Domino's Top Picks for Green Housing Products
The new issue of Domino that hits newsstands today is all about the ecofriendly home, with the magazine’s top picks for sources of everything from fabrics to flooring. One particularly interesting resource is a company called Straw Sticks & Bricks; the Kansas City-based outfit has a wide range of building materials, including concrete, lumber and…
The new issue of Domino that hits newsstands today is all about the ecofriendly home, with the magazine’s top picks for sources of everything from fabrics to flooring. One particularly interesting resource is a company called Straw Sticks & Bricks; the Kansas City-based outfit has a wide range of building materials, including concrete, lumber and insulation. Another one that grabbed our attention is Auro, a natural paint company whose products do not emit any solvent vapors without sacrificing paint quality. Lots of others on the link.
Green Sites We Love [Domino]
Be warned, this project is by the same developer who did the poor excuse for a new building on 8th street below 4th avenue that hasn’t been sold out after a year on the market. The building was a disaster and shoddy work wouldn’t begin to describe the conditions!!
It’s really too bad eco friendly products cost so much more than everything else. The same can be said for organic foods. This price difference makes these products an option only for the well off, who are not the majority of people, or consumers, in this world. Until the prices for these goods come down, and I don’t think most of them will, the majority of us will stick to the cheaper, perhaps less healthy goods, for home and body. Not because we don’t care about the environment, or our health, or the health of the planet, but because we are priced out of any alternatives.
I also wonder how environmentally sound some things are, when you factor in everything it takes to get it to us, and packaging. There is a lot of criticism of companies like Fresh Direct, whose organic and wholesome products are packaged in non returnable boxes and delivered in large trucks which spend a great deal of time idleing with motors spewing pollution into the air. When does it make eco sense to rush fresh, hand picked by monks in Bhutan, lettuce to America, when the planes are polluting more than some farmer in New Jersey who uses pesticides? Tough questions.
That said, there were some really nice products in the Straw, Sticks and Bricks store.
Sweet mother of god, it’s true: Australia is banning incandescent light bulbs, and California is talking about it, too. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17233145 That is total horseshit. How about revising the 30-year-old emissions standards on cars, reducing coal burning, offering better tax credits for insulation, before you issue a blanket ban on the only type of lighting that actually looks good? Me and the interior decorators of the world are taking to the streets!
Does any of this paint actually work? On a semi-related note, check this out: I heard today that Australia has announced plans to BAN incandescent light bulbs in a year! The entire nation of Australia! Dunno if it’s true, but YIKES! I’m all for green practices, but life with those fucking flourescent bulbs everywhere would be so depressing, I wouldn’t care about the planet–or anything else. Aesthetics are important. Good design is impossible without good lighting. And good lighting with flourescent bulbs is next to impossible, with a few exceptions. Run screaming into the outback!
EcoSpec is a commercial product. Benjamin Moore’s new residential low-voc line is called Aura (different from Auro).
Benjamin Moore recently launched a new low VOC paint called EcoSpec. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m interested in checking it out. I’m surprised that isn’t on the list either.
Out of curiosity, what’s wrong with Auro? We’d never heard of it before…
Auro? Gimme a break. The fact that they didn’t even mention Bioshield paint is enough to make me discount everything on that list. Sucks when a media outlet has a chance to introduce some great ideas and products, and bungles it.
Uh, no. A lot of readers are interested in green renovation resources. This is one of the best lists we’ve seen.