SOURCE:Green Builder Media
DESCRIPTION:
January 2015 will mark the tenth anniversary of Green Builder® Media. So much has changed over the past decade. The green building market, and Green Builder Media along with it, has evolved from niche and fringe to mainstream and intelligent. As individuals, corporations, and governments around the world have awakened to our pressing environmental realities, sustainability has become recognized as the most cost-efficient, durable, and efficient building strategy.
Since Green Builder Media’s inception, we have aspired not just to report the news about green building; we’ve broken ground and made headlines with our thought-provoking editorial, advanced VISION House demonstration projects, involvement in the code and regulatory arena, and advocacy efforts. We’ve joined forces with building professionals, sustainability experts, manufacturers, and organizations throughout the industry, and, together, we’ve helped shape the national conversation about sustainable living.
In an effort to fully practice what we preach and bring the sustainability dialogue to the next level, we’re embarking on our most ambitious VISION House demonstration project yet. We have purchased a 120-acre in-holding, surrounded by millions of acres of national forest, 10,000 feet high in the mountains of Colorado. On this pristine and precious piece of property, which we lovingly call Mariposa Meadows, we will construct a completely off-grid, durable, fire resistant, resource efficient, and regenerative corporate campus.
Our goal is to apply and test a wide variety of solutions, from high performance building envelope systems to renewables to enabling technologies, even extending into areas such as waste management, clean transportation, onsite food production, and ecosystem protection. We figure that if we can successfully implement these concepts in the extremes of a remote, high altitude location, they can be applied in urban, rural, or suburban settings across the country (of course, with appropriate changes to account for varying climate zones and building science realities.)
Phase 1 of the build out has begun with the VISION House at Mariposa Meadows, consisting of three compact residential structures nestled into a beautiful aspen forest, overlooking an idyllic alpine meadow surrounded by the towering peaks of the Continental Divide.
KEYWORDS: Environment and Climate Change, Education, sustainable living, #sustainability, off grid living, Water Conservation, energy efficiency, Vision House Mariposa Meadows, Green Builder Media
