Since loads of us love Christmas trees and all things that bring Christmas cheer, here’s a way to indulge in your tree without killing it (strange tradition we’ve had all these years, eh?) The city of San Francisco has launched a program offering live local trees that you can take into your home. Then after the holiday cheer has run its course the tree lives on where it belongs — in the ground! Better yet, these non-traditional trees have been specifically selected to live in San Francisco’s climate, so your tree is sure to thrive long after it’s christening.

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Post tags: dreaming of a green christmas, friends of the urban forest, Green Christmas Tree, living christmas tree, public space, San Francisco, sustainable design

Recently we took the trip to Oakland, CA to visit a Habitat for Humanity East Bay Project of particular interest for its pairing of energy-efficient homes with families in need of housing. What was once a deemed by the EPA and the Department of Toxic Substances as a blighted property due to its history as a battery salvage yard has become a sunny neighborhood haven for children to play and families to grow together. It was no small feat remediating some 300,000 cubic yards of soil and bringing in clean fill, but with buildable real estate and housing scarce, the effort is sure to improve more than just the site itself as happy families move into homes that they have taken part in building.

Read the rest of Habitat for Humanity and PG&E Support Green Neighborhood in Oakland, CA

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", green design, habitat for humanity, oakland bay area, Pacific Gas and Electric, PG&E, social housing, sustainable design

The 2009 Solar Decathlon may have come to a close, but we wanted to shine a little more light on one of our favorite projects, Virginia Tech’s LUMENHAUS. Ranked 4th in this year’s Architecture category, the LUMENHAUS is named for its “power of light” attributes and architectural references to the BauHaus movement, and was particularly inspired by Mies Van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. Like its historic reference, it is comprised of all glass walls, maximizing exposure to natural daylight. The house features an automated “Eclipse System” of highly insulated translucent panels that filters the light using independent sliding layers, creating an ever-changing pattern throughout the day.

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Post tags: green architecture, Green Building, green design, lumenhaus, Solar Power, sustainable design, virginia tech

One of the most exciting new products we found at West Coast Green this past weekend is the latest innovation by Lemnis Lighting, the Pharox 60 LED Dimmable Lightbulb, that uses just 6 Watts and has the equivalent luminescence of the traditional 60 Watt incandescent bulb. The Pharox 60 fits a standard sized household light fixture, is made of recyclable material, and is the most energy efficient bulb of comparable light quality on the market today with a light output of 300 lumens and a warm white light of 3000K. A patented heat sink keeps the bulb temperature low (we think it’s the aluminum housing surround) and it is the most environmentally safe option on the market as well, containing NO lead, mercury, or wolfram, unlike it’s compact fluorescent competitors.

Read the rest of New Super Efficient Pharox 60 LED Bulbs Last for 25 Years

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Post tags: energy efficient lighting, green design, light bulb, pharox, pharox 60, sustainable design, west coast green

One of our favorite projects from last weekend’s AIA Homes Tours was the Randall House in Glen Park, by LSarc design team. The site, typical of San Francisco contours, slopes nearly four stories from front to back making the rear lower floors a challenge to daylight. The architects did a stunning job of working with this difficult site while reusing existing construction materials, incorporating FSC certified timber, and creating a healthy interior environment through the use of sustainable materials.

Read the rest of LSarc’s Randall House Bridges Indoors and Outdoors

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Post tags: aia home tours, Architecture, architecture and the city festival, Green Building, green design, lsarc, randall house, San Francisco, sustainable design

One trend we noticed in this year’s AIA Homes Tours in San Francisco was how the frugal use of floor space and an abundance of natural light can add volume to otherwise downsized floor plans. Boor Bridges Architects managed to do just this in the adaptive re-use of a 1940s tap dancing studio, formerly used by famed dancer Betty Mae, into a kind of urban luxury cottage marked by modern minimalism and subtle hints of years past.

Read the rest of Ames Cottage: A Small Space Marvel with Historic Roots

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Post tags: adaptive reuse, ames cottage, Architecture, architecture and the city festival, boor bridges architecture, green design, Green renovation, Reclaimed Materials, small space living, sustainable design

This week the Architecture + The City Festival took us to Treasure Island for an upclose view of the proposed sustainable development plan and a not so shabby panoramic view of the whole San Francisco Bay Area. We found that the entire place is steeped in future plans and the island is a keystone in what will become a center for green living in the Bay.

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Post tags: green design, public space, san francisco bay area, sustainable design, Treasure Island, Urban design

Our inhabitat founder and editor-in-chief, Jill Fehrenbacher, grew up in the small, sleepy Northern California town of Novato – so you can imagine how excited she was when we heard that a solar-powered eco event was coming to Novato! Jill unfortunately couldn’t make the solar-powered Novato Art & Wine Festival (as she’s busy running Inhabitat from NYC these days), but sent a certain green-building buff (yours truly) to attend and report back on the state of suburban greening! With the high-density greening of international cities and our constant focus on what’s new in design and construction, we’re curious about what’s going on in the ‘burbs, and so we took a moment to check out the 25th Annual Novato Art, Music and Wine Festival on June 13th. Pacific Gas & Electric helped sponsor this year’s event with Sustainable Waves, which amp’d up the festivities via a solar powered sound system.

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Post tags: clean renewable energy, green design, novato wine festival, Pacific Gas and Electric, PG&E, solar powered stage, sustainable design

Let’s be clear – paving a surface does not reduce storm water run-off, but if you must create a street, parking lot, driveway, or any other form of this detriment, an apples-to-apples comparison between pervious concrete and asphalt paving will show many exciting benefits from this innovative form of paving. First of all, those little air pockets mean less material overall, and with the cost of oil as unstable as the resource itself, petroleum-based asphalt is no longer the cheapest form of paving. For the first time in history, the cost of concrete and asphalt have reached comparable dollar values. Add in the cost of additional storm water management devices – grids of piping directed towards drains and retention ponds, and suddenly permeable concrete starts making a lot more sense. Then there is the environmental cost of leaching toxic chemicals, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) used as a sealcoat on asphalt, into what should be nature’s flow of water back to the ground table.

Read the rest of Holey Concrete: Pervious Paving Reduces Stormwater Run-off

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Post tags: green building strategies pervious pavement, green design, green landscaping, permeable pavement, rainwater runoff, stormwater run-off, sustainable design

It’s often hard to appreciate the novelties of paper with the ever-present impacts of global deforestation looming overhead, but one reputable company, New Leaf Paper, helps simmer our conscious frets with their consistent creations of new paper products from eco-friendly sources. New Leaf’s latest paper product, the Farm Fiber Collection is made of 100% recycled fiber of banana or palm tree harvest byproduct with a minimum of 35% post-consumer product, all chlorine free, all premium grades. Why let thousands of tons of agricultural fiber go to waste when each ton of agricultural fiber used saves an estimated 17 trees?

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Post tags: eco-friendly paper, green design, new leaf paper farm fiber collection, paper products, Products, Recycled Materials, sustainable design

One of the debut brands at last week’s Greener by Design Conference in San Francisco was a company called Ditto Hangers, co-founded by industrial designer Gary Barker, also co-founder of Greenheart Global, Inc. It may seem trite to focus a brand on something as rudimentary as the everyday hanger, but that’s precisely why this kind of ‘re-thinking design’ is so pertinent. An estimated 8 billion polystyrene and polycarbonate hangers clog our landfills every year, and as Gary Barker points out, that’s enough to fill the Empire State Building 4.6 times!

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Post tags: cardboard hangers, ditto hangers, eco hangers, green design, Products, recyclable materials, sustainable design, Sustainable Materials

Read the rest of The 2009 Compostmodern Conference

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Post tags: 2009 Compostmodern Conference, AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, American Institute of Graphic Arts

This week Inhabitat managing editor Mike Chino and writer Piper Kujac attended the Fourth Annual Gorgeous & Green Party to celebrate the extraordinary efforts of the Global Green Organization. Truth be told, we were also in search of the perfect green cocktail and believe we successfully carried out that task as well (it’s the Acai-infused VeeV ‘honey lips’ mixer!). The usual place- fanciful, LEED Certified Bently Reserve in San Francisco, graced a star-studded crowd including actress Kate Bosworth, actor Jason Lewis, architect William McDonough, and so many more.

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Post tags: 2008, eco fabulous, global green, gorgeous and green, green design, green fashion show, sustainable design, sustainable style

This Holiday Season you can save a tree (and a box) with a fun, enviro-friendly Cardboard Christmas Tree! With Christmas quickly approaching, many of us would like to engage in the holiday cheer without the use-once-and-toss-in-the-street traditional Christmas tree, and this simple centerpiece may be just the alternative you were looking for.

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Post tags: christmas tree alternative, cloud gate design, green christmas, green design, green xmas, recycled cardboard christmas tree, sustainable design

Some of the AIA San Francisco Home Tours took us to parts of this city by the bay that are changing so rapidly, they are barely recognizable. The much-anticipated residential development, Arterra High-Rise, is one such spanking new project. The building is in what is part of a larger, 300-acre development known as Mission Bay. This part of San Francisco, along the south waterfront is built almost entirely on fill and represents the residual economic effects of the late 1990s ‘dot-com boom’, much like the mid 1880s gold rush led to the rapid development of what is now the Financial District in San Francisco.

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Post tags: Arterra, LEED condominium, LEED development, San Francisco, Sustainable Building