Exciting Highlights

Simple, fast and effective: in Cape Town, South Africa, 2300 low-income homes are being retrofitted for energy efficiency.  Three simple changes—solar water heaters, insulated ceilings and energy-efficient light bulbs—are being done to each home, and it is expected to save the city a great deal in energy, and each resident a great deal in money for basic utilities.

Ciudad Verde: in Bogotá, Colombia, a new Green City is in planning, which will combine green open spaces with 36,000 (!!) green low-income homes.  “Green City demonstrates that it is possible to develop scaled solutions for lower income families in ways that are socially responsible and in harmony with the environment.” Amazing.

Silver Lining: After the devastating brushfires that burned schools and over 2,000 homes to the ground last year, Australia is implementing programs to ‘Build it Back Green’, enabling homeowners who are starting over to easily find green solutions for rebuilding.

Pay As You Save: In the UK, to offset the costs of energy-efficient remodeling for homes, a plan is now in place to enable homeowners to “pay off” the costs of refurbishment with the money they save in reduced heating costs. “PAYS could have a major impact on making mainstream low carbon refurbishment a reality, by bringing the upfront cost of refurbishment down to zero, while providing month on month savings…”

These and many other exciting steps are being taken ‘round the world to make it easy to make green homes a possibility.  The U.S. and Canada have no shortage of incentives as well.  Check out the state and local incentives for your area, and join the green movement by making your home a part of it.

To read the full World GBC report, click here.  Click to see contractors who do green work, or green materials you can consider for your home.

This month, from September 20-26, the World Green Building Council (umbrella organization for the US Green Building Council and many councils worldwide) is celebrating World Green Building Week–expanded from World Green Building Day last year.  This week will revolve around two main events: the release of the WorldGBC’s Special Report “Tackling Global Climate Change – Meeting Local Priorities”, a coordinated series of green building events hosted by Green Building Councils from around the World.  20 countries from 6 continents will hold events, including Canada and the UK.  Events will range from green expos and LEED conferences to regional leader summits and national clean-up days.

Of course, the Special Report by the WorldGBC, to be released on September 20th, is a major focus of the week, bringing a overarching view of the developments in green building from various parts of the world, and how each country has used innovation and natural resources to its advantage for green building.  The GreenHomeImprovement.com blog will bring you a summary and links of the report following its release.

In the meantime, we encourage everyone in our community, whether you’re a green remodeler, manufacturer of green products, or a homeowner concerned with all things green, to check out the progress of green building week here. Even use this time to look around your home and get ideas about how it could be more eco-friendly.

And, we’d love to have your input!  Do you know of an inspiring new green home?  Whether it’s in Thailand or South Africa, Ireland or Peru–we want to hear about it.  Share the wisdom you’ve gained with GreenHomeImprovement, and celebrate Green Building Week with us.

More updates blog coming soon…

This turbine is a huge step forward for tidal energy, as it’s massive (59-foot diameter and 1,300 tonnes!), and represents the first in a set of hundreds that are planned for installation in Scotland over the coming years.

Worried about the potential impact on the sea floor and surrounding wildlife?  It’s believed that the impact will be minimal, as the blades rotate quite slowly and will need little maintenance on the sea floor.  In a world where all alternative energy sources have their pros and cons, the turbines seem a near ideal solution for powering (eventually) hundreds of thousands of homes in the area.

Can you imagine if such a solution was implemented along the US coasts, where tidal forces are strong and constant?  We salute the engineers and innovators who are making it possible to harness natural energy for homes.

Read more on the new turbines here.