The Toto Washlet is a bidet in a toilet seat that you can attach to just about any toilet! What makes a bidet so eco-friendly? Using less toilet paper means saving trees, saving water, and avoiding the pollution associated with pulping, bleaching and shipping the countless rolls of the stuff that we consume every year.  The production of toilet paper takes literally billions of gallons of water on the front end, and then once it’s been flushed, it takes a lot of water to sort it out at the sewage treatment plant! By comparison, bidets use just a tiny jet of water to do the same task.  But don’t take just our word for it,  A couple of years ago now, Justin Thomas at Treehugger posted a great article on the subject, including some shocking statistics:

“We use 36.5 billion rolls of toilet paper in the U.S. each year, this represents at least 15 million trees pulped. This also involves 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to produce the paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching purposes. The manufacturing process requires about 17.3 terawatts of electricity annually. Also, there is the energy and materials involved in packaging and transporting the toilet paper to households across the country.

Toilet paper also constitutes a significant load on the city sewer systems, and water treatment plants. It is also often responsible for clogged pipes.”

For health and environmental reasons, households around the world are using  bidets like this one – and as we are with Dual Flush Toilets, the US is finally starting to catch up!

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Blue Pine Wood is responsibly harvested from Oregon's forest land.

Ecohaus (a retailer of wood products from well-managed forests) and Sustainable Northwest Wood (a distributor of wood products from well-managed forests) have long partnered to bring a wide range of beautiful, Northwest, FSC certified wood products to a local audience. Our commitment to this joint-mission comes from our conviction that sustainable forestry can -and does- positively affect the lives of people in our community and beyond. 

An excellent example of this principlein motion is our Blue Pine, a unique offering from Sustainable Northwest Wood. The story behind this beautiful wood product has more to it than just the wood’s striking aesthetic, this is a story that has helped create jobs locally and improved forest health, too. 

Recently in Grant County, Oregon the closure of four out of the five sawmills in recent years resulted in layoffs for over 20% of the local workforce, devastating the local economy. In an effort to revive community enterprise while restoring forests; local environmental groups, loggers, federal agencies, and community leaders worked together to find common ground to remove standing dead trees, mostly blue pine, from local forests. This effort, whose focus on good stewardship and restoration, won them support from a diverse group of stakeholders and helped supply local mills with the timber they needed to stay open. Mike Billman of Malheur Lumber Company says “Working with local and national environmental organizations, Malheur Lumber Company has seen advancements in forest restoration projects on our local National Forest land. We expect that our collective efforts will improve forest health and ecological diversity while providing for forest related jobs and supplying raw materials to the forest products industry. We are excited to work with Sustainable Northwest Wood and to be an integral part of sustainable forest management!”

Through Ecohaus and Sustainable Northwest Wood, the wood from community initiatives like this one can, in-turn, become a strong and sustainable part of the buildings that house and sustain communities up and down the West Coast. 

West Coast wood = West Coast jobs 

Responsibly managed wood = Jobs for years to come. 

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Ecohaus is proud to announce a new addition to our paint offerings! Safecoat Naturals plant-oil-based paint! Entirely sourced from natural earth based plant and mineral components, Safecoat Naturals products are the first truly practical architectural coatings incorporating plant-based chemistry.

These new paints are truly a game-changer in the coatings industry.

Completely petroleum-free, Safecoat Naturals paints are fully biodegradable, emit no toxins and contain no harmful solvents, preservatives, dryers or other irritants that can contribute to poor indoor air quality or endanger your health. Safecoat Naturals have all the benefits typical of latex paints (like soap and water cleanup) with the performance and durability of oil-based paints. Like oil-based paints, Safecoat Naturals paint flows out smoothly from the paint brush, and naturally flattens out once applied to the wall.

Safecoat Naturals are available in unlimited color possibilities. Choose a color from one of our palettes, or bring in a color for us to custom match!

Safecoat Naturals products are plant-based finishes that protect and beautify your environment safely, naturally and sustainably. Come in to our stores and check them out! Through February 7th, the trim is on us! Get a free quart of Safecoat Naturals with the purchase of a gallon or more!

We recommend especially their recent post about saving money while remodeling.  

Enjoy!

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As the world moves toward a more sustainable future of resource and energy management, we are experiencing a fortuitous, simultaneous growth in awareness of issues about human health. Somehow, the sustainability movement and the push for healthy indoor air quality have always gone together. Perhaps it is the natural result of attentiveness to the material sources and ingredients that makes people notice the health effects of their choices. Or perhaps health and sustainability go together simply because eco-friendly building materials are hardly worth it if residents’ health and quality of life still suffers. Whatever the reason behind it however, it is good news for everyone that the importance of indoor air quality has been getting more attention lately.

From formaldehyde in the FEMA trailers and the off-gassing of PVC shower curtains, to the Sulfur compounds in certain drywalls, indoor air quality has been in the news more and more. Evidence is mounting that exposure to the chemicals commonly found in homes (in adhesives, finishes, paints, cleansers, synthetic carpets, vinyl flooring etc) can have serious, cumulative effects.  The American Lung Association of Washington reports that these chemicals (less than 5% of which have been officially tested for toxicity) can be linked to asthma, cancer, impaired child development, reproductive disorders and more!

At Ecohaus, we strive to find building and remodeling materials that are as low-toxic as they can be, and people report that they really experience a positive difference when they choose safe options. Benefits can include: painting a room without getting a headache, or being able to finish a floor without having to move out to avoid dangerous fumes.

Our carpets and rugs are free of polluting stain guards and flame retardants (natural wool doesn’t need them!) Our cabinets are free of added urea-formaldehyde. The resins and cements in our countertops have nothing harmful to off-gas. You don’t have to compromise your indoor air quality for lack choices – we’ve got materials for your whole job!

Now through January 3, we are celebrating the healthfulness of our products with special Healthy Home Combos! 

-  Take 10% off your purchase of tile with any countertop purchase!
-  Take 10% off select area rugs with any flooring purchase!
-  Get a free $1,000 Ecohaus gift card with cabinet purchases over $10,000!

For more information about indoor air quality, please visit the websites for the Washington Toxics Coalition, and the American Lung Assocation of Washington.

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Picture from 350.org's Day of Climate Action

Above is a picture from 350.org’s international climate action day that took place on October 24th, 2009. Across our blue planet, people took up the effort to convince world leaders that we should bring atmospheric carbon dioxide back down to 350 parts per million. This is the level at which, scientists say, life as we know it can continue to thrive.  For more information about this number, please visit Bill McKibben’s website, 350.org.

Now those world leaders are set to start meeting at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen next week to begin drafting an international plan that could set future limits on CO2 emissions and lay out strategies for reaching those limits. To be successful, they need to hear from us – the people that their decisions will affect. They need to hear that we are paying attention to what they’re deciding, and that we care.  There are at least two different petitions that you can sign to add your voice to the chorus: 350.org and Hopenhagen.org. These websites also provide updates on developments as they happen in the United States and around the world. Please join us in encouraging the UN to take strong action on this important issue.

To see more inspiring pictures from October 24th, please visit 350.org’s flickr stream.

Here at home, Ecohaus is trying to do our part – cutting our carbon footprint by providing local materials as much as possible, and by offsetting our carbon output by purchasing carbon credits in local forests through the Northwest Natural Resource Group.

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In case you have never heard of it, the Green Festival is a HUGE event sponsored by Green America, that takes place annually in Seattle, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago and Denver. Whatever your city, the Green Festival is a great opportunity to find environmental and humanitarian focused community organizations; sustainable, organic and fair trade personal and household products; and to hear informative and inspirational speakers on a whole range of topics.

Though we’ve been regulars at the Seattle event, Ecohaus just exhibited at the San Francisco Green Festival for the first time this year, and it was fantastic.  The airport sized building was packed with people from open to close all three days and the energy and enthusiasm from everyone was truly inspirational.  The warmth with which we were received was uplifting – not just because it was our first time exhibiting at the SF Green Fest, but also because this past weekend we announced our plans to open an Ecohaus location in San Francisco.

Our booth - set up and ready for the start of the Green Festival.

 Of course, we had our latest star-product on display – the Caroma Profile Toilet/Sink combo. It was hooked up to a pump so that folks could see how it worked. It was fun to watch people as they figured it out and reacted to it. As people passed through, we heard about a variety of incentives offered by local water utilities to help people save water. Please ask your water provider if they happen to have a rebate program for switching to Low-Flow or High Efficiency Toilets, and if they do – post a comment on this blog! We’d love to hear about it, and help spread the word.

Anyway, we had a great time at the Green Festival in San Francisco. The Ecohaus team had too many good Green Festival conversations to count, too many great San Francisco meals to list, and a good time dancing at post-Festival gatherings  too. We were stunned and inspired by the sheer numbers of people who came through the event over those three days – and we were overwhelmed by the warmth of the welcome we felt. One man happily shouted “I can’t wait for you guys to get here!” and we say in return ”Thank you! We can’t either!” Please check the Ecohaus blog for updates as we move toward our third location!

This picture is blurry - but you get the idea - this Festival was PACKED!

Free valet bike parking!

For more information about Ecohaus visit: www.ecohaus.com

On November 19, 2009 the Ecohaus Portland store will be hosting NW Energy Star and Imagine Energy for an event around Energy Savings of all kinds!

The Live Better Northwest 2010 Prius will be there – which you can enter to win! All you have to do is pick up a game board at Ecohaus and then collect stickers at 3 local events where you can “Spot the Prius”. Finally turn in your gameboard for the drawing! For more information visit: www.livebetternorthwest.com

While you’re at the store  on November 19, you can also talk to our home-energy-auditor partners Imagine Energy. They can help you save money around your house by saving energy – and give you advice about how best to take advantage of the Federal Tax Credits!

Why, you ask? It’s simple: American Pride paint is such a fantastic product, we want the folks in Stumptown to give it a try! 

American Pride paint is completely ZERO VOC, and CARCINOGEN FREE! It has great coverage and exceptional durability (tests have shown it to have one of the highest scrubbability rates on the market!) And not only is it high quality and low toxic, it is also available in any color you fancy – choose from their palette or get a custom match. American Pride is available in flat, eggshell and semi-gloss.  This is one of our most popular products and we repeatedly get praise from our customers, many of whom say that they like it especially for it’s low odor.

VOCs vs Toxicity:

Because Zero-VOC paints are touted by green design and government experts, as well as retailers everywhere as the way-to-go, many people mistakenly believe that a paint or finish that is VOC free is also low in toxins.  That is why we specify that the paints at Ecohaus are free of both VOCs and known-carcinogens.

Volatile Organic Compounds are  counted and regulated because they generate SMOG. While some VOCs are considered hazardous, there are many VOCs that are not toxic to people at all. Likewise, there are toxins in paint that, because they are not technically VOCs (do not create SMOG,) do not get counted. Basically, a paint can be VOC-Free, but still contain toxic chemicals. At Ecohaus we look for products that are as safe as they can be while still maintaining a high level of performance. We are delighted to be able to offer paints, like American Pride, that hold up to our rigorous requirements for both safety and function. 

But don’t take our word for it! If you live in the Portland area, you can smell the difference yourself! Stop in to Ecohaus Portland with a print out of the coupon (click here) this Sunday for your free gallon of American Pride paint – your choice of color and sheen. (Please note: Be one of the first 100. Limited to one per household. Custom matches can take up to 24 hours. )

Zero Energy Idea House at Bass Cove

A new project has just been completed in Washington State that strives to push the envelope of energy conservation – the Zero Energy Idea House – built by Donna and Riley Shirey. Their goal was to build a house that generates all the electricity that it requires. Combining solar panels, and a solar powered water heater – along with built-in efficiency they nearly got there. In the end they did opt for an efficienct, gas-powered, in-floor radiant heating system. Even with that, however, they expect the energy bill for this house to be under $500 per year.

Other energy efficient and green features of the home include use of SIPS (structural insulated panels), a green roof, salvaged wood, rainwater collection systems and much, much more! Click here to see the full list.

 The Zero Energy Idea House will be open for self-guided tours every weekend through November 8th. For more tour info, click here. While you’re there, check out the Handscraped Hickory Flooring, rubber/cork floor tiles, and Marmoleum that they picked up from Ecohaus!