Restoring History – Protecting Our Future

“What use is a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” – Thoreau

by Matt Grocoff, founder Greenovation.TV, contributor to The Environment Report on Public Radio, and the greenovation guru for Old House Web

The full article is available on OLD HOUSE WEB

When my wife Kelly and I bought our 110 year old Folk-Victorian home in Ann Arbor’s Old West Side Historic District, it was a dream come true: drafty old windows, lead paint, zero insulation, a half-century old furnace, asbestos siding, a gas powered mower in the shed and even a few pieces of coal scattered around the back yard. What more could a couple ask for?

From the start we knew that homes use an astonishing 22% of energy consumed in the U.S. In fact, your home uses far more energy than your car. Home energy costs have skyrocketed to an average of $2200 per year. Old homes use even more than their fair share of the energy pie. . . .

But using resources to build big new “green” homes to save resources just seems ironic. There are 130 million existing homes in the U.S.; half were built before 1972.

So, retrofitting America’s old homes is not just about preserving history, it is indeed about protecting our future.

READ MATT’S FULL ARTICLE AT OLD HOUSE WEB

And . . . here’s helpful resources you must explore before starting your Mission Zero:

One Block Off the Grid http://1bog.org/

Joolze.com http://www.joolze.com/

Transcript

Matt: [at front of old Victorian house] Hi, I’m Matt Grocoff, the green renovation expert for Old House Web and host of greenovation.tv and this is my house.  So when my wife Kelly and I first bought this 110 year old folk Victorian house, it was a dream come true: it had lead paint, asbestos siding, zero insulation and even an old gas powered lawn mower out in the shed.  What more can anybody ask for.

Matt: [in living room] So on move in day we brought two things with us:  a crowbar to rip up all the old carpet and a box of compact fluorescent light bulbs.  We replaced every light socket in this house with compact fluorescents and then we added motion sensors to every light switch in the house.  We leave a room, if we forget to turn it off, it turns it off for us.

Matt: [in bathroom] So at the start of our renovation project, this was the only bathroom in the house.  It was fantastic.  It had pink Formica tiles, an old flush toilet that flushed 5 gallons every time.  This is a Caroma Dual Flush Toilet which only uses .8 gallons every flush and unlike our old toilet never clogs.  But not only have we made it look great, but we’ve made it way more energy efficient.

This is a 1-minute a gallon showerhead.  This is going to use a gallon and a half a minute less than an ordinary showerhead.  This will literally save thousands of gallons over its lifetime.

Matt: [backyard drilling for geothermal] I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say “I thought you couldn’t put geothermal into a historic house.”  Well this house proves that wrong.  We were able to put three 150-foot bore holes vertically into the back yard on a very small piece of property.  Not only do we have a heating and cooling system that uses half the energy of our neighbors, we have a house that’s a whole lot more comfortable.

Matt: [in living room] We’re out to prove that old houses can be the Greenest houses. In fact, with all the renovations we’ve done so far, we’ve made this house ultra efficient and we’ve got a ways to go.  We’re going to take this house all the way to Net Zero.  Meaning it’s going to produce more energy than it uses.

Matt: [at the computer] So you eco geeks, get ready to get geeked out because this is our WattVision Google Power Meter.  And this will tell us how much energy we’re consuming at any given moment.  If everyone knew how much energy they were using, they would probably use a lot less.  [I'm coming to get you, I got you, I got you] Before we get the solar panels up on the roof, you can see we’ve got a lot of work to do.

Matt: [pointing to house exterior] We’ve got to paint the house, restore these old windows, then top it off with some really energy efficient storm windows.  My daughter Jane will probably still be alive when this house turns 200 years old.  So restoring America’s old homes is not just about preserving history, it’s about protecting our future.   So for Old House Web, this is Matt Grocoff reminding you that, “The Green Revolution Begins at Home”

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by Lester Graham (transcript from radio story on The Environment Report)

When you’re planning a home improvement project, you can be overwhelmed with decisions about the right materials, the right quality, and the right design. Trying to keep it eco- friendly on top of everything else just adds to the confusion. Lester Graham reports it can be as simple as finding a label:

Julia Weinert and her boyfriend like the idea of making their place nice, but even something as simple as painting causes concerns.

Look for Forest Stewardship Council for sustainably harvested wood

LG: “Well, you’re in luck. We’re at the local Home Depot and we just happen to have Greenovation.TV’s Matt Grocoff here. Matt, you’ve got some advice for her.”

MG: “And it’s really, really simple. When you’re trying to find a paint that’s healthy for you or another product, you shouldn’t have to be a chemist when you go to the store. There’s a really simple thing you can look for. Just look for the simple GREENGUARD label. GREENGUARD is an independent organization that lets you know with a simple label that that product is safe for you.”

So, none of the really strong paint smells that mean polluting chemicals are being released. GREENGUARD Environmental Institute sets indoor air standards for products and buildings. Julia and I sniffed a can of paint WITH the GREENGUARD label, and then one without.

LG: “I’ll let you sniff first.”

JW: Okay. Oh! Yeah! Oh my gosh! That is ridiculous. I mean, it smells so much stronger than this one. You can’t even smell that one compared to this one.”

A gallon of paint with the GREENGUARD label DOES cost a few dollars more, maybe as much as ten bucks.

Matt then herded us to another part of the store, the plumbing section, where Julia and I were confronted by all kinds of shiny chrome and brass faucets.

Greenguard establishes acceptable product standards for building materials, interior furnishings, cleaners, electronics and children’s products

JW: “There’s a whole wall, a whole aisle of faucets here and I just don’t know which ones to look for.”

LG: “So, Matt. You got any fancy labels here?”

MG: “Absolutely. Again, if you’re looking for that eco-friendly option, a way to save yourself some money and some water, it’s simple. Just look for the WaterSense label. The EPA does EnergyStar labels for appliances. The EPA also does WaterSense label for plumbing fixtures.”

WaterSense means the fixture – whether a faucet, shower head or toilet – will use less water but still works well.

As we wandered over to the lumber section of the store, Matt told us the last label he wanted to show us is the most ignored label – and it might just be the most important one.

MG: “FSC stands for the Forest Stewardship Council. And what that means is they’ve made a commitment that they’re not going to be tearing down forest and clear-cutting them in order for you to build some bookshelves in your home. This is one of the biggest causes of greenhouse gases is that we don’t have these forests capturing this carbon any more. Instead of having to have a PhD in forest management, you can just simply look for a piece of wood that has an FSC label on it.”

So, labels. Julia says, works for her.

JW: “It’s going to be great, taking my boyfriend around the store and showing him all these cool things I can get to make our home improvements a little more cheap and environmentally-friendly.”

LG: “Alright remind me, go over this again. What am I supposed to be looking for?”

MG: “It’s very simple. If you’re looking for paint, look for GREENGUARD. For plumbing, WaterSense. For lumber, FSC, Forest Stewardship Council certified.”

LG: “That’s Matt Grocoff, Greenovation.TV. Thanks again, Matt.

MG: “Lester, it’s always a pleasure. Thank you.”

For The Environemnt Report, I’m Lester Graham.

TRUST THESE LABELS:

Energy Star – means it’s energy efficient

WaterSense – means it’s water efficient

FSC Forest Stewardship Council – means you can trust that it didn’t come from a forest that was clear cut

Greenguard / Green Seal / for healthy indoor air quality (read the warning labels and compare)

Cradle to Cradle – means it uses environmentally safe and healthy materials; design for material reutilization, such as recycling or composting; the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency; efficient use of water, and maximum water quality associated with production; and instituting strategies for social responsibility.

SCS / Scientific Certification Systems

Consumer Reports on Eco-Labels: http://www.greenerchoices.org/eco-labels

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Solar Scorecard Assesses the Manufacture of Solar Panels

Solar panels are one of the greenest and least controversial types of renewable power generation technology. Some neighborhoods don’t like how they look on roofs of houses, but there are no concerns about harming wildlife, as with wind turbines or tidal power systems. And the technology to make them is continuing to improve.

But not all solar panels are created equally. Solar panels are energy intensive to produce, and potentially harmful materials such as
cadmium and lead are sometimes used in their production. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition has begun to assemble a ‘Solar Scorecard‘ that evaluates solar panel manufacturers.

There are already standards in place for other kinds of electronics. EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) rates information technology equipment such as desktop and laptop computers and monitors. The European Union’s RoHS Directive also mandates restrictions on the use of six hazardous materials in electronic equipment: Lead (Pb); Mercury (Hg); Cadmium (Cd); Hexavalent chromium (Cr6+); Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB); Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE). The Solar Scorecard offers a voluntary rating system like EPEAT to rate the greenness of the manufacturing process for solar panels. Solar Scorecard used the RoHS list to identify the chemicals to inquire about in their survey.

The Solar Scorecard site indicates that six of the responding companies’ survey answers said that they presently use lead in their modules, but all also said that they have plans to phase it out. Three companies indicated that they use cadmium compounds, but none of those have present plans to phase out those chemicals. However, none of the responding companies use mercury, hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), or polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE).

Because the Scorecard is based on company self-reporting, presently there are only ten PV module manufacturers and one solar cell manufacturer with scores listed. Four compaies also have a gold star, indicating that the company “has a takeback program and has policies against exporting waste and using prison labor to dismantle end-of-life panels.”

Scoring is based on a 100-point scale, with four major categories: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Takeback, which deals with end-of-life and recycling for the panels; Supply Chain Monitoring and Green Jobs, which looks at employee exposure to toxic materials among other issues; Chemical Use and Lifecycle Analysis, which looks at
hazardous material use; and Disclosure, which considers a company’s transparency about these issues. The survey was originally sent to 227 solar PV companies in October 2009 and the survey dealine was extended to late January 2010. Hopefully more companies will respond and the listing can be kept current in coming years, providing consumers with more information about the panels they are considering.

If you are considering buying solar panels for your own project, this information might be useful in evaluating different suppliers of solar panels. If you are the kind of person who pays attention to other rating systems like EPEAT, why wouldn’t you also look at those same considerations for solar panels?

A shorter, earlier version of this article appeared on EcoGeek

Philip Proefrock is a regular contributor to GreenovationTV and a registered architect with p s proefrock architecture, based in Michigan. He is a LEED accredited professional and has taught sustainable design architectural studio at Lawrence Technological University and assisted with LEED study groups for other building professionals. He is also an architectural photographer, writer and blogger. Philip is senior contributing writer for EcoGeek.org where he concentrates on green building systems, renewable power, and transportation, and a regular contributor to JetsonGreen.com

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We all want to do what we can to reduce our environmental impact, but green products can be hard on the budget, especially eco furniture. But you have options! Echo Wood Productions LLC provides modern, earth friendly furnishings made from recycled wood and uses all Greenguard certified finishes.

Affordable Furniture Made From Recycled Wood

Many furniture pieces use exotic or high end wood to boost value. This not only damages the delicate ecosystems where exotic wood is found, but it ends the life of exquisite organisms. We want the value of our furniture to come from the skill and effort we put into making it striking and not from the tree it was made- that’s cheating. Trees take a considerable amount of time to grow and need to be treated as the valuable resource they are, especially as the demand for wood grows.

So we upcycle shipping pallets pulled out of dumpsters to make our furniture in order to preserve living trees. A shocking amount of usable wood is tossed everyday while we continue to cut up trees. Upcycling wood, the process of reusing lesser value products to create a greater value product, is essential to saving space in our landfills and preserving live forests. The small amount of wood waste we generate is broken down further and then composted.

The standard finish for the furniture industry is an unsafe, lacquer based finish filled with high hazardous air pollutants and volatile organic compounds. Our finishing product of choice is a water-borne and Greenguard certified finish that is free of HAPs (hazardous air pollutants) and very low VOCs (volatile organic compounds). This means it is safer for you to have in your home, safer for me to work with, and safer for the environment.

Michelle Burton, dedicated to simple living, lives in Gainesville Florida with her carpenter husband, Caleb. Together, they handcraft each piece from start to finish. They enjoy gardening, their dogs, chickens, and watching PBS. Check out their website at www.echowoodproductions.com.

RESOURCES FOR HEALTHY FURNISHINGS:

Pottery Barn now offers products made from reclaimed materials

Find an Urban Wood Retailer near you for locally sourced urban lumber

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Planning to remodel? Unless your home is fairly new, only renovators certified to handle lead will soon be legally allowed to do the work. The problem: Many are not yet ready.

On April 22, the Environmental Protection Agency is slated to enact rules requiring EPA certification for contractors working 0n homes built before lead paint was banned in 1978. The rule, aimed at limiting exposure to lead, applies to carpenters, plumbers, heating and air conditioning workers, window installers and others.  Read full article at USA Today.

Read Related Article on GTV from Philip Proefrock: Do New Renovation Laws Stifle Greenovation?

Peeling Lead Paint - photo by EditorB CC 2.0 license

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In home improvement projects, the popular eco-friendly products are not always the best solution.  Lester Graham has the story of a home improvement intervention.

Kevin Leeser was not happy with the floors downstairs in his one-hundred year old house.

[Transcript of Lester's story for the Environment Report on public radio - Watch video above to see Kevin refinish his floors and see the gorgeous results]

CLICK IMAGE TO LISTEN TO RADIO STORY

Kevin Leeser:  Well, weve lived here five years and just over the five years theyve started to get grayer and you can tell that the finish was in the high traffic areas—you could tell where we were walking it looks like we were hamsters walking through this place.

Lester Graham:  This is maple, right?

KL: Pfft.  Yeah, thats what they tell me.

Kevin toyed with the idea of finishing the maple floors but that sounded really involved.

And then the in-laws visited during the holidays.

KL: My mother-in-law was like “Why dont you get new floors.” (laugh)  And I was like “well, yeah”, it would be easier, cause the things I was concerned about were sawdust, and cause I have a newborn, just dirtying up the house and figured just getting some clean stuff, cutting it outside, sticking it down and be done with it.

LG: So, wanting to be eco-friendly, he thought hed put down bamboo flooring.  Bamboo is renewable and it grows fast and its pretty popular these days.

Then his neighbor stopped by.  Matt Grocoff the eco-friendly home improvement guy with www.Greenovation.TV who had some eh—thoughts about Kevin’s plan.

Matt Grocoff: And, I, like, practically smacked him in the face and I said “What are you thinking?”  This is a gorgeous floor.  Go rent yourself a sander or even hire someone for a few hundred bucks to strip the floor and then refinish it.

LG: So, you’re not a big fan of bamboo?

MG: Bamboo is a great product if you have to do something new.  You have to ask a question: do you need that new product or do you have something that works now and just needs to be renewed.

Oh, yeah.  Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.  So, Kevin’s wife, Lauren and their baby were away for a few days.  Kevin rented a sander and then started looking for an eco-friendly sealant for his maple floors.  Matt had an idea for that.

MG: Kevin’s using a natural oil from BioShield which is a mixture of tung and linseed oil that is so easy to use.  It’s easier to use than even a low-VOC or zero-VOC polyurethene finish and easier to maintain in the long run.

And in the end renting the sander, buying sanding pads, buying the floor sealant, paint brushes and all that stuff ended up costing Kevin about HALF of what it would have if he put down bamboo.  Not a bad deal.

But the big question what did his wife, Lauren, think of the refinished old floors.

Lauren: It looks absolutely beautiful and we didnt have to get new floors.  Win, win.  We love it.  Beautiful.

Matt Grocoff says he was sure Kevin and Lauren would be happy, because he did the same thing at his house.

MG: The first thing that I did when we finished with our floor is I took a glass of red wine when we were celebrating and I poured half a glass of red wine on the floor and my wife was like “What are you doing?!”  And I was like, “look, were going to spill wine on it eventually, lets see what happens now.”  The wine beaded up on the floor.  We took a little sponge, wiped it clean and its gorgeous, five years later.

LG: That’s Matt Grocoff with Greenovation.TV.  Thanks, Matt.

MG: Lester, this is always so much fun.  Im glad to be doing it.

LG: That’s The Environment Report.  I’m Lester Graham.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

Bioshield Natural Paint & Oil Finishes (In the story Kevin uses Bioshield Hard Oil #9)

Safecoat Paints and Finishes

Home Depot Tool Rental

The U.S. Green Building Council

The EPA’s site on green building techniques

LISTEN TO THE RADIO STORY: The Environment Report

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by Philip Proefrock, LEED AP, GreenovationTV contributing writer

Photo by Cat Sidh under Creative Commons 2.0 license

Greener living often starts with the things you don’t do, rather than the things that you do. With home energy, the cheapest watts are those you don’t have to pay for (what Amory Lovins calls “negawatts“). It is far better (and cheaper) to invest in efficiency than to “slap on some solar panels” to run things.

Likewise, buildings and materials have “embodied energy” in the materials and effort that went into their original fabrication. This is why renovating an existing building has significant benefits over tearing down and building new, even if the new building would be more efficient than the existing one.

But, there are some new laws coming into effect that look like they may have a negative effect on renovation and remodeling projects. Rules from the EPA (PDF) on the handling of lead paint in existing buildings take effect this April, and remodeling contractors will need to ensure that they follow new procedures, which may increase cost on some renovation projects. And the new California green building code has prompted discussion about the valuation of existing buildings in green construction.

The new CALGREEN code (PDF), which takes effect January 1, 2011, is a statewide addition to the building code that joins other systems such as Green Globes and LEED that are used to evaluate the greenness of a building. But some groups feel that renovating existing buildings is being overlooked.

Preserving an old building should get more points than it does, says Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

“If you save a historic building, you can get up to three points,” Dishman says. “But if you use recycled carpet, you get one point. Is saving a whole building really the same as recycled carpet?”

The new code does not mandate the renovation of existing buildings, but there may be cases where a developer would not find enough benefit in retrofitting an existing building, and would choose instead to demolish it in order to build new. But renovation may still make good economic sense over the added costs of demolition and new construction.

New laws dealing with lead paint exposure also may cause general impacts on renovation projects. For homes, apartments, and other facilities that may be occupied by children built before 1978, special measures need to be followed to ensure that lead dust and debris does not cause additional exposure hazards.

The new measures are prescriptive practices to be followed to minimize lead contamination during the process of renovation, including steps the contractor must take to seal areas of work, protect furniture and surfaces in areas that may be exposed to lead dust and debris, and cleaning and collecting waste in a thorough and responsible manner. At Treehugger, Lloyd Alter raised some concerns about the backlash from the new rules.

Seriously, I spend a lot of time proselytizing that renovation creates labour intensive green jobs that can put a lot of unskilled people back to work. Now, on April 22, they become highly skilled and regulated jobs that require special tools, expensive bug suits, goggles and double gloves. People will just tear the things down instead.

As I understand the requirements (and, to be clear, I am not a certified remodeler), if the materials and surfaces involved in the renovation have been tested and are determined to be free of lead, then the lead-based paint renovation, repair, and painting requirements do not apply. But if lead is present, then it is prudent to deal with it in a responsible manner. The new practices will help to protect workers, as well as children under 6, who are particularly susceptible to the effects of lead poisoning. While the added steps and the certifications contractors must obtain may represent some additional costs, lead containment is a reasonable expectation for a safe renovation. And homeowners may experience a benefit of less impact on the rest of the house from the improved containment procedures.

In some instances, the cost and labor involved in extensive remodeling of buildings with large amounts of lead paint may become cost prohibitive. Hopefully, creative approaches to renovation can keep existing buildings from the wrecking ball.

Philip Proefrock is a regular contributor to GreenovationTV and a registered architect with p s proefrock architecture, based in Michigan. He is a LEED accredited professional and has taught sustainable design architectural studio at Lawrence Technological University and assisted with LEED study groups for other building professionals. He is also an architectural photographer, writer and blogger. Philip is senior contributing writer for EcoGeek.org where he concentrates on green building systems, renewable power, and transportation, and a regular contributor to JetsonGreen.com

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via The White House

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Builder groups in Indiana and Minnesota offer two different models for success for states with lagging efforts.
By: John Caulfield via EcoHome

After a slow start, the Indiana Builders Association in recent weeks has been “ramping up” its program to weatherize low-income housing and, in the process, create remodeling jobs. Builder-members participating in this effort are now weatherizing about 150 homes per week, and sometime this summer the HBA expects to meet its goal of weatherizing 3,300 units, says CEO Rick Wajda.

Indiana awarded the association $21 million of the $130 million the state received from what the federal government allocated for weatherization from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. However, through Feb. 16, Indiana had completed just less than 5%—974 out of 19,736—of the housing units it plans to weatherize under this grant. And that’s nowhere near the worst performance among all states, according to a progress report on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program, which went into effect a year ago.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

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More and more communities are looking for better ways to manage their urban forests. Whether that means seeking more eco-friendly options, or supporting more local initiatives, or both, developing a program to reclaim community wood will assist in reaching those goals.

Urbanwood isn’t really much different from traditional wood. It’s durable, beautiful and renewable. The only difference is that it doesn’t come from typical forests or lumber yards. Rather, it grows in backyards, parks, and neighborhoods.

John "Sawmill John" Haling is an urban sawyer in Michigan. Photo by Peter Hoffman.

Unfortunately, trees removed from our cities are often seen as waste, and generally end up in a chipper. Urbanwood programs seek to end this cycle, by working to save logs. This creates a wide variety of green products, conserves resources, and supports local jobs.

Turning an urban tree into a finished product is labor-intensive, but well worth the effort. Hazardous trees are removed due to death, disease, or development. Quality logs are handpicked and set aside. Local mills process the logs one at a time to preserve each one’s unique character. The lumber from this “waste” wood becomes beautiful furniture or flooring for your home.

Furniture made from urban wood by designer Paul Hickman

The U.S. Commerce Department found that 73,000 American furniture jobs were eliminated between 2000 and 2002. During the same period, U.S. sales of Chinese-made furniture exploded from $405 million to $5.82 billion.

Municipalities and urban areas can reach their environmental and think-local-first goals with an urbanwood program in more than one way. The most important aspect is to promote the highest and best use of a community’s wood resources. Secondly, by capturing the lumber value contained in trees and utilizing it within the communities it came from, jobs are created and dollars are kept right in the neighborhoods.

According to Jessica Simons, a project coordinator for the Southeast Michigan Resource Conservation and Development Council’s Urbanwood program, “Southeastern Michigan’s dead urban trees could produce enough lumber to build 362 average-sized homes each year.”

Urbanwood is a natural choice for green building projects, because it conserves resources by keeping good wood from going to waste. Since all harvesting, processing, and sales happen locally, urbanwood products create fewer transportation emissions than other eco-friendly options.

In addition to the environmental and economic benefits, programs are rewarded through building connections between producers and end users. Urbanwood programs also increase the opportunity to enhance public understanding of sustainable working forests and landscapes.

Kitchen cabinets made from dead urban ash trees

To learn more about urbanwood programs that are currently in operation all over the country, visit the following Web sites:

Southeastern Michigan (http://urbanwood.org),

Mid-Atlantic region (http://www.urbanwoodexchange.org),

Los Angeles (http://www.urbanwoods.net),

Chicago (http://illinoisurbanwood.org)

Seattle and San Francisco (http://www.urbanhardwoods.com).

Jennifer Eschelbach is a GreenovationTV Contributing Writer and in charge of outreach for the The Environmental House Energy & Green Building Resource Center (EnHouse) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The EnHouse is a comprehensive resource and touring facility dedicated to furthering the causes of green building, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Jennifer is currently working on her second bachelors degree from Eastern Michigan University in Urban and Regional Planning.  She loves the smell of energy efficiency in the morning.
Music featured in video by Josh Woodward (Creative Commons)

Photos courtesy Paul Hickman and Peter Hoffman

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Listen to Matt’s story on The Environment Report syndicated on NPR stations nationwide.

We know that a hardware store sells hardware.  So, what in the world does a ReStore sell? . . . . It sells any kind of RE you can imagine: REducing, REusing, REcycling .

Habitat ReStores are retail outlets which help you restore your house for a fraction of the cost while helping out a great cause.  In addition to

Bathroom made with reused material from reuse centers: mirror, clawfoot tub, sink, marble floor, picture frame, moldings, plumbing parts, cabinets, antique doors and paint Photo by Dave Lewinski

raising funds for Habitat for Humanity, ReStores help the environment by keeping quality, usable materials out of landfills and putting them back into good use.

Materials sold by Habitat ReStores are usually donated from building supply stores, contractors, demolition crews or from individuals who want to support Habitat for Humanity and keep stuff out of landfills.

When our very own Dr. Anna Marie renovated her home in Florida, she donated all of the old cabinets and appliances to her local Habitat ReStore (watch the video).  When Kelly and I needed reclaimed brick for our patio, salvaged lumber for our moldings, antique doors and a claw foot tub for the new bathroom, an outdoor fireplace, plumbing supplies, and even tools, we found it all (and more) at the ReStore and saved tons of money.

Reuse centers like the ReStore can be found in virtually every community in North America (see below to find a store near you).  They are a green remodeler’s dream come true and a perfect way to reach the goal of zero waste.

You can literally build an entire house from materials from a reuse center.

You’ll typically save 50% – 90% by skipping the big box stores and finding what you need at a ReStore.  So, use fewer natural resources, keep good stuff out of landfills, help a charity and save a little money . . . You can’t beat that.

Check out The Story of Stuff if you’re not already convinced about reuse.  You’ll definitely want to check out all the cool stuff over at the great new website www.AltUse.com if you’re looking for alternative uses for stuff you’ve got laying around the house but can’t bring yourself to drop by the ReStore.

by Matt Grocoff

Related Links:

Habitat ReStore Directory – United States

Habitat ReStore Directory – Canada

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A behind the scenes look into the world of reclaimed and sustainable wood and an eco-friendly company that creates eco-friendly flooring from reclaimed, salvaged and FSC certified wood.

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