Archive of posts filed under the Sustainability category.
BuildingGreen 2013 Top-10 Awards
BuildingGreen, publisher of Environmental Building News, announced its Top-10 Green Building Products for 2013 at the GreenBuild Conference in San Francisco. This is their eleventh annual Top 10 products awards, representing BuildingGreen editors’ picks of the most innovative green building products for residential and commercial use. They are drawn from product reviews published in its […]
Some Innovative Products for Homes at GreenBuild Expo
The 2012 GreenBuild International Conference and Expo, sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, was held from November 14 to 16 in San Francisco. About 1,000 exhibitors showcased their latest green building products and technologies. This year’s Expo has one of the largest attendance. It was exciting to see so many green products on display […]
Emerging Cleantech Products
I attended the Clean Tech Open Global Forum, November 8-9. The Cleantech Open runs the world’s largest cleantech accelerator. The mission is to find, fund and foster entrepreneurs with big ideas that address today’s most urgent energy, environmental and economic challenges. 144 startup companies completed the Cleantech Open United States competition in 2012, and many […]
Healthy Building Ingredients – (Not) A Piece of Cake
If people cared as much about their buildings as they did their dinner – organic, gluten-free, and vegan shoppers would be demanding better buildings! There are many similarities between building a house and baking a cake. There’s a basic recipe, ingredients are purchased and sifted through, there’s a rising process, add some pretty finishes – […]
Truths and Myths of Wool Carpet
I have previously written why I like wool carpets. Here are some more thoughts on common misconceptions. MYTH: Wool carpet stains easily. TRUTH: Because of its unique molecular structure as you can see by the picture, it has burrs that keep moisture spills and stains from soaking into the fiber. This is what the synthetic […]
Are Your Clothes Really Clean After Laundry
You would expect that laundered clothes would be squeaky clean. Wait… Energy-wise people and many manufacturers often advocate using cold water to launder clothes. But this is an area where health and hygiene should dictate a more balanced look at energy savings. Clothing is carrying more germs than before for two main reasons. First, certain […]
How I Came To Love Wool Carpet
Here is a microscopic picture of a wool fiber. The burrs keep it from staining and keep it looking beautiful for 25 years. As a designer I love it for how it feels in a home. It actually creates negative ions, just like if you put a waterfall in a room. Also the colors in […]
From Sustainability To Creativity
On one beautiful day this summer, I was taking a leisurely walk with friends on Market Street in San Francisco. Music was coming from a group of people at the middle of the sidewalk and drawing quite a bit of attention. There were two guys playing some sort of instruments. One of them was having […]