Dear Friends of the Green Idea House:

We have appreciated your friendship and support as we planned, built and tested the Green Idea House.  The success we have achieved would have been impossible without you, our community of friends and supporters.  Together we proved that one family can affordably remodel a home into a net-zero energy, zero carbon, comfortable living environment.

Come and celebrate this accomplishment with us!

Robert, Monica and Carter Fortunato

 

PUBLIC INVITATION 

Join Us to Kick Off Earth Month with the Green Idea House Dedication Ceremony

 

WHAT:          Celebrate the successful completion of the Green Idea House which won the 2012 Green Leadership Award for Los Angeles County, 2012 Environmental Leadership SEED Award and Build It Green’s, Green Point Rated Builder of the Year Award in the Custom Builder Category.

(see full description below)

WHEN:          Saturday, April 6, 2013 – PUBLIC DAY

10:00 am – 12:30 pm

• Green Idea House Dedication Event with speeches from local dignitaries and environmental experts like Ed Begley Jr. and Dency Nelson
• Ride and drive the Mitsubishi i-MiEV on a first come, first serve basis.
• Rebate and product information from Partners of the Green Idea House including: Southern California Edison,SouthBayEnvironmentalServices Center, Energy Upgrade California and many more.
• Public tours of the exterior of the house at 11:30 am and 12 noon. These can be overbooked so the SBESC is taking registrations on a on a first come, first serve basis at : http://www.sbesc.com/event-registration.

 

WHERE:            

The Green Idea House

1556 Prospect Ave

Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

 

CONTACT:    

Robert Fortunato

Owner/Builder         

info@GreenIdeaHouse.com

(310) 594-5924

GreenIdeaHouse.com

 

Green Idea House Full Description:

The Green Idea House is one family’s project to affordably retrofit their house into a net zero energy, zero carbon case study. The building surpassed all our net zero energy, zero carbon goals, and won the 2012 Green Leadership Award for Los Angeles County, 2012 Environmental Leadership SEED Award and Build It Green’s, Green Point Rated Builder of the Year Award in the Custom Builder Category. The Green Idea House is also a case study for Energy Upgrade California, Build it Green’s Green Point Rating and is the cornerstone case study for Southern California Edison’s Net Zero Energy Initiative that makes possible the CPUC’s guideline that all new residential buildings be net zero energy by 2020.

The project was also successful in reducing the energy load by over 75%, harvesting more renewable energy than it uses and charging electric vehicles with the extra energy to help reduce the carbon footprint even further.   It also kept over 97% of construction waste out of the landfill and was extremely responsive to issues of materials use, water, waste and toxicity.

Our objective was to build community around the idea that anyone can and should build with energy efficiency and sustainability in mind.  In the process, we built a robust coalition with over 60 public, private and non-profit entities including our city, the utilities and multiple NGO’s in the energy and environmental space.  We also partnered with corporations to not only help them showcase their green products, but to give them feedback on how to improve them and increase their profitability and market viability at the same time.

We estimate that the GIH has been the focus of over 40 local, national and international publications, TV and radio programs. Most recently, The Wall Street Journal featured the GIH in an article on demolition reuse In addition, the Green idea House website gets between 40,000 and 70,000 hits per month.

Over 4,000 people visited the project before, during and after construction. The groups have included local Congressmen, Mayors and Councilmember’s, the U.S. Green Building Council, Energy Upgrade California, local utility employees, students from USC, UCLA, Mira Costa High School and Youthbuild as well as the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America. We were also honored to have been selected to be on the Sandpipers Holiday Homes Tour. to raise money for local charities.

Now that we have proven that the Green Idea House works, it is time to scale the idea.  We are working with community leaders to see if is possible to make our city the first CarbonNeutral City in Southern California and bring the economic, environmental and health benefits of this idea to fruition.

* Photos below courtesy Ethan Pines

 

 

Tags: Affordable, Case Study, Community, engineering, environmental, Landscape, Life Cycle, Metrics, Net Zero Energy, solar, waste, Water, Zero Carbon

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