This month's issue of Oregon Home, the monthly home decor magazine, includes a special supplement called Green Living. It's another sign that green design and construction are inching closer to the mainstream.
Among the frou-frou sustainable items celebrated in the front of the issue are: Lama Li Lokta Nepalise paper for wrapping presents; plyboo bamboo hardwood; dinner plates made from de-commissioned traffic lights; and a variety of low or zero-VOC paints. Elsewhere in the issue, a variety of green power options (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal) are broken down to two simple questions: what's in it for you, and what's in it for the planet?
In the feature section, homeowners show off not only their green homes, but how they came to embrace sustainability. Two allergy sufferers installed non-toxic surfaces and a green roof; a couple restored their farmhouse with a solar hot water heater; a couple of farmers installed a rainwater collection system to irrigate crops. Interestingly, in most cases the homeowners didn't know much about green building to begin with, but were influenced by their architect and/or builder.
As best I can tell, however, this is a once-a-year issue and completely separate from the normal Oregon Home magazine. It begs the question: Do we have to wait another year to find out about green residential design in this publication, or will such principles be incorporated into the magazine on a regular basis?
That, I think, is the big hurdle green design is yet to overcome with much of the media and, to an even greater extent, the public at large. Sustainability is indeed recognized as a significant presence, but it's often still treated as separate. This Oregon Home supplement is a good sign, but perhaps the ultimate achievement will be its obsolescence.
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