Whole Travel Blog

In New Orleans, Louisiana, there will eventually be a 100% Cradle to Cradle Flow House. The design plans were unveiled by William McDonough & Partners last week, the first in a series of duplexes that hopefully revitalize the Lower 9th area of New Orleans that was devastated during Hurricane Katrina.

Cradle to Cradle Design: The Flow House in New Orleans

The entire philosophy behind Cradle to Cradle design is that the materials can be reused for other projects or recycled into the environment if and when the current structure completes its useful life. The local community in the Lower 9th provided substantial input during the duplex’s design to make sure it reflects the true need and desires of the local culture. There is ample daylighting and passive ventilation to keep energy needs low, and photovoltaic panels on the roof can hopefully completely power the structure and put power back into the grid.

Horses love the outdoors, so why not give them sustainable homes? That’s exactly what Blackburn Architects, a full-service architectural planning and design firm based in San Francisco and Washington DC, is doing. Their Greenbarns use passive lighting and ventilation, specify low-VOC materials for construction, and even offer additional solar panels and rainwater harvesting to take them almost competely off the grid.

Greenbarns - Let Your Horse Be Green

While the US Green Building Council (USGBC) does not yet have LEED certification for agricultural buildings, simply putting solar panels on the roofs of these barns could have a significant impact on the environmental footprint of ranches and farms around the world. A single barn roof of solar panels can often power an entire farm in the Midwest, and most farms have 2-3 barns.

Eat Green, Live Green?

In 2006, the house was still in its planning stages: a house built with more than 600,000 lbs of construction materials recycled from the Big Dig highway project in Boston. The “Big Dig” is the unofficial name of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, the chief highway through the heart of Boston and the most expensive highway project in the United States. The Big Dig House is literally made from much of the waste materials from I-93 overcrossings.

The Big Dig House - don't drive here anymore

The final cost was approximately $150 per square foot, with most of the materials provided only for the cost of shipping. Single Speed Design used this project to prove the point that infrastructure materials can be salvaged and reused to create amazing structures. Most of the materials were used as-is from the I-93 teardown, so they created a structure significantly stronger than necessary for a residence. As such, the house features an amazing garage-top garden. Not too shabby!

Park your car and walk upstairs!

Starting next week, the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Environment and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards will be revised and require building owners to submit data about how much energy and water they use on an annual basis, and seek re-certification every two years. The USGBC says the data collected by annual reporting will help improve future revisions to the LEED standards. Senior Vice President of LEED, Scot Horst, said in a press release Thursday, “[this information] will bring to light external issues such as occupant behavior or unanticipated building usage patterns, all key factors that influence performance.”

An eco-cabin near Seattle, WA.

There’s a new trend emerging across the United States - eco cabins. Now, this isn’t what you’re thinking - some tent shack in the woods - it’s more of an experience that blends old with new, traditional styling with modern materials and design. Recently reported in the NY Times, these types of cabins are becoming more and more popular as people search for a retreat from their usual city routine. Author Michelle Kodis was quoted in the article saying:

“Given our busy, techno-heavy lives, people are seeking places where they can rejuvenate and connect to nature.”

That’s how we picture an ideal vacation, and for those people who don’t have their own eco-cabins, or just want to explore a new part of the world with this type of experience, there are quite a few places to look. There’s duPlooy’s in Belize, Crescent Valley Eco-Lodge in New Zealand, and Barahona Coralsol Resort in Dominican Republic. We’re looking forward to seeing more and more of these types of cabins becoming available around the world - what a way to experience local culture and appreciate all that nature has to offer!

Starwood Hotels and Resorts, owner of the Westin, W, Sheraton, and St. Regis hotel chains and one of the world’s largest hotel companies, announced plans earlier this month to open a franchise of their eco-friendly Element Hotel chain in Palmdale, California by June 2010.

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LEED certification has emerged in recent years as an accepted, well-recognized seal of approval for sustainable or “green” buildings. And a growing number of new hotels, like San Francisco’s acclaimed Orchard Garden Hotel and Vancouver’s Hilton, are newer, LEED-certified establishments. However, this green building focus quickly leads to an important question: is it better to build a new, sustainably constructed hotel or to renovate one that’s already there?

While fancy new buildings decked out with energy-saving gadgets and green furnishings are exciting, the plain truth is that renovating an existing building often results in a smaller carbon footprint. It also means less new clearing/excavating for construction, which can be important in ecologically sensitive areas.

A recent TreeHugger post discusses a British study that found renovating older homes is less carbon-intensive than building new ones following sustainable construction guidelines. And since LEED has programs for renovations and other projects as well as new building construction (read here), even existing buildings can achieve LEED certification.

In fact, there are lots of changes existing hotels can make to improve their sustainability. Some are more involved, like installing low-flow water fixtures, purchasing energy-efficient equipment, and upgrading insulation. But even small changes can have great impacts on sustainability, morale, and even bottom line. I’m starting the non-profit Whole Travel Foundation to help hotels and resorts sort these things out. We’ll start by using Whole Ranking (Whole Travel’s sustainability ranking system) to identify issues, and then help find sustainable solutions.

Stay tuned in weeks to come for more information about Whole Travel Foundation. And in the meantime, remember that “out with the old, in with the new” isn’t always the best path to sustainable tourism.