I just had a contractor come visit our Brooklyn Green Show House. He was up from Virginia visiting family and decided to check it out. He isn’t a green builder but wants to move in that direction. Where he’s from he says there is very little green building interest and he is very frustrated with […]
Hitting Eco Brick Walls With Clients and how to Overcome Them Read More »
I just go a call from Joel Frank, one of the three members of the Rebuilder Source cooperative in the Bronx. They accept donations of building materials and resell them at good prices. The drive behind them is mostly idealistic: one of making the world a greener place by reusing materials. He was just reaching
Rebuildersource.coop Read More »
A few weeks ago the EPA held a webinar on the safe use of spray foam insulations titled “What You Need to Know About the Safe Use of Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF)”. We at Eco Brooklyn are not crazy about spray foam so we watched what the EPA had to say closely. Their view in
EPA discusses Spray Foam Read More »
Modified hot water return systems in a green brownstone make a lot of sense. You want to minimize the amount of wasted water that normally goes down the drain while you are waiting for the water to heat up, thus the use of a hot water return, but you modify it from the normal hot
Saving Water and Energy in a Brooklyn Brownstone Read More »
I was just on a radio program where we discussed with the CEO of the Omega institute their new building that is built along the Cascadian Living Building Challenge guidelines, possibly the best green building guideline I know of. Check it out here
Living Building Challenge and Omega Institute Read More »
The book of short essays “Less is More” collected by Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska, tackles a subject dear to my heart: Voluntary Simplicity, the act of voluntarily making your life simpler, less cluttered, more frugal and quite simply… simpler. I don’t think the book does a very good job at it though. Firstly, a
Less Is More – Wabi Sabi Read More »
An interesting article came out in the NY Times about the effects, many still unknown, of chemicals in our lives. “More than 80,000 new chemicals have been developed since World War II, according to the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai. Even of the major chemicals, fewer than 20 percent have been tested for
Keeping the Brownstone Kitchen Green Read More »
Here is a video of green architecture ideas from around the world. They are very 1970’s, pot smoking from outer space sort of structures IMO. But they make me think about green architecture possibilities in Brooklyn. Our canvas is the brownstone. What normal contractors paint on it is currently pretty standard stuff. I ask myself,
Brooklyn Green Architecture Read More »
I’m told by Carroll Gardens Coalition for Respectful Development (CG CORD) that outgoing Councilman Bill DeBlasio will be introducing a bill on Dec 9th 2009 that will alter a very old law that protects our front gardens. Right now the front gardens are not owned by the homeowners. Despite this seemingly illogical legal situation (you
Help keep Brooklyns streets beautiful Read More »
Brooklyn brownstone owners are becoming aware of the positive effects of spray foam insulation, also known as Spray-applied polyurethane foam or SPF, to get a nice tight building envelope that does not let heat out in the winter and in during the summer. Examples of SPF are Icynene, Heatlok, Tiger Foam and SUPERGREEN FOAM. Despite
Spray Foam Installation – Cellulose is better Read More »
