Garbage Warrior [Full Length Documentary]

Films For Action Presents: The Top 100 Documentaries Inspiring the Shift to a Sustainable Paradigm By Films For Action / filmsforaction.org Film offers us a powerful tool to shift awareness and inspire action. By hosting community film screenings and sharing them online, they offer a method to break our dependence on the mainstream media and become the media ourselves. We don't need to wait for anyone or anything. Just imagine what could become possible if an entire city had seen just one of the documentaries below. Just imagine what would be possible if everyone in the country was aware of how unhealthy the mainstream media was for our future and started turning to independent sources in droves. Creating a better world really does start with an informed citizenry, and there's lots of subject matter to cover. Our society needs a new story to belong to. But most of all, we need to see the promise of the alternatives - we need to be able to imagine new exciting ways that people could live, better than anything that the old paradigm could ever dream of providing. Community Suggestions

Earthship South and East view of an Earthship passive solar home Earthship typical floorplan Earthships are primarily designed to work as autonomous buildings using thermal mass construction and natural cross ventilation assisted by thermal draught (Stack effect) to regulate indoor temperature. Earthships are generally off-the-grid homes, minimizing their reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels. History[edit] Michael Reynolds' first building, the Thumb House. A building being built of cans in the 1970s The design used with most earthships. Eventually, Reynolds' vision took the form of the common U-shaped earth-filled tire homes seen today. Rammed-earth and tires are easily accessible and allow for owner build structures and use of untrained labour. The earth-rammed tires of an Earthship are usually assembled by teams of two people working together as part of a larger construction team. Additional benefits of the rammed earth tire are its high load-bearing capacity and its resistance to fire.

The charming $200 micro houses made from junk By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 01:49 GMT, 5 April 2012 | Updated: 20:37 GMT, 5 April 2012 Made from scavenged materials, Derek Diedricksen's tiny houses cost just $200 to make. What the little wooden dwellings lack in space, is made up for in style thanks to plenty of decorative detail. The 33-year-old uses parts of discarded household items to ensure each home has basic functions, the glass from the front of a washing machine is converted in a porthole-like window while a sheet of metal becomes a flip down counter. Made from scavenged materials, Derek Diedricksen's tiny houses cost just $200 to make The largest of his structures is the Gypsy Junker at 24 square feet with a roof height of up to 5ft 10inches The Gypsy Junker is made out of shipping pallets, castoff storm windows and discarded kitchen cabinets Ultimate in eco-friendly: Derek Diedricksen's homes are made from household goods 'I’ve always been obsessed with tiny architecture. 'The Hickshaw was the first one I built.'

Green The Film News - Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility Slumtube: Affordable Housing Made From Shipping Pallets! Remember the efficient and affordable Pallet House from last spring? Well designers Andreas Claus Schnetzer and Pils Gregor have bested their original design with an even lower-cost shipping pallet home that was completed this year in South Africa. The 'Slumtube' utilizes discarded pallets along with other local materials like clay and straw to make an insulated and affordable home that can withstand the extremely hot and cold temperatures of Johannesburg. Schnetzer and Gregor built upon what they learned from constructing modular pallet houses, improving upon their original design to make it even more affordable. In Johannesburg, temperatures can fluctuate from 45 degrees C in the summer to -2 degrees in the winter, and many homes are not equipped to keep residents comfortable. Slumtube transforms these pallets and other recycled materials into a semi-circular long houses that is insulated from heat and cold. + PalettenHaus Images © PalettenHaus

Waste = Food Man is the only creature that produces landfills. Natural resources are being depleted on a rapid scale while production and consumption are rising in nations like China and India. The waste production world wide is enormous and if we do not do anything we will soon have turned all our resources into one big messy landfill. But there is hope. The German chemist, Michael Braungart, and the American designer-architect William McDonough are fundamentally changing the way we produce and build. A design and production concept that they call Cradle to Cradle. Large companies like Ford and Nike are working with McDonough and Braungart to change their production facilities and their products. Watch the full documentary now -

This Zero-Energy Building Uses Algae for Power and Shade | Environment on GOOD In a little over a month, a new German building will be the first in the world to have a "bioreactor facade" that can create energy, provide shade, and control light. The walls facing the sun are lined with giant glass panels that act as microalgae farms: fed with water and sunlight, the tiny plants grow until they're big enough to be harvested and sent to a nearby biogas plant to generate energy. The glass panels are also designed to capture the warmth of the sun to heat the building and provide hot water. Since the algae grows fastest in the summer when the days are long and there's more sunlight, it can double as shade to help keep the building cool. The building will be featured in the International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg. This month, challenge a neighbor to GOOD's energy smackdown. Images courtesy of KOS Wulff Immobilien, original top image KOS Wulff Immobilien