I was flipping through my CB2 catalog the other day, admiring the comma-shaped plates, when I stumbled across a $50 corkboard. The price caught my eye. Fifty bucks? For something most often found in a dorm room? But then, thanks to the product description, I realized why: It’s sustainable. Under the heading "eco message," CB2 describes the product as a "recyclable, lightweight cork alternative" that "lives the green message." (It’s made of charcoal polypropylene.) Ah ha. Well, OK, maybe that is worth a little more. But I was surprised to see CB2 thought so, too. Which got me to wondering…

According to recent news, ecological concern is quite fashionable. Sometimes literally. Newspapers and tabloids alike are buzzing about British designer Anya Hindmarch’s eco-friendly shopping tote, a $15 canvas bag with "I’m Not a Plastic Bag" printed on the side that is sold in grocery stores, said to be the must-have bag this season. Twenty thousand were sold in a matter of hours when the bag went on sale in April in England, after women lined up at 2 a.m. for the store’s 9 a.m. opening; near riots broke out in Taipei, Taiwan when the bag premiered in July. A mall…

Want to go green, but can’t afford a complete home renovation? A recent article in the Journal News offered some great tips for starting small — by just making your bathroom green. Sustainable design is all about attention to detail, and while that typically involves careful planning before construction, making the following small changes to your home bathroom — yes, really, the bathroom — can have a big effect. Some of the suggestions included: Toilets: Get a new one. Federal law in 1994 limited toilets to 1.6 gallons per flush; older ones can be 3.5 to 6 gallons (per flush)….

A new green building standard backed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is moving closer to approval — and, unlike the voluntarily LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program, this new standard may eventually be required as a prerequisite for some new commercial buildings and major renovations. Standard 189P (Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings) could be the nation’s first green principle to be included in building codes, if the standard’s designers — the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and USGBC…

Green building is often thought of as a liberal issue — lumped in with other environmental causes that democrats support. And in some ways, that makes sense — democrats are widely identified with ecological issues because the party for years has championed environmental reform (Al Gore’s "An Inconvenient Truth" wasn’t actually about things that are inconvenient, after all.) But to call green building a liberal initiative is unfair — and when it comes to widespread acceptance, it can be damaging. It’s important to note several republicans also support green living. Take, for example, Wisconsin Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) and…

June truly was a green month for those of us in summer climates — and for design. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced in June it would commit $1 million to green building research. The money will be used to investigate change mitigation, the business practicalities of green building and more. Although the USGBC hasn’t announced when the funding will be used, its research committee will release a research agenda report in fall. Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chair of USGBC, said it was the next logical step in advancing green design acceptance. "The industry needs to take…

When Greensville, Kan., was hit by a tornado on May 4, the town was devastated. The downtown area suffered significant damage. Conditions were so bad that residents were evacuated the next day, and estimates published months after the storm estimated that the 1,450-person city was 95 percent destroyed. But now, Greensville may turn a tragedy into an ecological triumph. As the town now begins to rebuild, it is considering using green design to restructure the entire area, the Hays Daily News reports. Going green would make Greensville the first fully sustainable town in the U.S., a potential model for other…

With the recent announcements about the dire state of the housing industry, many are weighing in on what they think is wrong — and what can fix the problem. In yesterday’s blog, we discussed some possible solutions. First Trust Advisors, an Illinois-based investment company, noted in a release yesterday that housing sales have dropped to their lowest level since 2000. The company has shared some interesting ideas on the housing slump of its own via RTT News: First Trust analysts stated that what matters for GDP growth is the rate of change, not the level of residential construction,  and that…

The Commerce Department’s announcement this week that the housing recession was ongoing and would likely cause the economy to slow for the rest of the year indicated dark days ahead — which is not news to the residential construction community. Things have been bleak throughout 2007, as the housing community knows. The boom of recent years has slowed down, leaving an excess of property on the market, along with hesitant buyers who are concerned due to media coverage of the slump, rising mortgage rates, lending policies — or all of the above. How are we ever going to turn this…

As a developer or design firm committed to sustainable building, it’s often a done deal if a client approaches you about using green design principles. Fine. You’re happy to make the building as environmentally friendly and ecosmart as possible. However, if your client hasn’t considered green design — or isn’t even aware what it is — how do you gently suggest ingratiating sustainability into a project’s planning and construction? Getting an expert opinion — Some projects, such as the 4040 Campbell Ave. office building in Menlo Park, Calif., include special LEED consultants, architecture firms hired to identify specific ways more…