Monday, May 10, 2010

I am honored to have been ask to be a judge of EcoHome Magazines inaugural EcoHome Design Awards, honoring the best sustainable homes for innovative design, green building features, environmental performance, and integration with their sites and communities in the nation. I will be flying to Washington D.C. for the judging in a week and a half and I am really excited about the opportunity to be one of the judges for such a prestigious award from one of my favorite magazines. We will be helping to judge in all of these categories.

1. Production, less than 2,000 square feet
2. Production, 2,000 to 4,000 square feet
3. Production, more than 4,000 square feet
4. Custom*, less than 2,000 square feet
5. Custom*, 2,000 to 4,000 square feet
6. Custom*, more than 4,000 square feet
7. Remodeling, whole-house
8. Remodeling, green addition
9. Multifamily
10. Affordable Housing

Thursday, May 06, 2010

If you get a chance please visit us at our booth at the GS4 Greenfest in Traverse City this Saturday. Our booth will be in the Con Foster Building and we will also be speaking on designing Grand Traverse Counties First LEED Certified Home at 12:00pm in the same building. This will be the place to connect with people, ideas, information, products and services related to green building. Get great ideas from green professionals, discover how to reduce your utility bills, learn about green products and services, and explore green initiatives that the Traverse City area has to offer.
It's official we just received LEED for Homes "Platinum" Certification for the "Vineyard" project in Paw Paw, Michigan. This is the Highest highest honor you can receive from the USGBC and the third time we have achieved this honor. We want to thank the member of the Vineyard project team for project well done. Thanks goes out to Image Design LLC, Hybrid Home LLC, Andersen Window Corporation, BuildBlock, R-Value Concrete Structures, Bauer Power, and AES (Alliance for Environmental Sustainability) for awesome job! We would also like to thank the Homeowner for allowing us all to be apart of the special project!

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

We made a site visit to the Projected LEED for Homes "Platinum" Glenn Retreat Project this week and things are coming along great. We are very impressed with the construction progress and attention to detail on this project. Thumbs up goes out to Doug and Jeff from Lake Homes Builder's for all their hard work on their first LEED for Homes project.
Note: you can see how the passive solar is working on this project, see the overhangs and the passive solar awning's shading the project's windows from the summer sun.