Shared By Dan LipskyIt seems that almost everyone is trying to do something to help the environment these days. Whether you are taking online classes to reduce the number of papers generated and to eliminate commute time or are trying to find ways to live greener, there is something you can do-even while living in a dorm. Take a look at the following tips to learn what you can do to green your dorm life. Decorating and FurnishingYour dorm room is a reflection of your personality, so how it looks is important to many people. Learn how you can decorate and furnish your dorm room so that it looks great and is good for the environment. 1. Live plants. Unless it is against your dorm rules, invest in a few live plants for your dorm room. Not only will it add a personal touch, but plants are a great way to improve indoor air quality. 2. Go used. While the shiny new stuff at the big box stores looks enticing, it is so much better to go retro and get used stuff instead. Visit a thrift shop or check out craigslist to see what is available. 3. Buy locally. Don’t mess with shipping or otherwise transporting a ton of stuff from your parents’ house to your dorm. Instead, buy locally to save on the transportation to and from each dorm move. 4. Get it free. Check out listings such as Freecycle or Freesharing that provide free classifieds full of stuff people don’t want anymore. 5. Recycled furniture. Get creative with your furniture and use recycled parts to make awesome, unique furniture. One idea is to place an old door across two file cabinets for an instant desk. 6. Photos. Decorate your walls with personal photos. Either tack them up on their own or create easy and fun frames out of anything from tin cans to leather belts. 7. Bulletin board. Make a bulletin board out of old wine corks for a one-of-a-kind board that costs almost nothing and keeps corks out of the landfill. 8. Organic bedding. Find sheets, blankets, and pillows that are organic when purchasing bedding for your dorm room. 9. Convert a halogen torchiere lamp. A simple conversion can turn a hot halogen lamp into a cool, green compact florescent one that looks great too. 10. Love your small space. Dorm life means you have limited space. Use this situation to practice reducing waste and curbing consumerism. You’ll find your space is not only cleaner, but you are living greener. ConservationThese tips offer great ways to conserve energy and water in your dorm. 11. Hang dry clothes. Not all your clothes need to be dried in a dryer. In fact, some clothes actually do better when not dried that way. Buy a sturdy drying rack and use it for drying t-shirts, cotton and linen clothes, and lingerie. 12. Cold water. Wash laundry in cold water to save on the energy needed to heat water. Unless you have stubborn stains or odors, cold water will get your clothes clean. Cold water also preserves the life of your clothes so they last longer. 13. Full load of laundry. Throwing a blouse or a pair of pants alone into the wash is a waste of water, energy, and detergent. Make sure you are running a full load of laundry each time you use the washing machine. 14. No air conditioning. If you can, try to get by without air conditioning. If this isn’t possible, turn down the A/C while you’re away instead of turning it all the way off. It will take less energy to get it back up to a comfortable temperature. 15. Energy-efficient refrigerator. Refrigerators run constantly and require lots of energy to stay cool. Be sure the refrigerator you purchase for your dorm room is energy efficient. 16. Showers. Save both water and energy when you take shorter showers. 17. Report leaks. Immediately report any leaks such as dripping toilet, sink or shower to maintenance. A leak can waste incredible amounts of water in a short time. 18. Water off. Don’t keep the water running while brushing your teeth or shaving. Instead, turn off the water until you need it again. 19. Power strips. Connect all your electronic devices to power strips, then turn everything off with the flip of a switch when you are not in your room. 20. Sleep computers. Use less energy to power your computer by putting your computer in sleep mode after 15 minutes and turning it off at night. 21. Light bulbs. Whenever possible, switch the light bulbs in your room to energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs. 22. Natural light. If you get natural light from your windows, make sure your overhead lights are turned off whenever possible. Personal Care ProductsWhile making your own toothpaste and hair conditioner might not appeal to everyone, these tips are great ways to save the environment by eliminating packaging, transportation, and harmful chemicals. 23. No dryer sheets. If you want your laundry to smell fresh without the chemicals of the dryer sheets, put a few drops of an essential oil on a wash cloth and throw it in with your clothes. 24. Cleaning products. Clean your dorm with simple and all natural products such as baking soda, vinegar, tea tree oil, or lemon juice. 25. Dusting. Use an old piece of clothing or old towel to dust. Instead of one-time-use dusting clothes full of chemicals, these reusable rags can easily be thrown in the laundry with your clothes. If you miss your furniture polish in a can, try a natural version using olive oil instead. 26. Toothpaste. Skip the tube of toothpaste that uses manufacturing, packaging, and transportation to your store and use homemade toothpaste with baking soda and water. 27. Body scrub. Make a simple, yet luxurious, body scrub with just a bit of oil, sugar or salt, and a few drops of essential oil for scent. 28. Shampoo. No matter what hair type you have, there is a recipe for eco-friendly shampoo you can easily make right in your dorm room. 29. Hair conditioner. Another way to save on packaging and manufacturing is to make your own hair conditioner with simple ingredients such as eggs, avocado, honey, or yogurt. 30. Facials. For the ultimate in pampering, make your own facial scrubs that are also earth-friendly. 31. Mouth wash. Make your own eco-friendly mouthwash using herbs, mineral water, and essential oils. Purchasing, Preparing, Disposing of FoodFrom buying organic food to spearheading a community garden for the whole dorm, these tips will have your dorm eating green in no time. 32. Crock pot. For simple cooking in your dorm room that uses very little electricity, try a crock pot. 33. Organic. You can be even greener by purchasing organic foods to cook in your crock pot. 34. Buy in bulk. Bulk products usually have less packaging material and cost less. Even better, split up the bulk products with other students and share costs. 35. Drink tap water. Bottled water not only requires manufacturing of the plastic bottle, but shipping that sometimes takes those bottles from half way around the world. 36. Water bottle. Use a reusable water bottle for that tap water you will be drinking instead of paper or styrofoam. 37. Purchase locally. Purchase from local grocery stores. If the local stores don’t have a location within walking distance, ask them to consider a campus-accessible store. 38. Skip the packaging. Some stores already have stopped packaging their produce. Try foregoing the produce bag and take a reusable produce bag for those times when you really need one. 39. Whole foods. Whole foods are those not processed that come straight from the source. These foods require less manufacturing and don’t have lots of added chemicals. 40. Eat locally. When you choose locally grown food, you are cutting out tons of transportation and handling that may harm the environment. 41. Community garden. Put your leadership skills to work and organize a community garden at your dorm. The food grown in the garden can be supplied to the dining hall. Reduce, Reuse, RecycleFollow these tips to reduce, reuse, and recycle around your dorm. 42. Compost. Create a compost for food scraps for the dining hall and the dorm. The compost generated from this project can be used in a community garden or donated to a local charity. 43. Community board. Set up a community board for your dorm that facilitates swapping items so that used furniture, clothes, and gadgets don’t end up in the landfill. 44. Recycling bin. If your dorm doesn’t have a recycling program, set up one complete with bins throughout the dorm and a way to get the recycling picked up or delivered to a recycling center. 45. Batteries. Old batteries that go to landfills leak dangerous chemicals into the soil, so set up a collection bin in the dorm and take them to a recycling center instead. 46. Cartridges. Used ink jet cartridges are also harmful for landfills. Put a recycling bin next to the battery bin so you can collect cartridges to be refilled and reused. 47. Rain water. If your dorm doesn’t have a rain water collection system, work with the school to start one. They are simple to install and provide free water for your community garden or any other landscape usage. 48. Recycled paper. When purchasing paper for your schoolwork, make sure it is recycled. Also, when you are finished with the paper, put it in the recycling bin. 49. Bags. Take reusable bags with you to the store. If you forget and end up with plastic or paper bags, reuse them in creative ways. 50. Rechargeable batteries. Whenever possible, select rechargeable batteries in your electronic devices. This reduces the number of batteries that need to be recycled or might make their way to the landfill. Shared By Dan Lipsky

The bamboo tree is an amazing plant. It belongs to the broad category of the grass family. Giant bamboos are the largest of this category. Bamboos are the fastest growing plants known to mankind. They can grow, depending on the soil conditions and climates, from two to three feet in a day at their maximum rate of growth. If one is looking for a replenishable, natural material for everyday use, bamboo is an ideal material. In some countries and cultures, especially in Asia, products made from this plant are looked upon as highly versatile raw material. It is a renewable product with thousands of uses for your home and kitchen, including cookware.

Bamboo-based products have recently become a common sight in modern kitchen and dining rooms. New ways to process bamboos and manufacture kitchen utensils, plates, bowls and cutting boards are remarkable. Natural materials and food-safe lacquer and natural oils are used for the production of these eco-friendly replacements for plastic materials used in the past. They are better than other wood products because they are resistant to heat and moisture, durable but still lightweight, and very affordable, which might very well be its most attractive quality for many people. Its simplicity and natural look also make for very attractive additions to anyone’s home.

If you are concerned about the environment and the effect that the products you use may have on it, then you should probably look into buying products made from this material. This is because it is biodegradable, so it is eco-friendly and not harmful to the environment. You should probably also look into buying bamboo cookware if you are concerned about the health of you and your family because many cookware materials can leach into the food being prepared on it. If the material is toxic, then the food will also be harmful. This is true for the chemical compound bisphenol A conventionally contained in plastics, which can have very harmful effects to a person’s health.

Concerns have also been raised about the material that conventional non-stick pots and pans are made with, and this type of cookware can be found in almost everybody’s kitchen. When heated to high temperatures, toxic fumes are created which are known to kill birds and cause a flu-like illness in humans. Therefore, safer and healthier cookware alternatives are frequently sought out and desired. Products made from bamboos are a perfect example. These modern natural bamboo products are attractive, safe to use, and easy to clean and maintain.

Roll forming can be used to form all kinds of ferrous and non-ferrous International roll forming Inc. is over 40 years old roll forming company and has served many with its compatible range of roll formed parts with great attention to tolerances. Situated at Deptford, New Jersey we have manufacturing units in New Jersey and Utah. We can produce impossible roll formed Shapes, Parts & Products with advanced tooling techniques taking utmost care of precision tolerance to meet your demands at a very affordable rates. We are noted for our expert management, design staff and for our experience in the roll forming field. Our in-house tool and dying facility assure highest standards with effective cost. Expertise in the metal roll forming process, coupled with our state-of-the-art roll forming equipment, produces effective parts.

It is a family owned business, meaning it puts great values on building long-lasting relationships. Our highly capable staff, who has been associated with us for over decades, as a result of our steady cordial collaboration, can consult with you to develop a customized production plan to cater to your business needs. Our capability of eliminating multi-secondary work with our in-line capabilities allows us to produce many parts, which otherwise is not possible in other manufacturing operations. We also perform cost efficient conservations from other processes such as stamping to roll form and extrusion to roll form. At International roll forming Inc. we combine expert knowledge, sound design solutions, in-house tooling facility and experienced roll forming personnel to develop cost effective parts.

Considering rapid usage of existing energy resources International roll forming Inc. has installed a solar energy system at its 65,000 roll forming plant in Deptford NJ. International Roll forms leveraged stimulus money to create a competitive advantage for the Company while supporting the new green economy.

Our interactive web-site allows its visitor to have complete access. On-line order and request form enables us to have detailed record of the needs of our esteemed clientele. We adhere to the norms of privacy policy of an on-line visitor. The data gathered during the visit is treated confidential and is not passed on to the third parties. We use technology for the betterment and enhancement of our associates. We have served to industries such as appliance, automotive, construction, furniture, mining, transportation to name a few. A complete picture of our products and expertise can be obtained by visiting our web-site.

One of the most important pieces of furniture to be purchased for any home is the dining set chairs, tables, and others. It’s the statement to make in any dining room as it is the centerpiece of any activity that will take place in the room. These days, there are lots of options available for dining sets and one that’s making waves at the moment is eco friendly dining furniture. Eco friendly, or green, furniture is home furnishing made of tolerable materials or recycled materials. It can also be made from recycled furniture, or pieces that’ve been repurposed or reconditioned into something new. Recycled materials are sometimes obtained from business and buyer wastes, while sustainable materials are natural products that grow at a fast rate quicker than it is consumed, so it is easily renewed. Furniture that is free from dangerous poisons and chemicals at any time in its manufacturing are also considered eco friendly. Dining furniture is not one to be left out in the eco friendly sphere. Over the years, more makers are concerned in the production of furniture that’s simpler in the world and with fashionable, complicated designs to boot. Bamboo Bamboo is one of the greenest and most supportable furniture options available out there. Except for the indisputable fact that it is easily replaceable and freely available, it a strong and sturdy option for your dining room. With today’s take on furniture, there are definitely heaps of well designed bamboo furniture options available. Wicker is one of the most well liked furniture materials. Wicker dining furniture is best utilised for outside dining areas like patios, gardens and backyards as it is all-weather and highly sturdy. Recycled Furniture Sometimes, old furniture is recycled and remodeled into something entirely new. This is another good way to go green with your dining room furniture selecting sets and pieces that are made of repurposed material. Wood, particularly hard wood, isn’t simply renewable and with the amount of trees being put out today, brand spanking new wood is a hurtful choice. Eco friendly dining furniture does not have to spell recycled or reused. Actually in this day of improved and modern design, you may be certain that whatever eco friendly choices you’ve made will still look like new. Make your dining furniture statement with elan and environmental consiousness. Selecting the Perfect Dining Furniture Dining furniture will be among the largest though not necessarily most costly pieces that you will buy for your house. That is why choosing furniture for the dining room is no joke . You have an just about infinite set of options for which furniture you may purchase . Here are the main things that you must consider : You may be drawn to a massive, flamboyant solid wood dining table, but it may not be practicable for a family of 4 on a single-floor unit. Likewise, you must also consider the number of guests that you frequently have in your place. If folks or good friends drop by often for dinner, your dining furniture should be prepared to seat and accommodate them nicely, too. For more seats ( and plates ), get a rectangle or an oval table. If guests are limited and your family size is small, a round or square table can already be apt. 3. It is sturdy, straightforward to customise, and quite comfy. But you also have a batch of other alternatives, including glass-topped tables, rattan or local weave materials, and even metal or clear PVC. It’ll all rely on your taste and budget. Comfort this is an essential factor because you’ll be eating meals, and possibly having chats and connecting moments round the dining table. Your chairs and table should be of proportionate height so that guests are not mooching down or lifting their arms too high as they eat. The chairs should have adequate space between each other and must be cushty to sit on to, without being to slide-prone. It might be best if all the furniture in your room are matched and coordinated in style, but having them in different colors and decorations will surely have its charm too. More than being a place to have meals in, having quality dining furniture would also mean having a very conducive space for bonding with the family over food. Why Invest in Dining Furniture If you are starting to get a bigger family, or you are looking to upgrade your home, you need to definitely consider getting new dining furniture. More than being just a group of chairs and a table, having quality pieces in your dining area would make all the difference not solely to the room, and additionally to your family. Think about investing in dining furniture as a way of saving in the long run. Quality furniture of good prices would usually be made from extraordinarily durable materials, like solid hardwood. You’ll notice in antique and second hand shops that hardwood can persist for many years without losing much of their strength and beauty. When you get solid pine furniture, you would not need to replace them or keep bringing them in for repairs. Additionally, a great set of dining furniture would turn mealtimes into a much more enjoyable experience for you and your family. An enormous table and comfortable chairs will accommodate not just more space, but also more talks and memorable moments. At a chilled dining atmosphere, kids would be encouraged to spend longer at the table and share stories with their mother and father. These could all be made feasible not just with warm meals, but with solid, snug dining furniture. One thing to note is this : dining furniture is not even limited to a table and chairs it may also mean further pieces like a side table or a shelf for the dining room. Taking such pieces into consideration would furnish your dining area well and also provide you great convenience. So when you finally sit down and start that list of must-haves for your house – make sure to include quality dining furniture. These won’t only last through different trends and tastes, they may also become more enticing and pretty with age. They can even last long enough to be family antiques you can pass on to future generations.

Certified Sustainable Wood? Murmur ‘furniture’ and it opens up your imagination with vivid pictures of retro and modern furniture in sundry materials. Wood, fabric, steel, glass and processed material like Methacrylate, high-density fiber?the most common being wood?accepted world over for its natural charms. There are options to meet the fancy and demands, and the choices are good for you, for me, good for everyone. Let’s say the world needs trees?they help with the natural balance. They hold the soil together, they cool up the planet surface and they help with the food chain. ?We have been debating over using wood from sustainable harvested forests, sustainably harvested tree farms, and reclaimed wood being the main sources. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and its largest forest certifier, the Rainforest Alliance, is the most widely used standard for sustainable forestry. Relating to the theme, I found a couple of designs that appealed for the right reasons. . . The Baltic coffee table rocks for its antique features and green theme. Crafted with harvested Solid Wood-Durian Timber, it goes well with the light hearted and conventional buff alike. . . the ring-shaped handles on the drawers look great, and the low-slung design demands attention. . . . Then we have the Tua Glass Doors Media Stand?a unique combo of utility & bygone charms?the furniture retains antique looks in modern form. Intelligent furniture. . . . Turning away from antique looks, lets focus on contemporary green furniture. . . . the Loft media center, for instance. Designed diligently to store and display, it carries elements of sound architecture to make flawless furniture. Also deserves a mention is the Loft Modern Dining Table with its watertight features that add a contemporary touch to the overalls. . Furniture made with reclaimed materials A stitch in time saves nine. Wood, as precious as it is, if taken care of, can last for a long time. Remember the legendary wood furniture tales passed on by grannies as it being preserved since long time. I think there is great substance in preserving wood. Why shouldn’t we make good use of all the wood that’s already out there? It’s the right way and many designers are doing a wonderful job out of reclaimed wood. Reclaimed wood is the wood that usually is retrieved from old furniture, houses and other wooden articles, as also from left over sraps in a factory. Some stuff even comes from the bottom of the riverbed, wooden logs that sink to the bottom while being transported to the sawmill, and even from the bottom of the man-made reservoirs. Either way, furniture made from reclaimed wood is a great example of resource efficiency, but usually comes in shorter supply. The Rainforest Alliance has a Rediscovered Wood Certification label to look for. Spacify line of AZCAST collection is committed to crafting furniture out of reclaimed material, crafting attractive and useful furniture and goods that are ultimately recyclable themselves; indeed, when an unfinished product is rejected, it is simply recast and used again. Most of its designs are worth mentioning. . . the 5-Star Glass Dining Table, for instance. Made from aluminum used in aircraft parts (among other sources) is hand-poured into casts to produce the desired moldings. The clean minimal design hits a cord with furniture buffs as each piece is hand-molded, hand-poured, and hand-finished. Bamboo?great grass for furniture!Bamboo is a highly aesthetic grass used to decorate, build and landscape. It represents a family of grasses that range in size from a blade, growing up to many feet, and varying in color from jade green to maroon stripes. It grows incredibly fast and is highly versatile. As a matter of fact, it is the favorite with environmental designers and builders. The beauty of bamboo lies in its flexibility. It can be flattened into flooring, shaped into furniture, compressed into veneers, sliced up to make window blinds. To get to extremes, you can even build a whole house out of it. Using bamboo in buildings earns architects and builders LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Designs) points. Most organic bamboo is grown in China, sometimes grown with few or at best, no pesticides. Because it grows fast, it is much easier to maintain a healthy bamboo forests. This also means it uses a lot of water, however, and harvesting too fast can deplete soil fertility. But for the most part, bamboo is one of the greenest materials around. In line with the concept, I recently came across Spacify’s Legare furniture and makes it here for all eco-friendly reasons. Made with Birch-plywood, it is worth noting that producing plywood yields 8-10 times more usable wood from a log as against solid lumber. Plywood furniture has greater potential to outlast solid wood furniture. And the energy utilized in converting wood from a raw material to a finished product is minuscule as compared to any other industrial material. Some examples. . . . The Dante Straight Desk made from 13-ply Baltic Birch Plywood is an FSC-certified 60″ desk offering generous room for storage & study. A stupendous test carried out at Entela Labs showed that the furniture managed to load an incredible 2000 pounds (one ton) of shot bags and weights on Legare’s Corner Desk with no structural damage!Plywood furniture has been around for a little over 100 years and its manufacturing techniques have been explored by a handful of designers including Aalto, Eames, Danko, and Pfeiffer. The Enrico straight desk goes on to prove just why. The modular design allows you to lock multiple units together to form a single, rigid workspace. The assembly is easy?without screws and bolts. The Bice Peninsula adds that extra bit of deep handy desk space and is great for two-way meetings. The 31″ Peninsula adds approx 31″ of deep, end-cap width to an existing desk. The asymmetric panels are reversible, allowing left/right-hand unit to be attached to either side any desk or to an extension. The Zita Modern Media Stand is a modular design flaunting four 8-high bays for audio/video components. The top can hold Plasmas/LCDs up to 50 cm in size. For surround sound systems, the center divider is recessed to allow a small center-channel speaker to be ideally placed under the TV and it has storage for more than 120 DVDs or 170 CDs on its four outer shelves. Recyclable and disassemblableThe world would look so much better, and us, we would feel a little more at ease with green furniture speaking the universal language of eco-friendliness. The concept gains popularity for its equanimity and practicality, FSC certified furniture rings for its obvious implications on mother earth. Means products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization established to develop guidelines and certification processes for ecologically sustainable forestry. Some examples of these products would be ones that can be easily disassembled, arranged, and recycled once they have lived their lives. Concrete furniture is out of fashion, in this context, and it means furniture that can’t be separated, may not be very inspiring. If it can’t be easily disassembled it’s probably a sign it can’t be repaired easily. For obvious reasons, we need to take a close look at the recyclable furniture we wish to buy. Is it robust, easy to assemble & most important?is it certified? Spacify’s Legare collection looks smart and I would like to highlight a few models. . . The norms being set, I like the Lucia Designer Extension Desk for its easy looks, easy assembly, practicality and robustness. Made with 3-Ply Baltic Birch Plywood, the Panels are asymmetric and reversible and the Bridges are designed to pull two desks together to make larger workspaces for two or more users. And yes, its really easy to get together. . . . Lia Office Corner Desk deserves a mention too. The corner desk is available in two dimensions; and holds it there; Entela Labs showed that the furniture managed to load an incredible 2000 pounds (one ton) of shot bags and weights with no structural damage! Adjustable shelving holds up to three 12″ shelves and three 24″ shelves. Great design. . . . less fuss. . . its FSCfied as well. . . Low-toxicity furniture ?Have you ever noticed new furniture or car with its peculiar odor?it’s what they call off gassing, emanation of volatile matter of any kind from materials into habitable areas. It’s not relatively new; when you buy a piece of furniture and set it down, it tends to off gas which is all right if the materials used are non-synthetic. Some synthetic materials are toxic and can be linked to birth defects, and even cancer. If your house is well insulated, toxins tend to circulate in the air and can be harmful. If you have children around and even pets that lick as a habit, it can be dangerous. One good idea while buying furniture is to check for ”Green guard certification”. It will ensure that you bring home low-toxicity furniture. Also, try to explore naturally treated furniture with natural wood finishes, or biologically tanned leather and organic cotton. Here are some fine examples of green grade furniture,Lectern Table Mobile Base is indoor air quality Certified? by the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute under the GREENGUARD Standard for Low Emitting Products. The metal mobile Base is a well-structured creation while top is made of smooth wood and is noteworthy for its unusual shape and fine edge all around. Meets or exceeds ANSI/BIFMA standards soft edge options protects the user (as well as the furniture) from damage. Team Table X-Base with metal pedestal and wood veneers top makes a style statement, made available in four Surface/Edge colors. It is designed to meet ANSI/BIFMA standards; soft edge options protect the user (as well as the furniture) from damage. Wood fiber core and veneer surface are 100% post-industrial recycle content. Jack Solo Office Table is right for tight spaces. The standard design with black modesty panel is intuitive to use and comes with four braking casters for mobility and control. The ADA compatible design has Single activation lever for flip-flop motion located under work surface.