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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Moving is never easy and usually not green (e.g. cardboard boxes, diesel trucks…). Thankfully we found some very good local companies with affordable products and services that are environmentally friendly – and made the process easier.
Rent a Green Box reinvented how we loaded up our stuff with recycled and recyclable
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Hermosa Beach is hosting an event on Jan 26th. Find one near you. http://www.sbesc.com/programs/residential
Our friend Ewen, from Scotland, wanted to know if we were going to pack up our “tree” (see Christmas Rocks! post), put it in the attic and pull it out again next year. We had other plans for it…
Our High Water post explained why we want to keep the storm
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Well it is finally time to go! Yes, the permits are almost ready and we are moving out on Feb. 1st to start the deconstruction.
We are looking for a place to live, so if you know anyone that has a cool rental at a decent price within a
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The rubble in our front yard gave us a opportunity to build something while waiting for our building permits. In the spirit of the holidays it is titled “Love, Joy and Peace(s)”
Seasons Greetings to everyone and all the best in the New Year!
We all know fresh water is a precious commodity in So. California. Hearing what the TreePeople are doing to harvest rainwater and manage the overflow on site to replenish the aquifer sounds like a good idea. This benefits the ocean water quality by keeping that storm from running into the
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We are tackling the site work on our project while we wait for our plan set revisions from the city to go back through our engineers and draftsman. The site work includes undergrounding the utilities. By code we have to underground the electrical, cable and phone to
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I am honored to be a lecturer at an innovation school in Denmark. The school, interestingly called KaosPilot, is doing amazing things in the world and is at the cutting edge of social and business innovation.
Half way through my week long series of lectures, one of their former students, Lukas
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As we approach out fall start date, it is time to think about undergrounding our utilities. This is mandatory as we are doing a more than 50% renovation. In meeting with our local Edison Service Planner, Ryan, he had some great ideas for saving money. One of them was to
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Our Family is in the process of designing a green showcase home and office in Hermosa Beach, California that has been chosen by Southern California Edison as the cornerstone “case study” for their net zero energy initiative. Our objective is to create a groundbreaking net zero energy, zero carbon renovation
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We started the project with a system of interdependent objectives that acts as a map and a compass. No project is perfect and this one won’t be either; but being mindful of these objectives keeps us on track when making decisions. We have found that it is particularly
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On February 1, Energy Champions, Leadership Hermosa Beach and USGBC-LA, joined forces to bring together the co-hosted Upgrade In Action event for the Green Idea House. These two Energy Champions were a part of the planning of this successful event reaching over 200 people. During the event community members toured
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By consistently focusing on its mission, TRP has diverted over 260,000 tons of used building materials from landfills, trained dozens of contractors and provided full-time employment to hundreds of people.
Through our efforts, 75 to 80 percent of a building can be kept out of the landfill – in fact, on
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Harding Construction & Sustainable Solutions is an industry leader in green building, net zero energy retrofits, and energy auditing services in the greater Orange County and Los Angeles areas.
From concept to completion, we work with our clients to build green homes that are energy efficient and considerate of environmental design
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Taylor Meta-tec® MS-Plus Advance™ Wood Flooring Adhesive with Meta-tec® technology, is a one component 100% solids, cross linking, MS polymer-based Greengaurd® certified adhesive formulated for the interior installation of virtually all wood flooring. MS-Plus Advance™ also has good concrete moisture inhibition capability as well as good sound reduction properties that
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For over 60 years, Runtal has been world –renowned as the premium manufacturer of sleek, decorative radiators. The Swiss panel design provides the most healthy and comfortable living environment of any heating system available today. In Europe, where heating technology is most advanced, Runtal’s all welded steel construction and stylish
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CELOTEX® PREMIUM INSULATING SHEATHING, as manufactured by BLUE RIDGE™ FIBERBOARD (http://www.blueridgefiberboard.com/pages/green-building.php) is a key component of a superior exterior building envelope design. An R-value of 1.3 per ½” provides superior insulating qualities in comparison to standard O.S.B. and plywood sheathing, thus providing an excellent thermal break. The indoor air quality
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The seven things that make this project different:
Family project – Were not developers, architects, manufacturers or consultants who have something else to sell. We are only selling the idea that we should all be building
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