apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

YES, YES & YES

It depends. If being green simply makes things more expensive, I'd have to say it's doubtful. But there's all kinds of ways to be green. That's a real problem as it gets popular. We all know the public is like lemmings, incapable of independent thought (elections decided by sound bites on CNN for example). The only way it can make sense is if as consumers we do the due diligence to decide *what* green things we adopt.

Take for example the trend calling "downed trees" OK for "green" use - any tree hugger should know that a downed tree is more valuable to an ecosystem than one still standing. So using down trees is not "green".

It's ignorant to say "it's OK for a green house to be more expensive" without understanding every aspect of what's being called "green".

Devine paint is "green" and it's more expensive - and worth it in my opinion, but not because of the "green" factor, it's just darn good paint. For example.

By the way - classy picture! I like the rattan chair too.

I think you bring up valid points Boomer. Like you've noted, people need to make educated decisions before taking those steps for a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Not everything marketed or hyped as being eco-friendly is the best choice. I think many people, including myself, will pay more for a product that is equal or better to existing products. The worst products are those marketed as eco-friendly, but perform poorly or are not even actually green; this can set back public perception of green products or solutions.

But I'm happy there are more resources out there in the public's eye about eco-friendly/green solutions; a general information article like the one linked above (or even a short blogger's post like those posted across AT) can be the starting point for educational exploration. Like GI Joe says, "Knowing is half the battle!"

Gregory,

It would be nice to have links to sites that have info on green construction techniques, that's be a lot of help towards our being educated buyers. I wish I knew of some.

Here's a few links to get started:

Basic Green Renovation Guide:
http://www.trustyguides.com/home-renovation6.html

Green Building Resource Guide
http://www.greenguide.com/

US Green Building Council
http://www.usgbc.org/

National Green Building Standard
http://nahbrc.org/technical/standards/greenbuilding.aspx

Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility
http://www.adpsr.org/

Green Building Basics
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/GreenBuilding/Basics.htm

the greenest you can do is to minimize what kind of renovation you need, see what you can live with, and what the smallest, least materially and energy consumptive changes you can do are. A renovation that's actually 'green' is based on lowering your energy consumption/footprint, period.

i have to say, it's really a pet peeve of mine, people thinking they are doing good then starting a 'green renovation' of a perfectly livable space.

rant over,

Edgertor - one person's perfectly livable space is another person's eyesore.

Gregory - thanks for the links. I think it'd be great if you could do a feature some time on them.

I recently replaced my traditional water heater with a tankless and my gas bill has been cut by half, which is a great feeling. And unlike traditional water heaters, you don't have to replace the entire water heater every 10 years or so, you can replace individual parts, if they break, so there's a lot less waste there too. Our plumber has had the same tankless system at his house since 1984! I don't think going tankless is for every household, but for us, weighing the cost of the installation of a new tankless plus all the environmental and gas bill benefits with the cost of a new traditional water heater, the tankless made sense for us.

Why isn't going tankless for every house?

(I ask because we're considering it for our two-person household.)

What is a "tankless" heater?

I think if there are more "environmentally friendly" things you can do to your house within a reasonable cost, then it is worth it. I see some of these high upfront costs as reasonable if I am to try and boycott industries that will cause problems for my grandchildren and/or support industries that can have a positive effect many years down the line.

The problems with this are:
1) As Boomer pointed out, the term "environmentally friendly" needs to be taken with a grain of salt
2) We don't know what we don't know

If I look at my life, however, I think that the best and easiest thing I could do for the environment isn't to 'green' my house...it's to stop driving my gas guzzling sedan.

Toronto: we renovated our house to make it more energy efficient: removed plaster/lath and insulated where there was none (there was none), replaced all windows, updated appliances to energy star rated ones (sold the old), new furnace, new toilets... etc. (a lot).
Saves a carp-load of money each year. Some government pay-back on some items (i.e. $60 for a toilet)but the kicker? Our house taxes went up just about as much as we're saving each year because we've made the house 'more valuable'.
Yeah, yeah, we're saving water and electricity and living draft-free in a small turn-o-the-century inner city home... but we thought we'd actually be saving MONEY in the long run, too.
Boo. Government should ding suburbanites living in mansions.

what a gorgeous room