Green Building : Jetson Green

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Plans Green Solar Episode

What's Sunday evening without a little Ty Pennington and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?  I don't catch it every week, particularly if the Dallas Cowboys are on, but the program is a juggernaut for helping people in real need.  So we caught news that ABC was planning a green show for April 6 and were put in touch with the team doing a 5 kW solar photovoltaics installation.  They're using the Akeena Andalay system, which we mentioned previously was a Top 5 Green Building Product (as voted by the builders).  The Akeena Andalay system is pretty sharp, and Linda Panitz, a solar evangelist herself, was on the set with Akeena to install the system.  Here's our Q&A:

Re-Nest Hearts Us, We Heart Back!

There's a lot of positive stuff going on for Jetson Green these days and we're sure having fun keeping up.  Just this week, Stephanie from Apartment Therapy's Re-Nest gave me the grill on various green building topics and posted the "Green People" Q&A today.  We talk about my biggest green inspiration, my biggest green frustration, promising green building products, my favorite green building project, and finish it up with some green advice.  Don't miss the advice part -- you seriously need it!  Thanks Re-Nest!

[+] Green People: Preston Koerner (aka Jetson Green) [Re-Nest]

Eva Longoria Talks Candidly About Green Building

This is seriously lowbrow, and I'm embarrassed to join the likes of celebrity media, but ole' Mrs. Parker has something interesting to say about green building.  She's building a new home in San Antonio, Texas, and wants to go as green as possible.  But the builders have been giving her flack.  Apparently, the problems were so bad that the project was nearly at a standstill.  She said, "Everything is going to be environmentally friendly. We are going to install solar panels for part of the house. All our water is recycled for the lawn for irrigation. It was a fight with our builders; a lot of people don't want change. But it's worth it." 

You can do most things for the right price, so I can't understand the issue here, but maybe she flat out hired the wrong builder.  Lesson is, get people with experience.  Green building is high-quality building.  And Joe Dirt probably can't do it.  Maybe we can blog about her home when she's done?  Eva?!

[Video] Oppenheim on COR, Sustainability

The excellent bloggers at Scribe Media just posted a video of Miami-based architect Chad Oppenheim.  Oppenheim is the designer of COR Tower, an eco-tower that has wind turbines at the peak.  Please note, this post and the video have been modified slightly to protect confidential information not released publicly.  We respect that.  Enjoy!

++RSS/Syndicated Readers, Click Here to View

Industry Outlook, a Conversation about LEED

Q: Do you think we will see more LEED and green building in the future?

Lonnie Bullard, Jacobsen Construction: I think a lot of good is coming from what's happening.  We are kind of picking the low-hanging fruit right now with this green building surge.  In other words, it makes our people feel good that they can do these kind of things and end up with a LEED certified building.

There's a lot of waste in our business, and people would like to do this, but to move to a higher level is going to be difficult.  You have a lot of owners that say, "I want a LEED certified building, but don't spend any money to get there."  To move to another level of sustainable projects and the green projects is going to take some very difficult decisions about dollars.  People are going to have to pay more to do that. 

Interview + Practical Environmentalist

The bloggers at Practical Environmentalist interviewed me, but I'm not real big on self-promotion (partially take that back, I have posted this and this).  I don't really give away tons of detail about myself, but that's because Jetson Green isn't about me, it's about the built environment that we live in.  I like the bloggers at Practical Environmentalist (especially their list of 21 Practical Ways to Help the Environment) and appreciate what they do.  When I was in Dallas, we were running in some of the same circles.  Now, they have a new building and are working on getting it green renovated.  One of its writers, Kent Swanson, wrote the wildly popular article with 11 Suggestions for an Eco-Friendly Landscape.  That's a good article.  I didn't mention it in the interview, but I'm also a nerdfighter.  Enough about me, though.  Enjoy the holiday.  Enjoy the BBQ.  Have fun with family.  Be safe.