Let’s start the week off with a really awesome story!

Energized water may change agriculture

This promising radio wave technology from Ireland may help not only grow better crops with less water, but also help reduce CO2 levels at the same time. Successful trials of this energized Vi-aqua have been performed in Ireland, Britain, India and Italy. The folks at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew were so impressed they offered use of the Royal Coat of Arms, apparently something they’ve never done before. The water is “wetter”, absorbs atmospheric nitrogen, uses about 30% less water and grows larger, healthier plants. A big win for all.

Stimulating creativity and insights

This post offers 5 great tips on how to train your brain for insights and creativity. My favorite is curiosity. When I go about my day with an open, curious mind, things just seem to flow much easier and I feel a sense of grace and gratitude. Acting on our insights in hugely important as I’ve learned from not acting on my insights and intuitions! Here’s a post I wrote on action and how we anchor our dreams in the world.

Top 10 green buildings in the world

KAUST, Saudia Arabia. photo: JB Picoulet

This article highlights an amazing collection of buildings that inspire us to live, work and build more sustainably. The American Institute of Architecture picked their top 10 green buildings in the world. This is a stunning collection of pictures and information about some really cool buildings. Hopefully coming to a town near you soon!

Burritos Boyz

What started as a lesson from a father to a son, evolved into a new way of life. Michael Johnson was disturbed by his son’s large Christmas list and though it might do some good to suggest his son Alec bring some food to the homeless. Well, the lesson must have stuck, because, Alec, his friends and family are now known to the local homeless as “Burrito Boyz”. They have delivered over 41,000 meals on 150 consecutive Sundays and created a non-profit called hunger2help with a mission to nourish the spirit’s of San Diego’s homeless. That’s a lot of beans and love!

Singing Solar Flowers!

How awesome is this idea! These creative solar pedestals look like giant flowers, provide light, and sing as people walk by! What a delightful project called Sonic Bloom. Seattle is home to many other bold and creative ideas like their central library and just opened 7 acre Beacon Food Forest. Go Seattle!

Better Learning with Neuroplasticity

This is a great post explaining how fluid our brains really are and some leading edge ways to learn. For example, visualization combined with an arm movement increased athletic performance! Some very cool ideas for learning in this post on neuroplasticity. The key takeaway for me is to utilize more senses and movement.

Changing CO2 into Rock

Orica, along with partners GreenMag and University of Newcastle, is starting a pilot plant that will turn coal plant CO2 emissions into mineral rocks that can be used as building material. This will be the world’s first project to safely and permanently transform CO2. If successful, retrofitted plants could not only help reduce CO2, but create a new useful by-product! Maybe coal can be cool. What do you think?

Toyota Continues to Excel

Toyota is set to introduce the next generation of world leading hybrid cars. They already lead the world in gas efficiency, sales and benefits to the environment. They have ambitious plans to sell 5 Million vehicles in the US alone by 2016 with a broad range of improvements including 10% better gas mileage, higher energy density in their batteries, stronger and lighter frame, and world leading engine thermal efficiency at 40%. Clearly Toyota is committed to better vehicles that help the environment, but I can’t help but wonder why they haven’t embraced pure EVs as strongly. What do you think?

What’s wonderful in your life?

Do you have any awesome stories that you’d like to share or have me feature? I’m always looking for people and stories to highlight.

Blessings, Brad