By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now

In Omaha, Neb., Travis Freeman is a bit of a local Christmas legend. Not only does he own and operate Brite Ideas Decorating – which specializes in both commercial and residential seasonal lighting – but he also is known for his efforts in putting together the Salvation Army’s Tree of Lights, a big part of the local holiday landscape.

Omaha's Tree of Lights uses LEDs (Photo: Brite Ideas Decorating)

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By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now
Looking to upgrade from your old, often unreliable incandescent Christmas lights to those cool, environmentally-friendly LED (light emitting diode) numbers you’ve heard so much about? The Home Depot is offering an incentive to do just that.
Between Nov. 5 and Nov. 15, you can redeem old or non-working Christmas lights and [...]

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

Ornamental gourds (Photo: Cooksgarden.com)

If you’ve cruised the produce section at the grocery lately, you probably stopped to eye the small, colorful, oddball gourds near the pumpkins and winter squash.

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

Those pretty knick-knacks and decorative items around your home likely have a history. There’s the crystal bowl that was an anniversary gift from a dear friend, or the candleholder your mom gave you before she died — they all hold great significance.

We’ve found 20 lovely decorative items with their own stories. Our picks come from far-flung nations or close to home, made by fair-trade artisans or creative artists using recycled, natural materials. Take a moment to shop our selections. (Most of the websites selling these goodies have lots of other green items to check out.)

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From Green Right Now Reports:

Lighting and energy experts have been scratching their heads for sometime over how to make LED lighting as effective and pleasant as CFLs, because LEDs are even more energy efficient than CFLs.

Renaissance Lighting, based in Herndon, Va., appears to be inching forward in this effort. The company will be showcasing its new, all white solid-state LED downlight fixtures at the LIGHTFAIR International 2009 at the Javits Center in New York City. The new fixtures are brighter than ever and have two and half times greater efficacy.

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By John DeFore
Green Right Now

The sickening effects of atmospheric formaldehyde may have become a hot topic thanks to FEMA trailers after Hurricane Katrina, but the problem is hardly limited to mobile homes. Formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a widespread health concern introduced to buildings through industrial textiles like carpeting and by materials, like plywood, that use certain adhesives.

That doesn’t mean we have to accept living in toxic rooms. Researchers in Korea have measured the extent to which household plants can clean the air, and their discoveries are encouraging.

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

If you’re working on making your furniture environmentally correct, but you don’t want to sacrifice on style, we’ve found a handful of websites with wonderful, elegant options. Today, we’re shopping for chairs.

Earthsake sells all kinds of furniture made from sustainably harvested wood and luxury eco-friendly fabrics. We like the Milan Puff chair (at left), which comes in a variety of bentwood frames and lots of fabric for the cloud-like cushion. They’re on sale now, and range from $315 to $415 based on the grade of fabric you select.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Who are green consumers? And what do they want?

These are two questions being hashed about by marketers and businesses around the country as Americans become increasingly conscious of wanting products that are cleaner, less-toxic, verifiably sourced, responsibly made, and reasonable in the bargain.

Green consumers, it appears, do come in peace. And while they might not speak green. They’re willing to learn. That’s what Sarah Beatty has concluded after a few, fast and furious years in the green building and living supply business. She’s the founder and president of Green Depot stores, which is opening its seventh store this month after less than five years in the business.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Confused about light bulbs? There’s a dizzying array on the market, not just at Home Depot and Lowe’s and online at 1000Bulbs.com, but at many home supply stores.

For any given lighting job, you may find yourself confronted with several types of bulbs that could work — CFLs (compact fluorescent bulbs), a halogen or two or ten, and some of those ongoing, but supposedly outgoing, incandescents. Conversely, for specific needs, like say the flame-shaped bulbs you need for your chandelier, you might find the choices wanting, perhaps there’s an incandescent available, but not an EnergyStar CFL.

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By John DeFore

Though bibliophiles instinctively recoil at the idea, the fact is that some books are good for nothing: outdated science texts, surplus copies of bestsellers everyone owns, current-events hack jobs by disreputable writers looking to make a quick buck. If you can’t even give a book away, what’s to be done with it?

While it is possible to recycle old books, you likely can’t do it in your curbside bin: The glues and binding materials don’t play well with the machines used by most municipal programs. If you’re graduate designer Laura Cahill, you make furniture out of them.

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By Catherine Girardeau

So you need to replace your mattress, and you want to do the green right thing, for your health and for the environment. You may be trying to reduce your overall carbon footprint, or perhaps to choose a product that’s better for your health. Ideally, you can do both.

Unfortunately, there is a plethora of “natural,” “green,” “eco-friendly” mattress solutions out there, some with a hefty price tag. How’s a consumer to know what’s worth springing for – and what’s not?

Conventional mattresses are very likely to contain chemicals, some potentially toxic to humans and/or harmful to the environment. One way to go green is to choose a mattress with fewer chemicals or no chemicals.

My husband and I went the less-toxic, rather than 100 percent chemical-free, route.

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By John DeFore
“Critical mass” may not be the most comforting metaphor to use about coverage of radiation in kitchen countertops, but it’s hard to resist. After stories by such high-profile outlets as The New York Times and Associated Press, long-simmering concerns about granite counters have become sufficiently mainstream that Stephen Colbert can joke that, [...]

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