When I heard about a local school being prepared for demolition, I got to thinking about all the materials in the school that would go to waste. The gym floors, the old oak doors, the brass light fixtures, even the brick. But the fact of the matter is that salvaging these materials is costly and most construction companies don’t want to be slowed down by the time it would take to reclaim the usable materials. It made me sick to my stomach to think of all the quality materials that could have been salvaged but instead would be hauled off to a landfill. Click to continue »

Who: EnergyHub – New York, NY

What: The Smart Thermostat

Where: EnergyHub – coming soon!

Why We Love ‘Em: Not sure if any of you have ridden in a Prius, but we got to take a tour of Oregon in a Prius through wine country to the coastal sand dunes and along the Columbia River.  Along the way, it was hard not to get caught up in the game of how high the miles per/gallon was particularly the amount of energy we were gaining on the downhill from Mount Hood. Felt like we were able to get better mileage because we were more aware of the amount of energy we were using at any point in time. So imagine if you could monitor your household energy consumption in the same way… Click to continue »

I am completely devastated by the news that Michelle Kaufmann Designs has been forced to shut down. I have long been an admirer of her inspired and innovative interpretations of the prefab home ever since I experienced her Glidehouse that was installed at the National Building Museum.

Her modern prefab home designs stood out as examples of sustainable home building, generating 50-70%  less waste than in standard construction, taking into consideration the orientation of the home to minimize heating and cooling costs, incorporating eco-friendly materials ranging from bamboo flooring to recycled Click to continue »

Scooped again…….for years I have talked about opening up a home improvement store that only sells environmentally friendly products making it easy for the consumer to go green without having to do all of the leg work. Well, the good news is that the Green Depot has done just that providing a one stop home improvement store for all of your green rennovation needs.

One of the hardest parts about doing a green remodel is finding the right products and determining whether they are green or not. To do so you have to consider the entire process by looking at the life cycle of the product-the materials, the manufacturing process, the dyes used, the transportation costs, the sustainability/recyclability of the product at the end of its life…….The Green Depot team weighs all of these factors when designating their stamp of approval on a new product and in turn takes the guess work out of the equation for the buyer. There is no green-washing here.

And with stores located up and down the East Coast from Maine to Virginia, environmentally friendly products finally have a showcase on the East Coast! For locations click here.

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(Updated August 21, 2008)

I had the opportunity to check out the Stoneham location and want to add a disclaimer here-don’t expect to walk into the Green Depot as if you were walking into the Home Depot. The Green Depot is more of a show room, offering displays of bamboo & Breathe Easy Cabinets, marmoleum flooring, FSC Certified wood floors, floating floors, trex decking and so forth. All products can be ordered through Green Depot, but don’t expect to walk away with eco-friendly wall board on the spot. Much more of a showroom than a warehouse. But a great place to start your green renovation.