Buying an attainably-priced green home is a no brainer for most creatives given the option, however finding one is comparable to a needle in a haystack. So, in the District of Columbia the GreenHomes DC program is launching an opportunity for prospective home buyers (and renters) to crowdsource their own affordable green place to live.

In partnership with a sponsoring developer per specific project, GreenHomes DC is a joint venture between Green DC Realty and CoolTown Beta Communities.  Approximately $1000 will be contributed to environmental organizations that refer eventual green home buyers, including Green Drinks DC and Live Green.

The launch event took place on July 8, 2008 (last night) at Lofts 11, a 27-unit green residential building completed by Taurus Enterprise Group. It’s pioneering president, Gail Montplaisir, spoke to a crowd of a hundred on how she’d been supporting green development for decades without any industry support back, and was heartened by the green tipping point sweeping the country. She was enthused that there were so many people interested in green building, and was open to crowdsourcing their next green development.

In response to a time when commuters are looking at alternatives to spending hundreds more each month in gas, Forbes presents their America’s Most Fuel-Efficient Neighborhoods list.

Owning a home in a walkable neighborhood saves residents $300 to $400 a month, according to research by the Congress for the New Urbanism, compared to exurban neighborhoods where costs top out at $1000/month. The list below, with costs ranging from $600-$800/month assumes you still have an auto-oriented commute of some sort, because we all know the costs drop to a $100 if you’re taking mass transit or near zero if you’re walking, like yours truly.

Forbes’ list, with average monthly transportation cost:

1. Brooklyn Heights, NYC - $643
2. Koreatown, Los Angeles - $658
3. Logan Square, Chicago - $742
4. Arlington, VA, Washington DC metro - $747
5. The Mission, San Francisco - $746 (pictured)
6. Fishtown, Philadelphia PA - $674
7. Jamaica Plain, Boston - $728
8. Woodward Corridor, Detroit MI - $728
9. Greenville, Dallas TX - $745
10. Montrose, Houston TX - $760

Image source: Mission District, SF by Sutanto

On an island near Shanghai, China formed by the accumulation of, silt shared with a protected bird habitat, will rise a city that is free of greenhouse gas emissions and gas-powered vehicles with an emphasis on energy-efficient design, waste reduction strategies, and renewable energy.

Dongtan, a 21,250-acre eco city, is being developed by Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation as a leading example of green development in China.

Transportation
- All vehicles within the city will be powered by battery or fuel cell.
- Visitors will park their automobiles outside the city.
- All housing is to be placed no farther than a seven-minute walk from public transportation
- Most residents are expected to work in Dongtan.
- Bicycle paths, pedestrian routes, a tram system, hydrogen fuel-cell buses, and water taxis will provide alternative forms of transportation.

Energy
- Up to 90% of all waste will be recovered.
- A combined heat and power plant will run on biomass, including municipal solid waste and sewage and rice husks left over from area rice mills.
- Wind farms and buildings with their own photovoltaic cells and micro-wind turbines will provide additional energy.

- Food will be provided by high-yield production using waste heat and the carbon of the biomass for energy generation systems.

The population is expected to reach 5,000 by 2010, 80,000 by 2020, and a half million by 2050, in the form of three compact villages.

Ten defining principles for a true green community

There's a ton of buzz on green communities sprouting up everywhere, and while the US Green Building Council provides LEED standards for neighborhoods, it's not nearly the benchmark that the BioRegional Development Group provides. Their ten One Planet Living Communities principles start at zero net carbon and go from there:

Zero Carbon - Zero net CO2 commissions via on-site renewable energy, supplemented by off-site renewable energy if needed.
Zero Waste - Eliminate need for landfill or incineration, emphasize recycling and composting.
Sustainable Transport - Provide infrastructure not requiring private vehicles, offset air and car travel.
Local and Sustainable Materials - Use local, reclaimed, renewable and recycled materials in construction and products resulting in a net positive impact on the environment and local economy.
Local and Sustainable Food - Support local and low impact food production resulting in a net positive impact on the environment and local economy.
Sustainable Water - Reduce, re-use and recycle resulting in a net positive supply.
Natural Habitats and Wildlife - Protect or regenerate existing natural environments, create new habitats, resulting in a net positive impact.
Culture and Heritage - Preserve local and regional identity (ie local independent businesses, events, culture)
Equity and Fair Trade - Ensure that the community's impact on other communities is positive.
Health and Happiness - Promote healthy lifestyles and physical, mental and spiritual. See Copenhagen for an example.

As the map shows, only three modern-day communities qualify, and they don't even exist yet. Of course, the designations are a bit hypocritical in that these communities are built on farm land or wilderness, but achieving the ten principles despite that is nothing short of monumental.

The first zero-energy community in North America?

Being that a zero-energy community means 100% renewable energy, that's no small claim to make. However, the renowned zero-energy development firm in the UK, Bioregional Development Group (profiled in the previous entry), is working with U.S. firm Codding Enterprises to build just that in Northern California, the first ever in Northern America.

The hypocrisy with these eco-villages are that they're built on greenfields - either farm land or wilderness, so in essence it's more urban sprawl. However, the 200-acre project, Sonoma Mountain Village, commencing in 2009 and ending in 2021 with zero-energy status, still provides a landmark model of sustainability that no other community can match.

With 1900 homes, more than half being multi-family, it doesn't look like a greenfield development either, but rather something you'd expect with urban infill. It's green features include:

- 35 units/acre residential density equals that of historic walkable urban neighborhoods.
- Roof-mounted solar panels will provide hot water, passive solar design will collect heat in the walls and floors during the day for distribution at night.
- Community-wide grid of geothermal heat pumps.
- Cisterns throughout will collect rain.
- Homes made with steel framing recycled from auto parts.

Read more in this Washington Post article.

Zero-energy community in the UK

There's a lot of talk of zero-energy (100% renewable energy) urban communities, but not a lot of built examples. The Beddington Zero Energy Development, or BedZED as it's better known, is a rare exception, developed by the BioRegional Development Group, probably the world's leading sustainable development firm.

OK, so it may resemble a chicken farm on the surface, but it's a monumental achievement in sustainability. Completed in Wallington, South London in 2002, BedZED consists of 100 homes, and 15,000 s.f. of work space with major green features including:

- Five minutes' walk of a train station.
- 8000 s.f. of solar panels (pictured on roof).
- Wind-driven ventilation system (see colored wind cowls on roof).
- Green roofs.
- South-facing homes to take advantage of solar gain through triple-glazed windows.
- Rainwater catchment system.
- 40 electric cars with car sharing program.
- More details here.

The results compared to the UK average:
- 88% less space-heating requirements.
- 57% less hot-water consumption.
- 25% less electricity used, 11% produced by solar.
- 50% less mains-water consumption.
- 65% less residents' vehicle miles traveled.

The first 100% fully wind-powered town in the U.S.

Rock Port, Missouri may only have a population of 1300, but it claims a title that no other community in the U.S. can - all of its energy is generated by a renewable resource. In fact, its four $90 million 1.25 MW wind turbines producing 16 million kilowatt hours annually leaves 3 million kilowatt hours in excess.

How was it financed?

That can best be explained via this CNN Money example involving five windmills, five farmers, and a total project cost of $10 million:

A creditor, like John Deere (extensive capital, farmer friendly) puts up $4,950,000. The farmers contribute just $10,000 each. The remaining $5 million comes from a bank loan.

The farmers' cooperative secures a contract to sell power to a local utility, then puts up the wind turbines. The projects are usually fairly small in scale, say 5 to 10 turbines producing 7.5 to 15 megawatts of power in total, or enough to power about 5,000 to 10,000 homes.

Deere gets the federal production tax credit of about 2 cents per kilowatt hour and just about all of the proceeds from selling the power for the first 10 years.

The farmers get a maintenance fee of about $20,000 a year each for managing the turbines - keeping the access roads plowed, calling technicians for repairs, handling the paper work with the utility.

After 10 years, when the loan is paid off and Deere has recouped its investment plus profit, the ownership structure flips, with the farmers becoming majority owners.

What's holding up other towns? The factories to build the huge wind turbines need subsidies to get off the ground, no different than our road system. Once the government extends a wind energy tax credit program for such production look for thousands of towns to join Rock Port.

Carbon footprint per passenger mile

For those of you wondering what the carbon impact is between walking, riding and driving, the folks at the Sightline Institute, a nonprofit sustainability research center, provides an answer with clarity.

Some insights from the graph:

- You can't get much greener than a walkable community.
- It's easy to see why SUVs get such a bad rap, though a solo hybrid is no better than a 3-person SUV carpool.
- It's easy to see why hybrids get such good press, though that's only when it's compared to other cars with the same number of passengers.
- The best way to calculate carbon impact per car passenger is to divide the carbon impact for a solo driver by the number of passengers.
- A 4-person carpool is greener than transit only if everyone else is 4-person carpooling as well. In other words, an infrastructure that allows a 4-person carpool is going to attract ten times as many solo drivers.
- You can't get much greener than a walkable community. Worth repeating. Even more worth executing.

Being authentically green goes beyond 'gizmo green'

As urban designer Steve Mouzon states, there's a lot of press on 'gizmo green'; the technology-oriented inventions from hybrids to bamboo floors. However, his website reminds us of The Original Green before technology as we know it today, consisting of the fundamental elements of what's needed to truly go green before gizmo green is introduced.

He defines The Original Green in two phases, with four foundations each:

Sustainable Places
Feedable - Starting with the basic needs, is a sustainable agriculture within a few miles?
Accessible - Do you have a choice other than driving to get around?
Serviceable - Are daily amenities and affordable housing provided... and accessible?
Defensible - We no longer need medieval walls (though some still need gates), but is public safety (ie 'eyes on the street') built in?

Sustainable Buildings
Lovable - If it's not designed to be beautiful and loved to begin with, it won't last.
Durable - If it's mass produced with cheap materials, don't expect it to be there in 100 years.
Flexible - Form-based urban fabric allows uses (retail, residential, office) to change over time while the buildings stay the same.
Frugal - Can your building live a simple life? Read Steve's description of a frugal building to do it justice.

See extensive profiles of each of these qualities including a collection of inspiring photos on Steve's Original Green site.

Thanks to Andy Malone of Asgard Development for the reference.

The next gen of Central Parks are on their way

Not only are urban dwellers in select cities across the country about to enjoy their own Central Park, but ones that are even larger than New York's 843-acre treasure, as reported in USA Today:

Staten Island, New York (pictured) - 2200 acres on what is currently the Fresh Kills landfill. You can't ask for a better transformation than that, though let's hope they don't call it Fresh Kills Park. However, think of all the jokes...

Memphis, TN - Shelby Farms Park is being planned on a 4500-acre former prison farm.

Atlanta - The Beltline will connect 1400 acres on 13 sites by walking trails, trolleys and existing parkland.

Orange County, CA - Orange County Great Park will be located on 1347 acres of a former military air base, plus another 1000-acre wilderness area.

Birmingham, AL - Red Mountain Park is a 1100-acre tract atop Red Mountain generously sold to a land trust by U.S. Steel for $7 million. It's valued at more than $16 million.

What's amazing about this trend is that most of the country's large urban parks were created in the 19th or early 20th century when land was much less scarce. The reasons?

- Our present environmental concerns and the rising green movement;
- The revitalizing impact of park-side real estate;
- Health-conscious people moving back to cities;
- Vacant industrial land from our industrial to information economy shift.

Looking forward to profiling these parks as they come to fruition.

Thanks to Erin Caricofe for the reference!