Monday, June 01, 2009
We had the awesome opportunity for a little Q + A with Denise Hopkins, owner of Eden Environments, a sustainable design center in Grand Rapids. Design can come from anywhere, but we love it especially when it is "green!" Enjoy!
Q: What is Eden Environments?
Eden Environments Sustainable Design Center - your personal professional green experts. Eden Environments is your resource for sustainable information, design, and products. We are constantly researching new concepts, ideas, and products and are eager to share that knowledge. We offer architecture, interior, and landscape design from designing a new building to helping you choose a wall color, or anything in between. Our products range from denim insulation to flooring, counters, wall coverings, paints and stains, fabrics, furniture, and even organic household cleaners.
Q: Where did your passion for sustainability come from?
I grew up in the country and loved the woods around our family weekend cabin. Gardening has always been a therapeutic and rewarding pastime. As an architect, it became clear that traditional methods of building were harming our environment and ourselves. So the combination of all these things led to studying how we could create environments that are good for us and not do harm to our shared environment. Discovering that it was not difficult and that the results could be beautiful just demanded that I share this with others.
Q: What types of designers do you work with and where are they from?
We work with individual designers and designers that work for large design firms. Since we are sustainability specialists, we can provide information and resources that other designers may not have time to uncover. We find that we always learn from designers and their experiences, and that sharing information enriches everyone involved.
Q: What advice can you give to those who want to live green but don't know where to start?
Start at Eden Environments. We have done all of the research for you and can help you make good decisions for your personal environments and our shared global environment. Our experts are here to answer your questions or you can use our library to research and explore our discovery center filled with beautiful, healthy, sustainable materials. If we don't have the answer, we will find it for you.
pictures are from Eden Environments
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Even in the midst of your wedding bliss there is always an opportunity to help the enviroment you live in, even while registering for your wedding gifts! I highly suggest if you would like to decrease your carbon footprint, look into registering on All Green Wedding. This is a wonderful website that encourages brides to support their local community. The concept of All Green Wedding is that the bride registers with stores that All Green Wedding has listed online and the couple's gifts are actually monies that they can spend at stores within their local community. All Green Wedding has an array of merchants they are affiliated with on their website, it is a definitely worth checking into. Besides, what is better than being able to shop and help your local community AND your environment all at the same time? Our blushing bride will be falling in love with All Green Wedding before she can even say "I do"!
The Above Lovely Photo Is From The Following Venu: The Durham Ox
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