Engineer Topher White started Rainforest Connection to use a simple and scalable way to stop illegal logging and deforestation using old cell phones as a security system for real-time intervention.
Category: Plants
Growing Trees in Home Nurseries
Instead of buying trees you can grow your own rootstock and graft to grow thousands of trees yourself. You can start at home with a small bucket and expand depending on available space.
Apartment & Vertical Gardening
Vertical gardening designs make use any available space along a sunny wall to grow vegetables, herbs, flowers, and root crops in suspended containers.
Fresh Air With 3 Common Plants
Areca palm, Mother-in-Law’s Tongue and Money plant are three common houseplants that can be arranged in specific areas at home or in the office to produce indoor air that is measurably cleaner.
London ‘Growing Underground’
Growing Underground is a subterranean farm in London that grows crops unaffected by weather and seasons, with the help of a hydroponic system and low-energy LED lighting.
‘The Lowline’ Underground New York Park
The Lowline is an underground park in New York, where the plants are nourished by sunlight that’s piped through a system of mirrored collectors, lenses and reflectors.
‘SWALE’ Floating Food Forest In NY
Swale is a floating “food forest” built on a floating platform with an edible forest garden, launched in the waterways of New York.
Electricity From Living Plants
Plant-e is a company that develops products that can generate electricity from living plants. Based on natural processes electrons are harvested from the soil and electricity is produced while plants grow.
‘Ecovative’ Fungus Based New Plastic
Ecovative grows fungus-based construction and packaging “Myco” material that performs like plastic and protects fragile shipments, but is biodegradable.
Greenhouses & Cold Frames
Greenhouses and cold frames are a great way to grow your own food year round, healthy, fresh and full of nutrients. There are many different designs to choose from to easily build one yourself.
‘Flow™ Beehive’ Honey on Tap
Flow Beehive is the beekeepers dream – a revolutionary innovation in the bee keeping industry, allowing to harvest honey without opening the hive and avoiding disturbing the bees.
Small Scale Farming UN Report
Significant support is needed to make changes in the food, agriculture and trade systems – to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, to increase crop diversity, and to support local small-scale farmers.
Natural Pest Control Using Bugs
Natural pest control uses “good bugs” to fight pests, instead of spraying produce with harmful chemicals. This prevents disturbing the natural balance, and is safer for farmers and the food supply.
‘HugelKultur’ Building Rich Soil
Soil can be built up using a simple technique called Hugelkultur. Soil is put on top of a bed of wood, and the decomposition process creates enriched and self-sufficient “alive soil.”
Fungus That Decomposes Plastic
A group of students from Yale’s Department of Molecular Physics and Biochemistry discovered a fungus in Ecuador, called Pestalotiopsis microspora, that likes to eat polyester polyurethane.
Biochar Soil Fertilizer
Biochar may be added to soil in order to improve soil functions and to reduce emissions from biomass that would otherwise naturally degrade to greenhouse gases.
6 Uses of Mycelium Fungus
Mycelium holds together soil and disassembles natural materials generating humus, building and cleaning polluted soil, as well as making insecticides, and antibiotics to treat smallpox and flu viruses.
5 Medicinal Mushrooms
Five common medicinal mushrooms can help to heal the human body and the ecosystem. These are Reishi, Chaga, Turkey Tails, Shittake, and Cordycepts Sinensis mushrooms.
Growing Your Own Shiitake Mushrooms
You can grow your own shiitake mushrooms by inoculating medium size logs, placing them into a shaded and humid area, letting them incubate, shocking the logs, and enjoying the harvest.
Natural Swimming Pools
A natural swimming pool is a pond that keeps clean and clear water with the help of plants and animals, and without the use of chemicals, such as chlorine and other disinfectants, safe for people and wildlife.
‘Olla’ Efficient Irrigation System
Olla is an unglazed terracotta clay pot that’s buried next to plants to water them at a steady rate, especially effective in hot and dry locations. It is considered the most efficient irrigation system in the world.
‘Sunplace’ Solar Powered Grill
The SUNplace is a “solar cooking table,” a collaborative project by designers Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai, intended for a group of chefs to cook together and prepare a meal using sunlight.
Pot-in-Pot Refrigeration
Mohammed Bah Abba, a teacher in rural Nigeria, developed the Pot-in-Pot Preservation Cooling System that keeps food and medicine fresh by storing them in two clay pots, and requiring no electricity.
Freedom For Sustainability 