Home Green Homes

"Is my home going to last longer? Is home gonna be more beneficial for me in some ways?  Is it gonna be easier to maintain? Am I gonna have lower energy bills and water bils?  Is it just gonna be cooler?  Is it gonna be like really interesting and fun to have some that also happens to be environmentally friendly?  Knowing that information as soon as possible in your home search is more beneficial for you than too far down the line when you doing a home inspection or energy audit." - Kari Klaus

Kari Klaus, the founder of Realty Sage with a background in sustainable economic development, found inspiration to create a platform of market place for green homes  while she was renovating her own home to be more sustainable. Kari shares her experience and  challenges of promoting energy-efficient homes and the creation of Realty Sage, a platform that educates and incentivizes sellers to invest in green properties. The platform evolved over time, launching in 2016 and expanding to include Realty Sage Pro's in 2020, connecting real estate agents with home buyers nationwide.  While Realty Sage has received positive response from the market, we both recognize the deficiencies in the real estate industry and the need for more information and transparency for consumers.

So I make electricity from the sun. With that electricity, I make water out of air.  With that water, it goes to the pressure tank.  That pressure tank would then take it to the water heater. The water heater is a heat pump water heater, which we use the electricity from the sun to heat the water heater. The bi-product of water heater is the air conditioning.  That’s the only air conditioning we would use, which we pipe the air conditioning out of the water heater into the house.  Then you take a shower, and that shower water goes out to my fruit trees in the front yard, and that was all gravity fed.  So make electricity, make water, heat the water with the electricity from the sun, shower then feed the fruit trees.  

-Ryan McEvoy

Ryan McEvoy, a principal and founder of Gaia Development.  While Gaia Development has an impressive track record of developing and/or consulting for more than 500 sustainable buildings around the world, our conversation was about Campbell Collective, which is a residential property he bought and renovated in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles guided by the Living Building Challenge garnering Zero-Energy Certification.  Ryan explains why he chose to go with the Living Building Challenge (LBC)  program as opposed to LEED, and how the process of putting together his net-positive water and net-positive energy went, and how he ended up with three petals out of seven for LBC.  With regenerative and permaculture design, the place is now an urban farm oasis providing the community with fruits, vegetables and herbs.  As he prepares the property for an upcoming home tour for USGBC-LA in November, he shares with us the challenges he had so far and the vision he has for the property for the future.

In the beginning, just because a lot of people, like I said before, a lot of people, they don't know, or they have not conscious of what's going on in the world, and how they can save money and electricity, gas, or the more healthy.

A lot of people aren’t sure. So I was a little hesitant in the beginning.  I said, how we're going to market this property and to get the price that we want. Because of course, to do those changes, we add more and more budgets, more money for budgets. Now we have to raise the price, the listing price, is no more budget.  In the beginning, so we were a little concerned, but everything came out good.  - Jenny Acosta

Jenny Acosta and I met through Women in Real Estate (WREN) back in 2018 as I was trying to learn more about flipping houses. My motivation was simply to create more green homes that I can sell as a Green Realtor.  Jenny is a successful real estate investor, who has been “flipping” homes in Los Angeles since 2015, now in Austin, Texas as well.  Over the years, I have talked to Jenny about doing her flip projects “green,” and we finally had an opportunity to collaborate on her most recent project to make a certified green home.  This conversation was recorded a few days after we closed escrow.  We discussed what we did, some challenges, and the outcome.  

My debrief presentation deck.

Marketing video of this property.

“I think there’s definitely certain Feng Shui principles and concepts that can and should be used through our architecture. At the same time, it can also be very logical because Feng Shui is based on the natural world, the interactions with the natural world, the operation of the natural world and the flow of energies.”

El Larson is a wellness real estate agent and Wellness Design Consultant.  She combines a wide range of expertise in what makes a home healthy and sustainable incorporating principles such as Feng Shui, biophilic design, land resilience and material health.  El discusses the different aspects of wellness in real estate, including the importance of constructing homes with wellness practices.  She shares her expertise in her application of Feng Shui, particularly landform and BTB methods, in assessing and enhancing the health and balance of properties.  

She discusses some examples of the land formation principles, and how it can impact the energy and well-being of individuals; and shares the possibility of remedying certain issues with Feng Shui.  How do we incorporate the concept of Feng Shui into wellness real estate and design.  

www.heare.la

"Literally if you gave me two words to describe you what I’m doing, I would say “eco-flipping.”  That is actually what I’d say to you.  But there’s a huge difference in what it means because third party certification means adherence to certain standards and have to be not only done but defend it and understood.  So the buyer of this home is going to know exactly what is behind all of their walls, what the sources of their materials are, and the processes that went into all of it."

In this part, Steve Matloff discusses a project in Los Feliz that he and his partners are working on. The project involves renovating a home built in the 1930s and making it relevant for modern living while honoring its legacy. They approached the sellers with letters expressing their desire to buy the home at the full asking price or more and transform it into a demonstration of sustainable home utilization for the next 100 years. The home they chose was in disrepair and had been untouched for several years, making it an ideal candidate for their project.

The team aims to change every system in the home to align with modern priorities and advancements. While they want to maintain existing materials, such as the flooring, they plan to reframe the entire second floor to optimize living spaces and take advantage of the beautiful views of the Griffith Observatory and downtown Los Angeles. The challenge lies in balancing form and function and creating a home that offers luxury while significantly reducing its carbon footprint. They envision providing a 7,000 to 8,000 square foot home that functions like something much smaller, appealing to buyers who want both space and environmental sustainability.

One of the challenges they face is the design aspect, particularly in maintaining the elements of a proper Tudor revival while incorporating green priorities. They want the home to achieve independent third-party certification for its sustainable features and ensure transparency for potential buyers. They aim to provide a book documenting the home's eco-friendly features and the points accumulated for third-party certification, giving buyers a clear understanding of what lies behind the walls and the environmental impact of the home. The team is currently in the planning phase, aiming to finalize permit plans in the near future.

The vision of Tradicient is, once they successfully execute this project both in renovation and sales, to scale this model to lower price points properties.

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LA Times article by Lisa Boone about Steve’s family home and its landscaping done by FormLA

Steve Matloff:  [email protected]

"I want to inspire others who are doing this work but based on a different set of priorities, who understand that this priority of sustainability, of efficiencies of resources and processes, of reduction of wastes of all sorts including the carbon is valued. And you should be incorporating those priorities into your project."

Steve Matloff is a “sustainable real estate RE-developer,” CEO and founder of Tradicient, which is a business name that combines the two words, “tradition” and “efficient.”   Steve believes that the majority of our built environment was designed and developed for a different world and different times. Over the years, the world has changed significantly, with population growth, the introduction of convenience products, changes in the definition of quality of life, and increased consumption. Our existing built environment, including millions of homes and buildings, was not designed to meet these new circumstances. Therefore, redevelopment is necessary to prioritize efficiency in resource utilization, waste reduction, and urban development.

He shares his personal journey and how his love for architecture and design combined with his awareness of environmental impact led him to focus on sustainability in the built environment. He emphasizes the need for a market that offers existing homes with modern functionality and efficiency.  He started out with his own family home, built in 1922. He wanted to find professionals who could maintain the historical characteristics of the home while making it efficient. However, he couldn't find anyone who specialized in this type of work. Steve emphasizes the importance of renovating and retrofitting the existing built environment instead of starting from scratch, as the waste generated from demolishing and rebuilding would be immense.  To address this gap, Steve formed Tradicient. He sought to make his own family's home a LEED Platinum-certified property, the highest level of certification for sustainable homes. He collaborated with professionals on maintaining the aesthetic and historical characteristics of the home while incorporating efficient and sustainable features.

Overall, Steve's goal with Tradicient is to create a market for efficient, sustainable redevelopment of existing homes. He believes it's crucial to preserve and enhance the built environment while aligning it with modern sustainability standards.

LA Times article by Lisa Boone about Steve’s family home and its landscaping done by FormLA

Steve Matloff:  [email protected]

"From the environmental aspect, composing has so many benefits. When you compost your food instead of throw way in the landfill, it gets proper aeration and it has oxygen to properly decompose so it doesn't release harmful greenhouse gasses like methane into the environment. So it's helping kind of the global warming movement on one aspect. And then from another lens, I'm taking AP environmental science right now and my teacher was talking about how one of the main reasons that they're requiring compost in California is because they're running out of landfill space.  And so landfill space is obviously really detrimental to a lot of ecosystems because you're displacing those natural lands to put in manmade things like the landfills.  And so when we compost our food, we're not taking up those lands and taking those lands away from natural ecosystems.  And lastly, composting is known as black gold. And so, compost is really valuable to a lot of plants, and so, when we compost instead of just throwing it away, we create that natural fertilizer, so composting also reduces the use of synthetic fertilizers, which cause so many problems in the ecosystem."

Grades of Green is an international non-profit organization, originally founded in Southern California by moms to “educate, empower and inspire students to take action and achieve long lasting environmental impact in their schools and communities.”  Special Project Manager, Glenn Arnade, proudly introduced me to a high-school student named Cordelia O’Rouke, who spearheaded a program to get local schools to start composting the food scraps from their cafeterias. 

In California, the State Senate Bill 1383 enacted in January 2022 requires the food and compostable materials be kept out of the landfill.  Empowered by the bill and the support/structure provided by Grades of Green, Cordelia has so far reached approximately 4,000 students at 4 different schools and trained them to engage in composting programs to divert the cafeteria food scraps.  

Cordelia discussed the benefits of composting and how it can help the environment by reducing greenhouse gasses and landfill space, and also shared tips on how to compost, including adding more brown waste and finding the right composting method based on individual goals and living situations.

"You know, I thought, I know about your podcast and I'm really thinking about what I can contribute in. It's really quite numerous. And so as I said, very little hereditary and so most of it is  environmental. So one thing I want to say, it's tangential to your question, but I don't want it to be lost.  It is family history and non-hereditary  because we also share environments, share homes, maybe sometimes workplaces, and so it's not always that there's a gene."

-Melanie Palomares

I have had episodes to talk about what makes a home healthy in comparison to home being “green.”  I would say most of us who are interested in “green homes” would probably want our homes to be healthy.  So I wanted to talk to a medical professional who can give a perspective from the medical standpoint of prevention.  What is it that we should all be aware of so that we know our homes are a place of nourishment and healing.  Today, I have a guest named Melanie Palomares. She is an MD-MS. She's affectionately known as Dr. Mel as a preventive oncologist and founder of Cancer Prevention Movement.

We discussed the various environmental factors that can contribute to cancer, including pollution, cleaning products, water and air quality., and exposure to EMS. We also talked about the importance of awareness and prevention, such as using filters and detectors, and making lifestyle changes to reduce exposure to harmful substances.  

Melanie offers various cancer prevention strategies including the importance of diet, exercise, and environmental factors.  Jue 4 is a National Cancer Survivors’ Day, which celebrates cancer survivors and highlights the need for prevention.  

Melanie’s foundation:  https://canpreventmovement.org/

“Part of that is to be able to honestly and clearly articulate the difference between cost, especially the upfront cost and long term value, obviously the fiscal value of something that works as your monthly output is less for that.  And that money can go towards small add to your mortgage.  But there’s also these amazing soft cost value that people don’t know.  You can’t quite grasp until you’re in. The air quality is amazing. They’re very quiet homes.  You don’t have any drafts on the big windows, and you have great light and things like that.  Those are the things when you actually bring some people to a home like that. It’s like walking into the nature, you just get that feeling, this is amazing.” - Brian Falcon

Joe Lombardi and Brian Falcon are founders of a home building company, Alter Eco, based in Paoli, Pennsylvania. Joe and Brian, both architects, started their partnership in sustainable and energy-efficient home building after working together in a firm where they encountered difficulties in implementing green building principles due to clients' lack of understanding.They faced pushback from contractors and structural engineers who were used to a certain type of system, but were able to gain exposure and clients through national awards and articulating the importance and benefits of sustainable building.  We discussed the sustainable design and construction practices they implement in their architecture firm, including the use of energy-efficient systems, minimizing water waste, and achieving third-party certifications. They also talked about how they have been able to control costs and reduce waste in construction through their integrated design process. the trend of green and sustainable home building, including the use of pre-fabricated and panelized parts, and the importance of considering the embodied carbon of building components. More importantly we talked about the need to educate people on the benefits of sustainable homes and how it doesn't necessarily require a change in lifestyle.

"I’m a big believer that if a product or space is human friendly, then by definition, it’s environmentally friendly.  I don’t think the same is true in the opposite direction.  There are plenty of products that are eco-friendly but still very very dangerous for humans.  There’s also plenty of examples of things that are 100% natural that are dangerous for humans." - Andy Pace

When I first learned about what we call, “green homes,” the aspect I was most interested in was the “health” factor of what a green home is to provide.  As I learned more about what makes a home green, I soon discovered that the definition of “green home” can be rather complex and can be elusive.  Soon I realized a “green home” is not necessarily a “healthy home” for certain people.  

Typically in the green home world, the health or wellness factors often talked about are indoor air quality, comfort, daylighting, access to the outdoors, etc., yet for some people, that’s not enough. Both my guests, Jen Stout and Mike Bender, had a long journey in finding their way to create a home that they could live in without having any reaction.  Mike discussed how he worked with Andy in his attempt to create a home that he could live in, I thought I would go directly to the source. 

As founder of The Green Design Center, Andy Pace is an invaluable worldwide expert in the field of chemical sensitivity, building materials, and non-toxic construction with over 30 years of experience.  He is a leading educator for those who suffer from allergies, asthma and chemical sensitivities and struggle to create healthy living environments.  He is also a host of Non-Toxic Environments podcast.