Green building practices reduce negative impacts on human health and the environment through better design, construction, operation and removal of materials. Ultimately, green building increases the efficiency in which materials are harvested and used.

When it comes to picking a floor for your home take advantage of the availability of recycled wood to replace any old flooring you may be tearing up. Try to utilize as much of the existing home as possible. You may not want to do away with old wood especially if you can reuse it in another location. After all it still has all the character and history in its features.

The green movement is prevalent as documented by many environmental initiatives being launched across the U.S. Here are two such examples: Last summer the City of Denver launched a five-year plan to promote sustainable development and eco-friendly practices that is already showing positive results and, in the private industry arena, Toyota Motors Corporation is going green with its design of hybrid vehicles, efforts to reduce green house gases, and its firm commitment to environmentally responsible construction projects.

According to the Metropolitan Builders Association, approximately 64 percent of home builders will be either heavily or moderately involved with green building projects. That follows a 20 percent increase in such builders over the past year. Such growth is moving green home building into the mainstream and brings home builders and homeowners to the brink of a new, environmentally and resource-conscious era.

But in the hazy world of figuring out what is truly a “Green” product, how does one know what to look for? Much like the USDA organic seal, products that carry the FSC logo have passed a rigorous monitoring process. The FSC label signals to consumers that the product was made from wood that has been procured, manufactured, and distributed in accordance with the FSC’s internationally accepted standards. Many architects and builders are using FSC-certified wood in their projects as a means of demonstrating their own commitment to the environment.

The process of recycling antique wood starts with the close relationships floor manufacturers have fostered with their suppliers to identify structures slated for destruction. Once the old timber structures are inspected and chosen as being suitable, the barn is carefully dismantled, transported to a lumber mill, and expertly cut into planks by professional sawyers.

The wood is then sent to facilities to be kiln-dried, sized, and carefully graded. Finally milling artists hand-select the wide planks to exact specifications in preparation for installation. This green process creates a look and feel that harkens back to the earliest pilgrim homes.

Article courtesy of www.RenovationFinder.com. Find a specialist in you area for installation of your floors at www.RenovationFinder.com

About the author:
RenovationFinder.com is a comprehensive online renovation directory that lists thousands of home renovation professionals from all over North America. RenovationFinder.com provides a comprehensive, user friendly resource that unites homeowners and contractors for all their home renovation needs!

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An ancient Chinese art of placement, Feng Shui literally translates as ‘wind-water’. This science balances the five elements - earth, metal, water, wood and fire, correcting the flow of energy in your environment thus setting the stage for positive happenings. It has successfully been applied by companies like Walt Disney, HSBC, Citibank, etc.

The environment in homes and offices is constantly influenced by the ‘chi’, i.e. the energy that comes in. This has a direct impact on the occupants and various aspects of their life such as health, success and opportunities.

The goal of Feng Shui is to make certain that the chi is flowing properly in your environment. When the energy is aligned, occupants are more successful in their lives and businesses. Before getting down to the life changing process of implementing Feng Shui in your home or office, it is vital that you prepare for these changes to occur. One of the basic ways in which you can do this is by getting rid of clutter.

Clutter can be defined as possessions that you don’t use any more. These are often objects that we believe may one day be useful, broken items that we intend to repair someday and old clothes that we hope to fit into again.

Everything in your house has the potential to raise or reduce your personal Chi or energy. Each area of your home has a symbolic meaning with which you resonate at a deep level. Clutter and untidiness causes constriction and inertia in the corresponding aspects of your life.

Clutter blocks your progress in the areas of opportunities, wealth and relationships. Putting things out of sight is not the solution. The stagnant Chi will still be present. Cleaning the clutter from your environment creates a free flow of chi which in turn brings abundance into every aspect of your life.

The following are simple and powerful tips that anyone can implement in their environment without a consultant and reap the benefits immediately:

1) Sitting and sleeping in your auspicious direction will not only increase your abundance but will also have a positive effect on your health and well being.

2) Broken gadgets should be repaired or disposed off as these will cause the chi to stagnate. This in turn causes various aspects of your life to stagnate as well.

3) Washing the floor with salt water at least once a week will keep the bad energy at bay.

Make the Most of Your Living Area
1) The energy coming through the front door is an important factor that determines how happy and prosperous the occupants will be. Make sure that there are no obstacles in the path of the flow of chi.

2) Placing a frog with a coin in his mouth at the entrance of your home will invite abundance and opportunities for you and your family members.

3) While most plants, especially upward growing ones are auspicious in your environment, cactus plants should be outside your home.

Create a Comfortable Environment in Your Bedroom
1) A bedroom mirror that reflects the bed creates serious problems. From relationship problems to severe health problems, these are avoidable simply by removing the mirror or by covering it completely at night

2) Remove any water images from the bedroom. The same principles that apply to mirrors in your sleeping area are valid here.

3) Do not place your bed under overhead beams since this causes headaches.

Bathroom, Toilet and Corridors
1) Keep your bathroom and toilet doors closed and place a framed mirror outside the bathroom door to prevent wealth and opportunity from being drained out.

2) Placing a bowl of sea salt in your bathroom will eliminate negative chi from this area. The salt has to be changed every two days.

3) Use a six rod metal wind chime in the center of a long corridor to break the flow of harsh chi.

Enhance the Energy in Your Office Space
1) Keep your work desk a clutter free zone and deal with any outstanding back log of bills, memos, paperwork etc. Doing so will create opportunities and possibilities.

2) Position your desk so that you are able to sit with a solid wall behind your back to ensure that you have support in your business.

3) Avoid sitting directly in front of the doorway since the harsh energy will come straight to your table bringing a lot of problems and obstacles directly to you.

Things to Keep in Mind while Buying a House
1)Avoid buying a house facing railway tracks, located near a police station, hospital, open drains, graveyards, etc as these are inauspicious and bring in a lot of harsh chi. This causes severe health problems.

2) Bathrooms located in the middle of the house can cause your energy to drain away, leaving you feeling tired and lethargic.

3) Avoid buying a home with an entrance that is below street level. It is difficult for beneficial Chi to enter this type of building.

Author: Leo Velloz
About the author: Leo Velloz is a Feng Shui Consultant and founder of ‘Holistic Studio’ where he helps people achieve their goals and enrich their lives through Feng Shui, Aura Scan, Meditation, Healing . He has completed his Masters in Feng Shui under Lillian Too in Malaysia. You can contact him at leovelloz@gmail.com or visit his website at www.holisticstudio.com

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One of the hottest trends in home buying and home building right now is the “green home” - a green home is green because of the design features which make it more energy efficient, including high insulation values, how it’s meant to integrate into its local landscaping and how it’s constructed.

If you’re considering constructing a new home, consider going green. A lot of green construction initiatives are out there, which advocate building everything from pre measured, pre-fabricated parts. The savings for this are two fold - the first savings is in ease of construction. By building everything from pre-measured parts, you save on labor and assembly. You also save on garbage hauling fees.

The second place where you save is avoiding building waste in your local landfill. Most homes are constructed by bringing raw lumber on site and cutting it to fit over the course of construction. The same (to a lesser extent) is done with flooring, drywall and siding. Good green construction techniques use the mantra of “measure twice, cut once” to its logical extreme, and can eliminate construction waste (and the attendant fees) by as much as 80%.

Green construction also ties into how the house is designed as a home and living space, and how it uses energy. A house can be precisely placed to maximize thermal warming in the winter, and shade placement in the summer. Similarly, green construction helps with energy bills.

By building the houses out of precisely measured prefabricated components, the insulation effects can be greatly improved - most homes, when it comes to insulation, have the equivalent of two full sized doors open in terms of air flow.

Green construction, done right, solves this problem, and a well insulated home is less expensive to heat in the winter, and cool in the summer. Proper heating and cooling design/installation methods are a major contributor to good green construction practices.

A more recent trend in green construction is photovoltaic cells as an integral component of construction, rather than as an unsightly add on to the home. These can reduce utility bills (through net-metering) or provide cash flow to the home owner through an offset-tariff, and will, over the course of 20 years or more, pay off the cost of their investment.

Ultimately, doing a green home means doing a completely green home - you can’t do it part way. it doesn’t mean you have to “give up” the life style - but it does mean an initial investment in planning and a commitment to hold on to the home for a while to recoup your investment.

• Green homes retain resale value very well.
• Green construction is more than energy efficiency.
• It also leads to a long-lasting, healthier home and lifestyle.

Author: Ed Bishop
About the author:
Ed Bishop brings over thirty years of experience to the art of designing and installing engineered living environments for homeowners and offers the widest array of solutions to improve the safety, comfort, quality and efficiency of new and existing homes. Please visit heating-and-air-conditioning-guide.com

About the Image: The native grass, Microlaena stipoides, makes a good drought-resistant lawn.

Photographed for the Powerhouse Museum exhibition, Eco-Logic: creating a sustainable future. Source: http://flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum_photography/2023116775/

Ozone has been shown to take a potentially long time to react with air pollutants, from a few months to a few years! Additionally, ozone is not capable of reacting with every chemical it comes into contact with. Manufacturers sometimes claim that their product can be highly successful at removing carbon dioxide and formaldehyde. This claim has also reportedly been found to be untrue, via scientific analysis.

Ozone is readily capable of reacting with a number of commonly found air-borne pollutants creating compounds that are likewise irritating or harmful. Ozone is not able to remove most of the particles that lead to allergies, e.g. dust and pollen. Electrostatic precipitators and high efficiency particle filters have been seen to be more effective than some ozone purifiers with ionizers built in at removing harmful particles from the air.

When used at levels that have been deemed by the authorities to be safe, ozone has been found ineffective at ridding biological air-bound pollutants such as bacteria, viruses and mold. Much controversy has erupted over this type of air purifier system. Ozone is well acknowledged as a very dangerous chemical compound, hugely irritating in tiny quantities, potentially lethal at mid to higher levels.

When choosing to purchase a particular type of air cleaning device you should ideally review a guide detailing the latest findings and comparisons. The guide in question should be thorough, covering a wide number of aspects that are not always mentioned. Four worth considering are:

• Ozone emissions - total emitted while in operation
• Efficiency of chemical removal - percentage of formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOC) removed from the air
• Efficiency of odor removal - measured reduction in odor perception
• Efficiency of particle removal - quantity of dust taken out of the air, expressed as a percentage

Remember that you should try to use an air cleaner that removes the particular pollutants that appear in you air-space. Try and run tests to see which pollutants are present, and then how various air purifiers control them, if possible. Some independent companies or government monitoring bodies will assist you with this.

If you’re serious about air purifiers see http://www.airpurifierstop.com/alerts/category/5/ .

Image Source: http://flickr.com/photos/colourcrazy/2488434835/

Many people often find themselves cleaning their home like crazy, because they want to make sure their home is clean for their children. Unfortunately most people have no clue about the harmful toxins found in many household cleaning products. Many mothers an fathers find themselves using bleach to clean items bought at yard sales, and even to clean walls or bathrooms.

Why should they not? I mean the bottles do not say how toxic it is! All the manufacture cares about is making a parent think the product is great to kill germs, so as parents we buy them. They fail to alert users of the toxins contained in these cleaning products. Most parents find themselves cleaning off the baby’s crib, toys, and floors with cleaning products, that are leaving more toxins behind than the toxins they are cleaning because the companies are NOT required by law to alert the consumer!

Here are some facts about common household cleaning products found in many homes across the globe today!

Formaldehyde, phenol, benzene and toluene are found in common household cleaners and all have been linked as cancer causing and toxic to the immune system.

Children are highly vulnerable to chemical toxicants. Pound for pound of body weight children drink more water, eat more food and breathe more air than adults. The implication of this is that children will have substantially heavier exposures than adults to any toxicants that are present.

Most children at young ages spend much of the day putting things in their mouths. Especially toddlers, they seem to put anything and everything in their mouths that they can get their hands on. In 1998, scientists at Rutgers University discovered that pesticides sprayed in a home evaporate from floors and carpets, and then re-condense on plastic and foam objects such as pillows and plush toys. By observing how frequently a group of pre-schoolers put clean toys in their mouths, the researchers calculated that contaminated toys are likely to give young children much higher doses of poison than adults would get in the same environment.

Babies do not excrete contaminants or store them away in fat in the same ways that adults do, making the poisons more available to affect rapidly growing bodies. Furthermore, because a baby’s immune system is not fully functional, a baby’s body cannot counteract toxic effects as well as an adult can. In an adult, a blood-brain barrier insulates the brain from many of the potentially harmful chemicals circulating through the body. But in a human child, that barrier isn’t fully developed until six months after birth.

A pregnant woman can also pass the toxins from common cleaners to their unborn child! Many contaminants such as dioxins and PCBs have an affinity for fatty tissue. During pregnancy, women mobilize their amassed stores of body fat to provide nourishment for their growing babies; the contaminants in the fat are then passed to their children. Nursing mothers also transfer a good portion of their lifetime accumulation of chemicals to their babies.

Children that are exposed to toxins in the womb are at greatest risk of all. Because cellular structures change so rapidly during embryonic and fetal growth, a toxic exposure at the wrong moment can permanently alter further development. According to Dr. Landrigan, the central nervous system is especially vulnerable. To function properly, the developing brain must lay down an intricate web of interconnecting neurons. Small doses of neurotoxins during critical periods of brain development can alter those crucial neural pathways - one mistake early on, and the brain may be forever changed in subtle or serious ways. Government and university scientists are currently investigating the possibility of a connection betweenfetal exposures to toxins and developmental disabilities such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

As a parent you SHOULD be concerned about this! Cleaning your home with toxic products are literally breaking down your children’s bodies and adding onto the changes of cancer and other life threatening health concerns.

Even if you had no clue about this concern, until you just read this article, now is the time to take action! You can start by only bring into your home toxin free cleaning products! Get rid of any products that are not eco-friendly. If a product is eco friendly, that means it is safe to have in your home! If it is safe to have in your home, it is safe to use without having to worry about the harmful effects!

Visit http://www.safewellnessproducts.com today and view the entire selection of all natural eco friendly home care products. All cleaning supply products are nontoxic, natural, concentrated, contain no phosphates and are a biodegradable formulas! This means they are safe to have in your home. Concentrated cleaning products will last longer than the store bought products, so you will be saving money and cleaning the toxins from your home!

Author: Danni Vickers
About the author: Safe Wellness Products combines the best of science & nature come together to create healthy lives and toxin free homes! If you are concerned about you or your families health and wellness, we can help you create a more earth friendly home and eliminate toxins from your home! Visit http://www.safewellnessproducts.

Image Source: http://flickr.com/photos/jskelton/57595067/

More popularly known as Green Building, this is a method of constructing a home or building with the use of environmentally friendly products and technique. Much thought is given to what is available at the site it self, it is a boon to be able to harvest energy, water and some materials for the construction. This type of construction combines urban and wild land development, you have a modern home using mostly natural materials that are found around your land. Excess wood from the trees that cut to make way for the construction site may be used as flooring for a particular room.

Green Building costs less since most of the materials needed are easy to manufacture and do not put the environment or your health at risk. Imagine positioning a building in a direction that takes advantage of natural lighting and wind direction. To keep energy use at a minimum, a well insulated structure using safe insulation is needed. With Green Building, the worry for toxic fumes emitted by artificial insulation is a thing of the past.

Since technology in Green Building is evolving and the response to the demands for the environmentally sound materials are acknowledged by the building materials industry. “Green Building Products” is gaining acceptance, not just because of its impact on the environment but because of the excellence in quality. All of these materials comply to construction standards in appearance, practicality and durability. These may be eco-friendly but also succeed in adding an appealing visual quality to the room. Designing with green materials also gives architects and designers the freedom to extend the norms of building design, appearance and style. Green designers look for materials that are available and easily replaceable. Using old techniques with the use of technology make natural materials available without the risk of exploiting the source. The Bamboo Grass and the Cork Tree are two of the favored construction materials for flooring. The life of the tree is never endangered when the needed materials are extracted. The Cork Tree bark is just stripped leaving the tree still living. While the Bamboo Grass, is harvested according to the shoot’s age. Since shoots are known to grow from a single root, extraction is not dangerous.

The next time you think of remodeling your house, keep in mind what is healthy for you and still looks great. We must remember, if we think green we will always see green.

by Gladys J Co
About the author:A feature writer who is an in-house writer for http://agentsofvalue.com

Image Source: http://flickr.com/photos/gsbrown99/2504988631/

Author: Ernest Jarquio

“There is no question that bamboo is a renewable resource- it is a grass and grows very quickly. Where oak takes 120 years to grow to maturity, bamboo can be harvested in three.” Treehugger.com

Bamboo flooring is very quickly gaining popularity with many businesses as well as homeowners. There are many benefits to be gained from the installation of bamboo flooring in your home compared to other kinds of wood flooring. The main one of these is that it is much stronger as well as being denser than hardwood floors. This quality also makes it very resistant to moisture.

In addition, this type of flooring as produced by such companies as Morning Star Bamboo Flooring is very easy to install as a do-it-yourself project, so that makes it cost effective. Plus it is also extremely easy to maintain.

Bamboo flooring is made from the canes of the bamboo plant which can grow up to 100 ft high and can be between 45 and 60 cm in width. These canes are split and then flattened before they can be glued (laminated) together under extreme pressure and then made either into planks, tiles or strips of laminated bamboo flooring.

This method makes them really strong and durable as well as looking very elegant once the flooring has been laid. The process of bamboo flooring installation is a very simple one that anyone can carry out for themselves. Many of the companies selling this product offer you a glueless bamboo flooring system known as click lock where you just click the joints into place so there is no need for toxic adhesive products to be used during this process.

When looking to buy bamboo flooring there are hundreds of sites on the internet where it can be purchased from. But there are also many flooring companies around the US now selling this sustainable and environmentally friendly flooring. If you were to do a search of the internet for bamboo flooring in Oregon or say Los Angeles or Seattle you will be amazed at the results that you would come up with.

“Contrary to the concerns of some, the harvesting in these forests is not a threat to Pandas, as they live at much higher elevations and eat a different species of bamboo.” Buildinggreen.com

As well as bamboo flooring being very strong and durable and also easy to install, the other great advantage it has over other types of hardwood and laminate flooring is that it is resistant to both moisture and insects. In addition, when you compare the prices of bamboo flooring to other kinds of flooring you will be surprised at just how inexpensive this type of flooring is.

Most of the bamboo flooring available today is provided through China and it is fast becoming one of the most popular kinds of flooring the world over because it is a highly renewable material and so is truly environmentally friendly.

About the author:
Learn about bamboo flooring installation and Morningstar bamboo flooring and glueless bamboo flooring in my site.

Image Source: http://flickr.com/photos/sacharules/2279387052/

I never really understood why I avoided certain products but I just felt that they had no place in a clean, classy life. I have had fairly heated disagreements with my significant others who proclaimed me a prima donna or worse. Now that I know these products are toxic, I have to believe that my instincts were protecting me. Incidentally, I also detest carpeting and canned foods but that is a topic for another day.

Plastics
I have always disliked Tupperware and other such plastics designed for food storage. I swore up and down that the food and water tasted different when stored or cooked in the plastic. I even used the argument with my ex-husband that nobody on the Food Channel (or restaurants) uses plastic bowls. Plastic in the kitchen seems so tacky and unnatural to me that I always made a point of using glass or ceramic. I even went so far to feed my cats out of glass bowls.

As it turns out plastic is very toxic particularly when microwaved. It releases dioxins into your food or water which are known carcinogens. Soft plastics are worse than the hard plastics and contain endocrine disruptors which can disrupt fertility, harm a fetus and more. Other molded plastics like the ones used for computer monitors release a dust which are now known to cause a number of health problems.

This is an excerpt taken from “Get Plastic Out of Your Diet“by Paul Goettlich at www.mindfully.org:

If one were to listen only to nonprofits and the industry, it would be natural to think that only the additives are toxic and migrate. But everything about plastics is toxic — both the additives and the base plastics. And both migrate in quantities that are problematic at extremely low concentrations. Some chemicals are obviously more so than others. But it is undeniable that they all migrate all the time into everything that they touch.

Even if it wasn’t toxic, there is something very unappealing about a scratched stained warped bowl vs. a beautiful clear glass, wood or ceramic container. If you are worried about breaking it then don’t drop it.

Particleboard
When I was in college I bought myself my first desk. It was roughly $100 and made entirely of particleboard covered in some sort of wood looking laminate It came in a box and I had to put the whole thing together myself. I was pretty proud of myself for purchasing my first piece of furniture and assembling the whole thing unassisted.

There is no question however, that I would have preferred a solid wood desk. I felt I could only afford a build it yourself model but that it was still cheap and tacky. Since that time I have made a point of furnishing my home with solid wood furnishings if at all possible. They just give me a better feeling which is a basic premise of feng shui.

As it turns out my instincts were right on target again. It turns out that both particleboard and plywood are made with formaldehyde of all things. This formaldehyde “offgasses” from porous surfaces and you breathe the result. Particleboard is made from a particularly toxic form called urea formaldehyde and it contains a large percentage of formaldehyde-containing glue.

Apparently you can buy sealants to prevent offgassing from dangerous surfaces but doesn’t it make more sense not to fill your home with this junk in the first place? Go a step further and purchase someone else’s used furniture made from quality non-toxic materials and reduce waste in the world.

Microwave
Other than making microwave popcorn, I have long despised microwaved food and beverages. I think they taste like crap. Even water that has been boiled by stove top or kettle vs. heated in a microwave tastes totally different to me. (I don’t know why the popcorn never bothered me).

About a year ago I found a study somewhere on the internet that showed a rise in white blood cell counts in people after eating microwaved foods. The interpretation? That your body sees microwaved foods and beverages as invaders rather than food. I took my microwave to the curb immediately and I refuse to eat or drink from a microwave since.

I have since read of people who do a simple “science experiment” with two plants. They water one plant with tap water or stove heated & cooled water and one plant with water that has been boiled in the microwave and then cooled. The result? The microwaved water plant dies. Check out this link to see photos of the alleged science experiment. In all fairness, check out this link which refutes the microwave water theory. Google “microwave water plants” and check out other people’s experiments for yourself.

Interestingly, most people I mention this to seem to think I am some kind of wacko conspiracy theorist and they are willing to risk raising their white blood cell counts for a bit of convenience. Even if I am wrong what did I lose? I am erring on the side of caution. Please dont forget that microwaved food still tastes like crap whether it is safe or not.

What is the moral of this story? If you are serious about taking an active and conscious role in your health and vitality then pay attention to your gut instincts. They could be right on.

www.whatstoxic.com
Img Source: http://flickr.com/photos/hotreactor/31878365/

This is a must see video if you have dangerous mercury amalgams in your teeth, particularly if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to conceive.