Project Journal

Knowing when Browner is Greener keeps Arsenic and Chromium out of Your Home and Garden
by Robert Fortunato on May 1st, 2011 No Comments »

We hired a contractor to replace the rotted mudsills and rim joists (see Foundational Problems).  The contractor normally uses green (in color) pressure treated lumber for that application.  Unfortunately, the green stuff contains arsenic and chromium that gets airborne when cut or drilled and can also leach into your soil
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New Video! How we diverted 97.5% of our demo waste from the landfill
by Robert Fortunato on April 30th, 2011 No Comments »

The video clip is taken from the April 26th Hermosa Beach City Council meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sswh242BWTQ
Also, We’ve attached (SBESC Letter) a very kind letter from Jacki and Marilyn at the South bay Environmental Savings Center thanking us for speaking at the South Bay Cities Council of Governments meeting on
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How did we divert 97.5% of our demo waste from the landfill??
by Robert Fortunato on April 26th, 2011 No Comments »

We will be briefing the Hermosa Beach City Council at their meeting at 7pm tonight!

Happy Earth Day! Beach Reporter Prints Article on GIH Progress
by Robert Fortunato on April 22nd, 2011 No Comments »

Eric Michael Stitt very kindly marked our first big milestone: Owners save 97.5 percent of razed home
 

One Man’s Trash… Teaching Our Son about Win-Win Situations
by Robert Fortunato on April 21st, 2011 No Comments »

A grandmotherly woman named Grace contacted us about the free clean sandy soil we advertized in the local press.  She came with her contractor and a pickup truck and took four giant loads of dirt off our hands.
Her city was making her take out some concrete and replace it with
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Foundational Problems
by Robert Fortunato on April 18th, 2011 No Comments »

Wanting to save as much of the existing building as possible, we wrestled with skinning the stucco off the building; but in the end we are glad we did.  In 1959 the original builders poured the foundations too low.  Therefore the stucco was wicking moisture into the mudsills and rim
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Speaking at South Bay Cities Green Task Force Meeting Apr 21
by Robert Fortunato on April 10th, 2011 No Comments »

The South Bay Environmental Services Center asked us to speak at the quarterly South Bay Cities Green Task Force Meeting to share information about our 97.5% landfill diversion milestone.  We will be complementing Lisa Coppedge’s presentation on Grades of Green’s incredible efforts to reduce trash and how that translates into
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Pouring (over) Concrete 2 – Fly Ash Doesn’t Fly at the GIH
by Robert Fortunato on April 9th, 2011 3 Comments »

We got a number of responses to our post re concrete.  One of the most popular suggestions we got to reduce the harmful impacts of cement is to add fly ash to the mix.  This solution also gets you LEED and Build It Green points.
Fly ash is the leftover
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Will You Support the Mayor’s Challenge?
by Robert Fortunato on April 5th, 2011 No Comments »

April 1, 2011 was the start of the Wyland Clean Water Pledge. Mayors across Southern California are squaring off to see whose city is the greenest.  Our Mayor, Pete Tucker, has our support on this initiative: www.mywaterpledge.com

Pouring (over) Concrete
by Robert Fortunato on April 3rd, 2011 No Comments »

Lucas’ words were ringing in my ears as the second cement truck finished unloading.  When asked what materials his Danish eco village tries to avoid, the number one item is poured concrete because of it’s high embodied energy and the fact that you can’t really recycle it.   Discarded concrete just
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