I don’t know if any of you are quite as crazy as I am and dream of someday owning a house with a green roof (and I mean an actual growing, living, planted, green roof), but if you’re not quite ready to make that leap, then maybe your green roof could be white instead... More

After all this 2016 Olympic discussion, I was inspired to seek out an existing Green Home renovation of Olympic proportions. Enter: the ski home of Ken Wilson, founder of leading sustainable architecture/interiors firm Envision Designs... More

The West Coast Green conference just wrapped up in San Francisco earlier this month. It’s an annual event that started four years ago and is now the largest conference focusing on green building innovation and technology. All of the latest and greatest green gadgets could be found at the tradeshow filling two huge pavilions with over 300 exhibitors. Walking up and down the aisles, I felt like a kid in a candy store. Below are the top three sweetest innovations I found for homeowners... More

Cellulose is sexy! Or at least better to the touch than most insulation materials. Cellulose is one of the oldest insulation materials to be used in buildings, but it has changed considerably since old newsprint was stuffed into wall cavities at the turn of the last century. The pulp is finely ground and sprayed with a flame, mold, and rodent retardant, typically boric acid. This treatment has satiated many of the historic concerns about using the material, namely the combustibility of paper and the fear of multiplying mice in your walls... More

(Welcome to Meredith, one of the finalists for our Green Architect blogger search. She's writing from Seattle. Comment away!

About three years ago, my husband and I became homeowners. We bought the smallest house on the block, a one bedroom, one bathroom, 720-square-foot former workers' cottage. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in location and great neighbors. Of course, we immediately started thinking about the big changes we would make: a second story addition, digging out the crawl space and lifting the house to make the basement habitable, an addition out the back or even starting from scratch... More

Maybe you missed your chance to win an Olympic medal, but for the go-for-the-gold attitude in us all, there's still the opportunity to get that metallic symbol recognizing you as the paragon of green-ness you are by way of third-party green home certifications. Green home certification is perfect for the competitive type who wants to push to get just one more point in a green rating system, or who wants an edge in the real estate market. National rating systems carry street cred and speak a common green language to a wide audience. The most common national rating systems are... More