For cabinet selection, here’s one good way to know if your cabinet of choice is sustainable:  The  Environmental Stewardship Program Seal (ESP) is an environmental certification program that specifically targets kitchen and bath cabinets, developed by The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association (KCMA).  This Seal is what assures you that the manufacturing practices and materials used meet stringent criteria. The program is based on 5 areas:

1. USE OF CERTIFIED AND SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS
(i.e. using wood from FSC certified sources, rapidly renewal materials like bamboo and Lyptus and veneer, using materials that are made up of recycled materials –particle boards, etc.)

2. ENERGY EFFICIENT MANUFACTURING PRACTICES
(i.e. plant upgrades like high-output/low energy factory lighting and motors, automated high-efficiency machines/ retraining workforce in efficient work practices, reclaiming and reusing solvent products, purchasing recycled secondary products, hybrid autos, using LEAN principles)

3. WASTE & RECYCLE MANAGEMENT
(i.e. supporting any and all recycling programs (paper, cardboard, beverage containers, scrap metal, wood fiber, etc.), using recycled cardboard for packaging, recycling waste product – use for heating, pet beds, etc.)

4. CONTROL OF AIR QUALITY & EMISSIONS
(i.e. low formaldehyde-emitting materials, low, ultra-low, or no voc VOC finishes)

5. SOCIAL STEWARDSHIP
(i.e. paying employees a living wage and providing benefits, taking part in the local community, and sponsoring missions and charity work vulnerable counties)

There are well over 100 manufactures who have worked to achieve and maintain this certification. All three of our main lines at The Artisans Group (Crystal, Columbia, and Woodland) have been awarded the Environmental Stewardship Program Seal (ESP). When shopping for cabinets, there are several green options to look for:

• Cabinet box content options: 100% recycled, no VOC’s, plywood made with soy-based resins
• Good wood choices: Lyptus, Bamboo, Ipe, Fast growing wood veneers with a ‘green’ substrate
• Laminate Finishes: Choose a laminate that uses water based resins and some recycled paper content in their manufacturing process, couple with a ‘green’ substrate
• Edge Banding: ABS edge banding instead of PVC (ABS is a chlorine free edge tape)
• Finshes: Look for UV water based self-seal top coat in a  natural finish

If all of that still feels a bit overwhelming, come on by our showroom and talk to Brenda, we have lots of samples that will demystify the world of ‘green’ cabinets.

Update 6.10.10

Here is a link to a great website, the US Green Building Council  Green Home Guide. The guide is an information clearinghouse created  to help us make better choices when confronted with all the ‘green’ options out there these days.

The public is encouraged to submit questions which are then reviewed and answered by someone in the  national pool of industry experts.

Click on the question below to get the answer from David Bergman, a NY architect.

Queston:

I am wondering about reconstituted wood. I am redoing a kitchen and want greener options for cabinets/flooring. Is reconstituted wood green?

If you live in the PNW, or more precisely, in South Sound, then Paperstone is the ‘greenest” product around. It’s manufactured right in our back yard, in Hoquiam, WA, about 30 miles outside of Olympia.

Paperstone is made from cellulose fiber (paper) and a non-petroleum phenolic resin  derived in part from a natural phenolic oil in the shells of cashews. During manufacturing Paperstone is pressed together into sheets rather than a mold process, the finished sheets have a lot of character in that they are somewhat ‘mottled’ due to the variety of paper used. They also have a  good range of colors; the darker colors have less of the mottling and are quite sophisticated in look. The lighter colors develop a beautiful rich patina in the way of aged Doug Fir.

There are three series of paper-based PaperStone products:

1. Original:  Which is made from 100% post-consumer recycled cardboard
2. Certified: Certified to FSC standards, is made from 100% post-consumer recycled standard office paper.
3. Virgin Series: Made from virgin fiber.

Olympia Residence, Paperstone Countertops

Our kitchen designer, Diane Gassman, called a past client today to inquire about their Paperstone countertops that The Artisans Group installed for them about 3 years ago. The client said they couldn’t be happier with them. “They are durable and still look really great!”. The client said they waxed the countertops twice in the past three years for a bit of lustre, but other than that, they have been maintenance free.

Lastly, the Paperstone can be used as water-proof architectural siding material….

It’s a great choice in the world of green choices!

Parans daylighting system provides natural daylight to interior rooms where skylights or light tubes aren’t practical. How it works is there are solar light reflector/collectors mounted outside the building, say, on the roof; the collectors ‘gather’ the light and transports it via a system of mobile reflectors to indoor light fixtures that are specially designed with fiber optics. It’s super simple and super efficient. In order to maximize the solar collection, there is a micro computer that orients the collector as the sun passes through the sky during the day.

As with many new innovations, I couldn’t get a fixed price per unit from the Parans website, but, they do have a very nice video demonstration on how the system works. I suspect the payback is pretty rapid when used in a large-scale commercial application where there would be hundreds of lights on if there was no daylight available. But, as I mentioned earlier, with the innovations in building design and energy efficiency, this will be on the shelf at the box store within a couple years… I’d bet on it.

Enjoy!

Zeta

Now, back to the shower drain. This particular one caught my eye mostly because it has really nice clean lines. Gone are the days of the circular drain with the rough cut tiles attempting to circumnavigate the perimeter.

Quick Drain USA claims this stainless steel channel slot drain is the lowest-profile linear bathroom drain in the world, easy to clean with a very high flow rate. The low profile makes it very attractive for accessibility, but it also gives it a very stylish almost architectural look.

To give credit where it’s due, ProLine Drain by Quick Drain USA  is the winner of many national awards including Health Care Design 2009 Best of Competition and Nightingale awards; KBIS 2009 Best of Competition and Gold award; and Hospitality Design Expo 2009 Award of Excellence.

Not that many of us spend time thinking about shower drains, but in the event you are remodeling your bath or having a new one built… consider this one for your selections list.

Enjoy!

Zeta

Christian Science Monitor. Click here to link to the original article.

By Husna Haq Correspondent / February 22, 2010

It’s being hailed as the Holy Grail of clean energy: a refrigerator-sized personal power plant that produces energy cheaply and cleanly and may one day replace the traditional power grid. Its inventor wants to put one in every home by 2020.

Bloom Box is the creation of Bloom Energy, a Sunnyvale, California-based company that is promising to revolutionize energy with its “power plant in a box.” K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, gave Americans their first peek at the new device Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes. On Wednesday, Mr. Sridhar will make a major public announcement in Silicon Valley unveiling Bloom Box.

So what is Bloom Box?

It’s a collection of fuel cells – skinny batteries – that use oxygen and fuel to create electricity with no emissions.

Fuel cells are the building blocks of the Bloom Box. They’re made of sand that is baked into diskette-sized ceramic squares and painted with green and black ink. Each fuel cell has the potential to power one light bulb. The fuel cells are stacked into brick-sized towers sandwiched with metal alloy plates.

The fuel cell stacks are housed in a refrigerator-sized unit – the Bloom Box. Oxygen is drawn into one side of the unit, and fuel (fossil-fuel, bio-fuel, or even solar power can be used) is fed into the other side. The two combine within the cell and produce a chemical reaction that creates energy with no burning, no combustion, and no power lines.

About 64 stacks of fuel cells could power a small business like a Starbucks franchise, according to Sridhar’s 60 Minutes interview.

Working with an investment of around $400 million, aerospace engineer K.R. Sridhar spent close to a decade inventing the Bloom Box. It grew, he explained to 60 Minutes, from a device he originally invented to produce oxygen on Mars. When NASA scrapped the Mars mission, Sridhar reversed his Mars machine, pumping oxygen in, instead of making oxygen, he said.

Sridhar already has some 20 well-known customers, including Google, FedEx, Walmart, Staples, and Ebay. The corporate boxes cost about $700,000 to $800,000.

Ebay installed five Bloom Boxes nine months ago, and they fuel about 15 percent of its San Jose campus, said CEO John Donahoe in the 60 Minutes interview. “It’s been very successful thus far,” Mr. Donahoe says, adding that the company has saved $100,000 in electricity costs already.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is also on Bloom Energy’s board of directors.

But the Bloom Box isn’t without skeptics.

Michael Kanellos, editor of Greentech Media, which covers the clean energy market, says Bloom Energy isn’t the first company to claim it has invented a clean energy fuel cell. Cost is always a concern with fuel cells, as is round-the-clock, 24-7 functionality. Bloom Energy still has to figure out how to mass-produce the unit and get its costs down low enough to outfit every home with a Bloom Box, Mr. Kanellos said on 60 Minutes.

Sridhar says he eventually wants to get costs down to $2,000 per box.

Bloom Energy has also been cryptically silent about its new device. As of Monday, its puzzling website has no information about the Bloom Box, and the company has not replied to multiple requests for interviews.

Still, Sridhar has ambitious goals for his Bloom Box, planning not only to place it in every American home in 10 years, but also in homes in Africa, India, and China. He’d like to start, he says, with America’s first family.

“I want a Bloom Box next to the [White House] organic vegetable garden,” he says on 60 Minutes. “It’s about seeing the world as what it can be.”

The site features exclusive content written by experienced working professionals from across the nation, many architects, designers and other industry folks.

The first page opens up with a rolling set of relevant and provocative questions all pertaining to some aspect of green buildings, such as:

• “Without a dedicated heating sourced in a Passive House, will I stay warm enough in our cold and humid winters?”
• “I am just starting to design a home and want to incorporate GREEN things. Do I start now or wait until I start working with a builder?”
• “Are there any manufacturers of non-toxic, non off-gassing bathroom vanities? Are there any non toxic glues for bathroom tiles?”
• “How many south facing windows for a 100% Passive House?”
• “Our aluminum-frame windows are harboring condensation and mold. Can you recommend window solutions for a damp environment?”

Other types of information come in the form of articles written about such subjects as “Creating a Green Kitchen: From Resource Planning to Maintenance“, “Selecting Green Paint”, “9 Ways to Make Your Home More Energy-Efficient”, and “Choosing Green Kitchen Countertops: Our Top Picks” to name a few.

There is also a handy directory of green building professionals, searchable by business name, city, state and/or zip code.

It seems to me, the audience for this site, is someone who is getting their feet wet in the world of green building for the first time. The information is manageable, not technical, relevant to regular people, and it covers a lot of ground while exposing the viewer to the concepts of green buildings and energy efficiency.

From here, they will have a good foundation on which to expand their awareness as they seek out new sources of information.

Green Home Guide. Check ‘em out.

Enjoy!

Zeta

There are two things impeding my otherwise perfect view of my empire. One: I can’t see out the bottom third of my full-lite French doors. Eddy, our dog, while passively window-shopping the bird feeders from the comfort of the living room, she manages to fairly effectively apply an obfuscatory coating on the entire surface of the glass…. and then… after actively shopping the bird feeders, while waiting for her door person, she completes the job by resurfacing the exterior of the glass as well. Two: My window screens are black fiberglass. As if it’s not dark enough already.

But, lo and behold, yesterday while reading a November 2009 copy of Journal of Light Construction, I came across a product that could address the second of the two impediments. The maker of  Inlighten Screens claims the fluoropolymer strands that make up their screens are half the diameter of the strands used in standard fiberglass or metal screens and that the product will allow more light and air to pass through. They also claim that the material is very strong and has a ‘memory’ which will allow it to bounce back after being dented.

The product comes as custom-made or you can purchase it by the roll, up to 64″. It looks like prices start around $80 per screen and $5 per square foot for the rolls. So, for many, it’s not going to be an impulse purchase, but for the view windows, it could be completely worth it.

The screens and material can be purchased via their website only. You can order a free sample, which I did. Once I’m done with it, I’ll leave it at our Design Center in case you’re curious to see what it is.

As for the other impediment I mentioned, it seems to be a perpetual condition. Though challenging at times for a neat freak like myself, the entertainment value is so high that… in the end, I figure it’s easier to train myself to enjoy looking out the top two/thirds of my French doors.

The dog always wins.

The shades look much like most cellular shades, although these are double-walled and claim superior air trapping capabilities which reduces the amount of heat that flows from your home by up to 50%. Of course that’s relative to how much heat loss you are currently losing via your windows; the older or less efficient the window, the greater the savings. Also claimed is a nominal R-value of 7. They have several colors to choose from and range from semi opaque to opaque.

I called the obvious places to see who carries this product, apparently Lowe’s and Home Depot no longer carry Hunter Douglas (rather a subsidiary thereof). After calling around a bit more, it looks like this product is typically represented by subcontractors who come out to your house to take measurements and process the order through installation. There are several companies in Puget Sound who will do this, these can be located by zip code on the Hunter Douglas website.

I’m actually interested in this product for my own home and have contacted JC Penney’s Custom Decorating contractor about looking at samples. I’ll report back on how the process works out. So stay tuned for that update.

A side note, I searched for other window covering products that may meet the standards required to get a tax credit. The only thing I found was something called ComforTrack Plus. This product uses a magnetic side track system to ’seal’ the perimeter of the window covering to the window frame, this makes a great barrier for air infiltration and will cut down the sensation of cold spots or drafts common near windows.

In any case, it looks like the tax credit is available until December 2010, but make certain the product qualifies prior to purchase. There is some debate about what qualifies because window treatments require homeowner participation; there is no guarantee that the shades will be drawn at appropriate times which negates their purpose and efficiency.

Enjoy!

Zeta

The concrete tiles are typically large, the smaller ones are in the 16″ dimension on up to 30″. The ceramic tiles are a bit smaller, under 10″ in may cases.

What makes these tiles so unique is the 3D nature of the designs. They ‘feel’ very structural, very architectural. In some cases there is an austere, industrial, zen thing happening. In all cases the tiles are sculptural and command attention though they don’t scream, more like a sentinel in the room, every thing feels in order and right.

It’s worth cruising their website.

Enjoy!

Zeta

Velux is rolling out a redesigned skylight product line this January with major upgrades:

• Advanced energy efficient glass
• Beefed up protection against water penetration
• No-Leak product warranty

This last one is the ticket.  The product carries a 10 year skylight installation warranty, plus 20 years on glass, and 5 years on blinds and controls.

Here’s what Velux says about the improvements to this line:

Features include a third layer of water protection; advanced LoE3 glass for better energy efficiency, higher visible light transmittance, and  improved solar heat gain performance; pre-painted frames and sashes to eliminate the need for secondary high-cost trips by a painter; pre-mounted brackets for quick installation of sunscreen blinds; lower roof profile with an updated curved architectural design; and a neutral gray color, preferred by consumers and builders, to blend with most roof material and colors.

Though modern skylights are generally pretty good if attentively installed; with the operable models, no matter how careful the installer is, there are moving parts and between those parts are locations for water penetration. So, that’s what makes this new product worth looking into.

Enjoy!

Zeta