There are two reasons why they’re named that way: first of all, they’re all in earth tones or colors. Second of all, that’s because they’re made from stuff derived from the earth like coffee beans, cedar sawdust or cedar bark.

They might not look as attractive as the extremely colorful plastic LEGO blocks, but I think you could definitely teach a thing or two about using eco-friendly stuff to your kids with these blocks. That, and the fact that appearances are just appearances because you can pretty much do the same thing with Earth Blocks and plain LEGO bricks, creating whatever structure your mind can come up with.

Sure, it’s not like you typically throw out LEGO bricks, but there are bound to be by-products of manufacturing all that plastic, right? If you’re ready to go green with your bricks, you can get a set of 50 Earth Blocks over at the Guggenheim Store for $30(USD).

[via Dvice via Bit Rebels]

What sets the Material 6 Wood iPhone Backs apart is that they’re available in a bunch of different finishes. Each package comes complete with a the special screwdriver that will allow you to remove the glass back of your iPhone and replace it with this wooden one.

Material 6 sells these from $90 to $100 (USD), so there on the expensive side of things, but they do look quite good. The backs are available for the iPhone 4 and 4S. Custom engravings are available for an extra $5.

[via Uncrate]

The Tilt iPad Heritage case is made out of 100% wood felt and semi-vegetable tanned leather that’s been naturally aged. The felt can be rolled up so that you can tilt your iPad on a desk to get some work done. The natural materials should also make for a nice contrast with the modern metal and glass body of the iPad 2.

The Tilt iPad Heritage case sells for €89 (~$123 USD) and is available at Hard Graft’s store.

Designer Joey Roth (of ceramic speakers fame) created this beautiful rectangular mouse, using primarily felt, a little bit of teak, and a sliver of aluminum on the bottom as a foundation (although it looks like there are some tiny felt(?) feet there to help it glide along too.)

The mouse offers buttons on either side of a scroll wheel, and an optical sensor on the bottom. While I’m not sure that a rectangle is the most ergonomically-correct design in the palm of your hand, I’m willing to cut the design some slack because it looks so good. Regardless, the thought is that the felt will gradually conform to the shape of its user’s hand.

This particular mouse is only a prototype, to be shown at the American Design Club’s “Use Me” exhibit at 45 Great Jones Street in New York, between May 13th and May 16th, 2011. I’m hopeful that Joey decides to produce these mice, as I think they look really nice. Hey, I made a rhyme!

[via Treehugger]

The latest weird set of speakers are Marcos Ignacio Madia’s Growin’ Up speakers that are more concept than reality at this point. The speakers come in modules that can be stacked to design the speaker you want. Each section is a bit narrower than the other sort of like how a tree gets narrower as you go up.

Each modular section can be turned to give the angle the user wants. Exactly how the speakers are powered is unclear. Presumably, each of those sections needs its own power cord, which would get ugly fast. You would think speakers modeled after a tree would be made out of wood, but these things seem to be plastic.

[via Hometone via Dvice]

This high-tech plantlife does away with such petty annoyances as dirt, water and sunlight, replacing them with an ongoing thirst for electricity. Each kit comes complete with bendy branches, tipped off with bright and colorful LEDs.

While these particular ones are only available in Korea and come with a 220-volt power adapter, I managed to find some similar ones over at Sam’s Club.

Macally’s wooden ECOFAN and ECOFANPRO stands keep your laptop nice and cool, and look good doing it . Each stand has a built-in USB powered cooling fan, and can support any laptop up to 17″. They’re made from Bamboo wood, which not only has a warm natural style, it’s eco-friendly.

While the ECOFAN features a fixed-position stand, I greatly prefer the adjustable height stand on the ECOFANPRO (pictured above). Here’s a snapshot of the simpler model:

Both stands are available over on Amazon, with prices around $32 to 33 (USD) for either model. With virtually no price difference, there’s no reason not to go PRO.

Now all I need is one of those Bamboo laptops to go with this, and I’ll be set.

Each case is crafted from solid hardwoods like walnut, cherry or bamboo, and just look just plain stunning. Not only do they avoid the environmental pitfalls of plastics, these cases are amazingly tough and can protect your delicate electronic devices as well or better than their plastic counterparts. And there’s a soft, scratch-resistant lining to keep your media player as good as new and snugly held inside the wooden shell.

They’re available now over at Vers, with the iPod touch, iPod classic and iPhone versions selling for $39.99 (USD), and the iPod nano version at $34.99.

There’s more: [re]Drive’s packaging is made of either recycled or recyclable material. And that “naturally grown” bit? Hitachi – or SimpleTech – really means that they grow their own bamboo. That’s one less thing that they have to transport, which means less fossil fuels consumed, which means less air pollution.

And there’s a bit more, but I’m tired. Go read the rest of it if you want. But if you’re already sold on the [re]Drive, head on to Amazon and get one for $84 (USD). Let’s hope bamboo doesn’t become scarce because of these environment-friendly electronics companies and their bamboo-encased gadgets.

Micro Innovations’ wooden keyboard and mouse are made primarily from eco-friendly bamboo, giving them a natural look that you don’t normally see sitting next to high-tech equipment. And while the keys themselves are made from plastic, the main enclosure is all wood.

The 104-key USB keyboard and scroll-wheel mouse work with PCs, Macs and Linux PCs, and are really not that much more expensive than other peripherals.

You can grab a set that includes both the bamboo keyboard and mouse over at  Amazon for about $49 (USD).

Miniot’s form-fitting iWood cases are made from natural hardwoods including oak, cherry, mahogany, walnut and padouk (what the heck is padouk, anyway)?

Priced at €80 ($125 USD) a pop, they’re nearly as expensive as the iPhone 3G itself. But isn’t beauty priceless?

Miniot has already been shipping iPhone and iPod Touch cases for a while now, and should be rolling out the iPhone 3G version of the case by the end of July.

Handcrafted in Germany by Thalbach Design, each wooden USB flash drive is made from quality hardwoods and delicately sanded to a smooth finish.

The memory sticks come in a variety of hardwoods including 150-year old burled wood, ebony, ash, maple and several colored stain finishes as well. Prices range from €45 ($69 USD) to €95 ($135 USD), depending on style and memory size.

[via Designspotter]