The Financial Times Climate Change Contest had some amazing inventions competing for the $75,000 first place prize from Hewlett-Packard.

Among the contestants were: Mootral, a feed supplement for livestock that reduces the methane they emit by 15 per cent. And Deflecktors, wheel covers that make delivery trucks more fuel-efficient by reducing drag.

One of the most interesting inventions, in our opinion, was the Black Phantom, a machine that turns wood and organic material into charcoal. This charcoal not only has a myriad of uses but it also prevents that carbon from just being released into the atmosphere. The contest judges loved this idea as well but a weak public response left it in fifth place when total points were tallied.

The winner of the Financial Times Climate Change Contest was a much-deserving solar cooker. The $6.60 solar cooker, called the Kyoto Box, is made from insulating two cardboard boxes, and makes use of reflective foil and black paint to harness solar energy for cooking.

The cheap, elegant and practical product is currently being manufactured in Nairobi. The product should reduce the use of firewood for cooking, which would in turn slow deforestation while reducing carbon emissions.
The Kyoto Box can boil 10 liters of water within two hours for various purposes including purifying for drinking and cooking.

How’s this for a slick-looking piece of eco-friendly machine? Here’s a laptop that uses biodegradable bamboo used in its construction. The U6V Bamboo notebook’s panel and palm rest is composed of bamboo and measures 15.2 x 9.6″ with a 12.1″ wide-screen with the standard 1280×800 resolution.

The notebook uses a LED backlight wide panel for lower power consumption, and ASUS SmartLogon technology that grants the user access with positive facial scan.

The ASUS U6V bamboo notebook retails for a cool $3075, but man - it’s a nice chunk of laptop.

With the Greener Gadgets Conference finally starting tomorrow in New York City we thought we’d give a brief preview of some of the 50 green gadget designs that have been entered in the conference’s design competition.

The winner will get $3,000 to go towards helping make theirs a reality. You can see a complete list of the 50 green gadgets online and vote for your favorite or if your planning on attending you can check them out yourself and vote on them there.

First up is the Recompute (pictured above). The Recompute is a computer with a case made entirely out of cardboard. The computer can be dismantled without tools for easy recycling of parts. It’s eight USB ports allows for plenty of external hardware customizations.

Then we have the Guilty Wallet. The Guilty Wallet is basically designed to shame and humiliate for spending too much. This might not be for everyone but chances are we all know someone who could benefit from this very original green gadget.

The Bware Water Meter is another interesting design. The Bware attaches to taps and shower heads and measures the amount of water used. An advanced kit version will include wireless connections and software that helps users track their usage.

Be sure to check out the full list of the Top 50 Green Gadgets and vote on your favorite.

We Ninjas like to be trendy. And what better to be trendy and environmentally friendly at the same time? Designed and constructed using renewable materials, The Ray is one of the most slick and eco-friendly watches we’ve seen.

The Ray by Quicksilver is the latest eco-friendly watch which has been designed with an eco-design as well as during production as the company is green even during the manufacturing, packaging and transportation of the product. The watch is made from real ebony wood chosen for its high density and durable characteristics.

The sexy look of  The Ray is due in part to the recyclable anti-allergy 316L stainless steel, recyclable aluminum, recyclable mineral crystal, solvent free links as well as the 27 -jewel stainless steel and brass automatic movement.

The watch is assembled entirely by hand in Quiksilver’s factories and takes seven months to produce rather than 4 months for traditionally manufactured watches.

Want something that will look retro, stylish and is also eco-friendly? The Magno AM/FM radio is handcrafted in Indonesia from naturally harvested new growth wood.

The added bonus? For every tree that is used in production of the Mango radios, a new one is planted.

The radios are manufactured by Areaware, a New York City based company known for unique and eco-friendly products. The company only uses recycled, reused or resalvaged materials/fibers in production and biodegradable materials/fibers in product line.

The Kindle 2 paperless book from Amazon is on its way and it’s looking like it’s made some nice improvements over the first Amazon Kindle.

The Kindle 2 is extremely thin at just over 1/3 of an inch and weighs only 10.2 ounces, which is about the same as a typical paperback novel.

It also lets you download books from anywhere without even needing a Wi-Fi connection since, like the iPhone, it runs on 3G wireless. It can download books in less than a minute and there’s no additional monthly costs or service fees.

Its battery longevity has been improved by 25 percent which means it will allow for four days of reading if the wireless connection is left on for two weeks if it’s off. It turns pages 20 percent faster and now can hold over 1,500 books (2 gigs of internal memory). Those are books that don’t require the harvesting of any trees which is the biggest attraction to us for this eco-friendly gadget.

It also includes what Amazon calls the Read-to-Me function, which allows the Kindle 2 to read anything to you. We’re not too sure how effective or useful this might prove but it’s there if this is the sort of function you might be looking for.

The display is the same display as used by the first Kindle which is fine. The e-ink technology is excellent and reads almost like a real book.

Amazon currently boasts a book selection with over 230,000 titles and the prices tend to be significantly less than what you would pay if you bought the book in a store.

While we are huge fans of the traditional book format we think with a good display like e-ink we will probably be weaned off of our paper book addiction. This brings us to the bad news for the Kindle 2, the price. At $359 USD it’s a bit steep. We may wait a while and see if the cost comes down before we grab this slick little eco-technology.

If you’re ready to jump in feet first you can head over to Amazon and pre-order the Kindle 2 today.

The second Greener Gadgets Design competition is currently under way and they are looking for your votes.

We here at Eco Tech Ninja are obviously nuts about green gadgets and environmental technology so this contest has us swooning with all the cool eco gadgets.

Head over to Core 77 and vote on your favorite. There are 50 gadgets in total and some show some serious promise. It’s full of wind-powered this and solar panel that. Frankly, it’s an eco nerd paradise.

Pictured above is one of my personal favorites from the competition - The Recompute. And yes, that’s a computer made out of cardboard. Booya!

File this one under Handy Devices That Are Both Environmentally Friendly and Practical; or just under eco-friendly gadgets. Whatever floats your boat.

Anyway, I recently came across Brando’s Multi-function Digital Mobile Solar Charger. It’s a handy little eco-friendly gadget that uses a small solar panel to charge a lithium battery pack which in turn charges your laptop, cell phone, PDA, digital camera, MP3 player, PSP or whatever.

Besides it being a great example of eco-friendly technology, I like it for my other two usual reasons. It’s perfect for either a camping trip or a zombie apocalypse. In either setting as long as you have sun, you have juice for your electronics.

Because when everything goes to hell and the zombies are eating faces, I damn well don’t want to be stuck without my PSP.

Get in shape and save the planet at the same time with this cool little phone charger that goes by the name of Pedal and Power.

I like this idea a lot because not only is it a great example of environmentally friendly technology but it is also extremely practical. Pedal and Power claims to be able to charge all phones, GPS systems and more no matter what make or model.

It sounds great for those long bike excursions and camping trips. It would also be pretty useful for anyone who rides their bike a lot since they could essentially throw out their old plug-in phone cord.

I haven’t got a hold of one yet though so I’m hoping people who have tried can comment here and let us know how effective this little eco-tech gadget is.

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show seemed to have an official theme of environmentalism. With every company hawking their latest green wares it felt like the tech industry had major some major leaps forward in reducing its environmental impact.

But how many of these eco-friendly gadgets were having a real impact and how many were just slapping a green sticker on and making some weak claims to ease their customers consciences?

According to the Environmental Defense Fund there is still a long way to go on the path to greener gadgets. Elizabeth Sturcken, the Fund’s Managing Director of Corporate Partnerships, said that many of the companies in the tech industry are hiding behind a “green cloak”.

Frodo’s cloak from the Lord of the Rings you ask? No, we say, not even close.

The cloak Sturcken refers to regards things like the fact that although many computer and TV companies have recycling programs, there are generally only a couple in each state.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, each year 400 million electronic devices are thrown in the garbage and that an average of 15 - 17 percent of all the electricity consumed in California residences is used by electronic gadgets.

While it’s good to see that tech companies are making an effort with things like LG’s new eco-friendly TV that uses 50 percent less power and the Motorola W233 Renew which claims to be carbon neutral, it’s still a big steep hill that still needs to be climbed.