Have you heard about the new Coca Cola billboard in the Philippines? The famous soft-drink company teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund to create a huge, environmentally-friendly billboard that’s actually alive!

It’s made up of 3,600 small tea plants that suck in harmful air pollutants from the surrounding atmosphere, and the plants themselves are placed in pots made of recycled Coke bottles.

What do you think? Is this an effective way of raising awareness and saving the planet?
One official from the project says the billboard can soak up 46,800 pounds of CO2 – especially important in the Philippines, where air pollution is a big problem.

Here’s an interesting story from the United Arab Emirates: Mcdonald’s restaurants across the UAE are making a unique contribution to the environment. They’re taking the oil used to make those famous Mcdonald”s French fries and sending it to the region’s first biodiesel factory. That oil will power the company’s fleet of specially-adapted trucks!

A company in Abu Dhabi called Neutral Group made a deal with Mcdonald’s to take oil from all 80 of its restaurants in the Emirates and convert it into fuel at a special factory in Dubai. That factory is expected to start producing around 1 million liters of fuel, with the chance to expand in the future. Not a bad way to stretch a little more use out of French fries!

The latest round of climate talks has just kicked off in Berlin today, and it’s expected to lay the groundwork for the UN summit in Durban, South Africa at the end of the year. Around 35 countries are attending the meetings in Berlin, and the hope is that world leaders can set the course to some sort of binding climate agreement by the end of the year.

But US and European officials have already admitted that won’t be possible this year. While everyone believes a legally-binding plan is crucial, nobody can agree on what it should look like.

What do you think of international climate talks? Are they making good progress, or should world leaders be doing more?

The idea of building your own green home from start to finish can be a daunting one, especially because a lot of eco-friendly design can be pretty expensive. But the Guardian recently featured a cheap and really quick option: a German company called Meisterstück Haus creates pre-built panels and pieces for your house, and builders can put it all together in just 3 days. That doesn’t include the time it takes to add plumbing and electricity and everything else you might need in a home, but it’s still pretty impressive, especially for a 3-bedroom house!

The houses are made of sustainable materials and insulated to be air-tight, which can drastically cut down on heating consumption and costs in the winter.

Is your house eco-friendly? How?

Last October, U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration announced the White House would be getting a new, green touch – solar panels. And they were supposed to be in place by this spring. Well, it’s now summer and there’s not a single solar panel on the White House.

The president said he wanted to lead by example, and a lot of climate activists are holding him to that. They urged the government to meet the deadline, and they haven’t given up that fight now that the deadline has passed.

What do you think? Could the White House use a green makeover? And will we see solar panels on the famous building?