Cleaning Up Oil…and Other Toxic Compounds

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

I’m a strong supporter in real solutions. In every aspect of our lives, the natural environment continually surprises me with its resilience and persistence. The more our society pollutes, the more I search for the natural component that’s ready to step to the plate and heal the wounds inflicted by so many unconscious decisions.

The BP oil spill left me again loo [...]

Bamboo - The Forgotten Grass

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

With the recent flooding throughout the Americas these last few months, I thought to address a little known, but extremely important, forgotten grass: bamboo.

Bamboo is an arborescent (treelike) grass belonging to the family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae. The family Poaceae, true grasses, is thought to comprise 20% of the known vegetation covering the Earth.[1] Grasse [...]

How to Setup a Rainwater Collection System

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Materials:

4 Blue, Food-Grade, 55-Gallon Barrels – $8 each from local honey and vanilla manufacturing company

1 Metal, Male Threaded Spigot – $5 from local hardware store

How to Create Your Own Edible Landscape

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Sustainability is more than just a home that provides shelter, warmth, and power. Sustainability is good, nutrient rich, organic food. Secure your families local organic food by investing in Edible Landscaping. It’s easy, long-lasting, with minimal maintenance.

Edible Landscapes can be created in innumerable combinations of annuals and perennials. Annual pl [...]

Green Tax Credits for the Existing Home Owner

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

If you’re an existing home owner and are considering energy-efficient improvements this year, there are several options that you may want to consider.

The three major tax credits are listed below. Before making your purchases, remember to research the specific product and make sure the manufacturer qualifies for the energy-efficiency rating under the IRS specifications.

The IRC 25C credit for non-business property expands from [...]

What is a Carbon Tax?

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

With all the talk on carbon credits, cap and trade agreements, and proposed policies regarding carbon “pollution”, one question needs to be considered: what is carbon, and why a carbon tax?

Carbon is life. It is the 6th element on the Periodic Table of Elements. It is one of the four most abundant elements in the universe: hydrogen, helium, oxygen, and carbon.& [...]

The Lost Pyramids of Caral & A Millennium of Peace

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In 2600 BC, on 200 acres, the Oldest City in the Americas, the Origin of American Civilization, thrived. The Lost Pyramids of Caral encompass a city with some of the largest pyramids in the world, uncovered in the sand mounds of the Peruvian Desert, between the Pacific Ocean and the fertile forests.

There are two methods to follow when building a home:

A Disposable Home: a home that is dependent on continuous external input for its continued operation – such as energy, time, materials, and money; and will eventually reach a state of disrepair where it is no longer financially feasible to maintain. A Living Home: a home that is a self sustaining cell producing more energy and free time than [...]

Understanding Your Business’s Nutrient Flow

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Last time we discussed the meaning of “green”, and how a “green” product is either comprised of biological nutrients – nutrients made from organic, biodegradable materials; or technical nutrients – nutrients comprised of manufactured components that are continually, or partially, reused and upcycled into a new product.

In order to determine how your products’ lifecycle directly impacts your busines [...]

What Does "Green" Mean?

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Green is understanding, respecting, and incorporating the lifecycle of any given product, by-product, material, and/or additives of such product into the designing, manufacturing, storing, delivering, installing, and restoring the individual materials and product to an equally, or superior, reusable form.

Simple put, being green is understanding the lifecycle of any given product, and prope [...]

Ancient Building Principles – Addendum

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In Ancient Building Principles, I discussed how the Romans and Native Americans used thermal mass and flow channels to heat and cool Roman bath houses and Navajo Hogans.

Along with these time tested and ancient principles of nature, there was another common technique used in passively heating and cooling buildings: thermal chimneys. Thermal chimneys are also referred to as solar chimneys; and is the process of a natural convection caused b [...]

Keeping the Lights On

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Instead of waiting until we as a society outpace ourselves back into the dark ages, by implementing renewable energy and redesigned buildings now, we can keep the lights on. Buildings of Today

Buildings are the number one cause of energy consumption and environmental degradation worldwide. "In the U.S., the residential sector ranks as the single largest energy consumer in the world...at 1/5 of the total energy consumed in the U.S. each year", and "homes worldwide acc [...]

Building Today: A Brief History of the American Construction Industry

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In Ancient Building Principles, we discussed the building principles of annualized geo solar, thermal diffusivity, and thermal mass; and how ancient buildings, such as the Navajo’s Hogan and the Roman’s hypocausts, utilized these building principles.

In this post, I’ll examine key aspects of building today, and why few builders incorporate these time tested building [...]

Ancient Building Principles

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Throughout history, the ever present, natural principles of sustainable building have been utilized in varying ways. What our ancestors practiced in building design for generations upon generations, we now call Annualized Geo Solar – a structural-heating technique combining summertime capture of solar warmth, deposit and storage of that heat in insulation-buffered sub-structure soil, and, after a designed-in conductive thermal lag, radiational return of a portion [...]

Rejuvenation – Step 4: Sustainability and Beyond

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In the last three steps, we discussed the method of implementing sustainability by using the C.O.R.E. Technology for shelter, food, water, and electricity. While this technology addresses the four basic systems of life, rejuvenation is a multifaceted endeavor, with many integrated parts.

For rejuvenating our society, from a disposable mindset to a sustainable one, we must begin to think in sustainable terms, and really understand how they [...]

Rejuvenation – Step 3: Sustainable Water and Electricity

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In Step 2 of Rejuvenation, we discussed how there is a sustainable alternative to the way we live, and how it’s possible and achievable now, with the first two basic systems of life: shelter and food. In this section, we’ll outline the next two basic systems of life: water and electricity.

Water: &nb [...]

Rejuvenation – Step 2: Sustainable Shelter and Food

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In Step 1 of Rejuvenation, we discussed how most people work their entire lives striving for the basic freedoms of a place of their own, with plenty of good food, water, and air; only to live paycheck to paycheck, barely scraping by; with the looming fact that if they don’t get their financial heads far enough above water, they’ll spend the REST OF THEIR LIVES working to live! We also examined: If we didn’t create this system, and it doesn’t r [...]

Rejuvenation – Step 1: Reexamining How We Live

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

With our busy and fast paced lives, have you taken a moment to really stop and look around? What have you seen? Do you see a society that represents your values and core ideals? Do you see a society that represents your social and environmental views?

Our current society was framed and built by our ancestors; and there comes a time in every culture, for the people of the day to stop and reexamine if the society in place is a true [...]

What Down Turn? Green Building Sees Continued Growth!

Sarah@thecorehome.com — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

On Jan. 13, 2009, Yuldeson Associates, a leading-edge green building consulting firm, projected that “Green Building will continue to grow in spite of the global credit crisis and the opening economic recession”…with more people going green each year, and nothing on the horizon projected to stop this trend.

“There’s been cumulative growth in LEED projects, over [...]

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