Recently I was able to speak with Matthew Linden of ConsciousBuild, a San Luis Obispo-based company that’s trying to make an eco-friendly contribution to the luxury home and lifestyle market.  ConsciousBuild is ramping up a website to be launched in July that aims to provide podcasts, videos, and access to information on green building practices, techniques, and materials.  Their first project, ConsciousBuildOne, or CBOne, was designed in the vernacular of Contemporary American Farmhouse and flies in the face of the notion that a green building needs to take any one particular form or shape.  Serving as both a residence and office, Linden hopes CBOne will be used as an educational model for the latest in eco products, techniques, and technologies.  Here’s what’s planned for the building:

Read more »

The team at Diseño Earle was kind enough to pass along some info and images of their stunning design of The Eco Home — a knockout that’s aiming to be the first ‘zero carbon’ footprint home in Andalucia, or even Southern Spain for that matter!  D Earle designed the home with two objectives in mind: (1) zero carbon footprint, and (2) reduce operating costs to almost a self-sufficiency level.  The 6995 sf home, which is absolutely enormous, will be built with 75% less waste than a traditional design and operate 80% more efficiently than a similar sized home.  And although the home design was constrained by the narrow, non-flat site, you can tell there was no restraint in creating the ultimate, luxury, green pad. 

Read more »

[Update - video no longer available] Pardon the pre-roll on the video below, but the LA Times has some excellent interior / exterior footage of a Marmol Radziner Prefab being constructed in Venice, California.  As you can see, it was put together module-by-module with much of the interior already in place.  Regularly featured on the MR Blog, this house appears to be for Leo Marmol himself and has been referred to as the “Palms House.”  The Palms House is 2800 square feet, made with 13 modules, and includes 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a living room/dining room, kitchen, office, and a spacious deck/outdoor area.

It’s fun watching the video, because you can see Ron Radziner’s enthusiasm bubble inside as he explains one of his company’s newest creations.  These guys are having fun, you can just tell.

Read more »

You may have noticed recent news that Home Depot will be providing free, in-store recycling of CFLs at all of its U.S. stores.  But buried in that story is another interesting factoid — a tidbit of information in the likes of plucking the low hanging fruit.  Home Depot announced that they will be switching to CFLs at all U.S. Light Fixture Showrooms and expect to save roughly $16 million in annual energy costs.

This news isn’t all that sexy, but it’s important.  Make the switch, if you haven’t already and stop throwing money out the window.  With the low hanging fruit, it’s true: money grows on trees!

Read more »

So Chelsea Green was kind enough to pass along a copy of Stephen and Rebekah Hren’s new book officially titled The Carbon-Free Home: 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit.  As always, I’ve handled the book with care and will give it away to one lucky, random commenter below.*  To give you an idea of the quality material contained in the book, here’s a review comment from the green guru Bill McKibben: "It’s hard to imagine a more comprehensive, and comprehensible, guide to making your home work for you and for the planet, inside and out.  It’s frugal, it’s sensible, and it will help!"  I’d like to echo the comments of Bill McKibben myself, because this book is completely legit. 

Read more »