Inhabitat

GREEN WEDDING GUIDE: Gifts & Favors

by Bridgette Meinhold and Jill Fehrenbacher, 07/18/09

Welcome back to Inhabitat’s Green Wedding Guide! So far in this summer series we’ve covered eco-friendly jewelry, locations, invitations and now we’re bringing you our tips and suggestions for eco-friendly gift giving. Favors, gifts and registries are sometimes thought of as the bane of a green wedding. It can get overwhelming to plan details of sustainability into an eco-friendly wedding — let alone find meaningful gifts that aren’t a load of eco-guilt. Some fight the gift giving, but giving and receiving is fun, and there are many easy ways to make wedding gift exchanges more environmentally friendly.

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GREEN WEDDING GUIDE: Invitations

by Bridgette Meinhold and Jill Fehrenbacher, 07/11/09

Welcome to our third installment of the Inhabitat Green Wedding Guide column. So far we’ve covered eco-friendly rings and locations in our Green Wedding Guide. In our third installment of our series, we are talking eco-friendly wedding invitations. Invitations set the mood for the wedding – simple and casual, fancy and elegant, quirky and fun, the possibilities are endless. Your guests will gather information on what to wear and what type of wedding it will be from your wedding invitation. And by sending out an eco-friendly invite, you’re setting the bar for the rest of your gorgeously green and eco-conscious wedding.

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Inhabitat Weekly Link Roundup: The Giving Tree

by Olivia Chen, 04/03/09

As a child, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree was a somber reminder of how much trees give us and how little we give back. Wood and paper are ubituquos materials in our society– but they can be harvested responsibly. There are likely no viable replacements for wood or paper, but many artists and designers have created works that highlight the role of trees (and their by-products) in our lives. This week we are featuring designs and products that made us ponder a little more deeply about the issues that surround tree by-products.

World Architecture News reports that a renovation in Japan left behind numerous wood columns, creating a forest-like appearance in an otherwise modern apartment.

Fresh Home shares Alexander Pelikan’s Plastic Nature chairs that juxtapose old-fashioned wood with its modern rival, plastic.

Notcot features a snippet of Patrick Dougherty’s famous — and ephemeral — installations made of tree branches.

Ecopreneurist points us in the direction of a rather ingenious Swedish company that produces environmentally-sensitive paper that will launch on Earth Day this year.

Re-nest features these PopMats Recycled Paper Placemats, available at Delight.

Sprouting Cards Blossom Into Wildflowers!

by Jill Fehrenbacher, 03/09/09

Wondering what to do with all those old greeting cards and thank you notes? Now you can stick them in the ground and sprout wildflowers with Botanical Paperworks plantable greeting cards.. We’ve written about sprouting stamps and blooming business cards before, so it was only a matter of time before someone came up with plantable greeting cards. Available as thank-you cards, wedding invitations, baby announcements and customizable cards for any occasion, each card is handmade from 100% post-consumer waste fiber and is embedded with wildflower seeds. Simply plant them in a pot of soil and a few spring showers will start them on their way to a beautiful bouquet.

London Design Festival 2008: Print and Paper Workshop

Did you know that recycling a single ton of paper can save 7000 gallons of water, 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space and 4000 kilowatts of energy!? Statistics like these were key points at a sustainable print and paper workshop at the London Design Festival’s sustainability hub, Greengaged. The workshop, hosted by UK-based nonprofit enterprise Three Trees Don’t Make a Forest, set out to explore how different print processes affect the paper’s recyclability, and how you can reduce the impact through the design process.

Ugly Kitty Turns Magazine Inserts into Organization

Flipping through new magazines today can feel like shaking the colorful branches of a glossy tree, with leaves falling out from between its limbs. Only they’re falling into your lap, and sometimes 6 at a time. Magazine subscription cards, fouling up the pre-buy flip through at the newsstand and littering up your living room. Thought subscribing would keep them at bay? Nope, but an address file might. Ugly Kitty is taking those fallen leaves and turning them into functional, pretty indexing to keep your reading clean and your contacts in order.

BACK TO SCHOOL: Eco-friendly school supplies

Going back to school not only means class registration and mentally gearing up for another year of concentrated learning- it usually involves a good deal of shopping. Texbooks are just the beginning- the little things like pencils, pens, paper, and notebooks, can really add up- for your wallet and for the environment. So make greener choices this year and go back to school in sustainable academic style. Here are some recommendations for eco school supplies…