http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog The blog for your green building needs. Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:32:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As a green consumer looking for countertops for your kitchen, bathroom, or even tables, there are many composite countertop options available.  You can find composite countertops that are made out of a great variety of raw materials, including recycled glass, paper, and concrete.  The composites are held together with products ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/uncategorized/composite-countertops/ There are quite a few blog posts here about building, but less on interior furnishings etc. Appliances are definiately something worth talking about. I am sure most people have heard about the energy star ratings on appliances. They are very helpful in determining the most efficient products ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/saving-money/appliances/ When a structure is built, specifically the large commercial buildings, part of the cost is the cost of tearing down the structure.  This to me is so crazy!  And what made me want to write a post about it is something that happened right here in the town I am ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/why-build-green/building-structures-to-last/ Green architecture and sustainability sort of go hand-in-hand.  When working towards making a structure environmentally friendly, if you are also keeping in mind and working towards making it sustainable, you will be on the right track and working from two directions to achieve almost identical goals.  You basically cannot get ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/why-build-green/green-architecture-and-sustainability/ When you are looking for places that supply green building materials, you need not look further than you might anticipate.  There are some mainstream specialty companies, such as paint companies, that will offer green alternatives.  But there are also more and more stores popping up that are green building specialty ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/building-materials/green-building-supplies/ If you do not already know the news, building green is not more expensive than conventional building.  If by chance it ends up to be, it is on average less than 1% more!  After the actual building costs are out of the way, what is the maintaining cost difference?  More ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/why-build-green/the-cost-of-not-building-green/ If you are thinking about creating a structure with straw bale construction or want to know more about it, here are some things to consider.  One of the large considerations you will want to figure out early on is the specific type of construction.   You can either do a post ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/construction-systems/straw-bale-construction-2/ Without too much reliance on a central cooling system or an air conditioning unit, there are so many ways you can keep cool in hot temperatures.  There is, of course, a multitude of manual ways such as draping a wet sheet over the window, or putting frozen water bottles in ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/building-ideas/cooling-system/ Buying your building materials locally can be a very rewarding and cost effective experience.  It seems to me that the most common place we hear about supporting locally is in the grocery store.  It seems that more and more farmers are getting their local goods into our stores.  I think ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/saving-money/the-value-of-buying-locally/ While this is a very broad topic, I do want to talk about a couple things related to sustainable design as a whole.  Sustainable designed structures are generally very eco-friendly, and person friendly.  Sustainable can refer to as the way the materials are built or a highly sustainable structure, not ... http://www.buildinggreenstructures.com/blog/index.php/living-green/sustainable-design/