We want to express our sincere appreciation to all of you for making Saturday a huge success. The event was booked solid a week in advance and over 200 people came out for tours and the educational expo. We had to turn people away to ensure the safety of everyone
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The U.S. Green Building Council, Energy Upgrade CA and Leadership Hermosa Beach have asked us to give a series of construction tours on February 11th. The tours will start at noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm and will be followed by a networking/ green networking event at one of the local
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In addition to allowing us to be a case study for their ThermalCore product (which should cut our heating and cooling needs significantly), National Gypsum did something simple, yet revolutionary this week.
Hanging drywall inevitably leads to a giant pile of scrap drywall. Normally that scrap goes into the landfill where
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Many thanks to Gary Klein for sharing his genius with us yesterday. In two hours Gary took us through all the water related systems that are so crucial for us in hitting our net zero energy goals.
Gary is great at debunking myths about things like tankless water heaters and solar
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Gary Klein, one of the country’s leading experts in hot water technologies, will be visiting the construction site and leading a group discussion. We have invited officials from the city, other experts in the field and manufacturers and contractors who could benefit from the wealth of Gary’s expertise. The tour
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The thermal envelope of our building is what separates the interior from the exterior in terms of moisture, air, heat and cold. It is critical to the overall performance of the building and getting us to our net zero goals. It also ensures that the building is comfortable and is
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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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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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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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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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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
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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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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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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Eric Michael Stitt very kindly marked our first big milestone: Owners save 97.5 percent of razed home
A grandmotherly woman named Grace contacted us about the free clean sandy soil we advertized in the local press. She came with her contractor and a pickup truck and took four giant loads of dirt off our hands.
Her city was making her take out some concrete and replace it with
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Wanting to save as much of the existing building as possible, we wrestled with skinning the stucco off the building; but in the end we are glad we did. In 1959 the original builders poured the foundations too low. Therefore the stucco was wicking moisture into the mudsills and rim
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The South Bay Environmental Services Center asked us to speak at the quarterly South Bay Cities Green Task Force Meeting to share information about our 97.5% landfill diversion milestone. We will be complementing Lisa Coppedge’s presentation on Grades of Green’s incredible efforts to reduce trash and how that translates into
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The Gateway to Up-To-Date Information on Integrated ‘Whole Building’ Design Techniques and Technologies
http://www.wbdg.org/index.php
In the spirit of recycling, we have about 15 cubic yards of FREE clean sandy soil available. Come and take as much or as little as you need. Easily accessible with a bobcat or just shovel it in to your truck.
Just let us know when you are coming so
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We didn’t feel it was fair if we entered LA County’s Home Energy Makeover Contest, but you still have 15 days to submit your entry at: https://energyupgradeca.org/county/los_angeles/makeover_contest
Last night the Hermosa Beach City Council voted to support a reduction of the conditional use permit fee so the Green Idea House could test the viability of residential rooftop wind generation systems and report back to the city.
Obviously, we do not have the “Saudi Arabia of wind” like western
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As the end of their useful life, most buildings in our area get demolished with a bulldozer and get scraped into a dumpster. We certainly understand the logic. It is currently cheaper and easier to do it that way.
Reuse and recycling is hard work. Almost every architect and contractor we
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