Keeping our tootsies pampered during midnight trips to the bathroom is a job any carpet can handle.  But clean the air of all that icky stuff floating around that we know is there but glad we can’t see? According to Dutch carpet manufacturer Desso , their new carpet line AirMaster can greatly reduce the concentration of that microscopic particulate matter to improve indoor air quality eight times better than hardwood floors. Tall claim, but they have several independent studies backing it up See original article: Cleaner Indoor Air with Desso Carpet

This is a renovation of a ranch-style home located in the Alberta Arts District in Portland, Oregon.  The owners, builders, and designers — Michelle Ruber and Klaas de Jonge of Encircle Design Build   — renovated the old home with locally-sourced materials and contemporary design.  It’s now used as a short-term, vacation rental to “ provide people a home that embodies Portland’s energies of creativity and ecologically minded ways. ” The single-family home had a cramped floor plan, too many doors, and less than desirable natural lighting.  So the owners removed certain walls and...

Active House in Russia . Reshaping the housing market . Four green features homeowners want Visit link: LED Innovation, Green Home Features, Reshaping Housing, + Active House Russia

True to the company name, California-based Kirei USA recently announced a beautiful, new material for 2012 called Windfall. Windfall is an engineered wood panel made with a low-VOC adhesive and lumber from deconstructed buildings in the Pacific Northwest Visit site: Kirei Debuts New Reclaimed Wood Panel

I don’t think about my home in investment, payback, or IRR terms, but that’s not to say it’s bad to consider these things.  For instance, you can renovate an old bathroom to make it usable, beautiful, or more efficient, but you can also renovate the same bathroom to try to capture some kind of future return.  If you’re thinking about the $$$ that goes in and comes out of certain green home improvements, perhaps you’ll find this 1BOG infographic useful: So what’s the estimated payback of popular green home improvement projects? 0.6 years – programmable thermostat 0.9 years – high-efficiency...

After five years of internal and third-party testing, Boral USA today announced the introduction of TruExterior Trim, an exterior trim material made with a blend of bio-based polymers and coal combustion product materials.  The poly-ash product contains a minimum of 70% recycled content and a Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver designation. TruExterior Trim contains the highest amount of recycled content of any other trim on the market, according to Boral USA, and can be handled, held, and painted just like wood. Originally posted here: Boral Intros Cradle to Cradle Exterior Trim

The average home spends more than $2,200 per year on energy bills and roughly half of this amount goes towards heating and cooling, according to the Department of Energy.  When a programmable thermostat is set and used properly, a homeowner can save about $180 annually.  But the problem is, virtually everyone with a programmable thermostat doesn’t set or use it properly.  Nest Labs , a Palo Alto-based start-up, aims to solve this problem with a new thermostat that’s simple, sleek, intuitive, and smart. Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive and founder of Nest Labs, said, “ We’ve built...

By Gerry McCaughey, CEO of Infineco LLC * As Americans debate whether prefab is a greener way to build, those active in the discussion should not be surprised when their dialogue receives puzzled looks from their European counterparts. In Europe, this very question was asked and answered nearly two decades ago. The resounding findings were that prefabrication creates higher-quality structures that reduce both the embodied energy content and the amount of carbon produced annually during the operation of traditional onsite-built homes. See the article here: How Europeans Build Greener Homes with...

A wandering prefab house . Read More: Wandering Prefab, Lifestyle Building, Project Failures, + an Energy Saving App

The word reclaimed is often used these days.  Just in the past week or so, we’ve seen a reclaimed bathroom , reclaimed pallet floors , and reclaimed housing .  So here’s one more: reclaimed furniture in the form of the new Joshua Collection by Amenity .  Named for the famous Joshua Tree, this furniture is handmade from Douglas Fir that was harvested and milled 50-100 years ago and seasoned in the sun of California for decades. See the article here: Reclaimed Joshua Collection by Amenity