The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) sponsors a fantastic website chock full of resources for anyone interested in green remodeling or green building. The website is located at www.greenhomeguide.org and it is definitely worth your time for those thinking about a green project. A must read on the site are the REGREEN guidelines which are the result of a collaboration between the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and the USGBC where the website says the program will “increase understanding of sustainable renovation project practices and benefits among homeowners, residents, design professionals, product suppliers and service providers”.

Also useful is a list of green homebuilding programs in the US with website and telephone contact information for homeowners to see if there is a program listed for their community. If your community recently started or has a green building program that is not listed here, ask the administrator of the program to contact the USGBC at the email listed so your local program can be added and recognized by the USGBC.

Finally, there are a number of resources listed such as project profiles, videos, green building links, and an area that lists the incentives, tax credits, and other grants and programs that are available to green building and remodelers everywhere. There is so much information on the internet about green building, this website is a great starting point created by organizations that are intimately familiar with all that is related to the green building movement.

For those who may have forgotten and for those who may not have been paying attention, the federal government is giving homeowners quite a few incentives to remodel and improve their homes when the upgrades apply to energy efficiency.

The Energy Star website has a wealth of information on available tax credits for consumers for product purchases such as windows and doors, HVAC, water heaters and more. Read through the information on the Energy Star website for a complete description of the products and services that are covered by the federal programs.

Recycled products used for green design projects are gaining in popularity each and every day. There are even tax credits put in place by the Federal Government to encourage the use of green materials when renovating a residence. And because of the increased awareness of the limitations and stresses our activities place on the environment we believe this is only the beginning. With that being said, in regards to recycled glass tile products, consumers should understand that all recycled glass products are not created equal. For this reason, we wanted to review the main differences in the types of glass used in the production of recycled glass tile products.

Recycled glass tile products come from either post-industrial or post-consumer recycled glass. Post industrial recycled glass is glass waste that is used by factories and manufacturing plants that use glass in their production process. Post consumer recycled glass is glass that comes from cities, community recycling centers, and other community based sources. Both divert waste material from landfills but the quality of useable post-consumer recycled material remains an issue due to bottle labels and other contaminants that are hard to remove from each bottle.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, of the 13.6 million tons of glass in the municipal solid waste system in 2007, only about 24% was acceptable for recycling. This is because for cost reasons more cities use single stream recycling where all recyclables including glass, metal, plastic, and paper are all collected in one bin. This is great for consumers but harder on cities to separate the materials from each other and more costly as well.

We are often asked why our Recycled glass tile products such as our Kawaii glass mosaic tiles are more expensive than traditional glass tiles. We explain that whether post-consumer or post-industrial glass is used, the process of making recycled glass tiles is more labor intensive than making tiles using regular glass and this is what injects more cost in to the final price that consumers ultimately pay. Hopefully after reading this blog post you have a better understanding of what goes in to the making of recycled glass tiles. If you have any further questions please leave a comment with this post or feel free to email us through our AnchorBayTile contacts.

The Arizona Republic recently reported that Shea Homes is offering a geothermal cooling and heating system that it developed with Shasta Pools using equipment from Waterfurnace International. The newspaper says that the system uses pool water, roughly 10 to 25 degrees cooler than summer air temperatures, and a heat exchanger to more efficiently cool a home. Shea and Shasta estimate the energy savings at 30 to 70 percent over conventional systems.

Geothermal systems are more common in the eastern and north-eastern parts of the US where climates are naturally colder and such a system can tap in to the heat from under ground. However, Scottsdale green building manager Anthony Floyd notes that geothermal systems using negative edge swimming pools are starting to show up in custom homes in Scottsdale.

At a cost of $8000 to $10,000 for the system it takes a few years to recover the cost through energy savings. But with $300 – $400 air conditioning bills common during the hot summer months in Arizona this innovative product might just have found a “sweet spot” in the Arizona market with consumers looking more than ever for ways to save on monthly expenses.

In a recent article, the NY Times profiled Micheal Jansen a man who is interested in downsizing his life and his home. He says what many of us think:

“I don’t want this life — the life of someone who’s working too hard to pay a large mortgage to live in this house.” The catalyst, he said, was watching the value of his home plummet with the rest of the real estate market, while the time and money required to maintain the property only increased. “The energy cost is enormous,” he said, “and the bigger your property gets, the more there is to do.”

I have a friend who recently their home and moved to another state for work. At the onset of the relocation they fully planned to buy a new house, but the hidden joys of renting have won them over. They are not sure when they will buy a house. There is no periosic maintenance associated with a rental. That is what the lanlord is for. If something breaks, like the furnace, you only need to call the landlord. Sometimes it is easy to forget that our time is a valuable commodity.

And with that in mind, Michael Jansen has become deeply interested in the small house movement. Many of us talk about downsizing, especially those of us in the cold weather states who have seen our heating costs double and triple in the past few years.

Others have also been deep into the small house movement. A small house, from all definitions I could find,is a house that is smaller than 1000 sq ft, though many of the homes that are featured are under 300 sq ft, with some not even topping 100 sq ft. That is small!

The blog Small House Style is dedicated to everything small house related. If you are looking for information on small houses it is a fabulous resource for how being small doesn’t mean compromising style.

Do you ever read the lists of things we should all be doing to have a more green house and feel overwhelmed? I know I do and I consider us to be a pretty green family. When you become overwhelmed like that you are less likely to do anyhting at all because why bother?

So I present five easy tips that anyone can do. Baby steps are painless and the changes are easy to make.

1) Use a compost bin for your food scraps. We use a way back corner of our yard for this that is not visible from the house. If you have a smaller yard, or neighghbors right up closeto your property, you might want to check out something like thisor this which are also more aesthetically pleasing. Your garden will love you for this.

2)Replace all conventional incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescent lights, which use up to 75 percent less energy but provide the same amount of light. Virtually every lightbulb in my house is flourescent now.

3) Use zero VOC water based paints in your home. All of your favorite paint manufacturers now sell low or zero VOC lines. This reduces the toxic emissions in your home.

4) Replace old toilets, faucets, and shower heads with newer more energy efficient models. This is especially important for those of us who are renovating old houses with fixtures that date back to the 1950’s, or even earlier!

5) Set your thermostat lower in the winter and higher in the summer. While you could install your own wind turbine to power your home, it would be a lot easier, not to mention less expensive to adjust your electrical usage instead. Not to mention your neighbors will probably love you more without a 10 story wind turbine in your yard.

This was an interesting idea: a contest to create a small, innovative, “green” house that can be produced for less than 99K.

From the website, the contestants should submit plans for

a single family house with up to 1,400 SF, including 3 bedrooms and 1½ – 2 bathrooms, on a 50′ x 100′ site in Houston’s historic Fifth Ward. The winning design should be adaptable to a variety of sites in the area, including 33′ x 90′ lots and 40′ x 100′ lots

This particular neighborhood was selected because it has fallen into decay in recent years and the competition organizers hope that by building affordable, sustainable housing the area can be revitalized.

The 99K budget includes builder’s overhead and profit, all appliances, hardware, and finishes, and any additional engineering or architectural fees. Logically, hard construction costs of materials and labor should be in the range of $75,000. The $99,000 construction limit must include construction costs, financing, closing costs, commissions, overhead, and profit. The actual construction budget in the Houston area will be approximately $75,000. The lot and infrastructure are not included in this figure.

So the 99K house is the cost to build the house, not what the house would be sold for to the public.

There were 185 entries into the contest. This is the winning entry

The part that I like the best about the design are the water conservation ideas outlined here:

We have been thinking of installing a couple water barrels on our downspouts to use for irrigating our lawn and garden, certainly nothing as elaborate as two story cisterns attached to the side of the building as in this design. But I think that is a fabulous idea and one that makes you wonder why more people are not doing something like this.

The area that I don’t think this design works is the passive cooling system. In a hot and humid area like Houston, air conditioning seems like it is a necessary item. Where I live in New England, air conditioning is not a necessity. We don’t have it. Our older home stays remarkably cool due to window placement, porches that shade the sunny side of the house, and large windows for cross ventilation. However, the number of days that the temperatures top 95 degrees every summer can be counted on one hand. Apparently the the competition judges don’t agree with me.

Construction has now begun on the project. It will be interesting to see the design through its building phases.

Try taking this quizn to see what the world would look like if everyone lived just like you.

If you divide the number of global acres by the number of people on the planet (6.6 billion), then each human’s fair share is 4.5 global acres. So, if your lifestyle requires more than 4.5 global acres, you’re using more than our planet can sustain.

I think that we live a pretty eco-friendly lifestyle, and yet our airplane travel alone added an ENTIRE EARTH to each one of us.

We don’t have a swimming pool. It is only warm enough in the frozen tundra where I live to enjoy a pool for three months at best, and even then only if you have a heater. Or I suppose if you find it invigorating to swim in frigid water, which I definitely do not.

Friends of ours have pools and they are always telling me about the hassle of the chemicals and chlorine. When I was a child my hair used to turn green from the chlorine in the camp pools.

Now in an effort to find a more environmentally friendly way to maintain a pool, people are turning to chlorine free systems. The New York Times profiled a few companies that are revolutionizing the way people keep their pools bacteria free.

TechnoPure, a company based in Uxbridge, Mass., makes a system that pumps pool water through a chamber containing coated titanium plates which oxidize and burn off organic waste. Copper and zinc ions sanitize the water, resulting in a pool that’s virtually maintenance free in terms of chemicals.

Another company takes a different approach,

DEL Ozone, based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., makes generators that inject ozone gas into the water as it recirculates, oxidizing bacteria and killing microorganisms. The generators are usually employed as a supplemental sanitizer to reduce reliance on chlorine.

These systems are on the expensive side, $10-20K in additional costs. Not to mention the hassle of finding someone to maintain the pool.

There are other options which still utilize chlorine as the primary anti bacterial agent, but use much less of it. DEL Ozone and Nature2 both sell for under $1000.

People are becoming more environmentally aware is recent years and seeking out green products to replace their current non-green products. This desire has fueled a movement of organic foods, alternative fuel sources, and greener building materials. The newest product to dip it’s toe into the pool is paint. Paint manufacturers are all releasing their own lines of low VOC paints. Since, according to the EPA, one of the top 5 leading health risks is indoor air, this movement has been embraced with open arms by consumers.

VOC stands for volatile organic compounds. Paints and finishes release low level toxic emissions into the air for years after application. The source of these toxins is a variety of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Until recently, homeowners had no choice. The VOCs were essential to the performance of the paint. Exposure to V.O.C.’s in high concentrations can cause short and long-term health problems,

Paint is composed of three different components. The pigment, or color. A binding agent, which ensures that the color sticks to the wall. And a solvent, which keeps it all liquid until exposed to air. The solvent then evaporates, leaving the pigment behind on the wall. The solvents are the main source in paint of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Low VOC paints replace the petroleum based solvents with water based carriers. However, even Zero-VOC formulations contain some small amounts of toxins. Environmentally friendly paint is a matter of degrees.

According the to New York Times:

Not everyone is happy about the shift. Many designers, painters and consumers who applaud environmental responsibility are nevertheless worried about the growing restrictions on oil-based paints (which contain high levels of harmful volatile organic compounds), and even on less hazardous water-based latex ones.

Designers have said that consumers are not yet willing to accept the limitations on the new low VOC paints and erroneously expect them to behave in the same manner as traditional paint. They say that in areas of high use or friction, such as cabinets, that traditional paint is preferable as the low VOC paints do not hold up as well. Painters have also said that they charge more for using low VOC paints since they require more coats of paint to achieve adequate coverage.

I have not used low VOC paints so I can not say how they perform when compared to traditional latex paint. I do know though that if I were forced to coat the wall five times rather than the normal two coats, that I would not use it again. No matter how environmentally friendly it is. Not to mention that it is significantly more expensive per gallon.

However, next time I am buying paint I think I will try a gallon of the low VOC paint and see how I like it. I certainly have enough experience with traditional paint to make an informed comparison.