Good Green News

Are you looking for a trustworthy source of practical information about how to green your home and your life? Check out the Sierra Club’s new website, Sierra Club Green Home. The site features exclusive articles on more than 100 topics, from choosing eco-friendly countertops to selecting a solar energy installer. I may be biased, since [...]

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In this land of free-flowing corn syrup and 600-calorie coffee drinks, the specter of food scarcity may seem remote to many Americans. That could change in the coming decades.
This week the United Nations Environment Programme released a report predicting that by 2050, global food production may drop by as much as 25% due to climate change, [...]

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I’m always glad when the less sexy aspects of the green revolution get positive media attention, like this past Sunday’s article in The New York Times magazine about building deconstruction (“This Old Recyclable House” by Jon Mooallem). Solar panels, wind turbines and plug-in hybrids create buzz and attract investors, but I believe it’s mundane activities [...]

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There’s no shortage of outlets for antiques, vintage furniture and plain old junk: yard sales, flea markets, thrift stores, antiques shops—you’ve likely been there and done that. But if you’re in the market for used materials to build with, not just to decorate with,  you may need to look further afield. Here are ideas gleaned [...]

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Compared to big houses, smaller homes are typically gentler on the environment and on the people who live in them. They require fewer materials to build, create less waste during construction, and eat up less land. They are also easier and less expensive to heat, cool, furnish, clean and maintain.
Whether you’re renting, buying, building or [...]

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Bulldozing a house and burying the shattered structure in a hole in the ground sounds perverse, yet it happens every day in neighborhoods across the country. An alternative is deconstruction, which simply means systematically dismantling a building and salvaging its parts for reuse.
To be sure, deconstruction’s been around as long as… well, as long as [...]

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Once upon a time, the three Rs stood for reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. Today, it’s reduce, reuse and recycle. There’s actually a hierarchy implied in this enviro maxim, with reduce as step number one. In a nutshell, lighten your footprint on the planet by using less stuff. Reuse and recycle play second and third fiddle, [...]

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Many people assume that eco-friendly homes cost a bundle. While newly built or remodeled green homes can cost more than conventional houses (some say from 2 to 5 percent more), they don’t have to. If you’re budget conscious—and who isn’t when it comes to buying, building or remodeling a home—green building can save you money. [...]

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This is an excerpt from a conversation with Cate Leger and Karl Wanaselja of Leger Wanaselja Architecture in Berkeley, California. It was originally published in Redux, in a chapter featuring the condo project with street-sign siding that they mention here. –JR 
Karl: We believe in reusing materials as much as possible to put as little pressure [...]

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There’s much that can be done to transform an existing home into a good green home. Here are a few tips for both large and small remodeling projects:
Ask for what you want. When you’re interviewing architects, designers or contractors for your remodeling project, discuss your green building interests at the start. Don’t wait until after [...]

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