Good Riddance to Formaldehyde

California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted regulations in April 2007 that will reduce formaldehyde emissions from particleboard, hardwood plywood and medium density fiberboard (MDF) sold in California. Formaldehyde is routinely used as a binder in these products and many other building materials and furnishings. 

Climate Change Solutions from Fiji to Philadelphia

International teams win awards for sustainable community design

In June, I had the honor to serve as a judge for a unique design competition hosted by the California chapter of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)–USA.

The competition, Building a Sustainable World: Life in the Balance, challenged designers from around the globe to develop concepts for healthy, vibrant communities that address climate change and reverse, rather than add to, environmental damage and social injustice.

At a weekend symposium in Los Angeles,

Good Green News — Blessed Unrest

Number of groups working toward ecological sustainability and social justice worldwide: “over one—and maybe even two—million,” according to Paul Hawken’s latest book, Blessed Unrest.

 

Remembering Linda Svendsen

Photographer Linda Svendsen died on April 23, 2007 of ovarian cancer. Linda and I became friends while working together on all three of my books. She was a delightful collaborator, and no matter how long the day, her good humor and sly wit never flagged.

I only saw Linda lose her cool once, when we came out of a Vancouver restaurant to find that our rental car had vanished, along with thousands of dollars of photography equipment and a week’s worth of photos of green homes in the Pacific Northwest. No doubt the panic-stricken look on her face mirrored my own.

Good Green Cooking: Caponata

In the summertime when I was growing up, our fridge would often be stocked with mason jars filled with my mother’s caponata, a tomato and eggplant stew that tastes of summer in every bite. She would make a big pot on the weekend, and during the week, when she got home from work on hot nights, this refreshing dish would be ready to ladle out.

Makes 3 quarts.

2 medium eggplants, unpeeled, cut into 1-inch cubes

Getting a Green Life: City Chicks

Jynx

 

A few readers have asked about my adventures with the newborn chicks delivered to our San Francisco house by our mail carrier in early March.

After six weeks of living in an old kitchen cabinet in my office, the four birds relocated to a backyard coop built by Erik, my partner in love, life and chicken raising.

As I write this, they are 20 weeks old—big beautiful hens that will start laying any day now. Strike that.

Recommended: Healthy Building Network

This watchdog group for environmental health and justice takes on industry and government over PVC, formaldehyde and other common but potentially toxic building materials. Find out what’s wrong with these materials and how you can make safer choices at healthybuilding.net.

 

Recommended: Path to Freedom

Path to Freedom video brochure. In this 18-minute web video, meet Jules Dervaes and his three children, eco-pioneers who have turned their Pasadena, California, home into an integral urban homestead. Highlights include alternative energy systems, chickens, ducks and miniature goats, and an edible landscape that produces three tons of organic food each year on one-tenth of an acre. pathtofreedom.com

Recommended: Dam Nation

Dam Nation, edited by Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, Laura Allen and Oskar July Cole. In this  anthology of essays, the politics of water meets how-to manual for becoming a greywater guerrilla, all in the spirit of restoring the water commons. greywaterguerrillas.com