HP has surprised us again. We know they had ambitions on becoming more sustainable and not just greenwashing but they have taken a huge step and an industry first. They have made the carbon footprint of their business transparent including the supply chain of their largest suppliers – the largest global supply chain in the technology industry. That indicated footprint covers over eighty percent of their costs for materials, manufacturing, assembly for HP products. Whats more, they only set that goal a year ago in 2007, showing that it does not take decades to make change, even for a large multinational corporation. They release this data, making themselves transparent in order to increase their responsibility and that of those with whom they do business.

[HP Press Release]

Imagine coming in from the rain. Your collapsed umbrella is dripping wet with fresh rainwater and you’ve got to do something about it. The Umbrella Pot solves this predicament with a delightful twist. In a typical umbrella stand excess water drips to the bottom where it collects and perhaps evaporates over time. This fresh take on the umbrella stand utilizes that rainwater for the purpose of watering vegetation nestled neatly into the side of the stand.This white Tokoname ceramic, designed by Okamoto Kou will run you at least Â¥52 500 (CAD $515.16) and comes in a range of sizes but we’re guessing anybody with that kind of money for an umbrella stand doesn’t need to carry their own umbrella.

[Kyouei Design]

Odd’s are you have no idea what the Pavilion dv6929 is. It’s an EPEAT silver-rated laptop that sells for under $800 but whats the big deal? Well it won Wal-Mart’s Home Entertainment Design Challenge. Wal-Mart set the challenge and HP stepped up to the plate to reduce packaging by 97% for an item now needing a quarter fewer trucks to deliver. the laptop and everything it comes with comes inside a laptop bag made from 100% recycled materials. To add to that, HP says that anybody purchasing one can give Wal-Mart their old computer for proper recycling for free. This is great news for everybody involved. Keep it up.

Michelle Kaufmann’s blog has a writeup on a little idea regarding architecture, performance rating, and you. It introduces an idea about labeling paralleling the reasons for which we standardize nutrition information labels on food then applying those reasons for labeling architecture in order to communicate specific performance issues. This idea definitely has legs and could be elaborated on much more than the writeup does. Theres potential here.

Jan Philip Scharbert, international jerk supreme has been busted tagging on to the Franz Josef Glacier by some camera-carrying English tourists. He wasn’t craftily carving the ice or anything like that – he was actually spray-painting it (and some surrounding rock walls). The man made him spend a day and a half cleaning up the mess he made while eco-tourists and eco-tour-guides heckled him mercilessly. Those camouflage shorts must not work as well as he hoped.