Whether you need wood for flooring, millwork, furniture, fireplace mantels or exposed beams, you can add instant character to your home by installing reclaimed and restored lumber.  These antique pieces of wood, some species no longer available, are very strong and stable.  This wood is typically sourced from historic buildings, barns, factories and mills.

We can conserve our precious natural resources by utilizing reclaimed wood and reducing our demand for newly milled wood products.

You’ll find rich Chestnut, Heart Pine, Rock Elm, Oak, Hickory, Heart Cypress and other hardwoods that’ll transform your living spaces into extraordinary rooms.

To maintain the earth-friendly quality of the wood, have it finished with low-VOC or no-VOC (harmful volatile organic compounds) products.  It’ll also keep your indoor air quality clean.

The following companies offer reclaimed wood products, some re-milled and ready-to-go.  I’ve included the state the company originates from, but most service other areas as well.

• Elmwood Reclaimed Timber, Missouri, not only offers cabinet lumber, flooring and beams (pictured above), but also countertops, tabletops and stair parts.
• Green Waste Recycle Yard, California, diverts local urban woods (not antique wood) from landfills and transforms them into dimensional lumber, flooring, table tops, countertops, landscape timbers, mulches and biomass fuels.
• Morningside Reclaimed Woods, Pennsylvania, supplies beautiful high quality old growth lumber, weathered reclaimed barn wood, wide plank flooring, paneling, trim and beams throughout the east coast.
• Mountain Lumber Company, Virginia, offers beautifully crafted lumber that has been de-nailed, sawn, kiln dried and pre-finished (pictured here).
• Superior Hardwoods and Millwork, Montana, offers hand-hewn timbers, lumber, flooring and decking.

Find other reclaimed wood companies in my previous post on the subject.

When you’re looking to give something more meaningful than a sweatshirt with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer plastered on it, why not bypass the commercialized Christmas and help protect the environment at the same time?  You’ll reduce demand for manufactured goods while doing good!

I’ve compiled a list of earth-friendly gifts that won’t end up in the trash, the donation box, or worse yet — re-gifted! 

1. Sponsor a wild place through the Sierra Club to fund their endless conservation efforts of natural resources and wildlife habitats.  ($25 and up)
2. An annual pass to see “America the Beautiful” through the US Geological Survey (USGS).  It allows access to 2,000 recreation areas managed by five Federal agencies, with up to 100% of the proceeds being used to improve and enhance visitor recreation services.  ($80)
3. Zipcar gift membership. Zipcar, an innovative car sharing service aims to reduce the amount of cars and congestion on our roadways which results in less pollution.  Available in many cities and university towns across the USA, Canada and the UK.  ($60 annual fee + additional rates based on city and type of car).
4. A subscription to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  Each week during the harvesting season, your lucky recipient will receive fresh, local food directly from a farmer. ($20 and up per delivery)
5. Gift membership to a non-profit organization that helps care for those in need (people and/or animals) or that funds the arts and/or education, especially those focused on sustainability.  Many organizations offer a matching donation program to stretch your dollars.  Usually, a generous donor is willing to match, dollar for dollar, any donations an organization receives during specified dates.  It’s a good idea to check out the charity you have in mind before donating.  Check out  CharityNavigator.org, CharityWatch.org or The Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance.

photo of Rocky Mountain National Park courtesy of Bing.com

Looking for low-flow, but high performance from your toilet?  The stylish high-efficiency toilets on the market now are sure to make your bathroom remodel, or selection of fixtures for a new home, more sustainable.

It’s important to conserve water considering we flush about 30% of a household’s potable water down the toilet!  Replacing an old toilet with a new efficient model is definitely a green stride!  You can actually save thousands of gallons of water, and lower your water bills or impact on your septic system, by making the switch!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) makes selecting a new water-efficient toilet easy by labeling such models with the WaterSense logo.  “Products are independently certified by a third party to confirm that they meet EPA’s criteria for efficiency and performance.”

You’ll find dual-flush toilets which use as little as .9 gallons per flush for “#1″ and 1.6 gpf for “#2″, as well as single flush models which use as little as 1.28 gpf!  Older toilets use between 3.5 – 5 gallons per flush!  The new high efficiency toilets are available in a variety of styles and price points by countless manufacturers, such as TOTO, American Standard (pictured above–Cadet 3 model), Glacier Bay, Kohler, Pfister, Sterling, Villeroy & Boch, and Zurn, just to name a few.

Quick tip:  Some local water utility companies even offer rebates for replacing old toilets!

Source:  EPA WaterSense

Strawbale construction is beautiful, energy efficient, long-lasting and environmentally-friendly.  Its non-toxic, natural materials are sourced from an agricultural waste product that is typically burned.  By utilizing strawbales as a building material, we can reduce pollution and maintain air quality, indoors and out.

If you’re an ambitious do-it-yourself type, you can even build your own strawbale home.  Learn more about the many benefits of strawbale construction and how you can attend an inspiring workshop, perhaps for free…

High density straw bales are used to create amazing homes, outbuildings and landscape features/walls.  They are finished with permeable lime or earth plasters, or stucco, to give a soft touchable appearance.  Deep window sills and built-ins, such as window seats and nooks, provide great design.

BENEFITS of STRAWBALE CONSTRUCTION:

• MUCH more energy efficient than standard frame construction, providing you with LOW heating and cooling bills
• Homes are quiet because sound transmission is reduced with the thick walls of strawbale construction
• Offer better resistance to pests, earthquakes, high winds and fire than standard construction
• There is less embodied energy in straw as it is available in almost every local market, thereby reducing transportation costs
• Straw is a renewable resource that has only a one year growth/harvest cycle

Interested in learning how to build with strawbales?  Check out upcoming workshops offered by Straw Bale Workshops.  During the 7-day hands-on instruction, you’ll be working on real homes, not “mock-ups”.  Be sure to enter to win a free workshop while visiting their site.

Some testimonials from previous workshop attendees:
“This was a life changing experience” -Dana P, Tennessee
“Andrew is an outstanding facilitator” -Julie S, Saskatchewan
“One of the best weeks I’ve ever had” -Federico F, Buenos Aires
“Workshop paid for itself the 1st day” -Clint P, Manitoba

The following is a guest post by Alexis Bonari

Take a look at those old, heavy textbooks on your shelves.  How many trees had to be cut down to produce them? Make sure those resources didn’t go to waste by leaving the books to collect dust on your shelves.

Keeping a library of books can contribute to a significant impact on the environment:  Think of all that paper being created and printed to publish the millions of books that are released each year.  There are a number of things you can do to help lessen your impact:

Donate Your Books

Are you really going to re-read Shakespeare’s Complete Works? Or are you really going to ever get around to reading War and Peace? Take a look at your bookshelf: There are probably dozens of books that you will never read or will never read again. There are several organizations to which you can donate these books:

• Your local library
• A local school or college
• A prison
• Goodwill
• The Salvation Army
• A pet rescue (for re-sale)

Consider the theme and content of the books you are donating before you choose your recipient. After all, you don’t want to send a bunch of Stephen King novels to the local elementary school!

Hold Swaps

Your friends and family members likely have just as many books on their shelves that they could part with if they were being honest. Hosting a book swap is a great way for you to get rid of some of your old books and to pick up some new ones. You and your friends and family members can “recycle” your old books and can get some new reads without having to buy new books.

Re-Sell Your Books

If you don’t want to donate them, try re-selling them to a local college bookstore. It’s best to do this right after your classes end since textbook publishers are quick to come out with new editions, but often, the old editions still contain the same material on slightly different page numbers and can still be useful.

Don’t Buy New

When you are shopping for new books, you can also help reduce your environmental impact by buying books used. You can often find books in “like new” condition, and buying used lessens the demand for the production of new books. If you don’t like to go to used bookstores hoping for the best when you’re looking for something specific, try online vendors like Amazon or eBay, which also sell used books. Of course, the library is a great source of “used” books that you don’t ever have to buy!

Get an e-Reader

Finally, one of the best ways to ensure that you don’t contribute to the creation of new books is to abandon print completely. There are many e-readers available now, and thousands of books are being made available in electronic version. If you can give up the feel of turning pages in your hands, e-readers offer you all of your same favorite books without the burden of using natural resources or taking up extensive space on your shelves.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and researcher for College Scholarships, where recently she’s been researching finance scholarship programs as well as English studies scholarship programs. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

photo by The Creative Penn

The following is a guest post by Mariana Ashley, a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.

To some this sounds like old news, to others this sounds like gibberish. What is a prefab eco-friendly home? The term prefab simply means prefabricated. Components of a structure are manufactured offsite in an industrial facility. Once the structure is designed and constructed offsite, it is shipped to the building location and erected there. Prefab housing is not a new concept. Having components of the building process take place in a factory has been a part of home construction for decades now. However, in recent years, prefab housing has become synonymous in many ways with a modernist aesthetic and sustainable design. There are four central factors that make prefab eco-friendly homes the wave of the future: smart design, smart materials, affordability, and fashion.

Many prefab green architects begin their structural design long before ever drafting a sketch of a room or deciding on building materials. Laying a smart foundation is the first step to building an eco-friendly home. Green architects use advanced computer modeling to site homes in locations that will maximize natural light and passive heating and cooling. Architects must design to build less, use interior spaces wisely, and design for longevity and flexibility. This means that architects design spaces that feel larger than they are by incorporating large windows and spaces with multiple functions. Through the use of large and numerous windows, green architects design to minimize the need to turn lights on during the day. Furthermore, smart design orients homes in the landscape to maximize both views and energy efficiencies, while at the same time avoiding extreme excavations or other invasive procedures when laying a foundation. Prefab houses are designed to last longer than traditional homes. Designed for longevity, these homes are typically made primarily from sturdy wood and steel frames. Because the structures are built offsite in a factory with controlled conditions, the materials are better cared for during vulnerable stages, producing higher quality construction and higher quality houses.

Using smart materials is the next step to designing a prefab eco-friendly home. Many builders focus on incorporating as many recycled and renewable products as possible into their home design. Furthermore, utilizing offsite factory construction allows builders and architects to reduce waste by 50 to 75 percent and use less materials overall. One of the staple materials used in eco-friendly building is bamboo. Because bamboo grows so quickly and easily, it is a wonderful renewable material to use in flooring and other design elements. Utilizing steel, wood, and cement as durable framing materials enables homes to withstand even the harshest weather conditions and allows for easier upkeep.

Not only is prefab more environmentally friendly than traditional building methods, it is also considerably less expensive. The elements of mass customization, mobility, and versatility in building materials make prefab homes ideal for low-income communities and areas that are prone to natural disaster. As established, prefab homes use fewer building materials, making them less expensive. Furthermore, prefab homes take a fraction of the time to design and manufacture because they are created within a controlled environment. This means that prefab homes can be produced more quickly for a lower cost. Recycled countertops and glass tiles are common within prefab homes. These materials make beautiful stylistic accents within a home without having a negative impact on the environment.

Do not be fooled by the terms “inexpensive” and “mass production” when discussing prefab housing. While prefab eco-friendly homes are extremely cost effective, they have also become iconic of the new desired modern aesthetic. Homeowners and architects alike value clean and simple design. In light of the ever challenging economy, many celebrity-status designers have redefined prefab for a market that values both cost and style equally. The fact that efficient, green housing is replacing oversized homes in the world of fashion is a huge step in the right direction. All over the world, architects are refining modern design elements to coincide with environmentally friendly techniques. These smart and hip new homes are essential to the eco-friendly revolution of the modern world. And we like them!

Pictured above is the Sunset Breezehouse by Michelle Kaufmann Designs.  See all the details and additional photos here.

Whether you’re looking for privacy or just a solution to contain the kids or pets in your yard, there are plenty of low-maintenance, eco-friendly fence options.  Fences made from natural or recycled materials are readily available.  The right fence can even be used to create a zen-like backyard oasis, as shown here.

• Bamboo is a very sturdy, fast-growing grass and is cultivated without the use of pesticides.  As fencing, it’s available in varying colors, heights and styles.  The rolled fences can be framed out for a more traditional look, or assembled in a more free-style appearance, as pictured above.  These can even be used to cover up and hide an ugly, old fence.
• Other natural fence options include willow, hazel, heather and other reeds bound together to form screens or panels.
• Some composites, such as Trex^®, are made from a combination of reclaimed wood and recycled plastic.  TerraFence composites are made from wheat straw, a by-product of the agricultural industry, and recycled plastic.  TimberWolf^® fencing is made up of 70% recycled paper mill waste mixed with recycled plastic.  A variety of colors and styles is available in these long-lasting fences.

photo courtesy of Bamboo Fencer

If you’re looking for low-maintenance flowers, shrubs and trees that will improve your curb appeal and beautify your backyard, look to native plants.  They’re easy-to-care for and come in many varieties suitable for both sunny and shady locations.  There are many benefits to integrating native plants into your landscape, as they:

• are naturally adapted to thrive in your region
• are typically drought-tolerant
• are resistant to pests and diseases
• require little-to-no fertilizers or modification of soils
• provide food and shelter for declining populations of songbirds, butterflies, bees and beneficial insects
• may increase property values

Ask to see a selection of native plants at your local nursery, at wildflower preserves, or from online retailers.

Many books have been dedicated to the subject as well.

I found a few online resources, such as Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, The Lady Bird Wildflower Center and PlantNative.org to be very informative.  These websites include listings of native plants for your area, local nurseries/suppliers and community organizations with gardens you can visit.

Wild blue indigo (Baptisia australis) is pictured above.

It has been said by some scientists that the simple deed of planting trees (many, many trees) would significantly reduce the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, that we spew into the air at an alarming rate on a daily basis.  The least we can do is try to save the trees already in existence.

The good news is that there are some simple actions that anyone can do to make a difference…stopping junk mail is just one of them, but an important step, since here in the U.S. alone, junk mail is responsible for the destruction of 100 million trees every year.

• If you don’t want to waste ’8 months opening junk mail over the course of your lifetime’, take a few minutes now to stop it.  EcoCycle.org shows easy ways to stop junk mail.   Also, sign a petition to stop junk mail.
• Whether at home or work, stop and think before printing anything from the computer.  Ask yourself if it’s really necessary that you have a paper copy of something that you can easily reference with a click of a mouse.
• When it is necessary to print, opt for paper with recycled content.  That which is labeled with a high percentage of ‘post-consumer’ recycled content is best.
• Recycle paper and cardboard.   Reuse paper whenever possible.
• Choose to buy recycled paper products such as tissues, bath tissue, napkins, paper towels.  Or, opt for washable linens to replace paper towels and napkins altogether.
• Sign up for e-statements and pay your bills online.  This works well for everything from bank and investment statements to credit card and utility bills.
• Read your favorite magazine or store catalog online instead of receiving paper copies in the mail.
• Plant trees around your home.  Not only does beautiful landscaping add to the value of your home, but proper positioning of trees will even reduce your heating and cooling bills and make your home feel more comfortable.  Evergreens provide a great windbreak to help block those cold winter winds.  Deciduous trees placed on the south and/or west side of your home will provide shade in the summer, yet allow sunlight to enter your home when the limbs are bare in winter.  Go even greener by planting native species.
• Buy wood products only from reputable sources where the wood originates from sustainably managed forests.  The ultimate verification of this is done through the independent, non-profit organization The Forest Stewardship Council.  Avoid exotic woods, unless they are FSC-certified, because harvesting these woods is devastating to the world’s rainforests and our global climate.

photo courtesy of Senior Brigade