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Creating Better Homes for a Healthier Planet

Good Green Homes is the answer to creating better homes that are healthier to live in, easier on the environment, less expensive over the long-term, and more delightful to come home to.

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Inspirational houses from around the world: how architects and home owners can achieve harmony between dwellings and nature

Our houses can be seen as living, breathing entities, extensions of ourselves and our families. This carefully considered publication provides the design inspiration to build and live in domestic spaces in a balanced, natural, sustainable way.

With the demands of all contemporary dwellings in mind-whether they're found in the city, suburbs, or country-Dominic Bradbury considers the design basics one must follow in order to coexist with the planet's resources.

Five chapters present successful projects from different parts of the globe, all specially photographed by Richard Powers.

• Design and Build: where and how to create a modern natural home
• Let There Be Light: manipulating the elements to improve lifestyle and interaction with nature
• The Material World: using natural products to establish healthier relationships with the environment
• Indoor/Outdoor Living: ideas for encouraging symbiotic relationships with the landscape, whether in the city or the country
• Sustainable Footprints: how to naturally reduce domestic energy use

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Award-winning designer and author Lori Dennis proves interior design can be both stylish and environmentally sustainable in this easy-to-use, entertaining guide. Dennis discusses every aspect of interior design —furniture and accessories, window treatments, fabrics, surface materials, appliances, plants, and more — from a green perspective in terms of reducing waste and pollution and turning a home into a healthy, comfortable environment. Readers will learn how to:

• use sustainable materials like bamboo, cork, and recycled glass to enhance interiors
• search thrift shops and antique stores for vintage hidden treasures
• find the best vendors for purchasing green products
• use plants and locally cut flowers to improve indoor air quality and brighten up rooms
• replace lawns with indigenous plants and edible gardens
• keep rooms clean with effective and nontoxic products
• use energy efficient lighting and maximize natural light
• apply for different types of green certification

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How to save money, time, and the environment-on the urban frontier.

With The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading anyone can learn how to live sustainably and responsibly-and save money and time-in any urban environment. Expert urban homesteader Sundari Elizabeth Kraft shares her hands-on knowledge of: growing organic foods and preserving them; composting; raising small livestock and chickens; generating electricity and biofuels; and other ways to cut costs and live green. This book has all the information required to become a successful urban homesteader in any city.

• Practical advice on everything from composting to clean energy.
• Sundari Elizabeth Kraft is an expert in urban homesteading.

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Master carpenter and DIY Network host Karl Champley offers 50 home improvement projects to maximize space in any dwelling, no matter how big or small. Keeping an eye on style and economy, Champley outlines tools, materials and techniques for searching out and using hidden-away space to achieve incredible results. Readers will learn how to carve out shelving niches between studs in the wall, tuck more into kitchen cupboards, build hidey-holes beneath floorboards, and much more. The projects range from easy organization solutions to weekend construction projects and more ambitious undertakings. With easy-to-follow instructions for making more out of less, detailed illustrations and no-nonsense advice on clutter control, Same Place, More Space makes it simple to create a more functional, expansive and beautiful home without moving or remodeling.

About the Author: Karl Champley has more than 25 years of building experience. He is the host of DIY Network's DIY to the Rescue and Wasted Space, and satellite radio's Home Live. He is Australian and lives in Santa Monica, California.

About the Illustrator: Arthur Mount is an award-winning illustrator whose work has appeared in publications around the world. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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From The New York Times' "Queen of Green" comes the ultimate guide for finding and eliminating the toxic chemicals in your home today.

There is no longer any question that consumer products contain toxic chemicals harmful to our families. But how do we protect ourselves, and where do we start?

In Toxic Free, Debra Lynn Dadd, hailed by The New York Times as the "Queen of Green," discusses the hidden toxic chemicals already present in our homes, their varying degrees of danger, and precise, proven methods for eliminating them from our lives in a cost- effective, environmentally friendly way.

Are you suffering from unexplained headaches, fatigue, or depression? Are you worried about the link between chemicals in the home and the rising rate of cancer? Or are you just looking to save money (and the planet in the process)?

From tips and do-it-yourself formulas to world-class research and in-depth exploration and explanation, this book provides:

• a basic understanding of how toxic chemicals in consumer products affect your health;
• all the tools you need to remove these toxins from your home and body- starting today;
• and helpful guides on how to immediately save money on home-care products, as well as on the rapidly rising cost of your health care.

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A striking how-to guide and four-color visual tour presenting design possibilities using a range of salvaged materials.

Sustainability and conservation are buzzwords in the construction and renovation of homes today. It's therefore no surprise that "salvage design"-reusing old building materials and other types of recycled goods- is becoming a popular technique, both for its environmentally friendly functionality and for its unique design aesthetic.

Here is an inspiring, practical guide that is also a striking visual tour of the full range of interior design possibilities incorporating salvaged materials. From using recycled wood as vintage flooring or accent beams to reclaiming stone as a kitchen island or fitting salvaged tiles into a bathroom backsplash, the book covers a range of materials and design concepts for different rooms and supplies technical information about what to keep in mind (size, shape, color, structural needs, etc.), how to use the salvaged materials most effectively, and where to go to find them.

For more information check out the Salvage Secrets blog to explore the online world of all things salvaged, recycled, upcycled, vintage and reclaimed.

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Just reading the word "subsidies" may cause people's eyes to glaze over. We don't think it affects us directly, so we tune out. But it turns out that this complicated-sounding issue has an enormous impact on all of us. The Big Handout is about bad fiscal, environmental, agricultural, water, energy, health, and foreign policies. And it's a story about just one thing-subsidies. A subsidy is a grant by the government to a private business that is deemed advantageous to the public. Cotton, wheat, corn, soy, and oil are the most subsidized commodities in the United States. In this eye-opening book, New York Times best-selling author Thomas Kostigen explores government policies that cost taxpayers $200 billion per year, over $1,500 per household. In some cases we pay more for subsidized goods than we'd pay in a free market-and, in the most shocking abuses of the subsidy system, we pay for goods that aren't even produced.

The Big Handout exposes how artificial pricing hurts us and people worldwide, from our waistlines and pocketbooks to our health. By revealing just how toxic America's subsidy system has become, for everyone, The Big Handout is a wake-up call that empowers readers to effect change.

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If you can only read and reference one green thing, make it this book: an easily comprehensible, clearly presented source for green living. Everything you need to know is right here at your fingertips. Unlike a lot of other overwhelming green guides on the market, this is green decision making in bite-sized pieces. With choose it/lose it comparisons throughout, now it's simple to figure out it’s worth switching to a green detergent, what kind of plastic your sports bottle is made of, or which fish is safest to eat. Rather than spending time trying to figure out how best to go green, use this book and devote that time to making the difference.

About the Author: Mindy Pennybacker was editor-in-chief of THE GREEN GUIDE for over a decade, as well as co-founder of the affiliated website. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Sierra and The Nation, among others. This book grew out of her long-standing commitment to answering readers' questions about green living.