Green Building : Jetson Green

Are You On Our Green Twitter Lists Yet?

Are you on Twitter yet?  If you're not, I hope you'll get there soon, because the conversation is good.  And the sharing is getting better, too.  You may have noticed we have a "retweet" button at the end of each article.  It's been fun to see how far and wide topics can spread with these buttons. 

Along these lines, if you're on Twitter, you may have noticed the roll out of lists.  It seems like a great idea and we're going to try to get more out of it.  We've built up the following lists and want to add friends of Jetson Green to the right category.  Drop a comment with your Twitter handle and the appropriate list group, and we'll add you to it. 

20 Beautiful Solar Decathlon Homes

In a few hours, the U.S. Department of Energy will announce final results of the Solar Decathlon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  The Solar Decathlon is a competition of 20 teams of college and university students to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.  There are 10 subjective and objective contests in these categories: architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design, communications, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, and net metering.  At this time, the engineering and net metering contests are the only scores that have not been released.  Is the suspense getting to you yet?

Ten Business Benefits of Green Buildings

Leave it to Jerry Yudelson to write what is probably the clearest articulation of the business case for green buildings you could ever read.  Jerry Yudelson is the author of several books that we've given away in the past, including Green Building A to Z, The Green Building Revolution, Choosing Green, and Green Building Trends: Europe, as well as about six others worth reading, too.  He was a board member of the USGBC and chaired Greenbuild for about five years; he now heads Yudelson Associates, a consulting firm that is dedicated to "growing the business of green building."  Most recently, Yudelson authored The Business Case for Green Buildings, and this is his conclusion:

20 Awesome Solar-Powered Homes

Update 10/16/2009: See the completed 20 Solar Decathlon Homes of 2009.

For three weeks in October, the U.S. Department of Energy will host the biennial Solar Decathlon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  The Solar Decathlon is a competition of 20 teams of college and university students to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.  There are 10 subjective and objective contests in these categories: architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design, communications, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, and net metering. 

Eight Small Ways to Build Green

In an article that appeared in the August 2009 issue of Buildings, John Kouletsis, executive director at Kaiser Permanente, set forth a list of eight things to do to develop sustainable buildings. These elements can be applied in the context of new construction or substantial renovations, but the key is to start doing something now. Here’s the list (with our own ad lib descriptions):

2009 AIA COTE Top Ten Green Projects!

It's that time of year again -- the AIA Committee on the Environment ("COTE") just published its annual list of Top Ten Green Projects.  There's some definite superstars in the group, and we've mentioned a few of them already, including the Chartwell School and Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation.  Perkins+Will has two projects in the group, but this just confirms what we already know: the firm is a leader in sustainable design.  Below, we've included direct links to AIA case studies for each project, as well as a link to the lead architect. 

Five Common Green Building Mistakes

Depending on the method of construction, green building consultant Mark LaLiberte tells us there are a few common green building mistakes to watch out for -- errors he's seeing more and more as builders move forward with greener practices.  Read through this list and then tell us what you think ... are you seeing any other common mistakes with green construction?

Seven Green Trends to Watch in 2009

Last year I talked about five green building trends and most of that, generally speaking, was spot on.  This year's going to be a little tougher nut to crack, however, because things are changing every day.  After a week or two of new information, it could be that everything below will not make sense any more.  I don't believe that will happen, but it could.  Anyway, to cut to the chase, all of this is informal and anecdotal.  I'm making these predictions based on approximately thirty years of seeing, studying, reading, working, and observing as a human being.  You will certainly have a different perspective, but hear me out.  When you're done, make sure to tell me what you think below. 

40 Innovative Green Homes of 2008

If you liked our article on 34 Stunning LEED Platinum Projects, you'll probably like this one, too.  As with the other, this is a retrospective on the past year.  We've seen some awesome green homes and are constantly inspired:  So much creativity, innovation, and style!  That said, unless you're living in a cave, you'll probably note that most websites are looking back -- it's a tradition this time of year.  For intance, the Wall Street Journal showcased a list of what they call A Decade's Most Remarkable Homes.  Michelle Kaufmann contributed thoughts to WSJ for their article and then decided to create her very own list of Top 10 Housing Designs from the Past Decade.  We're keeping our list limited to built homes shown on this site in 2008:

34 Stunning LEED Platinum Projects

Update - 12/29/08: added one more that's now going for Platinum.

There's so much innovation in the green building space, it's pretty hard to keep up with it all.  I mean, check out these articles below.  In the past year alone, we've discussed at least thirty-four different LEED Platinum projects -- some are done, some are under way, and some are still on the boards.  Wow, what an incredible year in green building news!  Innovation at the highest rung of the USGBC's LEED system continues.  And so you know, we plan to pay more attention to the greenest of green projects over the next year.  Keep us informed if your project is a legit Platinum contender, we're certainly interested: