Living Green

LivingGreen

Container Crossbox with a Green Roof

When using shipping containers for a structure, you'll want to do your homework, but often the results can be stunning, as is the case here. Located in Brittany, France, Crossbox was built with four containers and topped with greenery. Two modules cantilever over the other two, but you can hardly tell what's going on as drywall and cladding camouflage the industrial skeleton. [+] Learn more about Crossbox from CG Architectes. Photo credits: Javier Callejas; noticed at MoCo Loco.

1105 Dwell Aims for Energy Efficiency

Dwell Development Design + Build, a firm in Washington state focusing on urban infill development, recently completed these four homes located at 1105 23rd Avenue South in Seattle. Targeted to exceed 5-star Built Green certification, the modern homes at 1105 Dwell are being offered for sale from $479,000. Sizes vary from 1,647 to 1,772 square feet. As modeled, 1105 Dwell homes should outperform code homes by about 45% on energy consumption.

LIFEWALL: Modular Vertical Garden Panels Clean the Air

Creating vertical gardens just got a whole lot easier thanks to these modular garden tiles by Spanish firm Ceracasa. Their Lifewall product, which we just saw over at Jetson Green, is a modular tile that can support a number of different plants and is drip irrigated for water efficiency.

Bisphenol A: The Hidden Danger in Your Plastic Bottle

Bisphenol A is one chemical we should all avoid. BPA is linked to a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and liver enzyme abnormalities in humans.

Efficient Summertime Room-Cooling Products

When the summer sun starts beating down, homeowners need to use all the tools available to stay cool. We’ve put together the following list of products to help keep your favorite room cool and comfortable this season, while cutting your energy consumption and saving some money in the process. Frigidaire FAA055P7A Window Air Conditioner Whether or [...] Related posts:

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Reduce Your Household Water Use Efficiently

Reducing household water usage has big-time benefits for both homeowners and for the environment: reducing strain on local water resources, cutting demand on wastewater treatment facilities, and lowering both water and sewage utility bills, to name a few. Although this is by no means an exhaustive list, we’ve put together a collection of water-saving [...] Related posts:

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Be a Post-Consumer Consumer

In order to support recycling efforts, look for products made from high percentages of post-consumer waste, which is the waste produced by the end consumer of a material stream. Post-consumer waste is the garbage that individuals routinely discard, either in a waste receptacle or a dump, or by littering, incinerating, pouring down the drain or washing into the gutter.

Avoid Antibacterial Products

Most of the plethora of consumer goods with antibacterial properties available these days are unnecessary, and may even contribute to antibiotic-resistant super germs.

Luxury LEED Townhomes in California

In the high-end home market, some buyers think buying a green property entails a lot of sacrifice and loss of amenities, but maybe this development in Santa Monica can change some of that. Located minutes from Montana Avenue, 939 Townhomes includes eight luxury green town homes that range in size from 1,853 to 3,009 square feet and in price from about $1,385,000 to $2,229,000. These homes are estimated to be about 50% more efficient than standard new construction.