Have a viewing of this custom made glass tile mosaic kitchen backsplash. One thing is for sure...it is entirely unique.

It is the centerpiece above the soon-to-be-installed (humongous) gas range cooktop. There are a total of 940 1-inch square glass tile pieces. As you can plainly see, the colors are red, black, white and clear amber. Two of those colors happen to be the school colors of the new homeowner's alma mater, the University of Georgia School of Law. Not sure if that's by design or if it was simply chosen to coordinate with the adjoining grand family room...or both. Either way...it looks great and really injects a nice punch of vibrant color to liven things up.

Recycled plastic lumber is made from plastic bottles and other plastic waste. While many people think of plastic as synonymous with disposable, plastic lumber is surprisingly hardy and highly prized for marine applications.

The largest advantage of plastic lumber is that it won't rot or absorb water and is highly resistant to insect damage. This makes it perfect for marine and other water applications, where the lumber is further prized by its ability to resist shock. It also eliminates the need to treat the lumber, unlike treated wood, which uses toxic chemicals to impart the same qualities that plastic naturally has.

When I decided to remodel my kitchen, recycled glass tile was one of the materials I considered using. While I ultimately chose another material, recycled glass tile has become popular with architects and homeowners who are drawn to its unique aesthetic.

It's difficult to say exactly how environmentally sensitive recycled glass tile is when you consider that the only environmental benefit is that it uses recycled materials. The glass must be melted to be used, a process that expends tremendous amounts of energy. And while it's good to keep consumer waste out of landfills, glass can be recycled into many different things, not just tiles.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) can save the consumer as much as $30 over the life of the bulb when compared to incandescent lighting. While many consumers may be familiar with the energy savings, few are aware of the variety of CFLs that are available on the market.

CFL Bulb Choices Abound

Ranging from the popular spiral to the decorative candle bulb, there is a compact fluorescent light bulb that will fit any situation in residential construction.

Making a sustainable roofing choice for your home doesn't require planting a garden on your roof. There are many environmentally sound choices that don't involve plant life or hundreds of pounds of soil overhead.

Below are four of the most common and easiest sustainable roofing choices available to the homeowner.

Anyone who has ever considered photovoltaic cells knows that they are an enormous investment. However, there is a certain allure to solar panels and the ability to go “off the grid” that makes many homeowners at least consider photovoltaic cell technology, which remains one of the most sustainable available.

If you’re considering photovoltaic cells, there are three factors that solar panel manufacturers like to ignore when talking about their product. However, these factors can significantly diminish the energy savings that solar panels can produce, making it all the more important that you know about them.

Image courtesy ConstructionProgress
 

Cordwood building is an alternative building method that uses stacks of firewood held in place permanently with mortar to create walls. Most people considering cordwood building are interested in its potential as a green building method. But how green is cordwood building really? The answer, like most questions pertaining to sustainability, depends on where you live and the techniques used when constructing your cordwood building.

Top Reasons For Cordwood House Construction

Embodied Energy

Cordwood building can have low embodied energy provided the wood used is local, or better yet, used from on site. Because the wood requires very little work before being used in cordwood walls, there is very little waste or energy consumed processing it. However, the inherent energy contained in the wood, combined with any distance that the wood must travel to the site, can increase the embodied energy significantly.

The embodied energy represented by the wood pales when compared to the energy intensive mortar that is often used. Portland cement is one of the most high-embodied- energy materials used in building construction. It also causes significant pollution when it is manufactured. Some of these concerns can be addressed by using a cob mortar or a Portland cement that has a significant amount of fly ash in it.