I just discovered this New York brand through the inner web: Wataah. The company produces “premium bottle water” for kids. Why? Wataah is the solution for parents who have no control over their children and need help making water look cool. It would be so much simpler to teach children that water is fun, is and tastes good and that the best things on earth don’t come in a colorful bottle. ;)

Update: My point was why not use glass or metal bottles (with fun and cute designs) and refill them with filtered water, instead of wasting more plastic? (Sigg for instance has cute bottles for children)

I just introduced Cara to a new show, Leverage. It is a TNT show starring Oscar winner Timothy Hutton. It is about a team that sets up “elaborate scams designed to exact revenge against those who use power and wealth to victimize people”. A great show from the two episodes I have seen; you should check it out on play it now on Netflix. Leverage has done some positive product placement for the Tesla Roadster, an electric car.

Tesla Motors, based out of California, designs and manufactures electric cars that look sexy and seemingly deliver a great performance. The Roadster series (see red car on photo above) is already in production and available for you to purchase for around $109,000. They are also coming out with some new models (see white car) for 2011 starting at around $49,000 (you can pre-order).

A few things about these cars:

• They partner up with Lotus for the manufacturing and engineering processes
• They can reach speeds up to 125 mph
• The Roadster series goes from 0 to 60mph in less than 4 seconds (3.7 sec)
• You have the option to get carbon fiber seats (better than leather since not harmful to animals)
• It takes only 3.5 hours to charge the battery
• Tesla estimates the car will cost you about 1 cent a mile to drive. So if my calculations are correct, if you drive 300 miles, it will cost you about $3. Isn’t that ridiculous? :)
• When the battery dies, you can get a new one for $12,000 and recycle the old one at a Tesla dealership. They say the battery should last about 100,000 miles or 5 years, whichever comes first. If you break down the $12,000 battery replacement cost over a 5 year length, it is about $200 a month, then add energy consumption, for an $50 extra dollars a month- total is around $250 a month. As a comparison, driving a non-electric car for 100,000 miles would cost you around $10,000 to $12,000 in gas only.
• The beauty is you can charge your battery with any energy you want: solar, wind, etc!

So check out the Roadster or pre-order your Model S (and its 7 seats!). Hopefully Cara and I can motivate ourselves to go take a test drive tomorrow in the city.

Update: Just called the dealership in Chelsea. They opened a month ago, only have one car to test drive and priorities are for Roadster owners or future owners. They took my info and will let me know when I can test drive…

First of all, how does a solar watch work?

According to different sources, Solar watches were also very popular in the 80s with models for kids. If you are interested in vintage solar powered watches, you can check this link here. And if you want to learn the history of the solar wristwatches since the 70s, click here.

From what I have seen every solar watch uses lithium batteries, rechargeable for life. “Because watch batteries contain a small amount of mercury, [...] solar watch[es] [are] a green and non-toxic choice.” (Source: CBS News)

There are two main players in the solar watches market: Citizen and Casio.

All the Citizen watches are solar powered (eco-drive program) and when fully charged, can last for 180 days without being re-charged. Not a fan of their design especially as I don’t want to spend $795. My top budget is $200 and what Citizen has to offer at this price does not fit my aesthetics.

Casio offers the Casio Shock in several designs; very sporty look, not what I am looking for either.

Back to my search. There are many different watches available on the market, which incorporate the functions of a MP3 or 4 player, or of a USB device; HP is also working on a super cool communication watch device. But I am only looking for a simple solar watch.

Here are my solar watches findings:

	1. Healthy Sky Limited sells solar powered watches. You should be able to purchase on their site by emailing them. I sent them an email to know how much was this watch but haven’t received any response yet. Will update this entry when I do.
	2. Timex, Oceanus, Pulsar and Junghans also make Casio and Citizen style like watches, but I am not looking for this style of watches.
	3. Here you can find more solar watches. You can get a great wholesale price: 20 for only $97!! ;)
	4. At Deal Extreme, I found this very inexpensive watch: $8.37. I cannot believe the price, mostly justified because it is not a metallic watch, but who cares. The design is still not what I am looking for. They also have other models around the same price.
	5. The National Geographic Aviator II Watch, priced at $160.
	6. The Prada, only available in Europe and not out yet will be sold at €1500
	8. I also found a Solar Powered Braille Watch (shown left) which looks really great and was designed by a certain Jeonjun Cho. Also, a Solar Spy Watch Camera but could not find any retailer for neither of them. So if you happen to know how much they cost and where to find them, please share the info!!

That’s it. Unfortunately, no real solar watch to my taste so if you know some, share it. The one I will probably go with for now is the #4 from Deal Extreme. I wish solar watches would be like this, this or this. But it is not reality yet… :(

On this note, I will do a new search on other eco green watches, non solar powered.

Good night!

Nokia has been focusing its research on green products, from handset development to shipping, use and End-Of-Life practices.

With almost 10 billion customers, Nokia certainly can help make a difference in educating their users, producing energy efficient products in many ways and more.

Educating customers and helping them do the right thing

Power Consumption

“Nokia has set the target to reduce the average no-load consumption of its chargers by 50%, and the no-load consumption of its best-in-class chargers to close to zero, by 2010″. No-load consumption is evidently when your charger is plugged in the power outlet with no phone on the other end. Nokia is also pushing its customers to think about un-plugging their chargers when not in use.

In fact, in 2007, Nokia has launched the first devices with “reminder alerts for consumers to unplug chargers once the battery is recharged”. Nokia has estimated this could save enough electricity to power 85,000 homes a year.

Recycling devices and packaging

Nokia is pushing its customers to recycle their old phones. If you are a Nokia user, click here to find the closest drop off location. Most likely if your phone is pretty new, you should have found a prepaid envelop inside the packaging of your phone. If so, use it to ship your device.

Look below to see how a recycled phone will be broken apart and all its pieces used towards:

Producing Energy Efficient Products

I love this graph below. Basically it shows each step, from the production of a mobile phone to its consumption bt the consumers and how much waste, non-eco substances, water, energy is used and could potentially be saved. We looked above at the Use and at the EOL (End-Of-Life) practices. We are now going to look at all what’s happening before the product gets into the customers’ hands.

The Making of

The first Nokia building to receive the LEED green certification was in White Plains, NY. For every new building, Nokia is seeking this level of sustainability. This can hopefully help in setting new standards for the industry.

“Management Systems (EMS) at Nokia production sites are ISO 14001 compliant”. Nokia works on the following factors: Energy consumption, Water Consumption, Air emissions, Non-Eco Substances, Waste management and Packaging. Nokia also requires its suppliers to respect a set of guidelines.
Nokia should reduce its overall energy consumption of 6% by 2012 and plans to increase its use of green electricity from 25% to 50% by 2010.

Clean and Recyclable Materials

Nokia has banned a list of substances that are not environmentally friendly and stopped using this list in the technology they produce. More info here.

Smaller products for smaller packaging, fewer shipping trucks

Nokia has considerably be reducing the amount of material used for their packagings. Smaller phones, smaller packagings, more packages on each truck and therefore less truck on the road.

More green stuff Nokia is working on

The Nokia Eco Sensor Concept. A personal assistant to “monitor your health, environment, and local weather”, powered in part by solar energy.

I want to see more companies that try not only to produce green goods, but also work on increasing the public awereness and its education about green matters.