Building with blocks and construction toys is a great unstructured activity for kids, and Ollies Wooden Blocks are a superb new addition to the category.

Often marketed as educational, electronic toys have the opposite effect, resulting in parents and children speaking less to each other.

It's a great way to spend time outside and travel for cheap.

These delicious dessert squares skip the crust and the refined sugar. They're quick and easy to make for lightly sweet snacks during fall and winter.

Think living green is all about sacrifice? Think again!

Forty companies just pledged to do their part to serve more veggies, helping the environment in the process.

It's a veggie burger that actually bleeds. But who's the target audience?

It's become a very tasty ritual.

This is a great way to understand the science behind microbial fuel cells and make a little renewable energy at home.

After years of promises, hydrogen-powered vehicles are finally arriving on the scene.

Goodbye car ownership, hello "mobility as a service."

This proposed home for a young family incorporates an efficient roof garden.

This furniture designer's stealth van conversion has been created as a "test lab" for mobile, "democratic" small space design.

Image credit: Jenni Grover What's the Carbon Footprint of the Antique Industry? I've been told I think too much. (Though I've also been told the opposite is true!) From musing over whether carrots are vegan to wondering about the true cost of my rural

Electric cars are the darlings of the green technology futurists. But wait, cries a receding voice, "what about the environmental impact of all those batteries?" Until recently, that lurking uncertainty shadowed the

Today, Levi’s released a new Life Cycle Assessment for their jeans as part of an effort to promote more sustainable water usage.

Since pumpkins generally require around 75 to 100 frost-free days, it's a good idea to get a jumpstart on planting them.

The Amazing Shrinking car It seems like Toyota has learned quite a bit from building the Toyota iQ (follow link for photos), the "Smallest Four-Passenger Car in the World". But the question really was, if they can fit 4 people in a car that small, how

Photo: Michael Graham Richard. Click to see 2010 Toyota Prius Slideshow.2010 Toyota^ Prius Hybrid: Hello WorldAfter some not too suspenseful waiting, here it is. The official debut of the 3rd generation Toyota Prius hybrid! You can see tons of

This is one of those comparison posts that that could draw many angry comments: like Could Hype Sell An Inferior Hybrid? - Ford Fusion versus Toyota Camry did. Please carefully read the caveats.

Car makers do well in the public's perception of green companies. Illustration by wallygrom (busy at work) via flickr and Creative Commons. Interbrand has come out with their list of the world's 'best' or top 50 green brands. And as they say in their

I love this little vehicle. If it ever becomes commercially available outside of carsharing schemes, I may have to get one. Or maybe I should just start a carsharing scheme in my city....

The forthcoming Tri-Gen facility is being called "the world's first megawatt-scale 100% renewable power and hydrogen generation station."

Short design-life products made of PVC have been a common, inexpensive, and functional choice for almost 50 years. But, vinyl can also be a risky choice of material for objects often handled by consumers, posing a risk of lead exposure, especially if

The US Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), under pressure to lessen childhood exposure to lead in toys and clothing, has set a deadline of early February 2009. That's

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), as passed by the US Congress in August, 2008, inadvertently threatens to take many handmade toys and children's clothing items off the market. According to the

Cartoonist and inventor Steven M. Johnson has us climbing the walls.

Built with a lighter impact in mind, this small mountain retreat is nestled among the trees in Vietnam.

There is a man dressed in a silver lamé suit jumping about with extraordinary energy in a wind blown field in West Wales. His name is Steve Edge and his motto in life is:

Over the past few weeks we've been sharing the amazing ideas and themes that emerged from the Do Lectures 2011. This year's inspiring talks are now being launched online in

Free Geek is a non-profit reuse organization. Its mission: provide access to computers, the internet, education, and job skills to the local community.

Is she trying to "put together a 21st Century technology company using 19th Century workplace mentalities"? Or is this a smart move?

With all the recent brouhaha over inaccurate and since retracted statements in the 2007 IPCC climate change report about the speed with which Himalayan glaciers are melting, a recent series of posts over at China Dialogue is

Back when 20% of Pakistan was underwater, I wrote about the influence of deforestation on the flooding--deforestation caused in no small part by illegal logging at the hands of the so-called timber mafia, a group with

Our photo of the day comes from northern Illinois.

A new type of geothermal heat pump system being tested in Philadelphia can tap into a city's sewage lines to capture heat.

This new design might be the nail in the coffin of geothermal heat pump systems.

Chocolate, tea and more goodies partner with Fair Trade USA which expands farming programs and experiences record sales.

Craving the perfect cup of tea on a chilly morning? Here are some companies with ethical business practices worth supporting.

These flowery sculptures seem to grow and flourish, out of repurposed dead animal skulls.

This quiet retreat has an interesting interior of overlapping layers that welcomes the outdoors in.

Manure and fertilizer runoff is harming communities across the country. A new interactive map illustrates how, and showcases the people who are doing something about it.

The US produces more than enough food to feed the world, but hunger is still a major issue around the world. A new study proposes some ways to change that.

Straight outta Humboldt, this app is a great intro to the "art and craft" of brewing your own compost tea for boosting microbial activity in the soil and improving yields.

It's time to put a stake through them and build efficient Passivhaus buildings.

Selling energy efficiency is hard, but the UK Labour Party got it right.

It's one thing to design to the Passivhaus standard; it is another thing altogether to prove it.

In a bid to meet the city's goal of recycling 60% of its waste by 2015, Seattle is turning its sights on food scraps that end up in the trash.

There's no 'turning into a pumpkin at midnight' because the pumpkin is where it's at!

Wastewater or sludge storage lagoons are designed, in part, based on statistical probability of annual precipitation and evaporation amounts. The data behind these estimates generally don't take into account contemporary