By Lynette Holloway

Jamie Swise, a Chicago-based weatherization expert, said President-elect Barack Obama made his job a whole lot easier when during a recent debate he urged Americans “to weatherize” their homes to save energy.

Obama made the appeal at a presidential debate last month before his election in response to a question about sacrifices his administration would ask Americans to make during these tumultuous economic times.

“Here you have the soon-to-be president of the United States stressing the importance of weatherization,” Swise said after the election. “He’s got a lot of people thinking about how weatherizing their homes can help save energy. You can’t beat that.”

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By Lynette Holloway

Ryan Morton did not have a vision of a home he aspired to own until he saw the highly stylized, three-story, loft-style sustainable “green” home replete with bamboo floors, radiant heat, bathroom tiles made of recycled glass bottles, skylights and walls of glass.

“Until I saw this, I didn’t have an idea of a home I aspired to own,’’ Morton said of the house, the basis of the Museum of Science and Industry’s exhibit, Smart Home: Green + Wired, which is open in Chicago through Jan. 4, 2009. “This is it. It’s essentially zero maintenance.’’

Morton happens to know the 11-room house, including a master bed and bath, a child’s room, two baths and a powder room, inside and out. He is a tour guide. “It’s really a great job,’’ he said.

The house highlights ways—big and small—that people can make green living an all-important part of their lifestyle. Built to celebrate the museum’s 75th anniversary, the energy efficient house was designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs, a leader in green design community, and built by All American Homes.

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By John DeFore

The green roof concept — in which some form of plant is grown atop a building — is spreading in multiple directions in the States. Not just the realm of futurists (though we love this idea) or extravagant fashionistas (see some lovely examples here), the field is drawing interest from homeowners and corporations with a range of motivations.

Now a study by the University of Texas at Austin’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has quantified some of the issues motivating folks to put plants on the roof and found that the benefits are substantial, although results can vary widely depending on how the roof is composed and installed.

At the Wildflower Center, a team led by ecologist Dr. Mark Simmons studied roofs made by six different manufacturers with an eye toward helping the fledgling industry make better performing products. “Just having a green roof may not mean anything in terms of preventing water from reaching the street level, for instance,” Simmons has said. “Green roofs have to be done right, and our hope is to help manufacturers understand how to improve their designs.”

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Even those among us who spend a fair deal of time daydreaming about living in a solar-powered home may stop short of actually shopping for the required equipment. You can’t just hop down to Home Depot and pick up a photovoltaic rig, after all, and we all know it’s expensive.

Happily, some pioneers are making themselves guinea pigs and sharing their experiences with anyone who’s interested.

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By Barbara Kessler

Americans pretty much live by Frost’s maxim that good fences make good neighbors.

Depending on the neighborhood, we mark our territory with clear-cut boundaries of chain link, cedar plank, brick, hedges or iron rails.

More from GRN
• Quicktime Video: Installing a bamboo fence
• Quicktime Video: Why bamboo makes a good fence choice
• Slideshow: Bamboo fencing: step by step

But what makes a good green fence? That’s another question entirely. A windbreak of trees is a bonafide green, carbon-gobbling way to lay partial boundaries in a neighborhood where fences are optional. But in the vast oceans of suburbia where wood or iron fences are virtually required, the new sustainable fence might just be a bamboo fence. It can provide privacy, last for decades and comes from a tree that is highly, amazingly renewable.

Bamboo has been widely used in Asia for housing and fencing. In America, however, it has been rather typecast, first confined to “Tiki bars” and decor in “Asian-inspired” interiors.

Lately, however, bamboo has been creeping out of it’s designated confines (something it tends to do quite well in nature also), turning up as flooring, woven blinds and in furniture.

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