9.29.2006

100 Percent



In another affirmation of environmental concern, 3form has implemented a new program for recycling and reusing materials removed from installations. A bidirectional process, ecoresin™ panels having reached end-of-life status because of remodeling are saved from unnecessary landfill use and prepared for reuse. Low impact/high design. 100 Percent is a new design driven material that leaves a low environmental footprint. Made entirely from post-consumer recycled hdpe, it is waste transormed into high designed and engineered panels.
3 Form

9.28.2006

Building Green


This large, generously illustrated manual is an excellent primer on owner-designed and site-inspired building. Snell, who wrote the eco-friendly The Good House Book, and Callahan, a more conventional but highly experienced builder and contractor, take readers step-by-step through the creation of a charming little guesthouse, demonstrating a variety of "green" techniques along the way. They start with an introduction to building fundamentals and how alternative materials can provide the necessities of housing: structure, climate-control and separation from as well as connection to the outer world. Next comes a mini-course in design. But the bulk of the book is hands-on: the nuts-and-bolts of siting; foundations; flooring; living (plant-covered) roofs; and cob, cordwood, straw-bale and modified stick frame walls—although the book's minimal treatment of electricity and plumbing, and how to integrate them with unfamiliar materials like cob or straw-bale, disappoints. Snell's tendency to decry the sins of modern architectural practice can become exasperating, but doesn't diminish the value of his extensive experience-derived knowledge; and the grace and beauty of the authors' building project, featuring Callahan's fine finish work, is inspiring. The abundance of color photos detailing the construction process, supplemented by examples from indigenous buildings around the world, is particularly helpful.

Green Building

9.26.2006

The Colani Rotor House


The Bathroom
The Kitchen
The Bedroom

An avant-garde project by the design guru Luigi Colani and HANSE HAUS, which dealt intensively with the topic of house shapes of the future. Thanks to the rotor technology – in the living room the functional areas of the kitchen, bathroom and sleeping area are rotated – a space is created from 36 m² of actual living space which feels much larger. This saves space, and is functional and economic. This study cannot yet be built in series in this form. However, a prototype can be viewed at the works location Oberleichtersbach.
link-Hanse Haus

9.25.2006

Eco Friendly Modular Carpet




Sometimes it’s human nature to miss the long view. But Roger Milliken, chairman and CEO of Milliken & Company, is one of the rare few who sees both the forests AND the trees. In his 60 years of visionary leadership, he’s nurtured the planting of tens of millions of trees. In fact, our headquarter campus is a nationally acclaimed arboretum dedicated to cultivating and sharing information about noble trees for future generations.
link- Milliken Floor Covering

9.22.2006

form3design


Bamboo side table and lounge chair at form3design

Living Stones Felt Furniture


link- Living Stones

Dome Homes Offer Unmatched Energy Efficiency


Timberline Geodesic Homes have been constructed in all 50 states and many foreign countries. Built in all types of climates, Timberline Geodesic Homes offer unmatched energy efficiency. Timberline Domes use 30% less surface area to enclose the same amount of volume as a box type structure. This means there is less area for heat to escape or outside air to penetrate. In addition, the spherical shape of a geodesic dome provides for natural and efficient interior air circulation. The natural aerodynamics of the dome means that cold air blows around the home instead of hitting a flat wall and penetrating to the inside.
link- Timberline Geodesics

9.21.2006

Good Green Homes


What does "green" have to do with our homes? In essence, green building-or sustainable building-means being smart about how we use energy, water, and building materials so that we can live well without needlessly damaging the environment. Creating a good green home isn't just about conservation, about using less or saving more-although that's certainly part of it. It's about creating better homes that are easier on the environment, less expensive over the long term, and more delightful to come home to. That's the message Jennifer Roberts wants to share in Good Green Homes, the ultimate new guide for people who want to live in comfortable, healthy, environmentally conscious homes.


Good Green Homes

Glowing Mushrooms Water Thirsty Plants


Made from handblown glass, these watering spikes are both pretty and practical. By day, they’ll deliver up to a cup of water right at the root zone. When evening falls, phosphorescent speckles inside the glass begin to glow, producing 2 to 4 hours of soft illumination. For best effect, place in an area with little ambient light.
on sale at Gardener's Supply Company For 3 for $9.99

World View LED Lights


World View is a virtually weightless lighting fixture. Constructed from a cluster of 91 LEDs suspended from a silver helium balloon and anchored by a spool at floor level, World View proves the simplest, most humble materials can reach great heights.
link- AfroditiKrassa

9.15.2006

The Armchair Environmentalist


Extract from the chapter on Gardening

If you’re a gardening novice - a virgin when it comes to planting methods and pest control - let’s start with some of the basics about the lovely, lush, living things we call plants. Proper experienced gardeners divide garden plants into all sorts of categories: perennials and annuals, herbaceous and woody, complicated things we didn’t worry about here. The good news is that all of them have simple needs: water, air, and sunshine. Given half a chance, they will grow and thrive. They want to live long enough to reproduce, which is why they produce flowers and fruit. Our aims and theirs usually coincide, you see, so the trepidation people sometimes feel about gardening just isn’t necessary.

Gardening is one of the best de-stressors around because it gets us to tune in to the rhythms and signals of the natural world. That is, as long as we don’t start a cycle of endless drives to the garden center and subsequent frantic ‘getting things in.’ Keep it simple. Gardening is about nurture. It’s creative, like water-colour painting in three dimensions, and it will calm your spirit and focus your mind.

If you’re totally new to gardening, here are two little projects to show the wonderful vigor of plant life.
Cut an extra-thick slice from the top of five or six carrots, a good inch or so of green and orange. Place cut side down in a saucer, on a little gravel or sand if you have some handy, and add half an inch of water. Put the saucer on a windowsill, keep the water topped up, and wait. Soon you’ll see delicate fernlike leaves begin to unfold. I love this because the leaves are pretty (carrots are related to Queen Anne’s lace and other garden flowers) and because it’s such a great demonstration of the life force in even a tired bag of supermarket veg.

The second project will help you visualize what takes place beneath the soil when you actually get outside. And you’ll end up with a tasty, nutritious salad! You can sprout many different seeds, but I recommend ordinary green lentils. Soak a small teacupful in cool water overnight, drain in a sieve, then keep them in the sieve (you can also buy a special sprouting jar) and rinse them with cool water twice a day. Cover with a cloth or keep them in a dark place, and watch what happens! A tiny pale root tip will appear on the first day. When the roots are as long as lentil is across, rinse again and toss with vinaigrette and chopped onion and celery. Raisins or cubes of cheese are nice, too. Lunch is served!

Armchair Environmentalist

Solar Powered Outdoor Path Lights


Chandler Platinum Solar Light Set - 18 pk. Made with stainless steel, Alpan's Chandler Platinum Collection solar lights will make a beautiful addition to any home. The white LED bulb is bright and permanent and will never need to be replaced. There are no wires to install, allowing easy placement anywhere on your lawn. Built-in sensor automatically turns on the light at night and turns off during the day. Features Solar light set, 18 pk. Made with stainless steel White LED bulb is bright will never need to be replaced No wires to install Easy placement anywhere on your lawn Built-in sensor automatically turns on the light at night turns off during the day.

Washing Up Brush


Washing-up brush
The Soap-brush from Menu kills two birds with one stone: It saves detergent and protects the environment in this way, and it looks smart on the kitchen table. Pour water and some drops of detergent into the soft rubber dish, put the spring with the steel washer in the dish, and place the brush on top. By pushing the brush up and down a couple of times, you generate ample foam for managing the washing-up. The handle is provided with a band of soft rubber ensuring a firm grip even with wet hands.
link- menu

9.14.2006

16 Pousse


16 Pousses is a zinc frame that hides a water tube. Frame your own little garden and watch nature grow indoors. Then rediscover the long lost childhood pleasures of sowing, waiting and harvesting. Playing the novice gardener again…
link- C.Quoi

Tabletop Greenhouses


Get a great start on the growing season. These German-Austrian made cold frames are the finest in European design. Weather-resistant with 3.4mm thick double skin thermo polycarbonate panes and a sturdy aluminum frame. Two adjustable wind-proof ventilators per window. Add-on units available to let this frame grow with your garden. Dimensions: 39.37in. x 35.43in. x 15.74in. height. Add-on unit extends the Cold Frame 1000 by 39.37in. Two windows and two wind proof ventilators per window. Pictured with optional Add-on unit (JWAO). The JUWEL double-skin panes are unbreakable and injury proof even with extreme cold. Uniform light distribution due to ideal refraction of light, UV-resistant & guaranteed yellowing proof.
link- A.M. Leonard

9.13.2006

Eco Smart Fireplaces




The Igloo is a rectangular shaped fireplace. It is a freestanding piece of furniture designed to accept the EcoSmart flue less burner. The EcoSmart® Fire Igloo is designed for installation in units, apartments, houses, and commercial premises including offices, bars & restaurants. The Igloo comprises a toughened glass frame for the back and sides with a “disappearing” effect and a non-combustible floating shelf (corian) that has a cut-out to accommodate a Top Tray (which is fitted flush with the shelf surface) and then the EcoSmart® burner is inserted.
link- EcoSmart

Bath Ball Faucet Filter


Now you can take a relaxing chlorine-free bath without having to fill the tub with your showerhead. Simply attach the Bath Ball Faucet Filter under the tub faucet with the sturdy vinyl strap. Water flows into openings in the top as the KDF filter media releases water that's 95% chlorine-free. You'll notice the difference in water quality with your first bath. 4" diameter.
Bath Ball Faucet Filter

9.12.2006

The Firefly Human Powered LED Nose Ring


"The Firefly nose ring is a magical jewelry piece. As you breathe, delicate luminous pulses will glow, giving your face an extra shine… Using a most delicate fan structure, the air movement created while exhaling is transformed into electric energy, thus lighting up a led light."
link- Core 77

The Ban Beater Grey Water System


The all new easy to use Grey Water Recycling System
Recycle your water and start saving your money!
What is grey water you ask? Any water that has been used in the home, except water from toilets, is called grey water. Dish, shower, sink, and laundry water comprise 50-80% of residential "waste" water. This may be reused for other purposes, especially for but not solely watering of non-edible plants, washing cars, windows and the outsides of buildings.
link- Ban Beater

9.08.2006

Klean Kanteen Sippy Cup


"Finally! A safe, non leaching sippy cup alternative for toddlers. The Klean Kanteen 12 oz Sippy Cup is a stainless steel bottle (no epoxy coating on the inside) coupled with a non-leaching #5 polypropylene adaptor and #5 polypropylene sippy spout. The Stainless Steel Sippy Cup is Here! Know that your toddler is drinking clean, pure water without the risk of Bishphenol-A, a potent hormone disruptor found to leach from hard, plastic (particularly #7 polycarbonate plastic) Works with the Avent Sippy Spouts The adaptor works with the Avent sippy spouts (two included) and is dishwasher safe. All caps and lids fit all sizes of Klean Kanteens so this is a bottle that can grow with your child. Outgrown the sippy lid? Simply a sports cap or stainless steel flat cap. Wahoo! Parents celebrate. We take such care in what we feed our littlest ones. Now we take the same care in the purity of their water and other beverages."
Just $15.95
Klean Kanteen

Bamboo Fiber Speakers


" Osaka, Japan-Panasonic Electronic Devices Co., Ltd. has developed the high sound-quality speaker adopting the 100%-banboo-fiber diaphragm, in partnership with Research and Development Center of Bamboo Resource, Doshisha University.
The newly developed speakers are expected to reproduce higher sound-quality than the speaker with the diaphragm using high-technology fiber, and to reproduce natural original sound. Since a bamboo growing up fast is used as raw materials for them, they are environmentally-friendly from the point of view of resources protection compared with the diaphragm using a high-grade wood pulp including a needle-leaf tree."
link- Panasonic

9.06.2006

Dying It Green

"Ecopod is a revolutionary design in coffins made from naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper. The time and consideration gone into the concept and design of the Ecopod we feel has culminated in a product with much to offer.
Made from 100% ecologically sound materials the Ecopod is the ideal product for a non toxic burial or cremation. Perfect for use in greenfield sites. "
Ecopod

This really is not about building green so much as it is about simply being green. The idea of planning ones funeral is usually not something most of us want to think about but if you actually knew what they do to your corpse just to prepare it for display and burial you would jump out of your seat! To me the idea of having an eco friendly funeral is really quite appealing- when I'm dead toss me in a cardboard box and throw me in the ground so that I can dissipate back into the earth.
Remember Me is a book that has a gentle but interesting and readable look at the way the business of death is changing in the US (and beyond).


"This intriguing survey of America's rapidly mutating funeral customs probes the one force mightier than death: consumerism. Journalist Cullen explores the innumerable ways in which funerals are being personalized, publicized, economized, commercialized, trivialized and, perhaps, humanized. Among the many offbeat memorials she unearths are funerals with Hawaiian, tango or Harley-Davidson themes, as well as beer-themed caskets, eco-friendly funerals, "human diamonds" manufactured from a loved one's ashes, and a Colorado town that celebrates a do-it-yourself cryonics pioneer with its Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival, now a major tourist attraction. In the middle of it all, she finds, is an uneasy funeral industry, squeezed at the bottom by cheap Chinese caskets and the vogue for no-frills cremation and challenged at the top by finicky boomer customers demanding more elaborate and symbol-laden rites (one poignant graveside dove-release attracted a passing hawk, with off-message results.) Cullen isn't much given to muckraking or dark pensées; "Death is a big, huge bummer" is as morbid as she gets. Her set-piece retrospectives on the guests of honor at unusual send-offs sometimes seem dully eulogistic. But for the most part her vivid reportage and wryly sympathetic tone feel anything but embalmed."

9.01.2006

Ukao Grass Furniture






Ukao’s material of choice is bamboo, a proud member of the grass family. There are over 1,500 species of bamboo worldwide, yet only the Moso species (Phyllostachys pubescens) is currently used for our furniture pieces. Moso bamboo grows up to fifty feet in height and six inches in diameter, with a culm, or wall, thickness of an inch or more. Unlike traditional hardwoods, bamboo typically grows to maturity in 3-7 years and is renewably harvested over and over from the same mother root system for decades.