January 18, 2008

10 Green Tips from Carter Oosterhouse

Carter Oosterhouse, host of HGTV's Carter Can, helps homeowners solve challenging renovation dilemmas. He's also known for his green building solutions, which are featured in every Carter Can episode. Check out his top 10 tips for making your home environmentally friendly.

HGTV can also help you make your hometown green. Our "Change the World. Start at Home" initiative will connect you with the environmental organizations in your community that need volunteers. Visit the Volunteer Match website, enter your zip code and start changing the world today.

Share your tips! How are you making your home eco-friendly?

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January 4, 2008

New Year's resolutions

It was already too late when I finally got around to watching “The Story of Stuff,” an online film about the flaws of our consumer culture. The gifts were bought, wrapped, and under the Christmas tree, and I’d frittered away too many precious hours of the year shopping.

It’s not too late, though, to think about what we might do differently in the new year. Here are my New Year’s resolutions for cutting down on consumption.

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January 2, 2008

Cost-effective option for cork

I'd like to respond to a comment we got from a reader concerned about cork flooring prices:

Is there a REAL cost effective cork option that won't break the bank? Most of the options I have seen are $5/square foot, with a minor option in the $3.50 range. But with most other flooring options running around $2.50/sf, these prices are not really an option.

The truth is that there are huge inherent costs embodied within cheap goods: costs to the health of the people who manufacture toxic things, like plastic flooring; costs to the environment in clear-cutting forests; costs to the planet due to reduced forest resources, which leads to worsening global warming; healthcare costs when vinyl products are installed in our homes. So, no, there aren't any less expensive cork options. Good quality green flooring costs what it takes to extract, process and deliver it to you.

The good news is that the planks are easy to install yourself, so that you can save big bucks on installation! I always counsel my clients to wait until they can buy what they really want. That's what I do, and I've never regretted saving the extra dollars up to make my dreams come true. I'm happier in the long haul and save money by not replacing things repeatedly.

Lydia Corser
Columnist, Going Green Blog

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December 24, 2007

Green kitchens don't have to be green

Mine is blue (and bunches of other colors). What makes a kitchen green? As a CKD (Certified Kitchen Designer), I remind my clients that there are shades of green. Starting out, I incorporated at least one green element in every job, which made the job a lighter shade of green. In my first green kitchen design, it was natural linoleum flooring.

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December 23, 2007

Cork, the forgotten flooring

If you are old, like me, you remember the '60s and '70s, which I now consider to be the black hole of architecture and design -- especially interior design. Reflective flocked wallpaper, those velvet paintings of Don Juan, avocado and mustard-colored appliances, dark red shag carpeting. Gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it! Remember the crumbling cork wall tiles -- stained dark walnut, and stinking when you got close?

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December 19, 2007

The cost of green

Now that everyone is on the home stretch of their holiday spending, I wanted to comment on money. Not how much we spend on all of that STUFF, but how much we can save by doing the right thing and being green. Everyone wants to know how much it costs to "go green." Well, I have the answer. Are you ready?

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December 17, 2007

The green building reference for all of us

So in the spirit of the holidays I want to keep things brief this week (since I still have shopping to do) and make a suggestion of a gift that keeps on giving. I am recommending the new book Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies, by Eric Corey Freed. This book is great! Following in the tradition of the Dummies books before it, this is a complete and comprehensive guide to green building for the do-it-yourselfer (or building professional who needs to catch up with the times!)

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December 15, 2007

Honey, I shrunk the hot water heater

You don’t keep your car running 24 hours a day so that it’s always ready. And you don’t leave your lights on all the time just in case you come in a room. (At least I hope you don’t!) So why keep water hot all day just for the few times that you take a shower or wash some dishes?

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December 11, 2007

Should your wood shop become a “grass shop?”

If you’ve been following eco trends, you’ve undoubtedly heard a lot about bamboo. It’s become one of those “of the moment” materials, but why? And is it as great as they’re saying?

First off, it’s not actually wood; it’s grass. And like common grasses, it grows fast. I mean really FAST. You can’t quite see it grow – though some say you can hear it – but it can grow as much as a foot or more a day. I’d say that counts as rapidly renewable. That’s a primary reason bamboo is gaining a reputation as a greener alternative to wood, especially “exotic” types of wood that might have come from rainforests or from other non-sustainably managed forests.

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December 7, 2007

Kitchen counter intelligence

We often hear from readers who want us to recommend the best green product for a particular application. What’s the greenest type of flooring I can buy? Or the greenest siding material for a house?

The truth is, there’s no single, simple answer. The practical approach to choosing green products for your home is to focus on what’s better instead of what’s best. I’ll use the example of one product that's become a popular way to make a bold statement in your green kitchen or green bathroom remodel -- the countertop.

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