Winners Chosen in the Graffiti Contest
After considering almost 4,900 entries and receiving more than a half a million votes from the community, our judges have finally selected the art and text winners in our Facebook Green Graffiti contest. The top 150 art submissions that remained after the voting ended are nothing short of phenomenal. I can only imagine what the judges went through to select the winners.
And now, without further ado, the winners in the Graffiti portion of the contest. Best Overall will receive a green Inspiron laptop, and the winners in the other categories will each get Dell 22′ Ultrasharp Widescreen Flat Panel Monitors:
Best Overall:
Nick Tustin (USA)
Show Us How You Can Improve the Environment Now:
John Calder (Canada)
Creative Vision of a Green Future:
Anna Leychenko (USA)
Most Inventive Green Technology:
Benjamin Rennich (Canada)
Sustainable Architecture:
Craig Nolin (Canada)
The winner in the text portion of the contest also will be receiving a green Inspiron laptop. The entry encapsulated the spirit of the ReGeneration movement beautifully with an interpretation of a classic Japanese haiku. I love the concept of ReNewal and ReTurning expressed in the entry, as if time were cyclical, and we can look to the future simply by considering our past. But enough words from me. I’ll let the entry speak for itself:
Text Entry:
“The old pond;
a frog jumps in -
the sound of water.
- Matsuo Basho
For me, it is not just going green, it is going back to green. This famous Japanese haiku has a zen peace that is in essence the color green. An overgrown mossy pond, an olive green frog, and even the splashy sound of green. Now if we can truly regain the reverence and respect the ancients had for our world, we can then move forward and actually go green.”
Kevin Todd (USA)
Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to the entire community for helping to make this contest a success. We have a lot of exciting stuff planned for the future, so be sure to join the movement and share your green ideas. Some interesting discussions are taking place in Cafe RE, and I’m in there often myself, so stop by for a chat by when you’ve got a spare moment. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas on greening our planet.
ReGeneration Roundup - 2008-05-02
Does the Environmental Cost of Producing a Hybrid Vehicle Outweigh its Benefits?
I experienced a bit of synchronicity this morning. Just as I was thinking about an interesting question that was posed in Cafe RE about the environmental cost of producing hybrid cars, I stumbled upon an article that asks if it wouldn’t be a “greener” choice to keep an old gas guzzler instead of trading it in for a hybrid (you may have to view an ad before you can get to the article). The answer given is as nuanced as you’d expect, and there is a lot to think about in there. Here’s a tidbit I learned from the piece: The bigger SUVs out there today use more energy (to manufacture AND fuel) in two years than a hybrid does in its entire lifetime, but here’s the tricky part - what happens to that SUV once it’s traded in? Most likely it will be resold and put back on the road.
Mindful Momma Gives Tips on Raising “Green” Kids
Micaela Preston, AKA Mindful Momma, recently guest blogged on SavvySource with some tips on raising your children to be, well, mindful of ecological concerns and practices. She divides her tips into ones for toddlers - such as letting them help pick produce at the grocery store and taking them on frequent nature hikes - and others for elementary-aged children - like letting them separate the recycling and giving them their own plot in the family garden. The activities she lists sound educational and fun for kids, and should do wonders to help mold the next generation into a ReGeneration.
Reuse Those Old Documents With Invisible Ink
We’ve all been told that we should do our bit for the environment by putting our paper in the recycling bin, but there’s an even “greener” way to handle those old documents - reuse them. In this spirit, the folks at Xerox have been experimenting with a new kind of paper that erases anything on it after 16 to 24 hours or sooner if it’s run through a special printer. This will allow the paper to be reused indefinitely until the paper itself gets damaged or crumpled. Large and small businesses alike will be able to provide daily updates without using a new piece of paper. Kudos to Xerox for finding a creative (and fun) way to reduce waste in the workplace, and thanks to CNET for reporting on it.
10 “Anti-Cycling” Tips
Keeping with the “reuse” theme we started with the Xerox disappearing ink article above, celcias has blogged a list of tips to help us remove products from the cycle altogether, a process they call “anti-cycling.” With the premise that reuse is preferable to recycling, the tips offer suggestions that should help reduce our footprint on the environment. Several we’ve seen before, like bringing your own container with you for take-out when dining at restaurants, but there are some tips in there that we haven’t covered before - such as using the Internet to read magazine articles, pay bills online and organize your bank statements. I guess there’s a method behind the order of the old saying “reduce, reuse, recycle.”
Graffiti Voters Select the Top 150
More than 500,000 votes were cast in our Facebook-Graffiti contest, and the community has whittled the almost 4,900 entries down to the top 150. Now our panel of judges have the Herculean task of picking the winners out of the remaining entries. From the looks of the amazing artwork that they will be considering, they’ve got some very tough decisions to make.
A winner will be picked in each of the following categories:
- Best Overall
- Most Inventive Green Technology
- Sustainable Architecture
- Most creative vision of a green future
- Show us how you can improve the environment now
The Best Overall winner will receive a green Inspiron laptop, and the winners in the other categories will receive Dell 22′ Ultrasharp Widescreen Flat Panel Monitors. If your art entry didn’t make it into the top 150 and you submitted text along with it, you’ve still got a shot at the other green Inspiron laptop. The text entries can be viewed here, and while the voting feature won’t chose who wins in the text category, your votes will be taken into the judges’ consideration, so let us know which text entries were your favorites by voting and discussing them in Cafe RE.
Our thanks to everyone who took part in the contest, whether by submitting an entry, or by voting for their favorites. The insights, visions, and ideas presented in the art and text entries were thought-provoking and inspiring.
Here’s a sampling of the entries that made it into the top 150.
Banu Şanlı ÇİL (Turkey)
Kevin Chu (USA)
Christian Strömqvist (Sweden)
Good luck to all the top 150!
