Category Archives: Natural Resources
20
Apr
Apr
Lands’ End and Joe Lamp’l, the host of PBS’s Growing a Greener World and the expert behind @JoeGardener, invite everyone to celebrate Earth Day this year by planting a tree. The #PlantATreeLE campaign is a tree planting initiative that will involve Lands’ End employees and a social movement instructing and encouraging consumers to plant trees across…
14
Sep
Sep
Made from consumer paper products, cellulose insulation typically contains about 85 percent recycled content. Using this green building material can effectively lower the carbon footprint of your home or business property. Essentially, this is because cellulose insulation is plant cell matter that is still storing the carbon sequestered when it was alive. Responsible management of…
09
Sep
Sep
The age-old construction techniques employed in traditional brush and wattle structures are time-tested and worthy of great respect. “Touching the Earth lightly,” these techniques are both low-impact on the natural environment and highly sustainable, employing the most natural and abundant of green building materials. Brush, referring to tree branches, twigs, leaves, and bark, has been…
01
Sep
Sep
In terms of sustainability and green building materials, brick is probably king. The process of making fired clay bricks has been around for over 5,000 years and just keeps getting greener. Today’s brick kilns use about 70 percent less energy to fire bricks than just 50 years ago. Brick is a term usually referring to…
24
Aug
Aug
Blocks used for residential and commercial construction employ a wide variety of green building materials in their composition. The most popular and commonly used is the standard hollow concrete block, but there are many variations in shape, weight, and composition. Sand, cement, gravel, and water are the most commonly used elements in blocks, but there…
10
Aug
Aug
Bamboo is a truly remarkable green building material. It’s twice as strong as concrete and slightly stronger than steel. It’s also a renewable resource that needs little energy to grow, prevents soil erosion, provides biomass, offers wildlife refuge, and produces a healthy food supply for both wildlife and humans. Offering significant remediation from the effects…
28
Jul
Jul
Green building materials are as diverse as Earth itself. Some of the most sustainable materials on the planet are modern inventions, and some are as old as the hills, like adobe. Familiarizing yourself with the best green building materials will help ensure your environmentally friendly projects enjoy sustainable success. Over the next several weeks, watch…
11
Jan
Jan
Join me for Part IV of this interview series with John Perlin concerning our forests. Today’s subject: “Fighting for Photons,” a subject about which Perlin knows plenty. He is the author of two diverse and important books which explore this subject: “A Forest Journey: the Story of Wood and Civilization,” and “Let It Shine:…