Green Frontier Blog

A small start-up company in Michigan, named GreenSand, has potentially identified a way to recycle almost a half billion pounds of mining tailings on Lake Superior that have been an ecological nightmare for the waterways, shorelines and surrounding areas.  Although several challenges remain, the finished material remaining after a four step process could be utilized by shingle manufacturers to eliminate algae growth on traditional shingles and cut material costs associated with fabrication while resolving an existing environmental problem.

Is it just me, or when you think of Starbucks don’t you envision a company committed to social responsibility.  I don’t know if it’s because their headquarters is located in the “green” city of Seattle, the rustic ambience of their coffeehouses, or their extensive global responsibility initiatives, but I’ve always considered them a pioneer in the area of environmental stewardship.

Kudos to Vax, one of the U.K.’s leading vacuum brands, for designing a vacuum cleaner made of flame-retardant cardboard. Now I don’t know how the performance of this vacuum will be versus a traditional unit, but it’s exciting to see a company taking the initiative to creatively design a product that theoretically should not have the same degree of environmental impacts throughout its lifecycle as a standard model.