Posts Tagged ‘environmental’

The Reuse People – Youth Build Connection Yields $1,000 Donation and a Commitment to the Community
by Robert Fortunato on May 11th, 2011 No Comments »

Arthur Renauld, Regional Manager for The Reuse People visited the Green Idea House a couple of months ago and saw the Youthbuild crew hard at work.  Arthur was so impressed that he connected them with the ReUse Haus project for AltBuild.  As a result our friend Wes Harding hired
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Last Chance for Free Scrap Lumber, Clean Sandy Soil or Chunks of Concrete!
by Robert Fortunato on May 5th, 2011 3 Comments »

Unfortunately, one of the people in the neighborhood (you know who you are) is complaining to the city about our lumber pile.  Therefore we have to get a dumpster out to the site in the next week.  So, if you need any of the above for projects from furniture to
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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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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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Whole building Design Guide
by Robert Fortunato on April 6th, 2011 2 Comments »

The Gateway to Up-To-Date Information on Integrated ‘Whole Building’ Design Techniques and Technologies
http://www.wbdg.org/index.php

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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