Buying your first home is both nerve-wracking and exhilarating. Imagine the heightening of both of those emotions if you choose to 1) buy an older house full of character, and 2) jump right into green updates and renovations upon purchase. You’ll then have a good sense of what journalist, professor, and good friend of sustainablog Simran Sethi is going through right now… she recently purchased an 84-year-old home in her adopted home town of Lawrence, KS. Unlike the rest of us, though, Simran’s inviting the world in to watch the process of greening her new house: on Monday, she posted the first entry on a new blog at Oprah.com.
Home renovation isn’t a task for the feint of heart, and Simran readily admits that her own hands-on experience is limited:
GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily speaks with Tom Schey, President of Minimal Productions. Schey is now leading green home building in Southern California and is the author of an upcoming book on fun ways to green up your life. 737conserve is an incredibly advanced, beautiful intellectual home. One of the most advanced smart homes ever built. The structure will most certainly generate more electricity than it uses. A home that embraces water and energy conservation in ways not yet part of the residential building landscape.
GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks with Founder and Editor of Eco Child’s Play, Jennifer Lance, about a host of green topics, including living off the grid, organic gardening and green parenting.
Dominique Browning, the former editor-in-chief of House and Garden, is partnering with Environmental Defense Fund to launch a new column called “Personal Nature: Dominique Browning’s distinctive take on all things environmental“. The column will highlight the human impacts of environmental threats like climate change and ocean pollution. Her first piece explores the language we use in talking about climate change and the need for individual and social action.
“It is only a small leap from caring about what’s going on in a garden to caring about what’s going on in the larger environment,” says Ms. Browning. “Environmental issues are hitting the very place we want to feel safest: home. Home ought to be a sacred place of retreat, rest and peace. It won’t be if we turn our backs on the world. This new column was born in the spirit of paying attention, becoming educated and aware and talking about what we can do now. I’m hoping to give matters of global urgency a human touch.
Today I picked the grapes from my vineyard. I got 366 usable pounds from my 25 vines even though I lost at least 100 pounds to birds that somehow penetrated my elaborate net system. The harvest will still give me between 90 and 115 bottles of what I hope will be decent wine - at least as decent as the ‘06 I’m happily sipping right now.
I used the term “Suburban Farmer” as a shameless lure to get folks to read this blog. To be honest, I’m not a “Farmer” at all. I grow grapes as a hobby, and since I am a self-employed consultant, the time I spend growing these grapes has an “opportunity cost” far greater than what the Syrah I bottle will be worth as a reduction in my substantial wine budget. I think it is great to garden or do home wine making, and I wish even more people had the opportunity to do it. It is good for body and soul - better than the money I could have made. But this is still not farming. I have too much respect for real farmers to call it that. Read the rest of this entry »
GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks with green blogger, publisher, and supermom Jill Fehrenbacher, founder of green design blog Inhabitat.com and its new eco-parenting sister site Inhabitots.com.
When dermatologist June Irwin first stood up in 1985 to speak at a Hudson, Quebec, town council meeting about the potential link between synthetic lawn pesticide and herbicide use and human and animal illnesses, she was written off as a flake. Irwin persisted, though, attending “every single town meeting in Hudson for six consecutive years - each time reading aloud a different letter with new observations and facts.” Eventually, she got her message across, and Hudson (population 5000) became the first town in North America to ban the use of these chemicals.
Sean Daily, Green Living Ideas’ Editor-In-Chief, discusses the topics of non-toxic household cleaning products and green bathroom remodeling with the “Queen of Green,” author and blogger Debra Lynn Dadd.
Do you remember RecycleBank, the Philadelphia-based company that rewarded customers for recycling? I thought that was a great idea, and I’ve got a similar response to Earth Aid’s new rewards program for energy savings. Rolled out earlier this month in Washington, DC, Earth Aid offers a program to track your energy use and savings, and then to “pay” you for those savings through reward points that can be redeemed at partner companies.
In its press release for the launch of the rewards program, the company claims that its program “…creates a virtuous circle of local businesses providing incentives for households to save energy, and households re-circulating their savings on their utility bills into local businesses - benefiting both the local environment and the local economy.” All of this is on top of money actually saved by consumers cutting their energy use…
Since July 2003, sustainablog has been providing information on environmental and economic sustainability, green and sustainable business, and environmental politics. The blog regularly features environmental leaders, experts in alternative energy and green technology, and real people trying to lighten their environmental footprints.
Buying your first home is both nerve-wracking and exhilarating. Imagine the heightening of both of those emotions if you choose to 1) buy an older house full of character, and 2) jump right into green updates and renovations upon purchase. You’ll then have a good sense of what journalist, professor, and good friend of sustainablog Simran Sethi is going through right now… she recently purchased an 84-year-old home in her adopted home town of Lawrence, KS. Unlike the rest of us, though, Simran’s inviting the world in to watch the process of greening her new house: on Monday, she posted the first entry on a new blog at Oprah.com.
Sean Daily, 
