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| This pallet adirondack chair was featured on Green Upgrader. |
Most of us use dozens of beauty products and toiletries without giving a second thought to their ingredients and health impacts.
The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization that aims to protect public health and the environment, states that the average adult uses nine products daily containing up to 126 different chemical ingredients. Most of these ingredients require no testing or are tested by the companies selling the product.
Luckily, there are plenty of resources out there to guide us though the litany of ingredients on our product labels. The EWG offers a cosmetic database (click here!)
that provides information and health concerns on most ingredients you would find on a label. There are also resources out there that provide a concise list of synthetic ingredients to avoid. Organic Consumers. Org for example, provides a top ten list, of toxic ingredients that are most harmful to your body. Your best bet is to minimize the number of products you use and to look for the certified organic label. The greatest rule of thumb is to never put something on your skin that you would not put into your mouth. Fruit and Vegetable based products are always best! We recently made several kinds of organic soaps out of simple and natural ingredients such as: coconut oil, orange peel, cucumber, mint, coffee,flax seed, cinnamon, etc. All available for sale at out farm stand!
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| The men of Passerino Painting and Contracting dig holes for 6x6 posts that will hold up our new Art Barn deck. |
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| The materials. |
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| Green baby photo from Eco-Snobbery Sucks. |
, an iPhone app and
offering green options for house and home, features, among other totally amazing green innovations, the above "Flexible Love" folding chair.
This is Green was developed by Jan Manon and Thomas Bache-Wiig. Jan is a writer and designer with a BA in Ecology who resides in Burlington, Verm., and has her own company Elf Productions!
. Thomas Bache-Wiig is a green architect who resides in Miami, FL. Both Jan and Thomas have worked on environmental content together for the last 2 years. Building the This Is Green iPhone app was a labor of love. Both Jan and Thomas wanted to make green choices easy to understand and implement for every consumer.
Kudos for combining tech-savvy with green ideals!
Have a great, green site or organization you'd like to share?
with your tips!
London (CNN)-- What if buildings had lungs that could absorb carbon emissions from the city and convert them into something useful? What if they had skin that could control their temperature without the need for radiators or air-conditioning? What if buildings could come "alive?"
Science fiction?
"Not as such," claims Dr Rachel Armstrong, senior
fellow and co-director of
, a research group exploring the potential of advanced technologies in architecture. "Over the next 40 years, 'living' buildings -- biologically programmed to extract carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere -- could fill our cities."
Armstrong works on the cutting edge of "synthetic biology," a relatively new science devoted to the manufacture of life-like matter from synthesized chemicals, and is something of an evangelist for the discipline.
The chemicals Armstrong works with, concocted in the lab, are engineered to behave like organic microorganisms -- with the added benefit that they can be manipulated to do things nature can't. Armstrong refers to them as "protocells."
"For instance, a protocell could be mixed with wall paint and programmed to produce limestone when exposed to carbon (dioxide) on the surface of a building," she said. "Then you've got a paint that can actually eat carbon and change it into a shell-like substance."
So, just as iron rusts when it comes into contact with oxygen and water, protocells can produce simple chemical reactions when they come into contact with carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules, turning the CO2 into calcium carbonate, or limestone, which stops the greenhouse gas from rising up into the ozone layer.
As a by-product of this process, the British scientist says that limestone produced by protocells could naturally "heal" micro-fractures in walls, channeling through tiny breaks, helping to extend the life of any structure it was painted on to.
"And not only that," added Armstrong. "The thickness of the limestone will grow over time, creating insulation and allowing your building to retain more heat or indeed sheltering it from heating up underneath the sun."
The layer of limestone could take anywhere between a year and a decade to form depending on the concentration of carbon dioxide in the surrounding air. However Armstrong says that "eventually we will see protocell technology become self-repleting (able to replenish itself) and (it) will be considered alive."
Dick Kitney is professor of bio-engineering at Imperial College London and co-director of the
Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation
. He says that, while the concept is sound, moving it into industrial production is a different story.
"It's a question of scalability," he said. "Getting the process to work in the lab is one thing, but after that you need to work very closely with major industrial manufacturers to understand if it is at all possible to produce on a mass scale. Sometimes it's just not possible."
Kitney says that nobody has yet managed to get any synthetic biological product to the manufacturing stage: "The science is being taken very seriously -- particularly in the UK and U.S. ... but it's still early days."
While Armstrong says the science has been proven in the lab, she too acknowledges that commercial applications are still some years down the road.
"This is bulk chemical manufacturing we're talking about, so the process is slow," she said. "If it were pharmaceuticals it would be much quicker."
But Armstrong's work is gaining interest from the industrial sector. "There's a traditional paint manufacturer here in the UK that is looking into it, but we're all under non-disclosure agreements," she said.
Armstrong admits that, at present, the paint would be capable of absorbing only a tiny fraction of the carbon dioxide emitted in a city like London, which spewed out around 42 million tons in 2009, according to government figures.
"The primitive paints we are developing are not very efficient yet, " she added.
Armstrong doesn't think the paint will be ready for market much before 2014 and, at this stage, she cannot comment on how much it will cost to produce commercially. Despite this, she says a major Australian property developer has already placed a future order for it.
Award-winning British architect Richard Hyams, who worked for 12 years under internationally renowned architect Norman Foster before setting up his own practice, is also an advocate of self-regulating building materials.
But, he says, attitudes will have to change before this technology makes it into the mainstream.
"As with any significant step-change, it's slow to take off," said Hyams. "From developers, to agents, to buyers themselves, people generally don't want to be the first to risk investment in a relatively untested industry when the costs are high."
In addition, says Hyams, legislation is slow, "slicing off the worst building practices from the bottom, rather than advancing the best ideas at the top."
However, Armstrong and Hyams agree that, as the burden on cities to reduce their vast carbon footprints intensifies, the market will look to more radical solutions.
"We're also currently experimenting with the process of bioluminescence," said Hyams. "The idea is that carbon is absorbed by a building to create light. Can you imagine a whole city lit by the walls of its own buildings?"
Whatever the future has in store, our relationship with cities' megastructures and the carbon they produce will likely change. Armstrong concludes with a sobering thought:
"At present, buildings are big machines that take our resources and turn them into poison. In effect, we are living in their waste like we were living in the effluent of animals during the Agrarian revolution."
It's all over now, Baby Blue.
It was a very sad day for me when I realized that my 2004 Mini Cooper S was quickly nearing 100,000 miles; and that, in addition to its increasingly frequent need for expensive repairs, it would very soon be losing most of its resale or trade-in value.
And so it was with a heavy heart that I began the painful, arduous, frustrating process of figuring out what my next vehicle would be. Should I explore pick-up trucks for their usefulness around Better Farm? Was another Mini Cooper in the cards? Which vehicles were leading the pack for fuel efficiency? Emissions? Reliability?
I was surprised to learn that the Mini Cooper wasn't so much as ranking with these new car models. I continued my search and narrowed it by price range, size, and, practicality for my day-to-day life.
With two dogs and frequently varied styles of transport needs, I knew I wanted a hatchback with back seats that could be folded down flat. I also knew I wanted something sporty with stick shift (six speeds if possible) and a two-door model. And, let's get serious, I am in no position to be checking out Lexuses. I did make a few phone calls in to the Mini dealership back in New Jersey where I got my last car, but their disinterest and unwillingness to so much as call me back in a timely manner turned me totally off. So I kept looking into top ratings for "green" vehicles in 2011, and found a bulletin from
Mother Earth News with the following:
This year’s list highlights the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, Ford Fiesta, Honda CR-Z and Volkswagen Jetta TDI as the best green cars in the 2011 model year.
I did some test driving and number-crunching (with a lot of help), and finally found my new car:
Volkswagen Golf TDI Diesel
Avg. Paid:
Ranked by US News as 8 out of 33
, the new Volkswagen Golf (available as a 6-speed manual, hallelujah!) promises up to 50 mpg on the highway. Reviewers applaud the diesel option for its great fuel economy and torquey engine that make it a great city cruiser. But while on the
it says average city-driving speeds are in the 30mpg-range, I had a much different experience:
Not too shabby, eh? It takes a little getting used to to not be driving a glorified go kart around anymore (or hugging those turns on Cottage Hill Road the way I loved to—though the VW
does
zip around), and all the space is more than I'm accustomed to. But so far I've got to admit that the Volkswagen is quickly winning this little heart over. Happy motoring...
Found a gem of a website the other day called The Independent Patriot; a kind of step-by-step living guide to worst-case-scenario preparedness. The site, while a bit conspiratorial and fatalistic, features everything from information on long-term survival to food production and storage. "Wow" factor of peering into a fallout-shelter mentality aside, this guy's take on sustainable housing is downright inspirational.
Straw bale houses, buildings made out of old tires, rainwater catchment and graywater systems: you name it, this guy has outlined it. Great food for thought.
Click here to get a peek at the new frontier of sustainable living
(information is also pasted below).
Monolithic domes provide superior insulation and protection from the elements, while giving the owner greater flexibility with interior construction. They can also provide and increased level of security when properly designed. These homes are compatible with passive and active solar systems, natural lighting, and underground cooling tubes. This style of home should be a top choice for people interested in independent living and home security. A monolithic dome is not typical "dome home." These domes are constructed by forming a ring-shaped foundation and attaching a flexible PVC "airform" which is then inflated to make the shape of the house. Several inches of polyurethane foam are then sprayed onto the inside of the dome, followed by steel rebar and several inches of concrete. The outside can also be coated with chain link and stucco to make an impermeable, fire-proof, hurricane-proof, earthquake-proof dome structure that is extremely well-insulated and provides an interior space with no supporting beams.
The structures can come in several different shapes and sizes. each airform is custom designed and fabricated. The cost of construction is similar to conventional construction, but the energy and maintenance savings can be substantial - especially in extremely hot or cold climates. These structures can be earth-bermed or covered with vines. Monolithic domes with stucco on the outside and 3"-4" of shotcrete on the inside also provide increased protection from small-arms fire.
Earth-sheltered homes range from homes with earth pushed up against the walls to homes that are entirely underground. Typically, an earth-sheltered home is set into a hill with earth on three sides and on top. The front is usually exposed to the south. The main advantage of an earth-sheltered home is the insulation offered by the thick covering of earth. Earth-sheltered homes maintain a constant 60-degree temperature, year-round, in hot or cold climates. They can be easily heated, and will hold the heat, due to the thick insulation.
Earth-sheltered homes have comparable construction costs to conventional homes, but cost far less to maintain. With proper use of skylights and windows on the southern exposure, they can have the interior appearance of a conventional home.
Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF) allow you to build a conventional-looking home with reinforced, double-insulated concrete walls. The forms for the walls are made of insulation "blocks" that are stacked and bound together. The space between the foam insulation is where the concrete is poured. The forms are placed over steel rebar and all plumbing and electrical is run through the walls before the concrete is poured. ICF blocks offer several ways of attaching sheetrock or wood paneling. Almost any type of exterior surface can be applied. The walls are thicker than a typical home, but they also provide much better insulation and strength. Multiple-story homes can be built with ICF.
Straw-bale homes offer a unique twist on highly-insulated structures. The main building component is straw, and the walls are at least two feet thick. The straw makes the building extremely well-insulated, and gives a "soft" feel to the corners. Straw-bale homes can either have load-bearing straw walls, or they can be framed and filled in with straw bales. All utilities are run through the walls as the bales are stacked. Bales are impaled on steel rebar for stabilization. The walls are typically covered with plaster or stucco. If properly sealed and plastered, they will not have problems with water, but high humidity can be an issue, since the water vapor can work its way into the straw. There is no increased risk of fire with the use of straw bales. Straw bales are extremely dense and provide little oxygen for fires to feed on. They are actually a better fire barrier than convention wood-framed walls.
The Earthship concept goes beyond just home construction. It is aimed at providing a complete off-grid system that handles everything from water collection to gray water and sewage treatment. These homes are typically built into the side of a hill and use old tires as the primary wall building material. The tires are stacked like bricks and filled with rammed earth as each layer is laid. The buildings are oriented to the south, with a greenhouse wall that allows in light and lets you grow plants that help filter gray water. The integrated power and water systems make these homes very interesting. Some of these concepts could be used in conjunction with other earth-sheltered homes.
Ever since people got their heads screwed on straight and realized the
horrible environmental effects of those pesky little packing peanuts
, the last decade or so has seen some pretty cool advances in utilizing recycled,
, and alternative methods for packing fragile items and shipping them around the country and world.
And don't worry—
there are plenty of things you can do with packing peanuts
that get shipped your way that will keep them out of a landfill.
The other day we received a few items in the mail that were packed with EarthAware's new
:
These air-filled pillows are made of biodegradable DuraClear, a low-density polyethylene that has an additive which causes the poly to biodegrade in less than five years when put in contact with other biodegrading material (as few as nine months, depending on exposure conditions). They're also comprised of recycled plastic bags and pillows. Just another option among many great ideas that will get your gifts to their destinations unbroken and without any undue stress on Mother Dearest.
Click here to find out ways to make your own packing materials.
