best of

Our weekly round-up of the best of our readers' contributions. First off, if you do nothing else, check out the preview of The 11th Hour, which opens in theaters this week. 

One thing we're keen on at Building Green is encouraging readers to share content from their own websites, and we're thrilled to have GreenerBuildings News posted here. Jetson Green has also posted his Week in Review. We hope they'll both join our friends at Slow Home in posting here weekly.

Reader sbrowne offers a preview of Wired Magazine's look at the Greenest Museum on Earth. Lisa Walker writes about NeXus, the resource center in Boston that calls itself "the nation’s first full immersion green building experience."  John Commoner points out that "a clothes dryer is responsible for up to 1,440 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, and can account for as much as ten percent of your home's energy consumption," and elsewhere posts on Terra Firma's rammed earth construction, with some luscious images to boot.

This week's highlights include the fourth and last installation of Champion Indoors' useful Green Building Primer. (Love their photo illustrations, at left.) We'll be archiving this great introduction in the Getting Started Workshop for future reference. And The Healthy House Institute's entry on unhealthy chemicals used in the manufacture of furnishings, Dangerous Decor?, will be finding its way to the Interiors Workshop archives as well. In fact, we're collecting your best, most timeless contributions in our Workshops, where you can find essential information on a wide range of green building topics.

This week's Slow Home Report covers the concept of designing within constraints. It's a pleasure to have these videos on our site. Visit Slow Home's profile page to easily find all of them in one place.

Mark Berman explains why we need LEED standards as well as alternative rating systems.

Eric Corey Freed extols benefits, aetsthetic and otherwise, of natural light, and explains how it has been demonstrated to increase happiness and productivity. Hey, if WalMart can do it, you can too!

One of our favorite new green building blogs, Materialicious, has cross-posted a wonderful series about concrete. Not just concrete, but gigacrete, grancrete, and minimalist concrete tile (pictured) And you really should check out materialicio.us, the blog, to see good design in action.

Do you have a blog? Come on over and share! And if you don't, you can start one right here.

It's the weekend! Time for a sip from our sponsors... This week's round-up is brought to you by VeeV, a ridiculously cool beverage company, makers of the new açaí -based liquor that tastes "like a blend of dark berries with hints of red wine and chocolate," and is, get this, kinda good for you. Hard liquor with fiber and antioxidants. Who knew? Açaí is a fruit that comes from the rainforest, and the company gives a whole buck per bottle--that's right, a buck--to green initiatives.

So without further ado, pour yourselves a VeeV and sidle up to the monitor for the best of this week's reader contributions to Building Green:

Danish Architect Soren Korsgaard has just posted a thrilling array of pics of his flexible building system, which includes a greenhouse outer skin to create "semi-outdoor space" around the structure's modular rooms.

From the department of Don't Beat Em, Join Em: New member bannersbyricki has posted her defense of the lowly garden mole: "Mr./Ms. Mole looks like a puff of smoke with a delicate, pink snout and a pair of outsized paddle-shaped front paws specially adapted for tunneling...."

Meanwhile, over in the questions section, a reader's quest for a Good non-toxic insecticide has produced some fascinating advice, including Steve of Champion Indoors' recommendation to feed the ant queen grits!

The Slow Home Report this week covers the green implications of living where you work and working where you live. And if you need help financing your telecommuter's paradise, Eric Corey Freed, aka the OrganicArchitect, gives an overview of green financing options. Hm, speaking of which, one of the nicest thing about the home office happy hour is that you don't have to drive after downing your VeeV-tini...

One nice thing about being a green company is that we tend to attract sponsors who share our vision for a healthier planet. Which is why we're extremely pleased to announce that Burt's Bees has joined us as a PBS sponsor, and in addition has kindly agreed to sponsor this weekly roundup of the best of Building Green. If you aren't familiar with the company, check out their profile and say hello.

So what's new this week? Here are just a few items that caught our attention:

You may have heard of the slow food movement, which is all about savoring the good things in life. We're pleased to have a new member in Slow Home. Curious about life in the slow lane? Check out their first video blog post.

Have you ever been curious about how those fabulous prefabs you see in the pages of Dwell, Metropolis and Sunset actually go up? Reader BartP happens to live near the site of a Michelle Kauffman project in California, and is documenting the process in an almost daily series of posts. Warning: highly addictive content! Elsewhere, John Commoner profiles Danish prefab architect Soren Korsgaard.

Danny in Redwood City announces the opening of the Green Building Exchange, fiziwig turns us on to the Small House Society (100 square feet anyone?), and Rhuth muses on what it means--or what it could mean--to be a green realtor.

Lots of you have written to Kevin with questions about green building practices, products and the like, and we've begun to post them over in our questions section, where Kevin and anyone else who feels the call can weigh in.