Green Building : Jetson Green

Vivaterra, Great Spot for Eco Furnishings

VivaTerra is a catalog and online eco-friendly home accessories and furnishings company.  You will need to peruse their offerings with a bit of a critical eye and decide for yourself what is truly eco-friendly, but there are a lot of great choices.  Less sustainable offerings to watch out for include river rock bath mats.  The rocks are taken from a natural environment where they belong and do not replenish like trees or bamboo.  I would also stay away from tropical hardwoods since most of them are not truly eco-friendly and travel quite a distance to the USA.  One great VivaTerra choice would be their beautiful "Gustavian Vintage Bed" which is made by a master woodworker in the USA using salvaged Douglass Fir wood from a torn down building, non-toxic glue, and a food safe finish for about $2000. 

Lotus Bleu puts a New Spin on Vintage Furniture

Buying vintage furniture is super green, but it's not always easy to find pieces in great shape, especially upholstered items.  Lotus Bleu has fixed that problem for us.  They offer vintage pieces redone in new, modern fabrics.  Lotus Bleu is located in San Fransisco, but if you're not in the area, you can order right online.  Current items for sale are displayed in addition to items that have already been sold, to give you an idea of what might be available at any given time.

Surfing Coyboys Brings Vintage Hip to Venice Beach

Surfing Cowboys, located in Venice Beach, California is a hip spot for vintage shopping.  The store offers furniture, accessories, lighting, artwork, and a unique collection of vintage surfing and skateboarding items.  And if you can't make it to Venice Beach, you can shop their store online. 

Victory Vintage Home offers Chic Vintage Furniture

Looking for a simple, affordable, and eco-friendly way to furnish a home?  Check out Victory Vintage Home for vintage furniture and accessories.  One of the most environmentally friendly things that you can do is to re-use materials that already exist.  Even new, environmentally-friendly materials often have some negative impact on the environment.  For instance, furniture made from bamboo is called eco-friendly because bamboo is a rapidy renewable resource, but you then have to figure in the distance that bamboo usually travels to get to the United States.  You would also want to know how it was harvested and a variety of other environmentally important factors.

Element Fan, Big Ass Fans' New Energy Efficient Fan

You've probably seen Big Ass Fans in the gym or in some larger space, and that's because they're huge and energy efficient.  Just last week, Big Ass Fans launched their newest product called the Element Fan.  Element uses the 10 airfoil and wiglet design to move air quietly and efficiently.  According to BAF: "At standard speed in a room with 16 ft. high ceilings Element is able to create comfortable breezes over an area larger than a basketball court, all while requiring less than 100 watts to operate. That is considerably less energy than even the most efficient small ceiling fan in production today."  I've been around these gargantuan fans and love them.  Seriously, they cool down a large space like nothing I've ever seen.  Plus, you can really get creative with the colors, so as far as large fans go, this is a dang good option to go with.    

Five Green Ideas for Your Kitchen Renovation

Gwendolyn Bounds invested about 16 months and $83k in her posh, green kitchen remodel.  The process was slightly more difficult than she imagined, but nonetheless, as you can see from the below video: the result is quite nice.  David Johnston, green building and renovation expert, unofficially inspected the work and gave her high marks for the eco renovation.  Her remodel included Energy Star appliances, locally made fly ash concrete countertops, Plyboo and Arreis cabinets, no-VOC paints, FSC-certified wood floors, Nu-Wool recycled newspaper insulation, LED lights, and double-paned efficient windows. 

Ms. Bounds also wrapped up her experience with the following list of five steps to get more value out of a remodel and make your home healthier and more efficient:

Botanist Blank Canvas Project Fuses Sustainability with Style

Anyone going to be at ICFF 2008?  I received an email about Orange22's launch of the Botanist Blank Canvas Project at ICFF and it looks pretty interesting.  Orange22 enlisted the help of eight iconic designers to place their fingerprint on the popular Botanist line of indoor/outdoor furniture.  The designers include Yves Behar, Margo Chase, Milton Glaser, Kahi Lee, Karim Rashid, Joe Ricchio, Massimo + Lella Vignelli, and Claude Zellweger.  Pieces come in a variety of designs and can be used as end tables, benches, cocktail tables, or anything else you can think of. 

SMC Furnishings Creates Art with Reclaimed Wood

SMC Furnishings is a small, New York-based company that creates handcrafted, high-quality furniture with earth friendly methods.  In their tenth year of business, this company has been doing the green thing for longer than most.  Even their workshop produces almost zero waste as they reuse even the smallest scraps for fuel.  Almost all of their wood comes from reclaimed buildings, downed trees, or trees that are cut down because of disease or nuisance issues. 

BRAZO - Green, Ultra-Stylish LED Task Lamp [PICS]

Early in grad school, I purchased a halogen task lamp for my desk studies, but I grew tired of it for two reasons: it was too hot and the light was unbearable.  So recently, I started looking around for a new, energy-efficient task lamp and Haworth was kind enough to send me a Brazo Task Lamp designed by Pablo Pardo of Pardo Designs.  Brazo is a real award winner, taking both Best of Competition and Gold in Lighting for Best of NeoCon 2007.   I knew it was going to be nice, but I really had no idea.  Here's my review ...

Maine Cottage, Local + Quality = Green

Maine Cottage is a Maine-based furniture company specializing in colorful, fun furniture.  The company, which did not start out as an environment focused company, is actually quite green.  90% of their products are made by artisans in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and North Carolina.  Of course, local production means less travel and fewer harmful emissions.