The one thing that a lot of people complain about with steampunk is that it is a very distinctive style that doesn’t fit in with every single type of design scheme. After all, not everyone wants their home to look like the inside of the scientists workshop in Edward Scissorhands. Some people just want a touch of the style without having to revamp the entire way their home is laid out, and for them this is a tight rope to walk on. If you want to use some of this cool style, there are a lot of things that you can do to ensure you get the most out of the style without letting it take over your life.

The best way to do this is by using things that have “elements” of the steampunk design schema without being full-blown steampunk designs. One thing that I can think of would be this chess set that has been made out of car parts. This is not only a great use of something that would have otherwise gone straight to the dump, but it is also a really cool looking design that has a sort of steampunk flavor to it. As you can see with this thing, it’s very simple to get a little of the design elements you want without having to redo your whole design scheme. This is just one of many options you have at your disposal, and I predict there will only be more as steampunk designs start to catch on even more.

The one I’m going to talk about here is the Creativity Kit by ArtTerro. This whole company is centered around creating eco-friendly craft kits for kids of all ages, and they really hit it out of the park with this particular kit. They have a lot of specialty kits for different specific projects, but this one contains just about anything you could possibly need to create just about any fun little project during a rainy Saturday afternoon.

While the colors and the diversity of materials is a real eye-catcher for the kids, the key thing to me is that the whole thing is made from recycled materials. Since they do it this way, each kit is distinct and has its own flavor. I love that about these kits, and it makes things way more fun knowing that you can come away with completely different materials each time.

While we don’t always think about arts and crafts kits as being something we need to put a whole lot of thought into, it is. There are a few reasons for this, but the biggest ones are obviously safety and sustainability. We not only want to instill that lust for sustainability in our children, but we also need to protect them from using craft accessories that may contain harmful chemicals that are often in craft kits that aren’t so environmentally aware. Not only is a kit like this good for supporting that eco-friendly attitude in children, but it’s also a great way to ensure they’re not getting anything nasty in their crafts.

Now, while it might seem a bit odd to associate “eco-friendly” with a game that seems to indicate that the point is world domination, it’s actually a pretty interesting concept. After all, the idea with ec0-friendly toys is to sort of plant the seed of environmentalism with your children, not push it. I mean, you’re not going to be getting your five year old a copy of Desert Solitaire or anything, so why not a game? And the truth is that the game itself really doesn’t create as much of a “owning the world” mentality as the name might suggest.

One interesting thing about the game is that it has taken the old Monopoly paradigm and shifted it a little bit to bring it into the 21st century. You could look at it as an “updated” version of the classic game if you wanted to, I guess. Either way, there are some pretty interesting add-ons in this version.

For example, they have brought in the use of carbon credits and energy-use taxes to the game. One thing that I like about the game is that it is a great way to get kids to think about the overarching extent of their business practices in the game in terms other than money. For any little budding tycoons out there, that’s a pretty important seed to plant at a young age. After all– thanks to us– they’ll be inheriting a world where things like that are commonplace, so it won’t seem as weird to them when they’re your age. Just go with it, it’s a sign of the times. It’s also cool that all the paper is printed with soy-based inks and the shrink-wrap is made out of corn oil, so it’s 100% biodegradable.

While it can be a pain to find ec0-conscious toys for your kids, it’s really worth it. Once you pare away all of the negative impacts, the trade issues, and the environmental problems of the industrial toy industry, you really just start to see that a toy is just a toy.

Now, I’m a big fan of toys. Even at my age, I still play army men with my boys on a regular basis and I love a good game of ultimate frisbee. There’s something great about just forgetting about the ridiculous garbage we put ourselves through on a daily basis as adults just just letting go for a while. Whether it’s for you or those awesome little kids in your life, there’s no reason to buy cheap plastic trash just to get your hands on a good toy. Even though that’s what the television is telling kids they want, trust me: they don’t. There are way more responsible and fun toys out there, many of which are manufactured right here in North America.

One of the really simple choices out there is also one of the most basic: the flying saucer. Not the alien one, the generic term to avoid copyright infringement one. Something like the Green Toys EcoSaucer is a great and simple way to give an eco-friendly gift to someone you love for the holidays. They’re super durable and are way more solid than many people would expect a recycled saucer to be. There’s a whole lineup of great toys from Green Toys that are made out of either completely post-consumer waste or close to it, and they’re not just generic little doodads either.

Stay tuned, because I’m going to have a whole range of eco-friendly toys up here in the next week or so to give a little insight into the whole green toy thing. I want to spotlight these things because sometimes it seems impossible to make a kid happy without buying him or her the latest flaky piece of plastic junk that gets the most advertising time during cartoons. It is possible!

gDiapers are a hybrid between cloth and disposable diapers. Parents can choose the certified biodegradable diapers which are plastic-free or the reusable cloth diapers with little gPants diaper covers. The gDiapers are used in a two-part system. Little gPants generally stay clean and can be used multiple times before needing to be washed. The gRefill is changed once it has been soiled (and the snap-in liner is changed as needed).

gDiapers contain no elemental chlorine, no perfumes, and no smell. The gRefill, made from sustainably farmed wood fluff pulp, sodium polyacrylate for absorbance, and cellulose rayon, becomes reabsorbed by the planet in a neutral way when disposed of.

The gCloth cloth diaper contains an insert which is made of four layers of baby soft microfleece and hemp/cotton. gCloth can be reused at home. All the materials that go into the gDiapers have been selected to provide a comfortable and dry fit for the baby. Biodegradable gRefills are made of a water-resistant outer material made of all natural fiber.

gDiapers are 100% biodegradable. They can be home composted, flushed, or tossed. Throw a wet diaper into the garden and the diaper will decompose into a soil amendment. Flush the diaper and you’re putting the poop where it belongs, in the toilet, and not in the garbage. Even disposing of the diaper in the garbage is okay. gRefills are plastic free and will break down in a landfill much faster than the 500 years it takes other diapers to decompose.

gDiapers are designed using the Cradle to Cradel design principles of Bill McDonough and his firm MBDC. This means that everything which goes into the gRefills gets reabsorbed back into the ecosystem in a beneficial manner.

When a battery no longer has enough energy to power your electronic devices, simply drop them into the top slot of the charger. Once the battery is fully charged, it will be released at the bottom of the unit. Unfortunately, no batteries will last forever. Eventually the chemical reaction inside the battery will no longer hold enough electrons to create the needed voltage, but reuseing the same battery 50 times is still much better than buying new batteries, using them once, and finally throwing them away.

Source: Ubergizmo

Available for purchase at Branch, the toy also comes with a bit of a background story:

“From the deepest jungles comes Hanno the Gorilla (who’s the father of the charming Hanno Jr.). Like Hanno the Navigator, the Greek voyager who discovered gorillas 2,500 years ago, the wooden Hanno family is brave, strong, and curious. Hanno’s powerful wood frame can hold many poses. His durable limbs and sturdy elastic-band muscles make him almost impervious to breakage. Hanno, however, cannot fly, and he’s vaguely afraid of heights. Not only is he strong, but Hanno is also incredibly handsome. In fact, he’s won the prestigious Good Design award. Go Hanno!”

I thought the description was cute and creative. Branch also makes other wooden animal figures, each as environmentally conscious as Hanno.

The toy maker HaPe has create a line of toys known as their Bamboo Collection.  Bamboo’s rapid growth and low environmental impact makes it a sustainable, economical, and earth-friendly raw material.  As part of the Bamboo Collection, HaPe has created a collection of bamboo E-Racer vehicles for kids. The sleekly designed toy cars, as pictured above, feature bamboo (due to its advantages as a renewable material) and is decorated with a sporty paint job of safe, water-based paint. The E-Racers are built with the intent of creating the lowest possible environmental impact while producing a fun toy that young children will love to play with. The cars are intended for  children ages 3 years and above.

The Renewable Energy Racers Set is the perfect way to educate children about three of the most significant sources of alternative energy; wind, solar or hydrogen. Each car is powered and recharged by one of these clean and ecofriendly energy sources, demonstrating their simplicity and use.

The Renewable Energy Racers Set also allows for the quick and easy comparison of these three green energy resources since each car is powered by one source only. The remote control cars have the basic movement controls left and right and forwards and backwards; nothing too fancy about the little electric motors in the toy cars. The key characteristics of the set are the differences in the energy sources.

The Solar panel can charge the toy car with enough electricity for up to 20 minutes of driving time. The time it takes to fully charge the batteries, usually 10-30 minutes, depends on the brightness and directness of the sunlight available.  The wind turbine can also provide 20 minutes of driving time from a 10-30 minute charge, and in this case it is dependent on the strength of the wind the turbine is placed in. The hydrogen fuel cell can provide a car with 5 minutes of run time from a 3 minute charge.

The Renewable Energy Racers Set helps to demonstrate, through the fun and very visual effect of race-able cars, the advantages and disadvantages of each clean energy source. The potential of each energy source depends on the characteristics of the environment in which it is placed. Education toys are always one of the easiest and most effective ways of making children familiar with new ideas and ways of thinking.

Source

Perhaps that is the most we can most sincerely give: an honest effort.

The entire Ecoleeko collection can be found on their website here… or anywhere else that I wrote Ecoleeko.