green home decor
Wednesday Green Roundup
Here are some of the stories running around the green web this week.
Recycled wood flooring and recycled glass surfaces on Jetson Green-
Glass2 is produced with 99% recycled glass with no resin and can be worked on by stone and glass fabricators.
Staybull Flooring salvages waste wood from lumber mills around the world in more than 20 wood species. The discarded strips are binded using solvent-free and VOC-free adhesives, then milled and finished with a VOC-free ceramic finish for a strong detailed mosaic looking flooring. Pricing can start at $4.50 sqft and can do double duty by also reducing labor costs and construction waste.
Ecogeek reports on the groundbreaking of the nations largest wind farm in California-
Just outside Los Angeles, a 3-GW wind farm project is on track to be operational by next year. Able to power 600,000 Southern California homes, the Alta Vista Wind Energy Center located in the foothills of the Mojave Desert just north of Los Angeles will have the first phase up and running by next year with full completion in about 10 years.
› Continue reading
Eco Friendly Clothes Shopping – Verdessence
A topic covered often here on The Chic Ecologist are brands and stores which carry eco friendly clothing. Based in Chicago, Verdessence is an on-line retailer opened by Lauren McGinty and Michael McCarthy out of a desire to promote positive change in the world. They were kind enough to send me an item from one of the many eco-friendly brands they carry, a sustainable hoodie by Edun (and no, that is not me in the picture).
Edun is probably best know by its celebrity co-founder, Bono from the band U2. Edun is a socially conscious clothing company launched in spring 2005 by Ali Hewson and Bono with a mission is to create beautiful clothing while fostering sustainable employment in developing areas of the world, particularly Africa.
The hoodie I received was made in Africa (Madagascar to be exact) by sustainable and recycled elements like wool, polyamide, cashmere, and PBT. It has a very modern fitted look and is top notch quality, as I would expect with all the brands Verdessence carries.
I actually initially ordered the Sameunderneath hooded coat (which was brilliant by the way), but I indicated the wrong size. The return/exchange process was very quick and easy making it painless to get a really great item. › Continue reading
Fun At The Eco-Chic Expo
I hope many of you had a chance to visit the Eco-Chic Expo yesterday at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center that Rachel posted about last week. Featuring many different local sustainable living companies, the expo was definitely a great and interactive way to spend a few hours. The expo featured a lot of companies all excited to share their products and websites with the public at this free event. Here are some businesses and events that really caught my eye!
Full Circle Farm is an organic farm that grows and sources organic fruits and vegetables and deliver right to your door! Located just outside of Carnation, the 400 acre farm grows over 200 varieties of produce and 50 crops in order to provide a large variety for their customers. They also partner with other local farms in order to provide more options for delivery baskets. The baskets of food are fully customizable, with flexible order size and frequency and as an added bonus, you know exactly where your food is coming from. To sign up for a delivery subscription or learn more about Full Circle Farm visit their website or call 866-EAT-WELL.
Eco-Chic Expo Seattle
Now for a local, small business and community centric alternative to the Seattle 2010 Go Green Conference. Seattle’s Eco-Chic Expo is being held on Saturday, May 1st, at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center located in Northeast Seattle. A self described “interactive green lifestyle event”, the event is put together to provide the general public with an interactive day of tips, tricks and products to help people live greener, yet fashionable, lives. The Expo is free to the public and features a number of local companies dedicated to sustainable lifestyles. › Continue reading
Remove Indoor Toxins with these Specializing House Plants
Money Plant (Epipremnum aureum)
I’ve been reading a lot lately about air filtering house plants and which ones are the best for the job. Turns out, most are specialized to remove specific toxins, so lets first look at the list of indoor toxins so we can find out which plants you need to remove those toxins. Pretty much all plants are going to improve air quality, these have just been researched more than others and/or are better performing at removing certain things. Also keep in mind that many of these are also invasive weeds, so please keep them in pots in your home and take care when disposing of them.
Trichloroethylene (TCE) in the home is introduced from dry cleaning, printing inks, paints, lacquers, varnishes, and adhesives. This chemical is considered by the National Cancer Institute as a potent liver carcinogen.
Benzene is present in many common items including gasoline, inks, oils, paints, plastics, and rubber. It is an eye and skin irritant as well as being a contributing factor to leukemia in humans. Repeated skin contact with benzene will cause drying, inflammation, blistering and dermatitis.
Formaldehyde is a extraordinarily common in almost every indoor environment. Found in everything from particle board or pressed wood products used in many furniture pieces, to grocery bags, facial tissues and paper towels. Even common household cleaning agents and air fragrances contain formaldehyde. With carpet backings, fire proof coatings, permanent-press clothes and natural gas all containing the toxin, it is nearly impossible to avoid.
Plyboo Bamboo Plywood and Durapalm Palm Tree Sustainable Flooring
I love bamboo. Its beautiful, its durable, and its a great sustainable and renewable resource, so I am pretty excited about Plyboo by Smith and Fong. Certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and available for LEED credit by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), these surfaces and flooring are all about sustainability. Made from FSC certified bamboo and palm, these flooring and paneling alternatives have a beautiful and unique modern but warm look.
Smith & Fong’s Plyboo flooring, plywood and veneer are derived from Moso bamboo harvested from a forest that requires no irrigation, fertilizers or pesticides. Each year, only 20 percent of the plantation’s bamboo (or only the five-year growth) is cut, ensuring the forest canopy remains intact and the ecosystem is not disturbed.
Both the Durapalm and Plyboo flooring, veneer and plywood use a urea formaldehyde-free adhesive called PlybooPure™ and pass the California Air Resources Board (CARB)’s formaldehyde regulations for composite panels. It also earned the world’s first non-wood FSC certification for its bamboo resource in China, providing third-party validation of a truly sustainable industry. Additionally, Smith & Fong retain a relationship with the actual bamboo farmers, to ensure the quality and sustainability of the operation.
Recycled Felt Pillows by diffractionFIBER
I got a great email the other day from Beth of diffractionFIBER, a pillow artist on Etsy. Each of her pillows are hand-made to order and are not only unique and beautiful, but they are also green. The designs are created with a recycled plastic bottle felt, helping to reduce plastic waste.
With several quirky designs, some geek pillows with your control-alt-delete keyboard buttons would look great on any techie couch. At $35.00 for many of her pillows, they won’t break the bank, and you will end up with a one-of-a-kind, unique handmade piece.
ECO Recycled Countertops by Cosentino
Consisting of 75% recycled content from post-industrial or post-consumer materials and held together by an environmentally friendly corn-oil resin, ECO by Cosentino countertops will keep your kitchen green. Similar to the Vetrazzo Recycled Glass Countertops, ECO is made up of recycled glass and mirror, but also includes porcelain, crystallized ash and stone scraps from regulated quarries under strict stewardship programs.
The countertops are produced in an environmentally friendly way as well, with 94% of the water used in manufacturing being recycled, thus minimizing the consumption of a very important resource. All of the minerals used in the production of ECO by Cosentino come from quarries that are fully restored and the manufacturing process is strictly controlled to avoid emissions of any harmful particles into the air.
Green Flooring – Eco-Leader Tile by Refin Ceramiche
Let’s face it keeping up with the “green movement” is not easy especially when replacing your tile floors. However with companies like Refin Ceramiche and new product like Eco-Leader and X-Stone, the search just became a whole lot easier.
Eco-leader is a color-body porcelain tile; manufactured using 40% pre-consumer recycled material. It is this 40% recycle content which enables Eco-Leader to meet the requirements for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, the most important and strict American certification for conservation of energy and the environment.
Although many have tried, Refin is the first Italian factory to create a tile awarded LEED certification. It is this first step–and Refin’s commitment to their mission of becoming a forerunner of environmental policies through conscious consumption and production–which sets them apart from other tile manufacturers.
Tottini – Design For Modern Green Kids
Seattle moms Melissa Maffei and Melissa Van Flandern both have a passion for the simplicity and beauty of modern design which is wholly apparent when you step into their children’s furnishing store Tottini. Brimming with bright colors and interesting shapes, your children will instantly fall in love with everything in the store, and you will appreciate the clean modern design.
Surrounded by fresh children’s products with sustainable green design, recycled content and modern eco-chic simplicity and materials, Tottini is the place for green kids (and their parents). Art and design take center stage at this children’s furnishings boutique, products and furnishings are well designed with clean modern lines. Most toys and furnishings are made from organic cotton, sustainable wood, bamboo and recycled plastics- but lack nothing in the fun department.
› Continue reading
LiT Lampshades – Promoting Green Home Design
Lampshades are not usually something you think of when designing green, and it is really hard to find environmentally friendly shades. Most shades have a plastic styrene backing which in no way is biodegradable. They are then coated with toxic glue then the fabric. Let’s think what happens when this glue gets hot,….toxic glue….hot light bulb….your baby’s room….hum? None too good for the earth, and on the aesthetic side- most plastic based shades are ugly, thus none too good for your decor.
LiT, a not only local but green designer lampshade company (based in Seattle, Washington), is taking a stand against ugly toxic shades by making their shades earth friendly through careful consideration in the materials used in producing LiTshades. Instead of plastic owner Dawn Bassett uses only paper backing. The backing is laminated using water based, non-toxic adhesive and then the reclaimed, recycled or re-purposed fabrics and papers give the shades their final touch. She also insists on only using natural fiber textiles like silks and cottons.
Dawn makes all her shades by hand, usually sitting quietly or rocking out to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in her shop. Her shades are not mass produced in Vietnam, Indonesia, or China in large crazy factories by little kids for two cents a day.
› Continue reading
