The homes are designed to produce up to 100% of their own electricity and are part of a larger development that will include 18 apartments and a community center in New Orleans's hard-hit Ninth Ward. The building is being financed by the Home Depot Foundation.
"What if a home actually created energy instead of consuming it? What if your utility bill could be nothing?" Pitt asks.
Pitt himself is building his own green home, north of Santa Barbara. He hopes that the house will be so efficient and produce so much electricity from solar cells on the roof that it won't need to be tied into the power grid at all.
His desire is that by building environmentally friendly homes can prompt others to do the same and help push America toward sustainability. He doubts that it will be possible without a national initiative much like the goals set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 for the space program. "It's going to take a straightforward leader to say, 'This is Apollo time! We're going to do this in 10 years!' I'm hoping, I'm crying, for this man or this woman to show up."
If you're interested in building your own "Green" house, Global Green USA, plans on posting the plans of the winning design selected by Brad up on their website later this year.
Source: USA Today
Great to see great things with Bard at the forefront. Future green building must take account of the "green washing" that seems to be accelerating throughout the real estate market place. I've seen repeated use of words like "green"
ReplyDeleteand "stewardship" across the board. I've seen some Realtors using the word "green" in their ads, knowing that awareness is elevating by the media and they use that hype to drive
more traffic to their listings. I've ran across great sites such as http://www.ListedGreen.com , Listed Green, that screen developers and realtors so as to minimize the "green washing" effect.
Some blogs have been overused in this regard as well. Hopefully, the general public can sift through this green hype and really see the changes that builders and developers have
to do to reduce our carbon footprint.
Look forward to the outcome of the competition, having Brad as the "green" image will hopefully change peoples perception and green can mean aesthetically pleasing whilst building responsibly for the future of our children.
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