Green Options

I’ve written about earth friendly paints here on Eco Child’s Play before.  With a recent home improvement project (that feels like it will last forever), I’ve had paint on the mind.

Now, Dutch Boy has introduced a line of paint called Refresh.  This zero VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint is Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Certified.  Another awesome bonus… this paint actually eliminates odors around the house.  I can definitely take advantage of this benefit to help reduce the smoke odor in our home from the previous owners.

Dutch Boy is hosting a contest, post your ugly/stinky room story for a chance to win a Refresh paint makeover. I will definitely be going over to enter for a chance to win one of these prizes:

How can energy efficiency at home give more by taking less? The need for energy efficient home improvements is at an all time high and there has never been a better time to address your home’s energy needs!

I don’t yet keep my craft room as green and organized as Lenore does, but it is one of my New Year’s resolutions to decorate my house more nicely (along with learning to sprout seeds, exercising every day, and getting a book contract), and it is part of our family ethic that anything we do must be done as green and thriftily as possible (per my green crafting manifesto), so Lenore and I are going to be craft room buddies pretty soon, I think.

I work almost entirely with found and recycled materials, so one of my biggest problems is the storage of…stuff. Old postage stamps, orphaned game pieces, costume jewelry, wrapping paper, comic books, beach rocks, buttons, and tinsel–you name it, and it finds its way into my work, and if I can’t see it and access it, I can’t use it.

Yeah, I’m tempted every time I wander into some big-box store, 40%-off coupon in hand, by all those clear, organized, neatly-portioned craft bins they always sell. Look, a different compartment for each kind of bead, and I can see them all! Look, slide-out drawers for each different kind of paper!

But I also want my craft room to have character, to not only contain the things that inspire me, but also, itself, BE an inspiration to me. So I have not bought those clear, organized, handy-yet-bland plastic bins. Instead, I try to find vintage, thrifted, or otherwise recycled containers for all my storage needs. Here’s part of my collection of vintage containers:

A California architect has constructed a home that heats itself from the warmth of its appliances. Homes like this have been popular in Germany, where a local architect built the first of its kind in 1991, but they are only just starting to catch on here in the States.

[Creative Commons photo by KeWynn Lee]

Nabih Tahan’s “Passive House” on Grant Street in Berkeley is the first one in California. It uses a ventilator to recycle the heat that radiates from the appliances, reducing the use of heat from fossil fuels by 80%-90%.

Dog days of August? Not at sustainablog!

While most people are wondering if the summer heat is ever going to end, we were hitting our stride here: many more posts, and much more variety. Perhaps it was the cool breeze created by fingers flying across the keyboard…

August 2008

• Kelli Best-Oliver reported on a couple of bloggers documenting the American urban homesteading movement.
• Low Impact Living discovered a much better investment than the stock market: green home improvements.
• Lisa Kivirist showed us how to adopt a neighbor’s fruit tree.
• Raz Godelnik of Eco-Libris wondered if free online open-source textbooks represented the future for college students.

The “economic bailout” passed by Congress in October included the extension of federal tax credits for energy efficiency. Here is a brief overview of the federal incentives.

[Image courtesy of BottleStone, used with permission]

California company BottleStone uses local, post-consumer glass combined with clay and cement to create recycled countertops. They have identified four areas of manufacturing that impact the environment and strive to create their product with as low an impact as possible in these areas. BottleStone is eligible for LEED credits and was a Green Building Winner in the 2008 California Clean Tech Open.

[Image credit: Pirate Alice at Flickr, Creative Commons license]

According to the US Department of Energy, over 1/3 of Americans’ energy bills goes towards heating their homes. By taking steps to reduce the energy devoted to home heating, you can lower your CO2 emissions by hundreds to thousands of pounds. As temperatures drop this winter, there are a few things you can do before reaching for that thermostat. The average American spends $1900 annually on energy bills, so on top of conserving fossil fuels, these tips should save you some cash, too!

As part of the current Canadian election campaign, leaders of the Canadian Liberal Party have announced a plan for spending more than a half a billion dollars to improve the energy efficiency of homes across Canada, if they are elected next month.

Under the four-year proposal, the Liberals would offer homeowners $10,000 in financial support for investing in energy-saving measures such as insulation, weatherproofing and more efficient heating systems.

Up to $10,000 would also be available to homeowners as an interest-free “green mortgage loan” to help with up-front costs and major retrofits.

RSMeans new book, “Green Home Improvement,” provides ideas for owners and contractors on ways to “green up” an existing building. It provides cost and savings information that make selecting a project easy.