Green gadgets and practices for an eco-friendly lifestyle

A “green” way of living is not just the next cool thing — it’s a responsible, smart way of enjoying a lifestyle that protects your health, beautifies your home, and saves you some money, while helping you do your part in protecting the environment. As The Daily Mail reports, the most popular wedding gift in the United Kingdom today is a modest but spunky wood-and-bamboo beehive that costs only £20 pounds (AUD$38). That’s a 180-degree turn from the usual expensive presents that start with a price range of at least £20,000 pounds (AUD$38,000).

The John Croft Lewis Collection Beehouse is not just a decoration with touches of elegant minimalism. Its quirky charm possesses a useful functionality that can help the newlywed couple remain happy and their home a cleaner, more pleasant habitation for a long time. Hang this beehouse over your garden, and it will instantly attract bees and other insects. That constant swarm will ensure that the well-manicured array of flowers in your backyard will blossom because of its regular pollination.

The nurturing and tending of flowers for the garden as well is also acquiring a green shade. Vegnews reports that many flower farms are turning to organic gardening to produce their own fair share of lavenders, roses and sunflowers. This trend is reducing the need to import the flowers from the Third World, a practice which is actually costing Mother Nature. Imported flowers shipped from one region to another have to preserve their natural lovely appearance. Once on board the ship, it has to be soaked in buckets of water or at least connected to tubes that constantly stream it. The energy expended on the ship and its operations to sustain the process is enormous.

Ecofriend mentions a few other new eco-friendly gadgets that are getting the public’s notice. The Sunport solar charger can easily spike the dying energy levels of any electronic equipment that you have, from your appliances to your smart devices. It looks like a normal outlet extender and can be plugged into any socket. Without needing to have any solar panels in its small body, it can tap into the solar energy around you to power your machines.

The Sunport solar charger is best complemented by 5BARz International’s network extender, another plug-and-play device that is easy to carry or store in a bag. While the Sunport solar charger pushes non-electric power into your smartphone battery, the network extender can enhance its cell phone signals. The device has already served the environmental cause in India where some cell phone towers have shut down because of public fears that the radiation it emit might cause cancer both to human beings and animals. It provides an alternative that ensures smart device users have constant Internet connection without or at least minimising their exposure to health or radiation risks.

Ecofriend mentions another solar-powered favourite: the Girasol solar coffee maker. Caffeine lovers need no longer suffer pangs of conscience for indulging their favorite drink. The solar coffee maker brews the beans into that steaming cup of java, without burning any wood or coal that can damage the ozone layer with its carbon emissions.

Pollinate your garden. Grow your own bouquet of flowers. Make your home appliances energy efficient. These simple but irreplaceable joys of life can be yours without much cost or effort, thanks to this new crop of eco-friendly gadgets. At the same time, you get the added satisfaction in knowing that you have prolonged the lifespan of wonderful planet Earth.