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.

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.

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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The title says it all. Just received some new photography from Kirei (the carbonized bamboo doors at right with Kirei board inserts) and thought some pretty sustainability would be good for this Friday afternoon!

Kirei makes a collection of products: Kirei Board, Kirei Bamboo, Kirei Coco Tiles and Kirei Wheatboard. Manufactured from renewable and reclaimed agricultural fiber and low-or no-added-formaldehyde adhesives, the company is “dedicated to a new palette of beautiful, natural materials for interior designers to create elegant, sustainable and innovative kitchen and bath designs.”

It’s a versatile material; the company touts it as suitable for wall coverings, millwork, cabinetry and architectural accents, among other things.

TreeHugger covers Kirei used in furniture–see here.  And Vivavi’s showing a mod Kirei coffeetable here.

Ah, the things they’re doing with sorghum these days!

LED luminaires are the next big thing; clean light that beats the pants off compact fluorescents for longevity.  GE, the company that made the soon-to-be-outlawed incandescent what it is today, is innovating as fast as it can and is garnering some serious recognition for its efforts.

Everything you ever wanted to know about GE’s advancements in the world of light emitting diodes, after the jump.

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Anything great and green happening in your ‘hood?  Leave it in the comments!

Were you aware that May is remodeling month?

It’s OK if you missed most of it–let’s borrow of a phrase from the Earth Day folks and say “Every month is remodeling month!”  Here’s to the remodelers, who turn the fixer-uppers into the dream homes of tomorrow, who take a coffin-like galley builder’s kitchen and bust out the walls to make it the fabulous open-plan hot spot of the house.

Remodeling can be spun green, too, especially with this year’s tax incentives to encourage folks (your clients) to increase their home’s energy efficiency.  With more people than ever deciding to stay put (leading to the rise of the Staycation and other silly marketing spins on the word “Stay”) , the government’s push for remodeling comes at a very good time.

Steve Gray Renovations, a smart building company based in Indianapolis, has some ideas about how you and your business can capitalize on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and market these developments effectively to your benefit. (N.B. — There are some other reasons to visit his site–Steve Gray is a master of promotion and marketing; the company’s Web site alone shows that much off immediately. KBDN covered Gray’s business model in an Industry Profile last year, that you can read here.)  The page is geared toward consumers; his clients know about it from a monthly eNewsletter Gray sends out to direct them to new content on his site.  Check it out here.

HGTV is practically required viewing for us scribes here at KBDN.  Nobody loves a good floorplan like we do.

But apart from its fix-it shows and the remodeling disaster diaries, HGTV has stepped up to the plate for green and really hit it out of the sustainably managed park, so to speak.  From groundbreaking programming to sponsoring an annual Green Home, the network is doing a lot of legwork for the sustainable design cause.

So that’s why I was particularly thrilled to see that the network’s Green Home earn some Brownie points and recognition from the powers-that-be at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA announced this week that the 2009 Green Home in Port St. Lucie, FL  has earned both the Indoor AirPlus and Energy Star labels.  Doesn’t hurt that it’s pretty, either–protects viewers from visual pollution!

For more about the 2009 Green Home including product, process and professionals involved, visit HGTV’s Green Home Web site here.

Read the release after the jump, and let me know what you think of the photos in the comments.

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