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Blue dogs and green tax credits

by The Green A-Team

If Green building can save the housing market, what’s holding us back?

Our Government holds the power to dramatically effect the fate of the housing market.  Legislation that offers financial incentives to lenders helps developers and homeowners who put a premium on energy efficiency.  The House Financial Services Committee decides whether a bill that favors Green building will be approved.

Sean Todd, President & CEO of Fox Patomac Resources LLC.

For a tax credit to be passed, it’s gotta be taken out of somewhere else so they have to look for offsets to pay for these tax credits in Green buildings and that has been the major obstacle.

While Republicans objected to the estimated $2.7 billion dollar cost associated with the bill, the Obama administration will surly create a strongly activist Congress to push progressive ideas like this ahead.

For more on the green path out of the housing crisis, check out some of the following links.

The US Market for Green Building Materials (MarketResearch.com)

Cool Housing Market Makes Green Buildings Shine (TriplePundit.com)

Could efficient homes save the US housing market from an Asian takeover? (Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce)

Click here for our full interview with Sean Todd.

Photo by WayneWho?


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Green Project in B.C. Burns Sawdust, Treats Sewage in Backyard

by The Green A-Team

Full Bloomberg article here.

Green Air Filter:

Like the bright but annoying kid in class that raises his hand whenever the teacher asks a question, Canada is running laps around the rest of North American sustainable design projects with this 15-acre master-planned sustainable community located along the harbourfront of downtown Victoria.

This keystone project from Windmill West is putting a price behind it’s platinum LEED promises, offering up $1 million to the city of Victoria if Canada’s Green Building Council doesn’t legitimize their claims.  With vocabulary like “natural capitialism” and “New Urbanism” entering the lexicon of developers and architects, sustainable communities may be a thing of the nearer future than expected… and not a moment too soon!  If you just can’t wait, there’s one in Sweden (pictured) where the residents look quite happy.

Photo by Ivonne de la Guardia.


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Word of the Day: Permaculture

by The Green A-Team

Word of the day - permaculture.

What does it mean for the future of farming and the survival of humanity?

It’s best understood through its roots, permanent and agriculture:  Something permanent exists perpetually without significant change and agriculture is the science and art of cultivating land, livestock, and crops.  The combination forms the basis of permaculture, where we give back to the land as much as we take.

Developed in the 1970s by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, this natural systems design model was born in response to the mistreatment of billions of acres of farmland jeopardized by overuse of chemical fertilizers and genetic mutation of crops.

Permaculture provides us with a toolkit for how we can inhabit our world through integration instead of domination.  By careful attention to life’s full spectrum from mammals to microbes, permaculture can sustain huge populations without disrupting nature’s delicate balance.

To find out where you can visit, volunteer, apprentice, and enjoy permaculture sites in your area, the links below should help get you started:

Midwest Permaculture

Northeastern Permaculture

Permaculture Research Institute, USA

Planetary Permaculture Directory

Illustration is the cover of Permaculture: A Designers Manual by Bill Mollison.


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London 2090:
UK Arc Fest Freaks Take Over

by Rich Awn

INSANE imagry from Squint/Opera is what happens when you sandwich architectual peanut butter with imagination jelly.

The London Festival of Architecture is doing it’s swinging thing from June 20th-July 20th and where else can you get architects to dream up an ecopolyptic invasion of the body snatchers?

Dezeen has more eye candy.


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