February 24th, 2009
The 10 Dumbest Green Buildings on Earth
Stumble it!
Written by Alex Felsinger, courtesy of Green Building Elements.com
While any structure built in a way that lessens its footprint is welcomed, some of the buildings that people try to turn green simply make no sense.
LEED certification, in all its greatness, does not take the building’s intended purpose into account; this leaves us with some hilarious, unabashedly self-contradicting buildings. Here are the ten of the most laughable green buildings:
1. BP’s Helios House Gas Station - Los Angeles, Cal.
Yes, there is an LEED-certified gas station. It’s actually a nice building, complete with rainwater collection, solar panels, recycled building materials, and LED lighting. However, don’t think you’ll be able to refuel with biodiesel or charge up your electric car—they’re only in the petroleum-dealing business. How green of them, right?
2. Justin Timberlake’s Golf Course/Lodge - Woodstock, Tenn.
So Justin Timberlake decided that he wants to buy a golf course and fix it up with an LEED-certified lodge. While it’s an improvement compared to most other golf courses, the fact remains that maintaining a golf course takes chemicals and lots of water. In the United States alone, golf courses total more than 1.7 million acres and consume around 4 billion gallons of water every day. How does a green lodge counteract the water used to maintain the course? Justin, if you really want to be green, you should have turned it into a wildlife sanctuary instead.
3. Nestle Pure Life Water Bottling Plant - Boiling Springs, Tenn.
While this isn’t the only LEED-certified water bottling plant, it’s listed for having the most greenwashed name. Ozarka, Arrowhead, Ice Mountain, and Deer Park water bottling plants also have LEED certifications of some sort, but they couldn’t compete with Pure Life in the name department. If anyone needs a reminder of why bottling water is a bad idea, here are five reasons to ditch the bottle. Oh, and Nestle as a whole won’t be getting an award for their treatment of the planet and its people any time soon.
4. Logan Airport Terminal A - Boston, Mass.
Activists in England have put their freedom on the line protesting against a third runway at the enormous Heathrow Airport; do you think they’d be more satisfied with the runway if the airport terminal was LEED certified, with solar panels and the whole bit? You’d be right to assume they wouldn’t, because whether they take off from a green building or not, airplanes are still one of the top causes of global warming.
5. Toyota Car Dealership - Rockwall, Tex.
While Toyota is almost synonymous with green when it comes to cars, in reality they’re not much better than any other car company. They have a full line of vehicles, including four-wheel-drive SUV’s, some of which are 8-cylinder. In fact, their entire fleet’s average gas mileage is worse than Chevrolet’s. Perhaps they should clean up their cars before trying to green their dealerships?
6. Antilia Tower - Mumbai, India
While this probably will not be LEED certified, it has been often mentioned as being one of the greenest building concepts on the planet. While it does look beautiful and will act as a giant carbon sink in the middle of the city, there’s a major problem: it will be the home of one family. No matter how green this building is, that is a complete waste of space in a city known for its overcrowding.
7. Civic Center Parking Garage - Santa Monica, Cal.
The only green parking garage I want to see would be located at a train or bus station for people to drop off their cars to finish their commute on mass transit. To quote every politician involved in the 2008 campaign, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”
8. Vacation Home Development - Las Vegas, Nev.
You only need one house, people! Granted that seven of these eight homes are 1/12 shares, these homes are being built in a desert (Las Vegas) and if anyone needs a water-capture system, it’s people who live there year-around. Simply due to their excess, vacation homes may be the least environmentally-friendly structures on earth.
9. Spaceport America - New Mexico
Another case of the rich attempting to make the rest of us think they’re doing the world a favor. Recreational space travel, at least with the current technology, is a huge and unnecessary carbon polluter. But hey, the spaceport will be LEED certified, so everything’s going to be fine, right?
10. Every Fancy New Building - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
I know, I know — I cheated on this one. I couldn’t pick just one since they’re all ridiculous for the same reason. The government is intent on making Dubai one of the biggest, most gaudy places on earth. Perhaps to compensate for unending excess, they’ve mandated that all new buildings must have specific eco-minded properties, but when you take all of it in at once, you know it’s nothing but a giant waste of resources.
Image Credits: (All Flickr under CC License) Top from J. Phil on Flickr. 1. danperry.com on Flickr 2. BP 3. Macon County, TN 4. MileageNYC on Flickr 5. Dushaun on Flickr 6. Concept illustration 7. City of Santa Monica 8. Emre Ersahin 9. Spaceport America 10. utpal. on FlickrPopularity: 5% [?]
February 20th, 2009
Build Your Own Free Tiny House with Shipping Pallets
Written by Brian Liloia, courtesy of Green Building Elements.com
Last week I talked about how to live simply and decrease your carbon footprint living in a tiny house. Even better than buying a tiny house is making your own, and Michael Janzen is blazing a trail with his free tiny pallet house. Not only is his house made out of recycled shipping pallets, it isn’t costing him anything to build. And lucky for us, he’s sharing his plans so you too can build your own tiny free house.
You can save money, sharpen your DIY skills, and further decrease your environmental impact by following Janzen’s example of building a free pallet house.
Keep pallets out of landfills
Here are some disturbing statistics about shipping pallets:
- Approximately 40% of all hardwood harvested in the U.S. is for making shipping pallets
- About two-thirds of pallets are used only once before being thrown out
- 1/4 of all wood in landfills is from used pallets
You can help prevent deforestation and keep pallets out of landfills by finding creative alternative uses for them, like building a house. Pallets can be found everywhere. Once you start looking for them, you’ll see them scattered all over your town or city.
Contact a local warehouse, supermarket, or any business that receives large shipments, and get permission to pick up their used pallets. Most companies are happy to give their pallets away.
Plans for a free pallet house
Janzen has made plans for building a free pallet house available on his website. These plans are a guide for building what he calls a disaster preparedness and emergency shelter. Janzen says:
As hurricane Gustav plowed across Cuba headed for the gulf coast of the United States memories of Katrina and the potential displacement of thousands got me thinking. I wanted to do something to help. It occurred to me that someone else might find what I now about building with shipping pallets useful in the coming weeks and months.
With some creativity, you may find that shipping pallets can be reappropriated in other ways to build your own free tiny house. For example, I have a friend that has disassembled shipping pallets and used the wood to build roof trusses for his straw bale building.
Ultimately, you can help prevent deforestation and keep pallets out of landfills by using them to build creative housing.
Think tiny and free!
Related Features:
GreenPods: Small, Lovely Eco-Homes
Green Weefab Mini-Homes
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Popularity: 7% [?]
February 14th, 2009
GreenPods: Small, Lovely Eco-Homes
If you are interested in green architecture then please spend a moment welcoming GreenPods on to the market. These are wonderful, small, highly eco-smart dwellings.
GreenPod Developmentis based in Washington and they seek to design and construct affordable, sustainable, modular homes. At right you see one of their “SoloPods”, but the also have other designs that are equally compelling. Below you see the model called the “Floating Pod.”
The Pod designs range from 300 to 800 square feet. But if you need additional square footage, the Pods can be joined or stacked. Pod designer Ann Raab uses movable walls, multi-use furnishings, lighting, and windows to visually enlarge the Pod’s living spaces.
The Pods boast many environmentally-savvy features. All Pods utilize passive-solar design principles to cut energy use. Every Pod features low air infiltration design,energy-efficient windows, energy saving appliances, low-flow plumbing and LED lighting. They also make extensive use of daylighting.
The uber-green can go beyond these elements and opt for such additions as greywater recycling, rain water storage, roof gardens or green roofs.
Currently GreenPods is working on projects in Washington and California, and they can also service Oregon. Founder Ann Raab told me that they hope to be able to serve more parts of the country next year. I also asked her about costs and she said that depending on the size and features one selects for the their Pod, the cost would range between $150-$250 per square foot.
In case you are in Washington, you can stop by the GreenPod showroom. It’s at Artisans on Taylor, which is located at 236 Taylor Street, Port Townsend, WA, 98368 (across from the Rose Theater).
Popularity: 18% [?]
February 1st, 2009
Straw Bale House Construction and Natural Building Internship
Written by Brian Liloia, courtesy of Green Building Elements.com
Are you interested in a hands-on straw bale building experience? As you know, there is no better way to learn than by doing. Red Earth Farms is an 80 acre, off-the-grid intentional community based in northeastern Missouri, composed of individual homesteads. Members strive to live ecologically - this means, of course, that members use natural building materials in their homes. Mark Mazzioti is one such individual building a straw bale house, featuring a pasive solar design, post-and-beam framing, and a cement-free rubble trench foundation. Mark, an experienced natural builder, is seeking interns for the upcoming 2009 building season. Here’s his strawbale house and natural building internship information:
Interested in straw bale house construction? Want some hands-on experience with natural building? Want to experience community life on an off-grid homestead? If your answer is “yes” to these questions, then this internship opportunity may be for you.
Red Earth Farms is an intentional community of homesteaders located on 76 acres of pastoral rolling hills in northeastern Missouri. We have in common a commitment to developing sustainable lifestyle skills such as local food production, permaculture and natural building. We’re looking to host interns during the 2009 building season (April-September) to help with our straw bale house.
The house you’ll help build
The building is based on current best practices in natural building and passive solar design. It has round pole post-and-beam framing and a cement-free rubble trench foundation. It features an earthbag stem wall, strawbale walls, and a pallet truss gambrel roof. It will be finished with a poured adobe earthen floor and earthen and lime plasters.
How you’ll be living
Camp style. We have great tent sites and a couple of small cabins that may be available. We eat meals together as a community in our outdoor kitchen. Our meals are mainly vegetarian, and you will be included in the cooking rotation as soon as you feel ready. We have two other intentional communities in our neighborhood. Sandhill Farm is a 30-year-old egalitarian community, and Dancing Rabbit is a 10-year-old ecovillage with forty-plus members. We have a tri-community potluck dinner once a week.
Your qualifications and experience
You need to have a good work ethic and be capable of physical labor. It would be great if you have some building experience but it’s not required. We will choose interns with the best overall fit for the program.
What you’ll get in the bargain
You’ll be working directly with an experienced natural building teacher and learning alternative building techniques. You’ll be eating with our food coop and all of your meals will be covered. You’ll get a place to camp or a cabin to stay in. We have a great swimming pond and a solar shower. You can use our wireless Internet, powered by wind and sun. You’ll get exposure to three intentional communities and access to our collective knowledge in the areas of growing food, permaculture, consensus decision making and community living.
What we’ll expect from you
30-35 hours of work per week, a good attitude and enthusiasm for learning. You’ll also need a way to get here and to wherever you’ll be going when you leave. Transportation from a train bus station in the area can be arranged.
The Bottom Line
This is a unique opportunity to get a bunch of natural building experience without paying for it. If you stick around long enough you could learn everything from earthen floors on up to finish plasters. The list of things you will be exposed to is broad: earthbags, strawbales, pallet trusses, passive solar, off-grid power, permaculture, cooking, and great vegetarian meals. You may even have the opportunity to help teach workshops in natural building. Other programs like this cost thousands of dollars.
How to contact us if you’re interested:
Email: markmazziotti@gmail.com
Or call: 660-883-5330
Popularity: 7% [?]
July 2nd, 2008
Green House Plans from FreeGreen
Think you can’t afford an architect to design your green dream home? Wrong-ola. Now you can get free green home plans from FreeGreen.
FreeGreen’s mission is clear and simple: ”At FreeGreen we hope to encourage progressive building practices by making green home designs free for everyone.” The company is able to provide these free designs because they make money from companies looking to promote their green home materials/products (e.g., flooring from FLOR, tankless water heaters from Rinnai, GE Energy Star appliances, etc.) To learn more about FreeGreen’s history and business model, click here.
This is really an amazing service– you just go to the site, find the home design you want, and download the plans. It is amazingly easy. The site is quite new and has some little bugs, but you can still really do a lot with it. (For instance to download you need to click on the “virtual tour” link for the house you want.) In addition to downloading the drawing set for your builder, you can download the energy performance data for the home you have selected. You can also get a Spec Book of the building products and finishes that can be installed in your home.
They have three house plans they are featuring now and they will be adding more as time goes on. The one pictured at right above is the “Suburban Loft,” which can be 1,200 to 2,600 square feet. I’m personally partial to the Smart Box, pictured at left. It can be 1,000 to 2,200 square feet. They also offer a more traditional looking “Healthy Family” home which can be 1,800 to 3,000 feet. And you can customize any of these designs to your geographic location and sizing desires. Check out all of the plans here.
Related features:
Green Prefab Homes: Prefabulous!
Find companies designing and building prefab homes here
If you’re looking for a builder in your area, don’t forget to check our nationwide directory of green builders here.
Popularity: 4% [?]
