Wednesday, 09 June 2010 18:00

Yeah, I know... this is at the same time that one of the biggest soccer matches in recent US history and World Cup history for that matter,  will be playing live (US vs. England if you've been living inside a giant football).  And I wasn't even going to tell you for fear that you might not show up.  But I must tell you that we have arranged for there to be a secret World Cup Watching back room with the game on so rest easy you can do both.  Come on down and join us for a really amazing two-of-a-kind event.

Wednesday, 09 June 2010 01:17

Of course the most rediculous thing I think I have heard is that we should cut down trees for children.  But that seems to be just what is happening in Indonesia if you buy picutre books these days. 

Indonesia seems like such a small place that at the rate I hear about forests being destroyed there because of very lax government regulation, they will surely be gone before my children are reading Edward Abbey and (or perhaps Ayn Rand- you never know).

But a recent report by the Rainforest Action Network has revealed that 9 out of 10 of the top children's book publishers are sourcing their paper from either  rainforest fibers or acacia plantation trees which are planted on razed rainforest land.

The problem seems to be China who has been given the outsoucing job from American publishers to make these childrens books and who ultimately is the biggest importer of Indonesian pulp.  According to the RAN:

With the rapid growth of book printing and manufacturing being outsourced to China, the U.S. book industry has become increasingly vulnerable to controversial paper sources entering its supply chain. China is the top importer of Indonesian pulp and paper, and much of the Chinese paper industry is linked to or controlled by highly controversial Indonesian pulp and paper suppliers, Asia Pulp and Paper and Asia Pacific Resources International, which together account for 80 percent of Indonesia’s production. From 2000-2008, Chinese sales of children’s picture books to the U.S. ballooned by more than 290 percent, averaging an increase of more than 35 percent per year.

The sick irony of the modern global marketplace is that you may have read the Lorax just last night on Indonesian rainforest pulp.

Another reason to use your public library or if in Gainesville, visit the twice- annual Friends of The Library gently-used book sale.

Monday, 07 June 2010 18:58

If you are any kind of DIY-er, you know firsthand that necessity IS the mother of invention.

Take my INDIGOGreen bathroom remodel from last weekend for instance.  On putting my new IKEA (yes it was) sink and cabinet in I had to find a way to connect the European-sized potable intake to my hot and cold valves under the sink.  Well, after finding nothing at my local plumbing supply that fit the bill, I had to retrofit an old flexible tube (basically sliced off the ends) two new 5/16" valve attachments.  I felt pretty awesome working out the problem on my own and coming up with a solution with what I had on hand.  Now let's just see if works for 20 centuries.

So yeah, I wasn't exactly building the Great Wall of China, but it was pretty amazing to come across the news that in building that amazing do-it-yourself-with-the-help-of-thousands-of-enslaved-laborers, a.k.a., The Great Wall of China, researchers have discovered that mortar in the wall was actually made of a paste of leftover sticky rice-water and lime. 

From the Times of India:

Analytical study shows the ancient masonry mortar is a kind of special organic-inorganic composite material. The inorganic component is calcium carbonate, and the organic component is amylopectin, which comes from the sticky rice soup added to the mortar.  Moreover, we found that amylopectin in the mortar acted as an inhibitor: the growth of the calcium carbonate crystal was controlled, and a compact microstructure was produced, which should be the cause of the good performance of this kind of organic-organic mortar.

It goes to prove that some of the oldest methods of building can last forever while also being non-toxic and recycled- maybe by accident, maybe not..  

From Treehugger here is the scoop.

Friday, 04 June 2010 17:05

From an inside tip from our good friends at Abundant Edible Landscapes, we have some advice on how to kill weeds without buying Monsanto's Roundup poison.  We do have people come to INDIGOGreen and ask from time to time for suggestions on non-toxic weed control or pest control. 

Quite frankly, my grandfather had a good way to kill the weeds in the one area behind the garage.  He would normally just "mark his spot" and pee outside (call it communing with nature for a few minutes a day) and consequently, nothing grew there.  Who knows what he was eating but I know he liked an occasional martini after 4:30pm.

Joe at AEL tells us that he uses 20% acetic vinegar in his solutions to kill young weeds.  Although a non-household type of vinegar you can click here to learn more about it: http://www.ccerensselaer.org/Horticulture-Program/

Thursday, 03 June 2010 02:55

If you are familiar with LEED you know that for all USGBC's greatness and progress in the area of energy-efficient buildings, at times there is a conspicuous lacking for truly healthy building materials.  I am constantly frustrated when they find low-VOC paints an acceptable alternative to zero VOC paints or even paints like Safecoat that remove not only smog-causing VOC's as well as those compounds that can offgass for years.
From Healthy Building Network comes news of a new report released last week concludes, "[LEED] 'platinum,' 'gold,' and 'silver' status conveys the false impression of a healthy and safe building environment, even when well-recognized hazardous chemicals exist in building products," and, "LEED standards are insufficient to protect human health."

The report, entitled "LEED Certification: Where Energy Efficiency Collides With Human Health," was published by Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI), a non-profit organization composed of doctors, public health professionals and policy experts who specialize in research that examines environmental threats to human health. According to the lead author, John Wargo, Ph.D., Professor of Risk Analysis and Environmental Policy at Yale University, "Even the Council's most prestigious Platinum award does little to ensure that hazardous chemicals are kept out of the certified buildings."

Click here to see the whole story from Healthy Building Network.

Wednesday, 02 June 2010 01:57

Probably the most outragous thing I have heard all day, but noteworthy nonethess.  SO...with today's post we take it from Treehugger and follow the story that the Germans are experimenting with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and microbes.  The microbes apparently eat biosolids faster at this particular sewage waste treatment plant.  Probably makes the workers more happy as a side benefit too...

From Treehugger.com:

Running the stereo costs 400 ($485) a month -- but it's proven to be so effective at boosting the speed of the sewage-eating microbes that they're saving more than twice that. The conclusive results of the experiment are still pending, but it's increasingly looking like Mozart could become a mainstay at sewage treatment centers. Not exactly the audience the late composer likely expected his music would find . . . 

Monday, 31 May 2010 14:03

Appropriate Details Help Keep a House Cool

Reposted from Greenbuildingadvisor.com

People who live in Florida or Texas often accuse energy-efficiency experts of having a cold-climate bias. They’re right: most energy-saving tips are written with cold-climate buildings in mind — perhaps understandably, since Americans spend about twice as much for residential heating as they do for cooling.

Whatever the origins of this pervasive cold-climate bias, it’s time to rectify the situation with a few hot-climate design tips.

We’re Not In Kansas Anymore
Most builders know that house designs need to be climate-specific. In areas of the country where air conditioning bills are higher than heating bills — as they are along the Gulf Coast and in much of Florida — homes should be designed to reject exterior heat.

So what are the most important factors governing hot-climate design?

Friday, 28 May 2010 02:40

A new study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado has found that the Western section of the U.S. power grid could handle up to about 35% renewables if properly integrated.

That doesn't mean it would be simple, but it's a counter-arguments to those who think the grid can't handle much intermittent sources, and the NREL is definitely a credible source.

The researchers found that one way to keep the number of new backup power plants to a minimum is to expand the geographical area that renewable energy is gathered from, says Debra Lew, the NREL project manager in charge of the study. [...] The NREL study estimated that drawing only on local resources would increase variability on the grid by a factor of 50. That's "a huge increase," Lew says, too big for a local utility to balance using backup power and other resources. If you aggregate resources over several states, the increase is less than a factor of two.  

Click here to read more.