Second opinion on ‘Going Green’

Re “Going Green” [Jan. 6]: I am the founder and owner of the Electric Lodge, a solar-powered visual and performing arts center in Venice. I disagree with your assessment of the Rosens’ renovation. This project was, in large degree, not eco-friendly. They installed many nonrenewable products, such as slate. Slate is a mined product, which, of course, does not regrow and is tremendously damaging to the environment to obtain. “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things,” the book by architect William McDonough and Michael Braungart, will inform your readers of how our society should think if we, as a civilization, want to last more than the next 50 years. Are we going to leave environmental debt to our children? Or are we going to add to our ecosystem’s prosperity?

Dr. Joel Shapiro

Venice

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Thank you for providing resources that will help consumers make more informed green choices. This spring, the Woodworkers’ Guild of Southern California and TreePeople will host an exhibition called “Good Wood: Furniture and Objects From Sustainable Materials.” This show will explore the use of salvaged, recycled and certified well-managed lumber as an alternative to conventional wood sources.

The show’s purpose is to offer an opportunity for fine woodworkers to exhibit work made with environmentally sound materials and methods, and to address the issue of sustainability through design. As woodworkers, we are particularly concerned with the dwindling biodiversity and shrinking world forests.

“Good Wood” will open at the Pasadena Museum of California Art on April 7, and at TreePeople’s new sustainably designed conference center in Beverly Hills on May 1. For information, go to www.woodguildsocal.com.

Cindy Vargas

Vargas is a member of the Woodworkers’ Guild of Southern California, based in San Pedro.