The cars will be initially released in Sweden and will be produced in a series. In this series of cars there will be vehicles that can either be fueled by diesel or by socket power. Vattenfall and Volvo will be working together to create the charging systems for the vehicles and additionally, provide emphasis in the companies on electricity as a practical source of energy which could counteract global warming.

Volvo and Vattenfall argue that electricity is a highly suitable source of energy for vehicles. An electric motor has a high efficiency rating and consumes roughly one-fifth the energy needed to power an engine that runs on fossil fuels. So what’s the catch? Well, the catch of course is that these electricity running engines do often run at a higher price point, meaning they may make a slightly bigger dent in your pocket at first. However, despite a greater purchase price, these cars make up for it in the massive amounts of money being saved on gas.

In the summer of 2009, three Volvo V70 demonstration cars were presented. The cars are still under the magnifying glass of both Volvo’s and Vattenfall’s dream team of engineers, but are soon to be released in the predicted year of 2012 across the sea in Sweden. We’re all just looking forward to plugging on in ourselves!

For example, here is a list of the top 10 solar power energy stocks which many invest in currently.

• First Solar Inc. (FSLR)
• SunPower Corporation (SPWRA/B)
• Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (STP)
• Yingli Green Energy (YGE)
• LDK Solar (LDK)
• Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL)
• JA Solar Holdings Co. (JASO)
• Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ)
• Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ENER)
• ReneSola (SOL)

Beside solar power companies, there are also many others that are available for investment. Many of these companies focus on renewable energy as it is the leading possibility for overcoming dependency on fossil fuels.

These companies are not only promising in their numbers but also their mission. As they become more successful, they also help the planet, as well as you as an investor. These renewable energy companies should and will soon be the first priority in an investor’s mind. These companies also have somewhat of an advantage as they continue to excel with the help of private capital as well as various governmental support schemes. There are also other areas that are good green investing branches such as: waste management, industrial processes, agriculture, green building, energy efficiency technology, carbon emissions market, forestry, and of course recycling.

These areas are all good avenues for investors to consider moving their capital into in a more eco friendly and efficient way. This investing in the future is a sound and safe approach to investing while also contributing towards the planet with the use of a little money. Make some green and be green? Sounds like a win-win situation to us.

Gary Lauder, the mastermind behind a new kind of sign was one of those “California Stoppers” and after getting a nasty ticket in college, cruising through a dark and empty intersection in the night with only the company of a hiding police car waiting to pull over Lauder over for his unstoppable ways, Gary came up with an idea. The new sign is simple, yet may create a huge change. It simply reads “Take Turns”.

It may not seem like a big change to you, but consider this: it has been estimated that one conventional stop sign on a particular road costs $112,000 a year in fuel and lost time.

The focus on this new sign is mostly on traffic flow. A constant, and smooth traffic flow increases efficiency, and ironically enough (contrary to what you might think), flowing traffic is less likely to produce crashes. Take for an example, a roundabout versus a stoplight intersection. The roundabout is around forty percent less likely to result in a collision between cars.

We’re not entirely sure as to when Lauder’s simple sign will be appearing on roads near you, but TED, a non profit organization focusing on ideas worth sharing, is helping Gary Lauder spread his message and concern.

Regardless of whether we’ll be seeing this sign on the roads soon, it is apparent that roads have as much of an impact on environmental pollution and carbon emissions as the car you’re driving has. Who would’ve thought that pesky stop sign was hurting more than just our driving records.

Sara Kirsner is the mastermind behind this sinfully beautiful and organic brand of green clothing, called Doie. Kirsner recently moved her line from New York City to Los Angeles, simple calling her new line “Los Angeles.” Sara began her journey in the fashion world by attending the FIT and Parsons in New York City. She then began interning at Marc Jacobs and DKNY and working in the design department of Ann Taylor.

Kirsner then decided to create a line of clothing in 2005. That’s how it all began. Sara Kirsner’s line has been described as flowing, elegant, simple, and most importantly: organic.

Sarh grew up in a very eco conscious family and therefore, began infusing her green lifestyle into her designs. Kirsner’s natural eye for line is apparent in all of her clothing, as she has been drawing and sketching gowns and clothing since the tender age of eight years old where she found inspiration from her fashion icon, her grandmother.

Sara’s designs are not only made of organic cotton but they are also inspired by nature. Most of her designs reflect an Asian inspiration or tropical locale in both the patterns and lines that she uses.

Her clothes are also locally made, in Los Angeles, where she now resides which also cuts down on her carbon footprint and also allows complete control over the production process to insure that it remains entirely eco friendly.

In her mission for creating beautiful sustainable clothing, we at Have It Green Magazine fully appreciate the clothing that Sara Kirsner has created and cannot keep our hands of her latest. If only the pieces could just fly into our closets. Now that would be a green dream.

E-waste, if you were wondering, is the newly devised term for broken electronic devices. This waste contains dangerous substances such as lead, beryllium, and cadmium and is also hazardous to the environment during disposal due to incinerator ashes and heavy metals in landfills.

While it may be a small percentage, around 1.52 percent of the gold worn around these champions’ necks was recovered from e-waste. This is a perfect example of exactly how disused circuit boards from electronic devices can be recycled and reused.

At approximately forty million tons of e-waste being produced each year, the e-waste situation is becoming increasingly problematic and is predicted to become much worse in the next decade.

To add insult to injury, the e-waste that is currently produced is not always handled correctly. This often creates hazardous and toxic environments for workers and the local environment. Sounds like a mess? It is.

There is some good news, as we can see in our shiny Olympic Medals. The good news being: new ways of recycling this e-waste and reusing it are being experimented with and discovered. New recycling and disposal devices are being manufactured and planned by engineers across the globe.

There is however, quite the glimmer of hope provided by the shiny gold medals we all saw in Vancouver. The proof is in the pudding as they say, and the medals are surely showing everyone that e-waste can and will be recycled more effectively.

AT&T has decided to attempt to overcome this energy efficiency issue by creating quite the charger. The charger is called the “ZERO Charger”. This will be the first ever created zero draw charger to hit the market. Its release is scheduled for May and will be available to all AT&T customers. Now, I know what you’re thinking. How much electricity can a plugged in cell phone charger possibly waste? How much of a difference can this possibly make? The answer: It can make a big difference, and trust us, it wastes a whole lot of electricity. A plugged in cell phone charger, over a year time period, can waste massive amounts of electricity that works towards no purpose. The electricity is just simply, wasted.

Lucky for you, and us, the charger will not cost a pretty penny. As a matter of a fact, the charger is exactly the same as previously designed models which waste energy. The design is also interchangeable which will save the customer money. Sounds like a good deal to us.

Considering the size of AT&T’S client base, this new charger, being offered at the same price to the same enormous amount of customers could in fact make a significant difference. While it may seem small it is in fact quite the leap for a company of this stature to make design decisions geared towards the environment which can be so easily accessed by the average joe with a cell phone.

We’ll be waiting in line for our new charger in May and hope to see you there!

Image via AT&T

The car can be charged the same way you plug in your cell, simply plug into a socket and voila, you’re charged and ready to go. The car can travel around two hundred miles on a single charge, an astounding 300 miles has been recorded though on a single charge. The range all depends on driving conditions.

This little machine also boasts zero emissions and can be powered by one hundred percent renewable energy. Many have generated their own “fuel” for these electric cars by incorporating solar panels into their yard to power up their roadsters. Sounds simple enough right? Sure beats buying gas at three dollars a gallon.

Although electric, the performance and design of this car has not been compromised. Its peak torque begins at 0 rpm and stays powerful at 14,000 rpm. It also reaches freeway speeds in a few seconds, tops. It also includes a battery box that’s both functional and structural, air ducts that double as energy-absorbing zones, and a high-performance AC motor that can run forwards and backwards.

The Tesla Roadster features a sleek design, luxurious interior, and an engine beneath the hood that any car lover could and will appreciate. The car can be selected in a variety of colors ranging from “Fusion Red” to “Thunder Gray”. The interior comes in standard, premium, executive, and executive plus carbon fiber. Essentially, the car’s interior can be upgraded to the luxury of your choice. The Tesla Roadster also features a minimalist design that focuses on a lighter weight vehicle to optimize efficiency and energy use.

To wrap it up this car has the safety features we would expect on any other vehicle and then some, including some amazing Yokohama tires that guarantee a safe drive.

Tesla Roadsters are available now. Go get your hands on one!

Among the many designers featuring green articles in their lines, Samantha Pleet stood out among all the rest. Samantha Pleet showed her collections at the GreenShows during New York Fashion Week. The Brooklyn designer, uses only organic cotton, organic wool, and makes her fantasy outfits in a wind powered factory in New York City. Yes, we said a wind powered clothing factory in New York City. Didn’t think it existed? Neither did we.

Her statement is one expressed through dark colors, somewhat rough looking materials, and her clothing is certainly not suited for that of a suburban housewife. She touches on the unreal and fantasy world and brings a whimsical, dark feeling to her clothes that is original and unlike any other we’ve seen. Her fashion shows are to say the least dramatic, yet all the while environmentally dreamy.

The renowned designer just recently released a men’s line called Patrick Pleet, which will soon be available in stores worldwide. So whether you’re a man looking for a twist to that boring suit of yours, or a woman looking for a new look that might surprise and maybe even shock some others, Samantha Pleet has the designs you need. All that, along with being eco friendly, we certainly are happy to say Pleet’s designs are an HIG Magazine favorite.

The green fashion scene has certainly taken off and we’re proud to say that it looks like “Green Fashion Shows” during Fashion Week are here to stay.

It is designed with city driving in mind. The car, looks wise, is nothing too extraordinary. It currently has a simple, somewhat cubicle design, however this may change in the near future as it is still being designed by a team of engineers.

While this prototype is able to be driven, the car is not being sold and is still being tested on a daily basis.

The engine of the vehicle is frequently being redesigned. The sound of the engine is in a completely raw form at the moment due to the fact that the engineers need easy access to the engine at all times. However, in its final stage the interior of the car, the exterior, and of course the alarming nose currently made by the engine will be polished for production. This “Lab Car” as it is referred to, although not ready to hit the road quiet yet, illustrates an exciting new technology that may overcome the use of fuel in the near future.

We are floating on a cloud of air with this idea, perhaps the same air that this little machine is running on at the moment.

The car uses compressed air not only to move forward, but also to shift gears. This is due to the fact that gear shifting, as explained by MDI in the video featured, is the only way to maintain optimum efficiency for the vehicle.

A recycled wooden table, made from old fence posts, for example is a process that all of us can identify as recycling at its best. Yes, it’s made out of wood but what kind of wood? Are virgin trees being cut down to bring you this table? These are the questions we need to be asking.

Bamboo is becoming more prevalent on a daily basis in furniture stores. Bamboo is an underutilized material that is surprisingly strong and plentiful in comparison to your standard wood.

We’ve seen some pretty creative pieces of eco friendly furniture as of lately that we’re very impressed with. Recycled railroad track parts yield beautiful side tables. Railroad track wood, even 100 years old, has been used as table tops, creating a distressed and vintage look as well as being beautifully sustainable. Reclaimed lumber is becoming increasingly popular with furniture designers and everything from old barn wood, to any other type of building has been discovered in furniture pieces.

Beyond the recycled pieces we’ve come across we’re also amazed by the new materials being used to create furniture pieces today. New types of plywood containing less, or no harmful chemicals are being seen, particularly popular is bamboo plywood which is becoming more available to vendors and designers in many areas.

Next time you’re strolling through a furniture store, ask yourself how that beautiful table got there and make sure to invest in an eco friendly one. You never know, nowadays eco friendly furniture is so beautifully disguised these days you might not be able to tell the difference!

A simple search online will show that most “green menswear” is actually in the early stages of production and manufacturing. We discovered that what the average green guy shopper is mostly likely to come across, if he’s lucky- is a few organic tee shirts. What we rarely find is an entire sustainable men’s line of clothing, let alone fashionable garments. Additionally, when we do come across a “green mens line”, we usually discover that organic materials and green processes have been employed only to varying degrees.

So ladies, watch out, menswear is sure enough to catch up in the green fashion race towards sustainability, but until then, it seems that the ladies are in the lead.

With the way electric rates are rising, the average monthly energy payment could double every 13 years.  A solar electric system will hedge against these future rate increases. Every kilowatt hour that is produced through a solar system is one in which will not have to be paid to the utility company.  A solar electric system literally spins your meter backwards.

Here is the best thing about an investment in a solar system: the government pays for almost 50%.  The rebate in California currently covers 15% and the Federal Government gives you a 30% investment tax credit on the remaining cost. Not a bad deal!

So, a solar system reduces or eliminates your electric bill, hedges against future rate increases, may increase the value of your home and the government pays for almost half of the investment.  Going green is great for your wallet, but the environmental impact is just an amazing bonus.

Dave Gersz is the President of HelioNation.com. You can reach him at daveg@HelioNation.com.

Her first ever creation was a belt made from recycled leather, which was quite a surprise in an era that celebrated conspicuous consumption.

Lindquist’s current collection features “a few pre-loved fabrics that have become staples in her collection such as: cashmere, kimono, sari, scarf, wool, leather, and lace”. She is also experimenting with some new textiles such as “hemp blends, organic cotton, peace silk, modal blends, and soy chiffon”. When asked about the “greenness” of some of these fabrics, Lindquist is surprisingly blunt. Soy, for example, has its downside. Although the fiber is spun from waste generated by tofu manufacturing, soy is often genetically modified and requires pesticides and herbicides. This is a particularly sensitive issue for Lindquist, whose father almost lost his leg to pesticides after a mishap on their farm in her childhood. Other fibers debuting in her current collection are “peace silks”. Any other silk is made by “boiling the intact cocoons and unwinding the single silk strand onto reels”, but peace silks allow the moth “to emerge from their cocoons and to live out their full life cycle”.

Self dubbed environmentalists may wince at even the suggestion of animal fibers, however Lindquist is surprisingly philosophical about them. As long as the animals are well treated, de-hairing a goat for cashmere or shearing a sheep for wool is about as natural as it gets. We couldn’t agree more.

So what’s next you ask? Simply said: Spring 2009. But after that she’ll turn attention expanding her wedding line, children’s line and dog line.