Now that he is back from Japan, Robert hopes to get caught up on his postings! The first is a video clip taken from the November City Council meeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQqizZ02Vik
GIH updates to the City Council include:
Steel vs. Wood
Certified vs Non-certified wood
Low V.O.C. vs. Low Toxicity
Reuse vs New
View vs. Solar Panels
As part of his regular day job, Robert is honored to be invited to Japan next week to work with the Rotary Peace Fellows on leadership and strategy for their master’s level studies. It will be hard to be away from the GIH project for the week; but versus war,
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GIH Featured in Merlex Blog Spot
We are fortunate to have many bright, talented people supporting our project. Interestingly, they tend to know one another. Wes Harding from Harding Construction recently, introduced us to Nick Brown, the President of Merlex Stucco.
Nick came for a tour, instantly got the project and wanted
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We will be giving one of our periodic construction updates to City Council this evening. The meeting starts at 7pm and we should be presenting shortly thereafter. You can also view the meeting on Verizon Fios Ch. 31, Warner Cable Ch.8, and online at www.hermosabch.org under Agendas/Minutes/Video.
During
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On Wednesday, a video production crew from Ogilvy Advertising came to interview us re our choice to use SolarWorld PV panels on the GIH. Their Marketing Manager, Minnie Dimesa and the Ogilvy team made the whole thing fun. We look forward to seeing what they make of it!
The City Council meeting was packed on Tuesday night as Robert looked forward to giving the GIH update. He was second presentation on the agenda – but the first presentation went much longer than expected.
Sensing the vibe in the room Robert got up to the podium and, out of respect
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AOL’s Patch Press service published an article on the Green Idea House this morning: http://hermosabeach.patch.com/articles/hermosas-greenest-house-of-them-all Eric Farrell, the Hermosa Beach Patch reporter, did a very nice job summarizing the conversation we had last week.
On a related note, we will be giving one of our periodic construction updates to City Council
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Over the weekend Cater and Robert finished up the flashing that was needed as a result of the footings being poured too low into the ground in 1959 (see Foundational Problems). We started with Hohmann and Barnard’s environmentally friendly water based primer and mastic to ensure proper adhesion Then we
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Robert just returned from a week of lecturing at the international innovation school in Denmark, Kaos Pilot. The students and faculty there know of his interest in all things sustainable and Denmark is a haven for all things sustainable. Therefore, every time he goes to visit they take him on
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Amber Keenoy, the highly respected green building consultant and estimator very kindly mentioned the Green Idea House in an excellent article that is part of her weekly series: http://gogreenamericatv.com/global-green-sustainable-buildings/
We just sent the following letter to City Council and Staff to encourage them to vote for an item on tonight’s agenda that will support more waste diversion from the landfill.
Mr. Mayor City Council Members and Staff,
Thank you all for your continued support of our Green Idea
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Our friends Ken and Dorothy have very generously opened their home to the community for an Energy Upgrade California demonstration. See the attached notice from the city for further details. The program just announced that they have increased the potential rebate amount to $8,000. There may never be a better
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This weekend we took the redwood ship lap we got on our journey to The Reuse People Store and started the install. Monica and Carter fit the pieces on the roof like a puzzle and what we found was incredible. We thought it would look nice – what we didn’t
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Yesterday’s paper printed our letter (http://tinyurl.com/3e3jtb4) combined with a response from one of the uphill neighbors in the article from Saturday’s front page (http://tinyurl.com/3lketza). We are glad to see the neighbors are starting to understand that our solar array will be BELOW the height limit and we are building in
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As we look forward to the start of our solar panel installation this week, we would like to set the record straight re a couple of articles in our local papers on the height of our solar panels. Here are the facts:
Our uphill neighbors would have lost their first story
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Graduating students from YouthBuild spent part of their final week of school at the GIH, learning about green building and providing much needed assistance on critical tasks. Working with them and mentor VanRay was a real pleasure. They are welcome any time!
In this video clip, Gustavo talks about his experience
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Some of you may have noticed us driving a funny little car lately (see photo). It is a fully electric local use vehicle (LUV) and was lent to us by one of our partners, the South Bay Environmental Services Center. You can find out more about the benefits of these
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Picked up a huge load of scrap lumber from The Reuse People store in Pacoima yesterday. Our friends Arthur, Shannon and Louis hooked us up with some redwood shiplap that will replace pine roofing that was destroyed by termites.
Matt Megill, a student from LACCD joined us on the adventure
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The latest crop of students from the Youthbuild program came for a tour last week. YouthBuild is an excellent program that gives at-risk inner city kids the opportunity to finish school and learn a trade at the same time. Graduates of the program have worked on the GIH and have
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Yesterday about 20 Southern California Edison Energy Efficiency Interns came to the GIH for a construction site tour. They were very interested and asked great questions. Doug Morino and Robert Casillas from the Daily Breeze also joined the group and got their piece published in today’s paper: http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_18457632
Watching Bill McDonough’s expanded version of his TED talk at the Dwell conference Friday night was extraordinary. He is one of the key sources of inspiration for the Green Idea House.
Ed took the stage Sunday afternoon with a vigor and clarity that was masked in the nature of his “living
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Read about it in Eric Michael Stitt’s Beach Reporter article published this week.
Many thanks to the Easy Reader reporter Rebecca Zisser for a great article. During the tour she was very engaged, asked great questions and ultimately turned in a wonderful report. Thank you for your interest in spreading the word.
P.S. One small correction: “Fortunato first became interested in green technology
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We really appreciated the opportunity to be in the Water and Energy Expo in the morning and on the EPN Green and Solar house tour circuit in the afternoon.
We were impressed by the interested and engaged group that showed up. Thanks to all our friends (old and new) that
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We have been invited to talk about the Green Idea House during two events on Saturday the 21st:
1. Our partners West Basin Water District and So Cal Edison are putting on a Water and Energy Smart Expo. They have set up a booth for us to explain the Green Idea
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Arthur Renauld, Regional Manager for The Reuse People visited the Green Idea House a couple of months ago and saw the Youthbuild crew hard at work. Arthur was so impressed that he connected them with the ReUse Haus project for AltBuild. As a result our friend Wes Harding hired
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Unfortunately, one of the people in the neighborhood (you know who you are) is complaining to the city about our lumber pile. Therefore we have to get a dumpster out to the site in the next week. So, if you need any of the above for projects from furniture to
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Congratulations, Hermosa Beach
You are Southern California’s Greenest City this Earth Month!
Hermosa Beach, led by Mayor Peter Tucker, has won the title of Southern California’s greenest city for Earth Month. Hermosa Beach fended off strong challenges from Redondo Beach, Gardena, Long Beach, Villa Park, Agoura
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We hired a contractor to replace the rotted mudsills and rim joists (see Foundational Problems). The contractor normally uses green (in color) pressure treated lumber for that application. Unfortunately, the green stuff contains arsenic and chromium that gets airborne when cut or drilled and can also leach into your soil
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The video clip is taken from the April 26th Hermosa Beach City Council meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sswh242BWTQ
Also, We’ve attached (SBESC Letter) a very kind letter from Jacki and Marilyn at the South bay Environmental Savings Center thanking us for speaking at the South Bay Cities Council of Governments meeting on
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