New York is known for a lot of things: its towering high rises, insane traffic and, if you're talking about the environment, air pollution. It's not exactly known for being sustainable–but that might be changing. Los Angeles designer Neil Denari has designed a new highrise for Manhattan's Chelsea district that will be both energy-efficient and sustainable!

 

The building, called HL23, would take up less surface space on the ground than the dimensions of its floors–and it will be 14 stories high. The builders are looking to get a seal of approval from LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which is the internationally-recognized green building certification system.

 

The space inside will include green features like eco-friendly heating systems, an electric elevator without  machine rooms (which consume a lot of energy), and recycled paints. The building has already won awards, and it's expected to be unveiled on June 1st–we'll be watching!

Making your own wind turbine might seem like an impossible feat, even for an expert DIY-er. But according to one man in the U.S., it's not all that hard. Mike Marohn from the state of Washington came up with an at-home wind turbine as a way to heat his water. And it turns out, it's not that expensive or complicated. All it takes is a little shopping at your local hardware store and online!

 

His creation is called the 'Zoetrope,' and it's a vertical-axis wind turbine made from ordinary things like a stove pipe and plastic sheeting. And the best part is, Applied Sciences has decided to make the Zoetrope open source–meaning they've made the instructions available to everyone on their site, from the manual to a special video. So you can take those instructions and use them to build your own Zoetrope wind turbine, adjusted to the conditions where you live.

 

Have you heard of Sustainable Dance Club? The company creates dance clubs around the world that are powered by green technology and embrace eco-friendly trends. The coolest part is that the dance floor itself generates electricity: the more people dance, the more energy is produced–and that's used to power the club.

 

It started in the Netherlands, in the city of Rotterdam back in 2006. A company called Enviu teamed up with an architecture firm called Döll to launch their first sustainable dance night in a club called Off_Corso. It was such a big hit that they started exporting their idea to other clubs and other cities…and now other countries, too. There are even mini-dance floors and other new, innovative products.

 

Have you ever been to a sustainable dance floor? Would this idea work in your hometown?

 

2011 is the International Year of Forests, declared by the United Nations. We would like to suggest the project's website to you and a very interesting youtube channel that the project has launched.

The promotion of 2011 as a special year will show people's actions to sustainably manage the world’s forests, the UN says. It is also meant to raise awareness of sustainable management, conservation and development of all types of forests. As we have seen in some of our GLOBAL IDEAS reports this year, forests do have a key role in global sustainable development. According to the World Bank, more than 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that every year 130,000 km² of the world's forests are lost due to deforestation. Have a look at their channel, here's a glimpse:

South Africa is ramping up its green energy production in a big way. The cabinet approved a new 20-year energy plan that would make renewable and nuclear energy the focus going into the future. Right now, South Africa relies on coal for most of its electricity, but the plan would see the renewable and nuclear energy account for two-thirds of the country's energy in 20 years.

 

But that means South Africa is making a commitment to nuclear power while most countries are moving away from it, especially with the current nuclear crisis in Japan. The plan is still just that–a plan. It has to be approved by parliament and the president has to sign it, too. But what do you think?

 

Could this drastic energy restructuring plan be a step forward for South Africa? Or is investing in nuclear power for the future the wrong choice?