• The new anti-LEED.
• Will the plastics industry kill LEED?
• Choosing and using your fridge efficiently.
• Where’s the money for energy-efficiency financing?
• Study: energy-efficient homes command higher prices.
• Willowdale Passive House among greenest in Canada.
• Affordability and livability in small spaces.
• Today’s Energy Star home is better.
• Climate change idiots.

NOTE – I’m a little behind last week from a flu bug that knocked me out but will be on track this week. Meanwhile, subscribe to our weekly newsletter for updates, article summaries, newsworthy links, and other site news.

You may recall the Aktiv prefab by Ideabox that we mentioned a few months ago.  The media picked up a thread on this modular home thinking it was an IKEA prefab but the reality is the home was built by Ideabox with a ton of IKEA products on the inside.  Ideabox is running what it’s calling “Ideabox Summer in the City” with an Aktiv on display at Cascade Station in Portland (down the road from IKEA Portland).  It’ll be on display through the first week in August with solar from Sunmodo and Solar World, a ductless heat pump from Fujitsu and The Heat Pump Store, and furnishings from IKEA.  Aktiv is priced from $87,000 with one bedroom, one bathroom, and 745 square feet.

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This is a rendering of a new form of sustainable development that will manifest itself in San Francisco in an infill project called SmartSpace SoMa. SmartSpace will have 23 micro-dwellings each with ~300 square feet of living area, 300 cubic feet of storage along a wall, and nine-foot ceilings. The project, which will be built with off-site fabricated modules from ZETA Communities, will also aim for LEED Platinum certification and near net-zero energy.

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As a follow up to our recent article about prefabs and tiny houses by ClearSpace Homes, I want to share this 182-square foot studio already built by the company. It’s a showroom for ClearSpace Homes, outfitted with a concealed fastener steel siding, Hardie lap siding, zero-VOC paints, strand woven bamboo floors, soy-based spray foam insulation, white modified rubber roofing, LED lighting, CFL lights, and reclaimed wood detail. The studio, which costs about $28,500, includes a built in desk, microwave, fridge, and storage.

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This new home — Neptune Norte — is located in Encintas just a stone’s throw from the beach.  The $6,995,000 beach pad has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, two half bathrooms, and about 5,347 square feet, but with the green features, Neptune Norte is supposed to use about 54% less energy than a new home built to the code.

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• Homes in varying shades of green.
• Sustainable life means tiny house is home.
• A home where you don’t have to turn on the heat.
• Outside the box: green homes in alternative packages.
• Light bulbs discontinued, replaced by energy-efficient units.
• Report: LED prices will be cut in half by 2020.
• Serious Energy hit by a spate of troubles.
• Is this the most airtight house ever?
• The sustainability paradox.

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