Affordable Sustainability Archives - Page 4 of 7

Deeper Down the Hemp Textile Rabbit Hole

February 28, 2010 by David Mark Brown

As I metaphorically dug this last week, flipping participles and pretense skyward over my head and up to the sunny surface of my thoughts (and out of the maddening depths of confusion) the revelation suddenly dawned on me while seated and flying with Southwest somewhere over the eastern half of Utah.

I will call upon someone with a modicum of professional talent in Salt Lake City to make the prototype of “One True Pants.” Yes, the pair of pants that all others will one day bend the knee towards and acknowledge as king. How could I expect this pair of pants to be found wondering the savannas of retail America? No, the one true pants has yet to be woven together in the womb of its father’s mind. Too far? Yeah, I don’t even understand myself anymore.

Recently though, I found more helpful insight from Eric VandenBerg, the founder of the Hemp Barn. What will really blow your mind about a place called the Hemp Barn is not that it is primarily an earth-friendly upholstery store, or that it was founded by a young, non-hippy male, but that it is based in Salt Lake City. I know. Miracles never cease.

Hemp Pants Finally Found, Loved

January 9, 2010 by David Mark Brown

In my last blog I chided hippies and granolas for not having the business sense to provide the world (or at least me) with a swell pair of hemp pants 34X34. Finally I found my savior, well within the bosom of hippie-womping hicks and sensible country folk, Orvis Clothing.

Orvis is the only clothing store with a website that sells hemp pants in size 34×34 for men. I know. A powerful statement made by a man wearing cannabis crafted clothing, but true. Nowhere else could I find my coveted pants. Orvis had two colors to chose from in 3 different inseams and several waist sizes.

In Building, Passivity May be the Best Action

July 24, 2009 by David Mark Brown

passivstandard Salt Lake City is going passive. Joe and Rebecca are teaming up with Brach Design and Fisher Custom Building to build Utah’s first certified passive house. That is the plan anyway. Brach Design is Utah’s only certified Passive House architect and this will be his first passive house if everything turns out right.

You may be thinking, “Who gives a diddly ding dang do.” But let me tell all you Flanders swearing neigh-sayers, this is pretty ding dang diddly cool. Let’s not forget that 76% of all electricity produced by U.S. power plants goes to the building sector. Passive House started up as PassivHaus in the UK, but that was too stinking European sounding for God-Bless-‘Em-Americans, so we changed it to Passive House Institute US, but it is the same thing. Passive House is a certification that literally beats the insulation off of rating systems like LEED. The graphic shows it pretty well (although LEED is not pictured because it is a bit like comparing apples to oranges). But the point is that Passive House is the stiffest energy efficiency standard the world has seen by far.