Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

The New York Times is reporting this week that researchers have responded to the energy laws written by Congress two years ago that would have put incandescents into the history books, by developing newer, more efficient models.

“The first bulbs to emerge from this push, Philips Lighting’s Halogena Energy Savers, are expensive compared with older incandescents. They sell for $5 apiece and more, compared with as little as 25 cents for standard bulbs.

But they are also 30 percent more efficient than older bulbs. Philips says that a 70-watt Halogena Energy Saver gives off the same amount of light as a traditional 100-watt bulb and lasts about three times as long, eventually paying for itself.”

Edison would be proud.  Read the full story here.

Two years early! 

Miele has announced its new G 2002 series dishwashers, like the one at left, are compliant with the EPA’s shiny new Energy Star requirements which are rolling out in 2011.

 According to the company, “Miele’s previous Normal program used only 6.1 gallons of water per load, making the new series 17% more efficient – saving about a gallon per load. In its Economy cycle, the new Miele series only uses 1.2 gallons (for those who want to save even more water and energy).”

Miele’s been taking further steps to reduce its carbon footprint, and the footprint of its products. Check out the company’s sustainability report here.

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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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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This year’s Marchin’ right along!  We’re marching to the beat of a different drummer this year!… OK, enough with the March puns, and down to some green housekeeping.  Let’s get caught up with some good green news.

First, a convenient slideshow–TreeHugger shows you what the new Prez is going to help you buy, via tax credits in the new stimulus package.

Nick Grohe of Hansgrohe addresses low-flow, aeration and the various green benefits water products can provide in this handy-dandy Q&A.

The USGBC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (doesn’t that sound peaceful?) with BREEAM, Green Star, Green Building Council Australia and the UK Green Building Council to get the beginnings of a standard metric of CO2 emissions assessment in new home and building construction started.  Read it here.

Stimulating any part of the economy right now would be good, but it’s refreshing to see green-collar jobs are not getting lost in the financial meltdown two-step we’re witnessing.

To wit, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (Don’t get the agency’s e-updates? Sign up here.  Are you on Twitter? They’re at @usepanews) sent out this rather reassuring press release yesterday:

Stimulus Plan Will Create Sustainable Jobs That Will Protect Public Health  

Contact: Enesta Jones, 202-564-7873 / jones.enesta@epa.gov
 

(Washington, D.C. – Feb. 19, 2009) The economic recovery plan signed by President Obama will create 3 to 4 million quality, sustainable jobs with many protecting our country’s public health and our environment.   

   “Through the President’s stimulus package, green initiatives will play a significant role in powering economic recovery,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “EPA’s portion of the plan will create good, sustainable jobs that help produce cleaner drinking water, purer air, environmentally friendly urban and rural re-development, and reduced greenhouse gases. This is a perfect example of economic growth and environmental protection working hand in hand to the benefit of all Americans.” 

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From the “Community Grumbling” department: Last week, the New York Times’ Green, Inc. blog posted a short item on the ongoing debates of energy efficiency/chilly green alien light CFLs versus energy wasting incandescents which have a better range of color temperatures and wattage versatility. It quoted a number of reader comments from previous posts on the subject.

That sparked another round of comments so, today, the blog featured a Q and A with self-proclaimed “CFL Advocate” Michael Siminovitch, a professor and director of the California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California, Davis. The topic is relevant and timely, as incandescent’s prognosis is terminal.

Consumers, the piece asserts, rarely go to Home Depot thinking about energy efficiency.  Instead, if they’ve got a dimmable fixture in the wall, they’re going to want a bulb which dims.  If you plug a conventional curlicue CFL into a dimmable outlet, it will not light.  A consumer looking for a bulb for a lamp by which they read at night, is not going to want a bulb which emits the same light as their office light fixture does. (See mine below as an example of this)

Check out what Siminovitch says is the delay in bringing better CFLs to a wider market and what we can expect for the future, here.

A quick recap of things to come for the bulb of yesteryear: Brazil and Argentina began to phase them out in 2005, Ireland and Switzerland will follow suit in 2009, the UK in 2011, Canada the following year, and us Yankees will kiss them goodbye between 2012 and 2014.

There’s a bit of innovation under way, though, to extend the incandescent’s lifespan: Two years ago, General Electric announced the company was working on a high efficiency incandescent (HEI) which would be four times as efficient as a current incandescent lamp.

Stay tuned.

Here’s a clip of Bill Perdue of the American Home Furnishings Alliance discussing the impending CARB regulations which will take effect in less than two weeks! This will affect the formaldehyde content of furniture (and by extension the items we hold nearest and dearest: cabinetry) that is sold in the state of California (and by extension, the rest of the U.S. sometime soon).

From the Furniture Today Web site.

The west coast is moving at the speed of light—at least that’s the view of this east coast-based editor.  Last week, whilst I was away on vacation, admiring this view from my hotel room, the Department of Energy released news on San Francisco’s revised building codes. The city’s Mayor Gavin Newsom recently approved a tough new green building ordinance that uses Build It Green ratings called GreenPoints. 
 
The new standards have a variety of implications for individual residences and apartment complexes, but the toughest standards are reserved for commercial structures which will be required to achieve LEED Silver certification (or the equivalent amount of GreenPoints) by 2010.
 
Read the U.S. Department of Energy’s release here, where you can click through to the San Francisco Mayor’s office.

There are a growing number of communities making these broad strokes to improve building codes–Austin, Seattle, Albuquerque, Boston, Cleveland.  Are you seeing this kind of legislation where you’re designing/building?  Is it impacting the way you’re doing business?  Don’t keep us in suspense!  Leave a note in the comments.

As for the photo, who doesn’t love windpower?  No, this isn’t a small fishing village in Scandinavia, it’s Atlantic City, NJ. The east coast might be slower than the west to catch up, but these turbines, if anything, look like a good sign to this editor!