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Ray Anderson, Green Building Pioneer, Dead at 77

4:52 pm in materials, News, obituaries by TreeHugger

ray anderson photo Image credit Celcias So many in the business world claim to be sustainable, but back in 2004 Ray Anderson of Interface said "No one should be claiming sustainable products. There is no such thing yet in terms of zero footprint. What you can do is demonstrate reduced footprint." He understood what it meant to be green, to be sustainable, and what it took to get there. Jacob Gordon wrote in his introduction to our interview with Ray:
Ray Anderson started his company, Interface, back in the 1970s to make carpet. Like any business man, he wanted to shake up the m...Read the full story on TreeHugger

How Did Granite Become The Kitchen Counter Standard?

11:29 am in architects, kitchens, lifeedited, materials, materials monday by TreeHugger

solid granite kitchen photo Image credit Neolith Granite counters have been all the rage for a decade, but now it has come to this, an entire kitchen made of granite. I think it is incredibly ugly and probably ridiculously expensive, But seeing this image, and a recent discussion about counter choices for Graham Hill's LifeEdited project, reminded me of some research I had done into countertops a while back. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Designer Let’s Nature Do Art, naturalment! (Photos + Video)

3:16 am in artists, arts, bees, birds, Cattle, crafts, Culture & Celebrity, Design & Architecture, designers, exhibits, materials, rivers, science, Science & Technology, spain by TreeHugger

GERARD MOLINE naturalment art exhibition photo Photo Credit: Gerard Moliné When I entered the Gallery Art & Design in Poblenou, Barcelona, it was the odd smell I noticed first. Very faint, but it reminded me of something far away. Large pieces of art are scattered around the big white gallery space, made up of thick earthy colours and rough textures. I wasn't sure what exactly I was looking at until Gerard Moliné himself told me the story of how, when he was 7 years old in his village in the Catalan country side, he placedRead the full story on TreeHugger

4 Tips For Energy-Efficient Temperature Control in a Tiny Home

8:59 am in Design & Architecture, energy efficiency, insulation, interiors, lifeedited, materials by TreeHugger

lifeedited-banner.jpgLifeEdited Apartment Living Room View rendering Temperature regulation is key in the tiny home. Rendering via LIfeEdited. Thermal regulation: It's the short way to describe systems in houses that help occupants stay cool in summer and warm in winter. While with new construction of passive, low-carbon-footprint homes there are lots of ways to do thermal regulation in an eco-friendly fashion, in TreeHugger founder Graham Hill's 420-square-foo...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Does Steel Construction Have A Lower Carbon Footprint Than Wood?

5:41 pm in Design & Architecture, green building, materials, wood by TreeHugger

carbon-emission-replacement.jpg You want fancy graphs? We've got fancy graphs. Carbon emission reduction by displacing non-wood products, credit Corrim. Climate Progress asks Which Emits the Most CO2 in Home Construction: Steel, Concrete or Timber? and concludes that building a house with wood has CO2 footprint that is 4.44 times as high as a steel framed house. But I think there are problems with this....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Arguments Against White Roofs in Northern Cities are Specious, Revisited

11:58 am in Design & Architecture, housing industry, materials by TreeHugger

winnipeg white roof White roofs in winter in Winnepeg After posting about the benefits of white roofs, (as Mike did here on TreeHugger), Andrew Sullivan published a couple of letters from readers questioning their benefits. I had a look at this issue two years ago, and wrote that Arguments Against White Roofs in Northern Cit...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Canada’s Asbestos Mine Is About To Run Out Of The Stuff

10:41 am in Business & Politics, canada, health, materials by TreeHugger

asbestos-mining-1944.jpg Image credit Harry Rowed. National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque. Library and Archives Canada Canada's reputation has taken such an international hit over its continued export of asbestos to the developing world when it bans the use of the stuff at home. Really, even the Daily Show did a number on it. And it is all for naught; a confidential memo suggests that the mine at Thetford Mines, Quebec is almost depleted. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

More Proof That Wood Is The Greenest Building Material

10:30 am in carbon sequestration, design, green building, materials, wood by TreeHugger

gehry ramp image Stair at Art Gallery of Ontario by Frank Gehry; Image credit Wood Works Ontario Tim Wall at Discovery News adds another "R" to our growing list (we are up to ten): Reconsider our choices of building materials. He points us to a new study published in Carbon Management that looks at the full life-cycle ana...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Newspapers Recycled Into Paper Timber & Furniture by Mieke Meijer / Vij5

10:03 am in designers, materials, netherlands, recycled consumer goods by TreeHugger

miekemeijer1a.jpgPhotos: Vij5 website From do-it-yourself cat litter to hand-rolled jewelry beads and mulch, newspapers can offer versatile options for re-use after they've been read. From Dutch designer Mieke Meijer comes what she calls "NewspaperWood," which can actually be made into furni...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Air Conditioners Are Target For Copper Thieves, Atmosphere Suffers

8:18 am in economics, materials, metal by TreeHugger

aircondtioner armoured protected photo Image creditProperty Armor A few years ago we would write about how you couldn't walk down the streets of Philadelphia without looking for missing manhole covers, and how entire lamp-posts were being stolen in Baltimore. The recession stopped that, but commodity prices are high again and thieves are back, looking for metal. There is a lot of it in air conditioner condensers, and they are connected by only two pipes and a wire.Read the full story on TreeHugger