IN THE WAKE OF THE WORLD CUP

Can you fathom a people-powered football field? This is what happened when Pavegen Systems - Green Energy from Footsteps installed 200 tiles into a local football pitch in Morro da Mineira, a favela which has not benefitted from tourism and private enterprise development in Rio de Janeiro.

Pavegen tiles work day and night alongside solar panels to power the lights for up to 10 hours on a full battery, creating the world’s first ever people-powered football pitch. The pitch was officially opened by international football legend Pelé. This first-of-a-kind energy solution as a source of global inspiration, empowering action through sport as well as providing a tangible off-grid power supply that benefits a whole community. Now how cool is that?

SOURCE: Avantgardens

MEET THE GREEN MUSEUM OF TOMORROW IN RIO

The Museu do Amanhã, or Museum of Tomorrow, designed by Santiago Calatrava, an internationally renowned architect "will be a living museum and pedagogical tool,”  according to him. “We want it to exemplify ecology for young people who’ve never heard about it. They’ll be able to see how things work with their own eyes.” 
The rectangular, concrete building’s most prominent feature is a series of photovoltaic panels protruding from its steel roof. During the daytime, they will tilt to follow the sun’s course across the sky. “They’re not passive elements,” Calatrava says. “The building changes like a flower or a plant.”
Other pedagogic green features include pools to capture rainwater, for use in the plumbing system, as well as pools that naturally filter water from the bay. Pumps will harvest seawater, moreover, to cool interior rooms and galleries—all features that could earn LEED certification from the Green Building Council Brasil, an affiliate of the USGBC.
Visitors will enter from a ground-level plaza then ascend to an upper level via two long ramps—one geared toward children, the other for adults—that terminate in windows overlooking the bay. From there, they will pass through a vestibule that rotates 180 degrees and deposits them into a high-ceilinged, nave-like gallery running the building’s length.
Not yet open to the public though, (expectations set for the grand opening to be mid-2014) the gardens and a plaza-level auditorium should open by 2012, in time to host Earth Summit events. 
Source: Architectural Record

CAPIM DOURADO and sustainability

 Golden grass is a grass-like species which exists in the region of Jalapao, state of Tocantins. Its main characteristic is the bright and gold color, hence their common name "Capim Dourado", which literally means "golden grass".

The making of handicrafts from Golden Grass began in Jalapão, in the Afro-Brazilian community of Mumbuca in the municipality of Mateiros. Indigenous people, probably from the Xerente ethnic group, taught the art to local inhabitants when passing through the region around the 1930s. The handicrafts are made of coils of Golden Grass scapes sewn tightly together. For decades the handicrafts were only made by women for household uses and/or sporadic selling. Today, there are at least 12 local community associations. 

Golden Grass´ flowering starts in July and seeds are produced from the beginning of September through October. The Tocantins State Government, through its Environmental Agency (Naturatins), established a regional law (Portaria 55/2004 and 092/2005) allowing scape harvesting only after September 20th, and requiring flowerhead cutting and dispersal in the grassland areas just after scape harvesting. This regional law can be an efficient tool for contributing to the sustainability of S. nitens handicraft activities.

AMAZING PICS HERE: JALAPAO