I was interviewed today by Tina Vasquez a writer who is working on a new website about home design. I am sure she is going to take the interview and turn it into an article but I liked her questions and had fun answering them so I thought I might share them with you here. Warning, there is a bit of a spoiler on our next announcement in the last question…

T.V. What are “eco-urbanists?”
L.B. We actually came up with the term in 2004. We were searching for a way to identify ourselves and our passion for both sustainability and urban living and finally landed on eco-urbanists.  An eco urbanist is someone who cares and decided its time to make a difference. Its someone who wants to lower their footprint on the earth but does not necessarily want to drive a vegetable oil powered Volvo.  They are people who realized that living out in the country consumes more energy and that cities are worth making better.

T.V. How did LJ Urban come to be?
L.B.Back when it all started in 2003 we were called Asante Homes. A development company who did land entitlement work out in the suburbs. But one day we woke up and saw that we did not like the end product. We were not proud of what we were creating and decided to come to the urban core. In doing so we needed to remake ourselves into a builder/developer. We wanted everything we built to be as sustainable environmentally as possible and found that we had to do everything ourselves to do it all right. LJ Urban was born and we are still striving today to do things the same way. [Read more →]

I wouldn’t call PG&E progressive by any means, but look what they are going to start doing to change the landscape of the Solar Energy market in California.

First I have to say that the title of this post is a joke. There is no doubt that green makes sense from every angle but this writer seems to be all over the map when it comes to making up his mind as to what advantage you get from going green.

I say build it green because in 5 years everyone will be and you will be ahead of the game. Stop looking at the market statistics so closely and start doing whats right all the time.

Here is the article.

As you have all noticed by the price it costs to fill up your tank with Gas, Oil prices have taken a steep nose dive. And next year looks like it may even keep going that direction. The chief energy economist of Deutsche Bank, Adam Sieminski, said recently that the demand for oil in 2009 will drop more than any other time in the last quarter of a century, due to the weak economy. Sieminski forecasts oil traded in New York falling as low as $30 and averaging $47.50 for the whole year. He says higher forecasts haven’t adequately factored in how the global downturn will hurt oil demand. So…gas may be getting cheaper than cheap…But there is a flip side to that good feeling you are getting at the pump. With oil at 145$ this past summer alternative energy was entering what seemed to be its prime time debut, finanicers were willing to pour money into anything that held even the slightest promise of sustainable energy, even the Venture capital funds known for their technology plays in the past 20 years dumped more money towards green technology than information technology. But with prices at 37$, now what? The question on everyone’s mind is what will that mean for sustainable technologies?

And here is the million dollar question for you today. Given the increase in funding for the right kind of innovation when pricing is high how much are you willing to pay for a gallon of gas?

Levi Benkert

I have been digging this blog the last few days, the author Alexis Madrigal takes you on a journey through the last 100 years of green technology. I know 100 years, crazy right? Who knew that in 1901 people were already thinking about solar power. I got hooked right from the first post and am now making my way through all the archives. Very cool stuff.  Head over and check it out.

Levi Benkert

I hope you are getting the really hard ones ready for us because Story Tour night is tonight!

Stop by Good at 6pm for a night time walking tour of the project.  We are going to be talking through what it takes to get a project LEED ND (Good is one of the first in the country) certified and answering all your questions.

Hope to see you there!

Levi

This is a really cool idea that is pretty impressive to be undertaken by an existing community. My friend lives in the Hawthorne District in Portland and let me know about the plans to put the whole community on a much more efficient energy platform of hydronic heating and cooling fed by a biofuel boiler. Check it out.

The below is taken from the website.

“Project Overview
Sunnyside Neighborhood Energy (SunNE) is conceived as a comprehensive solution to local thermal energy needs. It will be structured as a community-owned district energy (DE) utility powered by renewable sources that will serve Sunnyside Environmental School and the surrounding historic neighborhood and commercial areas. The project is modeled on existing mid-sized DE utilities in Sweden, Denmark and Canada, which use solar thermal storage and biofuel boilers to provide thermal energy for detached single-family homes, multi-family residential and small commercial buildings. Adapting these successful international examples for implementation in Oregon gives us a scalable, replicable model whose economic and environmental impact will be tremendous.”

It’s almost midnight as I lay here in bed with my mind spinning. The mattress sits on the floor as the bedframe is leaning against the wall in the hall awaiting the move tomorrow. So many things to do to get my family and all our 9 years worth of stuff across town into our new home.

By we are not the only ones. Another home closed this week as well. And soon the two of us will be joined by the others who are working their way through the jungle that us escrow. We are actually going to have quite a nice little community.

Still a bit shocked about the news and review awards this week. Not sure everyone knows that we have not been doing this for 30 years and don’t deserve to be named best homebuilder.

And for those of you that voted for us in the green consultant category….Um we don’t even do that. You might want to vote for the other people that really do things. But thanks for thinking of us. 7 awards is way to many. You really should find other people to vote for.

Anyway. It’s late and we have a ton or crap to move tomorrow. Jessie just turned off the light and I am tired from all the excitement this week. Got to go.

Levi

I received an email a few days ago from our insurance guy and wanted to share it here. This is one of the things that we have always been excited about with LJ Urban. You could call it the ripple effect or if you wanted to get fancy the domino effect. (OK lame attempt at humor there). Whatever you call it it’s part of what we are looking for and why we decided early on to Blog as part of our business. We want not only to change the world ourselves but inspire others to do the same. We believe that in the end our greatest contribution will not be that which we have accomplished ourselves but what we have caused others to do by opening them up to dream big.

Here it is..

Good morning Levi,

My name is Matt Byers and I work for Stonecrest Insurance (we currently handle your insurance for LJ Urban). I subscribed to the RSS Feed on your blog about a month ago and I have found it to be very intriguing. Since I have been reading it, I have become much more interested in sustainable building and your eco-urban approach. I am in the insurance business by trade, but I think that actually puts me in a unique position to contribute to what you and the other sustainable building developers are working on by learning more about your business and developing a program to specifically address your unique needs. I have been doing research on green building and sustainability, with an emphasis on the LEED program, and I am considering becoming LEED certified and developing a program to cater specifically to the green building community. I know you are very busy, but I was wondering if you would take the time to meet with me, at your convenience, to talk about the unique challenges facing your company and if there would be any value in having an insurance agent that was LEED certified.

Reading your blog has inspired me to try and be more aware and involved in the movement toward more sustainable building practices and I would truly appreciate any time you can spare to discuss what you and the other leaders in the industry are doing and how I can help.

Matt

Check out this incredible project that clearly takes sustainability to a whole new level.

Thanks to Paul Dirksen for sending it to us.