Green Luxury Items

CUSTOM GREEN COMPUTER: $16,500
Canadian industrial designer Howard Suissa creates exclusive desktop computers that “provide an emotional connection to digital living.” Enlighten is a limited-edition computer model that includes cutting-edge components and is designed with the client’s choice of air or liquid cooling systems, with special attention given to air flow. Enlighten can be customized in its design, carving, inlays, detail materials and wood choice. The computer system is available in AMD or Intel technology packages. The wood is either recycled or sustainable hardwood, and the computer is infinitely updateable; only the software will ever require an upgrade.

CONTACT: Suissa Computers. —Jennifer Santisi


ETHICAL CUFF LINKS: $5,169
Ingle & Rhode, a UK company that boasts it’s the “Ethical Jeweller,” has a variety of cuff links in its collection in gold, silver and platinum, made in an environmentally responsible fashion. The company doesn’t buy gold made with cyanide or mercury and uses recycled platinum. It also sources its precious stones from small cooperatives rather than large-scale miners and creates its own colored diamonds in the laboratory. And if the price is too much to link your cuffs, there are others available for just $3,180.

CONTACT: Ingle & Rhode, +44 (0) 20 7197 9515. —Amanda Peterka


SOLAR YACHT: $2.5 million
The Independence Green Yacht 60 commandeers solar energy for use during the day and then stows the energy away as hydrogen and electricity for use when the sun goes down. The green yacht can cruise at 13.5 knots at top speed and can run 1,200 miles from stored energy at night for those late parties on board. And if the 60-foot boat ever runs aground or comes to the end of its voyages, the hull is made of recyclable aluminum. Independence is still trying to anchor a buyer for the yacht’s maiden voyage, but Fred Barry, president of the company, says all the pieces are in place to build the first model.

CONTACT: Independence Green Yachts, (717) 571-8315,. —A.P.


RECYCLED NIGHT-LIGHT: $450-$590
At Esque studio in Portland, Oregon, artists Andi Kovel and Justin Parker use recycled glass to create artistic and functional pieces. An electric furnace that’s powered by wind energy processes the used glass. A sleeping bird night-light includes a 6″ long cord with a switch and socket, and a 25-watt bulb. The glass is available in four colors: bottle brown, clear, cream (shown) or gold.

CONTACT: Esque. —J.S.


A WATCH THAT CARES: $300,000-$400,000
This past fall, environmentally aware actor Leonardo DiCaprio teamed with Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre in a program named “Time to Care” to sell two exclusive watches, with all profits going toward the Leonardo DiCaprio Fund at the California Community Foundation. The foundation supports the National Resources Defense Council, among other green causes. One of the watches, the Master Compressor Extreme LAB, is the same model DiCaprio wore to The 11th Hour premiere and is engraved with his signature. The even pricier model is the first watch to have a cylindrical balance-spring, enhancing its accuracy in telling time.

CONTACT: Leonardo DiCaprio Fund. —A.P.