Green Holiday Entertaining

November 24th, 2011 | Posted by sschultz in Air Quality | Green Products | Living Green | Waste Reduction - (Comments Off)

Are you looking for ways to make your holidays more sustainable? From reducing waste, to increasing energy efficiency, to reducing toxicity there are tons of ways to make our celebrations more sustainable. Our friends Corey and Lynn over at Celebrate Green have lots of creative ideas for greening Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.  Another great resource is Practically Green where you can find tips on avoiding BPA in your holiday meals, green gift ideas and more! Below are some of the green solution available at Green Depot! You can see all of our eco-friendly Holiday Supplies by clicking here.

Holiday LED String Lights
Light up your home this Holiday season with LED lights, the energy efficient version that uses up to 80% less energy to operate than traditional incandescent lights. Use them indoors or out to brighten your holidays

 

 

Dinuba Stainless Steel Water Container
This beautiful stainless steel container is stylish and functional. Use it for storing and serving water at events, or for everyday use on your countertop or in your fridge. This is a perfect alternative to the classic tub of plastic water bottles – even better it’s BPA-free! Great for water – or your favorite festive beverage! Comes in 5L and 15L sizes.

 

Compostable Cups
These compostable 12oz cups are made of Kraft Paper coated with corn-based lining. Great for hot or cold beverages – you can use them for hot apple cider, or rum punch. At the end of your party, unlike those red plastic cups, these don’t have to go to the landfill.

 

Juniper Ridge Room Spray
Few things evoke the feeling of holiday more than the fresh scent of pine trees. Juniper Ridge’s Room Spray was made to capture the smell of the forests of the Cascade Mountain range using real, wild-harvested botanicals, no toxic or artificial chemicals.

 

For more, browse all of our eco-friendly Holiday Supplies by clicking here.

Share

zHome – The first, true zero energy townhome neighborhood in the U.S.

October 26th, 2011 | Posted by sschultz in Green Building | Green Homes | Green Products - (1 Comments)

The new zHome development in Issaquah, WA.

Several years ago, about 20 miles east of Seattle, Washington, a goal was set to build a model for 21st century homes – and the zHome project was born. September saw the completion of this state-of-the art project, and it is revolutionary on almost every level. Zero-Net Energy The buildings have built-in energy efficiencies to help minimize waste – like heat recovering technology - and that accounts for most of the lowered energy use in these homes. The buildings have solar-panels that generate and offset the remaining energy use to achieve net zero energy use and net zero CO2 emissions over the course of a year. Water Conservation zHomes are slated to use just 40% of the average water use of a typical home.  All 10 units have successfully earned WaterSense New Home Certification. These are the first homes in the State, and among the first in the nation, to receive this recognition. The units save water in a number of ways: high-efficiency water fixtures and appliances, rain-garden landcaping, and rain-water capture for use in flushing toilets and laundry. The zHomes are also the first in the Nation to win Salmon Safe certification for their handling of stormwater runoff. Sustainable Materials Use Each unit is finished with low-toxic, eco-friendly and durable materials from floor to ceiling to inside the walls. The bulk of the materials in the project come from within 500 miles of the site. They also used recycled materials in finishes like tiles and countertops; FSC-certified woods for decking, handrails, siding and more; and super-durable materials for siding and roofing to minimize frequency of maintenance and replacement. On top of that, 90% of the construction waste from the building of these homes was recycled or reused. There are many more exceptional qualities to the zHome project that make it one of the most innovative developments in the country today. Visit http://z-home.org to learn more! This project is a model for 21st century homes – they’ve proved that these ideas are scalable – let’s hope they aren’t unique for long! Click here to visit our website.

Share

, ,

The Caroma Profile: A Toilet and Sink – Combined!

September 9th, 2011 | Posted by sschultz in Environment | Green Products | Water Conservation - (1 Comments)


Caroma has long been the world’s leader in dual flush toilets, and now they have taken water-savings to a whole new level. By incorporating a hand-washing basin right into the tank of their toilet, Caroma has made it easy for people to conserve even more. 

 They started with a High-Efficiency Dual Flush Toilet (two flush options: 0.8 gallons for liquids, and 1.28 gallons for solids) and changed the design of the tank so that water refilling the tank is first routed through a faucet at the top, making that clean water available for hand washing. As the water from your hand washing goes down the drain of the basin, it goes directly into tank to be used next time you flush the toilet.

 On top of making use of hand-washing-wastewater for flushing, Caroma dual flush toilets use less water to begin with. With an average flush of just 1 gallon, these Dual Flush toilets reduce water consumption by 40-70 percent. Just imagine the water savings when the water from your hand washing gets recycled on top of it all!

Hard to imagine? Here’s an image (right) of the inside of the tank so you can see how it works.

 The Caroma Profile is a certified High Efficiency, WaterSense toilet – and has received the Popular Mechanics “Product Breakthrough” award for innovative design and engineering.

For more information on the Caroma Profile click here!

Share

Fireclay Tile: Reusing Your Old Toilets for the Good of the Earth

August 31st, 2011 | Posted by tjones in Green Building | Green Homes | Green Products - (0 Comments)

One of the most innovative instances of upcycling (that is, converting waste materials into new materials or products that have a greater environmental value) that we’ve come across is Fireclay Tiles.

NPR’s Morning Edition was quick to pick up on this story as well for its sheer ingenuity: Fireclay Tile uses discarded porcelain toilets to make tiling.

It’s an excellent use for the old toilets.  According to the manager of the landfill where Fireclay first began sourcing their old toilets, those useless products were being sent to Asia to be recycled.  Fireclay began buying up these toilets by the tonnage, and grinding them down into a sandy material to be mixed in with clay.

The results of this project have been substantial.  Today, Fireclay’s Debris Series Recycled tile uses over 60% locally-sourced post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled materials to create all sorts of green products: field, trim, and decorative tile.  The tiles are fired in kilns using natural gas, using energy-efficient processes.  Additionally, Fireclay Debris Series tiles are 100% VOC-free.

What’s more, is that using Debris Series tiles can qualifying a building for LEED points.

To check out the Fireclay tile that Green Depot carries, click here.

For green building materials, like eco insulation, as well as many other green products for a sustainable lifestyle, visit http://www.greendepot.com.

Share

Heading Back to University!

August 25th, 2011 | Posted by tjones in Environment | Green Products - (0 Comments)

My own educational adventures have been long.  I earned my B.A. from Oberlin College in 2007, and then went back to school at Columbia University for my M.A. for 2009 – 2010.  After a year off, I’m heading off for a Ph.D program in environmental anthropology at the end of the month.

Between frantically preparing for my move and ensuring that I am properly enrolled and registered for new courses, I’ve had to think through what I’ll need for the upcoming year, and how I can source what I need ethically and in an environmentally-responsible way.

So, below, here are some of the ideas I’ve come up with by perusing the Green Depot website.  I hope this comes in handy for anyone getting ready to head back to school – whether for elementary school, high school, college, or grad school.

GREEN DEPOT SOLUTIONS

TerraCycle Straw Paper: Roughly four billion trees are felled every year for the production of printer paper, which poses a significant threat to the environment and a massive contribution to climate change.  This paper is instead made from straw – the kind used for animal bedding as a byproduct of straw production – and is a much more sustainable material for paper-making than wood.  This paper is fully compatible with laser printers, ink jet printers, and copy machines.

Hero Bags Pig Lunch Sack: Cute!  These lunch bags are made from organic cotton, has a handy cotton carrying strap, and a stylish silk screen “butchery artwork” design of a happy pig.  The bag stands upright with a flat bottom, and it is large enough to hold a large sandwich, a tall beverage, and multiple snacks.  It is machine washable, and should be line-dried.

Ecosystem Flexicover Journals: The journals are excellent for expressing your thoughts or taking notes in class.  They are made of 100% post-consumer recycled paper (the best kind of recycled paper you can purchase) and contain 192 smooth, bright-white eco-friendly pages.  The books come with a back pocket on the inside cover, an organic cotton bookmark, perforated pages, and an elastic enclosure.  Plus, there is an ID number in the back of every book that allows you to track where parts of the journal were made via ecosystem’s website, and resources for learning where to recycle them.

Design Ideas Recycled Newspaper Pencils: A truly ingenious idea, these pencils are made entirely from recycled newspapers that are wound tightly around a no. 2 pencil lead.  Design Ideas ads an adhesive, presses them into a barrel shape, and the pencil turns out to be just as strong as a standard one constructed from wood.  Newsprint images from an English edition Chinese newspaper are visible on the barrel surface, and these can be sharpened just as you would a regular pencil.  They come in a set of twelve.

Decomposition Books: As straightforward as they are classic, these “decomposition books” are constructed from 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper.  They are made with bio gas derived energy, and feature several aesthetically-appealing designs.  They’re college ruled with 80 sheets per book, at 7.5″ x 9.75″ and produced in the United States.  At $4.95, they’re a great bargain for a green back-to-school product.

Solar Backpack: A truly remarkable item. the Solar Back Pack was designed specifically to efficiently charge virtually all handheld electronic devices via built-in solar panels and a battery.  The bag itself is built from a sturdy recycled PET fabric (that usually comes from soda bottles) and has a spacious main compartment with four interior pockets, plus space for glasses, a laptop, and a front pocket for holding charging devices.  A universal USB battery stores power for anytime use, indoors or outdoors, sunny or cloudy, and can be charged even when sun is not readily available.  When the sun is out, the solar panels go to work and charge the USB battery themselves.  The battery can be fully charged from 7 hours of contact with direct sun, or 5.5 hours from a USB port or optional DC or AC.  It’s even capable of charging a smart phone with just 4 hours of sun.  Comes with a 2-year warranty on pack and panels, and a 1-year warranty on the battery.

For green building materials, like eco insulation, as well as many other green products for a sustainable lifestyle, visit http://www.greendepot.com.

Share

Sustainable Alternatives: Squak Mountain Stone

August 19th, 2011 | Posted by tjones in Green Homes | Green Products - (0 Comments)

The first summer after my freshman year as an undergraduate, I worked in a home improvement center.  One of my favorite jobs was installing countertop.  For the affluent resort community where I was working, new countertop meant huge slabs of pure marble and granite – high-quality materials, surely, but the thought crossed my mind more than once: stone isn’t an infinite resource; what will happen to these countertops when the owner chooses to remodel?  Are there any sustainable alternatives available?

Enter Squak Mountain Stone.  The story of Squak is quite remarkable.  The company was founded by Amee Quiriconi as a project dreamed up in a graduate school paper.  The idea was to find a product or service that would benefit the local economy, which in the past had been imported from elsewhere.  The idea became a business venture for Quiriconi, and she used her knowledge of engineering, construction, and research to develop a truly sustainable countertop surface and market it nationally.

Conventional countertops are constructed from a single slab of stone, or from a chemical composite, or even from compressed wood particles.  They can be petroleum-based, or extracted from strip mines, or pressed from forests that were conventionally and non sustainably harvested.  Conventional countertop options available on the market today are certainly not the most sustainable option available to the consumer.

Squak Mountain Stone, on the other hand, is a fibrous-cement material that is comprised of recycled paper, recycled glass, and low-carbon cement.  It’s a fantastic, sustainable, and durable alternative to natural or quarried stone and resembles soapstone or limestone.  It’s rustic and varied, providing a unique accent to any home kitchen or bathroom.  But these slabs aren’t only used in the home – they have been used to construct benches, tabletops, hearths, stairways, and signs.

Not only is squak mountain stone unique, but comes in five different colors to match any home: in natural (grey), latte (light brown), otter (dark brown), thunder (charcoal), and Quinault (forest green).

Take a look around Squak Mountain Stone’s website to learn more about their products, their remarkable story, and their commitment to sustainable home building materials.

Green Depot is excited to be carrying this new green building material.  Visit our website and give us a call to arrange a quote for delivery and installation.

For green building materials, like eco insulation, as well as many other green products for a sustainable lifestyle, visit http://www.greendepot.com.

Share