Inhabitat's Week in Green: Sky City One, remote-controlled light bulbs and the Zero-G Olympic Games
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
It took five years to build the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building -- but this week Inhabitat reported that Chinese company BSB plans to build the next world's tallest tower in an astounding 90 days. Dubbed Sky City One, the soaring spire will be constructed using prefab building techniques in record time. In other architecture news, Singapore officially unveiled its lush, sprawling Gardens by the Bay in advance of their opening next week -- and the stars of the show are these spectacular solar-powered supertrees that harvest rainwater and light up the night. We also took a peek inside a bomb-shelter-turned-nightclub that is blowing up in Beijing, and several internet titans unveiled new building projects -- Twitter moved into a new green-roofed headquarters in San Francisco and eBay announced plans to power its flagship data center with a Bloom Energy fuel cell farm.
The past week marked the start of summer -- and the season's first heat wave hit the states hard. If you're sweltering at home despite blasting the AC, check out these six smart ways to escape the summer heat, and consider mixing up a batch of sublime organic popsicles -- here's 30 tasty recipes. We also shared three easy ways to make your air conditioning more energy-efficient as well as six ways to stay cool in NYC this summer.
In other summer news, Olympic fever is sweeping the world as the summer games get set to kick off next month in London. We took a look behind the scenes to bring you the sustainability story behind the six greenest buildings at the 2012 Olympics, while Nike outfitted team U.S.A. with a new breed of space-age, sustainably crafted track and field uniforms. Speaking of space, even astronauts are getting in on the excitement by hosting the universe's first Zero-G Olympic Games aboard the International Space Station.
Green lighting technology shined brighter than ever this week as Insteon unveiled the world's first remote-controlled light bulb, which can be turned on and off with a smartphone. We also showed the cost savings of switching to LED bulbs by giving our very own Inhabitots editor Julie Seguss a LED light bulb overhaul that shaved $400 off her utility bill! Finally, researchers looked to nature to develop an energy-free lighting system based on firefly bioluminescence, and a set of gigantic glowing fish sculptures made from recycled bottles rose from a beach in Rio de Janeiro.
