Check out the ‘Vac from the sea’ video here.

The maker of various home appliances is creating a limited number of vacuums made with plastic gathered from oceans and seas, through its Vac From The Sea initiative, to bring attention to how much plastic is ending up in floating around in marine environments and harming animals.

Not only does plastic that is in oceans kill birds and other creatures, but plastic out in the sea breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces over time, bringing with it worries that as fish and other animals eat the bits of plastic, that trash works its way back up the food chain until it ends up on our plates.

The issue of plastic waste in the ocean has now been documented and tracked by a number of groups and awareness initiatives, like 5Gyres and the Plastiki expedition, but this is the first time a company has fused that issue with its products.

Along with awareness of plastic in the ocean, Electrolux is using the campaign to note that the supply of recycled plastic on land is much lower than the demand, noting that is that plastic staying out of the waters, it would more easily find its way into recycled-content consumer products.

Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/06/29/electrolux-ocean-garbage-new-vacuums#ixzz0usIYENaj

Related Eco Pic’s, Articles & Video

• Other ECPOTD Plastiki pictures
• Pacific Ocean Contains 100 Million Tons of Garbage
• Voyage confirms plastic pollution.
• Voyage to Study Plastic Island
• A water sample from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Volvo have launched a campaign to make people more aware of the dangers that car emissions pose to our health.

Did you know that as many as 50,000 people a year are dying prematurely due to toxic air emissions, linked to fossil fuel combustion? That’s more than 20 times the number that die in road accidents in the UK each year! [source: Environmental Audit Select Committee]

The most dangerous of these emissions NOx, Hydrocarbons and Particulates. But together, we’ll call them “Nasties”. Watch this animation to see the Nasties in action.

Find out more about the Fight for Your Right To Clean Air at www.facebook.com/insidevolvouk and join the debate at www.twitter.com/insidevolvouk

They are

1 – Eco Friendly Gold Porsche

2 – Plastic Bag Recycling – A new approach

3 – French Motorway Recycling Bin

4 – China Eco City – Dongtan

5 – Gulf Of Mexico – Oil Covered Pelican

6 – London Kew Bridge – Eco Village

7 – Dyson Airblade – Lookie Likie

8 – ABN AMRO – Electric Car Charging Station

9 – Dubai Recycling Bins

10 – Pacific Garbage Patch – Water Sample

Oil clings to reeds on the bank of the the breakwater in the mouth of the Mississippi River where it meets the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, Tuesday, May, 18, 2010. The BP leased Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded April 20 and sank after burning, leaking an estimate of more than 210,000 gallons of crude oil per day from the broken pipeline to the sea. Eleven workers are missing, presumed dead. Photo by Sean Gardner/Greenpeace

This has been a massive disater which is slowly being contained.

Click here to see the pictures they have collected.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world came together on March 28 2009 to make a bold statement about their concern about global climate change by doing something quite simple – turning off their lights for one hour.

WWF’s Earth Hour^TM symbolises the concept that, by working together, each of us can have a positive impact in the fight against climate change.

Check out out the 2009 Earth Event here.

Also we have secured discounted tickets for this excellent Green Event.

Click here to buy tickets now and save £9.00.

Click here for more Event information.

Before you  get too excited about the ranking,  we  want to emphasize that there was nothing scientific about this process and its real purpose was as much to provoke conversation as it was to give recognition to some of our most enlightened business leaders.

Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia (Owner/Founder) (30%, 407 Votes) - Though not technically a CEO, Yvon Chouinard ran away with the top spot according to readers. Patagonia’s “Let my people go surfing” philosophy has enamored the company among those who strive to create an ideal working environment where employees thrive and get more productive at the same time. Patagonia’s environmental ethic is second to none, having helped found 1% for the planet and revolutionizing supply chain transparency with their Footprint Chronicles, among many other things.

George Siemon, Organic Valley Company (21%, 281 Votes) – Organic Valley is not a company we’ve had closely on our radar, but evidently a lot of readers did. The company formed out of a farmers coop in 1988 and has grown since then to encompass over 1,300 farms of varying types and half a billion dollars in sales. Siemon himself was one of the founding farmers in the cooperative.

Mick Bremans, Ecover (20%, 271 Votes)  - Recognized by Time Magazine as one of 2008’s heroes of the planet, Mick Bremans has been running Belgium’s Ecover company since 1993. 3p’s Jen Boynton and I had the privilege of visiting Ecover’s headquarters last summer and can vouch for an impressively sustainable operation as well as a refreshing and open philosophy on work and life.

Jeffrey Hollender (Former CEO), Seventh Generation (16%, 225 Votes) – Another legend in the cleaning products space is Jeffrey Hollender, whose excellent personal blog, Inspired Protagonist, reveals as much about him as the philosophy and culture that makes up the company. Like Ecover, Seventh Generation was built from day one on the principals of environmental sustainability and on revolutionizing the toxic cleaning products industry to great success.

Jan Blittersdorf, NRG Systems (15%, 198 Votes) – Another Vermont company, NRG Systems has been making measurement systems for the wind energy industry since 1982. The company’s headquarters runs entirely on solar power, wind and wood pellets.

BethAnn Lederer, Working Wonders (13%, 182 Votes) – BethAnn Lederer has built Working Wonders into one of the larger resources for green interior design material and products for the home and workplace. Her company was another nomination that came from under the radar for us and we’ll look forward to learning more about her.

John Mackey, Whole Foods (9%, 129 Votes) – Despite recent conflicts about Mackey’s stance on health care and other issues, he remains a household name in the world of sustainable business. You have to have built an empire to earn his level of controversy, but there’s no question that Whole Foods’ ascent has pushed other retailers and the mainstream public toward more organic, more healthy eating.

Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan, New Belgium Brewery (8%, 111 Votes) – Mmm beer. In addition to producing excellent brews, New Belgium Brewery has almost single handedly brought downtown Ft. Collins, Colorado to life – a tall order in the suburban sprawl of the front range. With a wind powered brewery, most employees biking to work, and a corporate structure that includes the Four Principals of Sustainability, New Belgium bleeds green. Also, the Tour de Fat bicycle event is as fun as a company sponsored party can be.

Eric Schmidt, Google (7%, 101 Votes) – Google’s slogan, “Don’t Be Evil”, has more or less been followed even if it’s meant to be tongue in cheek. From green buildings & data centers, to donating millions to worthy causes, to standing up to the Chinese government, Google earns a prominent position on this list. Not manufacturing anything physical might make embracing sustainability an easier task, but Google’s inclusion on the top ten is still well earned.

Ray Anderson (Former CEO), Interface Carpet (7%, 90 Votes) – Ray Anderson is so well known among sustainable business types, we often speak of a “Ray Anderson moment” as being the moment when a CEO has an epiphany about his or her company’s impact on the world and the fact that, most likely, there are a lot of negative externalities wrapped up in it. Some might wonder how he didn’t earn the number one spot, but perhaps the fact that he’s number 10 speaks volumes about how much progress others have made.

1. Legal Status - The Accord, reached between the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, contains no reference to a legally binding agreement, as some developing countries and climate activists wanted. Neither is there a deadline for transforming it into a binding deal, though UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it needed to be turned into a legally binding treaty next year.

The accord was merely “recognised” by the 193 nations at the Copenhagen summit, rather than approved, which would have required unanimous support. It is not clear whether it is a formal UN deal.

2. Temperature Rise –  The text recognises the need to limit global temperatures rising no more than 2C (3.6F) above pre- industrial levels. The language in the text shows that 2C is not a formal target, just that the group “recognises the scientific view that” the temperature increase should be held below this figure. However, the accord does not identify a year by which carbon emissions should peak, a position resisted by some richer developing nations. Countries are asked to spell out by 1 February next year their pledges for curbing carbon emissions by 2020. The deal does not spell out penalties for any country that fails to meet its promise.

3. Financial Aid - The deal promises to deliver $30bn (£18.5bn) of aid for developing nations over the next three years. It outlines a goal of providing $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change. The accord says the rich countries will jointly mobilise the $100bn, drawing on a variety of sources: “public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources of finance.”

A green climate fund will also be established under the deal. It will support projects in developing countries related to mitigation, adaptation, “capacity building” and technology transfer.

4. Emissions Transparency - The pledges of rich countries will come under “rigorous, robust and transparent” scrutiny under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In the accord, developing countries will submit national reports on their emissions pledges under a method “that will ensure that national sovereignty is respected.”

Pledges on climate mitigation measures seeking international support will be recorded in a registry.

5. Review of Progress - The implementation of the Copenhagen Accord will be reviewed by 2015. This will take place about a year- and-a-half after the next scientific assessment of the global climate by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, if, in 2015, delegates wanted to adopt a new, lower target on global average temperature, such as 1.5C rather than 2C, it would be too late.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk