To help him accomplish this goal, New Living provided helped him choose and install non-toxic flooring materials and no-VOC paint. While paint is very important to indoor air quality, Dr. Warner was especially excited about his new floors. Marmoleum, a brand of natural linoleum, was installed in this dentist’s treatment area. This flooring option contains materials that are harvested sustainably and also help inhibit the growth of bacteria and microorganisms, helping the environment as well as people.

Dr. Warner spoke passionately, stating “I wanted to improve the environment and improve health at the same time”, He says, “and as we know, those two go hand-in-hand”. By taking care of ourselves, we also take care of our Earth, a concept that is a driving force for Dr. Ben Warner, as well as New Living.

We at New Living (and our friends at The Green Painter) are looking forward to the opportunities of the coming year, and have made the following New Year’s Resolutions.

1. We will continue to connect discerning customers with the best, healthiest, and greenest home and building products on the market. As part of this, we will continue to hold all suppliers responsible for having a positive social and environmental impact, and keep an eye out for new companies and products that do the same. We will continue to believe that business can be better, and that we are all interdependent, as promised in the B Corporation “Declaration of Interdependence.”

2. We will work harder to share our mission with the world. Our raison d’être is to educate consumers about the health, environmental, and social aspects of home and building products, and to help grow the market for quality and holistically responsible products. We will also work with painters, builders, designers, realtors, manufacturers — and anyone else who shares our goals — to create good, green jobs through education and professional development.

3. We want to be a louder and better voice for changing the ways businesses operate. We are for incentivizing responsibility in all industries, and hope there will be a day when all businesses look at their triple bottom line — people, planet, profit.

4. We will take a step back and look at our own operations, and critically assess whether our businesses are run in a way that is good for the community, the economy, and the environment. We believe that small changes can make a big difference, and that this is the aspect of our lives that should “never stop improving.”

5. Finally, we will turn to the large and growing community that works to improve Houston’s health, environment, and community. We will reconnect with old friends and make new ones, collaborating to make next year Houston’s best year ever.

Happy New Year from your friends at New Living!

A Benefit Corporation – or B Corporation for short – is a new type of business charter that allows businesses to prioritize having a positive social and environmental impact. Traditional corporations are legally bound to serve the short-term interests of their shareholders, often making this difficult. While many large corporations in America and around the world have entire departments dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility and giving back to the community, B Corporations actually use their business model to achieve these goals. This idea is clearly catching on across America, with 476 B Corps in 60 industries grossing over 2 Billion dollars a year!

B Corporations are assessed and certified by a non-profit called B Lab, which looks into the business’ operations, products and/or services, and — very importantly — mission. Certified businesses are audited regularly to make sure that compliance is taking place, and that the B Corporation brand is protected. Business owners sign the B Corporation “Declaration of Interdependence”, promising that the business ”is purpose-driven and creates benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.” Several states have recognized the uniqueness and potential in the B Corporation model, and have passed legislation to support businesses making these efforts.

As you may know, New Living is proudly a B Corporation. We were certified in January 2010 and have been working hard to do justice to the certification ever since. We start by offering green, healthy products and services — from our organic mattresses and furniture, to our sustainable and recycled building materials, to our relationships with quality designers, architects, and installers. The Green Painter, a more recent New Living spin off sells non-toxic paints and coatings and houses a Certified Green Painting service. We diligently screen our suppliers and subcontractors to make sure that your projects are as healthy and green as they can possibly be! In our day to day operations, we are also very careful to be socially and environmentally responsible. We recycle nearly everything, support small, local businesses when possible, and have transparent and equitable business practice policies.

Education is also an important part of our mission – and an important part of being a B Corp. We have programs training Certified Green Painters, and we would love to expand this type of training program to other professions. We also regularly hold environmental and health education events for the general public. We are always planning and expanding our educational programming, and have made it a priority to make Houston the most informed population as relates to healthy, green living.

For more information on B Corporations, please see B Lab’s website or just stop by either store. We’d love to talk to you about it!

This weekend, October 22 and 23 from noon to 6 pm, this self-guided tour features some of Houston’s most architecturally interesting homes, all designed by licensed architects. According to the AIA, “Houses are chosen to showcase a variety of design styles that excellence in design is not limited by size or dollars.”

You can participate in the tour for $25 dollars, or for $20 if you choose to bike between the homes!

Learn more about the AIA home tour and this neat little house at the AIA’s website.

The freshly painted KIAH Offices

KIAH table, painted with non-toxic paint

KIAH now has green, healthy offices

***Testimonial compiled by Whitney Moore***

Watch this video about New Living partnering up with Habitat for Humanity to help a family live in a healthy home from New Living on Vimeo.

“Going “green” has come to mean many things to many people, but to the folks at New Living, it is a social, environmental and economic lifestyle. The place itself, located in an old hardware store in Rice Village, specializes in building supplies, such organic bedding, nontoxic paints and nontoxic children’s furniture. Additional “green” services include chemical-free home cleaning, recycling pickup and professional consultations. Before stocking its shelves, New Living requires vendors to fill out a survey with questions about the social and environmental impact of their products, and asks about the companies’ labor standards and ethics. New Living then fact-checks the answers and displays the results next to each product, so buyers can better know what they’re purchiasing. Local venues such as Beaver’s Icehouse boast nontoxic paint from New Living, and the Moody Gallery used the store’s tiles, made from 100 percent recycled glass, in its new kitchen.”

If you’ve ever wanted to vacate your house for a few days due to fumes from a new paint job, take heart. If you’ve ever wished your Houston tap water were healthy, you’re in luck. If you’re tired of the same old choices in countertops for your kitchen, your time has come to join the growing number of enlightened consumers who are discovering New Living.
Yes, that Wagner Hardware store in the Village that generations of Houstonians relied on for old-school solutions to homeowner headaches is now the resource for healthy solutions to some of the same headaches. Meaning you can still buy paint, but this paint won’t drive you from home with toxic fumes. Say goodbye to the days of being considered a weenie if you complained about chemical smells. Say hello to the world of non-toxic cleaning products and mattresses, sustainable cabinets and flooring, even organic baby products.
With a passion for Houston’s ability to innovate and inspired by those hip dwelling magazines, Jeff Kaplan and his partners thought it might be smart to give Wagner Hardware new life as a healthy alternative. At its one-year anniversary, it’s looking smarter than ever. Don’t expect to find nuts and bolts. Do expect to find a water filtration system that renders Houston tap water healthy and even good-tasting (which is no mean feat when you see all the stuff it has to extract), an exciting array of counter tops you’ve probably never seen before (including one manufactured right here in Houston from recycled Ship Channel glass), a demonstration of how much electricity an eco light bulb saves over a regular one (as shown by an electricity meter just like the one you have on the side of your house) and other outside-the-box options for a healthy and sustainable home.
If there were LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications for stores like there are for buildings, New Living would have it. What it does have is B Corporation certification. Loosely referred to as the corporate equivalent of LEED certification, it’s the commitment to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Lofty ideals for a retail store? It’s an indication that the folks at New Living see their endeavor as much more than that. And they’re not alone. It’s one of a growing number (in hip cities like New York and LA) of collaborative spaces where green architects, designers and even the occasional counter-top manufacturer are co-habitating for the good of all. You can read a New York Times article about that at www.newliving.net under “about us” while you’re seeking more enlightenment about New Living. 6111 Kirby Drive (713) 521-1921

Define is being built out with the talents of Aj Smith from Forsite Studio, a New Living coworker. Here are some of their renderings.