Lotusland’s Giants
By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant
Follow Nancy Chuda and Gwen Stauffer as they explore Lotusland's Giants. Check out insider videos of the endangered Chilean Wine Palm and the wonderfully colorful collection of bromeliads.
Where Energy Efficiency Collides with Human Health-5 Ways To Protect Yourself
Do GREEN buildings protect human health from environmental hazards? “Not necessarily” according to the findings at Environment and Human Health, Inc., a non-profit organization composed of doctors, public health professionals and experts specializing in environmental threats to human health.
Eco Interiors “Designs With Conscience”
By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate.
I know there is a lot of talk about the value of buying goods that are grown or made locally but for me there are reasons that far outweigh the use of fuels that travel such long distances to get to our shores and that is helping out our fellow human. Artecnica, a Los Angeles based design and manufacturing company, is committed to considering issues of environmental sustainability and responsible manufacturing. Design w/Conscience is a program, begun in 2002, that works with artisan communities in developing countries to produce unique handcrafted objects that reflect indigenous skills to be in accordance with humanitarian and environmentally sensitive principles.
Golf Courses: Polluting with Pesticides
After recently writing an article about Justin Timberlake’s newly reopened green golf course, Mirimichi, I began to dig deeper into the potential hazards that non-green golf courses pose and the ultimate cost that humankind and the environment will have to pay. One of the main and most talked about dangers of golf courses in recent years, has been the use of pesticides on golf course lawns.
Hurricane Katrina: Making it Right
Just last month marks the fifth year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the catastrophic natural disaster that claimed more than 1,800 lives in the Gulf coast region with damages totaling $80 billion. After the devastation of the hurricane and consequent flooding, it seemed to its residents and many around the world that New Orleans, specifically, was making a painstakingly slow recovery. Frustrated by the sluggish progress, actor Brad Pitt founded the Make It Right Foundation in 2007 to help rebuild the hardest hit region of New Orleans, the Lower 9th ward.
Bed Bugs on the Rise; Protect Your Home and Family Without Pesticides
When I was a little girl, I remember my mother saying to me, “Nighty, night, don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Fortunately for me, I had no idea what she was talking about, as I had never encountered a bed bug.
But that may not be the case for millions of people the world over, as more and more bed bug infestations are currently being reported
APHA OHS Section Awards Honor Winners and Remind Us of Ongoing Struggles
by Elizabeth Grossman, Author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
via The Pump Handle
The American Public Health Association's (APHA) Occupational Health & Safety Section has announced the winners of its 2010 Occupational Health & Safety Awards. In a year that has been marked by what David Michaels, Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, has described as "a series of workplace tragedies" - among them the deaths of 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine and 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico - noting both the honorees, and those in whose honor the awards are given, is a reminder of the enormous work, courage, and long history of efforts to ensure safety at work.
Robot Trash Cans Do The Dirty Work For A Clean Environment
By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant
We can all thank the sun for making trash disposal a more eco-friendly task; and while we’re at it, we can also thank the creators of BigBelly Solar Trash Cans. These solar powered beefy looking trash cans are sprouting up on street corners in several metropolitan areas with goals of being more cost, time and energy efficient.
A BIG Win For The Wolves!! Federal Protections Restored For Northern Rockies’ Wolves
By Laura Turner Seydel, Chairman of the Captain Planet Foundation, Co-founder of Mothers & Others for Clean Air and LuxEco Advocate
Via Defenders of Wildlife
Defenders wins lawsuit; future of wolf recovery still uncertain
* U.S. district court overturns Interior Secretary Salazar’s action that removed wolves in the Northern Rockies from the endangered species list
* Ruling makes it clear that subdividing a wild population based on political boundaries rather than science violates the Endangered Species Act
* Defenders calls for update of science and regional stakeholder collaboration to ensure continued wolf recovery and proper removal of federal protections
Solar Decathlon
By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate
In October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored what has turned out to be a biannual competition called Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. 20 teams from colleges and universities from the U.S., Canada, Germany and Spain were selected and asked to design, build and operate an energy efficient house powered exclusively by the sun. The winning team produced a house that best blended affordability, ease of living, attractiveness, comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions, enough energy to run all household appliances and hot water as well as producing more energy than it consumes. Workshops were provided about the current state of green design technologies, jobs and the future of the smart grid.
Gulf Coast Fishing Community Searches For Some Certainty
by Elizabeth Grossman, Author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
via The Pump Handle
"After three long months of oil geysering continuously from the depths of the Gulf, a temporary cap has stemmed the flow and it appears that the well is on its way to being killed. But we are by no means through this disaster," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in his opening remarks at the August 4th Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the use of oil dispersants in the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Save Electricity at Home
By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant (originally published on eHow.com)
In the month of April 2010, the United States spent $25.5 billion on electricity, using a total of 266.3 billion kilowatthours. While those numbers include retail sales to residential, industrial and commercial sectors, household owners have the power to drastically decrease electricity use overall by dropping the residential portion. Home dwellers have many options for reducing their monthly electric bill while simultaneously helping the environment.
One Prize Design Competition Addresses Urban Issues
By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
One Prize Mowing to Growing, an eco-contest sponsored by the City of New York Parks and Recreation Department and the American Society of Landscape Architects, created an opportunity for architects, designers, planners, scientists, and other related individuals to "reinvent the American garden." This design competition called for “creating productive green space in cities," and they have announced the two first place winners!
New China Bus Drives Over Cars
By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Designers and scientists have been working on different approaches to transportation issues as they become a greater concern with the ever-growing population. China has begun to address their own issues of overcrowding and transportation with their new concept busses that will drive above cars. Imagine driving through a tunnel that is moving above you!
An Eco Home: A Living Sactuary
By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate
I believe that every home should be a sanctuary and that upon entering it one should immediately feel physically and emotionally protected. What I first noticed upon entering Jim and Nancy Chudas Green Home to select a room to design for an upcoming feature in Los Angeles Magazine was that it had all of those qualities even in the construction phase.
Malleable Trees: The Future of Eco-Architecture
By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
LuxEco previously explored the idea of growing your own home with Mitchell Joachim's "Don't build your home, grow it!",...
Trash To Green
By Florence “Flip” Ross, LuxEco Advocate
One day at work, I happened to mention that I found these hills so pleasant to look at every time I passed them, and I wondered how they had developed there in the midst of all the flatness, which looked like God had ironed the land. Everyone laughed and said: “Don’t you know what those hills are?
Solar Beats Nuclear in the Race for Cost Efficient Energy
By: Molly Rovero LuxEco Editorial Assistant
A recent report created for North Carolina’s Waste Awareness & Reduction Network (NC WARN) was titled “ Solar and...
Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This: Recycled, Sustainable Environment Furniture
By Rachel Sarnoff, Writer and Founder of EcoStiletto.com and MommyGreenest.com and LuxEco Advocate
via www.ecostiletto.com
Want to keep chemicals out of your home? Start with your furniture. Carcinogenic formaldehyde is...
Fishing Closures and Seafood Sniffing: Addressing Gulf Seafood Safety
by Elizabeth Grossman, Author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
via The...
Green Closet Shape-Up Tips
By Lisa Adams, Designer and CEO of LA Closet Design and LuxEco Advocate
Maximizing a closet is the number one issue for most people, and...
Swim Suits and Architecture: the New Building Material
By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Recycling and architecture meet on a whole new level with the design of the S_Pavilion by students from Chelsea...
Carbon Free Remodeling Projects: From Edible to Over the Top
By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
The Carbon-Free Home by Stephen and Rebekah Hren boasts “36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit” as...
Football Goes Green At The World Cup 2010
By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Football, or soccer as we know it in America, really is the sport of the world. World cup matches...
April Showers Bring May Flowers, Summer Drought and Seedlings Sprout!
By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Granted, there is an abundance of vegetation that only thrives during the rainy season or in mild warmth....
Everyone Will Be a High Wire Act In The Future
By Lush Huxley, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
...Or so implies a new technology by Kolelinia lab the brain child of Bulgarian designer Martin Angelov. The lab...
epOxyGreen Interiors: Form, Function and Fabulous
Green interiors are now innovative, elegant and easily available in every pricing category. epOxyGreen, a 5,000-square foot showroom featuring sustainable flooring, carpeting, recycled decorative...
SANAA Partners Win The Pritzker Prize
By Margret Debanne, Art Historian and LuxEco Advocate
With yesterday's naming of SANAA Partners as winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, Kazuyo Sejima has...
Birds, Bees And Butterflies Too
They were thought to have been extinct since the 1980's but the thumbnail sized Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly (also known as the El...
Helping to Stop Deforestation
Did you know that:
We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14%...
The Green Home’s Meditation Suite: Connecting Zen Philosophy to Sustainability
The meditation suite, powder room and terrace of the Green Home, was designed to reflect James and Nancy Chuda's love for Buddhism, Zen philosophy...