As a San Diego Interior Designer, I spend a lot of nights with my cup of coffee. Now, there is a new product is the prototype stage that will re-use my coffee to print my work!! I am completely thrilled and look forward to having it it my office. Also, this is the best because the interior design firms that I know of use a lot of coffee and I use to put it as fertlizer for the office plants but this is a better use.

I laughed so much when I read this. I completely agree that people go overboard with the “green” design concept that people forget why we learned manners from our family, friends and our teachers. As interior designers, architects, etc. we need to balance this out… otherwise we will not have friends…just kidding!
I am passing this along…
7 Green Ways to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Posted: 28 Jan 2009 06:30 AM CST

You may take a lot of pride in being deep, dark green – but what you see as shining examples of eco-sainthood may come off to the rest of the world as rude, condescending and downright disgusting. Nobody wants to be friends with a sanctimonious bastard that looks and smells like he just rolled out of a dumpster. If any of these 7 greener-than-thou missteps apply to you, it might be time to tone down the smug and improve your personal hygiene.

7. Giving unsolicited green tips while in someone else’s home

Are you an eco consultant? Great! People will pay you good money to tell them what’s not green about their home and how to fix it. Otherwise, shut up. Going to a friend’s house and nitpicking everything you see that’s less than spectacularly eco-friendly is a fast-track to a lot of unreturned phone calls. Skipping the ‘suggestion’ part and simply walking around their house turning lights and electronics off is a great way to end up with a boot in your ass.

Sure, you’ve got some golden nuggets of green wisdom to share and you hate to see people throw their money away and harm the environment. If it comes up in conversation, offering your tips is great – but critiquing people’s habits and possessions unprompted will get you branded as an eco-snob.

6. Hoarding in an attempt to cut back household waste

You cut back the amount of trash that you send to the curb every week by 75%. Congratulations! Now, if only you could make a tunnel through all of those plastic bottles and packing peanuts to get to the bathroom…

Holding on to stuff like electronics, batteries or light bulbs long enough to make a trip to a recycling center is cool – but hoarding tons of trash just so you can say you didn’t throw it out doesn’t accomplish anything. It’ll get thrown out, eventually – when your neighbors realize they haven’t seen you for weeks and the cops discover your body under a pile of rotting food, junk mail and used condoms. The idea is to cut back your consumption of throwaway stuff in the first place, not to turn your home into a public health hazard.

5. Ungraciously refusing gifts that aren’t green enough

So, Uncle Ted gave you a Wal-Mart gift card for Christmas and the look on your face when you opened it didn’t exactly convey the gratitude he expected. You were horrified, and decided to make your righteous indignation loud and clear so everyone in the family could learn a lesson about how Wal-Mart is an evil corporate virus that’s destroying the environment. That’s a great way to make everyone think you’re a stuck-up asshole who has no appreciation for nice gestures.

Take the gift card (or whatever), thank the person who gave it to you and donate it to someone who really needs it – or use it in any green way you can possibly think of. Letting people know, especially ahead of the holidays, that you prefer eco-friendly gifts is cool – but not right after receiving something that doesn’t pass muster.

4. Being the Green Office Nazi

Suggesting green changes in your office is a great way to spread sustainability. Taking it upon yourself to ration office supplies is not. Guarding the supply closet like it’s Fort Knox and snatching paper out of the secretary’s hand because she’s already used 3 sheets today isn’t going to win you any green converts.

Instead of loudly berating your co-workers for using paper cups and tossing used batteries in the trash can, put your well-meaning energy to work in a way that might actually accomplish something. Talk to your bosses about how going green could save them money and they’ll be more than happy to provide some recycling bins, refillable pens, recycled paper and other eco-friendly supplies.

3. Mistaking gag-inducing body funk for pleasant ‘natural scent’

It’s true that not everyone needs to wear deodorant. Some people are blessed with armpits that don’t knock other people over with noxious clouds of funk – but others seem to think that body odor is cool as long as you’re going deodorant-free to be green. If people’s faces are melting in horror and disgust when you pass them on the street, it’s time to address your problem.

We’re not suggesting that you douse yourself in AXE body spray. But seriously, a little deodorant can be a really good thing, and despite any frustration you may have experienced in the past with natural deodorants that don’t work, there are some that do. Kiss My Face Liquid Rock, for one, works just as well as conventional brands and is very safe and gentle.

2. Conserving water… by not showering

Throwing personal hygiene out the window in order to be green just isn’t necessary or fair to the people who have to be close to you at any given time. Going without deodorant is bad enough, but deciding not to bathe altogether ventures into Howard Hughes territory. When your hair looks like you could squeeze out enough oil to fry up a batch of hush puppies and your ears start to smell like parmesan cheese, you’ve taken it much too far.

We’ve all got to bathe, and with low-flow showerheads, timers and biodegradable cleansers, you can keep yourself passably clean without too much guilt.

1. Forcing guests to use “Family Cloth”

To follow the mantra “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down” in your own home is a fine way to cut back on use of resources in the bathroom. Even putting a sign up for your guests is okay, though some will be too squicked out to comply. However, ‘family cloth’ takes bathroom eco-friendliness a bit too far when it comes to guests.

For those unfamiliar, ‘family cloth’ is a term for washable fabric wipes as an alternative to toilet paper. Yes, it’s ultra-green, especially considering that most toilet paper is made from virgin tree pulp – but your friends probably don’t want to share ass-wiping cloths with you. Provide backup toilet paper for guests, for the love of all things holy.

I have been thinking about this a lot and doing research on the web. It is harder than it looks!
a lot of have large folders of paper, samples, ceramic tile (my favorite), stone for countertops, etc. You name it we have it. I have see plenty of scanner programs but I don’t know about you, I worry that the computer will shut down and that’s it. I have made many experiences with that over the years. So, what should this San Diego Interior Designer do?

Well, I love to read blogs and I will start to see if that will works and if it does, I will keep you posted!

The other problem is that I have so many images to and I would hate to lose. I have found that using the combination of picasa and blogger help me keep my pictures organized and not get lost on picasa. The only problem with picasa is that they will not save high-res pictures of my photographs for my interior designer portfolio

so cheers from this interior design firm san diego

I have been putting a lot of thought into this and I am to be honest, I’m on the fence about this. I understand that people want to re-use products and recycle to not harm the environment. I really get this but to the average homeowner or business owner what does this really mean? I have looked into having solar panels put on my own house but they are so expensive that I can’t justify the cost. The cost is between $40,000 to $50,000. I, like a lot of people would be excited to be off the grid but the upfront cost is too much. It reminds me of the cell phones in the early days. Originally they cost over $800 each and now they have come down in price. When solar power panels drop in price- in the $2000 to $5000 range, I think there will be an explosion in the demand.

I also looked into a tankless waterheaters Here is another product that is great if there is only two people but when there are more it becomes difficult to make it work. If people ask, I suggest a 70 gallon water heater and a re-circulation pump. The re-circulation pump will keep hot water flowing throughout the house. This is similar to hot water on demand.

I have been incorporating in my designs two green products- I use interfaceflor tiles instead of long rolls of carpet. This is an amazing product when you have kids and/or pets. You can see them at www.interfaceflor.com. The reason I like them is that if you have a spot or stain you can’t get out, you just change the square out, go to your local UPS store and Interfaceflor will pick up the shipping cost.

I also have been using bamboo for cabinet material. I really like how they have come out. I am just finished with a home and there are two bathrooms with the bamboo cabinets.

I have not ruled out using the green products, I like most people are taking a look at the products and trying them out first before I recommend them to clients.