Design Within Reach describes its version of the ghost chair, the Louis Ghost Chair, as if it were a work of art:

Reinventing the classic Louis XV armchair for Kartell, the playful Louis Ghost Armchair (2002) is a postmodern triumph of technical innovation and historical style. Translating the varied lines and formal geometry of its predecessor into a single form of translucent or opaque black or white injection-molded polycarbonate, it is a robust chair with not a single weak point. A generously sized seat and medallion backrest offer leisurely comfort, as do the subtly curved armrests. Resistant to scratches and weather conditions, it is suitable for indoor and outdoor use.

The house is mostly low-maintenance, but because the program called for space to display the vast collection of blown glass, there has to be a few bottles of glass cleaner around. The client’s love of glass was paramount to the house’s design, so the house was created to achieve a connection between her collection, lighting, and the changing patterns of incoming sunlight. Display cases with reconstituted wenge wood cabinets beneath add to the geometry rather than detract or clutter it and bring warmth and contrast to the polished, concrete floors.

Sustainable initiatives includes ; pool source heat pump with supplementary cooling tower, natural ventilation, daylighting, LED and fluoroscent lighting, spray foam insulation, sealed attic, tankless water heating, concrete floors and native plants.

Healthy Organic Green Gardening Tip 2. Mulch
You can use your compost as mulch in the garden. Organic mulch is great for attracting earthworms. A three-inch layer can be very attractive, and bring earthworms that naturally aerate the soil and build it up. You will find that mulch can also help keep down the weeds, especially when combined with newspaper.

Healthy Organic Green Gardening Tip 3. Orange Peel Slug Traps
You want to keep out the damaging slugs. Orange peels can be a way to do this. Set them out toward evening, and slugs will gravitate toward the shelter — and the sweetness of the fruit that used to be in the peel. In the morning, you can discard the slugs, and put the peels in the compost pile.

Healthy Organic Green Gardening Tip 4. Water Smart
It is vital to understand how to properly irrigate your garden. When done improperly, water can actually encourage diseases in your garden. Instead of watering at night, water early in the the morning. This will give the soil time to absorb the water before the sun evaporates it all, and the leaves of your plants will dry out before night. Wet plants at night are more prone to fungi and mildew.

Healthy Organic Green Gardening Tip 5. Biological Pest Control
An organic garden can benefit from organic pest control. There are parasitic nematodes that will destroy Japanese beetles (milky spore disease works as well), and there are some bugs that naturally prey on garden pests while leaving the plants alone. You can find biological controls for garden pests at different seed stores, greenhouses and organic gardening shops. You can also order them online.

Healthy Organic Green Gardening Tip 6. Provide Space for Your Plants
Plants need some space and ventilation to grow. Make sure your seeds are spaced properly, so that they have room to grow. You also want to make sure that there is properly ventilation so that air flow can benefit the plants. Earthworms can help with this by naturally aerating the soil. Raised beds and container gardens, when done properly, can also help provide proper ventilation.

HHealthy Organic Green Gardening Tip 7. Keep Your Garden Clean
Pull weeds when you see them, vigilantly keeping them from cluttering your organic garden and choking out the plants. You should also clean your garden at the end of the growing season, raking up leaves and preparing the soil so that pests don’t find shelter in your organic garden. You can also clean out plants that do poorly for two seasons. Instead, choose something that is more likely to thrive. You’ll get a better yield, and you can supplement from other sources.

It was built by McDonald Construction & Development, the firm behind several other LEED Platinum projects. The rich and contemporary residence spans four levels on a hill and incorporates a number of green elements and ideas from various companies.

It uses passive solar and geothermal green sources in order to produce additional power as well as the solar thermal cells to heat the water. The heated water is also used to provide hydronic heating underneath the engineered Veneer hardwood flooring. In order to lessen the consumption of water, the house has low-flow toilets, faucets, and shower fixtures.

During the construction, majority of the materials were locally sourced and recycled content materials. They used high fly ash in all the concrete and they used reclaimed exposed timber framing. Recycled concrete counter tops, sinks, tubs and surfaces as well as recycled standing metal seam roofing were used.

The house is insulated with spray foam insulation made from beet resins and efficient aluminum-framed windows which are thermally broken, double paned and with low E. Efficient LED lighting as well as the whole house automation and lighting system are used in order to save the power. In order to keep the indoors healthy, they used zero VOC paints and finishes as well as an innovative air recirculation system.

source: http://www.robaid.com/tech/green-architecture-hillside-house-marin-county-california.htm

The pavement is embedded with special sensors that convert energy from motion into electricity. It’s an green idea that was first implemented in a Rotterdam nightclub by the Dutch company Sustainable Dance Club ( SDC ), where the company installed special modular dance floors that harvested the dancers’ energy.

Green Energy Body Heat:
Meanwhile, in Sweden, experts have figured out a way to harness body heat from morning commuters at the busy Stockholm station and transfer it to the heating system of a nearby building. It’s a system that is already in use at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, but the Swedes have worked out a way to move the heat between buildings.

The station is toasty in the morning as more than 250,000 Swedes rush about getting to work; the station’s ventilation system traps their body heat, which is then used to warm water in underground tanks. That water is then pumped through pipes to a nearby 13-story building about 100 yards away and used to heat that building.

source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2010/04/15/europes-newest-green-energy-sources-pedestrians-and-body-heat/

The aptly named “Go Green Expo”, one of the nation’s largest eco-friendly business and consumer lifestyle showcases, will be held Friday through Sunday at the large indoor expo facility located at 100 Station Ave., accessible via the Oaks exit off Route 422. The show stops in Montgomery County as part of a nationwide tour.

Touted as the area’s largest one-stop shop for all things green, from gadgets to home supplies to food, Go Green Expo will offer something for everyone, “no matter what your shade of green,” according to Bradford Rand, Go Green Expo founder and CEO.

Apparently all species of violets including the garden varieties, are edible. Young leaves and flower buds are used raw for green salads in the spring and young leaves in the late summer. Leaves and flowers are used as a potherb also.

The green leaves make a good tea substitute. Long boiling does not make the tea bitter. Seeds are purgative, flowers are pectoral. A gentle laxative syrup is made by an infusion of the fresh petals which can also be used as a reactive. It is said that cancer can be cured by an infusion of violet leaves.

source: http://www.helium.com/items/1004888-benefits-of-eating-violets

The leaf and flower have been used for thousands of years by millions of people as an antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic agent.

Violets have been used to improve acne, anger, asthma, bronchitis, colds, eczema, fever, fibrocystic breast disease, grief, headache, heartbreak, lymphatic congestion, mastitis, mumps, psoriasis, scurvy, sore throat, ulcers, urinary tract infection, varicose veins, and whooping cough. Apply a cloth soaked in violet leaf and/or flower tea to the back of the neck to treat headaches. The flowers are eaten as a breath freshener.

Violet flower essence helps those that feel lonely, despite being surrounded by others. It increases openness and helps shy aloof people that want to share but feel overwhelmed.

source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/a-vision-of-violets-with-brigitte-mars.html

A microbe has been found that can break down anything that contains cellulose and turn it into ethanol.

In 1996, Thomas Warnick was exploring the Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown, Massachusetts, when he came across a tiny microbe with a big name—Clostridium phytofermentans. Warnick, a microbiology research assistant at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was sent to the reservoir to find micro-organisms that could break down plant cellulose. His boss, Susan Leschine, had searched areas as diverse as Brazil, France and Hawaii for these organisms, but she’d never seen anything quite like what Warnick brought back.

The “Q microbe,” as it came to be known, is no ordinary bug. It can ingest—and produce ethanol from—virtually anything that contains cellulose, including human and animal sewage waste. So Qteros, the company Leschine founded to exploit the microbe’s abilities commercially, struck up a partnership with Applied CleanTech (ACT), an Israeli firm that generates alternative energy from wastewater solids. ACT’s sewage-recycling system transforms solids into “recyllose.” It turns out the Q microbe has a sweet tooth for recyllose, converting the cotton-like substance into ethanol for use in automobiles.

Jeff Hausthor, Qteros’ lead researcher, imagines a uniquely local market for this new biofuel. Obviously, waste materials are a burden to farms and municipalities, both financially and ecologically. But by putting the Q microbe to work, small-scale ethanol plants situated around sewage processing plants could become a reality.

source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/fueling-cars-with-feces.html

In Georgia, the energy company Georgia Power has lobbied for favorable public policies at the Public Service Commission ( PSC ) and State legislature that are making it difficult for the state’s residents to transition to solar power.

IPS learned that the Dekalb County school system wanted to put solar panels on their schools, but could not do it because of state policies like the Territorial Electric Service Act of 1973 which gives Georgia Power a monopoly over the purchase of energy.

“In Georgia, we have about a dozen state policies preventing creation of green solar energy,” James Marlow, vice chair of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, told IPS. “One of those is the Territorial Act.”

“If you’re looking at a school, one of the common ways [of setting up solar panels] is using a power purchase agreement or PPA,” Marlow said.

Typically, one of the biggest obstacles for businesses and organisations to switch to solar energy is the initial cost of obtaining and installing the panels. A PPA allows a school system, for example, to obtain the panels for no cost from a solar installation company which finances the panels.

Then, the school can purchase the green energy from the solar installation company, which would own the panels, for a 20-year period. Marlow said that a PPA client typically pays for the panels after the first five years and then saves money on energy for the next 15, all the while avoiding the use of dirty energy.

However, because of Georgia’s Territorial Act, individuals, organisations, and businesses with solar panels can only sell their energy to Georgia Power. This means they cannot enter a PPA with a solar installation company and may have difficulty affording the panels in the first place.

Other states like Colorado have taken a different approach to encourage the use of solar panels. They charge all energy customers 50 cents a month, a very low amount, to support the purchase of solar energy from producers.

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