USA: sustainable products represent 15% of the total sales of retail

Brands labeled as natural, ecological, organic and fair trade are no longer a niche market in the sectors of food, toiletries and home. These products gradually were blended in the general retail and conquered a considerable market share. Currently, these products that appeal to the "responsible consumption" represent an important area of profitable growth.

An analysis of the Boston Consulting Group and Information Resources analyzed all u.s. retail chains and concluded that the sale of the products more "responsible" represents 15% of the total sales of all chains, with the sales increase 9% annual pace in the last three years â€" which represents 70% of the total growth.

The consultants expect that the same trend is found in other developed markets. Market studies also point to future growth, with most consumers to indicate the intention of buying more of these products.

However, the more sustainable products of major brands that will experience an increase in sales, but the specialized brand products. The big brands lack or do not possess even products of this type shows the consultant.

It is recalled that several Portuguese managers debated this week, sustainable consumption. Green Savers was there and brought him the main conclusions.

Foto:  Glory Foods / Creative Commons

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Lisbon school WINS project Gives Power to the Electron

The School Neighborhood Priest cross, of Lisbon, was the winner of the challenge to the schools of the third phase of the project of awareness videos â€" gives Power to the POW electron, promoted by Amb3E â€" Portuguese Association for waste management. The winning video was "the beginning of consciousness".

Already the individual prize was collected by Joana Santos, with the work "the world of WEEE (continued)". The individual video winner has as protagonist a three-year-old boy who reminds that the WEEE contain harmful substances and pollute the environment when they are poorly conveyed. The second prize in the individual category was assigned to Guilherme Fernandes with the project "the count To get REE at the point Electron" and the third prize went to Marta Barreto, with the video "for a better future".

Individual category winners were presented with a smartphone, an LCD and a camera. The School Neighborhood Priest Cross will receive, in turn, € 1,500 in electrical and electronic equipment of your choice.

The project Gives Power to the Electron is an initiative that encourages the Portuguese to take part in a contest of videos that act as elements of behavioral change the environmental level. The POW intends to emphasize the importance of channelling of waste Electronic and electrical equipment by means of electron.

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Portuguese spend €370 per month with the automobile

The monthly average of the costs of the vehicles in Portugal is around €370, with half of the automobiles has spent more than €290 per month. This is the conclusion of the first statistical report published by the portal Autocustos for the first quarter of 2014.

The report, which was published today at least one Car, was based on an anonymous survey conducted for users of the Autocustos site between January and may this year. The size of the sample submitted by Portuguese users is 230 vehicles, being the 8.2% margin of error.

According to the report, the average monthly devaluation of the vehicle is €145, i.e. the equivalent of 1,740 euros per year.

Aft er the devaluation of the vehicle, the second largest monthly cost for the Portuguese is with the fuels (29%) that can reach € 108 per month. However, the remaining costs of the private vehicle, as the vehicle insurance and coverage, interest on car loan, auto inspection, single circulation tax (IUC), maintenance, repairs, parks, tolls, parking tickets and fines and washes, add up to €119 per month, which means about 32% of all these monthly charges.

If we take into account that the net average wage in Portugal is around €711 monthly liquids, "notes that it seems that if you work half a year to pay for the car. This is great irrationality. From a financial point of view, it would be exactly equivalent to only work part-time without owning a car, "explained João Pimentel Ferreira, free software programmer who developed the portal Autocustos.

The report was conducted by Fernando Martins, graduated in statistics from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon. You can consult the full report here.

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Ocean acidification could cause extinction of marine species

Much of the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by human activity that is released into the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans. However, since the levels of CO2 emissions are increasing, also gas adsorption by the oceans increases.

The absorption of CO2 by the oceans is a natural process, essential for maintaining thermal equilibrium on the planet. However, the CO2 changes the chemical composition of the water as it reduces pH levels and makes it more acidic. Once the CO2 absorption levels are higher acidity levels increase at the same rate â€" a change that threatens aquatic life.

This increase in ocean acidification and its consequences were depicted in a new study published in the journal Paleoceanography. The investigation, conducted by the University of California-Santa Cruz, Yale and Columbia, reveals that the process of acidification is occurring ten times faster than in the Paleocene-Eocene thermal Maximum, a period of drastic climatic changes that occurred there are 56 million years ago and became extinct several aquatic species and forced the evolution of others. During this period, which lasted approximately 70,000 years, global average temperatures have risen about 11.6 degrees Celsius.

Increasing acidification of waters is already a serious threat to many marine ecosystems, such as coral barriers. However, the acidification of waters is also a danger for the human species, since it depends on the food provided by the oceans. Another study, shows that ocean acidification is eroding the conhas of a species of small marine snails, which are source of food for the salmon, mackerel and herring, which are in turn food for humans and other larger fish.

The Intergovernmental Panel on climate change estimates that the acidification of marine waters and other effects produced by climate change can reduce the amount of fish available for fishing, a reduction that may have an impact of €10,3 billion for the fishing industry in 2050, referred to Discovery News.

Photo: Creative Commons/Sesimbra/pedrosimoes7

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e-Golf: German car electric version arrives in Portugal this month (with features)

It won't be long for the Portuguese put your hands-and feet-on Volkswagen e-Golf, the first purely electric version of one of the most successful models cars of all time, the Golf-30 million units sold.

The e-Golf will be officially launched later this month, you know the Green Savers and the first cars arriving in Portugal in July. The price is not yet set, but is expected to around € 38,000 â€" still, an estimated price.

In its electric version, the iconic VW brand's strong point â€" autonomy between 130 and 190 km â€" and a selection of driving profiles: Normal, Eco and Eco + (these two are a redundancy, since the car is 100% ecological).

Autonomy depends on the route to go, driving style and weight of the cargo. On the other hand, if the outside temperature is too low, the autonomy can be less than these values.

According to Volkswagen, technological innovation of e-Golf allows you to ensure a top speed limited to 140 km/h, so the car is the only model of the range fitted as standard with the radio and navigation system of high technology, the Discover Pro.

From the functional point of view, the new model is also fitted as standard with the App Car-Net-and-Remote, which allows the battery charge, the activation of auxiliary heating/air conditioner (during the battery charging procedure) and the demand for vehicle data through a smartphone.

Abroad, the Volkswagen highlights the headlights in LED electric Golf, as well as C-shaped taillights, visual feature of all VW models equipped with electric propulsion hybrid or plug-in.

With a very low consumption â€" less than 100 kWh/12.7 Km, the e-Golf is about "10% more efficient than the best and most direct competitor with steel construction". The vehicle is also completely silent, and costs €1,9 to 100 km for energy.

The battery Positioned between the front and rear axle, the lithium ion battery has a weight of 318 kg and consists of a total of 264 cells integrated into 27 modules (6 and 12 cells). The total capacity of the battery is gross to 24.2 kWh. Some of these are reserved to prevent damage as the result of a total discharge of the battery.

The battery management system, called BMC, which assumes the functions of security, Diagnostics and monitoring. It is also he who regulates the temperature of the battery in the controller-Junction-Controller, one interface to provide power to the motor. When the vehicle is stopped or suffers an accident, is switched off automatically the electric current from the battery.

How to load? One of the greatest challenges of electric vehicles has as its backdrop the shipment. In Golf, and as with his "brother" e-up!, there are several form of shipment. The simplest is to connect the charging cable (standard) to a conventional socket 230 V. E-Golf batteries are loaded to 100% when they are completely discharged, within 1:0 pm.

Optionally, Volkswagen offers a wallbox to the garage or a parking place covered, which enables an output of 3.6 kW load. In this case, the battery requires approximately eight hours to be fully charged.

In addition to the wallbox, there are also public places of loading that offer a power 3.6 kW load.

For the e-Golf, the client may also request to Volkswagen for the vehicle is prepared for the Combined charging system CCS (Combined Charging System) with direct current (DC). In this mode, the battery reaches over 80% of its capacity in just 30 minutes.

Watch the silence as was expected, the e-Golf is silent. With the absence of combustion engines, there are other sources of noise that are heard. Thus, Volkswagen has implemented a specific acoustics concept for e-Golf, designed for the characteristics of electric vehicle and which make it possible, even hear a PIN fall. But beware: the silence of the electric car has been criticized, including by the European Association for the blind, which asks cars more noisy and warn people, blind or not, their passage. Learn about all the features of the vehicle and, below, some photos of the e-Golf.

Goodbye, Rev counter Located on the left side of the instrument panel, the display of kW of the vehicle replaces the tachometer. It indicates the main energy levels: If the motor vehicle is prepared to boot if the battery is being charged via regenerative braking or if she's being consumed.

On the right side is positioned the analog speedometer which in this case indicates a speed up to 160 km/h. In the color display other values are indicated, cases of a continuous view of the autonomy, the level of regenerative braking that is active and the information about the remaining charging time and the type of loading plug connected.

But as I'm going on vacation? Today, the electric car is a great ally of the city trips, but has some problems on long journeys. To work around this issue, Volkswagen developed a partnership with Europcar, in which owners of electric vehicles of the German brand can rent a car with conventional motor with a special price.





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Scientists may have discovered the largest water reservoir in the world

A water tank three times greater than the total volume of Earth's oceans may have been discovered under the United States, 700 km depth. The discovery was published last week in the journal Science.

The article was written by American investigators, led by Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen, and Northestern University by Brandon Schmandt, seismologist at the University of New Mexico.

The water found is not in liquid form, but magma wells were found, which may indicate the presence of water. During the investigation the laboratory experiments were used to Jacobsen, where the rock layers studied the Geophysicist of the planet under simulated high pressure, similar to the 700 km depth, together with comments made by seismologist seismic activity data that were collected under the USArray project, a network of seismographs throughout the American territory, referred to Treehugger.

Based on investigations, scientists believe the water is stored in the molecular structure of minerals inside the Rocky mantle, in the form of the mineral itself, created by pressure and heat inside of the mantle. In this layer there is a terrestrial ringwoodite, a mineral that has water in its composition which, according to scientific articles published earlier this year, allows to infer the existence of a reservoir of water in the Earth's mantle equivalent to the water of the oceans.

Researchers believe that water exists on the planet's surface might have arrival at great depths through the tectonic plates. During the investigation, they found evidence of an extensive melting underneath the North American territory, close to the depth at which can be found the mineral. The depth is this fusion of materials of the Earth's interior is the one that presents the best temperature and pressure so that the water can leave the ringwoodite, a phenomenon that scientists compare to sweating.

Currently, only there is evidence of the existence of ringwoodite in the United States, having the presence of the mineral in other parts of the Earth to be confirmed yet.

Foto: Wikimedia Commons

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Wai-o-Tapu: one of the most beautiful places in the world

Between October 11, 2009 and 22 December 200, the production team of the Lord of the Rings movies used various locations in the areas of conservation of natural parks within New Zealand 438 days.

The end result is apparent in the trilogy by Peter Jackson and eventually raise the small country to the top of the world of natural beauty â€" even then there were few who knew him, even if it was photography, the beaches or lush mountains New Zealanders.

Another of the secrets of New Zealand is Wai-o-Tapu, a geothermal wonder located in Taupo volcanic zone. Wai-o-Tapu, meaning "sacred water" in Maori, is an area with hot springs and geysers are breathtaking.

More than words, see this scenario in our gallery.

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