Maybe you’ve never considered living in a cohousing* situation, but some of the greenest neighborhoods in the country are trying to use this pattern of living for their communities.  The images in this article show a peaceful, cohousing condominium community called Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm.  Nubanusit is located in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and all the homes will be super green — that is, if they’re all not LEED Platinum certified.  Imagine that: 29 homes on 70 rolling acres and all of them are LEED Platinum certified!

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So here’s the deal.  The Harbinger SG Blocks Showhouse was bad out.  Everyone I talked to loved it.  You might think that a shipping container home would feel closed-in and constrictive, but this home certainly wasn’t.  At 1700 sf, everything felt just right to me.  I was able to sneak into the Exhibit Hall early enough to get some killer images (in case you couldn’t be there), so let’s talk a walk through the Harbinger House below.

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Mounting on the green building success of their previous stores, including the green Boulder REI we wrote about previously, REI today opens the doors to its second generation of green prototype store in Round Rock, Texas.  The Texas store is projected to consume 48% less energy than a typical store and generate a portion of its power from a solar panel installation, building integrated photovoltaics, and a solar hot water system.  After that, Round Rock will rely on Solatubes to displace a portion of articifial lighting and the purchase of green power generated from biomass digesters. 

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Here’s the story: A handful of entrepreneurs nurtured a graduate school business plan into an actual company called PFNC Global Communities.  The acronym stands for “por fin, nuestra casa,” which is translated as “finally, a home of our own.”  PFNC’s purpose is to convert shipping containers into affordable housing for those who most desperately need it around the globe.

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Weatherford Place is a small community of eight town and country homes in Roswell, Georgia.  It’s seeking LEED for Homes Platinum certification on all homes, as well as Platinum certification for the community under the LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Program — a goal that could make it one of the first all Platinum communities in the county.  But beyond certification, Weatherford Place homes will be 100% more energy efficient than typical houses and 50% more energy efficient than houses built to the 2006 Energy Code.

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