Eco Factor: Hydroponic planter encourages homeowners to grow plants.

Plants not only generate oxygen, but they also contribute towards a peaceful ambience. Growing plants till now required homeowners to tackle the mess of plant soil, but now things have changed and the latest in plant technology allows you to grow plants in a nutrient-enriched water solution. Endrit Hajno has brought out one such planter called the Ponic-Home that allows you to grow plants easily and without any soil mess in your living room. All the user has to do is to make sure that the plant never runs out of water or nutrients.

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Eco Factor: Green preparations at Times Square for New Year’s Eve.

This year, celebrating New Year’s Eve at Times Square will be more than just dancing under a glowing ball, as preparations are being made to welcome 2009 in a green way. This year Times Square will host an energy-efficient LED ball that weighs 11,875 pounds, which will be illuminated by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs.

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Eco Factor: Hybrid car with a carbon fiber body.

When it comes to cars, lightweight is the key to better fuel economy. The ever rising prices of fuel and the demand to go green have tempted designers to develop cars that are light in weight and reduce the use of fossil fuels to a minimum. Reconnoitre is one such car that utilizes its carbon fiber body to get the most out of the precious drops of fuel burning in its diesel-electric reverse hybrid engine.

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Eco Factor: Solar energy generating plant.

Technology has certainly made our lives easy, but powering all those electronic items is not as easy on the environment. To make things better for the environment, industrial and product designers have always shown their skills in designing products that we might become accustomed to in the near future. The Solar Plant is one such innovative way to power electronic items using nothing more than the green and renewable energy of the sun.

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Eco Factor: Battery-free remote control powered by movement.

Yesterday we discussed the soft solar battery that could be used in remote controls to stop harmful AA batteries from polluting the environment. Now a team of designers has come up with yet another innovative way to reduce the number of batteries being discarded each day, with a remote control they call the Shake Control.

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Eco Factor: Solar and wind power generators installed at Yamaha’s Nakaze plant.

Yamaha Motors has installed solar and wind power generators at its Nakaze plant in Japan. The installation comes according to the company’s initiatives to make the best use of renewable energy sources. The company has stated that the systems will be capable of providing power for the lighting and air-conditioning needs of the offices in the plant by generating 26,000 kilowatt hours of clean electricity annually. This electricity will not only save a lot of money, but will also prevent about 18 tons of harmful CO2 from being released into the atmosphere.

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Eco Factor: Energy-efficient LCD from LG.

With CES 2009 just a couple of weeks away, companies have already started boasting about their new products that might steal the show for them. Earlier we discussed Energizer’s solar battery charger and now we have LG with a sunlight illuminated 14.1-inch LCD screen, developed specifically for all light conditions.

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Away from gifting objects of décor that will do nothing more than just hang on your wall or snatch space in your room, we suggest something very unique, useful, economical and ecofriendly gift this Christmas. The Iqua Vizor SUN is a solar-powered handsfree device that fits neatly onto the sun visor of a car. This hands-free device can extend talk time to over 20 hours with a standby time of over 500 hours. Along with many other great features, this small and sleek device is available for 9.95 at the Apple Store.

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Eco Factor: Cars powered by used vegetable oils taking skiers to mountain resorts of Colorado.

Kristopher Klain is a man who envisions a greener Colorado with his veggie oil powered shuttle service to the mountain resorts in the state. Klain used to work as a waiter in a Denver restaurant, where he got an idea to use the waste vegetable oil right from the deep fryer to power a car that can shuttle skiers to the ski areas.

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Eco Factor: Foldable solar panel to be used as an AA battery.

Though AA batteries have been outclassed by the more efficient lithium counterparts, there are still some gadgets like your retro Walkman or your TV’s remote control, which still depend on the juice provided by these small batteries. Once empty, these batteries are no more than a metal cylinder filled with toxic chemicals waiting to pollute the already scarce water resources. A product designer from China, Wu Jian, has come up with a solution that won’t require you to change each and every gadget that gets powered by AA batteries.

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