried has eliminated all the towns debt and generates 4.0 million Euro (US $5.7 million) in annual income.

Scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University have developed a photocatalytic fuel cell that cleans waste water and generates electricity. Can’t beat a two for one deal!

When you think of agencies that were created to protect our water sources from pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has to top that list.  While states are supposed to be responsible for making sure that the water we drink is safe, the EPA is the agency that used to oversee the states and oversaw the waterways used as a source for the water we drink, bath in, wash our dogs and children in, and use to cook our food.  Well, the House GOP has taken those responsibilities away from the EPA.

Parts of the United States are suffering through a terrible heat wave.  Other parts of the United States are also suffering from a severe drought.  Last year was one of the hottest summers on record, but this summer isn’t over.  It is just a continuation of severe weather that has encompassed record numbers of tornados and floods, and now heat and drought.

While many of us taking safe drinking water for granted, 43 percent of the world’s population doesn’t have access to something as essential as clean drinking water.  That’s where LifeStraw comes in to the picture. 

Ben & Jerry’s, some of the world’s best ice cream, my personal opinion of course, just got better.  The company which has always been known for it’s social and environmental activism as well as its ice cream.  Now Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever is going to green up its ice cream factory in the Netherlands.