Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

CHENG Concrete announced this week that the company will offer a line of concrete countertop products through four Home Depots in the Phoenix, AZ area.  This is the first time the company is offering any of its products in a brick-and-mortar location.

The products offered include Fu-Tung Cheng’s  Concrete Countertops Made Simple, countertop mixes in four colors, sealers, waxes and a finishing kit.  The company also held hands-on clinics in conjunction with the products launch for the public’s benefit at stores in Phoenix, Chandler and Tempe, which were well attended.  Read the complete release after the jump.

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Via Twitter: Check out Kitchens.com’s (@kitchens_com) “The Whole Green Kitchen” video on its Web site here.  It features Fu-Tung Cheng talking about Tonusa’s cabinetry; the vignette also displays Bosch appliances and Teragren floors, among other features.

AND! BIG NEWS!  Kitchen & Bath Sustainable is now on Twitter, so “follow” me to even more up-to-the-minute green coverage @KBDNsustainable.

In this episode of “Questions You Never Thought You’d Ask,” we ask ourselves: Is it a sink?  Is it a toilet?

If you were at K/BIS in Chicago last year, you might have seen me standing in at the Caroma booth in front of this, mesmerized.

I had been working on several green stories and was a few weeks away from launching this blog, and the topic I had become most interested in was the use of “used” water or greywater as a means to overall water conservation.

And then along comes the Profile Smart, the unit you see at left–it wasn’t available in the U.S. during K/BIS Chicago, but it is now. The unit is a dual flush HET with a 1.28/.08 gpf rating, which the company says will save a family that replaces a 1.6 gpf model approximately 5,000 gallons of water a year.

In the lingo of infomercials everywhere: BUT WAIT!  THERE’S MORE!

 The water saving increase when you factor in the sink that is integrated into the lid of the toilet.  In Caroma’s words:

“When the Profile Smart is flushed, fresh cold water is directed through the faucet for hand washing. This water then drains into the tank to be used for the next flush. This unique water and space saving design features chrome buttons built-in to the tapware design. It also features a large trapway, nearly double the industry average, virtually eliminating blockages and overflows. The installation process is quick and easy and does not require any special instructions.”

Now that’s an innovation–for the environmentalists, it means no more DIYgreywater lines from the sink to the toilet to outside gardens/ponds/etc. (illegal in some states, unregulated in others).  For the average user, though, it means yet another way to save water–good for the bills, good for the Earth.

This blogger doesn’t understand people who aren’t fond of summer.  Things working in summer’s favor: fresh asparagus, corn and strawberries; natural light until at least 8:30 pm cutting the need for lamps; outdoor swimming, kite-flying, walks around the neighborhood after dinner; new product introductions. (How’s THAT for a segue?)  Products after the jump. (more…)

Happy World Environment Day!  For the uninitiated, today is the U.N.’s equivalent of Earth Day.  To learn more, check out the WED Web site here.

When you’re there, be sure to check out the Twitter for Trees (@UNEPandyou, for you Twitter twits out there) campaign and updates of David de Rothschild’s amazing Plastiki project.

(More about Plastiki, de Rothschild’s project to bring awareness to the cess pit that is the North Pacific Gyre, a story worthy of coverage in this reporter’s opinion, available here at The New Yorker)

Photo: BuffaloReadings.com, via TreeHugger.

Bulbrite’s here to help.

The New Jersey-based company just announced it’s conducting monthly Webinars on what it’s calling “LED Basics”–what they are, how they work, and what their potential holds for energy efficiency.

See the complete release and info on how to sign yourself up, after the jump.

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