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The Daily Green’s Heart of Green Awards

Ryan Johnston — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:15:28 +0000

The 2011 Heart of Green Awards honor breakthrough thinking and action that inspires green thinking among mainstream Americans — consistent with The Daily Green’s mission of delivering “real green for real people.”

And in its third year, the 2011 Heart of Green Awards were themselves a breakthrough; for the first time, we were able to invite our audience to vote for their favorite nominees in 18 categories, from best new park to lifetime achievement, from best beauty product to local hero. The result? Some consistency with the thinking of The Daily Green’s editors (who, after all, would disagree that Jane Goodall, who just wrapped up her 50th year of wildlife conservation research, action and inspiration, deserves a lifetime achievement award?) but also some welcome diversity of opinion.

Breaking the process – Finding green construction innovation

Ryan Johnston — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:28:28 +0000

Innovation

The President’s ACAD Smart Night

The President's ACAD Smart Night, April 4 2009

I had the honor to attend the 2009 ACAD President’s Smart Night this past Saturday night. It was an inspiring event featuring the managing director of IDEO and an expert of Innovation, David Kelley. It was a black-tie event and featured a fantastic meal. Shortly after dinner, David took to the stage and shared some insights he has learned about innovation while managing IDEO with his brother (and company founder). I learned a lot from David’s talk and can’t wait to read his book, The Ten Faces of Innovation.

I couldn’t help but think about the many things he said and how it applies to green building and eco-friendly topics – something that I am very interested in.

The President’s ACAD Smart Night was launched in 2007 as a vehicle to challenge ideas and stimulate dialogue; the inaugural event featured keynote speaker Dan Pink, and author Malcolm Gladwell was our keynote speaker in 2008.

Wrongness

Steven Keith - Executive Vice President, Strategy Director - Capstrat

Earlier in the week, I put out a request to Twitter asking, “what does innovation mean to you?” Of the many responses I received, one of the best came from Steven Keith Executive Vice President at Capstrat. It really struck me as being very important to innovation. It’s not enough to do something ‘different’ to be innovative – you must do something different that makes all other options seem trivial. In my day-to-day work as a web developer for marketing, I am tasked to find new, optimal or efficient ways of working for clients. This can be a difficult task but it also opens my eyes to those who, given the same task, can reach the breakthrough moments that create innovation and move beyond existing options and alternatives.

An intolerance of Failure

The #1 top tactic for innovation, according to expert innovators, is to ‘experiment fearlessly’. Nothing works first time, so you may as well get it wrong as soon as you can. If you cannot accept failure you are unlikely to see too much innovation, no matter how much money you throw at it.

From: The Top Five Innovation Killers, by Stuart Cross

This was also a major point of David’s speech on Saturday night. If you are afraid to fail or work in an environment that punishes failure then you and your team will never be innovative. As I mentioned above, to be innovative is to break new ground and build on existing methods. But, as David pointed out, Thomas Edison may be recognized as one of the most innovative and inventive men of all times – but he failed thousands of times to come up with his most important inventions.

Green Innovation

Did you know that atop every building lies the opportunity to bring nature back to the concrete jungle? If Steven Peck continues to spread the word, green roofs will become the norm. Peck is the founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a rapidly growing not-for-profit industry association based in Toronto, which promotes the green roof industry throughout North America. Green roofs beautify urban landscapes, provide refuges for insects and wild birds, and reduce storm water runoff, energy consumption, and air and noise pollution.

From: i2eye with Green Roof Guru Stephen Peck, by Margaret Chandler

Our own house project contains a green roof. While it may not be truly innovative (we are not the first ones in Calgary to have a green roof by any means) we have been very happy about taking such a risk. A number of people didn’t think that it would be a good idea to build a green roof on top of our garage. We simply felt we didn’t have any choice. We built on a hill with a steep backyard. Our garage is unattached and behind the house. Without building a green grass roofed garage, we would have had no backyard at all. Now, we have a large grassed area that is fenced in and provides an excellent play area and relaxation spot. We owe this backyard to the people who took the chance to build a green roof and learn from it – and these lessons made their way to our roof contractors who had some experience and read online on how to build and finish our green roof.

Where to find Log Homes?

Ryan Johnston — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:09:12 +0000

Log Homes

A log home (or log house) is technically the same thing as a log cabin, a house typically made from logs that have not been milled into conventional lumber. The term log home is contemporary and preferred by most log home builders, while log cabin indicates a smaller, more rustic, log house, such as a hunting cabin in the woods.

Author: Robert W. Chambers, 2008 Source: author's photo of scribe-fit logwork by Natural Log Homes www.LogBuilding.org

Examples of Builders of Log Homes

Honkarakenne Oyj

Log Homes

Specializes in the industrial construction of log homes. Based in Finland with subsidiaries in Germany, Japan, France and the U.S.

Honkarakenne’s vision: We aim to be an icon in the log construction industry, building genuine wood houses and promoting ideal living.

Honkarakenne Oyj

Log Homes Canada

Log Homes

Handcrafted log homes and cabins. Watch homes being built online.

Log Homes Canada builds and exports beautiful handcrafted log homes, supplies log home plans, log home kits, log cabin homes and answers to your design and building questions.

Log Homes Canada

Precision Craft Log Homes

Log Homes

Designs and manufactures milled and handcrafted custom log homes.

Precision Craft Log Homes designs custom log homes, log home plans and timber frame homes. They are an industry leader in the design of luxury log homes. Total Log Home Solution, from design to manufacturing to building log homes.

Precision Craft Log Homes

Timber-Hirsi Ltd.

Log Homes

Finnish builder of log houses, cabins and saunas.

Timber-Hirsi Oy is specialized in designing and producing buildings made of square logs. They use high quality Finnish whitewood supplied to special order from reputed sawmills. The entire quality chain is built to meet the requests of export customers and they design the structures to suit each market area.

Timber-Hirsi Ltd.

Mammuttihirsi

Log Homes

Manufacture a range of laminated log structure. Includes production process and photograph gallery. Located in Finland.

Mammuttihirsi will take your dreams and wishes, lifestyle, family, hobbies and even the future furniture of your new home into consideration when they design your new home.

Mammuttihirsi

Lincoln Logs Ltd.

Log Homes

Manufactures log home kits with over 90 standard floorplans or they can also prepare custom plans.

The Original Lincoln Logs Ltd has been sharing the experience of creating special living spaces from log, timber and cedar of exceptional quality for nearly 30 years. We’ve designed and produced over 10,000 homes for families like yours, and have achieved one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry. We’ve accomplished this by striving to live up to the trust placed in us by our homeowners.

Lincoln Logs Ltd.

Log Homes Council

Log Homes

Showcases the Log Home of the Month, offers log home information, lists accredited members in the U.S.A.

The Log Homes Council is a national organization with membership comprised of manufacturers of log homes. The LHC is part of the Building Systems Councils, a council of the National Association of Home Builders. Council members are log home manufacturers and producers who have united to develop and promote quality building systems and ethical business practices by participation in both mandatory and voluntary council programs designed to benefit log home customers.

Log Homes Council

Barna Log Homes

Log Homes

Manufacturer of log homes and cabins. Includes floor plans, specifications, and services provided.

Jim Barna Log and Timber Homes is one of the largest and most innovative log home manufacturers in the United States. Our founder and namesake did much to shape the landscape of the current log home market. Founder Jim Barna began changing the industry by changing the logs. He started the trend of milling the logs to specific, uniform tolerances and joining them together with interlocking saddlenotch corners and tongue-and-groove walls. These techniques kept the structures air- and water-tight and maintained the straight lines of the logs. Since then, Jim Barna Log and Timber Homes has developed multiple log systems that provide innovation, integrity and ease of construction.

Barna Log Homes

Vinton Construction

Log Homes

Builds, designs and constructs custom log homes. Specializes in post and beam construction, log accents, home restoration, staining, chinking, consultation and commercial construction.

Vinton Construction, custom log home builders of Billings Montana designs and constructs custom log homes of exceptional quality. Specializing in post and beam construction, log accents, log home restoration, stainging, chinking, log home consultation and commercial construction.

Vinton Construction

Blogs about Log Homes

Building A Log Cabin

Log Homes

This blog details our dreams and experiences in building a log cabin in northern Michigan.

Building A Log Cabin

Log Home Blog

Log Homes

The ‘original’ Log Home Blog’s new home! One of the oldest and most interesting log home blogs discusses everything from log home floor plans to DIY tips and maintenance information.

Log Home Blog

The Fun Times Guide to Log Homes

Log Homes

Are you buying, building or remodeling a log home? This Log Blog is the place to start for tips on how to plan, design, build, decorate, and maintain your log cabin or log home.

The Fun Times Guide to Log Homes

Home Builders in Calgary

Ryan Johnston — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:50:03 +0000

Home Builders in Calgary

The Ramsay Home Building and Eco-Friendly Blog is now listed at Best Green Blogs!

Home Builders in Calgary

They describe themselves as:

Best Green Blogs is the web’s largest directory of green and sustainable themed weblogs. Writers from all over the world are publishing articles and stories dealing with a wide variety of topics dealing with environmental issues and green living; and Best Green Blogs is an attempt to capture some of that independent publishing spirit.

Whether you are blogging about green parenting in Chicago or organic gardening in China, we want to hear about it! Our selection of categories is diverse, but what they all have in common is the desire to educate people about making smarter, more sustainable choices for themselves and the planet we call home.

Vist our page at Best Green Blogs.