Green Options

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By 2010, China will unveil a modern city powered by 100% renewable resources, capable of growing all of its own food using organic farming methods and recycling all of its waste.

The future city, Dongtan, is growing out of an island at the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta. The unique Ecocity being built on the island is also a creative way to protect the island’s ecologically sensitive wetland environment from China’s fast-paced development.

What will life in China’s first ecocity look like?

At the heart of all building projects are the materials, the stuff, the bricks and sticks, the elements that are assembled to build a building. Different materials have different impacts on the Earth. Some require extensive resources for their manufacture. Steel and other metals need to be refined from ore and processed into their final forms, often several operations, all taking great amounts of energy. The choices that go into selecting building materials have long range ramifications in a number of ways.

The materials we use in our buildings have an enormous impact on the Earth. Choosing materials with a lower impact can be an important criterion, but the matter needs to be looked at with proper long-term perspective. Careful use of materials with a long useful life (rather than materials which merely stick around for a long time after they have reached the end of their useful life, like vinyl siding) can result in a building that serves generations. Densities of use found in modern cities are only realistically possible when using higher impact materials such as steel. However, the offsetting benefits coming from the use of those materials helps to make this a more reasonable choice.

This November 7-9, Chicago will host the largest GreenBuild Expo in history. Put on by the USGBC (United States Green Building Council), this year over 18,000 attendees will gather to learn about the trends in green construction and get inspired about future projects. In a city aiming to be the greenest, this is a monumental event. On top of it all, GreenBuild will be held in one of

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Whether you do it yourself or leave it to the professionals, conducting a home energy audit will help you determine what improvements you’ll need to make your home more energy efficient, so you can live more comfortably and start saving money on utility bills.

An energy audit requires a look at your annual energy usage and an examination, or walk through, of your home. Unfortunately, since houses aren’t built as energy

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Doors for Reuse at Build It Green! NYC: Image source: Build It Green! NYCAnna Hackman is the author and publisher of the blog, Green Talk, which is based on her own experience of building and maintaining a house using many green materials, and wishing to connect with others to help turn the Planet green, one

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