This rise has been noticed by the Boston Globe who published a wonderful article on Blu and shared a video of one of their latest designs.  The folding prefab home.  Basically, the entire home is built and folded offsite and then move to the final location and unfolded.   With prices ranging from $75,000 to $250,000 Blu Homes is moving toward a very innovativeand unique product that will appeal to many.  Very exciting!

Check out the video below for a great piece on the unfolding home.

Anyway, This is called the future of Ecozebra….  So what is the future?  The future is that I am going to try and get going again.  Basically posting on some of the same topics, which is a little of everything green that a has a focus on the family, real estate, green building, gardening and great green products.  Pretty much anything green that tickles my fancy.   So, if you haven’t fully left, please stick around.  I might post something usefull now and then.

In the Southwest corner of Salt Lake County a not so little community called Daybreak has sprung up in the area where the old Kennecott Copper evaporation ponds used to be located and were subsequently cleaned up several years ago.  (Click HERE for a PDF document from the EPA on this remediation) Daybreak is a community built around green living, close neighborhoods and Energy Star Certified homes, it takes an area where pollution was a problem and makes it a testament to the change that can happen.  A light rail line is even being built to the community (someday…) so that residents can move easily to the heart of Salt Lake City and give those who work there an affordable opportunity for green living outside of the locales they would typically consider closer in.  The concept is wonderful! However, until that light rail line is built it is a long way from being green when it comes to proximity to services and the current traffic situation. 

In it’s short history the Daybreak style of home has leaned toward late 1800’s and early 1900’s styling where craftsman and Victorian homes were the norm.  Something new has now come online from Garbett Homes and it is called the Solaris Collection.  

What sets these homes apart is that they are in a modern design and a wide and welcome contrast to the the typical Daybreak craftsman redux.  Actually, it is exciting! Very Exciting!  Now if they could intersperse them amongst the other styles a little more, so it doesn’t just end up as another overabundance of homes that all look the same. 

Some other noteable information on these homes is the materials that they are using here as well.  From Hardi Board on the exterior, solar included in the price and r38 insulation in the ceilings, they are also making good strides in green building and energy efficiency with these homes.  That and the base price is $206,000!  Please note that I did not say GREAT green strides.  These homes are Energy Star rated so please take that for what it is worth.  It is a start and not the top. 

Photos of the homes can be seen on the Garbett Website and through posts over at Grassroots Modern and Jetson Green.  Once I have a chance to head out that way I will share some of my own photos and tell you more about the homes and my impressions.   

What I have to send to the winner are two 1oz tubes of sunscreen which is valued at $17.98.  You will get a tube of tinted spf 22 sunscreen and a tube of spf 20 sunscreen.  To win all you need to do check out the Elemental Herbs Website and then leave a comment here and tell me what product you would be most interested in.  I will be taking any comments submitted from now until Friday August 21, 2009  at midnight.  On Saturday August 22, 2009, I will pick a winner as outlined in the Giveaway Terms and Conditions.  Good Luck!

The folks over at Energy Circle have come up with a new way to incentivize your kids to save energy and in the process earn a share of the cash you save when they do it.  It is called Moolah Maker. ”Moolah Maker helps kids and parents record their monthly energy use, write contracts to define energy use goals, and share the financial savings from reduced energy use”

It is a pretty cool program and I do think it would work.  This testimonial from the Energy Circle Founders says it best and proved it with a 16% savings, the very first month:

Energy Circle, a website offering home energy efficiency information and products, decided to develop the tool after founders Peter Troast and Lisa Fahay started tracking their energy use at home using a counter top electricity monitoring device called TED (The Energy Detective). Their kids tuned in to it immediately, noticing the impact of turning off lights and connecting the entertainment system to a smart powerstrip. Together the family hatched the idea of sharing in the savings. “It was one of those epiphany moments,” Lisa says. “The kids are already motivated, because they understand the impact of energy use on the planet. But why not let them share in this financially? The truth is, it’s worked. Our bills went down by 16% once we started monitoring. We’re happy get our invoice every month and to hand over the cash.”

So there you go.  The program is free (well, sort-of, you do have to pay the kids) and you have nothing to loose.  Give it a try and see if it works.  Save some moolah and get ready to fork over the dough!

My initial impression of the laptop sleeve that they sent me was that it was pretty much exactly like neopreene.  The same look the same feel and the same stretch.  It fits my machine nicely, flexes a bit and looks great.  Turns out it is even washable.  What I really noticed though was that there was no odor coming from the sleeve or the package it came in.  Nothing.  Completely odorless.  The no VOC claim is true!  That is a big plus for me.  So how did they do it?  Well, read on for a message from their website. 

Do you love the feel of neoprene, squishy and smooth with a little bit of stretch? That is what neogreene is, without any of the toxins. Ever smell neoprene? It stinks like chemicals, right? That is the VOCs (like paint) from the solvents used to glue the fabrics to the synthetic rubber. The 1930s technology that created polychloroprene (the generic term) made for a material that was almost impervious to other aggressive chemicals. That makes it wonderful for industrial applications like gaskets (what is a gasket?).But, it meant only the most aggressive of glues could hold a textile to the exterior. These solvent adhesives contain all kinds of potentially harmful chemicals depending on the supplier; from toluene to formaldehyde.

GreenSmart has abandoned the chloroprene chemistry of neoprene entirely and developed a material with all the attributes without the hazards, We call it neogreene. It is water based chemistry that allows for water based adhesives that still provides the squishy and smooth material with a little bit of stretch.

Specific to all neoprene, neogreene uses 25% less electricity and 25% less petroleum to produce? And the stink? With neogreene, that is gone for good

I am not only impressed with the product, but also with the company.  They have made a concerted effort to run their company sustainably and to develop only products that will make a difference.  You can read more about them and their philosophy here.  Believing in transparency they have also provided access to the neogreene lab reports here. 

 Neogreene currently comes as a laptop sleeve or a water bottle insulator and prices vary, depending on size and range from $13-$15 for bottle sleeves and $25-$40 for laptop sleeves.  All are available for purchase on their website. 

Well, while it will reduce waste of paper and potential carbon outputs, a product is still being built and created here. Where I have an issue is that every student these days has a laptop.  A laptop is perfectally capable of providing the resources needed to read a textbook without the additional purchase of a reader.  This saves the students money, saves the creation of one more petroleum based plastic device and serves the purpose of removing paper waste and carbon from the environment in a much better way than buying one more device.  All the textbooks a student needs for a year could be loaded on a single USB key or SD card and provided at a very low cost.  However, I suspect the universities are seeing a kickback from Kindle Sales that we have not heard about.

I think this quote from EcoGeek says it well:

This idea is great, but mainly because textbooks and course materials should be available electronically at all schools for all classes, whether they’re accessed by a Kindle, a laptop or on a computer at the library.  It seems like that conversion is long overdue for textbook makers and universities.  The universities participating are ones that have a bit of influence, so let’s hope that if they adopt electronic course materials, others will quickly join them.

Anyway, it is nice to see a change, the environmental benefits are a plus and heck there are some health benefits too, with students not lugging around such heavy packs.

Source: EcoGeek.com

Photo by: EricaJoy via Creative Commons

On an elemental, pure and basic level, the roots of healing are in the earth. To care for one self is to care for the earth. Elemental Herbs is a tribute to this inherent connection between wilderness and wellness, and evaluates company progress through social, environmental and economic measures.

Caroline Duell, founder of Elemental Herbs, started the company with one product, All Good Goop, after putting together a medicinal herb garden for a friend.  Those herbs turned into what is now the keystone product for Elemental Herbs. When we met Caroline gave me a sample of the product and after an initial use, I like it.  It works for everything from diaper rash to burns and scrapes to chapped hands, so it should get some good use in my house. I’ll keep you posted on my impressions.  Expanding out from this product elemental has grown the line to include sunscreens and lip balms.

Elemental Herbs is a member of One Percent for the Planet and Green America Business Network; endorses the campaign for safe cosmetics, and tests its products on humans, not on animals. The company partners with like-minded businesses such as Patagonia Footwear to further the movement of market driven environmentalism.

Elemental Herbs’ vehicles run on bio-diesel (produced from waste oil), product packaging is always recyclable and recycled when possible, ingredients are organically grown and/or sustainably sourced, and marketing materials are always printed on post consumer recycled paper.  A supply chain/carbon audit is in process for each product, and research is being conducted for cutting edge eco-packaging.

It is exciting when you can find a company like this one.  A green from the start organization that is continuing their green commitment while growing and expanding.  I look forward to their future success and urge you to try out their product line.

I  gave up bottled water (for the most part, meaning when I am stuck in a situation with no alternative) for the alternative of filtered tap water served up in my own reusable bottle.  I mean it really is just tap water with a name, IMHO.  I don’t need the name.

Anyway, enjoy the video and when you are done pop over to Do The Green Thing.  It is a great site that has matured nicely.

Tears Of A Cloud from Green Thing on Vimeo.

Warren Buffett Company Debuts Line of Green Prefab Homes – enn

China poised to go all out with clean tech. – SFGate

Mandatory composting may come to SF – American Public Media

DOE to slash fuel cell vehicle research – cnet