What's the "Big Idea": Build

Did you get to watch the "Build" episode for "Big Ideas for a Small Planet"? If so, share your thoughts! Tell us if you learned anything new. 

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Our housing plays a large role in environmental destruction, particularly home heating and cooling. However, a greener design can reduce the environmental impact. Over a 50 year period, an energy efficient home can reduce green house emissions by 63% compared to a standard UShome. 

Here are some useful tips for making your existing housing "greener":

1. Plant dedicuous trees in the south of your home to provide shade in the summer and light in the winter
2. Add insulation to your roof to cut down on both heat and cooling bills
3. Use a rainwater tank for laundry, gardening, flushing your toilet, etc

Apartment dwellers  can also make a difference:

1. Use compact fluorescent or LED light bulbs
2. Hang heavy drapes or curtains to keep in or out heat
3. Use low flow shower heads

Eco-materials that you may consider using include bamboo, cork, recycled glass tiles, and strawboard.

Share your thoughts. What have you done to make your own home or apartment a greener living space?

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Tune into the Sundance Channel on Tuesday, April 24th to learn more:

9:00pme/p “Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Build” – Visionary architect Michelle Kaufmann builds a Glidehouse, an ultra-sustainable modular prefab dream home, for a couple looking to enjoy life off the grid; architect Carlton Brown defies all odds and builds a low-income sustainable housing project in Harlem; and MIT genius Mitchell Joachim demonstrates his Fab Tree Hab living house made from intertwined trees, creating a spectacular living space of the future.

9:30pme/p"Waste = Food"  – Directed by Rob van Hattum.  Van Hattum delivers an exciting introduction to the work of American architect/designer William McDonough and German ecological chemist Michael Braungart, who may well be starting a new industrial revolution.  Taking their cue from nature’s conversion of animal waste into plant nutrients and vice versa, McDonough and Braungaut have created a “cradle-to-cradle” protocol in which every product, once discarded, is somehow usable – whether it becomes another product or breaks down into non-toxic “food” for the biosphere or the technosphere.  Waste = Food shows their principles at work in a host of guises, from the revamped Ford Motors production facility in Detroit, to a line of recycled (and recyclable) shoes at Nike, to a model village under construction in China.

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Do you have a "Big Idea" for the environment. Join The Green to learn more about Robert Redford's new television series about sustainable living. To join, click here.