Sarah Cihat

Sarah Cihat is one of the most inspiring sustainable designers I can think of. She's not revolutionizing the power industry, or eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels. Her efforts are arguably small in size, but to me, that is what makes them so largely brilliant and inspiring. Sarah creates Rehabilitated Dishware. She collects used or unwanted ceramics from secondhand stores or overstocked piles and turns them into something new. She resurfaces the plates with modern colors and graphics, which play on the character of the original ceramic design, giving a new appeal to previously unwanted products.

Twist and Spout

Why recycle when you can reuse? The Twist and Spout gives you no reason not to. It's a twist on spout turns used beverage bottles into watering cans. The spouts are available in two different lengths, Garden (6.5") and Kitchen (3.5"). The best part is, they are only $5! Designed by Nicolas Le Moigne. Available for purchase on PerpetualKid.com. (Found, most recently, through Outblush)

Climate Cars Bike Rescue

Climate Cars are a new fleet of eco-friendly taxis in London. They drive hybrid cars and offset their emissions using The Carbon Neutral Company. What is interesting about Climate Cars is their Bike Rescue service. All of their cars carry bike racks. So if your eco-friendly self chose to ride a bike to work but then later questioned your commitment to climate change when it started pouring rain at the end of the day, you can still get a ride home from Climate Cars (complete with bike and a guilt-free conscious). (Found through Springwise).

Omlet Eglu

Looking for stylish ways to reduce your carbon footprint? How about raising chickens for eggs in this gorgeous chicken 'Eglo' by Omlet? This product was designed by four Royal College of Art students a few years back (I actually first saw it at their grad show!). Since then they have founded Omlet which sells this Eglu and the larger Eglu cube for housing chickens, rabbits or guinea pigs. Their site also has tons of great info about being an urban chicken owner. (Found through Trend Watching)

Lights Out London

In an effort to raise awareness about global warming, the city of London turned out its lights last week. The voluntary blackout happened on June 21 between 9pm and 10pm and included many notable building such as Tower Bridge, Parliament, and Buckingham Palace. Piccadilly Circus also participated turning out its advertising lights for the first time since World War II. London isn't the first city to do this. They follow in the footsteps of Sydney, Paris and Hong Kong. London estimates that they collectively turned out 2 million lights saving 750 MWh of electricity in 1 hour. I like this idea because turning out lights is such a simple thing, but the effect of seeing such well known attractions in darkness has quite an impact. It would be great to see some more permanent energy savings come out of this.