Then with the real estate industry tanking, Green building went out the dual paned window. Maybe things in the real estate will again turn that Green corner

Homeowners and contractors can now find Green building products through the LEED Home Depot. This microsite within the main Home Depot site lists over 2500 products, many of which qualify for LEED points.

We’ve said before that we’re not all about LEED points. People often get caught up in the points and forget about the aspect of Green building itself.

Green building offers homeowners opportunities to reduce energy and resource consumption. However Green building offers more than just lower utility bills, as the often overlooked aspect of heath and superior air quality remain paramount in the overall Green picture.

Last year, Green building comprised 17% of new residential construction, tripling since 2008, and expected to increase to 29%-38% of the market by 2016, according to a McGraw-Hill Construction report.

Here’s to a Green real estate recovery.

Joey Shepp

The Green festival rolled into San Francisco this past weekend with less fanfare than in the past. Not that the participants, vendors and speakers didn’t have the energy of years past but this recent version saw a drop in vendors and also in the overall show days (from 3 to 2). Maybe the festival needs work on the “less is more” thinking and revert to the November only event.

The event did offer some notable and thought provoking speakers. We spent time to hear local Joey Shepp discuss social media for sustainable business. Even for people experienced with sustainable business ideas he certainly added some innovative ideas. We saw several business people typing notes madly on the Smart Pads. Some of the products and ideas worth mentioning include: the Fujitsu scansnap that quickly scans documents and business cards and the like quickly and efficiently. Of course he mentioned the world of cloud computing and how they will cut down on paper use. He mentioned that currently products will be about what the client wants not what the company wants (crowd sourcing) and that great sustainable ideas don’t have to come from angel investors or VC with organizations like Kiva, Kickstarter, and Crowdfire as outlets for people to start their own business. With so much info, he quickly rushed through his belief that Wikileaks will add truth and cause companies (or governments) to be more transparent. It adds truth, and what remains is education and creativity.

The other thing that seemed to be generating buzz is the GMO talk. Organizations may be angling toward getting mandatory labeling of GMOs on the California ballot because a high percentage of consumers want GMO labeled and because supermarkets, products and apparently are government don’t want to be transparent about what our food contains.

Sticking with the theme of energy, the “Light Thief ” caught our eyes as a local electrician known as Mr. Light finds himself in a dilemma when a politician embraces the idea of generating wind energy for his destitute town.

Although we enjoy seeing the green wave of films with an environmental slant, we also maintain a keen eye for good film so that means the Errol Morris film “Tabloid” about the bizarre 70s tale of girl gone wild Joyce McKinney.

We keep salivating about Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip” which we hear tastes like a food version of “Sideways”. We hope that it comes served organically.

Happy viewing.

The first and currently only LEED-Platinum hotel in California, the Bardessono will give overnight guests the opportunity to truly appreciate the reuse and repurposing of almost every substance rather than just the Green classification acronym. That reuse extends not only to creative use of building and structural materials but also the creative aesthetic touches like the reused Corona bottle glass that outlines the bathroom mirrors.

Although Green and minimalist, the Bardessono offers nods to its Italian roots and well as Zen like touches. Thoughtfully placed within view of several rooms, the olive oil press sculpture offers meditation inducing water (reused) flow to represent olive oil. Not only does the piece offer a pleasing sight and sounds but the fact that the entire piece comes via salvaged items like the stone that used to be part of an 100 year old olive oil press makes it even more attractive.

The fact that Bardessono considers water such an important aspect not only with the various Zen like pieces but the fact that they value the H2O as a precious resource. In addition to the ubiquitous low flow water fixtures and toilets for the indoors, the outdoors contains landscaping designed with native and drought tolerant plants as well as a drip irrigation system. Even the grey and black water gets a second life as irrigation by the town of Yountville.

For us super Greenies who felt somewhat guilty about relaxing in the indoor whirlpool bath or the rooftop based outdoor hot tub and pool, we felt somewhat better knowing that the both solar and geothermal wells go toward heating both the hot tubs and pool. Even the room tubs contain a self-sanitizing feature so chemicals don’t have to be used to clean to fight mildew.

Although many hipsters consider this boutique hotel a new, hip, minimalist trendy overnight option, many guests don’t realize how much sustainable creativity went towards the design. Although some eco-travelers do make a special trip to the Bardessono (like the many electric car owners who know that they can recharge their car or we who arrived in a Prius) many don’t fully appreciate the full environmental thought and how hotels like this one will raise not only the Green building bar but also everyone’s consciousness.

Those Green values and education will help anyone get good night sleep.

Considering that several thousand people crammed into the festival space on Treasure Island we think that overall they handled the transportation issue in a pretty Green way. We made our way to the festival via zero-emission Bauer buses that picked most of the masses up at AT&T Park. The only real griping we heard came from East Bay attendees who said that they had to drive or take BART to SF instead of having shuttle buses come to the East Bay as well.

Upon entering the festival we couldn’t help but noticing the Ferris wheel but then after that we spied a pair of decent size solar panels that sat near the entrance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t determine or find anyone who knew what the solar power generated. We’re sure it the energy went toward something beneficial.

Not that we didn’t get into the bands with MSTRKRFT rocking the house with their style of house and MGMT hitting a big home run by rocking into their first album but we didn’t have time to play amongst the Green sidelights. We liked the addition of the Sustainable Living Roadshow with its Recycle Swish – interactive NBA style take on recycling and Green education. The multi-colored bins existed all over the venue and Clean Vibes volunteers did a pretty good job of monitoring that the right item went into the correct bin. Last year, the festival diverted 72 percent of waste to recycling and composting – a slightly higher rate than Green San Fran.

We also appreciated the TRASHed Recycling Store which offered incentives (shirts, sun block, tickets, etc) I n exchange for cups and plastic bottles but we didn’t see many people taking advantage of the opportunity. We know that festivals need to make a profit so we’re okay with the water refilling station charging a $1 to refill a container (unless you buy a Treasure Island bottle which in that case the water is free) but at least they didn’t sell high fructose corn syrup (err soda) at the same booth.

Even behind the scenes the generators run on B20. Now we’re not going to say that these bringing thousands of people together won’t have some detrimental effects but compared with many of the other festivals out there Treasure Island Music Festival runs a pretty tight green ship.

Don’t say that we didn’t warn you but those who are short on cash should consider the Global Inheritance sponsored recycle booth in the Eco Lands section. They offered a similar booth last year but not many people seemed aware of it. The deal here is that anyone who wants nifty Outside Lands shirt (for free) just needs to bring 75 empty cans or bottles to the booth. For 250 bottles you can snag a pair of Loomstate organic jeans and 150 gets a recycled record vinyl clock. Those not as inspired can get some Fuel TV sunscreen (and boy is sunscreen mandatory today) for just eight bottles.

On the food front, we like the local and/or organic slant on food. The chow lineup includes local faves like El Huarache Loco, Eos Wine Bar, Fated Calf, Hog Island Oyster Co among some of the tasty local purveyors. They even offer fresh organic fruit from local farmers markets. Think anyone will miss the fried corn dogs and dried out, mass market chicken sandwiches? We think not.

The Refillable Water Program marked the most curious thing (so far) that we spotted. Simple enough that people can refill their reusable water containers for $1 with water sourced from the large five gallon bottles. Yes, we people could just go to the park fountains and get the good old Hetch Hechy H20 but no biggie. The curious thing is that at the same booth they sell plastic bottles of Sprite and Coke.  We understand that everyone has to make a buck but if you’re trying to make a point then make it. Don’t go half way.

More Green and Sustainable action from Outside Lands to come.

In a Cliff’s Notes version of the myriad incentives, rebates, and tax incentives GREENandSAVE has created a Federal Tax Incentive Decoder and condensed the material to 11 bite sized pages. Best of all, this resource does not cost a dime and can be downloaded at: http://www.greenandsave.com/homecheckup/free_federal_tax_incentive_decoder

We ploughed through some of the well organized and highly useful guide and discovered that beyond the tax credits, homeowners can save even more money through rebates as well as a breakdown to many money and environment friendly loans for energy efficient home improvements. One loan that we like is the Energy Star Loan which homeowners can use for installation of qualifying improvements that are Energy Star rated or meet program standards.

Here are some of the details:
The Loan Amount: $1,000-$15,000
Rate and Term: 6.99%
Fixed Rate; 3, 5, or 10 year term.
ii. Unsecured, no lien.
iii. No Fees or closing costs.
iv. No pre-payment penalty.

Not too shabby.

Finally, the politicians have created some far reaching incentives to truly get on us on the Green road to recovery. This downloadable decoder makes it easy to navigate down that Green road.