Decide what to buy: the Reevoo.com blog

We all know that we should be doing more to help ease our effects on the environment so we’ve decided to bring you Green Piece - a look at the latest green gadgets around.

This week we’ve stumbled upon the "Wash Up", courtesy of GadgetLite. Ever wondered how all of that water from your washing machine could be put to good use? Wonder no more because Sevin Coskun has designed this unique washing machine/toilet combo.

The washing machine is stacked on top of your toilet so not only is it easier to load but it also stores all of the water used to clean your clothes in a reservoir that can then be used to flush the toilet.

We use up to 120 litres of water when we wash the average load of washing and 9.5 litres when flushing the toilet so this is a great green gadget. Opinions are pretty mixed on this so let us know what you think!

Those who find the concept a little disturbing can still do their bit by investing in an energy efficient washing machine.

It’s hard to know what to make of the Tokyo Declaration signed in, er, Tokyo last week. Sony, Nokia, Hewlett Packard and others have announced their commitment to the issue of climate change, specifically stating that

• greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by more than half by 2050, and
• these emissions must start to decline within the next decade and a half.

This appears to be many of the same companies that are already part of the WWF’s Climate Savers programme: Sony, for example, announced in 2006 its intention to cut its CO2 emissions by seven percent by 2010, although that was relative to its 2000 emissions, not its 2006 levels. Still, that’s a good thing, right?

Unfortunately, the declaration itself (PDF) is a bit thin on actual detail. The opening paragraph makes it clear that it’s not so much a new commitment as a restatement of existing ones:

We, the undersigned companies, reiterate our belief that all necessary action should
be taken to limit the global average temperature increase to a maximum of 2 degrees
Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

The commitments in the document are similarly vague: trying to extend emission reduction activities; educating customers; being ambassadors for the Climate Savers programme. But I don’t want to come across as completely negative: it’s a good thing that the issue is being kept in the public eye, and that companies are actually recognising the impact of what they do.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament voted earlier this month to adopt the Action Plan for Energy Efficiency, which has as its headline goal a reduction in energy use of twenty percent by 2020. (Was that figure chosen based on science, or because of the nice symmetry of all the twenties, I wonder …)

The Action Plan says that efficiency of appliances and equipment ’should become a key element in the consumers’ [buying] decisions’. It calls for updated labelling so that buyers know how well the products they purchase will perform, and minimum energy efficiency standards so that the really lousy performers don’t get sold in the first place. It also mentions devoting ’special attention’ to ’standby loss reduction’ — getting rid of the infamous vampires that suck energy all day long in our houses.

So what does all this mean to us as the people who are buying this stuff? First, we know that some companies are actively trying to make a difference at the production side; this will hopefully encourage other manufacturers to follow suit. We’ll also be better able to decide which products are going to use the least energy when we get them home. Not only will this reduce the impact on the planet, it should even help to save us money as energy prices rise.

Simple ideas are so often the best, and nothing could be simpler than USBCELL’s rechargable battery that you plug into your computer’s USB port.

Green campaigners have been praising rechargable batteries for years because they don’t waste precious metal resources needed to make new batteries - now they are available without having to carry around a charger or any cables.

There’s a couple of impartial reviews for the USBCELL here. Initial reaction seems to be that they’re a bit pricey and the charge doesn’t last as long as regular rechargables - but we’ll report back when we have some more customer reviews to share.

Yesterday was Blog Action Day, a day for bloggers worldwide to devote their posts to an important subject: the environment.

I wanted to highlight the excellent Action Day post at Lifehacker, entitled ‘Easy Ways to Live Greener‘. We all know it’s important to change our everyday habits to be a bit greener, and simple ideas are a great way to nudge the environmentally apathetic into starting with small actions.

Lifehacker asked readers to contribute their top tips for living a greener life, and the responses ranged from the quite techie (automatically powering down external computer drives), to those that everyone can do (bring your own utensils to work instead of using throw-away plastic ones at lunch), plus a couple of quirkier ones (DIY pet poo composting anyone?). Great simple suggestions!