Archive for the ‘Recycling’ Category
July 17th, 2008
Green Condos in the West
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A couple of weeks back we did a feature on the great trend of green condo developments taking off all over the country– and we covered many developments in the East and South. Click here to learn about Green Condos in the Eastern U.S.
A green condo can be a wonderful alternative for (the vast majority of) those of us who cannot afford to build a new green single-family home. We want sustainable design, solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and so much more, but we can’t afford to build. Viola– the green condo!
This week we cover many of the excellent green condos available in the Western United States. There are so many to choose from it’s tough to pick just a selection to highlight here!
In the Los Angeles Area
Evo South is an exciting development in the heart of downtown LA. It is an urban tower of steel and glass– 23 stories with 311 residences. They are in the process of seeking LEED certification for the building. The units feature such eco-friendly elements as Bosch Energy Star appliances, low-flow water fixtures, Nature’s Choice carpeting and more.
If you prefer the beachy side of life, Green On 19 is a cool townhouse development in Santa Monica. These townhomes are the first of their kind in Santa Monica, and there are five units in the development. Architect Jesse Bornstein has integrated modern style, light and sustainability into his design. The units meet Energy Star New Home standards and feature solar power, bamboo and concrete floors, LED landscape lighting, xeriscape landscaping, and more.
In the San Francisco Bay Area
The Arterra is a relatively new development in the Mission Bay district. Arterra is also seeking LEED Certification. The Arterra has three sections: “sky”, a 16 story tower with city and bay views; “city”, a 9-level building with city views and green roof; and “park,” a 6-level building with two-story residences that come with private outdoor spaces. Altogether there are 269 units in the Arterra, and apparently 55% of them are already sold.
The Green City Lofts in Emeryville have 62 units of Energy Star Certified living. The steel superstructure and interior framing contains 25-90% post-consumer recycled content creating a more durable, earthquake-resistant, fire-resistant, rot-resistant, mold-resistant, and pest-resistant building. The units have radiant heating, no-VOC paints, double-pane windows, and cool metal roofs.
In Seattle
Enso is a thrilling condo development in Seattle. They are seeking LEED Gold certification. Units are for sale now and will be available in Spring 2009. The building is gorgeous and the units feature such eco-elements as concrete counters, sun shades, 100% recycled content carpet, no-VOC paints, and Ecoresin panels. The building also uses heat-pump technology, which is a very energy-efficient option for heating and cooling.
The Veer Lofts are bringing a kicky spirit to Seattle. They have three styles of lofts for sale– the “Flexi-loft” is 1 and 1/2 stories; The Full Loft is two stories and The Flat is a one-story. They are seeking LEED Certification and the units include daylighting, water-conserving fixtures, recycled building materials and drought-tolerant landscaping. Check out the funky website– it’s very fun!
In Portland
The Metropolitan in the Pearl District is a gleaming, modern tower that is a LEED Certified building. The Metropolitan balances luxury with a commitment to sustainable design and healthy living. The LEED Silver building has high performance energy efficient mechanical systems and glazing systems, storm water retention for landscape irrigation, the incorporation of durable, low-maintenance materials and the use of healthy materials and abundant natural ventilation for improved air quality.
In Denver
Just a few blocks from Coors Field in downtown Denver, 20|20 Lawrence Street features 60 residential condos atop an exciting mix of ground-level retailers. The development is LEED Gold (no small accomplishment!) The 50,000 watts of electrical power that will be produced from a roof-mounted photovoltaic system will represent one of the largest solar photovoltaic arrays in Colorado. The individual units feature sustainable hardwoods and low-VOC carpets and paints.
Click here to find green real estate for sale across the U.S.
Click here to find an EcoBroker to help you with your green real estate needs.
July 15th, 2008
Green Apartment Living Class
Our good friend Siel, also known as the world-famous Green LA Girl, is hosting a class tomorrow night that anyone in LA should check out. It’s on Green Apartment Living. Siel will be joined by fellow teachers Summer Bowen and Traci Reitz. The class will be held on Wednesday July 16 at the Santa Monica Synagogue starting at 8:30PM. It’s free– just show up!
This is an issue SO many people are interested in– we tip our hat to these ladies at their class. If you are interested in learning how to green your apartment, you can also read our feature on it here.
Here is what the class will cover:
“Summer will introduce you to the wonderful world of balcony gardening, by which I’ve personally benefited because I’ve gotten to eat the bounty — from corn to tomatoes! You’d be amazed to see what yummies you can grow, even if you don’t have a plot of land to call your own.
Traci will demystify eco apartment renovations — done frugally yet prettily! She’ll let you know what eco paints work and what don’t, what’s better to reuse and what’s better to replace.
Siel will talk about getting around, greenly. Apartment dwellers move around a lot, so my portion will cover how to pick an eco apartment, and how to use that apartment to green the way you get around the city. De-car-ing doesn’t mean sitting at home.
We’ll have a Q&A at the end — and will be going out for drinks afterwards. Join us!”
Does anyone know about classes like this happening in other cities? Let us know in the comments section please!
July 8th, 2008
My Solar Hot Water Experience
Editor’s note: this piece has been contributed by guest blogger Kevin Hughes. Kevin was generous enough to share his own experience with installing a solar hot water system on his home. Thank you, Kevin!
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I live in Los Angeles and I prefer the ugly one! Please don’t get me wrong, my wife is very beautiful, but when it comes to solar power, I prefer the ugly one.
Let me explain, for the past few years there has been huge interest in Solar Electricity (photovoltaic’s, PV, or solar panels), there are lots of incentives at both a state and federal level, there are often photo opportunities for politicians, gazing towards the future over a vast array or solar panels. But there are problems with this vision: solar electricity is expensive to purchase and install; it has a long pay back period; it converts sunlight to usable energy fairly inefficiently, and because of that, you need quite a lot of roof space or land to put up enough panels to power your home.
The ugly one that I prefer is solar thermal, specifically solar hot water, a much older technology. It is also much cheaper to install, much more efficient, and has a much faster pay back. It can even be a do-it-yourself project if you are reasonably handy. As for the payback, that’s easy: you don’t have to pay for 70-100% of your hot water heating costs, and with a clever tweak, you can save 10-15,000 gallons of water annually, and reduce your water and electricity costs.
Let’s start with a few details, then I will tell you how I added solar hot water (SHW) with a twist, to my house. I live in Los Angeles on a hillside in the Santa Monica Mountains, about 2 miles inland from the beaches in Malibu. We heat water with propane which comes from a storage tank filled every month or so by a delivery truck, and until recently we used about 30% of our total home energy to heat water. We are an ordinary family, with 2 kids at home, and have the usual uses for hot water, washing clothes, running the dishwasher, bathing and so on.
My wife and I have become more eco-conscious over the past few years, and have taken some steps to being green. For instance we have switched all of our light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL’s), and we’re using tote’s rather than plastic or paper shopping bags. So I was looking for a project that would make a real difference, and would give me something to keep me busy for a while. We could afford to invest maybe $2-3,000, preferably spread over a few months. I had known about solar hot water from our travels in Greece, where pretty much every house has it installed. I got hold of a book, and spent some time reading up on Solar Water Heating by Bob Ramlow and Benjamin Nusz.
The concept seemed pretty simple, and could be added to our existing hot water set-up, effectively using the sun to pre-heat water before it went into the propane hot water tank. I used Microsoft Excel to draw up some plans, and a system schematic (see image below), and marched off to the local permit office. Here is a schematic of the eventual system, which has evolved a bit from my first permit office visit. Largely as a result of their help, and the help of a yahoo group called Solar Heat, the design evolved into something that works.
There are actually only 6 new components, plus pipe work, (which seemed daunting at first, but with patience and practice, was actually pretty simple). The main components were: (1) Solar Collector, (2) small Solar Panel to power the (3) Pump, a (4) Solar Storage Tank, a (5) Tempering Valve, and finally the twist, the (6) Hot Water Recirculation box.
July 8th, 2008
Interior Design Inspired by Local Salvage Centers
by Deb Heitt, courtesy of Feelgood Style
Lately I’m a bit obsessed by home decorating with reclaimed goods like old doorknobs, ornate metal heating grates, and odd hanging crystals from a long-gone chandelier. Sure, it would make more sense if I actually had a house — at the moment, my new husband and I are squeezing into our 600 square feet, one-bedroom apartment — but one day soon we will own a home, and when that day comes, I’ll be able to spread out and complete all the projects I have going in my head.
Meanwhile, I’ve found that trolling architectural salvage yards and house-part recycling centers is a fascinating diversion. You can find some amazing ways to decorate your home in completely unique (and green) ways, but you can also find perfectly good double-hung windows, newel posts, kitchen cabinets, big pieces of wood flooring, and bathroom vanities (from this century, even!).
I’ve found a list of several salvage centers on the “This Old House” website, in cities like Sarasota, Buffalo, New Orleans, Portland, Seattle, Canton, and Queens, New York. Also in the comments section of that article, there are dozens of stores like these that people recommend in other cities, too. Google “architectural salvage + (name of your town)” and you’ll spend an interesting Saturday afternoon being shocked at the hardware, wood, fixtures, and tiles that get pitched during a home or business demolition.
Next time you’re tempted to buy a brand new, poorly constructed, cheaply laminated pressed/treated wood shelving unit from your local home decorating center, consider recycling mismatched but beautifully stained hardwood boards to create your own unique shelving unit.
Do you have a center near you to recommend? In my area, I’ve found Pasadena Architectural Salvage, Sante Fe Wrecking Company (in L.A.), Silverlake Architectural Salvage, and a shop called Olde Good Things which has one of its stores downtown. Now, I just need to find a house we can afford, and I can get busy!
Click here to find more vintage furniture stores and green retail stores near you!
Learn more about decorating with vintage and used furniture here.
Learn more about green interior design here.
Read about designing a green kitchen on a budget here.
July 1st, 2008
Build Your Ultimate Green Kitchen
Written by Joel Bittle, courtesy of GreenBuildingElements.com
A few weeks ago I offered my thoughts on green kitchens on a budget. Today, I want to focus on making your new kitchen as green as possible, without regard for cost. Remember, often the greenest options is to keep your current kitchen; many choose to repaint their cabinets with non-VOC paint or to tackle DIY cabinet projects. This article is for those building a whole new kitchen or are remodeling from the ground up. It’s up to you to determine the balance between what is the most green and what is the most practical for your project.
The three categories that determine a product’s green-ness are health, sustainability, and energy. Health takes into account the product’s offgassing of VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, especially urea-formaldehyde. In order to even consider something as green, it must contain very low to no VOCs. Sustainability looks at the life cycle of the materials used not just in the final product but in the manufacturing process as well. Products that are made from recycled materials or renewable resources fall into this category, as well as products whose manufacturing process embraces sustainability. Energy includes the water and energy usage of products such as plumbing fixtures and appliances, as well as the product’s embodied energy, which takes into account the energy used to produce and deliver the product.
Step 1: Design. If possible, design the kitchen with plenty of energy efficient windows or a skylight to maximize natural light and give you that important connection to the green outdoors (or the red bricks of the building next door.) For indoor air quality, make sure your hood vents to the outside rather than recirculating the air. Click here to find a green architect/designer near you.
Step 2: Cabinets. We are in an in-between phase right now where the major cabinet manufacturers realize they need to go formaldehyde-free but are still a few years away from mass production. Currently, formaldehyde-free cabinet choices are limited, and Neil Kelly Cabinets stands out as the leader. They offer Forest Stewardship Council certified wood cabinets with low VOCs. Midwesterners might choose to go with ultra low VOC wheatboard cabinets manufactured in Kansas by Koch Cabinets. To find other green cabinet companies, click here.
Step 3: Countertops. Silestone offers several colors with recycled content, one as high as 70%, which makes the Greenguard certified countertop one of the greenest. But IceStone recycled glass and concrete countertops, with their Cradle-to-Cradle Certification, take the crown as the greenest among an ever growing list of green countertops. Not just limited to countertops, IceStone has earned points for LEED’s “innovation in design” credit. Click here to find more eco-friendly countertop options.
Step 4: Flooring. I’m not quite sold on bamboo, yet. I do, however, like some of the cool patterns you can get with cork and linoleum. But the green flooring that impresses me the most is reclaimed wood flooring by Terramai. Offering a stunning mix of FSC certified wood from around the world, Terramai promotes conservation and sustainable building. Not limited to flooring, Terramai’s reclaimed wood creates a mosaic of wood in a cool mix of colors. Click here to find more green flooring options.
Step 5: Appliances. Because of the advances in energy efficiency in appliances, it is often better to replace your old energy wasting appliances, especially refrigerators, with new models. Visit the ENERGY STAR website for appliance lists, which show energy savings by model. For dishwashers, some of Bosch and Asko’s models are at least 140% more energy and water efficient than the federal standard. Fisher & Paykel sells dish drawers that can save water and energy if you just use one for small loads. (And yes, most energy saving dishwashers are more efficient than washing your dishes by hand.) For the cutting edge on refrigerator energy efficiency, check out Sun Frost, whose refrigerators are by a large margin the most energy efficient on the market - and they’re ready for solar, wind, or standard power inputs. Find more eco-friendly appliances here.
Step 6: Plumbing. Although the EPA’s WaterSense program doesn’t rate kitchen faucets, you can choose to install an aerator or go with a touchless faucet. While stainless steel and cast iron sinks contain recycled material, I’ve become a fan of recycled content hammered copper sinks that over time can develop a natural patina that is, you guessed it, green.
Step 7: Accessories. Recycled glass tile can make for a beautiful backsplash. Instead of a trash compactor, stick one of these home composters from Sun Frost right outside your kitchen door. Many of the products listed above can be used in creative and innovative ways. IceStone can be used as a backsplash. Terramai can be used as paneling.
Related features:
Green Kitchens on a Budget
Eco-friendly Cabinets: The Definitive Guide
Click here to find a green builder near you
Click here to find a green interior designer near you
June 30th, 2008
8 Ways to Green Your Independence Day!
Written by Trey Granger, courtesy of Earth911.org
The Fourth of July: summer’s most famous holiday. Fireworks, barbecues and a day off to enjoy the sunshine. But can you make America’s birthday Earth Day as well? Here’s eight steps for an eco-friendly Fourth.
1. Celebrate Outdoors
Whether you’re traveling for the three-day weekend (the Fourth is on Friday this year) or celebrating at home with family, have an outdoor celebration to minimize energy use. Better yet, check out a large gathering nearby where your personal energy use will be negligible.
2. Drink Lots of Water . . . In Large Containers
Depending on where you live, temperatures could reach triple digits on Independence Day. It’s important to stay hydrated, but plan ahead. Buy a reusable container to fill with water for your family so you won’t be buying and disposing of individual water bottles. You can also refill these containers at drinking fountains.
3. Know Before You Go
The beach may be a popular spot for your Independence Day getaway, but make sure it’s open before you head out. Use Earth 911’s sister site Beaches911.com to monitor the beach closures in your area. This will save you gas on a potential drive down the coast just to picnic in the parking lot.
4. BBQ With Propane
Wood and charcoal may seem like more natural fuel sources, but propane burns cleaner. You’ll get less smoke and you’ll have less of a challenge keeping a fire going. Make sure that you refill or recycle your propane tank once it’s empty using Earth 911.
5. Reuse Plates and Cups
If you’re celebrating at home, just use normal tableware and napkins that can be washed. At an outside celebration, pack up your disposable cups and plates and rinse them off when you get home. You can use the same set again next year, or recycle them.
6. Eco-Friendly Fireworks
Naturally something that explodes, creates lots of light and leaves a cloud of smoke also comes with pollution. Fireworks also release heavy metals like lead into the air. Of course, a Fourth of July without fireworks seems unnatural, but if you do put on a backyard show look for fireworks rich in nitrogen. These may cost a little more, but you’ll have less smoke.
7. Be Pet Cautious
Believe it or not, dog and cat ears are not made for the loud noises of fireworks. If your pets hear these noises, they might go running off. Then you’ll be using unnecessary paper for lost flyers.
If you live near a fireworks show, make sure your pets are shielded from the sound. If you lose a pet this July 4, visit Earth 911’s sister site PETS911.com to help find it.
8. July 5 is Cleanup Day
Independence Day events will produce lots of trash, much of which could probably be recycled. Head over to a nearby area this Saturday that held a July 4th celebration and pick-up some of the inevitable litter.
This story is part of Earth 911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas. Click here to see Earth 911’s “Green Eight” archive.
