Passive, or zero-energy, houses are making their way to the United States from Europe and several are being built in New York.

Now one of the most exacting standards, called “passive house,” is making its way to the United States from Europe. Passive, or “zero energy,” houses maintain a comfortable interior climate without active heating and cooling systems, according to the Passivhaus Institut, which administers the standard. That is achieved through a system of interior and exterior air exchange, an airtight building envelope and energy-saving appliances, among other things.

Any additional energy needs can be generated by renewable sources. The institute says a passive house uses less than a quarter of the energy of a traditionally powered home.

Our windows look like this. I have also heard our type of house called a 'furnace free' house.

The military likes the security and savings that solar energy provides. The installer likes the efficiencies provided from having all its customers clustered together in one place. 

From Reuters: "The project, named 'SolarStrong,' aims to put about 300 megawatts of solar generation on 120,000 military housing units over five years.

"That figure was scaled back from the 160,000 installations originally targeted under the project that had received initial approvals for a $275 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy."

(Reuters) - Solar power developer SolarCity and Bank of America Merrill Lynch will go ahead with a plan to build more than $1 billion in new solar projects on military housing, despite their failure to win a U.S. loan guarantee.

This 1600-sq. ft. house, priced at $220,000, has been built by the Builders Association of Eastern Connecticut, to showcase both ultimate greenness and affordability. 

Builders are finding that they need to do a lot of ecucation regarding the benefits of green features. (New York Times.)

Val d'Orcia, in the heart of Tuscany, is attracting new interest from businesses that honor its past.

It went into decline with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, but now it is being brought back to life, its ancient houses converted into environmentally conscious villas for vacation rentals by Michael L. Cioffi, a business lawyer from Ohio who is of Italian descent.

More than a catchy tourist trap, Mr. Cioffi said in an interview, the project, The Villas at Monteverdi, is a fully sustainable development bringing customers to local businesses and a renewed social life to the region.

Quote of the Day: Ray Anderson on Flight

His goal:

So many in the business world claim to be sustainable, but back in 2004 Ray Anderson of Interface said "No one should be claiming sustainable products. There is no such thing yet in terms of zero footprint. What you can do is demonstrate reduced footprint." He understood what it meant to be green, to be sustainable, and what it took to get there. Jacob Gordon wrote in his introduction to our interview with Ray:

"No one should be claiming sustainable products. There is no such thing yet in terms of zero footprint. What you can do is demonstrate reduced footprint." Carpet that can be recycled and that isn't laced with formaldehyde. Thanks for your contributions, Ray.

California's Butte College has a 928-acre wildlife refuge. It promotes ride shares. It uses goats for landscaping, and worms for composting. It has LEED-certifiable buildings. And now it's going off the grid -- the first college in the country, the school claims, to be energy independent. The school added 15,000 panels to its existing 10,000 for a total of 25,000 panels on the ground, on rooftops, and in covered parking areas. Together, they generate 4.55 MW of energy -- more than the school needs for its own energy uses. That’s despite the fact that the school operates its own water system and sewage treatment facility, not to mention looking after 21,000 wired-in students.

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It is inspiring to see how 'ruined' urban structures can be turned into parks. Since we won't be getting any infrastructure funds any time soon, this may be the only kind of parks we'll see in the future. (If there are any funds for parks, that is.)

Kohler has made a hands-free toilet beautiful enough for the living room, though I'm not ready to use it there...

 

Sitting near Joshua Tree, California in the Mojave Desert is an energy efficient new home and studio built by architect Walter Scott Perry of ecotechdesign out of six re-purposed steel shipping containers. Also known as the Tim Palen Studio at Shadow Mountain, the 2,300 square foot home is the first permitted shipping container house to be built in the Mojave Desert. In true hybrid style, based on the Toyota Prius concept of efficiency, the home design combines pre-engineered building with energy conservation features such as a solar home shading system, a movable living green roof, and a 10,000 gallon water storage tank plus a separate 3,000 gallon tank for rainwater harvesting capability.

The 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 2-story home was built with a client-requested photography studio and separate storage building. The steel framework and insulation system not only administers energy efficiency that exceeds California code requirements by 50%, but also provides exceptional strength for protection against wind, earthquake, and fire. To protect against the desert heat and wind, a perforated metal shade wraps the roof, south-facing walls and the solar breezeway which serves to direct a natural flow of air into the home. The house can also be heated and cooled with a ductless, mini-split heat pump system.

The large windows and doorways capture daylight as well as help with ventilation and evaporative cooling. The 160 square foot green roof hosts native desert plants and sedums irrigated by greywater to absorb heat, dust, and CO2. The photography studio is lit with six 22-inch solar tubes that can be manually controlled.

A Canadian visiting Japan claims the building codes saved his life.

"I feel I owe my life to Japanese building standards right now," Newman said Monday. "It was very strong shaking on that railway platform. We were three storeys up and I was thinking this thing was going to come down. And we had a train with us.

3800 years ago, the the Code of Hammurabi was carved in stone, and included what is considered to be the first building code. That's way too long for Libertarians, who consider building codes evil. A year ago, in Comparing Haiti and Chile: Did Building Codes Save Lives? I noted that the libertarian position was that codes "are an intrusion into the private matters of citizens." The anti-Obama types on Ron Paul's forum about the subject note that "leftist Democrat/progressive/liberal/commie will never accept the idea that private citizens and free markets will provide safe goods. Government is God and all that Government regulates is good. Not regulated = evil."

If only we could get our building codes improved in the U.S.