At the end of September, I was in San Francisco to attend West Coast Green, the largest green residential building conference and exhibition in the United States. The conference boasted authoritative speakers on topics ranging from green architecture and building to kitchen remodeling and interior decorating. It also included a stirring and fiery speech by Robert Kennedy, Jr., lambasting the Bush administration and its corporate task masters for the roll-back of environmental laws and the indefensibly weak-kneed media that has lapsed in its civic duty to inform the public about matters that greatly affect our democracy, society, and environment. Yet, while vehement in his condemnation of corporate meddling in governmental affairs, Kennedy offered the refreshing viewpoint that businesses, operating within fully functioning free markets, can and will play key roles in creating long-lasting solutions to the environmental challenges we face. A good number of those solutions were on display throughout the three day event.

If toilet innovation can serve as any barometer of our ability to flush out calcified environmental behavior and introduce easy, smart solutions in their stead, then we are in for a clean green future. The folks at Sustainable Solutions International, a Canadian-based distributor of forward-thinking eco-friendly products, introduced the Caroma line of dual-flush toilets. Dual-flush toilets are equipped with two water chambers, a small chamber to flush down "number one's" and a larger chamber to sufficiently flush down "number two's". The simple, push-button flush action makes it easy to select the appropriate chamber and thus conserve water flow.

Water Saver Technologies offered its AQUS toilet unit to help conserve potable water. The AQUS can be retrofit into any bathroom and includes a water storage chamber installed inside the sink vanity that captures water from the drainpipe, filters it and then channels it to the toilet, via a hidden tube, to reduce or altogether eliminate, depending upon how often you go, the fresh water needed for toilet flushes. It's a simple, elegant conservation solution that requires absolutely no effort on anyone's part, save for the plumber who will need about an hour to install it.

Since heating our homes requires more energy than any other domestic task and greatly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring that our homes are well-insulated is a key step to conserve energy and save on energy bills. West Coast Green served as the U.S. launch pad for Lattitude, a company from New Zealand that offers all-natural home insulation made from pure wool. Sure, fiberglass insulation has some recycled content in it but most types contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogen that really ought to not be inside our homes anymore. Yes, some companies now offer recycled cotton denim insulation which is a fashionable idea and a much better thing to do with jeans than toss them in a landfill, but jeans, too are riddled with toxins and probably best left outside of our homes (you really thought that stonewash look comes from stones?) .

BioBased Insulation was also at West Coast Green to tout its soy-based spray foam insulation which is an amazing product made from annually renewable soybean oil. But what makes Lattitude's natural wool insulation truly stand out is wool's innate capacity to absorb and store formaldehyde particulates already present inside our homes. Since indoor air quality is notoriously poor in the United Sates - EPA studies indicate that indoor air quality is often significantly worse than outdoor air quality - and since our furniture, rugs and wallpaper are likely off-gassing formaldehyde as you read this, natural wool insulation, that can fight formaldehyde on our behalf, is the insulation winner.