Another one of my more recent projects. Combining the large Chinese armoir and the 2 side panels covering the windows that for some unknown reason where placed near the ceiling, helped to utilize much of that empty space. The panels I found have openings which allow light to filter through and give a great effect.
October 12, 2008Strada 315 Condo Ft LauderdaleThe Strada is in downtown Ft Lauderdale. The building was designed and built well. I have worked in many condos in the last few years that were thrown together as inexpensively as possible. This was not case with the Strada. Shop sustainably, rating the companies you purchase from.The non profit, Climate Counts funded by Stony Field Farms organic yogurt maker, rates companies on a scale of 0-100 for their efforts to halt climate change. If you are out shopping and want a company’s score, simply text “cc” and the name of the company to 30644 to the the Climate Counts rating. Find a place to recycle Almost EverythingSimply type in a product category and city or zip code and the easy to use Earth911.org search engine pulls up a list of neighboring Earth-friendly centers to drop off everything from pesticides to appliances and paints. More than 250 items are categorized as automotive, household, lawn and garden, paper, plastics or electronics. Some 100 million unused cell phones gather dust in drawers each year in the US recylcing them would conserve enough energy to power nearly 200.000 homes for a year. to find out how to recycle yours visit epa.gov/cellphones. An alternative to this is to dial their 1 800 clean up (toll free hotline) Compact Fluorescent Bulbs / Disposal of CFL's & computersFrankly, I was blown away after finding out that the CFL’s contained mercury and when first being sold, no one mentioned that the disposal of these bulbs is an important issue in the “sustainablity” side of using them. I felt perplexed and angry over this new technology. I read a response from an article in O magazine, Ocober 2008 issue. Shedding Some Light. Which helped me to understand the big picture a little better. One woman wrote in to O with feeling more less my feelings. The next month O got a response from Lauren ” Schmitt Olabisi PHd, an environmental scientist. “As an environmental scientist who works with energy issues, I ‘m writing in response to the reader who had concerns about the mercury in CFL’s. In fact, the amount of mercury contained in these bulbs is very small compared to the mercury released into the air when coal is burned to generate electricity (coal provides about 1/2 of our electricity nationally). You reduce the amount of electrity you use when you install the CFL ’s, you are cutting back on carbon and mercury. ” With this said, we still need to be aware and recycle these. Home Depot now has a national in store recycling prgram, go to homedepot.com/ecooptions and visit energystar.gov/cfls to learn more about our options. What I started to do is I designated a show box for old batteries, bulbs and other things I am not sure what to do with. When it is full, I start to research to find the best options to dispose/recylcle them. Office Depot has a program where you can purchase special recycle boxes, fill them with all of your computers and gadgets, take the box to office depot and they will ship it for free to the appropriate recycling stations. |
