Congratulations to Rosa Parks Elementary  in San Francisco – one of three Grand Prize Winners of the CBS & EcoZone Green My School Contest!

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In total, 45 schools across the nation participated in the contest. Each participating school submitted a short standard submission form and a creative response exploring what being green means to them and why their school should receive a green makeover. The three winning schools are Rosa Parks Elementary School in San Francisco; Everett M. Dirksen Middle School in Chicagoland; and Miami Northwestern High School in Miami. The winning schools recieved extensive green makeovers with the eco-remodel at Rosa Parks including a solar installation on the roof, a rainwater collection unit, and alternative interior wall coverings like American Clay.

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Our friends at Yolo Colorhouse Paint in Portland Oregon contributed Zero-VOC exterior paints to Rosa Parks Elementary School for the striking murals that now adorn the walls of the school and playground.  All YOLO Colorhouse coatings are completely free of carcinogens, formaldehyde, phthalates,  hazardous air pollutants and ozone depleting compounds. You can find Yolo Colorhouse online at www.yolocolorhouse.com.  Scroll down for more pictures of the new colorful murals at Rosa Parks Elementary!

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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

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!

The Caroma Profile

Caroma has long been the world’s leader in dual flush toilets, and now they have taken water-savings to a whole new level. By incorporating a hand-washing basin right into the tank of their toilet, Caroma has made it easy for people to conserve even more. 

They started with a High-Efficiency Dual Flush Toilet (two flush options: 0.8 gallons for liquids, and 1.28 gallons for solids) and changed the design of the tank so that water refilling the tank is first routed through a faucet at the top, making that clean water available for hand washing. As the water from your hand washing goes down the drain of the basin, it goes directly into tank to be used next time you flush the toilet.

Hard to imagine? Here’s an image of the inside of the tank so you can see how it works:

On top of making use of hand-washing-wastewater for flushing, Caroma dual flush toilets use less water to begin with. With an average flush of just 1 gallon, Dual Flush toilets reduce water consumption by 40-70 percent. Just imagine the water savings when the water from your hand washing gets recycled on top of it all!

Want even better news? Right now  through 10/18/2009 the Caroma Profile is just $399.99 – that’s $100 off the regular price! Come in and check it out!

The Caroma Profile is a certified High Efficiency, WaterSense toilet – and has received the Popular Mechanics “Product Breakthrough” award for innovative design and engineering.

The final numbers are in! It was the hottest day of the year and traffic was at it’s absolute ugliest but that did not dampen people’s passion for sustainable waste solutions!

At our Seattle Waste Alternatives and Electronics Recycling event on July 29th, Seattlites turned in 36,931 pounds of old electronics! That means that nearly 18.5 tons of garbage were collected for local, certified-responsible recycling by Total Reclaim. 

Our very esteemed guests at the event included: local green resource GreenDwelling Seattle;  the international watch-dog group The Basel Action Network; the waste-diverting countertop manufacturer Squak Mountain Stone; Cedar Grove Composting (who gave out 100 free bags of compost in 20 minutes flat); Arcade Magazine; the salvage company Second Use Building Supplies; Seattle Public Utilities; and the new-to-Seattle reusable-moving-box company Frogbox.

Visit www.ecyclewa.org for more information on how to recycle your electronics responsibly in Washington State.

Live Music was provided by the fantastic, fun gypsy-swing band Hochiwichi.

The folks of BAN showing off their program for verifying E-Waste Recyclers

It took over 7 box trucks to move all the waste that was collected.

This radio's a real old-timer!

The eighth annual Build it Green Tour of Homes and Information Fair is coming up this Saturday (September 19th, 2009!)

Between 11am and 5pm nearly 20 eco-friendly homes will be holding open houses around the city. Ticket holders will be given the locations – and can go from house to house learning innovative and sustainable ideas Portlanders are incorporating into their remodeling and building projects. The sustainable solutions on display will run the gamut from exterior things green roofs, natural landscaping and solar panels to interior concerns like healthy indoor air quality.  There are even some great examples of community-design with different ideas for co-housing.  Tickets are available at the Ecohaus store in Portland:

When you’ve seen all the houses you can fit in a day, come to Ecohaus Portland store for the Build It Green Information Fair! It is free to get in and we’ll be partying from 3pm until 7pm  with over 50 green exhibitors, refreshments from Artemis Foods and live music by local band The Wicky Pickers!

For more information on this fun, informative day click here!

Ecohaus Portland is located at 819 SE Taylor Street at SE 8th.

Check out the number on this certificate!

As carbon credits are in the news so much these days, it seems like a good time to toot some horns about the new local carbon offset program called NW Neutral.

NW Neutral is a program of one of our community partners, the Northwest Natural Resource Group. It pairs local private forestland owners interested in using their forests for carbon sequestration with buyers interested in offsetting their carbon emissions.

CO2 emissions are widely believed to contribute to global climate change – and forests have a big effect on levels of CO2. Forests in the U.S. currently capture about 10% of total CO2 emissions nationally but the loss of forestland accounts for approximately 25% of the worlds’ annual increase of carbon dioxide. From these numbers it is clear that investing in standing forests will be key to combatting rising CO2 levels. 

The advantage to a local program like NW Neutral is that buying credits from local landowners keeps the benefits of standing forests (better air quality, better water quality and functional ecosystems) in the neighborhood!  That’s why, in March, Ecohaus became their first customer. Now the CO2 that we emit through the process of distributing floor finish, delivering countertops, or keeping our showroom warm in the winter gets balanced by our investment in trees standing right here in the Pacific Northwest!

NNRG’s new program was formally announced at a celebration at Ecohaus on March 12th. Washington State’s new Public Lands Commissioner, Peter Goldmark, was present to make the announcement. “Carbon offsets could create a new market for small forest landowners that would keep working forests working,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark. “In these challenging economic times, we must innovate ways we can simultaneously fight climate change and protect forestlands from conversion.”

For over 15 years Northwest Natural Resource Group (NNRG) has been leading efforts to make ecological forestry a paying proposition in the Pacific Northwest. Their Northwest Certified Forestry program uses protocols designed by the Forest Stewardship Council (www.fscus.org) to provide a broad suite of economic, educational and informational benefits to small forest landowners in Washington and Oregon. More info at www.nnrg.org.

Commissioner Goldmark announced the new program.

NNRG and Ecohaus Representatives with Commissioner Goldmark and the first Carbon Offset Certficate through NW Neutral.

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Imagine if the Whole World Used Sustainable Building Practices…  

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Ecohaus believes that by switching to sustainable building practices the world could stretch our natural resources further, diminish the occurrence of many chronic health problems, promote the growth of local economies, and decrease the release of harmful greenhouse gasses. Since 1992, Ecohaus has been supplying the Pacific Northwest with building and finish materials that are based on a holistic model of sustainability, incorporating consideration for the environmental, health and local impacts of the products we choose to carry.

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When we select our products, we research the entire lifecycle–from harvesting and manufacturing, to performance and longevity,through disposal, whether it’s re-cycling, repurposing or composting if biodegradable. We look for third-party certification, salvaged, or recycled materials. We look for products that will be durable and last a long time–in fact, many of our materials will outlast their conventional counterparts. We look for products that can be easily diverted from the landfill. For example, our carpet tiles can be turned into more carpet tiles, and our decking can be turned into mulch.

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When we think about the impacts of a product on people’s health, we look for materials that are as low in toxics as possible for the people making the material as well as the people living with it. Many adhesives and finishes contain harmful toxins that can cause poor indoor air quality and lead to problems like asthma, allergies and “sick building syndrome.” We offer alternatives to these products, and people feel the difference.

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When we think about the impacts that our choice of products can have on a local community we strive to find socially responsible, sustainably minded companies to work with. We look for products that make it possible for people to lift themselves up while managing their resources responsibly. For instance, we pay a fair price for wood from certified forests to incentivize people NOT to slash and burn their resources. We work with family owned and operated businesses. And we work with owner/operators in the Pacific Northwest.

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Imagine a world where we use materials that we find close to home, where we keep our air and water clean, where our built environment helps support our natural environment – this is an “Ecohaus Future.”

Imagine if we managed our resources so that we could draw from them forever.