Opening this month in a New York gallery, Jenna Spevack's urban agriculture inspired exhibition showcases in-home micro-farms.

Brooklyn designer and artist Jenna Spevack's solo show at Mixed Greens incorporates installation, sculpture and permaculture design to explore themes of  sustainability, accessibility to healthy food and artistic social expression within the context of a gallery. Spevack's purpose is "to provide healthy greens to extraordinary people with ordinary incomes".

An iteration of an experiment that began in her own home, the exhibition showcases efficient, sub-irrigated systems for growing microgreens, that have been built into everyday objects and furniture. The modified household objects are fitted with lights, providing necessary light for the plants but also creating a sense of spotlighting the greens similar to an art object lit within a gallery.

Spevack's work is intended to ask questions related to the value placed on food and creative effort. Rather than her work being priced by the gallery, the microgreens will be for sale at a price set by each individual purchaser. Each sale will have a copy of the receipt placed on the wall within the installation as an expression of the work's value as determined by the community.

Maintaining a commitment to urban agriculture and community building, all money received for the microgreens will be donated to local urban ag groups and participants can choose to donate the greens they purchase to a local food pantry. Materials and services used to create the exhibit were donated, bartered or salvaged and was funded in part by Spevack's Kickstarter campaign.

Source: Mixed Greens

Let's face it: we're obsessed with mobile technology. Smart phones give us access to the internet while on a road trip, and tablets make it possible to watch our favorite basketball team while suffering through an airport layover.

Although the price of these technologies is dropping every day, it still isn't cheap, especially if you're toting the latest and greatest Apple product. So protection from drops, spills, and scratches is essential.

Being the green geeks that we are, it was important to find protective cases and covers that were kind to the environment as well as our mobile devices. We've done the homework so you don't have to, and our top 5 choices are below! (If you think we missed one, please share it in the comments!)

1. AQUA TEK S (pictured above)

Being based in Colorado, we spend a fair share of our time enjoying the great outdoors. Hiking, camping, kayaking, mountain biking--these are all great ways to relax and burn some calories--but they're not exactly an appropriate place for a delicate piece of mobile technology. If you're tired of leaving your phone (and all its GPS capabilities) in the car, the AQUA TEK S is the case for you. Brought to life by overwhelming support on Kickstarter, this case is the first ever battery powered, solar charged, rugged under water iPhone 4/4S case made with technology enthusiast and adrenaline junkies in mind. The built-in solar panel gives your battery a boost when you're far from an outlet,  it's waterproof up to 20 feet, and the outer shell is made from tough Poly-carbonate materials with rubber grips for added protection.

2. E-Pouch & Ecoskin

OK, so maybe you're not an "adrenaline junkie." Maybe you're just looking for something that will keep your smart phone safe from keys, water bottles, and all the other stuff that's jangling around in your purse or backpack. The complete, low-key line of eco-friendly protective accessories from Anokimobi might be right up your alley. The e-pouch style (pictured above) is constructed from a combination of organic and naturally biodegradable materials; the vibrant fabric dyes are GOTS regulated and all the print designs use water-based, biodegradable inks. All packaging is made from 100% recycled paper. If you prefer a sleeker, healthier look, the Ecoskin line is the only recycled/recyclable mobile phone skin to be impregnated with silver ions to reduce harmful bacteria levels on the phone

3. Spark Solar Tablet Case

The iPad is one of the most popular gadget in the world. It's also one of the most power hungry, and we know that batteries always choose to fail at the moment when you need them most. Thanks to the new Spark Solar tablet case from Voltaic Systems, however, you can have power, video, and access to the interwebs no matter where you go. The four solar panels built into this protective carrying case are capable of cranking out up to 8 watts of power, enough to provide one hour of video playback on an iPad for every hour the case spends in direct sunlight. In addition to the iPad, the Spark Solar Tablet Case is also capable of charging other tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tablet, the Blackberry Playbook and the T-Mobile G-Slate.

There's no denying that a case that both protects and charges your tablet is super cool. But lots of people buy the iPad because of it's minimalist look and feel, and carrying around a small solar power plant is going to add a lot of weight and bulk. If you're fine with being tethered to an outlet as long as your screen stays free of dings and smudges, this handmade sleeve from Grove. Constructed in from thick premium wool felt imported from Germany the sleeve also features a natural, hand-oiled bamboo veneer for added protection.

5. RE-Case

So far we've talked about protective cases made from lots of sustainable things: biodegradable materials, non-toxic ink, bamboo, wool...but it's hard to argue with the eco-friendliness of a product that's literally made from trash. The case is made out of an architectural grade plastic called POLLI-BER, that the company developed. Polli-ber is a trash composite made with processed organic rice husk and post-consumer thermoplastics from used car bumpers, CD containers, bottle caps, etc. As Becky Striepe of greenUPGRADER reports, "The case fit my phone nicely, though I wish that it also protected the phone's face...and there's room in the case to insert your refillable transit card, though I guess if you have one of those tap and spend credit cards, you could use that, too."

A stunning installation in Tokyo's Sumida River created quite a visual  spectacle, but it has an important message too.

Kicking off the inaugural Tokyo Hotaru festival, 100,000 solar-powered LEDs were sent down the Sumida River last week. During the 18th century catching "horatu," Japanese for "firefly," was a popular past time on the shores of this expansive river.

Inspired by the fireflies that once inhabited the river, the LEDs were created to resemble those glowing creatures of flight that will always remind me of warm summer nights in Georgia. This luminescent sculpture speaks to a time before urban life and polluted waters pushed these tiny creatures from their homes along the banks of the Sumida. The LED horatu were provided by Panasonic and designed to illuminate upon contact with the water. To prevent further pollution of the Sumida, large nets were used to capture the LEDs further down the river.

Source: Spoon & Tamago

Photo Credits: makure, Mai Suzuki, tokyo-hotaru.com, Jeremy V. and ajpscs

Check out some of our favorite concepts for urban bikers.

May is National Bike To Month and there will be Bike to Work celebrations happening all over the country. Here at Crisp Green we are celebrating this two-wheeled holiday with some of the newest technologies for biking!

1. SoBi

Created and Founded by Ryan Rzepecki, SoBi is a unique bike-sharing system that has eliminated the need for dedicated docking stations or complex infrastructure, making these systems ready to implement in any city or any college campus. Using readily available technologies including on-board computers, GPS and smart phones users can easily locate, reserve and pick-up bikes. Each bike includes an electronic locking and locating system that is pedal-powered and when stationary is powered by solar panels.

Learn more about SoBi and how to bring it to your town here.

2. Magnetic Bike Lights

These handy little LED lights make it easy for riders to grab and go when locking up. Using magnets, the lights attach to any steel frame, and have been designed to accommodate a variety of sizes. Not only do the magnets make it easy to lock and go, but these lights also turn on and off simply by touching to or removing from the bike frame.

Compact and easy to use, these lights come packaged in recycled materials, making them a top choice for eco-conscious riders. Lights can be pre-ordered on Copenhagen Parts (expected to drop Autumn 2012).

3. Glo-Bar

Mitchell Silva has designed a prototype LED handlebar that not only lights the path for riders, but aims to prevent accidents by making it easier for nearby pedestrians and drivers to see oncoming cyclists. The lighted handlebars can also be used as turning signals via buttons attached to the stem. Although still in the prototype stage, Silva's design is part of a growing trend in new LED lighting for bikes, making it safer for urban cyclists to ride at night.

Source: Inhabitat

Thanks to a recent upgrade, the "World's Most Famous Office Building" will be a showcase for the world’s most advanced LED lighting system.

The Empire State Building is one of the most iconic members of the New York City skyline. It's always fun to see the massive building lit up with colorful lights celebrating key national milestones, social causes, and holidays. What most of us didn't realize is that it takes a team of workers seven hours to change the light fixtures every time the building needs to display a new combination of colors.

Thanks to a new, custom LED system created by Philips Color Kinetics, however, the façade and mast of the Empire State Building will now be able to change lighting scenes in real-time, without wasting a ton of energy.

The building's owners are working with Philips to replace the existing 400+ traditional light fixtures--old fashioned high intensity discharge bulbs—with over 1,200 state-of-the-art LED fixtures, uniquely designed for the building. Not only is the new system computerized, allowing ESB staff to customize lightings from a palette of over 16 million colors (right now, it has 10), the staff will be able to do program updates to the lights almost instantaneously.

The new lighting upgrade is part of the building's renovation and modernization initiatives and is estimated to use just ¼ of the energy that the previous lighting systems did—reducing the energy consumption by approximately 73 percent.

It's not often that you actually want wildlife nesting in your walls. But a new concept in habitat-building just might change your mind.

Brick Biotope is a series of bricks designed specifically to provide a natural living environment for birds within the urban landscape. Inspired by the disappearance of the House Sparrow in the Netherlands, Brick Biotope responds to the desire to create hand-made objects in a digital world. As part of a three-month intensive, design students Micaela Nardella and Oana Tudose devised a brick-making technique using simple molds, plaster and sand. Each unit is made by hand and totally unique but the standard rectangular form allows for easy placement within a brick wall.

Recently exhibited during Milan Design Week as part of FABRIKAAT, Brick Biotope is intended to provide all the basic needs for a wild animal's habitat. Each unit has the potential to be used as shelter, a space for vertical vegetation or water collection. Brick Biotope is a simple and easy to implement solution to a problem seen in cities across the globe.

Source: Inhabitat

Humanity has developed an unhealthy relationship with Apple products. Is our i-obsession polluting our world?

Grown adults camp on the sidewalk for days to pay ridiculous prices for a slightly different version of the device in their pocket. People who are otherwise very intelligent act as if their life would end if they had to send an email on a PC. But I digress...

Did you know Apple has sold 55 million iPad's since they were introduced in 2010? Yes, your tablet might help you organize your life, but what's it doing to your world? The infographic below shows some of the green (and not so green) aspects of your iPad.

Created by Sortable

Top Image via yto/Flickr