Mark Meyer of Austin-based designSTUDIO recently pointed us to one of his newest projects, la Boite.  La Boite is a green, environmentally sensitive cafe with locally baked goods, sandwiches, and coffee.  It was built from an old shipping container, and if you’re interested in details of the transformation, read more about it on designSTUDIO’s blog.  For the project, DesignSTUDIO used Rainwater HOG’s for greywater collection, biobased spray foam insulation, and Forbo linoleum for the floor and one wall.  You can find la Boite on 1700 South Lamar Boulevard in Austin, Texas.  Looks fun, doesn’t it?

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There's a new, state-of-the-art green spa that just opened its doors in Albany, New York.  Complexions Spa & Salon, owned by Denise Dubois, received LEED Gold certification in May 2009, and the owner shared her excitement on her blog, A Green Spa.  Denise tells an interesting story.  Rather than pay someone else (i.e., the consultants) to obtain certification, as a small business owner, she recruited her family to help pick the right strategies and to document the points.  And despite the daunting amount of paperwork required, she was able to get it done, making it an enormously rewarding experience. 

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There are roughly 85,000 supermarkets in America.  Generally speaking, they are artificially lit boxes surrounded by dark asphalt and contain row upon row of doorless display refrigerators.  There is, to say the least, room for improvement.  Hannaford, which has about 160 supermarkets in the northeast, decided to try something completely new and on July 25th opened the first LEED Platinum certified supermarket, which is located in Augusta, Maine.  With Maine's governor, John Baldacci, in attendance, the plaque was personally awarded at the opening by Rick Fedrizzi, president of the USGBC. 

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