Like some kind of industrial magic trick, this design by Casulo challenges our very ideas of compact, portable and transforming furniture. It seems impossible that a bookcase, wardrobe, bed, mattress, multiple stools and more could all start out tucked away in a simple rectangular box just31 by 47 inches in size – but here it is: an all-in-one interior design with everything needed for a living room, bedroom and office packed into one small box.

The entire system can be deployed in just ten minutes, requires no additional tools and (as you might have guessed) every single part of the box is used in one way or another in the final design. Every time you move, or want to reconfigure a space, or have to put something into storage … would these steps not be much easier with a furniture system that simply collapses back in upon itself when not needed?

Check out our new twitter updates page for CEO’s. Have a favorite CEO you want added? Contact us here

The new page at MarketingSpot.com allows you to see all of the listed top CEO’s Twitter posts all at once. It also filters out the replies and junk so you just get wind of the good stuff. “This is a fun page to leave open on a second screen” Says DWHS Inc. President, Charles Yarbrough. You can get lots of great information in real time without running a full program or getting stuff you don’t need from other Twitter update sites.

Check out the new Twitter CEO Posts here.

We will also add a link at the bottom of each page.

It’s still only a trickle compared to the flood of jobs that America lost to overseas outsourcing in recent decades. But some American businesses are bringing jobs home again.

In Louisville, a closed General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) appliance plant is being renovated to begin producing refrigerators and water heaters now being made overseas. Hiring of about 1,300 union-represented workers is due to begin this fall.

A technical support call center for computer back-up firm Carbonite will start taking calls this summer in Lewiston, Maine. By the end of this year, 150 jobs that had been located in India will be shifted to there, with another 100 jobs expected to be added next year.

NCR (NCR, Fortune 500) has already hired about 500 workers to build ATM machines and self-service checkout systems at a Columbus, Ga., plant, and it plans to add another 370 jobs by 2014, building products that were formerly produced at plants in China, Hungary and Brazil.

This trend of reshoring or insourcing is likely to grow in the coming years, as the cost gap between building overseas and building at home narrows. It’s an encouraging sign in a job market where hiring has stalled in recent months.

“Based on the number of calls I’m getting, I think a lot of people are taking a long hard look at what’s gone on in recent times,” said Peter Dorsman, the senior vice president of Global Operations at NCR.
They’re hiring!

He said when NCR looked at the cost of shipping products that weigh more than a ton each, as well as the need to have the plant close to the engineering staff and customers in order to constantly improve the machines, it decided to build the Georgia plant.

“We felt like controlling that innovation in-house was critically important,” said Dorsman.

Greater quality was the major factor cited by Carbonite for moving back jobs to the U.S. as well. The company’s call center in New Delhi, India was having turnover of 100% or more each year, said Tom Murray, the company’s vice president of marketing.

Meanwhile, turnover in its Boston call center that handled more serious problems was in the single digits. Murray said that allowed the Boston call center to provide much better service and customer satisfaction.

“There’s a clear benefit associated with continuity,” he said.

For GE, the decision to reopen the Louisville plant, which had been closed for decades, was based on the fact that it’s no longer as expensive to hire more workers in the U.S.

Jim Campbell, president and CEO of the GE Appliance and Lighting unit, said that when you factor in currency fluctuations and rising wages in emerging markets, “when we look out five to six years, the United States is becoming a lot more attractive.”

That trend is likely to continue, said Harold Sirkin, a senior partner at Boston Consulting Group.

According to BCG, Chinese labor costs are rising about 15% to 20% a year. That makes producing goods in China not nearly as cheap as it used to be. For many manufacturers, that narrowing is enough to tip the balance back to U.S. plants.

“I think for many goods, people will say, ‘I don’t want to offshore to China because the economics aren’t as good as making them in the U.S.,’ Sirkin said.

Still, some think the number of jobs coming back to the U.S. will remain relatively small.

“I worry that there’s a very big deal being made out of a few anecdotal instances. I think it’s a lot of wishful thinking going on,” said Alan Tonelson, a research fellow for the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a trade group.

What’s more, countries such as China and India that have profited from U.S. offshoring won’t stand pat and lose the potential jobs without a fight.

“It’s not as if the Chinese government is helpless is to offset this rising wage trend,” Tonelson said.

Google has just sealed a deal to invest $168 million in a Mojave Desert solar energy plant.

The investment is going to BrightSource Energy, a company that develops and operates large-scale solar power plants, specifically to fund its Ivanpah project.

Ivanpah is a solar electric generating system that uses solar thermal technology and “an environmentally responsible design,” to deliver reliable, clean and low-cost power to Californians, according to the project’s website.

The plant will generate energy with a technology called power towers. Mirrors, called heliostats, are arranged in an array and aim the sun’s rays at a receiver atop a tower. The receiver generates steam; the steam causes a turbine to rotate; the rotation causes a generator to generate electricity. Because such large quantities of solar energy are being directed to such a small area, the power towers are very efficient.

The power tower at Ivanpah will be around 450 feet tall. The plant will use 173,000 heliostats, and each heliostat will have two mirrors, making Ivanpah the largest project of its kind.

Construction at Ivanpah should be completed in 2013. Google’s been on something of a clean energy investment kick over the past year or so. The company was granted the ability to buy and sell energy as a public utility last February, ostensibly to find better ways to power its own massive data centers.

A short time later, Google began making significant investments in green energy technologies. The company sealed a $38 million wind farm investment in May, bought 20 years’ worth of wind farm energy in July and provided a substantial investment for a huge offshore wind farm in October.

Rick Needham is Google’s Director of Green Business Operations. On the company blog, he writes, “We hope that investing in Ivanpah spurs continued development and deployment of this promising technology while encouraging other companies to make similar investments in renewable energy.”

Frog’s Leap Winery is an organic and biodynamic vineyard located in the heart of Napa’s Rutherford region. Back in 1975, owner John Williams was living in St. Helena on a property that was a frog farm during the 1800s. Yes, a frog farm! In 1981 he began working for Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, an opportunity that enabled him and his buddy Larry Turley to make a 5 gallon jug o’ wine using “borrowed” grapes. As a homage to the grape’s origins–and the frog farm–they called it Frog’s Leap. Pleased with the results, they sold their motorcycles to produce another 500 cases.

Now entering their 30th year of production, Frog’s Leap has been a pioneer in terms of green winemaking. They were Napa’s first winery with certified organically grown grapes and the first California winery with a LEED certified building. But one of their most impressive accomplishments is that they grow all their grapes without the use of any water; they’re completely dry-farmed.

In 1994, Frog’s Leap moved from the St. Helena frog farm to the historic Anderson Winery in Rutherford. Turley didn’t follow as he went on to establish what is now Turley Wine Cellars. Anderson Winery was a ghost winery that had been established in 1884 by a German vintner. This new home, located in the Rutherford appellation, has many diverse microclimates and soil types. It also produces some of California’s most well known wines. The west side–called the Rutherford Bench–is home to some of Napa’s award-winning Cabernet Sauvignons. Frog’s Leap has four of their own vineyards on this Bench.

The property had been punctuated by a grand red barn which was Napa’s oldest board and batten building. Williams took great care in restoring the building. The barn was rebuilt using 85% of the original wood and is now surrounded by over 40 acres of organic estate vineyard.

“We certified our first vineyard organic 24 years ago and believe me, it was not a cool thing to do back then,” says Williams. Prior to 1987, Williams was buying grapes from other vineyards. That same year he purchased his first vineyard and began flexing his degree in agriculture from Cornell University. Initial soil inspections found the vineyard to be not only calcium deficient but also lacking in both zinc and boron. Growing up on a dairy farm, he was confident about the conventional methods in which to fix it; he was wrong. When the vineyard quickly took a turn for the worse, Williams started exploring alternatives. Through the owners of Fetzer Winery, John was introduced to Amigo Bob–an organic farmer from Mendocino County. Amigo Bob taught Williams how to farm with nature and not against it. John became a soil farmer and not just a grape grower.

“It [organic] was really the source of inspiration…that instructed us on the path of doing everything else. But organic farming came first,” Williams notes.

Frog’s Leap built Napa’s first LEED certified commercial house, complete with a geothermal warming and cooling system. The closed-loop system consists of 20 different wells and has the capacity to cool a total of 10 houses. The house serves as the winery’s administrative offices and its tasting room. But it isn’t the only LEED certified structure on the property. Frog’s Leap is also home to Napa’s only LEED certified green house, no pun intended. And as you might expect from an eco-conscious winery, the day-to-day operations are 100% solar powered and have been since 2005. But these improvements are not just about the environment, they’re also about good business. For example, their annual electric bill was $50,000 so solar made fiscal sense.

One of the more unique efforts that Frog’s Leap has made is in the area of water conservation. No water is used on the any of the grape crops. They are completely dry farmed. John explains that “all grapes in Napa for 125 years were dry farmed. Irrigation came to Napa in the 70s, was made popular in late 80s, and became required in the 90s. Now it’s thought to be completely impossible to grow grapes without water.”

Dry-farmed grapes not only reduce water usage but the resulting product is significantly better. First, dry-farmed vines have an extremely deep root. This makes them robust and much more resistant to diseases. In comparison, grapes that receive irrigation end up sitting on the vine significantly longer. The grapes themselves then have an extremely high sugar content which translates to a high alcohol content, a trend that has been plaguing California wines as of late. Alcohol content has increased by 10% since the late 80s! As the alcohol content in wine increases, acidity decreases and has to be added in later. These inputs start to make the irrigated wines all taste the same. You lose the terroir and it becomes more about winemaking-witchcraft than the nuances of the actual grape.

Napa is more than equipped for dry-farming, though conventional growers will tell you otherwise. But Frog’s Leap is not powered by unicorns…we checked. Dry-farming in Napa Valley requires 16-20 inches of annual rainfall in order for the vines to sustain the region’s hotter months (May to October). Napa receives about 36 inches annually.

But Williams understands that the success of Frog’s Leap is not just about the winery. It’s about community. A rarity in today’s agribusiness, all of the winery’s farm workers are full-time employees paid with living wages plus benefits. How does Williams responsibly employ a labor force and keep his wines around $30 a bottle? Well, the inspiration came from his days as a dairy farmer in New York where shared labor was part of the social fabric. Using this format, his workforce now maintains four other vineyards and one winery.

“In grapes, if you farm only grapes, you prune them and then there is nothing to do. Then you go pick the grapes and then there’s nothing to do. That is why we grow almost 70 different crops here. When were done pruning grapes we can then prune the fruit trees. Cross training and diversification of agriculture has helped bridge that gap. But this wasn’t enough. So we went to a few neighbors [and said] ‘You’re hiring and firing. It’s a pain in the ass. Let us do your work for you.’ Now we can keep these guys year round,” says Williams.

When tasting wines from Frog’s Leap, you’ll notice something you don’t often find at other wineries: consistency. Whether it be their Sauvingnon Blanc with its minerals and kaffir lime or the 2007 Merlot with notes of cigar and pepper, Frog’s Leap wines have a distinct thread of continuity between all varietals. They are flavorful but not outspoken as most California wines tend to be. The dry farming seems to amplify a wine’s sense of place, giving it both distinction and relation.

For example, their 2007 Merlot will definitely surprise you. California Merlots usually come with a big cartoon-y KAPOW à la 1960′s Batman. But not this one. It holds its ground without demanding the company of food. It sells for $34, a price point most of their wines revolve around. Only their Rutherford will set you back double at $75.

So, is Williams correct? Is irrigation seriously diluting the terrior out from California wines?

I am not sure. But it really does taste that way!

Read it and weep: “Germany leads the European nations in recycling, with around 70 percent of the waste the country generates successfully recovered and reused each year. To put that figure into perspective, consider this: In 2007, the U.S. was able to recover only about 33 percent of the waste generated that year.” Germany’s policies force companies to be much more waste-conscious than the US does (surprise, surprise). Read more about how they do it in Trash Planet: Germany, on Earth911.

Not many big auto makers are producing fuel cell cars, but that isn’t stopping Mercedes-Benz (the luxury brand from Daimler). The company has made 200 of its F-Cell fuel cell sedans, which it’s renting out for $850 per month, for up to 36 months, including the cost of the hydrogen. Driving it on the streets of LA, it felt just like a regular car, and there was no behavior change needed due to the fuel cell technology.

In line with international efforts to curb climate change, the Costa Rican government has stated it wants to become carbon-neutral by the year 2021. One important step toward that goal is now happening: the availability of consumer electric cars on the market.

Last week, Japanese automaker Mitsubishi announced that in March its Costa Rican distributor, Veinsa, would begin selling the i-MiEV, a four-door electric plug-in car that emits no carbon emissions. The i-MiEV, or Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle, is powered by a chargeable lithium battery and can drive 160 kilometers on a full seven-hour charge.

The launch of the i-MiEV here is a small victory for Costa Rica, as it will hit stores here before it is sold in the U.S., South America and China. Only in Japan and Europe will it be available first.

Mitsubishi chose Costa Rica because of the country’s positive environmental image abroad, thanks to a bit of old-fashioned political lobbying.

“Costa Rican Foreign Minister [René Castro] recently visited Japan’s Mitsubishi headquarters and spoke with [the automakers] about bringing the i-MiEV here,” said Guillermo Charpentier, Veinsa’s general manager.

“He also used the visit to promote Costa Rica’s goal of becoming carbon-neutral. One way to do that is with electric cars,” he said.

Costa Rica currently emits an estimated 12 megatons of carbon dioxide each year. Automobiles account for 75 percent of the country’s total carbon dioxide emissions.

“Transportation is, by far, our biggest challenge,” said Pedro León, director of the Peace with Nature program, a governmental environmental initiative launched by ex-President Oscar Arias in 2007.

“Many people drive alone, and that’s a habit we need to change, especially with the type of cars we currently have on the road,” he said.

Changing Costa Rica’s driving habits may seem like a daunting task. But there are signs of improvement.

In August, the National Power and Light Company (CNFL) donated tha Reva – an electric compact car made in India – to Castro and his staff at the Foreign Ministry. The Reva became available in Costa Rica in 2009. Foreign Ministry staff use the car for transportation in and around San José.

“Castro is a great ally for our cause,” said CNFL General Manager Pablo Cob.

“We want other agencies and companies to get enthusiastic about this idea, and realize that we are privileged to be an environmentally rich country. We should do what we can to try to prevent climate change,” Cob said.

The use of electric cars by government officials is a popular marketing tactic to spread the word about Costa Rica’s potential for selling electric cars. While campaigning, President Laura Chinchilla scooted around town in a Reva and praised its efficiency. Employees of the British and Swiss embassies also drive Revas to promote the importance of fossil fuel emissions.

“We want to show people that we don’t need to have something big and luxurious to do some of the things that are needed as far as getting around,” Kate Cruse, the sustainable operations officer at the British Embassy in Costa Rica, said earlier this year.

Even with government support, electric cars have a long way to go before they become prevalent on the streets of the capital. According to Luis Echeverri, director of Reva’s offices in Costa Rica, 70 Revas have been sold since 2009, and import taxes drive the starting price up by 18 percent.

“We have to be realistic about the market size we have for electric cars in Costa Rica,” Echeverri said. “But if the government steps in and lowers import taxes as they have promised to do, there could be a much larger market for a less expensive vehicle.”

A Reva starts here at $14,000 here. Yet to be priced, the i-MiEV may cost twice as much.

We found this amazing organic farm and winery business located in ARGENTINA. Website

The Winery

Agrelo Alto is considered Mendoza’s best wine-producing region. The best-known fincas buy their grapes here, and many of the great producers are in this area. The soil is sandy and contains a large number of minerals that were washed down from the Andes by melt-waters over millions of years. A trickle irrigation system distributes the water from the rivers and groundwater lakes among the vineyards.

The Farm

On the Ojo de Agua and Algarobo estates, 10,000 Black Angus and Hereford cattle graze on about 20,000 hectares of land. In the Pampa Humeda, grass of outstanding quality for rearing cattle grows both in the summer and the winter. Our cattle and pastures are guaranteed free of all chemicals (no hormones, no antibiotics, no gene-manipulated fodder), as the strict prohibition of these substances is a fundamental requirement for bio-certification.

I really like this Article, for me urban sprawl a disease fueled by ignorance. But I understand it will be centuries before common society realizes this. We have unlimited space to go up yet because of money we only have short building spread out covering the nature that is so needed to have a healthy life. Nothing is perfect so to make a bad situation a little better business is now finding a way to utilize space upwards a little more. Sorry to complain so much but I also really do not like the roof standard for housing. Roofs can easily be flat and used for more space like farming or just more living space. We have the ability now to have flat roofs.  It is not the 1800′s building materials have advanced enough to funnel water out and for the roof to be strong enough to hold heavy objects. Yet we still make ugly coned roofs just because it’s what where used to. O.K. here is the article on a roof made farm that can feed hundreds of people.

-Commercial Rooftop Farm Nears Completion

Most people would not consider January an ideal time to plant crops, especially January in Montreal. But for Mohamed Hage, Kurt D. Lynn and Howard Resh, timing is one of the proof points of their project — a commercial-scale rooftop greenhouse that’s designed to yield produce year-round for an urban community.

Entrepreneurs Hage and Lynn and horticulture and hydroponics expert Resh are the brains behind Lufa Farms, which unveiled details last week about its 31,000-square-foot greenhouse being constructed atop a two-story office building in Montreal’s Marché Central neighborhood.

Construction of the specially designed greenhouse began in July and is expected to be complete before year’s end. Planting is scheduled to begin in January. On that timetable, the first crops would be harvested six weeks later.

“We’re right on the threshold of completing the first commercial-scale rooftop greenhouse,” said Lynn, Lufa Farms’ co-founder and vice president, in an interview before taking the wraps off the project. “If it works in Montreal, it will work anywhere.”

GreenerBuildings.com and GreenBiz.com have featured several articles on urban agriculture: farms called VertiCrops that mostly have been planted on the ground and were recognized by NASA for fostering water sustainability, the prospects for soaring high rise farms of the future, and another rooftop greenhouse business called Sky Vegetables, which was the subject of a piece last fall by GreenBiz Executive Editor Joel Makower.

While the idea of urban farming isn’t new — small-scale rooftop farms and herb gardens are key draws for green restaurants such as Uncommon Grounds in Chicago — Lufa Farms lays claim to being the furthest along with a large-scale operation.

According to Lynn, he and his colleagues started batting the idea around about three-and-a-half years ago.

“The economics of food today forces us into compromises,” Lynn said. “If I’m shipping things 2,000 miles, all along the way I’m increasing the handling of the food, affecting its taste, its freshness. It’s a long food chain. My children don’t know what a true tomato tastes like.

“Our goal simply is to be a neighborhood food source and raise the bar on the issue of traceability. We think it’s important that people know where their food comes from, that they can say, ‘Yes, I can see where my food is grown. It’s grown right over there.’ ”

Lufa Farms, whose next project goal is a rooftop greenhouse of about 150,000 square feet, aims to be the produce source for about 2,000 households within a three- to four-mile radius of the nearly three-quarter-acre greenhouse. People will be able to purchase produce via a subscription system.

The crops will include more than 20 varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, bok choy, herbs, assorted greens and other vegetables, according to Lynn and his colleagues. The produce will be grown without pesticides or herbicides and be irrigated with harvested rainwater and recirculated water.

The greenhouse, which was designed to be lightweight but durable enough to withstand the rain, snow and temperatures of winter in Canada, will also be fitted out with irrigation equipment, heating, insulation, curtains, supplemental lighting and advanced computerized controllers. All are intended to maximize crop growth and minimize the resources used in the process.

Lynn said a Lufa Farm can yield 10 times the output of a traditional farm in an area of identical size. The business set up a 5,000-square-foot test farm at McGill University, and its bounty was shared among just about everyone associated with the project as well as a women’s shelter and a food bank, he said.

“We had 200 heads of lettuce every other day,” said Lynn. “We were overwhelmed with vegetables.”

In addition to producing crops, the greenhouse in Montreal also is expected to provide benefits to the building that serves as its host. The greenhouse further insulates the building beneath it and by reducing the need for heating and cooling, helps the property owner save on utility bills. In terms of supply chain and distribution, the greenhouse crops won’t require the refrigeration or the fuel expenditures typically associated with bringing produce to market.

“This is the ultimate green roof,” Lynn said.

Project partners include Fonds de Placement Immobilier BTB, which owns and manages the office building where the greenhouse is being built, Westbrook Greenhouse Systems, the GKC architectural firm and FDA Constructions.