For years we have heard about self-sustaining homes that can take advantage of the latest technology to harness solar energy and provide the most economical usage of available resources, but we haven’t been seeing them. However, a few families in the UK are getting some eco love with the Home for Life project. Perhaps this marks the beginning of affordable eco-friendly housing? In order to create a self-sustainable, carbon-neutral home, the Danish concept of an “Active House” So what does a house of the future have? Just about everything you could imagine to maximize eco-friendliness: Air-tight…

Apple is well known throughout the industry as being on the forefront of eco-friendly design and production. That is respectable, admirable, and all other sorts of great. But, honestly, why bother? After all, going out of your way simply to save a tree or two can’t be that worthwhile, right? Well guess what: Steve Jobs and Apple know something that others seemingly don’t. Having done something as simple as reducing the size of the boxes being shipped, Jobs noted, is already saving Apple hundreds of thousands of dollars — smaller boxes equals more efficiency in shipping, which results in not…

What is the number one crisis the world faces? It’s not global warming. It’s not AIDS/HIV. It’s not even December 21, 2012. It’s something quite simpler. It is water, or lack thereof. The world is currently suffering from a water shortage crisis. But this one little faucet could immediately change everything. It’s called the Smart Faucet. It doesn’t do anything mind blowing, but what it does do is truly smart: in order to operate the water faucet, you must depress a lever that opens the water flow. The interesting part is that the user must hold this lever down to have the water flow, meaning that a…

We love cool things here at Techi: bikes are cool, right? But not every bike is created equally, and some, unfortunately, are not created at all. This is one of those that has yet to have been created. But trust us, it should be. The designer — Andi Klug — calls this concept CYOOO, and it is an assisted electric bike. If you need a bit of a boost or are just worn out from pedaling, this bike is great in that context. Yet as great as that is, it is only half of what makes this bike cool. The other half is that this concept also allows for the bike to be folded down into a more compact form that is easier for transportation…

Remember when your parents always reminded you to turn off the lights when you were not using them? Seems logical enough, right? It helps the world and saves on the energy bill. But Ford must slept through that childhood, because the company has only recently become aware that they could save over a million dollars simply by shutting down their computers at night. Insane, right? Yes, our beloved American automaker is reporting that it plans to shut down or utilize power management functionality already built into computers and laptops to save the company an astounding $1.2 million per year. Could…

Greenpeace is calling out many of our favorite technology companies as polluters. Are they right? Companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and others are relying heavily on dirty coal energy to power their data centers. Greenpeace believes that this is wrong, and the group is calling for these companies to utilize 100% renewable energy sources instead. Greenpeace feels strongly about this too: “The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power.” Many technology companies tout their efforts as green,…

Coke? What about Coke could possibly be worthy of a mention on Techi? Well, if you already took a look at the picture above, we’re sure you already know why. Andrew Kim, a very talented design student, appears to have crafted something that the folks at Coca Cola should seriously look into: eco-friendly and modernized product packaging for their soft drinks. …