I love these little pieces of art called Green Pockets. Artist Maruja Fuentes designed these ingenious interlocking wall planters to be hung in multiples and filled by your own creativity.

Fuentes studied environmental design in Puerto Rico, architecture in Washington, D.C., and furniture and textile design in Savannah. Her well-rounded experience and obvious natural talents and imagination imbue her whimsical eco-friendly creations. Made of recycled materials and filled with oxygen-improving plants, Green Pockets are about as green as you can get.

Combined with matching flat tiles, the Green Pockets can be organized in any pattern “to the wall to create the illusion as if they were actually growing from them,” says Fuentes.

These would work well either in a gallery space on contrasting walls as in the top photo, or as a simple, natural touch to a home environment, shown below. Fuentes seems to have sparked my own creativity. As an avid home cook, I would love these as a backsplash into which I could plant my own dried herbs!

Fuentes’s other designs include drinking glasses and a “flower-pod” seating/table system, as well as other interesting objects of both form and function. She widely exhibits her work and has been featured often in the media.

Photo Credits: Inhabitat & MocoLoco

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Panasonic is revolutionizing lighting as we know it. The electronics company released a 60-watt LED light bulb in Japan to replace the “old faithful” incandescent once and for all. The debuting LED wattage is bright enough for household use, low enough for energy efficiency and able to burn for 19 years if used for 5.5 hours per day. All for the low yearly cost of $3. That’s 40 times longer and 85 percent cheaper annually than a comparable incandescent bulb.

Other companies, like Lighting Science, Osram Sylvania and Philips, are working on 40-watt LED bulbs since incandescents are wearing thin on sustainability and CFLs can’t seem to shake their high-maintenance reputation for clean-up and disposal if broken. The speculated price for these bulbs is anywhere from $20 to $60 a bulb. But 40 watts at any price are not going to draw a crowd because they’re just not bright enough.

The 60-watt EverLeds are clearly the best option. The bulb could outlive all of us! And that’s a good thing, especially for those high ceilings and hard-to-reach lights over the staircase. Who wants to climb up there again? And the $40 price tag doesn’t sound half bad. With a brighter glow, longer life and serious annual savings, Panasonic may be onto something with lighting to outshine all others.

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Guidelines for the upward movement of green:

• Buy local
• Build in moderation
• Preserve and recycle instead of demolish and discard
• Design by way of long-lasting and low-maintenance
• Use energy and environmentally conscious materials

At least one foundation has come out of the vast movement to help promote that which must keep going forward. The Green Hive’s vision is to “promote community interaction, education, products and a green lifestyle.” Green’s pendulum has swung and it looks like it’s here to stay, in a big way.

How Do You Take Part?

To claim to be part of the rising green building movement, what requirements should be met? The most thorough green explanation comes from the EPA, in which green building takes a comprehensive approach. They recommend using processes that are eco-friendly throughout the building’s entire life-cycle, from site selection to design. That also includes:

• Construction
• Operation
• Maintenance
• Renovation
• Deconstruction

Also, the building should reduce overall impact on the natural environment and human health. No small task for any construction but nonetheless, even with requirements on the rise, so is green building.

Photo credit: CivicPlus & eBuild

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Not the glamorous living you’d expect to see in Vogue or Elle Magazine, right? Nor would you guess this house belonged to John Wells, a New York photographer that shot wildly popular ad campaigns for Calvin Klein, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren, Honda and a long list of others. After stints with the big players, Wells freelanced around New York City before trading in his professional lens for 40 acres of land and the privilege of calling himself a Texan on a mission.

The death of his father was the life-altering event that sent him packing to a hot climate. After his dad died, Wells asked himself, “How would I do it if I had to do it all over again?” The answer included living debt-free and off-the-grid. His vision was to survive as a 21st century pioneer. But he had seen many failed attempts. Small empty buildings around the Texas desert proved that sustainable living in that environment was work-intensive and not everyone could make a go of it.

“Lights powered by the same west Texas wind that blows through my beard each day!”

Wells built his home, also known as the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living Field Laboratory (The Field Lab), in eight days for $1,600. He spent another $800 for the finishing touches over the next five months. So how is he making it? Wells harvests rainwater from his roof, uses a sawdust toilet, lights up the indoors with solar garden lights and cools down with a homemade swamp cooler. His meals are prepared on a propane burner and he stocks his pantry with all five flavors of Spam. The next project in sight is planned with a more appetizing diet in mind – it’s a greenhouse made from shipping containers. All very pioneer-like!

But 21st century? If you don’t believe it, you can visit him on his live webcam and check him out on his website, blog, flickr and YouTube. And he’s rigged up his top energy user, his laptop, to run off a home solar-charged golf cart battery. Going strong since December 2007, Wells is Texas’s state-of-the-art Daniel Boone.

Photo Credits: uncommon vantage point, lifeoffthegrid,  The Field Lab & Tiny House Design

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The main difference between the clunker and appliance program is that the appliances do not have to be traded in to receive the rebates. You can keep the old refrigerator and still get the discount on a new energy efficient model. The only stipulation is the updated appliance must have the Energy Star seal and be approved by the California Energy Commission (CEC). However, many Californians will most likely want to recycle their old inefficient appliances to reduce their power bills. Recycling old appliances gives others the chance to upgrade their even older equipment while giving the environment a much-needed break.

Californians can also use Cash for Appliances in conjunction with other offers, like those from utility companies and organizations that offer additional savings. For example, the Sacramento Utility Company offers $100 rebates on energy efficient refrigerator purchases, and NV Energy in Nevada will actually come to your house, pick up your old working refrigerator, and pay you $30. Together with the Cash for Appliances reimbursement, your appliance may end up being the least expensive you’ll ever purchase while picking up the biggest savings on utilities.The CEC determined that three household appliances are eligible for the state’s rebates: refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners. The refrigerator topped the list since it’s one of your home’s biggest energy sappers, running energetically 24 hours a day throughout the year. The other two are also large energy users and Californians are being encouraged to do their part in the changeover to energy-saving appliances.

California Rebate Amounts:

• $100 for washers
• $75 for refrigerators
• $50 for air conditioners

Each state is allowed to set their own rules and rebates, so check out your state’s guidelines for more information.

Sources: Treehugger, Four Pillars, & This Old House

Photo Credit: PsychoLoans

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If you want a truly unique landscape wall, then you’ll love straw bale walls – a style that oozes with the charm of yesteryear and offers a remarkable amount of design flexibility. Made from bales of hay, the straw bale wall offers a rich texture and adobe-like sculptural facade. It’s easy to shape, mold, and design, giving you complete artistic control. Rounded edges, sweeping curves, open windows and built-in benches are but a few ideas you can use to create your wall.

Why Build a Landscape Wall?

Landscape walls add detail and depth and serve as privacy barriers. They can be simple or elaborate and made from almost any type of building material, including stone, brick and wood. Design possibilities are limited only by one’s imagination and budget. The storybook Carmel-meets-Hobbit straw bale landscape wall featured above is a perfect example of the various possibilities available today.

Darling garden shed built from straw bale

The Beauty of Straw Bale

Straw is organic, abundant, renewable and sustainable. It’s affordable and easy to work with. Once covered with earthen or cement-lime plasters, the wall is fireproof and it’s a natural when it comes to blocking out street noise. The architectural beauty of straw bale easily blends with any style of home.

Other creative uses for straw bale include home construction and sheds. The insulating performance on a straw bale home is between R35 and R50, which is about two to three times the insulation of a frame and wall home. Because the straw doubles as structure and insulation, the cost of materials is significantly lower. They’ve been building straw bale homes for hundreds of years because of the insulation aspects and natural beauty.

The landscape wall featured below was built with straw bale. Notice the deep window sills – that’s creative flexibility!

Landscape Wall Height

The walls can be as short as 3 feet tall and used to create a meandering wall or accent in the garden. Any wall over 3 feet will need buttress walls to support the landscaping wall from blowing over in high winds. A common height for a straw bale privacy wall is 6 feet, 8 inches. Because the material is flexible, you can effortlessly curve the wall around existing trees, shrubs and structures.

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If you want to build a dirt cheap house, what better way than to start with the dirt? An EarthBag home is an economic choice since most of what you need is under your feet.

What impresses me most about building with bags is the limitless variety of shapes. No more standard square and rectangular confines. Domed living areas, curved walls and rounded edges are just a few of the possibilities. And while you’re forming the place you’ll call home, windows can be a creative accent, made from wagon wheels, tires and barrels to finish off the EarthBag’s unique look.

Before and After

Best of all for our environment, Earthbag homes support sustainable building (not to mention human health) by using natural, nontoxic materials. And the energy efficiency benefits are outstanding. Because the interior of EarthBags are naturally insulated, they keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It seems that after a few centuries of relying on toxic, cheaply manufactured building materials, westerners are finally coming back to their senses and building from the time-tested lime plaster and adobe of our ancestors. Better late than never.

How Does an Earthbag Work?

After determining if you have good fill-dirt on your property, the next most important resource is sweat equity. There are three easy steps for getting started on your sandbag structure: fill polypropylene bags with moist soil, stack them in rows and tamp them down tightly. Placed in between the rows, barbed wire acts like Velcro to hold the bags together and strengthen the construction. The wire is used for shaping also. Finally, apply plaster inside and out with any color finishes you like. Domes can be built quite tall, but for extra space, they’re best built side-by-side and interconnected with hallways. These homes are something of a grown-up playground – the sky’s the limit.

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A Little Background on Small Housing

Jay Shafer, a small-living expert and owner of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, believes that the policies against small dwellings were endorsed and pushed by the housing and banking industries to increase profits. The result? A trail of unsightly McMansions, construction waste, higher CO2 emissions, and more recently, an exorbitant real estate market. Concerned about the environment, Jay downsized to his 89-square-foot hand-built California home, smaller than some people’s closets, where he lives happily today.

Xtra Small House

The size on this house’s tag would read XS. With 65 square feet of living area, hiring a maid and fretting about overnight guests are no longer concerns. Neither is applying for a building permit since the home is on wheels. Designed by Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, a house like this only costs about $37,000 ready-made. Do the work yourself and the house is yours for $16,000.

Toronto’s Smallest House for Sale: $179,000

Built within a driveway, this 300-square-foot-house has a small yard, tumbled stone entrance that leads up to the front door and a fenced patio. It is believed to be the smallest home in Toronto, Canada. The completely redone interior includes one bathroom and one bedroom designed with a Murphy bed (to sleep anyone under six feet tall).

The Micro-Compact Home

Park your Smart Car in the driveway of your Micro and enjoy a low-maintenance, simple kind of lifestyle. The compact house is nearly as tiny as the smallest Tumbleweed home, measuring in at 77 square feet. A rolling entrance triples as an atrium, bathroom and clothes drying area.

Voglreiter Auto House

And speaking of smart cars, believe it or not, this car creation is actually a two-story home. Yes, those are staircases and furniture inside. It was renovated from a 70s style suburban house that sat on a corner lot in Austria’s historic Salzburg district. Keeping energy efficiency at the forefront of the project, the auto house design cost between $60,000 and $80,000 to remodel and create kid-friendly spaces.

Grandpa Don’s Tree House

Don Botsford, known as “Grandpa” around Ann Arbor, Michigan, bought 20 acres in 1975 and turned it into a nature preserve. On the property, the 79-year-old’s tree house has a sleeping loft, two bunks, a woodstove and solar-powered lighting. He encourages school tours, eager to share his naturalistic approach to life.

Small Houses for the Big State

Brad Kittel is a Texas homebuilder who advocates small building and big recycling. No two of Kittel’s houses are alike because he uses salvaged lumber and building materials from demolitions. Inside even the smallest of the structures, a 200-square-footer, is a loft, shower and toilet.

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Mass production of the Kyoto Box could drastically improve life for rural Africa, where food is often cooked exclusively over log fire. It’s estimated that about 3 billion people worldwide still cut down trees for firewood. That decrease in deforestation is essential to combat global warming. “This took me about a weekend, and it worked on the first try,” Bohmer said. “It’s mind-boggling how simple it is.”

The idea is not a new one, however. Designs date back to the 18th century. In the 1970s and 80s, Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole promoted a solar box cooker through a nonprofit called Solar Cookers International. And the Peace Corps went before them, printing its design in the 1960s. Jon Bohmer just took it a step further and entered a contest that drew international attention to the box. Bohmer named the box after the treaty to combat global warming that was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan.

The green contest was sponsored by Hewlett Packard and organized by the Financial Times and Forum for the Future, the latter of which raises charity funds for sustainable development. The contest was judged by a panel and open to public votes. Plans are in motion for the production of about 2.5 million boxes per month in one of Kenya’s existing cardboard factories.

Bohmer’s prize money has already funded research and implementation of other products available from his own organization, Kyoto Energy. The list includes the Kyoto Turbo, a cooker to go along with the Kyoto Box, Kyoto Flash to replace kerosene lights, and the Kyoto Bag for carrying and storing water. The bag also heats and cleans the water by the sun and can be used for showering.

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