Batman, meet Robin
Nature Neutral teams up with the Habitat Store
Gorgeous weather brings out the construction worker in us all, and there’s excellent news on that front: The Habitat Store, on Harris Street, now carries products from Nature Neutral, Charlottesville’s eco-friendly building supply company. This merge creates something like a Lowe’s for the environmentally conscious, augmenting the Store’s selection of recycled furnishings and materials (proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity) with goodies like VOC-free paint, nontoxic household cleaning supplies and chemical-free insulation. If you get guilt pangs for driving to three different stores to pick up green renovation materials, here’s your chance at redemption.
Nature Neutral’s main location, on Greenbrier Drive, will serve you well if you’re tackling a quick makeover (i.e., you don’t need a new sink). And the products aren’t just for nature lovers; if you have kids, suffer from allergies or get headaches from house paint, you’re probably interested in a home free of harmful fumes and chemicals. Their full line offers solutions from the bamboo floor up—glues, caulks, sealants—and every item that they sell has been researched to assure that it contains the smallest amount of toxic substances possible. My absolute favorite product is the natural wool carpeting, colored with vegetable dyes and backed with jute…wicked responsible. Call Nature Neutral at 975-2002 and the Habitat Store at 293-6331..—Katherine Cox
What will they think of next?
Urban mushing and other bright ideas
Recently, the listserve Ideal Bite (which delivers a green-living tip by e-mail each day to those on its mailing list) came from left field with this idea: harnessing dogs to special scooters so they can pull their owners around town, pollution-free. (Well, almost.) The Bite warned that doggie transportation only works with bigger pups and that it’s a no-no in hot weather. It also linked to such products as the Dog Powered Scooter (www.dogpowered scooter.com) which is $540 worth of canine-powered motion plus, according to the website, “identity and pride for your dog.”
 Does this look like a good way to get to work? Some would say yes; others would say “woof.” |
This got us thinking. It’s only a matter of time until some entrepreneur hits the market with a device that powers our electric can-openers through the exertions of hamsters. (Free-range hamsters, of course.) And we can only hope someone out there is perfecting a humane method for pasturing buffalo in basements, in order to feed buffalo-chip-burning furnaces.
All good green stuff. The one we’re really holding our breath for? A way for treadmills, stationary bikes and other gym equipment to produce, rather than consume, electricity. Now that would make us wag our tails.—Erika Howsare
Use less, read more
New webmag espouses smaller footprints
Looking for an online read for your lunch break? A new Web-based magazine called Conserve, launched in March by Staunton author and professor Erik Curren, is food for thought. Conserve aims to address the idea that simply using less energy is a better long-term solution to global warming and energy shortages than technological fixes like hybrid cars.
The site is a nicely designed forum for everything from book reviews (How to Live Well Without Owning A Car, by Chris Balish) to a quiz that tells you the size of your personal ecological footprint. While much of the content is simply meant to keep readers informed about relevant issues, like mountaintop removal mining and compact fluorescent lightbulbs, Conserve also features plenty of news you can use.
 Don’t be a chicken; read Conserve online. |
We particularly enjoyed Allison Adams’ piece about the small flock of chickens she, in cooperation with neighbors, has been keeping in her Decatur, Georgia, backyard. “I will never forget the late summer evening our first five pullets were at last happily scratching and clucking in the coop, as the three of us sat watching with our (what else?) cocktails raised to new friends—feathered and otherwise,” she writes.
Read all about it at www.conservemag.com.—E.H.
When it rains, it pores
Holes in the pavement could be a good thing
There’s a new driveway in town: Porous, pervious concrete pavement is made up of the same materials as its impervious cousin, minus the fine aggregate component that causes cement particles to be so densely packed—the aeration allows rainwater to filter through to the ground, rather than run off and deliver a toxic package to nearby rivers. It makes environmental and financial sense, especially if you’re eyeing your yard and realizing that you might spend hundreds of dollars on stormwater management.
 Pervious pavement, with its ability to minimize runoff, is becoming more widespread. |
If concrete doesn’t fit into your paving plans, there are other pervious solutions: open-jointed paving blocks (concrete or stone blocks with open, permeable spaces in between) can bear heavy traffic, and they offer a clean, geometrically-designed look. Porous turf—a sort of Superlawn that is tough enough to pave a parking lot, but drains to a bed of sand underneath—brings along a bonus cooling function (zapping several degrees!) with its natural ability to evapotranspire. Decks and wooden platforms are even considered a pervious pavement, since the space between planks allows drainage; plus, they allow more root growth than other options.—K.C.
Building the next generation
CATEC students aim high with latest project
Talk about green ambition. Students at the Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center (CATEC) are building what may be the first student-built LEED-certified modular home in the United States. Although CATEC students have built modular homes for years, this is their first specifically green building project. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a program that certifies projects based on their use of eco-friendly building materials, reduction of construction waste, and their overall energy efficiency.)
 March of the acronyms: CATEC aims for LEED. Translation? Local students are learning how to build green. |
Darah Bonham, CATEC director, believes that this project will not only give his students future employment opportunities, but will get them thinking early about green building. “The beauty of this is that kids get experience and are also taught to be environmentally aware,” he says. “Their mindset of what the standard is is set by this first construction project.”
The project will be completed by the first week in June. Although no buyer has been specified yet, there have been talks with the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, who bought CATEC’s last project in October to sell to a local public servant. A green house with a social agenda? Can’t beat that.—Stephanie Woods