Sales guys live on software as a service. Now the landscape crew gets it too. Greenleaf has developed a hosted software service that it says can save tens of thousands a year in irrigation costs. The company essentially examines the irrigation footprint of a commercial building -- the type of plants, the topography, the soil conditions, the weather, the type of sprinklers, etc. -- and then develops a water plan. Landscapers and facilities managers then use the program to control watering. It can also be updated. Let's say someone notices a brown patch developing outside of one building, he or she can plug the data into the system, change the watering schedule, and try to cure it. Later, it can be turned back down. The system, of course, tracks any changes. An apartment building in San Jose has saved $99,770 over the last six year. The system effectively works in a similar way as the services put out by Hydropoint Data Systems. Hydropoint dynamically adjusts watering to suit weather patterns. Greenleaf says it can do away with weather tracking and get similar (or at least good enough) results for less.

Think, the struggling maker of electric commuter cars, has signed an agreement to deliver 500 cars to ElmoNet, a Dutch company. The first cars were already delivered. The Netherlands is ideal for electric cars. It's flat and condensed. Thus, you could build an electric car with a somewhat small battery and still get to most places you need to go. The Think City goes 112 miles on a charge. Nonetheless, the car costs quite a bit because of the battery. The company released its first cars late last year, but soon had to stop production because of a lack of money. It got a few million from its battery suppliers in 2009. The company sold a couple of cars to deliver mail to Sweden's Royal Family.

This is not a picture of a torture device. Instead, it is an exploded version of the Mirra chair from Herman Miller at the Autodesk gallery in San Francisco. The chair was taken apart and strung up to demonstrate its recyclability. Approximately 96 percent of the material in this thing can be recycled. The gallery, located in the One Market Building, largely exists to promote two messages: design remains an integral aspect in everyday products, and that design techniques can be exploited to reduce energy consumption and garbage.

Plus, there's the underlying message that designers are way cooler than you will ever be. Some other gems in the gallery. The engine on the right from Adept Aeromotive in South Africa can run on biofuels and weighs less than competing engines. I also liked the surfboard blanks, made from sustainable woods. The surfboard designer doesn't whittle a board out of a block of wood. Instead, the board consists of strips taken from sustainably harvested logs.