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This week at TreeHugger: Microsoft has been touting Vista’s new power saving features, saying that upgrading to Vista could easily save consumers and corporations $50 to $75 per computer per year in energy costs. The question, though, is what marvelous new code makes this miracle possible? Check out the Girandole light, which eschews the traditional switch and is turned on and off by blowing on the small propeller fitted on the light’s globe. If you don’t turn your computer off, who will? The answer, of course, is the penguins. Lastly, food is a complex issue; we need to tell where it came from, what it contains, the labor conditions of it’s harvest, how it’s going to taste, if it’s good for us, and whether we’re getting a good deal; we predict a future where our cell phones can scan a barcode, and tell us everything we’d ever want to know about a product.

Microsoft has been touting Vista’s new power saving features, saying that upgrading to Vista could easily save consumers and corporations $50 to $75 per computer per year in energy costs. The question, though, is what marvelous new code makes this miracle possible? The answer? They fixed three silly mistakes that have cost the world billions of dollars in the past five years. Bells & whistles, sleep mode and power-saving confusion have been racking up energy consumption on machines running the OS for the past five years.

The clever Girandole light is turned on and off by blowing on the small propeller fitted on the light’s globe. Instead of a mindless flip of a switch, a concerted and altogether unusual effort is called for: one which will certainly give pause for deliberation, for thankfulness for the pleasure of electrical lighting and a thought for the power source which takes over after your own wind-power activates the lamp. The lamp comes supplied with a 7W megaman energy saving lamp, a purple LED and Elica offers a selection between Coolwhite, Daylight and Warmwhite light…smooth.

If you don’t turn off your computer, who will? The answer, of course, is the penguins. This is part of an excellent advertising campaign by Électricité de France (EDF), showing various animals assisting us in being more energy efficient. They’re funny, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll get the point across. Plus, there’s something cool about penguins as a desktop background (no pun intended).

Lastly, food is a complex issue; we need to tell where it came from, what it contains, the labor conditions of it’s harvest, how it’s going to taste, if it’s good for us, and whether we’re getting a good deal. TreeHugger predicts a future where our cell phones can scan a barcode, and tell us everything we’d ever want to know about a product. How are we so sure? They’re already doing it in Japan. After a breakout of Mad Cow in 2001, Japan’s Food Safety Commission began to tag more and more foods with radio frequency or QR tags that contain information on the origin of foods. Almost all cell phones sold in Japan today contain QR code readers, and the Japanese Food Safety commission has already begun to notice preferential purchase of locally grown foods due to the QR tags. It turns out that knowing more about food actually results in buyers making better decisions…who’d have guessed!?

TreeHugger’s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

This week at TreeHugger: In what might be the sleekest implementation of LEDs for the consumer electronics enthusiast, the Mix Lamp would be right at home next to your titanium Mac. We discover St. Louis Park, an unassuming city a few miles west of Minneapolis, that may be the first town in the country to provide solar-powered wireless internet to its residents. Sticking with solar, the BCKSolar cooker is a compact solar cooker and food carrier that can be folded into a handy tube for travel, and can heat water hot enough to cook rice, pasta, soup, eggs and more. Lastly, check out Spin, a series of slick kitchen appliances which make use of the same two-speed motor embedded within a kitchen countertop.

The Mix Lamp from Luceplan is another stylish integration of LED lighting for the work space. This elegant lamp would be right at home next to your titanium Mac, and delivers “an intense warm and pleasing light.” The Mix has a 50,000 hour life, and its LED Chip on Board technology only drinks up 5 watts of power. The light color can also be changed with an integrated filter.

St. Louis Park, an unassuming city a few miles west of Minneapolis, may be the first in the country to provide solar-powered wireless internet to its residents. If the idea gets the thumbs up in a City Council vote, they will begin the installation of a network of wifi nodes powered by some 400 PV panels situated on public infrastructure around the city. Through a public/private partnership, residents would be able to pay $15 a month for 128 kilobyte speed or $20 for 1 meg. The city expects to save $40,000 to $50,000 a year by using an entirely solar-powered system as opposed to grid power.

From solar wifi to solar cooking: the BCKSolar is a compact solar cooker and food carrier that can be folded into a handy traveling tube. It uses our smiling sun to heat water nearly hot enough to boil, which making it suitable to cook rice, pasta, soup, eggs and more; once hot, the cooker also allows keeping the food warm as a thermos container would. Doesn’t look like it slices, dices or makes julienne fries, though.

Lastly, take a juicer, a can opener, a coffee grinder — ever wonder why every appliance needs its own motor? That was the question designer Iftah Poran asked himself when he conceptualized Spin, a series of kitchen appliances which make use of the same two-speed motor embedded within a kitchen countertop. We’re waiting for such a concept to motorize our entire lives.

TreeHugger’s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.