Sierra Club Green Home

SAN FRANCISCO — As You Sow, a nonprofit, focuses on corporate accountability and environmental health to implement eco-conscious programs and socially responsible practices. It’s what the organization’s CEO calls a “win-win-win” for companies, consumers, and the planet. (Photo: Matthewdikmans)

Cities run entirely on solar power, countries generating electricity through volcanoes, and hotels built underground to keep cool are not fantasies of the future—they exist right now, in some of the most remarkable green-pioneering places. (Photo courtesy of TripBase, Inc.)

SAN FRANCISCO — Local Mission Eatery is a very appropriately named restaurant. Situated in San Francisco’s Mission District, the eatery serves up food purchased solely from local farmers’ markets. What’s more, when the dining area and kitchen were being reconstructed before opening, the restaurant used only locally sourced materials.

Bamboo flooring has the look, feel and durability of wood. This rapidly renewable resource can be harvested in four to six years (compared with decades for most trees used for wood floors). And don’t feel bad about the pandas. Of more than a thousand varieties of bamboo, only a few are used for flooring, and they’re not the ones that pandas eat.

Good looks, long life If you have an older home, check underneath the carpeting. It may be concealing a high-quality wood floor that just needs sanding and refinishing. If it isn’t, consider using wood salvaged from old buildings or old factories and barns. And then there’s virgin wood, which can be either solid or “engineered,” [...]

Strong and beautiful, wood is the material of choice for all kinds of home projects, from building a crib to finishing a basement to constructing a whole house. What’s more, wood is a renewable resource. But even though a tree can be replanted to replace one that gets cut down, wood consumption does have consequences.