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Prefab is taking center stage this summer at The Museum of Modern Art in NYC with the Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibit opening in July. As part of the exhibit, five renowned architects will bring a mix of existing and prototype prefabricated designs to full form on a exterior lot adjacent to the museum!

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Grease bandits strike WA biodiesel maker
Seattle Post Intelligencer - 28 minutes ago
Biodiesel refiners are getting hit by "grease bandits" who steal used cooking oil from restaurants to make the environmentally-friendly fuels. ...

Biodiesel, worker pay on council agenda
Times-Journal, AL - 1 hour ago
The first is a proposed plan to make biodiesel for use in city vehicles to offset the rising cost of diesel prices. The two problems of rising diesel costs ...
City may require parking lot paving Times-Journal
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KING5.com
King County to study biodiesel
KING5.com, WA - 1 hour ago
Councilmember Dunn is calling for an in depth study of biodiesel. King County Metro buses use about two million gallons of biodiesel each year. ...
Caution flag raised in race to embrace biofuels Seattle Post Intelligencer
What's Right with Biofuels BusinessWeek
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Swift Enterprises Ltd. has unveiled a new patented synthetic hydrocarbon general aviation fuel—SwiftFuel—that is produced from biomass. SwiftFuel meets or exceeds the standards for aviation fuel as verified by nationally recognized laboratories, said co-founder John Rusek, a professor in Purdue... Mike Millikin

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There's a collection of good info there, that will only get better. For instance, under feedstocks, there's actually a pretty good write-up on the Chinese Tallow Tree.

The Nikkei reports that the Nissan Motor - NEC Corporation 50-50 joint venture for lithium-ion batteries—Automotive Energy Supply Corp. (earlier post)—will begin mass production of Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles next spring. A new production plant in Kanagawa Prefecture is... Mike Millikin

BKLYN Designs STARTS TODAY!!
We are thrilled to be on the scene at this year’s BKLYN Designs - it is one our favorite springtime events, and we couldn’t be more excited! Locally sourced and inspired, the BKLYN Designs furniture fair captures a side of sustainable design that is near and dear to Inhabitat’s mission - drawing local designers together into a familiar, yet fresh, environment to celebrate design innovation. This year is especially exciting as four of our Inhabitants (Jill, Ali, Mike & Abigail) have converged upon Brooklyn to scope out the scene and partake in eco-conscious events during this design extravaganza. We will be here all weekend reporting back with the best in sustainable design from BKLYN Designs 2008!

MOTHERS DAY GREEN DESIGN WALKING TOUR - Sunday May 11th @ 2pm
Your favorite Inhabitat editors Jill and Abigail will be leading a Green Design Walking Tour this coming Sunday. In honor of Mother’s Day, it will be a mom-focused, family friendly event, so bring your kids, your mom or whomever else to learn more about local sustainable furniture design with the Inhabitat team. The tour is filling up fast, and we have a max of 15 spaces, so if you’d like to partake, please email us at to sign up inhabitat at gmail.com.

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Electro Energy Inc. has won a contract award of $750,000 sponsored by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to continue development of ultra-high energy density, rechargeable, lithium battery chemistry for Air Force applications. Mike Millikin

AC Transit of Oakland, CA will purchase a minimum of eight 120 kW PureMotion Model 120 fuel cell systems from UTC Power, with options for an additional 13 units, to power AC Transit’s next-generation hybrid-electric, fuel cell buses, scheduled for... Mike Millikin

Reducing demand growth (sales and Vehicle Kilometers Traveled, VKT) makes the task of reducing fuel consumption easier. ERFC = Emphasis on Reducing Fuel Consumption. Click to enlarge. An MIT study on projected fuel use by the US light-duty vehicle fleet... Mike Millikin

Move over Michelle Kaufman, these new prefabs will leave you and your pet drooling. LA-based Sustainable Pet Design combines green design, healthy living, non-toxic paints and your pet to create this sustainable Greenrrroof Animal House. Now man’s best friend will feel confident that his home has a low environmental impact and that he or she isn’t inhaling toxic fumes all night long.

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Conservationists in Kenya are opposing a multi-million dollar biofuels project citing threats to bird life abundant in a riverine delta area. The 50,000 acre sugar cane project was meant to provide raw cane for a giant sugar milling company too but it is believed its vision was more for biofuel than food.

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The European Parliament has set a target of having 25% of their energy come from renewable energy by 2020. Of that 25%, half is planned to come from wind energy.

Europe is already well on their way to making this happen as well, with 5 countries (Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Germany) having more than 5% of their energy provided by wind farms. Currently there exists 80 GW of installed wind capacity in the EU, though only 3.5 GW of that is derived from wind farms built off-shore.

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Coral gardens have also been popular spots for water sports tourism especially diving. I joined this custom safari with a group of friends on this fine May morning that combined a variety of both marine and terrestrial research together with community development projects within the tropical environment of East Africa.

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Donggwang has achieved what even the most powerful countries in the world are still struggling to accomplish: total energy independence with clean technology.

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This gorgeous wood container prefab from Olgga Architects was turning heads at Salon Europeen du Bois in Grenoble last month. At just 70 square meters (about 753 square feet), this energy efficient abode is made of two prefabricated modules perched one on top of the other. Rather than box out the structure with a stacked configuration, the designers pivoted the top unit to create a variety of interesting and integrated outdoor spaces, as well as a variety of structural possibilities.

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Wait, wasn’t there supposed to be a rabbi in there somewhere?

Tonight was the Time 100 Gala, where Time Magazine celebrates 100 of the most influential people in the world today. This year, three religious leaders are included.

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Part 2 of Justin van Kleek's musing on activism, anger and better ways to communicate an environmental agenda.

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