A more sustainable neighborhood…Bed ZEDBy Brian Skeele, on April 5th, 2011 Built and occupied in 2002, Beddington Zero Emissions Development, Bed ZED, helps people go green with time tested encouragements. The resident on the right took too long a shower. the one on the left failed to recycle a beer can. What were they thinking, what planet are they living on????
Remember, don’t take too long a shower! As you can see, my sense of humor loves to go gonzo. Twist the lines of reality and poke fun at our collective humanity. Hey, I own it…one of my favorite sayings is of the late Hunter Thompson, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” This post started out to be about Bed ZED and floor plans. It still is, just had a zany intro… The point I want to emphasize is the relationship between neighborhood, shared amenities and your home’s design. In Bed ZED, the transit friendly location creates a deeper affordability as alternatives to private car ownership are expanded….WATCH BED ZED VIDEO>> READ MORE >> Share the Vision of Your Thriving, Sustainable FutureBy Brian Skeele, on April 1st, 2011 If the current state of affairs is the best we can do, we are in trouble! With all the Impending Bummers, we got problems Houston. What the world needs now, is a vision of where to go! We got the hell part down, now, where is heaven??? Share your vision of daily life in your future thriving, sustainable neighborhood !
A Sustainable Neighborhood Streetscape Just in case you want some ideas to jog your vision, here are some of the Goals and Guiding Principles… READ MORE >> Architectural Designer Contests!By Brian Skeele, on March 21st, 2011 I love architectural contests! Somebody puts up an award, and all these designers submit their best ideas. and Wallah! The community gets a wider range of possibilities to work with. How can the use of contests help bring forward our collaboration and creativity and further truly sustainable lifestyles, across the US and around the world? I’ve heard rumors of websites for entrepreneurial fund raising. I just participated in a fundraiser for a green home building project in rural Mexico on Kickstarter.
Kickstarter fundraiser for Architects for Humanity Share your ideas Contest ideas here! It’s time to be making sustainable real!… READ MORE >> Inner and Outer Support to Make Sustainable Real!By Brian Skeele, on March 21st, 2011 As we work together to build, test and deploy rapid social, economic, and ecological prototype scenarios for sustainability, we can kick the ball farther down the road sooner, if we build in support. My experience is the creative process pushes my buttons. My expectations of perfection cripples me. How can I ask for help if my ideas are “halfbaked”?… READ MORE >> Why own?… when you can Carshare!!By Brian Skeele, on March 20th, 2011 Oh my God! We can share stuff, even cars! Sustainable living with a carshare! Can you imagine, you can rent out your car by the hour??!! yep, human ingenuity strikes again. You probably have heard of Zipcars, and other private car share programs. Well, another variation on the concept, peer to peer car sharing, is coming on line. RelayRides in Boston claims their participating car owners can earn up to $8000 a year by renting out their cars. With different Smartphone interfaces, integrated web cam configurations, and insurance packages tailored to the club program, a variety of business models have sprung up around the planet. … READ MORE >> Recycling… because trash isn’t really trash!By Brian Skeele, on March 19th, 2011 I just moved all my stuff out of my office, as we had a broken water pipe next door and my flooring warped. All my stuff is boxed and stacked under the front portal (porch). As I was packing up all the books and collected cool stuff, I started feeling oppressed by all my stuff. It’s like my stuff has me, rather than I have stuff. I have a lot of good books and magazines about sustainability. I want to start a library, a sustainability center reading room; share all my good stuff. Well, maybe I’ll keep my cool collected stuff. It’s amazing how much stuff we have….I bet all the storage units in the US combined would cover Texas! Have you seen The Story of Stuff? It’s a real eye opener, it’s incredible at how much waste is created as our stuff gets mined, manufactured, and transported. Something like 6% stuff, 94% waste!!!! Enough about stuff… what about recycling?… READ MORE >> Sustainable Fiber-Industrial Hemp-Get over it!By Brian Skeele, on March 19th, 2011 It grows in marginal soils. It’s fibers are really tough. 19th century sailing vessels made their sails and rope with industrial hemp. I’ve heard blue jeans made of hemp don’t wear out, they wear in. The excuses we are using to not grow hemp, are bogus! It’s time we stop being run by emotional boogie men and wise up. The herbicides and pesticides used to grow cotton destroy a soil’s fertility. Paper mills use dioxin in the processing of paper pulp. Dioxin is the most toxic man-made organic chemical known to man, second in toxicity only to radioactive waste. The healthy omega oils in hemp are sorely needed in our diets. Our ocean based Omega oil sources are getting polluted and over fished. When all the externalities associated with all the products that can be created by this amazing plant, are compared to externalities from fossil fuel based products, we will gratefully embrace industrial hemp. Our sustainable future needs renewable, non polluting fiber and food sources! Our farmers need the profitable crop. It’s time America, to make sustainable real! Share your ideas, links to resources, and recommendations for renewable fibers here!… READ MORE >> |
