Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

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 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!

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 really is a time of change!  The press release under the cut arrived in my inbox and the announcement is timely, given that it comes during the USGBC’s biggest event of the year…

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• I just got a noseful of paint from AFM Safecoat–they’ve got a completely plant-based line of paints launching by the end of 2008.  They’re completely non-toxic as well as being low-VOC.  The can of paint smelled like flaxseed oil, which was pleasant.
• TOTO’s Neorest continues to surprise. It opens when you step near it and a nightlight goes on, eliminating the need to turn on the overhead light.  There’s a white noise function for those who are shy with their bodily functions–it’s the alternative to repeatedly flushing the toilet. After the business is completed, it has the same cleansing functions as the Washlet: bidet-style spray and air-drying, making toilet paper a thing of the past. Will Smith’s a fan.
• Big ups to the USGBC!  Not only is the show easy to navigate, but the conference schedule is posted clearly everywhere!
• IceStone’s a presence this year–a tiny booth, but the Brooklyn company is getting a lot of attention.  A representative showed me a number of kitchen and bath projects using the recycled glass materials that were just terrific.  More on that soon.
• Delta’s got some new 1.5 gpm faucets and showerheads on the horizon.  Definitely check out the bridge-style faucet in oil-rubbed bronze (one of the more distinctive oil-rubbed bronzes out there, I think).

More to come, including snapshots from around Greenbuild, later on.  More updates soon!

More on the pretty LEED certified Harlem residence: Photo edition!  

Just got some photos in from Diamond Cabinets, one of the sponsors involved in the first LEED-certified residence in Manhattan, a project sponsored by Good Housekeeping magazine, that I posted about last week.

LEED House 1 

All photography by Michael Ficeto,
Hearst Corporation

Click on the photos to view larger versions.

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