Need a Design Solution? AskNature.org

Some of the most elegant and creative design solutions have not come from famous architects or designers, but from the natural world. Today the design community is becoming increasingly interested in natural systems, and a new website called AskNature.org plans to bring nature’s design solutions to the masses.

Created by renowned naturalist, and founder of the Biomimicry Institute, Janine Benyus, and sponsored by Autodesk, maker of Autocad, AskNature.org is a public domain database where users can search and study nature’s solutions to an array of design challenges. The database is searchable by design or engineering function and seeks to promote biomimitic solutions to help create more sustainable and efficient buildings, products and ideas. Users can browse a broad range of natural solutions from the gathering of solar energy, the use of natural adhesives and dyes, to the filtering of air and water. AskNature.org is an inspirational resource with a wealth of information and allows users to easily tap into the natural worlds 3.8 billion years of R&D.

Check out AskNature.org for information

Put a Little Hemp in Your Concrete

In Europe, the oft-stigmatized hemp plant is becoming a widely accepted, environmentally friendly alternative source to concrete or brick in the building industry, but sadly has yet to gain any real traction in the US market. Hemp based concrete, a mixture of aggregate hemp stalks, sand, lime and concrete, is becoming more widespread in Europe due to it being a rapidly renewable resource, its impressive thermal and sound dampening qualities and its small carbon footprint.

Hemp-based concrete cannot be used for load bearing walls but is still a very versatile material; it can be cast into blocks or in a solid mass around timber frames, and can even be sprayed onto many surfaces. It is extremely energy efficient and can be used in multiple applications including roof and under floor insulation, in casting solid walls and as wall filler around a timber-framed building.



The stalks of the hemp plant, once considered waste, are processed and used as a renewable, fast growing aggregate in the concrete. Hemp is an extremely hardy plant, requires little maintenance, pesticides or water but unfortunately has been mired in controversy do to its close ties with a certain close relative. Today, numerous companies like Tradical and Hemcrete are prospering in Europe and their hemp-based products have successfully been implemented in a wide range of projects. Like many large industries, America’s building industry is slow to accept and adopt new methods and technologies, but the promise of hemp-based concrete certain; its future in the US however is not.

To find out more visit www.americanlimetec.com

Drywall of the Future?

Dry wall has been a staple of conventional building in the United States for years. Just about every interior wall in America is sheathed in the gypsum-based material, but few realize the vast of amount of energy consumed during its manufacture, and unfortunately there have been few viable alternatives on the market, until now. Spertech, a New Mexico based company, has just developed a fly ash based wallboard, called Greentech Wallboard, that looks, feels and performs like the standard gypsum drywall used throughout the country.

This commercially viable alternative to traditional drywall is made from 98% recycled content, primarily fly ash, a common by-product of coal-fired power plants. Fly ash has traditionally been relegated to landfills and the US creates upwards of 60 million tons of fly ash annually.

By using fly ash destined for the landfill, Spertech is able limit the need for further large-scale gypsum mining that has disastrous consequences on the local environment. The Greentech wallboard, unlike gypsum, does not require extreme heat to cure, takes far less energy to produce and creates a much smaller carbon footprint than traditional drywall.

As more and more buildings are being built with the environment in mind, look for Greentech wallboard to find its way into more homes near you.

Spertech Website

Dunkin’ Donuts Soon to Run on LEED?

Dunkin Donuts has just announced completion of its first LEED certified store in the country. Dunkin’ Donuts broke ground on the St. Petersburg, FL store in May and celebrated the grand opening on October 17. Dunkin’ hopes to use the store as an example for future building endeavors, and will hopefully have a positive influence on the way they do business in the future.

The new store is built with numerous LEED enhancements including: energy-efficient insulated walls to reduce air-conditioning needs by 40%, energy-efficient lighting, water-efficient plumbing fixtures, low-flow toilets, and the usage of well water rather than potable water for irrigation. Along with the energy efficient building, Dunkin’ Donuts launched recycling initiatives, green cleaning programs, and they are now supplying local food banks with excess goods.

The Massachusetts-based business was founded in 1950 and has since become the number one retailer of coffee in America. With over 7,900 stores world-wide, the grand opening of the St. Petersburg store is just a drop in the proverbial coffee cup. Let’s hope that the successful opening of this unconventional pilot store will inspire Dunkin’ Donuts to apply the same thinking and environmental enthusiasm to other locations they operate.

Dunkin’ Donuts

Building a Better Future One Design at a Time

William McDonough, the famed green architect and co-author of the book Cradle to Cradle, is inherently optimistic about the world rising to the challenge of designing better products, homes and businesses. McDonough has worked on some groundbreaking projects including the large-scale redesign of the Ford Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan and the Environmental Studies Building at Oberlin College.McDonough has been leading the way for architects and designers to think more critically about creating designs to benefit society, the environment and the bottom line, and believes the design community plays a critical role in helping shape society for the better.

McDonough believes a growing eco-efficient movement will not only benefit the environment but the economy as well. Renewable energy technology, elegantly integrated into our homes and businesses, will wean us off oil thirsty systems, promote job creation and build domestic industry.In McDonough’s book, Cradle to Cradle co-written by chemist Michael Braungart, there is a call to designers, engineers and industrialists to look to nature to solve some of the great problems facing the world today. Instead of creating single use, disposable and opportunistic products, Cradle to Cradle champions the design of systems, buildings and products that will not end up in landfills as waste or pollutants, but as resources for other products and industries.

The forward thinking of William McDongough is clearly evident and has not gone unnoticed by the major corporations of the world. By working with leaders in numerous industries, McDonough is leading the way for a sea change in the environments and products we interact with on a daily basis.

Cradle to Cradle Website
Discover Magazine Interview with William McDonough
Ford Rouge Center
Evironmental Studies Building at Oberlin College

100% Sustainable House at West Coast Green

It is functional. It is technologically advanced. It is beautiful. It is affordable. And it is absolutely green!

It is the Harbinger House, Designed by Lawrence Group. A single-family house entirely built inside the trade show of  the West Coast Green Conference, that took place in San Jose, California, last week. “Our goal was to try to produce a product that is economically feasible, and if you’ve got extra money to spend, you can make it a lot nicer,” said architect Eric Heischmidt of the Lawrence Group of St. Louis, Mo. The house is, in fact, sustainable from the structure itself, and everything used to furnish it. It is crafted from five shipping containers by SG Blocks (quite hard to belive just by looking!) for a total area of 1700 sf; containers are a prefabricated, modular recycled product that is growing in popularity as a building material. Windows provide excellent insulation and require less energy to manufacture than traditional windows. The woods used for the interiors are FSC Certified. Wall paints are low-VOC. Lights use low voltage bulbs, and have smart lighting controls. Sheets are made from organic cotton, and household electrical appliances are energy efficient. With GreenPoint and LEED certification in the plans, the Harbinger House is an excellent example of sustainable architecture to follow!

(images courtesy of www.inhabitat.com)

Strategies for Shaping a Sustainable Future: THINK B.I.G. at Brown University

In order to keep the motivation level rolling beyond Earth Week, please turn your attention towards several climate change initiatives that have been going on within the college student community. In one example from Thursday, April 24 to Saturday, April 26, Brown University took their environmental stewardship to the next level by launching their first Brown is Green 2008: Strategies for Shaping a Sustainable Future, with a series of amazing lectures from a range of disciplines. While bringing together a wide range of prominent leaders, from renowned scientists, policymakers, and CEOs, to designers, community leaders, activists, and artists, this approach demonstrated how a community can make an impact on different levels, from both bottom-up to top-down. Their goal was “to bring attention to the connections between seemingly different practices and industries that have all aligned to work on climate change and sustainability issues.” The list of notable attendees included State Treasurer Caprio, Governor Carcieri, Mayor Cicilline, Senator Whitehouse, Ira Magaziner of the Clinton Foundation and the administration of President Clinton, Adam Werbach of Saatchi and Saatichi S, renowned green architect John Picard, and Stephen Schneider, a lead climate scientist of the Nobel laureate UN FCC.

Of particular note, were Adam Werbach, global CEO of the leading sustainable marketing firm Saatchi and Saatchi S (former head of Sierra Club, and a 1995 Brown Alum), and Ira Magaziner, chairman of the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative. Werbach described his mission as “closing the gap between two bookends.” He believes that one of the challenges is to reduce the polarization between the wealthy nations, and those that are in desperate need of help because of the existential threat that global-scale climate change is. In striving to solve this dilemma, Werbach suggests that sustainability needs to engage people at a consumer level. “Whose environment are we talking about?” he asks, and how do we make sustainability of the market place matter?

This is where PSP (Personal Sustainability Plan) comes in; one of Wal-Mart’s climate initiative schemes asks its staff to commit to a personal resolution. Through the PSP, leadership, respect for oneself, others, and the environment are learned. The incentive to go on a diet or quit smoking in return, are more effective when in a sustainability context, and treats behavioral change in a completely holistic manner. Granted, you would think Werbach wouldn’t engage himself to be a part of the Wal-Mart monopoly, but what was admirable, was his reasoning in taking on this monster. It is a perfect opportunity to make the biggest impact on the greatest number of people. Small changes like this, must occur from the bottom up, but motivation also needs to be inspired from the top down.

In addition to Adam Werbach’s approach, it is important to consider that of Ira Magaziner, who offers a more political perspective on climate change. In the course of his lecture, Magaziner spoke about the many different strategic steps the Clinton Climate Initiative has taken, one rather interesting example being the concept of combining the retrofitting of buildings with energy service companies (by working with building owners), so as to reduce overall energy use. This strategy involves municipal buildings, commercial real estate, public housing, and schools and universities worldwide. What is most impressive is that none of this is funded through government subsidies, and the goal is to jump start the market through new jobs and opportunity. In that the Clinton Climate Initiative has partnered with the 45 largest cities in the world, the potential exists for it to have a major lasting impact.

For those unable to attend, please visit this link to the Conference Agenda.

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Eleonore de Lusignan is an Ecolect guest blogger and a soon-to-graduate Industrial Design student at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI.

Compensado de Pupunha da Amazonia

“Compensado de Pupunha da Amazonia” (by its name in Portuguese) is a material developed by Claudio Ferreira y Thiago Machado Maia, from ESDI (Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil). In 2005 it received the iF Hannover Material Award.

http://www.esdi.uerj.br/pupunha/

The material is made out of Pupunha fibers (a native Amazonian palm tree). Similar to bamboo, Pupunha grows rapidly, which gives it a sustainable advantage compared to other wood sources. It also has great visual properties and a warm look & feel.