Zenergy House

ZENERGY House - Studio City CA

ZENERGY House was conceived as a living example and educational tool for the average person to learn about and incorporate greener elements into their home environment. The one-story home was originally built in 1950 and includes 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,450 sq. ft. of living space, and a pool. The home was selected because of its unique architecture and because the home’s size reflects the national average for square footage. See Virtual Tour

The ZENERGY House will host a number of seminars and tours for architects, builders, designers, government officials, realtors, financial institutions, homeowners and other interested parties through 2010. Supporting ZENERGY House’s educational mission, tours will be performed by students from LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts) ‘The Giving Tree Club’ who have attended specific training events at the property.

Green Showcase

Going Green
Industrial-Strength Fungus
Time: February 8, 2010 by Adam Fisher

At an organic farm just outside Monterey, Calif., a super-eco building material is growing in dozens of darkened shipping containers. The farm is named Far West Fungi, and its rusting containers are full of all sorts of mushrooms--shiitake, reishi and pom-pom, to name a few. But Philip Ross, an artist, an inventor and a seriously obsessed amateur mycologist, isn't interested in the fancy caps we like to eat. What he's after are the fungi's thin, white rootlike fibers. Underground, they form a vast network called a mycelium. Far West Fungi's dirt-free hothouses pack in each mycelium so densely that it forms a mass of bright white spongy matter.

Mycelium doesn't taste very good, but once it's dried, it has some remarkable properties. It's nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more heat than fiberglass insulation. It's also stronger, pound for pound, than concrete. READ MORE !

see also: Ecocradle, Greensulate @ Ecovative Design

Industry Watch: Building

Top Ten Green Building Trends to Watch in 2010
earthadvantage.org by Sean Penrith

While we know the building industry had a rough year in 2009, green building has been a bright spot. So what can we expect to see in the coming year in green building? Here are our picks for emerging trends of 2010, in no particular order. READ MORE !

1. The smart grid and connected home.
2. Energy labeling for homes and office buildings.
3. Building information modeling (BIM) software.
4. Buy-in to green building by the financial community.
5. “Rightsizing” of homes.
6. Eco-districts.
7. Water conservation.
8. Carbon Calculation.
9. Net Zero Buildings.
10. Sustainable building education.