Green Building

For evidence of the Hilton Asheville’s unique commitment to eco-stewardship, you need only to look up. Atop the Hilton is one of the nation’s first hotel solar water heating systems. This system will be one of the largest installations in the Western North Carolina region.

Water throughout the hotel, including the pool, will be solar heated, eliminating twenty-five tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of planting 7,377 trees. Here guests can feel good about relaxing in one of the Hilton’s Whirlpool Tubs or taking a dip in the heated saline pool. Moreover, the solar water heating system is just one of the hotel’s many environmentally focused features.

The 165-room hotel is set in the heart of Biltmore Park Town Square, the largest mixed-use district outside of the city’s downtown. The Hilton Asheville was built to blend green practices with the Hilton’s acclaimed commitment to guest comfort, and was designed to LEED Certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards from the Green Building Council. LEED certification is based on numerous metrics including energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

The Hilton Asheville aims to bring sustainability to its hospitality when it opens this month. Representatives for the hotel outlined goals for green practices, including reduced use of natural resources and the implementation of a solar water heating system (the first in the United States). It also pledged to embrace of the hotel’s western North Carolina surroundings into its design and operation.

Green efforts will extend to the hotel’s Sparrow Spa, which will include organic treatments, and the on-site restaurant will offer a menu that draws on local growers. Select staff will even wear uniforms made out of regenerated plastic bottles.

The Hilton Asheville will offer shuttle service in an alternative fuel or hybrid automobile and will reduce unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. The hotel will also offer preferred parking for energy efficient hybrid vehicles.

Guests of the Hilton Asheville will have access to bicycles for exercise and/or alternatives to driving, ultimately reducing the use of gasoline, production of carbon monoxide and the release of other automobile emissions.

All hotel staff will be specially trained to comply with the company’s environmental program and practices. Now if that’s not out with the old and in with the new, I don’t know what is.

In good times, people trying to start something like a cohousing project have trouble competing with developers for land. In times like these, there are a lot of developers under water who are happy to unload sites, to idealists.

That’s what is happening in Brooklyn, where a group is buying a project, (formerly 40 high end condos), and planning to build a cohousing unit.

There are many benefits to cohousing as many are designed so that the spaces can adapt to different needs as one ages. This is a good time to be thinking about it. Treehugger has the full story and it’s worth heading over to check out.

Head on over to the water cooler and start your Friday gossip session, but make sure you review this week in green first.

• Your garage probably contains more potentially hazardous materials than any other location in your home. To find out what some of the more common chemicals are so that you can safely store them and know where or how to properly recycle or dispose of them, head on over to Ecollo.

• New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed that NYC begin charging shoppers 6 cents for each plastic bag issued at registers across the city. The policy is the latest attempt by the city to go green and reduce its environmental footprint. To read the full story, head over to Inhabitat.

• There are several leaders who demonstrate exceptional commitment to the environment in their home countries and in the international arena. Treehugger has highlighted the 5 most inspiring leaders in green.

• How do you green your bathroom? A few small changes will leave you “clean” of both body and conscience, while leaving enough water for the rest of us. Grist has a few great tips to greening your bathroom. Click here.

• Want to know how to fight toxic exposure and protect your home from dangerous chemicals? Elephant Journal offers us tons of resources about companies you can trust and products you shouldn’t.

• Environmental Graffiti has a great story on homes that are as far from “traditional” as you can get. Just clean, green, natural buildings smoothed from dirt, straw, clay, and loads of ingenuity. Click here view.

Break time! Grab your favorite beverage and catch up on this week in Green.

• There are countless ways to green up your gizmos, or even use your gadgets for environmental causes. Treehugger has great information tips, guides, fix-it solutions and facts all in one place to help you go green with your technology.

• Eco Trains? Designed by Eduardo Povarchik in collaboration with FCG Spain, the new eco train, dubbed the PIC NIC” is the new means for an eco-friendly picnic. If you haven’t already read about this train, head on over to ecofriend for the story.

• Ethanol has been a significant part of the news in the past few years, but what exactly is it? Ecollo has the basic low-down for us on this renewable alternative fuel. Click here for the full story.

• Waylon Lewis, the innovator behind Elephant Journal, has just started a little blog on Huffington Post. And it’s a big deal for elephantjournal.com. Being granted a column on Huffington Post, as one of the biggest most popular news sites in the whole wide world, is a big deal. Waylon needs our support to ensure he secures his blog. If you’d like to support, or comment, click here.

• The Schwimmhaus, made by German architects, Confused-Direction is a green houseggboat designed to float around or stay put on the shore. Schwimmhaus is being built from wood salvaged from old farm houses. For some awesome pictures of this beauty and the full story, click here to head over to Inhabitat.

Many of the items we buy and use can be recycled. Craft projects from recycled goods are one great way of ensuring that our limited natural resources are optimally used.

From the fabric of old garments to well-trash salvaged materials, can be used to create styles that make mouths drop. As environmental awareness grows and shoppers yearn for individual looks on a budget, people everywhere are getting in on the recycled trend.

Here is a great way to recycle old cans and transform them into a super stylin’, super hip, wine rack for your favorite organic wines.

Thanks Michelle for another innovative recycled DIY idea! Click here to start this project.

A tree house is the promise of adventure for kids. My Dad built my brothers and I one when we were kids. Well, it wasn’t so much a tree house, but rather a ground structure held together by the base of four small trees. It was “our” tree house though, square, yellow and small. I decorated it and swept the dirt floors often, we loved it!

magnolia and pine treehouse - click to enlarge

These days, you can live in cool, sleek, modern tree houses thanks to awesome design firms like Baumraum, who specialize in the planning and realization of tree houses.

What takes Baumraum tree houses completely over the top is that the “treespaces” can be designed with sitting and sleeping benches, storage spaces, mini-kitchens, heating, glass windows, lighting, as well as a multimedia sound system, making your tree house the coolest one on the block.

These special dwellings can be for kids, a haven for adults, or a romantic hideaway in nature. Baumraum transforms your individual ideas into ingenious and inspiring dwellings. My favorite design of Baumraum’s happens to be the magnolie and pine-a genius and beautiful design!

Inside a magnolie and pine treehouse - click to enlarge

As most of you already know, I am a HUGE fan of the amazing architect, Michelle Kaufman. Last week Michelle released the much anticipated “White Paper: Nutritional Labels For Homes.

Buying a green home can be a bewildering process. There are tons of various “green home” labels and certifications available for buyers, so Michelle has created a sustainability-labeling program.

“It’s a great way for homebuyers to make ecological and economical decisions. The paper addresses some of the challenges facing the world of green home building and discusses the potential for sustainability labeling to serve as a clear, universal way for homebuyers to evaluate the true worth of a for-sale house,” as stated on Michelle’s blog.

Applying a universal sustainability label to homes, just as we apply nutrition labels to food, is an awesome and great way to better understand and encourage the growth of the green housing market. Thanks Michelle, you rocked it once again!

DOWNLOAD THE NEWLY MINTED WHITE PAPER HERE.

Colorado will be home to the largest net-zero energy building and master-planned community in the US. Construction of the Geos Neighborhood will begin this fall and once completed, will generate enough renewable energy to offset 100% of the annual energy needs of the entire community.

The homes will be priced in the 200 thousands and will range from 860 square feet to 3,683 square feet in a variety of housing styles, including single-family homes, live/work town houses, paired homes, row homes, multi-level condos and co-housing.

The vision of Geos neighborhood is to be able to offer sustainable living at an accessible price. Developer Norbert Klebl said the company is “tapping a market of people who want beautiful, affordable homes that support their commitment to a truly sustainable lifestyle.” The community will have solar and geothermal systems designed to supply all of the energy needs and work in correlation with energy consumption patterns that are markedly lower than those found in the nation’s average homes.

Sustainable home features include airtight construction for low natural air changes; heat recovery ventilators that deliver clean and filtered fresh air and conserve internally generated heat, plus photovoltaic solar panels tied to the grid which power the climate conditioning system and all household electrical equipment.

It is going to be a very cool neighborhood and hopefully inspirational to the rest of the country and the world for that matter. Take a look at the website for further, very cool, information!

http://www.discovergeos.com

Plans are in the works for Pamela Anderson to building her own eco-friendly hotel in the Gulf city of Abu Dhabi.

The former Baywatch babe fell for the capital of the United Arab Emirates during a recent trip there with the Make-A-Wish Foundation charity.

And she was persuaded into becoming a hotelier by the Abu Dhabi royal family.

She reveals, “I’m building a hotel there. It’s environmentally friendly. I went there with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and met some great people there, and the royal family was really friendly.”

The environmentally-conscious star insists the hotel is kind to the earth: “It’s built with no fossil fuel at all in… Abu Dhabi… where they have all that oil.” Says Anderson.

Abu Dhabi

Pamela Anderson now joins Brad Pitt who is designing a new eco-friendly five-star hotel in Dubai. The actor’s Graft architecture company has teamed with local developer Zabeel Properties for the new project. The high end resort will have 800 rooms, and Pitt promises it will be socially conscious and environmentally sustainable.