Independence Station
Independence Blog
World's Greenest Building will Feature EcoDomo Leather Tiles
EcoDomo leather tiles will add another green component and sophisticated style to Independence Station, the mixed-use facility expected to become the World’s Greenest Building when it opens in Independence, OR, next year. Made from the discarded scraps from BMW car seat manufacturers and other tanneries, EcoDomo leather tiles will cover floors and walls in parts of the building.
EcoDomo LLC shreds leather scraps that would otherwise be discarded in landfills. In a process similar to the production of recycled paper, the leather is bound together using natural rubber and Acacia tree sap. Tiles are hand-stitched in the United States by Amish artisans, then finished with the EasyContact™ adhesion system. The resulting tiles offer the look and feel of genuine leather at a fraction of the cost while also providing peace of mind with regards to installation, maintenance and performance.
At World's Greenest Building, we Squidoo. Do you?
A Squidoo lens now gives a new perspective of the World’s Greenest Building, with background information, a blog feed and (soon to arrive) links to more favorite green sites. Squidoo is one more place on the Web to spread the good news of record breaking energy efficiency planned as part of Independence Station when it opens in Independence, Oregon, next year. Check it out and give us your ideas and comments as we continue toward the goal of making the world a greener place, one green building at a time.
When you visit the World’s Greenest Building on Squidoo, be sure to give us your ideas and comments. Just think, it won’t be long before the World’s Greenest Building will be a hot spot in the ecotourism circles and you can come out for a test drive weekend. We can’t wait to see you, but we probably won’t leave a light on for you.
Turning Trash into Treasure
Most people think of composting as dirty. And can you blame them? After all the image that comes to mind involves worms, trash, dirt, and old food scraps; all of which jumbled together does not paint a pretty picture. So what to do. As the world’s greenest building it would be inappropriate not to dispose of our trash in some eco-friendly manner, yet cultivating foul garbage inside one’s home is a seemingly lackluster option.
Enter here, the NatureMill automatic composter.
This innovative trash transformer turns the stomach-churning idea of compost into a thing of the past. The NatureMill automatic composter is guaranteed no fuss and best of all, no smell.
All fifteen of the Independence Station condos will be outfitted with the NatureMill product. Located in the heart of the home, the kitchen, families will simply deposit daily food scraps into the top of the composter. After two weeks of a painless and odor-less process, residents may begin removing rich compost to use as they please. May we suggest a small organic outdoor garden?
The Race to be Green is the New Space Race
Thanks so much to Brent Drewry for his recent blog post Green Building Innovators: The New Space Race. This post has given us a whole new perspective to what exactly it is we are completing here with our work on Independence Station. When he first heard about the World’s Greenest Building project, the first thing that came to mind for him was how similar it is to the International Space Station. Now, it’s easy to see the similarity in regards to different countries competing to achieve the same title, but Brent takes it to a new level.
The reason he thinks our work at Independence Station is like the race into space is because of the “ingenuity, collaboration and iconic view of the future they both represent.”
Water. The next gold.
I recently travelled to Lake Mead, Hoover Dam to be specific. I have passed by there at least a dozen times over my lifetime, but this last time was a real wakeup call. The level of the lake that supports so many people is beyond low. As a result, I have really put some thought into how to both harvest rainwater and to conserve water in Independence Station. To start with, we have turned to the experts at Kohler and the EPA WaterSense program to stretch what we use. From ingenious shower heads to water saving faucets and ultra low flush toilets, Kohler has really come through for us.
Once we have the plumbing efficiency covered, the next crucial step is user education to break old wasteful habits such as leaving the water flowing while brushing teeth and shaving while in the shower. I’ve been guilty of this for many years and have recently started shaving after my shower. Without a committed user, all the water saving fixtures will do little good.
Even Cooler
I love technological advances that are simple. You know, the kind that are like “Why wasn’t this done years ago?” Let’s talk Coolerado. These guys are standing the air conditioning industry on their ear. We all know how energy efficient an evaporative cooler is, but we don’t always want the additional humidity or associated maintenance caused by mineral deposit buildups. They have just rendered the high horsepower, compressor and discarded waste heat paradigm air conditioning obsolete. This old style, energy hog, Rube Goldberg technology is nothing more than “thermodynamic nonsense” they say. In most all cases, I agree.
Nothing more than Synergy
The Independence Station building is nothing more than the synergy created between the sum of currently available off-the-shelf components + the application of simple Jr. High School level physics + a dose of common sense. Combine this with passionate, curious, forward thinking Earth Stewardship (New Environmentalist) minded visitors, resident fulltime owners and fractional ownership part-timers, and you get a one-of-a-kind authentic true green community that will radically raise the bar for the booming green building industry.
I will try to make at least once per week blog entries that will piece-by-piece explain the how and why behind the systems that make this possible. I am an Open Source kind of guy, so feel free to use this information, but in turn, please share your personal knowledge here so that we can move to a cleaner, greener future for the sake of National Energy Security, our local economy, education, as well as service to those truly needy both here and worldwide. I don’t care if you are Red or Blue or any combination of the two, like I happen to be. We need to work together for a better future for all of us, our children, our grandchildren and beyond.
What is the Future?
Ever wondered what it would be like to live in a home that has it all? We all talk about wanting to do one thing or another to green our lives, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to experience and learn about how all these new and old green technologies can work in unison? To be able to gain firsthand experience and an understanding of what life could be like if someone just had the guts to build a home that had it all, and would open it to other Environmental Stewardship fans to take it out for a spin themselves? Throw boring incrementalism to the wind! Experience what the clean, green future holds today.
Ultimate conservation, resource reuse, 100% renewable energy, zero carbon transportation, onsite food production, telecommuting, Slow Food, sustainability and green building classes, local economics, authentic community…. Such a place is actually under construction and looking for future lab rats to help fine tune all the systems with the goal of proving that we can live better than most of us do now, but on just 17% of the energy that the average American consumes today.
News
July 17, 2009
June 8, 2009
