Eco-Vlog

Adventurous glamping meets the soft sounds of the Indonesian rainforest at Hideout Horizon in East Karangasem, Bali. This entire home is made out of bamboo and completely open, with ladders and ramps connecting floors and bedrooms. A custom, overhanging grass roof helps shelter occupants from the elements. Designed by Studio WNA for Hideout Bali, the property measures over 860 square feet in size. The open design helps guests get up-close-and-personal with the unique natural environment of Bali, with added creature comforts such as options for meal service, a fully functional kitchen and multi-layered mosquito nets. Related: Treehouse hotel in Bali offers maximum views with a minimal footprint Start on the ground floor, where the kitchen opens to a comfortable living area with a hanging hammock. You’ll also find an exposed bathroom with an artfully designed outdoor shower and a sink made of bamboo and stone. Just outside the kitchen, access a serene indoor-outdoor plunge pool su...

Despite a decade-long ban on fireworks at Mount Rushmore on environmental and public health grounds, President Trump is planning a fireworks show at the famous site on July 3. Critics are worried about the threat of wildfire and the spread of coronavirus . The National Park Service halted fireworks displays at Mount Rushmore in 2010 to avoid wildfires accelerated by drought conditions. The monument is famous for its four presidential faces — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln — but also includes 1,200 acres of forest and is close to Black Hills National Forest’s Black Elk Wilderness. Related: Crowds fill national park for Yellowstone reopening With a high temperature of 80 degrees predicted for the Fourth of July weekend paired with moderate drought conditions, not everybody is cheering for fireworks. “It’s a bad idea based on the wildland fire risk, the impact to the water quality of the memorial, the fact that it is going to occur du...

It sounds too good to be true — spread some rocks on a beach and the ocean will do the work to remove carbon dioxide from the air, reversing global warming. But that’s a very simplified explanation of what Project Vesta hopes to accomplish. The idea is to accelerate a natural process. When rain falls on volcanic rocks, it weathers them down, then flows into the ocean. There, oceans further break down the rocks. Carbon dioxide removed from the air becomes bicarbonate, which helps grow the shells of marine organisms and is stored in limestone on the ocean floor. Project Vesta wants to speed up this process by grinding up olivine — a common, gray-green silicate that weathers quickly — and spreading it on beaches and in shallow shelf seas around the world. It has worked in a lab, but will it work in the real world? We’re about to find out, as Project Vesta is now preparing a pilot beach in the Caribbean. Related: Demand for sand — the largest mining industry no one talks about Orig...

When one tiny house is just a bit too tiny, why not get two? One single mom who flipped houses for a living decided to do just that, choosing not one but two tiny homes that she placed side-by-side to provide room for herself and her two daughters. This is an elegant solution for those who want to try tiny living on a slightly larger scale. One tiny home houses mom Amanda Lee’s bedroom, along with the living room, kitchen and bathroom. The second tiny home is split in half to house a bedroom and wardrobe area for each of Lee’s daughters. The homes are 168 and 219 square feet and connected with a large, covered porch . The porch increases the overall living space. Thanks to her two tiny homes, Lee is totally debt-free. Since she opted to live almost completely off-grid , her utility bills stay low. Thanks to her reduced living expenses, Lee bought herself plenty of time to spend with her children. She now works from her tiny home at her consulting business. Lee’s tiny homes were ...

Goals typically fail for several reasons, the main one being they lack purpose or a tangible reason why they have been set in the first place. If you don’t honestly believe in a goal or have an emotional attachment to why it’s been created, you’ll either lose interest or only do the minimum to deliver it. There are several other reasons goals can fail, including: The goal is too ambitious and so far from being achievable that there is no point working on it as you feel you’ll never achieve it. The goal completion target is so far off into the future that you just put it off as there is no urgency. The goal isn't specific enough and so vague and hard to plan for as they may sound great, but you’re not sure how you’ll achieve them. OKRs can provide the structure and direction you need to achieve your goals, whether you’re a company or an individual. They create the purpose and direction you need to achieve and work towards, as well as offer strategies for how you’ll measure your...

“Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.” ~ Brené Brown Saying no is difficult for me. Whether it be to a loved one or a stranger, work tasks or a new hobby, something I enjoy or despise, saying no just plain sucks. So instead I say yes. I say yes to everyone and everything until I’m left exhausted, depleted, and with nothing left to give. When COVID quarantine kicked-in I was forced to clear my calendar. Appointments, gatherings, travel plans—all cancelled. Instead of feeling disappointed, I began to feel  lighter . I now had a valid excuse to let go of my overbooked plans and was granted a socially acceptable reason to say no. For the first time in my life since I was a kid, I had space to  just be. As shelter-in-place restrictions began to lift, the calls and meeting invites began to pour in. Like a damn where the gates once held back the water, I was flooded with requests to do more—reconnect with...

Seventh Generation, the company famous for its eco-friendly and bio-based home and personal care products, recently unveiled its renovated headquarters in Burlington, Vermont. Finished in January 2020, the $3.5 million project focused on aligning employee experience with the company’s social mission and values by transitioning the global headquarters into a fully agile workplace. An agile work environment traditionally utilizes strategies meant to optimize the use of space and promote creativity through features such as comfortable seating areas, quiet reflective spaces, outdoor workspaces and standing desks. Green-minded businesses often promote agile work spaces in order to reduce environmental footprints. Related: The Nature Conservancy’s Oregon HQ gets a green renovation Seventh Generation took this opportunity to add free address workstations, shared community tables and individual storage lockers for its employees. There are now enclosed huddle rooms, phone booths and open...

It takes commitment to remain focused and make your week productive. A research conducted by the University of California revealed that you need 30 minutes to refocus after being distracted on a task ((UCI: The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress )). With so many distractions pulling at our attention, how can we complete our weekly to do lists? With the introduction of new technologies and the popularization of remote work, you can expect more and more distractions. Meanwhile, it is possible to relieve yourself of pressure and burden when you master how to organize your chores, tasks, and responsibilities with a weekly to-do list. What Is a To Do List? A to do list is a schedule that itemizes what you need to and when you have to do it. The essence of a to do list is to enable you to simplify your life and not make it burdensome. How to Prepare Weekly To Do Lists Follow these steps to get yourself ready for the week ahead with a comprehensive to do list. 1. Select a Chann...

Many conversations are being held nowadays regarding unconscious bias, but what does it really mean and how can it affect your life and the people around you? With many types of biases, it can get quite confusing. In this article, we'll touch on cognitive bias, and then zero in on unconscious bias. Both types of biases have an immediate impact on your life because they relate to how you and others think about yourself and other people. If you want to protect your relationships and make good decisions about other people, you need to know what these biases mean((New Harbinger: The Blindspots Between Us: How to Overcome Unconscious Cognitive Bias and Build Better Relationships )). Once we have clarity about that, we can explore in more depth unconscious bias and how to address it((Disaster Avoidance Experts: How to Evaluate Unconscious Bias Caused by Cognitive Biases at Work )). Cognitive Bias Let's start with cognitive bias ((Association for Psychological Science: Cognitive Bias...

The Karg Cabin provides owners with a cozy opportunity for off-grid living with 100% solar-power capabilities (and that’s not even its most sustainable feature). These honeycombed-shaped micro-homes are also made completely out of natural materials . The solar-powered Karg Cabins come in three different designs: a standard cabin, a micro-home (measuring about 129 to 215 square feet) and a sauna. Karg Cabins can be used year-round and are easily transported via flatbed to a variety of rural or urban locations without a need for environmentally damaging foundations. Solar energy is used to provide 100% of the power needed for everything from lighting to ventilation to electrical sockets. Related: Check out these amazing sustainable cabins by ZeroCabin The compact design, ease of transportation and variety of different model types makes the Karg perfect for a traveling office, guest house, micro-home or just a spot to detox and disconnect from normal, everyday life. When it co...

UNStudio has unveiled designs for Echo, a new multipurpose academic building for TU Delft that will not only generate its own energy via solar panels but will also feature a highly flexible and demountable design to ensure sustainability. Created in collaboration with Arup and BBN, the building responds to the campus’ needs for greater and more versatile teaching spaces with the inclusion of seven teaching rooms, the largest of which accommodates 700 people and can be divided into three separate rooms as needed. Echo is currently under construction and is slated for completion in December 2021. Surrounded by full-height, high-performance glazing on all sides, Echo embraces the concept of transparency with the inclusion of a covered public square created by connecting the adjacent square through its glazed ground floor — flanked by two auditoria — and out to the opposite street. Conceived as a “public connector,” the building renders the oft-invisible world of learning into a visibl...