David Gottfried, founder of the USGBC and owner of this super green home renovation, recently launched a new business consortium with several industry experts, 19 founding member companies, and 60 real estate design, construction, and ownership affiliates. The U.S. Regenerative Network is an invitation only network of green building product manufacturers and service providers with two main goals:
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) recently released its annual Global Market Study [PDF] of the small wind market, and I thought I'd share this information considering the intersect of green building and small wind. According to the study, the U.S. market for small wind turbines — those with a capacity of 100 kW of less — added 20.3 MW of new capacity on $82.4 million in sales in 2009.
Blu Homes, a green prefab startup out of Massachusetts, is on a tear with $7 million in new cash and a contemporary set of homes. Today the company announced its latest design called Balance, which is a 1,632 square foot single-level home that prices from about $270,000. Balance is factory-built, ships anywhere in the country on two trucks, and unfolds to a spacious 34' wide and 48' long with 16' ceilings.
We've seen a lot of effort to provide emergency and long-term shelter for disaster areas. For Haiti in particular, some groups, like Shipping Container Housing and Green Container International Aid, are trying to reuse shipping containers to get people out of the elements and into something that can withstand hurricane season in a couple short months. The renderings shown here are from GCIA, who is seeking the donation of containers to construct container cities in the area.
Recently, Newsweek asked three well-known architecture firms to explain what cities will look like in 2030. Using New York City as the location, these firms — HOK; Cooper, Robertson & Partners; and Richard Meier & Partners — responded to the hypothetical with The Future of Work and other musings as to how we will work, live, interact, and move around in 20 years.
