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The composting toilet is a much better idea than it sounds. Composting toilets are based on the principle that waste is 90% water. The evaporation of that water is where the rubber hits the road, in other words, how does it not create an odor? When heat and air begin to evaporate the liquid, with the toilet, there is an even distribution of oxygen and moisture, which produces more aerobic bacteria. This ensures odor free operation. The waste breaks down faster and doesn't smell. Some units even contain mixes that can be added to sped up the process. What is left is the 10%, organic material, which ends up on the 'drying tray', a component of your composting toilet. From there, you can compost it further, and yes, use it on plants. If done properly, viruses and pathogens are destroyed by bacterial breakdown. It (no pun intended) becomes a nutrient rich fertilizer. The simple salts that are left behind are great for uptake by plants. Composting toilets are self contained and are available in both electric and nonelectric models. Things to keep in mind include, when the toilet freezes the bio-activity gets slowed, which in turn slows evaporation. Also, It is best to choose the model with more capacity than you think you need. The extra room enhances bacterial allowing for extra warmth and air movement. Some web-sites for composting toilets include www.envirolet.com, and www.biolet.com

This week we feature the second of our interviews with Katy Flammia of Boston-based architecture firm There Design. In addition we discuss their Anderman Residence and Dornfeld Residence projects.

Recently, alternative fuel sources got a promotional boost from the efforts of Andy Pag, and his team's travel mission across Europe. www.edie.net Andy led a team of cars 2,330 miles across Europe, from London to Athens, all running on cooking oil. The trip was successfully completed August 27th, 2008. While nine of the cars ran on purified vegetable oil, Pag's and a few others, ran on used cooking oil.

One of Pag's goals for the mission was to point out that Diesel fuel is not the only bio-fuel out there. In fact, in the 70's something called 'heating oil no. 2' an oil that heats houses, was used to fuel diesel cars by some clever people. A dye was added to 'heating oil no. 2' to expose it's users on the streets, as their was no tax on the fuel oil- party over! Hopefully the awareness brought on by Pag's efforts will lead to better beginnings. The cooking oil can be converted, or brewed overnight in a 'fuel pod' to be used to fuel any diesel engine. Andy spent only 900 dollars for his used car, a Puegeot 405, and nothing on fuel. The cooking oil that powered the Puegeot, was donated by cafes, restaurants, and fast food joints along the way.

An experienced eco-voyager, Pag has journeyed in the past from London to Timbuktu, in a truck powered by chocolate soya oil. His eco-voyager projects have successfully pointed out that protecting the environment can also save a lot of money. But there's more to come, Andy is going for it again on his next project, a trip by plane powered on fuel made from plastic bags!

In August 2008, the Mayor of Boston announced a new Green Affordable Housing Program designed to encourage the building of affordable housing that accomplishes the following things:

1) results in low maintenance and energy costs for renters and homeowners

2) promotes the health and well-being of residents and

3) minimizes the environmental impacts of development by conserving water, energy and other resources, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the Boston Department of Neighborhood Development's design guidelines now include green and energy standards that require development projects to meet LEED Silver and well as Energy Star standards.

There is no question that Boston is at the forefront of the green building movement. In January 2007, Boston became the first major U.S. city to require that all private development meet LEED Certified standards.

We applaud Boston for its latest move. If green buildings are going to move from "niche to norm," they must be available for all. Requiring affordable housing to meet green standards moves the green building movement in the right direction.

With the cost of transportation raising the prices of fruits and vegetables, now is a great time to consider sustainable growing choices. There are farms that grow organic right in your area that offer delivery to your home or available for pick-up. Prices range from $25.00 up, and a box usually last for up to two weeks. CSA, (community-supported agriculture) is easy to connect with in any area, as well as the local farmer's market. These choices are usually available for you to pick up yourself, saving another extra five bucks.

There are plenty of small web-site businesses that offer this service, and they are getting larger and fancier all the time. Some of the more stylized include, Boxedgreens.com, which delivers nationwide, from their Arizona home base. They offer overnight delivery service. Planetorganics.com, which is bonded to handle house keys, which means when your not even home your fruits and veggies are! Spud.com is really fancy, like freshdirect.com in New York, they offer more than just fruits and vegetables. Here in Los Angeles there is lovedelivery.com, they get local fruits and vegetables, all organic, some from other countries, which I am told is how all of them operate. I have to admit this is some unwashed earthy organic produce. Hopefully, some strange spider from an exotic country doesn't crawl out of the box and turn my apartment closet into a scene from the movie Arachnaphobia.

Healthier Spray Foam Insulation: The Green Cocoon installer spraying foam insulation to enhance a building's energy efficiency. The Green Cocoon uses a spray foam that substitutes some carbon-producing ingredients with soy-based ones.

New mixtures for spray foam insulation successfully uses healthier ingredients in a construction staple that is already widely accepted as fairly green. Spray foam insulation has been applied in many types of building projects. Chosen primarily for its excellent insulating and sound-dampening qualities, spray foam is a big player in achieving LEED Points by reducing the demands for heating and cooling thus reducing energy consumption. The benefits of this product outweigh the negative points associated with spray foam, most notably the oil that is mixed with a foaming catalyst to produce it. Traditionally, spray foam is made with petrol-based oil, which, of course, is a large contributor of carbon. It is seemingly a necessary evil: not a 100% green option, but the best option available.

Heightening the competition in the green product arena foam producers are using “a soybean based polyol that can replace the conventional petroleum-based polyols [and] help the polyurethane industry become less dependent on imported mineral Crude oil” (http://www.biobasedtechnologies.com/). See my “simple duck” references below for definitions! The percentage of soybean-based substitution currently varies by manufacturer but could be upwards of twenty percent when combined with renewable and recycled materials.

This smart substitution method should act as a model for other companies that produce materials consumed by the construction industry. Investing in research and working towards higher standards of sustainability can only pay off in the end as more building projects demand the healthiest, most eco-friendly products from businesses that strive to uphold responsible practices.

“Simple Duck” terminology (as promised, which I needed in order to write about this):

What is a polyol?

A polyol is a sugar alcohol. Polyol molecules can be chained together using certain chemical procedures to produce polyesters. Soybean-based polyols have been used as a petrol-substitute to manufacture parts of farm vehicles like John Deere tractors. (Deere & Co.)

What does the polyurethane industry produce?

Varnish, skateboard/rollerblade wheels, furniture and car seat foam. Maybe these will be the next products to get a boost of green-esteem from the diverse soybean.

This article was written by Suzanne O'Leary. If you have questions or comments regarding this article, please feel free to contact us through our website: http://www.thinkdwell.com

Adobe-Sante Fe, New MexicoAdmittedly, I've always thought the Adobe floor was for houses that looked like this, somewhere in New Mexico. But come to find out, there are many reasons to choose an Adobe floor for your home. Adobe floors or Earthen floors as they are called, have a unique look, and feel. What's it made of? It's earth, 'compacted with straw and stabilized with various oils.

If you're wondering how it feels, the surface is actually spongy, making it soft and very comfortable to walk on. Waste from building an Earthen floor can be reincorporated into the landscape, making it 90% pollution free. Unlike vinyl, the Earthen floor is repairable, too. Although it may be difficult to find a contractor to pour you an Earthen floor, they are manageably done yourself.

Just looking at a photo of an Earthen floor it might look dull in appearance, but there is actually a polish on it that gives it a great finished look. This look is achieved with linseed oil and then a beeswax polish, some eco-favorites.

They are also, durable, and non-toxic, and potentially lower heat costs, as the floor functions to retain heat from the sun. But if that's not warm enough, you can install underfloor heating! These features certainly make the Adobe floor seem less pre-historic and very up to date.

Local governments now have a new, standardized framework to plan, track and document their environmental and sustainability work. The Star Community Index, a collaboration between the U.S. Green Building Council, the Center for American Progress and the ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, builds upon the highly successful methodology established by LEED.

The Index aims to deliver a standardized formula for gauging a community's sustainability. Like LEED, it will include tiered levels with classification based on actions achieved consistent with a given goal.

The Star Index aims to do the following things: 1) drive integrity and rigor in actions cities are doing to reduce climate impacts 2) increase accountability in data and actions 3) facilitate prioritized and informed decision making 4) create a roadmap for cities to track and achieve sustainability goals 5) offer globally recognized green standards for cities 6) enable peer-to-peer learning among communities and citizen engagement 7) engage the public in supporting and advancing their city as a Star community.

Gauging a community's sustainability is a laudable and important goal. Will Star become as popular as LEED as become? Only time will tell.

There are elements in our modern casa ti SIP house kit that I envision like the old bridal tradition:
"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue."

As much as I appreciate turnkey prefab, there's something in my farming Virginia soul that insists upon reusing items from the past, within our architectual structure.

Using the latest green building technology, merged with timeless passive solar design, I now begin to focus on the interior. In my mind, I meld industrial modern elements with nostalgic reused materials:

• the sophisticated strength of a poured, polished concrete floor (which also collects thermal mass, and with fly ash, reuses local byproducts!)
• juxtaposed with the natural embrace of sustainable pine walls
• deft, no nonsense modern lines of built-ins
• the faded tales told by old wooden doors through whom how many hands and lives passed through?
• And if we're lucky, a special, plain, reused farmhouse sink.

Strolling through research, I came across CoolStuffIsCoolStuff.com and other neat architectural salvage sites. I will be sticking closer to home and shopping locally at Caravati's, but did want to mention a special site, Second Chance.

There, not only do they repurpose materials and give old buildings new life, but they also give people another shot at opportunity and learning valuable skills.

From their web site, here's what they say:

"Job Training Second Chance is working with low-income residents of Baltimore to train them in a wide variety of skill sets, ranging from carpentry to craftsmanship. Our goal is to create skilled workers making a living wage with benefits for themselves and their families.

Through the use of public and private funds, we teach our workers to safely deconstruct a building without damaging its historic elements. They become self-supporting members of the community with new skill sets.

At Second Chance, we believe that second chances are not just for buildings, they are for people, too. "

Like the bridal saying, sometimes "something borrowed" might mean borrowing on the strength of community and pooled skills, and recognition that when community comes together to help others succeed, we all benefit.

Whether it be good friends helping out for a few weekend hours as we work on a house kit project together, helping my family but where the structure and land will be a benefit to all our friends, or craftsmen investing their time in training someone new to later help them on future projects and rely on them as part of their paid, skilled team.

Sometimes, pushing ahead with the advances of cutting-edge technology, what we also need is a good ole fashioned barn-raising.

Recently, my 92 year old Grandma was told by an electrician not to turn on the lights to her bathroom. Grandma has vanity style lighting around the mirror from 1952, when things were built to last! These days things quit on you usually before the 15 year mark, but even if your old fridge or washing machine is still operating, it can be difficult to tell when to up-grade your appliances for reasons other than aesthetics.

Old appliances such as old refrigerators waste a lot of energy, and can emit carbon dioxide. But if your old refrigerator still works, is it really better to replace it? As a general rule, buying any new product means an old product will end up in a land fill, and that is bad news. However, The EPA has stated that any appliance over 15 years old is good to get the heave-ho. If it is over 15 years old, it probably is an energy waster, and replacing it can save you 10% to 50% on a year's worth of energy costs.

But who is going to pick up the old fridge for recycling? Typically, the place you are buying the new one from will, or check out your state or local government recycling program. Reselling an old appliance yourself just means it will be active once again as an energy waster in our environment. So even if it ends up in a landfill, it's better off. In a landfill, where a large appliance take up space, the parts will get picked over and recycled. EnergyStar will show you ideal replacements for your old appliances.