Water, precious water…don’t waste that H2O surging off your roof and through the gutters of your home.  A roof area of only 1,000 square feet can provide approximately 600 gallons of water during a one inch rainfall.  You can capture that run-off with a rainwater harvesting system like this handsome one from Fiskars.  The unit’s flat back minimizes “dead space” between the barrel and your home’s exterior.  The kit includes a 58 gallon barrel made of UV treated impact resistant Polyethylene with built-in base, cover, worry-free downspout connector kit and threaded spigot for garden hose attachment.  Easy to install.

$189 @ rain-barrel.com

Klip Biotechnologies’ founder, Joel Klippert, designs and creates these EcoTop countertops from a 50/50 blend of FSC-certified, post consumer recycled paper and renewable bamboo fiber, then binds them with a new 100% water-based system. The result is an innovative, new surface product that promotes sustainability without compromising quality or style.

Klippert, who is the original creator of Paperstone recycled paper countertops, markets EcoTop as the most durable, user-friendly green surface material available. (more…)

UDATE: July 28, 2009 - Here’s a Marcal small steps store locator (original post, follows…)

Marcal Paper Products is not really a newcomer to the eco movement; as the company states, they’ve been “saving trees since 1950.”

Last month they began to roll-out Small Steps, a new eco friendly line of bath tissue, paper towels, napkins and facial tissue; and they asked us if we’d like to check it out. We said, sure. (more…)

The MetroCabin is designed for people looking for an easy-to-erect, prefabricated small space.

Measuring 16 feet deep by 20 feet wide it’s an ideal size for an artist’s studio, pool house, extra room or a place to store your visiting relatives.

Insulated and constructed with FSC certified wood and toxic-free glues, the cabin has a roomy nine foot-nine inches of ceiling height in the front, Andersen doors and windows, and doesn’t require a foundation.  Comes without electric or plumbing, which, along with the front deck, can be added as options.  Two people can assemble the cabin in as little as two or three days.  Base price: $32,500.

more details @ metroshed.com

No word on if this inflatable Chimney Pillow will be covered in the about-to-be-signed economic stimulus package which contains roughly $5 billion in home weatherization assistance. When inflated this funky little heat saving device will reduce the amount of heat lost up a dormant chimney.  If your Uncle Earl forgets the Pillow is installed and tries to light a fire, the Pillow does shrivel when heated.
in the U.S. @ chimneyballon.us and sold in the U.K. @ nigel’s eco store via: envirogadet

Winter in Wyoming can be a cold, windy season of drifting snow and slippery roads; hence the erection of snow fences to stop drifting snow from piling up on the state’s windswept highways.

Wyoming-based, Centennial Woods harvests Wyoming’s snow fence before it needs to be burned or thrown in a landfill and replaced.  Beginning in 1999 Centennial Woods has repurposed more than 5 million feet of beautifully weathered snow fence, saving the state $9 million and preventing 9,000 pounds of CO2 emissions.  The reclaimed fencing is made of sustainably harvested, fast-growing Ponderosa Pine and Lodge Pole Pine from the Rocky Mountains.  Unlike most barn wood or salvaged building boards — it has never been treated, may remain totally natural when reused and emits no harmful off-gasses when it make its way into, or onto, your home.

Centennial’s one hundred percent recycled wood products and vintage hardware have been used in the building of Mountain Living’s Natural Dream Home in Colorado, Southern Living’s Idea House in North Carolina, and is a central design element in Whole Foods Markets and Bass Pro Shops across North America.

contact info:  centennialwoods.com

An emerging player in the booming prefab and green building movement is EcoSteel Building Systems, a residential and commercial builder with a “hybrid approach” to prefab.

EcoSteel, which is headquartered in Park City, Utah, is currently completing five modern prefab steel homes in South Carolina, New Mexico, Utah, Maryland and Massachusetts, while three other projects are starting — two in California and one in Georgia.  (more…)

A British study has found that many micro, or home wind turbines, don’t deliver the energy wallop that their manufacturers’ claim.

Home turbines included in this particular study produced less than 5% of a home’s daily energy consumption, versus the 30% that many turbine manufacturers claim is possible. This study was funded by the British Wind Energy Association and the government which inspected turbines in four rural, 10 suburban and 12 urban sites for a year-long period.  The small sample size leaves the results open to question. The British Wind Energy Association still estimates that small and micro wind turbines possess the potential to produce 10% of Britain’s energy needs.  Wind turbine performance is directly related to site-specific: wind speeds, location and design.

source: physorg.com

Leading power tool maker, Black and Decker, has seen the light and it’s ‘green.’  B&D has created its Energy Saver Series of energy monitoring tools to help you stop wasting energy and cash.

The Power Monitor (at left above) was the first energy saving gadget released in the Energy Saver product line.  An easy to install wireless sensor is attached to your electric meter to show your electrical power use, and to send the data to a wireless handheld monitor.  You program-in the rate that you pay per kilowatt (from your electric bill) and you can see in real time what leaving that computer on, using that toaster, or firing up that plasma screen is really costing you by turning stuff on and off.  Seeing is believing.

B&D’s latest addition to the series, The Thermal Leak Detector (above right – coming soon) does just that — it shows where your home or apartment is losing heat via electrical outlets, windows, and poorly insulated gaps in door jams and patio doors, so you can take positive steps to help reduce your heating and electric bill by stopping energy loss.  You set a reference temperature, point the device at the area you want to check and any change in temp is indicated by changing red and blue lights (hot or cold).

Stop guessing about your energy use and start saving money.  Knowledge is power.

A greener approach to moving has been formed upon a recent relocation of where I hang my heart. The strategy eliminates the heavy dose of boxes, plastic wraps, packaging foam, tissue paper, and tape that more traditional approaches administer to the Earth.

Below are some simple ways to help make your next move, a more eco-friendly move.

(1)    Boxes: Don’t buy them! Ask local paint stores, electronic stores, pet shops, etc what day their shipments come in; request their donations to you.
(2)    Packaging: Use (a) old, cleaned and crumbled Styrofoam containers, (b) crumpled up junk mail in place of tissue paper, (c) clothes/towels (clean clothes for dishes; “dirty” clothes for dusty decorative items), (d) old sheets and blankets for furniture covers.
(3)    Driving: rent the biggest van you need to eliminate multiple runs.
(4)    Tape the entire way across the bottom, but only a simple perpendicular strip on top with boxes that won’t be closed for long (or simply fold box flaps into each other).
(5)    Mail: Put your new address on a do not mail list before moving. Otherwise, you’ll receive endless advertisements from just about every business in the area.

As I understand that many might cringe at the thought of using clothing or towels as packaging material, these are only suggestions. What I hope is that these steps are able to spark your creative green engine during future moving endeavors.