Home Innovation

With so many resources available today, as well as a struggling economy, it is no wonder that unconventional, sustainable and less expensive housing options are beginning to make a grand appearance. People are shifting their way of thinking from living in oversized, wooden frame boxes with vinyl siding, a picket fence and four car driveway to things such as old industrial loft buildings, trailers and even shipping containers. It is all in the perception of a person’s imagination to redesign these unconventional spaces into sustainable, green homes.


Right here in the Boston area there is a community called Forbes Park that takes sustainable living to the ultimate level of luxury. Built inside an abandoned printing facility from the 1800’s, Forbes Park dubs their homes as Hybrid lofts because they garner over fifty percent of their energy from renewable resources. Most notably is their use of wind power from the turbine located right on the premises and passive solar through the two walls of windows located at the end of each loft space. In addition the structure features a rain water collection system for use in toilets, radiant floor heat, thermal-mass passive heating and cooling, low flow toilets, energy efficient appliances and the use of durable, natural materials to reduce needs for replacement.


Sometimes there is a negative stigma attached to certain forms of housing, for example a trailer, but Charmaine Manley has taken this view and buried it so deeply beneath bamboo flooring and Paperstone countertops that her home in Oregon has been photographed as a show home. The double wide trailer started out as many do with chintzy carpet, paneled walls, aluminum windows and no character but through sound design principles Charmaine has created a comfortable and livable home for her husband and herself. In addition to bamboo flooring and paper countertops the home boasts low to no VOC paint, repurposed antique furniture (as a bathroom vanity and closet solution), lighting acquired from second hand stores, green kitchen cabinets, energy efficient window and so many other repurposed or sustainable options a list would be virtually never ending. As a final nod to the planet all materials that were removed were either recycled or donated to various organizations. To view all of the before and after photos of this amazing transformation please visit her blog posting at High Desert Diva.


Many people would not look at a shipping container as a viable option for a housing solution but through a little innovation and conceptualization these small metal boxes can be transformed into some very modern housing on a tighter budget than one might think. With a large surplus of such material simply taking up space at ship yards across the country it is possible to snag one of these containers for as little as $900. In 2006 Peter DeMaria of DeMaria Design Associates took the concept to a second level and constructed a two story home in Redondo Beach, California out of multiple containers with great success. The home is inherently resistant to bugs, mold and fire and in a location such as this where construction to withstand earthquakes is a priority, it is comforting to note that a pre-fabricated metal box is virtually indestructible.

The opportunities are endless for creating functional, comfortable and gorgeous, unconventional housing options, as evidenced in this small sampling of homes. Due to their creative innovation and attention to environmental awareness I am giving each of these designs (including the small woodland house featured in the first photo, click to read more about it) Four Green Leaves!

Keep up the great work bucking the norm and proving to all of us that irregular is just another word for exceptional!

Brew Ha Ha!

Over the past six months I have done an extensive level of research into artists, products and companies that dub themselves eco-friendly. Many of the discoveries I have made were through the sharing of links from family, friends and bloggy friends and all of the shared information both surprised and delighted me. One of the companies that my favorite Vegan With a Purpose, Ginger shared with me was for a beer brewery based out of Fort Collins, Colorado. Could this be true? Could I have finally achieved the perfect storm of awesomeness where consumption of finely brewed beer could be an environmentally friendly activity? I pulled up their website and began the research into this unique concept immediately.

New Belgium impressed me right off the bat as the photo on their homepage shows the outside of their building and about twenty five bicycles parked in the parking lot instead of cars. They brew eight styles year round, four seasonal and one on a limited release. Right on the homepage they proclaim sustainability as a core value and they truly mean it. The company: utilizes recycled bike rims for stools in their bar, use a heat exchanger to recycle the steam created from boiling to assist in boiling the next brew, use both active and passive solar for lighting, upcycled beetle kill pine trees to line their walls, employ evaporative coolers in place of air conditioning units, they create electricity through wind power and via collection of their own methane (created during wastewater treatment), provide an employee ownership program and participate in countless philanthropic events. Talk about a fantastic company model! After discovering this wondrous company I looked for the beer in some of my local package stores but to no avail.

It occurred to me that was not necessarily a bad thing because it got me thinking if there was such a company in Colorado, ready to serve a feast of barley, malt and hopps, perhaps a similar brew house existed right here in my own state.

Of course the first company that came to mind was Samuel “Sam” Adams, brewed by The Boston Beer Company right here in Massachusetts, but because they have grown into a household name and ship both nationally and internationally they have expanded operations to their additional brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio as well. They are fervently committed to many charitable organizations (notably the Boys and Girls Clubs, Boston Urban Gardens, Cam Neely Foundation, the Dennis Leary Firefighter Foundation and Share Our Strength) and additional philanthropic pursuits. It made me happy to see such a large company (there are seventeen brews in their standard rotation, some seasonal) giving back to their local and national communities.

The next local brew master I thought of is the Harpoon Brewery who provide their beers internationally but brew in their two New England locations Boston, Massachusetts and Windsor, Vermont. This company creates just six standard beers, four seasonal and three limited edition brews but their community reach extends far further than their thirteen beers would indicate. Their own humanitarian branch is called Harpoon Helps and this division donates through beer, merchandise, monetary contribution and time of volunteers to a myriad of organizations and events throughout New England (such as soup kitchens, Greater Boston Food Bank and American Red Cross) and have just expanded their reach to include the Spread Holiday Cheer event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Washington DC and Albany, New York as well.

Both Sam Adams and Harpoon display a commitment to their communities, as well as the people who live in them through their humanitarian and charitable efforts, but I will definitely enjoy spending some time researching smaller local brew houses doing their part to provide yummy libations without sacrificing an environmentally friendly approach, just like New Belgium Brewing.

Due to their true commitment to all things Earth and environment it is my proud honor, without ever sampling the wares, to bestow a Five Green Leaf rating to New Belgium Brewing. Hooray to them for thinking both locally and globally! Spread the word to your beer brewing friends how easy it is to be green.

Getting Involved

A few weeks ago, my Mom and Aunt came over for a pasta dinner and we all got to talking about the state of the country. My mom outright asked what our generation is actually doing about it. Her question was focused on the entire governmental process and the state of our planet. It occurred to me that my mom already had her time to literally march on Washington, protest, fight back. Her generation was fighting to put an end to a senseless war. Where the history books are concerned, that defined them.

As I pondered her question it became clear that I first needed to consider what it was that defines our generation. Are we all bound together by one common purpose or desire? My answer was clear, yes! What will historically be the thing that defines our generation is our desire to provide a clean, healthy, sustainable environment for all future generations so they can live to discover their own definition. Now that I had nailed down the one true thing that characterizes our global generation I needed to determine what we were doing about making a difference -- how were we “marching on Washington”, literally or figuratively?

So what are we doing?

Joining. I posted an interview with Melissa two days ago. She shared this link with a friend who was interested to read about it and they started discussing the potential of getting together to share even more ideas of how they can become more environmental. Later, one of Melissa’s neighbors stopped by and they started talking about the same thing. She has now invited me and my Mom and there could be an expansion in this group to hopefully include her whole neighborhood as well. One person will not change the state of the entire planet, true, but she sure can help get a crowd together to discuss ideas, increase the size of that crowd, encourage that crowd to take part in efforts to reduce energy consumption or waste, bring that crowd out of their neighborhood and onto the streets of the state, encourage that crowd to tell ten friends, and so on, and so on. There are endless opportunities for change by simply starting a small neighborhood focus group.

Donating. There are a slew of groups out there already and they are spreading the environmental word but many of them are funded by donations from us and without those contributions they may not be able to continue fighting for the change our planet needs. These groups are widespread and diverse and there is one out there to fit the ideals of everyone interested in learning more.

Blogging. It may sound small but with the literal thousands of blogs circulating through cyberspace it is almost impossible to not come across one that is environmentally conscious. On my other blog I have links to twenty four blogs that I read consistently. Of the twenty four there are two which are strictly environmental. That leaves twenty two blogs and I can not think of a single one who has not mentioned the planet, eco-friendly lifestyle choices, the environment, their involvement in particular organizations, heck even recycling at some point. The people who write these blogs are online shop owners, moms, musicians, interior designers, accountants, chefs, law students, writers, photographers, graphic artists and range in age from early twenties on up. And that is just my personal blog roll. There are so many others who share this common thread and with such a diverse group concerned with our planet, and talking about it frequently, we have opened up an entirely new world of opportunity to share information and suggestions for ways to help.

Taking action into our own hands at home. I can not speak for the actions of the billions of people on this planet but I can be held accountable for the things that I personally do everyday. In addition to the three things above I also:

☼ Turn off the water while I brush my teeth.
☼ Consciously conserve toilet paper with my “three squares” rule.
☼ Recycle paper, plastic, metal in the conventional way (toss it in the bin for pick up).
☼ Upcycle, recycle or repurpose anything I can. For example, when my grandparents passed away they left behind an entire house full of stuff including clothes and bed sheets. I took that fabric, washed it and cut it up to make some adorable bags, giving new life to something old. What I could not use went to the Goodwill to further extend its life cycle.
☼ Limit my driving. As I work from home or complete jobs and errands locally, my gas consumption plummeted since moving this past spring. A tank will now last me upwards of a month.
☼ Turn things off and unplug what I can. Lights, computers, the toaster oven, anything!
☼ Open the curtains. The living room is an east facing window so I take advantage of passive solar to heat my apartment in the morning and afternoon.
☼ Eat less meat. I certainly have not gone completely vegetarian but at least two meals a week have moved in this direction and I plan to continue to increase that number.

The list here is a small example of what we can do individually and collectively to better our world. I strongly encourage everyone reading to locate and join local groups, donate to support the efforts of larger organizations, discuss the environment either through a blog or any other form of communication and finally look into all the ways to personally take action and then do it. Together, we can fight to protect our planet and go down in the history books as a generation committed to the greater good of the entire world.