Category: Housing
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Sustainable Building Against Climate Change
Stemming the Tide – Sustainable Building Against Climate Change Sustainable building is the key to ensuring that America’s cities are prepared for the future. In an article on the top climate change news of 2016, The New York Times stated that this year was following the trends of previous years. The world was getting warmer…
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155: PrefabNZ CoLab2016
It’s tempting to say that Prefab’s time has come, but I don’t think this does justice to prefabricated building. As Pamela Bell has explained previously on the Home Style Green Podcast, Prefab is not new. But the enthusiasm shown during this week’s PrefabNZ CoLab event here in Auckland suggest that prefab will play an increasingly…
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150: Energy Efficient Homes in Canterbury
Glenn Harley is a builder of energy efficient homes in Canterbury. After being attracted to the natural, healthy feel of strawbale construction, Glenn now produces high performance homes with lots of insulation and airtight envelopes. Among his recent achievements is building Christchurch’s first Passive House. The Cost of Building Glenn points to the cost of…
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145: How to build a passive energy home
Dennis Dowling produces finely crafted, passive energy homes in Queenstown. What’s a passive energy home? Basically, it’s a good quality one. If you’re looking to build a healthy, energy efficient home, then you want to find a building company like DCD. Part of my mission here at Home Style Green is to find these builders…
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144: A System for High Performance Homes
Beattie Passive is a complete system for high performance homes. I love the concept of ‘a house as a system’. I also love the idea of making it simple and easy to get right, and that’s exactly what Ron Beattie has done. As explained in their technical information, “The Beattie Passive system achieves superior levels of…
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132: Smart, Green and Beautiful Homes
Saskatchewan is right in the middle of Canada and is one of the coldest places where a large number of people live. Through his company, Vereco Homes, Ronn Lepage produces smart, green and beautiful homes. If it can be done in this harsh environment, surely it can be done wherever you live. Vereco Home Values…
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109: How to have fun while creating a spectacular home
Marnie Oursler used to sell houses. Now she designs and builds stunning homes that delight her clients. And in doing so, Marnie has learnt how to run a successful business. Marnie knows how to have fun while creating a spectacular home. It starts with an attitude of believing in what she’s doing, having a passion for it, and thinking up…
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107 Green Tomato Energy
I’m sorry I haven’t written up this post yet. But for now, you can enjoy the podcast! Come back soon to learn more about the great work that William Ray and the team at Green Tomato do.
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How Much Does Homestar Cost?
I read an article in Stuff yesterday that got my heart rate up. I strongly believe that tools like Homestar are needed to help make houses better. And I’m anxious to correct some misconceptions and to address the question of ‘how much does Homestar cost?’ What is Homestar? Homestar is New Zealand’s comprehensive environmental rating tool…
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Building Guide
Through his company, Aim High Publishing, Mark Graham owns and runs the Building Guide, the Design Guide and Bob – the Business of Building. But as Mark openly admits in our interview, he used to hate advertising – the very industry he worked in and now relies on. The difference today is that he knows he’s helping…