There are numerous approaches to making greener buildings- from the inside out, from the ground up, density through urban infill, integrating into the landscape, to name a few… but when an existing 133,000 sq. ft. building aims to expand to 500,000 sq. ft., covering a frightening 6 acres- you have to think BIG. That is the vision of the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Center (VCEC), as it triples in size in time to accommodate the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies is the perfect holiday gift for those of us who are interested in green building, but need a little expert help. Admittedly, the For Dummies® books are a smart start for anyone wanting to pick up a new trade or just learn the overall basics on any particular subject. With more than 150 million books in print and over 1000 topics, this new release by Eric Corey Freed of Organic Architect may be the best evidence out there that green is mainstream.

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According to the Container Recycling Institute, only about 14% of all disposable water bottles are recycled. Those that make it to the recycling center become ‘down-cycled’ into a lower form of plastic and seldom become remade into other plastic bottles. As for the other 86%… Americans add 30 million PET water bottles to landfills everyday! Not only are plastic bottles wasteful, but recent studies have shown that Lexan plastic bottles (polycarbonate #7) leach harmful chemicals into the drinking fluids we ingest from them!

SIGG aluminum bottles, on the other hand, are 100% recyclable, and 100% inert, and make ideal bottles for both children and adults.

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We’re suckers for the cute and cuddly, and it doesn’t get much better than these Senger and Dwelling stuffed animals and finger puppets from Branch. Hard to resist even for adults, these adorable products are personally monitored by their importer for the welfare of the artisans, ensuring fair and open trade practices and safe working conditions. The hand-knit wool ‘puppet pals’ are made by a women’s collective of knitters in rural Kenya, and the wool yarn is colored from natural vegetable-based dyes. Purchasing these handcrafted products not only brings joy to your loved ones, but helps promote a better life for the artisans and their families.

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The next time you venture out for a picnic in the park, consider a greener food ware product- Eatware products come in a variety of shapes and sizes, can safely hold oils and water, be stored in the fridge, are microwave-safe, AND are 100% compostable. Eatware is made of 100% natural fibers from bamboo, sugar cane pulp, starch and water- and no chemical additives! While there are several biodegradable food container companies on the market, some potato starch based; some corn starch based, Eatware is among the most durable and safe- decomposable in the compost and dispersed in water in just two weeks.

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The designer behind the One Laptop Per Child Project, Yves Behar is truly a world-class designer, balancing aesthetics, function, and socially-based initiatives. Founder and principal designer of FuseProject, he also happens to be the Chair of the Industrial Design Department at San Francisco’s California College of the Arts. Recently, he facilitated a design studio in which Industrial Design students partnered with South Korean cell phone manufacturer Pantech to design new cell-phone models, taking on the future of mobile communications and addressing the idea of emotional networking. I had a chance to speak to Yves about the studio, sustainability, and more…

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While grandmother’s doilies may be an anachronism in modern homes today, the UNBLOSSOM salt crystal crocheted bowls represent a very current trend- that is the re-inventing of products from past crafts for modern-day uses. The-Home-Project crystallized doily bowls breathe new life into a lost craft and are anything but nostalgic. Not that we don’t love the handiwork of thousands of needle loops, but the more visually engaging three-dimensional version is easier to appreciate when sustainably recycled into a piece that fits with the new decor.

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Q: I’m a regular reader and make my living as a furniture designer/builder. I confess I’m in love with bamboo - I use it as often as I can and would love to spout to every client about it’s sustainability, renewability and ecologically friendly properties but there is one thing that bothers me about this product. It seems perfect in every way except for the fact that it was brought to me via a massive trans oceanic co2 belching container ship. Do I just suck it up and say “it’s a step in the right direction” or is there some other way to get around the co2 issue?

-Chris, Victoria, BC

A: The perfect scenario for any designer is to walk to work and have all the materials you need healthily and restoratively growing right next to your shop. But for the rest of us- we have to develop a value system for selecting the most appropriate materials and resources with which to work. You are off to a great start by asking the right questions, such as- is a material recycle-able, renewable, non-toxic, and/or enjoyable to use??

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This morning we featured Korban/Flaubert’s stunning LED-powered Weblight, and figured such innovation and eye-catching aesthetics warrant a bit more information. Lucky for us, the art/lighting duo will be showing an array of their work at the Art+Industry Gallery in Palm Springs, where we also discovered Johanna Grawunder’s Innovative Lighting during the Dwell on Design conference last December. The exhibition, titled “Growth Patterns,” opens next week, February 15th, and with an intriguing mix of geometric and organic forms, the work does not disappoint. This will be Korban/Flaubert’s first solo show in the US.

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It is rare to find materials that rapidly restore themselves and provide extensive aesthetic range in their simplest, purest state. The Woven Company picked up on this idea nearly 25 years ago, when they first began using reeds, bamboos, grasses, woods, and palms to create window treatments with such a variety of patterns and textures that choosing one for a space is like choosing a work of art.

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One of the highlights of this weekend’s Dwell On Design conference was Johanna Grawunder’s Saturday lecture and DesertGlow exhibition at the Art + Industry Gallery in downtown Palm Springs. While at first glance, many of her architectural and lighting projects look distinctly modern and not overtly green, her rhetoric poses new ways of creating design solutions with regards to efficiency, modernism and sustainability. Grawunder’s fabulously modern light fixtures are simple enough to mass produce at low cost, and energy efficient enough (most are fluorescent tubing) to question their rather high-end price point. Her work poses the question: Why shouldn’t high-end design be energy efficient?… and why shouldn’t energy efficient design be incredible, sophisticated, and art-worthy?

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I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.
— Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

You may remember Dr. Seuss’ legendary tree-protector and earth-lover, the Lorax. Five years ago, Mike Kerwin, Pat Loughran, and Joel Micucci founded Lorax Development with a Seussian mission “to build environmentally responsible homes with renewable materials, energy efficient systems, and smart technologies.” Today, they are doing just that.

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When societies undergo jarring events, fresh cultural expression emerges. For example, in a post-9/11 climate, our heightened awareness of security - both personal and national - has redefined the way we draw boundaries and deal with fear.

For the MOMA’s recent exhibition, SAFE: Design Takes on Risk, French born designer Philippe Million created this galvanized steel utility barrier to be a little more inviting than the standard variety; it may prevent passage, but it also offers a place to rest.
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When we think of greenhouse gas emissions, most of us envision a tailpipe spewing exhaust out of the back of a car. But 40% of the carbon dioxide that contributes to our warming planet comes from buildings. While some of that is a secondary effect of operational needs such as electricity, A/C, and heating, many GHG’s arise from resource extraction, manufacturing and production of the building materials themselves.

Of all the criteria covered by LEED-H and our own GreenBuilding 101 series, MATERIALS and RESOURCES has perhaps the broadest application and relevance. They are the ingredients, and choosing them wisely makes all the difference in terms of the overall impact of the building throughout its life. This is where ‘environmental footprint’ or ‘life cycle assessment’ come into play; as we learn in Cradle to Cradle design basics, the materials are in the picture from the first round of planning to the final stages of demolition or renovation.

Today’s series walks you through choosing ingredients wisely, being sure that the materials you select, and the resources it took to produce them, are a part of the whole picture of a sustainable home.
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Last week, San Francisco’s Knoll Furniture Gallery opened its doors to reveal the first ever LEED Certified Showroom. Why go through the trouble of LEED certification if your product is furniture, you might ask? It’s all part of the ‘doing good by being good’ incentive that so many corporations, including many non-profits, are adopting in recent years. The Audubon Society, Sierra Club, and the NRDC, to name a few, all have LEED Certified Headquarters. Knoll, not exactly a non-profit, shows they care about more than just about the tactile materiality of their designer pieces, but of the overall environment in which they inhabit… now if only those Frank Gehry woven maple chairs came in cost competitive FSC-certified wood…

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