Mention reclaimed materials and the image pops: salvaged wood beautifully repurposed as paneling or flooring. While reclaimed wood is indeed one of the most popular reused materials, the range of materials sought and available extends far beyond that.

“Reclaimed wood is a classic, and it’s an idea most people are familiar with,” said PlanetReuse operations manager Tim Bensman. “But we’re seeing a growing market for steel, doors, access flooring, granite and marble. Steel, especially, offers huge potential for reuse, and along with that a huge potential for cost savings as well as a greater ability to achieve additional LEED material reuse credits.” The LEED MR system awards credit for reuse of a variety of reclaimed materials. PlanetReuse works with the design team early enough in the process to allow a huge list of options for consideration. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mill Creek NetZero Home is substantially completed.

The stucco is finished on the outside. We went with a cement-based stucco because of its looks and durability.

Peter Amerongen built a brick wall behind the wood burner. We used the bricks from the foundation of the house that used to be standing on the property. This wall adds more thermal mass (to capture both solar and wood heat) to the house, as well as a bit of history. Read the rest of this entry »

By Deborah Merriam of ecoDomestica reDesign

SCOOPED limited-edition pendant lamp, 1/20, colour: Spring, of discarded laundry detergent scoops, photographed without flash

I’m excited to have recently added handmade pendant lamps created from upcycled materials to my portfolio. (Most materials are “downcycled”, degrading in quality and value, as they are recycled into new products – an oft-cited example of downcycling is the recycling of paper fibres from cardboard into office paper into toilet paper. “Upcycling” is the opposite of this, creating an object of beauty and increased value from a material that would otherwise be discarded.) Read the rest of this entry »

Want to be inspired? Check out what Steve and JD accomplished two years ago as they deconstructed and rebuilt their US home in the greenest way possible. Here’s just a sampling of their home’s ecofeatures. The couple:

• spared materials from the dump by reusing them in the final product

• reused much of the core and shell of the original building

• purchased Forest Stewardship Council certified wood

• insulated using soy-based spray foam insulation

• installed recycled content products

• incorporated solar electric and solar water heating technology

• …I’ll leave a few surprises so you can enjoy the videos

The videos themselves are really well done, so enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Amerongen is fond of saying “concrete is one of the most energy intensive things we do”. Or something to that effect. By “we”, he means humanity, and he’s right:

Cement is the principal ingredient in concrete[, and] cement manufacturing accounts for approximately 7% to 8% of CO2 globally, and approximately 1.8% of CO2 emissions in Canada” (source).

The concrete used in the Millcreek NetZero Home (MCNZH) will be composed of about 50% fly ash (a waste material from coal-fired power plants) to minimize the use of cement. We’re still using too much concrete, but since my family is spending its life savings on this house, we weren’t willing to experiment when deciding how to add mass to the home to store solar heat. Read the rest of this entry »