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Why Oscar Madison Was A Green Pioneer

December 26, 2012 RH

*Originally published February 13, 2008. RIP Oscar!

Oscar Madison was the original architect of the green movement. While Felix was singlehandedly destroying the ozone layer with his aerosol spray cans, Oscar was all about conservation.

Here are some tips on how you can help save the earth by practicing the art of slovenliness. I’m channeling Oscar here, but I’ll throw in a few of my own.

1. Don’t wash your clothes. Throw them on the floor and wear them a few more times. Conserve water.

2. Leave dirty dishes in sink. Rinse only as needed.

3. Oscar saved food behind cushions. This cuts down on refrigeration.

4. Wiping your hands on window curtains reduces use of paper towels.

5. Vacuuming uses up too much electric. Mopping wastes water. The floor is only going to get dirty again. Clean it once a month at most.

6. Use bedding and towels until they smell. Really bad. Laundry not only wastes water, but electric and/or gas.

7. Why shower so often? Who are you trying to impress anyway?

8. The more you change kitty litter, the more litter and plastic garbage bags are used. Let it go for awhile.

9. Same with baby diapers. You use cloth? Big woop. Washing and drying them uses energy.

10. Don’t pick up after your dog. Save the plastic bags.

Fellow Odd Couple fanatics, check this out:

Church of Klugman
Jack Klugman just got married!

Shipping Pallet Re-Uses

December 3, 2012 RH

Shipping Pallet Flooring

Shipping Pallet Sofa Bed

Shipping Pallet Outhouse

Shipping Pallet Kitchen Island

Want to take a drive to the country for the weekend? Beach for the day? How about obtaining a van for renovations? Car rental companies can be pretty pricey in New York, so it’s no surprise that car sharing options such as ZipCar have gained in popularity.

Disclosure: I’m just doing some internet research because I’ll soon be needing a van for renovations. I’ve never actually tried a car sharing company. If you have, please comment with some feedback!

It would seem that the daily price of car sharing is comparable to rentals; however, gas and insurance are included in the share. We all know that insurance is what can double the price of that rental. Let’s also remember that location, location, location is everything. Looks like car sharing may be a tad more convenient than schlepping to a rental company to pick up a car. Also, if you only need it for an hour to two, that’s cool.

If you only intend to use the car once or twice a year, car sharing may not be worth it as there is a membership fee involved.

Let’s have a look at some local companies, shall we?

ZipCar is the best known. You’ll be spending $85 to participate. $60 for the annual fee and $25 application fee. Hourly weekend rates are $14 or $125 per day.

Hertz didn’t get to where they are by making bad business decisions. They’ve entered the game with Hertz on Demand and it’s pretty competitve. There are no membership or application fees. Insurance and gas are included and weekend rates run from $8 per hour or $108 per day.

Mint Cars on Demand waives the membership fee for the first year and charges $40 annually after that. Weekend rates for an economy car are $12 per hour and $107 per day with the first 180 miles free, then .45 cents per mile after that. As with the other companies, gas and insurance are included.

Carpingo just launched in Brooklyn. Like this month. Since they are quite new, the information isn’t really out there yet, but here’s what I came up with: The founders are Brooklynites whom have been in the NYC car rental industry for 30 years. They do have cargo vans as well as cute little cars like the Fiat 500. Don’t know if this is a start up offer or they are keeping these rates, but membership is free and the application fee is waived. Gas, insurance and 180 free miles included. I see $8 per hour on a postcard I received but I don’t know if that’s weekday or weekend. Also, the postcard announces $75 in free driving if you join now. Coupon code CPG100.

Then, for my purposes, there’s always UHaul or big box hardware store truck rentals starting at $19.95 per day plus expenses. Or….man with van including a helping hand. The problem with that is getting someone reliable enough.

There are also ways to earn money by sharing your own car and of course you can rent from the following places as well. Personally, I’d feel kind of awkward messing around with someone’s privately owned vehicle rather than a large faceless company.

From what I gather, the car providers must have OnStar and the rates vary according to owner. It’s the Air BnB of car sharing.

If you are interested in offering your own car or renting someone’s private vehicle, check out these companies:

Relay Rides

Just Share It

Under Delancey

July 25, 2012 RH

Under Delancey Street sits an unused trolley terminal. The Delancey Underground project aims to create a subterranean public park called “The Lowline“. Get it? Because it’s the opposite of the High Line.

It could be the coolest thing in the world, but it may never see the light of day (Literally. There will be daylight streaming in.) if it doesn’t get the funding.

Watch the Kickstarter video to learn more about it.

Save the Arctic

July 18, 2012 RH

Have you seen the powerful video from Greenpeace’s “Save the Arctic” campaign? Grab a tissue and your check book.

New Vegan Bakery for Bed Stuy

March 7, 2012 RH

Thanks to SuperVegan for filling us in on the recently opened vegan bakery at Greene and Classon on the Bed Stuy/Clinton Hill border.

Clementine Bakery will be serving up sweet pies and pastries, but they do have some savory treats as well. The dill and mozzarella biscuits sound delish. Yeah, that would be vegan cheese.

They use 100% fair trade and 90% organic ingredients. Drinks? Roasted Kitten Coffee using the Japanese Hario pour over method and also French press.

See ya there.

Heating Issues

January 5, 2012 RH

File this under: You live, you learn. So, we’re constantly renovating our house (but we never clean or invite anyone over). Last year was the big ticket item upgrades. You know, those things that you install to make the house more efficient, not really to make it look good.

We got new windows over the summer. They look great and if I didn’t keep the shutters closed all the time, they would let in tons more light than our foggy old ones. New insulation was inserted around the frames and they are totally energy efficient. The draft is gone!

Then came the new boiler. Our old boiler labored on quite noisily. It would have lasted a good bit longer with some maintenance, but we wanted to move it to a different location in the basement. We would have been hiring a plumber to do all that work to install the old inefficient boiler? Nah, we got a new boiler AND water heater because that was being moved also.

So, I couldn’t wait to test it all out this winter! I thought the house would remain toasty warm with the heat kicking on only every so often.

Silly me. What did we (the husband) overlook during our renovations? The radiators are too small for some rooms! The previous owner had ugly radiators in front of the window and exposed pipes all over the house. We wanted to hide our heating behind the lovely custom radiator covers.

It’s not the end of the world. We will add more heating tubes under the radiator covers and install radiators in the hallways where there is no heat source. The problem is that we don’t want to turn off the heat on days like this to work on it.

Alas, with new windows and boiler we are still not quite there yet. But if we had the old window situation, I’d be typing this with thermal gloves. So it’s definitely an improvement.

Stay warm!

Oh PS: FYI, our tenant likes it cool upstairs and has-not-turned-on-his-heat in about 2 years. Crazy Canadians!

Top 50 Green Blogs

December 2, 2011 RH

Seametrics has put together a list of the top 50 green living blogs. Who is Seametrics? The company designs and manufactures a wide variety of flow metering products. They provide solutions to users in industrial water treatment, energy management, irrigation, utilities, transportation, and chemical handling. In other words, big industry.

There are some awesome green blogs on the list. It’s going to be fun exploring them. But my favorite? Oh, something called “Reclaimed Home”. Ever heard of it?

Too Cool for School

November 7, 2011 RH

When I first saw a group of adults installing a garden at Leadership Prep on Macon Street in Bed Stuy, I thought they were building a movie set. Back in the olden days when I was growing up, NYC public school’s didn’t even have a patch of grass. Well, public schools have turned into fancy schmancy charter schools now and the the kids get to learn about stuff like gardening and catching rain water. It’s pretty awesome.

I thought this Bed Stuy school was special until I passed by Frances Perkins Academy in Williamsburg and saw their fabulous garden. They too, had a rainwater system in place. Wonder who gets to bring home the vegetables?

Sustainable Surfaces

October 19, 2011 RH

I’m loving the look of Torzo Sustainable Surfaces, but even cooler than that is what their product lines are made from. Post agricultural recycled sorghum, sunflower hulls and hemp? Yeah, they use post industrial recycled fiberboard and chip board too, but it’s way cooler to say “Look at my hemp floor.” now, isn’t it? I mean, let’s get our priorities straight.

Torzo products aren’t 100% green. It’s tough to be fully green when you want a countertop or floor to last. Depending on the product line, 25%-50% of it is acrylic resin. The good news is that the resin used is manufactured by Torzo’s parent company, an Oregon based, family run, woman owned business.

Looks like Stone Source is the only place that carries Torzo locally.

Recycled Sukkahs

October 12, 2011 RH

Sukkot begins tonight. For those of us unfamiliar with this Jewish holiday, it just means that alternate side parking rules are suspended this Thursday and Friday (Woot!). Sukkot is the shed holiday. Yeah, NOW you know what I’m talking about!

According to Rabbinical code, the sukkah (shed) cannot be located under trees, Stars must be visible from the roof, which must be made of material that is cut from the earth. For a better explanation, please visit the Babak Bryan website. They are the guys who created the Fractured Bubble sukkah above. The bubble is not really made from recycled materials, but rather invasive species that were picked from local wetlands. The design won People’s Choice in 2010’s Sukkah City and I love it too much not to include it.

Each image links to more info on that particular sukkah.

Past Sukkah post.

Fun DIY Projects with Wood

October 5, 2011 RH

Yesterday we covered some plastic DIY projects you can do around the house. Today it’s wood! Inspirations from the Solar Decathlon.

Isn’t that inscription on the deck a lovely idea? It can be done on decks, siding or just about any old piece of wood you have around your house.

There are a couple of ways to go about the writing. You can burn it in. Remember those wood burning instruments we all had as kids? (If you’re over the age of say, 35?) Well, that technique is called pyrography. Thing is…do you really want to go out and buy that tool now? Perhaps you have a Dremel or router around the house. If so, then you can carve the letters out then stain them any color you want.

First you’ll want to line it up properly with a straight edge. Tape a stencil down and trace the outline. No, you don’t want to leave the plastic stencil there to be burnt or cut. The rest of it ain’t rocket science. You can figure it out.

Check out that cool shower base. You know what? I’m not even telling you to make it yourself. You can probably buy shit like that at Ikea and plop it right down. I just like it, is all.

I’m not quite sure if this is recycled shipping pallets or a piece made from scratch. Either way, it gave me the idea to do it with shipping pallets. A while back, I thought I’d be really cool and build a bunch of stuff made from the reclaimed wood of pallets. Well, it was crazy trying to take all the slats apart. So why bother? Just cut them down and build stuff out of them that way.

I’m feeling the love towards the bark! Ok, so bark siding is pretty pricey to purchase if you can’t find a tree that it’s coming off of. But I’m not talking about residing your whole home with it. Perhaps a 4×4 framed square to use as a cork board? Or as a backsplash in the your kitchen? An entire wall behind the bathroom sink? A line of bark shingles instead of chair railing? The possibilities are endless.

Green Day Today, NYC

October 5, 2011 RH

Green Day in Union Square today! Psyched? Start lining up now for the time of your life!

GrowNYC presents NEW GREEN CITY in Union Square Park for NYC’s largest annual green event. (Sorry, Green Day fans. I know that was mean.)

2011’s family-friendly event features government agencies, non-profits, entrepreneurs and community & corporate partners at the forefront of environmental stewardship, education and awareness.

10am-6pm. Go learn about recycling, rainwater harvesting and more! Hello, there’s a scavenger hunnnttt!

Solar Decathlon. And the Winner Is…

October 3, 2011 RH 1 Comment

It’s not often I get a fun AND informative expense paid weekend. Once again, thanks to the Plastics Make it Possible campaign for inviting me along to the Solar Decathlon in DC. I was honored to be included among such bloggers of awesomeness as Jetson Green, Dwell, Shawna Coronado and Ugly Duckling House .

The weather wasn’t exactly cooperative, but we struggled through it like troopers. The first home we toured with Brooks Utley was the Caltech Compact Hyper Insulated Prototype or CHIP. I’m not gonna lie. The interior was nice, but this house was alllll about the exterior for me. Anything that looks like a space ship is fabnificent in my book. The CHIP does not have any insulation, not because they are from sunny California and don’t need it. It’s because that funky puffy “siding” acts as the outsulation, a word they are trying to get into the dictionary. CHIP’s skin is made of heavy-weight (24oz/yrd) recycled white vinyl. White was used to reflect as much of solar radiation as possible, reducing cooling load. The “siding” is highly durable and waterproof.

Florida International University also had an impressive exterior. Their perFORM[D]ance House has layered walls designed to protect the house from undesired elements. Check out their website for energy performance on the walls and windows. It’s the louver system I want to discuss. The PVC and aluminum panels shade and protect the house as well as provide hurricane protection. Looks a bit nicer than the plywood or duct tape people were using here for Irene, no?

The winner of the 2011 Solar Decathlon was the University of Maryland with their Watershed project. They best utilized sustainable design for running the entire house.

Check out the home’s control panel with an easy button thrown in for good measure.

The dehumidifier is a work of art. The Innovative Liquid Desiccant Waterfall (LDW) system was developed by Maryland’s 2007 LEAFHouse team. A high-saline solution absorbs humidity from the air as it falls through back lit plastic “jellyfish”. It’s beautiful AND smart.

My personal favorite was New York’s Parsons School of Design. Not because I’m partial to NY (I am). Not even because I thought the house had the best overall design. It’s the story behind it that I fell in love with. The EmpowerHouse is a Habitat for Humanity home and of all the houses we toured, this one felt like a HOME. It’s probably because the lucky family who are inheriting the house were there on hand. Their photos were on display. This was actually someone’s home and I got a little verklempt when I met them.

My own honorable mention and the winner of the People’s Choice Award is Appalachian State’s Solar Homestead. Whereas some of the entries felt a bit cramped, this home had space and style. Once again, it was the exterior that blew me away.

The modular porch with outbuildings is kept dry by a bifacial PV canopy that acts as a net zero energy source for the home. The technology allows each 195 watt panel to collect sunlight bounced from below as well as above.

But honestly, the had me at the bark siding. Yes, this is durable and water resistant as long as it’s not sitting in a flood zone. The bad news is that it’s expensive.

Tomorrow I’ll fill you in on some other innovations I saw and easy DIY techniques we can steal for you kids to try at home. The bark included. Yum!

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