Glenn Retreat Project Receives LEED for Homes "Platinum" Certification

It's official we just received LEED for Homes "Platinum" Certification for the "Glenn Retreat" project in Glenn, Michigan. This is the highest honor you can receive from the USGBC , and this is our 6th LEED for Homes "Platinum" project and our 13th LEED certified home. We want to thank the members of the "Glenn Retreat" project team for project well done. Thanks goes out to Sustainable Home Consultants, LLC, Lake Homes Builder's, Landscape Design Services, Inc. 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!

Read More

Glenn Retreat Project Under Construction

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.

Read More

December Update

Can't believe its the end of the year already! This past year flew bye. We have been blessed this last year by receiving several national awards and by being published is several national & local magazines and had a lot of coverage through the internet. Since our last update we found out that I was elected to the Board of Directory at the Alliance for Environmental Sustainability (AES). I consider this a great honor and look forward to working with the rest of the Board members their, the AES has mentored myself and Image Design, LLC over the last 4 years and we would not be where we are today without them.

Our projected LEED for Home "Platinum" Glenn Retreat project is now under construction and the homeowners are writing a web-log about it. You can follow the progress of this project by clicking on the project's name above. Our projected LEED for Homes "Platinum" Turtles Hope project should be nearing completion some after the first of the year. We have several interesting project in design one of them is a sustainable remodel to a 1890's old farm house (see the picture above) built in in Dowling, Michigan the homeowners call the project Uncle Shane's. You can also follow the progress of this project by clicking on its project name too. This project will ultimatly be turning into a off the Grid Orgainic Farm. We are working on commercial LEED certified project called Northwoods by Nature that will be a non-profit Training Center for Green Building and Wind Tower Safety in LeRoy, Michigan. This project is exciting to me because it will give us a place up north to train and speak about Green Building and the LEED for Homes program to Builders, Sub-contractors, Building officials, Realtors and Homeowners in Northern Michigan. Some of the other project's we have in design will be built-in Howard City, Traverse City, Benzonia, Beulah, Dexter, Glenn, Ionia, Friutport, Newaygo, LeRoy, West Branch and Grand Rapids.

We are also anxiously awaiting final LEED for Homes certification on two of our projects the national award winning Vineyard Project which is projected to be "Platinum" and th Granite Hill which is projected to be "Gold". I am also in the process of working on my LEED AP + Homes Professional Credentials this is a two part process, first I will go for my LEED Green Associate certification then take a exam then if I pass it, I go take the LEED AP + Homes exam. This certification is worth one point on any of my projects that are going for LEED certification. So its important to have these Professional Credentials and it will also sets me apart from my competition. Also I will need it for a new venture I will be starting in 2010 (More about that next year)

2009 was a challenging, yet transformative year. Looking forward to the opportunities opening in 2010. Hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Read More