By Lucille Chi •
November 12, 2009
Have you heard about NRDC’s Smarter Cities?
“When thinking about the urban environment, more often than not problems come first to mind. Less commonly thought about is the potential presented by cities, potential to rethink and reshape their environments responsibly.
Today urban leaders—mayors, businesses and community organizations—are in the environmental vanguard, making upgrades to transportation infrastructure, zoning, building codes, and waste management programs as well as improving access to open space, green jobs, affordable efficient housing and more. If they succeed in making their cities more efficient, responsible and sustainable, what will result will be smarter places for business and healthier places to live.”
Find out what is smart and green near you. Join the team and start reporting the success of your city!
By Lucille Chi •
September 17, 2009
Check out the prefab community blooming online these days! Tiny House Village is trying to connect communities of creative small dwellings. Ideas are abound for these eco communities with Resources For Life’s Small House Society.
Tiny House design has a great set of resources all linked here as well. Check out the plethora of architectural resources,
By Keith Rockmael •
July 10, 2009
Did you know that if you install a Biomass Stove – wood, pellets, etc. that you can nab a 30% tax credit ($1,500 max) up until 2010? Who knows that homeowners can get a 30% tax break for installing Solar Hot Water Heating until 2016? Maybe the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which was signed into law by President Obama in February 2009 isn’t as complicated as the IRS tax code but does anyone really want to delve into the 400 pages of legislation to figure all the ins and outs about how to qualify for the green tax credits available to homeowners?
In a Cliff’s Notes version of the myriad incentives, rebates, and tax incentives GREENandSAVE has created a Federal Tax Incentive Decoder and condensed the material to 11 bite sized pages. Best of all, this resource does not cost a dime and can be downloaded at: http://www.greenandsave.com/homecheckup/free_federal_tax_incentive_decoder
Welcome to the Carnival of the Green! This is the 182nd edition of Treehugger’s weekly roundup of eco links from around the blogosphere.
Welcome to Green Building Elements where home owners and LEED accredited professional alike can learn about advances in green and renewable building materials, current projects in sustainable architecture and progressive urban planning, and local guidelines for creating green structures in [...]
By Dawn Killough •
April 20, 2009
BrightTALK is sponsoring an Earth Week webcast summit, featuring free presentations on water management, green building, green IT, and green marketing.
By Dawn Killough •
February 19, 2009
FairGreenTrade.com recently launched its green product and service directory. There’s a lot more to this web site than meets the eye.
By Low Impact Living •
January 17, 2009
We want to start the New Year off with an eco-bang, and so we’re launching a new Green Home Contest. Low Impact Living and Joie de Vivre Hotels challenge you to make your home as green as you can! We’re going to reward the greenest home of all with a luxurious 3-night stay at the very environmentally-friendly Hotel Carlton in San Francisco. More on the [...]
By Joel Bittle •
November 29, 2008
Can your hardwood floors contribute to global warming? Which hardwoods are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council? Are some types of bamboo greener than others? Eco Timber’s Eco-Friendly Flooring Guide is a valuable source for information on sustainable hardwood flooring and a must read for any green builder. The Richmond, California based company has promoted responsible harvesting of timber and sustainable practices such as reclaiming and salvaging wood (their guide tells you the difference between reclaimed and salvaged wood) since 1992.
Topics in the guide range from legal and illegal logging and responsible forestry to the presence of formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds in the wood and adhesives. Eco Timber tackles every step in the process from subfloors to floor pads to the panels themselves. Looking for a specific hardness of wood? They’ve got a scale. Do you already have a hardwood floor and want advice on green care and maintenance? Eco Timber has a section on maintenance, surface scratching, and refinishing.
By Joel Bittle •
November 20, 2008
Follow Philly’s Postgreen as they attempt to build a modern green home for $100,000.
Just over a year ago, Philadelphia developer Postgreen undertook an ambitious project, to build a modern green home for $100,000. Not only are they seeking to shatter the myth that green homes are unaffordable, but they are documenting every step on their site, 100KHouse.com. Located in the New Kensington area of Philadelphia, the house will be a roughly 1,000 square foot two bedroom one and a half bath modern style home - and will not be a prefab; rather it is being built from the ground up according to LEED for Homes guidelines using such affordable energy saving materials as SIPs (structurally insulated panels.)
Documenting the progress of the 100K House are Postgreen President Chad Ludeman and PR Director Nic Darling. Both are convinced that affordable green building is not only possible, but necessary to bring about true environmental change. Their blog posts are not limited to the progress of the 100K House; they write about a range of interesting green topics.
By Dawn Killough •
November 12, 2008
WileyCPE offers new on-line courses for design and construction professionals. Many of the courses are geared toward sustainable design, and all are applicable to continuing education requirements.
By John Simonetta •
October 12, 2008
This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.
Not all the changes in the promotional products industry relate to actual products. New technologies are starting to make their way into our industry as well.
The neatest thing I have seen lately is the new concept of order portals from companies like Creative Merchandise, LLC, based in California.
Client Order Portals are custom web ordering platforms to make ordering promotional items even easier as they allow companies like ours to display our client’s logos on actual in stock merchandise in real time.
Why is that green? The number one question we get is how is a logo going to look on X item.
In the far past the only way to address this question was to develop a spec sample, i.e to run one item to serve as a sample for the hundreds of, say, coffee mugs to follow. Today we often run .pdf proofs instead of spec samples, but there are still thousands of spec samples being done in our industry.
The problem is that to run something even as simple as one mug spec sample is the same process as running 10,000 mugs. We use the same big machines, same screens, same setup but all that work and energy produce only one item.
It is like using a bulldozer to plant a single flower bulb in your front yard.
