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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Gettin' dirty ...
With eco-friendly earthen floors |
Sarah van Schagen |
09 Feb 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I'm all for green building -- especially when it involves eco-renovations that take into account more than just some CFL bulbs and a solar panel. But dirt floors?It's a growing trend, according to a piece in the NYT yesterday. The 'earthen floors' are primarily made of mud, but may also include other materials like lime, sand, or fiber -- but let's not forget they're primarily made of mud. As in dirt. Yeah.[Homeowners installing earthen floors] are part of a new br ... |
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| Topics: green building, green living (all these topics) |
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Hood Games: Stop clearcutting the youth
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Chris Schults |
04 Jul 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Over at Treehugger TV, there is a new video about Comet Skateboards (a green 'board manufacturing company) and their community event, Hood Games: In addition to raising funds and for a sustainably designed skate park in downtown Oakland CA, Comet has collaborated with others to put on Hood Games. Hood Games 4 took place in Oakland, and brought together a truly remarkable gathering of the skateboarders, parents, and friends for a full day of music, art, and of course ... |
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| Topics: California, green building, sports, TV, websites (all these topics) |
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Green Building 101
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David Roberts |
29 Jun 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Yesterday, Inhabitat started a weekly series for the summer called Green Building 101. The series is focused mainly on LEED-H, the (developing) green standards for homes. It also mentions LEED-ND, the (developing) green standards for neighborhoods, which I'm super jazzed about. The series will walk through the basics of building or renovating a home for maximum eco-friendliness. Should be cool. Check out the first installment, about choosing an eco-friendly site. |
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| Topics: green building, green living, placemaking (all these topics) |
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Dig This: My two cents on partnerships
The AIA and BuildingGreen team up |
Sarah K. Burkhalter |
07 Mar 2006 |
Gristmill |
| If only life was like Monopoly. A straightforward path to follow ... unexpected money windfalls ... all those little green houses ... Well, I can't bring you a definitive life path, or bestow a pot of money on you for landing on Go, but I can report on a potential step toward a greener housing market. A new agreement between the American Institute of Architects and indie publishing company BuildingGreen, Inc. allows the AIA's 77,000 members to quickly and easily ... |
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| Topics: green building (all these topics) |
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Dig This: My two cents on Earthships
In New Mexico, natch |
Sarah K. Burkhalter |
28 Feb 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Today's Dig This spotlights Earthship Biotecture,which has two websites with virtually the same information, laid out different ways. It's just one of the many quirks of the Taos, N.M.-based organization, which makes cool eco-houses and is located a mere seven hours from Roswell. I'm just saying. The basic Earthship home prototype is made of recycled tires, packed with earth to the point of being 'virtually indestructible.' But they don't have to be made of tire ... |
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| Topics: green building (all these topics) |
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Dig This: My two cents on an eco-building TV program
Building green while sitting on your couch |
Sarah K. Burkhalter |
21 Feb 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Photo: BuildingGreenIn case you have forgotten -- it's been a long week, with a holiday, hooray! -- last week's Dig This claimed that I will use my weekly soapbox here to promote house-related stuff that's affordable to the average human being. Well, today's column is aimed at the average human being that owns a TV. If you are one of these lucky folk, you too can tune in to PBS this summer for the first-of-its-kind Building Green: During the first season of 'Bu ... |
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| Topics: green building, TV (all these topics) |
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Dig This: My two cents on a (gasp!) non-internet magazine
EcoLogical Home Ideas debuts. |
Sarah K. Burkhalter |
14 Feb 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Welcome, welcome to Dig This, the cleverly-titled weekly column on digs -- or, for those of you not up on the lingo, houses. Or, eco-stuff for houses. Or, eco-stuff vaguely related to houses. We'll see how it goes. I'm not above making obscure connections. Today's (very digs-related) spotlight: the brand spankin' new magazine ecoLogical Home Ideas. You can check out the site, but I currently hold in my hands -- well, my lap, since I'm typing -- a glossy copy of ... |
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| Topics: green building, green living, magazines (all these topics) |
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Bamboozled
On bamboo flooring |
Umbra Fisk |
08 Feb 2006 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, We will be putting in new flooring in the very near future. My first choice was hardwood, but I have recently read a lot about bamboo. Because it is renewable, it seems to be a better option. But how is it grown? Who is harvesting it? Are the people in the industry fair to their employees? Is it truly a better option for the environmentally conscious, or just a marketing tactic? Kathleen DiBacco Darien, Ill. Dearest Kathleen, ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, green building, green living (all these topics) |
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I'm Floored
On flooring options |
Umbra Fisk |
06 Feb 2006 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, If I have to replace my old carpet, what are the environmental pros and cons of the different choices? (Ceramic tile, carpet, or the laminate flooring sold at Home Depot seem to be the most common.) And can I recycle my old carpet? Claudia Bloom Mesa, Ariz. Dearest Claudia, I'm going to lay out all the flooring choices of which I'm aware, and I'll talk about some of them in depth in upcoming columns. In terms of your carpet, ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, green building, green living (all these topics) |
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Gardener on the Roof
On green roofs |
Umbra Fisk |
05 Dec 2005 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, Our garage is in need of a new roof. We would like to build a "living roof" and are wondering where to start. Our long-term plan is to convert the space into an art studio, complete with insulation, electricity, and finished walls and floor. Do you have any pithy suggestions for us to consider while planning our roof, considering it will cover a finished room eventually? Lesley Victoria, B.C. Dearest Lesley, Not ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, green building, green living (all these topics) |
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LEED Is Broken; Let's Fix It
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Auden Schendler, Randy Udall |
26 Oct 2005 |
Soapbox |
| By Auden Schendler and Randy Udall 26 Oct 2005 In the last five years, something exciting has happened in the green-building world. Conferences on the topic used to be love-ins, featuring hippies in beads and Birkenstocks, with friends of Dennis Weaver pitching tire houses. Okay, it wasn't really that bad ... but close. Recently, however, the U.S. Green Building Council1 has given the field a professional sheen, and helped it blossom. The USGBC attracted 8,000 people ... |
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| Topics: energy efficiency, green building, placemaking (all these topics) |
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LEEDing Us Astray?
Top green-building system is in desperate need of repair |
Auden Schendler, Randy Udall |
26 Oct 2005 |
Soapbox |
| By Auden Schendler and Randy Udall 26 Oct 2005 This piece is excerpted from the essay "LEED Is Broken; Let's Fix It." The full essay can be found here. Pan of green gables. Once the narrow province of hippies in beads and Birkenstocks, the green-building world has in the last five years blossomed and taken on a professional sheen. That's thanks in large part to the U.S. Green Building Council and its flagship p ... |
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| Topics: energy efficiency, green building, placemaking (all these topics) |
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Over the Chill
On preparing for winter |
Umbra Fisk |
05 Oct 2005 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, With the coming winter, our local news did a story on how to save on heating. The tips included window treatments, lowering the water heater, etc. But those of us in apartments are limited in what we can do. I can feel the cold air seeping through the cracks, and laying towels on the window sills doesn't seem to help. Any advice? Carol Lafayette, Ind. Dearest Carol, Yar. It's going to be doom and gloom this winter acro ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, green building, green living (all these topics) |
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Green acres, and acres, and acres ...
Massive planned Vegas complex claims to be sustainable |
Todd Hymas Samkara |
20 Sep 2005 |
Gristmill |
| If you're going to build a gigantically humongous casino/hotel/condo/shopping center megaplex in the middle of Las Vegas, you may as well do it green ... or as green as a project of this size could be in the middle of the desert during a drought. Brought to you by MGM Mirage, the 18-million-square-foot, $5 billion project will reportedly seek an unspecified level of LEED certification and, The Globe and Mail reports, will be bigger than Times Square, Soho, and R ... |
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| Topics: green building, Nevada (all these topics) |
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Sill and Grace
On windows |
Umbra Fisk |
12 Sep 2005 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, I just bought an old house and need to replace some of the windows. Are there alternatives to vinyl windows that will still cut down on heat loss? Noah Winer Philadelphia, Pa. Dearest Noah, I hope I've caught you before you've placed your window order, because you are at a moment of opportunity. Window replacement will make a huge difference in your house's energy efficiency. You could be losing up to a third of your heat through t ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, green building, green living (all these topics) |
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Interview with Alex Steffen, part two
On green building, urban development, and reviving rural America |
David Roberts |
31 Aug 2005 |
Gristmill |
| This is part two of a three-part interview. You can read part one here and part three here. In this section, Alex and I discuss green building, urban development, and reviving rural America.DR: Give a few examples of the kinds of things you have in mind. AS: Green building is one of the most visible changes. We are capable of building buildings now that use fractions of the energy, water, materials, etc. of a building 10 years ago and deliver all the s ... |
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| Topics: green building, green living, interview (all these topics) |
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Now that's good wood
Ad features naked men and phallic-shaped sustainable lumber |
Lisa Hymas |
26 Jul 2005 |
Gristmill |
| Imagine my delight at seeing this on the side of my bus: 'Choose your wood responsibly,' beckons the ad for Seattle's Environmental Home Center, a mecca for green home improvement. (See the full ad in PDF form here.) |
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| Topics: green building, messaging, Seattle, sex (all these topics) |
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Appleseed the movie
Planting the seeds of sustainability in pop culture. |
Chris Schults |
08 Jul 2005 |
Gristmill |
| Okay. It is Friday and the last day of Grist's summer publishing break -- which means a little diversion from the more serious posts. Now, the images below are not conceptual renderings of DestiNY part deux, but pics of Olympus, a fictional 'utopian' city featured in the anime movie Appleseed. While I won't go on and rave about this movie as I did with Sky Blue, I did want to mention that Olympus had a few interesting qualities. One, a million solar roofs that woul ... |
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| Topics: green building, messaging, movies (all these topics) |
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The Now House
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David Roberts |
01 Nov 2004 |
Gristmill |
| I have a long-standing love affair with modern modular homes, particularly those built with eco-friendly materials and techniques (which is most of them, these days). I also have a long-standing love affair with the 'digital home' movement, wherein everything is wired to everything else and everything is online and the refrigerator knows when it's out of milk and all that. So I am all agog at the unveiling of the Now House, a modern, modular, sustainable, digital-to- ... |
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| Topics: green building (all these topics) |
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Roof Positive
Green Roofs Are Hot New Design Feature in London |
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08 Sep 2004 |
Daily Grist |
| Roof Positive Green Roofs Are Hot New Design Feature in London In London, the latest rage in building design is green roofing: Roofs covered in soil and foliage that can provide habitat for insects, lizards, and birds. The trend first took off as part of a government effort to protect the black redstart, a black-and-orange songbird that nests in urban areas and has come to be something of an icon for ... |
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| Topics: green building, green living, London, United Kingdom (all these topics) |
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Who's the Greenest of Them All?
NRDC's new Santa Monica building may be the most eco-friendly in the U.S. |
Amanda Griscom |
25 Nov 2003 |
Powers That Be |
| Do you realize we are gathered in what must be the greenest building in the United States?" Natural Resources Defense Council Executive Director Frances Beinecke asked a crowd of well-scrubbed Californians gathered for the opening ceremony of the organization's new SoCal headquarters in Santa Monica. Swilling mimosas and nibbling croissants on the building' ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, green building, NRDC, renewable energy, Robert Redford, United States (all these topics) |
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Master of Her Green Domain
Julia Louis-Dreyfus and husband Brad Hall discuss their eco-friendly hideaway |
Amanda Griscom |
31 Jul 2003 |
Powers That Be |
| Long before they joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live," before she played Elaine on "Seinfeld" and he became a writer/producer for shows ranging from "The Single Guy" to "Frasier," Julia Louis-Dreyfus and husband Brad Hall were devout environmentalists. Now they are key players in Hollywood's green vanguard. Over the pa ... |
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| Topics: celebrity, green building, green living (all these topics) |
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Master of Her Green Domain
Hollywood Couple Builds Eco-Friendly Hideaway |
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31 Jul 2003 |
Daily Grist |
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| Topics: celebrity, energy efficiency, green building, green living, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics) |
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Bamboo Ado
On wood floors and solid waste |
Umbra Fisk |
27 Feb 2003 |
Ask Umbra |
| Oh Wise Umbra, We'll be replacing our carpeting with wood flooring, probably from one of the major home stores (Home Depot or Lowe's). Are wood floors a really bad environmental choice if they are made from unsustainably harvested wood? Would I be better off going with a (probably petroleum-based) fake wood floor? Also, is there any environmentally responsible way to dispose of my old carpet? If the nice garbage collectors pick ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, green building, green living, green products, placemaking, recycling, waste (all these topics) |
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Burden of Roof
On eco-friendly roofs |
Umbra Fisk |
27 Feb 2003 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, Our roof is getting pretty old and starting to fall apart. It's one of those asphalt-shingle roofs that most houses have these days. Before we call the roofing company, I'd like to know what's the greenest kind of roofing material to use. Metal? Cedar? More asphalt? I'm sure lots of other readers would like to know, too! Thanks, Wally Bubelis Seattle, Wash. Dearest Wally, Like other readers, you may need a drink or t ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, green building, green living, placemaking (all these topics) |
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