hen we think about the comfort of our homes or workplaces, indoor air quality (IAQ) often isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. We’re quick to consider aesthetics, energy efficiency, or even layout, but the air we breathe inside these spaces, which plays a crucial role in our well-being is often ignored. With most people spending about 90% of their time indoors, IAQ can directly affect our health, mood, and productivity. And here’s the kicker: the materials used in your building or renovation project can make or break your indoor air quality.

At Small Planet Supply, we believe that creating healthier indoor environments starts with smarter choices in building materials. Let’s dive into how you can make those choices to improve your IAQ and, ultimately, your quality of life. 

With all the emphasis on the importance of designing energy-efficient buildings, it can sometimes get lost that there also needs to be a qualified workforce to build them.  There can also be the assumption that this can only be done at the post-secondary level.  Rancho Cielo’s building construction academy in Salinas, California demonstrates that solid construction skills can be taught to even younger participants.  Rancho Cielo Construction Academy is one of several vocational programs run by Rancho Cielo. Participants in the program range from ages 16-24 years of age.

As the evolution of high-performance building evolves, the focus on carbon has increased from not just measuring how much energy a building uses to operate, but also measuring the amount of carbon used in constructing a building as well as end of life carbon cost.  Luckily, a product you may already know can help you manage your carb(on)s. That product is ThermaCork. 

Small Planet Supply has been selling ThermaCork Decorative cork since 2013.  While we know how fabulous it is, we forget to share what makes this building/decorative product so special.  Here are the top five reasons why we love ThermaCork decorative cork.

ThermaCork continues to be a very popular product with Small Planet Supply customers. Between the natural beauty and impressive insulative value, there is certainly a lot to love about this 100% natural product. One great thing not everyone is aware of though is how ThermaCork has a less than zero carbon footprint. This negative carbon footprint is an important part of the fight against climate change and ThermaCork is a great way to help bring down the overall carbon footprint of a building.

Do you have a project that you think would be perfect for ThermaCork, but the only thing holding you back is the color of finished product? If you have ever wondered about the viability of painting, staining, or sealing our ThermaCork Façade panels, hopefully the results of this ongoing backyard test can answer your questions.

If you’re just tuning in to this test, you can find the original article here, and there is a quick recap on the methodology below. If you’re returning to see the results after the last check-in, feel free to skip ahead!

Do you have a project that you think would be perfect for ThermaCork, but the only thing holding you back is the color of finished product? If you have ever wondered about the viability of painting, staining, or sealing our ThermaCork Façade panels, hopefully the results of this backyard test can answer your questions.

The Issue

While ThermaCork makes a wonderful insulator and is a great option for a natural exterior façade, the plain color of it is not always for everyone. When left in its natural state, ThermaCork ranges from a dark brown to a light tan. This color variance comes from natural variance between cork harvests, and from environmental changes in the final installed location such as humidity, temperature, and exposure to sunlight.

I’ve been a hobby beekeeper for several years, and I’m always looking for ways to help my bees survive the myriad of challenges they face. To that end, I’ve tried to design hives that mimic the honey bee’s natural log homes as much as possible. Back in January, I wrote a guest post for Small Planet Supply about our experiments keeping honey bees in cork insulated beehives.

stumbled on Thermacork while searching for a natural alternative to foam insulation for my beehives. I had been building hives out of two inch thick lumber, but it was heavy and didn’t really offer that much more insulation despite its additional weight and expense. After using Thermacork on my hive’s roof, I thought, “Why not coat the whole hive with this wonderful stuff?” So I did, and Cork Hives was born.

In this blog post, Small Planet Supply’s Josh Palmer explains how builders and homeowners can confidently use cork in their building assemblies.

If you’re someone whose fallen in love with natural properties of ThermaCork but are unsure whether you can use it to insulate your home, then this blog post is for you!   As we’ve outlined in previous blog posts, cork has been used for hundreds of years as an insulation material and ThermaCork is composed of 100% cork, is carbon-negative and has no chemicals added in production.  Builders and homeowners who are considering cork may worry whether using cork as insulation puts them at risk for developing mold.  The simple answer is no, if the wall assembly is done correctly.  More details about mold, mold prevention and correct wall assembly are outlined in this blog post. 

Liz Miller is our guest blogger this month. She is using ThermaCork to build beehives in Washington state. In this interesting blogpost she details the inspiration for and creation of Cork Hives as well as the origin of her love of bees.

It’s all over the news: Pollinators, including the honey bee, are in trouble. Commercial beekeepers, despite feeding and medicating their bees, lost 40% of their hives last year. Hobby beekeepers often fare worse, losing all of the hives in their small apiaries each winter.

I've always loved insects, but I think my fascination with bees started when I was a little girl living in San Jose, California, and our neighbors kept honey bees.