Very cool calculator for home carbon output during construction projects. I believe it’s mostly catered toward landscaping remodeling, but regardless, it’s interesting (and depressing) to see the carbon output for your homestead in a given year.
Archives for category: Landscape
Offsets are a bit controversial. Why offset when, in many cases, you could just build sustainably or not at all? Regardless, an offset is better than nothing.
Great Eastern Ecology consults for companies planning to either make green sites/parks/etc or to offset a project that will negatively impact a wetland. They also work on cleaning up otherwise unusable sites (e.g. a park set to include a salt marsh and 80+ acres of green space in NYC).
Watch Sundance’s Eco Biz segment on Great Eastern Ecology here:
Curb the water run-off and avoid the heat maintained by asphalt by installing a gentler driveway.
River rock, flagstone, or gravel all help to allow water seep into the earth rather than erode the neighbor’s lawn who’s downhill from you.
Alternatives:
Gravel: Not a great idea for climates that get snow; it’s difficult to plow over gravel and pebbles will end up everywhere. But CHEAP!
River rock and flagstone: This will work well for colder climates because they can shift a bit and still maintain a semi-level driveway – or they can be corrected during warmer months. Make sure the foundation for a stone driveway is well packed and sturdy enough to hold the weight of vehicles (a clay bed will help).
Hanover’s EcoGrid: Won Commercial Building Product of the Year in 2005, these water-permeable paving units are customizable and many allow grass to grow between the blocks. This vendor offers many different looks for a drive that is more eco-friendly than pavement.
Hastings’s Checker Block: Similar to Hanover’s, Hastings’s construction allows grass, crushed glass, or pebbles to fill in the holes between steel-reinforced concrete bricks. Many of the photos they provide make the parking area look like a lawn.
StabiliGrid: A 97% recycled driveway that integrates grass and crushed stone into a strong driveway covering. Also can be installed on your roof or a side of your home!
For an in depth explanation of porous driveways, read this.
