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
Read more…
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
Read more…
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
Read more…
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
Read more…
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
Read more…
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
Read more…
Read about it in Eric Michael Stitt’s Beach Reporter article published this week.
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
Read more…
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
Read more…
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
Read more…
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
Read more…
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
Read more…
We will be briefing the Hermosa Beach City Council at their meeting at 7pm tonight!
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
Read more…
We got a number of responses to our post re concrete. One of the most popular suggestions we got to reduce the harmful impacts of cement is to add fly ash to the mix. This solution also gets you LEED and Build It Green points.
Fly ash is the leftover
Read more…
April 1, 2011 was the start of the Wyland Clean Water Pledge. Mayors across Southern California are squaring off to see whose city is the greenest. Our Mayor, Pete Tucker, has our support on this initiative: www.mywaterpledge.com
Dency Nelson, the most passionate activist we know and one of the first supporters of the GIH, is featured in SouthBay Magazine
We are off to the Torrance Environmental Fair, a free event from 10-2pm today.
During Earth Hour at 8:30pm we will be sitting in the dark with millions of other people – a good metaphor for our energy policy, or lack thereof.
Robert was honored to speak about the GIH at the “Green Building: Legal and Regulatory Realities” conference. It was held at the Annenberg Community Beach House, an unbelievable public facility right on the water in Santa Monica.
The conference had an outstanding faculty. A couple of the standout speakers were
Read more…
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
YouthBuild is a youth and community development program that simultaneously addresses core issues facing low-income communities: housing, education, employment, crime prevention, and leadership development. In YouthBuild programs, low-income young people ages 16-24 work toward their GEDs or high school diplomas, learn job skills and serve their communities by building affordable
Read more…
The advice and support of all the incredible people in Hermosa Beach’s Planning and Public Work’s Departments makes the impossible possible.
The conference, Green Building: Legal and Regulatory Realities is on March 18, 2011 in Santa Monica, CA. A discount of $100 off your regular tuition rate is available when you register by phone using the code “FAC101” to 206-463-4400 or 800-574-4852.
Read more about the conference here: http://www.theseminargroup.net/brochures/11.GRNCA%20Brochure%20ni.pdf
In their day, lead and asbestos were seen as miracles. They worked very well for their intended purpose, were inexpensive and easy to manufacture. Only later were they found to be dangerous. What materials will be the lead and asbestos of the future?
Prior to starting demolition, we had the house
Read more…
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
Read more…
Hermosa Beach is hosting an event on Jan 26th. Find one near you. http://www.sbesc.com/programs/residential
Over the holiday, David Steinman an acclaimed environmentalist, consumer health advocate, publisher and author featured the Green Idea House in an article about Koch Development: http://www.greenpatriot.us./blog/?id=1027&showEntry=1
Our son Carter is very happy to see his old friend from last year (see photo), thanks to Scotty Claus and his elves at The Living Christmas Company. This is an amazing group that helps cut carbon – not trees. Their innovative business makes it easy to support a forest.
Read more…
Last week we hosted a meeting with Leigh Jerrard from Greywater Corps who is doing innovative, yet simple and affordable things in the water conservation arena. Leigh led six of us through a very informative dialogue on making the reuse of laundry and shower water for irrigation easy, practical and
Read more…
