Less than two weeks into the New Year, you should have fully shaken your 2005 hangover and psyched yourself up to start fresh. While you’re taking great pains to get that bod into shape, why don’t you reach a step further and resolve to boost the planet’s health and longevity by designing lean and thinking green? What’s good for Mother Earth is good for you too, and in 2006 it’s easier than ever.
First, explore the crème de la crème in green building products. This past autumn, the in-the-know editors of Environmental Building News announced their top 10 picks, which took into consideration recycled waste and bio-based materials, as well as water and energy conservation.
Then educate yourself by taking advantage of the U.S. Green Building Council’s [USGBC] new seven-lesson online training course. Get the skinny on LEED accreditation in their affordable, convenient, and virtual classroom. The curriculum is explains the rating systems, demystifies certification procedures, and teaches you how to coordinate eco-friendly projects.
Next, let some environmentally aware transportation options from around the globe motivate and move you. Forget the high cost of insurance and gasoline by car-sharing: Zipcar (U.S.), StattAuto (Germany), Mobility (Switzerland), and Greenwheels (Netherlands). Or, if you reside in a traffic-logged metropolis and prefer to leave the driving to others, ring up one of these eco-luxury car services: PlanetTran (Boston, U.S.), EcoLimo (Los Angeles, U.S.), and OZOcar (New York City, U.S.).
While you’re inspired and full of green ideas, think fast and enter IDEA 2006, the Industrial Design Excellence Awards sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America [IDSA]. This highly regarded global competition added a new category this year: Eco-Design.
After all of that hard work, reward yourself by dreaming of a kind of ecotopia: Buzz, the innovative 49-unit sustainable condo development in the up-and-coming Cedars neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. The cherry on top? When you close on one of these architecturally desirable, resource efficient residences, you’ll score an eGo electric moped so that you can scoot on over to cool places like artist haven SouthSide on Lamar, one of the largest loft conversions in the world.
So there you go. A new year full of innovative ideas to create a better world. Here’s to one amazing 2006 for you – be sure to let PLiNTH & CHiNTZ be a part of it.
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IFI (International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers) presents WING: World Interiors for the Next Generation and invites you to enter THINK/WORK: An IFI Design Accelerator Competition sponsored by Teknion. This competition seeks projects that re-envision, re-invent and re-design future workspaces. IFI and WING calls upon Interior Architects/Designers to submit solutions that bring value, relevance, responsibility, culture, business, knowledge and identity as stated by the IFI Interiors Declaration. The deadline to enter is June 28, 2013. GO HERE to find out more.
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boost the planet’s health and longevity by designing lean and thinking green? What’s good for Mother Earth is good for you too, and in 2006 it’s easier than ever.
