Urban Ecoist

I’ve been hearing about this for a little while now, but kind of took the “wait and see” approach before believing it. Although the company behind the billboard is Ricoh, and that is a company that has been a leader in corporate sustainability for a while now.

It’s funny, but ever since Napoleon Dynamite, it is hard for me to say Ricoh without an “uncle” in front of it.

Anyhoo, Ricoh’s eco-billboard is just about ready to roll.

What I think is neat is the vertical wind turbines. Instead of the usual blade-style turbine, you can see in the video that a vertical turbine looks like a tube with slots in it. The wind enters through the slots and into the body, spinning the turbine and thus producing electricity.

Of course, those huge billboards in Times Square need a LOT of electricity, so Ricoh added solar photovoltaic panels to augment the power-generation capacity. I am a big fan of coupling wind and solar, because usually if the sun is out, the wind is calm, and if there is little sunlight, you can count on wind.

Not only that but the Ricoh-eco-board (which is fun to say, try it) is using height to its advantage. Wind is stronger the higher up in the atmosphere you get, and most turbines need a healthy amount of wind in order to produce an optimal amount of electricity. You can see in the graph below what I mean.

If the wind gets too strong, the power graph nosedives in a typical blade-style wind turbine, but vertical turbines seem to be able to handle stronger wind speeds and convert them into power. Which is good as these vertical turbines are going to be pretty high up there in Mid-Town Manhattan.

Now, if we could just get NYC and other big cities around the world to install more vertical turbines and solar panels, maybe we could reduce the need for coal-powered electricity.

NYC, New York, Ricoh, billboard, Times Square, sustainability, renewables, electricity, coal, clean energy

Here is an interesting scheme to get cars out of a congested city. London Mayor Boris Johnson is urging Londoners to sell their cars in order to reduce the number of cars on London streets by more than 100,000.

It’s called the Car Crunch London initiative. You see, London is going to be hosting the Olympics in the summer of 2012, and like most cities hosting said games, London is forced to rethink its transportation infrastructure in terms of traffic congestion. No one visiting a world-class Olympic city wants to be stuck in traffic — nor does anyone else for that matter, but it seems that the spotlight of hosting an Olympic Games really makes city planners and administrators wake up and smell the exhaust fumes.

If you live in London and sell your car, you can get a two-year free membership in car clubs called Streetcar that provides you with a vehicle when you need it. You need not own a car, pay for insurance and upkeep, gas or petrol as they call it on that side of the pond. This kind of car-sharing program is best for people who don’t need a car constantly, obviously, but car clubs can also be useful for anyone who wants to cut down on their driving. Maybe use public transit for that commute to work and only drive a car for shopping trips in which large parcels need to be carried or travels to areas where public transit doesn’t go, like a forest or parkland.

From an article announcing the initiative in The Standard:

Boris Johnson said: “Car clubs are a fantastic way for Londoners to reduce their motoring costs and help cut carbon emissions in the capital.

“Campaigns like this, which spread the word about the benefits of car clubs, are to be welcomed. We are supporting the growth of these services by helping 21 London boroughs to introduce 500 car club vehicles into London this year.” Transport for London said every car club vehicle takes 20 privately owned vehicles off the road.

Brett Akker, Streetcar’s cofounder, said: “We’re creating a win-win opportunity for Londoners. By taking up the Car Crunch challenge, they get to rid themselves of the costs and hassles of owning a car in the city, while dramatically cutting their carbon footprint.

This may be a good idea, to offer a financial incentive to get people to give up their cars. However, any reader living in America may be scoffing at the idea of giving up their cars and joining a car club, even if it were free (for a while). Sadly, in the US, aside from larger metropolitan areas, going without a car is next to impossible. Heck, I am staying at my Aunt’s outside of Detroit, Michigan and you cannot even walk anywhere because there are few sidewalks and walking alongside most of the roads around here may get you killed by automobiles going fifty miles an hour with little to no regard for pedestrians. And if you bring up the idea of giving up the SUVs and minivans to most Americans, you will get a funny look.

But why not give up your car, or at least one of the cars in the typical American household? Do you really need it? Maybe you could carpool with others in your neighborhood to a transit center or with others at your workplace that live in the same suburb. It’s just an idea, unless of course you enjoy paying for new tires, new brakes, tune ups, transmission and engine repairs, and insurance.

Maybe I am just talking crazy…but way to go, London. At least you are taking some form of action to reduce the number of cars on your narrow roads…

London, car crunch initiative, transportation, public transit, car clubs, carpooling, car sharing, cars, automobiles, traffic, congestion, infrastructure, Olympics, 2012, city planning, city driving, gas, insurance, American drivers

The Dutch have happened upon a neat discovery in abandoned coal mines in the Southern province of Limburg.  Water has flowed into these vacuums, and when the water is that deep underground, abutting warm rocks that are conducting the heat of the Earth’s mantle, it can become quite warm.  Warm enough to heat homes in the newly built neighborhood in Heerlen.

The map of the Netherlands colored yellow is the province of Limburg.

Limburg was once home to a thriving coal mining industry, but the mines fell out of use during the latter part of the 1960’s.  It seems the coal in the area didn’t make economic sense to mine, when natural gas was so much cheaper.  Guess the government didn’t hand out subsidies to the coal industry to make it cheaper and thus competitive against other forms of energy, as in the United States.

Wait…a coal mine?  Don’t I always write about how dirty coal is?  Why would anyone want water from a former coal mine?

The power plant does not actually use the water, per se, only the heat held by the water. The heat, i.e. energy from the heat (because heat is a form of energy — think potential rather than kinetic) is then converted to energy through turbines moved by the heated water or steam more precisely.

To put it simply, the power plant pumps water up from a certain distance underground where it is hot. The hot water coming up from the mine turns turbines, and that is how electricity is generated. In fossil fuel-based energy production, the same principle is at work, except that the heat must be generated by the combustion of oil or coal instead of it coming from deep down in the Earth.

It is called geothermal energy, and if you have been reading this author regularly, you will know how much I like geothermal.

The Heerlen Minewater Power Plant employs five wells going down as far as 700 meters or 2300 feet for the American readers. That is approximately half of a mile down, and the water in the mine (that seeped there naturally over the last thirty or so years) is a warm 89 degrees F at the bottom of the mine.

Now, of course, this type of geothermal energy source is only available to those areas that were once home to major and deep mining industries. When I compare the following two maps…

Coal Producing Regions of the United States

Potential Areas of Geothermal Energy Production

…there is a some overlap as to the regions that have geothermal potential and those coal-producing regions, but there are some areas of the United States that have coal mines but not a natural potential for the usual geothermal. So perhaps, with these coal mines, we can create our own geothermal energy. It may not work everywhere, but it could make mountaintop removal-style mining obsolete, as it could not be converted to a geothermal basin in the future after the coal runs out (or is made to reflect the true cost of the coal and its environmental impacts).

Dutch, Heerlen, Minewater Power Plant, coal mines, mining, Netherlands, geothermal, energy, electricity, United States, potential energy, turbines, generation, power, heat, subsidies, government

I ran across this over the weekend, and though it so brilliant that I had to share it.

Prisons across the United States are going green, and by that I mean that inmates are growing organic produce, composting the food waste from the prison kitchens, and even recycling shoes into that rubber turf that is being installed around playgrounds.

Above: Ironwood State Prison in California operates its own solar power plant.

An Oregon prison is raising honeybees, an Indiana prison built a wind turbine to reduce its energy costs, a California prison has solar panels, and a North Carolina correctional facility has built a cistern system to capture rain water.

Can we really learn a better way from those who have strayed? Seems we can. The programs at the prisons are not only a great way to reduce costs, help the environment, and divert refuse from landfills, but also the pro-green programs are teaching the inmates valuable skills and giving them responsibilities to encourage self-confidence and a feeling of community.

From the Associated Press:

LITTLEROCK, Wash. – Of all the things convicted murderer Robert Knowles has been called during his 13 years behind bars, recycler hasn’t been one of them.

But there he was one morning, pitchfork in hand, composting food scraps from the main chow line and coffee grounds from prison headquarters — doing his part to “green” the prison.

“It’s nice to be out in the elements,” said Knowles, 42, stirring dark, rich compost that will amend the soil at the small farm where he and fellow inmates of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center grew 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables this year.

Inmates of the minimum-security facility, 25 miles from Olympia, the state capital, raise bees, grow organic tomatoes and lettuce, compost 100 percent of food waste and even recycle shoe scraps that are made into playground turf.

“It reduces cost, reduces our damaging impact on the environment, engages inmates as students,” said Eldon Vail, secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections, which oversees 15 prisons and 18,000 offenders. “It’s good security.”

As around-the-clock operations, prisons are voracious resource hogs, and administrators are under increasing pressure to reduce waste and conserve energy and water.

In 2007, states spent more than $49 billion to feed, house, clothe, treat and supervise 2.3 million offenders, the Pew Center on the States reported this year.

As the prison population has grown this decade, up 76 percent from 1.3 million in 2000, the number of prisons and jails has risen with it. The latest U.S. Bureau of Justice data show 1,821 facilities in 2005, up from 1,668 in 2000.

To keep costs down, the Indiana Department of Corrections installed water boilers that run on waste wood chips, and built a wind turbine at one prison that generates about 10 kilowatts an hour and saves $2,280 a year.

At Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, Calif., 6,200 solar panels send energy back to the grid, enough to power 4,100 homes a year. The prison was trying to meet an executive order requiring state agencies to reduce energy use by 20 percent by 2015, said a spokeswoman, Lt. Sue Smith.

North Carolina’s Department of Corrections switched to chemical-free cleaners and vegetable-based inks. This summer, because of a water shortage, inmates converted 50-gallon pickle barrels into small cisterns that capture rainwater.

Under a state mandate to reduce energy use, the Oregon Department of Corrections replaced old appliances with energy-efficient ones, installed solar water heaters and used a geothermal well to heat water. It also modified washing machines so they could reuse rinse-water to wash about a million pounds of clothes a month.

At Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Ore., inmates recycle scraps from old prison blues to make diaper bags for women’s shelters and dog beds for animal shelters.

“We try to model prosocial behavior,” said Vern Rowan, business manager for the Oregon Department of Corrections. Being sustainable “is something that everybody should be doing, regardless of where they’re at.”

Cedar Creek, in the heart of a forest, feels more like an outdoor retreat than institutional lockup.

Most of the 400 inmates are in a work program, and put in between six and eight hours a day.

The responsibility of caring for the prison’s three hives of Italian honey bees falls mostly to Daniel Travatte, 36, a soft-spoken former drug addict who is serving 10 years for attempted armed robbery.

Under the supervision of prison counselor Vicki Briggs, Travatte has learned to harvest honey — which inmates occasionally eat with breakfast biscuits — and use beeswax to make lotions. He’s become an expert on their habits.

“I’m trying to change myself,” said Travatte. “A lot of people go through prison with no intention of changing. I love working with the bees. It keeps me busy. I have a lot of responsibility to take care of.”

While there isn’t scientific evidence that such activities are helping inmates, Nalini Nadkarni, an environmental studies professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., notes anecdotal evidence that it’s working.

“They were stimulating their minds and having conversations that were different than ‘How much more time we have left’?” said Nadkarni.

One inmate went beyond conversations, enrolling in a doctoral program when he got out and co-authoring a research paper with Nadkarni on a moss-growing project she started to help reduce the impact of wild moss harvesting on forests.

While Cedar Creek went green out of economic necessity — it had to conserve because it didn’t have the wastewater capacity to expand four years ago — it is now embracing other benefits, said Dan Pacholke, a state prison administrator who helped implement many of the practices.

Cedar Creek uses 250,000 fewer gallons of water a year, saves $6,000 to $8,400 annually on garbage bills and avoided a $1.4 million sewage treatment plant upgrade.

A large “Con-Post” marks the prison’s composting station, made of recycled concrete blocks and reclaimed wood, where Knowles spends about six hours a day, making sure the compost gets enough heat, moisture and air to break down food scraps.

“They trust me to do all this with no supervision,” said Knowles, who is serving time for the hit-and-run death of an off-duty police officer.

“I like growing the vegetables,” Knowles said. “My mom had a garden. I can see having my own garden.”

Sorry, I rarely like including an entire article in a post, but I really had a hard time deciding what paragraphs to include. I find this inspirational and I hope that the positive reaction to the established programs will encourage other correctional facilities to follow suit and develop their own gardens, composting programs, and develop ways to convert old systems to renewable and sustainable ones.

And what can we on the “outside” learn from these prisoners? Composting is easy, and organic gardening is also pretty easy. Not only are you providing your family with fresh, healthy produce, but if you include your whole family in the garden, you are giving kids responsibilities which will in turn give them self-confidence. Not only that, but getting kids out in the garden is a great way to teach them about how consumption and our part in the larger cycles of the Earth and its ecosystems.

I think schools should also take a note from the prisons of America. Have students spend an hour in a school garden or turning compost. Have a school wind turbine, and teach kids how it works. Have students organize a scrap drive, like back in World World II, and encourage them to lead the green revolution.

Viva la Revolution!!

And it took prisoners to lead the way? Maybe not, but going green is a great component to an inmate’s rehabilitation.

prisons, correctional facility, gardening, green, ecosystems, organic, composting, solar, water cisterns, California, Oregon, Indiana, North Carolina, honeybees, landfills, environment, children, schools, gardens, scrap metal, World War II, green revolution

Greenpeace has just released it’s updated ninth edition of the Guide to Greener Electronics. As this site is not Flash-enabled, I cannot embed the neat-o graphic to give you a quick view of which companies are making the grade in responsible manufacturing as well as disposal and recycling of their obsolete gadgets.

© Greenpeace / Will Rose

Oddly, as I traded in a Nokia (which leads the rankings) for a Motorola cell phone, I find myself on the lower end of the responsibility scale. Same with my Xbox 360. Luckily, the Dell laptop I use and the Apple desktop are in the middle in the rankings, but that really doesn’t make me feel any better. I hate my Dell, but I love my Xbox. What is an ecoist-nerd to do?

Let’s first look at Motorola. Here is the Greenpeace summary of the company’s efforts.

Motorola drops to 15th place, scoring 3.7 points, losing points because although its models of chargers are certified as Energy Star compliant in March 2007 – this is not since the latest energy efficiency standard for chargers (v.1.1) came into effect, which was in January 2005; it therefore scores no points on this criterion. In the U.S, all Motorola’s mobile phone chargers exceed ENERGY STAR Tier 2 requirements by more than 50 percent in sleep and standby/no-load modes – but what about chargers sold outside the US? On the other energy criteria Motorola scores relatively well for disclosing greenhouse gas emissions, committing to cuts and reporting a 5.4% renewable energy use (as proportion of all electricity purchased) in 2007. Motorola scores better on the chemicals and e-waste criteria. The company has launched 55 models of mobile phone with BFR free circuit boards. However, Motorola is the only mobile phone brand to still fail to commit to eliminating all BFRs and PVC with a timeline, in all of its products. On waste issues, Motorola provides a take-back and recycling service in 73 countries, representing over 90% of global mobile phone unit sales. It reports a global take-back rate of 3% of total handsets sold in 2005.

I do have to wonder how the “take-back” percentage is figured out. Is it just what Motorola itself takes back or any of the phone recyclers? I know that when I switched over to Credo Mobile, I was sent an envelope to recycle my old phone. Let’s say that is also a Motorola, but if I am sending it to a third-party recycler, would that phone be counted by Motorola in it’s “take-back” numbers?

Now, Microsoft.

Microsoft is in 17th position with a miserable score of 2.2 points, mainly on toxic chemicals criteria. The company provides a timeline of the end of 2010 for eliminating phthalates. On e-waste, Microsoft scores only on its weak support for Individual Producer Responsibility. On energy, the company only scores for reporting its total carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, from its own operations and although it now has a Climate Change Policy it makes no reference to specific reduction targets for greenhouse gases.

Perhaps Microsoft has been spending too much of its efforts in its lame ad campaigns, instead of making the company more environmentally responsible? The Seinfeld ad was just stupid, and watching Bill Gates “adjust” himself was just disturbing.

Good thing I have put off buying that Wii. Check out Nintendo’s scoring.

Nintendo remains in last place with a pitiful 0.8 points out of 10, scoring zero on all e-waste criteria. The company has banned phthalates and is monitoring use of antimony and beryllium and although it is endeavouring to eliminate the use of PVC, it has not set a timeline for its phase out. Nintendo discloses carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its own operations and commits to cutting CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases by 2% over each previous year. However, Nintendo admits that an increase in business led to a 6% rise in CO2 emissions in 2006.

If you would like to explore the Guide to Greener Electronics yourself, you can visit the Greenpeace website here.

This guide and many like it underscore the problems with the end-life issues with the electronics that we all have and love. I will discuss more about the problem with e-waste in the next few days.

© Greenpeace / Natalie Behring

Greenpeace, Guide to Greener Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Wii, Nintendo, Xbox, Xbox 360, e-waste, toxic substances, recycling, environmentally responsible computing, cell phone recycling, take-back

“Carbonfund.org and Volkswagen are glad you’ve taken an interest in the Carbon Neutral Project. It’s an initiative that’s making it easy for Volkswagen owners and friends to take action toward offsetting their carbon emissions right away. And to kick-start the project, Volkswagen will offset the carbon emissions for one year of every new Volkswagen purchased in the U.S. from September 1, 2007 thru January 2, 2008. The contributions of the Carbon Neutral Project will be put toward the re-forestation of the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, a.k.a. The VW Forest. Thanks for checking us out. And we hope you’ll join us.”

:source

carbonfund.org, volkswagon, vw, carbon emissions, carbon offset

With the holiday weekend coming up, I know that a lot of people will be planning cookouts and lots of outdoor activities. As with most summers, one of the largest irritants (other than the blazing Texas heat) is the incessant drone of mosquitoes in your ears and flies swarming your hamburger.

My family always kept a bug zapper outside when I was a kid. I always thought that it was so cool to hear that ‘zzt’ as the pesky critters got fried to oblivion. As it turns out, bug zappers really aren’t that efficient at killing mosquitoes and may cause more harm than good, especially if used where people are eating or drinking. As found by Kansas State researchers, as the bugs are zapped they shower the surrounding areas with microorganisms (including viruses) that can land on food and in drinks.

Additionally, some research has shown that bug zappers actually kill more beneficial insects than actual pests. In fact, researchers have estimated that only 0.22% of bugs zapped are pests, while 13% are insect predators and parasites.

Kansas State
University of Florida
Mosquito News

mosquitoes, bug zapper, hoildays, bbq, hamburgers, insects, bugs

I got an email, as I’m sure many of you did from Co-op America just recently. Obviously soliciting me for my hard earned money… but that’s not really the point. The email stated:

Ford and GM don’t want you to know that ethanol-fueled cars are less fuel efficient and, using current technologies, can produce more global warming gases than gasoline-fueled cars.

Instead of improving fuel efficiency and increasing production of hybrid and plug-in vehicles, Ford and GM are paying big bucks to convince Americans that corn ethanol is the only viable fuel alternative for our future.

There were no sources quoted in the email, and I didn’t find any on the site. But in my searching I did find these articles that I thought you might find interesting.
Chevron CEO: Corn is not the answer
A Sweeter Way to Go Green

And a bit of humor…Final proof that ethanol is NOT the answer to our energy needs

corn, sugar, ethanol, gasoline, co-op america

I was in REI yesterday looking for a small compass for my significant other. Being in a new state, surrounded by trees, and not being able to see the horizon, he is really struggling to get his bearings. Here in Texas, I’ve never struggled to know which direction was North. And honestly, it’s a very rare occasion when I have gotten lost. But I imagine being in NC, it might be a little different.

Either way, REI has introduced a new label to their lines that will indicate which items are eco-friendly. Basically what this will mean is that the item is made with recycled, renewable and/or organic fibers. By mid-September, it is reported that they will have more than 40 items with the new labeling.

“While we previously offered REI brand clothing that contained environmentally sensitive fibers, we are moving from a grassroots approach to a formalized commitment to environmental performance in our products,” said Lee Fromson, vice president of REI Gear & Apparel. “Many of our customers recognize that their purchase decisions have a direct impact on the natural world, and we are committed to offering alternatives that are more environmentally friendly.”

REI, eco-friendly, icon, label, tag

There is only 1 day left to Participate!, TreeHugger and Current TV’s contest to get you - and your best eco-idea - to Burning Man. As a part of this year’s theme, “The Green Man”, Burning Man is looking for the best open-source ideas to help green the way we live, eat, drive, build, etc. So, what’s your best open-source idea? Send it to: contest [at] treehugger [dot] com by 11:59pm EST tomorrow, August 11th, and you could win 2 tickets to Burning Man, the Burning Book, and a chance to be featured on Current TV’s “TV Free Burning Man” coverage of the event. But, we do need to see what you are working on, so be sure to send us a 3D (preferable) or 2D image with your idea. Now, go Participate!

source: TreeHugger

burning man

Actually, there’s so much that I could say about the CNN article on a new electric car… it would make an article in and of itself. And honestly, I’d rather you read the author’s words than mine.

But I was talking this over with one of my coworkers who seemed to think that the ideas presented in the article were the dumbest he’d heard in quite some time. He thinks that employer’s would never provide solar powered charging stations. He doesn’t think that Americans would rent the batteries for their cars (understanding that by doing so you decrease the actual cost of the car, though your total payment would probably be the same.) But he says that “if it doesn’t save the average consumer money, then it’s not really resolving the battery concern, just putting a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

I’m not going to tell you everything he said, because it might make you as angry as it made me. Regardless of whether the idea is perfect or not, it is a step in the right direction, and I don’t think that part can be denied. My point is simply this: there will have to come a time when we make decisions based on betterment rather than money, or we will all die - and what good is money when you are dead?

Due to my skin issues and really just wanting to be better to myself, I’ve followed a lot of the information and reviews about the chemicals we put on and in our bodies. Wednesday, I had to go to the dentist for a cleaning. After the procedure, I was instructed to use Fluoride toothpaste and mouthwash.

I’ve read about fluoride and how bad it is and that it doesn’t help fight cavities. So, I’d stopped using fluoride toothpaste years ago. Now, I know that public drinking water is fluoridated. But because I was trying not to had more plastic to the landfill I skipped on the bottled water - opting to try and decrease my fluoride exposure. And of course, I’ve known that several of the bottled waters are tap water, some bottles have actually said it from day one.

But now, a major vendor is coming forward and stating that their water is also tap water. Meaning Aquafina drinkers trying to avoid fluoride, might not have ever really avoided it.

*sigh*

Seems like we can’t win.

dentist, fluoride, poison, bottled water, tap water, Aquafina, PepsiCo

Although I’m sure you will read otherwise, and I know a lot of frugal persons really hold on to and embrace their ‘cheapskate’ titles, frugality is not always a sign of being cheap.

There are a lot of ideas and tips out there that not only will save you money but are good for the environment as well. Take fabric softener for instance (I mention in only because my dead phone still has a lingering fresh scent), it’s not really good for you, but it’s also not good for the environment. Here’s why.  But did you know that there are cheaper alternatives? Did you know that plain old vinegar works just as well? That’s not al. That’s hardly the tip of the iceburg!
So, for the love of all those eco-friendly, frugalist, wannabes - here’s a list of sites to frequent. Please keep in mind that while frugal does not always equal cheapskate… frugal does not always mean the most eco-friendly choice either. Use your best judgment.

Frugal Homemaker Plus
Frugal Babe
Young and Broke
The Weight of Money
Sorta Frugal
Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood
Stop the Ride
Like Merchant Ships
Savvy Saver
Simply Thrifty
Frugal For Life
Live Frugal
Mighty Bargain Hunter
Kirby on Finance
Educating the Wheelers
Wenchypoo’s Warehouse
Punny Money
Space Between My Peers
The Homespun Heart
All Financial Matters
Motherload-Mom Advice Blog
Pat Veretto’s FL
MotherLoad
Money Matter and More Musings

I was blog surfing yesterday and came across the blog of a woman (EnviroWoman) who has decided to live plastic free for 2007. She has made the commitment to only utilize the plastic that was existent in her life on December 31, 2006. In her blog she details the struggles she has finding things as simple as deodorant, when it seems our whole world is made on plastic. I looked around my office here and thought - there’s no way. No more pain relievers, no more DVDs, no bottled water (which I’d have a problem with because the fluoride in tap water is just as bad), no CFLs!!! But that being said, I can appreciate her efforts, and her drive.

On her site, she links to an article that I think everyone should read. It’s long, so I’ll warn you now. But it’s definitely a worthwhile read.

Like a scene right out of Little Shop of Horrors, botanicals have just made a leap forward on the evolutionary food chain. Well, not really. But with the technology provided by Botanicalls, your very own Audrey II’s can call you when they are thirsty. And even better than your teenager, they’ll also call you to say, “Thank you.”

Check out the video here. And this is hilarious.