Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

Habitat for Humanity has built a LEED Platinum prototype–could the charitable organization be making an historic shift toward green?

From GreenSource magazine:

“Among the home’s “ultra-sustainable” attributes are super-insulated exterior walls, a high-efficiency HVAC system, a solar-powered hot water system, low-flow plumbing fixtures, low-VOC paints, carpeting, and adhesives, and kitchen cabinets that were constructed by local high school students using reclaimed materials. Solatube skylights, along with strategically placed windows, bring daylight to the home’s interior, drastically reducing the need for electric lighting during the day. Outdoors, the light-colored concrete roof tiles help reflect the desert heat while harvested rainwater irrigates the fruit trees and vegetable garden that lie amid a landscape of drought-tolerant plants.”

Read the full story at GreenSource’s website here.

1. TreeHugger’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair coverage reports that the office of the future will be ruled by sobriety (that’s good news), Google and fewer resources utilized.
2. Greener By Design also happened this week in San Francisco and entrepreneurs, inventors, investors and regular Joes from around the globe gathered to talk about why so much design is bad design and how to make it good and, well, green. Of course, William McDonough was there.
3. GreenSource has photos of Austin’s Urban Reserve up and wow is it cool (because of geothermal air conditioning–ba-dum-ching!)

Anything great and green happening in your ‘hood?  Leave it in the comments!

HGTV is practically required viewing for us scribes here at KBDN.  Nobody loves a good floorplan like we do.

But apart from its fix-it shows and the remodeling disaster diaries, HGTV has stepped up to the plate for green and really hit it out of the sustainably managed park, so to speak.  From groundbreaking programming to sponsoring an annual Green Home, the network is doing a lot of legwork for the sustainable design cause.

So that’s why I was particularly thrilled to see that the network’s Green Home earn some Brownie points and recognition from the powers-that-be at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA announced this week that the 2009 Green Home in Port St. Lucie, FL  has earned both the Indoor AirPlus and Energy Star labels.  Doesn’t hurt that it’s pretty, either–protects viewers from visual pollution!

For more about the 2009 Green Home including product, process and professionals involved, visit HGTV’s Green Home Web site here.

Read the release after the jump, and let me know what you think of the photos in the comments.

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