Emily Kroll, CEO and founder of upholstered furniture company EKLA HOME, has furniture design and environmentalism in her blood.  The granddaughter of a furniture designer on one side, and an architectural and scrap metal recycler on the other, Kroll says she is "passionate about changing the way the furniture business works in the United States."  She plans to do this by eliminating toxins, limiting waste and using sustainable materials.  And EKLA certainly has a very impressive list of sustainable practices, perhaps one of the most impressive on the green furniture market today. 

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Last month, Heyday Partnership began construction on a slick small lot development called Rock Row.  Located in the Eagle Rock area, which is north of downtown LA, Rock Row will feature town home-esque (no party wall) properties at affordable-ish ($475k-$550k) prices.  Believe it or not — those of you outside of New York and California, Rock Row is considered one of the first, reasonably-priced, green housing projects in Los Angeles.  The development team includes an architect, developer, and builder working in collaboration, so Heyday is able to pass on affordability to future home buyers.

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This is the design for a new place to stay called h2hotel in Healdsburg, California.  Healdsburg is a small town of something like eleven thousand people.  It’s smack dab in the heart of Sonoma County, a place where wine enthusiasts and travelers go for rest and respite. Environmentalism is quite common in northern California, so its natural that h2hotel would be designed to include a plentiful array of green amenities.  And starting in 2010, transients and guests of all kinds will have the opportunity to stay in one of thirty-six rooms in the four-floor h2hotel.

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Arhaus, a furnishings company, was founded in 1986 with commitments to design, craftsmanship, and responsibility.  Today, they are also committed to searching out eco-friendly materials and methods.  Arhaus has always focused on artisan crafted pieces, created by furniture makers from across the world whom Arhaus maintains "face-to-face" relationships with in order to assure quality and fair labor practices. 

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Update – 12/18/08 – the response has been huge!  I’m sorting through everything and will be in touch shortly.  All contributor positions, for the foreseeable short term, appear to be filled.  Thank you!

In a little over a year’s time, this site has grown like indigenous landscaping rooted in fresh, fertile soil.  We’re seeing three times more readers and feed subscribers.  Emails have gone through the roof!  To be honest, the team right now just can’t write about all the great content worth writing about.  So we’re looking for contributors.  We’re not looking for junk stories and we’re certainly not interested in adding to the blogosphere echo chamber — this is a magazine and we like to spend time gathering images and information to appropriately tell a unique story.  Doing so takes some time and collaboration, but the rewards are many and diverse.  These are some of the areas we could use contributors:

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Over a year ago, we took a moment to discuss the Truro Residence, which was designed by Zero Energy Design.  Back then, though, the home was confined to renderings, while now, it’s fully constructed and inhabited.  It is, as you will quickly note, a 6,200 square foot second home that acts a lot smaller that it actually is.  The client wanted something to accommodate a large and fluctuating number of family members for weekends and holidays.  As a result, ZED split the home into a “living bar” and “sleeping bar.”  It’s an interesting idea that creates impressive results.

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