Shopping second-hand is easy on the planet and your wallet
How many times have you had a themed party to go to or simply needed a very – shall we say – “specific” wardrobe item, and you decided that going to Goodwill was your best option? If you’re like me, then you’ve had that internal conversation a lot. (Although, granted, most people might not like [...]
So long Cash for Clunkers, we hardly knew ye
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced this week that after a wildly successful and very brief run, the Car Allowance Rebate System, aka CARS or Cash for Clunkers, will end this Monday, August 24. I took a screen shot of the Web site just in case it isn’t there when you click the link. Soooo… [...]
Be lazy! Buy nothing! Do less!
While it’s not exactly a winning strategy if we are going to get our depressed consumer economy at least partly back on track, I have to say I agree in principle with this article by Matt McDermott on Planet Green. Simply put, the consumer economy is, itself, largely to blame for many of the problems [...]
The 29 most important pages of the Waxman-Markey climate bill
Ed Mazria is a bit of a legend in the Architecture and design community. He’s been in practice forever; he wrote a big, fat book all about energy-saving passive design in the 70′s entitled The Passive Solar Energy Book; and he’s the driving force behind the organization known as Architecture 2030. Basically, when Ed talks, [...]
Every city should have one of these
Today I visited the Portland ReBuilding Center, and hopefully you can get an idea of what it is from the title: it’s a place where people can donate used building materials so they can be sold again for new building projects. It’s building recycling, or, “rebuilding”. And it’s great! Have a look: I am originally [...]
Portland is awesome!
Look at what I found while perusing the city of Portland’s various pages about sustainability: it’s a handout that details things that you can do, both at home and at work, to reduce your impact on the environment. It’s great! And this is why Portland is leading the country on sustainable design issues! Awesome.
Meet Dorothy.
Dorothy is my new set of wheels. Well, she is new to me, but actually she is quite old. She’s a 1995 Ford Escort Wagon with only 27,000 miles that I received from a private owner for a VERY reasonable price. She is in excellent condition for a car her age, and if I play [...]
Live from Dwell on Design
I’ll be visiting the combined Dwell on Design / Mobius LA conference on Friday on behalf of the GDC and Archinect.com. I’ll be live-blogging here all day about what I see, and as I tend to gravitate naturally towards more “sustainable” products or projects, please leave a comment if you think there is something in [...]
Greenwashing! Boo!
Don’t ask me why I had to go all the way to the UK’s Guardian to find out about this, but according to their article: “More than 98% of supposedly natural and environmentally friendly products on US supermarket shelves are making potentially false or misleading claims, Congress has been told. And 22% of products making [...]
All I wanted was a pair of headphones
If Apple’s generic headphones were made any better than a Chevy Cobalt, I wouldn’t have this problem. But I have to get new headphones on a regular basis and it’s frustrating. Especially when you consider the packaging: So many of our electronics products come in this ridiculous “theft-proof” hard plastic packaging; and then you try [...]
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