I saw this on a blog the other day and I am stealing it. It’s called the Kyoto Oven and it quite possibly could change the landscape of Africa. The thing that I find interesting about these types of inventions is that they will require a change in habits. I mentioned this oven to a friend who is familiar with African culture and practices (she’s been there and lived it) and she thought, ” Yeah, its great but what about cooking at night?”. I have to admit the solar oven might have some issue there, but you could change the way you do things. 1) Precook your dinner before the sun went down. 2) Boil lots of water while the sun is shining and store it in a cool place. 3) Make a couple of them yourself and sell them.

In order to make the serious changes we are going to have to make in the world to sustain the current inhabitants and bring everyone’s quality of life up, we are going to have to change habits.  I think we have used this one before, the same thinking that got us where we are isn’t going to get us to where we need to be.  I think everyone in the world should read, at least, the first chapter of Thomas Freidman’s book Hot, Flat, and Crowded to get a little perspective twist on how we all live and how much we need to change.  Or there is a talk he gave on it that I haven’t watched yet.

Micah Baginski

One of the things that we really enjoy as a company is when we take this online community of people with a shared passion for all things “sustainable” and get them together for real. It’s what I believe the internet is really for after all. Connecting people.

Starting in mid March we are going to host a new series at the Good project called What Makes Good? At least 3 times a month we are going to have a different person give a presentation on topics that may vary from things like LEED certification and what it takes to be certified as a project to gardening in Sacramento (what to plant when) We may even pull in someone to teach a class on defensive bike riding in the urban core, or perhaps a movie now and again.

The events will be held at the Good project but occasionally when we think we are going to have a big crowd we will host at the Green Sacramento Shop.

When we say what makes good we don’t just mean the Good project that is just one example of how to live a good green lifestyle we will be all over the map with new ways to live out your passion.

Look for an announcement over the next few days in your email (if you are signed up on the top right of this page) We will be letting you know the what when and where for the first of What Makes Good?

And so we get the ball rolling right now in 100 words or less comment below your answer to What Makes Good?

Ready? Go.

Levi

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 →]

Sitting on the top right of this page for the last year or so, our little mini bio has been a sort of first glance sign to new visitors that this is something different. Its a way for us to tell people that yeah we sell houses and develop property but not like anything you have seen before. We are here because we believe in a better way to do things and that basically what got us to where we are today as a society will not get us to where we need to go tomorrow. We see our projects as a sort of test model for the way things are going to be in the future. Green, small, well designed, smart… Its the anti-suburb, a new vision for life.

So with that in mind we always want to look at everything we do in a new way, things like advertising just don’t feel like a fit for a company such as ours. This blog has been our answer to that feeling, it’s relevant, and more importantly honest and transparent. Recently we have been having another thought that I wanted to throw your way to see what you think. And you have to promise to be honest with your reply. Got it? Promise? Ok.

We are in the early stages of planning an event at the Good project in March. We are thinking its going to be called “What Makes Good.” It’s going to be an inside look at all the components that went into the Good project, with several tours on different topics given by our consultants. People will be able to hear about our marketing program from the folks at EMRL and all about the LEED ND certification and what all we had to do to be certified, also our friends from GreenBuilt will be there talking about what a green construction site looks like and how it works.

Anyway, we have been thinking of ways to let people know about the event and were wondering if you all might want to help out. This is just a thought at this point but I wanted to throw it out there right away and see what you all think. So that is my question. Want to help spread the word? We would provide downloadable flyers and links for your blog maybe even emails to send out. It’s sort of a guerilla marketing campaign at the most grass roots level. Thoughts…..?

Levi Benkert

There is a bottle of Seventh Generation dish soap on my kitchen counter right by the sink that has a little label on it that says “You have the right to know” and on the back it tells you everything that they put in the formula. Unlike many home products which don’t tell you anything at all about their ingredients, Seventh Generation is breaking that mold and it’s about time. But until they convince the rest of the market to be so open you really don’t have any other options…. until today. I found a way for us to find out what went into the things that we buy. It’s called GoodGuide a website that recently launched that takes on not only helping you know what chemicals are in your baby shampoo, but also lets you know if sweatshop labor used to make your t-shirt, and helps shed some light on the corporation and their practices that made that laundry detergent you use.

Just one more tool on the Internet that is giving us less and less excuses to be ignorant about our lifestyle and footprint here on earth.

Levi Benkert

Check out this house in Cambridge, MA its been solar heated since 1980 and from the looks of it has been working pretty darn well.  It’s an idea that should clearly be more developed into a consumer ready version.

Levi Benkert

Take a step outside the world you know with me for a second and try to dream of a place where things are better. What kind of better comes to mind? Here is what my better place looks like.

I see progress but not the kind that we have seen before, instead this progress raises the poor and the rich at the same time. It’s a place where everything for sale is like the shoes that Tom sells where every pair you buy also means that someone who is in need is given a pair. A place where opportunity to help others becomes as abundant as opportunity for greed is today. A place deciding to rise from the pit of extortion and take on the challenge of the worlds poor becoming a people who are not any longer just absorbed with our self interest but also that of others.

What I see is a people who decide that no longer can we move through life building our own separate lives full of third world produced trinkets and our oh-so-important personal freedoms because there is a better way.
[Read more →]

Last I saw there were 69 signatures on this petition to ban plastic bags in Sacramento.  Come on guys we can get all 5000!   Sign you name here.

This Thursday the 20th we have a Planning Commission hearing in West Sacramento on two of our projects, Habitat and Simple. We have been working on these projects for over a year and the vote is a major deal for us.

I am working on my opening plea to the Commissioners and want to share it with you here to get your input on it. It feels like it may be a little over the top… Let me know what you think.

And if you decide that you want to come out and support us the hearing starts at 6 and we expect to go on at about 6:30.

Here is what I have so far…I think its about 8 minutes worth of talking.

Planning Commission Hearing November 20th 2008  – Washington Blocks  -  Levi Benkert
Commissioners I want to thank you for taking the time to review the project we are proposing for the Washington neighborhood.

For the Record my name is Levi Benkert. I own LJ Urban, the developer for the project you see before you tonight.

You have heard all about LJ Urban’s vision for sustainable homes and building a walkable community in the Washington Neighborhood. You may have seen the Good project or read about it in the paper.

Many of you may have even been a little skeptical about the density and livability of this new type of housing. [Read more →]

Today I walked in the restroom at our office and saw this crazy thing sitting on top of the tank…

We share our restrooms with GreenBuilt and Green Sacramento the two “gods of greenness” so I think its a pretty safe bet to say it was one of those people who put it there, but I have never seen anything like it before and had to stare at it for a while to even figure out what it was.

I am guessing here because of the way it looks that it takes the water that goes to fill up the tank for the next flush and allows you to wash your hands with it.

So instead of going through all the trouble of saving your waste water with a pump and all you can just use it right there on top of the toilet.

When you flush it automatically starts flowing and all the water that goes down the little drain in the middle just goes straight into the tank for the next flush…

I am not an expert on the matter but I think that there are places in the country that are far more desperate for water than we are here in Sacramento, but even here a little conservation never hurt anyone right? Imagine if you put one of these things on every toilet in Las Vegas! You would be really doing some serious good.

Levi