Taking advantage of natural lighting can be a healthy, eco-friendly way to light your home without spending a fortune on electricity costs. What are design elements that we can incorporate into the modern home to maximize natural lighting?
A wash cloth made from organic cotton yarn is a gentle way to care for sensitive skin, and an easy project for a beginner.
Considered as an alternative to petroleum-based candles, soy wax candles are a more sustainable and cost-effective product, providing the environmentally-conscious consumer with a safer and healthier product for the home, as well as for the planet.
When looking for an eco-friendly alternative to something as poisonous and environmentally harmful as termite extermination, the best defense is, as the saying goes, a good offense. However, there are now a number of options for environmentally safe termite extermination available.
When putting together a nursery for your baby, there are many things to consider in order to make it eco-friendly. Yet if it is not in your budget to redo the flooring and paint, or if you just don't want to remodel the room, there are easier steps to take, like buying safe products and accessories
When looking to refinish your hardwood floor, the main thing to consider is an environmentally friendly hardwood finish. Most commercial finishes are solvent- and lacquer-based, which are terrible pollutants of air quality.
Recycling antique furniture, and restoring it to reproduce its original luster not only keeps furniture out of the landfill, it also saves trees from being used to produce new furniture.
Kelly Lerner has earned an award for her work introducing energy efficient straw-bale construction to China, in her book Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green-House, she tells the story of Matts Myhrman and Judy Knox, pioneers of the straw bale revival, when the couple used densely packed bales of waste straw to build their highly insulated, thick-walled home in Tuscon, Arizona.
Like gardening but don't have the space for it? Grow one on your roof! While this is unfortunately not possible for everyone, green roofs are wildly popular in places like the UK and Germany and are picking up speed in...
According to architect Kelly Lerner, the simplest way to heat your home with the sun is called passive or direct-gain solar heating. Passive is referring to the fact that a well-designed house is just sitting there accepting solar heat through glass, with no moving parts.
Climate zones basically summarize the magnitude of available sunshine and rain in your area. The better you understand your home's surroundings, the easier it will be to make decisions about design, comfort systems, and materials.
The products used to cover the walls of your home with colorful textures and patterns can be made from non-sustainable materials. These ingredients can include many chemicals that will be harmful to you and your family. Here are some interesting eco-friendly wallcovering options that you might consider in your home. These products will not only make your residence look great, but your purchase will contribute to a green way of life and a healthier home.
Non-organic furniture can be harmful to your health. When certain glues decompose over time, it releases off-gases such as formaldehyde. The EPA has reported that indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. On an average, we spend about 90% of our time in homes and offices.³ If our homes - which should be the safest place in our lives - produce more harmful pollutions than the outside, then it's time to reevaluate our surroundings. So, when shopping for new furniture, make sure they were built with water-based glues and stained and finished with green wood and sealants.