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A Green Spaceport?

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 spaceport_america.jpg

Discover reports that, starting in 2009, tourists with deep pockets will be able to enjoy something fewer than 500 people have been lucky enough to experience—spaceflight. For $200,000, if all goes well, they can orbit for two and a half hours in Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. But the port for landing and takeoff—Spaceport America in New Mexico—will also be sensitive to the needs of those stuck on Earth. The plans, revealed in September, show a teardrop-shaped building with high-tech ventilation systems, solar panels, and massive windows, all features that could earn it top certification for efficiency and energy savings by the U.S. Green Building Council. spacesport_new_mexico.jpg

The port’s designer, Norman Foster, founder of Foster + Partners, says it will be “an ecologically sound model for future Spaceports.” For a place that may launch two rockets out of the atmosphere each day, will solar panels and natural light really make a difference in its environmental impact? What amount of carbon emissions are involved in space travel anyway?

spacesport_green.jpg

One trip in SpaceShipTwo along with its launch vehicle, WhiteKnightTwo, has a carbon footprint equal to that of one business-class passenger flying round-trip between New York and London, says Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn. By 2011, the company expects to be launching two flights a day. Although no firm figures for carbon dioxide emissions are available for SpaceShipTwo, a single NASA space shuttle launch produces 28 tons of carbon dioxide. With two space shuttle launches per year, on average, that amounts to roughly 5 tons of carbon dioxide per month (by comparison, your average car generates about half a ton per month). Where the numbers really pile up is in the operation of Kennedy Space Center, which includes pumping 300,000 gallons of water to protect the shuttle from launch vibrations, moving the rockets, and keeping hundreds of tons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen cool. That makes for a monthly carbon footprint over 900 times that given off by the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters in one launch. Furthermore, 23 tons of harmful particulate matter settle around the launch area each liftoff, and nearly 13 tons of hydrochloric acid kill fish and plants within half a mile of the site. In all, the environmental cost per launch is the same as that of New York City over a weekend, Whitehorn says.

spaceport_terminal.jpg

Still, the expected impact of spaceflight pales in comparison with the carbon footprint of a commercial airport. Los Angeles International Airport has carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 19,000 tons a month, taking into account the use of electricity and natural gas. Meanwhile, the roughly 33,000 airplanes that fly in and out of the airport each month emit about 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

More images can be found here.

Via: Discover

The post A Green Spaceport? appeared first on MetaEfficient.


Office Building Is 100% Sewer-Free

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The sewer systems we use today are entirely ineffectual and unnecessary. The primary flaw in our design is that we use fresh water to dispose of feces. This is perhaps the most ineffectual thing to do with human manure — it pollutes fresh water, and it requires municipalities to maintain extremely costly sewage treatment infrastructures. Even after treatment, sewage can still wreck havoc on rivers and groundwater.

The most effective and straightforward thing to do with sewage is to compost it (or use it to produce fuel). It’s a valuable resource.

The C. K. Choi Building is a 30,000-square-foot building that is part of the University of British Columbia. The building has no connection to the sewage system. Instead it has composting toilets and waterless urinals installed.

The toilets on each of the three floors connect via stainless steel chutes to five Clivus Multrum composting systems in the building’s basement. The toilets emit no odors, because all the waste is collected in the basement and fans ensure that no odor escapes the composting containers.

The system is maintained and emptied by the Clivus Multrum company through a service contract. Every day the university maintenance staff wipes down the toilets and adds a can of wood chips or bark mulch to each toilet. Every six months, the compost (which no longer resembles feces) is removed from the system and used as a fertilizer.

Because of this system, the C. K. Choi building uses just 500 liters of water per day (132 gallons), a similarly-sized conventional building uses an average of 7,000 liters of water a day (1850 gallons) or fourteen times as much water.

But about the water from sinks and other systems? This graywater is filtered and pumped into a 300-foot-long outdoor planter bed with lilies. The final discharge is used to irrigate plants. A test by the city of Vancouver of the fecal coliform counts of the discharged water showed that it contained less than 10 CFU per 100 milliliters (by comparison swimming is permitted in water with up to 200 CFU per 100 milliliters).

The building also captures rainwater: the rain is in a 7,000-gallon tank below a staircase. It is used to irrigate the landscape, which is bordered by thirsty ginkgo trees.

What this example clearly shows is that modern buildings can do quite well without a connection to a municipal sewage system. The maintaining the building’s composting system is probably less overall than a building with flushing toilets.

More information on this topic (including many other case studies) can be found in the excellent Composting Toilet System Book by David Del Porto and Carol Steinfeld.

The post Office Building Is 100% Sewer-Free appeared first on MetaEfficient.

Widely Available Low-VOC Paints

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At Metaefficient, we try to only feature products that are toxin-free. Take interior paint, for example — how can a paint be considered “efficient” if it leaks toxic substances into your home for months or even years? According to the EPA, VOC-laden paint is a primary contributor to unhealthy indoor air, and it can significant impact your health. As anyone who has painted a room in their house can attest, paint gives off fumes as it is applied and, especially, as it dries. And those gases are full of VOCs, which cause a wide variety of health problems, particularly respiratory problems.

Efforts by a slew of environmental and public health groups have succeeded in getting the word out about the health dangers of VOC paints. And in classic capitalistic fashion, the nation’s paint producers have responded by developing low-or-zero-VOC paint products.

According to Green Seal, a nonprofit organization that sets standards for obtaining low-VOC certification for paint, the VOC levels in a flat top coat wall paint should be less than 50 grams per liter to qualify as low-VOC. For higher-sheen paints, like satins or semi-glosses, that figure goes up to 100 g/l. This same standard applies for primers, undercoats and floor paints as well.

Listed below are some of the paint brands most popular with the average consumer (i.e. someone who purchases paint at one of the nation’s home improvement stores). For comparison’s sake, each product selected is a flat interior top coat paint, which, as noted above, qualifies for low-VOC status if the VOC content is 50 grams per liter or below.

Miller Paint Acro Pure Interior Acrylic Latex

Best Low VOC Paints: Miller Paint Acro Pure Interior Acrylic Latex

Best Low VOC Paints: Miller Paint Acro Pure Interior Acrylic Latex

Miller Paint is a popular paint supplier in the Pacific Northwest. Miller sells its paint through retail stores throughout Oregon and Washington, and reached beyond the Northwest through independent dealers in Arizona, California, Hawaii and New Mexico.

Miller’s Acro Pure paint is an ultra-low-VOC interior acrylic latex finish designed for application to the interior walls in residential, commercial, institutional and industrial environments. The company recommends this paint for new or previously painted interior wallboard, plaster, masonry or previously painted or primed metal or wood substrates. Acro Pure is also enhanced with antimicrobial protection to inhibit the growth of odor-causing mold and mildew bacteria on the dried paint surface.

With less than 6 g/l for its flat interior, Acro Pure easily meets the Green Seal standard. It’s priced at $30.95 per gallon.

BEHR Premium Plus Interior Flat Ultra Pure White

BEHR Paint Premium Plus Interior Flat Ultra Pure

Best Low VOC Paints: BEHR Paint Premium Plus Interior Flat Ultra Pure

BEHR is the in-house favorite at The Home Depot, one of the nation’s most popular home improvement stores. As such, it is one of the most easily accessible paints for typical American do-it-yourselfers. The company’s Premium Plus Interior Flat Ultra Pure White is a common base paint. With a traditional matte sheen, the paint is described as ideal for family rooms, living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, hallways and ceilings that require a scrubbable, mildew resistant finish.

With a VOC content of 46 g/l, this paint just barely scrapes under the Green Seal standard of 50 g/l.. It is priced at $20 per gallon.

Valspar Ultra Premium Flat Finish

Valspar Ultra Premium Flat Finish

Best Low VOC Paints: Valspar Ultra Premium Flat Finish

Valspar is the go-to base paint at Lowes, the nation’s other home improvement giant. According to the company, the Ultra Premium Flat Finish will enhance the walls and ceilings throughout the home with just one coat. Guaranteed to last a lifetime, this premium paint is also spatter resistant during application and gives a mildew resistant finish.

While no specific VOC levels are provided for this paint, the company assures consumers that VOC content is less than 50 g/l, making it just worthy of Green Seal certification. It is priced at $20 per gallon.

Sherwin-Williams’ Duration Home Interior Acrylic Latex

Sherwin-Williams Duration Home Interior Latex

Best Low VOC Paints: Sherwin-Williams Duration Home Interior Latex

Sherwin-Williams has been around for a long time — long before the big-box stores hit the home improvement scene. In fact, the company got its start way back in 1866. Since then, Sherwin-Williams has not only grown to be the largest producer of paints and coatings in the United States, but is among the largest producers in the world, selling its paint through retail stores and dealer partners on every inhabitable continent. The company’s low-VOC product is its Duration Home Interior Acrylic Latex, which the company promises will provide long-lasting durability, ideal for high-activity areas like kitchens, hallways, and bathrooms. Duration Home Interior also carries the Sherwin-Williams’ GreenSure designation, which means that it offers maximum performance and long-term durability, and was designed and manufactured taking steps to reduce environmental impact and to meet or exceed the most stringent regulatory requirements.

This paint’s VOC content weighs in at 15 g/l, far lower than BEHR and Valspar, but not quite as low as Miller. It is priced at $48.99 per gallon.

The post Widely Available Low-VOC Paints appeared first on MetaEfficient.

Princeton’s Ivy Halls To Be Powered By Solar Energy

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Sunpower Solar Panels

Sunpower Solar Panels

Princeton University will soon be home to the largest solar field on a U.S. college campus. Scheduled for completion by summer 2012, the 5.3 megawatt system will be comprised of 16,500 photovoltaic solar panels, estimated to generate 5.5 % of electrical power to reduce campus energy costs by 8 %. The solar field will cover 27 acres on the university’s land. The panels will be designed and built by Sunpower, a leader in advanced solar energy systems. To maximize efficiency, 80% of the system will contain Sunpower Trackers that use a global positioning system to capture the sun at the highest intensity, while the remaining solar panels will be fixed at a 25 degree angle.

Atrium in Princeton's Frick Chemistry Laboratory Building

Atrium in Princeton's Frick Chemistry Laboratory Building

As part of a sustainability plan to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2020 to the level it had in 1990, Princeton has also installed solar panels on the roofs of two campus buildings, including the stunning atrium located in the Frick Chemistry Laboratory. Partly funded by New Jersey’s Solar Renewable Energy Certificate program as well as environmental incentives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Princeton is leading the way for renewable energy systems to be economically accessible.

Princeton University Halls

Princeton University Halls

Their dedication to solar energy will also provide unique research and learning opportunities for both students and faculty. Perhaps the most important aspect of the project is the awareness it will generate about solar energy. As chemical and biological engineering professor, Ilhan Aksay says, “The fact that Princeton University took a lead in this sends out a signal that Princeton is serious about this. I expect that more students will now be interested in pursuing related research, and this will affect the faculty as well”.

Via: Daily Princetonian

The post Princeton’s Ivy Halls To Be Powered By Solar Energy appeared first on MetaEfficient.

Copenhagen Waste-To-Energy Plant Will Multi-Function As Ski Slope

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Copenhagen Waste-to-Energy Plant Multi-Functions As Ski Slope

Copenhagen Waste-to-Energy Plant Multi-Functions As Ski Slope

Copenhagen residents will soon be able hit the slopes, not on a ski mountain, but on top of a waste-to-energy plant. Looking to replace their current 40 year old industrial plant, Amagerforbraending held an international competition and unanimously chose this ski slope design by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in an effort to turn what is normally an eyesore into a useful and beautiful recreational facility for the city of Copenhagen. BIG, an innovator in revolutionary design and architecture, promotes the idea of Hedonistic Sustainability, which they define as “the idea that sustainability is not a burden, but that a sustainable city in fact can improve our quality of life”.

Award-Winning Design For Copenhagen Ski Power Plant

Award-Winning Design For Copenhagen Ski/Power Plant

With a 1,500 meter descent, the artificial ski slope, made of a recycled synthetic granular material, will offer terrain for all skiing ability levels: from the bunny slope to moguls. To get to the top, skiers will take a glass elevator that ascends alongside the converted smokestack so visitors can view the interior activities of the waste-to-energy plant. Yet another function of the design is to remind the public of the effects of over-consumption. With every ton of fossil CO2 that goes up the smokestack, a 30 meter smoke ring will be released into the atmosphere. These smoke rings will be illuminated at night. So you can literally count the amount of CO2 being emitted on a daily basis.

Copenhagen Terrain Park Surrounding Waste-To-Energy Plant

Copenhagen Terrain Park Surrounding Waste-To-Energy Plant

Surrounding the “mountain”, will be a terrain park featuring rock climbing, sailing, and kart racing. To help resemble a mountain from afar, the 95,00 square meter exterior will be covered with a green facade made of a combination of windows and planter modules stacked like bricks. Though many environmentalists argue that governments should focus more on recycling than using incinerators, Denmark sends only 4 percent of its’ garbage to landfills, while 42 percent is recycled and 54 percent is burned, according to Eurostat data.

Green Facade Of Waste-To-Energy Plant

Green Facade Of Waste-To-Energy Plant

Scheduled for completion in 2016, time will tell if people can embrace hanging out at the local power plant, but residents of ultra-flat Copenhagen may very well enjoy the view of their new mountain while finally being able to do some year-round downhill skiing without having to travel to their Scandinavian neighbors to the north.

Via: CleanTechnica and Inhabitat

The post Copenhagen Waste-To-Energy Plant Will Multi-Function As Ski Slope appeared first on MetaEfficient.

Energy Efficient House In Mojave Desert Built With Shipping Containers

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Energy Efficient Shipping Container House In Mojave Desert

Energy Efficient Shipping Container House In Mojave Desert

Sitting near Joshua Tree, California in the Mojave Desert is an energy efficient new home and studio built by architect Walter Scott Perry of ecotechdesign out of six re-purposed steel shipping containers. Also known as the Tim Palen Studio at Shadow Mountain, the 2,300 square foot home is the first permitted shipping container house to be built in the Mojave Desert. In true hybrid style, based on the Toyota Prius concept of efficiency, the home design combines pre-engineered building with energy conservation features such as a solar home shading system, a movable living green roof, and a 10,000 gallon water storage tank plus a separate 3,000 gallon tank for rainwater harvesting capability.

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree Building

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree House

The 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 2-story home was built with a client-requested photography studio and separate storage building. The steel framework and insulation system not only administers energy efficiency that exceeds California code requirements by 50%, but also provides exceptional strength for protection against wind, earthquake, and fire. To protect against the desert heat and wind, a perforated metal shade wraps the roof, south-facing walls and the solar breezeway which serves to direct a natural flow of air into the home. The house can also be heated and cooled with a ductless, mini-split heat pump system.

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree Building

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree House

The large windows and doorways capture daylight as well as help with ventilation and evaporative cooling. The 160 square foot green roof hosts native desert plants and sedums irrigated by greywater to absorb heat, dust, and CO2. The photography studio is lit with six 22-inch solar tubes that can be manually controlled.

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree Building

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree House

According to the ecotechdesign website, total building cost was $150 per square foot. The design company has more hybrid building projects in the works.

Via: Jetson Green

Photo credit: Jack Parsons Photography

The post Energy Efficient House In Mojave Desert Built With Shipping Containers appeared first on MetaEfficient.

Office Building Is 100% Sewer-Free

0
0

The sewer systems we use today are entirely ineffectual and unnecessary. The primary flaw in our design is that we use fresh water to dispose of feces. This is perhaps the most ineffectual thing to do with human manure — it pollutes fresh water, and it requires municipalities to maintain extremely costly sewage treatment infrastructures. Even after treatment, sewage can still wreck havoc on rivers and groundwater.

The most effective and straightforward thing to do with sewage is to compost it (or use it to produce fuel). It’s a valuable resource.

The C. K. Choi Building is a 30,000-square-foot building that is part of the University of British Columbia. The building has no connection to the sewage system. Instead it has composting toilets and waterless urinals installed.

The toilets on each of the three floors connect via stainless steel chutes to five Clivus Multrum composting systems in the building’s basement. The toilets emit no odors, because all the waste is collected in the basement and fans ensure that no odor escapes the composting containers.

The system is maintained and emptied by the Clivus Multrum company through a service contract. Every day the university maintenance staff wipes down the toilets and adds a can of wood chips or bark mulch to each toilet. Every six months, the compost (which no longer resembles feces) is removed from the system and used as a fertilizer.

Because of this system, the C. K. Choi building uses just 500 liters of water per day (132 gallons), a similarly-sized conventional building uses an average of 7,000 liters of water a day (1850 gallons) or fourteen times as much water.

But about the water from sinks and other systems? This graywater is filtered and pumped into a 300-foot-long outdoor planter bed with lilies. The final discharge is used to irrigate plants. A test by the city of Vancouver of the fecal coliform counts of the discharged water showed that it contained less than 10 CFU per 100 milliliters (by comparison swimming is permitted in water with up to 200 CFU per 100 milliliters).

The building also captures rainwater: the rain is in a 7,000-gallon tank below a staircase. It is used to irrigate the landscape, which is bordered by thirsty ginkgo trees.

What this example clearly shows is that modern buildings can do quite well without a connection to a municipal sewage system. The maintaining the building’s composting system is probably less overall than a building with flushing toilets.

More information on this topic (including many other case studies) can be found in the excellent Composting Toilet System Book by David Del Porto and Carol Steinfeld.

The post Office Building Is 100% Sewer-Free appeared first on MetaEfficient.

Princeton’s Ivy Halls To Be Powered By Solar Energy

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0
Sunpower Solar Panels

Sunpower Solar Panels

Princeton University will soon be home to the largest solar field on a U.S. college campus. Scheduled for completion by summer 2012, the 5.3 megawatt system will be comprised of 16,500 photovoltaic solar panels, estimated to generate 5.5 % of electrical power to reduce campus energy costs by 8 %. The solar field will cover 27 acres on the university’s land. The panels will be designed and built by Sunpower, a leader in advanced solar energy systems. To maximize efficiency, 80% of the system will contain Sunpower Trackers that use a global positioning system to capture the sun at the highest intensity, while the remaining solar panels will be fixed at a 25 degree angle.

Atrium in Princeton's Frick Chemistry Laboratory Building

Atrium in Princeton's Frick Chemistry Laboratory Building

As part of a sustainability plan to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2020 to the level it had in 1990, Princeton has also installed solar panels on the roofs of two campus buildings, including the stunning atrium located in the Frick Chemistry Laboratory. Partly funded by New Jersey’s Solar Renewable Energy Certificate program as well as environmental incentives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Princeton is leading the way for renewable energy systems to be economically accessible.

Princeton University Halls

Princeton University Halls

Their dedication to solar energy will also provide unique research and learning opportunities for both students and faculty. Perhaps the most important aspect of the project is the awareness it will generate about solar energy. As chemical and biological engineering professor, Ilhan Aksay says, “The fact that Princeton University took a lead in this sends out a signal that Princeton is serious about this. I expect that more students will now be interested in pursuing related research, and this will affect the faculty as well”.

Via: Daily Princetonian

The post Princeton’s Ivy Halls To Be Powered By Solar Energy appeared first on MetaEfficient.


Copenhagen Waste-To-Energy Plant Will Multi-Function As Ski Slope

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0
Copenhagen Waste-to-Energy Plant Multi-Functions As Ski Slope

Copenhagen Waste-to-Energy Plant Multi-Functions As Ski Slope

Copenhagen residents will soon be able hit the slopes, not on a ski mountain, but on top of a waste-to-energy plant. Looking to replace their current 40 year old industrial plant, Amagerforbraending held an international competition and unanimously chose this ski slope design by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in an effort to turn what is normally an eyesore into a useful and beautiful recreational facility for the city of Copenhagen. BIG, an innovator in revolutionary design and architecture, promotes the idea of Hedonistic Sustainability, which they define as “the idea that sustainability is not a burden, but that a sustainable city in fact can improve our quality of life”.

Award-Winning Design For Copenhagen Ski Power Plant

Award-Winning Design For Copenhagen Ski/Power Plant

With a 1,500 meter descent, the artificial ski slope, made of a recycled synthetic granular material, will offer terrain for all skiing ability levels: from the bunny slope to moguls. To get to the top, skiers will take a glass elevator that ascends alongside the converted smokestack so visitors can view the interior activities of the waste-to-energy plant. Yet another function of the design is to remind the public of the effects of over-consumption. With every ton of fossil CO2 that goes up the smokestack, a 30 meter smoke ring will be released into the atmosphere. These smoke rings will be illuminated at night. So you can literally count the amount of CO2 being emitted on a daily basis.

Copenhagen Terrain Park Surrounding Waste-To-Energy Plant

Copenhagen Terrain Park Surrounding Waste-To-Energy Plant

Surrounding the “mountain”, will be a terrain park featuring rock climbing, sailing, and kart racing. To help resemble a mountain from afar, the 95,00 square meter exterior will be covered with a green facade made of a combination of windows and planter modules stacked like bricks. Though many environmentalists argue that governments should focus more on recycling than using incinerators, Denmark sends only 4 percent of its’ garbage to landfills, while 42 percent is recycled and 54 percent is burned, according to Eurostat data.

Green Facade Of Waste-To-Energy Plant

Green Facade Of Waste-To-Energy Plant

Scheduled for completion in 2016, time will tell if people can embrace hanging out at the local power plant, but residents of ultra-flat Copenhagen may very well enjoy the view of their new mountain while finally being able to do some year-round downhill skiing without having to travel to their Scandinavian neighbors to the north.

Via: CleanTechnica and Inhabitat

The post Copenhagen Waste-To-Energy Plant Will Multi-Function As Ski Slope appeared first on MetaEfficient.

Energy Efficient House In Mojave Desert Built With Shipping Containers

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Energy Efficient Shipping Container House In Mojave Desert

Energy Efficient Shipping Container House In Mojave Desert

Sitting near Joshua Tree, California in the Mojave Desert is an energy efficient new home and studio built by architect Walter Scott Perry of ecotechdesign out of six re-purposed steel shipping containers. Also known as the Tim Palen Studio at Shadow Mountain, the 2,300 square foot home is the first permitted shipping container house to be built in the Mojave Desert. In true hybrid style, based on the Toyota Prius concept of efficiency, the home design combines pre-engineered building with energy conservation features such as a solar home shading system, a movable living green roof, and a 10,000 gallon water storage tank plus a separate 3,000 gallon tank for rainwater harvesting capability.

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree Building

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree House

The 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 2-story home was built with a client-requested photography studio and separate storage building. The steel framework and insulation system not only administers energy efficiency that exceeds California code requirements by 50%, but also provides exceptional strength for protection against wind, earthquake, and fire. To protect against the desert heat and wind, a perforated metal shade wraps the roof, south-facing walls and the solar breezeway which serves to direct a natural flow of air into the home. The house can also be heated and cooled with a ductless, mini-split heat pump system.

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree Building

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree House

The large windows and doorways capture daylight as well as help with ventilation and evaporative cooling. The 160 square foot green roof hosts native desert plants and sedums irrigated by greywater to absorb heat, dust, and CO2. The photography studio is lit with six 22-inch solar tubes that can be manually controlled.

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree Building

Scott Perry's Joshua Tree House

According to the ecotechdesign website, total building cost was $150 per square foot. The design company has more hybrid building projects in the works.

Via: Jetson Green

Photo credit: Jack Parsons Photography

The post Energy Efficient House In Mojave Desert Built With Shipping Containers appeared first on MetaEfficient.

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