ChoiceDeck

This cost comparison chart for ChoiceDeck is kind of the best reason NOT to put a cost comparison chart on your website. We have a hard enough time convincing folks to shell out a few extra George Washingtons for eco-friendly products, and then ChoiceDeck lists its product's cost at $1,387 while treated wood comes in at $488. (Yes, you're supposed to get that it's 3 times more expensive... at first.)

But now the good news. You never have to stain it again (-$300), and they reckon that over five years that pays for the ChoiceDeck itself! But do you really stain your deck every year (I know you're supposed to, but some of us are busy paying our taxes.)? ChoiceDeck's cost comparer multiplies your yearly stain savings times 5 years to add $1,500 to wood's cost and prove that ChoiceDeck is cheaper than treated wood.

Appreciate where they're going, but that's not gonna cut it with the Thinkers out there.

We know green is good, green is almost right-priced, and green is (getting-to-be) everywhere. So how can we highlight the most salient reasons to go green without accidentally sending someone to the darkside?

Iannone

We've mentioned this Philly-based design group before, but they're getting great reviews in the NYT's coverage of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and are worthy of another mention. If it's not reclaimed or recycled, it's been ecologically harvested, and though the lines are heavy on the credenza and four-legged dining table varieties, they're memorable, and a fine launching pad for a 29 year-old designer heading out on his own:

"IANNONE DESIGN LTD. is a Philadelphia based design/build firm dedicated to the creation of eco-friendly modern furniture."

Fair Trade SF

We know. It's so damn trendy. An iMac or two has been stolen. (Or more?) You don't approve of your artists sitting so proximate to programmers. And you like standing in line for 20 minutes at Blue Bottle better. But when we were recently asked by a corporate office manager where she could order fair trade coffee for delivery to downtown movers and shakers we kept coming back to the best coffee we've had in SF: Ritual Roasters. (They now deliver.)

The short list of fair trade notables
Ritual Coffee: 1026 Valencia, 1634 Jerrold (Yes, the Bayview). All coffee is fair trade, some is organic.

Tartine Bakery: 600 Guerrero. All coffee is fair trade, all organic. (i.e., You can get your long line, and also get your fair trade.)
Coffee to the People: 1206 Masonic. All fair trade, all organic. (Happily lose an hour at their site... )
Rockin' Java 1821 Haight. All fair trade, all organic.
People's Cafe: 1419 Haight. Any house blend is fair trade and organic (though we must note that you won't write home about it.)

And two organic notables we can't forget (The full list would be exhaustive.)
Blue Bottle Coffee Company: 315 Linden. All organic, some fair trade (ahem.)
Cafe Organica: 562 Central. All organic, almost all fair trade.
The list goes on and on and on re: organic in SF. We'll add to it as we have a spare second.

Photo credit: Ritual Roasters by Tingting H.

Strange Bedfellows

When thinking about sustainability, Home Depot doesn't usually come immediately to mind, but perhaps changes are afoot. Global Green has teamed up with the Home Depot Foundation to rebuild the Katrina-devasted Holy Cross neighborhood of New Orlean's 9th Ward. Is Home Depot finally beginning to see what the future holds for it? We would like to think so, but perhaps we won't start holding our breath just yet... This next bit is challenging to muster too: props to Brad Pitt. He gave this project some celebrity shine which undoubtedly attracted additional supporters plus he put up $200K toward the Sustainable Design Competition for New Orleans.

A quick comment on the winning design: we wonder why more entires didn't emulate the classic southern architecture of New Orleans. Still we're happy for the city and certain it's a matter of time before sustainable design can be imbued in all sorts of different architectural styles rather than being reserved exclusively for the modernists.

"All Cooped Up in a Manhattan Co-op"

It's kind-of real estate related, definitely organic, and you can probably get away with it in SF. Another endearing, well-written New York Times story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/garden/17chickens.html

Because It's Friday...

The carbon footprint you've been leaving at happy hour could be tinier. 360 Vodka's home page contains a pretty-bizarre Orwellian-ishly-narrated mpeg ("MOTHER EARTH. TERRA FIRMA. HOME...") outlining the primary ways we're sealing our doom, and most of the site is still under construction, but here's what is stated: 360's paper label is 100% chlorine free; all elements of the packaging are recycleable; 85% of the bottle is made of recycled glass; and, apparently, every bushel of grain is actually utilized in making the vodka.

Thank you to the Luxist list for the tip.

Nettleton's The Luxury of Enough

The Taunton Press has published architecture professor Sarah Nettleton's guide to efficient living (not more efficient if it doesn't need to be, not simpler if it already is: efficient and simple living, period.) The photography alone in The Simple Home could hold your interest, but the concepts themselves are equally gripping, zen as they are. And while every concept is not born from a specifically "green" mentality, Nettleton is a sustainably-minded architect and key themes from the book, like establishing a culture of minimal and letting every object and its manufacture be well-considered are as core to green living as it gets. $40, or $26.40 on Amazon.