SAFE Green Toys

Green Toys uses recycled milk containers as the main ingredient in creating their toys. Next, the milk containers are reprocessed into super clean fresh plastic. The plastic material we use is called high-density polyethylene (or HDPE). This material is considered one of the safest, cleanest plastics around.

Made in California, USA: Less Transportation, Less Energy

All Green Toys products are 100% made in the USA. To be more specific, they
are produced in California, a state known for strict toy safety and environmental laws...
The raw materials and toys aren't shipped from overseas, which saves a lot of energy and reduces greenhouse gasses.



Environmental Packaging
All Green Toys products are packaged in recycled corrugated boxes with no plastics, cellophane or
twist-ties, and are 100% recyclable.

ABC news on "deconstruction"

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- "Are you building a home or remodeling one? There may be a way to save some cash and help the environment."

Watch their video as they tour the Habitat for humanity storage facility and talk to several Houstonians about the benefits of reclaiming goods for their construction projects.

" The benefits of deconstruction are many. First off, it cost consumers less and preserves old architecture.... Also, it more importantly keeps the Earth a little cleaner."

If you'd like to get involved with Habitat For Humanity, click here, or use this link to find out more about Historic Houston.

Green Living Home

$$ saving chart

Via Cookie

Green as Sexy

I don't think this is the first merger of consumer energy price angst with Madision Avenue marketing suave, and it probably won't be the last. Personally, I'm glad green is sexy and mainstream (it's long overdue). watch the video ;)

Greening with Moss

I just love moss... the color, the softness... its persistance. I recently dug out some clumps from my sidewalk and have it in a dish... sometimes I forget it's there and it doesn't look too great... but I spray it and it comes back to life in no time.

Since they obtain all their nutrients from the air (moss has no true roots), moss plants require nothing more than shade, acidic soil, and adequate moisture to flourish. Moss also seems to prefer poor quality soils with low nutrient levels. SCORE!

Below are some "designed" examples using moss for inspiration.

-Home by Japanese firm NENDO


Moistscape - This is a cool moss installationinstallation using moss by frcll in NYC - "spatial configuration of these verdant planes - they vary in size, height and proximity to the visitor - creates a range of possible encounters."








Moss Covered Solar Powered Vending Machine-
Fuji Electric's solar powered vending machine, where the panels supply sufficient energy to heat and cool the beverages, while the moss covering "helps improve insulation.


Moss Installation and graffiti by Edina Tokodi



-A prototype green wall installation for the 2008 AIA convention in Boston in May - aims to transform a blank brick wall into ‘a lush green environment’, both bringing attention to underutilized sites in Boston and providing a green solution to improve public space in the city.

Actually i think these are sedum but i can easily see how it could be moss. :)


TIP: Before utilizing moss as part of your shade gardening plans, the soil bed for the moss plants should first be tested to ensure that the pH is between 5.0 and 6.0 (lower is o.k. - 6.5 is max., but not ideal).

LINKS:
+ Wall Greening System Using Moss
+Moss Acres on HGTV
+Moss Gardening: Including Lichens, Liverworts and Other Miniatures [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)


+ Recipe for Moss Graffiti

Green Choices

How to Choose Green
Here are some factors to consider when choosing for maximum sustainability:

Product Weight:

Products that weigh less require less raw materials to create and consume fewer natural resources than comparable, heavier products. The energy and fuel required to transport products can also be reduced by lighter-weight products.

Number of Parts:

Products designed for both maximum function and simplicity will, by their very nature, require as few parts as possible. Fewer parts mean fewer manufacturing processes, less shipping, and less packaging, all of which save energy and carbon emissions.

Recycled and Recyclable Content:

While recyclability is often a hallmark of a green product, use of recycled materials is a better sign of an earth-conscious manufacturer. Select products that contain both recycled and recyclable content for maximum sustainability.

Ease of Disassembly and Upgradeability:

Products designed for quick and simple disassembly are more likely to be recycled than those that are difficult to take apart. And products that can be easily upgraded in the field-for instance, the replacement of spent cushions on task seating-enable longer product life. This, in turn, limits the waste that could be generated by the disposal of used products as well as the resources that would be required to replace products in their entirety.

Aluminum Components:

The use of lightweight aluminum signifies quality as well as green characterisitcs. Aluminum never degrades, so it can be recycled infinitely, and because recyclers are paid a premium for aluminum scrap, the likelihood that a product containing aluminum will be recycled is higher than products made of less valuable components like recyclable plastic.

Distribution Practices:

Products and packaging designed to use the fewest and smallest boxes possible not only reduce waste, but allow more items to fit on delivery trucks to cut back on emissions and fossil fuels. Packaging should be eliminated entirely whenever feasible.

Quality and Durability:

Quality counts when it comes to sustainability. Long-lasting, high performance products require replacement less frequently than lower quality choices, reducing the impact of disposal and replacement.

Additional Green Practices:

Manufacturers can lead by example by utilizing green vendors themselves-such as using printers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council to create marketing materials-and by supporting environmental causes and reputable organizations.

~ Good design achieves more with less--especially when it comes to our Earth's limited resources. At Humanscale, environmental sustainability is integral to every step of product development to complement function, quality, and aesthetics for tools that provide maximum ergonomic comfort with minimal environmental stress.
For more information about Humanscale products contact us at (713) 871-8686 or by visiting the website

CAIXA FORUM MADRID

CAIXA FORUM

MADRID

JUST OPENEDA FEW WEEKS AGO WITH A LUSH GREEN WALL AND LASER CUT

OXIDIZED 'LACE' SCREEN ON THE UPPER DECK CAFE. THE BUILDING OCCUPIES THE SITE OF A 19TH CENTURY WAREHOUSE THAT WAS GUTTED AND RE-INVENTED AS ANOTHER ONE OF LA CAIXA'S EXTRAORDINARY CIVIC FREE SPACES FOR CONTEMPORARY ART.

LOCATED IN FRONT OF THE PRADO AND DOWN THE STREET FROM LA REINA SOFIA WHERE PICASSO'S 'GUERNICA' IS VISITED BY THOUSANDS DAILY.

LA CAIXA FORUM: OPEN 12 MONTHS A YEAR, EVERY DAY, FREE.

Distinguished Speaker Series

"The combined costs of housing and transportation are most affordable in areas well-served by public transit."
- Scott Bernstein

Thursday, June 26, 7 pm United Way

Nobody has spent more time studying the relationship of transporation and housing in America than Scott Bernstein, who will give a lecture in Houston on Thursday, June 26, 7 pm, at the United Way Community Resource Center, 50 Waugh Drive. Admission is free.

Bernstein will be hosted by the Gulf Coast Institute, as the first in the Distinguished Speaker Series, funded by the Anchorage Foundation of Texas.
The title of Bernstein's talk is "Flying blind? Or fully aware? - How smarter use of scarce resources can fuel economic success"

Third Ward TX

http://www.thirdwardtx.com/

3rd Ward, TX is a 57-minute-long documentary on a community planning initiative in Houston, Texas’ third ward as depicted by filmmaker Andrew Garrison. As quoted from the website:

Project Row Houses is the unexpected home of cutting-edge art and visionary thinking about inner-city renewal…When deep-pocket developers arrive, art, life, and real estate collide and Project Row Houses must offer new thinking about livable communities.

Watch the trailer on the blog:


You can purchase the documentary HERE.

Watch TV

....Tomorrow, June 4th at 6pm to see the launch of Planet Green, the first and only 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network.

They're weekly schedule will remind you of shows you're interested in watching such as Wa$ted...style over substance on Thursday or Solar Showdown on Sunday.

Their site also has a lot of fun and useful info such as green guides for cars, pets, computers and even womens jeans.

Go to their Channel finder to find out what channel you can watch it on...anywhere.

$aving...

and "Green"....?
My sister recently sent me a link to finding cheap gas in my area....i think CNN recently did a story on it's accuracy... which got me thinking about other ways to $ave....and apparently a lot of other people as well from congressional offices to my husband are thinking this way.

According to these energy saving techniques you can save $60/yr using CFL's, $150/year using a programmable thermostat, $274 per year caulking and weatherstripping windows.

That's a saving of almost $500/yr just with THREE things. Imagine if you did a couple of more things:

GAS: Carpooling, driving the speed limit... switching to a fuel efficient vehicle?
Last month we went to San Francisco and rented a hybrid. We drove for 4 days from S.F. to various areas in Oakland and Contra Costa county in California traffic and back. Our surprise came at the pump when we went to fill up. $20 (about 5 gallons!) THAT'S IT!?!!? I was so impressed because it costs $50 just to fill up my Mini!

WATER: Saving water with low flow faucet and bathroom fixtures or using aerators, Xeroscaping with Natives, Rain barrels to capture and reuse rainwater...(from hurricane season??? :|) Also use energy star efficient appliances such as your dish washer or clothes washer.

Buying local: such as farmers markets supports your local economy, healthier, and actually is saving on gas by not buying grapes that have to be transported from chile.

Re-using: Shopping bags, containers...(I was thinking of this the other day in the shower as I used a sample bottle of shampoo... why do i keep buying travel sizes... i could just reuse one of the travel sizes refill with my big bottle of shampoo and also avoid using the hotels travel sizes...which i realized i have a whole drawer full of old hotel travel shampoos... lots to trash and what a waste of space !)

And of course Recycling. You can recycle just about anything these days from your cell phone and ink cartridges via the USPS to large appliances by listing them free on freecycle, craigslist, or donating to .... you can even check out the Steel Recycling Institute to find out where the closest place you can recycle your steel appliances such as that old fridge sitting in your garage.

I can't help to think that perhaps this crisis has spurred some positive personal responsibility in all of us out of the desire/need to save money... not that the high gas and food prices are a good thing...but perhaps this train of thought will persist.

If you have any other suggestions or other resources on how to "$ave" please feel free to comment and share the knowledge. HAPPY MONDAY!

The story of Stuff

UH Green roof + Metropolis

Last month Metropolis Magazine published the University of Houston's green roof on the Burdette Keeland design exploration center. Very cool! ( Click on the images to get a better read/look. )

Books and other News

Seeing as how posts have been sparse... and I apologize... i thought i would make a post of a few of the things i've been tagging as interesting.

On Guerrilla gardening—making vacant, neglected public lands green and flower.

Green Roof - A Case Study by Christian Werthmann - a book chronicling [in depth] the design and construction of a green roof for the American Society of Landscape Architects‘ headquarters in D.C. The ASLA hired Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, in collaboration with the Conservation Design Forum, to design the green roof ‘hybrid’ - meaning that it would be both a ‘green roof’ and a ‘roof garden’ [a distinction made clear in the case study]. The 3,300 square foot completed roof meets all the sustainable + aesthetic criteria mentioned above, and provides a rooftop hangout for the ASLA.

Home Depot introduces a no VOC paint option. The Freshaire tinting system uses pre-measured packets of dry tint that color the paint without adding any VOCs to the paint. This zero VOC system is an industry first. No other tint system for paint can make this claim.
Click HERE get 3 free samples.

A different kind of green wall- Via architecture.MNP



The project - a prototype green wall installation for the 2008 AIA convention
that will be in Boston in May - aims to transform a blank brick wall
into ‘a lush green environment’, both bringing attention to
underutilized sites in Boston and providing a green solution to improve
public space in the city.

Urban Farm- Garden Canopy

MoMA PS1 in Queens, NYC, has a Young Architects competition every year that invites architects to propose a temporary structure for the Museum’s courtyard to serve as background/ ambiance for its popular summer music program, Warm-Up.

This year’s winner, differs from previous urban beach themes. Architects Dan Wood and Amale Andraos, the husband and wife team that head the New York-based WORK ac, proposed a novel scheme of a farmer’s market. The structure will be constructed of cardboard tubes containing a variety of vegetables and plants. The colorful "terrestrial" structure is a complimenting contrast with P.S. 1’s angular concrete and gravel courtyard.

The program has a farmer's market, swings, kids "grotto" and even a solar powered cellphone charging station.

The project, to cost US$70,000, is to be built this summer.

(click on images to enlarge)

More on PS1 Young architects Program

4 Story biofilter - A Living Wall, University of Guelph-Humber

Sources:

Business Edge
Mission Green

This wall looks amazing! Four stories of ferns, potato vines, English ivy, and the tropical tradescantia vine. ... umbrella and spider plants, the leathery-leafed silver vase, shiny crotons, hibiscus and benjamin fig.

Orchids and other flowers bloom randomly throughout the year "giving off a feel-good effect of texture, scent and vibrant colour even as the wind howls and the snow swirls outside."

The wall installation was the idea of architect Birgit Siber of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc., who also designed the building that houses classrooms, offices, labs and an Internet cafe. This was a joint venture with the University of Guelph and Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

As with most innovative ventures...a major selling points of the wall is the potential to save money. "Most buildings maintain indoor air quality by bringing in fresh air from the outside through ventilation systems. In the winter, outdoor air must be heated to room temperature, and in the summer it needs cooling....A biofilter can substantially reduce the need to bring in fresh air by generating clean air indoors. If it is used to its fullest capacity, Darlington estimates it can save 0.3 to 3.5 kilowatts per person in the height of summer and winter."

Another benefit of course is the positive psychological effect of green plants.... Studies from Washington State University found that greening indoor space can reduce absenteeism by 10 per cent and increase productivity by 12 per cent.

The wall requires pruning and trimming so that it doesn't get weighed down so the student at guelph college maintain the wall on a weekly basis. Also, because this is a continuous living research project the student study the plants and filters.

MORE INFO:
Capital costs: $500,000 for the design & installation
$21,000 annually for maintenance.

Air Quality Solutions has installed smaller biofilters at Queen's University in Kingston, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority head office, and an office building in downtown Toronto, but the Guelph-Humber system is the largest so far.
More reads:
+ http://www.naturaire.com/library5.html

+ University of Guelph

+ Back to Nature- the biowall returns clean air to commercial spaces

RECYCLE YOUR CORKS

Korks 4 Kids is a not-for-profit program, organized
through Recycle Cork USA, LLC. to raise funds from the recycling of
cork for Children's Charities.

You can make a difference - your corks combined with others can help in finding a cure for many childhood maladies.

Once you have a sizable amount. Send your corks to :

Korks 4 Kids Program
c/o RECYCLE CORK USA, LLC.
510 Wynwood Road
York, Pennsylvania 17402

Korks 4 Kids is also interested in partnering with restuarants, taverns or wine distributers...
Read more here.

Upcoming Houston EVENTS

CLEAN is featuring Manufactured Landscapes as part of our 2008 Environmental Film Series.

Manufactured Landscapes is the portrait of one man’s voyage as it follows celebrated still photographer Edward Burtynsky on a tour of Asia. Burtynsky takes large-format stills of industrial landscapes: factory workers lined up in infinity, giant ships eviscerated, massive recycling dumps, expansive strip mines. His goal is to portray humanity’s relationship to nature as we pursue progress. When Burtynsky speaks, he neither celebrates or condemns but simply explores who were are in relation to our planet. We extract things from the environment to survive, and that is damaging the world.

When: February 20th @ 7 pm
Where: Rice Media Center, Rice University (Entrance #8 located at Stockton and University Blvd.)
Fee: None, however, donations will be accepted at the door.

**View Trailer**

More on upcoming film screenings




Land Use in Houston:The Gulf Coast Institute, Blueprint Houston, Houstonians for Responsible Growth, and the Greater Houston Partnership will sponsor a free public forum about land use issues in the City of Houston.
Listen, learn, and help decide Houston’s future.

WHEN: February 26th from 5:30-7 pm
WHERE: George R. Brown Convention Center.
For More information, see invitation

Houston and Nuclear

To follow on a recent GTH post on Nucluear energy I thought I would draw attention to a recent article in CLEAN (The Citizens League for Environmental Action Now):

The Dirt on Nuclear Power
by Vicki Wolf, February 2008

....NRG Energy, Inc. (NRG) has applied for the licensing of two new nuclear reactors for the South Texas Project in Matagorda County, near Bay City. Seven more new reactors are proposed for Texas. But these plants don’t need to be built. According to Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., an electrical engineer, specialized in controlled nuclear fusion, there is no need to rely on the dirty energy of nuclear, fossil fuel or biofuels made from food crops for future energy needs. He has systematically analyzed the energy situation and found it is quite possible to have a clean energy future, relying on efficiency, conservation and clean, renewable technology.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
comments/editorial: Pause for Precaution...

UTNE Magazine had a great article with the pros and cons of nuclear worth a read titled ATOMIC DREAMS.
I thought it was pretty thorough.

Ashby Highrise Concerns

This post has been long and late in coming. What is going on with the Ashby Highrise?
From stopashbyhighrise.org

The Buckhead developers ,Kevin Kirton and Matthew Morgan, requested a meeting with representatives of the Stop Ashby High Rise Task Force to discuss alternatives to the construction of the 23-story commercial/residential building at 1717 Ashby that they originally proposed.

Apparently they're willing to negotiate a deal where:

1. They'll Reduce the height of the structure to 19 stories by building fewer, bigger condominium units, but they reserved the right to build as many units as originally proposed if they could not sell enough of the larger units.
2. If they received a cash payment of $2.65 million, they would build a 6 story building consisting of two floors or parking and four floors of apartments.

As of this morning the Council approved a motion by Council Member Clutterbuck to delay consideration of the high density ordinance for two more weeks. The Buckhead developers have also agreed to delay any permitting on the Ashby High Rise for this same two week period.

My 2 cents (i have to):
Some have tried to argue that people should not fight change. I agree some change is inevitable and allows us to progress as a community....

but somehow i don't think that this is the case....as with a lot of development in Houston, the main focus is usually on $$ to be made... of course... but shouldn't there be some consideration and thought taken on how they might also improve or add to a neighborhood....thus making such a development even more desirable? Thoughtful design is good design. There's nothing that says that developers and residents couldn't have a mutually beneficial relationship.

Well, just in case you have my same sentiments maybe you'll want to sign the petition to stop the ashby 23 storey highrise. ;)

Have a great weekend!

Other reads:

+ Ashby highrise ordinance delayed again
+Houston Strategies
+Recent Houston Chronicle Article