Imagine you could go to Home Depot and for a few hundred dollars purchase an appliance that plugs in like a blender and generates a chunk of the energy your home needs, renewable and emissions-free.

Once a pioneer at Real Networks in Seattle, Chad Maglaque invented the Jelly Fish wind turbine–It’s a 36-inch-tall rooftop wind turbine that you can plug into a socket in your home–no fancy setup required–and generate up to 40 kWh a month, about enough to power a home-full of LEDs or a room full of CFLs. It also comes Wi-Fi and WiMax equipped. He calls it the PC of renewable energy; meaning, the Jellyfish will do for the wind power industry what the personal computer did for the computer industry.

 “The Jellyfish Wind Appliance is a small 36-inch tall vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) with a solid-state controller and a variable-speed induction generator that plugs directly into an existing wall socket and automatically generates power whenever the wind blows. The Jellyfish can be mounted on rooftops, wind towers or even existing street light poles – which are already pre-wired to the grid and have the tower already in place! And, it can generate up to 40 kWh per month in moderate winds enough to light an average home using energy efficient light bulbs with a target price under $400 the Jellyfish would be an affordable option for many households and developing communities looking to harness wind power for the first time. His idea is that the utility or the city will subsidize the $400 cost down to $199 or less with tax rebates. One vision is that the Jellyfish may help enable district wind energy co-ops. Neighbors may be able to join together to work with the power utilities:

 Working in tandem with the existing power grid, the Jellyfish enables large-scale distributed-generation, delivering power exactly where it’s needed and reducing the demand for costly transmission infrastructure.”

VIDEO: Practical Affordable Green Building & Renovation

Check out this video of a Brooklyn, NY based green contractor (ECO-BROOKLYN). They have a very practical approach to renovating brownstones in the Brooklyn area.

Their goal is to provide inexpensive practical green solutions to the middle class, which obviously would have the biggest footprint of usage throughout our country. ECO-BROOKLYN’S mantra is that “the city will provide”. They salvage many of their materials out of dumpsters and dumps and in their words they are “reversing the tide to the dump”. They typically try to use reclaimed material on everything except HVAC, cabinets and appliances. For the appliances and HVAC the trade off is too great not to take advantage of the energy savings of new equipment.

These guys demonstrate  how you can creatively renovate with green technologies and not break the bank. it is vitally important that with projects like this you have a plan way in advance, because due to the nature of this kind of building, it will take longer anyways and you do not want to slow down even more due to poor planning, or something that could of been avoided. So, enjoy the video. CL

When I started working on my blog this week I was looking at "up-cycling" as the focus. I still plan on writing about up-cycling, but I kept coming across facts about E-trash that I found to be a huge and growing problem. With the amount of electronics, cell phones, and computers that we buy every year, a big percentage of these items are ending up in our landfills. Here are some of the facts I found on E-trash:

• In 2007, companies with an enviro-tech focus received $3.95 billion in venture funding, a 38 percent increase over 2006. IT asset recovery (selling refurbished PCs)—is now a $6 billion–a-year business. (TheDailyGreen.com)
• At the 2008 CES, Fujitsu showed a laptop PC whose outside plastic shell is 50 percent vegetable-based polymer alloy. (Fujitsu.com)
• Creation of a desktop PC usually requires ten times the PC's weight in fossil fuels and chemicals, most of them toxic. (BBC News )
• If you're not sure where to donate out-of-use electronics, Recycles.Org can match you up with nonprofit agencies that use old equipment. By 2011, more than 400 million PCs will have been purchased as replacements for current home and office computers. (eBay Rethink, Gartner) Typical U.S. cell-phone users replace their phones every year and a half. (eBay Rethink)
• 130 million cell phones each year go into retirement. (EPA)
• Recycling 100 million phones would recover 3.4 metric tons of gold—gold that would not have to be mined. (EPA )
• PCs contain gold too: 1.2 tons of PC scrap electronics has more than can be extracted from 17 tons of gold ore. (ResourceSaver)
• Only 15 percent of Americans are aware that local recyclers will take old electronics and computers. (eBay Rethink, ACNielsen) Each year, the world generates 20 million to 50 million metric tons of e-waste, according to United Nations Environmental Programme. E-waste makes up 2 percent of solid waste in the U.S. and is the fastest-growing segment of U.S. garbage. (Intercon Solutions )
• Manufacturing one desktop and one monitor requires: 530 pounds of fossil fuel, 58 pounds of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water. (UN, ResourceSaver)
• Twelve percent (25 million) of Americans would pay extra for greener electronics. On the other hand, 41 percent (90 million) are not willing to pay extra. (Forrester)
• Wii is the power-saving leader of game consoles, consuming only 18.4 watts. Compare the hogs: Xbox (186W), PS3 (199W), and a PC (209W at peak usage). (hardCOREware.net )
• While old CRT monitors use more energy to show white than black, LCDs spend slightly more energy to show black than white. (scientific american)
• Don't recycle, Freecycle: There are 4,226 Freecycle.org online groups helping more than four million users give away "junk" to others who can use it. (Dell)
• 2.05 million tons of electronics were put out as garbage in the U.S. in 2005. Only about 18 percent of that was recycled. (Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition )
• The U.S scraps about 400 million pieces of consumer electronics equipment—e-waste—per year. It's the fastest-growing waste stream. (Electronics TakeBack Coalition) () If you buy a new system, Apple and Dell will recycle your old computer, regardless of manufacturer. (Dell Recycling)
• Search EPEAT.net's Product Registry to find computers and monitors that are certified green. (EPEAT.net)
• It's estimated that as much as 80 percent of U.S. e-waste is shipped overseas or to Mexico to be dismantled in unsafe working conditions. (Electronics TakeBack Coalition)
• To create just 1 kilogram of consumer goods, manufacturers on average create 5 kilograms of waste. (RSC )
• Bamboo is the most sustainable of all materials. Look for laptops encased in it, such as the ASUS Ecobook. (ASUS.com)
• By 2001, e-waste already accounted for 70 percent of the heavy metals and 40 percent of the lead in U.S. landfills. (EPA.gov)
• Take an HP, Lexmark, or Dell printer cartridge to Staples for recycling and you will get a $3coupon for ink or toner. (Staples.com) Energy Star 4.0 is quite stringent, demanding highly efficient power supplies and very-low-power idle modes. (energystar.gov)

If we all could just do our part to recycle or freecycle our old devices we could make a huge impact currently on our landfills and long into the future.

I recently completed a large custom door project where the designer specified many selections from 3form glass company. As I started to research the product further, I found out that they use post consumer recycled products in their glass/ design products, and also exemplify what it means to be a responsible manufacturing and production facility. Not to mention, designers and architects love their designs that are truly unique and you will not see anywhere else.

3form continues to innovate and expand its offerings of aesthetically refined low impact products. Their mission is to design beautiful materials that demand less from the natural world and are kind to people. Never satisfied, they are continually developing ways to further reduce the impact of their products and the way in which they produce them.

They produce materials that: 

• Contain high levels of recycled content (Varia Eco-Resin & 100 percent)
• SCS rapid renewable and sustainability harvested materials
• GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality certified (Varia, Chroma, Alabaster.
  

3form has long demonstrated a progressive stance on minimizing their environmental footprint. As the breadth of sustainable initiatives increased, they sought an individual to coordinate and lead their overall environmental efforts.

Erika joined 3form in the summer of 2007 as the Sustainability Coordinator. She leads 3form in achieving their Path to Zero goals, a set of aggressive and concrete initiatives to minimize the environmental impact of 3form product and processes. Erika also expands and deepens the culture of activism and stewardship among the several hundred 3form employees. She has also led efforts to establish an Environmental Management System, reduce energy use, commit to publicly reporting all greenhouse gas emissions, and spearhead a number of community volunteer and outreach efforts.

Erika is a LEED Accredited Professional and holds an honors degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Brown University, along with a Masters Degree in Environmental Policy and Communication from the University of Utah.

Additionally, 3form does extensive human-factor testing and commits substantial resources to improve and create new products that enhance the quality of human life, including: 

• Flammability / toxicity testing for safe interiors usage
• Insulation Performance for thermally efficient buildings
• Safety Impact testing for safety and security applications
• Air Quality testing for clean air and building quality
• Design with concern for end of life: reusability, recyclability and safety

Exceeding industry expectations, 3form has set distinctly aggressive goals for minimizing the impact of not only their products, but of their processes. Collectively they refer to them as our Path to Zero.

• Waste – We will stop sending manufacturing waste to landfill.
• Energy – We will be carbon neutral by 2017.
• Product – We will continue to increase the recycled content in our products.

3-form products and solutions help you earn LEED* credits in five categories. They are proud to be a member of the USGBC and their materials are ideal for LEED certified commercial buildings. They also provide detailed information on how 3form products and processes can help you achieve LEED certification in your next green project, so check them out!

photo credit: Terren in Virginia

HOW MUCH DOES GREEN BUILDING REALLY COST?

All the time, I hear people say— "green building is still too expensive to use on my project". When you actually break it down and explain the cost and environmental savings over the life of the product based on the time they will be in the house/ office etc. they seem to understand. I don't think we as a industry do a good enough job explaining that. I am always interested in the overall benefit of how something performs on my house, and usually it's a win/ win situation. I typically find, that while the green option is more expensive in most cases initially, it usually has a moderate to significant cost benefit long term. Some of the excerpts below were taken from an article written by the NDRC "National Resources Defense Council on the subject".

Green building skeptics sometimes argue that it's difficult or even impossible to build green without paying a big cost premium. But real-world examples show that you can complete a LEED-certified green building project for an average of 2 percent more in upfront costs, and sometimes even below standard market construction costs. Plus, any extra first costs you pay can be recovered through cost benefits over the life of the the product, fewer mechanical issues, and the benefit to the environment. And by making experienced green building professionals a part of your team and learning to control costs, you can escape paying any green premium at all as early as your second green building project.

A 2004 study by Davis Langdon Adamson, a construction cost-planning and management company, found that the first costs of constructing a sustainable building tend to match or only slightly exceed those of comparable non-green buildings. The study, Costing Green: A Comprehensive Cost Database and Budgeting Methodology, measured the square-foot construction costs of 61 buildings seeking certification under the LEED green building rating system against those of buildings of similar type that did not aim for sustainability. Taking into account a range of construction factors including climate, location, market conditions and local standards, the study found that for many of the green projects, pursuing LEED certification had little or no budgetary impact. 

The study's findings also underline that incorporating and integrating green features into a project early is critical to the success of any green building project. "It is the choices made during design which will ultimately determine whether a building can be sustainable, not the budget set," the report concluded. 

In addition, in order to accurately evaluate the impact of green building on your budget, it's important to look beyond first costs. Increasingly, architects and procurement specialists are using "life-cycle assessments" (LCA) to evaluate and quantify the economic and environmental costs and benefits of materials and products over their lives. LCA analysis methods are becoming more standardized and tools such as LCie are emerging to provide comparable product-level evaluations.

So, when planning your next project make sure you look at all factors that are in play, do a life cycle calculation, and use that in your next meeting with a potential home owner/ buyer. If you have your ducks in a row, you can use this as a sales tool, and think of how that might separate you from your competitors.

Photo Credit: Oakley Originals

photo credit: laurenatclemson’s 

When I first heard the term "green walls" I thought they were talking about paint; boy was I wrong. I had heard of green roofs, but never imagined that you could do that vertically. As with many green innovations, the europeans seem to always be on the forefront of these systems. The more we learn, the more we realize how much we don’t know… amazing paradox!

The next big thing in green building design might be to turn an existing idea on its side. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. recently installed a green wall the size of two tennis courts on one side of its headquarters.

Like green roofs — their perpendicular counterparts — green walls are covered in vegetation and provide the benefits of natural insulation and removal of air pollutants. PNC, which provides banking and wealth management services, estimates it will be 25 percent cooler behind the wall than the ambient summer temperatures.

Green walls also can be visually engaging, by using different color plants to make designs or company logos on the walls.

The PNC wall features more than 15,000 ferns, sedums, brass buttons and other plants that create a swirling pattern of varying hues of green above the company’s logo. They are divided among hundreds of 2-by-2-foot aluminum panels that were anchored onto the building’s frame after part of the granite facade was removed.

"We think it’s the right thing to do for our community, for our customers and our shareholders," said Gary Saulson, head of corporate real estate for PNC. "We wanted to add greenery to an area that didn’t have any. … We really view the green wall as public art."

Steven Peck, president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a Toronto industry association, said interest in green walls is growing, though the group does not keep statistics. He estimates green roof installations have increased at about 30 percent a year over five years.

 PNC bills its green wall as the largest in North America. The wall covers nearly 2,400 square feet. PNC officials declined to give a precise estimate of its cost. Irwin said that on average green walls cost about $100 to $125 a square foot.

The structure at PNC requires only 15 minutes a week of watering during peak growing season — less in winter — provided through the building’s plumbing system. PNC has a contract with the installer to prune the plants and replace dead ones if necessary.

Joanne Westphal, a landscape architecture professor at Michigan State University and part of the school’s Green Roof Research Program, said the biggest benefit to green walls is their ability to help cool buildings through shading. They also help capture rainwater and release it more slowly into the atmosphere and stormwater systems.

wow… cooler buildings using less air conditioning, shading, capturing rainwater, and artwork designs out of plants. Can someone point out the negatives here???

http://www.agreenroof.com

http://www.greenroofs.org 

photo: Brian Teutsch

My aunt recently re-modeled her house and wanted to use products that were low VOC, or NO VOC due to her allergies and asthma. When it came to paint we did research and found that Pittsburgh paints (a division of PPG coatings) have products that fit her needs. After looking at PPG we found out that they also use green practices at their production facilities, which means they do not just sell the products, but that they are also doing their part to be responsible.

To achieve its goals of being both a fiscally sound and environmentally responsible firm, PPG has re-engineered many of the manufacturing processes at its paint facilities to minimize energy consumption, improve air and water quality and cut waste. These initiatives include…

1) Each paint manufacturing plant has an active recycling process that includes the re-use of wash water from the production process, the re-work of obsolete inventory, and the recycling of raw material containers and packaging. Other packaging goods — such as plastic and stretch films, super-sacs, cardboard and pallets — are recycled or recovered by suppliers, secondary users, scrap dealers or through third-party contracts.

(2) In 2008, PPG was the first national paint supplier to initiate a recovery program for five-gallon plastic pails used for water-based products. Empty and dry pails are returned to company-owned stores, consolidated and sent to distribution centers for shredding and recycling. In addition to its environmental benefits, this program reduces customer costs by eliminating the need to pay for empty-pail disposa

(3) All gallon pails used for latex products are made from 100 percent recycled polypropylene, and are 100 percent recyclable.

If your goal is to “build green”, be it through meeting local or national VOC regulations, qualifying for LEED points, or consciously attempting to minimize the overall environmental footprint of your building, PPG can help. From residential to commercial to new home construction, PPG’s Pittsburgh and Porter Paints can supply every type of project with a “green” product solution. We offer products that meet the most stringent environmental standards which require either zero or low VOC coatings while delivering the performance you’ve come to expect.

Simply look for the following logo when trying to identify which PPG paint products are considered green and can help earn LEED credits.

Tru-Stile has again showed why they are a leader in the MDF and Wood door industry with their new announcment. TruStile is pleased to announce an improvement to their stain-grade wood door construction that will enable them to offer FSC certified wood doors by late 2009. This will make TruStile your single-source provider for premium, stile and rail “Green” doors in both MDF and most stain-grade wood species.

As of Monday, July 6th, they began transitioning their stile and rail core “TruSpec” material to an advanced and FSC certified LVL (laminated veneer lumber) made of douglas fir. In addition to being FSC certified, the new LVL core outperforms their current TruSpec core. Their wood door panels will continue to be constructed with an MDF core to prevent panel shrinkage and cracking.

After a substantial engineering review and thorough product testing, they are confident that the new LVL core material will make their premium, furniture-grade wood doors even better. The new LVL has been proven to be an extremely effective material for leading exterior window and door manufacturers like Andersen Windows and Kolbe & Kolbe as well.

I am currently shopping for a windmill for my 5 acre property to supplement my electrical bill. when I was searching for financing options,  I stumbled upon Santee Cooper (a electrical provider in South Carolina).

A low-interest loan from Santee Cooper (current rate–1.25%),  allows you to finance energy efficient improvements and renewable energy resource projects for your home that should help you reduce your energy costs. You can apply for energy efficient improvement loans ranging from $500 to $20,000 with up to 60-months to repay loans over $1,000 or renewable energy resource loans up to $40,000 with up to 120-months to repay. All with no money down. Maximum outstanding loans per customer cannot exceed $20,000 for energy efficient loans and $40,000 for renewable energy resource loans. Combined maximum outstanding loans per customer cannot exceed $40,000.

Unfortunately these loans are only available to Santee Cooper customers in South Carolina. If anyone knows of anything like this available in Texas; please let me know.